Rambling Musings

Wow. I only wrote one post all last semester.  I’m going to do better this semester – I promise!

This past week was really long. I think starting school on a full week is just a bad idea all around. I mean, I know that wasn’t the plan, but I still wasn’t a fan. In fact, the reason we had cancelled school two weeks ago is just ridiculously ironic. At the end of last semester, we had a flood in Gillespie (oops!) and now we cancelled school because of a drought (figuratively speaking). Go figure! God has a crazy, crazy sense of humor.

I have very mixed emotions about jumping into this semester. My schedule is kind of wacky (I’m getting to understand better the dancer’s schedule!). I am, however, kind of excited about some of the things I’ll be learning. I’m taking child advocacy this semester from a lady who is pretty much in charge of a lot of child advocacy centers here in Mississippi. The first class she ended with a story about one of the first girls she interviewed. It was really painful to listen to, and I think a lot of us are questioning if this is really a class we want to be in, and if it is really something we want to have to deal with the rest of our lives.  It made me think about how emotionally painful careers are going to be for a lot of us social services and psychology majors. It also made me think about how needed those are, and how much of a difference we will be making for people who desperately need it in their lives.

I think one of the most exciting things about this past week was seeing our men’s basketball team become the #20 ranked team in the country! I think its a good year for sports!

Well, I think that’s long enough for now. Mom and dad – I’m still alive and in one piece…and so are my electronics!

I can’t believe midterms are done. I took my last midterm today, which means I’m half way through this semester. It feels like just yesterday I was getting here to start Peer Leader Training. Yet, at the same time, I feel like that was a lifetime ago. Time…its a weird thing.

God has completely blown my mind so far this semester. In Honors Colloquium, we’ve been talking about the Renaissance. More than once, conversation has turned to, “What if there had been no Fall?” How different would athletics be? Or how would this or that change? I can’t even fathom life blameless and pure. At an RUF service that Redeemer Church held, the text was Genesis 1. Creation has never hit me as so incredibly, amazing before. It is so…huge. Magnificent. And yet, we are the pinnacle of all of everything He made. Then, I was reading The Shack, by Wm. Paul Young (which I recommend to absolutely everyone). It explained God in a way I had never realized before. God’s love and grace is so infinite. It was so overwhelming. So many sermons this semester and chapel speakers have been talking about how awesome God is. Awesome doesn’t even seem to be adequate in light of how often I use that word. Our benediction verse every week in chapel is, “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). I can’t wait to see what God is getting ready to do in my life, on this campus, in this nation, and in the world. Its like I’ve just realized the spiritual battle that is raging on all around us, and we’re about to notice it. Big time.

This weekend was SO much fun!

Friday: Spring Formal! I think it was the best dance all year! The food and the music were so great!

Saturday: RUF Crawfish Boil! I am not a seafood eater. At all. And living in Mississippi has made me one…but eating pond food? Especially pond food that’s STARING at me? It took me an hour of staring at them before I would try one…but it was yummy! And so were the mushrooms, potatoes, sausage, and onions boiled with them.

Sunday: BAT End of Year Party at PUMP It Up! We went and played on giant bouncy castles and blow-up obstacle courses. SO much fun! I have strawberries on my knees and elbows but it was SO worth it!

Monday: Last day of class ever! Okay, not ever…but until August 20th!

Tuesday: Now, I’m procrastinating in every way possible.

P.S. – I got Peer Leader! We took our group photo last week and I am SO excited for our team!

On Tuesday…I was Gotcha’ed. It was sad, but I stayed in a whole week and got two people!

Wednesday I had my Peer Leader interview. We find out if we made in on the seventeenth. I think it went pretty well.

On Friday I went to an alumni soccer game. I miss watching soccer! The team is playing Milsaps soon…I’m SO excited about that! Then I went to SMF’s bonfire. We had s’mores and sang praise songs and I loved it.

Saturday I went and watched Softball Saturday. I have never gotten more burnt in my life! Then I went to baseball…normally they are still playing the first game when I get there, but they were already three innings into the second! Poor Tougaloo hasn’t won a game all season. We played our JV guys and still won with the 10 point rule.  After that, I went to the Spring Dance Concert. It was pretty fantastic.

EDIT: I never got this to Danny…so now its the past TWO weeks! I love two for one deals!

So pretty much everyone that went to Softball Saturday…was nicely reddened the next week. Since being so burnt was the highlight of my week…here ya go!

Sunday: It hurt.

Monday: Cold shower. tylenol. aloe. tears. “Suitemate…can you help me put this jacket on ’cause my arms don’t work that way right now.” aloe aloe aloe

Tuesday: Peel myself out of bed. cold shower. tylenol. aloe. dress myself! aloe aloe

Wednesday: warm shower!!! Clothes…not made to avoid sunburnt skin

Thursday: warmer shower…start peeling. ITCHY! I’ve never put so much lotion on in one day. Baseball game! We beat Eastern Texas Baptist University worse than we beat Tougaloo. Sad IHOP with friends…I’m a big fan of IHOP.

Friday: Normal shower…lots of peeling and itchy skin. BUT…We went to the reservoir. I doused myself in sunscreen. Good job, me!

Moral of this story: Never step outside without suncreen!

I think I have discovered more ways to get from the student center to Gillespie this week than I ever thought possible. I have never been more paranoid or more eager to get someone wet. This is all because Gotcha started Tuesday after chapel. Everyone who is signed up to play has a name tag of someone else who is playing. We are trying to get that person wet while not getting wet ourselves. We have all formed alliances, traded information, helped or betrayed others, and changed our routines this week. Everyone is carrying around holey water bottles and/or large cups of filled with water. I am happy to report I have gotten one person out and escaped multiple times from the person trying to get me….who is now out

Friday was Open Mic Nite, which is like Belhaven’s version of a talent show. It was at the tail end of Alcohol Awareness Week, so we served mocktails. We had Daiquiris, Mudslides, Grasshoppers, Mexican Sunsets, Pina Coladas, and a couple others. Most people sang or played instruments. I think my favorite act, though, was when one of the RAs lip synced to a Miley Cyrus song. She got two of the guy RAs to be back up dancers. They were the two I least expected to see do something like that. It was hilarious!

Before and afterwards, we had to move tables and decorate and tear down. It was fun because we sang and danced while we did it. I think that’s what makes BAT so special. We have to put a lot into events, but we ALWAYS have so much fun putting everything together.

I still love Form and Meaning. We are studying Renaissance music and architecture. I wish I knew all the things I know now when I lived in Germany. It makes the buildings so much more beautiful and awe-inspiring.

I have Old Testament at eight o’clock in the morning. I always feel so much more awake now then I did last semester when my first class was at nine. Old Testament is story time. I sit there and listen to all the familiar Bible stories with a little more detail. My professor likes to emphasize how everything is one big story. I never saw it that way before, and it is fascinating to me to see how all my favorite stories are connected.

Honors still boggles my mind, but I appreciate it so much more this semester. We are studying G.K. Chesterton, who was an early nineteenth century British author. He has an obvious love for people and I think when I realized this is when I started to love what I was reading. Chesterton is full of wit and humor, but he is brutally honest about people and the way life is. He has made me look at my surroundings and my life a little more deeply, with a little more wonder.

I still haven’t come to love biology, and I’m not sure I ever will. My brain just isn’t wired that way, and I fully accept that. I do, however, understand what we are learning a lot more than when I took anatomy my senior year of high school.

I’m in the middle of learning a new language. It consists of phrases like: attaboy! Yougothis, yougotthis! C’monbabe! BACK! Baseballese would never be accepted or understood anywhere beyond the field. I’m a diamond darling. I really wasn’t sure how I felt about this at first; I did it as a favor for a friend, but its growing on me. I love watching the catcher sign to the pitcher. I love watching the guys inch away from one base towards another. I love how baseball means its getting warmer and the sun is peaking out more often. I love watching to see who comes to watch. I’m starting to love baseball.

Last Friday, a bunch of us went to a church that hosts a Parent’s Night Out. All the kids that were there were special needs kids or had siblings with special needs. There were babies up to teenagers and young adults.  I stayed in the babies to four-year-olds room all night. My favorite part of the evening was at the end there was a teething baby. She would cry unless we were dancing and singing. We started singing the baby shark song when a four year old came up and joined in. He has down syndrome and he loved that we were clapping and dancing. We moved on to the hokey pokey and “If You’re Happy and You Know it” and he followed everything we did. The pure joy on his face was priceless. As his mom carried him out a short while later, he blew us all kisses and said he’d see us next time.  His joy and love were really touching.

I’ve been back at Belhaven for a week now.

Sandi and I moved across and down the hall. It was just a bigger version of our always rearranging. We added curtains and more decorations!

Class is…same ol’ same ol’. I only have two new classes. I even kept most of my same professors. I think biology will be easier this semester. Its everything I didn’t learn last year in Anatomy, so I think I might be set. We’re doing G.K. Chesterton in Honors. His autobiography is witty, so I’m excited about that.