heavier things of fall

Autumn is in the air today. As soon as I stepped outside of my door this morning to walk to class, I sensed it, and it felt so very Heavier Things. I couldn't explain it. It wasn't a feeling I was looking for or even remembered until that moment. So I guess it feels like September outside, at least in the cooler moments. Whatever it is, I've never quite had this same experience with an album. Except maybe the autumn end-of-the-week afternoon feeling of Better Than Ezra's This Time of Year. But it was so overwhelming and out of nowhere this morning. And comforting.

the obligatory concert post

I have thirty minutes left to work at the Hart lab. Okay, I know I complain about the Applied Science lab, but I like it much better. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I am here at night, and I can't get any technical assistance no matter how hard I try because my boss is at church and the help desk is closed. And the other lab workers are as clueless as I am. I am not very familiar with this place, so I can't find anything. And I cannot make myself do my homework. I haven't even opened my backpack. And in these last thirty minutes, I don't plan on changing that situation.

So this weekend. Wow. Wonderful times. I figure I have to at least give you a little run-down on the Johnity.

We thought we were not going to make it there on time. With twenty minutes until show time, we found ourselves backed waaay up in some exit ramp traffic. Fifty minutes later, we roll up at Starwood, and many thanks to the powers that be, the show didn't start until about 8:00 instead of 7:00. We didn't miss a thing, and man, our seats were awesome. We were in the fifth row, but because of the way the stage curved and such, we were in about the third row. I have way too many pictures, all of which I will probably print and cherish forever. The set was great, and he played some songs that kind of fall into the untouchables category. The third time's a charm, let me tell you. During the encore, we got a sit-down campfire-sing-along version of Comfortable, a bong-must've-been-involved rendition of Voodoo Chile, and the song I've been wanting to see live for so long, Neon. It was over-all great even though the punches came at the encore. Maroon 5 was a fun show with slinks and pelvic thrusts abound. It was a hot and sweaty stagnant pool of body odor and alcohol (beautiful imagery, I know) up in there, but it was quite worth it. As always.

Well, I'm about as hungry as hungry can be. When I bust up outta here, I'm gonna go pick up Jackie to go to WalMart and order my pictures. I'm going to swing by the ol' apartment so she can see, and then I'm heading back to Springer to give Holly her gift. Yes, happy birthday, Holly. I hope I didn't have too much critical homework to do for tomorrow. It sure didn't get done.

come, thou fount of every blessing

Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

the day that never was

Okay, I gotta quit this Tuesday/Thursday nap business. I'm taking waaay too much advantage of it. But I shouldn't happen too much longer, I guess. Today, I ended up with much more free time than I intended to. From now on, I will have three classes on Thursday, but this is what today boiled down to: No Shakespeare at 9:30. No lab at 1:30. And my 11:00 earth science lecture? Lasted about ten minutes. The professor gave us a quiz that he gave us all a 100 on, then proceeded to have a nervous breakdown in front of us when his Power Point projector wouldn't work. Something about his daughter is living with his ex-wife and is planning on running away from home, his girlfriend's son is in traction at a hospital in Paducah puking at the moment, and he is driving a rental car because his transmission went out. He then dismissed us. At Winslow, where I discovered my declining balance hasn't been activated and I had to pay cash again, I saw Geco, and he said earth science with this professor of mine is a breeze. Well, it certainly seems so.

I've procrastinated long enough. I have homework that needs to get done, especially because I'm not going to have much time to do it this weekend. I am counting on being able to read A Midsummer Night's Dream at work on Sunday night, but there are about a million other things I need to do, too. I also need to clean. I mean, it is really beginning to look pretty rough around here. I need to go WalMart, but maybe I should hold off on that until I get back from Nashville. Hmm? I also need to pack for Nashville. And I cannot, cannot, cannot forget to charge my camera battery. The last thing I need during a concert in which I am three and a half inches away from John Mayer is a camera that doesn't work. We're also fearing the prospect of rain during the show tomorrow night, but Justin told me this morning that Starwood Amphitheatre is covered. And now that I think about it, I'm kind of remembering seeing that somewhere. I just hope it's not a million degrees. And of course it will be. But sometimes, you just have to tough it out for those you love.

lab lullaby

One hour of "work" down, three to go. Ol' Applied Science computer lab ain't hoppin' at 8:00 in the morning. Well, there have been five people come in, and they have all miraculously known how to work the whole account log-in system. Woo hoo. I've basically just been sitting here looking at my Spanish book when I take the notion, which isn't too often. I also brought along the thrity-seven-thousand-pound tome, also known as my Shakespeare textbook, to read on A Midsummer Night's Dream. We'll see if that happens. At this point, I'm just trying to keep myself awake. I have a feeling that is going to be my biggest challenge. Not sleeping. Nothing but the quiet hum of computers and clicking on keyboards in the wee hours of the morning. Sounds like a lullaby to me.

So, um. Yeah. What can I talk about to occupy my time? There is not much to say, but I gotta do something. It looks like I'm going to be writing a lot of blogs that are even more boring than usual just to have something to do.

Oh, here's a note. If you ever have to print something at an on-campus computer lab, be sure to choose the black and white printer under the print options. The color printer is default, and it costs 25 cents as opposed to black and white, which is 5 cents. And they have the system like they do in the library where you drop money in the machine to pay. Fun times. It's almost like riding the quarter horse in front of the grocery store. But not quite.

So this computer I have here has some old school MSN messenger on it. It's from back in the day when it didn't even have the feature that tells you that you have a new email. Pretty ghetto.

Okay, now that I've totally wasted both your and my time with this sad, sad entry, I guess I'll try to do something productive like studying Spanish, read the Shakespeare play, or go to sleep. I like that last one best.