HEY!

Merry Christmas!

(ps. Where is the snow?)

Not much is going on…

I think I have all of my presents. I plan on wrapping everything tonight. I have been doing a lot of reading and sleeping. I’d like to be doing more reading, but I keep falling asleep while reading… it’s a great book… I am just so tired. I actually have a goal to make it through the whole day without napping before Christmas.

So…I guess I was tired.

Last night I slept 12+ hours. And now I feel all groggy and out of it.

“We can always sleep when we go home…”

This week has been wonderful. I have spent a lot of time just hanging out with the wonderful group of friends that I have made this semester. A lot of them are the people I hung with all summer - just a great group of people. Friday night a few of us went to an all night dinner and had coffee (or hot chocolate) and witnessed a bunch of punk kids get kicked out of the place. It was very entertaining.

Saturday was graduation day for a lot of my friends. A few of them are already in the grad program here, but had finished their undergrad this summer and were just now going through the ceremony.

Last night started with coffee and just hanging out and enjoying lost moments. One of my friends is going to England for a semester, so we’re seriously going to miss her. Anyhow, we wanted to go have an adventure so we went downtown to the Green Mill, a wonderful old Jazz bar on the north side. It took us an hour to get a booth, but it was worth it. The music was heavenly. Experiencing live Jazz is something I hope to continue, but experiencing it with these friends was just wonderful.

As a result of these wonderful friend filled weekend I am a bit low on sleep, but our motto for the weekend seemed to be “We can always sleep when we go home…”

YEAH!

I am done with finals. I am also exhausted.

Oh, my church sent me a wonderful little box full of happiness (cookies, chocolates and other yummies) and my floor LOVES me more than ever because I can’t eat all of this food and I HAVE to share.

By the way, I have been getting some lovely cards in the mail and from people in general. Everyone is just so wonderful… I know Christmas has something to do with it… but still… it makes me happy.

Presenting . . .

PIECES / PARTS / PEOPLE
observing the beauty of every angle - every person

(Various works - Acrylic - Fall 2006)

I think I have survived…

I feel as though I am out of words. I have used up my quota for the time being and do not have any clear articulate way of expressing my current thoughts and emotions. Yesterday after I passed my last paper I was finally able to feel the true extent of my exhaustion.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to let you all know that I survived the major crunch. I have passed in all of my projects.

I only have finals left.

I have a few paintings that I want to finish up and I need to pick which pieces I’d like to present for the final presentation. I need to write up something short for that, but that is not something I consider work or stressful. Tuesday will be my heaviest day with three finals. The final one being my ceramics test (more like a short quiz from what I understand) and a display of what I have done the latter part of the semester. From then on I have test on Wednesday and another on Thursday.

All should go well.

I’ll be busy. I will have to check out a bunch of girls and do other RA type things, but I’ll have a lot of fun.

We’ll see…

School totally interferes with my free time.

The angle is relative… for now.

(Playing with Shadows - Acrylic - 10x10 in.)

Yeah! Yeah! *sighs* *sighs*

I have two out or three papers passed in!

But I also have to write like eight pages as part of a portfolio that I have to pass in on Thursday. We didn't get the details on that until last Thursday... and my last eight to ten page paper is due Friday. Oh, the joy.

I can't wait for finals week. It'll be so much easier than last week and this week.

Most recent painting.

(Looking Up - Acrylic - 10x10 in.)

I am working on a sister piece that could possibly make it a set.
In the picture above, the painting is placed at the intended angle,
although as you can see from the pictures below
I am exploring other options.
Feed back would be great.

Yeah! *sighs* *sighs*

One paper passed in... two to go!

My Theme…

I think this is my theme for this afternoon today this week this month this semester my senior year!

“There is no pleasure in having nothing to do;
the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.”

-- Mary Wilson Little

So, I have two papers that I should be working on….

…but I really, really would rather just be watching a movie or sleeping. The paper I’m currently working on is about Hawthorne. I have been reading a lot about his views of artists and of his influences and I think I have narrowed down my paper topic to how his views of artists has affected his portrayal of Miles Coverdale, the poet from the Blithedale Romance. I will also probably bring in how Hawthorne’s view of the artist and of the artist’s temperament affects his portrayal of characters in other short stories. It’s just that talking about it is much more fun that actually writing the paper.

Oh...

Happy Thanksgiving!
And Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Love you all!

A day of REST–less cleaning…

The first day of Thanksgiving Break found me here, there and everywhere.

Last night I saw another RA’s room and I really liked her setup.

So I decided that, aside from my intended cleaning, today was also the move stuff around day.

I am really pleased with the results.

I also spent an hour or so in the library collecting every possible book that I could so that I would be able to work on my papers while the library was closed.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be set aside for those projects. Today was my day of rest. I really miss being able to fiddle around. I feel as though I am always running from one thing to the next.

Sunset that I saw from my window as I was picking up that area of my room.

It’s just a peek…

This semester as a Painting II student I have been
working a series of paintings that all follow the same theme.
While I am still working on a title,
the working title that my teacher and I have tossed around is
Parts of Parts.
I believe I have mentioned this project before.
I finally remembered to take pictures
and while I only got a few in before my camera's battery died,
I thought I would post them.
After sharing them with my parents I realized
that I’d probably need to explain a bit more about them.
I’ll try.

This is just to show you the size.
Those are regular size pieces of paper in the background.
This is also not the complete series.
These are just the ones that I had up before my camera's battery died.

The other side view.
With these paintings you need to look at them from
all of the angles before you really understand them...
and even then I understand that not everyone does.

(Nose - Acrylic - 5x5x3 in.)
This is the first piece that I did.
It is a nose if you were not sure.
It's my friend Amy's nose.
I like the contrasts and the fact that you need to look
at it from different angles to figure it out.

(Ear - Acrylic - 5x5x3 in.)
This is the second piece that I did.
It's an ear.
I was waiting for my mouth model to arrive
and my friend Donna was sitting in the ceramics room (where I usually paint)
and she had her hair up and I thought, "I want to paint that." so I did.
I really like this one.

(Nose and Mouth - Acrylic - 4x4x1 6/8 in.)
This is my most recent painting.
(well, I have touched up paintings since this...)
This is a nose mouth combo of my friend Catherine.
I really like the nose, but I don't consider the mouth finished
although both the model and my art teacher like it as is.
We'll see who wins.

Or not...

The girls on my floor had an impromptu tattoo party. It was fun. My butterfly has mostly worn off, but the outline remains. Don’t worry. I have no desire for putting anything permanent on or through my body in any way.

Dad, I’m having technical difficulties posting the poem. More on that later.

Surprise!

Elevated on a poetic high / Sort of stressed

This weekend I attended several events at the Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) as a delegate from my school. It was amazing. I want to go on and on, but I am tired and I doubt you all are as interested as I was in the poetry. The buildings are amazing… being in the city… the movement, the buildings, the people – it was wonderful!

But I also spent my weekend NOT doing homework so now I have a zillion pages to read and no time to do it. I am tired too. Last week I had a big project due and I was on duty and then I went to a CHF event Friday night, so for three nights in a row I got about 4 – 5.5 hours of sleep. No, it was four nights in a row. I have napped a lot since then and gotten more sleep. I’m getting enough sleep now, but I’m still dragging from those long, long days.

An alarming awaking and interesting ending.

This morning around 5:15 or 5:20 the fire alarm went off. I was prepared for this, in a sense. Each semester the school is required to have a fire drill, so we knew it was coming. I had a project that I was working on late last night, so I did not get to sleep until midnight. (Not enough sleep for me!) I had to be at the pool by 6am to open it for lap swim . . . . so aside from a 20 minute nap, I haven’t had any sleep today. I also have a headache that won’t go away. Very annoying.

Back to the fire drill. I was awakened by a short burst of an alarm that I thought was just in my dreams… well, it went off again and didn’t stop until we were all out of the building. As an RA I have to go through each cluster and check each room to make sure that the girls are out and that they followed procedure. Just so you don’t worry, we have been instructed that if there is an actual fire and we see, feel any fire or danger we are to leave immediately.

Once having told the resident director and security that our floor is clear, we exit. This morning was special though and my floor welcomed the new morning by singing happy birthday to my lucky resident whose birthday is today.

Now we’re going to flash through the headachy blur that was my day and settle upon now.

Currently I am listening to our campus radios live broadcast of War of the Worlds. They are doing a great job and it has completely made my day.

I will be going to bed shortly.

Happy Birthday Amy and Anna!

(And my resident, Christi!)

Joy in small things!

Today my canvases that I ordered arrived in the mail. I had been at a standstill with my project and it is such a joy and inspiration to see the actual canvases waiting for me to put paint on them.

I am taking Painting II and my semester long project is to create a series of work that can be presented as a complete show. I will probably end up creating ten or more paintings within this series. They are small, black and white paintings of parts of the face. I do not have any pictures of the completed paintings yet; they are all safely stored in the art room.

Also, I would like to thank Grampa again for my easel. I have it set up in my room, as pictured. It is such a wonderful thing to have.

S . L . E . E . P . . R . O . C . K . S . . M . Y . . W . O . R . L . D !

So, I took my mother’s advice and have gotten eight hours of sleep a night, except for one, this week. I feel like a new person. My friends have noticed this change in me. I feel completely different. I’m now on this campaign to convince all of my fellow ill-rested students to get more sleep.

Homecoming is next week. I’m only half looking forward to it.

I have a paper to write about a Wordsworth poem. Oh! And I read “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge. Such a fun poem. And we took a quiz today and while I am not sure I did super well (I just couldn’t remember some of the names), but it was for sure the funnest quiz I have ever taken. My teacher made the whole poem into a story and we had to fill in the blanks. It was a grand word adventure.

So, it has been a while.

Since I last popped a squat to write for you a lot has happened. I have executed (with the help of the girls on my floor) my first floor event. The coffeehouse that I helped plan for my church finally took place. And I am getting more sleep, sort of.

Tomorrow I am going home for my sister’s wedding. I’m rather excited. I get to wear a pretty dress and play with my nieces and nephews. I also have to start two papers and read a bunch…

Even though my life is stressful right now, God has been blessing me with a lot of great people in my life, people who have been there to guide me and help me through various tough moments. I have also learned a lot about myself, as I have had to deal with things. It has been an over all good experience.

Busy ≥ Good

I have been SOOOO busy, but I feel as though I am getting nothing done. It is really frustrating. I worked most of the weekend and had been unable to finish a RA project that was due today, so I enlisted the help of a few girls on my floor and we had a grand ol’ time. But I have not yet finished my homework for tomorrow and I need sleep. Did I mention that it’s 12:27 AM? Please pray for me. I am worried that I have taken on more than I can handle. I want to do a good job at all that I do. I am not sure if I am frustrated because I want myself to do a better job than is even expected of me, or if I am just frustrated because I am doing a lousy job. These are things that I have been thinking about.

Thoughts transmission

*Thoughts transmission in progress*

I smell like chlorine again.

I am not getting enough sleep.

I love all of my classes, but still feel like I’m not putting enough effort into them.

I think the girls on my floor are amazing. They make me laugh all of the time. They give me energy to pull through when I’m feeling worn out.

I adore my friends; I just wish I had more time to spend with them. I am already tired of turning down invitations. I just don’t have the time. And sometimes when I do have the time, I really just want to be alone.

I should be reading an essay written by Emerson right now, but there are so many other things I’d rather be doing. It’s not that he’s not interesting. I find him very interesting. I just know that this teacher will suck the fun out of him and so it makes reading his essay less fun.

Today, I found art stressful. I am not sure of my teacher’s expectations and it worries me that I will not do all that I need to do. At the same time, I think I will enjoy the class more as the semester progresses.

I am worried about not being worried about my future. I have a general idea. I have a goal that I would like to work towards, but I am aware of life’s many curves and know that what I plan may not happen and that if I push too hard to make my plan happen I may miss out on a great experience.

I am jealous of people who live within a day’s drive of their parents. I don’t want to change my life or the lives of my family members, but I have considered the idea of them all relocating to be closer to me.

I have a new brain – my date book. Without it I would be lost.

Speaking of lost… I cannot wait for the new LOST episodes. I have it posted outside my door as a time I will not be available on my schedule. Some people find this amusing, others understand completely.

*Thoughts transmission complete*

Sorry for neglecting you all…

Today my teacher (for my class that is currently discussing Longfellow) managed to make a reading, which I had really enjoyed, boring. I managed to hold focus and take notes for the first hour, but it’s a Tuesday / Thursday class, meaning that it’s an hour and fifteen minutes, not the usual fifty minutes, and I just couldn’t take it anymore and started to doodle. This particular teacher is somewhat the bane of my colligate career. I am convinced that she will fail me this semester and the next for senior seminar (a really, REALLY long paper is due in that class) and as a result I wont be able to graduate and I’ll be stuck taking more of her classes over and over and over and over and over again. Okay, that is a somewhat of an exaggerated nightmare, but I am trying to not do anything that will bug her. I am in the classroom early, I read every detail (thankfully it’s interesting), I take notes (for the most part) and I try to say things in class (she’s just really hard of hearing and only notices the really loudmouths). I am thankful it’s the first class of the day so that I have three great classes after that one (only two on Thursdays…) that I get to enjoy.

Also, I start working again tomorrow. Or shall I say later on today. I am very excited about working at the pool again. I have been babysitting which as been great, but I really liked working at the pool.

Okay, it is late and I had intended to write a short paper and get to bed by midnight, but a dear friend came up to my room needing to talk and that was more important. I’ll have time to write my paper tomorrow. It’s just a one-page response to the readings, which I have already read. My only problem is picking which portion of which text to discuss. They were all so interesting.

Oh! And tomorrow I start my guitar lessons. I am very excited about that also. I am going to borrow a friend’s guitar until I can buy one of my own. Oh, I am so excited.

A Psalm of Life

'Life that shall send
A challenge to its end,
And when it comes, say, 'Welcome , friend.'


What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist

I
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

II
Life is real - life is earnest -
And the grave is not its goal:
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

III
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destin'd end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

IV
Art is long, and time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

V
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

VI
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act - act in the glorious Present!
Heart within, and God o'er head!

VII
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives subline,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footsteps on the sands of time.

VIII
Footsteps, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

IX
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1838, 1839)

Cell Phone Sadness

So... this is the current state of my cell phone. Tuesdays in general are very long days, this one more so than others due to various meetings and happenings. This tragedy occurred roughly ten minutes before I had to be at my two and half hour night class. I was pulling my keys out of my bag to open the elevator, my phone snagged on them and crashed to my dismay to the floor in two pieces. This phone has been my dearest friend for at least two years. In its defense, the hinge was severely crashed and the antenna was already broken off and I was considering starting to look for a new phone, but I was just hoping that it would wait until I found a new one before it died.

On a side note: I will be working again! The pool reopens September 5^th and tonight we worked out the hours for lifeguarding. I am still not sure when I will be teaching as the lessons do not start up for a few more weeks. I have private lessons already lined up for next weeks. That is welcome cash as well as a bright shining moment in my day. I love teaching swim lessons.

Also, I am really enjoying being an RA. It is a lot more work than I thought it would be. Because of the layout of the floor I have to go out of my way to see the girls and to spend time with them. This is never a problem because they are so much fun. I really love it when I’m on duty and have to do rounds; it’s a wonderful time to meet people in the building.

I also thing I will really enjoy my classes. It is going to be a challenge to keep up with everything that I am doing. I think I will really enjoy my homework; it’s just a matter of having enough time in the day to give each class the time it truly needs. And I need to remember to get enough sleep. It’s really exciting that this is my senior year. After this it’s grad school and then the rest of my life!

It’s like a brand new me!

I bought a new pillow and a foam pad for my bed. It’s revolutionary. I feel like a new woman after having slept in that wonderfully cushy bed. I just feel so joyous.

It's all about Thursdays.

I think Thursday night will be my night to update this blog. It has been established that it will be my duty night for the semester. Meaning that from 8 PM Thursday until 8 AM Friday morning I am on call with a beeper and that I also have to do rounds at various times throughout the evening. Throughout the semester we also have three weekends that we have to take, well we trade them with our usual shift. I rather like the system. We’ll see how it works. I am a little nervous about doing rounds. I will update your more about that when I complete my first night on duty. Although since my first night is a weekend it means I will be doing my last walk-through at 2:20 AM. I’ll have to remember to thank Rachel for teaching me the value of late night adventures this summer, because I am not the least bit worried about having to stay up until 2:30 in the morning.

This ties in with the post below.

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Psalm 118:8 (NKJV)

Amy just send me an email highlighting the importance of this verse and I couldn’t help but noticed how it fit in directly with what I just posted. I believe I may just have to put this up on my wall somewhere. It was such an encouragement for me that I had to pass it on.

Unexpected Blessings.

Today while on my very short break between my Resident Assistant training sessions I received a phone call from the aquatics director from a nearby pool. This particular pool is only open until September 17^th (around the time the pool here at school will reopen) and much of their current staff is returning to school and will not be able to finish out the season. My wonderful aquatics director here referred me to this pool and now I have a way to make some unexpected money. I will walk over on the 28^th to meet with the director and get to know the pool area. This is such a huge blessing.

Also, I received an email from my pastor back in my church in Washington, D.C. I have been awarded a grant from the church.

Both of these things were such wonderful news. I find it so wonderful to be reminded that when I stop worrying and start trusting in God that He does indeed remember and take care of me.

“My shoulders feel interesting.”

I was walking back with my friend; we were both carrying the last load of stuff from my old room. We had been helping people move all afternoon. When discussing how we were feeling, R mentions that her shoulders felt “interesting.” I thought this was a marvelous way to describe the pain felt after working hard, as we had been doing.

For most of the afternoon and evening (excluding a break for supper) my friends Adam, Joe and R and I helped each other move. R had moved the day before, but she was an angel and helped the rest of us move. Joe had been able to obtain the use of a little mini golf cart / truck. We managed to transport the bulk of my stuff in one truckload. This was phenomenal considering that I had carried most of this stuff over with a handcart by myself when moving at the beginning of the summer. In fact, most of us had stories of the original move this summer being a torturous lonely process.

After I had all of my belongings relocated Adam and I decided to take advantage of the school’s $3 movie day special down the street. We watched Scoop, a very funny movie.

Then around midnight Adam and I helped our friend Rachel move the last of her belongings to her new room. She hadn’t been able to start moving until must later then the rest of us, so we told her we’d help with the hard part. She had already moved most of the stuff to the base of her new residence hall, but it’s the carrying heavy items up three stories that is the treacherous part.

Finally after this was complete, we lay on the grass watching beautiful mysterious clouds pass in front of a full moon. We debated sleeping on the grass, but in the long run ended up grabbing a drink at our favorite watering hole and each parting ways to our respective halls. It was sad; we had spent the whole summer walking back to the same building. Adam had been on a different floor, but we would often sit in the stair way and talk. I miss them already, even though we are all still on campus.

Chaos rains.

Well, not really. But sort of.

Throughout the summer there have been two-week orientation gatherings for the incoming freshmen. One of the usual leaders was unable to be there for this Monday and Tuesday’s session, so the Student Activity Director asked me to fill-in. It was a little crazy, but a lot of fun. I really enjoyed getting to know the students. It was interesting seeing how they interacted with their parents while also remember how last year’s freshmen acted after their parents left.

I am also moving into my RA room tomorrow. I got the key tonight and my friend, Adam, helped me rearrange the room so I think everything will be fantastic for the rest of the year. It just now need to transport my stuff most of the way across campus to my new room.

The chaos factors in when you consider the fact that I was stressed because I didn’t know what I was doing for half of the orientation. I had a blast and loved getting to know people more one-on-one the second day, but I still felt a little chaotic inwardly. I surprised myself though by acting on four skits with about 20 minutes notice and doing (If I say so myself) rather well. We were all reading our lines so there wasn’t that pressure. I was just worried about saying them loud and clear enough.

Chaos also factors in this week because I wasn’t informed of when or if I could move into my RA room until this afternoon. I thought I had most of this week free to get project done and so far I haven’t had much time to do anything. Oddly enough I have found random moments to get stuff done. I woke up early so that I wouldn’t be late this morning and ended up having enough time to look up all the Bible verses I want to consider for my floor’s monthly themes. I will probably share more of this as I work through my plans.

Tomorrow morning as well as pack, move and unpack I am lifeguarding for the basketball camp kids that are going to take a swim break. The pool is officially closed, but we’re opening for events like this. I am glad the director asked me to do this because I don’t have a paying job until the pool opens again it’s kind of nice to get an unexpected pay check, even a small one. (BY THE WAY – not having a job does not mean that I have zero money. Sure, I don’t have a surplus of spending money, but I am not going to starve, so don’t panic.)

On A Side Note

Today while eating dinner out with two friends I witnessed my one friend experience outright racism. This particular friend is rather accustomed to such ignorance to circumstances I will not be posting on this blog, at least not at this time. But for me it really brought home the larger issues of ignorance and racism happening in American and abroad. I’m really disgusted by this and have been mulling over it all evening.

This may interest some of you.

Yesterday afternoon I decided it was just too hot to stay on campus and called darling Andrea to ask if I could come out to visit her. She agreed that this was wonderful idea and soon enough I found myself on a train heading to the western suburbs. We ate a delightful dinner, swam in her pool and went to bed early. It was lovely. Also, worth noting, I took a hot shower for the first time in ages. I had forgotten that it could be nice to be warm.

After breakfast I now have to head back to school… to the humid, heavy heat.

The not so beachy adventure.

Yesterday my friend and I had been planning a trip to the beach. (Some background knowledge: It was probably one of the hottest days of the year – 98 degrees or so.) A few friends were originally going to join us, but at the time of leaving decided to remain on campus. Rachel and I packed our bags, planned our route, which bus we would take and so on. We had plenty of water, snacks and sun block. We walked the four or five blocks to the bus stop and waited. We waited probably half an hour or more. (We had forgotten to check the bus schedule.) In the process of waiting for the bus we got so hot that we decided to go get ice cream across the street. Well, I got ice cream at least. While doing this we decided that maybe it would be a better idea to go back to campus and watch a movie in the furnished basements of one of the dorms, particularly the one with AC.

It's the small things.

Last night something amazing happened. I slept through the night without waking up because of the heat. I didn’t roll between the still air and the fierce stream of cool air artificially created by the fan blasting at the head of my bed. I usually struggle to find the middle comfortable zone. I also struggle with sticky sheets and in general, falling asleep under the blanket of humidity that hovers all over my room.

Last night, I slept in a room with AC. My friend lives in this glorious building that I will soon reside in because next week we are all moving to our rooms for the school year. It was phenomenal. I slept through my friend’s alarm and her leaving for work. It was amazing. I haven’t slept that deep in a long time.

Heat wave, joy.

Today it is suppose to be 98 degrees. Currently at 6 AM it is only 80 degrees. My floor still feels like a sauna, but I am about to head to the pool (I am opening it this morning, not my usual shift) which I believe truly is a sauna. I'll jump in before I start today and I will also be in the water later because I am filling for a teacher during the morning swim lessons.

Also, yesterday was my first day off from working at the pool (some days it was only the early bird opening shift, but still!) and it was rather hot outside so my friend and I decided to go over and cool off. Well, for open swim you are suppose to have two guards and well, one of them just didn't feel the need to show up. So, I ended up guarding for an hour or so. I was not really happy. I am glad that I walked in to help the other guard, but I really am tired of young people on the staff not doing their job.

Philosophical jumble-ness

I was sitting in my friend’s car as we drove back from a Target run this afternoon. We were discussing favorite colors, which carried on into a conversation (mostly me questioning) about if I was content because I had so much color in my life or if the color was a reflection of me being content. I do understand that color is probably not a direct relation to my contentment, but I like the idea of looking around my room and seeing bright happinesses everywhere. I have orange and blue curtains, a bright red robe and other colors floating around. It’s really nice. Okay, my room is a disaster because I have to move again soon to my final resting place for the year, but the colors makes me smile.

This seems to be an overall reflection of my general contentment. I really do love my life right now. Wonderful friends, exciting goals, fun job and only one year left of undergrad classes! Yeah! Oh, and I am looking forward to my classes this fall.

Oh, and that reminds me. I was helping out at my church’s Vacation Bible School and as I walked past the Pastor he looked up and said to the person on the phone, “I’ll be having Julia contact you with more information.” Okay, I’m paraphrasing, but that was the general idea. I walked past at the right moment and now I get to plan the church’s next coffeehouse event. We’ll be having a lead singer from a band coming to play and talk with us. I, along with two friends, will be decorating, planning, advertising, cooking and recruiting help. I think it will be a lot of fun.

One down side of school life.

This morning I was woken up at 6:40am by music coming from the room next to mine. It was good music, but unexpected at this particular time. I don’t have to work until noon today and had planned to sleep in. I waited for a bit, but I finally got up and knocked on her door. No response. But someone was in the shower, so I left a nice note on her door. I really hate having to ask people to be respectful. I have learned to fall asleep to other peoples’ music and the sounds of doors closing and people just being people. But in the morning, especially on a college campus, I try to remember to keep the noise down. It doesn’t help that it is so hot here that once I was awake, it was really difficult to fall back to sleep. I did after a bit sleep eventually, but I’m still thrown off my game.

An Adoration of Academia

Tuesday night I had the privilege of sitting on a blanket on the grass starring at the cloudy sky surrounded by buildings containing classrooms and ideas. Three of my friends and I stayed up until 2am talking, about theology mostly. First of all, I adore my friends. They are smart and encourage me to think a lot about a lot of things, but also because they are fun and make me feel at home here. Second, I can’t help but realize how different the academic’s life is, even on a social level, from that of my previous life as a nanny. I am being forced to think about so many things that I hadn’t even known I should think about. Granted I am not even taking classes right now, but we still find reason to debate issues of the world and our life. I am not even suggesting that my life as a nanny did not have great discussions of theology or politics, because it surely did. But I feel different. I feel as though mentally I am more alive. I question everything, to the frustration of some and delight of others. I want answers and I want to push myself in ways I didn’t think I’d ever desire. I came to this university just so that I could get my Bachelor’s Degree. That’s it. I wanted to go teach English in Japan mostly, but I was open to anything. I just figured whatever I wanted to do next; getting my degree would make it easier. And now, almost a year after moving to Chicagoland I find myself looking at graduate schools because there is still more that I want to learn. I am still shocked at myself for considering this. My friends here not knowing my previous state of mind get frustrated with me for my disbelieve in myself, but I am just getting used to the idea of grad school. Soon I’ll be on my own bandwagon thinking that it’s actually possible that I could get a masters degree.

God knows what you need the most.

This morning I was the lifeguard for the opening shift at the campus pool. It’s generally a quiet shift, people come in to swim laps, and so the cliental tends to be older. The difficulty with this shift is that when you are tired, watching people swim laps will at times makes you more tired. This morning I was wonderfully awake, but after a half an hour of singing to myself (yes, I sing quietly while people swim, it keeps me awake and upbeat) I thought about all of the people in my life facing challenging moments and all of the struggles I was dealing with in my life. It realized that while I was sitting there watching people swim, God had given me a wonderfully quiet moment to pray. It’s amazing how many people you can think of to pray for when you have a lot of time on your hands. Sure, I was still watching people swim, and walking around occasionally, but still; in my heart I was turning over all of my worries to Christ. It is truly a wonderful way to start your day.

I am back.

I am not sure if I should begin with an introduction, but I am now blogging again, on a student friendly (free) site.

Thank you, especially Grampa and all of my great aunts and uncles, for caring enough about my life to demand that I keep you up-t0-date. Your words of wisdom are always welcome.