Limbo

I'm in limbo. 

No, not the embarrassing kind with that stupid stick that my inflexibility will never allow me to win. Limbo is that place between places and it's really not a bad place to be. It's been 20 days since we were told to leave school and there are 14 days left until Discipleship Focus begins. What's this mean for Laura? A plethora of coffee dates, sleepovers, princess books, and being broke.

Oh, and a lot of time with my mom. The one in the middle--that's her. Usually she's not quite so gangster, but I thought it would show you a more interesting side of her personality.

My mom is the person you want to have around when you're making a joke, because she will laugh at anything. ANYTHING. She's usually pretty sweet and mild and gets excited easily. There are a lot of times when she is unintentionally funny. For example:

"Do you like tomatoes? Dad can't eat tomatoes....I miss tomatoes."

"That cat is weird--like it's been smoking crack or something."

(hold on--my mom knows what crack is??)

I've also had a lot of quality time with my sister (who is tall). 

Notice the word "quality" here. Our time together usually consists of her talking a lot and me pretending to listen. This time, we've had meaningful interaction. YES! Mom is determined to keep her away from boys in high school at any cost, and I am determined to help her make wise decisions concerning boys by telling her about my own past mistakes. 

And I'm having a lot of time with Morgan, especially since she is parent-less for ten days and needs a supervisor....even though I'm younger than she is....

And we do stuff like this:

These are the books I've read since being home:

And these are some of the movies I've watched:

  

I'm such a grownup. 

Of course, I've done more than sit around. I've visited friends, gone hiking, had dinner with Thai students, cleaned and organized (well, kind of), done my sister's hair for a banquet, gone shopping for summer clothes, finished two scrapbooks...and some other stuff. Most importantly, I've enjoyed spending time with the people I love, getting a summer break with them before my summer really begins. 

Without this dumb thing:

Princess Ruby

In the last week, I have acquired three sunburns. THREE. I even have sunscreen fingerprints from where I tried to unsuccessfully protect myself from sunburn. A few days ago, an old man accosted me as I sat out in the sunshine at Starbucks and told me to get in the shade before I developed melanoma. I really don't think I have that, but all this red skin has made me think back to my childhood, when I would go to the waterpark for a day, turn into an absolute lobster, and play "Princess Ruby" for the rest of the week.

Anyway, what everyone wants to know now is, "How did the rest of crazy week turn out?"

I'll tell you. It became excellent. 

Sunburn-Monday (hooray for reading outside) became shishkabob night with my old RA and her best friend.

On Tuesday, Alyssa and I went to see the new Jane Eyre, which was quite a sad, dark shocker for the girl who's never read the book (even though her English major friends won't let her live it down). That was when we got the call that power had returned to the house on the mountain and made plans to head for Chatty the next day.

And that night we played Wii. This was my Wii Me--or WiiMii--or WeeMee--whatever. I actually changed it's gender-confused name to "Vanester".

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur of babysitting and good-byes. Little Ariel (you remember her, right? Ok, so her name isn't really Ariel, but I kind of wish it was.) graciously had me over for dinner on Thursday night and it was delicious (actually, I would say her mom Amy did most of the cooking and deserves the credit). It was also a time of shoving everything I left in my dorm room during evacuation into my car. Beaulah was not pleased.

On Friday, Alyssa's family hosted a pre-graduation dinner at the Terminal. You know what that meant? FREE SALMON CAKES, STEAK, AND CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR LAURA.

The real occasion, of course, was graduation on Saturday. My high school graduation was fun--they had to call less than 50 names to come up and get their diplomas. It doesn't work that way with college graduations. At college graduations, over 300 people have to come up and get diplomas. That's a lot of people.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Most people go out to eat or see a movie on Mother's Day. The Love Family spent the day opening and cleaning our pool (hello, sunburn #3). Audrey and I (as the good daughters we are) also made mom some special brownies (not those special brownies, you weirdo), cut her some roses, and made her a book.

(That piece of chocolate in the middle has "Happy Mother's Day" inscribed on it via kitchen knife)

So Mother's Day was a success. 

Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the month as my funds rapidly decrease. At the moment, I'm crossing my fingers that some desperate Sevierville mother is frantically searching for my number as I type, or that my own mother will give me some money for cleaning windows and vacuuming around the house (aka that thing called "allowance" that I thought I would never need again). 

In the meantime, maybe my crocodile-leather, ruby-red skin will smooth out into a beautiful, mellow brown. 

Here's to hoping. 

The week of storms, filth, and the best dogs in the world.

Here I sit on a leather sofa, watching a show about cake while the best dog in the world pokes my arm with her wet, black snout, begging for my attention. Ah, someone else's home sweet home. It almost feels like the last week didn't happen--the week of that awful, ridiculous storm that threw a wrench in the plans of thousands of people across the South.

It began well. I came back from Easter Break ready for two more weeks of school. My roommate and I had another wonderful Twin Twosday.  **inserting cute photo here**

On Tuesday night, I looked at the weather app on my phone and thought to myself, "Oh, some thunderstorms...that means I'll have curly hair tomorrow. No big deal." The next morning, I woke up to a stomach ache and the sound of my RA banging on the door and yelling something about a tornado warning and get down to the basement right now and panic panic panic. Best start to a day I've ever had.

We went down the the basement six times that day--spent most of the day down there, in fact. My legs got buff from climbing up and down 5 1/2 flights of stairs half a dozen times. But the ladies of The Fritz were prepared with pillows, blankets, homework, entertainment, snacks, and teddy bears.

Comfy, no?
Then we lost our regular power as well as generator power--but the latter only on our floor because my RA blew a fuse. The Fritz was dark for the next three days and looked much like the set of a horror film. And then they (the powers that be) told us that we were running low on water so don't take showers please, even though all of you smell like dogs. 


The next day, my roommate and I went down the mountain to survey the damage down below and stock up on supplies at Walmart. Ends up we didn't need to do that. At 2:30 that afternoon, as I was studying for my exams, all of campus received an email saying that we only had enough water left for a day and everyone needed to get off campus ("evacuate" was the calming word used in the email)--for the year--by 3:00 the next afternoon. Skip cleaning day, exams, end of the year goodbyes, just throw everything in a bag and GET OUT.

AAAH. 

Campus went into mass chaos. Nobody was quite sure what to do. We were all calling our parents, figuring out how to get home, knocking down the doors of storage to put away items that were too big to get into the car, and running 50 pound items that would fit in the car down four flights of stairs before daylight went out.

By that evening, campus had officially run out of water--yes, less than a day after the email was sent. Port-a-potties were put up in parking lots and bottled water was distributed. Everyone was greasy and smelly.

After sunset that evening, trying to do anything productive was useless. So The Fritz spent our night well by chasing each other down with flashlights, having a glowstick dance party on the veranda, and sitting around telling stories. My roommate and I stayed up way too late trying to savor our last night of living in the same room after three years together. We were upset about being jipped a week.

The next day was a blur. Somehow the room got clean and rearranged and all of my belongings made their way into bags. Then I was in the car with Alyssa, heading to her house in Atlanta. We had decided to go there for the weekend and then go back to her house on the mountain to wait for graduation on Saturday. Despite the crazy day, we were renewed by showers (FINALLY CLEAN!!) so that we could then watch the royal wedding {Alyssa INSISTED I go back and insert that} before going out for froyo and bowling. Yay.

Saturday afternoon was spent at Ikea, and today was spent finishing every last piece of homework. I was thanking my lucky stars exams were cancelled. I was also QUITE enjoying the company of my two new favorite dogs, Baron and Daisy.

Today we also heard that the power at Alyssa's house on the mountain will be out for another week and that the water is undrinkable, so we will be spending the rest of the week in this big house with comfy chairs. needy dogs, and delicious food. Of course, this means not getting to spend time with people who are still in Chatty, which makes me sad.

I still feel like ends are untied. All my work is done, which officially makes me a senior in college (HOL-Y SMOKES). Some of my belongings are still on campus and I will be going to get them this weekend. And then I will be home for the summer.

I thank the Lord that our campus was spared, though I ache for those who were hit. And even though He threw us all for a loop right at the end of the semester, I know He has the best in mind. He always does.

The H Word

There are a lot of bad words that begin with "H". A few of these include horrendous, hell, hate, humiliation, harlot, hunger, hag, hangnail, horrible, henchmen, hiccups, and hickory switches. But there's one other word that tops them all, and I bet everyone reading this knows what it is.

Homework. 

That insidious, ironic, evil thing that I plan to burden young children with for the rest of my life. I am tired of it. So here we are, near the end of the semester, taking a two-second breather before diving in again.

And, because it's been ten thousand years since I last updated, we're simply going to do some snapshots of my life.

1. Andreas Building Leaders Retreat. Fun fun fun out in the woods until BAM--it's three am, my heartburn is going crazy, I am in a leaky tent, and it's raining cats and dogs. By 5 am, the rest of the girls in the tent were up and whining about the wet all over us, so we rolled up our gear and hiked a half-mile back to the cars through the trees and thunder. There we waited until the gates to the campground were open and we high-tailed it out of there. Anyway, here is a picture of us while we were still happy.

2. Fritz Retreat. A weekend full of golf carts, bathing suits, roller blades, ice cream, and silly girls.

3. Andreas VS. This involved each hall of Andreas playing games on a tarp covered in water and baby oil. The Fritz didn't win the Golden Lampstand trophy, but we had the most team spirit by far. See the wet all down my shirt? That's a mixture of water, baby oil, orange fanta, and sweat. Mmmm.

4. Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's--which was also the same day as Twin Tuesday, which was the second day of Matcher's Week in room 424 of The Fritz (in other words, my roommate and I wore matching shirts for several days in a row. On purpose.)

5. Amy, you'll have to forgive me, but this is such a classic picture I couldn't resist--it makes me laugh every time. I've really enjoyed my time with this young lady who looks like Ariel from The Little Mermaid (when she's not smiling hysterically with a cat in the background).

6. Random sculptures have been popping up around campus. This one in the mailroom is my favorite.

7. I found out that Vinny and I share a soul connection. When I'm upset, he's upset, and when I'm happy, he's happy. Yes, folks, stress actually does make you sick, and getting away from it can make you better. I've discovered that sleep (that rare and glorious gift), exercise, eating less, and chill music are good for me, and when I use them my acid reflux goes away. It's fantastic. And no, I do not have a picture for this.

There are only 2 1/2 weeks left in the semester. 

I'm chest-deep in the H-word. 

I'm trying to savor the last few weeks I have with my roommate, my bed tent, my giant handicap shower, and room 424. 

And Easter is almost here. 

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. 

Time goes by so fast it's almost heinous.

The Fantastic Weekend of March 2011

This is what I imagine Vinny looks like, but a bit meaner. He and I are on bad terms. As of last week, I tried to make him offerings of a new medicine that was fan-tastic at first, but five days into it Vinny got bored and gave me arrhythmia. Thanks, Vin. I switched back to less effective medicine and he started going to town on me again every few hours. Now it is a matter of finding whatever triggers him.

Stress?
Acid?
Gluten?
Anything nice?

I started a gluten diet a few days ago to see if it would help and it will be a few more weeks before I know if it works. Do you know what has gluten in it? ALL THINGS THAT ARE GOOD TO EAT. For a cereal-addict, that is a problem.

You know what, though? Even though I've hated it, this week has made me closer in my walk with God. On the night when my heartburn wouldn't stop and everyone else was eating chocolate chip cookies, I had to stop myself from writhing in self-pity and say, "I don't know what's going on with my body, God, but for some reason you've restricted me from getting what I want." (ha, listen to that. When does he ever do things like that? HA!) "I have to trust that you know what you're doing." ...So even though this stresses me out to the point of tears (when can I eat? what can I eat? did I take my medicine? what is triggering it this time? when will I have time to exercise and de-stress?), I have to see that an enforced fast may be a good thing. However, watching everyone else eat chocolate cupcakes today was rough...

Apart from that, this weekend was awesome and will forever be know as "The Fantastic Weekend of March 2011".

NIGHT ONE: My sister's 15th birthday party.

Me, five high school girls, and a minivan with blaring music. A skating rink with men who leered at any girl over the age of 20 without kids (namely, me). "Decaf" Starbucks drinks for them. UTTER EXHAUSTION by ten o' clock for me.

And they loved it.

NIGHT TWO: Fritz Formal

We classy ladies of The Fritz decided to ditch Spring Formal and go out on our own. Fancy dresses, Olive Garden (where virtually everything has flour in it...POO), the mall, Tangled at the cheap theater, and Disney music all the way home. 

Tremendously good time. 

NIGHT (well, afternoon) THREE: Bridal shower. 

Shelly lived on the hall last year and now she's getting married (like half of Covenant campus). So we showered her. Some fun girly games, a tad bit of awkward conversation, and some good finger foods. 

She'll definitely be using this wine bottle holder from The Fritz....especially since she won't be on contract anymore. 

ALSO. I found a house for next year! I'll be living with a couple girls (one of whom I was in Uganda with...YAY) one minute down the road from campus in a quaint yellow house with a dog. This should be lovely. 

And now to begin another week of "God knows what he's doing, Laura. Promise."

There's a reason Vinny is a bad-guy name.

Some people spend Spring Break at the beach getting a tan and forgetting about the world. Last time I did that, I got a sunburn so bad that I had to take steroids. This Spring Break, I got two cavities filled and went to the doctor. I don't think Spring Break likes me.

First: my teeth.

 On Monday, I go in for a cleaning, thinking no problem, I floss and brush plenty. My teeth will pass with flying colors. By the end, the dental-lady (who is really nice, but whose name I can never recall) was stabbing a hook into my tooth, going, "Looks like you've got a little cavity--oh, two little cavities!"

WAH...?. 

Ok, no big deal Laura. Last time you had a tooth filled, the big mouth shot only hurt a little bit and you were ok. 

No. I went in this morning expecting the tiny mouth  shot and got two big ones in a row, with the dentist flapping my cheek back and forth to make sure it all got in there. OW. OWOWOWOW. STOP LACERATING MY RAGGED CHEEK. 

Thankfully, this meant that I felt nothing as they took care of the "little" cavities. For the next few hours after, the entire left side of my jaw felt like dead weight and I kept accidentally biting my tongue when I talked. From now on, I'm brushing for three minutes every time. Promise. 

Second: St. George

St. George is the G.I. doctor whose name is actually Dr. Brown, but I prefer to call him St. George because I expect him to kill the dragon in my belly. For all intensive purposes, I'm naming the dragon "Vinny". 

Anyway, yesterday my mother and I dragged Vinny down to meet St. George. I was scared he would actually try to meet Vinny face-to-face, but no one stuck me with anything or looked inside me and I was beyond thrilled. No, St. George was a very nice man and we talked for a while. He even used the phrase "the beast within", so I knew he was perfect. 

He said that Vinny was probably of the Acid Reflux species. He wasn't sure where Vinny came from, but maybe when I had the first stomach bug the valve between my stomach and esophagus--the one that's supposed to hold Vinny hostage--got loose and hasn't healed up. 

He gave me some new pills and I am scolding Vinny to take and use them. I also have a new battle plan to eat less, not eat after eight, sleep propped up, and take lots of Tums. If the war plan leads to victory in a couple of months, I'll be all clear. If not, then I have to have an acid probe. That means they would put me under, stick a tube with a camera on it down my throat to check Vinny out, and then leave a metal capsule in there for a couple days to track the fire he's breathing up my esophagus. Depending on how bad that is, there could be surgery (BUT I HOPE NONE OF THAT HAPPENS).

Today I tried the new medicine and had significantly less heartburn. Let's hope it stays that way.

The rest of Spring Break has been significantly less painful. I've spent some solid time with mom--shopping in Knoxville, going to the Bush's Beans family restaurant and museum (I'm slowly morphing into a gin-you-wine Tennessean. I've even fallen back into the accent. YES.), and making cupcakes. Last night Daniel made me go to Walmart with him to help pick out clothes for his new job--and then he talked my ear off about all his feelings. It was great. 

This family stuff--I'm afraid of losing it. I feel like I'm in the twilight of my childhood. Soon enough there'll be another sunrise and I will be a big girl, far away. Will I feel as close to them then? Should I stay here to keep as close as I can? Daniel's going to college soon and Audrey's going to get her learner's permit this month--when did that happen?? When did my mom get so weak? When did dad get so tired? When did we leave behind the days when we were together all the time, building forts and making mudslides out of the swingset? 

Deep breath, Laura. Life goes by fast for a reason. 

Also, my mother keeps talking about marriage and I think she's got it in her head that I'm going to meet my husband this summer. Oh boy.

Defying the filter

Dear Covenant College,
I AM AT HOME WRITING ON MY BLOG AND YOUR FILTER CANNOT STOP ME. I HOPE ALL CAPS MAKES THIS LOUD ENOUGH FOR YOU TO HEAR IT. HA.

Yes, folks, because a few rotten people created a Covenant-bashing blog using blogger, the Covenant internet filter has made logging into all blogger accounts impossible on campus. More than a few of us are upset. I understand the need to shut down the bashing blog--but not all of blogger. That was an overstep. Thankfully, I feel that this won't last long.

And it's Spring Break. YAY.

After the perfect weekend at my house, my life has felt miles long. Here are a few mile markers:

I'm really excited about what God's going to do with me this summer--as long as all goes as planned, that is. There' still time for Him to shake things up. So far I've been accepted into a discipleship program for college students that is only ten minutes from my house. I'd be living and working with 50-something college students at a campground for ten weeks while doing an intensive discipleship program. It's closer to home, which I was hoping for after a summer in Africa. It also sounds like a really good opportunity, and I'm all about jumping on those in this stage of life.

House hunting has begun. I have a group of people and a dog to live with next year, but no place of residence. I'm not too worried, we should be able to find something. But what does this imply? I won't have my roommate next year. I can't begin to tell you how upset this makes me

  (but it is a lot).

Why? Because sometimes she comes up with really good ideas, like having a late night star-gazing party with a Krispy Kreme donut run afterwards. And she makes me work on puzzles far into the night when I have already given up on homework because I was too tired to do it. And she drags me outdoors to play when I have a lot to do. 

That, and I'm pretty attached to her.

Also this week: I drove straight into tornado weather without realizing how bad it was, and at ten miles per hour I still thought I was going to die. Don't worry, I'm still here.

Part of my regular afternoon babysitting job teaching my two girls how to be awesome. This week I Chuck-Norrised a black widow and a dead mouse. Then one of them roundhouse-kicked the microwave shut. I was so proud.

Twenty minutes on a bicycle seat = two days of pain.

Tuesday was free pancake day. Unfortunately it was also the day that one of my eustachian tubes decided to burn with the fire of a thousand suns. Thank the Lord for a medical father who can call in fix-it-up medication at any time. When my future children get an ear infection and scream like banshees, I will absolutely sympathize. 

I have some bits of fiberglass stuck in my fingers.

 I just had four exams in three days. 

A cream soda bottle broke in the sink before I left today. That was fan-tastic.

Now I am home. My almost-fifteen-year-old sister has grown an inch in the last two months, putting her at almost six feet. We made sweet potato fries with mom (surprisingly easy, though slicing raw yams requires the muscles of a lumberjack). 

My mom used to be a cheerleader, so whenever someone is playing the piano she likes to dance around the living room. 

And as usual, my brother still thinks he knows everything.

In four days, I will visit the GI doctor to check out what's going on with "the belly beast" (as I affectionately call it) that is still hanging around, breathing fire from time to time. I've decided to call the doctor "St. George" after the man who kills a dragon in that famous fairytale St. George and the Dragon. Except that this story will be called St. George and the Belly Beast. 

May our saint be victorious.