First RUF Large Group

Soooooo, Wednesday was the first Large Group of the semester. And it was AWESOME! But, I'm going to be honest about an hour before I had to go I was pretty terrified and was definitely trying to figure out why I signed up for this job. I quickly forgot about my anxiousness and fear when I arrived and was given the opportunity to meet some many amazing students. From what I understand there were a lot of new people, which is definitely a good thing. It was great to meet people but also to see old people meeting new people and everyone bonding.

For the first three weeks of school Large Group is held in the Passion Pit, which is in the South Oval of OU's campus, which is pretty close to the stadium, which is very very big, which will be packed out tomorrow for the OU v Chattanooga game. That was a long sentence. But yeah, so, Chattanooga...kind of a big deal, right? I don't know a whole lot about OU or OU Football, but apparently they are pretty good. It'll be fun to be at a school that wins. Don't get me wrong, Ole Miss will always be first in my heart win it comes to sports and groving and all of that, but let's face it they haven't made an impression of a winning team in quite a while. As "Victory or Death" is my family motto, it'll be nice to live up to that for once in the football realm of life. So... I'll kick off this weekend with a heartfelt, "GO SOONERS!" and "HOTTY TOTTY" to Ole Miss as well in their game against Memphis. The best of luck to you my dear rebs.

Losing

The past week has been full of greatness and some losses...mainly my winning streak in Cities and Knights. Sadly, there was no sympathy for the new person in town. I was ruthlessly destroyed by my campus minister, but there is always next time. I will win next time. I'm not a very good loser. I did learn how to play two new games so far...Carcassonne and Puerto Rico. I lost them both. I'll have to say they were both very fun. But I actually understood what I was doing in Puerto Rico. Carcassonne, not so much. I just was putting pieces wherever.

Tonight is the first Large Group for RUF and I am definitely pumped!! We'll be singing and hearing the gospel and having root beer floats afterwards. How much better can it get? It's going to be awesome.

The Beginning

Well, my first week is almost complete. It has definitely been a long week. Not in a bad since of long, just packed with Church, Small group, RUF Book Club, RUF Flannery O'Connor Reading, Feeding International Students, working on my study program, an assortment of dinners with students and new friends, signing my lease for my house and getting everything fixed up, opening a bank account, figuring out my schedule for the semester, researching internet and cable options and still trying to learn my way around. It's been very busy, but that's a good thing. I am really excited about getting to meet some of the freshman tomorrow at the New Sooner Kickoff and meeting the already established RUFers on Saturday at the Relish leadership team Principles of Ministry day. I'm excited and looking forward to it all getting started, but it's definitely very terrifying as well.

I'm Here

So, my parents and I made the looooooooong trek to Oklahoma on Friday with only minor complication of trying to find somewhere to eat in Arkansas. Apparently, signs lie...or I am just a terrible navigator. But anyway, after about 13ish hours of driving we made it, an hour later than we expected due to the unforeseen lunch adventure, but still made it.

I was so fortunate to have a crew of people waiting for me at me house to help unload my trailer, which made moving in take like 20 minutes. It was so great to have it all unloaded. And it was sooooo great to meet people. I am so thankful for all the help I got from everyone!

My three days so far, have been a whirlwind of unpacking, meeting tons of people and trying to get acclimated with everything around me. It's been crazy. I haven't even had a chance to soak it all in. But I'm ok with that. I love it.

I think this internship this is going to be for real challenging but definitely a whole lot of fun.

I'm Movin' Out

The smooth tambre of Billy Joel's voice pretty much monopolized my car's stereo system my senior year in high school. I loved all of his songs. Billy Joel's Greatest Hits is still an all time favorite album of mine. There isn't anything better than rockin out in the car by yourself to Uptown Girl or Piano Man, though Piano Man isn't really a rockin kind of song unless you are rockin a baby to sleep or something. But I particularly loved the song Movin' Out. It just had such a good aspect to it. So, chancing sounding completely ridiculous, "I'm movin' out."

Tomorrow actually!! I'll be loading up the trailer tonight and stuffing my car to the ceiling and at 6am tomorrow I'll start the 11 hour drive to Norman, Oklahoma. I can't begin to describe how excited I am about finally getting to go. I feel like my entire summer has been leading up to this point and I really haven't given much thought to what will happen after I get there, except that I can't wait to meet everyone and get started. I just have no idea what getting started entails. I have a rough idea of what I'll be doing, but I really think this internship is one of those things that is a giant umbrella over a wide spectrum of things. So, get excited because I'm excited!! God willing, in a little more than 24 hours I will be officially on campus and getting started as the OURUF's intern!! Woot!!

Thank Yous!!!

After 5 visitors, 6 phone calls, 7 emails, 4 hours and 3 hand cramps, I finally finished all of my thank you notes. A horrid display of my worst handwriting, as well as the most uncreative messages I could possibly think up. But I found after 57 notes that there are only a few ways to write out thank you. I tried thank you haikus, such as,

Thank you very much
I appreciate your prayers
The money helped too

but I just really didn't think it got the the depth of my thankfulness. I also tried acrostics like,

Thanks
Humans
A
Niceness
Known

You're
Outstandingness is
Unbelievable!!

Those didn't really work well either. I figured just the standard complete sentence way usually works best. But needless to say, I am so thankful to all my supporters financially and in pray that it was difficult for me to put it into words. I have raised the 75% of the $30,000 for the year and I will be moving to Norman, Oklahoma on Friday!!! I am so excited about beginning my intern adventures at OU. There are already so many events and activities planned, it's going to be so great! So, in 2 days and 10 hours I will be Oklahoma bound.

Being Patient is No Fun

Well, I'm getting closer to the moving goal. Only $2700 away and I'm off to become the best Okie I can be. However, I did find out that Okie is a derogatory term for someone out there. I guess it is equivalent to hick or trailer trash or something like that. I don't really know. But I guess I will be the best Oklahoman I can be. I'm hoping to move next Thursday or Friday, so my money needs to come in quick. It's still amazing to me how much has already come in with very little work on my part. It's so neat how God works. I really have no idea what I'm getting myself into. I think I do, but I'm 100% sure it's going to be so much more and so different than I have imagined. And I might be ok with that. So, please keep praying for my money to come in and the OU campus.

Diet Coke

My mom has banned diet coke from the house. My life is over.