Wisdom Teeth

It looks like my blogs are turning into weekly ones. My apologies. Monday was a Monday, if I remember correctly, which means that I don't have much news from my morning classes. However, I was put in charge of the lesson for the Connect Class, so I talked about making plans, which I had been wanting to share in there for quite awhile. That went well, and with Alyssa P. there to be the mean one, I got to stay polite while she bossed the class around and got angry at them for acting their age. That night, I went to sleep at around eight, which was a pretty healthy choice.

I woke up at 5:00 AM to find a text from Bekah asking when early morning prayer is (she had sent it a few minutes after I had fallen asleep the previous evening). This reminded me to go, so go I did, and God showed me something cool about Mattew 10:9 (I think). Jesus is eating with the tax collectors and sinners, but he's also got all of his disciples there. This is how he reached out. He had his group of friends, and they mixed with another one over a meal and just hanging out. Anyway, I remembered on my way to school that I had devotions, and I whipped that lesson out, and it was a good save. That evening, I had Prototype. I asked Caleb all kinds of questions, all that have been asked to me and that I have been asking (one of which was ghosts). Prototype is always stinkin' awesome.

Wednesday, I had a bit of a late start. My main problem was that I fell asleep at 7:15 AM, with the intention of waking up ten minutes later. Unfortunately, I woke up three and a half hours later, which got me zeros for participation in my first three classes. That stank. But what was left of school was fine, and Paradigm was rockin'. One of the guys from the Connect Class, Tanner, came to Paradigm. He was one of the guys questioning a lot, so I was really happy to see him there.

Thursday, I looked good. Just sayin'. I went home after school, slept till around 6:30 PM, then took off for CFNI, where I met up with some bros from the ghetto ovah deya, and we carpooled to Trish's house in A-town, where we watched The Office. Watch was all we did, however, 'cause everyone was talking too much to hear anything from the episode. It did make me dream about ethics that night, though. We followed up that episode of The Office with some political SNL and Surf's Up. Both were adequate. No more, no less.

Friday was a day for the ages. Priscilla, mom, and I, up bright and early, drove over to the Baylor Oral Surgery place. It wasn't long before I was strapped down (he said that it wasn't to hold me down, but who knows), and he had stabbed me a few times trying to get his anesthesia in me. He was successful in his endeavors, or so I assume, for the next time I awoke, I was being helped out of my chair, and to the door. Something was apparently amiss, as the doctor told me awhile later, for my face had gone terribly green and pale, so they stabbed me with another iv and had me chug some fluids through my arm. It was delicious. We all headed home, me half-asleep and throwing up a lil' blood (not much, don't worry) into a lil' vomit-holder. We soon arrived home, and I went to sleep, waking up only to eat a lil' something, drink a milkshake, or make a video.


Saturday, having been off the drugs since the evening before, I aspired to go to Tynan Barlow's birthday party. Unfortunately, the only other people there were geeky homeschoolers, and, however drugged up I had been, I couldn't endure talk about which NES game was the best video game of all time. So I texted Jake, and he told me to come over (he lives next-door). I hung out with him and his cousin Eli until midafternoon, at which point I was invited to go to the Heath Homecoming Dance. I was glad to, partially for myself, partially for my sister, who would be at this dance, and be even more drugged up than I (she with hydrocodine, me with ibuprofen). It was a fun dance, and we broke up a few grind trains by shaking our fingers and singing, "Inappropriate, inappropriate". However, I went home and crashed, and was in a terrible fit of pain, for, as some of you may know, doing things the day after surgery makes your face hurt like crap.

When I got to church today, everyone laughed at how my face looked like a chipmunk. Trish, particularly, could not go one second without laughing at me, and she was around me for many a second. I talked to Shayna about small groups, and we both didn't feel like we should talk about the "Empty Seat", which was our planned discussion. We instead decided to talk about that verse that God had shared with me earlier in the week. I went home from there, ate Ramen (my primary sustenance at the moment), and napped. When I got to small groups, I told Shayna that I thought that God wanted us to keep on with the "Empty Seat" thing, and I explained how it could tie in with the discussion. This finished, our small group played some English game, which turned into freeze tag, then we ate some ice cream sandwiches, and, finally, had our discussion. Molly Howard is proving to be one of the more outgoing of the group, and the only guy tonight, Sam, proved to be exceptional at distracting himself. After small groups, I went home, did some work, took mo' ibuprofen, and am now getting ready for bed. This week is homecoming week. I'm dressing as a frog who needs a kiss to turn into a prince. I'll be asking for kisses all day tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Be Humbled

Tuesday was a bright and shiny day. I went to Early Morning Prayer ('cause they require it of SL to go once a month) and Early Morning Prayed. At school, I talked to Mr. Beaumont about my senior thesis, and he told me not to write on Dr. Seuss's life, but rather on just the interpretation of his children's books, and their effect/influence upon children. So now I'm off to collect and read all 46 children's books by Dr. Seuss, and to see if there's a further interpretation to be made of each of them. Mr. Beaumont also made out that I was trying to take the easy way out by dropping his class. My other classes were not eventful enough for me to remember, apparently, 'cause nothing particularly exciting is coming to mind. On my way home from school, I turned around 'cause I had forgotten a book, and something strange happened. My cruise control was set to 45 mph in a 35 mph area, and I had gotten a ticket for doing that before, so I pushed the decelerate button, but it didn't do anything. So I just decided to reset the cruise control. Unfortunately, the cruise control did not shut off, as it usually does when I hit the breaks. It just slowed down according to how long I held the brakes. So I pulled the car to a stop, determined to stop these shenanigans, and turned the car off, then back on. But even while in Park, the engine was revving, 'cause the cruise control was still going. It wasn't until after I pushed the pedals every which way after turning the car off and on that it was finally in working order again. Nothing else particularly eventful happened that day, besides the fact that I've been talking to Sarah Massie, a girl with a troubling not-so-distant past, and have been giving her advice.

Today, school was just peachy. In Government class, we were making fun of Alyssa for some little stupid thing, and I said something particularly loudly as the teacher walked in. Mrs. Williams asked me to come into the hall to talk to me, where she basically just said, "Stop being so loud in class", but in less words, and we came back in. Then I grabbed my shoulder and made a pained face as I walked in, thinking that one or two people might see it. But no, this was not meant to be. The entire class roared with laughter as I made my way to my seat, and Mrs. Williams was astonished that I would distract the class so just after she had talked to me about it. This was completely unintentional on my part, and I explained and apologized after class, but her reply was "You know your audience better than that." Next was a student council meeting, where I corrected my test, said what I wanted, and it didn't matter, 'cause I wasn't an elected official in there, so I don't have to do anything for them.

Later, I traveled home (by car) and showered and all that jazz, then headed to Gamestop, to get the new Wii Jedi game (I have to be partial geek to fit in with geeks, 'cause I can't be cool if I like video games, right?), all the while listening to a fun sermon by Pastor Jude Foucquier (whom I have so much more respect for after seeing him interact with Pastor Benny Perez at the YFN leaders workshops). After that, I hopped over to church, Chipotle in hand, and was offered the task of taking pictures for the small group manual that Pastor Nick was making, and I undertook the challenge. By this time, I was fairly convinced that I was not going to be asked to help lead a small group. During pre-service prayer, God started telling me about how I needed to be humbled, 'cause I felt like I was far enough with God to do a small group. Then he brought up the valedictorian issue, and told me that it was because of Him and His plan that I am even competing. "Be humbled. You are a servant." I had forgotten about being a servant in my petty concerns. Isn't that stupid? So then I thought about how many times that God tells me something during pre-service prayer, it often becomes the focus of the leaders' prayers, even though I don't mention it. Then I told God about how what He was telling me didn't fit the mood or the message or anything, that if He wanted me to tell it to Pastor Nick, I would need confirmation. "You are the one who is supposed to be confirmation for people," was the reply. So I told Pastor Nick during worship, and it didn't fit any of the night's mood, but I explained it to Pastor Nick afterwards (in a lot less words, 'cause I did it through texting), and he understood.

Submit

Monday was spent at my dad's office from 8:00 AM-5:00 PM just reading, Facebooking, and sleeping. But mostly reading. I really wanted to hang out with people, but I also wanted to obey God, so I didn't hang out with my almost-college friends at all.
Tuesday, I went to Early Morning Prayer for the second time, to the shock and amazement of Pastors Nick and Tim. I think pretty dern clearly when I lose that much sleep. And Gavin was hilarious. Following EMP, my dad had to drive to Irving, so I drove home and read All The King's Men all day. All friggin' day. It's a good book though. The first one of Mr. Beaumont's that I've liked this much since The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I talked to Katie Fritz on Facebook that night, just about talking to God and how to keep from roller-coasting, and I was thankful to God for that.
The following day, my dad woke me up at like 8:30, after which I fell asleep till noon (and later confessed it to him, 'cause I wanted to stay on good terms). At two, I went over to TVCC where I registered for Dual-Credit English. I expected it to take ten minutes, but it took two hours. That was fun. On the bright side, I got a student ID out of it. I took Paco/Pasha/Russian and Jordan to church straight from there. PC spoke that night, and holy crap, he was hilarious, and talked about submitting, which had been the lesson for my life for the past week. After that, we had a lock-in, which was a wondrous thing. It began with CiCi's, where we ate some pizza, and Pastor Nick found out that I was the only one with a camera, so I was in charge of documenting the night. Katie was really tired the whole time, 'cause 'dem Williams girls need their beauty sleep more desperately than the rest of us. After CiCi's, we went to play Broomball, which was way fun. I especially enjoyed when James King would grab the ball and throw it as far as he could, 'cause he knew the best strategy to win: cheat. Following this, we went to Alley Cats, but, unfortunately, it was unreliable in its scheduling abilities, so, after spending roughly 30-60 minutes sitting in their parking lot, we left for Bowlarama, which was open, and much more inviting. The wimps fell asleep at this point, and I did some bowling, played DDR with Rachel and Sam (Sam had a very intense look in his eye). At the end of the night, at 6:00 AM, I had to say goodbye to Katie, Rachel, and Derek, who would be leaving for college on Friday. Isn't that just sad?

I know what you're thinking, "Waffles would be delicious right now." Or, at least, you might've been thinking that when you started reading it. Anyway, Sunday was fine and dandy. My dad, sister, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings (which never happens, 'cause I always go with friends, but most were in California, so I figured "why not?"). I barely listened to the conversation, though, 'cause I discovered as I sat there that I can play Texas Hold 'Em for free the entire meal. I hadn't played in forever, so I really enjoyed it. That afternoon was kinda the silence before the storm. We had a media meeting that night, and, since D. Andrew had nothing planned, we filmed the countdown video for Paradigm. It was me shaving my mustache. A lot of emotions were involved, mostly black nationalism prejudice, but when it was all said and done, my face felt blank. I'm kinda getting used to being a blank slate again, but I can't help but miss the 'stache.

Monday lacked importance. I played an online game a lil' bit, worked on college application stuff, and read my book for school (which is the only thing I should have been doing, 'cause it's so friggin' long). I watched this sermon from a guy who sounded really negative at first, but turned out to be a pretty dern convicting thing, and, while watching it, God gave me a revelation about a part of my dream. I've got a haircut appointment, so I don't have time to share it now, but when God tells me the whole deal, then I'll put it on here.

Tuesday, I woke up for early morning prayer, where I was complaining to God about having to go to school for so long while everyone else gets to move on with their lives, and He reminded me of how long Jesus had to wait till he could even do ministry. I've been doing ministry for most of my life. The only thing I have to wait on is a career, which could be considered a blessing in disguise. Then we went out to eat afterwards, then to Starbucks. All of that lasted till around noon, then I went to do yardwork for my dad at his office, which he had been yelling at me about lately. I wanna murder that friggin' weed-eater. That night, I was gonna get Starbucks with Katie ('cause we had coupons), but she couldn't go, which turned out to be just as well, 'cause later on, I saw a rainbow nearby, and went on a rainbow chase. I chased it for at least ten miles before it had retreated too far into the sky for me to catch up to. It was pretty extreme.