It's been so long!

The goals for this blog post are three-fold. First off, I haven't put anything on here in almost two months, and that's just a shame. So I'm rectifying that preposterous error. Secondly, I'm giving you a bunch of excuses regarding why I haven't posted (just in case you were bored and wanted to hear me out). Lastly, I'm way behind on editing pictures, so I want to put up several pictures from our RA retreat just to keep certain members of our RA staff happy ;)

By virtue of the nature of the first goal, I've already accomplished it. Now for the reasons:

Actually, wait up. I was gonna give a whole list of reasons (and my computer science class would've topped that list for sure) [Jarrett: (listof reason)], but that seemed a little excessive. Rather, I'll just say that life is busy! But it's certainly good. I'll take the rest of your precious time by briefly elaborating on a certain aspect of that busyness: residence life. I'm a resident assistant this year in the lovely dorm of Van Kampen, and it's been a wonderful experience (except when my door decs plummet to the ground from their sheer weight, which happens more often than I'd like). I love the great group of guys men (sorry Stu!) I get to live life with, and am absolutely stoked that I get a whole other semester (have you ever noticed that we often say "whole nother" when we speak?) with them. The men in my section, VK F-G-H, are incredible friends, musicians, athletes, and scholars, among other things. There aren't too many dull moments this semester, as a typical stroll through the area can hold many surprises, from a random wrestling match to a near unicycle collision in the hallway :) Another great part of residence life is my staff, which you'll get to see in a few brief moments. The VK staff has been an incredible encouragement to me this semester, and every single person is a dear friend to me, even though I've known most of them only for these past several months.

Now, let me complete that last goal I mentioned at the beginning of this post! In October, our staff got to go on a weekend retreat up to Pismo Beach, and these following several pictures are from our Saturday afternoon on the beach.



Here we are! From left to right, we have random guy, random guy's dog, David (Dryvid Dave), Chloé (Chlo Chlo), Rachel (Rachy), Margo (Margot), Emily (Squirrel), and yours truly. If you're at Westmont and don't know someone in the aforementioned bunch, you should definitely get to know them (except maybe the kid on the right)! You won't regret it.



And these two beautiful people are Anna Fletcher, our resident director, and Jeremy Fletcher, her husband (and coordinator of student ministries and missions at Westmont). Anna and Jeremy are an incredible couple and it's been such a blessing getting to know them this semester. Ditto on the "get to know them" thing for you Westmont folk!



Here's one shot at 400mm. I've been obsessed with longer focal lengths lately. For one of my most recent photo projects, which I'll be blogging about soon most likely (the 2013 Westmont Brass Men calendar!), I think I shot every photo at over 100mm. Also, perfect moment for a shameless plug: calendars go on sale next week! They're only $10 and all the proceeds benefit the Westmont music department. You should buy two (at least)! Ok, shameless plug over.



Here are Chlo and Rachy enjoying the agua.



And here's Pismo Beach (and coincidentally me) saying good night.

And that's the end of this post! Hopefully this marks the beginning of better blogging habits...I guess we'll see soon enough. Good night!