I'm no good at blogging

The last blog I wrote was all about how worried I was to move back to Norman and find a job. I have to tell you, it was pretty stressful. It's definitely possible that I made it more stressful on myself. I have good news though, I got a job!!! Praise to God for that! I basically spent half of every day for the first week I was back putting in job applications and talking to managers and driving around trying to find other places to apply. I just wanted something to start out with. I fortunately walked into La Baguette, a local french bakery and cafe, on a day that they were about to start sorting through applications for a new employee. They hired me that Friday and a started the following Monday. Not bad for 5 days worth of looking. I am not completely done searching for a job...I am going to stick with this one for awhile. A job with some money coming in is better than no job at all and no money at all. But I would like to be working somewhere with more of a set schedule. It is difficult to make plans for anything when your schedule for the week is set 12 hours before it starts. But I am thankful. God is good and he has provided!!

I also got a new roommate!! Her name is Natalie and she is awesome! She is the new OURUF intern. I am so excited about the year she has ahead of her and I am even more excited that I get to live with her and be her friend! She arrived on Sunday after 32 hours of driving from Florida. She spent yesterday unpacking and we rearranged the entire living room. I really like it! Sally won't even know her own house when she gets back. I miss Sally, but I am very happy to have someone here. The past three weeks of living by myself have been strange, quiet and at times a little scary (I can pretty much psych myself out over nothing). So, yay for new roommates!! It seems like people are slowly starting to return to Norman. I am looking forward to everyone coming back. So, hurry back please!!

The Same As Usual

So, I have done a very poor job keeping this thing updated on my life. Honestly, there isn't a whole lot to update. I've been living in Huntsville with my parents, working for my dad about 30 hours a week, visiting friends whenever I can, reading books, and searching for jobs back in Norman the best I can from 700 miles away. So far nothing has come of the job search. I have received a few leads on jobs, but they don't seem to materializing into anything. I am heading back to Norman next Friday (July 17th) to hopefully be reunited with one of my favorite roommates and possibly some other friends. After the weekend I will begin my job search in person and make these people want to hire me!!...or at least I hope that's how it will go. If any of you know of anything or anyone that is looking for someone to do work for them, even babysitting or whatever just to keep my going for longer, I would appreciate it.

I've recently started reading a book on prayer, A Praying Life by Donald Miller, which has made me think about prayer a lot more. I don't understand it. I know that I am supposed to be praying, but I have no idea how it works. I am cynical when things happen and I have prayed for them and I am angry when things don't happen and I have prayed for them. This doesn't seem like a good place to be in my prayer life. I feel like them more I read and research prayer, the less I understand about it, but, also the more I know that I need it. I know that God calls us to pray and that he works through prayers, but I don't know why or how. I want to know more and I am hoping to continue reading scripture and books about the reason for prayer, but I am almost certain this is one aspect of the Christian life I will never understand. Thoughts?

Not Sure

My year of interning has come to a close, as most of you know, and I will not be returning for a second year. However, I will still be living in Norman and sticking around the RUF community. I feel as if an era of my life has ended. The end of the school year and Summer Conference was extremely difficult for me. For the first time in five years, I am not expected to show up at RUF or really have to be involved at all. Of course, I still want to be there and will be, but it is not necessary since it is no longer my job and I am not a college student. I got my degree. (though it's not helping me out very much at the moment). RUF has been an huge influence in my life and I am sad to not be directly involved. I signed up for the internship and moved out to Norman expecting to do an amazing job and change lives and show people the Gospel, but instead I was shown the Gospel, my life was changed, and the people that I was hoping more to minister to ended up ministering to me. I am so thankful for the opportunity I have had to love and be loved by the students of OU. So many people have reached out to me and loved me and welcomed me into a wonderful community. Thank you to those that have done that.

The next couple of months I will be in Huntsville working for my dad and searching for a job out in Norman. I am hoping to return in the middle of July to seriously look for something to do. To be honest I have no idea what that will be and that is terrifying. I am not sure what is next for me in life. It will be different. People say different is okay, but I'm not sure.

Day of Fun

It's so nice to be back into the swing of things now that the semester has started. We had almost a full or week of normality, but this week OU has been closed for the past two and a half days due to ice and snow. I would definitely say there is more ice than snow though. It's white, but very VERY slippery. I think there is something so comforting about being inside and bundled up with a blanket and some tea. I almost feel as if time has stopped over the last couple of days. Groups of people have been getting together and hanging out, playing games, watching movies. Typically, my days are filled with meeting with people at specific times and a variety of activities that require me to show up relatively close when they start. It's freeing to not be constrained by time and have the ability to just go with whatever comes up and stay there as long or as short as I want. Timelessness. It's awesome. I feel like I have experienced that several times this week. I would like my whole life to be like that. I think being on time and setting times for things is an important and necessary thing to do for life. But ideally it would be great to live life as things come up and enjoy the moment you are living for what it is. I think I generally am somewhere else wherever I am. I can't say that the past two and a half days have been altogether impressive with what everyone did or conversations people had, but they have been so fun, unrushed, and low key. It has been great. I'm assuming the ice will be mostly gone by tomorrow and everything will be back to normal. That is exciting too. Woot. It's definitely been several days of fun.

2009

I am twelve days late on posting a new year's blog...but here it is. Yay 2009!!! 2008 was a great year for me...or the second half of it. Actually all of it had good things and good learning experience. I am excited to start another year and so far 2009 has been fantastic! I just got back from Winter Conference with RUF. There really isn't a better way to start your year than hanging out in Colorado with great people, great teaching and great scenery. It was beautiful. The only downside was the result of the National Championship game. I've gotten over it now. Actually, I was over it within 5 minutes once I realized that Ole Miss is actually the number one team in the nation, since they were Florida's only loss of the season. Woot! Hotty Totty!! I know that that is poor logic, but just let me be deluded into thinking that.

Also, in 2009 I got two new roommates. They two and a half days I have lived with them have been awesome!! It's going to be a great semester. I am so excited to see what this semester brings. I feel settled in Norman and hopefully interning will be ballin' this year. I am going to Peru for spring break with a couple of students and the RUF from the University of Texas. I'm really excited, but I have no idea what I am getting myself into. Peru Mission, the organization we are going to volunteer for, seems like an incredible organization. I can't wait to find out more about it and see how God is using the people in Peru to advance his kingdom.

Honestly, 2009 has a lot going for it right now. That's exciting. It's totally going to chumpatize 2008.

Seriously.

To return to my original purpose of this blog (which is updating people on my internship), I need to write about the first semester as a whole. I was briefly sidetracked for about 3 months with randomness and trivial posts. For the more serious followers of my blog, I apologize. For sillier reader, I am sure I will digress again. But for now I am completely serious.

I cannot explain what it was like to move to a completely new place, knowing practically no one and having to instantly be friends with people, to pursue them and initiate all points of meeting. That was definitely new to me. I don't think I understood what that meant (and probably still don't) when I first moved to Norman. Looking back over the past 4 months I can honestly say there was not a collective time where I thought I had made a bad decision in going through with the internship. At each point I have been thankful for what I was learning and the relationships that were forming. And I have so much joy in talking with the girls I have had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with. I honestly cannot imagine myself doing anything else at this time in my life.

I did not notice any significant change as the semester progressed, but thinking of all that has happened so far it is really interesting to see how the students have changed, how I've changed and the overall experience of being an intern has changed. I feel like the Norman/RUF/Christ the King Pres community is a 3rd home. Third only because Huntsville and Oxford are homes too. I was telling a couple of people the other day that I am extremely excited about going home for Christmas. I get to see some friends and my family, there really isn't a better time than that, but I am sad to leave for two weeks before coming back for Winter Conference. I am happy here, I am also happy at home or in Oxford. It's strange but such an amazing feeling. Originally, I would have never thought that living in Oklahoma and being an intern at OU would have been a great fit for me. Now I couldn't imagine anywhere better. I am so thankful for the people that God has put in my life here, for the people I get to work with and the friendships I get to invest in. I love being involved with the people here and most everything about my job. I am looking forward to coming back to Norman and OU in January for another semester. I am so glad that God is at work and that he is in control of things. That is a hard concept for me. I cannot wait to see what 2009 is going to bring. It will definitely bring back the exclamation, "HOT DOG!!" I'm bringing that back. Get excited! It'll be awesome.

Hey Buddy, wanna go pick some snowberries??

It's officially after Thanksgiving, which means it's CHRISTMAS!!!!! or well the Christmas Season. Christmas isn't for another 26 days. I have a rule for my life that there is NO Christmasy things before Thanksgiving...mainly because I get sick of Christmas music and Christmas movies and Christmas clothes and Christmas decorations if it starts before Decemeber. But tomorrow is December 1st and in case you were not aware of this...Christmas is in December. Woot.
The past four years, my friend Leah and I have always watched Elf and have continuously quoted it throughout the season. We're still planning on watching this movie together even though she lives in Knoxville, TN and I live in Norman, OK, but we'll see each other in Oxford before Christmas...and thus the Elf screening will happen. I'm planning on watching it before then though. Maybe every day...or every other day. We'll see...I am also looking forward to watching Little Women, A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, and many others...I might even try out White Christmas...I've never seen it, but I hear it's pretty classic. Yay ELF!!!!!