recap of a week in the tool crib

Over last fall, and then the times I've been able to be back at Lagniappe this spring, I've had a chance to meet some of the people applying to be interns this summer... basically, they're all so awesome that I kind of wish I was doing a second round. :) Seriously, it's exciting to see the people God is bringing each season to serve at Lagniappe.

Well, spring break was good times & went by all too fast. And now I'm a little less surprised to find that now that I'm back at W&M, Lagniappe continues to be a part of my life here, too. Before I left for break, my RUF campus minister had asked me to speak at the next large group about Lagniappe's internship program. So, did I carefully prepare over those days in the Bay?? Nope, of course not. ;) I threw together a few slides, & then stayed up late-ish Monday night getting them into some semblance of order. I ended up being somewhat coherent, I think, & a few people have talked to me about maybe applying... I think that would be pretty awesome. More W&M exposure to the Bay can only be a good thing. :)

In other news, my brother, Bill, is trying to choose where he wants to go to college, & so we've been talking recently about all the things that go into that--what he wants to do, what he's looking for, what I've gotten out of college. During the course of that, I tossed out an idea I had kicking around in my head about senior year next year, involving maybe being at Lagniappe for part of it. Now, my parents were each able to get down to the Bay for a visit, but my brother never was, & so he has a bit more trouble understanding why I'm continually drawn back there. Also, he just got an ipod. So he's started listening to all the old Lagniappe podcasts so that we can talk through them. I'm excited. :)

Love from the east coast.

pictionary telephone

OK, so, it's spring break, & I don't feel like actually writing anything. Plus, this is hilarious. :) Let me explain what's going on.

So, Wednesday night, I went to my Transfer Student Ambassadors meeting. As an icebreaker at the beginning, we played this game... you may have played it at one point. Each person starts with a stack of paper, drawing a picture on the top, then passing the stack to the right, that person then writes what they think the picture is of, then passes again, that person (using only the words) tries to draw a corresponding picture, etc., until the original person gets their pile back. You can see how the chain would break down after the first two people. :P

Our topic was "What are you doing for spring break?"

So, I drew (1) a house being washed away, emptiness, and then a house being rebuilt.

The girl on my right actually guessed right what I was doing (2).

The third (3), fourth (4), & fifth (5) people also got it fairly spot on.

The sixth (6) person, however, seemed to be a little confused by (5)'s hurricane symbol. He guessed that over spring break I would be "playing the Big Bad Wolf & blowing down a house."

Which is how I ended up with this picture, (7), of a disembodied wolf head blowing down a house. Please note the pig in the bottom right corner.

Well, I made it through my midterms alive, at last, & am packing for my spring break down at Lagniappe, leaving tomorrow. To play dress up & fairy tales, apparently. :P

Paint the Town

Well, it's one week later. As promised--an HPI update. Last week, we finished up that roof... the week before, we had done the north side, and last week was the south side. The tar paper was already down, so we had to lug the shingles up & then go to town--old school; no roofing guns here. :)

There was six of us there, plus Devon, the project manager... he's a fellow junior here at W&M, and also getting engaged soon (my best friend from elementary school just got engaged on Valentine's Day... everyone's growing up so fast!). It was a warm day, & it felt really good to be up there making new friends as we got ever-closer to the top. Right about as the sun was setting, we finished up & headed back to campus. Then, today, we got houses ready for Paint the Town... on March 24th, HPI (along with campus service fraternities like APO and PSP, and many local community volunteers) is kicking off the Jamestown 400th Anniversary celebrations (side note: as part of the Anniversary, Queen Elizabeth is coming to W&M's commencement in May) by painting dozens of homes in the Williamsburg/James City/York County area. Today we prepped some of those houses.

There won't be any HPI updates for the next two weekends, because... I'll be back at Lagniappe! Once again, it's spring break, & things have come pretty much full circle.

Last of all, in other news, I found out on Thursday that, from May 24 to June 19, I will be going to Goa, India!! I was accepted to one of W&M's faculty-led summer programs... I'll earn 9 credits (which, together with the credits I took at MGCCC-Jeff Davis last semester & the 18 credits I'm taking this semester, will allow me to graduate on time) & hopefully have an AMAZING experience.

I've been continually amazed by how much Lagniappe has continued to be a part of my life here in VA... between trips back to visit, running into people here who have been or know of it, & other random coincidences, it's been a good transition.

I wonder how long it will take for me to bump into somebody in Goa with a "PRAY FOR THE BAY" bumper sticker?? ;)