Thursday night I went out with a bunch of the guys from UCC for a trap shoot and cookout. One of the families in the church has a shooting range on their land and they hosted the evening's event; it really was an impressive place. The shooting was done from a long, open, porch-like structure with five large shooting windows on the front side. There were six electrical trap launchers, each with a different flight path across the range, and from each window, there were three different sets of shots to take: a single (one trap), a report pair (one trap is launched, and a second is launched as soon as the shooter fires at the first one), and a true pair (two birds are launched simultaneously).
For the first round, we just had everyone split up into groups of three, with one group at each of the five windows. Then, in a very long, methodical process, each person went through the three different sets of shots (a total of five birds per window) at each of the five windows (for a total of 25 birds for the entire round). Lee was manning the grill as well as shooting with Jacob and I in group three. I did alright, but definitely not wonderful. I hit five out of the possible 25 in the first round, and then a little later in the evening I hit five again in a second round. However, the latter time, two of the five were a true pair, which is a very challenging shot to make; I had to track one bird that was launched from above and behind me, and then sight a second trap that was shot straight up into the air on the far edge of the range...but I nailed them both! :-)
What I lacked in shooting ability I made up for on the eating front. :-P If I remember correctly, I put away five or six hamburgers, a hot dog, a few iced teas, random handfuls of chips, and a couple 3 Musketeers and Snickers found their way to my stomach as well...

I do not remember the last time I wore pants. I think it was probably a couple weeks ago when I went around Tuscaloosa visiting businesses to request donations of merchandise, coupons, or gift cards for a raffle in Alabama Crew's upcoming “Septemberfest” at the end of the month. I really did get pretty spiffy--especially for me--when I went: gray dress pants and a white dress shirt in 95-degree+ weather was not fun. Besides that, I have been living in various forms and styles of shorts and t-shirts, and often with a lack of the latter. Just thought I would throw that out there...

Starting this Wednesday, I have five tests from my five classes within two weeks. My Management 300 exam is this Wednesday, the next Tuesday I have Accounting 310, and the following Friday I have my Accounting 289 exam; three days later, I have my Spanish 101 test, and I wrap up the gauntlet with my highest level class: Accounting 371 on Wednesday. Of all of those, AC310 is going the best! It is intermediate accounting, wherein we are learning (or re-learning, as some of it has been in my case) journal entries, debits and credits, adjusting entries, and cash-to-accrual and accrual-to-cash items. The teacher is very straightforward, and perhaps to some he can be aggravating in that he calls persons out in the class that have complained about things being hard or tricky to make sure they understand what is going on. From the first day, even though I think I may be the youngest person in the class, I have stepped out as a leader in the class. A big part of that leadership actually has arisen from the fact that I learned journal entries, debits and credits, and some adjusting entries back in Accounting I & II back at Allegany College of Maryland! What I learned from Merle Helsel in those classes has stuck with me and really come to my assistance in this class, and I have been able to help several others in the class as well. However, while I am confident in the actual bookwork-type problems, I am not fond of the terminology and jargon; there are many obscure organizations and acronyms with significance that is often obsolete. I would really like to get the highest score in the class on this opening test, if not ace it, so I am going to make sure to review the terms. I am definitely looking forward to that test the most. :-)

Oh, and I sold my first football ticket. Tonight we beat Arkansas, ranked #16 in the nation, 41-38 after being up 21-0, and then down 31-38 with less than two minutes left in the game. It was an impressive and chaotic endgame, as we went from losing by a touchdown to winning by a field goal, the margin by which we lost last year at Arkansas.

Today has been lovely, peaceful, and relaxing. Believe me, Saturdays really are nice on the University of Alabama campus--provided there is not a football game on the schedule! So far today, I dropped off Stephanie at ten Hoor for an anthropological/archaeological dig trip to Moundville, about a half hour south of Tuscloosa, and then I retreated back to the room for a somewhat lazy day in the dorm. Actually, no, I did not go straight back to the room: I went to Burke for breakfast first, and then I came back here to the room to get some work done and watch some football...yes, I will admit, I did watch the football game today, although it was while working on my Accounting 289 homework, so it was not a completely unproductive three-and-a-half or four hours. :-)
So, back on Tuesday, the first day of classes after the long weekend was pretty low key: I had practice in the morning at six, per usual, Accounting 310 at 11 o'clock and lunch after that. Then around two o'clock, I headed over to the Aquatic Center to do my workout and help out with the 2:30 novice group that was coming in. Drew was there too, and after some light rowing for 20 minutes, I led the novice group through calisthenics, our running loop, and stretching before Drew ran through our strength training regime with them and released them into the weight room. I headed back to the dorm to shower and grab my books for my Accounting 310 lab at five o'clock, and later that evening, Stephanie and I went up to Blount to get a refresher on tango with Gustavo and some of the other Blountees, which was quite enjoyable.
Wednesday hit, and what I had missed on Monday came back to hit me two days later. After practice at six again, I showered up, ate breakfast, and then walked to Spanish 101 at 10 o'clock; then I had Accounting 289 at 11, lunch at noon, Accounting 289 lab at one, time to bike back to Riverside and change, novice practice at 2:30, Management 300 at 3:30, a mandatory sport club officers' meeting at five o'clock at the Student Recreation Center. Immediately after that (which ended about 20 after six), I biked a little further down the road to University Church of Christ for the first of an installment of classes on managing one's personal finances...and after that, my day was pretty much done. Finally. :-P

This past Sunday, Stephanie and I went to the worship service at University Church of Christ east of campus. Afterward, we thought we were going to meet up with Keri and Steph to have lunch, but because of some technical difficulties and miscommunication, that did not work out. Instead, Keri and Steph ate, the four of us met up and realized what had happened, Keri left to go get ready to leave for Huntsville, and then Stephanie and I went to eat at Lakeside. By three o'clock though, meals had been consumed, overnight bags were packed, and the three of us were back on I-20/59 headed northeast. We made a pit stop at a very slow and inefficient Burger King for some driving munchies/wake-up-the-driver (me) snacks and a second stop at a gas station on I-565 for a restroom break. A short time later, we arrived at Ben's and joined the group that awaited us there: Ben, Ginny, Christian, Rob, John, Amanda, Josh...and others whose names I cannot recall at the moment. We watched a movie and then began the evening's Bible study on covenants, enjoying a pleasant time of fellowship and discussion.
Monday, it being Labor Day and all, we did not have classes (which is what allowed us to travel to Huntsville in the first place), so Keri, Stephanie and I met up with Ben and Christian to go for a leisurely hike/walk around a lovely little lake on Green Mountain. We spent nearly two hours slowly strolling the paths, taking random breaks and side tracks to explore a log cabin replica, climb an interesting rock face, and chat in an adorable outdoor chapel. We finished up the hike, and after much deliberation, figured out what was going on after that: Ben headed back to his house to drop off Christian and then he met us and Ginny at a Chick-fil-A on the north side of Huntsville for a rather early lunch. Chicken sandwiches and delightful milkshakes downed, we three travelers were back on the road, and we got back into town a little after two o'clock. It was strange, really, for when we returned to Tuscaloosa, the time was very near to when we had left the previous day, but as we had no classes, there was no hurry to get to any of the class buildings, and we spent a relaxing afternoon on what seemed like a Sunday afternoon, causing that trip to Huntsville to take on a near dreamlike quality.

I really, really thought before school started, that if I was able to maintain a fairly regular posting schedule that I would continue that into the semester. For those of you regularly reading my blog, you can see that has not been the case! However, I must say, I have posted every Tuesday for at least the last five weeks, so that is something. :-)

Since last Thursday...
Stephanie and I, along with Ryan, Lee, and many other “UCMers” enjoyed a delicious progressive dinner on Thursday night. We went to three different houses for the appetizers, the main course, and finally the desserts. It started raining while we were eating, fellowshipping, and watching some college football openers at the first house, so we darted through the raindrops to get to the house across the street, where the game was up on the television once more, and the main course was devoured by the hungry masses. There was still a steady rain by the time we wound down from dinner, so we clambered back into the church bus to ride to the last house, where we enjoyed a variety of desserts and a little more football to round the evening out.
I had a pretty quiet Friday in the way of classes, but Stephanie and I spent a great deal of the afternoon picking our way through the pre-gameday traffic around Tuscaloosa to look for a last few books for our classes and so I could drop off a couple paperwork items for Alabama Crew. We visited four different bookstores before we found all of Stephanie's remaining volumes, but I was still one book short...
Saturday morning, although, unlike last year, I had not been kept awake until four o'clock in the morning by rowdy and inebriated suitemates, I still slept in, enjoying a brief respite from the six o'clock crew practices that had been in place the rest of the week. I went up to the SUPe store for one more attempt at getting my book, and lo and behold! They had on hand one used, binder-ready (basically a paperback) Intermediate Accounting, which was exactly what I needed. The “used” and “binder-ready” aspects of the book saved me $50 off the used hardcover price, so I was pretty excited. I brought it back down to Riverside, and as Stephanie got ready for the game, I began reading the massive volume. I finished the first chapter by the time we headed out the door to grab a fast bite and walk across campus, through the teeming mob on the Quad, and into the stadium. It was the first time I had been inside since getting thrown out last fall for my “misdemeanor,” and it was just as loud, full, and red as it had been before. Ben and Ryan had saved seats for us, so after Stephanie and I wandered through the crowd with numerous sidetracks and greetings from our sundry circles of friends, we joined the two of them on row 47 in the AA section, off the southeast corner of the field. The game, which had been eagerly and breathlessly anticipated by the multitudes, and Nick Saban's coaching delivered fully on expectations. We scored in 22 seconds and two plays, counting the kickoff, which was returned to Western Carolina's 48-yard line. The stadium went absolutely berserk on that stunningly immediate point conversion, and for Western Carolina, the game went downhill from there. Final Score: Alabama, 52; Western Carolina, 6. Afterward, we joined some Blountees at El Rincon for some late dinner, and then we walked back to campus.
To be continued with Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Highlight #8: A Taste of “Clark Family Christmas”
Being in Alabama, approximately a 15-hour drive from Pennsylvania, I didn't make it home too often. However, I was able to fly home over Christmas break, and to help facilitate my journey, Stephanie's family was kind enough to open their home for me for a short visit (about six hours or so, between 10:30 p.m. and 4:30-ish a.m.) between the time I had to be off campus and my flight's departure time. That Friday of finals week, both Stephanie and I had exams at some point during the day, after which we hastily packed up a last few things (I had a massively enormous duffel bag that I crammed full of stuff to bring home and leave there), dropped off my car at the Kearns--who had graciously agreed to “car-sit” for me over the break--grabbed a quick bite at Wendy's--three crispy chicken sandwiches and a Sprite for me, a three-piece chicken finger dinner with Dr. Pepper for Stephanie; I was done nearly synchronously with her--and then hit the road. We talked and listened to the radio for the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Huntsville, with me making the bulk of the trip behind the wheel on the interstate and through Birmingham, and Stephanie finishing out the trip for the last 20 minutes or so between the interstate and her house. We were greeted by loud exclamations from her younger brother and little cousins, and a more subdued greeting ensued from her older cousin, parents, uncle & aunt, and grandparents. There was quite a crowd, and “coincidentally,” I fit right in, with my “T. Clark” initials aligning nicely with Stephanie's mom's side of the family, the Clarks. We stayed up and chatted with them for a while, eating some munchies and finger food from the kitchen at the urgings of Mimi, Stephanie's grandmother, and then we finally hit the sack. I was sharing a room with Stephanie's cousin Troy for the night, and when we were deciding who would get which bed, I deferred the decision to him, since he was “there first” and was actually family; he quickly assigned me the bed by the door, explaining that I “was bigger” and could keep intruders out! Although my visit was cut short by my impending departure in the morning, it was a pleasant stay.

Highlight #9: Taking the “Next Step” with Stephanie
In February, about a month after I had returned to the university, and eight months into my friendship with Stephanie, we started talking about our relationship and other things of that nature. In the few short months since we had met, we had been through a lot together (both as a “couple” and in our larger group of friends) and had become quite close. Over Christmas break, we wrote back and forth a couple times, and during the Spring semester we had English together on MWF mornings and frequently we grabbed breakfast afterward in the Ferg food court. Ironically--or providentially--Ben (the college minister at Calvary) was doing a series on relationships in The Well, and that helped bring up the subject between us. After looking at our friendship, our attraction to each other, and the things we saw in each other that boded well for a deeper relationship, we “officially” started dating on the eleventh of February. I say “officially,” because for quite some time among our friends and casual acquaintances, it was already assumed that we were dating!

Highlight #10: Spring Break - The Hike on Monte Sano
I know I've already written a brief spiel on spring break this year, but I could always expound upon that a little more. :-) I was at Stephanie's with her family for the first weekend, and we spent a couple days driving and walking around Huntsville, seeing the places she grew up. My favorite part of the weekend was our half-day trip to Monte Sano to hike and have a picnic lunch. We spent the morning scrambling down the steep hillside, taking breaks along the way to catch our breath, take in the scenery, photograph a colorful spring flower, listen to a murmuring underground rivulet, try to get a better look at a wily little lizard, or be silly beneath a sprinkling waterfall. After we made it the entire way down the mountainside to the valley floor, we hiked back up and enjoyed a picnic meal in a quaint stone pavilion that overlooked the hike we had just completed. Once we finished up our homemade hoagies, cleaned up our trash and redeposited the ice chest in the trunk of her Malibu, we drove back into town and topped off the meal with vanilla milkshakes and seasoned fries from Checkers before heading back to her house.

Highlight #5: Superfriends
Along with Stephen, I teamed up with a bunch of guys that we had met at orientation and through the first couple weeks of school to create a pro-league intramural soccer team. We gathered several guys from all over the place: Mitz was from Chicago, Logan hailed from Florida, Armando and Matt were in from Texas, Chris and John were from Alabama, Bryan crossed the border from Mississippi, Stephen came in from Georgia on the other side of the state, and of course, I was there from Pennsylvania (and Alexa our “team mom” was also from Texas). We were a motley bunch in our light pink t-shirts with the Superfriends logo on the front and our chosen names and numbers on the back. We split our four regular season games 2-2, and then lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual league champions, so we had a pretty good run. Playing soccer down there at school was a great experience for me, because I found that I was holding my own with guys that had competed at a much higher level than I had. In addition to the team, I played quite a bit of good old pickup soccer, especially in the first couple weeks of school, when the class loads were still light. There were a lot of international students out on the rec fields, in addition to the American diehards, and the competition was a good test of my abilities, and I definitely came out of it all a much stronger and more confident player.

Highlight #6: “Road Trip #1”
Two weeks before fall break, Stephen and I put together a road trip to go back to his hometown, stay with his family for a couple nights, and see the band Red in concert. As we planned and talked about it, Stephanie, Steph, and Nicole expressed interest in going as well. When the morning came, I was up and ready to go by eight or so, Stephanie and Steph were ready soon after that, and we roused Stephen and tracked down Nicole, finally departing campus in the middle of Gameday traffic for the three and a half hour drive to Columbus, GA. The weekend was a whirlwind as we arrived in Columbus, went to the concert, watched a movie, slept for a few hours, went to church in the morning with the Sauciers, drove to Marietta for Stephanie's mom's birthday party at her grandparent's house, and then drove back to Tuscaloosa through Talladega post-race traffic on I-20. We had the five of us crammed into my Volvo, Stevo and I up front, and the three girls piled sillily in the back seat. We talked, played music, had all the windows down and the moonroof open, drove through Auburn right after their defeat at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks, slept (with the exception of me, of course!), hung out with Stephen's siblings while his mom gave him a quick haircut, laughed as Stephen, his mom and younger brother all headbanged together at the Red concert, met Stephanie's grandparents, helped make homemade ice cream (it was the first time Nicole had ever had such a treat), and then got back to school in time to get some sleep and get back to classes in the morning.

Highlight #7: Thanksgiving at the Saucier's
As I mentioned when I met Stephen, his mom enthusiastically invited me to share Thanksgiving dinner with their family, so on the Wednesday before the break, I packed up a few things after class, and Stephen and I hit the road. The traffic through Tuscaloosa on 82 was incredibly backed up, so it took us a while to really get rolling. I stopped once to get a Coke Blak and a quart of eggnog, and that kept me awake for the remainder of the journey. We arrived late on Wednesday night and unloaded into the entryway of the Saucier's home. We crashed downstairs shortly thereafter, and slept late into Thanksgiving morning. The time was pretty laid-back, although I helped with the preparations that I could, getting my cooking fix to tide me over until I got back home for Christmas. Stephen's uncle and cousin were also at the house, so we hung out a good bit, and one of the fun things we did while we were there was to go “sledding” on a steep, grassy hill on old boxes. Stevo attempted some crazier stunts, and we attempted to pull a two-seater, but the box ripped partway down the hill, and Stephen skidded to a stop as he slipped off the box! We also cut down a sizeable tree in their front yard, trimming off the large branches and the trunk for firewood, and raking up the smaller twigs and leaves to dump in a small ravine behind their house. Stephen and I also went to see one of his friends play at a little coffeehouse, and we played Spoons and I helped “coach” a game of Scrabble with some of his other friends from Columbus. We left, after a lovely, relaxing time, on Sunday afternoon with Mary Kellye and caravaned back to school.

Early this week, I had hoped to make up some ground with daily posts, but unfortunately, I ignorantly said something apparently inappropriate in my last post, and I was unable to access my blog! But now the problem is fixed, and I can pick back up where I left off.

Highlight #3: Outdoor Action, and the Friends that came with that Week
Instead of jumping right into the first week of school like most everyone else, I opted to take a week-long honors course before school started, just to kind of “get my feet wet” and ease into the whole several-hundred-miles-away-from-home-at-a-huge-university thing. After my family helped me move in and subsequently departed for the 14 hour drive home, I strolled about campus for a bit, taking care of a few preliminary things. I picked up my books from the SUPe store, and saw a familiar face: Stephanie Bailey! Yes, another Stephanie, also one that I met at orientation, but only briefly after we had both been “killed” in a game of Mafia. Anyway, after chatting briefly with Steph and her parents, they drove back to Blount and I trekked to the Riverside Community Center to check in with the OA folk. That was all on Sunday; that evening, we had the first group get-together, and I reconnected with Stephanie (we had eagerly been looking forward to the week via Facebook) and started meeting the rest of the bunch. The leaders included Blake, Tara, Bekah, Jackie, David, Brian, Walter, and James Hugh. My fellow students were Stephanie, Steph, Sarah, Austin, Ash, Kyle, Eric, Joni, Nicolette, Shannon, Ben, Patrick, Katie, Jill, Tanner, Sarita...and two more whose names I cannot think of at the moment. The 27 of us enjoyed a week spent camping, canoeing, hiking, learning about habitats and the environment, taking in lectures, discovering some great places to eat, and of course, digging a pond. Through that week, I got to know a lot of the bunch very well, and I ran into them (some more than others) through both semesters. OA provided me with another good base group of friends, and especially in the cases of Stephanie, Steph, and Sarah, they have continued to be close friends.

Highlight #4: The Well @Calvary
Before I left for Alabama, I knew that one thing I would need to find very quickly was a church that I could get connected with. The first week for us at school, Stephen and I biked to Calvary Baptist, which, from us, was on the far side of campus. We went on a Sunday to start out with, and we heard about Freshman Bible Studies starting up the next evening. We biked back over on Monday night and plugged into that group; we were pulled into the same Bible Study group, with Josh and Westley as our leaders. Those first couple meetings were a little tentative and quiet, but as the semester progressed, and through the course of this past semester, the group grew and got much more comfortable around each other--sometimes to the point of utter chaos at times! :-) 'Twas all in good fun though. The Well was another big thing for me this year; it was Calvary's college service on Wednesday nights, and I only missed a handful of them through the year. I met many people there, saw friends, made friends, and really enjoyed the music and the majority of the messages.

From the beginning of my experience at UA, there have been numerous blessings, “coincidences,” and fond memories; here I shall try to bounce across several of the highlights of orientation and my first two semesters at UA. :-)
Right from the start, as I believe I have blogged before, I was able to see God's hand in seemingly minor things like meeting a UA alumni on the plane down to orientation, meeting Stephen, Mrs. Saucier (which led to meeting the rest of the Saucier clan), and Stephanie and her parents at orientation. Even though I had never set eyes or feet on the campus before I arrived that Monday evening before orientation, as soon as I did both of those things, and met Ben at the information desk in the Ferg (who recommended Mom and I to Q'Doba's where we would find “burritos as big as your face!”) and strolled the tiny corner of campus that we found to stroll upon, I felt comfortable and “at home.” Yes, it was several hundred miles away from home; yes, I had yet to meet a single student (save Ben, of course, who I actually still run into now and then); no, I hadn't even toured the campus, met teachers, or seen dorms; however, I already liked the little I had seen.

Highlight #1: Meeting Stephen
Mom and I parked in the Riverside parking lot, outside the North building, and I tugged my shoulder bag and Lotto duffel out of the trunk of the sharp white Mazda3 that we were renting. Mom sniffled and gave me a hug, and as we turned and began walking towards the building, I spotted a similar couple ahead of us: a lanky young man with a Nike or Adidas duffel bag accompanied by a woman that was most likely his mother also walking towards Riverside North. We got to the lobby and checked in, I got my key and temporary passcard for the building, and then said goodnight to Mom before picking my bags back up and walking down the hall to the room I would be in for the next pair of nights. I was in room C, which had a view of the Riverside Courtyard. The young man I had seen walk in ahead of me happened to be in room D, right next to me. After getting somewhat settled, I stepped out into the hall and noticed him leaning against the wall, holding a Frisbee. He tossed out the question, “Do any of you guys play any sports?” Pointing to the disc in his hand, I responded that I played some Frisbee, so we introduced ourselves (“Hi, I'm Trevvor.” “Hello, I'm Stephen.”), strolled back down the hall and out into the courtyard where we began tossing the toy back and forth. As we played, we talked, and as we talked, we kept discovering numerous similarities. We both played Frisbee, soccer, and tennis, enjoyed the same bands, were just a couple months apart in age, were planning to attend the university on academic scholarship, and both were the oldest of four children (and even our three siblings lined up fairly close in age!). We hung out for the rest of the evening, and I rode with him and his mom (he drove a Honda Accord that was a 5-speed, yet another thing in common) to the coffeeshop on the strip, and we agreed that the nickname of “Mischievous Donkey” was a more tactful title for the coffee connoisseur. The next morning, his mom and my mom met, and within 10 minutes, Mrs. Saucier informed me that I was going to their house for Thanksgiving that fall. “Wow. That was fast,” I thought, already looking forward to the end of summer and the beginning of school with a friend as great as Stephen to experience it with.

Highlight #2: Meeting Stephanie
Stephen was rather the ladies' man during orientation (and he still is...) and nearly every time I saw him after we had parted ways for a while, he had met a new girl and she was following him around. Well, during that first session when my mom met Stephen's mom, we met Stephanie, who was sitting on the row of seats in front of us, a little ways to our right. Stephen actually made her acquaintance first, and then introduced the two of us. The three of us hit it off pretty quickly, but didn't get to talk for very long at that point, because the welcome session was about to begin. However, as the day progressed, we ran into her several more times: I had lunch with her and her friend Jennifer in Fresh Foods, and since her last name started with “C” as well, we were both placed in the same Avanti group! As we talked, we found out that both of us had been homeschooled for the majority of our grade school and high school lives, we were also attending UA on scholarship, and going to Outdoor Action the week before school started up in August. From there, she friended me on Facebook, and we chatted back and forth on each other's walls through the summer until it was time to head to school. Then we had a week to get to know each other through Outdoor Action, canoeing, camping, exploring wetlands, digging a pond, eating at Mugshots and El Rincon II with the rest of the gang, and then going to Bama Blast and the huge pep rally in Bryan Denny Stadium, sitting up at the top of the student section and poking fun at the goings on.

Welcome to a day in the life of me. Hope you enjoy the ride, because I know I have. :-)

It's four o'clock, and yes, there is an alarm going off--it's time to get up! Four in the morning is not a typical hour for me to rise in the morning, but I had a pair of Arts of Tuscaloosa response papers to write, and instead of staying up late last night, I decided to write them this morning before crew practice. That meant getting up really early. Family Force Five was softly blaring out of my stereo as I sat on my bed, typing and munching M&M's (those things have really kept me alive lately!). By the time five o'clock came around, I had written two decent papers to turn in, and since my printer is out of black ink at the moment, I emailed them to myself to print at one of the labs later in the day. Then I got ready for practice, biked up to my car, attached my bike rack, put my bike on the bike rack, and headed off to the boathouse. This morning, the coxswains showed up, so we actually were able to get out on the water; it was the first time since Friday that I had rowed, and it felt good to be back on the river again, especially with a fairly important regatta coming up this weekend. Practice went well, and I was back in my car by 7:32, driving back to campus. I had hoped to finish my workout from yesterday before going to Legal Studies at eight, but I was running severely short on time, so I just parked my Volvo at the aquatic center and biked to Bidgood and trotted up the steps to my classroom. Mr. Turner had to leave class early for a commitment in Birmingham, so he let us out nearly 40 minutes early! We didn't complain, and I used the new wealth of time to walk next door to Morgan to print out my papers. Then I was going to go to the aquatic center again to work out, but I came across Person, Billy, Alex, and Josh tossing frisbees on the quad, so I stopped and played with them for about 20 minutes before continuing on my original path. However, I realized that there's a class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 at the aquatic center in the hospitality room where we usually erg, and it was already 9:15 or so, giving me very little time to effectively row. I opted to drive over to the rec center instead, but that shrunk my window of time to workout, so by the time I was finished, I was running a tad late for Astronomy. However, my workouts went well; yesterday's had been 2x2000m, 2x500m, and 4x250m, and since I hadn't had time to work in the last part, I did that between today's 15 and 30 minute pieces. In Astronomy, we're talking about the “deaths” of stars, and the different forms they take after “dying:” white dwarfs, neutron stars, and infamous black holes.

{
Here's a question for you to ponder: if the Sun were instantaneously converted into a black hole of equal mass, what would happen to us? Would we:
  A. Get immediately sucked into the black hole.
  B. Begin orbiting the black hole faster and faster from the increased gravity.
  C. Stay exactly where we are, because the black hole isn't that “sucky.”
  or D. Careen off into space because the Sun is no longer holding us in.
}

Anyway, that class was pretty interesting, and by the time it was over, I had been up for eight hours, and I had yet to eat anything beyond a couple handfuls of dark chocolate and peanut M&M's. Needless to say, I was somewhat hungry. :-P I hopped on my bike--after smacking the wall outside the door at Gallalee with my fingertips as I attempted to hold the door for a group of people coming out after me...that hurt--and rode back down to Lakeside. After a quick call home to check with Mom about a few things, I gratefully stepped into a warm shower. These past couple days of heat and humidity have left me absolutely drenched, so it's been very pleasant to rinse off that grunge at the end of the day, or whenever else I manage to find a blink of time to shower. Once I toweled off and changed, I grabbed my backpack and embarked once again, this time to Burke to finally grab something to eat. 'Twas exactly nine hours after I got up before I had anything to eat. I enjoyed a steaming plate of cheese strata, chicken pot pie, and braised cabbage, along with a large salad, dry, with olives, a big bowl of cottage cheese and fruit salad ambrosia, and a small helping of hot applesauce. After adding a cup of water and a cup of [unsweetened] tea, I sat down to savor and devour my hearty meal. I headed over to Calculus after that, and we got out fairly early as well, since the teacher decided to only cover one section, since that was all that was due on Thursday. With the extra time there, I figured I could get a jump on my homework before Arts of Tuscaloosa, so I went to Shelby, slid down to the floor outside the room, pulled out my laptop...and discovered that Shelby is an absolute wireless graveyard. It was disappointing. So I played pinball for a few minutes before moseying into class. I dropped off my response papers in the big manila envelopes taped to the white markerboard at the front of the room, selected my seat (exactly in the middle of the longest row), slouched down, and laid my head back to try to catch a couple-minute catnap. It's interesting to listen to the noise level in the room as people arrive. When I first sat down, the room was fairly quiet, with only a low chatter in the background. Over the next half hour or so, the chatter rose to a near-deafening crescendo before Allen Jones shushed the group and brought the meeting to order. The most interesting part of the session was a freshman violinist, a hip hop violinist to be exact, that came to play a couple short impromptu pieces for us as part of an announcement about a concert next Tuesday night which looks like it would be incredibly well-worth my time, but unfortunately, I have class every Tuesday night! Instead of the typical music one would hear from a violin (or, in this case, a viola), “D-Sharp” (or possibly “D#”...I'm not sure how he spells his nickname/stage name) played in a very unorthodox, atypical style. It's rather a hard sound to convey in words, but to get a little taste of what it was like, visit LitDoor.com and check out the information about Daniel Bernard Roumain, who will also be playing next Tuesday. The natives began to get restless around 4:25, and as there were no more questions for the little panel of writers/editors of a few of the campus' journals, we were released from our academic cage, and everyone eagerly flew to freedom in the fresh air. I walked to Blount with Keri, and then went to dinner with Stephanie, after which she had to head over to Moody for a chamber choral group practice (we don't see each other much on Monday and Tuesday). Now I'm in the Ferg, biding my time before Dance...I was going to work on Calculus for a bit--I still can--but blogging was much more attractive at the moment, since the day has already held so much intense academia.

And that's pretty much everything up to this point. I've now been awake for the last 14 1/2 hours, and I still have at least two and a half more to go...and that's just until the end of my last class of the day, that doesn't get me back to my dorm room and in bed!

Oh, and the answer to the above question is C.

*Quick Edit* The above is two solid pages, four double-spaced, and over 1300 words...and I wrote it all in just over 40 minutes...why can't I do that for my regular papers?!*/Quick Edit*

*Ahem* As I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself...
Wednesday morning arrived, early as always, and after packing my binder and English book in my shoulder bag (as much as I like messenger bags, and as nice as the backpack is that I received with my scholarship, I've really come to prefer the “sling” style of bag this semester; it's easy to get on and off, it has relatively large capacity, it's comfortable, and I don't have to deal with a bouncing messenger bag as I'm walking quickly to class) and layering up for the early morning chill, I slipped out the door and into the morning. Traffic is great at 5:15 a.m.--well actually, it's virtually nonexistent! That makes it nice for the days I'm dragging a little, because then the drive to the boathouse takes only about seven minutes, as compared to last fall when we were going in the mid-afternoon rush and it usually took about twice as long. We finished up quite early, so I joined some of the guys for breakfast at Burke (or, as we call it, “Burkefast”) before English. Since I still had to drive back to the Ferg lot and park and then walk to class, I was a couple minutes late, but the breakfast was worth it! :-P We reviewed the study guide for the test we would be taking on Friday (which, I may add now that it is after the fact, was absolutely ridiculous!) and picked apart a couple more pieces of poetry and some of the poets' theories of romanticism. Let's see...then I went for my second breakfast in the Ferg, worked on some Calculus homework, and after walking Stephanie to class in B.B. Comer, I strolled back to Lakeside (actually, I realize as I write “I strolled” that I rarely actually stroll...my gait is usually something of a determined “I'm-trying-to-be-as-efficient-as-possible-so-I'm-walking-fast” kind of walk), took care of a few things like slightly straightening up my room and getting some laundry ready to wash, and changed into some more comfortable clothes for the temperature. Wednesday was a gloriously mild winter day, and crew practice had been much more enjoyable because of that fact. Anyway, I swapped my regular note binder for my chorus binder, added an extra shirt for after I worked out, and then I walked back up to Toomey and waited for Stephanie, who was in a meeting with her Blount teacher. Once she was finished, we walked to Burke for lunch, and then continued on to Moody for chorus. While I was apprehensive about that class at first, I've come to enjoy it a lot, and the instructor, Paul Dease, is a very engaging, encouraging, and energetic guy. I'm finally starting to be able to sing my parts with more confidence--although I still confuse Bass I and Bass II parts in more complicated music when I can't hear and follow other Bass I's. I had signed up for a “One-to-One” session with Mr. Dease, so after class, we met for a half hour and worked through some parts I had struggled with (and it really helped quite a bit, because when we sang those parts on Friday, I actually knew what was going on!) and he gave me advice for improving. When we finished, I trotted over the aquatic center to do my workout for the day. Nearly any time I work out now, I remember what Adam had told Aaron and I the first day of practice last fall as we took off to run our one-mile loop: he had called the ergs “the ultimate weight-loss machine,” to which Aaron and I inquired about its effect on those of us that definitely did not need to lose weight; Adam's reply was “then you just get ripped.” It's quite true, quite true. :-) When I finished up, I walked back to Moody and met up with Daniel and Stephanie, and we spent about an hour “studying” for our upcoming English exam. Around seven, I strode up to the Ferg to eat again (yep, four meals a day is pretty typical for me, and I actually broke a record Thursday night: I used my meal plan six times in the span of one day!), this time with Sarah, Shelley, Ben, Ryan, Aaron, Stephen, Stephanie, Katie, and Kate, and then we went to the Well at eight at Calvary. Afterward, we hung out and talked for quite a while, and then we went to “Naughty Donkey” along with Lee, Ryan (a second Ryan), Todd, and several other guys and gals I didn't see. On the way back to the dorms afterward, Lee let me ride the bike he built. Ooooh, that was so much fun! He used 29" wheels and and extra large frame, it's single speed, has disc brakes, and he's working on getting a suspension fork for it. 'Twas a pretty sweet ride, let me tell you. :-) After dropping off Keri and Stephanie at Blount, Stephen, Ben, Lee, and I continued on to Lakeside--where we ran into Toaster for about the third time that day--and Riverside (well, Ben did anyway). Then I went to bed.
So, I hope that kind of explains why exactly I wasn't blogging in those three days! :-P

*GASP!* I know, I haven't posted for three consecutive days, but allow me to explain.
On Monday, I arose at five, dressed, and gathered the items I would need for the day. I left the building and did not return for 16.5 hours--and the entire time I was within a one-mile radius of campus. Crew practice started at 5:30, we got on the water at six, got back off shortly after seven, and after drying the shells and putting the two launches away, I scooted back to campus for English at eight o'clock. After class, I had breakfast with Stephanie and I did my English homework. Then I forget what I did between 10 and 11 o'clock...at 11, I met an acquaintance for lunch, and then walked down the quad to Gallalee for my Astronomy lab. Matt (Miller) and I grouped up with another guy sitting at the first table, and we moved through the exercise pretty quickly. After we finished, we walked over to Burke for a second lunch, and we ate with Meridith and then Toaster joined the three of us after his lab was finished. About an hour passed as we talked about English, crew, the World Cup, Avantis, and everything in between; then we headed back to the main part of campus, and I detached myself from the group to go to class as we passed Nott Hall. Arts of Tuscaloosa lasted for the next 45 minutes, and my first two response papers were returned: two A's. :-) By then, it was four o'clock, so I strolled back to Blount and met Keri and Stephanie, and after a while, we joined Stephen, Steph, Taylor, Brian, Matt, Sarah, Brendan, Sarah Kelley, Gabi and Meridith for dinner at Fresh Food. Around 10 till six, we were wrapping up the meal, and Stephanie and I went over to UCM to get ready for Campus View. Rather, Stephanie went to get ready, I had only been planning on participating, but Kurt and Ben needed another bass to help lead the singing, so in a moment, I had a mic in my hand and we were going through a songlist for the evening. At seven, we began, and after singing, Larry moved to the front to speak to us. After a short story and a few other words, we grabbed songbooks and adjourned to the stairwell, where we sang for the next 40 minutes. That was pretty incredible. We finished up just after eight, and once I had helped stack up the chairs from the main meeting room, I dashed off to Malcolm's room in Lakeside East for Bible study with the guys. We had 16 guys crammed into the living room of Malcolm, Will, and Drew's suite! We're working through the book of Acts, and our discussion for the evening covered chapter two, which related the events of Pentecost and the disciples' receipt of the Holy Spirit. Finally, 10 till 10, I walked back into Lakeside East. I showered and got ready for bed, but before I went to sleep, I wrote one of my two papers required for my Arts of Tuscaloosa seminar the next day. Then I went to bed.
Tuesday morning, I was up at five again...*bikes off to Astronomy, lunch, Calculus, the Ferg, and Blount before returning to continue the saga*...for practice. We rowed the Tenacity and the Weibelizer, and I returned to seven seat in the Tenacity for the day, which was my “original” seat last year before I moved back to five. We finished up relatively early (about 20 after seven), so I drove back to campus, parked at the top of the Ferg lot, and grabbed breakfast in the 10 minutes of “free” time I had before I needed to walk to class at eight. Once Legal Studies finished up, I walked back to Lakeside and took care of a few logistical things before heading back out for my Astronomy test at Gallalee. Even though the class technically starts at 11, we didn't get the test started until nearly a quarter after the hour...not that I needed all that time to do the test, but even so, I could've been finished sooner, and then I would have had a slightly larger window in which to eat lunch. Anyway, after I completed the exam, I biked over to the aquatic center to work out, and I was there for the next two hours. While I was able to complete a day and a half worth of workouts, I was left with a mere 16 minutes in which I could possibly grab a bite to eat and get to class. I opted to stop at Burke to grab a bite and get to class a few minutes late. I wolfed down a salad, a scoop of some tasty peas & carrots, and two slices of pizza before racing back out the door and down the block to Gordon-Palmer for Calculus. I was three or four minutes late, but it was alright because the class was all review for the test--the test I took last Monday! So instead, I paid loose attention to the review and brushed up on some Legal Studies material for the upcoming test. Arts of Tuscaloosa was the next stop on my list, and along with 11 other willing victims, I was instructed in the art of contra-dance. :-) I had had a heads-up on the class from Brian, who is in my dance class with me, so I knew to participate in the session, because that way it was a lot more engaging and fun. Slightly perspiring after our lively “class,” Keri and I meandered back to Blount and gathered people to go eat dinner. We waited at Blount for a little while, and then we went to the Ferg and had dinner before I stepped across the quad to Moore for my Intro to Dance instruction session. We reviewed the swing and the first few steps of the cha-cha, finished up the remaining steps of the cha-cha, and then began to learn the basic steps of the rumba. Brian and I were carrying on the whole time; that class is so much fun! On the way back, we stopped on the quad to do some pull-ups on a pull-up bar behind Toomey. He had bet his brother $100 that he could do 50 pull-ups by the end of the semester, so I said I'd work on it with him. (Yesterday at the aquatic center I did three sets of 10, which is a whole lot more than I've ever done before!) It was 9:30 before we were finished, and so after a stop at Blount to see Steph, Stephanie, Keri, and Casey, it was back to Lakeside with me to sleep and start the cycle all over again.
*Inhales deeply in preparation for the next spiel* Wednesday morning arrived, early as always...*showers, meets Keri and Ben for dinner, goes to Moody for orchestra concert*