Welcome Week!

"That felt alot like having a sword through my stomach"

You may be reading this just because the title is a little off. Well, I don't blame you. This story requires a title that is unlike any other. The feeling of having a sword through your stomach is an understatement of what I felt today at work when we had to make a few "fun" out-bound calls to eleven students who were registered to take an online course that will no longer be available in about.. uh... 24 hours, give or take a few days. We actually have no idea when they will be locked out of their course, but that was only half the fun of the conversation. We also had to inform them of the little detail that they wouldn't receive credit or receive a refund if the course was not completed by Friday. The new platform for the courses won't accept them as "transfers" from the site we have been using. How quaint.. This is definitely not something that I'd enjoy doing on a daily basis.. These students were vile. I cannot express to you how evil a handful of them were.

Besides having to be cursed by folks I don't know, today was a pretty swell day. I rose around 6:30am. I ran. I showered. I got ready. I got breakfast with Miss Sally Free at McDonald's. I got free lunch from Chili's per Chip. I got to leave work at 5:30pm on the dot. I got the papers I need to turn into financial aid from my daddy. I get to spend the night getting the little things done that I have been trying to get done so that I might actually attend USC this year.

Wow! When you list it out like that, there is so much to be thankful for.

Oh, and during my usual commute down Gervais St, I saw the "SC Against the War" folks outside of the State House. I see these people a lot protesting the war in Iraq, but on this particular evening one man got me thinking. He was holding his boycott sign high in the air. He was even standing on his tip-toes to push it even higher. I thought to myself, 'Is that really going to do much more? Stretching as far as you can to hold this sign up as high as you can? I don't see much of the point.' It was interesting to see how important he thought it was to really show the sign off to everyone and making sure it was viewable at any height. Why, as humans, do we think that they higher or larger something is, then the more it is seen. That being said, why do those types of things catch our attention more than others? Wouldn't it be fantastic if the little things were noticed more?

Just a day full of random happenings/thoughts.


Video of the Day:

Welcome August.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I, as well as the average person wouldn't, never thought I would hear the words 'brick' and 'car' in the same sentence. It is always interesting to have a certain idea in your head, but the Lord's plan happens to be totally different. That is the bottom-line of my day. As Sally and I slowly come back to consciousness from the fantastic sleep from the night before, my neighbor is strolling in from her morning walk with her pup. I heard her voice and the screen door swing open, so I sneak a peek through the peep hole. I was pretty excited at this point. I thought she was just coming over for a quick hello. I was terribly wrong. She was only dropping by to inform the owner of the silver car on the street of an unfortunate event - a brick has been thrown through the rear windshield. I claim the poor vehicle and join her outside to take a gander at the damage. This is what I see:



Wonderful, huh? So, before noon I had had cops over at Ashby House, Jehovah's Witnesses trying to convert Sally and myself, and spent an hour and a half on the phone with AllState. Once I found out that I would not be getting a new window until Monday. So, we tarped up my car temporarily. Here's the result:



Luckily, Walt Rae, and her friend Rachel were coming to help me get things in order inside the house. I didn't have to worry about driving around too much until Sunday. I'm extremely thankful for such wonderful people who agreed to pick me up and drop me off. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get to Shandon for my favorite time of the week, help out at the Welcome Week meeting, or enjoy a fabulous night of dinner and trivia with some pretty cool folks.