Junior/Senior Banquet and the Antics of the Gray Cat

So, let's just be clear. It has been a LONG week for me! The Junior/Senior Banquet was this past Sunday, which of course meant that the whole week leading up to it was full of dress checks, trips to the mall, and time spent convincing boys to ask girls to the banquet. In the space of one week, I made four trips to the mall, which is about 20 minutes. On Sabbath, Becky departed for Alabama to evaluate Oakwood, where she will be until Thursday. I had the pleasure (and I say that with all sarcasm) of supervising open campus for two hours in the afternoon. This is, of course, on top of being on duty in the dorm, a state-of-being which will last me until Thursday. So, then it is finally Sunday and everyone is rushing around getting ready for the banquet. I had to drive a couple of my girls downtown, then drive back to campus, eat breakfast, get some cleaning started in the dorm, and then take another couple of girls to the mall. This time it was to get their hair done. I had planned to get my oil changed while waiting for them, but instead I spent the time running all over the mall trying to find Spanx for one of my girls, who had of course left this acquisition until the last moment. She had planned to go on mall trip, which if she had asked me, I would have told her that was an impossibly because of her grades. Anyway, instead of dealing with her irate sister, I just bought the darn things for her myself. After that, I rushed back to the dorm and realized that I didn't have time to pick up the girls that I had taken to the YMCA downtown earlier in the day. After several frantic phone calls, I found them a ride and moved on. The dorm was still not ready for the boys to arrive and the time was drawing near. I got the curtain put up in the doorway to the chapel, which is wear the girls are supposed to come from when it is announced that their date has arrived. Many, however, decided to forgo this tradition. The boys arrived, they were announced, the girls showed up, flowers were exchanged, pictures were taken, the lobby was crowded beyond capacity, and then they departed and I could breathe again.

Later that night, I was sitting in my office and, rather surprisingly, the juniors and seniors began to return to my lobby. The boys were allowed to escort their dates home, but apparently no one told them that they weren't supposed to hang out. Either that, or they figured I was perfectly capable of supervising them all on my own without any warning. If I hadn't been in my office, the lobby would have been fully of unsupervised teenagers. Eventually, I told the boys it was time to leave and the girls headed back to their rooms. I got a text from one of them saying that she couldn't get out of her dress and could I please help her. After investigating, I tried tugging the zipper, pulling it with pliers, and in the end I had to cut her out of the dress! I only had to cut a little bit of the lining that was stuck in the zipper, but still, rather eventful.

So, on to the Antics of the Gray Cat. This cat is like my own personal obnoxious ghost. It only shows up at night and it annoys the heck out of my cat, Georgia. It appeared the first time a couple of months back and just hang around outside for like two hours at about 1 o'clock in the morning. It just sits and stares and Georgia, which causes her to go meowing around the apartment, scratching on windows. The first time it happened, I was still awake and it kind of scared me because I couldn't figure out why Georgia was making such strange noises. When I got up to check and saw her staring out the window, I looked and there was this gray cat. Well, last night, it appeared again. This time at around 4:45 am. I think it even made an appearance in my dreams, but somehow had become a gray bulldog. Anyway, I woke up to find Georgia in my room scratching on my plastic window for all she was worth. When I went to look, there was the cat, watching her. I picked Georgia up, which was quite a struggle since she was adamant about wanting to get at that cat, and closed her in her own room. She scratched at the door for a few minutes, but eventually gave up. About an hour later, she woke me up again with more insistent scratching and I finally got up and let her out. I assume that by that point the gray cat had disappeared, because I didn't hear anymore from Georgia during the night. I'm hoping the cat just stays away, because Georgia really puts herself in a tizzy over it.

The Randomness of My Life

This morning, on a day on my vacation, I get a phone call before 9 am informing me that a whole crew on contractors would like to see my apartment. Since vacation meant time to finally do some thorough cleaning of the place, which of course I have not yet gotten to, I rush to throw on some clothes, pick up some of my messier areas, and try to make the place look as presentable as possible in 5 minutes. About 7 men then proceed to come in and stand around in my living room and, who knows where else, as I sit just outside so as to be as unembarrassed as possible. And did I mention? Oh yes, it has started to snow...again!

Now, I didn't have amazingly great plans for today. I had hoped to go see a movie, which we canceled because we're a bunch of wimps who don't want to try driving around in the snow. But on top of that, I had to deal with these contractors at practically the crack of dawn. (Okay, a bit of exaggeration, but if you've ever been around my while I'm on vacation, I do not appreciate being awoken before 9.) And there were mostly very kind and polite gentlemen, except that one of the fellows, who is not a contractor but an elder from the conference, I have had to deal with before and he has left a bad taste in my mouth. Today's semi-politeness did not really make up for the last few times when he was rather rude to me. You try getting 50 teenage girls to clean up after themselves, buddy!

Anyway, apparently I just needed to vent a little. I feel a bit better and hopefully someone can find my pain amusing. :)

Dutch Bros. Love

So, this morning, in a state of exhaustion after a late night and a morning that consisted of several phone calls before 8:30 am, I was considering coffee. And then, I had the most wonderful epiphany! In two weeks time, I will be flying to Portland, a major metropolis in Oregon, the birthplace of my beloved Dutch Bros.! I can have Dutch Bros. in just two weeks after 7 months without. Oh, happy day!!! I just thought I'd share such a glorious epiphany with all, especially since, Portland being the large city that it is and me being part of a group, I might have to tread on the kindness of one of the many people who plans to visit me while there and have them pick me up some Dutch Bros. Love! :)

After months of contemplation...

Okay, well, not so much. I just didn't feel like I had much to say, so its actually more like "After months of silence...".

But anyway, it's February now and the day before I turn 23. We're having what weather reports deem a "wintry mix", which I take to mean everything unpleasant about winter thrown together in one day: snow, slush, ice, rain, cold, icy rain, and anything else you can think of. It's simply disgusting.

I have less than four months left in my school year and although I'm ready to head home, I'm not ready to think about leaving these girls. I've come to love them and I can't imagine not seeing them everyday. Plus, from my past experiences, I know how unlikely it is that I'll stay in touch with many of them and that is just down right sad. But, since I don't feel like thinking about that the day before my birthday, I'm going to move to a happier subject and share some of my more recent adventures.

Georgia, my cat, got an eye infection, which requires that I put goopy medication in her eyes twice a day for ten days. Let's just say, she's not a big fan of this. One of my girls has been helping me with this by wrapping Georgia in a towel, what we like to call a "kitty burrita," and holding on to her while I maneuver the goo. It's highly entertaining, but by the end I think poor Georgia's going to hate both of us.

I recently agreed to join one of this year's six mission trips. I am now the female sponsor for the trip to Portland, OR with about 2o students to help the homeless. We're going to be working with Bridgetown Ministries, which provides several services for the homeless of Portland. I'm really starting to look forward to the trip. I've never been on a mission trip before, so I'm excited that it worked out for me to go on one this year. Plus, several people have shown interest in making the much shorter trip to come and see me in Portland, which will be great! :)

Well, hopefully from now on I'll be better about keeping this up-to-date. If you check it and see me lacking, nudging is always helpful. :)

Tales of Campus

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the dean's office talking to one of the RAs. Out of nowhere, we heard a mighty CRASH! We look at each other and run outside to see what happened. We find glass all over the outside staircase that leads to the Senior hall. My RA runs up the stairs to find out who is responsible. I arrive on the scene to discover a hysterical girl. She is crying, yelling, complaining, and making her usual hyperventilating sounds. It took us more than 15 minutes to calm her down at all. I then spent another hour picking up glass in a very humid evening, meaning that I got all sweaty right before having to change and go supervise at Vespers. Overall, a very unpleasant start to that weekend.

Two weeks ago, we had our October homeleave, which I was on duty for. I had 6 girls in the dorm, 3 of whom had absolutely nothing to do. It was rather nice to have such a quiet dorm until Thursday night when the fire alarm decided to malfunction. It kept it up for the next 4 days or so, going off over a dozen times. We had four Sunday night/Monday morning alone. After the forth, which happened at 2:30 am, I didn't even bother to reset the stupid thing. It has thankfully been repaired and I haven't heard that obnoxiously high-pitched noise since! :)

This week has been terrible and dreadfully long! It has been THE WEEK of DRAMA!!! Can I say that any louder? I have felt an urge to pull out my hair and scream several times. By this point, I'm just plain exhausted! (On top of all the drama, I was practically an insomniac for the first few days of the week and I still haven't caught up.) The drama has consisted of girls fighting, screaming, and threatening to go home, with a dash of fraud and manipulation thrown in. I would never have believed that so much drama could fit into one week if I wasn't here dealing with it firsthand. It's gotten so ridiculous that the entire campus is talking about it. I'm so done! Thankfully, because of Halloween, at least half of my dorm is planning to leave for the weekend, which means a delightfully calm and happy weekend is hopefully in store for me. Being on this side, I really can't say for sure, and it definitely hasn't calmed down yet.
Pray for us all!

HOG Awards

HOG Awards (HOG stands for Hand of God) are given out by the students to people that they appreciate. Its just a verbal affirmation of kindness. Its pretty cool, although every time it happens, it takes me a second to realize what they're talking about because HOG Awards sounds a darn lot like Hogwarts.

Anyway, to go on with my actual story, last night after worship, we did HOG Awards here in the dorm. I was just sort of the outside observer, watching while the girls shared their appreciation of each other. It is a very cool thing to experience. Then, one of my favorites, raised her hand and gave me a HOG Award for something that had happened the night before. She had been really upset and kind of wanted to leave the school. I left her by herself to beat out her emotion on the punching bag. Then I decided to tell her something, which was that I had already really enjoyed getting to know her and I was glad she was here so that we could hang out. Apparently it really made a difference to her, which makes me happy. After her HOG Award, I got two more for taking girls to McDonalds and for sharing my rice heating pack with a girl who was in pain.

It really meant a lot to me to see that the girls not only like me, but are willing to share why they like me. I'm really enjoying getting to know them all and some of them have already proven themselves to be really fun, great girls.

Apartment Quirks

After living in my apartment for a month, I'm still dealing with its oddest of quirks. For instance, this morning while taking a shower, the water changed temperatures dramatically. It seriously almost burned me. It does that a lot and it has no preference on which ways it goes. Very unpleasant, but it definitely wakes me up.

Another thing about my apartment is the smell. It was there when I arrived and try as I might, nothing can be done to get rid of it. I have two wallflowers plugged in and several different, supposedly deodorizing, sprays. I am at a loss. It smells musty and old and the kitchen smells so bad that I spend as little time as possible in there.

And the most obnoxious quirk is the BUGS! So many bugs and they just keep coming. I have crickets, spiders, bees, and some that I can't identify. Seeing as how bugs give me the creeps, I'm really not enjoying that. And they seem to go in phases. Sometimes I won't see any bugs for a couple of days and then, there will be a few scattered throughout the apartment. I'm still working on bug bombing the place. Hopefully that will solve at least one of the apartment quirks.