It whips ma HAIR back n' forth

I think culture's done a good job of dealing with the psychological damage that natural disaster movies have done. My mind goes to The Day After Tomorrow and Twister, but feel free to let your noodle wander where it may.

So when, in reality, the sky begins to darken at midday and the wind whips debris in panicked cirles and rain pounds its fists on the window panes... you want to get dramatic. In the movies, people hush commands to loved ones and action skyrockets. I've gotta admit, it takes a little bit of self restraint for me to keep my adrenaline from taking me places. At heart, I'm just a little kid. For the most part, I don't see any of that from anyone else. When disaster brushes by, people keep calm and take a precaution or two. I'm glad I'm the only one who's been ruined.

We had a tornado warning and some torrential rain the other day. People in the student center were put in the banquet rooms and classes were moved to the stairwells. I can't lie even a little bit -- when I went around the dorm and asked girls to go to first floor, I felt a little epic inside.

The wind's been crazy ever since. It whips my hair back n' forth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymKLymvwD2U

Danielle loves John Wayne

Stop crushing on OLD, DEAD PEOPLE!!!! -Kayla Johnson

PS- At Anne's prompting, Danielle, Anne, and myself went to Walmart and got legiiiiit sweatpants for 5 bucks. They're soft and they have pockets and they have stretchy ankle bottoms and they're soft on the inside and they're boys extra large. Woooo!

Get ready, 7:50 club. We're wearin' our sweats and white v-necks. Kick it.

It's a disease

I have a love/hate relationship with Mark Twain. He is an antagonistic genius and I am simultaneously in awe of his pen and distanced by his manipulation. It's almost as though I'm a baby bird in Mark Twain seminar. I open my little beak and food is regurgitated into my throat so fast that I have just a second to enjoy it before- UGUCKACK! I choke. And still the food comes.

I finished all of my reading for the class yesterday. Not only is that on time... it's early. Release the doves and saddle up the horses, I was ready to live happily ever after! A smile plastered on my face, I decided that I would use my breath of fresh air to check my e-mail. There was one message in bold, sitting heavy as it waited to be opened. Inside was a list of five additional sources to read for our next class. Shoot.

Welp, as the discussion leader, I've got another 40-some pages to swallow. It's no wonder I've got Twain on the brain.

(2 hours later: Let me give you a little taste of the odd place I've found myself today. All of the articles about Mark Twain's graphic 1601 are decently colorful. Here is an excerpt from my readings.

"Nearly every visual artist... has been drawn to the erotic and the pornographic. So have literary artists throughout human history. Sometimes the urge has been to stimulate the genitals; sometimes the urge has been to stimulate the mind. Since the mind and the genitals are part of one organism, why distinguish between masturbatory dreams and aesthetic ones? Surely there is also an aesthetic of masturbation that our society is too sex-negative to explore." Thank you, Erica Jong, scholar and sexual optimist.")

Watch your butt.

So I was ambushed yesterday by some girls in my unit who said, and I quote, "YOU GOTTA WATCH YOUR BUTT -- YOU'RE ON THE LIST!"

The Hodson guys are playing nerf gun assassin. You get a name of someone to assassinate, the first time you hit them they're wounded. The second time they're dead. Then you have to try and kill the person they were trying to kill. You work your way down the line until you're the last one standing.

Some of my girls decided our unit was going to play our own version of the game. Instead of shooting each other with nerf guns ("Like idiots," they said), we're going to slap each other's backsides. So last night I picked a name and I'm on a mission. If I didn't know the girl well before, I'll know her now.

Point being, when all's said and done, I might just have the best unit on campus. And even though they llama call at me from a distance and pin me to the floor and tickle me... they're now all slinking through campus: shifty-eyed, paranoid, and industriously watching their butts.

ah!

I can't believe I didn't call Shelty today!

discovery

I've discovered that if my blog post has a picture, people comment on it.

So I'm going to keep it short and sweet: I slept, canoed, and communed with God during Hall Day Away. Kayla, Mike, Ben (cool kid/possible genius), and I played cards. I've been tearing through "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Don Miller. Legit book. Parts of it are my life's philosophy. So I googled the book title and I'm adding the first photo that made me smile. I'm calling California friends tomorrow. LOOK OUT.

Chewing

In Huck Finn, the reddest of necks gnaw on "chaws" of tobacco. This morning, I was chewing on a chaw of scripture.

"No longer be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Don't be conformed. Got it. Be transformed. Okay. BY renewing your mind... I feel like renewing implies a continual process... I don't think I had ever thought of that. It's like... pretend I'm red. The color red. And I want to be transformed into orange. So I do my devotions and put a drop of metaphorical yellow into myself. I don't know. I feel like if I want to be wholly transformed, I'll keep up that process. My humanity continually grows and branches and produces actions that make me more and more red -- so how can I not continue the process of squeezing that little dye bottle?

The metaphor isn't poetic, but that was my brain fetus this morning. I was not transformed into a creature of God when I accepted Christ. I was rather transformed into God's creature. The difference is that I had the ability to BECOME a creature of God. I allowed God to open my little soul's lid so He could pour down some of His goodness. I had something to accept and something to ask for when I received salvation. I haven't been renewing my mind. But I'd considered myself transformed. I'd never thought of this verse that way.