Cross Dressers and Ping Pong

I would like to say that a large workload from college courses has kept me busy for the past few days so that I couldn’t post an update until now. However, the truth is I spent the last 72 hours tracing the perimeter of the White House to protect our nation’s highest officials from an impending alien attack.

Well enough of that, let me fill you in on what’s has happened to us lately. We started work at Chick-Fil-A on Thursday afternoon and worked Friday and Saturday as well. It has gone fine so far, the store here is considerably smaller than our previous one. The Beckley store will do less in a full day than the one in Baltimore does from 12:00-1:00. The food and service and the restaurant here are of a notably lower quality and reputation. But for that reason the operator hired us in as managers to help turn the store around. It’s both frustrating and exciting at this point.

An interesting (perhaps scary) story, Saturday morning Katie was running the front of the store and I was in the back stocking certain items. As I’m pulling lettuce out of the refrigerator some person in their street clothes walks into the back of the store. I say person because I did not know if it was a man or a woman. None of the employees seemed to mind so I figured it was a friend of one of the workers. After the very butch looking woman left the back Katie came to see me. She said to me softly “you gotta come out front there’s this weird person asking for free food and I don’t feel safe.” When I came out it was this same person that had spooked me only a moment ago. Apparently they let the cross dressing truck driver come back and get whatever food he wants. Yes, it was a “he,” that became apparent when he spoke in a voice much deeper than my own. It was awkward and comical to meet a person with short-shorts, pink toenails and a voice as deep as Barry White.

School is going great, homework is a little heavy, but I enjoy every bit of it. I cannot fully convey how much I enjoy school through written text, you have to see the big smile on my face. I’m excited to learn more about God every hour of the day. Katie is loving school no less than myself, in fact, it saddens her that she can only take one class this semester. We are eagerly awaiting the opportunity for her to go to school full time. We hope that will be next fall, but of course expenses would double and income would drop significantly if she goes full time. She tried soliciting her father’s help because back in 2005, when Katie was looking at attending Washington Bible College, he would have helped pay for school. He responded with a chuckle of unforeseen proportion.

We spent our Friday and Saturday night hanging out with Dan and Jennifer until midnight. It’s bad for our sleeping habits but good for our hearts to have friends that we enjoy spending that much time with. We did everything from playing an old 2-D racing game on Nintendo to competing in fierce ping pong matches. Dan crushes me in ping pong, it’s the first game that I have been totally obliterated in. I’m very used to winning everything but even though I lost 21 to 3 I still had a lot of fun.

Just before posting tonight we babysat for Drew and Emily. We watched their two year old son, Liam, for about 5 hours this afternoon. He’s a fun kid and we enjoyed playing parents a bit but we are very glad to give him back. Even though we may be one out of two married couples here that don’t have kids (out of at least 24 couples total) the temptation is not high at all for us to have our own bundle of joy. We quite enjoy a two person household for now.

Continue to pray for us, we need it now more than ever. School is stacking up along with work and expenses but God continues to guide us through.

Orientation Overdose and Syllabus Shock

Today we had our first day of actual schooling. To start, let me just say it was incredible and I enjoyed every minute. We began with Biblical Hermeneutics which is a class that Katie is attending this semester. Second was Bible Doctrine Overview, third was English Grammar and finally a convocation chapel service. I don’t feel it necessary to go into the details of any class because they were all introductory. The professors gave their background and some personal notes, then came the syllabi. The upperclassmen are well aware of the panic which is to overcome a freshman on the first day of classes. This phenomenon that I lovingly refer to as a panic is actually called “syllabus shock.” It was new to me until a few days ago, thankfully an older friend did warn me not to lose my cool over this. Syllabus shock comes as a result of your professors handing out a packet of information with class expectations and every major assignment for the semester. Many unsuspecting students see the enormous amount of work and imagine that it needs to be done very soon and begin to hyperventilate. This experience is relived in each new class of the day if the fellow doesn’t wise up and breath into a paper bag.

I must admit, looking at all the projects for the semester was overwhelming, but class was still such a relief compared our commencement procedures. I have found another burdening phenomenon which I am coining “Orientation Overdose.” For the past four days we freshman have been attending student council kickoffs, orientations, presentations and staff meet-n-greets out of the wazoo. It has kept us busy from morning until evening most days and on one occasion until 10:40 at night. I feel that the stress induced by orientation right before school starting overpowers syllabus shock.

Well at least orientation is out the way and subsequent years are said to be much less hassle. Half of my syllabi have already been obtained and sweat over. Tomorrow I take the other half of my classes and hope to transfer the energy that would be spent sweating like an unarmed hunter being chased by a bear into positive can-do motivation.

Our social life has been blessed with some great friends that share a lot in common with us. The little spare time we can scrounge up is spent talking to our new companions to grow our relationships. When we first came here we felt very alone being so far from family and not having met anyone. Now we feel surrounded by friends already. The environment on campus is such that some of our friends are starting to feel like family.

It certainly isn’t perfect down here and not without its struggles but we are happy that God has brought us here and look forward to all that is ahead. See you on Friday when we post about the second and third day of school as well as the first day of work.

P.S. You all read about our lives daily on here and while I am honored at your interest in our life we would like to hear yours too. We’ve been in contact with some friends and family but if we haven’t spoke to you for a while Katie and I would love to hear from you either by phone or e-mail.