My first time as an instructor

Way back at the end of January I was meeting with one of my pastors and somehow mentioned that I went to grad school.  He asked for what and I told him economics.  He said he taught world religion downtown and had a phone call that day -- they were looking for an economics instructor!  Did I want to teach there?  Seriously?  I've always wanted to teach and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  The school is on the quarter system so it would be for 10 weeks, one night a week.  Small classes; seemed like the perfect way to try my hand at this.  I met with the Gen Ed chair and the job was mine.  Wahoo!

However, no one signed up for the class and it was cancelled.  Boo.  I got an email a few months ago saying the class would be held in the fall and the job was mine if I wanted it.  I thought that I did, but also wanted to pray about it and make sure I would have time for this adventure.  Shortly after that email, I went to Nicaragua in July.  Early into the trip I knew I wanted to do this and had a peace from the Lord about it.  Towards the end of the trip one of Osvaldo's prophesies over me was that I was called to "teach and preach -- not in a church."  Pretty cool confirmation from the Lord.

Fast forward a few months and I was ready, or ready as I'll ever be, to teach my first class.  I made sure I wore a suit and heels.  When you look like you're 23 you have to dress professional.  (Thank you Mr. Scarborough!)

I headed down there after my day job to meet with HR and turn in one last thing.  As I walked to the building, I started wondering what in the world I was doing.  I started feeling completely inept and wondering  how in the world I would pull this off.  Two things happened:

1. I heard the Lord say to me, "I'm fulfilling part of your dream!"  How sweet to hear those words!  Yes, yes He is/was!  I've longed to teach and He's set it up...how could I not trust Him?
2. There's a restaurant right next door.  If this thing went terribly wrong, I would certainly be heading there afterwards and treating myself to a cold beer and burger with fries.  

After my visit with HR, I wondered around to where I thought I should be.  The dude that hired me wasn't there, so I made myself at home in a random cubicle.  At some point, I went to grab my jump drive.  No where to be found in my messenger bag.  Shiesta!  Must be in my car...not a big deal.  I tell the secretary of sorts that I'll be right back; she could care less if I told her I was the pope.

I scooted down the street to grab it out of my purse.  Calm, cool, and collected.

Y'all, it was.  Not.  There.  Double shiesta!

I put it in at work yesterday and must have forgotten to take it out!  Ah!  I headed down to my regular office and bolted in the door.  Of course it was locked so I found the security guard who gave me lip about having an ID badge but oh well.  I ran to the office, grabbed it, and headed back.  Praise the Lord I made it back in time!

I've been reading Jesus Calling for a month or so now and yesterday's was pretty perfect.  It came back to mind in the midst of my frantic/anxious/ah! what am I doing? freak out moment:


So, armed with truth I headed back to my cube and got things settled.  I made the copies I needed to make and felt calm and prepared.  Now, let's talk about food.  I brought some delicious lemon/brussels sprouts/walnut/feta/lemon zest quinoa to heat up for supper.  However, I started feeling odd about that: where would I heat it up?  Get a spoon, etc?  So I decided to grab the 2 packs of cheese/peanut butter crackers I had in my car.  A pack before I started and one during the break and I'd be good to go.

So...I opened the first pack and OMG it was nasty!  Way too OLD!  Gross!  The next pack was edible, but certainly a smidge stale.  Things to think through for next week!

I headed down to my classroom and two students were in there.  I tried to log on the computer, but could not.  This is the first time I needed help.  One of the dudes walked me around the school until we found another instructor who very kindly showed me how to work it -- gave the tricky password.  We headed back to class and there were 6 students in there.

We got started with introductions, the syllabus, etc.  About that time my 7th student strolled in late.  I'd have been a bit frustrated, but he had just flown in from Hong Kong and loves bacon so how frustrated could you be?  Also, he was a huge asset as he worked the computer glitches for me throughout the evening.

The class runs from 6:00 to 10:00 pm; that is a LONG time to keep people entertained!  I'm supposed to teach for 50 of 60  minutes, so we left at 9:30 and took a 10 minute break.  We went through all of the business you do in a new class, went over two chapters of PowerPoint and read/discussed two articles.  I was thrilled with the participation of the students and loved the small classroom feel.  I felt really comfortable teaching and engaging the students.  They did a great job participating and were respectful.  There was a good balance of learning/seriousness, but also some personality and bit of banter.  That is really how I work best.  Ha!  It was fun getting to know the students and look forward to knowing them more as the class continues.  I didn't know what to expect, but couldn't have asked for it to have gone better.  I'm so thankful!

And, if it ever gets really rough...there's always the restaurant next door...

Get a clue

Since our office moved, we've gotten pretty tight with the IT dude.  He's about my age and easy to chat with.  My computer/printer needed something done yesterday, so we spent about an hour and a half together yesterday mid morning.

He popped back in later in the day to check on something and I showed him my new favorite You Tube video.  (Thanks, Jane Harper!)

At the end of the day, he came by with another IT fella.  Here's the back story on the other guy: he's incredibly nice but definitely the male version of a single cat lady.  And I know for a fact he loves cats.  I see him every couple of months or so around campus.

So these two IT dudes come to my door...  I'm sitting at my desk and the older dude can see a ring I wear on my left hand.  This ring to be exact:



Older guy: Hey Elizabeth!  So you got married?  Congrats!
Me: No...
Older guy: Oh, so you're engaged?
Me: No...
Younger guy: It's not an engagement ring (attempting to smooth things out).
Pause...
Older guy: Oh, so it's a promise ring?
Me: No.
Older guy: Oh.  So, is there someone special in your life?
Me: No.
Older guy: Yeah, I've never been married either...I still keep hoping and holding out for that one day.
Me: Ok.
Older guy: So I guess you and I are in the same boat?!
Younger guy: Uh...maybe we should watch that You Tube video?!  (again, trying to smooth things out)
Me: What are you here for?

Here's your life lesson for the day: learn social cues.  In case you were wondering, the correct response would be to say Oh, that's a pretty ring and promptly change the subject after the first or (at most) second, "no" from me.

And if you're not laughing already, please enjoy this video!

Time marches on...or does it?

Courtney and I were discussing some of life's greatest things tonight: parties.  Long story short, I need to send a funny yet persuasive emails.  Speaking of funny emails, we remembered the one time Courtney wrote some faux grad school emails.  Here's her blog post from the summer of 2009.  Enjoy!

4 Years Later...Not Much Has Changed

So apparently one night at PC I was trying to muster up the words for my application essay for grad school at USC. The essay was something to the effect of why they should let me in their highly prestige school to get my masters in ice breakers (which as I had a discussion today with some co-workers is always really awkward when people namely student affairs people take a drinking game and try to turn it into a G-rated ice breaker such as never have I ever or I love my sister who, when you are playing in front of your "new friends" and all you really want to shout out is I love my sister who didn't sleep in her own bed last night not something silly about preferring your toilet paper to be on the roll so it unrolls from the front not the back. but I digress.) So I am sure the scenario looked like most did for me in college. Me sitting around goofing off not doing what I was supposed to be doing, bc I can NEVER get anything accomplished until the last possible minute...I think I eventually had to overnight the essay and application. So as I was sitting around procrastinating in our bedroom at B5, with the productivity nazi EA breathing down my neck trying to make me get things done, which she always does in the nicest fashion. She helped me brain storm some ideas, and this is what I wrote...and saved to my computer because I knew there would come a day when these things would come in handy. Turns out not much has changed in my life 4 years later...except I did get that masters.

Hi my name is Courtney. I go to PC. I need a job, so I will go to school…hopefully your school. I am very much of the single and am looking for a future mate. I feel that your program would be excellent for husband shopping.
Sincerely yours,
CBS

Dear USC, I am an averagely smart slightly over weight college senior. I make subpar grades, just enough to get by and maybe a little extra should the mood hit. My GPA is somewhat low due to the ridiculous notion I had to be a biology major for a few years, I think I was smoking crack rock.

I was somehow elected to serve as my sorority president of which during my reign as queen adelphean I received hate emails, and was attempted to be over thrown. Nothing what so ever went right from rain on significant events, or musical entertainment not showing up to social events. From all of this criteria I am sure that you can see I most definitely deserve to be a part of your program. Also, I share a bed with a really cute five footer.

Right, so just to clarify...EA and I did share a bed but only kind of...the idea wasn't originally ours but of course Courtney (Thain) Molony can get away with things that we just can't. Somehow Courtney and her roommate, plus 2 other girls in their house managed to "share" beds and no one thought they were awkward or a fraternity boy's wet dream come true. Yet, this just wasn't so for me and EA. For the record...we shared a comforter (which happens to be the one I still use) but had seperate sheets...plus my ridiculously creepy cute baby doll Christina until her head and appendages finally fell of. 4 years later as EA lays next to me...in my bed (but she will go sleep in her room when its time to go to bed...just to clarify) as I write this she just commented "It's really amazing we're still single." I concur. What a catch we are.

Alright peeps, time to go catch some T&D, and Real Housewives...here's hoping the bitch fight is tonight!

And three years past that, not too much has changed.  We lay in our beds (respective cities of course!), on our computers, and talking on the phone with each other.  And yes, in case you were curious, we're both single.  Eighth wonder of the world...

And, true to nature, I'm "encouraging" Courtney to be productive.  While she's keeping me from the work I need to be doing.

Good times.  Great oldies.  Best friends.

Learning to Fly?

I feel raw.

I had a GREAT morning yesterday.  Woke up, watched some Grey's on Netflix.  Ate breakfast.  Spent really good time with the Lord in prayer.  Read in Mark.  Felt the presence of the Lord with me.  Showered, dressed, and drove to church.

And somewhere on that drive, I burst into tears...and fought them throughout church.  And truly, it was an incredible time of worship.  The Spirit of God was in the worship.  The sermon was incredible -- empowering, challenging, and life giving.  I was with people I love.  And still, I fought the tears.  Not even fully sure why they were present.

I feel raw.

There are a lot of circumstances I'd like to be different.  However, I see the Lord working.  And I am thankful for many things.  And I know it's a season.  And the Lord uses the hard stuff.  And all of the things I would tell a friend in a rough place.

I know those things.  But my heart can't seem to bear it all.  And yet, one foot in front of the other.  And sometimes tears accompany the forward walking.  Sometimes laughter.

And then, I hear something a friend is going through and my heart literally wants to crack in half for them.

I certainly think I'm learning (yet again) that there is much I don't have control over.  Today's Jesus Calling reminded me that, "You will not find my peace by engaging in excessive planning: attempting to control what will happen to you in the future.  That is a commonly practiced form of unbelief."

What's the balance of being honest about where you are and sharing truth?  I'm still looking for it...

Perhaps completely unrelated, this song came on Pandora and hit home.  I am digging the live version.

My week in review

My Aunt Dean has been here; that has been great.  A huge blessing!

Dad's melanoma has been removed successfully and he is recovering.

I have felt the peace and presence of the Lord time and time again.

I bumped into an old co-worker last night.  Good to catch up.

It rained so hard in Charleston one day I seriously contemplated making a boat out of card board to get home.  There were kyakers in the Market!

Krissie has made me laugh and cry -- in the best of ways.

Wednesday night services at my church started back up; time of worship was great.

I went for a 45 minute run to clear my head the other day.  I can never run that long, but it was great.

I have been eating terribly and need to start eating salads next week.  Ask me how that's going next week!

I'm still rocking out with my egg shaker.  Thanks, Weston.

A few good cries.  

Long stretches of dry eyes.

Fighting for peace rather than understanding.

Comic Relief

Saturday night while I was sleeping, I missed two calls from a number I don't know.  I also received a text from the same number saying, "rave tonight, down?"

Interesting.  Right?

Clearly, I didn't respond.  However, I did relay this information to Maggie this morning.  Together, our investigative skills deducted:

• he sells quite a lot on Craig's list
• we think it is likely he helps his mom sell her goods on CL
• he's a high school kid in the Charleston area
• he isn't too active on Facebook

What would we have done before the internet?

Hope deferred

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but a desire fulfilled is ia tree of life.

We long for things...we all have hope for __.  True, some things are more noble than others; yet, our hearts long regardless.  Eternity has been set in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11).

I don't know about you, but today I am taking great comfort that my God knows I hope and knows that my heart can ache/be sick over the deferral of things I hope for.  

And then I read this and it puts things into perspective all the more...