More of everything please!

That refers to the fact that I LOVE Chipotle. Even more than before. Why? Cuz Megan showed me the wonderfulness that is the "burrito bol". It is wonderful!! It's like 400 calories less than getting the burrito and it's still oh so yummy! I'm probably starting my blog off with food because I have not eaten yet today and need to at least THINK of food instead of eating it. If only I had a piece of gum in my pocket....

I'm currently sitting at a car dealership getting my poor little Colbie all fixed up. They said it wouldn't take long so I'm trusting these mechanics to not lead me astray. So here I sit on a couch waiting to hear the news on my car! Then I will truly be able to eat! OH Joy!

So I thought I'd ponder life while I sat here on this green leather couch, surrounded by skulls, western saddles, popcorn machine, and a coughing old man whose first words to me were "They could have at least made some popcorn." Then he preceeded to cough up his lung.... Oh Delano.. I love your small town charm.

Moving right along, I'm at the end of my 1st month back at Bethel! Woo! Hooray! Huzzah! Let down the balloons and streamers! Give me that banner of congratulations! Or not. I'm not doing so well. It's hard to stay on top of everything while working and trying to have a social life, and oh yah... working on that novel.... I've plum forgotten how to really be responsible when it comes to homework. That and I've chosen a lot of reading courses which takes much more time than anything else. And in my Chaucer class we are supposed to memorize the stuff in middle English! Believe me, it's harder than you think it'd be. My favorite class right now would have to be American Giants with Thomas Becknell, Dan Taylor, and Joey Horstman. Talk about hitting me up with a wonderful lineup of professors. They all have very different teaching methods, and that's what I love about them. We're almost done with Moby Dick and I've really enjoyed the "voyage" it's brought me on (Becknell would be gleeful for me using that term).

Let's see... what else. I'm not hazardously poor anymore. Phew. Thank goodness for taxes. It's hard to keep a savings though. I don't know if I quite get the point of a savings. Like for instance, I have money in there now and I'm very proud of that money. It is showing me that I've done something right for once! But now I'm getting the car fixed. So really... what was the point in putting money in the savings account? It seems silly to just keep money in there only to spend it again a few days/weeks/months later. I almost feel guilty taking it out of my savings. But then if you aren't using it for things like this, what is it really for? Comfort? Or is it feeding that need of greed? We hold on to our money like it's the thing that will save us, like we can bring it with us when we enter heaven, that somehow it makes us the most awesome person ever to have loads of it. Now being on both ends of the spectrum (being grossly broke and somewhat wealthy for a college student) I'm not sure if I wanna be wealthy. I'd just end up spending it cuz saving is stupid. Okay, not stupid, but redundant maybe? Who knows.

Alright, I've got no other really big news to say or divulge at this time. So... I think I'll go. Plus... I don't wanna be shutting out my new friend Hungry Coughing Guy. Eeeesh.

Amy

Spiritually Obese

I was sitting in my Perspectives in Christian Marriages class tonight and was suddenly given this idea of Health. It popped into my mind for various reasons, but then it started to linger. What is it? What defines it? Are we talking mental health, spiritual health, physical health? What does it look like to be "healthy" in these stages? And which one is more important? It's hard to say. I thought we'd talk about it for a bit!

The definition I got was this:
1. the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health.
2. soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment: to have one's health; to lose one's health.

Hmmm.... not very descriptive. not really what I was looking for. But that's fine. It gives us a basis.

I think the biggest "health" people look for is physical health. I know I focus on that more than anything else. How do I get skinny? is there something wrong with me? Am I eating the right things? Why can't I lose weight? And so forth. Sometimes I feel like we are brainwashed hypochondriacs that feel like if something is going right, there must be a disease we have. But seriously, they make a pill for everything! It's nuts! I just think it's funny that we are so set on our physical health instead of a lot of other things. I mean don't get me wrong, it is important. We should watch our cholesterol, blood pressure, all those important things, but I think we are watching it too carefully. Getting nervous too easily.

What we should be focusing on is spiritual health. I don't even know what that means! What would that look like? Whatever it is, I want it. I don't know how to achieve it or when I'll know when I'm "healthy" but hopefully I'll just know. I wanna be that person who has a close relationship with God, and a real one at that. Not the, oh yah, I know him. Do I? And don't think that I mean like KNOW him in the sense of knowing everything about Him cuz that's nearly impossible, but just being the Christian I'm supposed to be. It's so much harder to do that it sounds like. And I'm thinking that "obesity" in spiritual terms is probably a good thing....

LET'S ALL BE SPIRITUALLY OBESE!!! :)

Amy

The love of chick flicks..??

Girl meets Boy.
Girl falls in love with Boy... Boy may or may not feel the same.
Girl expects marriage.... engagement may or may not happen.
Girl needs to do big event to win the Boy (some sort of trip most likely).
Trip (or something) goes terribly wrong.
New Boy is there to help... but he's an ass.
Girl fights with New Boy for 30 minutes of the movie.
New Boy makes grand gesture that changes Girl's mind about him.
Girl starts crushing/lustin' for New Boy.
New Boy starts to notice, dang he likes her too!
Old Boy comes back in the picture.... Girl remembers her love for him.
New Boy is sad.
Girl thinks she'll be happy with Old Boy.
Wrong.
New Boy and Girl live Happily Ever After.

How did we fall in love with this??? Oh how many movies I could fit into this category! Let me name a few: Leap Year, Wedding Planner, Kate and Leopold (although there was never an old guy), 13 Going on 30, The Notebook, You've Got Mail, Legally Blonde, Sleepless in Seattle, Titanic, and so forth. Obviously some "out of the box" directors like to spice this up a bit, go a little crazy if you will, but really it fits the same diagram. SOMETIMES the boy will take the place of the girl (like A Walk to Remember) but for the most part, it's the girl chasing the guy. Oye. When did we get old enough to really be annoyed by these movies? I mean sure, of some of the ones I listed, I really enjoyed. Maybe it was because I saw it when I was young and now it still has a place in my heart. But that's about it.

Well at least I only spent a dollar at midnight movies to see Leap Year! :)

Amy

Getting out when you're already so deep

I think that's the hardest thing to do. Whether it's in an awful relationship, or a lie you've told which involved lying even more to cover the original lie, or debt. For me, this statement (referring to my title) is figuring out how to deal with finances when you are already so far in. It's unfortunate that I'm writing two blogs back to back about almost the same thing. Don't worry though, I won't linger on it for too long. No one wants to read this stuff! They come to read something other than the bare reality. I'm just saying that getting out of debt may be the hardest thing i'll ever have to do. For instance, I'm super broke. There is no way out because I can't work as much and I'm not serving as much. It' really taking a toll. I know it takes a while to get out of debt, but I'm crossing my fingers hoping that it will all be over soon. I need it to be for sanity's sake.

But moving forward, life isn't all bad! Promise! On Monday I started SCHOOL again! Woo!! How divine is that??? It really has been pretty refreshing. I'm taking a class on Chaucer where we will be reading Canterbury Tales (in Middle English.. oye!) and stuff about King Arthur and Arthurian Romances. I've never had the professor before but so far he's fun. You can tell, besides the fact he flat out told us, that he loves teaching this course. Should be an interesting semester.

Then I have Perspective on Christian Marriages. I don't think i'll hate it. The woman is a soft spoken, mid 30's Dr. (or professor? One can't be too sure) who used to be a therapist but is now teaching at Bethel. The only thing that's bringing me down is that it's a night class for three hours. Honestly, night classes make everything drag on forever. But that also means I have it once a week. Woo! The homework seems pretty easy and I'm sure I'll do great in the class.

The class that makes me want to quit school and not be a journalism is my Topics in Journalism: Covering the Business World. Holy buckets. One it's a mouthful. Two it's about BUSINESS (which I don't care to learn anything about). Three it's four hours long. And Four, it's the thing blocking me from having my Wednesday night serving shifts! So really it's a Debbie Downer moment. It was boring, thick with nothingness, and even the guest speakers made me leaving with a question mark over my head as I left. It feels like the class was thrown together and they weren't sure what to do with it. I may not survive.

But wait! what? A beacon of hope in the distance? What could it be? What could save me from such an awful Wednesday night class??? Ahh... a breath of fresh air when all seems lost. It is my class called American Giants. But why Amy? Why is this such a good class? Well let me tell you! It's this class taught by Prof. Becknell (pretty fun guy), Dan Taylor (never actually had him before), and my favorite Prof. of all time.... Prof. Horstman. That man is one of the reasons I've toyed with the idea of teaching writing in college. He's good at what he does. He helps students get engaged, and I've never laughed harder than in his classes. He's up in your face always waving his pointer finger at you. Granted he's got the other to beat as far as youngness, so maybe that where this energy comes from, but who knows. He makes things personable. I may never meet his family, but I know a bit about them. I wouldn't mind being a T.A. for him or something. It won't ever happen. The sad part is I'll leave Bethel in a few months and prob. never see him again. That's really the worst part. But what can you do?

Besides all that school and financial talk, life is good. I had a new room mate move in which has been hard at times, but I'm learning to cope. Everyone still wants to live with each other next year which is nice. Now we just have to figure out where. I finally have real health insurance which means I can go to the dentist and the eye doctor and the other doctor..... oh I'm living the high life!

I better be off, but I'll leave you with the first line of the General Prologue in Canterbury Tales, Middle English style:

What that Aprill shoures sote...

Haha I'm missing words.... oh well!

Amy