Tonadoes, Blizzards, Bowling--Oh My!

Oh, the weather.

I don't like tornadoes. And I don't like storms that have the potential of turning into tornadoes and that's exactly what we've had here in the last few days. It stormed Friday night and into Sabbath morning, and then off and on through church. My Sabbath nap was interrupted by two different things, both of which made me nervous. The first was the weather radio, blaring out warnings of thunderstorms and tornadoes and reminding everyone where to go in the event of a tornado. The second thing was the knock of eager girls at my door, filling me in on the fact that they were leaving campus to go to someone's house in the middle of the storm.

Since my Sabbath nap didn't seem to be working out, I needed something to do so I decided to print off a map of the United States and color in all of the states that I have been too. I ended up filling completely the states that I have lived in, outlining in green the states that I've stayed overnight in and outlineing in yellow the states that I have merely driven through. I took my map with me to supper with the intention of showing Nathan where I have been and as a result, there was a group of students and supervision that decided to do the same. We even had some of the kids convinced that coloring maps was going to be the Saturday night activity.

But then came the real Saturday night activity. Honestly, I have no idea why anyone would want to drive a bus full of students down the ridge and into town, with the rain poring, the wind howling and lightning illuminating the sky, but that wasn't my call so off we went.

Our first stop was Dairy Queen. Thankfully, the rain let up for a minute for us to dash inside to order a variety of shakes, sundaes and blizzards. Perhaps the rain was inspiring me to try a 'Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard'. See, it's movie rain down here in the South. I say that because it's the kind of rain that when it starts, you are instantly drenched (you know, like in Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth runs out to that gazebo and turns around to see a completely drenched Mr. Darcy who proceeds to propose to her...).

Anyways, back to our exciting night.

Our next activity was bowling. I started out by talking with one of the junior guys, telling him that I had rolled a 35 last time! He looked at me strange and I replied 'Well, that's good, isn't it?' From that, Andy suggested that the looser between Nathan, Andy and I should have to buy the other two dinner. I immediately disliked this idea, due to the fact that I was playing with two guys. I started off my first two throws resulting in a combined score of 0. Wonderful. The tune was soon to be changed since I ended up winning that first game. We played a total of three and I am happy to report that Nathan will be buying Andy and I Mexican for lunch in the upcoming weeks.

All in all, despite the tornado watches, it was a pretty fun day. Oh, and when we came back to the dorm, a group of the girls and I played a few rounds of midnight sardines. Besides the fun that we had with running around, hiding from each other in the dark, we found out that the guest room bathroom desperately needed to be cleaned... (I know, what a note to end on. But I will tell you that the RA's did a wonderful job at cleaning it and it now smells like cleaner rather than... umm... yea...)

Four Weeks and Counting

One month. That's all that's left. Then I won't be 'Dean Hollie' anymore. I must admit, that I am looking forward to that day, that I won't be responsible for the well-being of 23 teenage girls. Now don't get me wrong, I have loved this year. I have loved almost every minute of it. There are those few moments though, that I will not miss.

But I will miss the people and I will miss the place. It's hard to believe that when I drive home, I won't be coming back--not for a while at least! God has been teaching me to never say never. (I must admit that I get a little nervous when I acknowledge that fact, becuase I once said that I would never be an attorney...)

For now, there's a mere four weeks left of this adventure.