October Rundown

As many people pointed out (Dawnette, thanks for the e-mail!), I sometimes fall into a blog slacker. I didn't write much this summer, but then I really picked it up again this fall. Or so I thought. I've been pretty absent for the last three weeks, so here is a rundown of my life...

• Camping with Ulee. Andrew Ulasich and I met in the summer of 2003 when we went to Nepal together. I love Andrew Ulasich. He challenges me on some really unique things and in a lot of ways, I really want to be more like him. Ulee is a junior now at TU and he studied last semester in Egypt, so since then we'd been planning to get together for a little bonding and "guy time." Well, it happened. We met up at the Tippecanoe State Park in northern Indiana, went kayaking down the great and powerful (okay, maybe not) Tippecanoe River where we chatted and glided along and also enjoyed an engaging discussion on evolution. (I'm currently reading McLaren's "The Story We Find Ourselves In," so I've been thinking about this a bit...) We then set up camp, went for a hike, ate muchos hotdogs, talked about life, love, and other mysteries, talked about TU and Trinity, talked about the upcoming wedding (Andrew is one of the distinguished ushers), cooked some beans over the fire, ate more hotdogs, realized we were very tired, piled on layers of clothes and blankets, layed down under the stars, talked, fell fast asleep with the cold fall air just beyond the fire. In short, it was a great time of frienship and fellowship, one that I really think I needed in this time of business and loneliness. Definitely a highlight of this fall. Be sure to look for Andrew on the dance floor in December. Aren't we so rugged?

• Midterms. Over the last two weeks, I had my first semester midterms here at Trinity. Overall, I was pleased, especially considering my lack of motivation. Now it's on to my AA presentation and a few papers. There is one paper I'm actually a little excited for so maybe I'll talk about that at a later date. But school is most definitely busy and challenging, and I'm way behind on reading and such, but I guess that just goes with the territory, right?
• Invitations. Because Joy and I couldn't imagine paying quite a substantial amount of money to have someone else address our invitations, we decided to do it ourselves. Little did we know what a process it would become, pretty much consuming our last three Saturday nights. We spent hours collecting and confirming addresses, writing addresses, getting stamps, etc., and I'm going to be furious when a few get sent back, which is guarenteed to happen. In total, there are around 300 invitations going all over the US, Candada, Ireland, China, Philippines, and of course, Italy. It also turns out that the total number invited is bigger than was thought a few weeks ago (and no, this is not my fault like many of you may be thinking), so we really may end up with more than what we promised Joy's parents. It really is a problem: we are pumped for everyone to be there but realize we're in big trouble if everyone is there. Only time will tell. Get your RSVP in soon or you may get a phone call saying we're already maxed out. Or we'll just tell you to bring your own sack lunch to the reception. But seriously, even though it was a lot of work, doing the invitatations was so much fun. It was so cool to see in one big list all the people that have been a part of our lives, influenced us, walking alongside us during certain times and chapters. There are people I haven't talked to in years, but wow, do they still mean a lot to me. It's amazing how many people God has brought into my life over the years and in different settings, and really, they've all changed and challenged me in some way, they've invested in me, made me laugh or cry or get angry, and many of them have helped me know Jesus more, taught me a little more about what it means to love. I love that. It was great to write invitations with Joy and hear some of her stories, listen to her talk about her relationships. I guess what I'm saying is that right now I'm feeling really tremendously overwhelmingly blessed.
• Revelation. I am helping out with the youth group at my church on Monday nights, where I have a small group. Out of that group, a few guys expressed interest in doing a separate Bible study and I was all for it. With everyone's busy schedules, we realized that the only consistent time we're all available is before school. So on Wednesday mornings at 6, we meet at Starbucks. When we first met, I told them I really wanted this to be something they were invested in and excited about so thought it'd be good if they picked out which book they'd like to study. Of course, they chose Revelation. Needless to say, it's keeping me on my toes, which is a good thing, since I've never really studied the book that much, and it's going wonderfully well. I am SO BLESSED by this group of guys, the ones on Monday nights and the ones on Wednesday mornings. I love seeing them get excited about Christ, seeing them challenge each other in what it means to be a Christ-follower while in high school (and they challenge me in this too...), and I love that they are willing to come every week so stinking early in the morning.

Well, I think that's plenty for now. That's a glimpse into my life this month. It's been crazy, but also pretty fantastic on many different levels. Peace out.