No Sleep 2nite, Hermeneut-tics, and Blue Hair Dye

Wow, this past week has been crazy! Or maybe it's just been this weekend; it's just seemed longer. The big Torrey paper that you write once a semester and is worth 30% of your entire grade was due this past Friday at 5 p.m. It was only the first draft (we get it returned to us with comments and stuff and then have to turn it in one more time), but we still have to have it pretty close to a final copy. I started on this paper a week early (really earlier because I did an outline the weekend before). So I finished writing it last Saturday night and then e-mailed it to a sophomore who was kind enough to read a bunch of freshmen papers and give them helpful comments. I talked with her Monday night about my paper, and she said I had good ideas but I needed to go deeper into the topic; it was a good AP English paper, but not a very great Torrey paper. So I worked on it a little throughout the week but I wasn't really sure what to change. Until Thursday night. Around 9 p.m. Liiiight bulbbb (said in the funny Gru accent). Around 11, my roommate and I went to the Eagle's Nest for some caffeine and chocolate chip cookies. We needed a break and energy to keep writing. Boy, we were sure hyper for the rest of the night. At 1 a.m., after getting more caffeine and more cookies, we went to the SUB (Student Union Building) where a bunch of Torrey people were working on their papers together and getting help from upperclassmen. My roommate and I settled in on one of the pool tables (one of the only available seats left) and continued working. and working. and sometimes getting interrupted by people. and being hyper. and laughing at random things that would not be funny during normal hours of the day. and working some more. I finally finished at 4 a.m., and ended up getting in bed at 4:30. My roommate got in at 5. But we got it done! Some people didn't even go to bed that night. Welcome to college, I guess. But even though we didn't get sleep, I had a lot of fun that night. It was so crazy! We read each others' papers on Friday, corrected some things, and got it turned in at 3 p.m. Then we celebrated with some strawberry smoothies. :)

I skipped a class for the first time Friday morning. Spanish. at 8:30. I decided to give myself some more sleep. I got up at 8:30 and went to chapel at 9:30. The DBC (Dr. Barry Corey, aka president of Biola) was speaking about the Lausanne Conference that he'd just gotten back from. It was very interesting! Being with Christians from all over the world in one town, learning how to evangelize the world, and learning how Christians live in different countries would be an incredibly cool experience. He showed us some videos of some of the speakers (also a video of Issac Slade from the Fray playing "How to Save a Life" on the piano - very cool), and he also showed us a video of a young boy in an orphanage in Kenya (he went there after the conference), which apparently Biola has helped out a lot with, telling all the Biola students "thank you" for everything they've done. It was very sweet and very cool to hear. I'm glad I got up to go.

Saturday, I attended a mandatory Hermeneutics Conference for all Torrey freshmen. from 10-3, with an hour break for lunch. It was basically telling us how we should read and take notes on the Bible (we start with Genesis next week). It was all very interesting and good information, and I took some notes, but I was incredibly tired (as was everyone else). Therefore, it was hard to pay attention. I found myself writing Taylor Swift lyrics because they were stuck in my head. Hehe. One thing I remember is the Hermeneutics song. "Hermeneut, hermeneut, hermeneut, hermeneut, TICS, bridging the gap!" After the conference, I went with some friends to see Inception. It was just as good as the first time I saw it, except a little better because I saw the beginning this time. But because the movie started 15 minutes late, we didn't make it back to campus in time for dinner in the caf. So we decided to go to Eagle's Nest (a little food place on campus). Just kidding, they were closed too. Though why they close at 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening is a mystery to me. Let's go to Chick-fil-a! So we ate yummy chicken and I burnt the roof of my mouth on my sandwich because I was starving and a bit too eager to eat. Also, my friends like making me laugh so much that I can't breathe. For some reason, they find this amusing. I have no earthly idea why.....

When we got back to campus again, we decided to do homework together in the SUB for awhile, and then play Apples-to-Apples. We realized that that game does not always have the best cards. Sometimes they are really lame, sometimes they are just plain wrong.

Today was Candyland! Every Halloween, Alpha (the dorm I live in) is transformed into Candyland the board game/movie. A balloon arch covers the entrance of the walkway and a colorful path leads up to the doors. There's a popcorn machine and snacks and candy at the entrance. In the lobby, multiple games offer many chances for prizes and candy. Face painting is also available. There are 6 halls in Alpha. Each hall has a different theme, and the doors are all decorated according to theme. My hall theme was "Grandma Nut goes to the movies." My roommie and I did "The Nut in the Hat," and dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2. We were quite proud of our door and costumes! Especially since we'd really only started them today. The door took us 3 hours today after church. We'd already bought red shirts and leggings earlier this week, but we hadn't made the "Thing 1/2" circles for the shirts and we didn't have blue hair dye. We went out to the Rite Aid and found some blue hair dye that said "semi-permanent." What does that mean? We didn't know, so we did something that you aren't supposed to do, and I don't think I've ever done. We opened the sealed box to look at the instructions. Do your hair for 30 minutes - stays in 1-6 months; 10 minutes- 1-3 weeks. This is not what we want! Good thing we opened it up. We next went to the CVS Pharmacy but they didn't have anything. It was a God-thing, though, that there was a beauty salon next door and they had exactly what we wanted: spray-on hair dye that comes out with shampoo. There was only one blue color left! Yay! We got back to campus with about 30 minutes to complete our costumes. We quickly finished the shirts, put our costumes on, and sprayed each others hair. My roommie sprayed my ear. Accidentally. But my ear was blue. And it still has blue in it. Oh well. ;) Also, when i blew my nose a few hours later, blue stuff came out. Don't ask me why; I have no idea how that happened! Anyways, at 5:30, the kids came, and I worked one of the games for an hour. Then, I helped my roommie hand out candy for awhile; when we were running low, we decided to go look at all the halls. There is so much creativity in Alpha! And all the little kids were adorable! It was so wonderful to be around a bunch of kids again; I really miss being around children. Needless to say, Candyland was a ton of fun!

However, I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and I have homework to do tonight. Pull Questions due tomorrow by 5 and Timaeus has to be read by Tuesday. Then I can get my normal sleep. Hopefully.

"The lingering question kept me up, 2 a.m., who do you love? I wonder 'till I'm wide awake...I was enchanted to meet you."
-Enchanted, Taylor Swift