All the exams have been administered, graded, and recorded. It all went through as just a little whimper, as the grading went much more quickly and more smoothly than I anticipated. That's always a nice thing.
I've decided not to go to Fall Conference. It just doesn't seem to be the right time to go. As I told Jack in an email, I think things need to start at home first before looking to branch out. I need to make sure I spend the time trying to understand the other faculty on my campus and build friendships there (and find another Christian faculty to meet/pray with). My guess is that it would just end up being a personal retreat (which isn't bad, but I had one of these a couple months ago).
Right now, I'm just sitting around at home watching HORSE on ESPN (poker). Poker hasn't been very good to me in my last couple times out, as I basically lost my full buy-in both times. It brings me down to close to even since moving out here. Poker is a funny game. I don't know when I'll go out next. I just bought a book on No Limit hold'em, and that's a game change that I sometimes consider when I've got nothing else to do.
I bought a bag of tamales from Costco and I've been bringing one or two for dinner along with some canned refried beans and some rice. This has turned out to be a good decision, because it's a nice change of pace from pasta and the tamales actually heat up pretty well after being frozen.
What else has been going on? The men's breakfast was okay. Nothing special. They had good sausages, but that was about it. I probably won't go back because it's just not worth getting up early for it. It feels a lot like First Baptist in that I want to get involved, but there isn't a place for me to do so... Well... there's that young adults group that meets on Tuesday nights when I'm teaching, but I don't know how big it is or anything like that. In the meantime, I'm still going to the Spiritual Leadership class, which is actually very good and interesting. The book isn't so exciting, but the converstaions have shown that these people really care about people doing well and making real changes in their lives. That's always a good (and scary) thing for a church group. The pastor has also been very good and clear about his expectations of the congregation and has laid out his plan in a great way.
I guess there isn't much else going on, so I'll cut it there.
