Sports page

I wrote an article for the Sports page in the Accent, which makes me happy because I've been telling Emily for more than a month that I was going to. And now I have and the best thing is, no one (except you guys) will know that I just stole it off my own blog, edited it down by a few words, wrote a tidy little intro and conclusion, and sent it in to the sports editor. Am I sneaky or what?

Shaving

One of the most pointless, time-wasting, hateful chores (in my opinion) is shaving. I can't stand it. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't stand walking around with super hairy legs either, though, so I do shave, I just try to go as long as I possibly can without. Well, in winter at least. In summer, when I walk around in shorts and bare feet I try to shave more often, even though I hate it. I guess what really bothers me about the whole process is that for me to really do a good job, it takes me awhile and I just find that time so wasteful. I'd rather be reading.

So that was really random, eh? Well, maybe not so much as you might think. I've been thinking about shaving for several days. It came to me one night just a few minutes after I got into bed while Bryn was still getting ready for bed. I could try not shaving for an entire semester. I know people who do No-Shave November (my brother went a month and a half without shaving his face) and many guys who don't shave during the NHL playoffs while their team is still in the running for the Stanley Cup. I have never done any of those things myself, but wouldn't that be an interesting piece of experiential journalism? I think it could be fascinating, but I really don't want to be the one who has to actually do the experiential part. Another of my experiential journalism ideas for Literary Journalism is to get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun. But, being a university student who has a class that gets out after the sun sets, I don't think that could work. Once I shot down that idea I thought maybe I could just go to bed at a set time (8 or 9 p.m.) and get up at a set time (4 or 5 a.m.) for the semester and write about that, but I'm sure that's not as shocking/astonishing as a North American female not shaving for close to an entire semester. My other idea for class is to do an immersion journalism piece on a person, or maybe a family, who is illiterate. I know there are literacy programs in Chattanooga and it would be interesting to see how they survive everyday life without knowing how to read. So those are my ideas so far. You can tell me what you think or give me more ideas. Please do! I need more that are better than those ones I've come up with so far that don't take any time out of my day.

Another reason shaving was on my brain today was because I went to Hulsey today. I never do. I've barely set foot in that building all year. But Jonathan convinced me to join him in his hour of racquetball playing for the week. It went semi-OK, but I haven't really played since, well for quite a few years. I'm glad I told Bryn and she came along. She's pretty good and if she hadn't been there I'm not sure Jonathan would have got lots of good practicing done. After playing, we went and had a rowing race, which Jonathan won, Bryn got second in, and I came in third. 500 meters is a long way and I have a healthy respect for those Olympic rowers. Then Jonathan and I went swimming, which was lots of fun. I've never been in any of the Hulsey pools and it was pretty fun. In the end, I was glad I went. But the entire time I was there, I was wondering what would it be like to do all that stuff if I hadn't shaved my legs for weeks and weeks.

Cardboard Boat Races

I went to second service by myself this morning. I haven't gone to anything by myself for a long time and it was interesting to do that again. Although the sermon was good, I have to admit, I did a fair amount of people-watching. After the service Jonathan, who was singing in I Cantori, came and found me and then Stephen, who was sitting a few rows behind me but didn't see me until the end of the service, came up to talk to us too. Danielle, also sitting behind me, moved up to talk, too. I moved farther back in the sanctuary and saved places for Bryn, Ty and some of their friends and then stayed for the first half of third service to participate in song service. Then I went home to start getting lunch ready. I noticed a lot of lint on my jacket when I took it off so I got distracted with de-linting my coat with a lint brush for awhile. I also got distracted by a list of notable Adventists on wikipedia. It was really intriguing. Here is is in case you're interested. Then I stopped being distracted and got to work on making burritos. Danielle came over and brought twice baked potatoes. I'd never had those before but they were pretty good. I ate like a pig and was absolutely stuffed. Then we met up with some people at Wright Hall and carpooled to The Lantern where we sang hymns to the residents. A few people brought instruments and John's cello was passed around from cellist to cellist during the time we were there. I was so full I kept feeling like I was going to burst (and feeling like I was singing off tune), but I somehow managed to stay all in one piece. Christen was in our group and I talked to her for a little bit and then we ended up standing next to each other and sharing a hymnal. It was nice to see here again. I told her we missed her in ACW. After singing we went to Jonathan and Tim's apartment for worship and then went off to hear Stephensong (Danielle's word for Evensong when Stephen plays), which was good. From there we went to the gym to watch the beginning of the Cardboard Boat construction. I was convinced to leave after a few minutes. We picked up Nathan and then Bryn, Ty, Nathan, Danielle and I went back to our place and finished off the burritos and a bunch of other food, too.

Nathan and I had a discussion about Advanced News Reporting, which he's in right now and I took last winter semester. Then we started counting up the writing classes we've been in (not only W classes, but ones where the main emphasis of the class is writing, too). Here's my list in chronological order.
At WWC: Honors Writing I, Honors Writing II, Magazine Article Writing
At SAU: College Composition 2 (since I didn't take Research Writing at WWC), Writing for the Media, News Reporting, Expository Writing, Advanced Reporting, World Religions, Creative Writing, Mass Communication & Society, Literary Journalism, Advanced Creative Writing. Other classes in which I've had to write a research paper: Intro to Communication, Media & the Presidential Election, Communication Research
I think that's a pretty hefty list and I'm not even completely sure I've thought of everything.

Anyway, after eating we rushed back to campus and headed into the gym to watch the parade of completed cardboard boats and then followed the parade to the pool where we watched the teams compete. I knew quite a few people on various teams so it was fun to cheer for them and take pictures. Jonathan and Christen were on the same team and Tim had a team of people I knew, too. Finally, when there were only a few teams left and they looked like they would be going for quite awhile still, I left and came back to my apartment to watch a movie. I heard later on that Tim's team eventually won so that's cool. It was a pretty packed day, but very diverse, which is always fun.

Soccer

Today I was woken up by Tucker standing beside my head loudly whispering, "The phone is ringing, the phoning is ringing, the phone is ringing..." Finally I realized it wasn't a dream and clambered out of bed. By that time the home phone had stopped ringing and the Unicorn Kid song that's Ty's cell's ring tone started playing. Just as I reached the bedroom door, Ty emerged from the other bedroom and beat me down the hall to get his phone. It was Mark making sure that we had all survived the night OK. I got breakfast for the kids and apologized that they were eating at 8:15, a whole hour and fifteen minutes late. They didn't seem to mind too much. I actually think Coral was rather pleased she got to sleep in. For the rest of the morning, Bryn, Ty and I took turns showering while the other two played with the kids. Bryn played Tucker's Canadian Geography game with him and then I taught him how to play Slaps. After that Ty played Trouble with Tucker while I read some books to Coral (books that I had to read for Survey of Children's Lit. - what a great way to get homework done!). Later Bryn and I taught Tuck Dutch Blitz and then we ended the morning with Bryn, Tuck and I playing Skip-Bo. Mark and Terrie got back sometime during the reading/Trouble-playing time and then we headed back to campus (with most of the leftover pizza!). After taking Ty back to the dorm, Bryn and I stopped at our place to drop off our stuff and then drove over to Tim and Jonathan's apartment. We thoroughly interrupted Jonathan and his classmate who were doing homework and then Tim, Bryn and I went to the soccer field by the Greenway. One of us stood in the net while the other two took shots. Very early on, I was trying to stop a goal and slipped right into a muddy puddle. Even though we were all totally muddy by the time we finished playing, we had tons of fun. Now I'm going to get busy and do some homework. Soon I have to go to the Mac lab to finish my web design up for Tuesday. We'll see how that goes...