R.I.P., 28-squared.
I don't know how well you can see the picture, but this was 28-squared. In the brick pit on campus, there was a set of bricks in the southwest corner (exactly twenty-eight squares from the south and 28 squares from the west) which were just a bit loose. You couldn't pick them up, but they wobbled, and you could stand on them and just wobble back and forth. I liked this very much and it was my happy place on campus. Whenever I felt unhappy or unlucky, I would go and either step on them in passing or even just stand on them and wobble to and fro. I know this is weird, but it's what I do. I took this picture last year before I went to England so that I would have my happy spot to look at while I was away. Anyways, I particularly needed some cheering up the other day, so I decided to go to 28-squared. What I saw was very sad. Apparently, the college finally decided to fix 28-squared. They reset it in new cement. It stood out with obvious new cement and it didn't wiggle. It didn't budge. It just was there, sad and unmoving in the rain. It's so ridiculous, but I realized something: I really like to appreciate the little things and it's little things which make me happy. But this also means that it doesn't take much to make me sad. So Rest in Peace, 28-squared. I will miss you.

What a wonderful day!

First of all, all should note that yesterday, for the first time ever, I beat my friend Sarah at a chess game!!!! Granted, it was her birthday, but I had warned her earlier that I wasn't going to just let her win. So it was fair. I was very happy about that.

Secondly, today's just a wonderful day. Got up, had a good Quiet Time, and am feeling optimistic.
Hooray!

As the frost of Winter begins to melt at the warm breath of Spring, I feel that the frost on my heart has begun to melt as well. I don't remember when that frost came, but it's been slowly creeping around my soul for some time now. The Prince of Winter tried once to ambush me suddenly with the frost, hoping to sometime turn it to stone, but he realized that my heart couldn't be conquered by such an outright show of force. So he came at me sideways. Little doubts, little whispers.
Now I hear the Lord of Growth and Spring call me back again. But how to react? I've been slowly taking my heart from Him. He whispers answers to my questions, yet I ignore and run away from them, afraid of what they entail. Then I realize how much of my life has been dominated just by that: Fear. It is my impediment which ensnares my feet from moving, ensnares my heart from caring.
Heard an excellent sermon last Sunday. The pastor spoke about the difference between commitment and conversion. Commitment is just words, but conversion is true transformation. I look at my life recently and I see fear. I don't follow my Lord with the love of a daughter to a father -- I don't do things for Him because I want to please Him. I follow Him through fear. I do things because I fear His wrath and anger.
Alot needs to be revamped. This house needs to be torn down and a new foundation built. I have seen my idols and have tried to get rid of them on my own. However, as my sister Sarah told me, I see that I need to stop treating the symptoms and start treating the disease. I need to pursue the Cure. Will this surgery be enough? Will it remove enough of my disease to get to the heart of the matter? This story needs to stop being dedicated to the Master and instead needs to be written by Him.

Wow! What a week! I had a Roman Civ. paper due on Tuesday, a midterm in the same class on Thursday, (originally) three articles to write (ended up I only needed to write one, the others got cancelled), hosted a prospie last night, and was just running around all week. And now it's done! Well... not entirely. This next week I have an RA Inservice on Sunday, an Old English Test for my Ind. Study on Wednesday, an Annotated Bib. due in Human Impact on Thursday, and a Latin Elements test in Etymology on Friday! Whew! And yet, I don't feel nearly as stressed as I was this past week. I think it's because I hadn't gotten alot of reading finished for Roman Civ. and had to catch up a bit, whereas I've been keeping pace with all of my other classes pretty well.
Thursday was a fantastic day. I finished my midterm and simply felt free and happy. Listened to a presentation in Human Impact, went to Fellowship for Dinner, where I got to talk with Melanie about Oxford, and finished off the day by inviting residents to take a quick break from studying to watch some tv and eat chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate (of which I have an abundance left over from Valentine's Day).
Friday was likewise wonderful. Had my Ind. Study in the morning, Etymology in the afternoon, then came back and cleaned up my room before picking up the Prospie at six. Went out to eat at Domoyaki, watched Dollhouse, and introduced the Prospie to Firefly. It was a fantastic day. I just really like it when I feel that things are busy, but under-control-type-of-busy.

All's well. :-). Am looking forward to this time next week when I'm on Spring Break and going home for a week!

-- Amy

It's a warm and rainy today, so I've opened up my windows to let the air and sound of rain in. Nobody's blasting their music today, so I get to simply enjoy the sound of the rain.

Am thinking that I'll have to pull my application for University of Edinburgh... They're asking for a Degree Certificate (which I don't have yet) and a full-fledged research proposal (which I definitely don't have yet). I hate to put all my hope of returning to the UK on one grad school, but I talked with Dr. Resinski and she agreed that that would probably be best. "Their starting ramp is just not matching up with your starting ramp" as she said. Luckily, Edinburgh didn't ask for any application fees, so withdrawing my application wouldn't take away money.

Read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew today and got thinking about the passage where Jesus says that if your right eye causes you to sin, you should gouge it out. Of course, I think that he's using it as an analogy (yes?). It got me thinking about my DVD collection and television watching. Is this a source that I should cut off? We'll see.

Have been playing the computer in games of chess alot recently and have been very happy that I've been dominating. However, the computer has made idiotic plays, so I guess I shouldn't be too happy about it.

Tomorrow is Pay Day! Is it sad that I'm far more excited about this than the 14th? I have to be on duty this weekend and am thinking of getting a group of my single lady friends together with some cookie dough to watch a couple of "chick flicks" this Saturday. I think that would be lovely. (starts humming "Wouldn't It be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady)

-- Amy

Well, not too much has been going on this week -- it has simply been a good week in general. I've gotten work done, hung out with friends, and have talked with my family plenty. I do wish that I could go home this weekend, but that's just a silly impulse. Tomorrow's the 20 year anniversary for our church which we have attended for 10 years, and I'd like to go. But a 14-hour round-trip drive is just not very practical on the weekends. It's just a bit strange, having lived in England last year. Then, there wouldn't have been the slightest possibility of going home on the weekend at all, I couldn't even go home on the bank holiday weekends. Yet here, home is only a 7-hour drive away. I keep thinking "I could go! I have a car! I can drive there! It's not like I have to hop on a plane for 10 hours!" Yet I know that I shouldn't. I don't quite know what gets me in these moods. :-)



In other news: I tried out a new hairstyle yesterday and got 4 unsolicited comments! That made me a little happy, as vain as it sounds. Also, today has been absolutely beautiful! We had sunny skies and the temperature was around 60. Was able to go around without my coat on, which was fantastic. Because the weather was so nice, I opened up my windows for a bit and did a little bit of knitting. However, I had to close them after awhile, because it became cloudy and colder, and the music from Martin was disturbing me. But praise God for beautiful days! I loved it!

-- Amy

I had a really good weekend. Hendrix Winter Formal was on Saturday evening. At first, I was a bit unsure about going. I like getting to dress up and go out with friends, but was concerned that I wouldn't feel comfortable dancing there (I'm a bit picky about where I dance and to what music. Silly, I know) and that I'd be a bad participant in a group. Luckily, it didn't turn out that way at all.

I dressed up in my yellow sundress which I bought in England last year, putting a nice light dress-up shirt underneath and borrowed a light blue ribbon from my friend Beth. I went to Brigid, McCaul and Aaron's house at around 5:30 to get my make-up done. Jordan was really nice and offered to let me use some of hers, but I ended up buying my own foundation, lipstick and eye shadow (I don't really own makeup. I'm pretty sure I left what I do own at home. And that stuff's probably around 6 years old.). So I got some new make-up, borrowed a little eyeshadow from Jordan, and had Brigid put my hair back and it all ended up rather well! (Pictures will be put up on Facebook).

I left their house to pick up Beth at around 7:15. Sam would have joined us if she could, but she was down in Memphis visiting her boyfriend this weekend (it's the weekend before his birthday and he didn't want to come up for formal.). So we went in to Little Rock and met up with Lacey and Melody for some dinner at the Sushi Cafe...

It was as delicious as it looks. I ate myself full and then we headed on to try to find the Convention Center. That was definitely an adventure. SOCO hadn't given out very good directions and we ended driving down a road which the center wasn't even on. Thoroughly lost, I pulled over into a spot on a side road and called my mom. She was able to give us a better address and read us the directions from the Convention Center's website. We found it then without any trouble, and were really happy about it.

We then made it into Formal at around 9:30. I did end up dancing a little bit, but the best part was getting to see friends and fellow classmates in their beautiful dresses and suits. Beth and I agreed that around 11:00 it was time to head back to Conway, since Beth had to do liturgy at her church the following morning. But I had a great time -- much better than expected -- and was really pleased with the night in general.

Watched the Superbowl last night and was happy that the Steelers won. I didn't particularly care for any group (I enjoy college football more), but rooted for the Steelers since my pastor at home is a fan. I also went to see the SoBe LifeWater 3D commercial. I had picked up the special 3D glasses at the grocery store last week ('Chuck' is going to be in 3D tonight, which is why I got them). It was amazing. You could watch it without the glasses as well without any trouble, but when you put the glasses on, it turned into 3D. I liked it and am looking forward to watching 'Chuck' in 3D tonight. Woohoo!

-- Amy