Times, they are a changing.

A lot has been happening in my life and my heart lately. I don't even know where to start.

• I moved out of my one-bedroom apartment at the end of June and moved into a house owned by a friend from church. And ... I'm moving again at the end of August. This time to Denton (more on that later). I certainly did not expect to change my address, forward my mail, and have to leave again less than two months later, but I'll be moving on to a much better situation, and I am surprisingly excited about moving to Denton.
• I received some shocking news last week and have been dealing with a lot of hurt, disappointment, sadness, and confusion because of the actions of a friend. Once again, I can't really give out any detail on the Internet, but I've never experienced a situation like the one I'm going through now, and it's been difficult. I've been relying on the promise of Romans 8:28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of thsoe who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
• The unexpected circumstances I've faced in the last month have been a little tough, but the promises I've found in God and the support of the Christian community around me have been incredible blessings. I've grown closer to God and more passionate about sharing him with others. I feel like I've refound my joy and my desire to recklessly pursue a relationship with my creator. Therefore, count it all joy my brothers, when you are faced with trials of many kinds...
• I love my job. I've finally seen some fruition from the relationships I've been developing with my students. They've started inviting me over to their apartments for dinner, and I've had the opportunity to talk a little bit about God with some of them. And all those conversations took place because of their questions and interest. I've become involved in the international ministry run by the BSM on campus and have been able to make some great friends there. I really feel like God has me in my job right now for a reason, and that some big things are going to be happening this year. For these reasons, I'm excited to move to Denton and continue to build my relationships there. Plus, I met some awesome girls that I'm going to be living with in a month. I can't wait to get to know them and have fun living together!
• I went on vacation to Colorado with my parents a couple weeks ago. The mountains were beautiful! It felt so good to get away from Texas and see something new. I need to let myself be swept away by the majesty of creation more often. I always feel closer to God when I am in the mountains. It was also a good week spending time with my parents. We climbed Mt. Thomas together, which was quite the adventure. After that, we went to Aspen, then Twin Lakes, and then finished the week with an overnight white water rafting trip. I've got some good stories from that, but I'll have to save them for another time. This blog entry feels to serious and spiritual for the stories I have to tell.

I think I'll end there tonight. Don't give up on me yet, blog friends. I'll become a regular writer eventually.

Clearly, I suck at blogging.

Bringing IELI into the Blogosphere

I'm blogging for work now. Check out http://untieli.wordpress.com to find out about what is going on with international students at UNT.

I'm getting old

Don't you just love it when people tell you look tired and you know you got a good full 8 hours of sleep the night before? Yeah. That always feels great. Well, it had been happening to me a lot lately, and to be honest, I was getting tired of it. I felt fine, and couldn't figure out why people thought I looked tired. About this same time, however, I started noticing that my eyes were feeling strained. I had some days where I would have weird eye twitches and they were becoming really sensitive to the sun. So, I finally made use of my health insurance and went to the eye doctor. I found out two things:

1. My vision is a lot worse than I thought, and it's time for me to be a full-time glasses wearer.

2. The fluroscent lighting in my office is a killer. I don't have a window in my office, and therefore have no natural light. Between the lighting and staring at a computer all day, my eyes were strained and therefore looking "tired".

So, I am getting used to wearing glasses. I like them most days, but sometime they just don't "go" with things. Plus, it's hard to wear sunglasses and glasses at the same time (though I try when I'm driving). I think I am going to have to get over my "putting things in my eye" issues and get contacts. It's going to be hard to do contacts though. Remember that Friends episode where everybody had to hold Rachel down to put eye drops in? Yeah, that's me. Until then, I'll just be a proud member of the "glasses" club.

Best Quote of the Day

Hi. I'm Meghan. I like bad reality tv. Last night's Bachelorette was full of good quotes. The girls I was watching with were cracking up the whole time. One of my favorites:

"I'm just a basic guy from Dallas. I don't have any skills."

Tanner P. managed to eloquently sum up what is wrong with the male dating pool in Dallas in two short sentences. (I'm not bitter - only amused). He then made Dallas proud by talking about how he just wanted to suck Jillian's toes. Who says you can't find gold in reality tv?

If you too like the Bachelorette, go to this blog, http://www.ihategreenbeans.com/. It's greatness.

Beam Me Up

Man, it is hard to come back to work after being off for 6 days. Things are really quiet at the office until next week when I start giving new student orientation again. I had a nice surprise waiting for me when I got to my office yesterday morning though - a new chair! I'm learning that in "the office" it's all about the simple things.

Over the the weekend, I saw this movie:

My dad was paying for it, so I figured why not. Hello, Chris Pine. Why have I not heard of you before? I had never watched Star Trek before, but I enjoyed the movie. I've been thinking about finding a new hobby, maybe I could get on board and become a Trekkie. What do you think?

Maybe I'll just take up knitting instead.

A much needed rest

Since classes have ended until June 8 in IELI, I decided to use some of my comp time and take three days off work. Because of Memorial Day, I am ending up with a 6-day weekend. Yahoo! I had a couple of doctor's appointments in Plano to go to, so I decided to spend the weekend at home. My sister is back from OU for the week before she heads out to Seattle for the summer, so we got to spend some time together laying out by the pool and going to a movie. I feel like I am back in college and home for the summer. It feels so good!

Since I am at my parents house, I have internet finally. Yay! I've spent all morning playing around with blogging sites and am learning how to cutesy up my blog. It's pretty fun! I am moving out of my apartment at the end of June and into a house with some girls from my home group. I'm excited about having roommates again, and I will have a home with Internet again, so hopefully I can start blogging more. I seriously behind on my new year's resolution.