I know, I know, I'm slacking...

So it's been over a month since I last wrote!

Partly because I have been doing lots of things...but a partly because I don't really feel like the things I am doing make for really exciting stories, especially reading Heidi's Uganda blog and hearing about grasshopper sandwiches, rescuing cows from drowning, sleeping in mosquito net tubes, etc. So my life wouldn't make a great thriller or adventure story, but some pretty cool things have been happening nonetheless.

So what have I been up to??

Highlights/updates

So as I expected, we did a muuuuch better job of keeping people around after the first week this year than we have in the past. Most of the freshmen who we saw several times over the first week and came to XA the first night are still committed to the group, which is awesome. Small groups are going really well.

The second week we had seventeen people show up!!! but that number has settled down to about 8-10 each week. The first couple weeks we spent mostly getting to know each other, and had most people share their testimonies. I've never heard such a great group of them- story after story of amazing things God did in peoples lives and families, of how he pursued after hearts until people found true unconditional love in him. It was encouraging for me to hear, and I was especially thankful that a couple girls who didn't have much of a church background and are interested in seeking God got to hear such awesome personal stories about him.

My group is going through Luke, looking at Jesus' teachings/parables. It's been really great so far, we've had a lot of really good discussions, and I've been impressed with everyone's willingness to open up and share their thoughts...which has been a struggle in small groups at times. We've really been encouraging them to read the section beforehand and come to small group with questions and their own thoughts and things to discuss.

Chi Alpha started doing this thing on Saturdays where we play pickup soccer on one of the fields on campus, as a way for us to hang out with each other, but also meet new people. There's serveral non-XA people who've been playing regularly with us, which is pretty cool.

It was interesting for me because I haven't played soccer basically at all since the Kent Rec team in 3rd and 4th grade...and I missed half the year in 3rd grade because I was recovering from open heart surgery. But I've had more fun than I was expecting to have once I got over the "I don't want to play because I'm not actually good at this" thing...which is something I'm (unfortunately late in my life) starting to learn...I'm a perfectionist and I don't like to do things when people can see me unless I've established some level of mediocrity at it. Sooooo I'm trying to learn to suck it up and put myself out there and try new things and realize that nobody actually cares if you make a fool of yourself, at least you tried and maybe learned something.

This weekend is our Fall Retreat and i'm sooo excited because 1. EMMY is coming to be a nanny for Matt and Tracy's almost-2 year old daughter, so I get to see her little self and 2. I just always love retreats, good things always happen when we set aside a whole weekend to pay close attention to God and what he's doing. There's about 20 students from Cornell going, and about 50 people total, and Jim Bradford, the Assemblies of God general secretary is going to be the speaker. I've heard him before and he's great, so I'm looking forward to it. :)

I STILL haven't heard anything from medical schools...but I don't know when I'm supposed to hear anything from them...so I don't even know if that's fine or bad (as in, i'm missing paperwork or something) So I should probably do something about that...

I was home the other weekend for fall break and went into Manhattan with my parents to talk to an Air Force recruiter. DON'T think I'm crazy! People keep telling me "I can't see you running around with a gun or flying planes" and I say "Well good, because I can't see that either, and that isn't what I'm going to be doing!!'

There is a scholarship program where the Air Force will pay all your tuition, books, small equipment fees, plus a stipend, for medical school. In turn you work in an AF hospital, as a doctor, in whatever specialty you want, for 4 years. At the end of 4 years you can decide if you want to stick with the Air Force or go into the civilian system. Chance of deployment overseas in the first 3 years: no guarantees, but basically zero.

so I am applying to this program, so I can go to med school and be a doctor in the Air Force instead of a doctor in a civilian hospital, not fly planes. :-P

Here's a funny story to end this very long overdue post:

Monday, I was driving through campus to take my giant laptop, which decided to stop working, to Best Buy so they could look at it, when I stopped at a stop sign. I was in a significantly agitated mood since I had just had an agitating conversation with my sister, which resulted in me hanging up on her (anyone surprised?) (it wasn't illegal she was on speakerphone, I had both hands on the wheel the whole time!!) Anyways. so I was at the stop sign, and there was a crosswalk after it, so there was a good amount of road between where I was and where I would need to be to see if there were cars coming. So in my agitation I ...forgot?...to actually pull forward enough to see what was coming at me, and made the right turn. Turns out a TCAT bus was coming my way. (here's a tcat bus:http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/gettingaround/images/tcat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/gettingaround/buses.cfm&usg=__tpZbBt0RsayAcDgbw_j_rNkcu5Y=&h=157&w=210&sz=38&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=ZTsFWZ3PjGZwyM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtcat%2Bbus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1014%26bih%3D487%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=149&vpy=98&dur=1142&hovh=125&hovw=168&tx=136&ty=75&ei=8azATP_2MML58AbnhIDlBA&oei=8azATP_2MML58AbnhIDlBA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

We made contact.

The Bumper ended up on the sidewalk

The driver's side headlight was smashed

The driver was perfectly fine, not a bump, not a scratch, not a whiplash

The entire driver's side of the car was perfectly fine

The car was even drivable!...though it made funny rattling noises because the hood wasn't sitting well on the frame.

So the car is at the doctor's for now and I'm just peachy. :-D

Lesson learned? Emmy put it well in her facebook status: "Don't yell at me, you'll hit a bus"

Thanks, sister.

oh! and a reminder...if you want to comment, just "sign in" anonymously so you don't have to make a google account, just remember to sign your name so I know who you are. :-D