thanksgiving day

i spent thanksgiving with two families. one was straight up american, the other was an italian family. very fun.
as we were praying over the thanksgiving meal, the sweet potatoes caught on fire. Rose's little italian mother started saying "fumo fumo". we thought she was praying. she wasn't. we turned. smoke was billowing from the oven. we opened the oven. flames belched out. we got that under control. the smoke detector went off. we opened the door. cold air rushed in. i could see my breath inside the house.

it snowed!

thanksgiving break!

there is power in proclamation. its true. and i think that i've been proclaiming that i'm an old man a little too much. in addition to back pains and a weak stomach, i also apparently have gout. i used to be the person who never got sick. i had a stomach of iron, the constitution of a horse. put me in any country, feed me any monstrosity, throw me in a room full of sick people, i was fine ( excluding a certain incident involving 30 hot peppers and a turkish bus). apparently no longer. for the past two months or so, it seems i cant eat anything without my stomach hurting. that, in itself isn't so terrible, i can deal with it. i just eat foods that make the stomach ache worth it. oh wait. i eat at saga.
anyway, the past couple days have been a bit frustrating. a couple nights ago, i almost collapsed because of shooting pains in my leg and lower back. however, at 1am (or some other odd hour of the night) a whole bunch of the girls got together and prayed over me, and i ended up feeling really blessed. so the situation was good! i really am so blessed to live on a floor where we are continuously encouraging each other in Jesus. i love my lambda phi sisters!

i would like to take this moment to point out that it has been a mere week since my last post.

We left for Liz' home in ohio directly after my OT class. Mandy and Krystal dropped me and Liz off in Joplin, MO where we had to wait for an hour in the car-rental place because they didn't have any available cars. (liz' car still is not fixed! her car is in joplin because of accident while we were returning from fall break) our bags were strewn about the sitting area, and it made me think of layovers in various airports. =)

the drive to ohio was relatively uneventful. we did stop at some crazy redneck gas station at 2am, where 4 large beer-imbibing grizzled men leered at us and said "hello ladies". We considered the distance from the interstate we were (quite a distance), the time of day (not a very good time), and the quality of the gentlemen (quite an unsavory lot), and decided it would not be a good time to engage in lively conversation.

i'm excited about two of my best friends getting married on saturday! to each other! and i'll get to be there! yay!

open house

my arms and shoulders are feeling the effects of last night...
last night was open house/open dorms. i ended up playing a wonderful wonderful xbox game which involved a motion sensor camera thing, and a motley assortment of tasks such as: kung-fooing obnoxious characters, heading soccer balls, and my personal favorite, washing windows. very good times. there is nothing like seeing nathan appear through a once-dirty window, with a show-girl smile and a lei encircling his graceful neck. there were quite a few of us, and we swirled, windmilled, waved and got those windows clean. and i'm now sore. doesn't say much for my physical fitness.

i did have a go at whacking at a computer with a rubber mallet. i was a little hesitant at first...it was slightly unnerving to see the people you smile at across the dinner table suddenly charging at a disgruntled (yes disgruntled) mass of bent metal and computer chips, and driving a hammer into said mass over and over again. i had several images running through my head. the first involved a 'braveheart'esque scene with men in leather kilts, ululating war cries as they charge headlong into battle. the second was an image of a man in a grass skirt with war paint and a kukui nut necklace, charging...at me.
anyway, i finally decided that i'd rather be on the charging end, and not the one being charged at. of course, i was ridiculous about it. after a couple thwacks i momentarily paused to ask someone a question. an unsuspecting guy leaned over to retrieve something, right at the moment i decided to give the computer one last parting blow. he gave me a look that clearly said "you ridiculous girl you almost put my eye out you are out of control". i thought it wise to relinquish the hammer. during all the excitement i managed to nick myself in the crease of my thumb. it was probably a flying computer chip. so tiny, but it throbs and doesn't feel pleasant at all.

i dodge meteors

the field behind Christ Chapel is awesome for laying under the stars.
you get a nice breeze, soft grass, and an expanse of sky unhindered by oddly constructed buildings. there's even an occasional tree or two scattered about. the pollution and city lights all combine to give the sky a hazy purple hue. not natural...but almost pretty in its own way. tonight the moon had the faint glow of a dying flashlight through a navy blue sleeping bag. the soft grass tickled my neck and reminded me of the poem i wrote about grass once (not that kind of grass). it's truly amazing stuff (the grass). there was one really bright star/satellite/speck that seemed to be unfazed by the thick layer of city-sky. it was so clear that i sat up and peered at it from a different angle, which of course accomplished nothing.
i could just see a huge meteor hurtling straight towards me, its mass glowing white-hot as it barreled through the atmosphere. of course i would stand to my feet, chin defiantly in air, eyes locked in a fearsome duel with the descending intruder. in an instant i would guage the exact velocity, acceleration, composition, and trajectory of the meteor. at the precise moment it impacts the field (yes the very same lovely star-gazing field), i would snap into action, dodging small boulders, dirt clods and melted meteor pieces as the ground explodes around me. of course the only wound i would receive would be a shallow cut across my upper lip which would look horrible but not hurt much. it would scar marvelously, enabling me to sneer rakishly.

okay. i'll admit it. i made the last bit up. if you couldn't tell by my usage of the phrase "i would".