Time For Sleep

I have finished my note cards for my Macroeconomics class. It took me a few hours to do, and my concentration didn't always stick with the task at hand, but I've managed to get them done at a decent hour so I think it is safe to call the mission a success.

Now hopefully having actually studied somewhat for the final won't prove to have been a futile attempt. I really, really want to manage to pass that class with a grade that will at least allow me into my major.

Darcy seems to be transfixed by the sound of my trying. She is crouching behind my computer, and frequently peeks around the corner and stares at my hands as they punch the keys. A moment ago she actually lunged around the corner, seemed to examine my hands for a moment, and then thought better about actually attempting to remove them from the keys. I appreciate her ability to abstain from tormenting me.

I think what she actually wants is for me to head to bed, because I've got my heating blanket going and she likes to lay on the bed when the heating blanket has been turned on. Darcy, much like me, does not enjoy the cold weather.

Tomorrow morning I have to head back to school so that I can take my first final of the week. It's around noon, so I don't have to leave super early. I just really wish this week was over. I'm ready to get the tests out of the way and move on.

Scavenger Hunt

As usual, when I fail to post as I am thinking about it I end of forgetting about it completely. I was going to write something up before going to work last night, and didn't. Once my shift was over I walked over the the Girl's House, and hung out and obviously failed to pay any attention to my blog. True story.

Last night was fun though. The weather was rather awful, so they didn't end up doing the scavenger hunt earlier in the evening. Why that led us to believe doing the scavenger hunt in the dark was a good idea... I'm not really sure.

At any rate, in the dark accompanied by the wind and rain we split off into groups and drove around campus lead by riddles. The object of the game was to solve the riddles, find the structure they were talking about, and snap a picture with someone in the group in the picture.

We were all soaked by the time we got back to the house, but it was fun regardless. Afterwords we just hung around for a bit longer. It was close to two or so by the time I got back to my dorm.

Shortly I'll have to go grab somthing to eat and then head off to work again. This time I'm working the late night shift over in Wilson. Most likely I'll go join the group for Hot Dog Ministry since it's Halloween.

I feel like I have a lot of homework that I need to get done, but am lacking the focus to do so. Then again, everytime I look through what needs to be done it's really not that much. I think mainly I"m just nervous about applying to the school of journalism. My instinct is to say that I'll get in, and yet there is that little kernal of doubt in the back of my mind. I'm honestly not sure what the plan is if I don't get into the J-school...

Deadlines, Yikes!

It took me forever to focus on finishing the module for my Lit/Cultures class, not because it was hard, but because I wasn't interested in focusing on it. The class has the potential to be interesting, and I'm not sure why it is isn't. For whatever reason the conversations that we could be having in that class don't seem to form like they should, I'm really not completely certain why that is.

Anyway, when I was supposed to be focusing on that I couldn't focus, and then once I got that done I decided to put my computer away because it's battery was dying and I'm not near a plug at the moment. Of course at that moment I decided to focus on wrapping up my JRN 200 homework, and was SO FOCUSED on that, that I nearly forgot to blog.

That wouldn't have been good. I apologize for being a little scatterbrained at the moment. I would like to note however, that I'm really enjoying the weather this week. I was afraid on my walk to class this morning that it was going to get cold again, because with the rain it was a bit chilly. However, by the time I was headed to my second class it has already gotten warmer, and the rain has abated.

It's pretty awesome. Now, if I don't hurry up and post this my computer is definitely going to die. Deadlines, yikes

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.

Michigan Weather and Accomplishments

Time got away from me today. The weather has been atrocious all day. It was threatening rain when I walked to my first class, began to sprinkle as I hurried to my second class, and took up a steady stream once I left my final class.

The rain in and of itself wouldn't be quite so bad if it weren't a cold rain, accompanied by a rather chilly temperature and some wicked wind. I did manage to speak with someone regarding my 'no call, no show' though, so hopefully that madness will be worked out because I've definitely shown up for every one of my shifts.

I managed to get my shift covered for the seventeenth, so now I am all clear to go to Fall Retreat which is exciting. Now I just have one more shift to get covered, and if the powers that be approve of the solution that I've found then everything is set. It's nice when things seem to be falling into place.

I should have read the chapter that I need to have read for tomorrow earlier, but procrastination seemed to be a better idea at the time. Although, I guess I was productive. I found two scholarships that I'm going to make a concerted effort to apply for. I need to get serious about scholarships... Alright, I'm going to read my chapter and then I'm off to the land of sleep.

Documentary Night

For the first time in a while I feel like I've managed to get caught up with all of my school related reading. It's really nice to feel like you're ahead of the game, instead of continually behind. I have a few more sections of USA Today to read tonight and then I need to review the AP Stylebook and then I'm done for the night. That is a really nice feeling.

It was muggy outside the majority of the day, which made walking to and from class uncomfortable. I'm glad I had long sleeves though because it seemed like every single one of my classes was freezing.

After class I came back to my dorm and did some cleaning. The sink in the bathroom was getting pretty gross honestly.

Tomorrow I'm planning to Volunteer at a sort of local Elementary school. They're having a "Curriculum Carnival", so that should be interesting. Tomorrow afternoon I have to make a call and confirm that I can get a ride there and back.

This evening though was really interesting. I went to the 'premiere' of a documentary that was produced by a couple professor's from MSU. The name of the documentary is "Arabs, Jews, and The News". The website for the film can be found here: http://www.arabsjewsnews.org/ . After they played the documentary they had a panel with several of the 'commentators'. It was really interesting to listen to.

Something that really interested me about what was said, was the commentary on the media and the way that they have looked at issues currently taking place in the middle east. I do think that the media often gets hung up on portraying situations in particular ways and failing in many ways to be truly objective. What I mean when I say that is they fail to take an issue and look at it from new perspectives.

For example one of the men on the panel was Nolan Finley from The Detroit News. He talked about covering the rallies that took place in Dearborn. He felt that it was very important to cover the fact that there were people there who supported Hezbollah and equated Jews with the Nazi's. Now, perhaps it is a fact that that was taking place as the photographs confirm, but if reports from several people who were there are true those who were doing so were the minority. In fact, it has been said that those who were holding these signs were asked to discard them by others at the event. This could easily have been the focus of an article, rather than merely the fact that those individuals were there.

Sometimes it's about looking for the less obvious angle...

Day of Football

I went to the MSU v. CMU game today with Felicia and Danielle. It was a really good game, as in interesting to watch, but it really stunk that we lost it in the last eight seconds. That was honestly awful.

After the game, we had to return the ID's that we'd used to get into the game. We bought the tickets from people who had bought them but didn't want to go, and since they were student tickets they swipe the ID as the "ticket". We were in the upper level of the student section, which is isolated from the "student experience", and yet you could see the entire field.

The sun was a little brutal though.

The day started out foggy, overcast and a bit chilly so I wore I sweatshirt. It become apparent rather soon that I wouldn't be needing that sweatshirt.

Anyway, once we'd returned the ID's we met up with a larger group of people at Pizza Hut and had dinner while we watched the Notre Dame v. Michigan game. We really wanted to see Notre Dame win... It was really fun though. On the way back to 'home' we stopped at a Dairy Store and got ice cream cones.

Now I need to finishing reading a chapter and a half in my "The Elements of Journalism" textbook and consider getting some sleep. It is nine o'clock and I'm kind of exhausted.

The Desk

Today was a productive day. The store was fairly busy when I got into work. In fact, it was busy enough for the computers to be acting up. It really stinks when the computers decide that they don't want to function properly.

At any rate though, I kept busy. I had a lot of artwork to put out, and a desk to put together so that we could put it out on display. Putting the desk together was interesting. The process went easily enough, until I had to fasten the top portion onto it. There were four wooden dowels that were supposed to help fasten it, but when the front portion fastened on, the back wouldn't line up and the vice versa. I ended up on using the dowels on one section, since it had to be fastened with screws as well. I ended up having parts left over, but everything was securely put together and since there shouldn't ever be a reason to dismantle it, it should be fine.

I drove home amidst stormy skies. It was interesting walking out of the building because the sky was a study in juxtaposition. The southern portion was blue with big puffy clouds, and the northern portion was dark and murky with occasional flashes of lightning and thunder. I was glad that I was headed south. All in all though it was a full day, and I made it home in time to watch The Golden Girls.

A Taunting Mailman

I think the mailman is taunting me. He must know what I am waiting for several letters to arrive and therefore finds it fun to fake me out.

This morning I walked into the kitchen and when I looked out the window, there was the mailman’s car stopped in front of our mailbox. Generally one is led believe that this means that the mail has arrived, or at least that your residence has received some piece of mail.

You would assume.

When I finally made my way to the mailbox, despite the obnoxious rain/hail that was going on at the time, I opened it up only to find empty space. Apparently we didn’t get any mail today, not even junk mail.

Since when do we not at least get some junk mail? Or you know, at least some mail for my sister who has never lived at this address but still manages to receive mail here.

It was crazy. It is crazy. I am going crazy!

I’m sitting her waiting, continually waiting to hear back from people. I’m waiting for the verdict from WCC as to my associate degree, and the verdict from MSU as to my acceptance (Or… non acceptance?). Oh, well, I’ll hear back sooner or later I suppose, though sooner would be preferred.

More Winter? Really?

Cassandra Clare is a genius. I just finished reading the third and final book in her Immortal Instruments Series and I’m blown away. She writes with such a compelling voice, that once you begin reading it becomes a compulsive action. You can’t stop until you reach that final page and even then you’re so close to the story that it’s hard to imagine that it’s over.

She brought all of the loose ends together in a satisfying and compelling conclusion. I don’t want to spoil the story, because I really recommend that you read the series. At some point I’ll get around to writing a proper review for either the series as a whole or each book.

In other news, I hate the snow. Where had all the warm weather gone? Despite the noxious weather, however the drive to class this morning actually wasn’t bad at all. The roads were damp, but thankfully they weren’t icy. Based on reports on the radio the freeway was a mess but that’s not surprising. People drive like imbeciles on the freeway when there’s even a speck of snow on the ground.

There are essentially two main categories of people on the freeway in adverse weather. There are those that decide to drive slowly to the point of being down right obnoxious. They are over cautious and therefore cause more frustration than anything. Then of course you have those who decide that it’s perfectly alright to throw caution to the wind. These are the idiots who end up slowing everyone to a stop when they get into the inevitable accident.

Needless to say I avoided the freeway this morning, and therefore got to school early rather than late. Hopefully the drive goes as smoothly tomorrow morning as it did this morning.