Big Grins

today was a good day.

no, i take that back. it wasn't a good day, it was a fabulous day. the reason it was such a fabulous day is because of a very beautiful girl named heather. i have (without reluctance) given up my status as "single" (though, as a friend pointed out today, that really doesn't make sense considering i'm not married. but in the contemporary context which emplies some sort of a relationship it gets the point accross). considering how full of it i am right now, and the fact that i haven't written anything in a little while, i decided to share with my blogger family. feel free to be happy with me and not sarcastically give me your condolences like the sweet guys i work with at the shop. and no, i'm not talking about you, john. anyway. think i'm going to go to bed early and get up early for a terrific quiet time, and perhaps even some piano practice before church. whoa, what's this? turning over a new leaf or something?? i'm reminded of the words of a proud father at the return of his brave and valiant son...

"'... oh frabjous day! calloo, callay,' he chortled in his joy..."

(jabberwocky, lewis carroll)

your truly,
giddy jordan

Schedule of Death

i am so thankful for the preaching of the word of god. honestly i don't know what i'd do without going to church, singing hymns of praise with fellow believers, and listening to scripture. earlier this week i had a conversation with someone about churches and history and various sects of the christian religion. it was actually rather frustrating because i felt like for all his head knowledge and questions about "what is truth?" that he didn't really want to know the truth. well, that's probably not true. i think most likely he did want to know the truth, but he was more interested in arguing for both sides of dssagreements on things like being saved by grace as opposed to being saved by works, etc. he wanted me to know how his church was the original greek orthodox church which split from the catholics in the great schism. he wanted to ask me "if there is truth, but all these different denominations each have their own version, how do you reconcile the differences?" and let me tell you. it is through faithful seeking after god that we find out what truth is. by reading the bible. by praying over the bible. by dying to the flesh every day and giving yourself and your life to christ. his grace saves you (and me) and it carries us through every trial and hardship. his spirit ministers to our spirit and lives within us and directs our paths with gentle guidance. we are safe with our good shepherd. i honestly don't care which denomination's roof you hide under. i know that there is one god and i know that he lives within me. i was encouraged about that today. 1 peter really blessed me. i highly recommend it's full perusal if you are in need of comfort or encouragement. even if you don't think you are, you just might find it refreshing. i have to go now to study. i hope i didn't ramble too much. god bless you all and have a wonderful week.

oh yeah, the schedule of death. i nearly published the post before i wrote about it. i suppose my schedule this semester is part of the reason i needed encouragement so much. i just created a new list of daily activities and stuff. i will have virtually no free time (except for a few hours on the weekend) between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day. let me hasten to add that i don't imagine myself to be the only one oppressed by the iron hand of surfin' steve (or the fists of any of your bosses or whatever) but just looking at that schedule on the fridge does not make me a happy camper. i wouldn't complain if anyone were to mention my name in their prayers. by the way, i take prayer requests too. later.

Hum

interesting sights and sounds are all around me this week. right now there is a ladder extending up the building right next to my window. it is making incredible scraping and squeaking noises as some worker climbs up the side of my home. for a couple of minutes it repeated bounced against the wall. sounded like someone breaking in. it also smells strongly of paint inside this place.

yesterday i saw a bicycle on the rack outside the uc with an unopened beer in the water holder. nothing like cracking open a nice warm one after class.

almost got run over by a car while riding to work yesterday. i could have died. but i didn't. they didn't even bump me or in any way obligate themselves to pay for the rest of my tuition.

i also forgot several funny things that i was going to share but didn't write down in time. bummer. gotta run to lunch. lata!

Avast There, Matey

happy pirate day, everyone. actually, "international talk like a pirate" day. i can't believe my buddy john at the shop didn't bring it up. i'm pretty sure he didn't even say "argh." unless he stubbed his toe perhaps.

today i just finished a huge round of astronomical torture. our first test was today, and i didn't study adequately. wow, really?? big news. now i have a few inches to breath in and i can focus on other things. like ordering music, some of which i need to prepare a methods study for class.

anyway, i don't feel very coherent, so i think i'll go finish studying and hit the sack.

Dancing

today was super fun. i haven't gotten nearly enough studying done, but who cares? i did get two observations done. heather and i went and sat in on two piano lessons (taught by mrs. parr). we took notes for our piano pedagogy class on the things we saw, what we liked, or didn't, what we could do to make it better, etc. and it just so happens that our subjects of observation were two cute little alder's kids. then we went shopping. at and estate sale. i admit that i'm not an estate sale connoisseur, but it was pretty interesting. apparently a woman was selling off her summer home estate. her husband had died, and pretty much everything was being consolidated. i could hardly imagine having that much stuff in one house. not to mention that it was the "secondary" house. the purpose of our estate sale excursion was to find a cheap (as in, $10) computer desk. this we did not find. we did discover things that belonged in a museum that cost as much as my car. started up a conversation with a booth vendor outside by using one of his rusty old saws to make music. unfortunately it didn't quite make the cut as an instrument.

then we went dancing. am i the only one who didn't know they teach ball room dance at the nacogdoches rec center every week? folks, it's one dollar for students!!!! craziness. and be sure that if you are a student and you do decide to go that you don't pay $5. that's the price for "regular" people. which isn't bad, but hey, if you're a college student just pay a buck. anyway, it's a two hour thing every saturday. they just decided to start doing two sessions (because of so many people in a smallish space) which will be at 10 and 12. today we did cha cha, swing and tango. very fun times. definitely the highlight of my week. now i just have to see if i can stand waiting till next week...

in the mean time, i better go study. what's that... astronomy you say? calling my name? oh yes, i hear it now.

SWAG

today we briefly went over the scientific method in astronomy. right before a question pertaining to the discussion at hand dr markworth introduced us to a new method. the SWAG method. scientific wise-ass guess. apparently it is widely used among scientists, from distant history through the present. i employed this amazing tool on the next question with great success. i hope you find this breakthrough in astronomical (or other) research theory as helpful as i did.

Events

these are the events of my monday.

first - music history. i like this class far less than i liked intro last semester. there's nothing wrong with the professor per se, he just isn't very interesting. probably has something to do with the fact that this is his first semester (at least at sfa) and he isn't used to it yet. oh well. i probably ought to study too. wouldn't that be something.

then i went to spanish lab polished up my skilz for a quiz in class. then i went to class. and took the quiz. and aced it. then we watched a movie about going on a trip with the spanish class next summer and getting 6 hours of credit and spending thousands of dollars.

at some point after entering the liberal arts building i was experiencing a flat tire. actually, my bicycle outside was experiencing it. when i came back out to ride to my next class, then it was my turn to experience it. so i walked to piano pedagogy. this class is going to have mostly easy requirements, but there are tons of those and they involve things like planning and organization and other words for which i might need the definition.

then i had lunch, which today was a dang quesa-dilluh with chicken. i've had worse. the worst stomach cramps come from two grease burgers on the same day. these weren't that bad.

after that fabulous meal i headed "home" where i wasted a little bit of my life in front of the computer before heading back out in the heat with my bicycle pump. i filled the back tire and rode as fast as i could to the music building before it went flat. practiced for about 2 1/2 hours. it was very exciting. so exciting in fact, that i almost decided to stay until 5:30, but thought better of it and left at 5:15.

after engaging my bicycle pump in a second vigorous inflation exercise i zoomed back toward my dorm. half-way back to my dorm, to be precise. then i hopped off and walked my crippled vehicle the rest of the way back. then i found out just how heavy even an aluminum frame can feel when you carry it over your head up 8 flights of stairs.

more minutes of my life succeeded in going down the pc drain before it was time for dinner. am i seeing a pattern here? for dinner i had a baked potato (delish), with cheese and ham and bell peppers and onions and jalapenos and ranch. i also met one new person (sarah) and a million people that i already know. table dynamics of large groups of people are interesting. from my perspective in the middle i could eavesdrop/participate in all of them. the side of the table that was 100% pure musician (even though nick isn't a major, he's still a musician) talked about... you guessed it... music. the entire time. the other side, which has two non-musicians talked about everything from mentioning their bible study, to "what are you doing tonight?" to my tan is fading. by the way, i'm not implying that talking about music is boring. in fact, there are quite a number of diverse topics that may be covered in a discussion about music. i just lost interest in this paragraph.

now i'm back. supposedly about to study. first i will play the guitar. then the saw. then study. lata!

Gold

i just found out something very interesting. something interesting having to do with the value of one of my tiny little possessions, which was given to me from my grandfather's collection when he died. it's a 2 1/2 dollar indian head gold liberty coin, from 1911. here's one on ebay. i thought it was pretty cool. i might should think about keeping my little "box full of stuff" (including said coin) in a more secure place. maybe it's actually a treasure chest full of unknown riches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What?

before today i never imagined that a girl (or anyone, for that matter) would tell me to, "peace out, sprout."


????

People

thanks to ben, i did have a fine run this morning. we got to jog for a bit, hear the band people practicing on the football field, see the abt's and the middlebrooks houses (ben hadn't seen them before), and then chat for a while. i love my friends that i'm able to keep in touch with and stay close to. isn't it sad when you graduate from highschool and realize it isn't feasible to stay in contact with everyone? sure, you can if you're super-human and madly dedicated. but seriously, if you don't make the effort, people drift away. this is not, by the way, the first time i've discovered this, nor is it likely the first time to have crossed your own mind. anyway, i was just thinking how much i appreciate and want ben's friendship. someone i've shared experiences with, who will hold me accountable to the things i profess are important (my life with christ), who also has similar interests. such as running like mad people around nacogdoches on saturday morning when any college student in the right mind would be asleep. since it's now time to head to the lake, i'm off and away. have a great weekend, all you wonderful people.

"...If it IS a good morning..."

i cannot believe i'm up before eight on satuday morning. good job ben for coming to nac and running with me. i do not feel so great.

El Weeko Dos

another week has gone by, and the semester is about to go full throttle. this week i attended 210 out of my 100 required lab minutes for spanish. am i slow in the head? or what... i also ripped a bunch of music from a friend. i hate the way classes like music history require you to buy two sets of cd's, the cheaper of the two being $85. are you serious??? i've already spent almost $700 and i still lack a couple of teaching books and some more sheet music!! actually, i shouldn't be whining too much, considering more than half of that did not come out of my own pocket.

so what news? i got more new music. i don't think i wrote about the first batch of new music, so i should just say, "i got music." which, considering i'm a music major should come as no surprise. first and foremost is a piece by chopin (op. 44 in f#m, for those of you who care, or would like to look it up on the classical music library and listen to someone amazing perform it better than i probably ever will be able to...)

also... i forgot to mention in my spanish lab comment that i successfully scored a 50 on a spanish quiz that i forgot to prepare for. i came in late (the one time!!!!) and didn't have time to even finish it. i was embarrassed. so maybe that explains all the lab time? making up for past sins?

i'm going to the lake tomorrow! woot woooooooot!!!!! i'll post something about that later. mabye some pictures if i remember my camera. now, to the fantastic fantasy realm of westwood online. see you on the insiiiide...

Happy Birthday Papa!

i would like to make this post a birthday tribute to the most important (mere) man to step foot in my life, who was also very instrumental in bringing me into this life. he has been the greatest encourager in my struggling walk with christ. he has read me bible stories and sung praise to jesus along with his trusty guitar to put me to sleep. he played baseball in the sunday afternoon heat when a nap would have been more in order. he's given me guidance when i asked (or didn't) and correction when i needed it (often). he taught me how to play chess and be a good sport about losing. he prayed with me and helped me through more mature spiritual and physical difficulties. he supported me in my academic endeavors and came to all of my piano recitals. god answers his prayers of love for me when i don't even know he's crying out. papa, thank you for sharing with me the love of christ and living it to the best of your ability in front of me.

speaking of my father, here's mr. cool himself! sorry i don't have a 100% current picture. this is from last year. if you guessed christmas judging by the gift-wrap paper... you would be 100% correct. Happy Birthday Papa!
 

"I'm on fire! I'm on fire!"

being back on campus is fun times. the first week of school is over, and i think i'm ready to take it on. my schedule is almost complete (just lacking a lab and a couple of teaching times). the dorm is nice, if not yet complete. yesterday we already had a fire alarm. in these new buildings they have a system where the alarm has to go off in two rooms at the same time to trigger an evacuation of the whole building, which means that a whole lot of evacuations are avoided. you know, someone taking a steamy hot shower and suddenly opening the door, etc. sooooooo some(freshman)one cooked their popcorn waaaay too long and created a stench that filled the fourth floor. we only got half-way down the stairs though before it went off and we got to go back to our rooms. come on people, since when does anyone imagine they have to cook pop corn for 3 minutes?? hopefully exploding everyone's eardrums with the fancy new alarm system will satisfy their lust for fire drills.

i just got a 3-hole punch and i'm entirely too pleased. i have also discovered the love of berries & cream dr pepper. thank goodness my carbonation fast is over. course, i'm still going to try to limit myself (no more 6 dr peppers per day). must toddle on my way. have a great weekend everyone.