well, i skipped my review session for lit 80a since i didn’t want to deal with my ta. i know the stories well so it shouldn’t be a bad midterm. i just can’t believe how angry i am with the ta that i’m getting reprimanded and the jerk who was baiting me is being upheld. the people at high street gave me some ideas on dealing with the situation. erazm suggested talking to the professor about setting norms for discussion so that respect issues can be discussed. other suggested that i try to switch sections.

i get my braces off in 6 days. woooohoooooo!!!!

my senior sem paper is up!

the midterm went ok. the lit 80a situation, however, isn’t. i emailed my ta with my viewpoint excluding the fact that i despise having to sit in a class where my religion is being ripped apart. i phrased my response in lit terms since i thought that would be the most productive thing. however, that backfired. i will admit that i should not have called my classmate’s question “ridiculous” but this was after having to listen to my classmates use our section time to bash God and to bash me. my classmate’s question had NOTHING to do with the text was worded and asked in a very imflammatory fashion. my ta responded back, telling me that he would not tolerate any disrespect from me toward my classmate. excuse me? what about my classmate’s asnine question which was clearly disrespect? i’m sorry that i have to pretend to be pc when that rule apparently isn’t needed for the rest of my class. my section should be an honest and objective look at the text and thanks to some stupid freshmen boys in my class, it isn’t. even my high school classes were more mature than these people. maybe i should have explained that it was so comforting to me that my non-christian classmates’ civil rights take precedence over mine…

yesterday was long and stressful and i didn’t get adequate sleep last night. i was barely functional today and something ended up happening in my lit 80a class that i seem to be getting flak for from both christians and non-christians. i’m also facing a nasty econ midterm tomorrow. please pray for me.

my urbana cd arrived today. i am a VERY happy lepicat!!! it brings back really wonderful and powerful memories such as singing “o come emmanuel” and being reduced to tears because of the power of the song and how much i wanted it to come true. there was also the rockin’ house party for JC at the mother ship that yielded some of the coolest praise music. lastly, there was the ENTIRE mother ship providing the banquet of voices for “hallelujah, salvation and glory”.

my jewish lit paper is in. it’s not great but probably passing. i didn’t stay in class since i was nauseous and had a headache (migraines are lovely things, aren’t they?) so i missed out on discussing some short stories. oh well.

i get to help jill garden tomorrow. i’m still job searching but some physical labor should be really good to take my mind off of everything.

bonnie, you’ll get through this semester. your grades may not be great, but it will all be over in a few weeks.

i went to first baptist church this morning because mike was speaking and it was really fun. the music was done by a praise band from first baptist– salinas and the speakers were all really good.

i have an econ review session and then an evangelism seminar today. then i get to write my jewish lit paper. i’m currently brainstorming it. i know that it will be on part of “call it sleep” by henry roth but i’m not sure of which scene yet.

the urbana cd is out now. go listen to it. do it now. i recommend “hallelujah, salvation and glory” — it’s acapella but the banquet of voices is just wonderful.

tourguiding yesterday was fun though i am amazed at how many people asked if we all ran around naked. my answer was always the same: “only at porter and that’s only during the first rainstorm”. (hey now porter people, you guys *do* go streaking around campus at a bizarre hour.) i think the “no nudity” law has been in place for about 4 years now. i think i also scared away some frosh by telling them that they couldn’t bring a car on campus their first year.

i did tourguiding for the banana slug spring fair today from 9-4 and then helped jill in her garden. i am a tired lepicat but it was fun. i never actually thought that i’d like gardening but i do.

thank you to those who responded to me about why you read my journal. (and bonnie, i did see your entry explaining why and i apologize for what i said about yours.)

the games night last night rocked. i played speed scrabble with kathy, joan, dane, and melissa and then some killer uno with abby, molly, and ryann. killer uno is like regular uno but much weirder. there are rules like everyone’s name being bubba, being able to play cards out of turn, cards compounding, and having to leap and yell when you put down a draw four card. we then decided to play “norma gardner” which is a name game that i learned from my iv area director. it was fun to play with the older adults because they didn’t know as many new things as we did — including the veggie tales characters. then we played twister and i learned how flexible my friend joe is and that scared me. 🙂

today was the iv women’s retreat. we talked about women’s roles and how we relate. we looked at some passages in genesis and talked about how we view ourselves and the nasty things the media has done to make us hate ourselves. it was a very intense 7 hours but it was wonderful to finally get to talk to my sisters about this stuff.

could we have maybe given our presidential candidates an exam before allowing them to run so that we would possibly have an intelligent president? *canada* is laughing at us because of the idiot we have in the white house.