It’s hard to believe that it’s been two weeks since I’ve last posted an entry. A lot has happened since then, and it begins with the story of how I got back to Florida.
Everything was going according to plan. I was in the Atlanta airport waiting for my connecting flight to Tallahassee. It was Sunday night. My first class wasn’t until 8 AM Tuesday morning, so I wasn’t worried about being tired the next day. As I’m sitting at the gate watch an NFL playoff game a voice over the intercom says that the flight is oversold and if anyone would be willing to give up their ticket they would be compensated. This was the first time in my life when I haven’t had to be back at my destination right away and they have needed people to give up their seat. They were offering $400 towards a Delta flight, a night in a Sheraton hotel, and two meals. I was sold. I turned in my ticket and made my way to the hotel shuttle. I get back to the airport early the next morning and it turns out that even that early morning flight had been oversold. I asked the woman at the counter if I could turn in my ticket a second time and I was told that I could. Would I really walk out of Atlanta $800 richer? No. As it turned out they needed four people to give up their seat, and I was the fifth person to turn in a ticket. Oh well. I still made out like a bandit as far as I’m concerned.
I am taking four classes this semester for a total of twelve credit hours. The beauty of my schedule this semester is that I have classes only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At 8 AM I am taking business law. This is the last class I need for my business minor and the first 8 AM class I have ever taken. At 9:30 AM I’m taking Christianity in antiquity. I actually don’t need to take this class; I’ve already got the 30 religion hours I need to graduate. I’m just taking this class for fun. Yes, I’m taking a 4000 level class for fun. At 2:00 PM I’m taking article and essay workshop. I wanted to test my writing ability in a forum where (a) I didn’t get to pick the topic, and (b) I wasn’t necessarily interested in the topic. The best part about this class so far is that my roommate Aaron is in it with me. I’m not too impressed by the teacher though. She’s a doctoral candidate, but her bachelor’s degree was in business. And after four classes she doesn’t strike me as the teaching type. I hope it gets better, but I’ve got a bad feeling about it. My fourth class doesn’t have a meeting time. I’m taking the online section of multicultural film. Basically I got watch movies at the SLB and write about them. This past week we saw The Grapes of Wrath. All in all I’m a big fan of this schedule. I like my classes well enough as a whole. And I get a four-day weekend every weekend!
The first of these four-day weekends was spent in North Carolina. Okay, that’s not exactly true. I spent almost as much time in the car getting to and going from North Carolina as I did in the state itself. Okay, that’s not true either. But you get the idea. The Navigators went on a ski trip to Boone, NC. I did not go on last year’s ski trip and I regretted it because it seemed to be a real bonding experience for everyone. I went this year but did not ski. In fact, a lot of people went on the trip and didn’t ski.
Saturday was supposed to be the first day of skiing but it was extremely windy. There were gusts reaching in excess of 70 mph! So that day was spent getting into snowball fights and walking a nature trail around a lake. On the way back from the lake the cars had a tough time getting up the hills and sticking to the roads, so each car had to have people get out and push. I had a lot of fun doing that. We all banded together to make sure everyone made it to safety.
I had a lot of fun on Sunday. Those who were skiing went to the slopes, but those of us who were not had to find something to do. We couldn’t just stay where we had been spending the night because that was at a church and they were holding services. In fact before we all left we had to pack everything up and throw it into the church’s shed. So us non-skiing people started wandering around the town. We went towards the campus of Appalachian State and we stumbled across their Wesley foundation. And lo and behold it was unlocked. And no one was there. But we walked in and made ourselves at home anyway! We figured, hey, they’re Christians, they’ll be cool. We were there for more than a half hour before anyone showed up. As you might imagine they had been at church. They were a little surprised to find a dozen people they didn’t know in their facility but they were fine with us being there. A lot of people started showing up to watch the Carolina Panthers playoff game, so we decided to move on. We went searching for a coffee shop and finally found one. There were four girls in one car: Amaris, Nikki, Liz, and someone else (I feel bad, but I just can’t remember who) and three guys in another car: myself, Joe, and Kyle. The girls park closer to the door; we parked on the other side of the building. The men are on higher ground and there is a brick wall separating us. Now let’s face it. There’s snow on the ground. We’re already separated by gender. A snowball fight had to occur. And occur it did. I think we would have won if we hadn’t had to contend with ice under foot. Kyle gathered four snowballs in his hands then fell flat on his butt. I began to laugh and no sooner had a begun to do so then I found myself on my butt. All the while we’re being nailed with snow from our opponents. Of course this makes Joe, by default, our team’s MVP for not falling.
We did finally decide to go get coffee. It was a nice coffee shop. It felt like a greenhouse with its large windows all around. It was two stories. Most everyone went upstairs but Amaris and I stayed on the first floor. We talked for however long we were there, I’m guessing a little over an hour. This is why I love these trips: quality time with my friends. And while I was downstairs enjoying getting to know Ama better the rest of the gang was upstairs waxing spiritual with a guy who had overheard them talking. I love how God takes a day that we had intended for rest and relaxation and turns it into a day where my brothers and sisters get to share the Gospel with someone.
I say all of this and realize that I never mentioned the rides up and back. I rode up with Rob, Joe, and John, and rode back with the same crew plus Carrie Cirafesi. I think it was a good thing Carrie was with us the way back. Too much inactivity plus too much testosterone makes me say stupid and unbelievably inappropriate things. Now remember, this is in a car with Joe Chandler, Rob Hodges, and John Hughes, each of whom speaks their mind whether it’s in the pulpit, soapbox, or gutter. And somehow even despite his I managed to say the most inappropriate thing on the way up. (No, it’s probably not what you’re thinking and no, I won’t tell you what it was.) I think I was in a car almost twenty-four hours over the course of the long weekend. That’s way too much.
Speaking of twenty-four, the fifth season of 24 started this past Sunday and Monday night. I have to say I’m very impressed. I was surprised by who they killed off and surprised at just how inconsequential they have made it feel so far. I mean I know that this show isn’t exactly the type of show that ever dwells on anything, but they did just kill off a character who had been in all four of the previous seasons and another who had been in the last three (and all but killed another who has been in all four). So much of the time they’ve been on the show you’ve been left wondering how they could survive an entire day like that and then in the first 10 minutes of the season they get killed off. Crazy! But good television. I think this season has great potential. I don’t like how they’ve already revealed who the guy on the inside of the White House is, but maybe it’ll work for the better. I can’t wait to see where this season takes us.
This week came and went. I think all of my weeks this semester are going to come and go in a similar fashion. Tonight I went out to see The End of the Spear. Great movie. You want to see the Gospel in action in an unreached people group then go see that movie. Tomorrow morning will be the first ministry team meeting of the semester. I’m pumped. I can’t wait to hear what other people got out of The Insider. I should probably get to sleep then, since that meeting starts in under eight hours!
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