Friday, March 3, 2017

Friday Night Thoughts

     Week after next will be spring break (which I doubt will be much of a break). But still, that's a pause from classes for a bit, which is kind of nice. The Thunder are losing to the Suns in Phoenix right now on the almost-silent TV, and Pandora is running in another window. I got a short story finished that's due next week, and a good chunk of another assignment mapped out. It's been a pretty usual Friday night - sort of productive, a little lonely, but with some effort at following a routine to give things some structure - that's why I'm typing this blog post, and why the game is on.

     Overall, this week was pretty average; last week was rough. Uploaded some overdue stuff to the writing projects blog, which I'd been meaning to do for a while. I need to work on the book-review blog, too.

     Texted Dylan and Jon earlier today, it was good to hear from them. They're both doing all right. Jon had some good advice, which is helpful. Ashland and I are counting down until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 releases in early May.  Her classes are going "fairly easily" this semester, she said last week, so that's good. No news about SGYC 2017 yet - if I can, I think I'd like to help out again.

     Trevor had surgery on his shunt Monday morning, and that went well. Caleb got Dad's old phone, so Courtney and I taught him how to use Spotify. That was fun.

     The MCU is currently at 14 movies (and an ever-widening array of TV shows) since 2008. That's amazing. I think it was right at the end of 2011 that we got into sucked into it. Anyway, Iron Man 3 released at the start of finals week my freshman year, which was a really great motivator.

     Capstone is extremely depressing. Which is slightly better than feeling depressed, anxious AND extremely pissed off, which was how I felt after every Seminar class let out last semester. We've been talking a lot about philosophy for some inexplicable reason, and most English majors don't understand philosophy, so our eyes glaze over while three people out of fifteen say anything. And so far the overarching topic during the immediate coursework has been Death. So if religion can't be used (and it can't, because this is a classroom), how else can you talk about or argue your way around its inevitability? Everything becomes a foolish waste of time.
     The highlight of yesterday was finishing a crossword puzzle in one sitting, which doesn't happen often. But it sounds pathetic that that was the highlight. I'm frustrated by my Pop Market stuff this week, considering that it was one my teaching weeks and the topic was sports. I could have whipped out a really good sports scene in no time, so why did I go with nonfiction, straightforwardly reconstructing myself at five watching Monday Night Football? And the discussion Tuesday morning didn't go too well, either - except for Brian (who was also teaching this week) everybody is pretty apathetic towards them. So their sports-set inclass assignments were full of really obvious errors; that drove me crazy. (I'm really persnickety when it comes to writing well, especially when it's about sports.) Still, there was at least some praiseworthy scrap from almost everyone's piece.
     There are a couple novels that I'll probably come back to from Gothic Film and Lit, but I've pretty much hated every single movie.
     Psych is going fine, and it's interesting, but you can only contemplate serial killers for so long before wanting to just wail at the evilness of their actions, and of sin in general.

     I really miss relatives at night. Grandpa, Mimi, Nano... I'd call Robbie to see how she's doing, but I lost her number when my old phone died. Mom was asking if I was going to order graduation announcements, but I don't think I will. Are college grad announcements a thing people do? And if they are, where would I send them? Almost all the extended family who would be proud is gone, and it would be weird to send them to non-relatives.
     Also missing the NSU BCM and having a place where I fit; where you knew where friends were hanging out and where you knew you were doing something useful, however small. The SWAT antics on the road and during practices, and the wonderful intensity of basketball/volleyball practices. Playing worship music with Daniel P., James Hoover, Ja Li Si and Annie. The Friday Lunch Bunch get-togethers. Praying collectively with other believers. If I could have stayed in Tahlequah I'm pretty sure Grace Baptist would be my home church by now. (I miss the Galdamezes, too.)

     Steven and Jamie are having another murder mystery tomorrow night, which should be amazing for those attending. I wish we could have done more of those during my generation's time in the youth group. GBC is a great church still when it comes to teaching and all, it's just....not so great when you're a single college student in a church full of older people and young families. And the downside of attending the same church for 14 years is that you remember so much. Too many ghosts in the hallway.

     Tried to shoot some baskets this afternoon, to take advantage of the nice weather, but that didn't go very well. Missed about 85% of my shots, a mix of not practiced in forever, it being a really windy day, and the clear-Plexiglass backboard. Those are always really hard to play on, because there aren't any spatial clues about where the backboard is - it just looks like it's hovering in space, which is really unsettling.
    Last night I played Abby Lee for about an hour, mostly playing along with my 90's Spotify playlist. (NSYNC does not work on an acoustic guitar, FYI. Jars of Clay, however, sounds excellent that way.) It didn't go great, but at least it was playing. Usually here lately there's a desperate run through my hymnal/worship-music-songbook about once a week, because it's hard to know what words to pray a lot of the time.
     Missing Rags, too. And Sport. Creek and Firefly and Klipsey and Shadow, Rocky and Swifty. Sunny, and Copper.  There are a lot of animals.

     A classmate named Cody was presenting a reading of his capstone screenplay Tuesday night, so I read a minor role as the minions of the school bully. Hopefully he'll get a good grade on the project.

     Kurt Busch won the Daytona 500 last Sunday, which was good. The college basketball conference tournaments are starting, which has a flickering excitement to it.

     Been flipping through old posts this week. I started this blog one February afternoon as a high school senior, and in December 2014 I wrote a long post about honesty in social media. When it comes to writing, I'm not sure how much truth and honesty are intertwined, though I kind of think they are separate things. It's a muddy area. But mostly I think I've kind of glossed over what this college experience has been like, mainly because of the monotony - at some point there aren't any more ways of saying "I went to class, I did homework, I wish this were over and I had a clear idea of what happens next." I don't know how much I'll post here once the summer comes, but I'll probably keep writing in some way or another.

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