What Do You See?

I did not know whether I was ready to write about this or not. I figured I would wait until the whole thing had been worked out before telling very many people about it. However, upon further thought I realized that this could be a great opportunity to publicly display the works of God in my life. I mean, that's one of the reasons I have this blog anyway.

Last week for my AP English class I had an assignment due. Wednesday I was to turn in a ten-page research paper. I wasn't too thrilled with the assignment from the beginning. I was dreading it long before we were even given the specific assignment. I have never in my entire life written ten pages for one paper. The research papers I have written in the past were terribly under par because I never really knew how to research; where do I begin, where do I look, what am I looking for? Suffice it to say that I was thinking this whole thing would be a bust.
I started looking. My topic: Birth order psychology. I had read a couple books on the subject prior to the assignment. I did some online research and found a few interesting articles on the subject. Finally I began to put my knowledge on the paper (well, on the computer at least). I started, and it kept coming. I wrote it out in chunks. One chunk this day, a bigger chunk the next, a smaller chunk the next day. Slowly it began to come together.
Monday night, two days before the due date, I had all ten pages written out. All I had to do then was to go over it and revise it to perfection. I still had to put my works cited page together, but that didn't take long at all.
Tuesday I took the floppy disc with the paper on it to school. I got my teacher to help me make sure the works cited page was written out correctly. Everything was looking great. I was going to get home from school and go strait to work on editing the paper.
I got home, put the disc in the computer, started to open up the file to the disc. Nothing happened. I checked the properties of the disc. It said that it couldn't read the disc at all. This was my only copy of the entire paper. I had the first four pages saved to my hard drive. Other than that I had nothing. The floppy wouldn't work. Nothing could be done. It was due the next day. There was no time to re-write the entire paper.
Long story short (too late for that) I turned my disc into the school tech-guy. He's been working on it over the weekend. There is a chance that he can restore the disc, but at this point nothing is certain.

So, what is my point in all this? Sure, it's a great way to document this most obnoxious occasion. I'll never be able to forget it now. But that isn't my reason for writing this here. I know that there are some who read my blog who already know that God is working in everyone's life, and to those this post has a different message. But it is not to those that I write this particular post. It is to the people that do not yet realize the magnitude of God's work in the lives of his believers.
You might say, "Oh, Yeah, what a great God. He wipes your home work out and you expect me to think this guy is on your side?" To that I would answer yes. The point is not that the home work was lost. There are actually two points.
The first is something that has already happened and that I already told you about. I have never written a paper the likes of this one before. I have no experience. I didn't even know what I was doing. It was God that gave me the paper I had. Just after finishing it I was ecstatic because God had provided for me yet again. Without His help there would have been no paper to loose. The last month has been really hectic for me. Unless God's hand had been orchestrating every little piece of my life I wouldn't have even had the time to write the paper. God provided. He is on my side...because I am on his side.
The second part is something that has yet to unfold. It is true that my paper has disappeared. And for a while after learning of its vanishing I was in shock and generally not happy. For a moment I was going to start asking God why He would do that to me? But for the last year I have seen God's faithfulness through the most seemingly chaotic times. God has never failed to provide for me precisely what I needed. So, before I began to question Him I decided to trust him. With his promise to provide for my needs and the kind words of a friend (you know who you are, thank you) God was able to put my mind at peace. I do not hold it against Him. In fact I now feel more blessed than when I had finished the paper.
Now I only look forward to seeing what God is going to do in this. The story is not yet complete. That is why I write this now. I believe that God is going to do something great with this, and I wanted to write about it before his work was complete so that you all could see with me the great work of God.

Swish List

Every year at around Christmas time and my birthday I have the same problem. I will have this list of things that pop into my head for a moment and I'll think, "Yeah! I need one of those." But when the parentals come around asking what I would like for my birthday my mind goes blank. It looks kind of like this:

.............................................................uh...
.................................................hmmm.............
..................................................................
..seems..like..there..was..supposed..to..be..something..here......
..................................................................
.................................still..thinking..................
..................................................................
........................darn!..where..did.it..go?.................
..................................................................
..................................................................
Can I get back to you on that?

Anyway, this year I had a brilliant idea. I'll post my wish list. As I think of more things to put on it I'll just edit this post. Keep a close watch on this post. It could get pretty big. (Yeah right):

#1: Gloves...warm gloves...NOT one-size-fits-all-so-it-will-cut-off-the-circulation-of-anyone-with-big-hands gloves...warm gloves.
#2: Guitar strings (preferably new ones)
#3: New music (preferably in CD form and of Christian band(s))
#4: Knitting materials (my world dominations scheme is running low on funds)
#5: New long black socks. (the dryer ate most of my others)
#6: Warm slippers. (Preferably with hard soles that they won't absorb every puddle in my house while I'm walking around.) (I have a size 10.5 foot)
#7: Neck ties. (nothing dominantly connected to red. (eg. red, purple, orange.) these are not acceptable colors. Well, I guess as a gift I would have to accept it...oh well.)
#8: Hoodie. Meduim or large (err on the side of large). (preferably some kind of green.)

A Lovely Night

Have you ever had one of those days when you just wanted it all to be over; All the responsibilities, all the work, all the never ending...stuff? That's what kind of a week I have just been through. That's what kind of a month I have just endured. But this week has been the worst of it all. With play practice at 7 every night and the performances from Wednesday to Saturday (I'm not done with this week yet) I have been way beyond my limits of duration. I should be lying on the floor right now twitching from the lack of sleep and all the work. On top of all the play stuff I have had to keep up with my academic studies, as well as my social life. I've been placing college applications at 12 o'clock at night, writing papers on stuff that I don't know much about, and trying to stay connected with my friends.
All this to say, I'm tired.
I'm so tired I'm not even going to put an exclamation mark after that statement to accent it. I'm too tired to place accents.
We did a matinee for the grade-schoolers on Wednesday. It was a half day for all the schools in the state, so we didn't have any classes that day. After that point the school week should have ended...but it didn't. My brain was in stand-by mode waiting for the weekend and I kept on having to re-boot it for my classes. I would be in math class (I'm usually a genius at math) and my brain would just stop registering any input. "Quadratic whats!?"
I have one more time to present this play. Cinderella--it has been a lot of fun putting it together, and even performing it. But I am very ready for it to be over. I need to get back to the rest of my life.
I'll probably never forget this play. While we were still pulling it together there were struggles and difficulties, and there were many--oh, so many--moments (more like entire minutes) of laughter. I learned to waltz.
I don't know what to say. I can tell you this. In all this time of weakness, despair, and fear, God has been with me all the way. Many were the times that a situation would arise from which there seemed to be no hope of success, and many were the times that I said to myself "God will work it out; God loves me." Just ask my friends, they have heard it multiple times in the last month. "I'm worried about this, but it's ok, God loves me." I have seen him do so much for me and all I can do is praise him. And I will continue to seek a life that is in him so that my joy may be made complete.

G'Day Gov

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to ride giant bunny rabbits? Or better yet, what would it be like if we all wore our shoe laces so that they tie on the other end of the shoe?
No, I'm not on any drugs, and I'm not drunk. It's just that some times these random ideas and images pop into my head. Like this last Sunday.
I was at my church sitting in the worship service when I started thinking about English accents. Maybe I should try talking with one. But if I do that now all the people that know me will just think I'm being stupid and they'll tell me to quit. Where would I be that people wouldn't already know that I don't talk with an English accent. Hmm.... COLLEGE! That's it! I could have an English accent for my first year of college. No one that I know will be there. People will just think that that's the way I talk. It would certainly be something else. But then how could I do it? I might be able to pull off a first introduction, but after that I'd probably slip up sometime. I would have to start practicing using an English accent all the time before college started. I could start this summer. But then I'll be around all the people I know this summer and they'll tell me to "stop talking with that ridiculous accent." They wouldn't say that to a real Englishman. Hmmm....This could be difficult. Then, assuming I do manage to pull it off, what will I do my second year of college? Should I continue with my new found voice? Or should I freak out all the people that I've met at college with my Oregonian drawl? Hmmm....Perplexing.
You can understand how difficult it must be to be me. It's something I have to deal with every day. (Sigh)
But seriously now, I do think of the weirdest things at the most random times. My friends always look at me with these faces that say "I'm not sure I heard you quite right. Did you say what I think you just said? How in the world did you come to this thought? I can't even come to it after you said it. You're weird." I picture is worth a thousand words. A live face is worth a million. But I can't read that fast, so this is all I can tell you from their faces.

!!!ERROR!!!

It has been over a week since I last posted. I don't know how to explain this phenomenon. There have been many contributors to my slackeritus. This ailment is caused by the virus known as Bloggerus-slackerus. But then there was a hint of Busyus-scheduleus. I've been going to play practice after school every day for the last week, and I will have these practices after school for the next two weeks. When I do get home from school I usually have either an evening engagement to attend or a lot of home work. This last week I'd been spending as much time as I could preparing for the SAT test. I won't have to worry about that any more, having taken it yesterday. Don't ask how I did. I really don't know. It will be a few weeks before I know anything about it. Tuesday I have a paper due on Frankenstein. I'm just not looking forward to this week. And on top of all this I'm getting excessively behind on my laundry duties. I'm pretty sure that at any moment my family could come charging into my room with torches and pitch-forks ready to run me out.

On a positive note. I'm doing much better. Not at anything in particular, I'm just better in general and in all areas. I've taken up another knitting project. Hehe, I already put into action my plan to take over the world. The plan was initialized a few months ago, but a few weeks ago I put the knitting into action. This, I believe will give me the tactical edge that will be needed to succeed in my conquest. I am still not ready at this time to divulge the specifics of my plan--if other knew they could act it out quicker than I am ready to, there by steeling my victory from me. I do ,however, promise that when all the world is in my possession I will relate the secret that I now hold--the secret that will give me the world. I don't know how long this conquest will take. What I do know is that it will take a while--two, perhaps five years. But when I have succeeded you won't want to miss what I have to say about the secret to world domination. It's a good one. So stick around. My plans are already showing effects towards my ultimate goal.

On a slightly more sane note, it is my privilege to announce to you that the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of all once-in-a-lifetime opportunities has finally come to the location of (SYNTAX ERROR!). It will only be there until (SYNTAX ERROR!). So don't miss it.