Forming the Ties

I've had such good times lately! Unfortunately good times usually means spending more time with friends which means not as much posting. Sorry to put you all through that.

Christi and I and a few other interns met with Kristin Wood (a friend from school who lives in town) the other night. We went to a pizza place and then downtown for ice cream. The greatest part was the ice cream afterwards when everyone but Christi, Kristin and I left. It was so much fun! It's hard to express. I just felt like because we had things in common (JBU) we were able to connect in a way I hadn't really experienced since I came here. And let me tell you, Kristin is absolutely halarious. She makes me genuinely laugh. We were all just being ourselves and completely relaxed. I heart that time.

Several other great experiences took place last week and this past week including a party/get together for all the interns and a viewage of End of the Spear with the group. Both times were excellent but I felt last night (End of the Spear) was particularly satisfying. This is because I felt even more connected to the group and comfortable. I talked with this girl named Mia who I found out was homeschooled. It was good to share common experiences. And this other girl named Stephanie who I thought was a complete control freak and far too forward for a girl, is actually turning out to be a cool person. I enjoy talking with her. Come to find out she's half Iraqi. Kinda interesting. Sorry, I don't mean to bore you with my social drama but I'm merely sharing this to show how I've connected with a good group of people. It will be sad to leave them next week. But I'm kind of thankful I haven't had a longer time with them so that my departing doesn't rip too much flesh.

I've definitely gotten a lot closer to Christi. She and I have really opened up to each other. I can joke around and almost completely be myself around her. I do and say many things around her that I never would have before this summer. You know when you see someone literally every day for five weeks you tend to get to know them. She's a great friend. It'll be weird when she leaves this Saturday.

It's been very hard to fight the natural tendencies of attraction but with only a few days left of seeing her for the summer I think it's safe to say God has allowed me to be successful in this area. By successful I mean not falling for her. She's not for me.

Last night while watching the End of the Spear I made a funny. Would
you like to hear it? OK! So there was this tribal people in the movie and they had different ways of life than us of course. It was really pretty confusing to try to understand the whole male/female and parents/children relationship. So Stephanie shared her frustration about this and I said in a Crow voice (from MST3K) "Where's the family structure??" They all laughed. And then Stephanie said, "They need Focus!" It was a great moment.

I worked on a Breakaway advertisement to promote a renewing of the subscription. It was really quite fun because I was given some creative freedom. I turned it in to Tracy (one of the senior designers) and he liked it. So he "routed" it which basically means he let the so called client give us feedback. (Even though Breakaway magazine is part of Focus, the creative department still considers everyone a separate "client" -- kinda weird) So it came back and they liked it! I was actually really surprised because the client almost always finds something wrong about the design. So I burned it and gave it back to Tracy. I wasn't extremely excited about the design, but they all liked it, so I was happy. Perhaps I'll email it to myself at work tomorrow so I can post it.