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The Lack of Rational Thoughts

My brain is fried.  I feel so out of whack.  A ton has happened in the past month, but I’ve been so tied up DOING those things, that I’ve all but fallen off of planet Xanga.  I don’t know where to begin, so we’ll start with school…

School is here again.  I’m in week 2 of 16 of my last semester.  Yes… 14 weeks from now I’ll be graduating…. Then 6 days later I’ll be getting married.  No more school….. NO MORE SCHOOL!!!!!  I can’t describe the size of this goal in my head.  It fills my brain and pushes important things out of the way (like “first underwear, THEN pants”).  Some may argue that this is a moot point, because it can be solved by one simple question, “Why wear pants in the first place?”  Good point…. moving on.

So I need 19 credits to graduate.  I started this semester by taking 19 credits.  That sucks.  I’ve realized now that taking 19 credit hours, while working 42 hours a week between two jobs, helping plan a wedding, and still maintaining time to eat, sleep, and see Sarah….. is nearly impossible.  So, I’ve dropped one of my courses (so now I’m down to 16 hours), and am going to try to test out of Video 2, which I’m not currently enrolled in.  This would give me those 3 extra hours so that I can graduate still.  Granted, if I blow the test, I am one class short of graduating…. that would suck.  BUT, I only need a C or better on the test…. and the prof knows me…. and I get to read the book and all applicable readings prior to the test…. so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.  I already tested out of Video 1 a couple of years ago…  No worries.  God is in control.

We’ve found an apartment.  I don’t know if I’ve said that before or not.  But we signed a lease that starts April 1st, 2004.  We’ll move furniture in during that month, then she’ll live there once school is out May 6th (ish) and I’ll live at home for a week until we’re married.  The problem?  RENT MONEY!  We need to come up with $525 each month.  Normally this isn’t a problem once I’m working full-time, she’s working a bit, and we have financial aid from her school stuff….. BUT I’m not going full-time until June, she’ll be unemployed in May, and financial aid doesn’t come through until September.  So we need rent for April, May, & June before I can afford to pay it via work money.  Well, April can be paid for with her birthday money and our tax returns hopefully… May is a mystery, and June will be paid for by wedding money…. Then once I’m full-time, we should be fine.  God will provide.

Finances are tight.  We’ve established our budget awhile back, and now that we’re trying to save for a honeymoon AND for rent…. finances are on a “spending freeze.”  Money sucks.  I wish we all just went to work then were able to share our resources for everybody to enjoy…. what’s that called again….. ….. oh wait…. that’s Communism…. never mind.

Sleep patterns are out of whack.  I work Tues. and Fri. nights at the desk from 12am-4am to get some extra money.  This is all well and good, but the problem starts when you see the rest of my schedule.  I get up at 7:30am on Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri., & Sun.  Then on Wed. & Sat. I sleep till 1pm….. This REALLY makes my body hate me.  But ya know…. ya gotta do what ya gotta do…. and that extra 80 bucks every two weeks pays for gas and some food…. Man I feel so poor.

CedarCreek is doing great.  We’ve added another service.  We now meet Sat. nights at 5:30pm, and Sun. at 9:00, 10:30, and Noon.  We maxed out at over 4,000 people two weeks ago…. so it’s good we’re adding our fourth service this week.  Plus, assuming giving goes up with more attenders, I can go full-time in June!  I’ve worked a major bug out of our email server recently.  That felt GREAT!  It took over three months to figure it out, but when it worked…. I literally ran down the hall and jumped in the air…. I’m a nerd.

Sarah and I are starting our Pre-Marital Counseling now.  We’ve both been working in our workbooks and are meeting with Ed and Dawn Bellner on Tuesday nights after our Small Group… This should be fun.  I’m looking forward to it.  It’s a LOT of writing though…. I hate writing.  Bah.  “Doesn’t this book come with a keyboard?  Where’s the ‘on’ switch??!?!?!”

Ok…. that’s enough for now…. I gotta go work on my workbook more…. or nap…. whatever happens…. happens….

PEACE OUT!  Hopefully I’ll update in a day or so instead of a month or so….

P.S.  Monster Garage, Monster House, and American Chopper are all that Discovery Channel should EVER air.  I’d never turn it off.