Life as a Laker

My first day of college was..... interesting.

Chem class went well. I think AP Chem set me up to be a little ahead of where they are now, but I've forgotten some of the old stuff.

I had a humongous break for 4 hours yesterday. I re-signed myself up for Spanish during that time, found out that because there was a brief time while I wasn't a full time student, I have to wait to get my financial aid money I was going to use for books. After that mishap, I found all my other classes, ate lunch at Subway, and watched Seinfeld on my computer while waiting for my Honors Classical World class.

Hnr Classical World is about ancient Greece and Rome, so it should be pretty interesting, but this one professor is too much of a philosophizer. I found out when I got to class (since I hadn't checked out the bookstore yet) that there are 11 books to purchase. Yes, 11, as in 1+10! Many of them are fairly cheap, but the sheer number of books is overwhelming.

After Classical World, I waited another hour and a half for Spanish. There, I found out that they know far more than I do having only taken 3 years of HS Spanish, so I decided to drop it.

Dropping Spanish works out the best for everything. It was the class keeping me at college from 8am - 5:45pm.

Today, I bought a majority of my books, went to Chem, and switched into Econ 100. Hopefully it will be easier than Spanish.

I had to read 60 pages of the most boring book about Greek history. It wasn't all boring, but the author uses uncommon words to sound more intelligent (by strange coincidence, so does that professor), so it took a while to get through.

I have a ton more Chem homework to get done before too much longer, but I need to get myself a graphing calculator. In high school, I always had a way of getting one loaned to me from the school. Grand Valley doesn't do that.

I have had the chance to see a few people I knew in my many adventures these past two days. I passed Paul M. from MSHS on the sidewalk this morning. I've seen at least 5 people that graduated a year before me from MS. I also ran into Betsy at the SMART center this morning. (I'm not joking about the name of the SMART center, it's Science and Math... something). :-)

Right now I feel a little overwhelmed with some of this homework, but I'm sure I'll get used to it soon. Then I may just have time for a social life again..... Sorry, Dallas, but I had to read my Greek book, so I couldn't make our date today..... :-p

Finding Myself... Yeah Right!

Since I'm starting the next phase of my life tomorrow morning, I decided it would be beneficial to truly KNOW myself. So I took this "How Nerdy Are You?" quiz. Apparently I'm just a Nerd-Wannabe....

Now that I know that, I can go to bed.

Have a great week, everyone!!!

(And for those of you, *coughSarahShannonandDallascough*, that don't have school tomorrow, just know that yes, you will be having more fun than me.)

Good Night.

Show-Me-State

This evening I returned from visiting my relatives in the good ol' state of Missouri.

We got in late Friday night and worked on getting some sleep. The next morning, my brother, uncle, grandpa, and I went to the Cardinals game at Busch Stadium. It was a good time to enjoy each other's company and catch up with each other.

We spent Saturday night at my aunt's house where we had hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. The karaoke machine came out, and what followed was too embarassing for this public forum....

On Sunday, my brother and I went to Six Flags for half of the day. They have some pretty cool coasters there, but Patrick got a little sick, so we couldnt' stay and do any re-rides.

We hung out around the house yesterday, and went to my aunt's again in the evening.

After the fourth straight night of little sleep, we awoke this morning and began the trek home.

It finally hit me today that I'm starting college in less than a week. I'm in no way prepared, so this should be fun. Definitely going to be a time where I have to trust God. I can't stress out about it. It will only make me crazy.

Please be praying for me this coming week. On top of college, I'm still talking with Hage's about getting a much-needed job to pay for the gas to transport me to Grand Valley. If you'd prefer to just pray that my car get 1,000 mpg, that'd be fine too.

As my eyes keep closing involuntarily, I believe it's time to sign off.

I leave you with these links:
Turkmen President Bans Lip Synching (Bad news for those of us who can't sing...)

Stray Llama Hanging Out at Wyoming Center

Tina, eat your food, you fat lard!

Moving on...

Yesterday was the very last Bible study that I could attend as a high-schooler. As much as I would like to think that I could end up going to winter retreat by means of tricking the new youth pastor, Dave said it best:

"Leave, grow up, go to the college group, and teach your Sunday school class."

It was a great way to end my high school career. The discussion was very appropriate as it was on a Christian's approach to social issues in the world. We talked about how even though we may believe and know that something is wrong, it is still more effective and Christ-like to change people and not fight for legislation.

This is a great example of what we kind of touched on in the Conversations group later on in the day. We are agents of redemption for God's kingdom. The Holy Spirit should be working in us to bring forth glimpses of God's kingdom. We do this best through the relationships we have with each other and the world. What better way to be representatives of the Kingdom than to show the world how life will be when it is completely restored at the second coming.

Keith and I were discussing how we can truly be redemptive agents in society, and I think we were having a hard time understanding each other because of words being mixed up and definitions not being fully understood. I'd love to continue this conversation either here or on the Conversations blog. How are we to be agents of redemption?

I'm beginning to get more and more excited about this fall. My college classes will be starting on the 29th, I'll hopefully have a job within the next few weeks, and I'll begin leading a small group of Junior High guys on Sunday mornings.

So many of these guys are way more advanced than I ever was at that age, and I'm excited to get into discussions with them and to be an encouragement as they're maturing in their faith.

This weekend I've got my last hurrah (sp?) of the summer. I'll be leaving tomorrow night for the town of Festus, MO to visit my aunt, uncles, cousin, and grandparents. My brother and I are attending a Cardinals game, and we'll probably be going to Six Flags also.

Let me leave you with this memorable moment from Chicago:

"You sound like a girl."
"Well, you look like a girl."
"That's cuz I am a girl!"

"I'm sorry, will you be my friend?"
"N-O!"

"I hate her.... (ten seconds later)..... I still hate her!"

The love-hate relationship of Devin and Victoria....

Of Unity Concerts

It's been a very long weekend. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I attended the Unity Music Festival at Heritage Landing. This was the fourth year that I've gone, and it was a pretty good lineup.

I got to see:
tobyMac, downhere, By the Tree, Tears for Juliet, Jars of Clay, Mourning September, Hawk Nelson, Hope for August, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Everyday Sunday. It was well worth the price.

Something I noticed was the abundance of Christian T-shirts. For some reason, when people attend Unity, they feel that they HAVE to wear whatever article of Christian clothing they own. I enjoyed seeing all of the Christian slogans and symbols because most of them are derived from common slogans, just with different words.

I saw a few Diver City shirts that would have come from CSM which is the organization we worked through in Chicago. I saw 2 different shirts that were a rip off of the Survivor logo, but promoting Christian events. I saw a "TOBYMAC IS MY HOME-BOY" shirt. There were countless JQ99 shirts and JQ99 stickers on shirts. I saw a Mennonite girl in a bonnet, a long denim skirt and an Abercrombie T-shirt. (Very oxymoronical) (<-- cool word, but don't know if it's real) I saw a shirt that said "Jesus is my Savior." Along with all of these, there were the typical shirts that Dave gets for free from the Christian apparel companies such as "Abreadcrumb and Fish."

Apparently, there is an unwritten code that requires that you must wear at least one piece of Christian clothing sometime during the weekend. I guess it's just a way to let the other thousands of Christians coming to hear Christian music that you are a Christian, too. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that some non-Christians go to Unity, but I think they're going to get the message from some place other than our T-shirts.

In other news, I'm currently trying to decide if I should stick with Spanish and pursue a minor in college, or drop my Spanish course (because it makes my schedule difficult) and take Japanese...
I'd take Greek, but it's closed.

The Obligatory Update

Equilibrium is a good movie. It's way better than the Matrix.

Walking around Grand Haven is fun.

Finding out that they're not selling tickets for the carnival rides anymore is not fun.

Flight of the Phoenix is also worth watching.

50 First Dates is hilarious and will make you look at Sean Astin a lot differently.

Wedding parties are fun to work at if you've got fun co-workers, but it can be a little awkward when the bride is in the hospital.

Fireworks are a ton of fun. Fires afterward are not so much fun.

Going down sand dunes is more fun than going up sand dunes.

Sand in shoes is not fun.

Singing along to Sanctus Real with your friends is fun.

GEW with only 4 people seems not fun.

But when GEW gets moved to Starbucks with free frappucinos, it is fun.

Watching The Best of Will Ferrel is fun, as long as the DVD doesn't skip too much.

Sleeping in the next day is fun.

Hasta luego.

King of the Apes!

This is just to say that I beat Donkey Kong Jungle Beat today by getting the 3 remaining crests for a total of 72.

I highly recommend this game; it's a lot of fun to play and even more fun to watch someone else play.

Nothing else is really going on today. This is the most blog-worthy event as of late.

I'm actually kind of bored this week since my little brother is up at Grace Adventures for camp.

"Jesus Freak" just came on the radio. I can't listen to this song anymore without picturing Dave rapping on stage for the Junior High Parents Night.

Tomorrow is the second-to-last Lunch Bible Study at noon. We'll be at the Burger King on Henry. Hope to see you guys there!