Yesterday my friend Amanda and I were trying to burn a couple CDs (all perfectly legally bought music I might add). She went to my desk to retrieve some blank CDs, and that’s when the adventure began. My desk drawer was jammed somehow, and it wouldn’t budge more than about half an inch. We tugged. We pulled. We tried slamming it really hard. NOTHING was working. We were about to call some boys to come help us, but then we decided that we could handle a simple jammed drawer.

First we decided to attack from underneath. The drawer in question was the middle drawer… you know, the one above where your legs go. I thought there might be a good way to get into it from under there. I was wrong. Total blockage.

The next step was to go from the back of the desk. We cleared everything off the top and then did our best to pull it away from the wall. We were once again met with total blockage. Not a good sign. And that’s when it occurred to me: We should take the desk apart.

I pulled out my handy screwdriver and flashlight, and I got to work.

SO, about the time we got all of the screws out and took the entire back panel off the desk, we realized that we still could not get to the drawer. So… what to do now? We have vandalized school property by totally maiming campus furniture, and we still couldn’t get inside it.

That’s when Amanda pulled out a knitting needle (yes, I have knitting needles. leave me alone). She pulled the drawer open the half inch, jammed the needle inside, and the drawer opened. Just like that. I couldn’t believe it.

All my mad skills with the screw driver were completely shown up by a stupid knitting needle.

It’s been a long time since my last post! So sorry about that! Life is really crazy as a second-semester senior, but I’m going to try to be a lot more regular with writing.

I have just had a wonderful weekend. It was by NO means productive, but it was still great (and exactly what I needed after a hectic week!)

On Fridays I don’t have any classes, so one of the admissions counselors called me to see if I could babysit. I got to hang out with 3-month-old Arianna all day! We watched Pride and Prejudice (well, she fell asleep right around the time when we first meet Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy), then we made lunch (and a bottle), and then we spent the afternoon reading Harry Potter (umm… once again she slept. But I like to think of it as introducing her to some classic literature).

Friday night (after Arianna went back home), a couple of my friends and I went out to dinner at the Real Hacienda and then drove to Carmel to hang out at Borders (please keep the nerd jokes to yourselves). We hit up Dairy Queen on the way home, and the guy at the drive through window accidentally made the wrong kind of blizzard for one of us. So, he gave it to us for free and made the right one too. We decided to give the extra ice cream to our friend Bryan back at school. So, despite freezing temperatures, we attempted to drive the 45 minutes with the air conditioner on… all to save the icecream. Well, that didn’t last long. Bryan got melted ice cream.

My mom came up to visit on Saturday, and she took two of my girlfriends and me out to lunch. It was grand of course. It always is when your parents pay for something!

The rest of the day was a blur of randomness… I was supposed to be doing homework, but I ended up hanging out with my friend Amanda the whole time. And, the evening ended with a highly competitive game of Harry Potter Scene It with Amanda, Bryan, and Dan.

This morning I sat with those same three at church. Then it was lunch time with one of my roomies. After this, I decided I HAD to do some homework. But, instead I went to a friend’s apartment and hung out some more. That’s what I do best.

So, now it is 10:30 p.m., I have four classes tomorrow, and I haven’t started my homework for any of it. Dad, if you’re reading this, calm down. I’ll get it all done!

So what is so great about dorm life at AU? Well let me just tell you that often I find myself staring at my computer somewhere in between starting my English paper and, well just staring at the screen I guess. Its really horrible because I swear I will sit at my computer for 2 hours and accomplish nothing. Sure I have checked my facebook 12 times and my fantasy football team 7, but still I will have written one sentence of my paper. So back to my point; while I sit here and think about the fact that I am doing nothing at all, at least I know that there are a handful of people in the building doing the same thing. So, when I get bored with doing nothing I can just walk down the hall or down the stairs and find a couple other guys to shoot the breeze with.

The other night I was wandering the halls for a different reason, it was about one o’clock and I was starving!!! So I got out one of those microwaveable noodle packets, added the water, microwaved it, and enjoyed (well kind of). I was still so hungry, I had some cookies, some pretzels, some candy, I drank some juice none of it helped. So I roamed the halls looking for a good snack. It wasn’t until I reached Josh MacIness’ room on third floor that I found the solution. At that moment I was introduced to peanut butter and crackers. Not the pre packaged kind, the real ones. I just took some saltine crackers and a jar of crunchy peanut butter. Wow! it was pretty simple, yet probably the best snack I ever had. And not only that, but it filled me up. So thanks josh, and thank the Lord for peanut butter and crackers.

Mmmmboy. I love Dunn Hall

Zach

Hey guys and gals…sorry I have not posted for a while. I just really need to get back in the swing of things here at school. I hope you all are enjoying life being back here at AU (if you don’t go to AU…you should).

So I was walking back from chapel today and I saw two people wearing shorts. HELLO!!! In case you don’t know…it is Winter…and actually we have had a little bit of snow lately. I don’t mean to sound harsh…if you feel like wearing shorts, be my guest…but Brrrrrrrrrr….
After witnessing this, I began thinking, its really unfortunate that the Winter season holds us back so much. I mean just think of the things you can’t (or should I say shouldn’t) do when it snows. I would first like to say one should not wear summer clothes. Also I would advise against: running through the sprinkler in the yard, swimming outdoors, golfing, picking flowers, pulling fruit from fruit trees, planting a garden, and I am sure if you want to use your brain power you could think of many other things that one should not do in the snow. On the other hand, building snowmen, digging snow drift trenches, having a snow ball fight, and eating snow (as long as its not the yellow kind) are all acceptable snow activities.

So there were a few activities that I came across that I couldn’t decide whether they were acceptable snow activities, sooooo… I figured the only way to find out was to try them out. Luckily my photographer (who wishes that I not betray his/her anonymity for he/she is wanted by 34 States in the US, and Puerto Rico) was there for all of my experiments…..

It unfortunately turns out that its too cold for riding with the top down, no one is really in the mood for an ice cold glass of lemonade, the mower doesn’t seem to run too well in the snow, and its not easy to fly in the winter (it must be the denser cold air). I began to think that its not really a good idea to try to fly anytime of the year, but I am going to do some more research on that topic.

So people, be enjoy the snow…but be smart…and be careful!

Holy cow. My life has exploded in craziness. I have an 8 a.m. class (UGH) three days a week, and two of those days I have class all the way until 7 p.m.!! I think I might die. BUT… I really shouldn’t complain. I don’t have any classes on Fridays. So, once I make it to Thursday, I can breathe again!

Despite the hecticness, I really have had a wonderful beginning of the semester. There has been a lot of hanging out, getting to know new people in classes and around campus, and wishing that it would warm up so we could get back to enjoying the outdoors! (that will probably take a while…)

Saturday was our second semester leadership retreat, which was an awesome time of worship and learning (and Chic-fil-a for lunch!) While that was great in and of itself, the best part was the drive home. I rode back to AU with my friend Becca, and it had been a while since we had really had a chance to talk. And talk we did!

The 45 minute drive went by so quickly, talking about everything from our classes to where we are in our walk with Christ. That’s one of the things that I am so grateful for at this school. Anderson has provided an atmosphere where I have been able to develop friendships that are more than just surface level. Of course you ARE going to have your surface-level friendships… you know, the ones that you only talk about classes and profs and stuff. But then there are the ones that stick with you all four years that can really challenge you to grow and help you through the difficult stuff.

Wow… this post turned serious! I’m afraid that might happen a lot this semester… I’m already getting sad and sentimental about graduation!

So back at the beginning of break when 1^st semester ended the basketball team had to stay on campus for four more days. And when we got home from L.A. on New Year’s I only got to go home for a day before coming back to campus. We had games the 4^th, 6^th, 8^th, and 10^th, so the rest of break I spent at AU. That all adds up to a lot of time here on campus with no one here other than the basketball guys. I wasn’t really looking forward to that time, but it actually was a lot of fun.

All the guys from Dunn had to go stay in Smith so there were about ten guys living in all of Smith Hall. We ended up just playing a lot of video games. We would go to practice in the morning and then come back to Smith and hook up our systems to the big screen and play all night. One night we got chips, salsa, queso dip, and a bunch of other snacks and had a feast while playing Halo 2. The most fun though was playing NBA Hangtime for Nintendo 64.

It was a great time just hanging out with all the guys doing non-basketball stuff.

Although I wasn’t home much, and I missed my family, Christmas Break was a lot of fun because of the awesome guys on the team.

Zach

At 2:00 a.m. on the day after Christmas I got in the car and drove to the Indianapolis Airport. About five minutes later I realized that I had forgotten my wallet and I had to drive back home and tear through my room looking for it. After about 15 minutes I found it. So then I got back on the road to the airport.

Why in the world would I be going to the airport at 2 in the morning???

Well!

Every year the AU Men’s Basketball team goes out of state to play a couple games over Christmas break. This year we got to travel to the town of Las Angeles, California. The team met at 4:00 a.m. in the airport and our plane took off at 5:54 in the a.m. We flew into Atlanta, and then to Las Angeles.

The first day there we had practice at Whittier College and then got to come back and hang out by the pool.

The next day we got up and went exploring up in the Hollywood hills. We walked up some paths that headed towards that famous HOLLYWOOD sign. We didn’t make it all the way there but the view from up there was amazing. Later, we got back in the vans (we had rented two 15 passenger vans at the airport) and headed for Hollywood itself. We cruised the streets for a few hours looking at the famous people’s stars and best of all seeing all those people dressed in costumes. There were the Three Musketeers, Shrek, Jason, and best of all Chucky.

The next day we got to practice at Pepperdine University. In case you didn’t know Pepperdine happens to be up on a hill overlooking the ocean. Let me tell you, it was beautiful. Just imagine if you could see the beach from school. I can assure you I would get no work done, ever.

The next two days we had games, and we won both of them. That made our trip that much more enjoyable just knowing that we were 2-0 in California. We celebrated by eating a victory dinner at Buca Di Bepo’s. Mmmmm boy. We also got to go see UCLA play Washington State at the famous Pauley Pavillion.

On our last day we went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier. At Venice beach there are tons of shops, basketball courts, a skateboard park, and an outdoor weight room just on the edge of the beach, about 200 yards from the ocean. It was crazy there. There were tons of people doing magic, gymnastics, walking on glass, selling things made from palm tree branches, anything just to make a buck. It was a really good experience seeing how different life is there. That night we went over to the shops at Santa Monica and walked around for a few hours. I had enough self control not to waste too much money. I did have some Dip N Dots though.

A tiny little kid tossing it like salad at Venice Beach. Man painted in gold. Kinda scary.

All in all it really was an amazing trip and something I will never forget.

How could I forget that??

I hope you all are having a wonderful break!!!

Zach