so this weekend has been a little crazy. not one dull moment.

friday, finally finished the church history paper. WHEEEEE. then i went with my beloved colleen to watch her get a big tattoo at the base of her spine with HER MOM in celebration of her 18th birthday. what a trooper. colleen you get the stephanie stamp of approval for having been so brave. THEN i went to a going away party thrown for myself and a couple of other starbucks partners who are leaving our store. afterwards ara and i drove to jeremy's house for game night, which, by the time we got there, was already over. soo sad. so we followed my girls to wilmette beach for a midnight game of volleyball, which i was unaware is illegal. because the beach closes around 10-10:30. we played for about 20 minutes before we started noticing that everyone's hair was sticking straight up, to which we decided we best get the **bleep** out of there before we were all struck by lightning. that's when the nice policedude came by and said that we were breaking the law. so we left. actually ara and i just stayed in my car to watch the lightning for awhile. NO THERE WAS NO KISSING. get your mind out of the gutter.

yesterday, graduation. very good ceremony, especially the part where someone who shall remain nameless put a big fat new beauty mark on my guitar. :) no worries. better you than me. then came the part where erik and i tried to figure out what was wrong with my car by driving 30 mph through parking lots. erik thinks it might be the timing belts. that sucks.

last night ara's family invited me to a big family dinner that they have once or twice a week. i had authentic armenian cuisine, complete with hummus and a number of other things that i am quite incapable of pronouncing. it was amazing. after the main course the hostess brought out a HUGE fruit tray and then like FIVE plates of different desserts. it was sort of a special occasion because there was a birthday in the family and mother's day today, but ara says that there is always that much food whenever they get together. it was a fantastic time. throw a few drunk armenians into a room and it gets pretty entertaining. i couldn't understand 3/4 of the conversations being had because they were speaking armenian, arabic, turkish, and english all at the same time. or singing. that's right. there was the singing of turkish love songs. i've never seen anything like it. so much culture. i wish i had more of that. culture that is.

after dinner ara and i watched jackass the movie. which i really must say almost made me pee my pants i was laughing so hard. not for the faint of heart, but definitely funny. more than the movie, i was thoroughly entertained by the fact that ara's 50-60 year old parents wanted to watch it. freaking hilarious.

today. drove to shane holden's church in madison wisconsin. freaking awesome. i wish it wasn't two hours away. i was disappointed that shane didn't preach this morning, but their worship team is fantastic. i need to go back.

and on top of all that, there was a lot of drama. which you're probably used to with me, although this time it was not directly concerning me. nonetheless, it makes me uncertain of the next move, so i'll just keep praying...