spring break '05...the second weekend

what happened to the five days in between, you ask? well, not that it wasn't fabdabulously awesome, i just don't have the pictures right now to post and i prefer to post pictures with the appropriate update. instead, i'm putting the bulk of the break (that is, my beach trip with my friend amy, aka my roommate for next year, and four other girls) on hold so i can talk about the surprisingly awesome weekend i've had.

so, you don't know this yet, but i was sitting in the ft. lauderdale airport thursday night waiting for my 9:45 flight (which was supposed to take off at 7 pm, but bad weather caused delays. turns out, i sat throught the 5 and 6 o'clock flights which were delayed as well, cuz i didn't know they existed, but thats another story) because i had to get back to my athens home early for a stupid geology field trip. i don't know what genius decided to put it on the last saturday of spring break, but ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on. got home at 1 am, which isn't an important detail, but i included it anyway. early the next morning (approximately 10 am) i rolled out of bed and began packing all my junk up to head back to school. as you know, i was having all this drama trying to figure out how i would get back, where i would stay, and all that jazz. my parents decided it would be best if i just drove up myself (which is amazing, because we don't get to take any cars with us when we go to school). so, after waiting for a new car battery and new set of wheels, i headed off into thick downtown rush hour traffic. finally got to tech to hang out with becca before our eventful evening.

becca, david, and i walked to moe's (where moe's knows burritoes) for a quick meal. we visited the track really quick, where our old high school teams were competing in a meet. none of my girls were there, though the guys were, but what fun are they? anyway, we finally got to the swing dance a little late. tech has these swing dances like once a month or something. we learned a few moves and then the live band played as we dipped and twirled. some interesting characters were there, let me tell ya. it was a blast, though! it really made me want to be good at swing dancing. perhaps i'll take some lessons or something. anyone want to join?

after jump jiving for a few hours, we headed back to becca's dorm. it was midnight and i realized i had reading and crap to do before the feild trip the next day. crappit. so i stayed up til 1 am doing that and then had problems trying to fall asleep cuz they were watching the first episode ever of alias, which is like the best show ever. four hours later, i was up and about getting ready to make the drive back to athens. okay, because i'm cheap and don't want to pay for parking, i borrowed one of becca's friend's parking passes and parked behind the police station on the other stinking side of campus. its prolly like a 15-20 minute walk. i felt like i was running behind and might not make it to the trip on time (bus was leaving at 7:45 am sharp), so i decided to run...thats right, run, to the other side of campus in the dark at way too early in the morning. got in my car at 6:28 am. mapsquest had it calculated to take and hour and 15 minutes. oh man. no time to spare.

so i made my way through campus with foggy windows because, of course, the defroster doesn't want to work. i drove like a speed demon (about 80-85 mph) the whole way. thank God theres no traffic in the morning. my stomach was begging me to stop for breakfast, but there was no way i would let that one stop cause me to miss the trip that i had left the beach early from, sat for hours in an airport, and go through all this trouble to get up in the morning for. no, i was determined to get there. by some miracle of God, i got there at 7:40 am. only took an hour and ten minutes with five minutes to spare. just enough time to let me change my shoes and grab the stuff i needed.

i knew no one who was going on this trip and was kinda bummed that i'd be missing out on spring break fun. but i know that after all those close calls and everything working out perfectly, i was supposed to be there. i boarded the bus and was handed a thick packet...my school work for the day. just what i wanted. okay, the guy leading this trip was seriously a geology nazi. he got on the bus intercom and told us that there would be absolutely no use of cell phones for the twelve hours we woule be on this trip. he did not want to see one...or else. i don't know what he would have done, but it was enough to put the fear in me. furthermore, he went on this lecture about how we will be going nonstop and that geology must be focused on all day. i don't think i can convey his message the right way, but believe me, he was intense. we had to write down the direction we were going, all the turns we made, and note the roads we were travelling. there were about a gazillion questions that were impossible to answer and we could barely hear him.

we visited three quarries, two rivers, and made a few other stops along the way. some things were kinda interesing...the size of one quarry was simply amazing. we even went to a gravestone factory type place where they polish the granite and what not and carve them...it was pretty interesting. i know know why rocks have veins in them and why we have red clay in georgia. the nazi man enjoyed shoving rocks in our faces insisting that we look closely at them. we were supposed to get down on our hands and knees to make sure we could get a good look. he even made one girl crawl on all fours all over this one bedrock. it was kinda funny. anyway, as i said, i didn't know anyone going on the trip, but when i got on the bus i sat down next to a random girl. we started talking and got to know eachother and ended up hanging out the whole trip. its really cool how God works in ways you don't expect. i didn't expect to get much out of the trip, but i ended up making a new christian friend and it was really encouraging.

hours later, we finally arrived back on campus. neither one of us had any plans for dinner, so we decided to meet up at chick-fil-a. we ran into one of jennifer's guy friends who had just sat down to eat. we all sat and talked for about two hours in chick-fil-a. steve was planning to head over to borders to do his devotional for the day, so jennifer and i tagged along and found some books to read. i didn't really know where i was going to stay for the night, since the dorms were closed. jennifer was staying in one of her friend's apartments, so she said there was prolly room for me. that was a blessing because it was on campus and i could get back to my dorm right after it opened to grab some dress clothes for church in the morning. we read for a little bit in borders and went over to kroger to get some groceries and a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream! i was getting tired, since i only had gotten four hours of sleep the night before, so we headed over to jennifer's friend's apartment, which is in the same building as my best friend colette. we stayed up and chatted for a while. turns out that shes from my hometown, only a year ahead of me, and is already publishing a book targeted towards teenage girls and the struggles of image and how our veiw of it should be from a christian perspective. i was so encouraged yesterday by their faith and willingness to serve the Lord and see the impact their faith has on the decisions they make. it was really amazing.

there is a reason for everything. even when i think its me making a decision, God has a bigger plan for me. i thought i was just going on this silly trip to get five points added to my average. but God knew that He was gonna take that day and remind me how amazing He is.