Labor Flavor Saver Day

Today is Labor day. To celebrate my roommates and I wanted to go out for a day of fun.
First, we planned to visit the new location of Whimsic Alley, an all Harry Potter store that moved from Santa Monica to a larger location in downtown LA.
But when we checked the website last night to get directions, "closed Labor Day."
Drat.
So we came up with new plans! We would go check out the British Grocer and all the awesome vintage shops in downtown Fullerton.
To make it extra special, we arranged to meet Kristina for the day since she lives in Brea close by and had the day off.

So we started the day off by gettin' some grub. After being turned down yet again by a "closed Labor Day" sign, we found the coolest Mexican joint that has about everything plus mexican food.
So we filled our bellies with cheap bean, cheese, guacamole, chips, and salsa-y goodness. And continued on to our buisness a couple blocks over to the main street of downtown Fullerton.

One more "closed Labor Day" sign on the British Grocer was a lump in our hearts, as we were very much looking forward to delectable English goodies. But Buffalo Exchange was open, so we weren't at a complete loss.
Most of our time was then spent going back and forth to the racks from the dressing room, trying on an endless amount of second hand clothing, trying to see if the fit and look was just right, as well as the price.
Kenny and Jojo came out of that one empty handed, but Kristina and I (Brenna) picked up a few awesome items. Kristina got two really cute tops and a brown/green/purple dress that looks amazing on her. I walked out of there with an amazing cranberry colored vintage dress, a cardigan sweater vest that I'm going to take in a bit before I wear it every day for the entire fall season, and a super adorable Anthropologie shirt that still had it's tag on it that I bought for about $62 less than than the original price.
Pretty awesome if you ask me.
Then we hopped across the street to American Vintage.
This store makes my entire soul weep and melt into a puddle of sorrow.
There are so many amazing vintage finds at this place. I'm talking a whole store row of gorgeous vintage dresses. Most of them over $30. many over $50. The unreachable beauty hurts.
But it's not all bad!! Kenny found a fashionable black belt and Jojo scored with a super cute pair of heels, an owl necklace, and a amazingly comfy man shirt that she hasn't stopped talking about since she bought it.
We ended the day with a quick trip to Starbucks to indulge in the delicious fall flavors they now offer.

Later on today, after being back home an getting dinner, we journeyed over to the opposite side of Hope Hall to the guys floor to deliver some homemade cookies to friends of ours over there. I should also mention that he happens to be one of two RAs on the floor, meaning he's one of the head honchos. So we gave him the cookies, and chatted for a while about  bikes and injuries. We were there for a good 30 minutes or so, with the door open (as it should be) and various guys on the floor walking by. When our friend, Dillon, got a text from his partner RA. It was a reminder that today is Monday and that there are no open hours on Monday.
All four of us had been so thrown off by the extra day of no school that we didn't realize that it wasn't the weekend. So we quickly exited the hall, gave our apologies to Dillon and his RA friend on duty in the lobby, and said our farewells.

And so the day ends with a quiet, warm room filled with the aromas of tea and hot cocoa. Kenny is reading away at a text book on the couch while Jojo is typing away at her computer working of french homework. And I'm sitting in my cozy chair surrounded by paper stars and flamingo lights, writing away about our day's epic adventures.
So now I will bid you all a fond farewell until next time, when we will once again tell of our grand travels and silly shenanigans.
-Brenna Kathleen

Junior Year...WOW

It's here...junior year that is. Un-be-lieve-able!

We all arrived on Saturday. Kenny drove down from Santa Rosa with her mom. Brenna drove up from San Diego with her parents. I flew in from MN with my luggage. We got the room arrangement figured out quickly, much to our relief. Didn't want a repeat of last year's craziness. This year's ease was probably due to the fact that we brought less stuff, all three beds are lofted instead of just two, and there's no tv.

Our set-up is pretty nice. We all have places under our beds for "personal space," plus the couch and coffee table for shared space. Also, there's floor space for visiting friends too! There's some nice ambient lighting too, so our room has a little more atmosphere. We're still on HUSH, the first floor of Hope South, but our room overlooks the front of the building, instead of the back. We won't get the sometimes nice, sometimes annoying afternoon sunlight, but we have the lights on the outdoor terrace to look at during the evenings.

Coming in our door!

Jojo's bed space, to the left of the door.

View walking in the door, Jojo and Brenna's beds on the left, Kenny's bed and the wardrobes on the right.

Brenna's bed space.

Fridge between Jojo and Brenna's beds.

Kenny's bed area.

View from the window.

We all had busy summers. Kendall was in her brother's wedding, went to India on a missions trip, volunteered at a camp for a couple days, and worked at a gift shop. Brenna went to Germany on a missions trip, worked in a theatre, and "thrifted." I, Jojo, worked an internship at a magazine publishing company, worked an internship with my dad's company, worked a part-time job serving in the dining hall of a senior housing facility, and hung out with friends/family/boyfriend. Whew! *We all have personal blogs, so check those for more info.*

So, yeah. We're here again. Catching up with friends, meeting new floormates, spending lots of money at Target, going to Starbucks, etc. Classes start on Wednesday. Until then, we're just hanging around here. Brenna works Monday night, I have staff orientation for The Point Monday and Tuesday, and Kenny...she'll just be chilling I guess.

That's the latest from First South!

-Jojo

Secret Agents

As some of you may know, Room 111 loves the television show Chuck. We love the comedy, stories, characters, and the awesome spy action. We joke around with associating ourselves to certain characters in the show, and since a recent mission that Kenny and Jojo went on to recover some "important government information," we seemed to have created an entire spy network on Biola's campus.
So now w--

--Incoming TOP SECRET transmission--

....now accessing secret agent profiles.......

Agent Sarah Walker

- Trained in hand-to-hand combat and firearms

-Highly skilled with throwing knives.


- Recruited by the CIA at 18 after Father was
put in jail.

Agent Hannah Orion

-Technological mastermind



-Specializes in Languages and Dialects



-Kicked out of Harvard, Yale, and MIT before the age of 16


-Recruited shortly after by the CIA





Agent Ellie Bartowski

- A Femme Fatal, trained in the martial arts


- Skilled in toxicology and nuclear medicine


- Recruited by the CIA at age 19, after blowing up
her university's science building.






......logging out of profiles.....


---Ending TOP SECRET transmission---


--ded up going all around campus! It was crazy!
Anyways, that's all for now! finals and stuff are keeping us really busy, so I've got to get going.

-Brenna Kathleen

Replay Cover: the Tashes

Just a lil something we put together today. Enjoy!

-Jojo

Amazing races and zombie apocalypses of Olympic proportions

Let me just say that it has been one of the most eventful weekends on campus in Biola's history. Well, okay, maybe that's a gross exaggeration, but it has been the most eventful weekend of this semester, and it's not even over yet people! We will see what Sunday holds... but back to the reason I'm writing THIS blog...

The weekend really started for us yesterday (okay, duh, it was friday...) when my roommates, I, and two of our guy friends, Dillon and Austin, went on our floor's GYRAD (aka "Get Your Roommate A Date"). GYRADs are an old Biola tradition, where you go out for a night and usually do something awesome and random... I will leave it at that. What we ended up doing for this one was going on an Olympic themed Amazing Race along Beach Blvd. which ended with a bonfire and Taco Bell at Huntington Beach.

So the five of us dressed and yellow and decked ourselves out as team China, met in the lobby, and got going on our first challenge and clue. It was cut-throat, exciting, and fairly dangerous (due to some crazy... yet still somehow safe driving *cough cough*), but worth every gasp, leap, and running step! We couldn't have asked for a better team ^_^.

But, I must say that before all of the riddle-reading, clue-solving, lane-cutting, Dizzy-bowling, Pyramid-making, frisbee-golfing, face-painting, line-dancing, taco-eating, and whatever else you can hyphen together, the best and perhaps most exciting thing about the entire shenanigan occured. This, my friends, would be the way in which we asked our dear friends to tag along with us on this grand adventure!

About a week before GYRAD, the three of us dressed in the garb of a made-up character of our choice and traversed campus to go meet our friends in their dorm

room. Little did they know what was coming when we asked if they were currently in their room. Brenna dressed as a french man named Jaques, complete with a smashing french mustache, Jojo dressed as a slick beatnik named Claude (she had a gotee), and I was a dang awesome cowboy named Charlie (I got to sport a nice handle-bar). Together, we called our little band "the Tashes". Brenna played the Uke, I played the guitar, Jojo was on spoons, and we all sang in order to serenade and win the aquiescence of our potential GYRAD dates.

What did we sing you ask? None other than our very own rendition of the hip-hop song "Replay" by lyaz. We revamped it to fit the occassion,

and thought it turned out pretty well. I'm guessing it must have been pretty sweet, because they ended up saying yes... but they may have only said yes because our ridiculous outfits and mustaches were so awesome that they could hardly handle it... the topic is up for debate. Anyways, our time and effort payed off and it was probably the most awesome and original way to ask someone on a GYRAD... or anything for that matter ;).

Now that you've heard that heartwarming story, it's time to talk about the zombies. Last night when we got

home from GYRAD to find out that the power all across campus had gone off while we were out on our adventure. We figured all we'd have to deal with was the alarm that followed, but when we woke up the next morning, we noticed that the power kept surging on and off for about an hour. We thought "hey, whatever! This could be fun"... but then it didn't come back on for 11 hours...

We felt like we were in a movie or some freaky, psycho social experiment. Campus-wide we had no power, yet everything surrounding us did. As the rain fell hard outside and rumors of earthquakes and tsunamis swirled in our minds, we watched the sun gradually set outside our window, wondering what was going to happen when the entire campus became pitch black. In the course of the night it came back on once, for maybe an hour, ruining all plans we had of sneaking around campus fighting a zombie apocalypse with our nerf guns.

When it went off again, Jojo and I dropped what we were doing and ran back to the dorm to come to the aid of a very distressed Brenna. We grabbed our nerf guns and flashlights and picked up a friend of ours as we were walking out of the dorm. We travelled across campus, under the pitch black parking garage, and took our friend Grace back to her dorm room. We explored various different floors of her dorm, and then the lights sadly came back on... for good this time. So we dropped her off at her room, seeing to it that she was safe from all threats, and proceeded to the dorm next door in order to check up on our good friend Dillon (yes, the very same Dillon who went on GYRAD with us the night before). We figured we might as well not let our ammunition go to waste (seeing as we didn't run into any zombies. ), so we hid in the lobby and called poor, unsuspecting Dillon down.

Shots were fired, laughs were enjoyed, conversation was made, and then we made our way back into the night, with joy in our hearts at the fact that we saved our campus and dear friends from a zombie apocalypse. I do wish the power was still out... but hey, I guess I can't complain too much that the luxuries of Biola life have returned once more... though I can't deny I felt totally BA running across campus in the pitch dark with a nerf gun! Well, that's all for now! Stay safe all! And if the power goes out again, keep your flashlights and nerf guns nearby!

~Kendall :)

Hello New Year, New Decade, New Semester!!

WE'RE BACK!!

*and there was much rejoicing*

Ok, ok. I should be honest.

*and there was a head nod and a few grunts*

Wow. We can hardly believe 6 weeks went by so quickly!! It seems like we just left school and now we're here again! Totally. Crazy. But we all had a great time on our respective breaks.

Speaking for solely for myself, this was the best break from school (counting Thanksgiving, spring break, summer, Labor Day etc.) I've had in a while. It was so good to see my family, friends, boyfriend, and dog. The boy and I celebrated our one year dating anniversary. He took me out to dinner and to see The Beauty and the Beast at the Ordway, which was fantastic! We also both celebrated our 20th birthdays, though he had to be at school for mine, which was rather a bummer.

I also got to have a lot of other fun adventures, with him and with others, such as sledding, ice skating, playing board games, going swing dancing, baking, seeing The Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater, shopping, watching movies and tv shows, etc. Let's just say I kept busy.

But now that's all over and here we are again!

Last weekend, before classes started, we had fun just hanging out and having a good time. On Sunday, after church, Brenna and Kendall blindfolded me and took me to an outdoor mall in Irvine for my birthday. It was really cool for me, since chilly ol' Minnesota doesn't have outdoor malls. It just wouldn't be practical. Anyway, we poked around in a few stores and Kenny and Brenna both bought some cute things. I kept my money in my pocket.

But the best part, by far, was the carousel ride! We were like little kids again, except we rode side-saddle because of our skirts. It was very fun. I hadn't been on a carousel in years and it was great. Normally, I'm more of a roller coaster/intense G's sort of ride person, but carousels are still thoroughly enjoyable.

We ate an early dinner at Red Robin and then headed back to campus. Kendall and I played frisbee later that night, and it was great to see all the old frisbee friends again.

Our first week of classes went fairly well. It was a rather long week though, and it's hard to readjust to doing hw all the time, instead of what we want to do. But we've got three semesters under our belts, so I'm sure we'll be just fine.

That's all from the First South girls for now. Gotta do some hw.

*EDIT*

Well, my roomies are officially the coolest and most crafty people I know. They just surprised me with a birthday party and cleverly arranged everything without me even getting the tiniest bit suspicious. Ladies and gentlemen, I live with brilliant people. A ton of my friends jumped out from behind couches when I walked into our floor's lounge tonight. I had been totally oblivious up to that point. We had cookies and cupcakes, played Guitar Hero, and watched THE DARK KNIGHT!!! (Only my most favorite movie ever.) It was lovely, and I am in awe of their deviousness. Kudos to them all.

-Jojo

San Diego Winter Update

It seems that I have been given the charge to update this poor wee blog.
Well, As I am on my own I can only update on what has been happening with me.

Now, let us see.... I have been working on some changes regarding my personal style. It's description is "Nerdy Vintage Chic." And I must say it's been going rather well. I have had very good visits to thrift stores and other places. And have procured several skirts and sweater sets. I've taken this style change to also work on other parts of my life. More style changes in decor of home, that I'm afraid wont be put into play until I am out of the sharing living space situation. But I'm also brushing up on my mystery stories and getting a good dosage of England in the 1940's by watching lots of Miss Marple.

I've been getting some work as a file clerk for a tax clinic. I've been working on and off for them since high school, so it's nice to be able to come back and do some filing for extra money.

Other than that I've been searching the web for pictures of whimsy and inspiration.
Hope you all have wonderful rest of breaks!

-Brenna Kathleen