1. I like living with my own little family! Living by myself had many pros, but I'm glad to be living with these wonderful girls. We talk, laugh, cook, cry, share, and shop together (last one--very important).
2. The job has gotten BUSY. Time flies! One minute, I'm clocking in, the next, I'm scrambling around to tie up all the loose ends. I like getting to talk with the people; they're a fascinating variety. We kinda follow them through little sections of their lives: we found out when Mrs. Smith's husband went off to Iraq, and today I heard from her that he had come home. Another plus: I've becoe so absent-minded lately, that I rarely ever take my work home with me, because I simply can't remember any of it!
3. Having people over pretty much rocks. I think we've had people at our apartment nearly every night the past two weeks, inviting especially some of those we don't ordinarily get to spend a lot of time with. Friday, we squashed 25 people into our 16'x15', un-air-conditioned living room for a singing. Fortunately, no one keeled over from heatstroke and we learned many new songs.
4. People having me over pretty much rocks! I got to play games with a group at the Watsons', was treated to TGI Fridays by one friend, Starbucks by another, ate dinner with some of Antioch's newest members, etc.
5. The Mrs. Atherton Bible study has officially begun! (called such because Mrs. A is our gracious hostess.) We discussed how to make God more prominent in our daily conversation. I don't know that I've ever attended a scheduled study that has been more profitable than this group's. Everyone is open, honest, and eager to learn. Unfortunately, guys, it's ladies only.
6. Just got back from shopping with Kathryn and Holly. It's fun shopping with married women, watching them drool over all the kitchenware. Speaking of which, I am now the proud owner of our apartment's first baking sheet and serving spoon!
Well, I could into many more details about why life is amazing, but I can feel myself quickly losing my command of the English language as the hour grows later.
*Count your blessings---you'll be pleasantly surprised.*
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Oh, and while you're counting your blessings, remember to turn off your ceiling fan before you go to bed on your top bunk...I'm gonna have quite the shiner for church tonight! :D
Sigh. It's posts like this that make me almost wish I lived off campus. Now that I'm a 5th year student, most of the people I know are off campus, but I hardly ever see any of them.
I'm so happy for you though. It sounds like life is going superbly for you :).
Turning it off is only important if you don't know exactly how much space is between it and your bed, I've gotten hit a couple of times at home before I learned, but after that it was all fun and games. ;)
i'm so glad that your ceiling fan incident didn't do any serious damage to your eyes... or head... or hair... or anything else! Sorry about the black eye, though.
There's no one to talk history to around here! Right before Emily left, we went to Barnes and Noble and I found a book on the War of 1812. I was so excited because, as you know, it's so difficult to find material on it. It was by Langguth who wrote my book on the American Revolution. There I was showing everyone my marvelous find and all they were saying was, "Very nice, Mom." I could just hear you saying, "All right!" (It's a mesmerizing read, btw. Called "Union: 1812.")
...someone threatened to call the cops on me, and meant it!
Can't say I ever imagined that happening.
I and my group of friends had left the Taco Bell building because they were locking up for the night and instead of departing, we stood on the sidewalk and talked for a while, the girls about how to cook with bananas and the guys about the constitutionality of the draft, until finally one of the employees beat on the inside of the locked door and said he was going to call the police if we didn't leave.
Now, I believe the threat was unjustified for multiple reasons. First of all, the sign on the door said they closed at 11pm. At 10 they started cleaning, and finally at 10:30 they were locking the door--obviously they were closing. We got up, walked outside, and they immediately closed the last door behind us. I didn't like the fact that they were false advertising the closing time, but decided it really wasn't anything to make a fuss about, but then at 11 the guy tells us if we don't leave, he's gonna call the police.
Now, that's just poor customer service. You don't kick your customers out before closing time and then threaten to call the police on them a few minutes after closing, especially when they're not loitering, as they are obviously finishing remnants of their Taco Bell merchandise. I have every intention of calling the manager tomorrow and telling him that he at least ought to change the sign on the door.
It was slightly depressing--I try to be the sort of godly example I ought to be, and then I end up having someone dialing the PD because of my behavior. After I thought about it, I realized we had been pretty boisterous in the restaurant, raising our voices so we could be heard over our own din of noise. I had known before that some restaaurants--particularly Starbucks--cringe when FC students walk in the door, because they are loud, sit and stand anywhere they please, and generally make the atmosphere uncomfortable for those sitting around. The large size of our group combined with our loudness probably made us appear like a bunch of stereotypical tipsy, self-centered, obnoxious young people who have no consideration at all for the people around them.
It's not true, of course--everyone in my group had no intention of being inconsiderate and or creating an uncomfortable atmosphere, but in our excitement I think we may have forgotten to pay more attention to the feelings of others.
(...I stil plan on telling the manager to change the sign.)
wow! that's crazy! don't take it personally...just another jerk in the world. i remember onetime in walmart i was trying to get through an aisle that was just wide enough for 2 carts to pass through...and two ladies had carts right next to each other and seemed to be just standing there chatting, so i said, in a very calm, polite tone "excuse me, ma'am" and her husband pushed the cart out of my way, and as i passed, the lady looks at me and says "A simple 'excuse me' would've worked just fine!" she was incredibly rude for having been blocking the aisle, but i suppose she didn't hear me say "excuse me," even though her husband did...but yeah...people are just rude for no apparent reason, sometimes!
I like your thoughts about being considerate... when I think back, I notice that there are plenty of times when I've been out with friends having innocent fun, yet probably was causing some annoyance to others, like in restaurants or stores.
Why don't you just call as planned, ask to talk to the manager, explain what happened and ask why you were threatened like that? It seems to me that assumptions might have been made about your group which led to the decision to close early and make the threat. Perhaps if the GM knew (unless (s)he was there, of course), what happened, then that would help things for everyone, your group and the store. And now that I think about it, you might just consider a few of you just going to the store for a face-to-face talk. Phone calls are easier to brush off. Just some thoughts. Unless you want to write off this Taco Bell altogether, furthere visits there might be uncomfortable if the air isn't cleared.
Wow, sorry to hear that. John and I go to the one on Fowler is that where you went? We seem to have plenty of issues with that particular store. I hope you make the call to the manager cause if they don't know what happened they can't fix this.
"Furthere?" (in reference to my comment) I think I must have been very sleepy! And now I can't remember if I meant to type "future" or "further." Maybe my mind was making a compromise.
i do feel a little guilty about boistrously debating the economy of the draft, but i don't know if that would have made people so uncomfortable as confused...
Haha...wow. I would probably be annoyed myself, or embarrased, one. I did think it a little strange how Caroline was writing about this and complaining and then you went along to observe that you all were pretty boisterious. It's probably happened with me too. One time we were in Chik-fil-a and I made up the 'dog-exercise-group' in the restrant and was probably laughing a good deal. And then if mom hadn't let me known that people kept looking at me I might would've gotten in some trouble for playing on the keyboard in Target somewhat noisily.
I thought it was kinda funny as well as puzzling and annoying. Now I can tell people that I've had people threaten to call the cops on me, which I'll have to try to remember to use the next time I play Two Truths and a Lie...
I don't even feel guilty about being boisterous...I don't think we really were! And it's the ghetto Taco Bell -- it's not a place like Starbuck's that is meant to be a relaxing atmosphere. And the employees there are generally just as boisterous as the customers. And the only other people in the restaurant were students, people our age. Even the people not inour group.
I've been thinking about my liberal arts education lately-particularly the aspect of how one can study literature and take spiritual application from it, even if said literature isn't 100% "pure," so to speak.
It's interesting to note that Paul made use of bits of knowledge that were from less than pristine sources. Consider:
Acts 17:28 "For we are also his children" is a line from a poem written by Aratus, who wrote poems of praise to Zeus and other Greek deities as well as the stories of the consetellations.
Titus 1:12 "Cretans are always liars" is apparently better known today to the non-Christian world as "Epimenedes Paradox" as Epimenedes was a Cretian, though apparently Paul either missed or decided to ignore the paradox and just went with the literal meaning of the statement.
1 Cor. 15: 33 "Bad company corrupts good morals," is a phrase from a Greek comedy written by Menander the Athenian, ca. 300 B.C. Menander was considered by ancient critics to be the best comedic writer of the "New Comeday" era, characterized by finding humor in everyday situations.
It's true that the latter two may have simply been well-known quotes from the era, so it's not necessarily true that Paul read the actual works, but it is still telling that Paul was able to find reflections of God's truth in some rather unlikely places, just as our professors have taught us how to sift through the works of Socrates, Plutarch, Dante, Dostoevsky, etc. etc. to find useful "spiritual ammo," so to speak.
As to whether or not Paul's Jewish education was anything like our liberal arts education...that's a question for a Dr. McClister and will need to wait for an earlier hour.
"This is no time for Christians to retreat from education. There has never been a time of greater need for an educated defense of the Gospel. This defense must be made not only by an appeal to moral authority, though that is always basic, but through an understanding of science and psychology and history as well. A liberal arts education at Florida College equips students not only to defend their faith in the educated world of today, but to push back the encroaching borders of materialism, determinism, feminism, environmentalism, sectarianism and humanism and thus to join with the apostle Paul in “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
--Dr. Dickey
hahaha. Thanks SO much, Caroline. I have been truly blessed and grateful to have you and Whitney, Sarah, Chris, Holly, and Caleb to be there for me. You don't know how much of a blessing you all are to me.
This seems to be something on our minds a lot lately, because I keep thinking about it and you keep commenting about it... I have a feeling that as roommates we will have several spiritual conversations! Karen, Hannah and I could go for hours, and it is amazing what we learned from each other! I look forward to hearing yours, Charlotte's and Whitney's thoughts and opinions, too! I really really hope that we'll make God an honored guest in our home. It will make for such great practice once we are true adults, living alone or with our families! :)
Wow, that's a lot of books! I am thinking about reading a couple or so of them, if I can be brave enough! Well, I was pretty much worried about something important but probably worried/worry too much about it instead of putting my faith in God in letting me know what I need to do. Emily talked with me and because she shared similar experience it might've helped (should help if it didn't). I just haven't been putting much faith in God in guiding me or in myself for doing what God wants me to do. Hopefully a couple of years down the road (if the Lord wills there to be so much left) it will be considerably better.
Getting used to people coming and going? I dont' think it's possible! We miss her, and sometimes it feels like she should be around, but we are a little better than we were two days ago, I think. WE'll be fine. And now she's not here to distract me from all the important things I have to do! Not that we never did anything important iwth her... :)
I'm sorry that blog sounded so gloomy, I really didn't feel sooo sad, just a bit homesick and a tad bit worried. But today is better :) I'm glad to be living with you, and that's a fact! :)
I've been pondering your blog lately. Especially since I keep finding spiritual applications to make from the organizing that I am doing in the house. I believe you can use literature to make a spiritual point--if I can use my house, then someone else can use literature. However, like the organizing of the house, reading literature needs to be done in moderation. Getting my home organized is not the goal, enriching our lives by being organized is. (And I guess that means if I'm obsessive-compulsive about organizing then I'm doing it for the wrong reason.) Reading itself is not actually the goal of most readers; most readers do it to relax or to learn something. And just as there is nothing wrong with me wanting to enrich my life by having more time, being able to find things when I need them, not having to spend more money buying something I know I have but can't find and so I organize, if the kind of enrichment that you seek from reading is the type of enrichment that Christians ought to be seeking, then sift through it as you mentioned the teachers saying, and learn. If you end up realizing that the reading material is not enriching, but detrimental, then you can put it down. (Of course it is nice to get some recommendations of reading material beforehand so you don't have to pick up something that has no enrichment value whatsoever. Hope this makes sense. I'm finding it difficult to write something serious on this one-line box on pleo!
It was one of my coworkers...not actually someone in the loan department, but someone from another area that I sometime see in the breakroom when I go to eat lunch.
Well, the evil GRE has been slain...or, I have been slain. I'm not positive which one is really true!
But, on other matters...
I learned a valuable lesson at work the other day. One of my Baptist co-workers was having a particularly difficult time with a client on the phone. The client kept shouting at her again and again to change something she was unhappy with about her policy. It really upset my co-worker. When I later learned that the client was a member of the church, I was aghast. How awful to think that we will come to church on Sunday to worship God with our brothers and sisters, and the next day call someone about our insurance and shout at the customer service rep. I realized how important it is that we live our daily lives in such a way that shows our faith.
...But the lesson did not stop there.
Eventually, the woman came to our office to speak about the matter with my coworker, who was dreading having to speak with an angry, shouting client. I sympathetically watched her walk off to the conference room with a stack of papers as she went to meet our clearly dissatisfied Christian customer.
When my coworker came back, she was smiling. "That woman is SO sweet," she declared. "All that time I thought she was yelling at me on the phone, but she's really just hard of hearing, so she when she was yelling, she was actually just talking loud enough to hear herself. But she is really a sweet old woman!"
Lesson Two: never make assumptions!
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Per many of the comments below, it appears a correction is in order: never be quick to judge a person. There--how's that?
I was thinking about assumptions today, too! I try not to make assumptions... but sometimes I wonder if I'm just rediculously avoiding the truth. I'm glad the lady was sweet! :)
Assumptions are often utilitarian. If we didn't make them, we'd have to spend an aweful lot of time establishing what is going on that may seem kind of obvious. I wonder what that would look like...
Well...assumptions or judgments -- they're kind of the same thing, however you dice it. ;-) One is just a more "technical" term. (I reference the passage that also teaches us to "test the spirits.") Great point, sis.
I'm with you completely on number 3. :) I can't wait!! Seriously, today was the best day because my parents and I celebrated my birthday since I won't be with them on my real birthday. And as fantastic as today was, our phonecall and the good news you shared was one of the best parts of today. Yay!!
Isn't it something how God works in our lives when we can sometimes be on the brink of despair? And how he provides us with little joys in life like little dogs? (Even if they are working on tearing up the area rug in the living room!) And what a wondrous thing to give us the gift of laughter! Such a nice, happy post that filled us with such warmth and helped us to know how safe and secure we are in our Lord.
Have the little girls even seen the first Batman movie? I can't remember if they watched it on DVD or not, but we weren't going to take them to see The Dark Knight. I tell you, all the publicity pictures of Heath Ledger are spooky in and of themselves!
Hey there! Yes, the bookshelves are still available and still 10 dollars. :) Let me know if you're interested and I'll get all my pictures and junk off of it. :)
Yeah, that is by far one of the best things I have ever seen written about me....and Daniel's the only one who's ever written about me. But, yeah, I think back at all the times I have talked with you, Holly, Whitney, Lindz, and others about when I am ever going to find a guy who really appreciates me and you guys telling me how I need a great guy who sees all these things in me and BAM! Daniel. Though, it took about ummmm 17 years for that "BAM" to happen ever since I starting noticing boys/guy/men (that would be kindergarten 17 years ago...lol). God has truely, truelllllly blessed me with Daniel and I could not be happier. Providence, providence...that's all I'm sayin'. =) ♥!
