November 17th
Joy to the World! It’s almost Christmas. Well, close enough. I just put up Christmas lights around my room last night and it’s almost Thanksgiving. I can’t wait. Once again, I am being a horrible person and not going home over break. Instead, I am going to visit my best friend from high school who is at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. We’re going to spend three days exploring New York City. I’m excited. You know what else I’m excited about: LIFE. This week has been really good for me. I’ve been in an unusually good mood throughout this week for the most part. I think my happiness has a direct correlation to the amount of homework I have. Yep, this week has been fairly light for homework for me. Let’s explore this past week together, shall we.
Even though it was light homework. I did have a seven-page paper due in Public Policy on No Child Left Behind, tailoring it to my home state of Wisconsin. I spent a lot of time trying to finish it in time. I thought it was due Monday, but later found out that the teacher had switched it to Tuesday. That was good since it gave me more time to edit and proofread. Also, it meant that I didn’t have to pull an all-nighter on Monday. Instead, I came close on Sunday. The paper was the first choice of three papers. I wanted to get it done with and have free time later. So, I chose Education over Abortion and Global Warming. That was about the only intensive homework I had all week. I worked ahead in Economics and have now finished all of the readings and homework through the end of the year. Hallelujah.
After I last left you, I went to see our Men’s Basketball Home Opener. Our fan group, the Richmond Rowdies, supplied barbecue sandwiches, food, drinks, T-shirts, and prizes. My friend won an iPhone. We were winning by ten with two minutes left in the game. However, we blew it and lost on a three-pointer with .2 seconds left in the game. Oh well. Our football team was ranked 8th and beat the 6th ranked team in the nation, Delaware. However, we had to go to 5 overtimes to do it. The final score was 62-56. We won our division and should make the playoffs easily. I’m excited. We are now ranked 7th in the nation in Division 1 AA.
The Richmond Rowdies had food, video games, and lots of other pre-game activities.
The arrival of our basketball team to the cheers of our fan section
I spent all of the first half trying to make an awesome paper airplane for a contest. I lost.
Our dorm threw a social on Saturday night. It was poorly attended, but I went for a while and talked to some of the RAs who were throwing it. They’re nice people. After that, I broke out Catchphrase and played it with some of my friends.
I have spent a lot of time lately with Jimmy from Boston. Here he is eating his cottage cheese.
For Sunday, I went to church. After months of searching, I think I found the one that I will end up going to all of the time now. It’s called River Road UMC and it has a special contemporary service called “The Well”. Normally, people don’t get up until noon on the weekends here. This church service starts at 9:45. Yeah, that seems early to me.
D-Hall did an amazing job on Monday. Once in a while, they have a theme night for food. This time it was Greek night, they had gyros, baklava, and so many other awesome foods. They had huge tables of cheese, humus, and every other Greek food imaginable. It was awesome. They decorated D-Hall and it was pretty cool. On Thursday, they had Thanksgiving for us and I was very impressed.
Greek Night at D-Hall
Now that I am off of the Homecoming Committee for Student Government, I can once again attend the Freshmen Guys Bible Study. The attendance has dwindled and it was only me, two of my friends, and our leader at this meeting. We had a good discussion though. On a side note, I’ve noticed an increase in the Christian music that I listen to on my computer. I guess that it gives me a small break from my busy life.
I also hosted a student as part of the Minority Overnight Visitation Experience (MOVE). Micah from Pennsylvania stayed with me. I’m afraid that I was a poor host since I had a ton of homework to do and did that most of the night. So, he had to resort to watching a lot of football on TV (which is normal for Sundays here). However, I do think he had a good time.
Speaking of football, did any catch that Packers vs Vikings game? Yeah, neither did I. When I lived on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border I could never watch a Packers game because the Vikings were shown on TV instead. Here, the Redskins dominate TV. It’s frustrating, but I hear it was a great game. I had to track it on the Internet. Brett Favre=MVP.
Student Government held a joint meeting this week. The men and the women were together and the discussion became quite heated as everyone talked about what role we should play in certain issues on campus.
I participated in another Psychology experiment this week. I answered questions on relationships in my life. In return, I was put into a raffle for $50. These experiments usually pay you some money and it’s really easy, so I try to do as many as I can. The money is also nice since I went shopping this week again and spent more than I had planned.
Three of my good friends participated in our play this year. It was “Macbeth” and they did a good job. It was set in World War 1 and I know that my friends put a lot of time into it. They had a twelve hour rehearsal the other day and it seems like they can never do anything most nights because they’re always practicing for “Macbeth”. I got ten of my friends to come with me and we bought flowers for our friends who performed. I treated my friend Buddy to dinner at the Cellar, our on-campus pub and restaurant, after the show.
Kate receives praise and flowers for here role in “Macbeth”
Buddy and I went out after “Macbeth” to eat at The Cellar
This has been my week in review and I shall let you know how next week progresses. I only have four more classes total for Public Policy and finals and Winter Break will be here before I know it. I’ve cut back slightly in the activities I’ve done. I wish I could have gone to see Tim Young, a comedian performing at UR for free, a barn dance, and several other events on-campus. However, I had other things going on at those times. Maybe, I’ll continue to cut back and try to keep my life in a manageable state of frenziness. That’s how I like it.
Thought to Ponder: Why is it that stealing ideas from one person is considered plagiarism; while stealing from many is considered research?
Quote of the Week: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” - Napoleon Bonaparte
Shout Outs: Doug for driving me to NY, Micah for putting up with me as a host, Caleb, Jimmy, and my friends in “Macbeth”: Buddy, Katie, and Kelly.
