Semester's over.

"Emmanuel, sing 'Hallelujah!' Emmanuel, redemption is here! Emmanuel, shout 'Hosanna!' Creation sings 'Emmanuel!' God is with us...."

I've had that song in my head at least once every day for the past four days. The Christmas Grand Ole Gospel Sing was a blast. I found out on Friday that I would be playing in it on Sunday, and it made my weekend. I got to practice with the band, go to rehearsal and see almost the whole cast, hang out with the Seale Sisters afterwards, and then see the entire cast, including Behind the Cross, who weren't in the performance, but came to see it, during the two performances. It also brought back great memories of the musicals, because of how the break between the two identical performances was similar to the performance Saturdays for the musicals. I also got to see Chris on Friday night, and we wrestled (I did a lot better than before, simply because I'm stronger now) and played Halo for several hours, and then did a little catching up. It's almost scary finding out how much some stuff has changed while I was gone, when those things had been the same for as long as I could remember. I guess you always see life happening to other people, but then, when it finally happens to you, it doesn't seem so normal and predictable anymore. I've changed a lot, too, and not just physically. The Seales said that they had noticed any change in me, that I was still the same as before. At first, I was rather glad, and thankful, that I hadn't changed, but then I started to really think about it. I've always tried, not always successfully, to make sure that I'm the same person all the time. Not necessarily act the same all the time, because different situations and environments call for different types of behavior, but to have the same attitudes, temperaments, and, especially, morals. For example, it's ok to yell and scream at a football game, but not in a library, but is it ok to curse in front of your friends, but not at church? And not just cursing, but the things you talk about, joke about, and do. What I try to do is think about the person that I admire and look up to the most, and try to guess whether they would approve of whatever I do. If they were always there, watching me, would that person be proud of me, or disappointed? My goal is to always make that person proud. I'm not perfect, not even close, but I try.

Something that I'm sure I've mentioned more than once before in this blog is that I've been trying to get closer to God, and to have more regular quiet times. Well, recently, I got this devotional book, and, after getting it and getting all excited and thinking it was gonna help me get closer to God and everything, I realized that I was looking at it the wrong way. It's just a book, no matter what it's about, or who wrote it, or what. If it's not the Bible itself, it's just a book, written by a man (or woman. whatever). So, I prayed and asked God to use this book to help guide me in drawing closer to Him. I think He's done just that. The book really doesn't do all that much in itself. I read the entry, write my response to it, leaving space so I can see what I wrote next year and write how I feel then, and then read a little from the Bible and pray, pray, pray. I've been reading a little bit less, and praying a lot more, in my quiet times lately, which have been much more frequent, too. I'm very thankful for the book, and it's very special to me, but only because it was a gift from a very special friend. What really matters in my quiet times is God, and me, and what He is doing in my life now.

lyrics i don't know

Don't you just hate it when you get a song stuck in your head that you only know like two or three words of? That happens to me every now and then, and it's annoying. I also get songs that I know like half the first verse and the chorus of stuck in my head all day. Then I go to Hannah and tell her that she needs to get their new CD recorded so I can listen to the song. Then I continue to hum it, or sing it in my head, or out loud, until it's no longer stuck in my head. Sometimes this takes a long time.

So, this weekend was pretty cool. I went to this thing called Songfest on Friday night. It was pretty cool. There were some really talented people in it. After that, I drove to camp. Got there at a quarter after 11, and I thought everyone was asleep. Apparently I'm supposed to assume that they aren't, and go over to their house and knock on the door to see if they're awake and wanna hang out. But it's ok. I went to sleep instead. The next day we worked on the float for the Christmas parade in Smithville. It was really cool. It had lights all over it, and music, and it was pulled by two HUGE Clydesdale horses (is that spelled right?). Ironically, however, we spent all day working on the float, trying to get an award for it, and then we all picked costumes really quickly and just threw them on right before we had to be set up for the parade, and the only award we got was for "Most Festive Characters." I'm telling you, it was all because of me waving and smiling and yelling "Merry Christmas" to the judges! Anyway, we all went back to the camp afterwards and ate hot dogs and had hot chocolate (and Kool-Aid!!). I had a cup of coffee, cuz I had to go home that night. I hate coffee, but that cup actually wasn't that bad. So I had gotten into camp the night before literally on fumes and prayers, so I was a little bit worried when I left for home. I had $10 cash, which was enough to get home, but the closest gas station, a chevron, had just closed when I got there. I had to drive like 4 more miles to get to a shell that was open. Then, this morning, after I had packed everything up and left about 15 minutes later than I wanted to, the stupid gas pump (cuz I had to get even more for the trip back to College Station) was broken, and the one next to it, and the one 3 pumps down! I ended up going to a different gas station, but it set me back at least 20 minutes, so I was almost late to fall out for the second parade I was to be in this weekend. That one was even colder than the first (which was COLD), and it was wet, too. It was some Bryan/College Station City parade or something like that, that the Aggie Band was in. The bass fish ended up having to walk the however many miles back to the dorms. It was pretty messed up. Oh well. It's over now. I actually enjoyed the Smithville parade, mainly cuz I was with people from camp. I hated the BCS parade the entire time I was there, though, or at least most of the time. Now I'm staying up late to just stay up late. We have a bag in tomorrow! That means that no one wakes us up, and we don't have to go to formation. This makes me happy. It is pretty late, though, so I'm gonna go now. That was my weekend. I'll post more when dead week starts. Can't wait!!

The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

So I came so close to skipping class today, I was literally seconds away. I came into the classroom, and my buddies had me convinced to leave, when the professor walked in. He saw me, and my conscience won over. I couldn't just leave, even if some people do that. So, instead of sitting in Sbisa eating with Dylan, I'm sitting here, cold, hungry, and having to sit through 50 minutes of learning what I already know. Stupid conscience... This lecture seems pointless. I don't know where he's going with this... Oh. Wow. He just spent over 10 minutes explaining that the derivative of the integral of a function is that function. Next week can't get here fast enough.