Riley Creek

This past weekend was the Riley Creek Frestival. They hold it every year during one of the last weekends of the school year, and in my four years it has gotten progressively more awesome. I don't remember the first two years being that great, but the last couple years they have had inflatables and live bands and booths for student groups to do games or activities. The inflatables are really the best part. I remember as a kid always loving to do the Bouncy House at carnivals and things, but now I get to do them as a college kid. Back then you couldn't quite get a good bounce because you weighed about 10 pounds, but now I can get some air with my 160 pounds of college kid.

The other single best part about Riley Creek Festival is getting to see everyone with awkward sunburns the day after. Luckily this year was another good one in terms of weather, but there were a lot of racoon faces for a couple days. Bring on the summer. The festival ended by showing the movie "The Goonies" on a big inflatable movie screen they put up out on the lawn. I'm not sure why drive-in movie theaters have gone out of style because watching movies on the lawn here at Bluffton has been some of my favorite movie experiences.

In other news: My finals weeks should be a piece of cake, but this last week of classes right now is kicking my butt. Everything seems to be culminating into this four day stretch, but it is nice that I only really have one thing due each day. Part of me wants to do the whole senioritis thing where I only half-heartedly do these last projects just so I can make it to graduation, but so many of these things I have to do are things that I want to do well. We only have one more SNW and I have to do that well. I have a paper for my senior capstone class that I want to do well on not for the grade but just for my own edification. I have to write a speech for May Day that I want to do well on and say something meaningful to the parting class. And amidst all this I'm waiting to hear about a job I applied for which will probably largely determine the course of the rest of my life. Nothing big...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will make your paths straight
(Prov. 3:5-6)

Here's to learning to trust.

Break? What break?

For the past couple of weeks it seems like I've just kept pushing things off and thinking to myself that I would do them over Easter Break. Now that that break is finally here, I am still having a hard time getting motivated. I feel like I've had senioritis since I was a sophomore, but now it's really kicking in. Part of me wants to just kick myself in the pants and make things get done so I can spend the next couple weeks just relaxing and sucking all the fun out of my last college experiences. I know that will never happen though. I just can't seem to make myself write a paper until the deadline is impending.

I was supposed to work on stuff all day today, but one of my friends asked if I wanted to hang out with him and his parents who had come down to watch his track meet tomorrow. I am never one to pass up a chance to swim (even if it's at the Comfort Inn), so I went. We ended up playing games all afternoon, going to dinner in Lima, and hitting up the pool for a little when we got back. After I hung up the phone telling my friend that I'd hang out with him and his parents I realized that the experience had the potential to be really akward, but it was anything but awkward. I think it was the "break" I needed to spur me into actually doing work. It was relaxing, fun, and a hot tub was involved, so now I'm all set to do some homework. Woot!

Love is in the air...

...not in my own life, but I was blessed this last Saturday to make it to the wedding of two of my good friends who graduated last year. Mary and Scott didn't start dating until late in their college years, but when they did I think everyone who knew them thought what a great couple they made. They are both just really great people and it was good to see two such great people joining their lives and being so happy about it. It was such a classy wedding and reception, but of course since it was Mary's wedding it had to be fun too. Mary was always big into making up dances and performing them with her friends, so of course her and all the bridesmaids had something prepared. What was surprising was when a few of the groomsmen busted out their own secretly prepared choreography. All in all it was a great time.

I almost thought I wasn't going to make it, but Saturday morning I woke up and had reclaimed my left nostril and from there on out I've continued to feel better. I've seen a number of people across campus with the same sickness who are getting better at different rates, so I feel blessed to have gotten over it so quickly. It probably doesn't help, though, that some people I know are sick and still manage to stay up 'til 3 playing video games. I love sleep...and fluids...and not being sick.

The Camerata choir went to my home church this past Sunday. It was a little nerve-wracking. When I take someone to meet my family I'm always nervous that someone is going to say something weird or do something awkward, but this was like that feeling multiplied by an entire church family. It went well. Everyone talked about how appreciative the congregation was which I knew would happen since the music in my home church is a little lacking. It was good to be able to bring such a talented group of musicians to a place that could really appreciate it even if we were all a little under the weather and tired.

Well, I've got about an hour before musical practice, so I'm probably going to lay down and just be for awhile rather than do-ing all the time.

Blah

Being sick on campus is no fun. I am really happy that the sickness held off until right after my recital. Not only did it allow me to do the recital without coughing the entire way through, this week has been relatively low-stress so I've had plenty of time to rest. I've grown very accustomed to sleeping on the couch with the humidifier in my face. The only thing that really bums me out is that I'm not sure if I am going to go to my friends' wedding tomorrow if I still feel all congested. Maybe this is a divine way of making me slow down since I would have had to drive an hour and a half there, be at the wedding, go to the reception, then drive another hour and a half late at night to be back the next morning so Camerata could go to my home church. I haven't made the final decision yet, but as of right now I don't think I want to put myself through all that with this cold.

Here's to a weekend full of rest and lots of fluids. Woo hoo.

Done...?

Well it's all over with now. My recital, that is. It went really well. Honestly there were a number of bobbles, but one of my biggest strengths is just trucking through even when things get bad. Nothing got that bad, but there were at least two word mess-ups. I'm sure no one really noticed...or at least that's what they always say. I was really pleased with how much of my extended family was there. Most of my aunts and uncles and a couple cousins on my Mom's side were there as well as a couple of aunts from my Dad's side. I did get a little razzed because none of my brothers were there, but the amount of other family made me not even think about it.

I thought that finishing it would make me just collapse into a puddle when I got back to my room. I tried to collapse, but I was just too pumped up on adrenaline or something, so I couldn't sleep. I ended up eating way too much junk (almost an entire large pizza, leftover recital punch and cookies) and now I feel all gross. I think I was actually starting to feel sick before the recital, but it held off just long enough. That would have been quite a let-down, but I am glad that it all worked out.

Now I feel like everything should have been just downhill from Sunday, but I'm realizing how busy I actually still am. This weekend is another huge weekend with a wedding, Camerata at my home church, a paper due friday, hosting a prospective student Thursday night, and I was supposed to have Sunday night worship. I think we're going to cancel SNW, though. It will all work out in the end...it always does.

I need sleep.

Never-ending week

It seems like every day this week has started at 8 and not ended until 12 or so hours later. I will be so happy to have this recital behind me. I had my final dress rehearsal tonight and it went pretty well. I am doing some Gregorian chant with two other guys to open up the recital and I am somewhat nervous because one of the two guys has a sinus infection but won't let himself slow down to heal. It sounded o.k. today, but it definitely was not the best part of my recital. It does make me feel really good to get done with a rehearsal and have my voice professor hand me notes she took and there aren't any on an entire set because she thought they were absolutely beautiful. Every time we do the program it does get better. It is amazing to think where my voice has come over the past few years. Who knew I'd be able to hold out a high F to end a song and make it sound good?

Rehearsals for the musical are starting to get more and more intense. The show this year is called "The Spitfire Grill" and it's a little-known musical so all of the cast is having to learn all the music from scratch. It's not like doing a big show that everyone already knows the songs to. Plus it doesn't help that the songs seem to change keys every 10 bars. I do like that the show is really character driven. I don't think I'm the best actor, but I was happy that I got the character I did because he is not really like me at all so I get to stretch my abilities. The trick now is to make him gruff without makign the audience completely hate him.

I'm looking forward to the next few days of relaxing before my recital. I'm also looking forward to becoming a worthless, pizza devouring puddle after the recital.

Out of the shadows

The title of this post makes it sound like it's going to be real deep and scary, but it's just the opposite. Today is one of the first really nice days and it seems like the campus is instantly coming back to life. During the winter you get people outside doing sledding and of course walking to and from class, but other than that it just sometimes looks empty outside. (Granted this is probably coming from the fact that I hate snow and all things cold.) Today, however, the sun is out, it's warm, and there's a nice breeze. Whenever this happens it's like people come out of nowhere and all of a sudden there's people playing frisbee or tennis ball golf, people sunbathing, town people walking dogs, people on bikes, people doing homework outside. There's just an explosion of people coming "out of the shadows" of winter.

Awesome.

I didn't actually realize today was St. Patrick's day until we were walking to forum and I asked if everyone coordinated their outfits to match. I can't believe I spent almost half of this beautiful, holy day without celebrating. Maybe I'll play some frisbee golf with my roommate later. He's always asking me to go, but it always seems to be either negative seven degrees or raining. I'm not nearly as hard core as he is. But maybe tonight...


Oh yeah, I got elected to be May Day King. More on that later.