Photoshoot day

Oh my goodness, so much has happened, just in one day.  Last night Bryn got the directions to Jodi's auntie's (Dr. Penner of the music department) house and we took them and they eventually led us to the right place, but it was all on very back roads and places we had never been before.  Then, when we were there, Dr. Penner said that we could have just taken Apison Pike to their road if she had realized we lived that close to it, so we tried that on the way back and it worked out great and was a lot shorter.

This morning Bryn and I went to grad practice at the gym, which was actually a good thing to attend so that we knew all about what was supposed to happen during the weekend and especially on Sunday morning.  After that, Bryn had to rehearse with Renee for the special music for vespers tonight so I trailed along with them to the church only to find that it was nurses pinning practice there.  So we went to the music building and they practiced there.  I offered my services as a page turner and so I guess I practiced too.  Then we met up with my mum and carpooled to pick up Jodi and Cherry.  While we were driving back from getting them, my friend Julie called me and said she was almost to our apartment so we gave her instructions to get to the Greenway parking lot and we met her there and then all six of us drove downtown to Coolidge Park.  Bryn and I had brought along our grad gear and my mum took pictures of all of us riding the carousel together and then pics of Bryn and I in our grad outfits.  Once we'd used up all our tickets for the carousel, we went outside to the waterpark and played around and got pictures there too for a few minutes before heading back to Ooltewah.

We joined with the rest of our extended family and drove out to Ruth's Florists and Gifts where my mum and Bryn and I had made plans to take some family pictures.  I had asked Emily, a photography major, to take pictures for us and so that took up the next hour or so.  She took tons of pictures and I was pretty surprised that my certain members of my family were so good-natured and happy about the whole thing.  I think it was because it was a nice area to walk around and enjoy when not in pictures.  After pictures were done, we drove to the Golden Corral for supper before heading back to Collegedale/Ooltewah area and getting ready for vespers.  Jonathan's family saved us seats and the whole big group took up about two whole rows.  Bryn did great in the special music and I don't think I really messed up with the turning pages so that was good, too.  After vespers, the young people went to Hymn Sing (the last one for me ever, which is really sad to think about) and then came back to our apartment to talk and hang out until people left to go to sleep.  And now I think I'm going to go to sleep too.  I have to get up early tomorrow to get to S.S. in time.

Everyone arriving

Last night my dad took us (and the friends and family who had already arrived) out to supper at P.F. Chang's.  Right before we were seated, Cherry called and said she was almost at Groome Transporation, so my dad, Bryn and Josh left to go pick her up.  We waited to order until they got back and then we all ate really good Asian food and had tons of leftovers to send back to Ty who didn't come because he was on duty in the dorm.

This morning Cherry took my car and left early (like the kind of early that is so early humans shouldn't even be awake yet) and drove to Atlanta to pick up another friend Jodi who flew in there.  I spent the late morning and early afternoon sitting on the porch at Jonathan's apartment trying to get some grading done of the Pub. Editing final newsletter projects, while his family worked at packing up his stuff.  I tried to keep in touch with my dad and also with my mum who was supposed to be flying into Chattanooga at 4 p.m.  Unfortunately, the person who was pushing the wheelchair for my grandma (who was traveling out with my mum) walked too slowly and they missed their flight from Atlanta to Chattanooga.  My mum, apparently, was really angry with all the people involved in the situation and because of her persistence to have them remedy the situation, they got them onto the next flight into town and bumped some of the airline workers who were trying to get free flights.

Once we knew their new arrival time, my dad, my uncle and I went to the airport to pick them up.  After waiting and waiting for the luggage to come, the carousel stopped and we didn't see the luggage anywhere, so my mum went to investigate and found out it had come on that earlier flight that they had missed.  So it all turned out alright.  We brought my grandma to the hotel where she was reunited with my grandpa and she left her stuff there and then we all went out to Cracker Barrel.  Cherry and Jodi, who had just gotten back from Atlanta, met us there with Bryn, Ty and my cousin Breanna.  After supper, they all came back to our apartment to hang out and talk for a bit before everyone headed out to their respective sleeping places.  And now Bryn and I are about to leave to take Jodi and Cherry and Jodi's auntie's place where they are staying for the weekend.

Finally finished

And now, here comes the whirlwind effort to catch up on exactly three weeks of inactivity on this blog.  Bear with me please.  I'll do my best to zip through the days and get you all caught up on what's been going on with me.  Going back in time, now:

I'm done, really done.  I just finished my Adv. Creative Writing final.  I was kind of worried, after our last class period on Thursday, that this exam would be harder than I thought, but it was actually a lot of fun.  Tons of writing though, but hey, I'm a writer so it wasn't bad.  And now all I have to do is visit with family and friends who have already started arriving here for grad, participate in all the graduation events, and pack up my apartment.  Should be fun.

My dad, grandpa and one of my uncles got here this morning.  They left my hometown last Friday, stopped by WWU for Alumni Weekend, and then drove the rest of the way to TN.  My dad called me earlier while I was holed up in the abandoned Accent office marking/helping to edit an Adv. Reporting student's final project/studying.  I gave Dad directions and the three travelers came up to the office to say hi and visit for a few minutes.  They didn't stay long since they wanted to pick up the fifth-wheel that my parents left in TN last fall and move it to the KOA they'll stay at during grad weekend before it got too dark.  And now, in a few hours, one of mine and Bryn's friends, Cherry, will arrive here too so I guess I'd better start cleaning this place up a bit for having company.

Class memento

I'm so excited.  I have a lot of new reading material.  Dr. Nash took our Literary Journalism projects and photocopied all six of them for each of us to keep.  So now we all have a 150-page memento of experiential, immersion, and reportage-based literary journalism.  When we got our copies, we passed them around the table, getting everyone to sign their own piece, which I think is really cool.  Now I can't wait until my last exam is over, the hype of graduation weekend dies down, and I'm on the road home.  Then I'll be able to finally settle down and read my humongous document.  It's going to be great!  My only regret is that we didn't get Mr. Lale to do the same thing for us in Creative Writing and Adv. Creative Writing.  That would have been really nice, too.  I love reading really great writing from people I know - my peers and classmates!

Accent pdfs

I am now the proud owner of three years worth of Southern Accent pdfs.  That's right.  I went in to the Accent office this evening to get the pdfs of the pages with my articles on them to use for my digital portfolio. But I ended up just taking all the pdfs for this entire year since I didn't want to have to look through all the folders for only my articles.  Then I found backup folders from the past two years as well.  Since I'd written some articles in last year's paper, I took those. And then, since I'd already got the files for two years, I figured might as well grab the last one too.  So, that's my exciting news of the day.  Oh, and also, I had no exams today, so I started packing my clothes.  But then that wasn't very interesting so I stopped.  I hate packing.

Canucks game

Nothing blog-worthy happened today until just before 9 p.m.  Then I went to pick up Ty at the dorm and we went to Ms. Chamberlain's house to watch the Canucks vs. Kings game.  Since she found out I was a hockey fan in one of the very first class periods I had with Ms. Chamberlain, she told me that whenever I wanted to watch a hockey game, that I could let her know and come over and watch one.  I never took her up on the offer until tonight, but now I'm really happy I did.  The first thing her son, Patrick, said when we walked in the front door and he came down the stairs was, "I'm the only person here with short hair.  Everyone else has hair as long as Mama's."  Both Ty and I thought that was hilarious because he was so serious about it and he said it several more times after that.  We went upstairs to the TV room and found it completely decorated with Atlanta Thrashers stuff.  Ms. Chamberlain is a huge Thrashers fan and that room has even more hockey stuff than her office does, including blue Thrashers-coloured paint and a huge Thrashers logo on the wall.  Patrick got right down to business playing some kind of game with Tyler interspersed with giving us demonstrations of how his new toy, a Whoopie Cushion encased in a fuzzy skunk body, worked.  Ms. Chamberlain just rolled her eyes and told us he had got it earlier today from his grandpa.  Then it was Patrick's bedtime and so Ms. Chamberlain put him to sleep and Ty and I got into watching the game.

 It was a really good one, better than I thought it would be.  I had a bad feeling about the game right from the start because typically the Canucks don't play with enough urgency when they need to.  That was the case in the first period and the L.A. Kings were up 1-0 by the first intermission.  Then Vancouver got a goal and it was tied until the Kings somehow got another puck by our goalie, Roberto Luongo, who was amazing for the entire game and made some extraordinary saves.  So by the second intermission, the Kings were up 2-1.  Then the Canucks came out strong in the third period and tied up the game before the halfway mark.  Then Ty commented that it would probably stay tied and go into overtime.  By that time, it was after 11 p.m. and we knew we had to leave at the end of regulation so I started hoping extra hard that the Canucks would get another goal before the end of the game.  And it worked!  Three minutes before the end, Daniel Sedin got a goal and then, when the Kings pulled their goalie, Alexandre Burrows sealed the win with an empty net goal.  I was celebrating inside since I didn't want to wake up Patrick.  So the Canucks pulled off a win and ended their first playoff round by beating the Kings 4 games to 2.  So they'll wait to find out who wins in the other match-ups before moving onto the second round.  And that means that I'll probably get home in time to watch more Canucks hockey!  I can't wait to see how far they'll go.

SJ&C church

I went to the Comm. church today at Elsie Holmes Park.  Every year the SJ&C puts on a church service to recognize the graduating seniors.  This was the first year I went and it was so nice that I wished I'd gone other years.  Ms. Chamberlain spoke and just told a whole bunch of memories she had from her time here and tried to include a lot of the current students and faculty and especially all the graduates.  After church, and some awards and cards for the seniors, we had haystacks and cake.  Halfway through eating, all the lights went out from a lightning strike nearby.  The thunderstorm was really neat to watch from the inside of the pavilion.

After lunch, we went back to campus, gathered a few more people, and took off for Fall Creek Falls.  I hadn't been there before and I'm really glad I got the chance to go before I left this area.  We walked around by the falls, getting soaking wet from the rain, but having a good time.

When I got home, I realized that this is my very last weekend here.  Well, the very last normal one because next weekend is going to be very different from all the other ones I've had here.  That's really sad, but I'm getting pretty excited to go home and be in the northwest again!

PS - In Ms. Chamberlain's talk, she mentioned the two times the SJ&C faculty have done farewell songs for professors who were leaving.  I was at the farewell for Ms. Chamberlain, but not the one two years ago for Ms. Caldwell, so tonight I went on YouTube and found that song.  It's pretty amazing, too.  If you want to see, click here and enjoy!

SM dedication vespers

I didn't think I would enjoy tonight's vespers, but I really did.  After countless hours of filling out forms, talking to people from the SM office, and sitting through orientation class, we got to enjoy a dedication vespers tailored just for us.  Except for a rather disorganized practice before vespers started and many of us participants wishing we could just walk to the front from the center aisle instead of the side to shake Rebeca's hand and get our candles, the whole evening went pretty well.  Just as vespers started, I realized that I should tell my mum to watch the stream online, so I texted her to let her know what was going on.  She was glad I did and enjoyed watching the vespers.  And, despite thinking that this vespers wasn't going to make an impact on me, it actually did.  It was a really nice service and I finally feel like I'm ready to go off to serve.  Now, if I could just find out if I've been accepted at the place I want to go, I could start getting excited...

Wax Seals

I wish sealing close an envelope (like with wax and a seal) was still used today.  When I was a kid and read about a character in a story (usually a king or high up official) who used their signet ring or a seal, I'd imagine myself one day stamping an envelope that way.  Once in Chapters (the Barnes and Noble equivalent in Canada), Tyler and I found seals for each letter of the alphabet.  We wanted to buy some, but then checked the price.  They were expensive and then there was the special wax too.  So we didn't get them.  I've always kind of wished that we had.

The captcha for a comment on one of Robby's blog posts was gandult.  I've been imagining Gandalf as a dult (which is surely very similar to a dolt) ever since.

Completion

I'm done.  I did my final speech.  I finished my 20-page Literary Journalism project on literacy in the Chattanooga area and handed it in.  And, other than exams and finishing an article for the Southern Communicator, I'm done.  It feels great.  I hope I'll never have to stay up all night to finish another assignment.  I think it's time I take a short snooze.

Orchestra

I just finished my last ever orchestra concert.  Now that is a weird feeling.  I've been in some form of orchestra for almost twelve years straight (minus the months I was an SM and the year I worked at home...and, of course, the summers) and it's been almost 17 years since I sat through my first orchestra rehearsal at the start of grade three.  WOW, 17 years?  I really doesn't seem all that long ago.

So, although I'm not feeling terribly nostalgic (at the moment, I'm pretty ready to be done with orchestras...which probably has something to do with senioritis), I figured I should give a little tribute to my former orchestra conductors.  Here they are:

Dr. Wolfe ~ CHAJA Orchestra ~ 1993-1996

Bev and Morna ~ Carriage House Orchestra ~ 1998-2003

Dr. Ritz ~ WWC Orchestra ~ 2003-2005

Mrs. Minner ~ SAU Symphony Orchestra ~ 2007-2010

Wow, that's quite a list.  I have to say that, except for a few years in the middle, I've had a great time being an orchestra member.  I'm just not sure if my sightreading has much improved in all those years.  Oh well.

As for the concert tonight.  Nothing exceptionally unusual happened, other than us not being quite ready for it.  We only had four weeks between our last concert and tonight to prepare so I guess we did alright for that amount of time.  And now I'm done.  It's a very interesting feeling, but not a terrible one.

Need more time

I have to figure out how I can make my Literary Journalism project reach 20 pages.  If ONLY I could go observe a reading intervention session at one of the area public elementary schools.  But alas, they've been on Spring Break and then they were getting ready for some major standardized tests and this coming week they're actually taking those tests, so the reading intervention sessions are on hold until next week.  That isn't very convenient since my project is due on Wednesday.  I need more time.  Why can't the project be due during finals week?  I officially hate standardized tests, which is strange cause I always enjoyed doing them when I was in school (they took away from regular class time which, for the most part, was extremely uninteresting).  Anyway, I think I'll stop stressing about it and just go back to my notes and include more dialogue and description from the adult reading class I was able to observe.  Wish me luck.  And the ability to stretch short scenarios into long ones.  Oh wait.  I already have that ability.  I guess this is one time where it might come in useful.

Strawberry Fest

I might have just gone to my last senior recital of the year this afternoon.  Renee did her piano recital and it was really good.  I'm always amazed at her speaking ability.  Before her final piece she told the audience the story and she did a great job, both in the story-telling and the playing.  There's two more senior recitals, but I have all my convos now and I'm not really inclined to go to the last couple.  I'm getting tired of eating the same types of cake every week.  Of course I don't always have to eat the cake, but what is a senior recital reception without the cake?  Anyway, on to other things.

I went to Strawberry Fest tonight.  I was in a couple of the pictures!  I got my yearbook and ate free strawberry ice cream.  The year is winding down.  Wow, how did that happen?

Falling Water Falls

We went hiking to Falling Water Falls this afternoon.  It was the first time I've been there all school year.  Actually, I haven't been there since January of last year.  And today will probably be the last time I go there since I won't be in the south for too much longer.

For certain reasons, I had more fun on the hike today than I did the couple times I went there last year.  When we got down to the swimming area, the water was freezing, but most people braved the cold and jumped in.  I really didn't want to but eventually, after lots of convincing from Jonathan and right before we headed back, I slipped in for a second and then scrambled back out.

Later, while sitting through a long evensong, Tyler tried to call me.  I obviously couldn't answer the phone, but then he texted me that I should come to the Klein/Dawson Film Festival as soon as I got out of evensong.  A flurry of texts later, evensong finally ended and we all rushed over to Ledford, only to find it locked.  I texted Ty again and we found out it was in Lynnwood this year so we raced there and slid into our seats only about 15 minutes late.  There were some great movies shown this year and it was extra cool because several of Tyler's movies, including one starring Jonathan and me, were shown!

Music seminar

Instead of going to vespers, Jonathan and I listened to the last section of Dr. Ashton's seminars on music from a SEYC several years ago.  They are really great and really make you think about the kind of music that churches should include in their worship service.  Bryn (who is currently in Dr. Ashton's Music and the Christian Church class) and I want our church to listen to the talks this summer when we get home from school.  I think our church could really benefit from his ideas on this subject.  Thanks goes to Jonathan for telling us about the seminars on AudioVerse and convincing us to listen to them.

If you'd like to listen to the seminars, click here.

Farewell song

Well, it's official. I'm a student in the best department (or School, rather) on this campus. Take a look and tell me I'm not right.

And to think, I almost skipped this convocation because I overslept. I'm SOO extremely thankful that Ty called me and woke me up because I would have been eternally sad to have missed this occasion. (I managed to miss this goodbye convocation for Ms. Caldwell a couple years ago...) While the farewell song was awesome, it's sad that Ms. Chamberlain is leaving. I'm just glad she didn't decide to leave before I graduated. She's truly an amazing teacher, like many others in the SJ&C.

TN photoshoot

I love having my parents around.  It means I get to procrastinate on my homework (more than usual) and go do other things that are much more fun.  Take today, for instance.  I went to my first two classes and then, instead of going straight home to write my five pages for Literary Journalism, I met my parents at the Tractor Supply store and my mum took pictures of me holding the chicks and ducklings.  It was tons of fun, except that I learned the chicks are fine with being held, but the ducklings don't enjoy it at all.  Here's an example:

Chick who likes to cuddle

Duckling who wants to be put down

I think the duck picture is also amusing because of the sign right above my head.  In the picture right before this one, the previous duckling I was holding pooped in my hand.  So I put him back in the basin and grabbed another one, who also apparently didn't enjoy being held.

Anyway, so later today, after orchestra, my mum took pictures of Jonathan and me.  That was fun too.  For your enjoyment, I've included one of those as well.

 

 After the photoshoot (and yes I know it's supposed to be two words, but I think that looks ugly, so I always spell it as one word), we met the rest of my family at the Curry Pot for Indian food and looking at pictures.  It was a great end to the day.

Last Accent

Bryn's recital was awesome.  Of course, I'm a biased big sister, but I heard other people say similar things about it, so my opinion must be right.  I especially loved seeing her in the Green Room getting ready for the event.

After the recital and talking to Bryn and my other family members and friends for a bit, I headed back to the Accent office to finish editing the last issue for this year.  It was a strange feeling to be at work tonight and know that I won't ever have to rush from orchestra on a Tuesday evening to get to the office and start working.

Ack, this year is really and truly coming to a close.  I remember the first Monday of the school year when Emily (the editor) and Emily (the photo editor) and I met in the office to discuss what we were going to be doing for the news section this year.  I was completely overwhelmed with having to get eight stories for the first issue without the help of the News Reporting class.  But somehow that issue came together, just like all the rest have throughout the rest of the year.  And now, suddenly, it's all over.  How does time go by so fast?  One summer day I'm reading a list of scheduled events that we will have to cover during the school year and then, all of a sudden here I am, just back home from my last night in the Accent office.

I'm really going to miss the fun and camaraderie of hanging out (and yes, working too) with the staff.  I think part of what made it so much fun was that most of the staff are journalism majors and, while I knew all their names before working on the Accent, I actually got to know them by being in a room together for hours each week.  I know I won't miss the stress of working with the News Reporting class or trying to find writers for last-minute articles or doing deadline writing myself if no writers could be found, but I'll definitely miss the people.  Emily, Katie, Adrienne, Emily, Stefan, Aimee, Matt, Aimee and Mr. Lale (and other staff members who occasionally dropped by the office), thanks for all the memories you've given me of a great year as a newspaper-creation team.  It's been an awesome experience!

SM screening

Apparently I have become so used to giving interviews that I can anticipate upcoming questions when I'm the one being interviewed.  I had my SM screening today with Andrew Dormus, the assistant chaplain.  First I commented on his large Canadian flag hanging in his office and he told me that he had just put it up and then said that he was born in Canada, but hasn't really been back since he was 12.  Then we got into the screening.  Most of it was stuff that was on the application, and I remembered many of my answers from that, so it worked out well.  And then I talked so much for some questions that I happened to answer the next question or two within my answer for the first one.  "Wow, you're just knocking these down in record time," Andrew said.  After the last question he told me that it was the fastest SM screening he has done so far.  So I guess doing all those interviews for Accent articles this past year has helped my being-interviewed skills as well.  I'm not sure if that's a skill I'll need to have in my lifetime, but I guess it can't hurt.

Later I met my parents who just arrived this afternoon for Bryn's senior violin recital tomorrow.  The three of us took a quick trip to Soddy Daisy to visit my sister-in-law and niece and nephew.  Then we drove back and now I'm quite ready for some sleep.  Yes, I did stay awake all night to write my research paper and I think I'm writing-ed out for this semester, which is too bad because I have 10 more pages to write for Literary Journalism and I have to finish my Adv. Creative Writing story, too.  Somehow I'll make it through.  I hope.

Chicks and ducks

When I woke up this morning I didn't even want to think about writing my research paper, which was my only major homework of the day.  Yes, I've been doing some excellent procrastinating and didn't start writing the paper until today, although I did have most of my research done and my sources picked.  So, in order to continue the wonderful procrastination work I've been doing, Jonathan and I went on a date to the Tractor Supply Co. to look around the store and then to the Creamy Bean Factory for lunch (veggie Turkey Pesto sandwiches and gelato).

The Tractor Supply store was really interesting, but the best part was when we found actual live baby chicks and ducks!  I was so excited that I crouched right down beside their basins for a long time to watch them and try to pet them.  Finally I got so hungry I consented to leave the adorable barnyard creatures and we had lunch (after scrubbing our hands, of course).  We ate outside in the gorgeous sunshine and then the inevitable happened; we finished our food and reality set in.  It was research paper time.  I've managed to procrastinate some more so I think I'll be staying up all night to finish it by 9 a.m.  Oh well, won't be the first time, but hopefully it will be the last.

Retreat review

Here's a cautionary word of advice: If you're ever invited (entreated, cajoled, forced) to play the BafaBafa game, just say no.  It's a ridiculous waste of time.  After playing the part of an Alphan for half an hour, I followed Chris' example and sat down to just watch the rest of my touchy, laughy, happy-go-lucky "society."  I was happy that no one seemed to notice or mind me sitting out.  After making sure I wasn't going to get in trouble for not being involved, I kept reading "The Bronze Bow," which I had wisely brought to the afternoon session.

I'd tell you about the rest of the weekend, but it wasn't much better.  I'll spare you the details.  So, in conclusion, just know that I survived the SM retreat and made it back to SAU in one piece.

PS - Robbie mentioned something interesting at Friday night supper.  I started reading the weekend schedule out loud.  At the top of the program it said, "Student Missions Exit Retreat."  Right after I read those words, Robbie said, "Why is it that Adventists are always retreating?  Shouldn't we be advancing instead?"  Profound?  I kind of thought so.

SM retreat

In an hour I'll be leaving for the annual SM retreat.  I'm not really super excited about the idea cause I have a lot of stuff that I could be doing this afternoon.  But oh well.  It's only tonight and tomorrow and we come back tomorrow night.  Anyway, have a good Friday night and Sabbath.  I'll tell you more about the retreat when I get back.

Towering voices

When I read, I hear the character's voices in my head.  Probably everybody does this when they read.  Anyway, today in Adv. Creative Writing Janelle brought her drama from Creative Writing last semester and Robby read it.  It was awesome because he used voices.  They were different than what I'd imagined when I read her drama months ago, but they also worked.  It's interesting that the voices you hear can be different than the ones other people hear, but both can be right.

Also, I did something today that I wanted to do last year, but didn't actually try out to see if I could.  It looked hard and I didn't want to get physically injured so I didn't even try.  But this evening I did and it turned out to be not as difficult as I'd thought it would be.  It definitely helped, though, that I had a spotter and I knew I wasn't doing it all on my own.  Oh, and the view from the top was exceptionally amazing!

John Glenn

*Warning: Unless you're in Literary Journalism class or have read "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe, you probably won't get this post.  I'm just writing it so I won't forget the scenario since it was such a funny class period.  Just know there's a lot of inside jokes in our class from that book about the Mercury seven (first men in space).

At the start of Literary Journalism class today Audrey came in to interview us and Dr. Nash about the class for an article she's writing for the Communicator (the SJ&C's newsletter).  Before she could ask any questions, Dr. Nash showed us his new iPad he just bought on Monday night.  He passed it around the class, or tried to.  He gave it to Emily and she had it for most of the time Audrey was interviewing us.  The most amusing part of watching her try out the iPad was when she played some marble game (I don't know the actual name) and had to use her whole upper body to keep the marble moving right.  "Wow, this is a lot harder to play on here than on an iPod," she remarked.

Audrey's questions were pretty easy to answer and we took turns giving her quotes.  Rainey answered one question and did so very eloquently.  She's got a great way with words, both written and spoken (which is a real skill, in my opinion).  When she was done her answer, Chris smirked at her, "Thanks John Glenn."  Every person in the room burst out in laughter, except for Audrey who smiled while looking a bit confused.  "Chris, stop it," Rainey said sheepishly.  Chris grinned down at Rainey while raising both his hands in the air (like elementary students do when they REALLY want the teacher to pick them) and then made his hands into "thumbs up."  Then suddenly Dr. Nash said, "Oh, John Glenn!  Oh, that's funny!" and really started laughing, which made us all laugh even harder.  It's always amusing when people laugh before they actually realize the joke.  Emily joined in, while still keeping her eyes glued to the iPad screen, "We should get a picture of Rainey with her hands up like that."  "Ya," Dr. Nash added.  "Just a picture of Rainey beside the story."  "Wait," I said, "There's seven of us and there were seven of them.  We could all pretend to be one of the Mercury seven at the press conference."  Dr. Nash turned to Chris, who had started the whole thing.  "Who would you be? Al Shepard?"  "No," Rainey countered.  "Emily would be Shepard since she's always been ahead of the rest of us in getting her drafts done."  "I think Chris would be Yaeger even though he wasn't one of the seven," Angela said.  Aimee added, "OK, we really need to get this picture taken before the school year ends."

Poor Audrey must have felt left out.  "Well, my next question was going to be, Because this class is so small, are the dynamics different?, but I think you've already answered that one," she said.  The six of us students looked around the table and realized what an awesome class we were in.  "I think so," Angela pipped up.  "I feel like we're a family in here.  We all help each other out about our articles.  I mean, Rainey and Alison have fixed me up with dates for my project.  We've talked together about each person's topic and I think we have a special bond."  I agreed with Angela and I think the other four students and Dr. Nash did too.

I love having small classes where everyone knows everyone else and gets along and helps each other.  Emily and I had that last year in our six-person, all-girls Adv. Reporting class with Ms. Chamberlain and now we have it again with Dr. Nash in Literary Journalism.  LJ (Angela's acronym for our class) class today just made me realize again how much I'll miss the SJ&C once I graduate and leave.

PS - After Emily had got to level 4 of her marble game, she passed the iPad to me and Angela who worked on a Mad Lib game.  We got all the way to the last word and just needed to put in an adverb when Dr. Nash needed his iPad to read us an e-mail he'd gotten.  So we never got to see how our Mad Lib turned out, but it was going to be good.  Like Angela said, "We used the word gobbleygook.  How could it not be good?"

Full office

Seems like all my Tuesday posts are about the Accent office.  Forgive me, interesting things have happened there in the past few weeks.  Besides there's only one week left of the Accent after today, so you won't have to read about it for too much longer.

Today Andrea came in and told us that there would be a group of people coming in to look over our shoulders and watch what each of us does - her next year staff.  She had told them that they should come around 8 or 8:30 since that's when most people are in the office.  Usually that's true for me, but tonight was Jonathan's bass recital so I had to leave before 7:30 and run to the music building.  I didn't get back to the office until just after 9, and by then it was filled with students who are in News Reporting right now (and one graphic design major).  They had taken all the extra seats in the office and were sitting in a circle (some people were even sitting on the floor) in the middle of the office.  I grabbed a page off the board and started reading through it standing up.  But that got uncomfortable really fast so I went out to the student center and pushed one of the chairs into the office, making it more crowded.  Anyway, the point is that we usually have six or seven people in the office at a time, but tonight there were six extra bodies filling the not-really-huge room.  It was pretty cramped.  And then the next year staff were having a big discussion about who else they should get for the positions that weren't filled yet.  It was kind of hard for us current staff to communicate with each other.  And also hard to objectively look at the news articles since most of the people in the office had written them and were listening for any hints about what we thought of them.

After most other people had left, the potential next year news editor stayed around to ask me all about my job since I wasn't around earlier when he'd first come in.  So I had to stop editing and tell him about that, which was fine but meant I couldn't leave as early as I thought I'd be able to.  Oh well, I'm glad that Andrea's getting her team together now and having them come in and talk to us.  I wish I'd had that opportunity last year because then I wouldn't have just come in cold at the start of this school year.  I'm really curious what the Accent will be like next year with all these sophomores running the operation (well I guess they'll be juniors by then).  OK, I'm done now.

Almost.  Just wanted to add that Jonathan's recital was great.  It's always interesting to hear bass solos cause you usually just hear them play in orchestras on jazz ensembles.

Research and posters

This week already stinks.  I can't wait until next Monday is over and my Mass Comm. and Society research paper is finished and turned in.  My life will get a lot better after that.  Meanwhile, I'm currently sitting in the Mac lab making Bryn's senior recital poster.  It looked iffy for awhile (yeah, I'm not a designer), but we finally found a way to make all the words fit and I think Bryn's pretty happy with it now.  Yay, something new to put in my portfolio, along with Jonathan's poster that I helped him make last week.  It's been about a year since I put my Pub. Tools skills to good use so it was definitely time to remember how to use InDesign.

Mattress move

On Friday, Jonathan helped me set up a new experiment.  He moved the top mattress out of my bedroom and set it on the living room floor next to our uncomfortable couch.

(Oh, time to explain.  We have two couches.  One, the beige couch, came with the apartment and, for about a month, was our only couch.  But we found it rather uncomfortable.  It only has two cushions and they each start high on the ends but get more depressed into the hide-a-bed underneath as they run toward the middle of the couch in kind of an open-edged funnel.  The whole couch is quite uncomfortable to sit on.  So Bryn and I went to the Samaritan Center in October and sat on all the couches there before deciding on a pink, floral-patterned one.  After getting it home, we sprayed the cushions with Febreze to get rid of any strange smells that might be lingering in the material and positioned it in a prominent place, along the main wall of our living room.  The couch was much more comfy than our beige one and it immediately became the primarily-used couch in our house.)

Anyway, back to my experiment.  On Friday afternoon I was completely fed-up with the lack of a window in our bedroom and also the unrelenting boiling-ness.  So I thought that sleeping out in the living room, beside our only window to the outside, might heal my aggravation.  The air vent nearby, blowing cool air across the room, was an added perk.  So that night I tried out my new sleeping arrangement and loved it.  The cool air drifted over my mattress as I slept, and, in the morning, the light edged around the closed window blinds and nudged my eyes open a few minutes before my alarm went off.  It was heavenly.

I slept out there last night, too, and that sleep was just as enjoyable.  So, the experiment is over.  My mind is made up.  I'm going to leave my mattress out here in the living room for the rest of the school year (unless, of course, we have friends over for a Sabbath meal or a game night.  Then I'll move it back into the bedroom so people can walk around freely).  Other than those instances, though, my mattress is staying out here.  I kind of wished I'd thought of it months ago.

Sorry and Battleship

Lots of stuff happened today.  First, because of unforeseen circumstances, Bryn, Jonathan, and I made it to the 10:30 showing of SonRise with only a couple minutes to spare.  Jonathan's mum had our tickets and was waiting outside the church to give them to us.  We ran all the way from where we parked my car and got inside the sanctuary just before the doors closed.  Other than that, we traveled through the pageant without any other major dilemmas or delays.  I got to see Tyler just as he was heading through the market place to join his group and made him stop to get a picture with me.  Then I got to watch him act out his part of Judas masterfully, which was fun to see.
Second, after SonRise we went to Jonathan's grandparents place for lunch and then watched their DVD of "The Adventists."  I had wanted to watch it at the convocation last Tuesday, but I was working then and couldn't.  So it was nice to be able to see it today.
Third, when we got back to our apartment, Bryn and I went to seek out places to take her senior violin recital pictures.  We found a simple but nice looking place just across the street from our cul-de-sac.  Then I took lots and tons and hundreds (probably) of pictures while Bryn tried out different poses.  Then we went back to our apartment and ate supper.
Fourth, we journeyed back to campus where Bryn, Jonathan, Josh, Danielle and I got free smoothies and played table games in the cafe.  Jonathan and I played Sorry while Bryn and Josh dueled in Battleship and Danielle waited for her smoothie.  Then we all played Set and Rummikub before going our separate ways to sleep.  It was a good day, but really busy.

And now, here it is.  The best quote of the day:
(During game night)
Ali: (reaches to set the Sorry box on top of the Battleship box) Can I put this here?
Josh: (grabs one end of the Sorry box) Sorry, you can't.
Ali: (glances at the games and thinks super fast) Well, (sets down her end of the Sorry box on top of the Battleships box) Battleship, I can!
Josh and Jonathan: (uproarious laughter)
Ali: (grins in pride that she came up with a witty and game-night-appropriate comeback so fast)

Sheep vespers

Tonight the SJ&C had a vespers at Dr. Nash's house.  He lives just across the Georgia line on a large patch of land with a small creek running through it.  A few weeks ago his family decided to keep animals again (they'd had pygmy goats for awhile) and got a pregnant ewe and a ram.  Dr. Nash kept our class informed about life with sheep, even passing around his phone so we could look at pictures of his kids with Lily the Ewe and Buddy the Ram.  Last Sunday morning, the lamb was born and he reported the event to us in class, complete with a picture of his youngest daughter holding David, the newborn lamb.  So tonight at vespers I actually got to see the sheep.

The whole night was a lot of fun, just hanging out with friends and acquaintances and teachers.  We had an Easter egg hunt ("Extreme Easter egg hunt in the sheep pen," Dr. Nash told us right before we started.) followed by refreshments of cookies and other baked treats and lemonade.  Some of the guys started a football game and then there was a bonfire and vespers.  Dr. Nash's whole family trooped into the sheep pen (his wife clutching a long stick to keep Buddy the Ram at bay) and caught the lamb.  Dr. Nash and two of his girls dashed for the gate as both Buddy and Lily raced to defend their offspring.  Everyone sitting in the circle around the fire laughed at the sight of the usually dignified Dr. Nash shooing his daughters in front of him as they all squished through the gate seconds before getting butted.  A minute later, his wife sauntered to the gate, holding the stick, but by then the sheep were more worried about the whereabouts of their lamb than butting humans.  Dr. Nash's oldest daughter brought David the Lamb around the circle of comm. majors and their friends and family and almost everyone petted or held him.  His mother, pacing in the pen, wasn't too happy about her lamb being gone and made that clear with many weird sounds before he was returned to her side.  After vespers, Jonathan, Bryn, Josh, and I found the trampoline empty and jumped in the dark, under the clear sky and twinkling stars.

As we drove back to Collegedale, I realized how lucky I am that I transferred to SAU.  I have had such a great time as a SJ&C student here, meeting other students who have a passion for writing or other communication-related fields, being taught by well-trained and caring professors, and getting opportunities (like working on the Accent) to try out my skills.  I'm so thankful God helped me find the right major and the right university to finish up my schooling.

Prank day

Yesterday evening I walked out of my room to see Jonathan sitting at my desk, gulping down a glass of water.  For a second watching him drink made me thirsty.  I glanced around the room and saw my water bottle sitting on the desk where I'd left it earlier.  But it was empty and I didn't feel like filling it.  I asked Jonathan about his day and, during the ensuing conversation, forgot about getting a drink.  A while later, though, I suddenly realized I was still thirsty.  Instead of having to navigating around the pile of dishes in the kitchen sink, I  decided it would be quicker to fill up my water bottle in the bathroom sink.  When my bottle was full, Jonathan decided to let me in on his attempted prank.  He brought me over to the kitchen sink and showed me the elastic band he'd wrapped around the lever of the faucet sprayer.  "Turn on the tap," he said.  "Slowly!"  I reached over and cautiously pulled the faucet handle as if a snake was going to wriggle out of the tap.  A trickle of water dripped from the sprayer, while no water came out of the faucet.  "That's a sneaky little trick," I remarked, imagining the scenario that could have happened.  Jonathan laughed and explained that he'd tried to get me to use the sink earlier by emptying my water bottle and then drinking a glass of water, but it obviously hadn't worked.  After confessing, he started to unwind the elastic band, but I stopped him.  "Let's leave it and see what happens," I said.  "Bryn's bound to turn this on at some point."

This morning, I had just finished my shower when Bryn came home from organ lessons.  Right as I ambled out of our room to say hi, a bloodcurdling screech pierced my ears.  I dash the few steps into the kitchen, certain that a kidnapper had entered our house and grabbed Bryn.  The scene that greeted my eyes was quite different than what I'd imagined.  An astonished Bryn stood in front of the sink, staring wide-eyed and shocked at the sprayer.  Small puddles of water dotted the tile floor around her.  "I just turned on the tap and look what happened!" she pointed at the front of her dripping green button-up shirt."  Laughter burst from my lips and, a second later, Bryn, realizing how funny she looked standing there all soaking wet, started laughing too.  "What in the world happened to make the water come out of the sprayer instead of the tap?" she asked through giggles.  I worked to control my amusement, then showed her the elastic band and told her about Jonathan's plan from yesterday evening.  "Wow, well, I guess I got pranked today," she said with a grin.  "But I'm leaving that puddle of water for Jonathan to clean up.  It's really all his fault."