I posted on az's blog regarding their frustration on water  http://azninvasion-blog.blogspot.com/

Ash Wednesday

I have never actually gone to a service celebrating Ash Wednesday. While I do attend an evangelical church back home I have never experienced the ceremonial part of an Ash service. This past wednesday I attended one. My reactions from it are very mixed. You have to understand I come from a very evangelical church where it is on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to sacraments and ceremonial type events.  Our church does baptism and communion but we don't walk down the middle of the sanctuary carrying a large cross on a stick and spread ashes on our foreheads. 

I would describe my Ash Wednesday experience as a learning experience. I realized how people celebrate Christ in different ways. We believe in the same thing, but we go about celebrating/remembering it in different ways. Its like a birthday party- some people eat cake, some people play pin the tail on the donkey. 

Part of me wonders if I am condoning other people for celebrating the same things I celebrate but in different ways. I'm wondering if in daily life I look down on neighbors or friends just because they go about things in a different way then I would. 

Change of Heart

This last weekend I went to Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth. I have never been to a western dance hall and have never done a two-step dance in my life. I didn’t go in a huge group but there were enough of us to have a fun time. The group that I went with wasn’t drunk and had no intention of drinking alcohol during the evening. For most of the people that went this would be an easy task as most of us have learned that you don’t need to be drunk to have a good time.

         As the evening went on most of us had already stepped on plenty of toes and had made a fool of ourselves on the dance floor, but there was one girl who was stubborn and would not go out onto the floor. Her excuse at the beginning was she had no idea how to two-step and didn’t want to make a fool of herself. However, as the night went on we started she started to explain how the only way she dances usually is if she is drunk.

       I’m not using this story as a point of judgment for this girl as I think she learned something this evening. As people were slowly heading back to SMU my group decided to stay to the end so we all good get a few more dances in. This girl that swore she wouldn’t dance decided to stay with use. I have no idea why exactly she decided to stay because the only thing to do there was dance and she wouldn’t even step onto the dance floor. My driver said he would give her a ride back on campus, but she would have to dance with him before the night was up. With fifteen minutes to go she finally got out of the dance floor and started two-stepping. I was surprised to see that she was actually really good at the dance.

       The first dance turned into five more and she started to enjoy the evening for the first time. After Billy Bobs closed her face held a giant smile and was thrilled that she finally decided to dance. A few times in the car ride back she would ask us when we were coming back to Billy Bobs. She really wanted to go back and said next time she would be the first person on the dance floor. 

False Fun

    Friday nights to most people are a lot of fun. What exactly makes these nights fun? The only reason why I ask this question is because of what I saw this past weekend. I don’t want to sound judgmental in this post; I’m more interested in finding out why people find it fun to get drunk.

    After loosing in a poker tournament I headed back to my dorm late Friday night. By the time I got back to my dorm it was already well after midnight and I was exhausted. I ended up watching a movie in one of the lounges in my hall, but I kept dozing off while watching the movie. The movie ended and I headed downstairs to sleep.

    When I opened the door to the study room I saw my suitemate and two other students drunk as can be sitting in chairs. You could tell they didn’t really know what was going on as I walked into the room. My suitemate appeared to be attempting to sleep sitting in a chair with his head against his desk. This confused me because if he was really tired he would have just walked the ten feet to his own bed, but he decided the desk was more comfortable.  As I watched him it was actually kind of humorous as he would slowly slide off the desk and then quickly jerk his head back up to rest it on the desk.

     After about ten minutes of him doing this one of his friends told him it was time to go to bed. As he got up from his sleeping spot his arms swung around and knocked a Red Bull off the desk spilling it all over his bags. He didn’t say anything except back away, which caused him to trip over a chair and land on his back. Eventually he went to bed and I expected him to sleep until three the next day. However, when I woke up around noon he was already gone. 

      Later in the day I asked him what time he got up and he explained how he couldn’t sleep an got up at eight in the morning. He then asked me exactly what happened the night before. Even though he appeared to be having the “time of his life” the night before he couldn’t remember a single thing. It was as if he had a false sense of fun.

      Why exactly do college students do this? I’m not condemning drinking or getting drunk. It’s your choice to drink; it’s your choice to how much your body can take and how much you want to take. However, most people will reply to this question that this is the only way to have fun at college- you have to go out and get drunk, you have to drink to have fun, and you have to blend in with the cool crowd. I know plenty of students who drink responsibly and still remember the fun they had the night before. I’m just wondering when my suitemate will realize that he can have fun without the hangovers and sleepless nights.