One Week Down....

Today marks my second Saturday here in Austin. It's been quite an interesting week. I knew it would be tough at first coming here and not knowing anyone...but I wasn't really worried about it. Let me just tell you, at one point early in the week, I had gone I think three days without having an in-person conversation with anyone outside of work! I found myself working overtime just because I knew I didn't want to come home and be there by myself. It's really depressing not knowing anyone, being alone. To think some people feel the way I did, and much worse, for weeks and months upon end is sad to me. Luckily some of my best friends from back home called when I really needed and gave me someone to talk to...that helped more than they know.

Things started changing around Wednesday, though. I had worked some things out with God and just felt better, plus my roommate came back from being stranded at home Wednesday night. But Thursday and Friday night I went down to UT (University of Texas) campus and hung out there. I met some of the Nav folk down there which was pretty cool. They are doing this big thing down there called Rez Week....sorta like a revival for the whole school where all the student ministries unite together to further the Kingdom and spread Christ's love. I think we get caught up a lot of times in what is going on in our lives and what God is or isn't doing around us...and don't ever realize how big He is. I mean, I come down here, 1200 miles, to find that He is doing and getting ready to do huge things completely apart from me or anyone I know. Pretty sweet.

Work has been going pretty good too. It's completely different from my last job working for the DoD. The consumer world is quite different. At my last job, we pretty much either got money from the government, or we didn't. But now, we're competing, and marketing is this huge new thing to me that everyone is talking about. How can we make a better product than Intel and how can we make our stuff sound better than theirs. Don't buy Intel chips by the way, AMD is much better :-)

But it's pretty laid back at work, a lot of people wear shorts and t-shirts and sandals and no one seems to care. I haven't yet, but maybe when it is above 100 degrees for 30 days straight, like it's supposed to be here, I'll start!! There is a ping-pong table and a Nintendo Wii in the cafeteria at work that we play on pretty much everyday....I wish I was as good at ping-pong as I was freshman year when we used to play every day in Daniel's. People do work really hard here though, and seem to enjoy what they do, which is great! I get to work a lot with hardware too, which is something I wanted to do. The days haven't dragged on at all, but have gone pretty quickly....which didn't happen too often at my last co-op. We'll see what happens in the next 5 months.

I'm still hoping to get to experience more of the music and the people down here...which are both supposed to be amazing. It's weird because everyone I've talked to or heard talk about Austin loves it....and it's a lot easier to like a place when the people who live there like it too.

Anyway, I've finally submitted to cheering on OSU....time to go watch the game....go BUCKS!!!

Austin...

Finally got to Austin yesterday. I left Galveston yesterday morning and drove through Houston on my way. The drive from Houston to Austin was pretty sweet. Before I came here, I thought Texas would pretty much be completely brown...like dirt. But the drive from Houston was really colorful. The trees down here are all shades of green and the highway medians are spotted with wildflowers of almost every color....purple, orange, pink, yellow, and red. One of the coolest things was all the ranches. Everyone has some ridiculously splendid gate boasting the family's name or some phrase like 'God Bless Texas'. Behind the gates, you can see a driveway bend around the trees, allowing you to only imagine what the house looks like. To the side of the gates, there are vast fields sprawling the country side filled with cattle and shorthorn grazing on the rolling, grassy hills. As I took it all in, I thought to myself, 'Man, I could definitely live here'. Who knows, maybe one day when I become a cowboy...I finally got to my apartment in North Austin about 4pm. The location is super nice. The apartment complex is nestled back in this little wooded area on top of a hill. There are a ton of other really nice apartments and condo's nearby. It'll be amazing living in a nice area, after living in Clifton for so long.

My new roommate, Ricky, is really cool. We went to Super-Walmart yesterday and bought some necessaries, at which point I was fortunate enough to spot a brand new Little Ceasars. I couldn't resist and ended up purchasing my first of many Hot-n-Ready pizzas in Austin. They charge tax on fast food in Texas though...8.5%!! How ridiculous is that?? This meant that my Hot-n'-Ready was $5.41 instead of $5 even.

I ended up going to church this morning. The pastor was talking about getting out of your comfort zone. Check, I'm pretty much out of my comfort zone more than I've ever been in my entire life. But then he started talking about having Vision...about how we only expect God to do the things we've already seen Him do, or the things we see Him doing now. Hellen Keller said "The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision." I think God wants us to dream big...wants us to dare to ask for things we think are impossible. When we dream big and have vision, God will provide big....

One last day by the beach...

These last few days in Galveston have been pretty amazing, sitting by the beach and floating around in the ocean on an inflatable donut...definitely cannot complain. I somehow managed to burn the area right around my eyes yesterday, and now I look like a crack addict. Hopefully that'll fade by the time I start work on Monday though!!!!

Tomorrow we'll make the final drive to Austin. The rest of the guys I'm with want to see where I'll live, as well as the UT campus....but they'll have to leave tomorrow night to get the rental car back by Saturday afternoon....then I'll be all on my own!!! That should be cool, I guess. It'll be cool to start all over with who I am and what people think of me. It's not that I would really do anything that different or that I'm at all upset about my life in Cincy, because I'm not....but there are a few things that I'd like to change about the way I carry myself that should be much easier to do with a clean slate.

That's it for now....peace!

Texas At Last....

Finally made it to Texas....not Austin, but to Galveston for spring break on the Gulf. And can I just tell you, this place is the most ridiculous place I have ever been to. I used to think that California was the land of the fruits and nuts, but no sir, it's Galveston. As we turned onto Seawall Blvd, the main road that goes up and down the coast in Galveston, we were bombarded with traffic. People were driving down the street hanging out of their windows yelling and screaming. Everyone had 22s, some slick paint job, and 1000watt subs pounding their beats. Motorcycles were revving up and peeling out. People were driving down the street with their trunks wide open to show off some neon lights that spelled out their own stupid little phrase. Guys were rolling down the road showing off their hydraulics, bouncing up and down. One guy was even driving his Red Cadillac Escalade, subs pounding, with his Lamborghini style fold-up doors wide open. People were riding these funny bicycles with like 4 and 5 people on them. Dudes were walking down the street with their pants hanging below their butt. People were stopping in the middle of the street and getting out of their car just to shake hands with their buddy. I really just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was like all the stuff you see in the rap videos, all the stuff you kind of laugh at, was really happening here...like people really do that stuff here in Galveston. There were several points where I really stopped and thought, 'am I crazy, or are we the only normal people here.' Now in all fairness, it was Saturday night, and it was St. Patricks Day, so maybe they were a little crazier than normal....who knows.

Today was good though. Things quieted down a lot and we actually went to the beach. It's not particularly hot, 70 degrees, but it actually felt pretty good. The water was a little bit exhilarating to jump all the way in, but once I did, it was pretty nice. :-)

One notable experience, I did see my first real cowboy yesterday. He was wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, and those cowboy pants thingys as he was getting into his red Ford F-150. This is particularly exciting to me because it has always been a secret dream (a few privileged people know) of mine to be a cowboy since I was about 5 years old...in fact I've been a cowboy for probably 10 Halloween costumes.

We'll see what happens.......

Road trip.....

Finally done!!! I just finished my last exam...Psych 102. I put check marks by the problems that I knew and after the exam was over, I went back through and counted how many problems I knew. Out of 141 problems, I counted 33 check marks! Haha, but I actually felt like I guessed more on the midterm and I ended up getting an A+, so who knows. It was particularly hard taking this exam because about 10 minutes into it, I couldn't stop thinking about how there wasn't one place I would not rather be than in that room filling in bubbles to questions I have no clue about!!

But school is done with, and now I can leave. I'm pretty much just waiting for my parents to get here so we can pack the car up, get lunch, and head on out. It will be weird saying goodbye to them. I've said a lot of goodbyes in the last few days. Some harder than others. It's something we say everyday, but usually really just mean 'see ya tomorrow'. When it really means goodbye, though, it's weird. I mean, we can say 'I love you' and 'I'll miss you', but there comes a point in the goodbye where you realize that's all you can say...and it seems so unsatisfying, almost frustrating. I guess I'll just go this way, and you'll go that way, and that's really it??? Makes we want to be in Heaven....where we'll never have to say goodbye.

But I am really excited to go to Texas. I got an e-mail yesterday from my new roommate in Austin, Ricky, and he seems like a really cool guy. It's going to be a lot easier settling in to Austin since I will have a friend as soon as I get there who knows the area and the people. And I'm definitely ready to get away from this cold weather. It's supposed to rain most of the week for spring break, which is weird to me because I didn't really think it rained in Texas. There might be a lot of misconceptions I find I have about Texas....guess I'll find out soon ;-)

The road trip should be fun since I'll be driving down with BL (Ben Lewis, aka Bacon Lettuce). I've got three road trip CDs that were made for me.....I'm pretty excited about! I can only imagine what great songs await me on Lindsey's road trip mix. Speaking of road trip CDs, I'm gonna go make sure I have my Kelly Clarkson Breakway CD, because what great road trip doesn't have Kelly!!! :-D

Peace out Ohio...I'll miss you all!!!

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. ~ Phil 4:6-7

and then there were 4 days......

It’s 1:22 AM….I should be sleeping, but I’m pretty much wired. All I can think about is Texas….it’s pretty much all I can think about whenever I’m not studying or taking care of something else. It’s not really Texas I think about so much as the thought of leaving here….leaving my friends and family, my life. You don’t really realize how much you love your friends and family until you are about to go 1200 miles away from every one of them for awhile!!

It’s hard to believe that in just 4 days I’ll be on my way….taking my luxury 2001 Buick Century on the adventure of its lifetime down to the Lonestar State. I know people leave for co-op and for jobs all the time for 3 or 6 months, or even more…and I feel like it shouldn’t really be a big deal. But it is….I’ve never moved so far away for so long before. It’s not like I’m nervous, God has provided too much for me in Texas to be nervous or to even begin to think He doesn’t have my back…I’m just really anxious and excited to go. I really don’t have any expectations of Texas….I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

I just wish there was more time. Not a long time, but just like a day between exams and leaving so I could spend one night getting things ready and hanging out with friends. Pretty much, I have a Psych 102 exam from 8-10am Friday morning, my parents are bringing my Buick (on a side note, I really miss my Intrepid, it would have been a great car for Texas in all it’s Purple glory) down at around 10 or 11, we’ll probably pack it up and go get lunch, and then I plan on heading out at noon!! There’s just sooo much to do, and so little time really….but I’m sure it’ll all get done, one way or another.

1:51am, time for bed........