Untitled.

[The guy on the far right is Jermaine's cousin, and our new roomie. He's super fly.]

I wasn't planning on writing. I was planning on doing my homework, watching another crime show and trying to remember to wash my face and put the dishes in the dishwasher before I fell asleep.

But then, I had to go to the computer to email a professor, and, one thing led to another - the next thing I know . . . blog-be-done!

So here I am, cheating on my bed with my computer. This should be an interesting blog.

What's on my mind these days? Hmm, well, school just started. I'm trying not to fail. That's been fun.

I met this girl yesterday. I hope she doesn't mind making a cameo in my blog. She's a Christian sociology major passionate about fighting human trafficking. I felt like I was talking to myself! I wasn't, bytheway. We have three classes together, which is nice for a couple of reasons. First, I'm not used to having a comrade in the class, it's rather nice. Second, practically speaking, if one of us misses a class, the other has the notes.

In other news, I finally started writing a real live article! Who the heck knows if it's publishable but I'm doing it anyway. I have this long list topics that I would like to write about [everything from whether it's okay for Sadie's daddy to decide if she calls Jermaine "dad" to Fixed Hour Prayer to a book review on A Generous Orthodoxy [by Brian McClaren] or Ending Slavery [by Kevin Bales]. Things I would like to carry on about. I finally got around to delving into one [ooh, I should mention that the one I did decide to carry on about is not mentioned above].

I really like the word "delve". You probably knew that.

I'll keep you updated. If this blog is stained with tears in a couple of weeks you'll know I've submitted it to a publication and subsequently turned myself into a reject.

What else? What else? Ooh, there is some news in regards to the human trafficking front. The Cameo Girl and I spoke briefly about starting up some sort of group/club on campus. She's all about making prayer a big part of it. I can't deny how much of a God Thing this is. I've known about this call to help the slaves of the world for some time. And in the past couple months, God has been bombarding me with messages about the importance of prayer. CG [who, of course, has a real name although it's generally good to ask before throwing someone's name in some crazy blog] brought these two concepts together for me in a big way.

Cost of UMD education for an "out of state" student [don't get me started]: $$$$
Cost of meeting a kindred spirit and scaring her away by going on and on about her in your personal blog: Priceless

Good times.

Sadie and I have been reading The Tale of Despereaux chapter by chapter every night before bedtime. I personally believe that it should be entitled The Tail of Despereaux. But I'm just a crazy wordplay fool.

Oh! Goodness. I almost forgot the big news. Er, well, it's big to me. It might just be egg-sized to you - we moved!

It's really a very touching story. Full of deceit and coming clean and God goodness. I'm learning that my natural self is really quite deceitful. I have to work hard to be honest. Lying comes oh-so easily.

I'll give you the short version [to spare you [and me a little bit]. We found an apartment and were supposed to move in last month. But we had to lie on the application to get the place. Jermaine's cousin was going to be living with us and we didn't put him on the lease. Plus, we lied about our puppy. Worst of all, Sadie caught me in both of those lies while we were in the leasing office. She politely but firmly demanded an explanation.

This all went down in December. Because that time of year is so busy I was able to push it to the back of my mind. It didn't feel quite right, but I chalked [sp?] it up to the nervousness of moving and the stress from the holidays.

But then, enter the prayer room. And God was like up in my face saying, "This is wrong and you know it." Youch.

I remember talking it over with a close friend of mine. I said, "I'm scared to back out of the lease. We would only have a month to find a new place. But I can't help but think, you know, what if God has something way better planned for us but if we go ahead with this and move into that lie we'll never know about it?"

So, I'm like prophetic, or something. Or God is amazingly wonderful.

Probably the latter.

Because that's exactly what happened. And it happened so fast. Not one week after backing out of the first lease did we sign for the new place. And it is wonderful. It has a washer and a dryer. It has a thermostat [I won't get into what the old place had - but it wasn't pretty]. It has a little sprayer hose thing on the kitchen sink [novel for sure but sweet nonetheless]. And we got cable. Which, you know, may induce nothing but guilt for me as I ponder how many hours I will spend and have spent watching CSI: NY, but still, enjoyable nonetheless. And, I didn't know the new Real World had eight housemates. That's monumental.

Now, I generally don't cling to the belief that more stuff equals Good [I loathe the prosperity gospel]. And I don't think that this kind of living is the end all be all of the plans the Lord has for our lives. But I feel God's blessing on us. And I'm grateful. Even if it's just for a moment in time.

Ugh. This blog has become so long. And I have more to say!

But I can't do it. For my sake and for yours. Thank you for letting me share.

I am so not doing the dishes tonight . . .