Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Per Request

The idea was birthed sometime in August. The product came last Wednesday.

H.D. Long Hall, my home, was originally built as a men's dormitory and opened its doors as Bryan College's first permanent residence hall in January of 1964. With growing enrollment and changes in the school's men-women ratio, Long was changed into a women's residence hall in the fall of 1984. Back-to-back bumper crops of incoming students over the last few years necessitated Long's switch back to men this year, allowing myself to drop my pen and sports camera duties in favor of something I really wanted to do.

So it was sometime in August that I and my resident assistants were talking over ideas of how to establish a new identity for Long after having been a women's dorm for some 22 years, when Paul came up with the idea of using "Creation, Fall, Redemption" to describe our home. It was originally intended to be a guys dorm but was then changed for the opposite of what it was intended for. And now the return of men to the halls had somehow "redeemed" it. Sure it sounds like a "no girls allowed" club...that's the point.

So I took to designing a hoodie on www.customink.com (check it out. it's a cool site), came up with a sweet look and then got roughly 2/3 of the dorm on board for shirts at $20 a pop. The colors changed a bit (yellow for "Creation-1964", red for "Fall-1984, and white for "Redemption-2006") but the basic design stayed the same. I had a few nightmares the night before the big shipment arrived (buying $1300 worth of merchandise with other people's money has a way of doing that), but was pleased overall with the finished product. And seeing a sea of black hoodies walk around campus on the first day back from fall break was quite worth it. I'm not sure we'll be able to top this design next year. Sorry about the poor resolution in the pic.

In other news, my thoughts have recently turned toward my lack of motivation in writing. In some ways, I'd say that I'm less introspective that I once was, and that bothers me a bit. Am I becoming boring? Lackadaisical? Vanilla flavored? Whatever the case, there's been a definite lack of interest in jotting down the thoughts that roll between these ears than through most of my life.

Fall break came at a really good time, though I don't feel like I totally took advantage of the nine-day period. I started the vacation with good intentions of redeeming the time, even making a list of "to do's" but then pretty much scrapped it once Monday rolled around. I spent a good three days lounging around doing as little as possible, due in part to lousy head and body aches, and then rainy weather four out of the five weekdays made for less than optimum conditions for being productive. Trips to see Justin in Asheville and Brent in Rock Island, Tennessee never materialized, and anticipated meetings with other friends never happened either, but I am happy to say that I took three nice hikes in Creation.

On the first Saturday, I became tired of not visiting my beloved Buzzard's Point looking down into Dayton and decided to extend a hand of friendship to anyone that would allow me access to their land that would give easy access to Buzzard's from the top of the mountain. Surprisingly, pleasantly so, I made three new friends simply by calling them over the phone, introducing myself and explaining what my request was, and each gave hearty approval to my pursuit. So Kati and I made the 45-minute hike to the cliffs on Saturday, along with a beautiful collie named Mabel and an irish setter named Buddy, spent about 2 hours there, visited Snow Falls and then ventured to Wooden's Apple House for a round-trip of around six hours. So much of my free time in college was spent bounding through the Bowater forest, so the return trip was memorable.

Friday morning, the skies parted for the first time in five days, and a solo trip deep into the Pocket Wilderness seemed best. I targeted Laurel Falls, an 80-foot plunge 2.5 miles back, as my destination, and once there, decided to climb the rim of the mountain and hike above the falls. The new rainfall burst over Laurel with amazing power and beauty, and a small creek of run-off water some 200 feet further down the wall created another small waterfall that, though less powerful, was equally awe-inspiring. The temps hovered around 50 degrees all day, making for a nippy adventure with a brisk breeze blowing off the falls, and three hours after I began I landed with a thud in my truck, having covered six miles or so.

Then on Sunday, Ritterbush and his lady friend Brooke coaxed me and Kati (Kati needed the coaxing more than myself) back out to Buzzard's. This time we were forced to wade across the creeks that had been marginally dry just a week earlier, and the color change in the trees was an even more incredible transformation. There's something very special about sharing God's creation with others, especially this time of the year.

A final random note before signing off: I think the Mac-PC commercials are some of the most entertaining on television, which for me to mention is really saying something. I don't really think that Macs are all that cool. In fact, most of you that swear by them are nerds and need support groups, but the idea behind the message is top-notch funniness. But for just all-out weirdness/funniness, Domino's Pizza takes the top prize with its commercials for its oreo pizza. "Right on, Kevin. Right on."