Well, it has been a while.  So I will update y'all. 

Last Saturday, February 4, my 21st birthday, I woke up to join my parents in line at the Pancake Pantry.  We waited outside for 45 minutes in the snow flurries.  When we got seated, Momma and I shared the Georgia Peach Pancakes with a side of sausage patties and eggs (her and Daddy shared the eggs).  Daddy got the Sweet Potato Pancakes.  Those were SUPER good!

But that morning at midnight, JoEllen and I went to Jackson's Bar and Bistro.  I had a Pomegranate Margarita and Amaretto Sour.  I know it is short, but hey, I don't have much money.  Also, I am not one to get WASTED!!  We just had a nice time talking and having a couple drinks, with the Verde Dip (Creamy Spinach-Garlic Dip).  Yummmm!

Then we hung out on campus and I opened my presents.  I got a DIGITAL camera!!  We had Cheesecake!!  Momma made her first baked cheesecake.  For dinner, I thought we could go to the Aquarium Resturant.  But there was a freakin' long wait.  So we walked around Opry Mills and finally found a place without a wait.  The Alabama Grill.  So that is where we ate. 

Wednesday I went to the Cheesecake Factory for the first time!  We were celebrating Karen and my birthday.  The cheesecake was wonderful!  But my pasta tasted odd.  The meal cost about $30, including the tip.  I can't believe I paid that much for one meal.  Well, I do have some leftovers, still.

Kayla came to Nashville yesterday.  I opened my present!!  I now have a Freud action figure.  I have 2 new pairs of flipflops, a new necklace (it looks like an atom), a new pin, and a shopping spree at Buckel!  I got a pair of BKE jeans and 3 shirts.  Very cute!  It was fun. 

So we took my car to the shop.  Went to Cool Springs Galleria(?) and Green Hills Mall.  We came back to the dorm and chilled.  Ordered Chinese food, watched The O.C.  Then I went and got a "free" homecoming shirt.  When I came back to the room, Kayla wanted one too.  So we went back and got her a shirt.  It is really large, but she is going to do something with it.  And we watched the classic, Aladdin. 

Today after lunch, Kayla spent 2 hours with Schroeder, while I was in class.  We picked up my car, YES it is fix FINALLY.  I think. 

So there is a happening Valentine's party I am invited to.  Evidently, they are taking it back OLD SCHOOL.  It is going to be like the parties we had back in Elementry school.  Pretty exciting. 

OH!  Pledging started last night.  All the pledges have to sleep out in "Shantytown."  The social clubs have built these little "shanties" in the square.  They have to stay there until tomorrow.  And they are calling for snow.  Very intersting campus.

What Lee Camp Said

University Bible, 26 January 2006

Introduction to Danny Flowers and the Arrangements

Our agenda this semester is at least three-fold: (a) to help you learn different genres or types of the Psalms, and some of the respective content of those Psalms; (b) to offer ways in which you might learn to pray, read, sing and contemplate the Psalms; and (c), our particular agenda today, to let you hear echoes of the Psalms in different musical genres across the centuries, and across western culture.

Why this third part of our agenda, in a context like ours? First, given what I’ve heard from a small number of you, let me allay your fears: we are not in the midst of some great conspiracy to overthrow at one fell swoop one of the honorable traditions of our fellowship, that of a cappella singing. Our task is much more modest and multifaceted.

One facet of it is this: I want to encourage you to learn to think and experience the good life God has given us, metaphorically and analogically. What in the world does that mean? Well, consider how the Psalmist in 36:1 could have started out by saying, “God, these bad people are always thinking bad things.” Well, that communicates something, but how much more deeply does the Psalmist communicate when instead he says:

“Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts; there is no fear of God before their eyes.” If the Psalmist-poet were restricted to what we call literal language, then imagine what damage it would do to this line from 34:8: “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Rigid literalism might reduce it to, “God, I like you.”

That is, the Psalmist (which we’ll remember was writing songs that would have often been played with the instruments of their day, of harp and lyre and various other stringed instruments) calls us to a deep experience of the real stuff of life. And metaphorical language is one way of getting at that. That is, a metaphor is the placing together two sets of associations of language that we might not expect, so as to allow us to see one of those things or sets more clearly. And so the Psalmist uses beautiful imagery, metaphor, and analogy in order to illuminate the depth and profundity of life.

So important is this task, that of giving us good metaphors, that Aristotle once said that inventing good metaphors is the sign of genius.

It is, among other things, this that music has, I suppose, always sought to do, and continues to do: through vibes and metaphors and rhythm and poetry, set before us the warp and woof of life. Rock music, of course, has long been suspicious to the pious among us, ever since Elvis started thrusting his pelvis. Indeed, rock-and-roll is that third element we all know belongs right after drugs and sex. But I would suggest to you that this familiarity with the carnality of life is one of the reasons we occasionally ought to pay attention even to the most pagan of music: that is, when Eric Clapton sings about cocaine, or Bob Seger sings about the stripper down on main stree, or the Stones sing that, try as they might, they still can’t get no satisfaction, that they just might be echoing the Psalms. That is, using a bit of metaphor here, we might realize with the early church father Augustine that all such human quests are but distorted quests to fill up the socalled God-sized hole that each of his has in our souls. As he begins his great autobiography, “Oh God, our souls are restless until they rest in thee.” In other words, “I can’t get no satisfaction” is precisely, in contemporary language, what the Psalmist cries out: “my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,” (63:1), or “as the deer pants for living water, so my soul longs for you.” Surely this is part-and-parcel of what Bono must mean, at some level, when he sings that he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. And by contrast, one other thing the dirt and grittiness of such rock music might teach us is that one more quest that might be just as distorted is that one that seeks to fill up the hole in our lives with self-righteous piety and look-down-our-nose judgment of those who have not found God as we have.

Sometimes, we find rock music that has moved beyond that tired and wearisome place, to use the poetry of the prophet, where bread does not satisfy and that water does not quench, and therein explicitly begins to find what we call redemption, being brought out of the slavery of that which purports to be freedom but only enslaves. Today you’ll hear echoes of this sort: that what we once thought would be our god proved not to be a good task-master, and it takes a profound move of trust and obedience to start this new way of life. This is the cry of the Psalmist, “my soul is satisfied, as with a rich feast” (63:5). But even in a life that sometimes experiences such deep satisfaction, our trust still gets challenged. Both rock musicians and the Psalmists, out of their shared grittiness, refuse to ignore the real challenges of a life of trust: that is, they cry out, “how come history works this way,” and “how long God until you do something about this?” And we will hear some of these echoes today, too.

And so, today, we have the fun academic task of reflecting upon these things in a very experiential way.

Stollen from http://bible.lipscomb.edu/page.asp?SID=22&Page=2744 .

Currently Listening Third Eye Blind By Third Eye Blind see related

Losing a Whole Year

How come right when I think I am TRUELY over him, I find out something that makes my heart sink and I want to cry?

Losing a whole year
Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamned day in bed
Losing a whole year
Hiding in your room we'd lay like dogs
And the phone would ring like a joke that's left unsaid
Losing a whole year
Rich daddy left you with a parachute
Your voice sounds like money and your face is cute
But your daddy left you with no love
You touch everything with a velvet glove and
Now you wanna try your life with sin
You wanna be down with the down and in
Always copping my truths
I kinda get the feeling like I'm being used
And now I realize that you never heard
One goddamned word I ever said
Losing a whole year
Losing a whole year
I took your stuff and put it in the basement
When I found out what the smile on you face meant
I seen you pop that check
Craning your neck at the car wreck
And it always seems that the juice used to flow
In the car, in the kitchen you were good to go
Now we're stuck with the tube
A sink full of dishes and some aqua lube
And I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamned day in bed
Hey boy
Losing a whole year
If it's not the defense then your on the attack
When you start talking I hear the Prozac
Convinced you found your place
With the pierced queer teens in cyberspace
When you were yourself there was tasting sweet
Sours into a routine deceit
Well this drama is a bore
And I don't wanna play no more
Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamned day in bed
Hey boy
Hey boy
-Third Eye Blind-

Controversy over University Bible

So when they started this new UB thing, I wasn't too sure about it.  I am not big on the whole Praise Team thing.  I also have a SUPER hard time staying awake in the dim lighting.  Well, Tuesday after the "closing prayer" one of the students performed a song he wrote based on Psalm (something, I forgot).  He was accompanied by his guitar.  After the weirdness of a guitar wore off, it was pretty cool.  A really neat song too.  I really liked it. 

Today, there was a Christian rock band.  It was weird being in UB without a prayer or a song or a "lesson."  The band was pretty neat, but it wasn't my thing, not for worship at least.  My big problem was with all the students walking out during UB.  One, it was disrespectful to the band and Dr. Lee Camp.  Two, it just showed how those people had no manners.  If you don't agree with what is going on in UB now, voice it in a more respectful way, when the administration will actually get your point.  UB was even 30 minutes today.  Not bad at all. 

I understand Lee Camps efforts.  He wants to bring the Spirituality back onto campus, which has been gone since I was a freshman.  Noble effort, Camp.

Back to the President Lowry subject, I am not sure what I think about him.  I know he is pretty concerned about the appearance of the school.  Which is all good and great, but he needs to remember Lipscomb Lore.  The RAs had a meeting with him and he talked about wanting to get rid of the swings.  Hey, D.Lo!  "Three Swings and a RING!"  (LoL, that is about one of the dumbest things, but I still like the swings.)  When the RAs said no, he then wanted to move the swings to a remote area where people wouldn't be able to see them.  Again, the RAs said no, so then he wanted to paint them (green, as I was told).  Ewww!  Keep them white or stain them.  That is the only acceptable thing. 

Now, I am a psychology major.  The psychology department wants a Master's program in Counseling.  So for the past year, they have been working on this proposal.  Dr. Lowry wants them to change it to a possible Psy.D. program.  Which is super cool.  Although, I want to get my Master's in Social Work.  One day I may want to be called Dr. Sheena.  And when that day comes, I hope to be able to choose from Lipscomb and a few other schools. 

So I am torn. . .

Rumors of a Christian University

Today was the (new) President's first Convocation.  So there was a huge deal made by faculty on campus.  They even brought over the campus school (middle and high).  It was crazy.  Everyone was trying to make a big deal about it.  On Monday in Chapel they were trying to encourage us to come by telling us if we come we get a present. 

The entire University was inducted into the Alumni Association.  And when we left the arena everyone was handed a little pin to help remember the occasion.  Chapel isn't supposed to last longer than 30 minutes, today it was 50 minutes.  I am glad I don't have an 11:00, or else I would have been hungry and unprepared.  

There were a few things said by President Lowry (or as I heard some one call him tonight, D.Lo) that have stirred up the campus.   

*One thing that did not bother me but did some of my fellow classmates was he made a comment about something a man who is involved with Vanderbilt, Belmont, and Lipscomb told him.  The man was saying that Lipscomb has the best students out of the 3 schools.  "They may not have the best ATC [yes, he said ATC instead of ACT] scores, but they have the best character."  (I may have gotten the quote a bit wrong, but the ATC score comment is correct.)  Evidently, several students did not like this comment.  So they were in a fuss about it.  Come on y'all, we are NOT an Ivy League type school like Vandy.  We don't have to worry about having crazy high ACT and SAT scores like they do and we don't have to worry about knowing how to play an instrument like the Belmont kids do.  This is not a comment to get a fussed worked up about.

*This comment did bother me.  Lipscomb is a Church of Christ school.  That is the appeal for many of us, like me.  President Lowry was going on about the school's diversity.  He had all the non-CoC students stand.  Since he did not have the students from other countries stand or the minorities, I do not see why he had the non-CoC kids stand.  Rumor has it that he wants to get rid of the Church of Christ "label" that Lipscomb has.  Evidently, there was also a rumor that President Flatt was trying to do this also.  So who knows.  I am sure David Lipscomb is rolling over in his grave. 

There were some other things, but I can't remember then right off.   So I will leave you with all the above.  And. . .

MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 10 DAYS!