I Wonder

Two updates in one day! What is this world coming to?

In high school, I had a few friends at school. Elise, Aharon, Nick, and a few others. But my closest friends were a group of six of us from church. Myself, Kadie, Micah, Jamie, Chelsea, and Vince. We hung out all the time. It was a great time. I had such a blast with them and made some great memories. However, after Jamie and I graduated, we started to fall apart. Vince didn't come around as much, and adding Aharon to the group kind of threw off our previous dynamic. Eventually, Vince all but disappeared, and Jamie started dating Clare. That kind of pulled him from the group, and with Vince around less and it turning into couples, Chelsea faded away, too. Then Micah and Kadie broke up and it was a hard adjustment because my tight group of friends was no longer the same at all. (Except myself and Kadie) But, life goes on and new groups of friends were made.

On Saturday, Vince's dad died unexpectedly.

Today I went to the funeral home. It was strange to see Vince again. It's probably been 2 years since I saw him and 3 years since we really talked at all. But it was nice, despite the circumstances. It reminded me that life is short and unexpected. And the memories we make and the friends we meet on the way are important in their own time. I can't imagine what Vince is going through, and I wish we were still close and that I could say or do something to help.

Some of the best memories I have of youth group and high school are memories made with Vince and the rest of our group. I only hope that he has memories of his dad that he can reflect on. I know it's not the same, but a memory is better than nothing at all.

He strengthens and sustains, He guards and He guides...You can't outlive Him and you can't live without Him. That's my King!

Moving is a little more painful that it is stressful

I've heard that three of the most stressful events in life are getting married, moving, and having a baby. I'm working on two of the three (I'm not having a baby). While the wedding planning is a slow process that I wish would just go away, the moving part is front and center right now.

Aharon and I have rented a small, one bedroom apartment in Memphis. Aharon has moved in for now as has most of my stuff. Myself and the remainder of my stuff will follow after we're married. It's amazing how well our stuff fits into that apartment. It's almost like the apartment was built around our stuff. Sure, it could be bigger. I could certainly put more space to use. But, it will do. And the fact that our current budget has us ready to buy a house with a 12.5% down payment in July of 2011 is AWESOME. It's totally a God-thing! :)

So anyway, Aharon and I - with the help of some awesome friends/family (My mom, Kadie, Chris, Nick, and Aharic) - got about 90% of Aharon's things and 50% of my things to the apartment this week, with the majority of it happening on Saturday. Aharon was originally scheduled to work 6 am to 3 pm Friday and Saturday, but due to parts not coming in, he got out at 10 on Friday and had Saturday off. Not so great for our budget (although it was all overtime that we don't actually account for in our budget) but very good for getting things done.

Some parts were stressful. I still don't know where his Harry Potter box set is or where my crazy-large 90's and early 2000's CD collection is going to go. But overall, it was just painful! It hurts to stand up and walk around. I made the mistake of laying down on the couch and watching TV with my parents last night. I told them it would be like 15 minutes tops. An hour and a half later, I had to force myself to stand up and oh, did it hurt!

This is why I hate higher education!

Every single day for the last two weeks has had something going on. About 95% of it is wedding/marriage related. We finally looked at apartments. The first one is a nice, spacious two bedroom. It really could rival a small house in the area. It's affordable, but not comfortably. Plus we are concerned about the employment situation. Aharon's job at G5 with me is technically a seasonal job. I think if they can avoid laying him off they will, but we don't want to just bank on that happening. The second one is tiny. Like really, really tiny. But it's dirt cheap. However, we won't be able to take all of our furniture with us, and having friends over will be difficult. There's just not enough room. Luckily we can store whatever doesn't fit at his parent's house. But it just feels strange to me to move and not take everything with me.

When Aharon and I sit down and talk about it, the small one definitely makes sense and sounds like the best option. But then as the day or night goes on and I spend time thinking about it, I start to get a little panicked. It's very tiny! I want to be able to have friends over and feel like it's home. I just don't know if that will happen at this place.

I'm going to try to go back to the small place tonight and take some measurements and then get all geeky and do some 3D floor plans. Plus I want my mom to see it. She's lived in a tiny apartment before and then moved into our very large house, so she'll have a better idea of what can be done and what can't. Maybe she'll say there's no way we can make it work. And if so, two bedroom here we come!

Aharon and I agreed last night that we both feel like we're trying to sell the other person on the apartment of our choice. He likes the small one, I like the big one. It's a little entertaining.

So now, back to the education thing. Anybody who really, really knows me will know that learning comes naturally to me. I don't have to work for it or even put forth much effort. Aharon hates this, and I totally understand.

The college I'm at now is hard, or, at least that's what I've been told. It's degree - among Catholics - is considered very prestigious. I'm not sure how it fares in the real world, though. All I know is that it was affordable, in my price range, and they transferred every single credit I had. You can't argue with that.

While some of the classes have been challenging - like the religion class - others aren't a big deal. Sitting down and writing a big paper in 8 weeks when I'm more on a schedule of 16 weeks was an adjustment, but it's of no concern to me now.

Long story short, I don't really do the assigned reading. I skim each chapter, read the summaries and review terms, and I read the professor's lectures through. So I know the material. But I don't feel the need to spend 2 hours reading a book that will just get regurgitated to me through the review terms and lectures.

Anyway, last night I took my final. Open book. I had an hour. I went through and answered what I knew, then spent time looking up the ones I wasn't sure of. I had time left over, so I went back and looked up ones I had answered on my own just to double check. I submitted the exam with 3 minutes remaining.

I got a 65%.

How is that even possible?

And don't tell me that's what I get for not reading. I have never and will never do the assigned reading. And I've gotten through life with a pretty high GPA so far.

The Current Debate

1. Very, very small one bedroom apartment with no distinction between the kitchen and living room, but a significant chuck of money to put into savings every month...
   or
2. Large two bedroom apartment with a big kitchen and a big living room but every single penny budgeted each month and not much going into savings.