Return of the Ducklings

This is always one of my favorite days of the quarter. Everyone is coming back from their spring breaks and I get to hear all the stories! I love seeing my  resident's happy shining faces because (most of them) are excited to be back. They tell me all about their adventures but it ends with "but I've missed you so much!" And I love hearing noise all around me again. People are talking everywhere! And I missed the "Anna I have a question for you" moments. Or the "Anna I need you to____." And I've missed the happy smiling faces that pass my door all the time. So yeah, I'm glad they're back.

The big green chair has already gotten two uses for the quarter. Best RA investment EVER. If you haven't met my chair, it is the perfect combo of fuzzy and soft and you sink into it just perfectly and it's big enough that you can fit 2 people, or curl up in it, or whatever your little heart desires.

But anyway, today has been great. Evidences of God's Grace:

• pudding cup
• cheap paper for grad announcements
• laughing with residents
• having good conversations
• Kelsie

Educated beyond intelligence

I'm not going to lie: today hasn't been a great day. This hasn't been a great week. Not to say today was an awful day, it just wasn't the best. I have this massive group project that's half due tomorrow. I've done SO much work on it, we'd better get a good grade!! I feel like everyone helped out and then left me to finish it off. *sigh* so I'm exhausted and will feel 76% better once the paper is turned in tomorrow.

On another note, my old geology prof came in to the restaurant today. She comes in frequently and we always have a good chat. She's so much more of a friend and less of a prof now. Another happy thing is that I'm done with school on the 18th. Unfortunately, I have a TON of stuff to do between now and then, but it's half a month away! I also re-did a paper which I think I received an unfair grade on, and changed my grade from a C- to an A-!! I also wrote a star paper on the Arizona SB 1070 law, and I'm very proud of it. :)

So in the next 2 weeks I have 2 more papers, 2 finals, 1 group project presentation, 2 final performance presentations, 4 nights of work, along with working as traffic control for Duvall Days with the Explorer post, an Explorer meeting, watching Iron Man 2 with Kalee, lunch with Jessie, some sort of meal with Kirsten, at least lunch but probably more with Emily, an Oceanography field trip to Alki Beach, all-Saturday voice rehearsal, a guide dog meeting, community group, children's ministry chaos Sunday, and a scholarship luncheon. So if I neglect to contact you, or seem to vanish off the face of the earth, this is why. *snore*

P.S. you guys suck at reminding me to read my Bible.

Tell the ones that need to know/ we are headed north

I'm going on record for saying that I really don't care about school anymore. Yes, I have a ton left to do, but I don't care. I very much dislike that teachers save all the big projects and papers for the end of the quarter. One would think that if they were smart, they would get the big stuff out of the way first, when students are eager to do well and profs have time to grade well.

Hebrews 2 is all about the miracle of salvation and why Jesus worked as the ultimate sacrifice. He's also the ultimate comforter because he's been human and knows what it feels like to go through crappy situations. On the other hand, he also knows what it feels like to have a wonderful day. So having human experience under his belt makes it easier for me to understand that he gets my frustration and pain and happiness.

Begin: Hebrews

I decided that I'm going to start reading through Hebrews. This may not be a good idea as Pastor Mark is going through Luke and I've (occasionally) been listening to the sermon series through Ecclesiastes, but I haven't read Hebrews in a while, so I think I'll camp out for now.

I have 2.5 weeks left of school. In those 2.5 weeks, I have 3 papers,a group presentation, and several finals. I'm really not looking forward to these next few weeks. After finals crap is over with, I have to set up some academic advising appointments at CWU for next fall, talk with the Ellensburg PD and see if I can work with them in any way, and just start an overall de-stress from these last 2 death quarters. I have books to read, people's boyfriends to meet, a curriculum to set up, and a few Explorer events mixed in. Oh, can't forget the lunch dates that will happen now that Emily lives close and Mary is out of school. I've also started to get back into the running routine which is good, but painful. 

Talking about Hebrews, even the first chapter is "woah" material. It lays out some of Jesus' credentials. 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

 Daaaang. I mean, I'd be happy to be as cool as an angel, but Jesus is so much higher than the angels!?!?!

It's a love-hate relationship

School! Ok, so for all the grumbling and complaining I've been doing about school and being tired, I still love school. I love going TO school. I love learning!! I think if I wasn't so stressed out about all the assignments and tests, school would be so much better. I love my friends at school, I love the friendships I'm creating. I love formulating and sharing ideas. I love being pushed out of my comfort zone. I love that for an hour every day, I'm taken out of my world and put into the world that my professor has spent years and years getting to know. I love the hustle and bustle of campus. I love mask work in drama class. I love singing with Julie, Cara, Sam, and the gang! So even when I complain about being tired, don't ever let me fool you. I really do love school.

Going down, down, down in flames

Half way through my day. It feels strange to begin life at 7:30am again. Everyone is posting on Facebook about how great the first day of the quarter was. I'm not gonna lie. It sucked. I only had 2 of my classes, and I didn't even have my earliest one, but it still sucked. I used to think the first day of the quarter was the best because you don't have to DO anything or pay attention. Now I changed my mind. It's one of the worst days because you sit down, look at lists of things you have to accomplish in 10 weeks, and wonder how you're ever going to manage it all.

On top of school I just have so many things to do. I keep forgetting about the dodgeball tournament that my cg is creating and how I'm supposed to be heading up part of the PR team. Ug.

I had a chat with Caroline last night which was absolutely lovely. I've missed that girl so much. With my new quarter just starting, I'm hoping to get a new routine set which will involve regular time in The Word and in solitude, along with weekly Skype/phone dates with Emily and Caroline (and soon to be Jill).

Today I got to spend some time just looking through my Bible. It was kind of fun, actually. I've discovered over the past few months that my entire growing up life I've been taught to do certain things because that will make God love you. Not only that, but if you dare to deviate from "normal" you're obviously doing something wrong. Like reading the Bible. A person must sit down in a quiet place and read one book of the Bible, a few chapters at a time, and always get important lessons from it. After this reading, the person should memorize part of the passage they read. So when I just flipped through and read verses from Psalms and Titus I felt so......bad. (funny, feeling bad about reading the Bible) But one of the things I've been learning is how to liberate myself from being religious and making/following man-made rules.

Evidences of God's Grace:

• time for a latte before I left
• ice cream
• no homework
• Shannon Storm

Why I love theater

Not much to report today other than I completed 3 finals. Yippee. Tomorrow I have the final I'm actually looking forward to. We get to play around on stage in front of people. I love acting. I really do. There's something fun about the challenge of becoming someone else--physically, emotionally, and verbally. Tomorrow I jump from being an 80+ year old bitter German grandmother with a limp to a 30 year old suicidal alcoholic on a bus to a 20 something who's preparing to marry a pop star. Anyone who's not an actor just can't understand. There isn't any fear when I walk on stage. Sure, I'm a little nervous that I'll forget lines or mess up blocking, but we've rehearsed enough that I know what I need to do to "become" that other person. And yet it's new every time. You can never perform the same exact scene the same exact way more than once. I've also learned to trust my scene partner. My second and fourth scenes are with people who I know have my back that entire scene. I know, it sounds really weird to someone who doesn't DO the theater thing. But you'll just have to trust me on this. When I walk onto the stage with Blaire and Marissa I know that no matter how terribly we mess up, it'll all turn out fine. Or that if we do an amazing job, it'll have been a group effort. In the end, theater is all about taking people out of their everyday lives and transporting them into an imaginary world. I think it's a beautiful thing.

This week is brought to you by:

Patrick and Heather Day and the Bellevue College Theater Arts Department--where great things can happen involving poker, skittles, and China.

I will sincerely miss the long days at school followed by amazing shows and then always a fun cap to the night with Patrick and Heather. But all good things must end. And tomorrow my life as a techie will end forever (hopefully).

That's all I have to say as I head into daylight savings time. Tomorrow morning I'm hitting up the early service so I can go strike the set at 1pm. Yippee.

No such thing as free money

You may think scholarships are free money. They're not. Last night I found out I've officially been re-admitted to CWU. I also got 2 e-mails about scholarships. One of them is from my current community college. The scholarship will pay up to $30,000 for sophomore transfer students. Amazing, yes? It's a national scholarship and only 2 students from each college go on to the national selection process. The faculty who will be head of deciding who makes the cut happens to be my favorite prof. However, the scholarship process is long and there are a bazillion things I have to do/people I have to talk to.

The other scholarship e-mail I received is one from CWU. It's the theater arts scholarships/audition for the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. The audition is intense. Two songs, a monologue, a prepared jazz/ballet combination, an interview, a callback, an on the spot dance number we have to perform, and the normal resume, headshot, etc. I looked up the scholarship info and there are 4 $1,000 scholarships and 5 FULL TUITION scholarships! I can't even begin to express how amazing it would be to get anything to help out. Plus I have 4 other CWU scholarship applications I'm working on. So lest you think scholarships are free--they are anything BUT free. The process (for me at least) is extremely stressful and the thought of working so hard and getting rejected is hard.

That coupled with the fact that I'm already having money issues (i.e. I spend too much on people. Especially with Christmas. If I see something that I know someone would love--I have to get it for them. ugh.) and my phone broke so I have to get a new one, and my socks have holes in them, and I have the monthly bills...ugh it's so overwhelming right now.

I'll post evidences of God's grace later.