Fall Break Part II

SUNDAY
Sunday was jam-packed with adventure! AJ set his phone alarm for 7am, so thats when we got up. Sleeping in the car wasnt that great. My car is pretty small, and the seats dont go all the way flat, but I still slept well enough to get a few hours. AJ didnt do well either because he had a steering wheel to avoid, and hes taller. We then headed to the gas station across the street to clean up. I got changed, brushed my teeth, and washed my face in the bathroom at the gas station. Then we grabbed some coffee, shouldve gotten gas, and hit the road again.

It didnt take us long to get to Tennessee. We were driving through the mountains, it was pretty astounded, when I realized that there hasnt been an exit in a while.......and we were getting low on gas. So I watched for exits, and watched the range. My car has a feature that shows how far you can go before you run out of gas. It was very low, so we started putting the car into neutral when going down hills just to save some gas. We finally found an exit with a gas station with only 16 miles to empty. That was a close one! So after that, we got back on the interstate, and after a long stretch we saw a road sign that said "tunnel" with some exit number. And of course we wanted to see it! So we took the exit, but couldnt find the tunnel. So we just drove down some back road for a while and stumbled across this awesome old train bridge. We got out of the car and played on that for a while, got on top of the tracks, thought we heard a train coming, and booked it off the bridge.


We went as far as Knoxville in Tennessee then headed east again, toward North Carolina. In our atlas, there is some tourist attraction information and AJ stumbled across the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, which I guess is the biggest mansion in the US. So we called the 1-800 number to get some information on tours, but it was like fifty bucks to get on the grounds, so there was no way we were gonna do that. But we went to Asheville anyways to see if we could get a glimpse of the mansion from another area. We stopped at an art gallery to ask some locals if they knew of a place where we could see it without paying, but they said it was impossible. Until we were leaving. A man stopped us and said that we could see it for free, but it would be risky. Theres an area on the grounds with a fence that we could jump, but if we got caught we could get into trouble. But we decided not to take the risk.

Somewhere in North Carolina we got tired of driving on the Interstate and quickly pulled off onto a back road to see some of the countryside. We drove several miles and saw a couple of cars pulled off the side of the road. Thinking it was a lookout, we too pulled over. The countryside was amazing! The other car belonged to a couple from Nashville, AJ and I talked to the husband for a little bit about our vacationing adventures while his wife stayed in the air conditioning in the car. Then we made lunch, more PB&Js, and hit the interstate again.

We had talked about going to Hilton Head for most of the morning, but were a little unsure since it was so far away, southern South Carolina. Stacee and Steven were vacationing there for fall break and she insisted that if we are in the state that we stop in for a night. Actually, it seemed she was nearly begging me to come. They were staying in a nice condo on the beach, so of course, we talked about decided to stop in. It took a while to get there from Ashville, but we eventually arrived at around 5pm. The weather at Hilton Head was really crappy though, rainy and windy. We had some time to kill once we got there since they were out shopping, so we stopped by the visitors center, got a map, headed to the beach, which was our first stop at the Atlantic on the trip. It was windy and rainy on the beach, not very appeasing. I met a woman named Virginia near the beach though. I was wearing my "Virginia is for Lovers" shirt and she stopped me and said that her name was Virginia. She was nice. We finally met up with Stacee and Steven, went to their condo, and finally got a shower! That was a great shower, I felt so refreshed afterwards.

On our trip, AJ and I had agreed that since we were going to the east coast we had to splurge and get some seafood, go to a local seafood restaurant. So we asked Stacee and Steven if they wanted to have dinner with us. We went to a place called Tapas. Apperently when you go there, you order two things and share it with everyone else. I was really dissappointed in the quantity of the food, they were in appitizer portions. I really wanted a lot to eat considering we had been living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for most of the trip. But the quality was magnificant! It was probably the best food Ive ever tasted, Im not even kidding. I got lobster ravioli and salmon. MMMmmmm, I can still taste it, kind of. It was kind of expensive though. Then on our way back from Tapas we decided to get some beer. Its a good thing South Carolina sells beer on Sundays, we were a little worried about that. We got a couple of six packs and headed back to the condo. We made up a drinking game with UNO cards (I won), smoked cigars on the balcony, ate some cake, then headed to the beach. The beach at night was amazing! It was low tide at that time and it seemed like hundreds of yards of wet beach from the earlier high tide. The rain had stopped and the moon had come out, it looked awesome. So we played on the beach for a while and headed back to the condo. After a while of talking on the balcony about marriage and politics and life in general, we headed to bed. We got to bed a little after midnight. I had to sleep in a tiny bunk bed, but it was better than the car.


Railway bridge

NC skyline

Stop in NC

Fancy McDonalds in Asheville, NC

Making love to a tree in Hilton Head

AJ in the tree.

Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4 for even more and better adventures!!

Fall Break Part I

Well, the trip did happen....and what an adventure!! Last week I had an idea to go on a road trip for fall break, just to go wherever, not even have a plan. The only plan was to make it somewhere along the east coast, it didnt even matter where. And I didnt want to take any major highways, no interstate, just state roads and back roads so we could see more of the countyside. I also didnt want to use a map, just a compass. And I was trying to do this trip as cheaply as possible, only wanting to spend about $100, I figured gas and coffee would be the only expenses. So I asked a couple guys if they wanted to go, everyone was a little hesitant to go since I asked just a few days before fall break, some guys already had plans, some just thought it was a dumb idea. But I had a couple interested, and I eventually got one person to go with me, AJ. AJ is one of my friends from high school and now goes to Purdue and is also in the same fraternity as me.

SATURDAY
So, finally, saturday at around 1pm, AJ made the decision to go on the trip with me. But he was back in Bremen, so he had to drive 2 hours back to Purdue so we could leave, because Bremen isnt exactly on the way to the east coast. So when he got to the house, we packed up a few things. We packed some food: two loaves of bread, peanut butter, jelly, nutrigrain bars, apples, grapes, granola bars, and some instant tea and grape drink mix. We also brought a small tent, two sleeping bags, a blanket, two jugs for water, a bottle of shampoo, some other toiletry knick knacks, and a couple days worth of clothes. And of course, I had to bring my compass. So at around 4:30pm, we finally left.

We started off going south to see where it would take us. Shortly after starting, we decided to fill up the tank, which only required about a half tank. Then we headed west for a while. It was great seeing the countryside of Indiana, passing through some small towns along the way, but it seemed to be taking forever. Our first stop was in Noblesville. The town was having a car show at the city hall so we decided to stop and take a look. While there we saw this huge dog that this guy was walking, I mean, it was nearly as tall as its owner. So I walked up to the guy and asked him what breed of horse it is. He didnt catch on to my joke though. We looked at some cars, took a bathroom break, then hit the road again. Once we reached Indianapolis (on accident, I didnt want to hit any major cities), we decided to change up our plans a little bit. It took us a good 2.5 hours to get to Indy, which should have only taken about 1. So we decided that if we wanted to make it to the coast, we would have to take some interstates. Plus, we wanted to drive through some mountains. So we got out the atlas from my trunk, jumped onto I-74, and headed to Cincinnati. After going west for a while, we hit I-75 to go south through Kentucky and Tennessee. After we got through Cincinnati, it got dark pretty fast, so we just wanted to drive until we got tired, then try and find somewhere to sleep. We stopped along the way at a McDonalds to pee and get some food in us. So we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate them in the parking lot next to my car. We got some looks there, people wondering why we dont just eat at McDonalds Im sure. So we hit the road again for a while and wound up somewhere in southern Kentucky, not too far from Tennessee, when we decided to stop for the night. We searched for some camping signs, found one, and headed there. When we got there, we didnt realize that the front office would have been closed already, but it was at about 11pm, so it shouldve been obvious. And the cost to stay there one night was about $30, so we said screw that, and drove off. They did have a pool though, and we really wanted to just go swimming before we left, but didnt. We drove back to the town, found a couple of hotels there, tried to figure out which had the dimmest parking lot, and slept there in the car. It was a Hampton Inn. We got to bed (car) at about 11:30pm.



Noblesville City Hall

Fall Break

Today was officially the start of my fall break. We get off monday and tuesday, but since I dont have class on fridays, I get one extra day. Woot! Technically, my weekend started Thursday night, as usual. But for once, I didnt go to the Neon Cactus. I wasnt in the mood at all. I injured my back earlier this week while working out.....then again the next day while doing squats and leg workouts, pulled it even worse. It hurts horribly right now, both my back and legs, I could barely move this morning. So last night, instead of the Cactus, I just went over to Stacees and hung out with her and her boyfriend Steven. We played a couple of games of beer pong, just to do something, then went to IHOP, the best restaurant ever created. I ended up staying the night there since I had to drive them to the airport in Indy the next morning. So, I did that this morning, it was pretty fun, but I hate driving in that traffic! Airports amaze me, there are so many different types of people, I was constantly looking around at all of the people. I could seriously just spend a day in an airport and watch people. I really didnt do anything the rest of the day, just sat around, took a two hour nap, watched Thelma and Louise, and now here I am blogging. Im in one of those moods where I dont want to be around anyone, just be alone for a night. I got several offers to go places, one to go to the University of Illinois with some guys, one to hang out with some sorority girls, one to go camping, but I just dont feel like being social tonight, just being left alone.
Like I said in an earlier post, I might be going on an adventure this weekend, a road trip, but my plan might be falling through. I wont go into detail about where Im going, I will after the trip if it happens. But if I go, Ill be leaving tomorrow morning with AJ. I have to wait and see if he still wants to go tomorrow, thats why it might fall through, but it doesnt look promising. If I dont go on that roadtrip, I will swing by my grampa Toms house in southern Illinois, he is always glad to have me visit, and I always love visiting him. Im not really sure why I dont want to go home this weekend, everyone else is. Ive been asked by everyone if Im going home, I just say no, but have no reason. Maybe its because home is too familiar.
But for now, I think I might watch another movie before I hit the sack. Have a great weekend y'all! Oh by the way, thanks for all the comments on my artwork!!

Sketches

Well guys, I finally completed 45 pages of sketches in my sketchbook for my advanced drawing class, and I know I promised to post some of them. So I picked some of my favorites, and here they are. All of these sketches are done on 5.5"x8.5" paper, and most of them were completed in less than 15 minutes. And these are posted in chronological order, the first was done the first day of class, the last was completed tonight.

Once I started doodling and exploring with different techniques and media I was really shocked at what I could do! Next, I should be posting some of my projects for the class. I dont think that the work Ive done in the class are that great, but you might like them anyways, so Ill post them.

Ramblings

I was thinking today about some of the worst feelings that I experience from time to time. First of all, when you have to pee really really bad. This is a horrible, horrible feeling. For example, if you are on a roadtrip and you have just drinken a 56oz drink while driving. Shortly after, you begin to have that feeling of a filling bladder, but realize that you just stopped twenty minutes ago, so you hold it in for an hour. This also applies to when you are sleeping and awake in the middle of the night with a full bladder. Seriously, you feel like you are going to die. On the contrary, one the best feelings in the world is when you actually get to go potty.

Another bad feeling is when you eat too much and you feel so full you feel like youre going to explode. I think that this is a worse feeling than being starving! But, unlike a full bladder, you cant instantly relieve a full stomach, you just have to suffer for a few hours.

Speaking of starving, I joined a club today here at Purdue called War on Hunger. I was walking back from studying at a friends apartment last night when I saw in huge chalk letters written on the sidewalk "War on Hunger" with very little information written below, just a time and place to meet. I stood there for a while, probably a minute or so, just staring at this trying to figure out what it could be. So I wrote the time and place on my hand and decided to see what it was about. The meeting was today at 6:30, Ian and I went to it. I guess it was just a club meeting, they acted like everyone there was part of the club, so me and Ian decided to join. We made some posters with statistics written on them, such as "A child starves to death every 5 seconds" or "Approximately 900,000,000 people in the world suffer from undernourishment." We also signed up for something on next Wednesday. Im not really sure what we are doing, but I think that we sit at a table in the center of campus selling buttons and raising awareness for hunger, I think Wednesday is National Hunger Awareness Day. This should be pretty interesting. Ian also talked me into doing a Big Brothers, Big Sisters club with him too. I think Ill enjoy that.

This week I have two midterm portfolio reviews for my art classes, so I will try to get some pictures soon of some of the work that Ive done this semester. One of the requirements for my advanced drawing class is 45 pages of sketches due thursday, and I have like 16. So I will be doing lots of sketching this week! We had since the beginning of the semester to complete these 45 pages though, so dont feel bad for me.

Also, I have Fall Break this coming weekend. I get off Friday through Tuesday, 5 whole days! I am currently planning a trip, but still dont have all of the details figured out, or who Im going with. Its going to be a roadtrip of some sort.

Noise

So tonight I once again played in the band at Greek IV, this time on the electric guitar. It was an alright time, and again I only had about an hour to learn three songs, which I ended up not playing the last song because I had never heard of it and the chords were wrong on the sheet and everything was messed up about it. What was disappointing about tonight, though, was that there were very few people who showed up to Greek IV, maybe 25 people. But there are midterms going on this week, so I guess its understandable.

But the message tonight was pretty ironic. We watched a Rob Bell video tonight about noise. He talked about why we feel the need to constantly be listening to music, watching tv, talking to people, texting, surfing the web, playing video games, and so on. Why cant we just be in silence for a little bit. At one point in the video, everything went black and silent, for quite a while, and Ill admit, it was a tad uncomfortable. And Im guilty of this too, I even feel wierd walking to class without my ipod playing, or driving without the radio on. Why is it so uncomfortable to be in silence? It says in Luke(?) that Jesus constantly went places to be alone in silence and pray.

What was so ironic for me was that lately I have been trying to be alone. Ive been trying to get away and be in silence and talk to God. Trying to separate myself from all of the clutter and constant motion here at Purdue. In the past week, I have been out three times at three different places to just sit down and be in silence, to try and hear Gods voice, which is exactly what we talked about tonight. Its really one of my favorite things to do, just lay there and listen, try to make sense of things, try to get a sense of God, listen to what Hes telling me.

I always get interrupted though. Whether its a car driving by, or a nosey police officer, I cant seem to get away. During the video, Rob had a statistic from a man that recorded the sounds of nature for CDs or something. He said that back when he began, it took about 15 hours of recording get 1 hour of pure nature sounds, because of trying to avoid the sound of airplanes and cars and so on. But today, it take 2000 hours to get 1 hour of sound. We are very noisy, no wonder its so hard to hear God, it will take 2000 hours of listening to hear 1 hour of Gods voice.

One is a Tiny Number

So today I was sitting in class thinking about the world population. Lately Ive been trying to be alone, trying to go places where I can just be by myself for a little bit. Thats why I went to the dirt road, a few days later I went to another secluded area near a highway, where I was interrupted by a passerby. Then Sunday I went to the top of a parking garage at night to watch people and cars below, where I was inturrupted by a police officer wondering what I was doing. So I was sitting in class today thinking that there is really no where I can be alone. There are 6.6 billion people on this planet, so I am bound to be inturrupted by one of them anywhere I go, it seems. Then I got to thinking about how big the number 6.6 billion really is. I mean, we all know that it is a pretty big number, but I dont think you realize how big it really is. So I put the number into seconds, to put it into perspective. One second is not a very long time, as we all know, but 6.6 billion seconds really ads up. So I crunched the numbers, and was astounded by what I found.

1 million seconds ago was 11.5 days ago, which would be September 19, not too long ago. I was surprised by how little time this was.

1 billion seconds ago was 31.7 years ago, roughly January 1977, this one shocked me!

But what was even more shocking was that 6.6 billion seconds ago was 209.25 years ago, roughly June 1799. June of 1799!!

I am only one second in 209 years!! One second in nearly three lifetimes! This is slightly belittling, but also very humbling.

Just Another Weekend

I know its probably kind of boring listening to what I do on weekends, but I kind of just want to write it down just to get it out, you know. So again, my weekend started on Thursday at the Neon Cactus. I went with four of my "bros" and we met up with two more when we got there. It was actually a pretty tame night, I didnt dance at all. Actually I got turned down and it kind of crushed my spirits. But they had a signing there, a girl from the tempe12 calendar, which I think is like college girls from the Big Ten. So me and my friends stood there admiring her for a bit, and one of them said that I should get my chest signed. I thought about it for a split second, and agreed. She was signing calendars, so I got one, stood in line for a few minutes, walked up to her and said,"Hi will you sign my chest," and proceeded to pull my shirt up. Confused, she gave me an, "Okay?" So she wrote, in permanant marker, that she loved me, some XOXOs, and signed her name. I talked to her a little, but sadly, I didnt get her number. But I didnt ask, so thats probably why.

So then we left pretty early, just me and Frazier. Frazier is a character, hes an alumni that is some kind of royalty in Spain or something, so he never works, he just flies around the world doing whatever he wants....or so he says. But hes been at our house for about 3 weeks or so. So we left the bar and headed over to Lauren and Erikas apartment. Lauren and Erika are well known amongst ATOs, they are some brothers' ex-girlfriends, but everyone in the house loves them. So they were having party that night, we decided to head over, and it was pretty lame. The girls were obliterated, and there were only three other people there besides the girls. After a few minutes of the girls dancing around, giving hugs, and being foolish, we decided to leave. We just went to McDonalds then called it a night.

Friday morning comes. I really didnt do much all day Friday, which would be my typical Friday. I played Xbox for several hours. Ive been playing this racing game called Forza, I really get into it! According to my stats, I have 15 hours of racing time already, but Im only 40% complete with the game. It feels good to accomplish something here at college. And then, of course, I went and worked out. Friday night, I went over to Stacees house to hang out. We played a few games of beer pong with her boyfriend and thier housemate, some really intense games! But, me and Stacee lost all three games. We also played a few games of air hockey, which were also intense. Me and Stacee invented an air hockey game where we dont use the paddle things, just our hands. That was a blast! Then we played around on the pogo stick, which I now realize is very dangerous.

Saturday was fun....and not so fun at the same time. We got our new pledges this weekend. Saturday was our pinning ceremony, which officially begins thier pledgeship. But before the ceremony, the brothers go around campus and pick up the pledges....creatively. Me and Adam decided to pick up his brother, who is pledging. So we called him at around 4:45pm and told him to meet us in front of his dorm at 5 with five sheets of paper, a pen, three socks, and a jar of peanut butter. We told him this to throw him off, we said there was going to be a scavenger hunt. So we picked him up, made him put a hat over his head so he couldnt see, and made him lay down in the backseat, basically so it doesnt look like we are kidnapping someone. We drove about 15 minutes out into the country, nothing but cornfields and empty roads around. We stopped on this dirt road and made him get out. With the hat still over his eyes, we made him believe there were other people with, telling "everyone" to be quiet and dont take thier masks off until we left. So me and Adam left, sped off, tires spinning, just left him there by himself, out in the middle of nowhere. And we left him with a sign that said "Be back at the house by 5:45." It was about 5:15 by this time.

But before you think Im a horrible person for this, we did pick him up, we didnt just leave him out there. We just drove down the road, stopped and waited about 10-15 minutes, and went back. He said that he was shocked when he realized he was alone. It was great.

Then we had a party after the ceremony at a brothers apartment. It was pretty fun, it was fun getting to know the new pledges, fun talking to some girls, did a little dancing, but not fun at the end of the night. I had a few beers, some Killians Irish Red, pretty good stuff. But toward the end of the night a girl asked if I wanted to take a shot of vodka with her, I hesitated, but agreed. Bad choice. First of all, I hate hard alcohol, it tastes disgusting, and it never agrees with me. Instantly after the shot, I had to talk myself out of throwing up for about ten minutes. Then on the ride home, it hit me again. We dropped some girls off, and I got out also, walked to the bushes, and chucked all over. I hate throwing up, that shot put me over the top. Later that night, I threw up again, walking down the hallway to get some water, it just snuck up with no warning, and I threw up in my mouth. So I ran to the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet. Never again. I hate vodka forever, I cant believe one shot did that to me.

Today, I just hung out with Stacee most of the day. We went to lunch, McAlisters, Ive never been there before, but it was pretty good. Then we went shopping....well, she went shopping and I was dragged along. I hate shopping, but I put up with it today. Then I went to church, which was great and thought provoking as usual. Later on I went to the art building to do some work for my ceramics class. Came back from that, wrote a paper in spanish, and thats that. End. Of. Weekend.

Laying Under the Stars

Well, tonight I did a little something out of the ordinary. I was rushing around, doing my daily stuff like a walmart run, fixing a flat tire on my car, getting art supplies, you know, just the usual running around. It was about 9 o' clock at night, and I had decided on my way back from Walmart that I needed a break. I needed a break from constantly doing something, I needed a break from seeing people, being social. I needed to be alone for a while. So, I started driving. I wasnt really sure where I was going, actually I got lost pretty quickly, I just found some country roads and went from there. I figured if I got too lost, I would be able to just backtrack to find my way home. So I turned my music off, rolled down all of the windows, opened the moonroof, drove really slow, like 30 mph, and just took it in. Just enjoyed the air swirling around the interior of my car, seemingly smacking me in the head in all directions. I drove until I found no more civilization.

Then I decided that I needed to get out of the car. So I drove until I saw no more cars. I eventually hit a dirt road. I wandered down the road, not too far though, I didnt want to get my car filthy dirty since I just washed it a couple of days ago. Then I stopped. I pulled over to the side of the road, got out of my car, walked down the road a little ways, and just layed there in the middle of this dirt road. It was wonderful! It was great to just get away for a while. It seemed like I was a million miles from campus, when in reality, I was only about 10 miles away. I didnt really think of too much, just how great it felt to feel the dirt on my back and head, and feel the cool air swirl around me, and hear all of the crickets and insects around me. I mostly just thought about how bad it would suck if I got hit by a car, but that fear dimished quickly since I hadnt seen a car for miles. One thought that popped into my head while laying there was what it must have been like for people hundreds of years ago, wondering if someone was doing the exact same thing in the exact same spot from where I was two or three hundreds years ago. I was trying to imagine what it must have looked like. The powerlines wouldnt have been there. The corn wouldnt have been as tall, if there at all. The road may not have existed. No airplanes in the sky, no satellites to look for. But the sky would have probably looked amazing. No light pollution, just billions of twinkles lighting up the night sky.

I didnt stay very long though, maybe 15-20 minutes. But that was all I needed. I felt refreshed after that. And it was a good reflection time. I felt connected with God in that moment, I felt like He was there with me, enjoying the sights and sounds and feelings along with me.

Through Painted Deserts

So, I finally finished reading the book Through Painted Deserts by Don Miller. It only took me like 5 weeks to read it! I was a little confused about the book at first, I thought it was going to be a little more spiritual just like Blue Like Jazz, but it was basically just a story about him travelling around the US with his friend Paul in a VW van. But I thought the book was great! Very interesting. There are points in the book that really agree with my simplicity concept. He said that for a few weeks he lived out in the woods with a few other guys, and it was one of the best times of his life. I 100% agree that the simpler things are, when its nothing but you and Gods beautiful painting called the Earth, when you are just out there building relationships, the happier you will be, life will seem like it has a point. I liked this book because I could really relate to thier situation. I believe Don was 21 when these occurances took place. I could definately see myself going on a trip like this, if it werent for this stupid, moneyhungry, college thing. Waste of time, waste of money, so far.

Since I have come back to school, I have gotten everything I have needed, and mostly everything I wanted. I can buy gas for my car now, so I drive a lot. I can buy food from any restaraunt, so I eat out quite a bit. I can afford to go to the bars with my friends every weekend, so I do that. And you know what, its convenient and fun. But Im really not as appreciative as I was this summer when I could afford nothing. I feel like Im taking everything for granted now. I miss the simple life.