Insomnia

Insomnia - Craig David

It's around 3:30 AM right now, and I'm wide awake. I've been playing Blockles since 1:30 AM.

I tried to go to sleep around 12:30, but I spent at least half an hour tossing and turning, playing Letterblox and Blockles in my head. I'll be the first to admit that I have a problem. A serious addiction. I'm going on a three week sabbatical starting tomorrow, and I hope that by the time I come back, I will be fully recovered.

I've got that stomach-wrenching feeling where you're too excited to sleep. I'm leaving on a plane tomorrow. I'm going to Taiwan. I don't need to sleep now. I can sleep on the plane.

That's three weeks without internet. Without my cell phone. Without Blockles and Letterblox. It seems horrifying right now, but I know from experience that by the time I get there, I won't even remember these things exist.

I'm going to be spending the next three weeks spreading the Gospel in Taiwan through English classes. This is my second year with ADVENT, and I'm really glad I came back (for now). I can't wait to see what new friends I make and what potential my future students will have. I need to get out of this stifling American society anyhow.

I just watched an episode of True Blood. That's what has been screwing me up lately. For the past three days, I've been dreaming about murder, death, and vampires. While these dreams would make excellent fodder for a movie, it's not exactly pleasant to wake up, convinced that you've burned someone alive. It took me a whole day to shake off that dream. I need to get away from vampires, romance, gore, and hot men. I hope to return to America in four weeks time with a clean slate, ready for my Senior year.

When Junior year ended, I was exhausted. I hated school. I wanted out. I must have ditched at least a week worth of school by the end. I haven't cut myself any slack in my courses for next year, (suicidal, I know), so I really need a break to re-prepare myself for academics.

I need some sleep. But I have the whole day ahead of me. I had originally planned to watch Mental and True Blood, then start from Season One of NCIS and catch up, but it turns out that Mental has been rescheduled to Friday. Talk about ruining my day. D: I guess it's just going to be NCIS tomorrow. I'm going to be twitchy and hyped until the moment my butt is parked in the airplane seat.

I think I may still be suffering the effects of the coffee I had today during happy hour. Coffee is a diuretic, a fact I didn't register until I was praying for mercy on a 45-minute BART ride. Thank God for the Daily Californian and its crossword. I don't think I would have made it otherwise.

Well, hanging on till tomorrow!

Back to Blockling!

Serious Thinking in an Otherwise Pointless Day

Am I the only person who capitalizes my titles properly? Or even bother to come up with a title?


So, I just made a call to CityTeam to check up on their status. It looks like Simply Help at IHS is coming to an end after all. I remain optimistic. We can always collect clothes and send them to the more unfortunate families in our community. Simply Help - reaching out to the glocal community.

A few weeks ago, my Dad gave me some devastating news. The warehouse that we had been using up to that point was going to be taken back by the landlords. The warehouse had been loaned to us by a brother in church, and the loss of his warehouse is more bad news for him than us. In these tough economic times (cliche, I know), his lighting business could no longer afford to rent such a big space. I pray for the future of his company, and I thank him wholeheartedly for his compassion, generosity, and time. It's people like him that make Simply Help, or charity in general, possible.

We had two choices. 1.) Find another warehouse. 2.) Donate what we have to another local charity.

Time was of the essence here. We had only until the beginning of July until the warehouse had to be emptied out. I appreciate the help of everyone who has been trying to find an alternative warehouse, but in the end, we had to take the second option. I did some research online, trying to find a suitable organization that would best spread Simply Help goodwill in our community. I sent out some emails, I prayed, and God answered.

The day after the emails went out, Corrie Gaumnitz from CityTeam sent me a reply. Yes. They were interested. They wanted to know how many boxes we had, how many bags. I sent back my response, reminding them that we were hardpressed for time and low on resources.


Then I waited. And waited.


It seemed like things had fallen through. A week, and no response from CityTeam. I was a little disappointed and I lost hope. What was I going to do with all those clothes? With little more than a week before the deadline, I felt like I hadn't done enough. I waited too long to get in contact with local charities. I held out too long for a response from CityTeam. Things weren't going to work out, and it was largely my fault.

This afternoon, I trudged through my usual routine. Eat. Internet. True Blood. Porn. Repeat.

All of a sudden, I felt this sudden urge to call CityTeam. It just popped into my head like a lightbulb rigged to a Jack-in-a-Box on crack. I ignored it at first. I didn't want to be a stalker. But the niggling turned into guilt. After all, it was the least I could do.

To make a long story short, I called. Apparently, Corrie had forwarded our case to family services and they were closed for the past few days.

-------

I'm going to fast forward in time because just now (literally), Family Services has called me and informed me that they can pick up the clothes anytime in the upcoming three days!!

Praise Jesus! I did a little victory dance after hanging up the phone.

YAAAAAAY!!!



So even though Simply Help wasn't able to export clothes to El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras this time, we still managed to help those in need. That's what it's all about, ain't it?

The main branch in Southern California is still exporting clothes to Third World Countries that include, but are not limited to, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. (Visit them at simplyhelp.org!) As for us at Independence High School, we can rest easy knowing that we've done our part, and that we're always part of something bigger.

Simply Help, FTW!

Summer Vacation

AP classes are over.

I have all the time in the world.

To do anything I want.

...

And I am watching True Blood.

Hours and hours of True Blood.

...

And I love it.





Watch True Blood. All the porn you're missing in Twilight.

Literally.

Crazy Things I Do...

Today, I got home around 12:45 PM. Exhausted. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open through two presentations in English class. To make a hopeless situation worse, both groups decided to turn the lights off. Sleep was calling to me, but I resisted the urge. (Unlike Sarah. heh.)

After I got home, I watched the first two episodes of Mental. No, not The Mentalist (Which is also a great show), but Mental, a new show on FOX. Dr. Gallagher is hot. And British. Now we have two blue-eyes British hotties who play unconventional doctors on FOX. I'm starting to really like this channel, despite its conservative biases. heh.

Then, around 2PM, I conk out. (I always stay awake for television.) My mom calls me, wakes me up, and the following conversation ensued:


Mom: Are your friends over?
Me: Mm...yes.
Mom: What are they doing?
Me: They're downstairs...studying...or playing..or something.
Mom: Are you sleeping?
Me: Mm..yes.
Mom: How long have they been over?
Me: Mm...thirty minutes?
Mom: (pause) How did they get in?
Me: Mm....(long pause)
Mom: Well?
Me: I don't know...I'm thinking.

Then my Mom hangs up.


Now, I'm lying in bed. I get up and I actually walk over to the balcony and look a bit.

"Hmm. Where are my friends?"

Then I (sleep)walk downstairs and actually go to the door to double check. By this time, I'm starting to wake up. Then I think, "Wait. Today's Friday. My friends are coming on Saturday."

"Hmm.." And I go back to sleep.

Then, at 5PM my Mom wakes me up to yell at me for lying to her. With my sister cracking up in the back going "I told you so! No one ever listen!" I only remember about half of what I supposedly said, I had to piece together the conversation with my Mom's help. haha.

Just another prime example of the crazy things I do when I'm asleep. I'll tell you guys more about other stupid things I've done later. Now I'm watching Ghost Stories with my sister. (: