Cedarville University

My dad works for AT&T, so by nature I support the company. Therefore, when I have no signal anywhere on campus, I blame the fact that, as far as telephone lines are concerned at least, Cedarville is located in the middle of nowhere. Except for various dead patches while road tripping through that place called Oklahoma, I have excellent service on my phone. Therefore, I blame Ohio for this problem. In Texas, in San Antonio, which by the way, is one of the ten biggest cities in America, my phone always works. But I probably need my phone more here at college, especially because my mother usually calls me at least twice a day. I’m not one prone to answer the phone every time it rings anyhow, but I get an even worse reputation for not answering because my phone simply doesn’t ring. I frequently get voicemails without ever receiving a phone call. Luckily for me, many of these phone calls are not urgent and the voicemail usually consists of my mom saying “I love you. Call back.” Actually, since I know she will read this, I might as well say, my mom usually sings her voicemails…..I get all sorts of tunes and melodies, but the bottom line is always the same: she is just checking in.

That’s what I’m doing in this blog: I’m just checking in. S0me noteworthy things have happened since I last was able to talk with my readers, so it’s time for an update. And if you have anything to update me on, just drop me a comment. First, let’s go all the way back to two Fridays ago, and I will recount just a funny little story. Actually, the reason I have to tell you about this, besides the fact that it was sort of amusing, is to clear someone’s name. You may remember my friend Hannah, one of the cruel people that looked on me as a freak for wearing my Christmas bell. She was worried about her image with my readers and wanted me to present her in a positive, if a bit silly, light this time. So here is the setting: We are all waiting for Dr. Mills to get to Honors class and there happens to be quite a few visitors on this day, because that weekend was a leadership conference, and so some of the high school students were attending class to see if they would be interested in applying to the Honors program. (Plug: do it!) Anyways, in the back of the classroom, there is one mischievous table that came up with the idea for everyone to turn around and face the back of the classroom, just to throw off Dr. Mills when he arrived. And it was when this happened, that the little incident occurred. Hannah sits right in front of me along with Justin and Taylor, while next to me a row back sits a girl named Allie. Well, while we were turned around, Hannah got confused, and she started going through Allie’s bookbag, which is pink with flowery designs on it. I was watching her, confused a little, because I knew that Hannah didn’t know Allie very well, just as she was commenting “aw this is cute” on her bag, and then pulling out her Bible, which has an orange cover and saying “oh, so is this.” Then Allie made an innocent statement that implied her ownership of the items, and Hannah was embarrassed. I don’t think she has really talked to Allie since then. But the point is, see, Hannah is really just a friendly person, who likes to analyze people, since she is a psych major. And that’s how I can excuse her for her judgments on my bell.

Last week literally flew by, with homework, classes, work, and in between, some enjoying of time with friends. And it’s on that last point that I will now dwell for a few words and reveal another aspect of the title of this blog. Being from a major city, I’m not used to outside of the classroom, still recognizing about half of the people I see. But here at Cedarville, it’s hard to walk anywhere (unless it’s at a dead time of day) without seeing someone you know. And anytime you see someone, they display the same attitude that my mom does when she calls me. They just want to check in with you, make sure those tear stains on your face are from laughing, or if they aren’t, what’s wrong. They will laugh with you and see what’s up with your life and all. A couple recent examples: I ran into Chuck’s last night to eat dinner, I just had ten minutes before I had to get to work, but my friend Sarah saw me, and even though she was ready to leave, stayed for the ten minutes just to keep me company. A few days ago, while playing pool with Amanda and Taylor, after the game was over (I won, by the way) instead or reracking the balls, we just sat there and had a good conversation. And one last example: my roommate and I frequently lose sleep from jsut talking to each other for like an hour after we’ve each already gotten in bed. These conversations always end with, “What are we doing up still?” but it’s worth it, even with the groggy feeling next morning.

And another thing that happened recently to me was that I was initiated to the sport of skiing. Well, for me it was more like the sport of falling. I actually went with the intention to gather some good material to write about in this blog here, but anything I wrote about that would just be pathetic, so I’ll just tell you that it was very obvious I am from the South. And that is me checking in, and just giving you a glimpse into what’s been going on with me for the last week or so. Until my next voicemail, then!

Dear You,

I’m back here at Cedarville for the “Spring 10″ semester, though I’ll be the first to tell you, it feels nothing like spring up here right now. Whoever made up the term “winter break” was obviously from the South, like myself, cause that’s the only way you could believe that in three weeks winter will have come and gone. How do I keep warm? Well, I’ve found that my legs more or less take care of themselves, so a normal pair of blue jeans works. But I certainly have to wear socks, because my feet will get real cold real fast, and when my feet are cold, all of me feels cold. So socks and shoes are always a necessity, though I’ve seen some crazy people traipsing around in bare feet every once in a while.  Just looking at those people makes me shiver. But my top half is where the real art of keeping warm is practiced. Since I refuse to wear headwear of any sort, except for the occasional hood, recognizing how ridiculous I look with it on, my ears and nose just have to deal. But for my torso, I first wear an undershirt, then a regular shirt (perhaps a collared one, like now, if I am going or have recently been to class), then a sweatshirt, then my winter jacket (only when I’m outside.) These layers are essential for survival, as I found out when I left one of them out a few days ago. I even walked back to the dorm just to put the undershirt on again.

How are classes going? Well, most of them are fairly routine gen ed courses. While perhaps not the most exciting lectures, I’m still learning alot of good stuff. I basically missed out on Biology in high school, so I’m excited that I get the chance to take it again, for real this time. But whenever a class ceases to feel like a class and just becomes so much fun, then you know you’ve got it really good. I have such a class this semester- Intro to Creative Writing. I find myself smiling through the whole class, which, if you know me, you would realize I don’t do that so often. Dr. Futrell is great at fostering the creative process, and I just love the atmosphere of the class, though not the classroom, which on the first day of class, Dr. Futrell described as “trying to kill his soul.” I already feel that the class will be helpful in me generating a bunch of new material over the semester, something I probably wouldn’t be able to do if I was not in a class that just helped me in that direction.

Oh yeah, I did start a new job, working at Chuck’s, the cafeteria on campus here. I do two different jobs- Tuesdays I am in charge of the “Breakfast all day bar” and then Wednesdays and Fridays I work “Utility,” which means I replace milks and fill up ice machines and refill the Kool-Aid and just fun stuff like that. The first day I worked I ripped open a bag of Raisin Bran and it went everywhere, and people were like “woah, who did that?” And I had to be like “it was me.” But i cleaned it up and recovered. The other interesting thing that happened at work was when towards the end of my shift, I totally slipped on a tile area that had been mopped and fell right on my hip. One guy saw me and came running back, going “Wow, man are you alright?!” I laughed it off and said yeah I was fine. The guy said he didn’t think anyone else had saw that, and with a wink in my voice, I said, “Well, I think it’s better that way.” Besides that, work is pretty routine.

Oh, and you are probably wondering why it’s taken me so long to get back to you, right? Well, I actually ended up sick last week, and that has thrown off my whole semester so far. I feel so disorganized, and I hate being disorganized, as you of course know. So I’m finally righting the ship and getting back in the swing of things. And that should mean that I get to talk to you more often!

Gotta go to work soon. Take care!

The clothes are unpacked, the new load of classes has begun, the dishes are clean, I have a new roommate, a new job, and a ticket to the Cowboys playoff game Saturday. Yes, I do have a lot to tell you. Christmas break feels like just a blur, albeit a wonderful blur, after the last two days, which have been very very good to me   But they didn’t start that way. In fact, yesterday morning wasn’t very good, staring at the prospect of being away from home for another four months straight and leaving when I really felt like I hadn’t done what I wanted to do on my break. But thats when I got on Facebook and my aunt had left me a message saying she had two tickets to the Cowboys playoff game this Saturday night. I asked her who she was going with and she said she didn’t know yet, so I immediately threw my hat into the ring and through a series of top secret, complex negotiations and contracts, I will be flying back out of Cedarville for the weekend to go visit Texas Stadium for the first playoff game ever played there. The secret contracts were signed and finalized at the San Antonio Airport while my sister and I waited for our plane to arrive. (How do you sign contracts over a cell phone, you are no doubt wondering. Well, you’ll never know )

We flew from San Antonio to Dallas, where we had a long layover. So Courtney and I ate dinner, watched an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, were informed our flight had changed gates, took the Skylink over from C14 to C37, then started watching Iron Man waiting for this plane, which was of course delayed, and so we didn’t take off from Dallas till about 7:40, which landed us in Dayton close to eleven, and we picked up my friend who needed a ride back to Cedarville as well, and after traveling over snowish-icy roads, when all was said and done, we arrived back to Cedarville near 12:30 am. And another good surprise met me at my dorm room, because Johnson had moved in and I didn’t even realize it. So we talked till like 2 in the morning even though we both knew we should be going to sleep. There is a slight problem in the room though, and that has to do with our beds. We both bought the same bed set before the school year began, and so now, our beds have matching comforters and pillows. And with the comments we get from our unit mates, I think that one of us should probably, just maybe, perhaps, turn their sheets inside out, asap.

I did finally get to sleep and when I woke up a little past 8 this morning, surprisingly I was ready to get up. The morning brought a couple more surprises- 1. I have a job that I start in less than an hour at the school cafeteria, and 2. my flight to Dallas was accidentally scheduled to go to Baltimore. Hm, this is a problem. So i changed the reservations and responded to the email about my new job. Then I finished the unpacking I hadn’t done the night before and rolled out in the snow to chapel. From chapel to speech class, from speech class to lunch, from lunch back to MOMM, the only continuing class from last semester, and now back to the dorm to do more winter cleaning and to write this blog.

I am exciting about all these new things I get to do do and be involved in this semester, and look to make the most of the myriad opportunities I have here, better than I did first semester. So much potential packed onto such a small campus. One of the things I am most excited about is my Intro to Creative Writing class, which starts up tomorrow, and hopefully will be one of my favorite parts of the semester. I have met Dr. Futrell and think he is very cool, so I cant wait to see what he’s like as a professor. Points for him, he’s a Cowboys fan

I’m also really looking forward to just seeing what comes up as the semester goes, what challenges there will be to face, and where the strength will come from to not only face them, but be more than a conqueror in all things. One of those challenges will be surviving the cold weather, I already know that. 49 degrees in San Antonio yesterday, 38 by the time we reached Dallas, 16 and snowy by the time we landed in Dayton. Oh where has the sun gone? See you in four months Texas. But I hope that time doesn’t come too soon, cause, wow, I surprised myself by how happy I was today, bouncing around campus and reconnecting with all these people I haven’t seen in a month. And I only want those friendships to get stronger. Wish me luck on my first day on the job! (the other job, that is )