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| Why, yes, I believe I have dropped off the face of the earth....Not really--gravity's still working in my neck of the woods.  But, so am I--which cuts in on posting time, and thinking time. Something about having 80% of my load be new courses this semester is making me really not feel like spending time typing anything I don't have to. Technically, I don't have to type the lesson plans either--but they're so much easier to teach from that way. Random comment for today: I took my dog to the vet to get an immunization, and they did not give him a shot. They squoze some liquid down his nose. This looked rather uncomfortable, but I suppose it didn't hurt. Deep Medium-level thought for today: The writing style of Ezekiel always catches me by surprise. He seems more wordy or something (at least in the first two chapters)--like, God suddenly started speaking in highly detailed paragraphs instead of poems and metaphors. For what that's worth.
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| Pockets of Grace, Part II (The Less Exciting Half)On the day I got to Auburn, after I woke up from my 45-minute nap, Sarah and I went to Lisa's along with a couple other friends and helped pack until 11 pm. The next day, I got to go to my church down there and see several other friends, and we went out to lunch in honor of Lisa's last Sunday. Then, we helped Lisa pack some more and generally hung out. Monday, the movers came and we cleaned Lisa's apartment; I got to clean the oven, which was quite fun. Monday night I got to meet my friend Susan's puppy and watch Survivor (it was the final episode, and maybe the second episode of any version of that show that I've ever seen). Tuesday I spent with still more friends, and Wednesday I went back to Atlanta. Sarah and I found out this time (by the method of driving a ways down every possible road) that there are no restaurants in the area of the airport exit, so we went off a different exit to find lunch. My flight was at 7 pm, but Sarah works in the afternoon, so I spent from 1-6 bumming about the Atlanta airport. I had a nice boring flight up to Chicago (no snowstorms this time), and then things began to get interesting again. When I got off my plane in Chicago, I looked at the screens and found out that my flight to Fort Wayne was leaving from gate F-11. When I got to concourse F, the screen said my flight was leaving from F-5. But F-5 had no such flight listed, so I checked F-11. It didn't either. So I returned to F-5 and stood in the line to check with the people at the gate. After the first group of people cut in front of me to get on the flight that was just leaving from F-4, and another guy cut in front of me to ask about a flight that WAS listed and was leaving in an hour, and they made an announcement that they couldn't find a crew for the flight that as leaving 30 minutes after mine, I overheard them tell someone that yes, Fort Wayne was at this gate. So I sat down. It was now 5 minutes past the boarding time. Finally a guy went to talk to them, and it turned out that our plane had a flat tire. Some time later, they fixed that and began loading us and the baggage. (They did get the flight listed on the screen about two minutes before we started boarding.) We got up in the air, and slowly circled Chicago. The pilot then came on and announced that there was a loud noise at the front of the plane, and they thought a door was open. So we landed back in Chicago, taxied all the way across the airport to F-5, and they closed the door. (The compartment for the emergency generator, to be exact.) Of course, we'd spent so much time going up and coming down, we had to refuel. As we were waiting (and everyone was discussing how this was going to upset their plans, and pulling out their worst-flight-ever stories), I observed out the window that seveal suitcases, including mine, were being placed in the plane. It turned out they also picked up the rest of the baggage for our flight, since we'd come back.  Finally, we took off again (more than an hour after we were supposed to have landed in Fort Wayne) and arrived 30 minutes later. At 1 am, rather than 11:17 pm. But, my suitcase made it home. And my dad was there to pick me up, and we both could sleep in the next day. I said at the time that being in Auburn and seeing people was worth the trouble of the trip, and it was. But feeling God's protection and grace was also worth the trouble. Going back for my suitcase at the end was just matched the rest of the trip so well--things were continually going wrong, but they were handled, I had the help I needed, and I didn't get upset about them (also due to Help). But I'm not planning any major excursions for Spring Break!! | | |
| Pockets of Grace, Part IMy adventure of the month really deserves to be written up by someone who writes well....I'm going to give it my best shot, though. Hopefully the point still shows. In November, I found out that my friend Lisa in Alabama was going to be moving out of state. I promptly decided that it would be a good idea to leave as soon as finals were over to go see her/help pack/see everyone else in my "other" town. When finals week arrived, I ascertained that it might be a better idea in the future to allow at least two hours from the end of my last exam to the time I needed to get on the road.  Fortunately, the schedule was forgiving: my flight was Saturday morning, and I was simply driving to my parents' house on Friday afternoon to give them my dog for the duration of the Alabama trip, and to bring all the stuff I would "need" while staying at home for the remainder of the vacation. So, I left Cedarville Friday afternoon and headed to Indiana. Two and a half hours later, I was noticing that it was getting rather dark on State Route Whatever, and began to pray for God's protection. Shortly after this, I suddenly saw a deer looking in my window. The next moments are a bit of a blur, but there was a loud noise and a shower of glass. When the dust settled, I was still on the road, but I had no driver's-side window and the mirror was hanging by its wires. As the road had essentially no shoulder, I thanked God that I was still on it, and proceded to the nearest driveway to get out and survey the damage, of which there was none beyond that already noted. (Praise the Lord, again.) It turns out my mind moves slightly slower than normal in a crisis, so as I was standing there, holding Rocky's leash and wondering what to do next, a truck pulled over in the drive behind me. A couple got out and asked if I needed help. It turned out they'd been driving by and the girl saw me hit the deer (or, as I prefer, the deer hit me ), so they turned around and came back. They were indeed sent by God--the guy got his work gloves and a plastic bag and a big flashlight and started picking up the pile of small pieces of glass; the girl gave me a wet wipe and two bandaids for the superficial cuts I'd gotten on my hand (for some reason when I stopped the car, I decided I should pick up the piece of mirror that was on my lap). Then they helped me duct tape my mirror to the car so it wouldn't flop around for my remaining hour of travel. (I did have the duct tape, even though I was singularly unprepared in all other aspects. The guy was impressed that I knew how to use it....) I pulled on my extra coat and a hat, cranked up the heat, and drove the rest of the way home at a slightly slower speed than normal. When I got home, I turned the whole mess over to my dad, who spent the next day after I left calling around to find out where I should get my mirror/window fixed. Once I returned from Alabama, we put the mirror on ourselves and went to a place he'd been before to replace the window. So my car is all better, and I am so thankful that I didn't have to fix it all by myself. Meanwhile, as we were eating dinner, we noticed my dog's eye looked squinty, but we couldn't find anything in it. On my uncle's advice (we called him over from next door on purpose to get said advice), we took Rocky to the emergency vet. He had (in fact, still has) a cut on his eye, which the vet put this cool green-glows-in-a-black-light stain on to look at.....so the poor beast is getting eyedrops three times a day. They say it will heal in a couple more weeks, but meanwhile he's walking around with one eye closed and still getting drops. Once again, my parents are wonderful--not only did they babysit my dog while I was gone for five days, they gave him his eyedrops and took him to the vet two more times when they thought he might be having complications. Then there was the flying to Atlanta part of the adventure--Saturday morning I got up early to be at the airport by 8 am. I was supposed to fly from Fort Wayne to Chicago and from Chicago to Atlanta. But, Chicago was having a snowstorm. So I was put on a flight direct from Fort Wayne to Atlanta--which left two hours later than my original flight, but arrived at the same time. Thus, I got to spend three hours sitting in the Fort Wayne airport. My actual flight was uneventful, and I found my friend Sarah without too much trouble ("Sarah? I'm here. Where are you?" "I'm near the baggage claim area." "So am I...I'm by a big sign that says 'South Terminal'." "Me too...." "Oh, I see you now!"). Then, we got in her car and drove through the worst rainstorm (perhaps the only rainstorm) that Georgia has had this year. I am incredibly thankful for Sarah--she not only drove me back and forth to the airport, but I also stayed at her house. Getting to spend time with her and finding once again what a "kindred spirit" she is was one of the unexpected highlights of my trip. Upon arriving at Sarah's house (as she pointed out, 25 hours after I left Cedarville), I fell asleep for a brief nap. To be continued.....believe it or not. At that point, I rather thought I'd had enough excitement for one adventure..... | | |
| Happy Finals Week!Most of you don't take finals anymore...isn't it sad? I'm sure you miss the feeling of coming down to the end of a semester, with the to-do list which once required the paper from an entire redwood gradually getting smaller and smaller; the course schedule you've had for 10 or 15 weeks suddenly ceasing to exist, making you feel as though you have so much time (except for the persistence of that to-do list); and spending hours studying and taking study breaks. And then getting to the exam itself--the challenge of interacting with, explaining, and applying material that you've studied for a semester. I actually do like taking exams....which is probably one of the reasons I can work in academia without feeling the slightest amount of guilt for inflicting exams on poor helpless students.  | | |
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But the hiking was fun and I have cool pictures...and I got to see Aaron, whom I miss like crazy b/c it's still five weeks until I go home. 
