Saturday, September 20, 2008

Thank you Hurricane Ike

I mean that both sarcastically and sincerely.
(Yes, you can do that.)
On Sunday, Louisville was hit by the 80mph winds of Hurricane Ike who ripped up trees, knocked down power poles, and blew transformers leaving 90% of the city without power. Classes were canceled for the week due to the fact that roads were closed because of all the debris.
My apartment building of 4 apartments and a house across the alley were the only ones on the block with power, so our apartment was a revolving door of people sleeping, eating, taking showers, and plugging things in. Until early Wednesday morning when LG&E began to work on the lines outside our house. Since then, our apartment building and the house across the alley have also been without power. Nothing major was lost...a few things of frozen veggies, but we cleared the fridge out and took the contents to my roommate's parent's house. (They lost power Sunday, but got it back on Tuesday.)
Since Wednesday, I've spent a LOT of time in random dining establishments with free internet catching up on school work and reading. At the present moment, I'm at Denny's about a mile down from my house trying to finish up the last bit of reading I need to do and generally waiting until I'm tired enough to go home and sleep. My roommate (Hannah) said we should have power sometime in the morning. I'm not sure where she heard this, but I sure hope it's true!

It sucks not being able to do things (like practice for piano on your electric clavinova) or read in your own house, etc. but it really hasn't been horrible. I'm way ahead on my readings for class, which means that I will be able to concentrate on my 2 papers and creative worship project during fall break (which we still get - thank you private school!)

Other than the events of Ike, things have been going really well!
I'm working on presenting myself more seriously...I know that sounds odd, but it has been brought to my attention that I don't look like I take my school work as seriously as I actually do. I bust my butt in my classes and lessons, and my professors can tell, but according to my voice teacher, I don't come off like I take it seriously at all. I'm not really sure why it matters how I present myself...and to be honest, I'm not even 100% sure what my error has been, but *shrug*. I'm just going to observe my behaviors to see if there is something I actually need to fix, or just because I'm so laid back in my lessons she thinks I carry that out to all my other classes...Again...I'm still not 100% sure why it matters if I do in fact get everything finished...but oh well! I'm learning! :D

<3

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I can't do this on my own

...and frankly, I'm sick of trying.
I realized last night at 11:30 after only 1.5 hours of 6 I was required to practice for piano by today...that I have been trying to do school/life/etc. on my own without the help of God. I didn't even notice it either. It wasn't until I was sitting on my piano bench, staring at the notes on the page in front of me, thinking about all the 23947329487 other things I needed to do aside from practicing, and how if I stayed up all night I could get them done, that I broke down and asked God to forgive me for putting Him on hold for school. I'm here to learn more about Him!! How in the WORLD could I learn more about Him without walking with Him to have His truths be given to me!? I can hear the same 23423897 things about worship, but until God allows me to understand, I can't! That's been the case actually! My two non-music classes overlap so much in the material. One is Biblical Theology of Worship and the other is a Philosophy of Music Ministry (worship) class. AND to top it all off, at the membership class for Sojourn last night, IT was about worship and all the things I'd heard so far since I've been here. Instead of feeling unintelligent because I don't grasp every little thing that my professors say, I should be grateful that I've been allowed to understand anything at all! Instead of freaking out because I was gone all weekend, then was a bad steward of my practice time for the week in piano, voice, and reading...I need to remember that it's not ALL ABOUT SCHOOL...a concept I have a hard time clinging to. I don't get Cs...I get As and SOMETIMES Bs, so it's rough to allow myself to think of being anything less than perfect, so I've been throwing myself into my homework instead of into the Word of God.
I'm SURE if I took the extra time to spend in the Word and in prayer, all the other things would line up MUCH easier.

There's my update!
I must leave for 8AM piano where I will turn in my simple *failing* 2 hours of practice for the week. (I needed 4 to get a C). That simply means that I'll be busting my butt for the remainder of the semester to make up for this week...and the only way I can do that is by the grace of God!