Packed Weekend

This weekend was busy, but it was a nice kind of busy.

Friday night I went and hung out at the His House girls house and helped Nataleigh, whose four, gut a pumpkin so that she could carve it. I definitely ended up covered in pumpkin, but that's a given when hanging around smaller children. Later in the evening we went to do Hot Dog ministry in front of The Living Rock. As usual that was fun.

However, the weather hadn't been too great all day, so it was quite a bit slower than usual. I don't think we even went through all of the hot dogs. We did manage to get rid of all of them that we had grilled up though. It was nearly three by the time I got back to the dorms.

Saturday, I attempted to get some of my homework done, but I don't think I really succeeded in getting much accomplished. If anything I got bits and pieces of multiple things completed. I had a lot of trouble focusing on any one thing at one time for most of that day. I would start on one project, and then my mind would wander to another project until I started working it, and so the process went.

But Saturday evening was the MSU v. Iowa game, so a group of us went to Pizza House, and had dinner while we watched the game. That game was CRAZY. Really, that's all that needs to be said. Once the game was done, we went back to the girls house, and we watched a movie and just kind of hung out. Again it was about one-thirty or so when I got back to the dorms.

Then Sunday turned into another full day. I went to church with Kali, Felicia, and Jessica in the morning. That was really cool, I really liked Riv Church's service. It followed the same kind of format that fellowship does on Wednesdays.

Anyway, after church we went and got lunch, and after hanging out at PetCo, we went back to the house, and from there went shopping with Julia, Nataleigh and Niki, before returning to the house and hanging out. Once again it was about one thirty before I got back to my dorm room. But the sleep deprivation was worth it. It was a really good weekend, and it gave me a chance to just forget about school work for a little bit.

Of course, now I have to get busy filling out my application for the School of Journalism. It's due Friday, and I can't get in to see an advisor until Thursday. Between that and interviews for my latest story for class, it's going to be a busy next few days school wise.

Answered Prayers

When the weather isn't verging on winter, Fall in Michigan is beautiful. Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was a little windy, and yet it was warm enough out that as long as you were wearing a jacket you were golden. For the first time in a couple weeks it's actually felt like it was fall and it was lovely.

It is looking to be a promising week.

This weekend was the His House Fall Retreat, and obviously since this is my first semester at MSU it was my first retreat... and it was amazing. This weekend, I mean, I'm not even sure what I thought this weekend was going to be but ultimately now I see it as an answer to some of my most recent prayers.

I have been struggling, and I've really been praying over those struggles lately. Saturday I decided to be baptized, and I didn't realize that that was the reason that God had me there until literally about an hour or so before. But now I can look at it and know that that was my reason for being there, that is why God wanted me there, why he wanted me here. I hadn't realized how much weight I was carrying around on my shoulders, until it was lifted away.

I can definitely tell that there is a difference in my general attitude over the last couple days. I just feel so much better, and it's simply amazing.

Saturday morning we split up and went to workshops, where we talked about our faith and knowing where we stood in our faith and ways to express that faith. During the first one that I attended the speaker talked about the four responses, one of which was baptism, and that first planted the idea in my head. I got to really thinking about where I was in my spiritual journey. It was a step that I hadn't taken and I started thinking about it.

The idea was there, but it was in the back of my mind rather in the forefront. The afternoon was spent initially playing frisbee golf with a group, but that quickly disintegrated into climbing trees, and just generally hanging out and walking around the woods.

Northern Michigan is gorgeous in the early fall, and the camp was right on Lake Ann. It was later in the evening after the last workshop and dinner that we were walking to Campus Time, when Felicia hesitantly brought up baptism, and I think that's when it finally clicked. I think that's when I realized that that was why God got me here, got me there. God was nudging me to solidify my commitment to him. I certainly relied on him a lot through me life, and especially the last few years.

So Saturday night, in front of five hundred people our Associate Pastor, Kevin, took my confession and my friend Felicia baptized me, and so much of the heaviness that has been weighing down on me lately melted away. I feel so fantastic right now, and I feel like that makes all the difference in the world as far as how I interact with everyone around me.

I feel more connected now, I'm not simply going through the motions, and the focus has become today rather than an eventual tomorrow. Of course there will be rough roads ahead, but today is great, and even when I struggle God will be there.

Homework

My current goal is to finish reading “Going Bovine” by the middle of next week. Hopefully I can manage to balance school work and reading to the point that it will at least be a feasible goal. I think it’s a feasible goal anyway.

I’m really glad though that I’ve managed to get all caught up with my homework. Everything it set so that this weekend won’t be all piled up when I get back Sunday. That is a definite plus.

Anyway, I need to get this posted so that I can head out the door. Tonight is fellowship night, and for once I don’t have to worry about having homework caught up for class tomorrow, which is awesome.

Forgetful SLUG

I was so focused on finishing my SLUG worksheet for class tomorrow that I nearly didn't write this before going out. That wouldn't have been a good idea.

Now that I have you confused though, maybe I'll explain what a SLUG worksheet is. It has nothing to do with an actual slug, I promise. Basically in journalism a 'slug' is a short description of your article that you are supposed to include near the top of the page when you turn it in to your editor. In this case it needs to be there when I turn articles in to my professor.

Anyway, we're going to be writing our first articles this coming week, but first a SLUG worksheet has to be filled out. Basically this explains the article idea to Omar, and then he determines whether we can run with the idea or if we have to go back to the drawing board.

I'm really hoping that the idea I've come up with is going to work... Other words I'm not really sure what I'll write about, but I suppose we shall see.

Concentration Fail

So I'm definitely coming down with something, and it better be just a cold. My voice seems to fade in and out, breathing through my nose just isn't an option for the moment, and I have a sore throat. I really don't want to be sick.

I'm heading home for the weekend tomorrow after class. Apparently AT&T have awful communication skills, so my mom and I have to go work out another issue with my phone. My phone number will be reverting back in the near future. Lovely.

I took my first Economics quiz today, and that definitely could have gone better... though it was online so of course it was open book, it was a little hard to concentrate with my roommate and her friend bouncing around the room getting ready to go out. At least now though I have an idea of how the quizzes will go and can be better prepared next time. I now also know to take them earlier in the day.

For the most part though I am caught up on my homework. I have to finish reading House of Sand and Fog tonight for class tomorrow. They way that he had it assigned we were set to read the book in a week. Essentially we were assigned to read about one hundred pages between class periods which occur every other day. I like to think that I will have it read by midnight so that I can actually get some sleep.

It was two thirty this morning when I got in from Fellowship. But I had fun. It was definitely better than the alternative of sitting here and being told that I need to "get out there and meet people". Yeah. I'll get right on that. No, but I really do like going to Fellowship. I feel really comfortable there.

Earlier I went this program going on in my "neighborhood" called the "World News Forum". That was actually really interesting and it's held monthly so I think I'm going to try and keep going to that. Essentially a bunch of us met together and discussed things that are going on in the news at a global level. The program is really well organized and its interactive without being overly interactive. It was actually kind of cool.

Four Post Weekend

I would first like to point out that I am incredibly tired. That out of the way, I feel that I need to apologize for failing to post these last two days. I really had every intention of posting yesterday, but of course intentions can only get you so far. In fact, it was only after I had managed to scale the railing up to my bed that I realized I had forgotten to blog last night.

There really is no excuse for my having missed yesterday, but whatever. I am very close to being caught up on all of my reading for my classes which is a very good thing. Lately it's seemed like I'd never be able to catch up and this is only the second week!

Wednesday was fun. I went to fellowship and ended up staying out out until one thirty, which meant that I forwent a significant portion of reading but since the rest of the day had been devoted to homework I think it's alright. It's most likely something that I'll go to every Wednesday, so I will do my best from now on to blog before I go. I swear, I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things.

Alright, I need to get some reading done and then go grab some lunch before making my way to my last class of the day. Make sure to look out for my four weekend posts!