What a Wonderful Weekend.

This weekend, I came as close to the sublime in nature as I have ever been.

During our quiet time, I walked down a forest path to a small clearing on the banks of the water. It was a brilliant fall morning, not a cloud in the sky and the sunlight still a pale yellow through the trees. The forest was literally a symphony of color, the wind causing hundreds of leaves to spiral toward the earth. I sat on a bed of leaves, the lake before me and a circle of trees around me. The lake was like nothing I'd ever observed: the sun was literally causing the water to sparkle like diamonds, although that comparison is too weak.

A group of geese soared in a V over the forest in front of me, and before my eyes they circled back around and headed my way in silence. They doubled back around and descended over the lake, not more than twenty yards between us. It was so quiet that I could hear the wind under their wings in that moment before they hit the water. They one by one glided onto the surface, causing the diamonds to erupt into showers of sparkling mist. I have never felt so close to the Maker of the Universe, and I thought, This is such a tiny fraction of what He created. It is just so easy to forget what grandeur it holds while we live in the midst of our concrete jungles.

Add to this scene amazing camp food, a mega-relay in a muddy forest clearing (yes, I ruined a whole set of clothes - SO worth it), and learning about the Word of God. Needless to say, I did not want to leave.

It was a great weekend. I hope yours was great too. :]

Now that I have music on my blog, I want to update more.

There is black mold growing in our showerhead.

I love the fact that my roommate and I can make spontaneous trips to Birmingham on a Wednesday night for shopping and eating at the Cheesecake Factory.

First Baptist Retreat is this weekend. I'm sad that I'm missing the party at our house, but I'm really looking forward to getting away to solitude in the country and having some much-needed R&R with my Savior.

That's about it. I have a very important date with my roommates that involves Cheesecake Factory leftovers, hot chocolate, and a certain tv show that I am too embarrassed to speak of. I'm too scared to say it because of the judgment that would surely be poured out because of it's poor intellectual quality.....but you know what....it's VAMPIRE DIARIES. I said it. Make fun of me if you want. I'm happy with my life. :]

I'm dumb.

So I just spent like 30 minutes making a playlist for my blog. I was so excited, and then I went to post it and could NOT figure it out. Unless I'm just being dumb, I'm pretty positive that what blogger is telling me to do is NOT POSSIBLE. Now I'm too tired of staring at a screen to write anything.

But I can't resist. I guess I will write a little bit.

I just want to say that I am so blessed. During my college search, I was so prideful as to blindly believe that I could live even nine hundred miles from my family, and I would be fine. News flash to myself: I am finding that it is hard to live even an hour and a half away from them. I guess God knew me better than I knew myself. I even have Betsy four minutes away, a fact that I have been grateful for many times this semester. I think God has been telling me that I DO need people...I find that sometimes I can't bear my dorm room anymore, that if I spend even twenty minutes alone, I'll suffocate. Never thought I would say that!

I was afraid that I would not make friends. God is showing me that my fears of social awkwardness are all in my head. I am fortunate enough to already have a couple of close friends and older Christian mentors. Again, God knows what I need better than I do. He has positively surrounded me with the Body of Christ, something that I've been longing for but didn't quite know how to achieve.

Conclusion: my Father loves me. And I have done absolutely nothing to deserve it.

A few more thoughts/observations:
At 4:00 pm the Denny chimes play a symphony, I'm talking they chime songs for about twenty minutes. New goal: be on the Quad every day at 4:00.
I used to scoff at the concept of Freshman Fifteen: I scoff no more. It is terrifyingly possible.
Crimson Tide football is an addiction. It's true.
Walking back from Byrd, my friend and I witnessed a potential arrest. Two guys cut across our path, looking behind them and walking really fast. Then, two cop cars with lights blaring pull up next to their two friends who are about twenty feet away from us. The cops jump out and corner them. We walk away quickly. Just another Tuscaloosa night.
I made a 63 on my Biology Lab midterm. Eh.
I want to get married at First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa.

Quote of the week:
""He's probably thinking, 'Oh, snap. Here we go again. Dang, that's a big guy." He was probably thinking a lot of things. I'd be scared of me, too." -Terrence Cody



Hands down the best football moment that I've ever experienced.

Depressed. :(

I know this fails as a blog post. Oh well.

la la la

So my new schedule looks like this:
MWF: Bio lecture 9-9:50, Honors Survey of Southern Values 10-10:50
Tuesdays: Bio lab 9-11:50, Psych (technically) 12:30-1:45, Spanish 2-3:15
Thursdays: Same as Tuesday minus bio lab

So in my honors class we (about 15 of us) sit around this long rectangular table and discuss things. It's pretty interesting. Not exactly life-altering, but interesting nonetheless.

I think I've pinpointed my migraine schedule. That sounds super lame. lol. First, I think I get them after my sleeping pattern gets really thrown off. I got one yesterday, and last week my sleep was less than routine. That would make sense, seeing as how I am almost desperate to fall asleep at the same time each night (10 or 11, I'll admit it). It's like my unconscious knows that if I don't, my brain can't handle it and BAM the migraine hits.

I got my first one when I was about 12 or 13. I was at my great-grandmother's house in Florida, and suddenly in the center of my vision appeared this flashing dot. It scared me silly of course, seeing as how the dot slowly spread into an arc, got bigger, and eventually moved all the way to the right, out of my line of vision. As soon as the weird light was gone, the migraine hit with full-on intensity. I thought I was dying. But now, after a few of these a year, I've pinpointed these occurrences. When the flashing dot appears, I run for the medicine cabinet, darken up the room, and get the ice pack ready. Ice is the only thing that halfway numbs the pain.

I've always thought this was so interesting. I didn't even know these lights happened to other people until I researched it last year. (I know that this makes me super lame, by the way!) It's like my brain is warning me that the migraine is coming. Kind of nice of my brain to do, but I get to lay there in lovely anticipation of the pain.

Can you tell I've decided to major in psychology? lol. Forgive me for the random ramble, I've been wanting to record this self-analysis for awhile. haha.

I AM going to travel around the United Kingdom in the summer of 2010. (Betsy, this is for you!)
:)

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. :)