It seems I feeling better every day, which should be the case, after all. Jason, Nick, and I just got back from seeing the new X-Men movie. Better than the first, I do think. I’m still tiring easily and a day full of stuff gets the best of me. The city is actually quite pretty right now. The trees are leafing, the flowers are in bloom, spectacularly, and it is warm.
All-in-all, I’m doing quite well. I am on a much more even keel than before my illness. Being out of circulation for six weeks has a tendency to change perspective and attitude. I am thankful for that. Thankful, too, that through hardship, good things emerge! As James wrote, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds; because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature, complete, and lacking nothing.” To know what joy is, to know what peace is, to know what real life is, you need to experience at least a taste of the opposite. Those who want life to be always easy are missing out on so much, because when we let the times of our lives, when we let the test and trial runs its course to see what God does within us, then do we become more of what we are meant to be, then do we learn, then do we understand, then do we become mature, complete, and lacking nothing. Let the process finish itself, and trust that God is always present and waiting for the knock, for the wanting, and God is there.
Ashton competed nationally yesterday. I haven’t heard how he did, which makes me think he didn’t come in first. I think, if he had, he would have called. But I could be completely wrong and will find out tonight.
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7:15 am this morning I will be off for yet another test. This one is testing for stuff going on with my kidneys, which may or may not have anything to do with the fevers. I’m feeling much, much better at this point. I haven’t had a fever spike in almost two weeks now. My energy level is still quite low, but slowly returning. I just have to get myself back in shape.
Classes are now over for my first year of seminary. It is very hard to believe that the first year is almost finished. I have a month to make up the work I missed, although I think I will try to take the final exam in Patristics and New Testament.
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Big Cup was fine. A medium coffee over the course of the day was not! The caffeine was not a positive influence on my system. I am going to have to take this slower.
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Well, I’m off to the Big Cup for the first time since my illness – more than six weeks. The weather could be more like yesterday. It is cold and rainy today, but the heck with that. So, coffee, bagels, St. Gregory the Great, and Father J. Robert Wright – I have a paper due on Monday.
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These past six weeks have been trying. What was thought to simply be a bad case of the flu has developed into a six week illness, a twelve day hospital stay, and an illness that has perplexed many different doctors. No one knows what I have, although I can give anyone a very long list of what I do not have! I’m still not over it, but I have returned to the last two weeks of classes. I missed four and a half weeks of classes out of a 12 week term – not too good.
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I renewed my subscription for a year at FreaturePrice.com, the company that hosts my website. They are switching people over to new servers and systems that are supposed to be much better. I haven’t been able to FTP for two weeks, which means I can’t publish any of my weblogs without a very long process.
Besides, I’m very sick. It started on Saturday (Mar. 8th). Monday and Tuesday, I had fevers that peaked at 103.6 and 102.9, retrospectively. Today, I’m running a constant temp. of 100.+. I hate this. The doctor at the D.O.C. urgent care center said it was a severe case of Influenza, but not strep (sp?), which is good. Ashton took care of me on Monday. He took me to the DOC center. It was nice having him here, although he takes far too many risks with a sick man.
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I renewed my subscription for a year at FreaturePrice.com, the company that hosts my website. They are switching people over to new servers and systems that are supposed to be much better. I haven’t been able to FTP for two weeks, which means I can’t publish any of my weblogs without a very long process.
Besides, I’m very sick. It started on Saturday (Mar. 8th). Monday and Tuesday, I had fevers that peaked at 103.6 and 102.9, retrospectively. Today, I’m running a constant temp. of 100.+. I hate this. The doctor at the D.O.C. urgent care center said it was a severe case of Influenza, but not strep (sp?), which is good. Ashton took care of me on Monday. He took me to the DOC center. It was nice having him here, although he takes far too many risks with a sick man.
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“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, “Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin” (September 30, 1859), pp. 481-482.
Thanks, Nick, for finding this.
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It’s going to be sunny and 45 degrees today. Nice! Even balmy! But, water will be rushing everywhere. I’m curious to see where it all goes. We are all so tired right now. Not just a couple of us – everyone. Mid-terms haven’t even hit and already we are spent. If I thought there was a method to their madness, it might be okay, but I doubt there is. I can only do so much, yet as every day passes I get further and further behind. I’ve kept track of every minute the past week and a half, and I’m not wasting time. Financial aid stuff is taking a lot of time that would have been devoted to study, but I have to pay for this education; I have to come up with $36,000.00 (granted, the seminary is gracious with their scholarships, as is my diocese and home parish, yet…). Financially, I am in far better condition then many of my fellow seminarians – I am grateful. Anyway, we are becoming nothing much more then zombies at this point.
Last weekend was the Perspective Student Conference, so hardly any homework completed last weekend. This weekend, students are coming up from Virginia Theological Seminary for the annual basketball rivalry. This should be fun, but we are hosting three people, which means we (I, mostly) will have to clean and prepare. I’m sick of cleaning and preparing.
We are just weary. Frankly, the most frustrating thing of all is that all the material is quite interesting and I would love to dive into any one class, the homework, and the projects, but there is so much that nothing can be done well, nothing can be processed well, and there is just going to be a lot of cramping for regurgitation. That’s just a shame, and I blame poor planning and coordination. It seems we are being formed by a negative process rather than a position one. Maybe there is a grand scheme, but if it is unrealized, what’s the point.
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The snow has been amazing today. I woke up this morning and looked out my window and thought, “another false alarm.” Yes, there was snow, and it was still snowing, but nothing major. I thought. I was a bit disappointed. Then, a couple hours later as I left for chapel, I tried to open the front door of Hoffman and realized that we had a whole heck of a lot of snow. It has continued snowing all day. I suspect we have a good 18 inches by now. The maintenance crew has made a yeoman’s effort trying to keep up with the snow. I’ve helped a bit.
I’ve been watching out my window onto 10th ave. as much as possible. Traffic has been almost non-existent. The only regular and major traffic has been a cadre of garbage trucks plowing the street. I just finished watching two garbage trucks, with chains on their wheels, get stuck attempting to go down 20th St. It’s amazing, and a whole lot of fun! So, what am I doing in here typing out Patristic definitions? It’s cold out there!
The snow is actually starting to pickup again. 20 to 24 inches are expected by tomorrow, all told. I wonder whether perspective students will be able to leave tomorrow? General has been conducting the winter Perspective Student Conference this weekend. This morning, a man from Kenya was commenting on the snow. Another guy from southern California has nothing but tennis-shoes. Poor guy! I wonder whether he will end up here next year?
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