Half-birthdays!

Every February 28th I always have to remind everyone around me that it's my half-birthday. I miss the days when people asked you how old you are and you said, "six and a half," or "seven and three quarters." One time I reminded my mom of my half-birthday so frequently that she even made me a cake! It was great! So, today I spent my half birthday in Fullerton, attending classes and sitting in Starbucks writing a paper... fun stuff! Anyhow, to procrastinate I looked up half birthdays on Wikipedia and this is what I found:

Half-birthday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A half-birthday is a day six months before or after the real anniversary of a person's birth.
Most half-birthdays go unremarked. Perhaps the most common usage is by people whose birthday falls near Christmas, a holiday so widely celebrated that it can overwhelm private anniversaries. Young children sometimes celebrate half-birthdays if their real birthdays do not occur during the school year, so they can celebrate with friends and teachers at school.
A half-birthday is one of many unbirthdays, to use Lewis Carroll's term for any day that is not a person's real birthday.

Other definitions
Loosely, a "half-birthday" can also be a day that occurs near a person's birthday but at a much more convenient time. Someone in the United States whose real birthday occurs in November, for example, may choose to celebrate it as a "half-birthday" during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Another interpretation of "half-birthday" is that it falls on the same day of the month, six calendar months away from the real birthday. That would mean a person has no half-birthday if born on one of the following dates, because there is no correspondent date six months hence: 31 March; 31 May; 29 August (except in leap years); 30 August; 31 August; 31 October; 31 December
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-birthday"

This is all great. However, later I looked up half birthdays and found this Half-Birthday Calculator. I think it acutally splits the year in half in terms of days, not months, because it tells me that my half birthday is February 27th! What am I to do?!?!?! I guess I'm gonna have to start celebrating two half birthdays :-)

CRASH!

Yesterday morning Kirsten and I went on a quick bike ride before she had to leave for her basketball game. We did our usual 16 mile loop that starts on the bike path near our house, goes through UCSB and then loops back around Winchester Canyon. We finish the ride on Cathedral Oaks which takes us back to the house. Well, as we entered UCSB, we had our first bike crash together. Kirsten has crashed before, but this was my first time! It was crazy!





Here is how it happened:
As we crossed Lagoon Rd and headed into campus, I stayed on the street and Kirsten went onto the adjacent bike path. At the first right turn (it is marked by a circle on the map above), I started to cross over onto the bike path behind Kirsten. The turn was blind, and there was a runner in the opposite lane, so Kirsten and I had to stay single file. However, as we made the turn there was a runner in OUR lane too! Kirsten said, "We both were like deer looking into the headlights!" He stepped to his left to let us though and to avoid me (I was behind Kirsten but a little to her left), and Kirsten went to her right (obeying the rules of the road). Therefore, the two of them collided! She would have fallen except he was pretty strong and caught her after she hit him. I however, couldn't do anything but hit Kirsten. Luckily, my foot unclipped so I was able to catch myself after my handlebars hit Kirsten in the back and my knee hit my handlebars.

My adrenaline was definitely going after that, but I was also a bit shell shocked. It all happened so fast, there was really nothing we could have done to avoid it! I was thankful we didn't fall, if anything for prides sake. :-) I almost forgot to mention that the ride before, we almost got into another accident on UCSB's campus when someone coming the other way was in our lane going around a corner. Kirsten hit my back tire and fish-tailed, but she was able to right herself! Man, this biking can be dangerous!

Familiar faces

So, pretty much every time I go to a new place or meet a new person, someone says to me, "You look like this girl I know..." or, "What high school did you go to, you look familiar." However, it's never the case that I know this "twin" that I look like and most of the time this "twin" doesn't even exist. The person can't put a finger on who it is. The person always goes away saying, "well, I guess you just have a familiar face..." What does that mean?!?!?! Is that a good thing or a bad thing???? I guess it doesn't matter... it's just funny.

Anyhow, I taught a class on Wednesday and one of the students came up to me afterwards and said this very thing. Then, on Wednesday night my friend Bekah came over to the house I stay at every week in Brea. My friends in this house said the exact same thing.... "Do I know you from somewhere else? You look familiar." It was so funny, so we decided to take a picture of the girls with familiar faces and similar names...

Beach and BBQ

This past Saturday I had a blast doing pretty much nothing because of how nice it was here in Santa Barbara. It was between 78 and 80 degrees all day! I studied at a coffee shop in the morning and then went home and did some fun reading in my bathing suit by the pool. Then, I met up with Brita and some others to head to Hope Ranch Beach. We were supposed to play volleyball, but ended up just hanging out instead. We ended the night with a delicious BBQ at the Birches! What a great day!





Scott and Amy


Amy and me taking a self-picture


Brita, Ben and Becky

Jen and Brita

Bowling Slide show

Birthday Bowling

Last night a bunch of us went bowling for Steph Shadwell's birthday. I gave Calamity free reign on my camera and here are the pics she came up with. I must say, I do much better in situations where I keep score. I was totally lousy! Anyhow, here is the show!

Dork Alert!

I wanted to sound the alarm myself so that you all know that I know I am a dork :0) I got new sunglasses for biking this week. This morning I went on a bike ride with Kirsten and I decided i would have jen take a picture of me so I could blog about the glasses. They are a TON better than my old pair (that did not do anything but slide down my face while I biked!) Anyhow, Jen took the picture and said, "The dork alert is about to go off!"

Another funny thing that happened is that after this picture I walked into my bedroom and turned the light on because it seemed so dark in my room. I was laughing so hard! It wasn't dark, I just forgot to take the glasses off! Anyhow, here is dorky Rebecca...

And by the way, the bike ride was great!

Miracle performance!

hey all,
I just wanted to let you all know how productive I've become lately. Last Wednesday at our Coaches Bible study, Jen and I prayed for miracle performances. In other words, we both have a ton to do and it would be wise for us to be disciplined and focused as we work. So the last two mornings we have come to Goleta Coffee company between 6:30 and 7:00 and put our time in. I have been WAY focused and productive. :-) It feels so good! I think I'm realizing I do much better in the morning and much better when I have a focused study partner.... oh the feelings of being back in school. I am thankful I'm finally remembering how to do this school thing. I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with me! Anyhow, I better go back to productivity.... lunch first though. :-)

P.S. Sorry no pictures of us studying... we were being too productive! :-)

Florida Storm Warning...