So, one might ask, what did Holly do Friday night? I'll tell you! I got home from work around 6pm. Then I bugged Jen about what she wanted for dinner, and ended up making a frozen pizza for myself. Later Stacy made one for herself too, and Jen made soup. Yeah. So... we watched one of our staple movies - Pirates of the Caribbean - and then Stacy and I walked over to Byrum for the first Randomonium (non AU ppl - it's an improv group on campus). I'll be honest, I was disappointed. Where was Hawaii? I know he's still around! And Joel graduated... it made a big difference. And Stacy and I had some good works picked to yell out, but they never fit the criteria of what they wanted. (I'm not telling the words because if we go again - we're still using them.) Then we walked home and I played on the computer for awhile and watched some MadTV before falling asleep. That's it.

Last night I took a break from everything and went to the Mocha Joe's open house. Which means... Air Hockey with Stacy (she won, but it was very close), Scott Williams (I miss him) in concert, and Micah Gilliam (I don' know if I spelled his last name right) and another guy (don't remember his name) from their band, and then another guy (don't remember who) that I didn't stay for. And I played two games of Sorry with Stacy and Jen (and one of those was with Stephanie, Mel's roommate for two days this summer). The first one Stacy won, the second I did. Hadn't played it in probably over 10 years. Well.. now I'm off to class for the day. OH! I get to eat lunch with one of my favorite people today. Stacy Lantz. OH! And Monday I get to drink coffee/tea with another favorite person of mine. Erin Sprunger.

Briefly between classes... some Augustine quotes:

"You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

"We cannot think you are given coherence by vessels full of you, because even if they were to be broken, you would not be split."

"Who then are you, my God? What, I ask, but God who is Lord? For 'who is the Lord but the Lord', or 'who is Godbut our God?'. Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strenght, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge'; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you 'repent' without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains; you are never avaricious, yet you require interest. We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? You pay off debs, though owning nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are siletna bout you because, though loquacious with verbosity, they have nothing to say."

Downside of working with infants: the toys - you get songs like "O Suzanna" stuck in your head while waking home.

The past always, ALWAYS repeats itself. Sometimes in the way you would least expect...

I just finished reading "Prince Caspian" (the 4th book in the Chronicles of Narnia) so when I get to the library tomorrow, I'll get number 5.

Happy Labor Day! Uh.. mine's not too exciting. My dad's on his way down to fix my car, woohoo! Yay for working cars. And he'll get to see the apartment, even though it's still messy (but not AS messy, now that our dishwasher works). Then after he leaves I'm going to work on cleaning and homework. Oh joy. Maybe I'll watch a movie with my rneighbor. ("rneighbor" is Stacy). Maybe Jen will watch with us?

So the first week is over and I didn't skip a single class (though once tempted by a bad headache) or chapel. I wonder how many more weeks that will last. Here are my current thougths regarding my classes...

Teaching Ministry of the Church, Dr. Overstreet - I'm going to just have to try to have a positive attitude about the class despite the fact that I don't work well with his style of teaching, or hair (including facial).

Corporate Ministries: Communicating the Gospel, Dr. Overstreet - See above. Although, at least this year the mullet is less mullet-like and there is a beard to accompany the mustache. Overall he looks less like "Chester Molester" (compliments of Deanna!)

Educational Ministries with Youth, Dr. Stephenson and Mark Idon'trememberhislastname - haven't yet figured out Stephenson's style, as he is still on his honeymoon. But Mark is cool and it's a great group of students for a discussion class... I'm really excited, though I need to find a youth group to involve myself in, as The Mercy House doesn't have one.

Faith and Worship, Dr. Walters - It's going to be good. He's funny and I know like 8 people in the class so when we do group stuff (which he will assign the groups) I'm sure I'll get someone I know.

History of Christianity, Dr. Strege - A crapload of reading, including Augustine's "Confessions". I've been wanting to read that, knowing I would never actually make myself do it, but now I have a reason to. A bit overwhelming, but I can do it. Kurt and Shannon told me the class is hard, but good. We'll see. Strege is a lot less boring than I imagined him to be. I just hope I still like him by the end of semester, as he will then lead my trip to Italy.

Other news...

Work - Today was the last day of my first week in my new position. This position doesn't make a difference in my pay or anything, but this summer I was a sub/floater, so I would go to the different ages depending on where they needed me. This semester I am working as the second afternoon teacher for the infants. Every day with Janet's annoying baby-talk voice, but other than that she's fun and nice. And of course the babies are amazing in every way. I need to remember to take my camera to work. There are 8 babies. Maybe next week I'll post some details about each, and hopefully some pictures.

Non-text reading - A couple days ago I checked out "Prince Caspian", the next book in the Chronicles of Narnia. I know I'm not going to have a TON of fun-reading time, but I really wanna finish the series. And also today I bought "Through Painted Deserts" by Don Miller. He's the guy who wrote "Blue Like Jazz" and if you haven't read that yet, do it! It is an AMAZING book. He later wrote "Searching for God Knows What", which is also good, but not AS good as Blue.... This "new" book is actually just being re-published, and he wrote it before Blue but it wasn't well known about, so I'm excited to read it. He's an incredible author and they are easy reads. Reading his work makes me feel like we're at a coffee shop together and he's just telling me his stories. He's coming to chapel in November and I hope to finish the "new" book before he comes. But school needs to be a priority.

Graduation - I started to fill out my application last night and had a meeting with the Shivester today. Shively noticed that I am missing 1 upper division class. It doesn't matter what class it is as long as it's a Christian Ministries caption, upper division, and three credit hours. Unfortunately, no more of them are being offered either this semester or next (meaning none that I haven't already taken or am taking). So, guess what that means. Within the next week I get to construct my own Independent Study reading course, and he and I will make a syllabus together. I have to read at least 900 pages and we'll come up with some papers for me to write. But I get to choose the "course title" and what books I want to read. The reading will take place over Christmas break.