Hmm…

Today in philosophy class, our professor told us about a few opportunities for us to study abroad in Mexico. The trips themselves sound amazing; however, their motives provoke a loud eschatological “hmm…”

Apparently, it is becoming a sort of trend in higher education to make one’s student into what they refer to as “global citizens.”

Hmm…

Housing Hell or Wonderful Opportunity?

Shockingly, this is not a post about my life in the dorms.

Before last week, I had plans to live with a wonderful young lady next school year. This week, the young lady, who is still wonderful, informed me that she has decided to live alone next year. The picture above describes where this leaves me. Paddle-less.

This would not be so bad if it were not so late in the year. All of my friends, plus everyone else that I have spoken with so far, already have their housing plans for the coming school year. This leaves me more or less on my own.

I have been hunting up and down, but so far, nothing looks promising. The only studio/one bedroom apartments in the area are on or dangerously close to Troost, and since rape and murder are not on my experiential “to do” list, I think that I’ll pass on those. Currently, my only opportunity is a two-bedroom duplex that I would have to start paying rent on in June. Rent in $750 a month. This means that I would pay $1500 just for the two months that I don’t live in it during the summer, being that I don’t (and, chances are, won’t) have a roommate.

These being the circumstances, the most economic thing to do (at least as far as I can see), is as follows: take the $1500 that I would have used for rent over the summer and buy a used car that gets good gas mileage, and that I will, God willing, use for far more than two months (hopefully several years). I would then use this car to commute from school to my home at IHOP, just twenty minutes away, where the rent is so much cheaper that it will make up for the extra expense of gas and insurance.

I must admit that this thought is a little romanticized by the idea of being so close to the Prayer Room. Having spent last night with Char and Jesse, I was in the Prayer Room both last night and this morning, and it was truly refreshing. Plus, there would be the possibility of being able to pick up a couple of shifts a week at the bookstore if I beg well enough. After all, it is the most wonderful job that I could imagine myself having right now (that was both sincere and begging).

If anyone else has an idea that they feel is superior to the one above, I should hope that they would feel free to express it. I’m confident that God will take care of me, and direct me in the way that I should go, but as for now, either I am hard of hearing or He is not speaking about it at the moment. If you think of it, please throw up a few prayers for my situation, so that my living situation next year doesn’t look like the picture blow.



OK, so that is overly dramatic, but that seems to be a theme here at the blog…

A Little Story from when I was Little

Since there really isn’t anything very interesting going on in my life right now that I could share with you, here is a little something from years gone past. Not only is it cute, but is also speaks to my current vocation. I hope that you enjoy it.

So, I was somewhere between ages seven and nine, when I was obsessed with building blocks. Having just come out of my Lincoln Log period, I loved to build towers, as high as I could make them, with elaborate bases for imaginary people to enter through.

It so happened that I was home alone. My father was at work, and the rest of the family was off grocery shopping or something else like that, while I was hard at play in the living room, making what I hoped to be my largest tower yet. I realized that this would require a large base, and after building that, I came to the halting realization that our home suffered from a terrible shortage of wooden building blocks.

I sat there, distressed over my half-built tower and wondering what to do, when my gaze was turned to the entertainment center, packed full of VHS movies. It did not take me long to understand that a VHS is nothing more than a plastic building block.

Quickly, I was at work again. I had unsheathed every single movie in our collection and placed them, one on top of the other, until it was, indeed, the largest tower my home had ever known. I was quite in raptures by the sight of it and could not wait for my mother to come home so that she could also know this joy as well.

Shortly, my mother was there, and when she saw the tower, surely her emotions were as at least as strong as mine were, but not of the same nature. I evaded a swat on the butt, however, I was ordered to immediately disassemble the tower and place all of the videos back into there proper cases. It was a sad disassemble-age, but I still carry the pride form that tower of innovation. My only wish is that I would have documented that work.

Forgive me...

I am sorry that I have not blogged in about a month. Things have been crazy on my side of things, and it seemed like everything was changing so fast that it wasn't worth my time to record any of it, and I must say that, for the most part, I was right. Non of the news I have for you now is the same as it would have been when it first happened.

As for now, the one settled thing that I have to tell you about is that I bought myself flowers. I was shopping at Wild Oats yesterday, and they had a sizable bouquet of flowers for six dollars. I bought them thinking that I would give them to my sister to celebrate her return form Inner Healing Camp, but when I put them in a water pitcher that my high school ceramics teacher made to keep them fresh, I decided to keep them because they make me happy. Maybe after a little while, I will give them away, because it also makes me happy to invest in someone else's happiness.