The Next 3 Days (WARNING: EVEN LONGER)

So now I’m sitting in my hotel room in South Bend trying to kill a little time. My mom’s sitting here watching Lost and I’m lucky enough to have a wireless (thanks Holiday Inn!), so I figure now’s a perfect time for my next update. I left off at the end of the checkride, so I guess I’ll pick things up from there.

As soon as I got done I headed over to Earhart for some lunch. Just as I was getting off the phone with my Aunt (I had been calling all the relatives to tell them the good news) to head inside, Natalie, Edgar, and Rebecca walk out (Dustin may have been there too, but my memory’s a little hazy). I spent the next couple hours hanging out with Edgar, which was really cool because we were able to get to know each other a lot better (and I got a nice little tour of the Armory out of it). Then I went up for my last flight of the semester, and introductory flight in a Cessna 182. The C182 has about 230 horsepower (the Arrow only has 200), so I was able to get my High Performance endorsement out of it (special training to fly an airplane with >200 horses). It was kind of cool because it’s a high-wing airplane, so you get a lot better view of the ground while flying (especially during 60º banked turns when you look out the window and you are staring straight down at the ground). Despite how cool that was, it bothers me more to not see the sky than to not see the ground, so I’ve decided I’m not a fan of the high wing experience. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here are a couple of pictures to illustrate my point (you can probably guess which one is the high wing or the low wing):


Then after the C182 flight I was able to meet up with some people (I remember Brent was one of them, but the rest of the roster has faded from memory). Then, after spending some time hanging out in his room, I headed back to my room to start preparations for the night’s events. We decided to put together a Fountain Run, one of the longstanding campus traditions that we hadn’t had a chance to participate in this semester (mainly because of the cold). So we put together plans to meet in the Windsor Circle at 9:30 and do our tour of the fountains.

Before I went to the circle, I met Chris in the entrance to Warren to take a look at a project of hers. She had been in some fancy metal-working art class thing this semester and had promised to show me the results of her big project in the class. It was a 3D rose (life size) made out of sheets of silver, complete with stem, leaves, and thorn (it was even sharp). It was, to say the least, impressive. Very, very realistic (except for the whole being made of silver part, naturally). I don’t know if she reads this thing or not, but if you do Chris, you’ll have to email me a picture so I can post it on here.

Then I walked over to the circle and met up with Dustin, Rebecca, Edgar, Natalie, and Amy. Sadly, we found the fountains were off that night, so we just walked around campus goofing off and having a good time. We captured a lot of the craziness with Natalie’s digital camera, but she’s sadly not posted any of the shots online yet. I know you’re busy Natalie, but as soon as you get around to downloading those I’d like you to throw them in a zip file and send them to me. I think several of those pictures would be perfect for the nice folks on here.

Edgar and Natalie had to split off after a while and the rest of us headed over to Slayter Hill to join the fun there. It is a new tradition for Cru people to gather on Slayter and hang out one night during finals week. A couple of guys brought guitars and we had an awesome time of worship for a couple of hours. It was cool because people would just suggest songs and if the guys knew them, they’d start playing, if they didn’t, we’d often just start singing and they were talented enough to figure it out as we went along. Grace really knew a lot of the songs and had some singing talent (unlike myself), so she kind of helped lead the rest of us who didn’t know the songs as well. Then other people would lead a little when they knew the songs. It was really cool. Kinda hard to say goodbye to some of the people that I had gotten to know this year when they decided to call it a night (or when I did around 1:30). People like Dustin, Chip, Rebecca, Amy, Mike, Albert (No.5), and others. Scott and Lucky Eddie decided to spend the night on Slayter and John had already left, so I was alone my last night in the room.

Got up in the morning and started packing to move out that afternoon. I hadn’t really had much of a chance to pack because of how crazy the week had been, so I had a lot to get done. Part of the problem is that I was suffering for a lack of places to put things (I only had a few boxes and they were small). I took a short break for lunch and met Amy, Scott, Eddie, and Jonathan (No.6) at Stadium. Then it was just a matter of continuing my packing and beginning to load the car when my Mom arrived. The good news is that after a while Brent showed up to say goodbye and stuck around to help load some of the larger things in the van and help with some of the last minute packing. Then Natalie and Edgar did the same. The three of them were a huge help in getting my stuff into the car. We had a little trouble getting some duct-tape residue off one of the walls before my RA would let me check out, but once one of the service workers lent us some stuff we were done and out the door.

We met my grandparents at Culvers when we got back into town (they were just arriving from Minnesota for Mother’s Day). After dinner I moved some of my stuff into the basement and spent some time hanging around with the family. After they decided to head to bed, I went to Natalie’s house to hang out with her, Toby, Jake, Pete, and Breinne. That was kind of rough; I was completely worn out and had a lot on my mind, so I wasn’t really in the mood for the usual videogames and Uno rounds.

Sunday I slept in a little and skipped Sunday School. Wheaton College had gotten out the week before (they make up most of the college class during the year) and most of my friends hadn’t returned from school yet, so I had a feeling there wouldn’t be anyone around to have the class (that and I needed the sleep). Sunday we had a nice lunch outside on the patio and I spent the afternoon hanging out with my Grandpa. We drove around and visited some of the local electronics stores (he too is a gadget freak, or, one could argue I got it from him). We watched a movie that night and my grandparents left the next morning.

Ok, that’s more than enough for now. The good news for you is that my posts will either get shorter or less frequent this summer because life will be relatively dull. One last note: the Perelandra situation is much the same as it was when I last mentioned it. There weren’t any new developments in my last attempt (I think the transmitter is still stuck on at the other end). Oh well, I’ll just have to wait until next semester to try again. Connections on other frequencies are nominal, it’s just this one that I’ve been having problems with (naturally, the one I have problems with is one of the more important ones). Figures, eh?

Now, I suppose I should get some sleep before the convention tomorrow. We’re trying to promote RevTrak at the Indiana Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) annual conference tomorrow (hence the trip to South Bend). Have a good night!