Boiler Up!

Wow! What a great past 5 days! But, I'll tell you one thing that was really weird about being on campus- being around kids my age again and lots of them! As I was driving up Chauncey Hill coming into campus on Saturday afternoon, I kind of got the heeby jeebys thinking, "Wow, there are a lot kids here." Even though I was living in a college town in Texas, WT had 8,000 students. Multiply that times 5 and then you have the size of Purdue. Then being in Reno, I didn't have a peer group at all, so it was weird but fun and exciting at the same time to walk among peers again.

But, I realized I'm getting old! I know, I'm only 22, how is that old? But seriously, I had a freshman in the Varsity Glee Club come up to me after they sang at First Church on Sunday morning and called me out by my name. I was a little taken aback, but this kid looked familiar. I could not return the favor of immediately recognizing him and placing how I knew him so I cheated and read his shiny gold name tag. Turns out, he was a freshman in choir when I was a senior and in choir for a whole like 2 weeks, but couldn't stay in because I took AP German instead back in high school. And now, he's a freshman at PURDUE! Between that personal experience, seeing all the new 'little' freshman walking around campus and noticing the absence of those who have graduated already made me realize, I'm getting old!

I came home for a nice surprise as Mom as very adamant these past few days that I was home in time for dinner last night. After taking the long way home to avoid Indy traffic, which turned out as a great last drive through the Indiana country-side, the table was set for 5. I thought that was slightly strange and asked Mom why. She came up with some lame excuse like she was going to invite Grandma and counted up wrong as if Ben were here. Ya, I didn't buy it! I told her to her face that she was a lier and that Alyssa (my best friend from high school) and Stephan Seal were coming over, weren't they? She tried to squirm her way out of it, but she is a horrible lier and passed that trait down to me as well. Sure enough, less than 10 minutes later, Alyssa comes walking up the sidewalk to our front door. I was very glad to see her and it was great catching up on what is going on in her life. She is graduated from school now with a 'real' job and has been married for just over a year now. They're next big thing is looking for land to build a house! CRAZY! We were thinking in the next 10 years, we'll be meeting for dinner probably with kids! She's obviously a few steps closer to that than I am, but once again, I'm getting old!

The time I had in West Lafayette was great! Especially when it came to the Wesley Foundation. We had 70-some in the first worship and that was before classes have even started! Then, we had close to 24 at recreation that night and record-breaking numbers at our Tuesday night Bible study and communion service on Tuesday night. I was pumped! And I suppose the Mountain Dew LiveWire helped that out as well, but I was so excited to see this new inflow into Wesley. And we got a lot of really good feedback from the newbies as well. They were actively participating in the devotion that I gave and several made comments to Pastor Glen that they felt right at home and would be back! It really does my heart good to hear and see things like that- Wesley is still flourishing and growing strong.

I took care of some business type things as well, bank run, working out details for my apartment second semester, meeting with my academic adviser and stopped in at the study abroad office to turn in some last paperwork. But most of it was to visit and catch-up. I got to visit Camp Tecumseh on Monday and that was a blast. Got to catch up with the equestrian gals from out there and squeezed in some saddle time as well! Amie, Mary Anne and I went for a little trail ride and I got to ride a big ol' Percheron gelding. I was pretty excited as I think I was in a different weather pattern up there. He was a fun young horse with a huge stride! It was neat to hear about their summer and see all the changes that have happened around camp. I was a wee bit disappointed to see their new utility vehicle. It was not that I was disappointed that they had a new one, because the old Gator was on its last wheel (instead of leg), but it was the fact that it was a Bobcat instead of a Deere that pained my heart slightly. I'm just playing- it was the best deal they could get and it was a much needed improvement. It will be nice to be working trail rides in the Spring again when I get back, it is just nice to get away from school and breath in some horse dander :)

Speaking of horse dander, I got my preliminary schedule for Ireland late last night/ early this morning and I got into both of my Equine classes that I wanted! I'm pretty excited about that! But I should be going as I didn't get into some of the other ones that I wanted and need to figure out some replacements and also there is this thing called packing that I'm only about half-way done with. Toodles- I leave for Ireland in 4 days!