rpeabody

My first day back at Schnucks was today. I was a cashier. A lot of it came back to me really quickly, but they changed some things since I last checked. I forgot a lot of the produce numbers, and I made a few mistakes, but I'll relearn with time.

After work, I went to Caleb's office and practiced djembe for the Love Out Loud event which is next week.

Well, I don't have anything to do for the rest of the week until Monday (or Sunday?).

Nonetheless, I'm going to bed.

I've been up crazy late since I've been home.

I should consider changing my sleeping habits.

Meh.

I think I might just stay awake all day.

My heart is breaking for Joplin right now. I watched videos and saw pictures of my college town in shambles.

Joplin was devastated by a tornado around 6am. I heard figures like 50%-75% of Joplin was destroyed by this tornado. If I were to go back to Joplin today, it would look significantly different than it did yesterday.

The tornado touched down on 15th and Rangeline. The tornado ripped through Joplin, destroying St John's hospital, Walmart, IHOP, Academy, Home Depot, Joplin High School and others. The buildings from 7th street to 32nd street is destroyed. I heard the neighborhoods on 20th street were destroyed. Ozark Christian College wasn't hit, and I heard the college is housing some people affected by the disaster. I also heard that people are gathering at the Bridge to send out teams to help.

Wow. I'm lucky I escaped the damage. My family and I were just in Joplin on Saturday. This is crazy.

I'm trying to think of all the people I know who live in Joplin. It's easy to forget who lives there, but I know Patrick and Jesse are fine. Karl is fine. Alex W is fine. Daniel and Heather are fine. Kourtney E is fine. Derek and his wife just moved to Oklahoma yesterday out of a house on 20th and Conneticut (an area that is flattened by the way). Wes and Jenn are okay. I did hear that Stephen, a Ozark student who worked in the library was sent to the hospital and is on oxygen. Ohh, I just thought of Drew and Jennie. I wonder how they are doing!

I just looked at a news article... The death toll is as high as 89 now.

This disaster has been declared a disaster zone. The national guard has been called into Joplin. Obama even said a couple words concerning the tragedy, giving condolences, commending the heroic effort of those who are helping, and saying the federal government is prepared to provide help as needed.

I am praying for the families in Joplin. I know the church is stepping up to help, and that is a really cool thing.

This morning, around 6:30am, I woke up with a start. As I was laying on my side, asleep, I felt something brushing against my chest. Naturally, I grabbed at whatever it was. As I held whatever brushed against my chest, I opened my eyes to discover something unpleasant. I was holding a mouse. Startled, I yelled, waking Chris up, and I threw the mouse across my bed. It scampered past my feet and took refuge under my bed.

The guys on my floor, earlier in the semester, caught a mouse in a bucket and brought the bucket outside. However, they decided amongst themselves that if the mouse runs back inside, they would let him loose on the floor. I'm wondering if this is the same mouse, the mouse they endearingly named Mista Jangles (although I think Mista Jangles might be grayer than our friend. Our friend had a brownish fur).

I had to be near the tennis courts at 9am to take pictures with my graduating class. At 10am, commencement began. Mark Scott pronounced my last name incorrectly despite having checked the pronunciation with me this last week. He pronounced it 'Pee-buh-tee' which is the same way you pronounce the town in Massachusetts. It was fine with me. However, he did correct himself after everyone in my degree returned to their seat after walking across the stage. Oh, and another thing: I've been keeping my middle name secret until graduation. They finally announced my middle name to the crowd. Ah, what a great time to reveal the answer to the question people have been asking for a long time at Ozark Christian College.

Now, I'm graduated. I officially have college degree. Wow! I now have a diploma, declaring I have achieved a Bachelor's of Arts in Christian Ministry with a specialization in Cross-Cultural Ministry.

After graduation, my family and I packed my room and headed toward home. We did eat lunch at Hacketts Hot Wings though. Dang, man. Hacketts is delicious, but it destroys the human body: runny noses, sweating, burning lips, and upset stomachs are the side effects to eating this great food. However, I was unable to finish mine in one sitting. I ordered 15 wings: ten of them hot, and five of them Cajun.

By 9:30pm, my family arrived home, and we unloaded my most of my stuff into the basement.

On my ride back, it was beginning to hit me that I actually graduated from college. It's such a strange feeling. It's a good feeling.

I finished it! I finally finished that Jesus Master Teacher paper! I only have a couple more assignments to complete before the end of the school year (Leadership in Ministry project and the Scope and Sequence paper for Strategies for Teaching).

Besides finishing my homework late at night, I was able to hang out with some friends tonight (Josh, Scott, Kendra, Ciara, Madeline, Abby for some of the night, Kim for another part of the night, Jessica for a short while, and I). Josh was a Game Master in a sort of RPG game we played. Basically, Josh created some scenarios and the person playing had to think quickly about what they would do in that situation. The dice and the judgment of the GM dictate what will happen next. Basically we did that all night.

Tomorrow is the Cinco de Mayo party in Landreth Park that will be hosted by College Heights Christian Church. I will be driving the van to pick up the students at PSU.

I woke up today sick. I don't know if it is allergies or if I have some sort of illness. Either way, I feel like crap. It's a good thing I didn't have anything to do today except possibly work on homework. I'll save that for tomorrow.

Yay for being sick...

Today (by this I mean 4/28... it is now nearly noon 4/29) was one of those days that I stayed up to do a homework assignment (until 2:30am), took a nap rather than a full night's rest (2:30-5:45ish) and then woke up to finish the homework. I am running on about 3 hours of sleep, but napping today probably helped my functionality.

The day wasn't eventful. Dennis Open House was tonight. I did not intend to go until Melinda invited me. I primarily hung out in her room for a while.

Well, I'm going to catch up on some sleep again before volleyball.

After my nap today, I went to Chinese Culture Club with Jacqui, Austin, Tim, Charlie, and Daniel. We watched some portions of a Chinese movie called 'Farewell, My Concubine'. After the movie, the Chinese students decided to give the American students a Chinese name.

As I normally am with names, I was very interested in picking the right name. Maggie (Qing Ma) suggested Le or Yue which means 'happy'. Yvonne offered her family name, Chen. I left Chinese Culture Club thinking my name might be Chen Yue.

Later, I saw Bing (her and Shirley are going back to China tomorrow) on Skype so I asked her about the name. She said Yue is mostly a girls name. We decided my name should be Chen, but then that would leave me with Chen Chen, which actually is a common name. However, I felt weird about taking Yvonne's family name because that is just strange in American culture. Chinese students might not think it's weird because it's a common family name, but I would feel weird. I decided instead to use Ling's family name which is Wang (meaning king).

It's pretty cool that Ryan means 'little king' and my Kenyan name, Kioko, means 'morning'. Therefore, 王晨(Wang Chen) fits me well. That was probably strange for Shirley because she used to be called that exact name.

Next week, the CCC people are going to try to meet to eat out together. We wanted to do it this week, but for some reason, we decided next week would be better.

Austin, Jacqui, Daniel and I attended Mindy's jazz concert, and I was reminded how skilled jazz musicians are. It is impressive how well the instruments complement each other and the mood of the song. I didn't realize how skilled Mindy was at the piano. She is good!

After the concert, Pa Se, Petey, Mindy, Maggie and the gang ate at Pizza Hut. It's a beautiful thing when people of different nationalities and cultures could share a meal together as friends. That's actually a really cool thought.

We got back to campus around 11:20pm or so, and I still hadn't started working on my lesson. I had to take time to figure out what the lesson was going to be about, so by the time I began writing, it was 1am. I decided to take a three hour nap from 2am to 5am, but when I woke up, I was able to finish the lesson. The presentation of the lesson in Strategies for Teaching wasn't bad either though it was a little short. The lesson was over Luke 14:25-35. I adapted and modified a great lesson on the subject from an internet source I discovered.

Classes are over. It's time to catch up on sleep now.