Will these hurricanes never cease?

Hurricanes! I'm tired of them already, and my home hasn't even been wiped out by one. They have been wreaking havoc with our customers though. I spoke with one of the Florida supervisors the other night, and he said this time he's leaving. He's going to Las Vegas to forget about hurricanes. We had quite a few plants shut down last night throughout the night, but this time it was the Alabama/Mississippi cities instead of the Florida cities with the exception of Pensacola. From the news, I gather they were hit the hardest so I expect we won't be hearing from them for a while.

I took the day off to study for my two exams tomorrow. The first one is Anatomy. This will be some pretty heavy material since we've already gone through 4 chapters. The first chapter isn't so bad since it's mostly about orientating yourself to the directional terms of the body such as anterior and posterior rather than front and back, etc. The second chapter is giving me the most trouble since we studied the cell structure and functions. There are just so many terms I'm unfamiliar with which makes it difficult. Then we studied the embryo from conception to 8 weeks. That was pretty awesome. And the last chapter was on into tissues. Now if you ask me, that's an awful lot of information to store in my noggin for one test.

My second exam is in my World Civilization class. Here I'm studying the development of early complex societies in Africa, China, India, Egypt, Australia, Indonesia, and the Americas. This will be no multiple choice test. We will be given a term we are to define and then give its historical significance. We will also have to do map identification which will be the easiest part. Then we have to complete an essay. All this within 45 minutes. I'm ready for the everything except the essay, and I don't think I'll ever be ready for one of those.

I was really struggling with frustration and depression this week because I just couldn't seem to get very far this past weekend. I knew that was my only real time to study before the exams. So I went ahead and took some precious annual leave which seems to be dwindling at an alarming rate. I was well into my World Civ when I got an e-mail notifying me that UTC has been shut down as of 3:00 p.m. today and will remain so for tomorrow. It gave further instructions for students staying on campus and what facilities would be available to them and what to do in case of power failure.

In my oblivious state of mind, it never occurred to me that Tennessee could get hit by a hurricane! What's up with that? This isn't Florida. So I start investigating what these people are all up in the air about. It seems the hurricane is making it's way up through Alabama and Georgia and is headed right this way. It started raining this morning as soon as I got to UTC and hasn't let up since. There seems to be a theory that once the eye of this tropical storm gets to Chattanooga, it will proceed to hang here and dump. No sooner had I found all this out than the power went out. Now this is so not conducive to studying since the day is gloomy already. So I lit my candles, grabbed a Sprite, and went out to sit in the dry corner of my deck and read about cells. As you might assume, the power has finally returned, but the rain hasn't let up, nor does it seem it will for the next several days. So if you hear a gurgle, that's me trying to cross Lake Chickamauga on my way to work. At least I have another 4 days to study for my exams. But I sure am perturbed that I wasted my annual leave for this.

My church situation has gotten really interesting the past few weeks. It seems this church doesn't have formal services on Sunday evenings. Instead, they meet in small groups in each other's homes or at the church as the apostles of the early church did. The intention is to promote growth by means of discussion rather than listening to a sermon. I've only been to one twice. The one I was invited to is a bunch of young married couples. It's been interesting to hear their personal take on things including their upbringing in the Church of Christ. Most, if not all, of them have been raised in the traditional strict teachings of their church. This includes "the man is the head--no questions asked" type of setting. And the "no questions asked" was quite literal. One lady told me that once you were married, it wasn't a priority to work on having a good relationship. It didn't really matter if you had one or not, you were just plain stuck. They also touched on the issue of knowing if you're saved or not. I asked for more information on that point since Tamy had told me that they didn't believe you could know--you can only hope you are saved. She really struggles with that one because she didn't think that was right from her own reading in the Bible. Evidently this church does not teach that any more although some of the other churches in the area do. They told me that the other churches won't allow their youth to associate with them because they are the "wild" bunch. This sounds so Mennonite to me!

Another interesting tidbit I found was that some of their people think you shouldn't read certain authors. We are studying from Max Lucado's book--In the Grip of Grace. When one of the older members found out what they are studying, they were horrified. They claimed that Lucado is the very devil. How amusing.

I went to the early service for the first time last Sunday. That was really tough. It starts at 8:30, and I wanted to sleep in so badly! But I was determined I've got to have more study time. So off I went. Naturally, I got snagged into going to Sunday School which I'd been wanting to try anyway. It's just hard to go on your own into a strange place, and Tamy never wanted to go. So I ended up in a women only class. It was really interesting. That night I convinced Tamy to go with me to the small group meeting where they talked us into going to the Sunday school class they go. Any kind of age group or interest you have, they've got a class for it. Then today at UTC, this man walks up to me and just stared at me. So I just stared right back. He asks, "What church do you go to?" I was a bit bewildered because when people usually ask me questions, it's more like, "What's that thing on your head for?" or "What religion are you?", but not "What church do you go to?" So I said, "You mean here in Chattanooga?" which is what he was after. So I told him, and he said he thought so. Turns out he goes there and, of course, he's seen me. He also teaches the singles Sunday school class and wanted me to come. But it's supposed to be for 18 to 30-year-old singles. They have another one for singles over 30. So I think I'll pass on his invitation even though he seems to think I'd fit right in. After all, I'm a student just like they are. Yeah right!

I shall bring this saga to an end and return to cells with their organelles and various functions that each performs.