Westy Masquerade

Last night was a major success in the lobby of Westminster dorm. Grace had its annual masquerade with fall themed games and activities as well as choreographed dancing! This year, SAB joined with Westminster in bringing a square dance to the outside terrace area of the dorm.
The Students came in an array of costumes such as the H1N1 virus, Yoda, the Sham-wow guy, Salt and Pepper, and two hillbillies who MC-ed the whole event. I was thoroughly impressed by the creativity of the costumes. Also, students participated in games by bowling with pumpkins, fishing for candy brains in jello, eating a doughnut from a string, and dropping chocolate covered marshmallows, which were very entertaining to watch. And while students were standing around socializing, they could grab a cup of hot cider and some cookies to satisfy their appetite.
My favorite part was the line-dancing that took place outside as well as inside. Students channeled their country roots as they listened to a square dance caller and gathered in circles to clap and do-si-do (I have no clue how to spell this). Such favorites as the "Cha-Cha Slide" and the "Cotton Eye Joe" made appearances in the lobby of Westminster too.
It truly was a night to remember as we celebrated the fall together!

Cambodia

During missions conference two weeks ago, the Grace student body was given a challange. Last year during missions conference, Grace College raised between six and seven thousand dollars to donate to Feed My Starving Children, an organization that packs and ships food all over the world. My mouth dropped to floor when I heard that this year's goal was ten thousand dollars; much more than last year. I had my doubts on whether the Grace student body could raise enough. My mouth dropped a second time and almost to the floor when I heard the ending total for the missions week. We gave over fourteen thousand dollars so that our brothers and sisters in Christ could be supported in Cambodia. The money will help start businesses, provide Bibles, and pay a years rent in a ministry facility in this country. All I can say is that I am thoroughly proud of Grace students and their willingness to give. We completed the seemingly impossible challenge with the goal of spreading God's kingdom!

Rainy Days And Silly String

The week has been fairly uneventful, save winning two free combos at Taco Bell and ambushing my suite mate with a can of silly string. Oh, the simple joys of college life. The weather is hideous today and the campus is spotted with various colors and patterns of umbrellas. Today will be a good day to nap or just stay in and study. Maybe I'll make a mug of tea and snuggle up in a blanket with some Hulu. I know this is where I should say that I'll use this time in the room to get ahead in my homework, but you fine readers don't deserve such lies. I'm probably just going to play on Facebook and eat random candy I find in my desk drawers. I'm sorry I don't have anything more interesting to report. If something terribly exciting happens, I'll be sure to let you know. Have a lovely (albeit rainy) day! Keep on truckin'!

Intramural Soccer

Unfortunately, the intramural soccer season came to a close for the Westminster 4th floor girls this past Thursday. I had never played soccer in my life until last year when I became involved in the intramural soccer program at Grace. I am thankful that my lack of experience does not matter in the Grace Intramural Program. Grace really emphasizes having fun and fellowship with other Grace students more than the competitive side of sports. Because intramural sports are played with fellow hall-mates, I have been able to learn more about the girls on my hall and to develop teamwork with them in order to be productive on the field.
In addition to soccer, Grace will have an intramural volleyball, basketball, and softball season yet this year. I am not extremely athletic, yet I feel very comfortable with joining in on these sporting events. Also, there are usually several people on each hall who have played the sport in previous years who can help lead the team to victory.
Although our season was shorter than we wanted, we enjoyed the many benefits of our involvement in soccer. I look forward to next soccer season in the Grace Intramural Program because it is an outlet for exercise, getting to know my hall-mates, and improving my few soccer skills.

Missions Week

This past week on campus our focus has been missions. It has been an amazing and encouraging past couple of days :) Anywhere from chapel, to growth groups, to lunch in Alpha there have been missionaries from all over the world flooding our school. We had the vice-president of World Vision come and speak to us during chapel and his message was revolutionary. Not only did he encourage us to get out of our comfort zones and spread the message, we had over 40 missionaries and mission groups that we could look into achieving this goal! It was so cool to hear their stories, two missionaries came to each individual growth groups and we got to know them and how they got to where they are today. Also our chaplain, Scott Feather, encouraged us as a family to help our Christian families around the world and raise 10,000 dollars for relief efforts in Cambodia. And do you know what? We raised over 11,000 dollars! How cool is that? We came together as a family and helped out our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hurting. That's just how awesome our campus is! :)

- J to the MO

Dressing Some Fools

So, the cabaret is over and life can get back to normal. It's back to homework, and meetings, and slaving away over a hot laptop. The show went fantastically though, and I couldn't be more proud of the result. We had great music, a great cast, great audiences; what more could a director ask for? Aside from fame, fortune, and her own personal pool boy.

My life will now be taken over by costuming the fall play, Neil Simon's Fools. The play is about a small Russian village that is cursed with stupidity. A teacher comes to the town, falls in love with a girl and discovers he must break the curse or become stupid himself. Publishing companies should definitely recruit me to write play summaries. I just made that show sound even more enticing, if that's even possible. I might just be a summary writing prodigy. Anyhow, the costuming is going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to get started.

The other main project that should be consuming my life, when I am responsible enough to work on it, is writing the winter show. I will be student directing the winter play at Grace and I'm planning something a little different than years past. I am writing my own comedy sketch show, much like you would see at The Second City or Saturday Night Live. It's a tall order, but I think I can handle it. I have a handful of sketches already written that at least make my mother laugh. I suppose that's a start.

I have quite a bit of work to get done, so I will sign off for today, but not without leaving you with some grand nugget of wisdom. Maybe I'll make that my new thing. I have many of them. Here goes...

When your day is looking dismal and hopeless, remember, it's already tomorrow in Australia...and if that doesn't help than suck it up and eat some chocolate. You'll be fine.

Have a lovely day. Keep on truckin'!

You Can Lead A Reader To A Blog...

This week has been absolutely insane trying to prepare for opening night of the cabaret. Luckily, I have discovered that if you sleep less at night, it's like gaining hours in the day. Feel free to use that tidbit to enrich your life. If it ends up destroying it, don't blame me. I can lead a reader to my blog, but I can't make him copy my shennanigans.

The show is looking so amazing and I'm extremely proud to be able to call myself the director. I'm still nervous about everything coming together in such a short time, but I'm sure my gang of performers can pull it out. A gang of performers? Hmmmm...I like it. Instead of doing drive-bys and bustin' caps, we'll do dance-bys and sing for elderly people and orphans. Less tough, but more fun.

I best be off. I have a humor column to write, cabaret rehearsal to direct, and that pile of homework isn't going to do itself. If it did, my life would be a lot easier; but it would be really weird and I would have to assume there were demons or fairies in my room. Wow. Maybe this "not sleeping to gain hours" thing is starting to catch up with me. Have a lovely day! Keep on truckin'!