Classes, classes, classes....

Biology = Good
Religious Studies = Good
Math = Very very Bad. Dropped class, got refund for book though.

Psychology = Good
Spanish = Good

So overall, things are....Good. :) Leave tonight for BCM retreat. Last night went to Chi Alpha with roommate. It was fun. The Strip at night = kind of sketchy, however. Hm. Why am I writing so disjointedly? Not sure. Guess I'm not in the mood to write a full-on grammatically correct, intellectual thing today.

My roommates are funny.
Bama food = delicious.
This post = ridiculous.
The end.

Solamente nuevo.

Right now I'm writing this at Betsy's apartment, Penny eating something at my feet (dare I see what it is?) Oh, it's just her rawhide bone, or what's left of it anyway. I just got back from walking her around the apartment complex. Got my new laptop this morning. I also got my textbooks, but that I'm not so excited for! Carried all 50 million pounds of them ALL the way back to my dorm room in the million and one degree heat. That was fun. Did I mention how large the Alabama campus is? But I sound like I'm hating college, which is definitely not true. I'm actually having the time of my life. I LOVE college life! I've barely had time to breathe since Saturday. Last night I went to the Baptist Campus Ministries kickoff event. After, of course, getting lost on the way there (we've gotten lost for at least ten minutes on the way to EVERY place we've gone to.) I immediately proceeded to fall in love with everything about the BCM, probably since I've been community-deprived since the middle of July. Really not that long, but it seems like a very long time ago. I met so many lovely people there. :) Afterwards I went to Student Night at the Tuscaloosa Target at 11 pm with some new friends. LOL. That's all I have to say about that!

Classes start tomorrow. :/ My first class, Biology 114, has 273 people. Yowza.

Apparently the side entrance to my dorm (and coincidentally the easiest and fastest way to our apartment) is the decided hangout for anyone needing to smoke, finish their booze, or....relieve themselves. Yeah, someone actually thought it was a good idea to use the stairwell floor as his own personal toilet. I assume (and really really hope) that alcohol was a prime motivator for that piece of genius. Because I really hope that a sober person would never. Ever. Do that.

I think I'll leave this post at that. Just to reassure you guys, I really love college and UA. Gross stairwells and all. :)

bits and pieces

First, go to my aunt's site for her new book:

http://www.karenvausegreen.com

Karen is financing a lot of this book on her own. She knows that she may not make a lot of money, but she really wants children to benefit from this book, regardless of whether or not she makes a profit. So check it out! It really is a great book.

[End blogger advertising]

SO Jake starts high school tomorrow. I'm so nervous for him. I went to the Parent Meeting last night with my mom (haha) since my dad isn't here, and the school seemed pretty nice with pretty friendly people. It's small - last year the graduating class was 150 - but I think for Jake that might be a good thing. Anyway. Pray for him, you praying people who read this.

For me, college in two days! Brittany and I went on an....expedition....into the mysterious forest behind our house. Do you know what we found? I will tell you. A clearing with a huge old satellite dish, sitting in the middle of a field. A big rusty pen of some kind with busted out chairs in it. A washing machine full of...bullet holes. No kidding. A completely rusted over old-model VW Bug. We were too scared to venture any closer to the apparent barn-type thing next to it. This will need further investigation of course....

Time to keep packing for college. Ah!

Floating on...

How to start?

Hmm. I always read back over my old posts and hate them. I sound lame...

So this move has brought some new insights about myself. The last time I moved I was 11. Now I am 18. I find out that I'm still really bad at moving, at starting new places. I guess I've always gotten really attached to houses -- not really the houses themselves, but the fact that they are the centers of my lives in each place, my sanctuaries, my home bases. I can still remember the first painful event in my life, when I moved from the first home I can remember in Tallahassee, Florida when I was seven. We moved to Kentucky - a foreign world to my young eyes. My siblings have always made fun of me for taking relocations the hardest. Upon hearing, two and a half years later, that we were moving to Chicago, my family found me crying my eyes out in my grandparents' closet. I suppose I'm a person who, left to herself, is a little girl who desperately hungers for safety and stability, but who is often forced to leave everything behind. It's been a very painful process, but I guess I'm grateful for it. After all, this world is not my home. But left to myself, I am so desperate to try to make it so.

One new sensation that I feel right now is an identity crisis. I guess that's because of my age this time. That and my whole family will not be here with me. Dad and Brittany in Mississippi, mom and Jake in Birmingham, myself and Betsy in Tuscaloosa. I suppose that's life, though. I've always been such a homebody and family person, so now that my family is not around me, I feel a bit lost. This part is always the worst - the limbo, the time when I am just waiting. Without friends, without a church, driving around a strange place that I know I will someday be ok with. I guess the hard part is that when I come home from college, it will be to a place where I have no memories. I will not have truly lived here. When people ask, "Where are you from?" What will I say....

The move was so abrupt, a fact which I know is partly my fault. I surprised myself this time, by not wishing to say any goodbyes. And I hardly did. I have some friends who are probably a bit peeved with me...but it's almost like I would rather just leave cold-turkey, than face all the goodbyes. I HATE goodbyes. But now I'm sitting here with a massive sense of non-closure.....

College in four days. Man, could God get me out of my comfort zone any more than I have been this summer? Unlikely. Knock on wood.

This may seem like a disconnected, jumbled post. My apologies. I think tomorrow, away from the melancholy of the night, I'll be up to sharing the more lighthearted events that have taken place. Oh yes, get excited people. (And by people I mean whoever is reading this, I surely don't know.)

India...India....India? Hmm..