Everybody knows but you

The past week has been pretty normal. I'm really close to being done with my flu/cold from last week. I'm currently on day 10 of that. Good times.

Gotee was fine today, I got there a bit late due to the uber-lame seminar we had to go to, but once I was there it was good. I had to force myself to stop working at 4, so I guess that's always a good sign.

So I've gone to Best Buy twice now to try and buy Frou Frou's "Details", and both times they've been out of it. Lame.

I received a copy of Dave Barnes' new album, Chasing Mississippi, on Monday, and I must say it is excellent. I hope I can make it to the album release show on Saturday with Andy Davis. I'm supposed to pick up some copies for Reverb at the show, so I guess I kind of have to go.

You ever wonder if you're really dense about some things? cuz I do all the time.

My aunt (pronounced like it's spelled, thank you very much) is down in Nashville for a work conference this week, so we went out for dinner last night. The food was good, and I got caught up on the family news. Apparently she has a girl who's working in her office while she's in grad school that would be perfect for me. Man, between her and Rachel's friend in CO, I guess my options are growing. Fun...

It's official: I'm going to Florida over spring break. This will be a ton of fun, hanging out with Tim, Jon, and Ryan at my aunt (again, same pronounciation)and uncle's house in Fort Meyers. Only 5 weeks away too. Ridiculous.

My sister Sarah and some friends are coming down here next weekend to hang out, which'll be fun. Plus, she's bringing me some stuff I left at home at Christmas, so that's a bonus. It's also Super Bowl weekend (I pick the Steelers 24-17), and Pete's girlfriend Alyson is coming up too. Should be pretty packed overall.

And now I'm sitting here in Reverb, just waiting for the next 4 hours to pass so that I get money but don't have to be here. I think I might get some homework done too. We'll see.

Jessica had an away message today that was a quote from Jim Elliot, and I liked it: "The man who will not act until he knows all will never act at all." If only I were brave enough to remember that.

How do you say "Leaves of Grass" in Arabic?

In yet another example of celbrities attempting to capitalize on their fame by expanding into other occupations, Osama bin Laden's #2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a tape of him reciting poetry. Special. Next thing you know, we'll be bombarded with ads for Kim Jung Il's new situation comedy on HBO. They'll call it "Seoul Man" or something.

Guaranteed to blow your mind

All right, I'll try not to put a ton of stuff in one post so that I don't post for awhile again. Cuz that would be sad.

First: Internship
I've only worked one day (last Wednesday), but it went fine. I'll be working on a big project for several weeks to start out, which involves organizing, cataloging, and shipping all their old master recordings. Good times.

Second: Classes
Again, I've only had one day of these, and it was pretty uneventful. I don't think this semester will be too terrible, but there are a lot of little assignments that I need to remember to keep doing every week or I'll be screwed.

Third: Michigan
Because of MLK Day, Belmont did not have classes on Monday. Thus, ten of us went to a friend's house in Michigan to hang for the weekend. It was originally supposed to be a trip for the southerners to experience real snow, but Ann Arbor had none when we got there. Thankfully, it snowed like half an inch the first night, so we did some sledding and used pretty much all the snow in the yard for snowball fights and football. It mostly melted by Saturday evening, so we spent most of the rest of the time relaxing and checking out Dexter and Ann Arbor. Me and Jess also got several people addicted to Nertz, a kind of group solitaire game, and we played dozens upon dozens of rounds.

Last: The Flu
My roommate Pete went with on the trip and ended up getting sick the first night, and is still recovering today. Well, Monday evening rolls around and I have a fever, by body is cold, and I have a headache. Monday night was almost a complete loss, between throwing up and not being able to find a happy medium temperature-wise. Yesterday I skipped all my classes and spent the day chilling out. I think this morning my fever is better, maybe gone altogether, but now my nose and throat are killing me. I have internship in 30 minutes and I'm still deciding if I should go or not. Waiting on a phone call...

Not "fetusi"?

I discovered tonight the answer to one of the great mysteries of my life thus far, and I found it on cnn.com:

Judge: Fetuses do not count as carpoolers

So it's "fetuses". Good to know.

Thong Zone: Frisky Rears

Dang it, I suck at this. I should have updated a few days ago. My bad.

So Passion was ridiculous, awesome, amazing, and everything in between. I am so happy I decided to go, not only was the conference itself great but I went with a great group of friends, and I loved every minute of it.

The theme for Passion this year was suffering, and how, according to John Piper, "the universe was created to display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God" and this is best expressed through the suffering of Christ and how we glorify God when we follow this example. This whole message was made abundantly clear through several people, all revolving around the death of a friend of mine just before Christmas. I saw as her death and suffering maginfied the life of service and intensity for God that she led, how one of her best friends dealt with this with patience, love, reflection, and pain, and how 18,000 college students were impacted by her life and death through Beth Moore's use of her as an example on Tuesday night. It was definitely a remarkable experience to witness and be a part of.

Since the conference finished on Thursday afternoon, I have done a whole lot of relaxing. Thursday night we played a variation on Scrabble, which resulted in the title of this post and was lots of fun, particularly because we were all soooooo tired. I spent the day on Friday, after waking around 12:30, working on the 3-d puzzle of San Fransisco that I received from my parents for Christmas. Friday night we watched the Last Samurai, a great movie that I mostly slept through. I finished San Fran Saturday morning, then played volleyball at Centennial for a bit. Grocery shopping ensued following this, followed by dinner at Panera and a night of chatting and Apples to Apples (which I got amazing cards for and won a ton of rounds, causing everyone else to resent my success and bitterly conspire against me at every chance possible.) Today was church, Jason's Deli, and now I'm back, chilling out for a bit until we get together to talk about Passion and then go to Community Group.

This week has also been spent watching season 2 of Alias, which is completely addictive and entertaining. I am currently on the first episode of disc 5 of 6. I'll probably finish sometime tomorrow.

And finally, I begin my internship on Wednesday. Rock.

Maybe I need more fiber...

Since it would be impossibly long and probably immensely boring to try and recap the last two weeks, i will just give a few highlights and say I had a good time being home:

a. I worked probably half of the days during break, but made a good amount of money too, so thats sweet.
b. I got great Christmas presents, including a digital camera, 3-d puzzle of San Fransisco, and the new Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture game that I just realized I left at home. Crap.
c. Hanging with my mom's side over the Christmas weekend was generally good. Same with dad's side on New Year's Eve Day, except better cuz they're older.
d. Getting a cold during a break sucks. I was pretty useless from Wednesday the 28th til yesterday. Lame.
e. It was good to see the friends that I did, even if it was brief. I enjoyed the party even though I had the cold.
f. Driving back went fine, and it's good to be back in the 'Ville.

Passion starts tonight, and I think it will be amazing. I hope so anyway. There's gonna be like 15,000 people at this, and from what I hear, Susan's bringing most of them and they're staying in her apartment. Classes don't start until the 11th, so I will try and be a bit more regular with this thing.

That's it. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Festivus, etc...