a vestige of thought...

Alright, who am I kidding?

2011-06-28T14:25:00.002-04:00

I'm not posting here anymore. We will consider this blog a vestige of my later teenage years and move on. Thank you, musicalily.blogspot.com, for stealing me from Xanga, for sticking with me during the wee hours of the morning during Blogathon 2006, for hosting my online love affair with Pride and Prejudice, for taking me through the a l p h a b e t as I started college, and for sticking with me as I clung to my last attempts at blog consistency. You have been a faithful friend and companion. I now lay you to rest.

*moment of silence*

But never fear! My blogging days are not over. Soon I will begin a new chapter in my blogging life. One that includes a wedding, moving to Iowa, and then following my future doctor future husband around the country for his rotations and residency. It's going to be an adventure. You won't want to miss this!

I'm back!

2010-09-15T18:37:00.004-04:00

It has been over a year since I last posted--and I suspect I have lost any readership I had--but I've decided it's time to come back. Since my last post I have graduated from Asbury University and am now working there as an admissions counselor. I am living in a rented house with two of my dear friends and loving loving it. This transition in life means (among others) two things: 1) I now have a kitchen where I can cook my own food and 2) I have the opportunity to travel and eat things that lots of other people cook. As much as I enjoyed Asbury's cafeteria, I am loving the opportunity to learn about a different side of food. That's what I plan to write about. My goal is twofold: 1) to cook something "exciting" at least once a week while I'm home and 2) to not eat at any chain restaurants when I'm on the road. Assisting me in my latter goal is Urbanspoon, an iPhone app that will recommend restaurants depending on your location. Goodbye McDonald's, hello local hidden restaurant treasures!

Stories

2009-05-12T13:18:00.002-04:00

I am realizing more and more the power of story. You'd think I would get it by now. I'm a communications major, for goodness sake. I took a whole class on the power and influence of Hollywood storytelling. And I go to Asbury, where the power of storytelling is emphasized--among other ways--by the annual Highbridge Film Festival. But I guess some things don't really get crammed into my brain until I see them played out in real (or fictional) life.

I have seen the power of stories recently in three places:

1) At Church--I had a discussion recently about Jon Weece, the pastor of Southland Christian Church. My friend and I were pondering what makes his preaching so captivating. And suddenly it was obvious: he tells stories. He tells stories and sprinkles them with scripture. The stories are not always deep (though they can be), but they are always memorable. I guess that's why Jesus told stories. (At this point the communications major in me says, 'Duh'.)

2) In Books--Again, duh, right? But there are definitely books that don't tell stories. I'm currently reading two books. One is a teen novel by Melody Carlson (which I started just now and will probably finish before dinner) and the other is Les Miserables (which I started three years ago and hope to finish one day before I die). Very different, for sure, but both take examples of pain that we most often hear about in statistical form and put them in story form. We as readers remember the story, which will hopefully impact us the next time we meet a statistic.

3) On Blogs--I'm sort of a closet adoption blog junkie. It's no secret that I hope to adopt one day, and I enjoy reading about the process and other people's experiences. I have read a few families' adoption journeys from beginning to end. Some blogs I only read an entry or two from. The difference? Some write the story of their family; others write the technical process of adoption. This is a generalizable principle. Remember Marley and Me? Okay, it wasn't a blog, but the author had the most success in his column when he was writing stories about his dog, and not when giving his opinion on zoning laws (or whatever).

Now, I realize that my posting in this way is somewhat ironic. I am filling my blog with non-story. It's not that non-story is always bad, just that often story is better. So to close, I leave you with a story:

Christy finishes her junior year of college, travels home, and spends the subsequent week in a large recliner in her living room reading lots and lots of books. She realizes that stories are cool and that she likes to write them as well as read them. So she sits down at her computer to write one. However, Google Reader quickly distracts her and she spends an hour or so reading blog posts and writing one of her own. Meanwhile, Christy realizes that the table where she is sitting in the midst of her mad typing frenzy is completely covered in delicious-looking frosted cupcakes. The smell of chocolate frosting wafts over here as she types. Her stomach growls. She realizes that it is 1:45 and she has not eaten lunch yet. She also realizes that these cupcakes are not for her, and she cannot eat any because there are only 48 (and not the requested 50) to begin with. So she decides to finish typing and explore the part of the kitchen that contains yummy foods that are not off limits.

The end.

Alright, it's not going to win me any prizes. Maybe next time.

I really ought to post something...

2009-04-17T08:34:00.002-04:00

... seeing as it's been nearly a year since I've done so.

Why is it that the longer one waits between posts, the harder it is to come up with something to say? I have started to post several times over the past couple of months, but never finished anything. So--even though I will probably say nothing--I have committed to posting this one, regardless of how it turns out.

I think I shall leave you with this: Pride and Prejudice, my way

It's hard to believe it has been nearly three years since I did this. I just revisited it for the first time in many, many moons and had a good, heart-lightening laugh. I thought you might enjoy the same. Hopefully you will a laugh as well and not just the thought that I must be slightly addled.

Summer, a month in

2008-06-10T22:19:00.003-04:00

All of a sudden I discover that I have been home an entire month! Amazing. I still feel like my summer is only beginning, yet a third of it is gone.

I've settled into a pretty good routine. I work at Chick-Fil-A for the first part of the day, usually 7 or so hours before 4:00. At 4:00, on most days, I leave work and drive to Batavia where I babysit for 3 or so hours for a tiny, five-week-old baby named Valerie. She is adorable, and my time at her house is probably what I look forward to most. Thursdays I am off from Chick-Fil-A, so I babysit longer. I come home in the evenings, usually around 8:45, and read or chat with my family before going to bed. I have a few other things going on from time to time, including a weekly college group at church, and a weekly girls' Bible study.

I miss my friends, particularly my roommate, tremendously, but I've found myself more content than expected in my time at home. My shifts at Chick-Fil-A, which once completely drained me, now seem to go by in the blink of an eye and only my slightly sore feet remind me that I had been there anywhere from 6 to 10 hours. Babysitting is actually incredibly relaxing, even when Valerie is grumpy. I spend a lot of time reading or writing or praying while the baby is sleeping or while I'm holding her. I always feel refreshed emotionally and spiritually when I get home, even if I'm physically tired.

I'm even managing to make good progress on my summer reading list. At the moment, I'm in the middle of three books: I read Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo (which I began three years ago and am determined to finish before the summer is out; I've got only 500 pages left) when I'm at home, Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis while I'm babysitting (because Les Mis is a bit difficult to hold open with one hand while carrying a baby in the other), and a chapter or two of my big Chronicles of Narnia book before bed.

That pretty much sums up my life for the past month (and probably for the next two months as well). If anything exciting happens, I'll let you know.

2008-05-10T21:27:00.002-04:00

Since coming home yesterday nearly all of my time has been taken up attempting to clean up the disaster site that is my room and unpack my infinite boxes of dorm room stuff. I have ended up going through piles of paper that I have not touched in years. It takes me longer than it probably needs to to get through everything, because I end up reading everything that I have stashed in these piles.

This past semester I took the class Narratives and Ideologies of Hollywood, in which our final project was to write a 15-25 page short story with a moral point. This was time consuming, although not too horribly difficult. While cleaning my room, I discovered that I have, in fact, been writing moral tales for quite a while. The following was a Superstory (story including all of that week's vocabulary words) I wrote in 7th grade at age 13.

"Sara!" yelled Kathryn for the thousandth time that day. Come get your stuff out of my room!"

"Yes your majesty," said Sarah, coming into her older sister's room to pick up her books. "I will grovel at your feet O reputable one. I will forever revere and honor you." She mockingly bowed before Kathryn.

"Oh, you're hilarious," said Kathryn sarcastically. "Now get your stuff and get yourself out of here." At that moment the door slammed shut.

"Kathryn," Sara said quietly.

"What?" snapped Kathryn, agitated.

"The door won't open."

"So turn the handle." She got up and reached for the doorknob, but the whole door ignited suddenly, causing both girls to jump back.

"I didn't do it!" Sara blurted out. She had expected a smart aleck remark from Kathryn, but one look at her sister's countenance told her that she was too terrified to say anything. Sara unexpectedly felt brave for a small second, but whatever courage she had diminished quickly when she saw what was on the other side of the fire. The small, stodgy looking woman seemed to come strait from some ancient Greek saga. But it was what was behind the stuffy character that scared Sara. There, standing in chronological order, was a gruesome creature for every argument that Sara and Kathryn had ever had. Some were massive things, tugging on their chains with fangs dripping with the venom of hate. These represented huge fights between the sisters. They had grown with the grudges the girls had fostered for days at a time. Others were small and bun-like. These had been born or disagreements started by fluctuating emotions in difficult times. All were seething with anger and clearly wanted nothing more than to destroy kathryn and Sara. The girls looked at each other, somehow knowing that the creatures had been their own handicrafts. They were astonished at the magnitude of some of their arguments. Sara edged toward Kathryn and whispered in her ear.

"What can we do to pall their hatred so we can get out of here?" Kathryn thought for a moment.

"That woman seems to be their maternal figure," she said. "Maybe she can somehow enchant them so we can leave." It was as if the woman knew what they said, but she was too far away to hear their whispering. She began to hum, low and soft. The monsters began to close their eyes sleepily, and the quiet songs made Sara and Kathryn groggy too. When it seemed that there was no energy left in either of them, they fell in a crumpled heap on the ground.

Sara woke up again on the floor in Kathryn's room. Next to her, Kathryn was stirring. When she sat up their eyes met. Neither said a word, but both knew that it would be a long time before either started an argument again.

Major bonus points go to anyone who can figure out which of the words in the story were from my vocabulary list.

Pride and Prejudice Movie Comparison Revisited

2008-05-09T23:16:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time I watched the 5 hour A&E version of Pride and Prejudice and subsequently the new theatrical version. After that I wrote out a comparison of the two. In the past week I have once again watched both versions and felt the desire to compare them. I started to write and then realized that I had already done that. The following is my original comparison, posted here two years ago. Perhaps I am lame for posting my own writing twice, but I'm going to do it anyway.

After watching the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice at the Gates's and then watching the new version on my own this weekend, I have once again started railing on about the differences between the two and how I like this or that in one version better than the other. I believe, however, that my family has never particularly cared to hear my in-depth opinion on the matter and tired of my discourse rather quickly. Therefore, since I enjoy writing better than speaking anyway, I have written out the following (strictly for my own benefit). That way, anyone who wishes can read it and those who aren't interested can skip over it.

Obviously, being myself, I much prefer the book to any movie adaptation*. Jane Austen's skill at written observation and witty conversation remain unmatched to this day. Neither of the film versions can be best appreciated without first reading the book. My favorite attributes of each movie come as a result of their best capturing visually what Austen described in text. After each character/element listed I have indicated which version (old or new) I thought Austen's writing best portrayed.

Characters:

Mr. Bennet- Old. The new Mr. Bennet loses mostly by fault of the movie's writers (though slightly by his manner of acting as well). Much of his witty dialogue from the book, and much of his love of laughing at the absurdity of the world has been omitted (or changed), resulting in a loss of depth for his character.

Mrs. Bennet- Old. I have heard people say that they prefer the new Mrs. Bennet because she is not so utterly ridiculous as the old one. I like the old one for just this reason. In the book Mrs. Bennet is a very laughable, ridiculous, somewhat obnoxious woman. The first Mrs. Bennet portrayed this excellently.

Jane Bennet- New. Jane's predominant characteristics in the book are beauty and simplistic goodness. She is a fairly one-dimensional character in that respect. Both Janes have all the goodness, but the second has much more of the beauty. She is indeed prettier than Kiera Knightly's Elizabeth and is much more believable as the reputed beauty of the country.

Elizabeth Bennet- Tie. Though Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth receives the benefit of more Austen dialogue, Kiera Knightly portrays Elizabeth's spirit very well and I believe would have performed just as well in Miss Ehle's earlier roll.

Mary Bennet- Old. I love to laugh at the first Mary's ugliness and ridiculousness, t hough the new Mary is a bit more true to life. Still, in spite of the new Mary's realistic portrayal, the old one seems more like Jane Austen's Mary, a silly girl through and through.

Kitty Bennet- Undecided. Honestly, I can't remember enough about either Kitty to make a choice. She has such a minor roll that it does not much seem to matter who played her, except perhaps for her coughing ability (in which I believe both actresses to be equal).

Lydia Bennet- New. This one was close. Austen portrays Lydia as a thoughtless and selfish fifteen-year-old: both Lydias played this well, but I find the old Lydia to be more annoying than the one in the book and to look older than fifteen.

Mr. Bingly- New. Another tough choice. Both actors perform very well as Jane's slightly awkward and socially inept lover, but the new Bingly wins probably because he looks more as I imagined him when reading the book.

Miss Bingly- New. Austen describes Miss Bingly as proud, stuffy, and superior, but not as particularly foolish or ridiculous. I find the first Miss Bingly to be a bit too silly (I think it's something with her nose and all the feathers on her head). The new Miss Bingly is sharp-minded while still being the condescending jerk Austen wrote her as.

Mr. Darcy- Old. No competition here. While Matthew MacFadyen has his moments, there is no beating Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Perhaps it was supposed to come across as pride and indifference, but I often felt MacFadyen's lines came across rushed and unconvincing. He improves as the movie goes on, but he never quite reaches Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy status. The writers also cost him points when they completely rearranged his first proposal to Elizabeth and much of his second. I knew that all hope was lost when "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you" was replaced (in a later scene) with "You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love... I love... I love you." Not bad in general, but bad for Mr. Darcy.

Mr. Wickham- New. Though the new Mr. Wickham was given an unfortunately small amount of screen time, I found him much more convincing as a seemingly dashing and gentlemanly slimeball. The old Mr. Wickham was creepy the entire time. The new Mr. Wickham may have gotten me to trust him, if I had not already read the book and known his true character.

Georgiana Darcy- Tie. Both are very cute, sweet girls whom Mr. Darcy is an excellent brother to. The point of her character is to reveal goodness in her brother and the actresses in both movies accomplish this equally well.

Mr. Collins- Old. The first Mr. Collins was greasy, proud, awkward, and overwhelmingly obsequious. The second is as well, but to a much smaller degree. The first is much less likable, but much more entertaining (and much more like I imagined him in the book.)

Charlotte Lucas- Old. I'm not sure I can exactly pinpoint why I liked the first Charlotte best. Again I suspect the writers of the second are at fault. Much of what is stated in the book is omitted and much of what was insinuated is stated plainly. I don't like that.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh- Old. This I think is mostly personal taste. When I look at Lady Catherine in the new movie I think, "Hey look, it's Judy Dench." When I see her in the old movie I think, "Hey look, it's Lady Cathering de Bourgh." Plus, they consistently spell "de Bourgh" wrong in the subtitles of the new version.

Miss de Bourgh- Old. Miss de Bourgh does not speak in either movie, so my judgement is solely on appearance. The first Miss de Bourgh appears much more sickly and completely opposite everything Lady Catherine claims she "would have been if only..."

Colonel Fitzwilliam- Old. I know the book says that he was not handsome, but as the men in both movies are equally gentlemanly (though the first Colonel has more screen time to prove it), I have to choose the first since he is better looking. The second Colonel just looks... silly.

Overall, the A&E version is much better than the recent theatrical release. A lot of this has to do with the fact that five hours is a much more beneficial amount of time to tell the story than 2 hours. But there were a couple of things in particular that bothered me about the new version. The first is the reassigning and omitting of important lines. For example "What are men to rocks and mountains?" is given first to Mary and the to Mr. Gardiner, though it was originally said by Lizzie. The words mean vastly different things coming from such different characters and I don't see why they needed to be reassigned. The second, much related folly is that much of Austen's dialogue was rewritten to (I suppose) be more understandable to a 21st century audience. I don't see why "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you" needed to be changed to "I love you. Most ardently." Darcy's entire manner if speech is much changed in a way I do not like at all. Austen wrote intelligently and much of her meaning was hinted at for the reader to pick up on his own. For example, in the book and first version of the movie we need not be told outright that Charlotte married Mr. Collins for matters of financial security in the future.

But of course, both movies are ultimately lacking, for movies never are as pleasing as their book origins. Neither adaptation contains all my favorite lines. Both, for example, are missing this one:

"I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am even happier than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh."

*Adaptations not to be bothered with:
The 1940's version (I think) from which the only thing I recall is that Lady Catherine was in on a plot to secure Darcy and engagement with Elizabeth.

Bride and Prejudice, a musical adaptation taking place in present day India (if I remember correctly) that is full of exceptional cheesiness, bad dancing, and mysterious gospel choirs appearing on beaches. As dumb as it was, laughing at it with Laura was nearly worth the money spent renting it.

A Spark (that is, an attempt at poetry)

2008-05-09T23:07:00.001-04:00

I do not write poetry often, but occasionally I feel inspired and decide to try my hand at it. Most often this happens when I should be paying attention to something else, but I pull out a piece of paper and scribble down what comes to mind. I just rediscovered the following poem while going through my papers from my classes of this past semester. I wrote it while in Western Classics. I can't remember exactly what we were reading and discussing at the time, but I think it may have been Rasselas by Samuel Johnson.

A spark.
One.
One spark against the blanket night.
One spark on trampled grass.
One spark.

It glows, this spark,
Yet I tarry.
Do I need fire?
Or am I content
This cool spring eve
With my own jacket?

A fire.
A fire warms.
It blazes and rages.
It lights a view now hidden in dark.
It consumes and must be fed,
This fire.

My coat, though,
Is soft.
It holds out cold.
It holds me well.
Its arms on mine,
This coat.

Where to from here?
The spark flickers.
It dims.
Do I fan it?
Or let it burn out?
Perhaps a third:
Let us see whether the wind blows.

Other poems that I write from time to time can be found at Christinae Carmina (that is, 'The Poems of Christina' in Latin, so as to sound more erudite or something).

Stories from the 'Bury

2008-04-07T17:59:00.003-04:00

It's springtime and along with the squirrels and robins, all the Asbury couples are coming out of hiding. That seems to be everyone's favorite thing to joke about these days. From where I am sitting in the library, I can see three or four couples out on the vibrantly green semi-circle. It is rather fun to see campus come alive again. In addition to the couples, I can see several people out jogging, some girls in front of G-C studying, and father with a his toddler son walking around. Then there's me, sitting in the library, wishing I wasn't quite so distractible so that I could work outside and actually get something done.

For one of my classes I have to write a 15-25 page fictional story with a moral lesson of sorts. (In addition to the story itself I have to write a 3-page paper on the significance of the symbolism I use.) I'm writing about fairies who live in trees. Maybe that's silly, cliche, and rather girly of me, but I like being able to make up my own world completely and not have to worry so much about getting my facts from this world mixed up. If I don't know how the government in the fairy world works, I can just make it up. Since I am so completely distractible, especially when I'm trying to write something, it helps me to have some sort of instrumental music in the background. This afternoon I bought some George Winston piano music to listen to specifically when I'm working on my story to get me in the right mood. It fits the story amazingly well.

In a slightly more disturbing bit of news, there have been a rash of thefts around campus recently, particularly in the girls' dorms. A friend of mind had $50 stolen right out of her wallet. Needless to say, we have all been much more careful about locking out doors when no one is there. It's easy to become lax about that when things happen so infrequently as they do here. Although I definitely hope this gets resolved soon, I am continually reminded how grateful I am that cash theft has been the biggest crime we've dealt with since I've been on campus.

Somehow I ended up on my hall's intramural softball team this semester. I've yet to play a game because they keep getting cancelled or scheduled for times that I can't play. Still, if I do ever get to play, it's going to be interesting. I'm not sure I have ever played a remotely organized game of softball. Ever. In any case, go Bad Bananas!

Spring Break, part deux

2008-03-17T19:47:00.005-04:00

This morning we woke up at the ungodly (for spring break) hour of 7:30 in the morning, dressed in many layers, and loaded up Courtney's car for the hour and a half drive to Mystic, CT (most famous as a fishing port from a long time ago and/or the setting of the movie Mystic Pizza). Upon arriving, we spent most of the day at the Mystic Seaport museum (mostly closed for the winter, but with enough stuff open to be fun). The museum had a bunch of ships and houses and such that were intended to recreate a 19th century seaport village. (See photos below.) For lunch we attempted to eat at the little cafe at the seaport but were told that the clam chowder was still frozen and that if we wanted some she could put it in the microwave. Uh-huh. Instead we walked 10 minutes to downtown Mystic and ate at a wonderful restaurant which, I believe, was called The Riverfront (although I'm pretty sure that big body of water we saw was not a river...)

Welcome to Mystic Seaport

This is Heather being seaweed caught in the anchor...

I think I was born to be a sailor

Courtney overboard!

There are no words...

A whaling ship

Us in the bowels of the whaling ship.

"Is this where they put all the bad kids?"

Spring Break, part eins

2008-03-16T17:58:00.003-04:00

A long time ago in a dorm room somewhere it was first speculated, "Hey, we could go up to Courtney's house for spring break and sight see around New England." Somehow, many months and hours of planning (and driving) later, five of us (Courtney, Heather, Karissa, Sam, and myself) are actually here, in Suffield, Connecticut, at Courtney's house. Wow. We left Wilmore at exactly 12:30 Friday afternoon and drove eight hours (with only one stop for gas) to someplace in the middle of PA where we spent the night at Courtney's friend Jessica's house. The only person home was Jess's dad, but he cooked up amazing sloppy Joes with mac 'n' cheese for dinner and then some even more amazing oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. We stayed in a little apartment that they have over their garage with a little kitchen, bathroom, a double bed, a couch bed, and a cot. It was so much nicer than any of us expected and needless to say we were all incredibly grateful!

Saturday we drove another 8.5 hours or so and finally arrived at Courtney's house. We had another fantastic home-cooked meal (spaghetti and meatballs) and watched Meet the Robinsons. Heather and Court have been quoting that movie for weeks. It was great to finally see it. This morning we went to Courtney's church and then stopped at Mark Twain's house for a tour on the way back. It was pretty cool, although Heather and Karissa were definitely the most excited.

Four of us on the couch bed overnight in PA

Myself and my roommate

"Oh my gosh, we're going to Mark Twain's house!"

Us, in front of Mark Twain's house

The house itself

2008-03-07T18:25:00.002-05:00

Let us begin with good news: My roommate, who has been working her tail off since September on a proposal for an Asbury Initiative Grant, got word today that indeed got her grant and will be spending 8 weeks this summer in South Africa. Woot! I'm so proud of you, Sami!

Then we shall continue to news of me, which I suppose is good, although not as exciting as Sam's. I am currently serving as the Unashamed class female chaplain. I love pretty much every bit of that job. Yet, when looking at my opportunities for campus involvement next year, I somehow decided that I wasn't going to run for chaplain again. I don't know why I decided this. However, a few weeks ago one of my fellow cabinet members asked me if I was going to run again. I opened my mouth to say 'no', but what came out was, "I think I need to pray about that." I stopped and thought, Huh. Maybe I ought to pray about that. So I did, and after a couple of weeks of prayer I feel that yes, I should run for class chaplain again. Whether or not I get the position will be in God's hands, but I feel a peace about applying for chaplain that I haven't had about anything else I've looked into for next year. That's exciting.

Secondly, my hair dryer gave up on life about a week and a half ago. It just stopped working. I happened to be going home last weekend, so I took the dryer with me and asked my amazing, handy-dandy father to take a look at it. He did some sort of miracle hair dryer surgery and made it work again. Or rather, he made it work when he turned it on. For whatever reason it still wouldn't work when I tried to use it when I got back to school. After borrowing hair dryers for a week, I gave a friend some money and asked her to pick me up a new dryer from Walmart this afternoon. She found me a cheap but wonderfully functioning hair dryer for a mere $11.10 (including tax). I opened it and plugged it in to make sure it worked. It did. Then I decided to try my old hair dryer before I threw it away, just for good measure. It worked too. In fact, I can't get it to not work. Apparently it just wanted a friend. Now I can't return the new hair dryer because I already opened it, and I don't want to throw away my old hair dryer because it still works. I guess I'll just hold on to the new one as a back up. I'm already feeling sort of attached...

The Greatest Commercial I Have Seen In Recent History

2008-03-06T19:28:00.004-05:00

Altoids

2008-02-14T14:39:00.003-05:00

I am spending my Valentine' Day afternoon in the student center working on a bio lab report about depth perception. That's not interesting. What is interesting is the fact that I'm sitting at a table (completely covered in papers, my computer, my cell phone, a bottle of water, and a chai latte) that's about six feet away from an admissions counselor who is talking to a visiting high school student and her parents. It's funny to remember seeing Asbury through prospective-student eyes. In this half of the student center, besides myself and the admissions group, there is a group of four students studying together and a class of about ten students whose professor decided to move class here for the day. Basically, we look like something straight out of an admissions pamphlet. Strangely enough, a lot of college looks just like all the brochures they gave us...

Someone challenged me the other day to guess what his Myers-Briggs personality type was. I found this to be a sort of cruel punishment, as I did not guess very accurately. Still, it got me thinking on the subject of personality types. (I am an ENFP, in case anyone was wondering.) There was a time when I believed myself to be an introvert. I thought that when I came to college I was going to have to work really hard to make sure I had my alone time. How wrong I was! I do not need (nor do I particularly enjoy) "alone time." Instead, I need "on my own time." Take now, for instance. I am sitting by myself, but I'm not actually "alone," because there are at least 15 other people in the room with me. (Or at least that was true when I started this paragraph. Now I am sitting with my dear roomie, and the student center has emptied out considerably.) I get antsy and distracted when I sit alone in my dorm room, but I love walking through a crowd by myself. I enjoy sitting places (like the student center, or the library) where there are lots of people around, but I don't necessarily have to interact with them. Or places where lots of people pass by and I have short conversations with many of them.

Karissa gave me tapioca pudding for Valentine's Day. That girl warms my heart and soul. :)

War and Peace

2008-01-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr Day. That means we get the day off. Woot. In honor of this great peace-loving American, Sam and Heather figured what better way to celebrate than to spend all afternoon watching war movies? So late last week they drove to Nicholasville and rented three movies, which we are currently in the process of watching. I, being the blood and gore lover that I am, have been watching from my bed with a pillow nearby.

Our first film was Empire of the Sun. This Steven Spielberg movie from 1987 tells the story of a British boy living in China during WWII who gets separated from his parents and spends four years in a Japanese POW camp. It features a 13-year-old Christian Bale and (briefly) Ben Stiller in his early 20s. I liked this one because I didn't need my pillow. Favorite quote: "Help me, I'm British!"

Next we watched Rescue Dawn. A much more recent movie, it stars an older Christian Bale as well as Steve Zahn (whom I can never seem to get used to in serious roles). This movie was... weird. It was about an American pilot during the Vietnam War who got shot down over Laos and then had to survive for several months before he was rescued. Highlights include someone catching a snake and raw and lots of hacking through the jungle with a machete while it was raining. It was, however, based on a true story. Also, I find it ironic that while Christian Bale tends to play very American characters (Batman, Jack in Newsies, Laurie in Little Women) he was, in fact, born in Wales.

The last movie that Heather and Sam watched was Das Boot. The whole thing was in German which meant that--unlike the other movies--I couldn't do something else and listen without really watching. I fell asleep in the first 20 minutes or so and woke up about half an hour later to realize that I had no idea what was going on. So I left and played a very intense game of Canasta with Tiffany and Heidi (two girls who live down the hall from me). Apparently I didn't miss much. Heather just reenacted the whole thing (most hilariously) in about three minutes (as opposed to the three and a half hours that the movie lasted).

The end.

Christy's Top 25, revisited

2008-01-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

I did this a couple of times a year or two ago, but I figure that the top 25 most played songs on my iTunes has probably changed somewhat since then, so here we go. I always find this interesting, because the results are not always what I would predict.

1. I'm Not That Girl, from Wicked- Part of this is the fact that I once let my Wicked soundtrack play over and over again for an entire day. The fact that it's my most played song, though, depresses me a bit.

2. How Deep the Father's Love For Us, Sarah Sadler- the Unashamed class hymn, which actually has been played the same number of times as I'm Not That Girl.

3. O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, Chris Rice- an old hymn that is now one of my favorites

4. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), Chris Tomlin- one of my very favorite old-made-new hymns

5. Come Awake, David Crowder Band- a great worship song and reminder of my life in Christ; I was introduced to this song during one of my first weeks at Asbury.

6. Popular, from Wicked, another remnant of my day-long Wicked marathon. Plus, this song is just fun and Kristen Chenoweth is incredibly talented.

7. Come Thou Fountain of Every Blessing, Chris Rice- a recording of my all-time favorite hymn (and my vote for class hymn), which is more commonly known simply as Come Thou Fount.

8. All I Ask of You, from Phantom of the Opera- from the first CD I ever purchased on iTunes

9. Come and Listen, David Crowder Band- another of my David Crowder favorites

10. Ordinary Miracle, Sarah Mclachlan- this plays during the credits of the new Charlotte's Web. I liked it, so I bought it. Apparently I listen to it a lot.

11. Give Me Jesus, Fernando Ortega- a very soothing song, and a great reminder of what is really important in this life.

12. Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus, from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe- I love the score from this movie, and this is one of my favorite tracks. I also can't wait for Prince Caspain to come out next May. :)

13. Naked as We Came, Iron and Wine- kind of a depressing song, really, but it's pretty. I listen to it often when I'm falling asleep.

14. The Father's Song, Matt Redman- This song had huge significance for me at one church camp I went to in middle school. To be honest I don't exactly remember why it was significant, but I still love the song and I bought it pretty shortly after I discovered iTunes.

15. To Be Alone With You, Sufjan Stevens- my youth pastor used to play this one during meditative times at the end of youth group sometimes. It was one I listened to long before I became a Sufjan fan and heard anything he has done.

16. Learn To Be Lonely, from Phantom of the Opera- this one, like I'm Not That Girl, probably testify to the sorts of things I listen to when I fall into occasional moodiness caused by my singleness.

17. Fix You, Coldplay- I'm not exactly sure why this one has been played so much. I like it, but it doesn't have any particular significance.

18. Kingdom Come, Coldplay- Another one I just like. I guess I never skip over Coldplay.

19. The Word Spreads, from Charlotte's Web- This one is on my study playlist of instrumental music. ITunes must like it, because I never really pay attention to what is playing when I have that playlist on.

20. Day by Day, Eric Hauck- One I like for the same reasons as Give Me Jesus

21. Hide and Seek, Imogen Heap- Thanks to my roomie for introducing me to this one. One person's voice electronically modified to a bunch of fantastic harmonies. Cool.

22. Mai, Josh Groban- Oh Josh. None of his songs require any explanation. I'm surprised there are not more of them on this list.

23. Johnny has Gone for a Soldier, Mark O'Connor, et al- This has a nice fiddle part and I listened to it a lot when I was trying to teach myself to play it.

24. 7th Child of the 7th Child, some Celtic CD I got from Target- Another one on my study playist.

25. Epilogue: Farewell, the same Celtic CD from Target that I have on my study list.

And a few up-and-coming favorites:
~Sanctus, Libera- Latin, children's choir... need I say more?
~Raise it Up, from August Rush- a kind of gospel-sounding song, but surprisingly one of my favorites from the August Rush soundtrack (although you can't really go wrong with anything there)

Just for fun, here were the results last time I made such a list.

So This Is The New Year

2008-01-01T11:54:00.000-05:00

It seems to be a common thing to bemoan New Year's Eve on one's blog as a dumb holiday. There was a time when I love New Year's Eve. Sure, I appreciated the irony of the holiday: we stay up until midnight so that we can watch a big shiny ball slide down a pole? Who came up with that anyway? I used to get together with all my friends and we would spend the evening watching TV, playing games, eating food and doing whatever else we felt like. That was fun. This year nearly all of my high school friends were out of town and I am hours and hours away (in traveling distance and time zones) from all of my college friends, so I stayed up with my dad and my sister to watch Pixar movies and see the ball drop. It was fun, but rather anticlimactic. Ah well.

However, New Year's Day--at least this year--has been quite enjoyable. I have the day off work, so I woke up at about 9:45 (that's the first time I've slept in all break) and have spent the rest of the day watching either the Rose Parade or some college bowl game or another. I sat on the couch with my dad, watching Michigan play Florida (which was a much better game than Illinois vs USC is so far), researching NFL history, drinking tea, and enjoying the lovely snow which has decided to fall on Cincinnati this first day of 2008. It's not Colorado snow or anything, but it's more than I've seen in a long time.

I plan to spend the rest of the evening in pretty much the same way, trying not to think about the eight hours at Chick-Fil-A that await me tomorrow. I suppose I'm grateful in a way that I have to work, because I doubt I would enjoy this sitting around half as much if it's all I had to do all break.

Happy New Year!

Happy Finals Week

2007-12-18T08:24:00.001-05:00

Finals week is upon us again. We have all decorated balloons with the names of our classes and accompanying doodles, hung the balloons outside our doors, and are waiting somewhat impatiently to pop each one as we complete each final. For the first time all semester, every table in the cafeteria is full for breakfast. People stifle yawns as they down another cup of coffee and shuffle through their notes for some last-minute studying.

As much work as it is, I find finals week to be a particularly entertaining time of year. Some aspects are annoying: my favorite table at the library is always full this week. I think that people should rack up library points like frequent flyer miles so that regular library inhabitants can have some sort of priority seating over the bums who come to take our seats for one week a semester. Other aspects, however, are of a less obnoxious nature. Every semester my friends and I start the week off with Velveeta shells and cheese for dinner and follow that later in the week with a trip to the local Chinese restaurant for some takeout. We also spend quite a lot of time studying in the hallway outside of our rooms. I'm not entirely sure why this is, unless it's because the library is too crowded and they all (like me) are too easily distracted studying in the room that also contains beds and snack food.

Saturday afternoon Heather, Sam and I watched "Christmas in Boston," an incredibly cheesy, rather poorly acted ABC Family Christmas movie. In spite of its faults, we had a grand time. If nothing else, it's a lovely example of several communications theories that I'm supposed to be studying. Among them... social information processing theory, cognitive dissonance, coordinated management of meaning, and probably some interpersonal deception theory. Anyway, as an homage to that movie... "I'll see you under the moon."

"I celebrate the day..."

2007-12-05T08:54:00.000-05:00

"...that You were born to die, so that one day I could pray for You to save my life."
~Relient K, I Celebrate the Day

Every Christmas season I have a new favorite Christmas song. There is always some line that sticks out to me that God uses to teach me something new about His coming to earth as a man. In previous years it has been lines like "God and sinners reconciled" and "ransom captive Israel" or entire songs like "What Child is This?", "O Holy Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful". Although the Advent season is only a few days old, I think this years' song is going to be of a different sort. The line above seems to capture what I am learning this year. Jesus didn't just come to earth, but he came with a purpose. He came came to die so that I could be transformed from death into life. That connection between the manger and the cross is something that I have always known about but never thought about much. It's something that is often forgotten in our traditional Christmas hymns as well. There are a few ("ris'n with healing in his wings" for example) that we sing regularly, and a few more that are less well known. Take this rarely-sung additional chorus to "What Child is This?":

Nails! Spear! shall pierce him through
The cross be born for me, for you
Hail, hail the Word made flesh
The babe the son of Mary

Or these virtually unknown verses of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing":

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fixinus Thy humble home!
Rise, the Woman's conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the Serpent's head!
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore,
Now in mystic union join.
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine!

Adam's likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp Thy image in its place;
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love!
Let us The, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the Heavenly Man:
O! to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart!

And a few from Charles Wesley's hymn collection Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord:

"Angels speak, let man give ear"

3. Welcome tidings! To retrieve us
From our fall,
Born for all,
Christ is born to save us.

4. Born his creatures to restore,
Abject earth,
Sees his birth,
Whome the heavens adore.

9. Sing we with the host of heaven,
Reconciled,
By a child,
Who to us is given.

"Let Earth and Heaven Combine"

5. He deigns in flesh to appear,
Widest extremes to join,
To bring our vileness near,
And make us all divine;
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.

"Join All Ye Joyful Nations"
(not necessarily about what I was talking about, but I just like it)

3. Go see the King of glory,
Discern the heavenly stranger,
So poor and mean,
His court an inn,
His cradle is a manger:

Who from his Father's bosom,
But now for us descended,
Who built the skies,
On earth he lies,
With only beasts attended.

5. Gaze on that helpless object
Of endless adoration!
Those infant hands
Shall burst our bands,
And work out our salvation;

Strangle the crooked serpent,
Destroy his works for ever,
And open set
The heavenly gate
To every true believer.

Soli Deo Gloria

a "vestige"

2007-11-14T21:47:00.000-05:00

My blog is called "a vestige of thought..." Although I posted a bit about this waaay back in my early days of posting, I have gotten a number of questions about the title. What is a 'vestige,' exactly? Well, according to my handy computer dictionary, a vestige is "a trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists." Apparently it comes from the Latin vestigium, meaning 'footprint.' I love it when I can throw a bit of Latin trivia in there. :)

The phrase 'a vestige of thought' is meant to indicate that the things I write here are not my best work. They are wisps of ideas that hit me throughout the day (or week, or month) that I feel the desire to write about and post for whatever 'audience' stumbles across this site to read. The title is sort of my excuse if what I write doesn't make perfect sense. In other words, my thought in these posts is 'disappearing' or 'no longer exists.'

I can't claim credit for the phrase either. It's actually from a poem by Christina Rossetti, one of my favorite poets:

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

So there you have it. That is why my blog is called "a vestige of thought..." The end.

A Thought on Holiness

2007-11-11T11:15:00.000-05:00

I am told that there is no such thing as cold. What we call "cold" is not an actual thing, but rather a lack of something else. Cold is lack of heat. If you take away heat, cold is what's left. Except it's not really cold, it's lack of heat. I know; it's circular. Light and darkness work the same way. Darkness is simply lack of light. It can be "created" by taking light away, but cannot exist on its own.

In my philosophy class, we have spent a good chunk of time discussing 'evil' as a distortion of 'goodness." Words such as [dys]function, [im]proper, and [dis]honesty seem to indicate this, and we talked about how it implies a perfect standard. I couldn't help thinking, though, that this seemed too simple. After all, could we argue the opposite if our English vocabulary were different, and 'good' prefixes negated the 'bad' meaning of a word. But I came to realize that maybe the issue is bigger than that. Maybe 'good' and 'bad' have the same relationship as 'hot' and 'cold.' Maybe 'evil,' as we think of it, does not exist, exactly. Maybe 'evil' is a lack of 'goodness,' or--as we like to say around Asbury--'holiness.'

At first this seemed backward to me because we as Christians spend so much time trying to rid our lives of sin, as though holiness were a lack of sin and could not exist on its own. But God existed in perfect holiness long before sin entered into existence. As a result, holiness must be our starting point, not the other way around. Maybe we Christians are going about things the wrong way. Rather than working to rid our lives of sin, maybe we should fill our lives with holiness. You can't gain light by getting rid of darkness. You have to add light, and the darkness will vanish. If sin is actually a lack of holiness, as darkness is absence of light, then adding holiness will remove sin with a success that human attempts to vanquish something that does not "exist" can never attain.

The question that logically follows is, 'How, exactly, does one add holiness to his or her life?' I'm not exactly sure. I can give the Sunday School answer: read the Bible, pray, spend time in fellowship with people who encourage you to be Christ-like. That's so cliche. An answer that I like better, despite the fact that it is more vague, is to seek more of God's grace, which is sufficient for all our needs (2 Cor 12:9) and more of His Spirit, which transforms us (2 Cor 3:18). James 4:2 says that we don't have because we don't ask God for them. Let's ask him.

Perhaps, then, this second answer is the same as the first.

Happy Bloggerversary

2007-10-27T21:08:00.000-04:00

I just realized that I have been on Blogger for exactly two years as of today. Happy Anniversary to me.

It's 'Time For Pie'

2007-10-27T19:30:00.000-04:00

Several months ago my aunt and uncle moved from Cincinnati to Hermann, Missouri, where they opened Time For Pie, a pie/coffee shop. My grandma is originally from Hermann, and her sister (my great aunt) and neice (my second cousin) also live there, so for my fall break, Sam and I met the rest of my immediate family in Hermann to relax and eat pie. It has been great. I've enjoyed three different kinds of pie, as well as some excellent tea and hot chocolate.

While we visited a few other shops (including The Chocolate Box, where I got an amazing chocolate-covered pretzel), the vast majority of our time was spent in the pie shop. It was amazingly entertaining to spend so much time in a little shop like that. I was amused at the people who came in early in the morning and ordered a slice of pumpkin pie, or who came in once only to return later in the day, in a very cheery mood, after having a few glasses of wine from one of Hermann's many wineries.

I've been to Hermann a couple of times over the course of my life, but I think this is the first time I have been aware of just how strong the German heritage is here. Apparently a guy from somewhere in PA moved to Missouri specifically for the purpose of starting a German town. For a long time the majority of classes in schools were taught in German so that all children would speak the language fluently. There is sauerkraut everywhere, most last names, it seems, end in -mann, and the name of every bed and breakfast (there are a lot of them here) ends in Haus. Hermann is home to a number of German festivals including Maifest and Octoberfest. Beer and wine all around. Hooray for Germany.

Tomorrow Sam and I are driving the long way back to Asbury so that we can pass through Indianapolis and see the exibit of Roman art from the Louvre at the Museum of Art. It should be good times. Road trips are wonderful.

A Reminder to Myself

2007-10-22T09:38:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wonder if I will be single forever. I look back at my 20 years of life and realize that I have been completely, undeniably single for those entire 20 years. For goodness sake, I went to five high school dances by myself. That seems depressing. Most of the time I'm okay with being single, but there are definitely times where I get just a little sick of it. Therefore, I write these reminders for myself:

1. I am only 20. That may seem to me like a long time to be single, but it's not really. I'm young, and I have time. I can wait.

2. God has given me an incredibly strong desire to adopt children. I highly doubt that God would give me this desire if he were not going to give me a husband to be a father to those children, as I would never adopt as a single parent. Again, I can wait.

3. Singleness is a gift. Then again, so are relationships. God can use both to shape people into His likeness and use them for his glory. Right now I can work on focusing on serving God completely with everything I have. I'm trying.

4. God works in his time. He is working in me, and I can see it. I want to be completely focused on Him so that He can make me into the kind of woman He wants me to be, "complete and not lacking in anything." I want to be so concentrated on Him that I don't worry at all whether or not I am single.

5. I read a quote not long ago where someone was asked whether she thought she was called to be single. She replied, "Today I am." Me too. Today I am called to be single, and I want to live that calling to its fullest, serving God with everything I've got.

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things, you may have an abundance for every good work." 2 Cor 9:8 (I think)

Reflections Thus Far

2007-09-22T12:22:00.000-04:00

It has been a long time since I opened up ol' Blogger. Somehow I only seem to remember it at times like right now, when I am at the library, theoretically working on a paper, and yet not really. I am working on a paper for Intro to Philosophy: a two page paper comparing the arguments of Plato and C.S. Lewis for a monotheistic supreme being. This paper will count for 25% of my exam grade on Monday. The thing is, if we turn in the paper and show any reasonable amount of thought, we get full credit. This is incredibly generous of my professor, but it is certainly not motivating me to my best possible work on this paper. That said, I have an excellent opening paragraph and know, more or less, exactly where I am going from there. So I'm not too worried about it.

To get myself in a speculative writing mood, however, I have decided to write to any of my dear readership who may be left and reflect a bit on my sophomore year in college thus far. I can understand why the word sophomore means "wise fool." Since we are no longer new to school, all of us feel a bit more confident and self-important. We did all that awkward making new friends stuff last year; we know our way around the campus; we know all the library policies and how to find the best food on campus. This makes us 'cool,' in our own eyes, and more than a little foolish.

The first month of my sophomore year has been incredibly different than the first month of my freshman year. Last year I watched a lot of movies and TV; I took a lot of walks and spent many hours talking with the people who were becoming my friends, all while finishing every bit of homework with plenty of time to spare. This year, every second has been filled. When I am not in class, I am reading for class, interviewing someone for a Collegian (newspaper) article, either recruiting or debriefing for SMT, or at some meeting for class cabinet, ACSC (Asbury College Student Congress), SLB (Spiritual Life Board), or some other chaplain-related duty. That's not to say I am not enjoying every minute of it. I am! I love everything I am a part of this year, and although I have a lot to do, I rarely find it stressful.

I also do not wish to give the impression that I don't have any time for fun. Last night Sam and I traveled to two different Walmarts in search of goldfish. Live ones, not the crackers (although we ended up buying some of those too). The first Walmart didn't have any, so we drove on down the road until we came to another one, where we were more successful. Meet our new roommates, Artemis (white with the orange spot) and Apollo (all orange):

The Rest of the Summer...

2007-08-24T10:04:00.000-04:00

Alright. I'm here. Ever since I got home, I've been making my way over to Blogger, staring at it for awhile, and then feeling overwhelmed by the task I have assigned myself and run away. I miss blogging, but I feel guilty about not finishing writing about my summer, so I end up not blogging at all. Enough with that. Here are a number of photo highlights from the rest of my summer, and then I shall move on to bigger and better blogging things.

Wes, Ashton, and I as Jesus, Mary, and Martha in Mobile, Alabama doing a VBS at Crawford UMC.

Scoop, the reporter, and Skylar, the flying squirrel, at the same VBS

Aww

Herald and The Destroyer shucking corn.

Sitting on top of the van to watch fireworks in Dublin, GA on the 4th of July

At Taylor County Camp in Butler, GA they put me in a suitcase.

The Wesbury worship band (that's Wesley College and Asbury College combined)

Sleeeeeeeep.

Look at all these cool people. :) This is the Asbury Team and the Wesley Team together.

Look, it's Joy. She showed up in Williston, FL.

Asleep on the bus

The cool girls in my cabin at Indian Springs Holiness Camp in Flovilla, GA.

Playing the Ha-Ha game. We weren't very good at it.

Me and Sarah, another counselor

Look at Kaylyn wash those trays!

There are no words.

The end.

I have returned

2007-08-06T11:21:00.000-04:00

After 10 weeks away, I have finally made it back to dear ol' Cincinnati. I apologize in not making it over to Blogger before today. I've been home nearly a week and have only just now decided to brave it. I still fully intend to finish recounting my summer, but it's a daunting task that involves sorting through all 1700+ of my photos from the summer and choosing a select few to post here. Please bear with me as I spend a day or two doing that and check back soon. :)

Stop #6: Rosinton UMC; Robertsdale, AL

2007-07-03T15:18:00.000-04:00

I'm getting lazy and short on time, so from here on out, I'll probably just post pictures and descriptions. However, if you would like to hear more about my trip, please call me, facebook me, email me, or do whatever to get in contact with me. I'd love to tell you about it!

Me and Ashton in a rocking chair (although you can't really tell where we're sitting).

This is the room where we did everything with the youth. I like the look on Allen's face here. :P

Me with Ms. Beulah. We took the youth to spend the morning cleaning her house. The guys played some music and I had a fantastic time talking with her.

Ms. Devanie and her daughter Brittany, my amazing hosts.

Amber, Ashton's host. Haha.

Ashton with some of the kids cooking chicken for our senior citizens' lunch.

Wes and his rice (which he spilled all over the counter).

More pictures to come next time I have internet access...

An Apology in Advance

2007-06-29T09:50:00.000-04:00

Hello faithful readers! My travels this summer have made my internet access unpredictable, as I'm sure you have gathered. This is simply a note to make you aware that I am not sure when (if) I will have access again (on my own computer) for the rest of the summer (until I return home July 31) because of the nature of our next several stops. I may (as I do now) have access on someone else's computer for a time, but since all of my blog entries and photos are on my own computer, I may not be able to post them. In any case, I am still typing them up and will post everything when I get home if I am not able to before then.

I hope everyone is doing well! God bless!

Stop #5: Tifton First UMC; Tifton, GA

2007-06-23T16:28:00.001-04:00

We arrived in Tifton, GA late Thursday afternoon. There was nothing planned for that evening, so the five of us hung out and took advantage of the wireless internet access for a few hours while the youth staff was in a meeting before going out to dinner. The youth pastor, Stacey, and her two interns, Scott and Anna, were all fantastic. We went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner, and it was wonderful to have time to get to know them without having to worry about the youth group coming in an hour or so.

On Friday the Messy Olympics took place. We took a ton of food to someone's house and set up a bunch of messy games with it. These included Gravy Sock Wrestling (fill a baby pool with gravy, have each person put on one sock, wrestle around in the gravy until one person pulls another's sock off), Russian Egg Roulette (1/3 of the eggs are hard boiled; pick one and smash it on your head), and the Truly Sick Relay (including covering yourself in flour, rolling in a baby pool of chocolate pudding, and sliding down a mayo slip-n-slide). I smelled horrible by the end of the day, but it was extremely fun. We went out to dinner again that night (Zaxby's) and then my team, Scott, and Anna went to go see the new Fantastic Four movie. I have so much fun with those people!

Saturday around noon we left the church to Albany, GA, an hour away. There we saw a movie (which, due to a time fluke, ended up being Fantastic Four again), ate dinner, went to the Great American Fun Park, and ended the evening at Krispy Kreme. The Great American Fun Park was probably the highlight of the day. We played laser tag, guys against girls (which, of course, my team lost horribly), and mini golf for most of the time. It was fun, as the park name would suggest, but I was exhausted when the day was over.

Sunday was nice and relaxing. We went to the contemporary service and then the traditional service in the morning before heading back to Stacey's house to have a cookout. We spent most of the time either playing with Connor or sleeping on the couch (with Nascar on TV). It was a nice lazy afternoon. That evening Ashton went with Stacey to drop off the van that they had rented from Albany. I went with the guys back to their host home (at the parsonage where Chris, the associate pastor ,lived). We hung out and did not much of anything for a couple of hours before making a Walmart run. When we got back, around 9:00, we still hadn't had dinner. Chris offered to grill us fish, so I got a cooking lesson. He taught me how to do a bunch of stuff with fish and make some amazing salad dressing. The four of us ate dinner (which was amazing) around 10:00 and then I went back to my host home to crash.

Monday morning we packed up the van and then went with the youth to a local soup kitchen to help serve lunch. To be honest, that was probably one of the most stretching things we've done so far. I love talking, but I had the hardest time starting conversations with anyone there. It was mostly one huge awkward turtle moment. Allen and Wes (aka Herald and the Destroyer) played guitar and sang a bit, though, which was a nice distraction for everyone. We had a fairly long drive to our next stop, so we quickly loaded into the van after lunch was over and headed toward Rosinton, AL.

Bob for an apple, then stick your face in a pan full of flour, find a piece of bubble gum, and chew it until you can blow a bubble.

Fill a kiddy pool with gravy, give four people each one sock and wrestle in the gravy until on person has lost their sock.

This is Allen chasing me with a flour bomb, but it rather looks like we're doing some sort of coreographed dance.

Andrew and I (the only two from our team to really get dirty) in the midst of a food fight at the end of the day.

Andrew and I at the end of the day.

Kristen, the daughter of my Tifton host.

Silly Ashton, sitting in the middle of the church parking lot.

Wes and Allen... doing something. I'm not really sure what.

Andrew and his pet zebra.

Ashton and Andrew at Krispy Kreme.

Gotta love those boys. And their hats.

Hair...

2007-06-18T23:24:00.000-04:00

Before:

During:

After:

Brothers...?

Dirty...

...yet touchably close.

Wes has since shaved, but I don't have a picture of that yet.

Stop #4: Williams Memorial UMC; Blountstown, FL

2007-06-18T17:56:00.000-04:00

Our fourth stop has been the hardest for me so far. This was mostly because of a bit of culture shock. I never realized how much of a city girl I am until reaching Scott's Ferry (near Blountstown), FL. This church is near the borders of both Georgia and Alabama and (according to Ashton, the resident country expert) is about as Southern country as you can get. The church had a regular attendance of about 40 people and the roads to most of their houses are dirt. We went to the Sunday night service/dinner as soon as we arrived, and I'm not sure I made a terribly good first impression. I was never quite able to figure out what I did wrong the first couple of days, but I think it was mostly that the nuances of being polite are a bit different there than what I am used to. I wasn't really sure how to act around them, and they weren't really sure how to act around me, and the first day or two was very awkward.

I don't really know what changed, but all the awkwardness vanished by Tuesday. Tuesday and Wednesday were wonderful, and then we had to leave. It's so sad that we always have to leave just as we're starting to get really comfortable with the kids.

Our schedule was the same every day. We had the mornings free to plan or do whatever. This mostly consisted of sitting around in the Fellowship Hall and either sleeping, playing guitar, or planning devos. It was a lot of time, but I was able to have some really good, looong quiet times where I could pray. I'm really grateful for that time. In the afternoons we had the kids (anywhere from one to five at any time) from lunchtime until 4:00 or 5:00. Then we had a two hour break before doing something in the evening. All three days we were supposed to do a service project. The first day, however it was 102 degrees outside, so we decided it would be best to stay in. The second day in rained (poured) all afternoon. The rain was beautiful and much needed, but it prevented us from doing our outdoor service project. Finally on Wednesday we had time to do two of the three projects that we had planned, and neither took as much time as we had expected.

Tuesday afternoon during our break Erika (one of our two regular kids) and Ashton took me 4-wheeling through the mud after it had rained. It was a blast. We came back filthy, but it was completely worth it. Ashton says that I've now been initiated into the South. :P Perhaps my favorite part, in a funny sort of way, was when the ATV stopped and we couldn't get it to start again so we had to walk barefoot down the dirt roads to Erika's house to get her brother to start it for us.

Wednesday evening was probably the highlight of my week. We did the evening service, which this time consisted of Allen and Wes leading music, us doing a skit, and then each of us giving short testimonies. I don't care how many times I've heard the testimonies of my teammates (I could probably tell it for them by now), I love hearing them again. God has been so faithful and so incredibly good to each one of us, even though our lives have all been so different. At the end of the service the pastor had all of us come up to the altar and everyone at the service prayed over us. I love it when churches do that, and I always feel most unified with my team during those moments. After the service the five of us went to the parsonage (where the guys stayed) and talked with the pastor and his wife for several hours. They are amazing people. One of the hugest blessings of SMT is being able to meet so many great Christians. It's incredibly humbling and a great spiritual challenge as well.

The woman Ashton and I stayed with, Miss Joyce, was amazing. She had to be close to 80 and had never been married. She lived in a house with her best friend until the friend's death in 1999. She spends a huge amount of time in prayer and studying the Bible. When she's not doing that, she is driving people to and from the church so they can participate in activities, or taking people who need it to doctor's appointments and such. Wow.

Thursday morning we left around 9:00 in the morning and, because we had some extra time, stopped to get Andrew's hair cut. He wasn't sure if he was actually going to go through with it, but Allen said that if Andrew cut his hair, he would dye his red to match Wes's. (Photos to follow. I didn't have time to upload them this time.)

Wes, getting comfortable to play his guitar.

Andrew and Larry Beans the wonder dog (who belonged to the church's pastor)

Look out, Christy has a gun! (I did not hit a thing.)

Awww....

After 4-wheeling... you can't really see how muddy we are

Three of the team with our two regulars, Erika and Jared.

Stop #3: Mulder UMC; Wetumpka, AL

2007-06-09T00:19:00.000-04:00

I am so behind! I deeply apologize for my negligence. I had most of an entry for Wetumpka typed up already, but lost it somehow. Phooey. Anyhow, I shall do my best to make up for it and write an overview of my four days at Mulder.

Monday & Tuesday:
We started out both Monday and Tuesday morning with an hour or so of games and devos and a couple of hours painting the trailer Mulder uses as their youth room. Both afternoons we had off, and in the evenings we had a speaker (Brad McClain, who was wonderful), Allen and Wes did some worship music, and then we went somewhere fun. Monday this was to a mall with an ice rink, where we played broom hockey. I was not terribly good at, but it was fun anyway. My team nearly made a tremendous comeback after being down by 5 points, but ended up losing by one. Tuesday night we went bowling. Overall I did pretty poorly, but I did do well enough to earn myself the nickname "spare ribs" due to my ability to completely miss the pins on my first roll and then knock them all down the second time. Ashton was sick on Tuesday and had to miss much of what we did, but fortunately recovered enough to join us again the next day.

Wednesday:
Mark, the youth pastor, lived on a lake and on Wednesday he had the youth group out there to spend the day. We took turns riding Mark's boat, tubing behind it, and swimming or jumping off a neighbor's boat dock. Somehow my legs got insanely bruised up after tubing. It looked like I had been in a fight of some kind. :P It was worth the bruises, though. I had a blast. In the evening the team put on the mid-week service. Our guitar duo did the music, we all did a skit, and the Allen preached (extremely well, I might add). The time after the service, though, was probably my favorite time all week. Allen and Ashton spend a long time talking to and praying with one of the guys in the youth group. While waiting for them, Andrew, Wes, and I hung out with one or two of the guy from the youth group. We didn't really do anything terribly significant, but we had a great time just goofing off and playing on the fantastic playground at Mulder UMC. I wish I had some pictures of that playground. It was amazing.

Thursday:
For our last day in Wetumpka we drove 3 hours to Six Flags over Atlanta. It was fun, but I'm not much of an amusement park person and it was a loooong day. I was with two girls from the youth group and we spent most of the day walking around and riding a gentle ride every now and then. After lunch my group met up with Andrew and Wes's group and the 12 of us all went on a white water rafting ride where everyone got completely drenched. Not long after that we noticed that everyone was moving toward the park entrance and quickly discovered that the park was closing at 7, rather than 9 as we had originally thought. I don't think anyone was sad to leave early, though. I was pretty exhausted.

Friday:
Through (another) miscommunication we had a free day at the end of the week, so the guys' host family, the Calhouns, took us out on their pontoon boat for the afternoon. Adam, an intern at Mulder, came with us as well. The lake we went to was beautiful, and we had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon. That night we went to a local Mexican restaurant, San Marco's (yum!), and then packed up and got ready to leave the next morning.

Silly Wes. (That's a rolled up flyer from the Tumbling Team's tour over spring break.)

Broom hockey

Wes and Allen leading music on Tuesday.

Bowling feet.

Me, Camden, and Ashton getting ready to go tubing

Silly Andrew.

My group at Six Flags: Hannah, Me, Lauren

Our silly team being our silly selves at Six Flags

Ashton, Wes, and the cow at Chick-Fil-A on our way back from Atlanta.

Andrew and Adam holding Allen as he flies like Superman on the Calhoun's boat.

Captain Andrew (Liz Calhoun: "Does anyone have a boating license?" Andrew: "I do!")

Stop #2: Asbury UMC; Maitland, FL

2007-06-05T14:12:00.000-04:00

Finally, wireless internet! I wrote most of this last week, but haven't been able to post it before now. Anyhoo, I hope all is going well wherever you are reading from.

* * * * *

If you can believe it, our first stop is already over. After staying the night at a hotel in Chattanooga and, after sorting out a mix up regarding our arrival date in Florida, a night at Ashton's sister's house in Macon, GA, we made our way to the Asbury United Methodist Church in Maitland, Florida on Tuesday. We arrived around dinner time, so Bill-- the youth pastor-- and Brenda--the woman that Ashton and I were to stay with, ordered pizza and we all hung out in the youth room for awhile. Brenda and her husband, John, have three kids: Cierra (12), Paul (11) and Joshua (6). The whole family are amazing Christians, and staying with them has been really cool. That evening there was another mix up regarding where the guys were supposed to stay, so all find of us ended up staying in Brenda and John's small house.

Wednesday we spent all day at the beach with the youth group kids for surf camp. It had started the day before, but we jumped right in. Bill coordinated with a Christian surfing organization to bring in an experienced surfer to teach us. This beach, New Smyrna, was about an hour drive from the church. Once we got there, we started out with a devotional and then spent the rest of the day surfing, kayaking, or just hanging out in the water. I went out a couple of times to surf with an instructor, and I stood up on the board and once rode the wave all the way in! I hope that I have another chance to practice again, because it was really fun. That evening we were invited to stay at a beach house near Daytona for the night. The youth group was coming to spend the night there the next day. This house was beautiful, and we had such a great time hanging out there, first by ourselves and then with all the kids.

Thursday morning Ashton and I got up really early to watch the sun rise on the beach. I've always wanted to do that. It was cloudy, so the sunrise wasn't as amazing as it could have been, but I still loved it. When we got back, we discovered that our van had a flat tire. Fortunately, Allen and Andrew are awesome and were able to change it right away. We spent that day at the beach in Daytona. I got pretty badly sunburned the day before, so I didn't swim Thursday. It hurt to even put my swimsuit on. Mostly I split my time between wading at the beach and hanging out at the Hite's beach house. In the evening we watched Noah's Arc, a surfing movie about a group of surfers from the Outer Banks who all became Christians and now have been touring, showing the movie and sharing Christ with other surfers. It was pretty cool, but I was so tired that I nearly fell asleep in the middle of it. I was really excited when the leaders decided that lights out was at 11:00. After team time, I got to bed around midnight and didn't have to get up until 8 or 8:30.

Friday we spent a little more time at the beach before packing up and heading back to Maitland. Once there we were able to check our email at the church and then had a grand ol' time at Walmart before Ashton and I went back to Brenda and John's and the boys headed over to another host home. We didn't start dinner until nearly 8, but after we ate we sat at the table and talked until 1:30 in the morning. One by one each of the kids fell asleep, and their parents would carry them to bed. It was pretty funny.

I was pretty sad the first night the guys went to a separate host home. We've had some fantastic team times this week, and I missed all five of us hanging out together in the evenings. Pretty much, I just have a fantastic team. :) Our first team time of the week was the night we all stayed at John and Brenda's. I was a feeling pretty stressed over my treasurer duties that evening, and in addition to all our other prayers, each person prayed for me and were all incredibly encouraging to me. The first night we stayed in Daytona we all went out to the back porch of the house where we stayed and listened as Allen and Wes got out their guitars and had a jam session. I love listening to those guys play. I especially love journaling while they play. I wish I could play guitar myself, but perhaps writing is just my (quiet) way of joining in. Some pretty cool writings have come out of those journaling times while the guys jam. Our team time the next night was great as well. After the kids had lights out, the five of us crossed the street and took a long walk on the beach. We stood in the waves and prayed for a while... I can't really come up with any other words for that time. Good stuff.

On Saturday, we acquired a bunch of free tickets to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando. This was definitely a highlight of the week. We saw several shows, including "Praise Throughout the Ages" and a reenactment of the crucifixion. By far the coolest part, though, was the tour through The Scriptorium, a building housing dozens of old, Bibles in a number of different languages (including Latin), in addition to several other historical books, such as a first edition of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

Sunday we went to the contemporary service at Asbury UMC and performed a skit to go along with the sermon. Oh man, if all acting were like this, I would take it up professionally. Our skit, intending to demonstrate how the foundation of a family should be Christ, involved a father (Allen) teaching his teenaged daughter (Ashton) to drive with Grandpa (Wes) and a younger brother and sister (Andrew and me) in the back seat. Practicing and performing it was so much fun, and involved Andrew and I beating each other a lot. Hehe.

This week I have learned (or am learning):
~how to identify each member of my team by their body odor
~there are so many Godly people who have so much to share if I am willing to just shut up and listen.
~sunscreen goes bad after a year. If it's been sitting in a closet for 2-3 years, it's not going to prevent much sunburn.
~when you're riding the top of the wave, stand up! Freaking out and clinging onto the board is not surfing, and is not cool.

Andrew and his bunny (at Ashton's sister's house)

For Ashton's birthday (last Tuesday) we wrote "Happy Birthday Ashton" and "Honk if you love Ashton" on the van. We had to take off the letters before we started driving, so we put them in Ashton and Wes instead.

Allen at the beach.

That little dot out there is me on a surf board. No one saw me stand up, sadly, so I'm just sort of hanging on for dear life in this picture.

A nice snapshot of my sunburn.

Snake Wilcox and Sneaky Feet Benningfield

A couple of girls from the youth group being silly. I always laugh at this picture, because right after I took it someone came up and said, 'Hey look, white trash!"

The Temple- part of the HUGE miniature of Jerusalem circa 66 AD at the Holy Land Experience.

Me and my buddy Joshua.

Stop #1: Pre-Tour Retreat on Asbury's Campus

2007-05-26T19:21:00.000-04:00

I am amazed at how quickly this week has gone by! I shouldn't be so surprised, considering how packed full of training sessions, team time, spontaneous fun, and Joy's yummy cooking it has been. Here is a short overview of the week:

Monday: arrived, has first session (finishing up a study on a book we read earlier in the year)
Tuesday: Sessions on money & admissions, and a bunch of team time to prepare for Summer Chapel
Wednesday: Challange course all day. We did low ropes team building stuff in the morning and the high ropes course in the afternoon. We also did the Leap of Faith, which involved jumping off of a rediculously high, rediculously small platform and trying to ring a bell. Heights don't generally phase me much, but that made me a little nervous. I did it, though. I have pictures to prove it.
Thursday: Summer Chapel in AM. Laura (from the North team) and I spoke. I'm told it went well. I can only take their word on how well I spoke, but I can say that I enjoyed it. That afternoon all 10 of us drove into Lexington to pick out an outfit, which the college provides for us to wear while doing services and such. It took a rediculously long time for everyone to find something, and I was tired of shopping long before we finally finished, but overall it was pretty fun. Dinner was a blast. Both teams went to Bella Notte, which was amazing. I highly recommend it.
Friday: By far the best day of the week. It was really busy, with training sessions taking up pretty much every second of the day until after dinner. After team time that evening, we decided to drive into Lexington again to get ice cream and hang out at Joseph Beth books for awhile. When we got back, the boys serenated us girls, first in the hallway and then outside our window, for several hours. : ) Good times.

God has been so good this week, as always. When I got here on Monday, I didn't really want to be here at all. I missed my family and friends at home and everyone from Asbury who was not on campus. I was really nervous about the summer, and I felt really disconnected from my team, since we hadn't been together in so long. It took a while, but gradually over the course of the week God changed my heart. My team grew closer than we ever had been before, and by the time we had our commissioning service this afternoon, I felt really ready for whatever these next nine weeks will throw at me. Somehow I have peace now that God has all this under control. Mentally, I've *known* that for a long time, but I've finally realized it completely. Tomorrow we leave to spend the night in Chattanooga, TN before heading on to Florida. I don't know how regular my internet access will be, but hopefully I can post again by the end of the week.

Pictures:

Frida, Katie, and Laura with Polly the vacuum cleaner. We put Polly outside the guys' door and she had some adventures in their room before ending up headless in the hallway. Poor Polly.

The crew at the challenge course after lunch and before going to the high ropes.

Silly Ashton. :P

Grant feeding Dan at Bella Notte in the midst of our shopping trip on Thursday.

Oh Grant.

Look at those handsome South boys coming to pick us up in their fine attire.

Me and Katie, my lovely North Team prayer partner.

Back at the 'Bury

2007-05-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

I don't have much to report at this point, but I feel like I should post something to mark the beginning of my SMT adventures. I arrived at Asbury about six hours to begin an extremely busy week of training and preparation. We're on the go from 8 in the morning until 9 at night pretty much every day we're here. More on our specific plans to come later.

I am so excited to be here, but I'm a bit in shock that my 10-week traveling stint has finally arrived. The fact that I'm still so unsure about what I'm doing has really started to unnerve me. It's so strange to be here without Sam and all my friends and to be sleeping somewhere besides 1st Glide. We're staying in Aldersgate until we leave on Sunday. Aldersgate is wonderful, but it definitely feels like I'm at summer camp or on vacation more than anything else. I'm feeling a bit homesick, and I'm missing my roomie especially at the moment.

Still, I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. I know that God is going to take care of all the details of my trip, and also of everyone that I have 'left behind' over the summer. I just keep repeating that over and over to myself. "God is love... perfect love casts out fear."

God is good. More to follow. :)

M&Ms

2007-05-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

I had a dream last night that Bob Barker came to Asbury and did a spoof of The Price is Right during Chapel. The majority of the show revolved around two humongous bags of M&Ms. In honor of my dream, I give you the following post, telling you more than you ever wished to know about M&Ms.

History

Though there is some debate as to the exact inspiration for M&Ms, they were apparently based to some extent on the older British product, Smarties. Forrest Mars Sr. apparently saw soldiers during the Spanish Civil War comsuming these or similar candies. He bought the rights to produce them in the US and, with R. Bruce Murrie, introduced them as M&Ms in America. The name, formed by combining the last initials of each candymaker, was changed from the British product as another American candy called Smarties already existed. M&Ms were first sold in 1941. They were first popular among American soldiers in WWII, since the candy coating allowed them to enjoy chocolate without a melty mess, regardless of temperature conditions. M&Ms took a bit longer to appeal to the general public, but once the slogan 'melts in your mouth, not in your hand' was coined in 1954, parents and children alike embraced the product.

The Look
M&Ms, originally sold in cardboard tubes, were introduced in six colors: brown, yellow, orange, red, green, and violet. In 1948, the tube was done away with and the familiar brown bag was introduced. In 1949, tan candies replaced the original violet. A year later, the candies first appeared stamped with their trademark 'm' on one side. This stamp was originally black. Peanut M&Ms, all brown when introduced (Steve Edison, from The Wedding Planner, would approve), changed to red, yellow, and green in 1960. Although not mentioned on the official M&M website, red M&Ms were discontinued in 1976, the same year orange was introduced. A scare with a certain red dye that was believed to be a carcinogin, which M&Ms did not use, spurred many candymakers to pull red products from the shelves. Red candies were reintroduced in 1987, first as part of a holiday special and then as part of the regular line up. In 1995, the M&M company appealed to the public, who voted that blue be added as the newest candy color. Only months later "Colorworks" was introduced. This allowed consumers to choose from 21 colors of M&Ms for special orders. Finally, in 2002 M&M fans around the world voted to add purple to the traditional color line up. And the M&M company assured us... the best is yet to come.

Varities

Plain M&Ms- 1941 (the name was changed to Milk Chocolate M&Ms in 1990)
Peanut M&Ms- 1954
Almost M&Ms- 1988
Peanut Butter M&Ms- 1990
M&M Minis- 1996
Crispy M&Ms- 1998
Mega M&Ms- 2000
Dark M&Ms- 2004 (special release), 2006

Et Cetera
~Apparently eliptical shapes, such as the M&M, pack more tightly than spheres. This, it would seem, is a big deal. Hooray for elipses!
~According to some website, the "official" (though I'm not sure whose word made this official) breakdown of color percentages in any given bag of M&Ms is as follows: Brown-30%, Red-20%, Yellow-20%, Blue-10%, Orange-10%, Green-10%
~M&M Duels- the natural selection of chocolate. Read it; it's funny.
~And an amusing video that will remind you of just how many calories M&Ms hold and could possibly prevent you from eating too many (at one time) of the M&Ms that you purchase after reading this blog entry.

I am now craving M&Ms like you wouldn't believe.

Back in the 'Nati

2007-05-15T18:55:00.000-04:00

I have returned once again to the house in which I lived the first 19 years of my life. It is a good house. I quite like it here, although I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge how much I miss living in a dorm full of girls. I don't really know what to write about, but I am trying to get back into the habit of blogging, and I'm afriad that I will forget if I don't write something.

I am very much craving a good cup of coffee. Over the school year, I admit, I developed quite a fondness for the stuff. Not an addiction, mind you. I am quite capable of functioning without caffeine. Still, I haven't had any coffee since last Wednesday or Thursday, and I would very much like some. There is no coffee-creating machinery in my house, and I am generally too cheap to go somewhere and spend $2-3 on one cup. Therefore, I am suffering through until I get back to campus on Monday where I imagine I will be able to get my hands on some.

There, I have done my blogging duty for the day. I think I shall go eat some ice cream and read my book (The Pilgrim's Progress, currently) while I wait for my beloved roomie to call me and for the series finale of Gilmore Girls to begin.

Remember back when all the boys were smaller than all the girls?

2007-05-15T18:53:00.001-04:00

Those were fun[ny] times.

2007-05-10T12:41:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting in what is my room for only another 20 minutes. I'm on Sam's bed because mine is covered in things to load up into my car and on Sam's computer because mine is packed. To be honest, there is nothing I want to do less right now than leave this place. I have had an absolutely fantastic year. I love my friends here, I love classes, I love my professors, I love chapel three times a week... honestly, there is very little I don't love. I'm excited to be going home for awhile to see my family and friends, but I wish that going home didn't mean that I had to leave Asbury.

When I was in high school, summer break meant that there were no classes any more, but my friends all lived no more than a 5 minute drive away. Now it means that they are all going hundreds and thousands of miles away and I will not get to see them for three and a half months. I can do without classes or any of the other things I listed above, but I hate leaving the people, especially these girls on my hall who have become like sisters to me. I hate goodbyes, even if they are only temporary.

My room looks so sad. The curtains are gone and all the posters taken down. The beds, desk, and dresser are back in their original, symmetrical position, and the mattresses are stripped bare. I am thrilled about moving down the hall next year, and about getting a couch, and new furniture and paint and so forth... but I can't help being a bit nostalgic at the thought of saying goodbye to my home for the past 9 or 10 months.

Sam, why does your iTunes keep playing such sad songs? :'(

On the up side, this is going to be a good summer. I'm home for a week and half or so before coming back to Asbury for a week of training. Then on May 28 (I think; my calendar is packed, so I'm not sure) my team and I leave for 9 weeks of traveling the South. I'll be back July 31, I believe, and will have almost 4 weeks at home before classes start again. I'm looking forward to it.

Check out time approaches. I had best finish up. Farewell!

A Taste of Things to Come

2007-05-07T20:18:00.000-04:00

I see that it has now been more than a month since my last blog post. Shame on me. I blame tests, group projects, and having a general good ol' time doing things other than blogging. I either deserve shame or honor for my blogging negligence. You can decide.

I have decided to poke my head, or perhaps fingers, into this lonely-but-not-forgotten blog world for a moment to say hello and to bring you, my faithful readers, some news:

1. Hello
2. Some News: I shall from this point on be making every effort to post at least once a week. This shall serve a number of purposes (but since I just numbered these things, I will letter the next list):
__A. As I shall be departing from Asbury's campus in a mere three days, this will be a good way for my beloved friendlies here to keep tabs on me. As long as I'm posting, they will know I haven't been kidnapped or fallen off a cliff or anything.
__B. Not only will I be leaving my Asbury friends, but in only a small number of days, I will be leaving home as well and setting off on an adventure across the Southern states of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. In posting here I hope to give updates for people at home to read.
__C. I have a blog, I like to write, and I ought to use it.

That said, be looking for something of more interest in the near future.

Happy Exam Week!

2007-04-01T18:22:00.000-04:00

Late this afternoon, Christy Humason, Samantha Hargett, and Heather Krauss returned to their dorm rooms and quickly discovered that something was not right. "I was convinced that I had walked into the wrong room," stated Krauss. The cause of this misconception: missing desk chairs, mixed up calenders, and switched folding seats. It wasn't long before the confiscated chairs were located, mix-ups straightened out, and a culprit determined.

Prime suspect.

Courtney Jesperson and her roommate Karissa Marken were soon convicted and retaliation was swift. Wanted posters appeared on the walls and a ransom note appeared where a certain saddle, guitar, and "Fat Charlie" bear had once been. When these two criminals returned and brought their ransome to the designated location, two masked women with hair dryer weaponry led them to their AWOL accessories.

And so, justice was served, laughes had, and one more April Fools' Day passed by.

Photos and Game Shows

2007-03-30T16:34:00.000-04:00

So here I am, writing something. I'm not entirely sure what. I'm a bad blogger.

This morning my team and I had a photo shoot for our publicity posters, prayer cards, and such. We all wore Superman shirts (besides Superman, the S is also for Steadfast and South) and took pictures demonstrating our superhuman strength. Look for posters coming soon to a church near you (at least if you live in Georgia, Alabama, or Florida).

Last night Sam and I watched Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on Fox. We decided that we are both smarter than 5th graders (I only missed one of the questions and all the 5th graders got that one wrong too), but the people who made the show probably were not. They draw everything out excruciatingly ("and we'll find out whether you are right... just after the break") and all the contestants seemed to be missing a few screws ("I can't remember... I think Oprah might be a pronoun?"). I suppose it's probably more difficult if you're actually there in front of all those people, but from what I saw last night I'd say that they to pick their contestants they follow a trail of marbles until they come to the person whose head they are falling out of. I don't think I'll be watching that again.

I really don't know what else to say. I'm a little brain dead after this week of tests and speeches. I am looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. Tonight my academic advisor is having the communications majors over to his house, which hopefully will be fun. I believe we are going to Zaxby's tomorrow to celebrate someone's birthday, and Sunday I'm making Skyline dip while we watch a movie.

I am being summoned to play online Jeopardy! with my roomie. Way better than 5th grade BrainQuest any day!

Facebook Relationships

2007-03-17T09:37:00.000-04:00

I am not against the concept of Facebook. I think it's a great idea. It has helped me keep up with my friends from home, and the few who aren't on Facebook I feel I don't even know anymore. There are, however, aspects that I don't like. One of them is the relationship status listing. Right now I am listed as single. That's true, I am single. However, what if I just don't want that listed? I could remove it, but then it would be broadcasted to all my friends that "Christy Humason is no longer listed as single." That doesn't exactly say that I am not single, but it does raise questions. But even worse than that is when people list relationships that don't exist. For example, I know both Jane Doe and John Smith. Suddenly I see they have listed that they are in a relationship. Almighty Facebook says that they went bowling and met randomly in the library and are now dating. But are they? Facebook has taught the world to be skeptical (not necessarily a bad thing). Because it could be that Jane and John have just decided to make a funny joke. Ha ha. They look at their wall posts and laugh at any poor little soul who chooses to congratulate them. Then there are the instances where I know Jane or John, but not both. I think, 'Oh, Jane/John is in a relationship with someone from home.' Still, more often than not, this is also a falsehood. Curses! Why must you lie about your relationship status?! Why can't you just wait until you are actually in a relationship before listing yourself as such, if for no other reason than to avoid being the boy who cried wolf? I suppose that is not my problem. If no one believes you when you actually have found someone date-worthy, who am I to complain?

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

2007-03-13T19:07:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's been a long time. God is so good! There are many, many reasons, but this is the biggest one right now:

From left to right is Wes, Ashton, Andrew, Me and Allen, i.e. my Summer Ministry Team. These people are amazing! Last weekend the five of us traveled to Virginia to lead a middle school retreat as a sort of trial run before our 10 weeks of travel this summer. I can't even begin to describe what a good time I had. I hope that the middle schoolers got somthing out of the weekend; I know that I did. In fact, I was surprised at how completely refreshed I feel after chasing 11 to 14-year-olds for a weekend. A lot of it was the support of my team. We had quite a bit of time to spend together talking and praying and getting to know each other, which was great. I'm actually really glad that my team (the South team) had the longer drive. The 14+ hours that we spent in the van, especially the drive home, brought us all a lot closer. I cannot wait for this summer!

Andrew, the tumbling man, with Allen on his shoulders (and a few of the kids)

This is hard to see, but Allen (the one squatting in the middle) is teaching a bunch of the middle school guys in some military squad tactics. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more!

Allen and Wes, our music men, in the outdoor chapel where we had our final session with the middle schoolers Sunday morning.

Me and Ashton. I love this girl!

Thanks to Ashton for the pictures. I stole them off her Facebook. Updates to come, I hope!

Hell's Bells, Jim, I almost puked up my livers!

2007-02-01T09:02:00.000-05:00

Christmas is long over. As my Old Testament professor reminded us last Thursday, only eleven months to get ready for the next one! Still, for one reason or another, a certain Christmas song entered my head today and refuses to leave. I heard the bells on Christmas Day... But wait just a minute! I am remembering back, scanning my memory of this most recent Christmas day. There were no bells! I hear bells many, many times a day from the top of the admin building that pretends to be Big Ben, chiming the hour or the half hour. There is no song that I am aware of for such bells as these. What injustice! Being a good college student, perhaps I should start a rally of some sort. I could gather protesters with signs and maybe some poets and musicians to compose a song for my beloved but uncelebrated Asbury bells. Let the big holiday bells tremble at an everyday bell revolution. The everyday bells have nothing to lose but their anonymity. They have recognition to win. Everyday bells of all countries, unite!

Or someone could (please!) just get another song stuck in my head.

I have shamed myself and my family forever.

2007-01-27T11:42:00.000-05:00

I went to brunch in my pjs.

2007-01-05T23:33:00.000-05:00

Apparently my friends are of the sort that will not associate with me if I don't post things on my blog. It's true, I haven't posted anything in a long time. This is mostly because my days have consisted of the following:

Me: May I serve the next guest?
Customer: Yes. (long pause as they stare at the menu) Ummm... I think I'll take a number five.
Me: Would you like 8 or 12 nuggets?
Customer: Eight.
Me: What drink would you like with your combo?
Customer: Umm..... Iced tea.
Me: Sweetened or unsweetened?
Customer: Unsweetened.
Me: Would you like lemon in your tea?
Customer (internally): Why doesn't this person shut up, stop asking me questions, and just give me my food?
Customer (externally): No, thank you.
Me: Your total is $5.10.
(I get drink and food.)
Me (internally): I feel stupid asking so many questions.
Me (externally): Would you like some dipping sauce with your nuggets?
Customer: What kind do you have?
Me: Honey mustard, BBQ, polynesian, ranch, and buffalo.
Customer: Honey mustard and polynesian.
(I hand custsomer food and such.)
Customer: Thank you.
Me: My pleasure.

Now, take this scenario, give or take a few variations, repeat it dozens and dozens of times over again, and you have my Christmas break in a nutshell. Ho ho ho.

Mall Days

2006-12-20T18:31:00.000-05:00

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!

Of books and starfish

2006-12-19T07:31:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-12-16T23:12:00.000-05:00

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.)

2006-12-16T18:31:00.000-05:00

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.

Today I:

2006-12-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

~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.

The View from Finals Week

2006-12-12T15:55:00.000-05:00

"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.)

The Joy of Online Videos

2006-12-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

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.

Merry Christmas Decorating

2006-11-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had the hall gathering so fondly referred to as SHA-BANG. The meeting itself is mostly logistical stuff: what to do with your refridgerator over break, clean up your Christmas decorations before you leave, and so on. But afterwards, we all gathered in the hall to decorate, and it was a blast.

Sam: Hang on, this part is askew!

Peek-a-boo Jill

Roommates Katie and Paige putting together a tree for their room.

Me and my roomie!

Courtney tackling the Christmas lights and Heather... well, I don't really know what Heather is doing.

I had to teach Courtney (among others) how to make paper snowflakes. I think my three years in preschool gave me a "cutting" edge.

Sam decorating the slightly disfigured reindeer chain I cut out.

My girls (sporting our hall shirts)!

Opposites (and other, non-connected thoughts)

2006-11-28T23:14:00.000-05:00

Sam and I have taken a number of personality assessments over the past few weeks. Every time we have been complete opposites. In the DISC assessment, I am a DI and she is a CS. In the Myers-Briggs, I am an ENFP and she is an ISTJ. It's rather amazing how two people who are so apparently function so differently can (1) get along so well and (2) have so much in common.

We put Christmas lights up in our room this evening; hopefully pictures of our festive decorating will soon follow.

I am FINISHED with my PE assessments! Although I know for sure that I just can't do sit-ups if someone is not holding my feet and doing push-ups makes my wrists hurt (which is why I never do them), I did manage to improve my time for running a mile and a half by nearly a minute. I went from 13:36 at the beginning of the semester to 12:38 yesterday. Although a large number of people still did a lot better than me, I'm quite happy with that time. I was not cut out to be an athelete.

Somehow it has gotten to be nearly 11:30 and I guess I'd tear myself away from my computer and go get ready for bed. Goodnight (and hopefully something resembling organized thought will appear here soon).

The Adventures of Ollie the Octopus

2006-11-27T22:26:00.000-05:00

This is Ollie (short for Oliver) the Octopus. As previously mentioned, a number of nifty ZooPal pals accompanied myself and other residents of my hall on our trips home (or wherever) this past week over Thanksgiving.

Ollie, enjoying some chocolate Teddy Grahams with me.

Welcome to Ohio.

Ollie and Scott, my brother

Ollie clashing with my dad's shirt

Reading New Testament

Ollie and the turkey. :)

Ollie meets the Cat (Mia)

I introduced Ollie to Graeter's Ice Cream and Skyline Chili, both Cincinnati favorites.

Target run!

Ollie checking out my new shoes.

My cousin, Jack, meeting Ollie.

Watching the Bengals shut out the Browns. Who Dey!

Crossing the Ohio River back into Kentucky.

Lisa, my sister, modeling with Ollie in front of the Wendy's where we stopped for dinner.

Thanksgiving Lessons from a Younger Me

2006-11-23T23:38:00.000-05:00

It amazes me how sometimes I can go back and read my old journals and suddenly come across something that I wrote years ago and yet very much needed to hear today. Exempli gratia:

Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2004

I learned something very valuable this Thanksgiving. I was flipping through the Psalms this evening, looking at all the verses that praised and thanked the Lord. It occurred to me while I was reading them that Psalmists rarely thanked God for material things. Instead, they praised Him for his love, forgiveness, salvation, grace, mercy, protection, and a host of other intangible, but nevertheless very important things. It made me realize how much I trivialize God's goodness. So this year, Jesus, while I am so grateful for the blessings of a heated home, a soft bed, a loving family, fuzzy slippers, my beautiful cat, and all my many other physical gifts from You, I thank you even more for your sacrifice that saved me from the consequences of my sin. Thank You for your mercy in not punishing me and your grace in giving me the many blessings in family, health, and materials that I enjoy. Lord, I will never understand the depth of your goodness to me... I pray that You will use me to ease the suffering of others. Give me a generous heart that will accurately reflect my generous God.

Please accept my humble offering of thanks.

Hallelujah

2006-11-23T09:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I am enjoying the great American Thanksgiving pastime of watching way too much television. Commercials during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are nearly as entertaining as Super Bowl commercials. I saw one in particular for a new ER episode that is showing this evening. Its creaters did their best to create a dramatic and emotional mood by playing "Broken Hallelujah." This, however, did not have the effect they had hoped, as it only reminded us viewers of Shrek. It's difficult to empathize with the poor dying person stuck in an airplane or something when a large green ogre keeps coming to mind.

2006-11-21T00:49:00.000-05:00

It has just occurred to me that I forgot to celebrate my first year on Blogger. My official anniversary was close to a month ago, but I shall celebrate today. Happy Blogger Anniversary to me, and may I have many years of future blogging happiness. Feel free to come on in and make yourself at home. There is cake in the living room and all gifts may be left by the door.

Caffeine is like a sparkler.

2006-11-20T23:58:00.000-05:00

It crackles and spizzles and burns brightly, but eventually it goes out and then the darkness is as heavy as ever. I had a frappuccino this evening, because I wanted one, and because I wanted to make sure I was awake to finish the one paragraph left of my paper and to complete my packing. It's just past midnight, and I can feel the caffeine wearing off. The end of my paper is in sight; this will be no all-nighter. In fact, it should not have even been a mid-nighter, but I became distracted when everyone started milling about the hall chatting and preparing to go home tomorrow. It's odd to think of nearly an entire week without these girls that I have come to know and love. I'm very much looking forward to seeing my family and my pets and my home, but I'm going to miss hearing Courtney's cute little giggle, and perusing through the newspaper with Heather before New Testament, and talking about Latin or homeschooling with Karissa, and eating lunch with Emily, and going to not-my-TAG-group functions with Laura. And I miss pretty much everything about Sam, who left very early Saturday morning to go down to Mississippi and who has a horrible cold, or so it sounded on the phone.

I have given several of the aforementioned girls a piece of plastic cutlery with an animal on it, which they are to name and document the travels of over the next week. I hope to relate the tales of these creatures upon my return to Asbury in a week. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving, dear First Glidians! You are all very close to the top of my list of blessings this year!

Yes, I am aware that 'spizzles' is not a word. I say it is, and this is my blog, therefore no one is allowed to object.

Peanut Butter, Pretzles, Pajamas, and Psychology

2006-11-12T21:15:00.000-05:00

A jumble of ramblings that make this blog live up to its name:

I was reflecting today on the fact that when I was home I very rarely put my pjs on before I was actually about to go to bed, but here sometimes I put them on at 7:30 or before and think nothing of it. It's quite lovely, actually.

There is a difference between pj pants and lounge pants. If I'm wearing lounge pants, the drawstring is tied; if they're pj pants, it is not tied. Never mind the fact that the same pair of pants fill both rolls.

I'm nearly out of pretzles. I think I shall have to go to IGA this week and remedy that. Pretzles dipped in peanut butter is pretty much my favorite snack ever. The pretzles that I have left are small pieces that, while still quite tasty, are not conducive to peanut butter dipping.

I have a psychology test tomorrow that I (as of 9:24 Sunday evening) have actually studied for! Don't get me wrong, I do generally study for my psychology tests (which we have usually every four class periods). Most of the time, however, my studying takes place from 12-12:45 before my 1:00 class. Not the best study habit, I imagine, but when it stops paying off, I'll stop doing it. Bad philosophy, I know. But it's working.

My current dilemma: Do I get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning to take a shower, or do I put my hair up tomorrow and take a shower tomorrow evening? Oi.

This is Amadeus, discovered and named by Courtney and Amy, who got loose in the courtyard about a month ago. I managed to catch her and took her outside, where she sat in my arms for half an hour or so. I just found one of Mia's whiskers on my floor. I've found several of them since being here, mostly stuck on my blankets and all the clothes she slept on as I was packing. I miss my kitty, and I was very glad Amadeus came along when she did to give me a kitty fix.

Alright, I'm finished. My bed is calling me. Dormite bene.

2006-11-10T12:45:00.001-05:00

I feel like I should attempt to list a fraction of all the many, many things I have learned since coming to Asbury. Sure, I've learned academic things. Before coming here I didn't know the difference between schizphrenia and dissociative identity disorder (DID) or that third declension adjectives generally take an -i ending in the ablative singular. And I've learned 'life' sorts of things, like one hour of work in the library is equivalent to three hours of work in my dorm room, and while one setting on the washer will get my clothes wet, another similar (yet apparently different) setting will actually get them clean. But the beauty of Asbury is the spiritual learning that goes on here. I hardly know where to begin. Here are a few of the things that I have learned and attempted to translate into something that makes sense.

1. I am learning to listen. Not just for big things like going from public school to homeschooling or choosing a college and/or career, but for small things as well. Sometimes it is how to pray for someone, or something I ought to do or say. The amazing part is not the hearing or the obeying, but how God responds to and multiplies one tiny act of obedience!

2. Serving. I have come to see the difference between serving in your life and having a life of service. The former involves living daily life and here and there serving God in one way or another. The latter involved a complete surrender to God each moment, trusting Him for the next step and not counting on that step to be necessarily visible before taking it. It means listening and being open to going anywhere He asks or staying in the place He chooses. My "plans" are not my own. I think, in that respect, God has blessed me by not really giving me any. If I don't have plans, I don't have to change them when he directs me to something.

3. Faith is more than a noun. It is also more than repeating the Apostle's Creed. It is at attitude of trust that is carried out in obedience. I may come back to this one at another time.

4. I am unnecessary. God doesn't need me. If I don't care to obey, God will use someone else to accomplish His work. I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to be used by Him!

5. Life is so unfair. The thing is, it's unfair in my favor. I cannot for the life of me understand why I have been blessed with so much- tangible and intangible- when others, both here and around the world, have so much less. I know that "[from] everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more (Luke 12:48)." I wish I knew what more I could do to balance the fairness of this life.

I could drone on for quite awhile longer, but I have class. Valete!

Z is for Zis is Ze End of Ze Alphabet!

2006-11-04T15:49:00.000-05:00

Congratulate me, all, I have finally finished the alphabet. Remind me not to start something like that again.

I have just spent the past four hours sitting in Kinlaw Library. For most of this time I was hitting myself over the head with a book called "Power Sleep," or perhaps the one called "In Bed with the Food Doctor," and periodically stopping to furiously type something about how college students are ruining their lives by not getting enough sleep. I wrote three and a half pages today, and I figure that if I write 1-2 pages a day from now until Kingdom Come, I will finish on time.

It's so very quiet in the library. I mean, it's usually quiet in the library, but today particularly so. On weeknights there are usually groups of students whispering to one another and multiple sets of hands furiously clicking over laptop keyboards. Saturdays, however, those who dare to venture into the library do so because they intend to sit down and stay there and not move until they have finished such and such a task. There is little talking, quieter clicking, and an air of hazy boredom. The resulting studious atmosphere often leads me to look up from my work, stare into space, and wonder profound things like, "I wonder if that was chicken salad or tuna salad on my sandwich at lunch..." or "Is it true that guys on one side of the library are cuter than those on the other?" (A girl on my hall claims this is so.) At this point I accidentally catch the eye of someone or other else who has gotten lost in irrelevant thought and both of us quickly go back to our work, denying the fact that we ever ceased our studying.

After eleven (wow, really?) weeks at school I, this very morning, have finally discovered the secret to doing the laundry and ending up with truly washed and dried clothes. To wash in cold water with a regular cycle, choose the 'bright colors' setting. Put an extra quarter in the dryer for an extra 20 minutes and (hooray!) dry clothes. Most weekends so far my room has been filled with drying racks and every available piece of furniture covered in my still-damp 'clean' clothing. I am happy to have finally discovered the secret.

I can hear the familiar deep breathing that tells me someone has fallen asleep in the big, comfy leather chair in front of me. I could do a whole study on sleep deprivation in our very own Kinlaw Library. I wonder if perhaps we should rename this place 'the naptime building with all the books.'

My battery icon has just turned red, which is my computers way of figuratively holding a gun to my head and saying, "Plug me in or else." I don't have my power cord with me, which means I had better go back to my room. Farewell!

Lesson of the weekend: In case of the advent of a new ice age, either stake it out in a huge library and burn the books to keep warm, or trek through the blizzard with Dennis Quaid, because he survives, even though the extreme cold freezes everyone else instantaneously (cf. The Day After Tomorrow).

Y is for Yay! I declared a major!

2006-11-01T15:33:00.001-05:00

I am now officially an Applied Communications major. I had planned to wait to declare, as I have a tendency to change my mind, but I'm pretty sure I'll stick with this, as it's what I keep coming back to. Someone told me that majors have priority for classes in that department (which makes perfect sense), so I decided to declare in hopes of making sure I get into the communications class I signed up for (which is a prerequisite for nearly every other comm class).

For those who wish to ask, as nearly everyone does (straight from the Asbury College Bulliten):

The APPLIED COMMUNICATION MAJOR, through a study of both ancient traditions
and contemporary ideas of communication, helps students develop the communication
skills essential for building basic human relations, ensuring vocational
success, and improving feelings of self-worth. It has been demonstrated that students
become more fully developed critical thinkers and forceful persons to the degree that
they have learned and practiced speechmaking and other oral communication skills.
Majors in this program may select from four areas of concentration: public relations,
studies in communication, leadership, and theatre.

I like that not only will I improve my communication skills, but also my "feelings of self-worth." Haha.

Also, Karissa Marken is my hero because she showed me how to set up Mail to work with my Asbury email address. The guy at the help desk, who apparently does not know what he is talking about, told me that was not possible. No more Microsoft Entourage! If it were possible, I would burn it.

X is for xi

2006-10-28T12:08:00.001-04:00

Xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet, so I'm told. It actually has nothing to do with what I'm going to say. But it starts with x!

Last night I went to a bonfire that 1st Glide's hall parents put on for us and our brother hall (Johnson 2nd West). It was good times! Rather than writing a ton, I shall just post pictures:

Sam and I dressed up as doctors. Or nurses. Or people wearing scrubs. Take your pick.

Heather, one of the Beatles, seranading Courtney the horsewoman.

Me, going down the zipline.

Several girls dressed up as some of our brothers. From left to right is Jordan, Kelsey (as either Stephen Bush, Zach Stone, or Dustin Pugel or just general J2W guy), Stephen, Mary (as Caleb Sigler, who didn't go last night), Felice (as Dustin Ford), and Dustin himself.

David, Jordan, and Stephen shaking their faces off. Ahh yes, good, mature, college fun. :P

This afternoon I am participating in what I believe shall be my first ever flag football game, organized by none other than Heather Krauss. I'm looking forward to it.

W is for Wow

2006-10-18T11:49:00.000-04:00

I could come up with a better W word, but I didn't. So there.

This morning in Chapel Joel and Lizzy (our class sponsors) announced the Unashamed class hymn: How Great the Father's Love for Us. This was my second choice (after Come Thou Fount), but overall I'm quite pleased with it. There were possibilities that I like a lot less.

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

V is for Vanishing Facebooks

2006-10-17T22:54:00.000-04:00

My Facebook has followed in the footsteps of my MySpace and been deleted. I decided that (1) it was a bit hypocritical of me to delete one and not the other and (2) it's more of a hinderance and time-waster than anything else. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but somewhere around Sunday I started to feel rather convicted about it and the fact that I was trying to create a reason not to give it up eventually confirmed the fact that I should (if that makes sense). So I deleted it and it is now gone off in cyberspace somewhere.

I still welcome contact from non-Asburians, however! I would welcome any emails (even ones in facebook-wall format) at my Asbury address (which, to prevent spam, I shall not post here) or at musicalily@gmail.com (which forwards everything to my Asbury address).

Perhaps with all the time I shall save by not being on facebook, I'll actually post here more often.

U is for 'Uber'

2006-10-01T22:29:00.000-04:00

'Uber' is a funny word. Sam likes to say it, and it's kind of rubbed off on me. There is, for example, a very tall guy here. I don't know is real name, but he is commonly referred to as 'uber tall guy.' I think he's 6'10" or something crazy like that. There are also people who run uber fast, or clothes that are uber cool.

I've been sitting here for quite a long time trying to come up with something to write. I think I'm ready to be done with the alphabet.

U is also for "ultamint frizbe", which Lisa told me I should write about. I'm pretty sure she meant ultimate frisbee. I don't know much about ultimate frisbee, except that you use a frisbee and apparently it's the ultimate way to use one.

And finally, U is for Unashamed, as in the Unashamed Class of 2010. Hooray for us. I must go write a paper now. Goodnight.

T is for Team Spirit

2006-09-17T15:51:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I sat in my room watching the Bengals game (with a Browns fan and a Broncos fan whose dad doesn't like the Bengals) feeling very alone in my fandom, and thought about my family at the game and periodically moaned 'woe is me, how I wish I could be there too.' So, to console myself, I ordered a bright orange 'who dey' hoodie from Amazon.com for quite a bargain. When I was at home everyone cheered for the Bengals, but now that I'm in the middle of Kentucky where there is no football team and everyone has a different favorite, I feel a need to make my loyalties known. Hooray for Cincinnati! If I'm lucky, it will get here in time for next week's game. We shall see.

TV Announcer: It's Oktoberfest here in Cincinnati...
Sam (a few minutes later): But it's September...

S is for Soccer

2006-09-16T00:44:00.000-04:00

So... college keeps a person pretty busy. Please accept my deepest apologies for not posting more often. :P

The first week of school I had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: Someone at home asked me how I could stand to go to a school without a football team.
Other person: Did you tell them that you do, it's just the football that's recognized by the rest of the world?

I really should have said that.

The World Cup this past summer started me on the road to soccer fandom and attending Asbury has increased it. It's a rather enthralling sport to watch. The fact that I know people on both the girls' and guys' teams also makes watching fun. Go Eagles!

Apparently the Eagle mascot lives on my hall, but I don't know who it is.

How was that for an absolutely fascinating blog entry?! I've gotten out of the habit of writing and don't really know what to say. So tell me, what would you like to know?

I have learned that Friday and Saturday nights are the best times to make friends. If you hang around public places long enough at those times, you are sure to run across someone that you don't know, or only sort of know, or knows someone you know, who is looking for something to do or someone to hang out with. This is generally followed by extremely exciting things like playing cards or walking around campus or, of you're lucky and have connections with a car, going to town to do something. Then, once you know the people you've been hanging out with, you realize that they are in this that or the other class of yours and end up talking to them throughout the week. I love the fact that hanging out with random people can be so much fun. Hooray. :)

R is for R.I.P Steve Irwin and Reasons Why Asbury Rocks

2006-09-05T08:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning in the hall, a sign announcing the death of the Crocodile Hunter replaced the one informing us that Pluto is no longer a planet. Since then Glidians everywhere have periodically stopped to shake their head and declare, 'I can't believe Steve Irwin is dead.' Everyone sort of had this impression that he was immortal, having encountered so many deadly things and escaped unharmed. I guess he's not.

For a somewhat dramatic change of subject, here are 10 reasons why Asbury rocks:

1. Chapel, and all other spiritual aspects. I love taking a break (or three) out of my week to worship together with my classmates and not have the feeling that I could be somewhere doing homework or something. I also love the Wednesday night worship/class prayer time. Usually by Wednesday night I've started freaking out about something, and the hour or so of focusing on God really puts things into perspective. And my Understanding the New Testament class is very cool. I would not have taken that class, had I gone to a different school. Overall, I am very glad that I ended up at a school that is Christian in name and in practice.

2. Dorm life. Asbury, by far, has the nicest dorms of any of the schools I visited. That, and the amazing girls on my hall, have made this a great place to live. My hall, 1st Glide, is different from most others in Glide-Crawford because, instead of being connedted to Crawford by a 'front' hallway, it is separated from all the other halls. This, so I'm told, makes our hall especially close. Plus, we have hall 'moms' who live in Wilmore and invited us over to their houses yesterday for brunch, which was absolutely amazing. Yum. I also like that we do not have freshman halls or entire dorms. My hall is made up of mostly freshman and juniors with a few sophomores and seniors as well, and no one looks down on anyone else. It makes for a very supportive place to live.

3. The Collegian. It's only the third week of school and I, as a freshman, have already been able to write an article for the school newspaper. One of the major benefits of a small school is that if you're interested in something, most often you are able to just jump right in.

4. The professors. When you come to visit, the Ambassadors and whoever else you talk to always talks about how supportive the professors are and how they're always there for you and so on and so forth. They are telling the truth! My English professor has a standing invitation for anyone to come to her house on Friday nights to hang out, my Latin professor is also my class advisor (that is, the advisor for the entire Unashamed Class of 2010, not to be confused with my academic advisor), and it's great how each professor really wants to get to know each student.

5. Friends. I love all the people I'm meeting here. Sam (my roommate), Heather and I are having a blast, and it's great to get to know the girls on my hall, people in my TAG group, in my classes, and at other random places and events.

6. The bells. As in the bell tower that chimes every hour and half hour. I just like that for some reason.

7. The diversity. Asbury is not diverse in the same way that some other schools are diverse; most people here have the same basic beliefs and lifestyles. But the freshman class came from 39 different states and 5 foreign countries, which is not at all bad for a class of 365 students at a tiny school in the middle of Kentucky. I had a fantastic conversation last week some time with a bunch of people from very different parts of the country.

8. The size. In my eyes, there are a whole lot of benefits to small schools. It takes about three minutes, if that, to get from my room to my classes. The classes are not taught by TAs, but by professors who are here because they wanted to teach at this type of small, Christian school and not just because they needed a job. Students are also here because they want to be at this kind of school, which makes for a great learning environment. There are more that I have thought of, but I can't remember any more at the moment. :P

9. Leadership opportunities. Leadership is really big here. They say that pretty much everyone who goes here will end up holding one leadership position or another. You can be a leader of pretty much anything; all you have to do is pick your interest and run with it. Asbury also has a great leadership training program called Lead On I am currently becoming more familiar with. It looks great.

10. Class identity. I know lots of people I have talked to think Asbury's class identity is cheesy or stupid, but I don't care. I love it. People are so loyal to their class (and the school as a whole) long after they graduate. I am a member of the Unashamed Class of 2010. Our class colors are black and hot pink, our class verse is 1 John 2:28, and we shall soon have a class hymn, once it is decided on. This year we also have the Consecrated class (2009), Empowered class (2008), and Transforming class (2007).

Q is for Quote

2006-08-29T13:22:00.000-04:00

Me, trying to decide on a major (sort of):

Alice came to a fork in the road.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?", responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know." Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

P is for...

2006-08-27T21:09:00.000-04:00

Pluto. Apparently it's no longer a planet. Someone posted an announcement about it on the wall in my hall. Heather, Sam, and I spent far too long trying to make up a new saying so we could remember the order of the remaining eight planets. My Very Energetic Mother Just Sold Us Napkins.

Palestine. My greatest accomplishment in the past 48 hours was memorizing all the locations listed on my map of 1st century AD Palestine for New Testament class. I'm not good at geography and I was quite pleased with my success.

Practice. I only practiced two and a half times (one time doesn't really count) for my orchestra audition, but it went really well. I made a few mistakes, but I was really happy with how it went considering how little I'd practiced. Even the sight reading went well, which surprised me. Dr. Holz even told me that I "definitely have the talent" to major or minor in music if I wanted to. Granted, the Asbury music department is not CCM, but I thought it was nice of him to say.

Porkopolis. Yesterday I had on a shirt that said "Cincinnati" and had a picture of a flying pig on it. As a result, I got to tell half the school about Cincinnati's history with flying pigs and other local things (like goetta, Skyline Chili, and Graeter's). I appreciate Cincinnati's coolness more every time I talk to people from other places. I mean, other places are cool too, but I like Cincinnati. Heather predicted me "most likely to brag about her hometown" on Facebook.

Pretzles. Pretzles have been a staple snack for me my entire life and I don't think there is a single one on campus. I guess I have always taken them for granted because I have been craving them for the past week or so. The first chance I get I am walking over to IGA and seeing if I can find a reasonably priced bag.

O is for Orientation

2006-08-24T09:07:00.000-04:00

My goodness! All of a sudden a week has sped by and I haven't posted. Shame on me.

Orientation has been officially over for a couple of days now, but I'll take a few paragraphs to write about it.

Every year all Asbury freshman are split up into 20 or so TAG (Transition and Guidance) groups that are led by a couple of sophemores. My TAG group is #2, which also happens to be the best TAG group ever. ; ) During actual orientation, we met multiple times every day. Now we only meet officially once a week for dinner, but since pretty much our whole group has become friends, we've gotten together other times. Yesterday we met in the Grille for Euchre and ping-pong and ERS, among other things. It was great fun, even though my team lost.

This is Carol and Zach beating me and Jason (who is out of the picture) at Euchre. Sadly, it just wasn't our day.

Me and Sam (my awesome roommate) before our class picture (hence the t-shirts) during orientation.

Isn't that a pretty window?

N is for New Beginnings

2006-08-19T10:59:00.000-04:00

When I left for Asbury College on Thursday morning I was about 25% excited and 75% nervous. Now that I've been here 48 hours, I am at least 95% excited and only 5% nervous. I love this place! The dorm is great and my roommate, Sam, is fantastic. We met at the scholarship competition and decided to room together, so I knew here a little bit before getting here, but I think this is going to work out really well. We've gotten along great so far and hopefully we'll be able to work through any future difficulties without too much trouble.

Moving in and orientation has kept me pretty busy, so I haven't had much time to pause for things like blogging (or journaling or even much sitting) yet. I imagine I will fall into some sort of routine once classes actually start. Right now I have about an hour break while the majority of people are taking a language placement test. Since I've only has one year of Latin and am definitely going to be in the 101 class I didn't have to take it. : )

My room:

Sam and I both felt like we had brought a ton of stuff, but we actually have a ton of space (due, at least in part, to bunking the beds). I felt better when I saw that some girls had brought even more stuff than me.

My desk:

I wonder how long I will be at all organized. :P

M is for Music

2006-08-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

Written in my journal 7/9/06:

I like music with lots of layers. Sometimes when I'm tired or sad or just want to block out the world for a bit, I like to put in my headphones and listen to the layers. First I will just listen to the whole song as it recommends itself to me, hearing the words, or the melody, or whatever else stands out the most. But in later listenings I concentrate on the harmony or the bass or the countermelody or the percussion or the celli or the trumpets and each little bit of what makes the song flesh out as a whole. I try to hear how the parts interact with each other and add to the total effect. They bring images to my mind and I often picture drifting among different layers of colors, each part rushing over me like water and carrying me with its current for a time (imagine the 'pure music' part of Fantasia)...

...I think this is why I so dislike 'easy listening' music. It is as shallow as a poorly written book character or a stereotypical teenage cheerleader. Bo-ring!

L is for Legacy and for Laura is cool because she took me to visit Miami

2006-08-14T18:05:00.000-04:00

I went to my last Experience last night. It was a bit sad because it was my last one, but at the same time exciting because it's so neat to see what God is doing there. I spent the candle/prayer time remembering all the amazing times I've had in that upper room and how the people who have been there have made such an impact on me. I left hoping that my presence there over the past four years has made some sort of a difference as well. That maybe Cafe has changed for the better since I started leading it two years ago or that people felt welcomed and loved there in part because of my efforts. When I turned on the radio in my car, Legacy, by Nichole Nordeman was playing. Very appropriate:

I want to leave a legacy,
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to you enough
To leave a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering.
A child of mercy and grace
Who blessed your name
Unapologetically...
Leave that kind of legacy.

* * * * *

Yesterday afternoon Laura drove up to Miami with her mom and Mombers (her grandma) and she invited me to come along to see the campus. It was fun to see where so many of my friends are going to spend the next four years. On the road there, Laura pointed out the ridiculous number of black and neon signs for a large variety of things. One heck of a good neon sign salesman must have traveled that road.

Upon arrival we ate at the Bagel and Deli, a small hole-in-the-wall sort of place which, like most successful hole-in-the-wall business, has amazing food. You can make up any sandwich you want, or choose from the already created combinations listed on (quite creative) homemade signs around the shop. I had a "Messy Katie," which consists of cream cheese, turkey, cheddar cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and sprouts toasted on a bialy bagel (except I had mine on pumpernickel because they were out of bialy). It was excellent.

Then we drove around the campus. I have to admit, driving around campus is a bit funny to me. I've become so used to Asbury (where driving from a dorm to an academic building would be a bit silly) that Miami seems huge. But I'm happy that now I will be able to imagine the dorms where Laura and Brittany and Brandae will be living and their dining halls and classrooms and such. I like having a mental image.

* * * * *

I think I'll be a good girl and go practice violin for a little while now. My first orchestra class is Tuesday and it could be interesting. I haven't practiced in awhile...

K is for Potassium

2006-08-12T17:30:00.000-04:00

K is for a lot of other things, too: Kentucky (a very nice state), Koalas (live in a country where the people have fantastic accents), Kite (a cool song by Copeland), and Kiwi (a fruit of a very pretty green color) among other things. But when I thought 'K', the first thing that came to my mind was Potassium.

In chemistry, when I had to memorize a certain number of chemical symbols, potassium was always easiest for me to remember because it was so random. Though I despised chemistry at the time, I have a lot of fond memories of that class. (Physics was definitely better though, both in subject matter and in company.) My fondest memories are of experiments. Things that blow up or bubble or spark or melt or change color are much more interesting than things that may or may not roll or swing or fall correctly. I remember a particular episode (that I will never forget) where my teacher put steel wool in a plastic bag with... something (HCl, maybe?) and have it to a particular student. The concoction in the bag sparked and flamed a bit and the student leaped six feet and squealed like a girl. It was hysterical. This student was subsequently in my physics class as well, and the others who were there for the incident have never let him forget it. =D

Potassium brings a few other things to mind. The first is a sleepover I attended in third grade. We watched Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. I don't remember a whole lot of the movie, but there was one part where a kid had some illness that he needed medication for. He forgot to take it and when he passed out, some other kid stuffed a banana in his mouth because he needed potassium.

My violin teacher used to tell me to eat a banana before I performed because the potassium in it had some sort of calming effect. I'm not sure if it really worked, but I did eat a banana before I performed as often as I remembered to.

K = Potassium. I suspect there is some reason for this random association. Cybercookies to anyone who can tell me why...

J is for Jelly Beans

2006-08-11T22:49:00.000-04:00

I really like jelly beans. A lot. They are by far my favorite candy and pretty high up on the list of my favorite foods. I like all kinds, but brands of particular note include Starburst and (of course) Jelly Belly. These two are special because they have not only a flavored candy coating, but also a flavored gel inside, giving them twice the yumminess of a regular jelly bean. See? The Candyblogger agrees with me.

Jelly Bellies have a slight edge over Starburst, mostly due to the fun factor. No matter how hard they try, the standard green apple, cherry, grape, orange, etc are no match for flavors such as buttered popcorn, juicy pear, and peanut butter. The unique flavors can be enjoyed alone or in 'recipes' (for example, two blueberry beans and one buttered popcorn equals a blueberry muffin).

The moral of the story is, if you want to be my friend, butter me up, or in any way impress me, jelly beans are the way to go. Of course, any of those things can be accomplished in other ways, but jelly beans are a good place to start.

2006-08-09T15:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my blog generated 102 page impressions. So far today I've only had 12. Why is that?

I is for Igloo

2006-08-09T12:52:00.000-04:00

I talked to Heather this morning. 'Heather,' said I, 'what does 'I' stand for? I have A-H, but I'm stuck on I. 'Why Christy,' she replied, ''I,' of course, stands for igloo!' Not just any old igloo, mind you, but the one in Alaska, where it snows 10 months of the year, that she plans to live in. She has also informed me that in the two months it does not snow she will live on (in?) a sled with her pack of wolves while adding onto and renovating her igloo. (Apparently the wolves also bring her food year round. I hope you can grow limes or something up there, Heather, because I don't want you dying of scurvy.) I guess maybe there's still snow on the ground, even tough it's not snowing? Might be hard to sled otherwise...

Though I thought living in a place where it's always snowing and completely dark for half of the year might get depressing, she informed me that this will be no problem. She has a polar bear to keep her company and spends her time knitting sweaters for the local penguins. I'm fairly sure that penguins live in southern coldness as opposed to northern coldness. When I said as much she replied that her sweaters were for puffins, not penguins. I don't know if there are puffins in Alaska, but I suppose I'll take her word for it. And the yarn for her sweaters is imported from Jamaica, by the way. It's all donated, so she doesn't need any money.

So there you have it. I is for igloo. Still, I always thought Heather would prefer Vermont...

H is for HP Support

2006-08-08T19:32:00.000-04:00

I got a printer a few weeks ago. It's a pretty cool printer, one of those all-in-one things that works as a printer, a copier, and a scanner. I have become frustrated with it, though, because my computer refuses to recognize that it's there. Backtrack... that's not entirely true. It does work. I can print and copy wonderfully. But when I try to complete the "Setup Assistant" (the icon has a tuxedo on, which I think is funny) so that I can use the scanner, I am told that the computer cannot find the printer. I've been emailing back and forth with an HP support person trying to fix the problem, but so far no such luck. Yesterday I got another email from her with a long, involved process to try and a new driver to install. Since it is such a long and involved process I have not had time to try it yet. Between work and my social butterfly tendencies (Ha) I may not have time until tomorrow or Thursday. I am very much hoping to get the problem resolved by the following Thursday.

Someone has a sense of humor

2006-08-08T13:59:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention a long time ago (as I intended) that after my letter to my anonymous sponsor who pledged $14.64, I got another anonymous sponsorship for $14.14. Coincidence? I'm not sure. Two weeks later I'm still wondering about those two...

G is for "God on the Quad," and other last minute reading

2006-08-08T12:30:00.000-04:00

I have three books still checked out from the Cincinnati library that I want to try to finish before I take off for Asbury. The first of these is God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation are Changing America, by Naomi Schaefer Riley. Riley describes her travels to several different religious (not just Christian) colleges in the US and the impact that these schools and their students are having on society. Obviously I find this particularly interesting as I am about to attend such a school. Colleges discussed in the book include (as far as I've read) Brigham Young University (Mormon), Bob Jones University (fundamentalist Christian), Notre Dame (Secular-ish Catholic), and Thomas Aquinas College (Orthodox Catholic). I understand that the next three chapters are on Jewish, Buddhist, and Baptist colleges. Riley herself is Jewish, but she does a very good job of presenting each school in an unbiased light. She notes both the schools' "extreme" aspects and the positive effects of their unique environments. Surprisingly (to me) I have found that Thomas Aquinas is the school that intrigues me the most. If I were Catholic and the school were not so far away, I may have looked into going there. (As it is, one would have to pay me an awful lot of money to get me to go anywhere besides Asbury.) The final chapters of the book are more specifically about the effects of religious schools on this country. I am looking forward to reading Riley's overall assessment.

The second book I picked up is The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within, by Erwin Raphael McManus. I reserved it at the library after hearing someone raving about it, but I had to wait for it so long that I now cannot remember who. I have a general aversion to most 'Christian living' sort of books and devotionals (one notable exception being My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers), but every now and then I find one that I like. Hopefully this will be one of them.

The third book, Night, by Elie Weisel, I picked up on a whim after seeing it mentioned in several different places. When I looked at it I discovered that its sudden popularity is thanks to the help of Oprah, who named it as one of her book club books. The Holocaust has always interested me and I was particularly intrigued after reading an excerpt describing a man playing a Beethoven concerto on his violin as he died. I was going to post a link to that passage, but I can't seem to find it again.

Nine days, three books, little reading time...

F is for Fanfiction

2006-08-07T10:27:00.000-04:00

I have long been "convinced" that fictional characters were actually real people living in a universe parallel to our own. Fiction writers are simply people that are able to see into this alternate universe and write about a piece of it in the language of our own. It is not only the original author who can peek into this world. Anyone who wishes to can take what they see and put it into writing as well. These people, in other words, create fanfiction.

In the wee hours of the Blogathon I made a comment to the effect of, "All fanfiction should be outlawed." This outburst came after, while doing a search for the name of a guest actor who looked familiar, I came across this Sue Thomas: FBEye fanfiction story. The others in the forum were not much better. I immediately condemned any thing of the sort. Furter reflection, however, led me to believe I may have been a bit hasty in my judgement. After all, it was this, now much subdued, fanfiction website that led me to meet my good chum Heather.

A Google search to find out of others agreed with my negative assessment of fanfiction turned up this essay, which argues just the opposite. The author, Elizabeth Marsh, states, "fanfictions are a worthy alternative to hours spent in front of the television, giving the viewer a chance to use what they learn from the media to further their writing ability." I admit that stretching one's creative muscles, even with characters and settings one did not invent themselves, is a better way to spend one's time than staring at a glowing box. Writers wonder 'what if this thing had happened instead of this other thing?' and then [sometimes] toughtfully work their way through the situation. When watching television, this work is done for them.

Still, I can't quite praise the popular phenomenon. There is a reason that screenwriters are screenwriters and others are just... fanfiction authors. Much writing from the latter is just plain bad. (That's not to say that all screenwriting is good, though certainly a higher percentage of it is.) My problem is not so much that the writing is bad, but that people celebrate it as good. If fanfiction is- as Elizabeth Marsh claims- a way to further writing ability, constructive criticism should be as much a part of the responses as praise.

I also find it frustrating that fanfiction stories are rarely consistent with the shows they were inspired by. Flirtatious glances in one TV episode often lead to steamy romance scenes in a subsequent fanfiction story. Violence and drama are often taken to disgusting or rediculously cheesy levels in an attempt to captivate readers. Many fanfiction boards now require a rating to accompany all stories. But if a show is popularized with a rating of PG or PG-13, why do fanfiction authors think that raising that rating to R+ will make their writing more attractive?

Though I could go on and on about my particular dislikes of fanfiction writing (like how writers consistently botch the personalities and morality of well-established characters), I suppose that overall it is a matter of personal preference. No one is forcing me to read any and, upon completion of this post, I don't anticipate ever doing so. If you are a fanfiction... uh... fan, then maybe you will be lucky enough to improve you writing skills and, as my fifth grade teacher used to say, earn some new wrinkles in your brain.

E is for Eggs

2006-08-06T13:41:00.000-04:00

My little sister, Lisa, first showed me this website. I'm not sure whether laughter or tears is the best response. Go here and click on "egg song" at the top right.

D is for Drafts

2006-08-05T19:31:00.000-04:00

I have a bunch of posts that I have started and since completely forgotten about. Now I can't remember what I had intended to say in the first place. Observe:

10/28/05: Life makes more sense backwards.

11/15/05: Pieces of Me

I'm a bit post-happy these days. My apologies if I bore you.

I've been reading through some of my old journals again (something I do fairly often) and thought that, since blogs are pretty egotistical anyway, I would quote myself a bit. What can I say? I amuse myself. (Random fact: people who keep journals and reread them often are at a higher risk of committing suicide than the general population. That's a bit creepy.)

Here's a sampling of my dramatic 8th grade year:

"Maybe in Heaven God will have a big writing desk for me to sit at 24/7 and write about how cool He is!"
~10/17/01

"What a mysterious and wonderful thing joy is! Joy. What a small simple word for such a huge, beautiful feeling! If the feeling joy brings could be said in one word, it would be so long that it would wrap around the world a million times and still not be good enough."
~11/2/01

"I have to write. Its just in my blood or something. The problem is... WRITER'S BLOCK! It's this thing that happens when you've been having really great ideas and then BANG! everything that was once in your brain has been slurped out by an imaginary vacuum, and the blank page sits there in front of you, mocking you. It's saying: "Come on, look at me, I'm so plain and blank, and want you to fill me with your thoughts and ideas, but ha! You can't think of anything! So I'll just sit here, all blank and lonely becaue YOU are dumb and can't think of anything!"
~11/30/01

"I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling I hate homeschooling. .... I just remembered a passage that I found in 'The Message,' a paraphrase of the Bible. It says: "Don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. " Ouch. I think I've just been slapped and shoved back into my place."
~12/7/01 (8th grade was a little rough. My opinion of homeschooling has changed greatly since then)

12/3/05: The Body of Christ

Every week, and especially the first Sunday of the month when we take communion, I am always amazed at how God has drawn such a diverse and broken group of people together as His body. I love it.

Today I got to church early (7:55) because I was making an announcement at the 8:00 about a youth group fund raiser. After I was done I had a lot of time to kill, so I helped a member of the church's prison ministry set up this year's Angel Tree.

12/27/05: faith/reason

Balance of faith and reason. They are not mutually exclusive, yet both are necessary. Here's why:

4/14/06:

I happened to catch part of Oprah today while they were talking about minimum wage. They showed sad stories about several families surviving on the national minimum wage ($5.15/hr) that were, of course, not without a political agenda. The entire show was dedicated to urging viewers to call and write their leaders, asking them to raise the minimum wage. I speak ignorantly, but as I see it this creates new problems. Money has to come from somewhere. Business with suddenly higher labor costs would have to compensate by hiring fewer workers and/or raising prices. America is stuck in a catch-22 in this respect.

6/27/06:

It's amazing how some people can take anything in life and make it interesting. I keep running across writing about seemingly boring like waitressing or infomercials that look at those things in a light that makes them intriguing and thought provoking. I'm trying to learn that; it makes the time spent filing and alphabetizing and Microsoft Excelling much less dull.

7/5/06: You've Got Spam

I am well aware that I have a tendency to become perhaps over-excited about subjects that (to others) may seem silly. If you find this tendency to be obnoxious, please feel free to skip the following rant.

On my Gmail account I usually get 10-20 spam messages a day. Generally this doesn't bother me, as Gmail has a very effective spam filter and the one or two a month that manage to slip past that are caught by Mail when I download the messages to my computer. What does bother me is when my friends spam me with forwarded scams. Since yesterday I have received the following forward twice:

C is for Crappy Computers

2006-08-05T10:37:00.000-04:00

I shouldn't complain. I'm very lucky to have a work computer at all. For the couple of weeks before I had "my own" computer at work, I hopped around to whichever computer wasn't in use at the moment and, when they were all in use, generally had nothing to do. So I'm grateful that I have one. That said, the computer I have stinks. It's a big Dell "laptop" that is much too big to be actually used on a lap (though it's handy for when I have to move desks). It has a really high screen resolution, which means everything is really tiny and reading is hard on the eyes. It is new enough to have a trackpad, but old enough that (for whatever reason) the manufacturers still felt it necessary to have one of those fuzzy dot mouse control things in the middle of the keyboard. The trackpad and the fuzzy dot both have to have their own set of buttons, so I have four mouse buttons where one would do. I am constantly hitting them on accident and causing uncool things to happen. I also have a real mouse, so I don't really need any of them. (As an aside, I really love the trackpad and *single* click button on my iBook. Two finger scrolling is possibly my favorite computer-y invention in the world.) Also, the 'h' key doesn't work. If I hit it as I normally would while typing, it doesn't work. But if I hit it hard enough to generate a response, I end up with four or five h's. The 'h' key also happens to be right next to the fuzzy mouse controller thing, so when I try to hit the key harder I often end up hitting the dot as well and, again, causing uncool things to happen. Finally, computer gets really hot right under the keyboard. This makes typing for long periods of time rather unpleasant. Fortunately, I have only five more eight hour chunks of sitting in front of that generally unlikable computer and then I get to go back to using my generally cool iBook all the time. Hooray!

"Memories will be our souviners"

2006-08-04T21:23:00.000-04:00

My girls are all leaving me. Mae and Caitlin and I think Claire are all leaving tomorrow and won't be back until after I leave. I didn't really get to say goodbye to any of them either. *sigh* This is making me very sad. If any of you girls read this, I love you dearly; have fun at Lakeside and hopefully I'll see you when I come home to visit. Mae and Cait: good luck senior year! Hooray for the class of '07! <-- And don't expect to hear that out of me again. ;)

Cyberhugs to the three of you. Keep in touch!

Everyone else, let's see each other for real before I leave! A week and 6 days still: plenty of time.

B is for 'Boys are Evil.'

2006-08-04T17:55:00.000-04:00

That's not actually my opinion (all the time), but the opinion of Pensacola Christain College. And it's not really boys that are evil, but boys and girls together having any sort of association with one another. I think Pensacola would have done well as a Shaker college. Wikipedia's list of PCC's rules and regulations makes an interesting read. According to them, "stairwells and elevators are segregated by gender, members of the opposite sex are not permitted to touch in any way (even shaking hands is against the rules), mixed-gender meetings (including off-campus) are forbidden unless a PCC chaperon is present." Also substantial eye contact, called "eye kissing," "optical intercourse" or "making eye babies" by students, is strongly discouraged. Further, "engaging in social activities as a group away from the campus with members of the opposite sex can result in immediate dismissal." I really have to wonder how strictly they can possibly enforce that. I mean, say you go to the 80th birthday party of a family friend and some of his grandkids and others 'youth' are there (none of whom you are related to). Are you going to be expelled for playing charades with this group?

Asbury students are required to read and sign a code of conduct before enrolling. This list may seem extreme to some (I have gotten few comments to that effect when telling people what school I am going to), but it does not forbid anything that I would have done had I been allowed (the only exception being non-coreographed dancing, and I don't see that as too much of a loss).

The purpose of rules at all Christian colleges is to create an environment where Christ can be glorified through higher learning. However, there is a difference between learning in a Christ-centered environment and signing yourself into a prison for four years. Anyone have opinions on the matter?

A is for Air Conditioning

2006-08-04T13:30:00.000-04:00

The AC in the Clippard Sales department broke shortly after I started here. Most of the summer we have had the lights out, shades closed, and fans filling every outlet in the department. Occasionally there were days where I would be warm in the afternoon, but it was never horrible. Two days ago, the air conditioning was fixed and the temperature change could not be more dramatic. Suddenly everyone is wearing sweaters and sweatshirts. A couple of people have brought in space heaters to put under their desks, and one person brought in hot chocolate to share. The lights are on and all the shades open in hopes of soaking up a few warm rays of sun. Skirts and sandals have been exchanged for pants, socks, and shoes. Will we ever get it right? I'm told I just picked the wrong season to work in.

On why words are cooler than numb3rs

2006-08-03T22:54:00.000-04:00

Written in my journal 7/8/06 (probably quite early in the morning), edited a little:

Sometimes I am disinclined to believe in prime numbers. I mean, with a number as big as 7,057, surely SOMETHING must go into it. Or 101. It's so... palendromic. It seems odd and a bit frightening to me that it has no factors besides 1 and itself. Why do I find this frightening? I don't know. Maybe because when I think of a [large] priome number, I imagine that number and one in my head [101; 1]. And then other numbers start to pass through my head as I try to disprove its... primacy [52... 10... 16... 21... 7... 3... 18...]. And soo the numbers woosh past each part of my brain and I start to hear a sort of flapping noise, like wind ripping through the pages of a book too quickly to understand. I like to see my books' pages; to lovingly move over them with my eyes and mine and to mull over each word and sentence, working out different meanings. Words can mean so many different things. For example: "I'm tired." It can mean (among other things):
~I want to sleep
~I want to go home
~whatmakesyouthinkyouaretiredforIsurelyhavemorereasontobethanyou!
~my muscles are lacking oxygen
~of course I am tired, what would make you assume otherwise?
~I have been working hard all day
~I am lazy

On the other hand, numbers are so exact, so confining, yet so completely infitite and difficult to grasp. Two plus two ALWAYS equals four. No shades of meaning there.

NOTHING can be divided into 7, 057. Why not? Why are there only 10 digits? Could we understand so much if there were 12? Or only 6?

Bah. Give me words any day.

They've almost got it right...

2006-08-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

Finneytown High School is now claiming me for their own. Never mind the fact that not only did I not graduate from the school, but I just barely was able to get tickets to even attend the graduation. Maybe I should get some sort of honorary Orchestra diploma... But hey, they helped me get the word out about Blogathon, so who am I to complain?

I used to think...

2006-08-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

... that my chapstick would get a hole in the middle of it because I wasn't being careful enough. Every time I got a new tube of chapstick I would vow to be extra careful with it, yet it always got that hole in it anyway.

I also used to think that 'stomach' was a bad word.

In case you were wondering.

2006-08-01T09:17:00.000-04:00

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Pride and Prejudice

2006-07-31T23:55:00.000-04:00

To see the complete, ordered version of my P&P parody, go here.

Archiving... help!

2006-07-31T19:30:00.000-04:00

Help please! I'm trying to figure out how to create an archive just for my Pride and Prejudice posts so I can have them all neatly organized and linked from my main page. Does anyone know how to do this, or if it is even possible?

P&P: Happily Ever After

2006-07-31T17:31:00.000-04:00

Invisible Preacher: "We are gathered together today in the sight of God to... et cetera, et cetera... 'I do,' 'I do'... et cetera, et cetera... I now pronounce you men and wifes!"
Everyone: "Yaaaaay!"

Mr. Bingley: "I love you, Jane."
Jane: "I love you, ... uh... Mr. Bingley. What's your first name?"
Jane smiles.
Mr. Darcy: "I love you, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth: "I love you Fitzy."
Elizabeth laughs.

AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

Blue Barbie: "Awwww!!!"
Pink Barbie: "That's so cute! Let's watch it again!"
Blue Barbie: "Mr. Darcy! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Pink Barbie: "*sigh*"
White Barbie: "*yawn* What!? What happened? What did I miss?"

THE END