Church in a Bar

That's right, in case you haven't heard it the past 1,000 times it's been said, last night was the Iowa City Salt Company Kick-off in the Blue Moose. It was awesome. We started out with 75 chairs plus some bar stools, and a bench on the wall for seating. That quickly filled up, so more chairs were brought out. Those filled up. There were people standing, or sitting on steps by the end. I've heard a count of 210--and I think only about a third were part of the church plant or visitors from Ames TSC. I had thought that we wouldn't have very many attendees, but I'm glad I was wrong. I guess I've just been meeting the wrong people.

I was sitting in front of the sound and light boards, so I could see much of the crowd in front of me. I could see as people from Iowa City stood--before a lot of us yahoos from Ames--during the closing worship. I stood in awe of God's work as raised hands peppered the room. I temporarily lost the ability to speak from the worship. In short, it was amazing. And once again, I'm reminding myself "Never doubt that God will come through".

I can't wait to see what he does there next week.

It's Getting Serious

Well, I'm trying to be a more serious student, and get into good habits, so I've created a grade tracker to keep track of what I still need to do to get certain grades--essentially a "if I stopped doing anything right now, what would my grades be" spreadsheet. You can view it by clicking this link. I can't put my English class up because it doesn't really have a grade system. And if you're paying attention, the Biology class doesn't add up. That's because the lowest test grade is dropped, so only four will count. Also, the labs and class assignments are set up so that we can miss three without it counting against us--only extra credit if we do more.

Anyway, it's less than 5 hours until the First Iowa City Salt Company at the Blue Moose! I'll be there nice and early to help out in any way I can. Unfortunately for my roommate, he'll be there a lot earlier than I will. He left the apartment this morning at 8:30 to go to class, and he won't get back until after Salt, while I left at 10, got back at 2, and will leave for Salt at around 6:30. I even got my Spanish homework done before creating the grade tracker mentioned above--and it's only about a quarter after 3 now. At least he's only got two classes tomorrow, starting at 1:30. U of I class times are weird--they start on the half hour instead of the hour. Kirkwood class times are normal, except that they might start as early as 7--though none of mine start before 10.

Resolution

Okay, I've got a new resolution--never buy books until AFTER classes start. Apparently, 3 out of the 4 books I bought for the classes I had today were listed incorrectly. I actually needed books with a similar, but slightly different, title--except in the case of the Spanish, where I needed to buy a packet that included the book, not just the book. I'm so glad the bookstore was clear on which books were needed. I can't even do the homework that's due tomorrow in my Spanish class because of it. Hopefully, the instructor will be understanding.

Anyway, it looks like tomorrow, I have to go back and return half of my books and get the right ones, and I still haven't said anything about the bus pass. So if you see me tonight or tomorrow and I seem upset, that's why.

Bookstore

So, yesterday, I bought books--$530 worth of books and a new backpack. For 4 classes. All intro level. Sigh. Oh well, that's what I get for screwing around for 5 years at ISU. And hey, I'm taking a third foreign language. I had also meant to buy a bus pass but I forgot. So I went back today for a bus pass, and ended up buying a notebook with a Kirkwood pseudo-seal on the front of it.

When I went out to catch the bus back to downtown--there's no direct route from there to here--the bus refused my pass, saying it was expired. The bus driver told me that it wasn't just my pass, and Kirkwood had gotten some bad passes or something, and he let me ride the bus anyway. Therefore, I decided to walk back home from downtown. I had intended to register to vote, but it can wait a few more days.

On a completely unrelated note, I've added some countdowns to this blog, so those of you who view on Google Reader may want to check out the actual blog just this once. The first is on the top, counting down until the first Iowa City Salt Company. *cue fanfare* Less than 5 days from now, the Blue Moose will have a few dozen believers taking over the back room. The other two are at the bottom of the blog, counting down to the start of the Dallas Cowboys season and the Colorado Avalanche season--my two favorite sports teams.

Leaders' Retreat

I know I'm not a leader, but I got to go on the IC Salt Company Leaders' Retreat this week. Why? Because at the church potluck in the park on Sunday, I asked if any help was needed for setup and tear down every week, and was told I could start tomorrow.

So that's how I found myself signed up to go to Muscatine and help with the Leaders' Retreat. I got up at 6 on Monday, since we had to meet at the offices at 8.

I learned a little about how to set up and tear down, and I got to hang out with 25 people who are following hard after God. How can that not be a good 24 hours? Oh, and the house the guys stayed at had a Foosball table, a ping-pong table, a volleyball net, and a trampoline. A good time was had by all.

I feel like a traitor

I got a new pair of flip-flops today. I had to. My last pair was ruined 6 days ago because of a combination of road tar, blistering temperatures, and laundry. Long story short, I was on my way back from doing laundry and I saw that they were re-tarring the street my apartment is on--and I was on the wrong side! I had a choice: either cross and risk ruining my flip-flops, or go about 3 blocks out of my way to go around. Of course, because of the heat, I chose to cross. After one step in the tar, my flip-flops ripped off my feet, and I was essentially walking barefoot across the tar--so now there's tar in the shower.

Anyway, I had had those flip-flops since I started college--in 2004! They had lasted for 6 years, and Iowa City killed them. But that's not why I feel like a traitor--not completely, anyway. My new ones are Hawkeye flip-flops. I feel like a traitor against my family because of that. But I gotta fit in--at least a little.

Ames has spoiled me

Ames has spoiled me in lots of ways, but the way this post is concerned with is the bus system. You go to Cyride's website and you get a full map of Ames with all the bus routes on it. When you want to plan a bus trip in the IC, you have to download about a dozen PDFs, and open 7 or 8 pages. See, there are two bus systems here. One is called "Cambus" and is basically U of I buses. There are about 6 Cambus routes, and you have to open a page to see where each one goes, with a map that shows some of the surrounding area. Then there's Iowa City Transit, where you have to download a PDF for each route you want to view--there are about 12 of them. Even with all that downloading, the maps only show the streets the buses actually travel on--if it goes in a big loop, the streets in the middle of the loop aren't even shown--so you almost have to open Google Maps to figure out where the bus route is in relation to where you are. And in case you're wondering, they don't have a convenient map at bus shelters here. I guess they assume if you're at a bus stop, you know where you need to go.

However, you can have it email which buses to take and from where to get where you're going, but I'd rather just be able to look at a well-designed map and go. I guess that's too much to expect.

In unrelated news, I'm sleeping a lot better here than I had been the last couple weeks in Ames. I don't know if it's because the stress over not wanting to leave has gone, or something else, but I'll take it.

Well, I'm back

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but there have been some difficulties. The first was moving, of course. 3 days of packing and unpacking, loading and unloading. But here I am, in Iowa City.

The next complication (and the largest) was keys. When we moved in, we were told the lock was broken and someone would be out to fix the lock that night. That was Sunday. Yesterday, my roommate told me that he would wait to move the rest of his stuff in until we could lock the door. Of course, that was the expensive stuff, including his computer--in case you've forgotten or never knew, mine is a large paperweight. Today, we finally got keys, so he brought some more of his stuff.

Now, I could almost say that he isn't my roommate yet. He hasn't spent the night here, he's just storing stuff. He's still working back at home, and will be for the rest of this week. After that, he's going to Canada with some friends, so I've got the place to myself for two weeks.

In other news, on Friday night, my dad and I went to see The Fab Four. They're a Beatles tribute band, so the crowd was mostly two age groups--middle-aged and college-aged. It was good, but they didn't play any of my four favorite Beatles songs--Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand; I've Just Seen A Face; When I'm Sixty-Four; and Something--which made me a little sad. I understand the first one very well, but the other three are iffy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to finally leave the apartment. I've been too nervous to leave when I can't lock the door from the outside.

Dear Ames,

By the time you read this, I will have already left. I'm leaving you for Iowa City. I'm going to miss you--your beautiful parks, your quaint little downtown, and of course your residents. You've been very good to me these past....how long has it been? Six years? Wow. You've been very good to me these past six years, and we had some good times--the surprise guncotton explosion during a chem club show, watching the swans and geese by the lake, playing Super Smash Brothers on the screen in 1002 Gilman, walking to the mall and back just because I could....the list goes on and on. However, these times have come to an end. I am participating in a church plant in Iowa City. I will try to make it back and visit, but I can't make any promises.

You will always feel like home to me, but I can't stay any longer. My lease ran out the moment this post went live, and the long period of homelessness has begun. I don't know how much you'll miss me, but I'll think about you often, Ames.

Farewell, wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey's end.