Happy Reformation Day!

Oh sad day. The last Halloween at Grove City where there will be donuts and cider in the quad with people wishing each other Happy Reformation Day. Last Halloween at GCC where Ryan B. will dress up as Luther and post his 95 Theses on the large and formidable doors of HAL. Last Halloween for all this very small, Christian college tradition. Last Halloween for me to laugh at it all while experiencing it. Sometimes I can't believe the traditions we have here...

This also marks the beginning of a very busy but fun weekend! I have a Halloween party tonight, a teacher's portfolio workshop tomorrow morning, a badminton match and HSM3 tomorrow afternoon, and then As You Like It and the Goulish Gourd Festival (aka carving pumpkins) tomorrow evening. Well, actually, I guess basically tomorrow is busy. And this weekend is daylight savings time. I'm very ready to 'fall back'.

Midterm Mayhem

It's over! Finally over! I just got back from taking my last midterm of this year! Amazing to think of that; then I start thinking about student teaching and I get all excited and nervous at the same time. Kind of like getting really giddy and then smelling something really bad all at once.

I also got a notice for my polling station next Tuesday in the mail today. Since I'm registered for absentee voting and they already sent my ballot, why did I get this?

The weather is much warmer and less windy today - no snow. Tomorrow one of my classes is cancelled, so all I have is a 9am and then work in the afternoon. That gives me plenty of time to get my costume for the Halloween party figured out - the theme is supposed to be The Wizard of Oz, but I don't think I'm going to be able to dress up according to that.... Saturday, Amanda and I are going to see As You Like It - should be a superb evening of Shakespeare.

Let it snow!

Last night, I was so close to going to sleep and some guys walked by my room shouting (sort of singing) Good King Wenceslas. I had no idea why on earth they were thinking about Christmas music so early, unless of course, they were like me and are big fans of Christmas! Then I woke up this morning, looked out my little window, and saw this:

Snow! In October! Yay! It was so great walking to class and getting all that snow in my face. Well, not really. But it was exciting. I hadn't seen snow since last December when I left for France, so this was fun - the smell, the cold wind (didn't miss that so much), the soft sound of snow falling. Poetic.

Tomorrow is finally my last midterm. French Cinema. Not much studying will be happening tonight since our class was cancelled yesterday 10 mins after we were all there, so we decided to just stay and study instead. That ended up being around 25 mins of studying out of the hour and 15 mins class period. "They don't have Zambonis in France." I haven't laughed so hard in long while.

Road Sign Rage

In first place for this year's "Europe's Most Stupid Road Sign" is this lovely work of abstract art brought to you by the Italian government:

Runner up is this collection of signs in Austria:

And lastly: um, what?

Of Haircuts and Hurricanes

Today was another lazy day filled with lots of reading from the lovely, riveting (not so much) book, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. In light of such uplifting reading on society's failings, I got to talk to my dad and brother. Not so much about the book, but about haircuts. Apparently BJ's looks like my mom stuck a salad bowl on his head and cut the hair hanging out from under it. I told him that he should be flattered he has the same haircut the Beatles had but he scoffed at me. Over the phone, no less.

And, we got to talk about random hurricane-like winds at home. They had some of the windows open to equalize the pressure in the house; my dad assured me (despite my non-worry), that they had taken this precaution so the house would not explode. This is after he answered the phone, "Hurricane Central", and I was quite confused. Why on earth I would think the house would explode, I don't know. Especially at the end of October. Everyone knows houses only explode in the spring.

Also, I just had a late night visitor and Reba is engaged! Congratulations!

Sleepy Saturday

Yesterday: sleeping in until noon (great), doing some homework (industrious), and sleepover at the apartments with Sarah and Megan (pizza, Swedish fish, chips and salsa, movies, etc.).

Today: breakfast, walking back to my dorm in the dreary rain, putting away clean laundry, taking an afternoon nap, watching Friends, eating dinner, finishing my book for C.S. Lewis on Tuesday, watching a movie and talking with Amanda.

Lots of everyday, lazy, sleepy happenings happened, but I don't feel like talking in complete sentences. <--- Except that one. Goodnight. :)

Creation

Oh, also almost forgot this. I was reading The Magician's Nephew today during lunch and came upon a passage that (this is my first time reading it) made me feel, I can't exactly describe it in one word; but, C.S. Lewis captures the moment of creation so beautifully, I got goosebumps...

"In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it....

"Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up on the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out - single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing." (Lewis, 99-100)

What an amazing illustration of what just the very beginning of creation was like for Narnia! It was such a beautiful description and I couldn't help but be in awe of God. If Lewis, a creature born of creation, can come up with something so wonderful, how much more amazing must creation have been? I cannot even fathom!

School!

Today was a very long day - getting up at 5:45, going to school, sitting through lots of classes and then teaching 2 periods = tired Abby. But it was so worth it! Being in school and working with kids and actually teaching (not just observing in a corner or helping out) was such a high for me. I had one of those eureka moments when I was like, "I really, really like this and want to do this!" That was very exciting!

Then I got back, had dinner, and accidentally fell asleep while sitting on my bed reading. Watched an episode and a half of Friends with Amanda and had a really fun 3-way Skype chat with Alicia and Molly. Coordinating this across three time zones was not easy, but it was worth it. And now I'm suffering a small bout of missing France and the no homework I had there.

Hopefully I'll be going to bed soon (sooo tired) and sleeping in until I wake up on my own tomorrow is my plan! Yay fall break!

Not on vacation...yet

Tonight will be a very short post because I'm up quite early tomorrow morning for teaching! Yays! I'm so excited! I get to teach a 40 minute review lesson on counting from 0-31. Lots of bingo and prize stickers are involved. Thank goodness 'excellent' and 'bravo' are the same in English and French - it means I inadvertently had French stickers.

So today was great - my mind was mostly already on vacation. I understood completely the new lesson in Logic and then took a fun civic literacy test in Issues. I scored way above average at 76.67%. If you have 15-20 minutes to spare and want to take the test to see how you compare, here's the link: http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

I then spent an hour in the Curriculum Library finding ideas for my lesson and typing it up. Fun times. The rest of the day was a little more hectic with everyone (except me and the student teachers) leaving for Fall Break, making the materials for my lesson, practicing it, and spending a while writing letters.

Now it's time to sleep and get psyched for tomorrow. Though not both at the same time please.

Yay Tuesday!

Quick update on yesterday since I'm a slacker (in this case, yes, I am...er, was?): The Logic test went as well as can be expected and I felt much more confident on it this time around. Then class, lunch, and a trip to Mercer. It was so fun to be in school again working with kids - even if I did get some attitude from a few. I had an adorable escort from class to class this time around - she was lots of fun had the biggest, brightest smile! Talked to the teacher who's letting me take over her French classes Thursday (now I really really need to get working on lesson plans!) and she was fantastic. I'm excited about working with her, even if it is only for a day. The meetings, etc. went well and I got back to my room, dinner eaten and meetings attended, at 6:15. I didn't know what to do with myself since I was already done with work for today. Alas, I did not choose to write my lessons, I chose (not the best choice, I might add) to watch a whole disc of Friends episodes. It was very relaxing and fun though! I also got to bed early - as in before midnight - a first in a while.

Today started out kind of dreary - cloudiness and random torrential hail downpours will do that. However, C.S. Lewis class = much fun (especially now that we're studying The Magician's Nephew) and Touring Choir was great in chapel. That started off my morning really well. Then class, lunch, class, and finally a mail check. Suffice it to say I am having an excellently wonderful day!!

Now it's trying to focus on homework: a lecture about patriotism in education, 2 evaluations of journal articles (in 3 sentences or less - uh, what?), and lesson plans (hopefully!) then maybe some positive reinforcement by watching the latest episode of Dancing with the Stars.

Eeek!

Ohdear ohdear. Homecoming is very distracting and time-consuming. Bad for my Symbolic Logic grade. I just got back from the study session and whoa, do I need to study. Badly. Why do I have to take another math credit? Whyyy??

In other news, I'm obnoxiously busy tomorrow afternoon - last observation at Mercer HS and getting prepped for teaching there Friday! Then my Wednesday afternoon class is moved to tomorrow because of Fall Break starting Wednesday, a KDP meeting, work, and homework - whew! Can I have time to breathe, please? No? Okay.

But Fall Break is coming up! Yays! And I'm in the middle of reading The Magician's Nephew - for a class. Go on, be jealous. Heehee.

Stayin' Alive and Stealin' Sand

BBC NEWS Health Bee Gees hit could save your life
Source: news.bbc.co.uk

US medics have found the Bee Gees' 1977 disco anthem, Stayin' Alive, provides an ideal beat to follow when performing CPR on a victim of a cardiac arrest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7678371.stm

I wonder which doctor had to get a Ph.D. to think up this study?


BBC NEWS Americas Jamaica puzzled by theft of beach
Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Questions are being asked in Jamaica about a police investigation into the theft of hundreds of tons of sand from a beach on the island's north coast.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7678379.stm

How do you steal 500 truck-loads of sand with no one seeing you?

Kentucky, the 'foreign land'

I know, what am I thinking? An update in the middle of the day? Outrageous! Just as outrageously funny as this ad I just saw on facebook. Now I realize that the ads are specially targeted to you based on your interests, race, sex, etc. but seriously - this was too funny. It said, "Teach in a Foreign Land!" and underneath it was this picture of Kentucky on your right. I know that I'm a Yankee and don't have a southern bone in my body (except maybe on the Virginia relative side? y'all?), but Kentucky is a 'foreign land'? Haahahaa. I do know that it was probably advertising getting an education in Kentucky to teach in a foreign country, but the catch line plus the picture made for a very funny literal interpretation and a hearty guffaw.

Things have started to get really busy now that it's officially Friday afternoon and a lot of people are done with classes. This means lots of organizations are starting to set up their tents and play loud music for Homecoming. All this running around is making me stressed out and I'm not even doing anything! I am excited for this weekend though - it should be great!

Also, just checked my mailbox and got my C.S. Lewis midterm back and got a significantly better grade than a C! Finally, all that studying pays off! And a surprise box of honey crisp apples from Wisconsin from my mom arrived - mmm. Now it's really autumn.

Worth

Tonight, All-Campus worship was great. (Also great, but not-as-great, was me working on Logic for a solid hour!)

We had a speaker (I already forgot his name) but he graduated from GCC in '95, and is now a pastor near Pittsburgh. He spoke on how we are always of value to God no matter what. In a very, um, poignant (? not sure of the work I'm looking for here...) example, he said if he gave us $100, we would take it - even if he crumpled it up, stepped on it, chewed on it, etc. Because, no matter what he is doing to that $100 bill short of completely destroying it, it is still worth one hundred dollars. Just as we still hold worth in God's eyes - He sent Jesus Christ to die for us - we were and are worth it.

I would have liked him to elaborate a little more, but with the 20 mins he was given, he did a great job.

God is so good!

See? a C?

Sadly, last night, my glasses broke - snapped in half right in the middle. Now I'm looking for some superglue to see if I can put them back together or I may have to go the sweet taped glasses route until Thanksgiving rolls around and I'm home to get a new pair. Good thing is that the frames were quite old as was the prescription - 7 years, so getting a new pair is long due.

In other news, my midterm Monday was handed back today and despite my long hours of studying and getting together with others in my class, I came away with a high C. My only consolation is that the people around me scored around the same, so it was a difficult test; and now that I know what this prof's tests look like, I'll be better prepared for the final.

And the mad rush of the week is effectively over - I had no homework for tomorrow, so I had a long, leisurely dinner with some friends then worked on catching up on my reading for Issues and worked a little on Logic. Hopefully I'll get a lot more work in and finish memorizing the methods and the rules for the test Monday. (Unfortunately for my studying sensibilities this week/weekend is Homecoming.)

Completely unrelated - randomly, I miss singing in chamber choir a lot. Actually, I think it's because I started to listen to some of my favorite Christmas music today. Yes, already. No, it's never too early for Christmas music. (Except maybe in the middle of spring or summer - I figure, once it hits October, it's okay occasionally.)

Also, I'm working on writing out something continuing the C.S. Lewis quote I referenced yesterday.

A midterm that's a final?

And the count is: 2 midterms, 2 papers, 1 lecture, 1 movie down! Yays! Now all that's left is 2 lectures and misc. homework. It's so nice to have all that behind me.

The midterm this morning went well, except for the fact that it was like a final. Normally 8ams on TR run from 8-9:15 and then chapel is at 9:30. However, this morning, my test ran from 8-10am and I had a 10:05 class; and I was one of the first 10 or 15 people out of 110 to finish. That test was a winner - a final masquerading as a midterm.

In taking my C.S. Lewis exam this morning, I ran into quoting Lewis quite a bit in the necessity of a personal god. Kant, a deist, says about the common moral law, "If we ought, we can." Lewis refutes this by saying, "If we ought, we should; but, we can't." Because of our sinful nature, we cannot keep ourselves nor anyone else accountable to this moral law even if we do measure them against it, and they, us. A total tangent, but I thought it was a good argument and a somewhat obvious one too - but it had never occurred to me before then. A personal, involved, compassionate God is what we all need. (Hopefully I'll elaborate on this more tomorrow, but for now, it's late and my brain is tired.)

Speaking of, these past few days God has really helped me get through the stress and keeping all the information (somehow) in my brain for the exams. His faithfulness even through the small things like these is astounding and so encouraging!

Monday, Monday

Today went like this: wake up later than planned, class (with a small bit of studying), midterm, lunch, movie for French Cinema, work, dinner, study, lecture, study. What an exciting, jam-packed day.

Also, I wonder about the phrase "jam-packed". When taken literally, it conjures up an image of something packed to overflowing with jam. Now what kind of jam would you want that to be? Today, I'd say marmalade, because I like the word - it just rolls off the tongue so nicely.

As you can see by my deep contemplations, my brain is fried. Hopefully it will recover in time to take the midterm for C.S. Lewis tomorrow morning!

Count: 1 midterm, 1 paper, 1 movie, 1 lecture down. What a nice feeling that is.

Study Sunday

I regret this post cannot be longer, but a) I do not have the time to be writing lots and b) not much happened today beyond studying, hence the title of this post.

Today basically looked like this: church, brunch, study, paper, study, dinner, study, grade a few papers, study, study, and come back here to hopefully finish grading the papers, and study more.

This is what happens when I have 2 midterms, 2 papers, a movie to watch, a lecture to attend, and Homecoming week all rolled up into a lovely concoction known as, "Let's see Abby get through this week, hmmm?" Actually, I've known this week was coming up for a while and all I have to do is get through Tuesday night and the week is basically calm from there on out. Also, praying about it has helped immensely, so the stress levels are either down from that or I'm not caring about my schoolwork as much as I should be.... maybe a little of both?

Lazy Saturday

Today was an excellent day to have a lazy Saturday - not for my homework though. I got up at a reasonable time and made it to an early lunch, which had surprisingly good pizza. Then I came back to my room with the goal of doing my Exceptionalities project which is due next Wednesday, only to get really distracted by C.S. Lewis (not a bad distraction) and then falling asleep for a few hours. Then I got up, went to the halftime show (which was great), came back, went back to sleep, and finally got up around 3:30 to go for a run, take a shower, eat dinner, and come back to putz.

Around 7:30, I headed down to the apartments to do some free laundry, have some delicious pumpkin pie (yay Sarah! And Megan, yes it is delicious.), and time with friends.

Corny Maze Fun

Tonight night a group of us (12 people) went to a corn maze about 25 mins from GCC - see above. I'd never been to a corn maze before and had no idea what to expect, but it was great. Good ol' agrarian fun! Haaaa.

Once we got there, we split up into two teams of 6 and my team had a two minute head start. We also had clipboards with a crossword puzzle (the answers were posted on little stands around the maze) and for each answer we got, we got a minute taken off our overall time. At first we got completely lost in the horses and then somehow found out we'd wandered out to the middle of the carriage at which point we figured out where we were (actually, the guys were really into the navigation at this point) and ran out only to find out the other group had beaten us by 4 minutes! Once the answers were included, it was only a 2-minute difference! How sad.

There was also a HUGE tent-like thing filled with hay bales you could climb on, jump over, and crawl under. So, we started a massive game of tag with all the kiddies in there for a while and had some epic falls off the hay bales. Finally, the guys wanted a rematch, so they went in the exit and we were supposed to go in the entrance; however, we just waited for them to come back out and acted like we'd beaten them - that lasted all of around 5 seconds and then they figured it out.

Finally, a game of elbow tag and lots of epic collisions ensued (the grass was really, really, really slippery) and some more hay bale climbing/jumping. By then, it was getting pretty chilly out, so we headed back to the Grove and made popcorn balls, played some nertz, and watched the Red Sox-Tampa Bay game. A great end to a very fun night.

I speak Pirate!

Today, after a lovely morning of C.S. Lewis and seeing Sarah speak about her summer in Romania at chapel (yay Sarah! You were amazing!), a pretty normal day followed - class, lunch, class (in which I received my pop-midterm back, a very respectable A), then some putzing, a quick trip to the bank, dinner, tutoring, and homework (I just finished). (Yes, I know that was a horrid run-on, I just don't feel like fixing it.)

At dinner tonight, I learned the facebook comes in Pirate now! Arrrr!

At the bottom where there's a language option, you can change your language to Pirate! It's pretty amusing - I'm sure it will have my attention for at least the next 30 mins...or days... Instead of Home, it says "Home Port." It keeps going on with others, I just haven't figured out them all yet. Some are listed below for your amusement (regular English on the left):

Friends - Me Hearties/Mateys
Messages - Bottle o' Messages
Log out - Abandon Ship
Notifications - Ahoy There!
Requests - Naggins
Wrote on your wall - Scrawled on yer plank
Info -Swag
See all - Peer into the depths
See photos - Spy portraits o'(someone's name here)
Videos - Spy bewitched portraits o'(someone's name here)
Send message - Cast (name) a message
Poke - Skewer
Edit info - Mangle me litany

Basically, I could go on and on. It's hilarious. I'm actually sitting in HAL right now trying very hard not to laugh out loud. I wonder if facebook will be translated to Ninja next...

Fairy Tales Come to Life

Laugh/"shake head and groan" of-the-day provided by the Czech Republic via the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7654513.stm

BBC NEWS Europe Czech court to rule on fairy-tale kingdom
Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A court in the Czech city of Olomouc is to deliver its verdict in one of the oddest legal disputes in the country's history.

Putzing

Today, my 10am got cancelled because of the Army helicopter landing on the upper quad for the career fair. Very cool. I took advantage of that and caught up on DWTS. Then lunch, and after lunch I had the idea to work on my symbolic logic homework. That excellent work ethic turned into a nap quicker than you can say 'Jiminy Cricket!' So nap taken, I went to work, then class (which was an excellent presentation on autism in the classroom), and language tables. After language tables, Mary and I heard the helicopter getting ready to take off, so we ran to watch it and had a Pocahontas moment with our hair everywhere and leaves flying around us.

Since then, I've done almost nothing - a bit of reading for Friday, some extra work for Mme Trammell on the compy, and lots of putzing - homestarrunner and DWTS clips on youtube. Quality entertainment. It's so nice to relax after the last two weeks; however, this slacking off is going to mean a jam-packed weekend.

Also, I got a French postcard from Texas today. What a conundrum.

Pop-Midterm?

Today: a pop-midterm in French Cinema. According to the syllabus, the midterm was (and still is) scheduled for October 28. However, today, we had a pop-midterm, like a pop-quiz, only longer. Like 45 mins longer. Sheesh. Luckily, it was all essay questions based upon personal opinion, so I think I did okay.

Also, tonight was the start of tutoring (finally got that all sorted out this afternoon) and we had one kid show up for Spanish - yay!

The rabies fiasco continues - Amanda started her rabies treatment shots today and I'm pretty sure Bethany will start hers soon too. Yay for me sleeping with the connecting suite door closed and not having to get the shots. Yay for Amanda and Bethany having an amazing story to tell.

Tomorrow is the Career Fair (which I did set up for this afternoon), but I'm not sure if I'm going to go; teaching jobs get posted in the spring. Maybe I will just to walk around and see the recruiters, get practice talking to them, and get free pens! And now the debate calls (got my absentee ballot yesterday!).

Rabies shots?

That is the question of the day - due to the bat incidents in our suite earlier this year, Amanda, Bethany, and I might have to get rabies shots. So says the PA Dept of Health per Zerbe to us. Yikes. I hope not. The bats never even made it to my side of the suite, so I shouldn't have to get the shots. However, since the bats could have been in the room while Manda and Bethany were sleeping, they potentially could have bitten them in their sleep and they could have rabies. All very hypothetical. A month after the bats were there. Sheesh. I think the plan right now is to get blood tests to even see if they need the shot series and then go from there.

Today was class, class, lunch, and then an observation at Mercer MS for my Exceptionalities class. For two hours I was able to help out in the learning support room (social studies and math) and then I had the opportunity to go to the autistic center and work with kids there. It was amazing - by far my favorite part of the day. Seeing these kids work with their teachers and the routine of the day was awesome. They all were working hard on their manners and kept coming by to introduce themselves, shake my hand, and ask me a question. My favorite was a boy who really really liked Garth Brooks and broke out into song for me when I said I didn't know his favorite song. So fun!

Then followed work for half an hour, dinner, the rabies fiasco, and lots of organizing, planning, and e-mailing for Spanish/French tutoring which is finally going to start up tomorrow. Hopefully the RE's will stop soon and the schedule will be somewhat set for the semester.

Tomorrow in C.S. Lewis, we start reading The Abolition of Man, which is the book I'm most excited about to read this semester for that class. And once we're done with that - Narnia!

Mashed Potatoes!

Mmm. Yays for a good, warm, fall-ish dinner at Hicks tonight: mashed potatoes, gravy, roast beef, and sweet corn. Yum.

This morning my church had Don Piper (author of 90 Minutes in Heaven) come to speak. He was very straightforward and honest, something I appreciated after my initial, gut-reaction skepticism of the story. I still want to read the book before I make up my mind about it though (which will probably be my project for over fall break).

Following a brunch which featured banana nut muffins(!) I went back to my room with the goal of completing my homework, only to read two chapters in my book and fall asleep for 3 hours. Oh dear. I guess I needed it though. Then lots of work and dinner followed plus some grading for Mme Trammell and here I am, watching Whose Line clips on youtube. Also, good conversations with my dad, Laura, and Summer were sprinkled throughout today. I have never been on the phone so much in one day! It was wonderful to talk to them and hear what's going on in their lives.

And recently I have been learning about how it's so important to not only give ourselves up fully to God (I posted about it I think a week ago or so? Not sure now...) but also to not put God in a box. So often we have expectations that limit what we believe God can do. How it should be is us giving up all to God and going out on that limb not knowing what is going to happen, trusting in him and his plans for us. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Sun-shining Day

I will have to make this post short and sweet - church and all my homework remain for tomorrow...(actually, later today).

So today was productive - an extended stop at the procrastination station (i.e. avoiding my homework) included first a great conversation with Sara and then a trip to the outlets with Manda . We had a good time talking and catching up outside of 'the bubble' (that's school in case you didn't get it). Then followed a mad dash down to the apartments for a couscous dinner that ended up not being exactly couscous, just tiny pasta (couldn't find real couscous at the grocery store in western PA - what a shocker, haha).

Then came back to the suite, and watched Sweet Home Alabama - I'd forgotten how funny it was. My favorite part is when the main character is looking for her dad on the reenactment battlefield and all the soldiers sit up to help her and then once they're done, "die" again. Tickles my funny bone. (It might be more of a thing you have to see. My explanation doesn't do it justice.)

In other news, I have been on a reggae funk lately and found the soundtrack to Cool Runnings on imeem, so I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop for two days. Makes me smile and miss home. I can't wait for New Year's Eve to watch it again! Oh family silliness!

Le week-end

Le week-end, c'est la! I am so grateful the weekend is finally here! It's going to be a great one! Like I said before - outlet shopping and then making a couscous dinner tomorrow night which was previewed tonight by watching the season premier of Pushing Daisies, add a dash of a random international dance party et voila! - a nice night of putzing.

Today also had a very interesting lunch conversation - more like a sort of intellectual debate about a non-intellectual subject: can girls and guys really just be friends? We all (almost) agreed, yes, up to a certain point; but can they be best/deepest/closest friends with no romance involved - no. Following this lunch, one of us decided to do some research, and here's an excerpt from the e-mail I got:

"Aristotle rightly tells us that friendship in the final sense includes conversation about the highest things, that is, about truth for its own sake. True friends not only want to exist in the same world, but in the world that is true. Friendship in this sense seeks reality--truth--as its binding force.

If we discover the highest things in our deepest friendships, you can’t do that with more than a handful of people. We are limited by the time and energy we can invest in other people. AND – this bond is something that can’t as easily be shared with the opposite sex. Perhaps you can to a degree, but certainly not on a “best friend” basis outside of romantic relationships. Pursuit of the highest things and synonymously the measure of one’s best friend demands far too much."

There is also that added something that we have as Christians - a spiritual bond and aspect to relationships we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Overall, an interesting topic and debate that, believe it or not, actually stemmed from a prep for the night of the purity talk at camp this summer. Funny how things from two different places in my life match up this often.

The weekend starts on Fridays now

Essentially, right now, it's Friday for me. I am so happy this weekend is here! I thought last week was crazy busy, but it's had nothin' on this week! I have happily realized the value of doing homework in the afternoons; however, that really only applies when doing said homework gets you finished by 7 or 8pm. This week, I've been taking around a half hour break for dinner and then back to homework, and I was still only finishing at 10ish. Yikes! Apparently, I had a lot of work to do.

Speaking of work - this morning's C&I midterm went splendidly - 4 hours of concentrated studying yesterday and help from God on the concentration/focus front really did the trick. I felt very confident about it when I handed it in. I also did decently well on my make-up quiz for my C.S. Lewis class this afternoon.

Tonight was spent putzing (really, what else?) and then a long, leisurely dinner followed during which I had a very enlightening conversation which ranged from everyone here getting engaged (and subsequently creeked) to camp culture and songs - a wide range of subjects indeed. And I successfully putzed my way until now, when I really need to get working on my reading for tomorrow's Issues class.

This weekend promises to be excellent with a trip to the outlets with Amanda for some girl time and hopefully I'll be cooking a couscous dinner for some friends Saturday evening!

Trust

And the theme of the day is... (drumroll please!): trust!

Trusting in God that I'll have studied enough for my midterm, for my quiz, and for life in general tomorrow. Then thanking God that Friday and the weekend are coming swiftly.

(Also, in other news, Pushing Daisies is back, which means one more distraction from homework I don't really need but enjoy very much.)

The last few days have been particularly productive; who knew you could get so much work done in the afternoons if you just didn't take a nap? Well, I do now! I'm hoping this fabulous work ethic and time management continues this semester. It's been so nice to have all my homework done by around 8 or 9 every night. Then I can guiltlessly watch Dancing with the Stars and now, Pushing Daisies. Oh whimsicality, I like you.