A Bunch Of New Stuff

These past few weeks I keep feeling sad, lonely and keep getting frustrated and annoyed with everyone (including myself) and I don't really like it. I also have been feeling extremely tired all the time and weird (like I'm getting sick or something). It doesn't really make sense because nothing has changed and many good things have been happening...but then again it might be caused by the weather. The weather keeps changing lately going from rainy to snowy to rainy to snowy. So that actually does make a lot of sense.
Almost everyone has been really sick lately (with what I had a long time ago). I'm surprised that I haven't been sick AT ALL since I've been back from Christmas vacation! I'm usually sick all year round and I was sick all the time before Christmas vacation, but I guess my immune system has gotten really strong from living in a big community and working at a homeless shelter. The first time I met Jesse she said "Have you gotten the JPUSA flew yet? Everyone gets the JPUSA flew a few months after they move here and it's the WORST thing ever. But once you get over that you'll never get sick again! Well, you might get something light, but your immune system will be really strong from living here with all the germs that are here!" So I guess Jesse was right. I guess I got the "JPUSA flew" before everyone else because my immune system was so weak and now everyone else is getting it and I'm not sick at all =)

Anyways...moving on....
This week I did a lot of stuff that I've never done before in my life and which I didn't want to do, but after doing them (because other people convinced me to), I was glad I did.
Wednesday I went to my first Ash Wednesday service and Neil (one of our pastors) put an ash cross on my forehead (which made my skin burn!) which symbolizes the remembrance of the dead and the fact that we were dust and we will become dust again one day. It was really weird for me, but interesting. Then, the next evening, for DM (Discipleship Ministries) the group that was leading it had us do communion, foot washing and worship. Basically, if you wanted to, you could wash whoever's feet you felt like washing (the person had to be of the same sex) and while you washed the person's feet you prayed for them. As soon as I sat down I said "there is no way that I'm doing the foot washing! I don't want anyone touching my feet and I don't want to touch anyone else's feet!"(I am such a stubborn person..ugh) However, it ended up being a great evening and Dora and Betty ended up washing my feet and I washed Dora's feet and the whole thing was so nice and satisfying or fulfilling (I don't know if those are the words I wanted to use, but I can't think of a better word at the moment).
Friday evening we had a surprise party for Rich. Max and almost all the girls who were invited snuk out of the house and went to a private kareoke place where we got a room and set it all up. Meanwhile, Andrew (who works in the pantry with Rich) called Rich and told him that there was a mess in the pantry and that he needed to go down there to help him clean it up. When Rich went down there, the guys turned off the lights, put something over his head, tied him up (with difficulty cuz he was fighting and biting them) and surrean wrapped him. They then put him into a van, drove around so that he didn't have any sense of direction and then carried him into the kareoke place (you can see Michael and Brian holding him in the picture haha). I've never been to a kareoke place. It was a lot of fun and really silly!
Today we painted the first floor of Eastwood (which is a separate building where most of the single guys live. The first floor, however, is for the youth groups that come to visit). We did the 4 or 5 rooms and the 3 bathrooms. We didn't paint the living room, the kitchen area and the hallways. It was my first time painting but it was fun and I found out that I'm actually good at it! During the whole morning I was angry for many different reasons, but once the guys left after lunch (which REALLY got me mad) and it was only us girls, we had a lot of fun together. We finished painting at 4:30 pm. Later in the evening, Carolyn, Suzanne, Hannah, Betty, Erica and I had a girls night. Carolyn and Bethany (or Betty) made really good food and then we watched a comedy =)

Oh, I'm also giving up something for lent fot the first time. I've decided to give up chocolate and sweets. I do, however, eat muffins or pancakes when they're for breakfast, but I don't eat any sweets for the rest of the day. Sometimes it's hard, but so far I've been doing it!