An Abridged List of Things for Which I am Thankful

I’m going to steal CWillZ’s idea here and give you a (hopefully short…-ish) list of things I’m thankful for that occurred within the last year.  Without further ado:

I’m thankful for the forwarded emails and “family update” emails every morning from my Grandma because they mean she cares enough to contact me almost daily.  I’m also thankful that all 4 of my grandparents have been alive and healthy for my entire life.

I am thankful for my parents, who support me and pray for me and love me more than I know.

I am thankful for my brother, Wyatt.  I couldn’t ask for a better brother or friend.

I am thankful for a better group of friends, hallmates, and acquaintances than really should be possible:  CWillZ, Neil, BK, Matteo, Rooms, Brent, Smiles, Baby Bleu, Scott (do you need any ham?), Moser, my small group leader HD, Wiki, all the other guys on the floor, Amanda (both of them: Miss Marshall and the Queen), LB, Lil Feist, Sarah, Kayla, and so on.  I’m sure I forgot somebody (or somebodies), please forgive me.

I am thankful for TU, which brought me together with all of those people.

I am thankful for the Student Union/Grille, which allows me to eat breakfast each morning without crossing campus, employs me, and introduces me to new people all the time.  I am thankful for the ladies who work there:  Susan, Teb, Cindy, Leah, Penny, and Karen.  I am thankful for Gary, too.

I am thankful for coffee, tea, and coffeehouses.

I am thankful for music.

I am thankful for Ireland, and the people with whom I went there, and everything that goes along with that.

I am thankful for FlatTop Grille, Ivanhoe’s, Bosco Stix, Payne’s, Qdoba, Casa, and probably a million other restaraunts.

I am thankful for every home cooked meal I get, especially if it’s made in my home by my mom.

I am thankful for my mind, and all that it allows me to do and feel.

I am thankful for airplanes, because otherwise I wouldn’t be seeing my family this weekend.

I am thankful for Thanksgiving, even if I don’t really love turkey that much and even when Grandma puts vinegar on the green beans.

I am thankful that I was comfortable outside all day yesterday in a sweatshirt and jeans.

I am thankful for cell phones, email, text messaging, and other technology that allows people to stay in touch across large physical and geographical distances.

I am thankful for frisbees, and walking back from class to find 25 guys right outside the place I call home most of the year, standing in a circle, throwing them around, laughing, and just generally loving each other.

I am thankful for the people who cook my meals, clean my bathrooms, and teach my classes.

I am thankful for chapel.

I am thankful that I am loved by my Creator and can love Him and His creation.

Filed under: Fall 2007, Music, Thankful, friends, memories , Thankful

Sunday 4 November 2007

I’m going to take my mind off the anticipation of the biggest regular season NFL game ever momentarily to write for awhile.  Actually, I’m taking my mind off several things:  last weekend’s fall break, Broomball, the silliness and irrationality of people who irrationally dislike entire genres of music, Thanksgiving break, some assigned reading…

Tomorrow I’m hosting a variety show, and I’m pretty excited about it.

Here’s how this happened:   One of the guys who lives on my floor, my friend Neil, is a New Media/Communications major, and he’s taking a Multi-Camera Live Production class this semester.  As part of the class, he and his classmates tape and produce and direct and edit and sometimes broadcast live events that happen on campus–sporting events, chapel, etc.  For a final project, they have to write, direct and produce some sort of variety/entertainment multi-camera show of a certain length individually (help operating cameras and such is allowed, of course).

Neil picked me as his host.

I’m a lot more excited about this than you might expect, for a variety of reasons.  One, I like late night variety shows a lot.  The type of humor you find on them is basically right up my alley in a lot of ways.  Also, I enjoy the musical guests; it’s a great chance to see a live performance of a band you may or may not know much about, but the musicians generally take it pretty seriously.  Every now and then, something really funny happens, of course, like when Letterman incessantly asks Paris Hilton about her time in prison, or the like.

Secondly, I’m pretty sure it would be a great job to actually host one of these, and I’ll probably never get the chance other than this.  This is my one chance to actually figure out if it’s as fun as it looks.

Also, our musical guest is very good, and it will be fun to watch him perform.  The interviewee(s) should also provide a good time.  And this is a pretty non-threatening way to get this experience:  I’m not getting graded on it, and it won’t really be broadcast, so I can’t make too much of a fool at myself.  Although the live studio audience could make me nervous.

BONUS Airband 2007 Videos!

Winner Gerig Hall:  from Fiddler on the Roof: “Tradition”

Runner-Up Second East Wengatz:  from Grease:  “Greased Lightning”

Third Place Second West Olson:  from Wicked:  “One Short Day” (short clip)

 Broho Medley Airband Tryout (they didn’t make the actual show, but this is awfully entertaining and fun–as the commenter said, life is less boring thanks to Broho).

Note:  There are a couple of other videos on youtube from Airband, but they’re either not very long, or not very high quality, or whatnot.  With a little digging you can find a handful of Nostalgia Night or My Generation Night videos, too.  Enjoy.

Filed under: Fall 2007, college , Airband 2007, Hosting Neil's show