Friday, February 18, 2005

Book Study and Phone Surveys… (happy happy Friday)

WE MADE IT TO FRIDAY!!  I wasn’t in any doubt, really, but after years and years of being pumped for Friday, I can’t help it.  I just have to be excited!!  Woo woo!!  This wasn’t even a stressful week… life is good.  Still, I can handle a weekend…

So, what’s been going on?  Wednesday night was the second meeting of a book study I recently joined.  We’re reading and discussing Every Young Woman’s Battle.  Pretty awesome.  This is a group of about ten ladies from the Knollcrest East apartments, and we’re meeting once a week to talk about the book. 

This is my second book study at Calvin (freshman year I met to discuss The Sacred Romance—another good book).  And I’m really enjoying it—I’ve met a few of the girls in other classes, but I never got to know any of them really well, so this study is an awesome way to connect.  I’m really honored to be in the group and hear their perspectives on Christian women and purity.  Between all of us, we cover a broad range of statuses, from engaged to dating to single.  Yet we each have important ideas and questions to contribute.  It’s just been great to connect with some of the godly women in the apartments. 

Today was my first test of the semester: Sociology 151.  Pretty sweet deal, actually, because it’s only been three weeks, so I didn’t have a chance to forget much of what we learned.  Studying was a breeze, and the test went well.  Part of this is my English major training.  I’m used to having to analyze quotes and passages, answer long essay questions, etc.  In comparison, a multiple choice test sounds fun. 

On Monday I’ll be meeting with my lab group from that class.  We need to come up with ideas for our first lab project…and is it weird to say that I’m looking forward to the project?  All three years at Calvin, I’ve gotten these phone calls that go something like this:

Other person: Hi, I’m Karl Marx, and I’m doing a project for my sociology class.  (pleadingly)  Do you have ten minutes for me to ask you some questions?  All your responses will be completely confidential.

Me: (cheerful to take a break from making dinner, doing homework, staring at the wall, etc.)  Sure!! 

Other person: (surprised pause) …really??

And then they ask me to pick numbers between one and five, if I strongly agree or disagree or whatever, about my anxiety level, my ability to make decisions, my approach to hard work, or my thoughts on chapel at Calvin.  I know some people hate taking surveys, but I just get a kick out of it.  [The decision-making survey did throw me, though.  How can I pick a number between one and five to rate my indecision if I can’t decide on a number??  “Uh, maybe it’s three, no, that’s too low.  Four?  Maybe four, but it could be a five…”]

So who knows, with any luck I’ll get to call tons of people and ask them about life.

Anyway, it’s going to be a pretty quiet weekend for me.  Tonight I get to meet my roommate’s mom—she just flew in from New Jersey.  Another roommate is having some ladies over tonight as well.  (I guess this is just the place to be!!)  Sunday night we’re having a little movie party.  I think we’re just watching Signs and making hats out of aluminum foil.  (They do the hat thing in the movie, so it’s not that weird.  Really.) 

But mostly?  I’ll be working hard and drinking lots of coffee so I can finish the manuscript I’ve been working on.  It’s due on Tuesday, so we’ll see!!  I’ll probably dig out that Gladiator CD again.  Worked pretty well last time.  And by the way: to those of you who have voiced concern, my fingers are much better.  Ha ha.  I don’t think I’m going to try those stretches again, though.  That was intense.  The rest of organ is going very, very well.  I really do love it.

I hope everyone out there is doing well… and please oh please post a comment or two: if you have any great coffee recipes, if you think of an amazing lab idea for my group, if you think I’m sick for liking phone surveys, if you have tips on aluminum foil hats, or whatever, please let me know.  God bless! —jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 02/18 at 04:53 PM
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