Thanksgiving in Missouri

Quote of the Day #1: “There were all these discussions in the ancient world about whether Jesus pooped.” — Nicole Kelley, my after the New Testament professor, as our class gets off topic

Quote of the Day #2: “See, I’m always a step ahead of you and myself.” — Dr. Robert Marshall, my risk management professor, making light of himself after giving the wrong definition for an insurance term and not realizing it until he was done with his lengthy explanation

Quote of the Day #3: “Sometimes their s— hits the fan too. [pauses] I’m sorry for saying… s—. [pauses] S—! S—, s—, s—! It feels good sometimes to say s—!” — Mark Zeigler, my fundamental speech professor, originally explaining that we should be real and honest at a job interview, then degenerating into what you see

It’s been since Thanksgiving that I’ve posted anything and for that I apologize. I know at least one person (my grandmother) was looking forward to reading about what I thought of my time in St. Louis. I really enjoyed myself. The first night I was there I stayed up until 1 AM (2 AM my time; I was beat the next morning) just talking with my grandmother, my uncle Chuck, my aunt Martha, and my cousin Beka, home from Lipscomb. After breakfast with them on Thanksgiving morning my grandmother and I drove off to the small town of Louisiana. Yes, the name of her town is a state. In fact she lives on Georgia Street as well. But anyway, we went to her church for Thanksgiving dinner, but since it was a noon dinner and had just had breakfast not long before we got it to go. I met a lot of her friends that day. Now I know you’re thinking that that was probably boring for me but it wasn’t. I think what I’ve come to realize is that not only do I enjoy listening to people but I especially like listening to new people.

The day after Thanksgiving my grandmother, her friend George and I went to the Amish community not far from my grandmother. George does a lot of business with them and seems to know everyone in their community, including the kids. I really only got to meet a couple people, which was disappointing, but I always like to see how they live. It’s so bizarre to me that an entire group could just decide to stay in the past. And it’s even more bizarre how they seem to pick and choose how they stay in the past (no automobiles but power saws for
making fences).

That day ended with a trip to see my grandma’s friend Elizabeth, who is one my friends as well. Her late husband helped me out a great deal with my Eagle project about five years ago. She’s a sweet German woman who has so many stories to tell. If we gone to her house when she was the only one home it would have been a good visit, but she wasn’t and it wasn’t. It was her and four of her girlfriends, along with me and my grandmother. This didn’t end up being much different than when I’m here at school with a group of six girls. I don’t get a word into the conversation and I’m uncomfortable the better part of the time. Although I have to say that this was a little worse since they tended to talk about me in the third person as though I weren’t in the room. This was probably the only part of the trip I wish I could have planned a little better, since seeing Elizabeth on every other visit has been a lot of fun.

Saturday was a slow day, thankfully. I got to sleep in till 11 or so, something I don’t do much anymore. We went into St. Louis to watch the game at my aunt and uncle’s house (they invited me to watch on their HDTV; I couldn’t say no). Sunday I left at around noon. I had a great time. I loved seeing all of my family. I hadn’t seen my grandmother since I was in France a year and a half ago and I hadn’t seen my aunt, uncle and cousin since we were all out at Lake Tahoe in 2000. It was a good break from school. I just wish it had been longer.

Two big games have occurred since I last posted, so I believe I’m obligated to talk about FSU football, beginning with the UF debacle. I only watched from the middle of the third quarter through the end of the game. I sort of expected this. I really don’t have a whole lot to say. My roommate brings up the good point that Urban Meyer was going for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter when his team was ahead elevendy billion to nothing. Classless, though if he wants to remind UF fans of the good ol’ (Spurrier) days where kicking the opponent when they’re down was common place then he’s on the right track.

Then last night they go and win the ACC championship. I have to admit I didn’t think they could do it. I’m still not sure whether FSU won the game or if VT lost it. FSU played much better than they’ve played in a long time, but VT had a few long pass plays that they dropped that could have made all the difference. In the end I tend to say FSU won the game since VT made two critical mistakes. First, they got greedy and started going for 2 points after their first two touchdowns, making it so they needed a touchdown at the end of the game in order not to lose rather than a field goal at the end of the game to tie or win it. Second, they had terrible clock management at the end of the game. If they had really wanted to win they would have gone to a no-huddle offense.

Here’s something I have a little beef with. I’ve already received a few comments from people saying that the BCS is messed up because the 8-4 Seminoles are going to a BCS bowl game. I find it strange that we treat this like a mistake in football. This spring there will be teams that qualify for the NCAA tournament in basketball by winning their conference tournament who played mediocre or lousy throughout the regular season, and those teams will be called Cinderella teams. Those teams are praised, while it seems like the majority of the college football world is seeking an apology from the BCS and the Seminoles. I like the way Joe Wojciechowski put it in his article on ESPN.com, saying that “the Seminoles will clean out Renegade’s stable with a toothbrush before apologizing for making the BCS with four losses.”

I have to tell someone else this story before it makes my head explode. It happened last Tuesday morning. I’m walking to my first class. You have to try to picture the campus of Florida State for a minute. There’s a sidewalk that leads from the Union to the west side of campus that is more or less a divided highway for pedestrians. There are two sidewalks and they are separated by bushes, and every so often there will be connecting sidewalk for people to make necessary personal course corrections. Now it may look like a divided highway, but it by no means functions as such. You can walk in either direction on either side. On this particular morning there was a gentleman who was blind walking down the sidewalk with his cane. Coming on the same side of the sidewalk is a maintenance guy driving in his golf cart right at the blind guy. And there are bushes in the way of him moving out of the way for a good bit of distance. But the hamster spinning on the wheel of the driver’s brain decided that it would be a good idea to speed up his cart and just try to beat the blind guy to the next turn off so as to be out of his way. Well you have to picture the scene. The poor blind man can’t see what’s coming but he can hear what sounds like a freight train coming toward him at a high rate of speed. The guy practically assumes the position, offering up prayers to whatever god he believes in, hoping the whole thing will be quick and painless. The driver doesn’t hit him, and missed him by a decent distance, but the fact that he attempted this maneuver sent me into a rage. I was angry all morning.

I have another story that left me rather astonished. This happened a couple of weeks ago. I was coming out of Strozier library. At the base of the stairs was this woman who had set up a card table that had lots of papers on it, most of them on clipboards. I figured she was going to try to get me to sign something, and on this particular day there was no one to “fly interference” for me, so I had no choice but to stop and here what she had to say. She asks me if I’m registered to vote. At this point I think I’m in the clear. She’s either going to try to get me to register, which I already am, or she’s going to want me to sign a petition, which I can’t because I’m not registered in Florida. I tell her yes, but that I’m registered in Connecticut. But this does not faze her. She suggests that I change my residency to Florida so that I will be able to get in-state tuition and so I’d be able to sign whatever it was she was trying to get me to sign. Are you serious? Are you that desperate for one more signature that you would try to get someone to change their permanent residence? I can just picture this woman practicing this little speech she gave me in front of the mirror the night before, thinking there were no holes in her logic. Then I told her that I had the Florida Pre-paid College Plan, which was giving me in-state tuition while still being and out-of-state student. I could see the anger come across her face. She says, in a very curt tone, “Oh, well that’s nice.” I felt like laughing at her. I felt like telling her that if her cause couldn’t get enough signatures from the people who already lived here then it probably wasn’t a good change to make for the average person. I felt like blasting her. But I didn’t. I walked away with a smile on my face.

This coming week will be insane. Wednesday I have a paper due and a final in Career Development and a oral exam in Spanish. Thursday I have a final in both Risk Management and After the New Testament. And no, next week is not finals week, that’s the week after next. Yeah, lame. I only have two finals during finals week. This on top of the night of worship at Navs on Thursday night. If it occurs to you to do so please pray for me this week. I’m really going to need it.

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