I just got off work a few minutes ago; I had to sit in the back and make deli sandwiches while listening to country music. Yeah. It was hell. I work three hours 8-11 tomorrow morning, then three hours 9:30-12:30 Friday night. So, yes, I have two shifts tomorrow at polar ends of the day. I am sitting in my room preparing to go the gym with two of my friends, Monica and Lizzie. Tonight at 9:00, Rob, Amos and I are heading down to Jazzman's Cafe in Covington to enjoy some coffee and quiet jazz music while working on homework. I don't have any homework, so I'm probably just going to take my bible and read a little bit.

Monica is sad I'm going to Jazzman's. "We were going to go to Skyline with April," she said. April, remember, is the girl who looks like she's eight years old. I mean, she really looks like an eight-year-old. It is unbelievable. She stays in her room all day and never comes out. I don't know how Monica, Lizzie, and Emily expect me to date this girl if she never comes out. Of course, maybe I could go out to Skyline with them, but I am really looking forward to Jazzman's. I just need to... relax. I've been so crazily busy lately.

I am going home this weekend. It will be good to visit with the family, to hang out with friends. I may be teaching Sunday, I don't know. If so, I have a pretty interesting lesson on evidences for God and the history of God versus the pagan gods in the Old Testament.

Things are beginning to quiet down again. My job is going well, I'm getting everything figured out, it's pretty much the most wonderful job in the world. I love the atmosphere, the opportunity to meet cute freshmen girls, I love the crew I work with... It's pretty much fantastic. Classes are underway now, too. I actually have to go study for a test on the nature of the scriptures, but I'll head down to Student Life to undertake that task here in a few moments.

Caleb and I finally finished unpacking our things. The room actually looks nice now. Clean and tidy and organized. I like it.

I talked to the freshmen girl who (I think) likes me. She's a really quiet, shy kind of girl. I think I may have misread her, though. We sat on the bench by the dorms and talked for a little bit, and then she left. I've had several freshmen girls flirt with me lately, it's insane.

Oh, I am cutting my hair tonight. I have to cut it for work, but that's okay. Another inch won't hurt any.

I miss all my friends and family back home.

I've been once again struck down with sickness: a cold sprinkled with a sore throat.

I've been working like a madman. I will enjoy it when payday comes. Amos and I didn't get out until around 1:00 a.m. last night, and I had to work 8-11 this morning. Luckily Trista showed up to help me out. I'd been holding down the fort since 8:00. I close tomorrow night, then work mornings Wednesday and Friday. The weekend I have off, thankfully. I love the job, though, and I'm beginning to learn how to make the drinks, and I get to meet cute freshmen girls. Hah.

I do miss Sonja. I really liked her. Things will get better, though, this I know.

I haven't had the energy to write any intellectual posts. Hopefully the energy is on its way.

A freshman girl has the hots for me, but I'm not really interested. Sorry for her. Oh well, we all walk that road. My friends are trying to hook me up with a girl named April. Why? Because I look 12 and she looks 12, so they want us to get together because it'd be cute. Hah.

Life on campus has resumed...

Classes started yesterday. My classes include Old Testament Prophets, Hermeneutics ("The Art of Biblical Interpretation"), Basic Bible Doctrines, Advanced Communication, and Multi-Cultural Literature. I'm only truly looking forward to two classes: prophecy and B.B.D. The rest I have to take to graduate (though their importance I know very well). I have friends in all my classes, which is nice. In one class of thirty I'm good friends with 2/3 of the people. Everyone is in it. Score.

I've been working like a banshee. I worked six hours Tuesday, two hours Wednesday morning and two and a half hours Wednesday night (Amos needed help), then two hours so far today (Dustin needed help), and tonight I have adopted Cassie's 9:30-12:30 shift because she really needs some time off. Besides, I have nothing else to do and wish to get better at making the drinks. It's a really enjoyable job, and I get to work with coffee. I never thought I'd call myself a "barista," but here I am, in-fleshed.

It's so hard learning all the drinks, though, how to make them and such. I've got caramel macchiatos down, though.

Here's a hilarious re:make preview of Charlton Heston's "The Ten Commandments." This is called "The Ten Things I Hate About Commandments," and because of a foul word near the end (uttered by Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the voice of God), I don't want any of the kids I teach watching it. But you can watch it HERE.

So much has happened in the past couple days, all of it (in some way) good. We start classes tomorrow; I have my two least exciting classes (multi-cultural literature and advanced communication) following a bout of work in the morning. My funds have not come in yet to cover for this school year, so I can't buy any of my textbooks from the bookstore. I'll only have $300 to spend on books this year, but people are telling me that the prices are extreme; Rob's books cost him around $550. Obviously I'm going to have to be selective in the books that I buy.

I trained for my barista job from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It went well, especially since everyone is a friend of mine. All the people working with me have been mentioned in stories throughout the past year of my blog entries: Amos, Cooper, Nate, Caleb, Monica, Lizzie, Andrew, Trista, Kyle, Becca, Cassie, Cory, Rob. I work with Trista tomorrow morning. It's going to be quite the exciting job, I think. I've always wanted to work in a coffee shop surrounded by friends, and look where I am now!

On a sadder note, I broke up with Sonja last night, for two reasons. First, I felt God telling me, "This isn't where I want you to be right now." Honestly, I went into this relationship for several reasons, one of them being because I wanted a girlfriend and she was willing to be mine. Yes, I do have feelings for this girl, and yes, I do like this girl, but at times we must do that which is difficult when we know it is the right move to make. I made this decision for a second reason, too: she told me, rather bluntly, "I've lost my feelings for you." It hasn't hurt me all that much; to be honest, I've become rather cynical in regards to relationships (a stoic of sorts).

I'm sorry I haven't been on-the-ball with the posts. Once the craziness of the beginning of the semester fizzles out, I'm sure my posting will become quite regular again.

It's been great spending time with all the friends I left behind three months ago: Caleb, Rob, Forest, Alex, Monica, Trista, Heather, Lizzie, Kyle... We've been hanging out a lot, muling around the coffee shop and catching up on how our lives are going. Everyone is excited to hear that I have a girlfriend. I don't even mention her, but somehow they've all found out. I guess it is a small Christian campus, so people will find out if you've merely sneezed. I shouldn't be surprised.

I had the flu for about a day and a half, but I'm thankful that I've gotten over it. On Saturday I went down to South Fork to visit Brian and Sonja at a pool party for the youth group. We all swam and played volleyball and made fun of one another. It was amazing. On Sunday the church had their annual picnic at Big Bone Lick, which was rather exciting. Sonja was really tired, though, so we didn't get to spend much time together. She started school today; she's a junior. I'm looking forward to calling her tonight and seeing how it went.

On a more aggravating note, something went wrong with my school funds and I'm negative three thousand dollars on my school account. Basically this means that I shouldn't be here. I can't eat off my meal plan, I can't buy my books, I can't even go to class legally. We're trying to straighten this out, but in the meantime I'm very hungry, and I'm getting tired of eating fast food. I'm tempted to go someplace nice for lunch, but I really should try not to.

Don't be expecting my posts on repentance or eternal security anytime soon, probably not until next week. When I woke up this morning, I had muscle cramps all over my body, from my head to my toes, and nausea consumed me. I didn't sleep at all last night, except for an hour or two before the aching set in. This morning I arose at 6:30 to go buy some excedrin and nyquil. Returning to campus, I walked around a little bit before popping both. I promptly fell asleep until 2:00 p.m.

I lounged around the room for a while, ran and got Subway with Monica. As I watched the Russel Crowe movie Master and Commander, I sipped a three-dollar jug of sprite. It helped ease my stomach. I laid back down for a few hours and began to shiver uncontrollably (my roommate turned the air conditioning to 40 degrees F). I took a hot shower but the shivering continued. I crawled into the bed under five blankets, and it felt amazing. I turned up the heat to 80 degrees, and now it feels spectacular.

I am heading down to the coffee shop to try and get some sprite and perhaps a banana to ease my upset stomach. I've been crazing ice cream, but I don't know how that would flow with my stomach ache.