March 4, 2005

It's an exciting time. Tomorrow begins Harding University's Spring Break, so termed because it goes from March 5 to March 12, sometimes referred to as "still winter." This sort of thing hasn't stopped Harding before. Last semester, and I'd like to emphasize just how I am not making this up, Harding University and the city of Searcy, Arkansas decided to change the date of Halloween. What's more, as far as I've heard, they completely did not consult the pope. Can you imagine how those hallows felt? Coming back to find all those little kids running around barfing up candy corn when they were supposed to have gotten that over with the night before, or technically, the "eve"? They were probably righteously indignant! And who needs righteously indignant hallows? I mean, really?

But I suppose it's not so bad in this case, because even though Harding mangled the calendar to put Spring Break so early, the capricious Arkansas weather decided to follow suit. (And why not? It's done everything else lately.) It feels like spring outside, and good spring, too, because it's warm and breezy and sunny and the plants did not get the memo which is the absolute best part. Because once plants realize that spring is about to rear it's ugly head, they open up their flowers o' plant sperm and start spewing plague into the air, resulting in much sneezing. (Can you tell I'm not usually a spring fan?) But Arkansas has outsmarted the plants (atypically), and now it's glorious outside - spring without the hay fever!

It is for this splendid reason that I am sitting in my dormroom typing a C-File, but I'm happy anyway because I am not working on my seminar paper. Have you ever tried to make computer science interesting? I mean to non-nerds? It's quite a formidable task. There is practically no formidding going on with this task.

But even more than all this, I'm excited because tomorrow (insofar as 6:15 AM can be referred to as tomorrow) I am leaving for a week in the glorious city of Boston , Massachusetts (official city motto: "You Bet There's Snow!") with my church planting team, known officially as the "Boston Metro Church," because the IRS and Regions Bank demanded we name ourselves, as if this was something that we could do without at least eight hundred theological discussions on denominationalism and what is referred to around here as "that ecumenical thing." Well, we did have those discussions a long time ago, and we never really officially resolved anything, but when it came time to decide on a name finally, it all seemed very easy. "We want generic!" the team cried. "And boring! Generic and boring!" The IRS was only too happy to oblige.

The snow aspect of Boston worries my parents, who are still concerned about that tiny little case of hypothermia I got three years ago, mistaking it for anaphylactic shock (I'm allergic to the cold, in case you didn't think I could possibly be any weirder). They're afraid so much snow will activate my allergies and I'll do something inconvenient like die, but I survived two weeks in Europe in temperatures normally reserved for more penguin-infested parts of the globe, so I'm not worried. Besides, I've talked to actual Bostonians on the issue and they inform me that, and this is an actual quote, "During the winter, we never go outside." Hey, that's fine with me.

I kind of wish I were outside right now, though, and I might open up the window, but then my carefully stacked computer science research papers would fly all over the place. That would be unfortunate because they have been meticulously organized into piles based on which direction I was turned in my chair when I got tired of reading them, and I would hate to lose the system.

Anyway, as Spring Break approaches, I find myself feeling a mixture of excitement and fear of computer science deadlines, but I trust that everything will magically work out. I mean, in terms of the trip itself, we have actual plans and everything! Like, a schedule! Almost as if we were organized! It's great!

In related news, today I grew up a little bit. For the first time ever, I made a financial record. I wrote a check and (this is the insane, adult part) I recorded the expenditure and calculated the balance! It made me feel dizzy with power and responsibility. Ok, not really. It wasn't nearly as big a deal as I thought all this church financial stuff would feel. It's actually pretty mundane, but that in and of itself was surprising. Who knew maturity was so boring?

Our plans for the trip include touring different towns with a real estate agent ("And underneath this pile of snow we have a three-part multi-family complex"), meeting with preexisting churches (Them: "Hi! We're a preexisting church! It's nice to meet you! Please change the name of your church!" Us: "It's nice to meet you, too! No!"), touring schools, sleeping at MIT, and playing with snow because as Southerners we are bizarrely fascinated with the stuff.

Anyway, if you would be so kind as to keep us in your prayers this week, we would be most grateful. And check out our redesigned website: http://www.bostonchurchplant.com! It's cool! We stayed up until 2 am doing it! I am tired! And now I'm done!