Listen. [Repeat.]

I've been listening to this song on repeat for the past 41 hours. It goes like this:

I can tell by your eyes you're not getting any sleep
And you try to rise above but feel you're sinking in too deep.

But I believe you'll outlive this pain in your heart
And you'll gain such a strength from what is tearing you apart.

And when some time has passed us, when the story can be told,
It will mirror the strength and the courage in your soul.

And for 41 hours, I've been trying to believe it.

In all things, God is love.

Blow me a kiss and I'll be happy the rest of my life.

Cereal Monday is heaven-sent. I say this in part because the tradition was my idea. It goes like this: every Monday, Shannon and I bring a different box of cereal (if we remember) to Simpson and sit in the lobby with our bro Travis (cinna-mon) and...

We. Eat. Cereal. If other Simpson residents ask us about it, we invite them to eat cereal with us. (Oh, your roommate has Frosted Flakes? Go get them! Sharing is caring, after all.)

I'm crossing my fingers that Cereal Monday will become a Simpson legend. I'm crossing my fingers that other Simpson boys will get wind of the tradition and maybe start bringing some cereal of their own to share (Yes, I'm talking to YOU). And I'm praying that, even through these silly habitual times of fellowship, we are building strong relationships.

On that note, I'm very thankful for today. Lately I've been discouraged about relationships here on this campus. There is no easy solution to the problems I have dealt with, but today was a little light that I needed desperately. So I'm thankful for today. I'm thankful for puns, for surprises-for-no-reason, for coloring books, for inside jokes, for man-hugs, for our friend Jack Attack and his perfect sense of humor, for nicknames, for Laura Golden, for a box of 120 crayons, for music, for intramural football games, for blue skies, for Applejacks and 0% milk, for photographs and the creative souls who take them, and most of all for grace shown through the simplest things.

Chicago is 196.19 miles too far away.

Today all I want is to wear a yellow cardigan and drink a pumpkin spice latte and people-watch on Michigan Avenue.

Gimme

Please indulge me for 2 seconds in a little fit of selfishness. There are so many things I took for granted while I was growing up in Chicago, which means: there are SO many things that I miss, even sometimes ache for now. So here it is:

gyros
African-Americans
Mexican-Americans
Asian-Americans
non-Americans
non-Anglo Saxons
rap music
those sick drummers who always play at Millennium Station
Starbucks
Thai food
commuters
cinnamon-sugar toast (and toast in general... why can I not find toast on this campus?)
REAL pizza (i.e. Chicago-style pizza)

The End.

Let x = why?

Why do chocolate chip pancakes taste so much better at midnight than at any other time of the day?

Two muffins are sitting in an oven.

The first muffin says: "Man, it's getting hot in here."
The second muffin looks at the first muffin and screams: "AHH! You're a talking muffin!"


Fourteen years later, jokes like these still crack me up.

I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.

Today, do yourself a huge favor and check out the band Owl City. Check out their songs. Check out their music videos. Check out their lyrics. Even, if you're brave, check out their Twitter.

They're just pure happy.

So run into the fields; scream louder than you can.

All this classroom work tends to numb the soul. Sometimes I catch myself walking from classroom to library, or library to union, or union to dorm completely engrossed in my mental to-do list. It's not wrong that I'm focusing on academics. After all, that's what I'm here for. It's okay that I'm here in the present. But sometimes it's good just to be a dreamer for a while.

It's especially good to dream about things like honeycrisp apples, some new cute rainboots, living in a tiny apartment in the heart of a city somewhere someday, and everything I'll do when I'm home tomorrow. Mostly I'm preoccupied with the fact that winter is fast approaching, and that means: hot cocoa, twinkle lights, fir trees, colorful scarves, pumpkin-flavored everything, carols, candles, and non-stop Christmas music for 2 straight months. Can't wait.