Lessons From The Bamboo

Several years ago, back when I was in high school, I was on the quiz team at the Bedford Christian & Missionary Alliance, and I was involved in CHAT with Ben, Kyle, Seth, and Jamin. In the late summer, I remember my family going out past Pleasantville on the way up to Johnstown to dig up some bunches of bamboo to transplant in front of our house. For some reason I never went along for the actual digging or transport, but I was definitely around to plant the giant, cumbersome stalks.
We had to dig fairly big holes for the gnarly root balls, and after transplanting the bamboo shoots into said holes, we watered them per usual transplanting protocol. However, the bamboo was ornery and unruly, and it refused all our attempts to stand it up straight. It would tip into the street, into the area in front of the house, into other stalks next to it, but it would not stand up--and when it got windy, well, that unleashed a whole new glut of problems! Because of this, we had to build a sort of lashing fence behind it to tie the stalks to and give them more support. That made things a little easier, but by then it was cold and really windy, and the ground was hard and unwilling to accept the intruders.
By the time spring rolled around, that bamboo was looking pretty rough: it was all dry and brown, some of the stalks were split up the length of them, and all in all, the little grove of bamboo looked pitiful and dead. However, they were still standing there and providing a sort of screen, dead or not, so they stayed. Over the time since then, we have planted other things around them, weeded junk out from among them, and pretty much left them to themselves.
This morning, as I was coming back from work at HeBrews and visiting Dad, I noticed that there is significant new growth in our little bamboo grove. There are young leafy shoots pushing their way through the dead stiffs, and they are filling in the area quite nicely now. It is exciting to see that, a reaping of what we sowed so long ago, and it is an example of real life: very few things are immediate, but eventually, whatever is planted will grow in some way or another. For a long time, that row seemed dead, and then this past summer, we noticed a few adventurous shoots wandering down the row past where we had planted the original grove, and here and there some green could be seen among the brown. Now, even several months after that, there is still more new life among what seemed dead. And therein lies something else to be learned: even when circumstances seem bleak, and even dead, keep working around them and in between them, and eventually, sometimes imperceptibly for quite a while, new life and growth and change will occur.

The Next 14 Days

In a mere two weeks, I will be back on the road again. It is just after two o'clock, so hopefully Stephanie and I will be about five hours on our way--after a stop to drop off Connrad at BWI--which could put us as far south as Wytheville, Virginia again. Maybe that Sheetz there will be open finally (after leaving Wendy's, I noticed a Sheetz directly across the intersection, and so I pulled in to fill up in my first Sheetz stop in several months--only to find out that the location was still under construction! That plan foiled, I went down the road to a BP and filled up while eating a Frosty, and leaning on the car in my "CREW" Boathouse t-shirt that I picked up at Dad Vails back in the spring...and it was about 35 or 40 degrees out).
Wal-Mart has me working Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday through Friday. Here at HeBrews, Rica needs me Wednesday and Thursday morning. Beyond that, I am not scheduled anywhere. Robin checked at Ed's for me to see whether or not they needed any day-time servers (which they did not). However, that will be keeping me quite busy right up until Stephanie gets here.
She is flying up next week, and while "everyone" is eager to see her when she arrives, I am definitely the most excited! Finally she will be able to meet the rest of the guys of The Quick and the Dead, including Ben, Seth, and Jamin, all of whom were not in town this summer when she was up for a few days. I have been able to spend a fair amount of time with her friends and family in Alabama and Georgia, and as is understandable, it has been virtually impossible for similar interaction to take place with my family and friends up here in Pennsylvania. Seth's wedding is the day after she arrives, and that is where she will be meeting most of the guys, and then beyond that, we may be getting together with other, smaller groups in the rest of the week that she has for her visit.

Two weeks and two days. That is all I have here.
Before the break began, I was hoping to work full time for a straight two weeks (or at least 10 days that make up two full-time "weeks") at Wal-Mart, with any possible time spots at HeBrews being added onto that tally. And while yes, I do "need" the money, I want to find a balance between being a total workaholic for two weeks but having a decent amount of money to go back to school with or having plenty of time to read and interact with family and friends but having very little money to work with for a semester. However, my current work schedule seems to achieve that balance well. I have another 24 hours off or so, and then I will have an intense week ahead with work, and then I will have another week of relative down time.
Ben is going to be in town as well, back from school in South Carolina, and also visiting for the majority of the break from Milford, so he and I are planning to get in a double date with our respective significant others, which I am looking forward to very much. Stephanie and I have not been able to interact with many other young couples in that way at school.
On top of that, I have been talking to Mom a lot, and seeing Dad a fair amount. The "D" word was uttered for the first time a couple weeks ago, and divorce proceedings are starting to roll around. So among everything else going on, that is something I am dealing with as well. Add that to wedding planning over the phone with Stephanie, taking into consideration parental wishes, trying to figure out the "best" time frame for things, looking at future events and accommodations, figuring out the basic question of whether we will realistically be able to provide for ourselves, and a flurry of other details.
So, during this time, Stephanie and I are in need of wisdom and guidance as we wade through a variety of situational obstacles en route to our goal: a Godly, loving, and joyful marriage.

"Wasteland? You Mean Wonderland!"

As I drove further and further north, I saw an increase in the patches of snow on the north faces of hills and in little shady nooks and crannies. When I pulled into Breezewood, I saw a familiar sight: plowed snow piled in nice road-fencing lines. This morning, when I finally headed into the house, a light snow was drifting down with its gentle white flakes--the first snow I had seen at home in nearly two years! Also, it is the first time my Volvo has had snow on it while in my possession.
The remainder of my trip went very well yesterday, and between the time of my post and arriving back in Bedford (not quite at home, as I stopped at Wal-Mart for a while to get some work shoes) I did not stop at all--voluntarily, that is. I was on I-81 all the way from a little north of Knoxville, Tennessee to Winchester, Virginia. There, I decided to get off I-81 and take a shortcut on US-522, which was a more direct route from Winchester to Hancock, Maryland than continuing on I-81 and eventually getting on I-70. The shortcut worked quite well, except as I sped through the clear wintry night on the four lane divided highway with no posted speed limit, I glanced in my rearview mirror to see flashing blue and white lights closing in on me.
"Great," I thought sarcastically.
I pulled off as soon as I could, slipping off the road into a little rural gas station. The attendant probably was not too thrilled with the company, but it got me off the road. The trooper informed me he had clocked me at 76 in a 55 zone. That was not good. At all. Not that it made it any better for me, because I would have still been speeding, but I sincerely thought I was in a 65 area, and since the road was empty, I was zipping along nicely... Oh well. The officer, while professional and fairly blunt, was somewhat understanding. He asked if I had any reason to be going that fast, and I told him that I was heading home and I had not seen a posted limit. He thanked me for my honesty and ultimately was a little lenient. Basically, I do not have to go to court, which works out well, because the date is sometime in February, which is not practical in any sense.
One ticket in three and a half-plus years of driving. I do not want to blow it off, but really, I have been very blessed in the safety granted me on the road in all the thousands of miles I have driven--the majority of them by myself. My car now has 201,000+ miles on it, and it is still running strong!
"The end."

On The Road Again

Well, right now I have been on the road for six hours and 20 minutes. From Huntsville, that puts me in Wytheville, Virginia, and it looks like I have another four to five hours on the road. I am sitting in the parking lot at a Wendy's, connected to their WiFi after wolfing a burger and mincing through a small Frosty. It has been a smooth trip so far; I have not hit traffic, accidents, or bad weather, so I have had the Volvo in cruise control, eating up the interstate. Well, I had best get back to the road--actually, get to a gas station first to top off--and finish this trip out.
Adiós!

The Plight Of My Big Toe

So...last Tuesday morning, I had no finals to "worry" about, and so I decided to go get some breakfast. I went out and mounted my bike and pedaled up the hill to the Ferg. As I coasted into the plaza, I swung my left leg over the back of the bike and rode on the right pedal as I braked to a stop near a light pole. I stepped off with my left foot first--since it was keeping the right foot on the pedal--and when I swung my other foot off, I caught the nail on my left big toe and split it back a little bit.
I winced slightly, and then walked my bike across the plaza to a bike rack to park it during breakfast. After eating, I rode back to the dorms without mishap, and I went and visited Stephanie, who was working on her Blount paper--which was due later that afternoon. A little later, we went up to Oliver-Bernard and she polished up her paper and turned it in to Dr. Weiss. While she was thus occupied, I was working on studying for my AC310 final, which was Thursday morning at eight o'clock.
We went to lunch at the Ferg shortly after one o'clock, and as we were adjusting two tables to make room for Steph and Keri to join us, I jammed my same toe again! This time, I really broke the nail and actually drew blood. Ouch. I grinned and bore it, and went on with lunch. Later in the afternoon I snagged it on the carpet or something in Stephanie's room--the third time for one toe in one day.
Late that night--or rather, early the next morning--we went to the "Midnight Breakfast" at Lakeside. We walked in at one o'clock, but unbeknownst to us, it had started at 10 and it was open until one, so we were pushing the time to the very edge. As I was munching through a couple of odd muffin-like things with syrup and a cup of Lucky Charms with chocolate milk and a plastic fork, Stephanie swung her foot across my foot and caught my nail for a fourth time in 24 hours!
Since that rough day, my toe has gradually healed up, and I trimmed the dead part of it, so it is partly "naked" on the edge and is still a little tender where that nail used to be.

The Last Days

This semester, this period of time spent at school with Stephanie and our friends, competing in regattas, visiting with my fiancée's family, and overall being away from my "original" home is nearly over. We just finished watching The Christmas Gift, an older movie with John Denver in it (the Castos are big John Denver and Andy Griffith fans), and now we are peacefully on the sofa, enjoying the company and enjoying the quiet. Last year at this time, I was already home--I boarded a plane early Saturday morning, bound eventually for Martinsburg, Pennsylvania.
Stephanie and I had departed from school much later than planned, and since it was my first time driving to her house, I took us the wrong way around Birmingham en route to I-65. We eventually made it to her house, but I only saw it by night, and even that for just a few hours as we arrived around 10 and I left before five o'clock the next morning! I briefly met part of her extended family, and after staying up and socializing for a bit, we all hit the sack for some rest before Stephanie drove me to the Huntsville airport early the following day. It was a hard parting, because we were at that point where we were very close, but not quite sure of what the other one thought and felt. Also, it was the end of our first week of finals in college, it had been a harried drive on the way to her house, and the drive to the airport was just as bad with a heavy blanket of fog obscuring landmarks and making everything rather disorienting. All that, plus I was going to give her money to get out of the parking deck we had pulled the car into, but I forgot until I was in the security check line; she came running back, quite distraught, and it caught me off guard as I realized my mistake and quickly began processing how I was going to get the money to her without leaving the line and causing problems. The friendly individuals in line behind me were gracious enough to pass the dollar back to her, and we waved a sad goodbye as I continued through security and she went back to her car, her home, and her family for Clark Family Christmas.
This year, however, I am driving home, and so we drove two cars back. We still got stuck in some traffic, quite like last year, but it was not nearly so bad. I followed her until we got into the thick of things, and then we pulled off to check alternate routes. Providentially, though, the road began clearing almost as soon as we left it! You would have thought we were the ones causing the hold up... Anyway, dissatisfied with the alternative road, and seeing that traffic was letting up, we returned to the interstate, this time with me in the lead, and I led all the way to her road, where I deferred the first arrival to her, and she passed me up. But instead of catching a few hours of sleep and running off early in the morning, I was a part of Clark Family Christmas, adding my own surname and first two initials to the "Tr. Clark" confusion in the house.
It has been a wonderful and memorable visit and stay. In fact, four nights in a row is the longest consecutive period of time I have spent at this house--and all within just a year of my whirlwind first visit. Is it not interesting to see how much can change in what seems to be so short a time?

When I Grow Up...

Okay, remember that post I wrote yesterday? Well, today has had plenty more to add to my reasons for being thankful--and thankful is definitely something I can do at both Christmas and Thanksgiving! It is Clark Family Christmas right now, and though it is winding down--Stephanie and her cousin are fabricating an impressive house on The Sims 2; numerous other cousins are asleep downstairs and on the sofa, and other relatives are dispersed about the house--it was buzzing with festivity and life earlier.
Sundry gifts were distributed to everyone in the family, as well as to the two of us engaged to family members, Nicole (Stephanie's cousin Troy's fiancée) and me. I am not quite yet an actual member of this family, but already they have welcomed me with open, loving arms, as if I already am a part of this close family unit. They bestowed upon me generous and unexpected gifts--one even from a woman I have met but once in my life. The crown jewel of the evening was a gray and black Chrome Metropolis messenger bag from Stephanie and the Castos as a whole--with some input from my friend Lee from school. That is a sweet bag! I am still reeling from the generosity I was hit with, even now, several hours after the fact.
When I grow up, Lord willing, I will have graduated college, finished grad school, and be gainfully employed in a lucrative position. At that time--and even in the time leading up to that as I am blessed with the means--I want to be able to be just as generous with what I have been blessed with, for truly, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Jehovah-Jireh

God is truly my provider, and this past semester has provided numerous examples of that for me, in various manifestations. First of all, I did not find a job this semester--my class schedule and crew did not allow enough time for a job and everything else that comes with college--and the monies I arrived on campus with went quickly to books. Collegiate textbooks burn money faster than most fires, and I did not have much of it to burn at the start of things. Income that I had been expecting did not arrive due to extenuating circumstances, and so out of about $1250, I received nothing for the first month and a half of the semester.
Now, I did not have too many expenses, mainly a few necessities like soap, shampoo, food on regatta trips, but no income minus even a just a few expenses equals diminishing--slowly perhaps, but nonetheless diminishing--funds. At one point, I had $1.78 to my name down here. That was toward the end of November, and I had a cell phone bill coming up, gas expense to drive home, as well as an oil filter and five quarts of oil to change mine in the Volvo. But then I got a check from home for enough to cover that bill and get the oil and oil filter--with $4.90 left to finish out the semester! However, with the gas prices today, one does not make it too far on the interstate with four dollars and 90 cents of gas in the tank.
Again though, graciously God provided, and in a snowball course of events, I scrounged up $25.08 in rolled coins, loose change, and a few bills I had in my room and wallet, received $31.75 for selling one book, a check for $50 from home, and a second check for $75 for a second book. And now with that in hand, I should be able to make it home without charging all my gas on a credit card, which was my "last ditch" plan to get home.
God has provided for me yet again.

Free At Last!

I finished up my final final this afternoon around 12:45. I would have been done about 40 minutes earlier if it had not been for an exam riddled with mistakes that required finagling to figure out and make correct. The teacher's answer key had the last calculated control printed out as saying "Error." Something tells me that is not what it was supposed to say. While he was in the room, I had finished the entire test up to that point, and noticed that the function threw an error. Knowing he was a stickler for professional formatting and accuracy in our work, I raised my hand, and when acknowledged by him, inquired as to the problem. He said, "I don't know why it's an error." Well, pardon me for saying so, sir, but your test is saying an error is right, and you have nothing to say about it except, "I don't know"? And that was hardly the only error involved.
My other test, the one before it, beginning at eight o'clock in the morning, went much smoother. Although I took the entire two and a half hours to work over the test, I actually answered all the problems and multiple choice questions with quite a bit of time left. There were only six or so, out of 50, that I was unsure about, and although I was--and still am--certain I worked the cash flow correctly, it would not balance out, no matter what I tried. That is what I spent the most time on, actually: looking, searching, juggling, figuring, trying different things, but no matter what I did, I was consistently either 3000 or 5000 too high. Then came the journal entries, of which there were supposed to be 10, but there were only five. I think I worked them correctly, too, but I had a lively debate with some of the other guys in the class about which problem should have been worked what way.
Time shall tell. But for now, exams are behind me for at least a good month and a half--I hope I do not have a test earlier than the end of January!

Numbers Galore!

It has been a long day of preparing for my Accounting 310 final, which, of all the tests I have this week, is the one I am "looking forward to" the most--if I can even refer to it that amiably. Seriously though, I enjoy the material and the problem solving, but this one is going to be a handful because instead of half to a little more than half of the points coming from the problem solving, "hands-on" part of the exam, the majority of points will be encased in the 50 multiple choice questions preceding the problems. Yes, the questions will still be somewhat problem-based, but traditionally I am seriously hurt by their existence. For the past few hours (not straight through...there have been sundry distractions) I have been going over the most recent test administered in AC310--on which I did the worst--and since I do not know which 13 of the 35 multiple choice questions I answered incorrectly, I am working each one of them with the book and from new information I now know. As I get further along in the exam material, I can tell I was getting flustered and hurried--as were most of the other students in the classroom as the hour and 15 minute period hastened to a close at 12:15. There are a whole lot more careless mistakes and "What in the world was I thinking?" kind of answers in the last 10 to 15 questions than in the first 20 to 25. However, it is to bed with me now, and the morning shall bring a touch more review before I adjourn to my eight o'clock final.

"Winter" Weather And Its Quirks

We are one-third of the way into December now, and the temperature is a balmy 75 degrees out. Since when is that normal? This is more like a December on the equator than in the southern United States. I realize that it is not usually as cold here in Alabama as it is "back home" in Pennsylvania, but still, this is out of the ordinary. I have yet to wear pants to a normal day of class, save for a few times I have been required to be in business dress or business casual due to various circumstances. Other than that, it has been shorts all the way for me!
There was a cold spell a few weeks ago, and some of the mornings were pretty chilly--even dropping into the mid-30s. The coldest daytime high was probably mid-40s or so. Of course, that caused all the southern natives to race to their closets and pull out their coats, hats, gloves, and scarves to fend off the "bitter cold." The most amusing arrival is the sorority girls' style of leggings or running tights, worn with shorts or on their own. Picture a girl prancing across campus in a North Face jacket, a too-large swap t-shirt, short Nike athletic shorts, long black spandex tights, (or just one of the two previously mentioned garments), and to top (or bottom) it all off: fuzzy "Ug" boots. In short: odd.

Two Down, Two To Go

After a weekend of studying, studying, playing sudoku, studying, taking a Scrabble break, studying, studying some more, and then cranking out a few more sudokus, it is now 8:38 p.m. and I have completed two out of my four finals for the week.
Spanish went pretty well, and I moved through that one in just over an hour. I was confident on most of the material, although there were several instances where I was neither totally sure I was right, but not convinced I was wrong either. Hopefully that scattering of flux questions will not be too detrimental to the final 70 points of the exam. The last part, an "escritura" (writing assignment) requiring at least 10 sentences, was challenging in a different way, because the two main topics to be written about were shopping and birthdays; neither were covered in class, and they were barely addressed in corresponding "aulas virtuales" (virtual days that are assigned on Tuesdays and Thursdays in place of an actual class meeting). However, considering my minute grasp of the required vocabulary, I squeaked through with other things I knew and the requirements for verb conjugations.
I got back to the dorm around five o'clock, two hours before my Management final. Stevo was in the room, so I borrowed his book and went through one of the chapters, writing down all the points that the instructor had given as notable references in his notes. Stephanie had walked back to my room with me after her French test that corresponded with my Spanish exam, so I walked her back to her room and then strode up to Alston--after a quick stop in Lakeside Dining to scarf a slice of pizza and a brownie (excellent brain food, that!). The first several rows were already full when I arrived at Alston 30, so I maneuvered down the row I was directed into, and spent the last 14 minutes before the tests were handed out reviewing my notes. Once I started, the test only took me about 30 minutes, less the time needed to bubble in my name and CWID. After finishing, I dropped it off at the front and walked out of the room, done with MGT300 forever! I chatted with a few of the guys that I was also in AC371 with, and we compared impressions of the test. In regards to the first three tests I took for the class, I did the best on this one--but then, I was fairly sure I did well on the last one, and I came out with an 82, so it is hard to say one way or the other.
Now to prepare for AC310 and AC289. Fifty multiple choice problems, a statement of cash flows, and 10 adjusting/correcting journal entries for the former is going to be a large handful Thursday morning at eight o'clock, not to mention the mountainous amount of Microsoft Access information that I will need to process at 11 o'clock for the latter... But then, I shall be done with the Fall 2007 semester of my sophomore year. Hooray!

Más Escritura En Español

Mañana es el cumpleaños de mi hermano. Su llama Connrad y él tendrá 18 años. Soy en Oliver-Bernard con Stephanie, Steph, Keri, y Gabi. Ellas están estudiando para su examen de antropología. Tienen el examen mañana a las nueve de la mañana. Tengo un examen de español mañana a las tres y media de la tarde en cuarto 38 de Lloyd. Mañana a las siete de la noche, tengo un examen de gerencia. Este semana es va a ser agotador porque tengo cuatro exámenes y viajaré a la casa de mi fiancé y su familia.

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Tomorrow is my brother's birthday. His name is Connrad and he will be 18. I am in Oliver-Bernard with Stephanie, Steph, Keri, and Gabi. They are studying for their anthropology exam. They have the exam tomorrow morning at nine. I have a Spanish exam tomorrow at 3:30 in the afternoon in Lloyd 38. Tomorrow at seven in the evening, I have a Management exam. This week is going to be stressful because I have four exams and I will be traveling to the house of my fiancé and her family.

A Remote Post

The college students' hell week has begun. Tomorrow I have my Spanish final at 3:30, followed by my Management final a few hours later, purportedly running from seven o'clock to 9:30--who came up with that time slot? As a prior post indicated, I am largely using the weekend to study for that Spanish final, because out of the four tests I have this week, that one is the most pressing and most daunting at the moment, considering I have soundly flunked all attempts at the practice test. I have one page of small scrawl, strictly pertaining to verbs, with a few reminders of basic present-tense conjugation, and the conjugation for a few irregular verbs. It is beginning to be overwhelming, but I am glad it is the first test I will get out of the way.
Also, while clicking through the setting options, I found the email address I can use to post via email, so I am trying my hand at it to see how it turns out.

Why Are There Finals?

The presence of dead week and finals week at the end of 14 weeks of classes rapidly drains the majority of the semester of its enjoyment. Final exams should be just simply be "another test" during the semester. Perhaps it will be comprehensive while prior exams were not, but it should not be an object of intense preparation--at least in comparison to the rest of the semester's evaluations. A week set aside strictly for testing purposes, while logical in some ways, is detrimental in others. Yes, there is "more time" available to study for each exam, but one is so burnt out by the first week of December that the prospect of one more week on the campus with nothing to do except study is not attractive. The so-called "dead week" preceding finals week is a misnomer for a week that is at times even busier than the the one following! The purpose of dead week is for students to have a break from exams, tests, quizzes, and other graded materials in preparation for their finals. However, instructors may still offer a test during that week if he has the unanimous consent of the class--which students usually give without hesitation.
Finals week should be done away with, and final exams should be administered as a part of the courses' final class meeting, that way there is review and interaction with the subject matter right up to the test, and it is not a massive, comprehensive monster that requires days of studying and stressing for it alone, notwithstanding the four other courses a student is likely enrolled in at the same time. For some, not attending class and having time to strictly study one subject or another may be helpful, but for the majority, there is actually too much free time before the tests, causing either profuse procrastination or staggering stress.

Yo Estoy Estudiando Para Mi Examen De Español

Estoy estudiando para mi examen ahora. El examen estará difícil. Tomo mucho examen práctica para repaso.
Ayer por la noche, yo fui a Birmingham con mis amigos. Fuimos a la casa de Matt Loop para cena. Los padres de Matt están muy simpático. Nosotros cocinamos cena arriba un fuego. La comida mis amigos y yo cocinamos estuvo muy sabroso. Después de cena, todos fuimos fuera alrededor de el fuego. Allí, nosotros cantamos muchas canciones y Brian Ritchie tocó su guitarra.
¡La noche estuvo muy divertido!

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I am studying for my exam now. The exam is going to be difficult. I am taking many practice exams for review.
Yesterday evening, I went to Birmingham with my friends. We went to Matt Loop's house for dinner. Matt's parents are very nice. We cooked dinner over a fire. The food my friends and I ate was very tasty. After dinner, we all went outside around the fire. There, we sang many songs and Brian Ritchie played his guitar. The night was very fun!

To Begin...

As of late, my normal blog at Convertiblog.com is down, and so, missing blogging very much, I have ventured into the world of prefab blogging. I hope to make fairly regular visits here, because writing is a good way for me to express the sundry thoughts I have to mull over. Also, to help exercise my fledgling Spanish skill, I hope to post occasionally in Spanish, or possibly write in English and Spanish simultaneously.
And so for now, farewell!