a vestige of thought...

My hair smells of Chick-Fil-A. Working every day in fast food really takes away from my motivation to take a shower, as cleaning seems pretty pointless if I'm just going to go get a grease-bath again the next day. Don't worry, though, I do actually shower on a regular basis, even if I don't feel like it. I woke up this morning and my hair was all clean and nice and cooperative, and then I had to put it in a ponytail and go to work. All I could think was, what a waste of a good hair day.

Still, working at the mall affords its share of entertainment. Yesterday I'm pretty sure I met Jimmy Stewart reincarnated. A customer also came up to me and asked very seriously if that had been Jerry Springer in the line next to her. I suppose it's possible, but no one (including the cashier of the line next to me) had noticed, so I didn't think it terribly likely.

There are always people selling strange things at kiosks in the mall, especially this time of year. One that has been there for several months is selling these little stuffed cats and dogs that "breathe." They're supposed to be wonderful for elderly people in nursing homes and college students who can't have pets in their dorms. I told the salesperson that my roommate and I are getting a plant first and I don't think we're realdy for the committment required to house a breathing stuffed dog. That might even be a step above a fish.

'Heeley's Amazing Flashing Rollers' is a more recent kiosk to pop up. These 'amazing flashing rollers' are a weird set of wheels that attach to the back of your shoe and blink when you roll on them. As I passed, the salesman, obviously of Indian descent and with mathcing accent, was telling a woman they would help her get around faster at work. I had to laugh at that. I imagine they would help her boss push her out the door more quickly as well.

I am being summoned for dinner. TTFN!

I watched the Bengals game right before going to bed last night, which probably accounts for a little bit of the strange brain activity that went on while I was sleeping. I had a dream that one of the Bengals needed a starfish transplant. They couldn't find a starfish for him, and everyone was worried that he was going to die. So one very generous little boy cut out his own starfist and tried to walk to the hospital to give it to this football player. He fainted from lack of blood on the way and woke up in the same room as the Bengal. By the time he woke up, a starfish had been found for the Bengals player, and he was well on his way to recovery, but the hospital people had lost the little boy's starfish. The last thing I remember before waking up was hearing a news anchor say, "There is a perfectly good 4lb starfish floating around out there somewhere."

Also in this dream was the fact that a friend of mine (though I don't recall who) had recently published a children's book with her sister. They randomly came up with a story one day, wrote it down, and it got published.


Anyone care to interpret that?

Sometimes I judge misinterpret people. Two distinct cases come to mind, although I know that there are more. These two particular situations jump out because my impressions of these two people were perhaps not well-founded and when I discovered their blogs weeks or months after I met them, I was completely astounded with what I learned. I am forever amazed at people's stories. No one can/should be taken at face value, because there are always things underneath that have made them who they are. People go through so many things that they should never have to and that I never would have imagined when I first met them

After reading Mere Christianity for English, I wrote my final paper on love as an action rather than love as an emotion. CS Lewis describes loving one's neighbor as truly desiring the best for them, and acting on that desire, reguardless of whether one likes them or not. It was a timely lesson for me, as I've had to [attempt to] put it into practice multiple times since I started the paper about a week ago.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
~1 John 3:18

Any Asburians out there? I miss you. Leave me comments. (Please.)

Having successfully completed my first semester at college, I arrived home Thursday night and Friday morning began my month long stint of working full time at Chick-Fil-A. It has gone well so far, but my view of fast food has changed since I worked there six months ago. I can't help thinking that not only am I helping to make the country fatter (value sizing is our current suggestive sell), but I am also encouraging people to waste their money. A father came to Chick-Fil-A this afternoon with his three kids, ages approximately 5, 7 and 10. They ordered four combo meals, totalling about $21. I highly doubt that any of those children ate their entire combo meal. In fact, the average adult does not need to eat an entire combo meal. I am amazed time and time again at people who are willing to regularly shell out $5 or $6 for a single meal. That adds up so incredibly quickly! I've come to realize over the past semester at Asbury just how many needs there are out there and how many better things there are to use one's money on than fast food. Organizations such as Invisible Children or Acting on Aids, for example. The mall actually makes me sad. So much money spent on so many unneeded things when it could do so much to fill real needs. Hum.

On a different note:

This is me when I try to ski.

~Rocked out my PE exam
~Got Christmas blend Starbucks coffee from the library
~Finished my English paper a whole 17 hours before it is due
~Walked around campus with my lovelies and became quite sad that I'm leaving everyone tomorrow
~Talked for a couple of hours with a girl who has been in my NT class all semester, but I didn't get to know at all until I started seeing her in the library all the time to study this week
~Enjoyed a last hall dinner of the semester
~Studied New Testament by myself
~Studied New Testament with a big group in the library until the librarian came and told us that we were "having too much fun." I'm guessing that means we were too loud.
~Studied New Testament with Heather. (That's the only study session that's really going to help me with the test tomorrow.)
~Ate Lo Mein at 10:00 pm because Courtney wanted to order some and it's my last night here and I decided I wanted some too.
~Laughed a lot
~Am now sitting in Karissa and Courtney's room wishing that I didn't have to say goodbye to these amazing people for a month.

"So, if God tells you to kill someone... DON'T DO IT because there's no more harem commands!"
~Sam

Some fun acronyms (without their explanations):

MAP
LAP
O Come All Jee Thankful!
CUP
TWW
Wiser Spirits Restrict
ESP-TSP-L

I think there were more. But I don't remember. I'm done studying. The rest is up to the grace of God and good vibes from my Koosh ball.

"Johnson men have a Christmas party; Trustees men throw a TV out the window. If that doesn't mean something, I don't know what does."
~Sam

I am two tests and a short paper away from completing my first semester as a college student. Woot! It has been a fantastic four months. Looking back, I shall rate my six classes:

*****Intro to New Testament: I'm definitely glad this class is a requirement. I hear that some found the class boring, but I found the subject itself really interesting and with Heather sitting next to me and Dr. Anderson periodically saying things like "I'm eating crow!" how can you go wrong? I even found writing my exegesis paper enjoyable (or at least the research for it).

**Theory of Physical Activity: Okay, I can see the point of having this class. There is logic behind it. But that doesn't make the class any less boring, or make me any less bitter that my hardest final this week is going to be in my PE class. I am glad that I was required to exercise regularly (hopefully a routine I will continue), but I wish I could have just kept an excercise record, done a fitness test at the beginning and end of the semester, and been done with it. Pretty much everything I could ever want or need to know about health or nutrition I absorbed just from living at my own house for 19 years.

*****Gen. Psych I: Another good one. There were a lot of surprises in this class (like the time that we had the option to not take a chapter test and get a perfect score on it, or take the test and get whatever grade resulted), and I very much enjoyed getting into other people's heads. Seeing things from other people's point of view is sometimes a challenge for me, and I feel like I'm able to do it a little better now. Plus, who doens't like learning a plethora of random statistics? (I also liked learning about psychological disorders and hope to take Dr. Seitz's Abnormal Psych class as an elective later.) Oh, and huzzah for tons of extra credit. Thanks to that, I learned a lot, but didn't have to worry too much about the tests.

****Basic Latin: I'm pretty positive I could have tested out of this one and started at Latin 102, but I'm glad I didn't. The semester was mostly review for me, and we went perhaps a bit slower than I had anticipated, but it gave me a solid grounding that I would probably have been hurting without when next semester came around. Plus, had I not been in the class, I would have missed out on the fantastic Latin-related bonding of my fellow 1st Glide and J2W Latin major/minors (and Prof Richardson rocks).

***Advanced Composition and Research: English had its good days and its bad days. After changes made this semester, I could have tested out of it, but I think it was beneficial anyway. Mostly it was a lot of practice of things that I already new, but I think I have definitely improved at them, and that was the point of the class. There were also a lot of very cool people in the class that I hope I am able to stay in touch with.

*/****Art/Music Appreciation: This class was split with half of the semester focusing on Art and half on Music. The art half was generally dull and boring and I don't think I learned anything besides a great appreciation for the venerable Sister Wendy and how to fudge my way through a page or two about a painting that just looks like a bunch of paint blobs to me, but the music half was great. I can't think of anything in particular from either part of the class that I feel will use repeatedly in the future, but I imagine that both aspects made me a more well-rounded individual, which (after all) is the point of a liberal arts education.

I've learned quite a bit this semester on many different levels. Among these: if you throw away banana peels and apple cores in your room, you will get fruit flies; if I stop by Laura's room on the way back from heating up water for tea, my water will get cold; I study way better in the library than in my room; living on a hall of girls is amazing and I love it; the two hour drive to Cincinnati is nothing (I have the shortest drive of all my close friends here).

Questions that remain:
Who is Crawford? Glide is named for someone who donated money for the building, as announced by the plaque next to the front door, but I have no idea who Crawford is.

If you were stranded on a desert island with Johnson 2nd West, who would you eat last? (Heather's question, not mine.)

Let's say you're sitting on your friend's bed with your laptop, attempting to write a paper about how your PE class has improved your life. Now, perhaps your PE class has improved your physical, spiritual, and emotional health, but that still doesn't mean you want to write about it. So instead, you wander over to YouTube to look up some funny videos. First you come across this one:


"Bless me, bless me... teach me about John Wesley." Oh yes. This is some good Asbury fun.

But then, say, you tire of videos with such deep messages, so you turn to something that, somehow, is absolutely hilarious in its pointlessness:


This is followed by my personal favorite video of random hilarity, The Llama Song:

Kuzco would be proud.

And finally, for those of us who never had a boyband phase, but still enjoy a good parody now and then, The eBay Song:


These four videos completed, you finally realize that (amidst your asylumitic [Sam's word] laughter) you have succeeded in completing only a paragraph and a half of your PE reflection and had better go finish it before the kickoff of the Broncos game.