This could get hairy...

Tomorrow begins "No Shave November" here at school. Any guys participating will not be shaving for the month of November. They have to start off completely clean shaven tomorrow, and it'll all go from there.

This could be interesting.

Eustis the heater gnome

The weather has turned cold enough for the school to start using the heaters in the morning. Every morning around 6:00 they turn on the boilers down in the basement and the steam begins to rise up to all the radiators. And that's when the fun begins.

tap....tap.......tap....

We have little gnomes that live in the radiators. The rising steam is their signal to get to work. And work they do. They pull out their little hammers and begin tapping on the pipes. It starts of rather quietly. tap.....tap..... Unfortunately, they are rather eager in their duties and the tapping very quickly increases to a resounding pounding. BANG! BANG! BANG! It's amazing how loud it can get! I'm just thankful they don't turn on the heat any earlier that 6:00am. I'm guessing it is something I'll get used to with time (maybe). That being said, I completely sleep through the racket Saturday morning. It doesn't bother me too much, but it makes some people down right MAD.

My roomies and I have named the gnome in our bedroom radiator Eustis. I won't be surprised if he gets yelled at a time or two at some point this winter. One of the girls here has even admitted to getting out of bed and actually kicking the radiator when the banging gets so loud. I asked her if it hurt, and she said a little, but she felt better for it. 

NTBI football

Whoo-hoo!! Today are the Jackson vs Waukesha football games. (Flag) The girls play at 11:00 and the guys at 12:30. Should be a lot of fun. I won't actually be playing this time. I love football, but the idea of playing competitively intimidated me more than a bit. (whew! Confession is good for the soul, or something like that.) I wish now that I had signed up just to get on of the t-shirts though. The teams have black shirts with "NTBI - XXL Team - Football" on the front, and the player's last name and a number on the back. "2007" is also printed on one of the sleeves.  Oh, well. Maybe next year.

The games will be even more memorable today because of the rain. I've been trying to think how best to keep from getting completely soaked, but then again, what's the fun of cheering on your school team in the rain if you DON'T get soaked? Call me crazy, but there you go. Team spirit!!

So sayeth

"Poets have been mysteriously quiet on the subject of cheese."  - G.K. Chesterton

PCM and small group

Following is a slightly modified snippet of a note I sent a friend the other day....

"Right now I am waiting for the bathroom floors to dry so I can take down the "Wet Floor" signs. All of the students (married and single) are assigned a PCM (personal campus ministry) when school starts. Basically, it is the students who take care up the upkeep and maintenance of the building. There is a PPD (Physical Plant Department) that takes care of the bigger projects, but all the cleaning and such is done by us. (As a side note, are you picking up that NTBI likes to use acronyms?) Quite honestly, we have a very clean school. It's pretty impressive really. Every three days I am responsible for cleaning the women's restroom and showers down by the pool. Compared to cleaning the bathrooms at church after day care like we used to on weekends, it's a snap. :)

"Anyway, after the floors are dry (which they should be by now) I will head across the street for my small group. A couple on staff offered to have a weekly small group with around twelve of the freshmen. It was a "first come, first serve" deal. I signed up RIGHT away for two reasons. 1) It would be a perfect opportunity to get to know more of the staff (and in their home, no less) and a smaller group of freshmen, and 2) there was no prep work involved. Perfect! We are going through part of the "That the World May Know" DVD series put out by Focus on the Family. Each of the lessons take place at a different location in Israel. The studies have been really interesting, and it is so nice to be in an actual home setting. The evenings are always a relaxing and encouraging break, even when I know I have hours (sometimes) of homework waiting for me when we're done, and it has really helped us (the students) to get to know each other better. I even "suffered" some brotherly teasing this week. It felt just like home. *wink* The couple's names are Ben and Missy Hatton. Very nice people. Ben will be teaching some of my Bible classes, and I am really looking forward to it."

Dorothy is still in Kansas

Tornadoes are one thing that I never even thought to consider as a possibility when coming to Michigan. But now I know! When I first heard the sirens in town I thought to myself, "Hmm. I don't remember hearing that siren before. I wonder what it is. Oh, well." Silly California girl.

Thankfully the tornado passed us by, although it did touch down in the town where I go to church (approx 30 north of here). It was very calm around midnight when we were put on alert, and then around 12:30 the winds became fierce! The tornado alert had been lifted by then, and apparently we were just experiencing the winds from it. It was pretty intense.

But now the skies are blue and the temperatures have been in the mid-70's. My roommate tells me it could be snowing by next week. Oh, well. I am enjoying the fall colors in the meantime.

Eh?

Are those tornado sirens I hear?

Yup. Sure enough.

I can't stop laughing!

I live in the craziest, most funnest dorm.

Oops!

I just realized I turned in my paper on Augustine with a BIBLIOLOGY instead of a bibliography.  Hopefully my teacher (commonly known as "Butch") won't pay too much attention to that last little page.