four people have voted on my blog. two voted for "hate it". I could pretend that this depresses me and whatever, but it doesn't. free speech, etc...opinions cannot be dictated. i hope they come back again and see what's new, but if not, well...their loss! hehehe.
dinner time. ta.

so today they are aerating the grass. I was under the impression this is something done to HEALTHY grass in order to keep it pretty. there is a rumor going 'round that they are planning to re-seed the grass rather than sod it. this will never work, for these reasons.
1. squirrels. and birds. but especially squirrels.
2. standing water and continuous rain.
3. clay soil that is now topped with moss and mud due to overwatering of dead, dead grass.
4. it will take forever and the board of trustees (meeting here this week) will never stand for it because it looks SO TERRIBLE right now.

so there you go.

must read. reformed theology.
i'm still needing poll suggestions....
and, by the way, i got the veggie tales song out of my head. until i just saw it on my blog again. it may have to go away from the blog so that it doesn't continuously re-instate itself in my head, because it is SO annoying.
anyway. homework. class is in one hour, 13 minutes. must read. ta.

...
...
oh, one more thing....

someone got to my site by searching for "bobblehead jesus". I think that is so cool. anyway.

I cannot get the veggie tales theme song out of my head.

if you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes, up and down the produce aisle...."have we got a show for you." veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales...veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales....broccoli, celery, gotta be, veggie tales. lima beans, collard greens, peachy keen, veggie tales. cauliflower, sweet and sour, half an hour, veggie tales. there's never ever ever ever ever been a show like veggie tales. there's never ever ever ever ever been a show like veggie tales. it's time for veggie tales!

AAAAAAAGH! anything but this, please! ok, almost anything. oy. time to try the "spell out your name and address backwards in your head, including the zip code" method of removing songs from one's head. bye.

Homework Schmomework.
I've been watching High Fidelity this afternoon. Then, at 6:20, realized we wouldn't make it to church by 6:30 and decided to practice some silent contemplative prayer, then do homework. But first, had to make some olivata (don't quote me on that spelling because I made it up) to go with the triscuit thin crisps i bought today. then had to talk with calum. now have to post on my blog. soon the quiet time begins, i promise!

I think I am going to try this ratings thing. you can rate my blog--how cool is that? woohoo! :-) anyway, we'll see how it goes.

I'm not noticing many poll suggestions. In fact, none. I need ideas, people! Work with me here!!

silence. then homework. good plan. then sleep. yay.

these are not necessarily related items of varying degrees of interest.
1. i have a headache.
2. i have just watched one full episode of trading spaces, one ending of same show, one episode of while you were out, and, unfortunately for me, 50 minutes of a college football game (alabama-arkansas). i had to watch the football in order to watch trading spaces. thankfully i didn't have to watch the whole game, because i would have cried. or left.
3. i am very tired. i might not go to church tomorrow. again.
4. i like to talk.
5. goodnight.

Today I went to play with small children. It was very fun.
I also went shopping at a fabulous outlet mall and got some very good deals.
And I found out how last night's Taize service went at Fourth Church. it ws fantastic...93 people! excellent!! standing room only...there was a small fire issue apparently, but that was quickly taken care of. lol.
anyway...much homework to do...and Trading Spaces in two hours!!

WHY WON'T IT STOP RAINING?

I like my haircut. i think. but honestly, how can one tell in the RAIN which hasn't stopped for what feels like WEEKS?????

Hebrew. Rocks! woohoo!
i hope i still think that tomorrow.
i'm a little hungry, but it is SO past bedtime. so no food just now. none.
haircut tomorrow. excellent!
baptism field trip tomorrow too. fun!
must right OT paper tomorrow. less fun...
must go to bed now.
goodnight.

I'm not taking this poll down until more of you vote. Or vote again. ;-) (this is a clever way to disguise the fact that I can't think of another poll right now...so if you have suggestions for poll topics, please let me know! Very Clever, wouldn't you say? appropriate, given my blog title. anyway, this parenthetical statement has gone on long enough. it will now cease and desist. or cease to exist. whatever.)

I'm tired. Very Tired. And there's no time to really recover until Sunday. Oy.

Much reading to do, and a paper to write for Friday morning. Good times!!

Almost dinner time. Who knows what will be for dinner tonight. Since last night's vegetarian option had 82 grams of fat and over 1880 calories, I don't know what to expect. I hope it isn't that bad. If it is, I'll be having a salad again. And later tonight I'll be hungry and eat toast. Not that I speak from experience or anything.

yay! i hope i can go to scotland for a year, two septembers from now. the supervised ministry coordinator here seems to think it can work. woohoo!!

oh yes...so yesterday i painted my toenails a new color. this was very exciting. :-)

I got back last week's Hebrew quizzes! On the top they say "PERFECT!!" This is very very very exciting. Very Exciting. both of them! two perfect scores in one week!

I have been looking into getting DSL. bad news is, it's very expensive. SO i probably won't get it even though it would be beautifully convenient. the dial up is SO incredibly slow. Although apparently it is a minor miracle that I have a phone line! Several rooms in this building don't even have phone jacks--most of the building isn't wired for telephone! that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. oy.

I am getting my hair cut in two days. This is FABULOUS. I've not gotten it cut in about four or five months, which is very excessive. It is a desperate situation. I'm so happy to be going on Thursday. So it's almost only one day! This time, two days from now, my hair will be getting dried! woohoo! a mere 48 hours. I can hardly wait.

supervised ministry meeting this afternoon. I'm not doing my supervised ministry for quite a while yet, but i'm going to the meeting anyway because we are supposed to. yippee. i'm sure it will be simply thrilling. i need a nap first. i have about 15 minutes. naptime!!

Today was good. homework--Hebrew--work--socializing--funtime--pub quiz--chats--email--class--laundry!!

I have added a new link at left: the CTS store. You can buy things like t-shirts, mugs, bags, etc, with the Columbia Seminary logo on them. all in a non-profit situation. very cool. buy up! :-)

i'm going to bed. maybe more tomorrow, if I think of anything brilliant to say. right now my brain is crammed full of hebrew, and confusion, and useless knowledge about Led Zeppelin albums.

goodnight!

Three things in this post. (just to warn you...don't expect smooth transitions, etc. more of a list, really...)

1. The grass has apparently been killed off on purpose because it is some kind of grass that has to be replaced every so often, and now just happens to be that time. Some kind of grass, eh? It's fabulous and low maintenance and low bugs and whatever else--but you have to kill and replant every 5-10 years. Whatever.

2. My room. I have stenciled the walls with silver stars, swirls, dots, etc. It is so cool!!! I love it! I spent my afternoon doing that yesterday rather than doing homework. Well worth it, I say! I love it! I also did a little on the coffee table. I tried to do my bookshelf, but apparently the stuff doesn't work on laminate surfaces (and given that my bookshelf is relatively cheap, it is of course fake wood laminate...). You see, I didn't just do "stencils" where you have to paint inside them, etc. I did instant stencils. You just put the design (which is on plastic) on the wall, rub, and the design is transferred onto the wall. It's like instant paint, without the work or the fumes. Good times! YAY!!

3. My homework. I have much of it to do, because I did none yesterday. So I've been working on Hebrew this afternoon, having done Reformed Theology this morning. I am thoroughly frustrated because the assignment is to figure out the root of words, and find it in the dictionary...but there are so many tricks! if there are only two letters after you remove suffixes and prefixes, you have to figure out what's missing. The catch is that it could be any of three things missing, or it could turn out that the prefix is really part of the root, or maybe one of the letters is doubled and there's no evidence.....AAAAAAAARGH!

Anyway, I took a break to have a snack. I love quesadillas, so that made me happy. Now I'm going to go visit my friend upstairs until I feel like I can deal with that again. I'll let you know how it goes. Unless I kill myself with the BDB before then. ta.

yeah. so i don't know if i posted about our grass before, but I'm going to now.

Columbia Seminary has the most beautiful lawn ever. The "Oldenburg Quad" (commonly known as the quad, but named after Douglas Oldenburg, most recent former president of the seminary...and moderator of the PC(USA) a couple of years ago) is lush, green, pure, and wonderful. So much so that Doug didn't allow people to walk on the grass, actually. That has since changed and we even have wiffle ball games out there! it's wonderful. Great for studying, socializing, playing, relaxing, looking at...

or it was.

The grass has been effectively killed off. No one knows what happened, or how, but sometime around Labor Day weekend it began to turn brown. Very brown. Almost everywhere--but not around trees. There is a theory about fertilizing without watering...and one about fungus, and one about killing the grass on purpose, and several others, of course...but the fact remains that the grass is dead. So we've gone from lush green valley to amber waves of grain.

Or they were.

Until the lawn company came and mowed it. Even though it was dead. And until tropical depression Hannah brought several inches of rain in a weekend. And it kept raining...for a week. Meanwhile the sprinkler system was still on so every night the lawn was watered. Standing water began to appear, and a hint of mud. Then the grass was mowed again--what was left of it. While it was raining.

And now, now..we have mudholes. sinkholes. elephant mud baths. perfect for spa weekend retreats. Right in the middle of the campus. The grass is gone--there is standing water, mud, and visions of a destroyed and matted root system. The entire lawn is going to have to be pulled up and re-sodded.

Except around the trees, where it is beautiful and green--and soggy.

Lush green valleys to amber waves of grain to saharan watering hole, muddied by a herd of elephants (commonly known as lawnmowers).

Good times on the grass of Columbia Seminary.

in other news, I totally rocked the Hebrew vocab quiz today. I am almost positive I got 100%. woohoo!

time to read about the Exodus. but if you don't want to do that, I recommend reading about how to make a candle. ta.

Here is where to find some very cool stuff, including Action Figure Jesus, Jesus Bobblehead, Mullet heads, Rub my Tummy Buddha t-shirts...yes. everything. hehe!

Praise music. I think I have come to part of the root of the problem. Perhaps one of the biggest issues is the shady, exclusive theology (when there's theology at all...). But a close second is: exclusivity in singing. If you don't know the tune, too bad--no singing for you! The tunes are supposedly easy to pick up--unless you are in a congregation where half the people don't know what's going on. There's no teaching of the tune, no playing through of the melody, no "soloist will sing first verse, you join in later"...just chords and singing. And sometimes the words aren't printed! What is that? We're singing a setting of the 23rd psalm..which was already kind of hard because the worship band is singing in harmony and you don't know which one is what you're supposed to sing...and then suddenly there's a chorus. with no warning. no printed words--just follow the leader! uh huh. easier said than done.
so maybe praise music works for you. good for you! however, for me, and i think (to a certain extent, though my thinking on this is not completely clarified yet) for what the church is supposed to be trying to accomplish, praise music does not further the cause. Instead it gets people caught up in what THEY feel instead of what God does and what an appropriate response to that is--out in the world. I know music is an important part of the church--a VERY important part--but when it is all warm fuzzies about how much I love Jesus, it doesn't really get much done, does it? It doesn't nourish in such a way that I am strengthened to go out into the world and be a servant leader. It's just about me loving someone who's good--and worse, it's about me being the one doing the loving...as though that love were not in the first place a gift of grace. Can the church be engaged in proclaiming the Word in song while some of them (not everyone, because several people will be lost, not understanding the tune, or discovering that the words aren't printed on the bulletin because you should just "know" it...) are singing (perhaps mindlessly, perhaps earnestly) about how much I love Jesus? What does that love enable you to do?
Anyway. enough of the praise music for now. it's bedtime. Hebrew class in 8.5 hours. goodnight.

Jesus night light! "Let His Light light your way". hehehe! I now have one! yay! Thanks Sarah....

ok. so the old testament is done. hebrew homework is impossible due to lack of knowledge about something... reformed theology reading is not going to get done tonight. no baptism tomorrow!! Community day tomorrow. oy. praise music will be involved. not good. hmm. I would like to hear Walter Brueggemann's take on praise music. interesting...

so anyway, it's bedtime i think.

the ceiling is whole again! woohoo!!!!

I have nothing insightful to say about Genesis 25-50. must work on that...by tomorrow morning, 8am.

I sincerely hope the Hebrew vocab quiz is NOT tomorrow..but on the other hand, I might actually know the words then out of sheer cramming, and who knows where they'll have gone off to by thursday...

ooh! I also got a 97 on my Hebrew quiz last Friday. if I can somehow keep that up, I'll be golden. golden, I say!

yeah, so it's dark when I wake up in the morning. yet it's warm outside. dark when waking up = winter. and yet it isn't winter. though the grass outside, thoroughly killed (for some unknown reason) and now a swamp due to tropical depression Hannah, looks decidedly winter-esque, minus the frost, it is not in fact winter. But it is dark outside at 7am. What is up with that?
Today I am having a good hair day. don't ask why--simply accept. that is my strategy. I need to get my hair cut next week, then it will be much happier. and so will i.
Lunch today was very shady--I made a sandwich instead of entrusting myself to the sketchy cooked meal.
OH! guess what!! The guys are fixing my ceiling right now. yay!
Right. homework. I hope my entire apartment isn't being covered in paint or nastiness. i saw a spray paint can through the door--that is not good. but at least, hopefully, the ceiling will stop flaking off. that would be ideal.
right. homework...

it appears that the spiders don't like human company. they disappear when someone other than me comes into the room. I don't know where they go--but they aren't visible in the top of the wall/ceiling anymore. FYI for those just joining the spider saga: the moulding at the top of the wall does not actually join to the ceiling--there is a gap of about half an inch or so. Two spiders live there, in the living room, above the sofa...and they are just there. very odd. they don't do anything, really...they just sit there. not during the daytime, though, only at night. and now there is anew development in that they don't stya out if other people are here. yesterday, when three extra people came in the room, they disappeared quite fast. hmm............
baptism reading. must do it. must also go to sleep. aaah, sleep...joy of joys. I cannot wait until Saturday when I can sleep in!
pub quiz tonight--we did not win. though in round four we got five out of six...the sixth being "what does CNBC stand for". Answer? we put down Cable Network Broadcasting Company. The correct answer was something like Central News and Business Channel or something.

there is a silverfish crawling along the floor by the wall under my desk..oo..now it's gone under the floor moulding..who knows where it's gone off to. it won't be seen for a while now. too bad i couldn't catch it. i killed one earlier. maybe that's why the spiders disappeared...

so they still haven't come to fix my ceiling. Unlikely that it will be today, though they do have nearly three hours before 5:00..but maybe tomorrow. The voicemail said today or tomorrow, after all....

oh yeah...in other news, there is (today) only one spider in the ceiling. where is the other one? I hope it isn't in my bed or something. eew.

so last night i saw two movies. One good, one disturbing and yet good.

O Brother Where Art Thou? Good movie. Very good. Lots of great imagery, symbolism...and the plot! wow. good acting too.

But I'm a Cheerleader! distrubing. it's about trying to "cure" homosexuality. There is an intervention, a boarding school program designed to brainwash gay and lesbian teenagers into being "normal"...including simulations....and multiple instances of condemning rhetoric. However, the actual point of the movie is that you are who you are, and no one can change that, and it's not bad. That is the good part. lol. where the two links below came from is a discussion that resulted following the movie. There is one scene when Megan (the main character) is masturbating while saying her affirmations about resisting temptation, etc...and i remembered the "trend" from last year of posters and whatnot that say "every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten"...and they include this poster. so anyway...i was looking on the web to find it to show my friend Miranda and we found those. a "drama in one act" and a list of how to cure yourself of the evils of masturbation. Very Funny. Includes things like putting small cameras in your room and then having them feed ot your neighbors TVs...lol. anyway.

wow.

oh dear.

Okay... so there are still two spiders up there--this one must have been a family member coming on holiday. I do not approve.

no priscilla tonight, due to "dessert reception" for new students...and a trip to the airport to pick up Amy's sister. fun! the mexican food, however, was fab.

It is raining. A lot. a lot a lot. I don't like that at all. it isn't like our grass is going to return to green anytime soon. it has been completely annihilated, and no one knows what happened to it. One of the prides of the school (so much so that the previous president didn't allow people to WALK on the grass...), it is now the amber waves of grain. Only it was mowed yesterday, and is therefore no longer waves.
another note about rain: apparently down here rain makes it more humid rather than less (as happens everywhere else I've ever been). So it is now in fact MORE disgusting outside than it was before it started raining. ugh.

This weekend I have much work to do--and a lot of emails to send too. I am such the email slacker.
Tomorrow night we are watching O Brother Where Art Thou in the auditorium, which is excellent!

I am being random so I think it might be bedtime now. excellent! I can sleep in a little tomorrow!

I killed a spider. I think it was one of the ceiling dwelling ones--so now i have one less to worry about, right? yay!
hebrew quiz today--ugh.
anyway...yeah. dinner tonight doesn't sound good. we are going out to mexican food instead. then watching Priscilla! I hope! :-)

homework. not. getting. done. must. read. now. bye.

the Dekalb farmers market is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. They have everything you've ever wanted...amazing produce, baked goods, organic foods, alcohol, everything else ever....it's massive. it's international. it's open EVERY DAY from 9-9. it's cool. anyway.

how come no one wants to learn Aramaic? That's Jesus' language! granted, no one has really spoken it much since the time of Jesus, but whatever.

mmmm....
good food.
good conversation.
good drinks.
good evening.
much hebrew, theology, and baptism to be done.
no oversleeping allowed tomorrow.
goodnight.

It is finally here, and it is finally almost over. Everyone's been dreading the day for one reason or another--memories, exhaustion on the subject, pain, religious reasons, desire for revenge, fear....
not much longer. Though many would say that this is no ordinary day, I think one of the most important things we can realize is that it is in fact an ordinary day. Our lives go on, much as it may hurt. Our lives go on, and those whose did not would want that. Our lives go on, because we have the opportunity to make a difference. To help end the fear, the pain, the war, the vengeance seeking. Without our lives going on and seeking peace, healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, wholeness, renewal...no life will go on, and all the lives lost throughout the centuries will have been in vain.
So the day is here, and it is almost over. Soon we will have passed the one year mark, and life will continue--may we use it well.

homework got pushed aside in favor of conversation and fellowship tonight. that means much work remains to be done. OT is in 5 hours. luckily I'm done with that--it's just reformed theology and baptism that aren't getting done. I had lots of good convo tonight...yay! and now i'm going to bed. double yay!

MOTHER: "Did you know that God was present when you stole that cookie from the kitchen?"
CHILD: "yes."
M: "And he was looking at you all the time?"
C: "yes."
M: "And what do you think he was saying to you?"
C: "He was saying, 'There's no one here but the two of us--take two.' "

OH YES!! Anthony DeMello. :-)

Reformed theology is a much better class than philosophy.
My work study job rocks!
Lots of people are saying good things about the writing I did for the church newsletter about the new Taize service--but everyone thinks that someone else wrote it. I don't know whether to correct this notion, or to just revel in the idea that they like it without knowing it is mine. hmm.
anyway, must go to dinner. ta.

I seem to have lost my archives. that makes me sad. i hope they reappear at some point...

new poll. results on the least-appealing-design-pattern poll:
50% don't like polka dots
25% don't like animal prints
16% don't like paisley
8% don't like plaid.

hmm.

anyway, vote away! :-)

Today:

1 entire book about baptism and how to get it right again after hundreds of years of messed up theology.
1 hebrew alphabet (aleph-bet, actually) memorized.
1 article on human tendencies to make "signs" and how that relates to the sacraments of the church.
15 things purchased at office max.
1 new pair of jeans purchased at JC Penney (very spur of the moment, I must admit).
3 bottles of water consumed in last 5 hours.
6 CD's listened to while reading.
0 phone calls from friends.
1 email from a friend.
1 church service attended.
1 silverfish killed.
1 left alive somewhere in the corner behind my ugly metal "bookshelf".
1 batch of "catnip tea" brewed and sprayed around my apartment. OK, not yet, but tomorrow. For now there is simply catnip in small cups all over the place--in corners, under things, in closets, etc. Catnip is a natural roach repellent. according to eartheasy it also repels silverfish, but that's not really working out for me right now.
3 times checked to see how many people visited this blog today.
2: number of people who visited this blog today (not counting me). Come on people! This needs to be better. Tell your friends, etc.
40 grapes eaten as a snack.
20 bites of moosetracks ice cream for dessert (not just following the snack: it was more like snack, dinner, dessert...)
0 crunches (or pushups or other exercise related activity) done. so far.

I guess I should organize those baptism readings so i don't have to search for the next ones. i'm going, i'm going.

most recent google search that led someone to my site: "how to fold a burrito"
LOL

in other news, I will probably be the next to die of West Nile Virus. I have been bitten by mosquitoes four times in the last week.
My comments system has gone missing. please return it. thank you.
cheddar broccoli soup is yummy.
The Matchmaker was a very cute movie, with some sad moments. A lot of the set looked just like Iona. So I guess Ireland and Scotland must look the same, right? (lol..I'd prolly get killed for saying that to any of my Scottish or Irish friends...)

anyway, i'll stop being random and go to Office Max now. I need a three hole punch. for my 500 pages of copied readings for Baptism class. wow.

Thula thula ulalele (thula ulalele)
thula thula ulalele (thula ulalele)
thula (ulalele)
thula (ulalele)
thula thula ulalele
thula (ulalele)
thula (ulalele)
thula thula ulalele

Oh yes. Thanks to webtender I have discovered it.

1 1/4 oz Chambord raspberry liqueur
3/4 oz Grand Marnier
2 oz Orange juice
1 oz Soda water

YUM.

Anyway, we were discussing how some of our favorite drinks, no one knows how to make except for at very specific places. And how that makes us kind of sad. Miranda likes the Sidecar (2 oz Brandy, 1/2 oz Triple sec, 1 oz Lemon juice) and the Cosmopolitan, but very few people make them or make them well.

anyway. we came home, saw the headless turtle is still outside our door...and went to "bed" because after all, the business of sleeping the weekend away is calling.

OT=good. Hebrew=less good. Philosophy=dropped. LOL. I have added Reformed Theology instead, which does meet on Monday but that hour and a half late afternoon class on Monday is better than the other option.

Today was a fun day...and tomorrow is Saturday! I'm going to do my laundry!! yay!
today was community picnic, which means big free picnic dinner outside and everyone is there. good times!
Twains tonight. Fun little place...not too smoky which is nice.
we were discussing martinis. I could not remember what is in a french martini to save my life. i'm going to look that up now.

I'm no longer nervous about my classes. If I think positively then they will be easier and fun, right? Walter Brueggeman class this morning...for two hours...good times!

hebrew might actually be fun. baptism has potential too, though most people who've taken it say it is a joke. apparently it's one of those classes whose usefulness hits you later, when you are working in a church. huh. philosophy this afternoon. tomorrow morning, bright and early, Old Testament. fun...
yesterday i missed dinner because i forgot what time it was at. today i hope to be better. perhaps if meals were at some normal time, that would be more acceptable AND easier to remember. but lunch is at (I think) 12:30 to 1:15? dinner from 6 to 6:30? isn't that a little early? and breakfast, from 7:30 to 8 or whatever...yeah. I don't quite get that. anyway....i have food here so if i get desperate then it's all good. but tonight is the ice cream sundae bar! MUST GO TO DINNER!!
i'm going to class now. ta

15 minutes until my first class begins. I'm a little nervous, but very excited. I don't suppose it helps my self esteem in any way that my first class in seminary is HEBREW. hmm...

nice! I just changed my post times to the Eastern Time Zone. fyi, that is FIVE hours behind GMT. :-)

Animal House in Andy's room tonight. hilarious. we're thinking of having a toga party in our quad. (slightly toned down, of course...this is a seminary after all. :-)

must go to bed...classes tomorrow.

Oh yeah. I am also taking a Scripture Reading Practicum. Where we practice reading Scripture in public worship. fun.

today saw the end of orientation. Thank goodness! The standardized writing test was so terrible--I cannot believe that this test is given to people with at least a college degree. It should be given to high school sophomores, maybe. I finished in half the time on both sections. I spent some of the time wondering at how someone could even think to write a sentence like that before choosing my corrections. What must people be thinking? I don't know. anyway...

classes start tomorrow. Hebrew at 9am. fun fun!
Nothing exciting so far today, sadly. Just long orientation sessions...book buying (17 books for four classes!!!!!)...more orientations....ugh. now, however, i'm just waiting for dinnertime. yay!

orientation. lots of it. lots of info...lots of paper...lots of new people. all good!

My advisor is Brian Wren, which is quite exciting. He is so nice. We had a chat, and decided on my classes, and then I went downstairs to register. All done! I am taking Hebrew, Old Testament Survey, Baptism and Evangelical Calling, and Philosophy. Should be a good semester, i think!

Tomorrow: writing tests, financial aid, more orientations...oy. All the faculty seem nice and it's all quite amusing--they have very good senses of humor, which at least amuses me during the hour and a half that we sit in a very cold room.

I am waiting for the maintenance guys to come fix my ceiling before I stencil. With a lot of luck, they'll do it by the end of the week, and I can work on it over the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway, I am going to a choir practice for next week's Opening Convocation. ta.

I painted my own art this afternoon, a la Trading Spaces. It has turned out remarkably well. I'm rather proud of it. :-)
I am all unpacked, and almost all decorated. yay! Orientation starts tomorrow. early in the morning.
time for M&Ms and reviewing all the stuff about this week that I need to know so I don't miss anything important. :-)

Ok. here goes:
The trip, part I. (maybe the only part, I don't know yet. Let's see how far I get now.)
Day 1: Wednesday. We finally get on the road, yay!
Indiana is thoroughly boring to drive through.
We drove really fast, hoping to make the last tour at the Louisville Slugger museum at 4pm...and we rolled into Louisville at 3:45. Or so we thought. It turns out that Louisville, KY, is on Eastern Time. We were so sad because it meant we had driven fast and still didn't make the tour. We visited the bat outside, the wall inside, and the gift shop...and then we went for a walk. We went to the river walk, learned about the floods, about corn island, and the beginning of the Lewis and Clark trail. (We've now been at the beginning and the end, but not much in the middle.) We walked on historic main street, saw some stuff, some historical markers about tornadoes, etc...and then we went to dinner. We ate at the Zen Garden, which is a vegetarian vietnamese restaurant. It was very good. The rice pudding with tarot root was some of the best rice pudding I've every had. yum.
and so we kept driving. We took a bit of a detour when mom saw a sign on the freeway for "National Historic Marker: Maker's Mark Distillery" and we followed it. And followed. And drove and drove and drove. After about 20 to 25 miles, we came to My Old Kentucky Home State Park, and a sign that said "Maker's Mark Distillery: 18 miles." OY! We had gone so far we decided to just stick with it. By this time we had passed Jim Beam distillery #2, another distillery, and the kentucky railway museum. so we kept driving. and turning, and twisting, and driving. by the time we got there, we'd been on so many numbered roads, and seen so many others, that we weren't actually sure we could even backtrack! We saw the marker at the distillery (it was very dark by this time too), we looked at the buildings (old but still working and in very good condition), and we got back in the car. Now, on my Mapquest map from Louisville to Cave City it showed a town we had passed through, from which I discerned that we were East of the freeway and theoretically should only have to drive west to run into it. Luckily our car (new Chevy Blazer) had the direction thing in it, so we were able to just keep an eye on that to let us know what direction we were facing. We drove west (as straight as possible...with curves that always come back to west, in other words) for a long time. Mom says "I hope this works because we only have a quarter tank of gas..." Thanks, mom. Now I feel better! Eventually we came to New Haven, KY, and a Chevron station with a police officer just hanging out inside. Mom got gas, I got directions. On the way to the freeway we passed the Lincoln Boyhood Home! We stopped, looked around, read the signs, etc...and drove along to discover the Lincoln Birthplace! Both of these things were deemed too far out of the way to be on our original itinerary....
We finally arrived in Cave City, found a hotel, and started deciding what to do the next day. At this point we discovered that we were back on Central Time! It turns out that Louisville is almost the only thing in Western Kentucky on Eastern Time. GRRR!!! Anyway..then we were hungry, so we ran out to a convenience store and bought ice cream, pringles, and lemonade. LOL. That was so good. We settled on a plan for the morning, and went to bed.

Day 2: Thursday. Caves, old churches, and "88".
First thing in the morning we set off for Mammoth Cave National Park. We looked around, looked at the tour options, visited the historic natural cave entrance, saw signs for the River Styx but never went to it's spring (or to the river, for that matter, which is on level 5 of the cave, all the way down), and settled on the Travertine tour. We got tix, got on the bus, and went on down. Very cool. It was a small group (early in the morning, no wonder!) and the tour guide was excellent. we were speedy, so we had extra time. she took us down into the cave past where our tour was supposed to end, and we saw some nice formations..and she turned out all the lights so we could see how dark it was! it was so fun. she lit a lighter to show how much light it can give off when you are really in total darkness. She was funny too...the statement was "this is a standard government issue lighter, probably 1, 2 hundred dollars..." LOL.
Anyway, there are some formations in the cave that look like Niagara falls, frozen. So it is imaginatively called "Frozen Niagara"...we saw that. we also saw cave bacon, soda straws, and caramel corn. LOL.
So we got back to the top, bussed back, and drove immediately to Crystal Onyx cave which is down the road and up a hill. We were the only people on that tour, and it was pretty cool. We felt a little more cave-like, because the paths weren't cement, there were narrow stairs, narrow passageways, low ceilings sometimes, and loads of formations everywhere. our tour guide told us some stuff, and let us look around, etc. it was a fun tour. On the way out, there was a sign that said "enjoy your tour? tipping is permitted."

as we were leaving there, we saw a sign for the road we eventually needed to get on, so we just went then instead of visiting Diamond Caverns. We drove along, hoping to see one of the street signs we'd seen the day before because now we had a camera! It was a yellow diamond shaped sign, like any other sign, except that it had a picture of a horse and carriage on it. Do horse drawn carriages regularly cross the state routes of Kentucky? I don't know! But we did see the sign, and mom stopped, pulled into someone's driveway, and I got out and ran back to the sign, took a picture, and ran back to the car.

We drive, drive, la la la, passing through loads of small towns because we are on state highway, not interstates...including a town called "88". That's it, that's the name of the town. Anyway we were going to Tompkinsville, KY, which is the nearest town to the Old Mulkey Meeting House. This is the first church in Southwest KY. Also there is a cemetary with Daniel Boone's father and sister. And Stonewall Jackson's cousins are buried out in the forest. all in all a cool stop. we drove on and on, checking out Standing Stone State Park in Tennessee. The stone was set up by Indians as a guidepost or something. The catch is that the stone isn't in the park, and has never been in the park. It's somewhere else...and the park is just named after it. whatever. We kept driving, seeing all kinds of other brown signs, but by this time we had learned that if it doesn't tell you how far it is once you get off the freeway, it's far away. And we were disillusioned by Standing Stone, and figured that some of these other parks may not have the things in them that they are named after. So we drove on. It rained SO HARD...sheets of water coming down....for a while. Then we passed it and the road was completely dry. very bizarre. we came to Chattanooga..and couldn't find anything. It was crazy. We had dinner, and decided that since we couldn't find a hotel we were going to just keep driving! We drove all the way to Decatur that night. We got in around 10:45pm, found the school, but couldn't find anything else to save our lives. The roads are so curvy and twisting and crazy...crossing over themselves, doubling back, driving in circles....ugh. We finally found a hotel and checked in, and went to sleep.
Day 3: Friday. we're there!
We woke up late because we were in Eastern Time again but had forgotten to change our alarm clock (mom's watch). We had breakfast, got to school, got keys, and moved stuff in. for a long time we moved stuff in. a lot of stuff. My place is huge, compared to where I've lived during college before. A living room the size of my last apartment, a bedroom even bigger, two closets, and a big bathroom. No kitchen, of course, because I am on the meal plan. We did lots of shopping, including buying a refrigerator, microwave, bookshelf, etc. the place is furnished but some of the stuff is just too ugly to use so I've put it out and got new stuff in. We covered the sofa and the Pier 1 chair with sheet slipcovers. The living room is done in blue and silver, and the bedroom in plum and silver. the bathroom is sage and plum. very cool. anyway...
I successfully locked my keys in my apartment on friday and had a big ordeal getting back in. I got the extra keys from the business office...and the one for my door didn't work. I got the master, and it didn't even fit in the door (I'm not sure it was the master for the right building, actually). finally the woman there had to call security and ask them to bring the "grand grand master key", which a guy did and he promptly opened the door. All of this at about 4:15pm on the day before labor day weekend. oy. and mom is sitting outside the building with a refrigerator. LOL.

anyway, the only thing we seem to have done here is drive around in circles, shop, unpack, and generally get ready. yesterday we went to Zoo Atlanta where they have pandas! We spent a lot of time watching the pandas. Great fun. The rest of the zoo is quite small. It is expensive, too...especially to me, because I've been living across the street or within a mile or so of a free zoo for the last four years! anyway, that was good. we finally found the direct route to downtown Decatur yesterday, and walked around it a little. We had dinner at a cute little place, which I cannot remember the name of, and then got back to my place to finish the unpacking, for mom to pack, and do any last minute things.
One of the coolest things on this trip have been the signs. I have pictures of many--the horse/carriage sign, the "church zone" sign, the "vote fat jack for jailer" sign...etc. love them. We were laughing the whole way, the signs were so hilarious. anyway...

Mom left this morning and I am just finishing up the unpacking with my desk drawers. Today I need to decorate--I'm going to make my own painting Trading Spaces-style, stencil some silver stars around the walls, and hang pictures.then perhaps everything will be off the floor! I also need to get out and meet some people--when Mom has been here we've been doing so much stuff that I haven't met many people at all. Of course, not that many people have been around, either...but whatever. Orientation starts tomorrow, and classes on Thursday. yippee! the adventures have begun!

I know, I know. I've been here for a couple of days but haven't posted. I'm sorry.

Lots of shopping has been done. Decorating, still to come. adventures, we've had. Do any roads in this whole city/metropolitan area go in a straight line? no.

When I get some time off from shopping and cleaning and assembling (not that I've actually done that--mom has) and meeting people, etc, I'll post. tomorrow. I promise. I have lots of things to say, hilarious happenings and silly signs...oh yes. i can sense your anticipation. waiting is half the fun, right?