congratulations jess!

my small group leader graduated last weeked with her Master's in education!
melissa, danielle and i went up to Biola to cheer her on.
and here we are!

also! my sister shannon graduated from Biola too with a degree in Art, i don't exactly know how to phrase that...?
congratulations shan!
i am very proud of both of you.

you take my hand and drag me headfirst, fearless.

taylor
swift.
what a woman.

her concert was so so so good!fellow t.swift enthusiasts: matt and rachel.

we listened to her for the whole 2 hour drive to san diego.

after a quick refuel at in-n-out and some mock cool pictures...

we were there!
looking creepy and gross.
our row partners were frat boys that knew every word.
i jammed out with them.
and rachel took a secret picture.

we knew every word as well.
my dance move in this picture was apparently pointing.

and there she is!

romeo, save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel...

onstage quick change!

there were many. it was impressive.

oh and here are some enthusiastic country girls.
the attire of every audience member: dresses and cowboy boots.
taylor swift's self-proclaimed favorite outfit.

great moment: she had a lot of video feature things. so during one of them, she snuck into the audience, and after the video ended, we hear her voice...and then we look around and the woman is in the crowd! then she walked down to the floor, hugging people and talking to them. she performed a few songs in the middle of the audience on a little mini-stage (below, photo credit to erin brady) and then made her way to the front again, hugging everyone on the way. it was so cute.
when she got to the front, the audience cheered for an entire 3 minutes. it was insane. she was laughing and looking shocked the whole time. then she said, "i will never forget that. thank you." aw. presh.

holy insane drum segment.

she busted into justin timberlake's "what goes around comes around" halfway through one song.
so good.

that girl sure knew how to rile up the crowd by saying some dramatic intro to her song.
she was a sassy one.

and then! she ended with the whole rain thing during "should've said no." amazing.

she did the same thing at an awards show --

and on the way home, there was an accident on the 241 that
stopped the traffic for about a half an hour.

matt had a little too much fun.

ahhh! it was so great!!
love me some t.swift.

taylor swift was SO good!

pictures are coming!

once upon a time there was an earthquake.

and immediately facebook swarmed with "DID ANYONE FEEL THAT EARTHQUAKE!?!?!" status updates.

these updates were immediately followed with equally as many sarcastic and spiteful "okay, we get it, there was an earthquake, thanks for letting us know" status updates.

i have an idea.
let's just all be friends!

thank you allison.

here is my list of 10 things that make me terribly happy:
1. making a connection with people
2. really good graphic design
3. chips and guacamole
4. well put-together outfits {and people that wear them well}
5. a good worship sesh
6. embracing high school while it lasts {cheesy. i know i'll miss it though}
7. waking up, looking at the clock, and knowing i have hours left to sleep
8. surprise parties
9. being able to go to disneyland whenever
10. a great piece of writing

so concludes THE greatest birthday, ever.

if my surprise party, new bed, cards, and gifts from my friends and family weren't enough...

I
AM
GOING
TO
A
TAYLOR
SWIFT
CONCERT.



this is what i like to call my DREAM.

i LOVE taylor swift. i listen to her daily. she speaks to me.
she is not full of herself or rude to her fans.
she is a real person. and by "real," i mean real in character, not in...physicality?

i am going on the 24th and spending the night in san diego!
wow.

and, may i just say, my mother is too funny.
she put these packs of "taylor made" brand golf balls in a tupperware (the tickets were underneath wrapped in tissue). get it? it was a little hint. that i didn't catch on to. i was like "golf...what could be under this tissue that has to do with golf..."

she succeeded in her distraction. because i saw the word ticketmaster and was speechless. i then put on some t.swift for my family and danced for them and sang along with her in glee.

mama leith! you have outdone yourself. thank you, thank you, thank you.

my life begins in 19 hours.

the pinnacle of my entire year in AP european history is tomorrow.

the AP test.
what we have been building up to all year.
each day on the board there was a countdown...157 days...98 days...30...10...3....28 hours...
and now it's here.

i will arrive at school at 8, skipping first period on mr. stordahl's demands.
i will sit in the library with the other 158 AP euro students for five hours while he reviews the entire year's learnings.
and at precisely 1:00, i will take my two sharpened #2 pencils, two black pens, my watch, and my accumulated knowledge of european history from the dark ages to the present, and i will march into that gym, remove my shoes (cheating scandal) and attempt to pass.

80 multiple choice questions (all insanely difficult), a document-based essay, and two thematic essays.

wish me luck.

this was much too dramatic.
i'm going to go study.

it's my party and i'l cry if i want to.

but i won't cry, because i had a delightful birthday, complete with a delicious breakfast made by my brother at 5 AM, cake, gifts, cards, a mix CD, Facebook comments, in-person comments, texts, phone calls, a mariachi band, an unenthusiastic physics class singing to me, BJ's, and a new bed!

the only downer was voyaging to Disneyland to embrace the $69 birthday gift card...only to have them shut the window in our face because we were 5 minutes past closing time. cool, Disneyland. thanks for being the happiest place on earth.


but hey. i'm officially 16, i can't be complaining.

pictures!

you can view the pictures from the big one-six here and here.

thank you shannon leith for the photos!
enjoy.

my dream has officially come true.

i had a surprise party thrown in my honor, as well as rachel patla's honor!

i am still in a state of shock, and it's one day later.
here's how it all happened!

accomplice/distractor - chandler.
chan chan and i had planned to go get chipotle friday after school. we had this planned for about a week. so on friday, i'm waiting at the front of trabuco for him with my friend danielle, when i see a car that looks like my mom's pull up...but i just figured it was someone else. but then she pulls closer...and it is my mother. with chandler in the front seat. whaaat?! i was bewildered. maybe his car broke down? but why would my mother be offering him assistance? they don't even know each other (or so i thought.)

but then two other cars full of my friends pull up behind them, and everyone has their windows down, screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and blowing party blowers and yelling and cheering, and they all pile out and surround me and put a sweet sixteen crown on my head. rachel is with them, with the same crown (they had pulled her out of swim practice and surprised her like a minute earlier).

but i was still confused. my birthday is not till tuesday. rachel's is in over a week. why would they be celebrating now...? but then rachel is like "we're going to disneyland!" ahh!

so 18 of us spent about three hours at disneyland, and they told rachel and i that we were going to dinner after- but they were all mysterious about it. i guessed rainforest cafe, rachel, for some odd reason, was determined that it was chuck e. cheese. classy. anyway, we knew there had to be SOMETHING still coming. we had no clue what though.

i was so excited! i figured that this was the surprise- disneyland with my friends and then dinner somewhere fun. i kept telling people "i'm so shocked! how did you guys keep this a secret? this is great!" little did i know this was not the extent of the surprise...

so after we went on three rides and were serenaded in line by this junior high choir group, we left promptly at 8:00. or something. my mom pulls into a hotel near disneyland, hands me a big bag, leads us to the lobby where we meet the others.

rachel and i discuss how confused we are and try and guess what we're doing- we got nothing though. what in the world. why were we in a hotel...we had NO clue.

so then my mom hands me a room key and tells us to lead the group up to room 1404. rachel and i share more confused looks and follow her instructions.

after we got to floor 14, room 1404, we put the key in the door....cautiously open it up....

"SURPRISE!!!"
a billion people jump up and start yelling and cheering and throwing feather boas on us. it was a surprise party!!!!

this amazing penthouse suite was decked out- sweet 16 decorations, kelly's cupcakes, embarrassing old photo montages, food, 45 friends, our families...it was so phenomenal.

but that's not all!

after everyone ate some rubio's we went up to the ROOF to dance. what. in. the. world. the disneyland fireworks were on the horizon [cheesy] as we danced our little hearts out. it was a dream come true.

not over yet! rachel patla [fellow birthday girl], melissa, rachel styffe, my mother and i all spent the night at the penthouse! (is that what it's called? i don't even know.) it had a big kitchen, a living room, dining room, one regular bedroom and bathroom, one GIANT master bedroom and bathroom, and a deck. so we opened our presents and sang songs in the bathroom [good acoustics] and....woke up at 7:45 to go to school and take the AP euro practice exam. but i don't even care because my amazing day yesterday allll made up for it.

wow. i am so so blessed. and very impressed that 50 people kept this a secret for three weeks.

my life is complete. pictures to come soon!