Snow pants and iced coffee

Sometimes so many cool things happen in life that I just want to write about every minute of every day.  Except I can't.  Let me give you snapshots of my yesterday.  <>< Katie

Snapshot One
Five of the six girls in my apartment had somewhere to be by 8am.  Remember, we're college students, so that is unheard-of early!  A little before seven I rolled over and noticed Jennifer was missing.  Honestly, I wondered if she ever came to bed.  I fell asleep before she came in and she apparently got up before I did.  She could sleep while doing a headstand, so I wasn't too worried.  I was worried about our frantic, groggy noise as the other five of us tried to get ready.  When I found her in the living room, she said she went to bed just after I fell asleep and got up not five minutes before my alarm went off.  I asked why she was up and she said she got up to make Allyson coffee.  I figure that's the epitome of selflessness, to get up at 7am to make coffee for your roommate.  It got better.  She then went out and scraped all of the ice off of Elizabeth's car.  At seven am, my amazing roommate woke up just to serve us.

Snapshot Two
Around nine, Dr. Z and J-M walked into the coffee shop.  I asked J-M why he was wearing snow pants.  He said it was eleven degrees outside and they had walked.  He then proceeded to order an iced coffee.  At which point I reminded him it was eleven degrees out.  His response?  "That's why I'm wearing snow pants."

Snapshot Three
I arrived at the Wal-mart crosswalk two steps behind an elderly couple with matching hand-carved wooden canes.  There was enough time of me to cross in front of the oncoming car but there wasn't enough time for them.  The man cleared his throat to find his voice.  "Let's go," he said to his wife.  One foot at a time they moved forward and I subconsciously slowed my naturally fast pace to half time.  When we reached the halfway point, I was sure the car had stopped and there were other people in the cross walk, so I sped up again, but for some reason that cute old couple has stuck in my head for the last few days.

Snapshot Four
Around eight pm, my roommates announced it was wintery mixing outside.  I left my study perch on the couch and got up to look out the window.  Honestly, I was excited to see big white snowflakes for the first time this season.  As soon as I pulled open the blinds, I remembered I live in Baptist Country.  If I closed one eye, tilted my head sideways, and stared at the street light, I could kind of see something that resembled a rain drop.

Snapshot Five
Remember those nice things I said about my roommate in Snapshot One?  I take them all back.  That morning she also washed our sheets.  She said it took forever to put the sheets on my bed.  Apparently she had finished when she realized she missed a layer and had to start all over again.  Honestly, I appreciated it.  What I did not appreciate was the fact that she intentionally made the bed backwards.  I think next time I do the sheets I'll make Jen's bed inside out with the sheet on top and comforter on the bottom.

Mishap of the Waffle Maker

This morning in the caf, where I failed to find a bagel, Spencer made a waffle. Or tried to make a waffle. Failed miserably at making a waffle may be more like it. His "waffle" (for lack of a better term) was in shambles on his plate.

"Are you still going to eat that?" Nikki asked a table over. There were only ten people in the whole caf, so it didn't really matter if we all had one conversation.

"Yeah," Spencer said with a smirk. After all, he'd taken the time to make the waffle, might as well eat it.

A few minutes into eating his breakfast, a caf woman walked all the way from the waffle maker to Spencer's table with a smile on her face and a plate in her hand. She put the perfect waffle in front of Spencer, picked up his waffle shambles, and discarded them.

It took her maybe thirty second to pour the waffle in the maker. I'm sure she didn't stand there and wait for it to be ready. Then it was done she spent a minute to successfully remove the completed food from the maker, walk it to Spencer, and take his garbage.

For her, it was two minutes. For Spencer, it was breakfast. For me, it was the opportunity to watch a random act of kindness.

I'd love to see more of them! (Especially with this new revival on campus)

<>< Katie

PS: Short enough? :-P

Rain, Rain Go Away

It's pouring down buckets today. It has been since I first woke up this morning and probably won't stop anytime soon. Honestly, I hate rainy days... well... because everything's wet. The ends of your pants, your backpack, your fleece jacket, everything is wet. (Then there's the almost impossible goal of not getting the cell phone wet). Even if you're carrying an umbrella, you often wonder: what's the point?

I left the caf this morning and walked across campus to my first class. I eat breakfast with the same two girls just about every morning and one of them heads to the same building I do afterwards. I let her slide under my umbrella and we walked to class. We went up the steps onto the porch and were just about to enter the building when she goes, "Oh, crap! I just remember I have class in the library today!" We spent 5 minute walking to this one building trying not to get wet, only to realize she needed to go one building over from where we just were and had to get wet to do so. I felt bad.

Was all that effort to say dry futile?

Two classes later, I left a building and a friend ducked under my umbrella. We were halfway across the parking lot before he was like, "Where are you going?" I told him I was headed to the caf and it turned out to be a different building than I was, but he needed to pass the caf anyway. We walked along together for awhile (can I please say it's hard to hold a small umbrella over two people when you both have huge backpacks!) and I needed to enter the building. He jumped in front of me and opened the door for me. (He then decided he would stop in this building on his way to class). It made me ponder general roles in today's society (wow, that sounds like an essay topic...). Thoughts?

Have a fantastic day and do a random act of kindness!

<>< Katie

"But just as He who called you is Holy, so be Holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be Holy because I am Holy.'" - 1 Peter 1:15-16