First, my old roommate, Leah, moved back home with her parents because of health issues, and my friend Jennifer got to move in. She's been a real godsend, and I hope I can be as great a blessing to her as she's already been to me.
The winter quarter started off with a bang as my professors assigned TONS of reading and busy-work in order to ensure we've read. I'm taking five classes, all upper-levels, and two of them senior seminars. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are my busiest days, as I work and have class from 8 or 9 a.m. until about 6 p.m. Then, I'm doing homework until I go to bed. Thursdays, I'm free after 12:30, but not free to do as I like; I begin my homework then and continue to work on it through Sunday evening. I was hoping to get a second job this quarter, but with my schedule as busy as it is, that's impossible unless I want to get four hours of sleep every night. I've done that before, and I really prefer not to have to do that again.
A bit of a surprise this quarter revolves around my car. At the beginning of the quarter, I went job hunting and my car battery died on me in the Olive Garden parking lot (keep in mind that I was job hunting in the middle of the afternoon, and my lights were not on at all). The end result was that I barely managed to get the car to Pep Boys the following week, where they replaced my battery for free. I had a 24-month warrantee on it because I replaced it exactly a year ago because of battery problems. So, anyway. The car worked for about a week and then the battery died on me on the way to church. Thankfully, Jennifer was driving to church also, so she gave Lisa, Parvathy and I a ride to church, and later helped me get my car towed to Firestone. The following Monday, I had my car towed from Firestone to Pep Boys because Firestone wanted to charge twice the amount Pep Boys did for the same job (replacing the alternater). When I went to pick up my car on Monday evening, the mechanic at Pep Boys told me the alternater went bad as a result of an oil leak: specifically because of a bad oil can gasket. He further informed me that they couldn't do the repair work I needed there, and I needed to find a Hyundai mechanic. SO, I called my dad, and he called our old mechanic in NW Houston, who have him the number to a good Hyundai mechanic. That's where my car is now. My bill is not going to be pretty, but after this, I've been assured that my car should run very well for a long time.
I posted pictures from the Winter Formal and the opening weekend of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The formal was fun. My friends couldn't do the modern dances any more than I could - I know I certainly felt stupid when I tried - so we did ballroom dances to the modern dance beats. Of course, after a while the DJ didn't seem to pleased with that, and kicked us off the floor by introducing the shuffle and a soul train. ^_^ The movie opening was loads of fun. I've been looking forward to that for a year and a half, and although I wasn't pleased with the portrayal of certain aspects of the characters or events, overall I really enjoyed the movie and thought Walden Media did a good job.
Over Christmas break I intend to get a ton of homework done. I'm discovering that I won't be able to accomplish as much as I originally hoped, however. For example, I had hoped to begin and complete a research paper on Plato's Republic. However, I've been looking through some sources I checked out of the seminary's library, and to be honest, I don't have a clue what they're talking about. So, I'm going to have to wait until we get to a philosopher I actually understand (hope that won't be very far in the future). I also won't be able to finish my history research paper, but I think I'll be able to complete a good chunck of it. I've still got more than enough to occupy my time. ^_^
Anyway. I'm going to close this for now. Hope I didn't bore you. Merry Christmas!!