hey

kate
engaged
twenty (i know young to be engaged...it's a long story. if you add me i'll tell you :)
i work at a movie theater, so of course i love movies.

favs, of all time:
gone with the wind
little miss sunshine
walk the line
shaun of the dead/ hot fuzz
star treks..

music favs, all time, they change but these are the pillars of what i love:
nirvana
brand new
beatles
coldplay

tv, favs, all time:
ER
buffy the vampire slayer
gilmore girls

loves:
dining out with jeff(that's my boo.)
books, i don't like to read so much than holding a book, just..having the words
celeb gossip!
shopping when i have money (so never)
dinners with my grandma (i love to eat. chubby, but that's alright with me and the husband 2 b

hates:
mean people
homophobes
ants.

add if you think i sound like someone you'd like to click with. like i said, i'm engaged so i don't want to cyber or show you naked shit of me.

good luck to everyone :)

So, my name is Caryn and I am 18 years old (my birthday is next month.. yay me lol). Im from Sammamish, Washington. I got back 2weeks ago from France where I was for 2 months. It was awesome, I went with the people I work for (Im a nanny and they are like my second family) and I couldnt have asked for a better time. I am in college and going into nursing and I ultimately want to be a midwife. Currently I am a full time student and I work full time as a nanny and have been with them for almost 2 years now. While I was in France I broke up with my ex and we had been together for 3.5 years so Im having quite a bit of fun that I didnt have during that time. I learned a ton about myself both in a relationship aspect and as an individual. Being on your own for 2 months in a foreign country does that to ya.. I know that I can do pretty much anything now lol. Im witty and sarcastic and I dont take crap from people. I am very stubborn and passionate about things.

I love driving (big speed demon haha), though with rising gas prices that is getting to be a bit of a challenge, but I get by. I also like reading, music, movies, photography, etc. I love being outside. I love the ocean and camping and other random outdoor things. I also enjoy just hanging out at home. I am looking for new livejournal friends as well as people to chat with on aim, msn, or yahoo. I dont have a ton of time to go out and do the things I like doing and my last relationship did a bit of a number on me and I lost all of my friends because of it.. stupid stupid move. As a result, I dont go out as much as I'd like to so instead I like meeting people online for more than just not having time to do it another way. I think you learn a lot about people when you talk online.

Anyways, now that I've written a novel... please comment either here or in my friends only entry on my journal. If you want to chat all my info is in my profile and there is also a ton more about me there.

Current Mood: accomplished

( Time for an introduction... )

If we have anything in common, leave a comment here in my journal and I'll add you :)

You could be passing up the greatest LJ friend in the history of the world.

That would be me.  Maybe.

My name is Mike, Im 21, and I was part of Livejournal before the popular kids in school even knew it existed.  I dropped out of LJ when it started getting popular, but almost four years later I find myself desperate for a public venue to vent to people Ive never met before.

Ive made my first post - which you can read here.  That covers the basic of what Im about.  Its a little long, but I dont think Id be interested in adding anyone that wasnt willing to read it. 

There seem to be a lot of cool people in this community begging for friends.  I could totally be one of them, guys.

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: tired

 I just made myself a new journal. I needed a new and fresh start and a new outlook on life. I need some new friends, friends who are open minded, creative, and who would actually like to get to know me. I don't want friends on here who don't comment or respond, or don't even communicate.

I'll be 18 in November. I'm a senior and I think public school is a joke. My dream is to move somewhere like Maine or Edinburgh and have a house with flower and vegetable gardens and animals. Live a hippie-style life.

That's me. Check out my profile. Comment there.

heyyyy!!!! i'm hanadi .. um for some reason i haven't been connecting much with my friends on my firends list, i neeed new friends so i considered checking this out since my friend recommended it to mee .. let's just say i've got an interesting life, i comment alooot .. as long as your remotely interesting .. and i loveee LJ .. anywho! add me to your friends list and i'll do the sameee =) i'm a former cross country and track runner, i mostly talk about my friends and about this guy i love and i just make shit interstin .. i don't know if i wrote in this correctly but anywho if i didn't i made a total jackass of my self =)!! byeee.

*Trina
*21
*Scorpio
*Christian
*Minnesotan
*Fangirl
*Boy-crazy
*Certified nurse aide
*Actress, wants to be a professional someday
*Movie obsessed (favorite genres are drama, horror, sci-fi, animation and fantasy)
*Loves music (rock, country, metal, oldies and pop are favorite genres).
*Likes to read (sci-fi and horror mostly)
*Bryan Adams, Hristo Shopov, Houdini, Frank McCourt, Edgar Allan Poe, The Beatles, John Lennon, Edward Norton, and Leonardo DiCaprio are some favorite celebrities.
*Favorite movie is Dirty Dancing and favorite TV show is The X-Files.
*More interests are here.
*Add me?

Usually, when one of our sporting legends retires, we Americans spend weeks praising him (or her, usually him, though) and reflect on his career while wondering if anyone will ever meet or surpass his standard. ESPN devotes a considerable amount of time to run retrospective videos on “SportsCenter” and brings in numerous experts to debate that athlete’s place in history. Everything else takes second priority. Heck, when Brett Favre retired back in March, you would have thought that nothing else was going on in the world with the amount of coverage they devoted to him.

Too bad none of this applies to soccer.

Claudio Reyna, one of the greatest American soccer players ever, and one of the first Americans to establish himself in Europe, retired on Wednesday. Yet, there were no special tributes to this giant of American soccer on “SportsCenter.” There was barely even a mention of him, which was especially insulting because it was one of the slowest sports days of the year, what with baseball being on the All-Star break. Of course, there was plenty of time for a video retrospective of baseball’s first half, speculation about Brett Favre’s future, and coverage of a Tiger Woods-less British Open. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise where ESPN’s priorities lie, what with their bun-to-bun coverage of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

It’s too bad, since Reyna really was a giant in American soccer. Before Reyna, no American had captained a European-based club. Before Reyna, no American had ever made the World Cup All-Star Team. Before Reyna, no American had commanded multi-million dollar transfer fees. Before Reyna, Americans in Europe were more of a novelty act and weren’t taken seriously by their teammates, by management, and by the media. While MLS undoubtedly had more of an impact in paving the way for American stars to thrive in Europe, it was Reyna who first broke the ceiling for his Yankee brethren and provided the blueprint for everyone that followed.

Then again, given the trajectory of Reyna’s career, it’s somewhat understandable why he didn’t get the fanfare that someone of his stature surely deserved. After all, Reyna was the original Great American Hope. He had a storied career at the University of Virginia and promptly signed with Bayer Leverkusen, sending expectations through the roof. He was supposed to be the standard bearer for U.S. soccer both at home and abroad, the heir to the overachieving pioneers of 1994 such as Harkes, Wynalda, Lalas, Ramos, and Balboa (none of whom were nearly as talented or as skilled as Reyna).

So, when Reyna didn’t set the world on fire, didn’t break into the starting line-up at Leverkusen, and didn’t become the American version of Diego Maradona (minus the debilitating drug addiction, of course), he was immediately deemed to be a disappointment. His national team coaches didn’t exactly do him any favors. Steve Sampson and Bruce Arena tried to fit a square peg in a round hole by giving him the #10 role and hoping that Reyna, as one of the few Americans who could hold onto the ball in the face of defensive pressure and complete a pass, would grow into it. The results were mixed, to say the least, and it wasn’t until his days at Rangers and at Sunderland where he finally seemed to settle into his groove as a versatile midfielder who could play defense and contribute to a team’s offensive attack. He may not have become a great playmaker, but he became a good all-around threat who always made his team better.

In many ways, Reyna’s career epitomizes America’s attitude towards soccer as a whole. Take the 2002 World Cup, for instance. Reyna was at his peak and playing the best soccer of his career. He was captain of the team, and was the kind of inspirational leader that his peers in Europe and South America were. Yet, during the pre-tournament build-up, the American media focused their fawning eyes on the likes of Clint Mathis, the goal-scoring cover-boy (remember him?), and on Landon Donovan and DeMarcus Beasley, the young up-and-coming Next-Big-Things.

Unfortunately for Reyna, he was never the former and he was no longer the latter. Yet, there he was turning in solid effort after solid effort, culminating in a Man-of-the-Match performance against Germany in the quarterfinals and the aforementioned spot on the World Cup All Star Team.

Sadly, he didn’t get the acclaim that he so richly deserved. In many ways, he was a victim of American reliance on highlights. For all his brilliance, he didn’t produce a memorable goal like Clint Mathis did against South Korea (which, in all fairness, should rank among the most important goals in U.S. history) or Landon Donovan did against Mexico, nor did he make a jaw-dropping play like Brad Friedel did when he stopped all those penalty shots. He made that great run against Mexico that led to Brian McBride’s goal, but otherwise, his brilliance was more subtle and understated, obvious to soccer fans but not necessarily to the casual SportsCenter crowd.

It’s too bad that his career seemed to end on a whimper rather than with a bang. He had a dreadful 2006 World Cup, culminating in a forgettable performance against Ghana where he lost the ball in his own box and left the match on a stretcher. He spent the last few years fighting various injuries, and his time in MLS is best forgotten. Even his signing was somewhat overlooked in the wake of Whats-His-Name’s arrival in Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, Reyna did what he could to justify his price tag, even if he couldn’t produce on the field. He mentored Jozy Altidore, another in a long line of young American talent, and by all accounts, he was the one who held a rapidly imploding Red Bulls team together last season. He wasn’t flashy like Beckham and he wasn’t a goal-scoring machine like Blanco, his two fellow high-profile MLS imports. But he made the most of his abilities and did what he could to help his team.

For Claudio Reyna, maybe it’s easier to look at him and wonder what could have been than it is to applaud him for what he actually achieved. Compared to other Great American Hopes, he may not have had the flash of Donovan, the speed of Beasley, the style of Dempsey, the aerial ability of McBride, the charisma of Mathis, the scoring nose of Jovan Kirovski (remember him?), but he had plenty of things that they lacked. He had toughness. He had versatility. He had leadership skills. Most importantly, he was resilient. He showed that he could succeed even when most people in the world, especially in his home country, counted him out.

Indeed, his ability to overcome adversity made Claudio Reyna the best available example of American soccer. He may not have been the savior that American soccer was looking for, but no one epitomized the American spirit more.

Tags: soccer
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "My Way," Frank Sinatra

this is me, the perfect explanation of my outlook.

"there are few people whom i really love, and still fewer of whom i think well. the more i see of the world, the more am i dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependance that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense."

-pride and prejudice


i`m not here to talk about my stupid and dull teenage life where i am surrounded by morons.
and i will not say anything "random" or cute to act cool or whatever.
its time to stop being fake and making an effort in school to be one of the teenagers.

join me and lets talk about things that matter?