Tag Archives: Games

Halloween!

01 Thursday Nov 2012

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Dear Friend,

Halloween is usually my least favorite holiday. I enjoy the overabundance of twizzlers, yes, but when I am expected to wear a ridiculous costume and then be judged upon my creativity… I fall out of love, quickly. If you didn’t know, I have been spending this semester (and will continue doing so for the rest of the year) in a suite with three of my best friends Morgan, Lenore, and Alyssa. The reason I bring this up is because we like doing silly things, and this includes getting all dressed up for Halloween… something I didn’t realize until yesterday when Alyssa burst into the room and said… “I figured out what we’re going to be for Halloween!!!” My initial reaction was fear, anticipation of humility, and confusion… lots of confusion. I just have a bad history with Halloween costumes… I have gone as all sorts of things, in elementary I had to have a costume for the “parade” we would do through all of the school… I went at little red riding hood, a princess, an african woman (complete with a basket on my head)…one year, the only time I dressed up in middle school, I went as a selkie and everyone thought I had lost my marbles of something… since then, I have avoided costumes at all cost. Until tonight.

I must say, I actually really liked our group costume… we went as the famous quartet… Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot. I was “rock.” After taking tons of pictures on Morgan’s camera, we all headed down to the Masquerade Dance… The dance kinda (as in REALLY) sucked. The music choice was horrible… at one point the guy running the music was all “I’m gonna play a crazy song next, so you all should go crazy too!” only to play a relatively slow, hip-hop song that no one has ever heard of before… LAME. Let’s just say that it didn’t take too long before our game decided to play else-where. And by play, I mean return to our suite (with some of our friends) and have our own dance party… complete with a strobe-light, and a much better selection of music. The only downside (and I do mean ONLY) was that we didn’t get to take part in the costume competition. Which, by the way, we would have at least placed in.

In short, this year has renewed my interest in the possibility of dressing up voluntarily, maybe… it depends on what I can find. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll be rocking the half-masks and feathers…

Lots of Love, Mandi Jo

The Best Weekend Ever (So Far)

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

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Dear Friend,

As I wrote last week, this past weekend was crazy busy. In fact, I even did a few unplanned activities!  You see on Friday I got a call from Christophe, who invited me to go bowling with him and his friend Erwin! We bowled 5 games in 2 hours. I don’t think I’ve ever bowled so much in such a short amount of time, but best of all is that one of those games, I kicked butt! Seriously, it was a high score game for me with 143 at the end (I’m usually in the mid 90’s) and I was just feeling it. The rest of the night I was sitting closer to my normal score range, but that was just fine by me, I went to have fun, not embarrass them all night. In general it was a fun night of victory dances, mockery, and attempts to “spin” the ball… which, surprisingly enough, was actually successful sometimes. Then we went to Cookout and grabbed milkshakes before heading back to our respective schools.

The next morning was the Relief Sale! Seriously, I think the only thing I ever accomplish is eating some really yummy food, and buying a pair of earrings from Ten Thousand Villages, this year I got myself a picture frame too! (Which I haven’t yet filled, but I’ll figure that out later.) Not 5 minutes after returning from the sale, I headed out with Lenore, Morgan, and Ryan (a friend of Morgan’s who was visiting over the weekend) to Massanutten Ridge to go hiking! It was a beautiful day and while I usually despise hiking, I actually enjoyed myself because I got to mosey around a bit and take pictures as I went. When we returned, we played Hearts until the Game Night Crew showed up at 9. Rather than play games like usual, we watched the video that Everett and various other people I know made when they were in 10th grade, Robin Hood. It was hilarious! I hadn’t seen it since it’s original viewing “back in the day” and I must say, it’s funnier now, when I can laugh at how much everyone has changed in addition to the hilarity that naturally ensues when high school boys get their hands on a camera.

In the morning I headed back over to JMU for brunch with Christophe. You see I had made a deal with him, that I’d get him donuts from the Relief Sale (because they’re delicious) and he was busy Saturday night, so he asked if I could bring them over Sunday morning instead. I figure brunch for donuts is a pretty good trade. Then that afternoon, I headed back down to Richmond to pick my mom up from the airport! James Bond day was this past week, so I celebrated by playing VOCHES8 in my car all weekend, and this trip was the perfect opportunity to just sing for hours! Or at least 2 of them (hours, that is).

I was feeling a little tired by Monday morning, but I think the awesomeness of the weekend was most definitely worth it.

Lots of Love, Mandi Jo

 

An Alphabet Summer

19 Thursday Jul 2012

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Dear Friend,

My apologies, it seems I have let time get away from me and have abandoned you for an entire month! With all this time having passed you’re all probably wondering, well what have I been up too? So I’ve decided to write you all a list (in alphabetical order, of course) full of my recent activities.

  1. Amazement. Sometimes I like to bask in the awesome-ness of how things play out perfectly. Whether it’s having your favorite song come on in the car, or just having it rain when you’ve forgotten to water the flowers…
  2. Baptism. Now this really is important, for being baptized is (I believe) to be just as celebrated as a wedding. After all in many ways it’s like a wedding between you and God, there was a relationship beforehand, but it’s a public declaration to keep working at that relationship, no matter what.
  3. Claire. This petite 5 (almost 6) year old is a bit stubborn, but has an aptitude for mixing food. That may sound like a very odd skill, but you probably haven’t ever had a 5 year-old make apples taste like lemonade, have you?
  4. Drive. Every morning, before hanging out with the girls I drive my mom to work (this way I have transportation) and I get to enjoy talking about whatever is on our minds. While I don’t like being up that early (I really am a night owl) I do enjoy spending time with her.
  5. Evelyn. At 8 years-old she’s the older sister to Claire, and she LOVES games, but I’ll get to that later.
  6. Food. For the duration of the summer I have become the food buying/meal making boss at our house. This means that every week I receive a food budget for the week and then plan/cook our meals for that week. Some sample menu items include salmon, curry, taco salad, and Bumble Bee Burritos. This past week I also made 4 loaves of bread, something I hope to do weekly.
  7. Games. I have learned/played so many games this summer. Claire and Evelyn definitely keep me busy whether it’s with a game of Kings Corners, LIFE, Slamwich, or Wild West.
  8. Happiness.  I’ve found so much happiness this summer, whether texting those I love, hanging out with my local friends, watching my girls in the mornings… even thinking about those who I can’t see but I care about… so I guess it’s happiness for the existence of those who I love/love me.
  9. Ice Cream. I have been craving ice cream like no other nad will most likely end up visiting Klines later this week because it, well it just needs to happen.
  10. Jef. This will most likely seem like a random addition to the list, but is was the best way to add an important item to the list… “The Bachelorette” Now normally, I don’t watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette, but this year it’s been a great way to plan for time with my friends, and we’ve all gone a little crazy/obsessed. Sunday is the finale and lets just say we’re all a little panicked because we have no idea how it’s going to play out. All of that being said, Jef is my favorite choice out of the two.
  11. Kindle. As you already know, I recently added Kindle to my Laptop and have been enjoying it ever since… that’s not to say, however that I don’t also go to the the Library almost once a week to pick up a huge stack of books…
  12. Lemonade. seeing how it’s summer time I decided to make lemonade a while back, but wanted something that was relatively unique and exciting. So In addition to freshly squeezed lemons I also had limes, grapefruit and some pieces of watermelon. It was delicious! I had never had watermelon mixed in before and I loved how it made the after taste sweet rather than tart.
  13. Manual. This summer I finally learned to drive stick shift. I had some trouble figuring out how to start smoothly, but it wasn’t long before I was allowed to take Mom’s mini and go out on my own adventures.
  14. N
  15. O
  16. Po. This summer has brought with it the joys of training a little puppy. Po is our own little Kung Fu panda (er, Shih Tzu) and at 4 months old (almost to the day) is still working on his manners. But that doesn’t keep him from snuggling up at my feet when I’m sitting on the couch.
  17. Questions. I love asking random questions for two reasons: (A) I get to learn something new that I might not have had the chance to learn otherwise, but most importantly (B) I can continue a conversation in which I have nothing relevant to say, but can’t bring myself to end just quite yet.
  18. Ra Ra Riot. The song “Can You Tell” by Ra Ra Riot has been stuck in my head for weeks, yet somehow I still love it.
  19. Spiders. I have had the unfortunate experience of waking up not once, but twice with a giant spider crawling up my arm. The first time I was able to kill it (only to identify it as the horrible, and POISONOUS, Brown Recluse) the second time I just freaked out and have been sleeping on the couch upstairs ever since (this is because I have NEVER seen a spider upstairs, while downstairs they are beginning to be overly plentiful).
  20. Topsail Island. Soon, I will be basking on the beautiful beaches of Topsail Island, NC with my family. I love Topsail, having gone with my friend Haley and her family several years ago. This year, I finally convinced my family it was time WE went.
  21. U
  22. Virginia. So far, I haven’t left the  state of Virginia. Obviously I will in a little over a week, but so far I’ve stuck here… on the upside this means more time to stalk my friends (Totally kidding here, I don’t stalk anybody)
  23. Wiggins. My family and I have been watching “Le Tour de France” like we do every year, and seeing how my favorite cyclist (Andy Schleck) is out with a minor pelvis fracture, I’ve been rooting for Bradley Wiggins. Some of the young riders in the tour have also been showing much promise… so perhaps I’ll be rooting for them in future years
  24. X
  25. Y
  26. Z

Well, I think it’s safe to say I’ve covered a decent number of my activities… or at least (almost) 26 of them. I just couldn’t think of something for every letter.

Lots of Love, Mandi Jo