Obe La Di Obe La Da Life goes on... on.. la la la la life goes on...

Thursday, October 28, 2004

If I ever work for a company that sticks stickers on things, I will make sure that they aren't the ones that, when you peel em off, leave the white stuff behind. That is just plain annoying.


how does she do it?

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

time marches on..

Time is very strange. Next week is fall break, then we have two weeks till thanksgiving. When we get back from thanksgiving, we have one week and then exams. Crazy. This semester has been so jam packed that it's almost like it didn't even happen. In more than one way, it feels like it was just a dream.

Marti and I were in "The newsstand" today. It's a lil bookstore here in Clemson. We were looking at the new Anne geddes 2005 calendar. Has anyone ever questioned how she gets all those babies to fall asleep in such precarious positions and places? She's got this one baby asleep on the neck of a sumo wresler type guy. I would not describe this as "cute," which is normally what you go for when you have the whole, sleeping baby thing. People do not typically say "aw" at sumo wrestlers. One baby is balled up in a balloon and another is sleeping on the edge of a big rose petal. hmmm... What is her secret? Mothers everywhere would give their right arm to know! Her new stuff is very abstract and some of it's weird. I mean, the lady is talented and unique and all, but should we be concerned about the wellfare of these babies? Just a thought.

I really like to blog. There is something theraputic about sitting down at a keyboard and just goin to town. If you do not have a blog, you should try it. Yes, I am still on the blog campaign... even though many of my converts have been false ones.. I still persevere...

I think I figured out something important today. I think for the past while... years maybe.. I haven't been living for now. I don't really know when I have been living for, but I haven't been enjoying the now. I have been more, trudging through the now, so I could check it off the list. It has made me tired and I'm ready to stop that. I think a lot of it comes from being tired, like sleepy tired. College definately deprives me of sleep, sometimes by choice and sometimes not, but either way, a lot of times I am just dog tired. I don't do well under those conditions. I recently heard somebody ask the question, "why do we have to sleep?" Why didn't God just make us to where we could go and go and keep on going, like the energizer bunny? They answered their own question. They said that they think it makes us remember that we are not in control. We need sleep. There is didly squat we can do to change that. We have to have sleep and he made us that way. Then he grants us the rest that he made us to need. I think sometimes when I try to push myself to do all these things, I am not really being obedient or thankful. It is really a control thing. He gave me so much time in each day and I am tugging at him for more. He longs to give me rest and I refuse to take it. I'm gonna work on that.

I bought a new book today, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. I have always heard people talk about it, mostly girls. I have heard it said that in that book is the heart of a woman. I don't know about all that, but this woman will let you know whether or not she agrees with that in a later post. I read the first chapter, it's cute. I like classics. I like the way it used to be, back before I was alive. Funny how I can like something I didn't even know, but I do! I like to write in calligraphy with a dip pen. I like to knit and I want to learn to sew. I like to make homemade bread and grow my own vegetables. Call me a granny if you wish, but I like grannies anyway. Most every one I ever met was really great.

I wish there was no such day as Halloween. To me, the whole ordeal is rather freaky.


Monday, October 25, 2004


heather, jessica and erin at the family housing halloween after party. yes, i have the best job ever.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

These are for you...

I like Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. I like Jif creamy peanut butter and Smuckers Strawberry jam. There are some areas you can skimp in, you know, buy the store brand, this is not one of them. I don't have any memories of eating PB&J when I was little, which is a bit weird because I think most people do. I don't know if my mama thought it was lazy to make PB&J or if she just didn't like it or what, but we never ate it. I think because we never ate it, I didn't think I liked it. Since coming to college, that has definitely changed. I now eat PB&J a LOT. Probably four to five times a week, and if we're being honest, maybe more. I am not trying to brag, but I can make a killer PB&J sandwich. If you are ever around Clemson family housing, stop by and I will show you my skills.

I like to experiment cooking different recipe's. I signed up to get free recipe emails from Kraft... They come about once a week. Every now and again, they send me one that looks good in the picture and I try it out. Tonight I made ginger carrot soup. Interesting. I probably won't make it again. It looks like baby food. Tastes better, but it's no PB&J!

FCA was great. We had a gospel choir come and lead us in singin... They brought the house DOWN! We sang the song from Sister Act, "Oh happy Day." You know, "Oh happy day, O happy Day, when Jesus washed my sins away." Man, it was GREAT. I was thinkin about it as I was singin and I do believe we will sing gospel music in heaven. It just gets in your soul and dances around and makes you want to also. Kinda like Jesus.

Before this week, I had never gotten flowers before. I mean, people have given me flowers, but I never got the, you know, "Are you Jessica Hunter?", "Why yes..." ,"These are for you!" kind. Well on Tuesday I had just a crummy day. I don't know what was up, maybe the barometric pressure (that's what my dad says about the cause of bad days) but I was just yucky. Anyway, I came home planning to plop down and pity myself, and my neighbor stopped me and said, "Something came for you..." And voila! The most beautiful, wild, fun, and vivid flowers you have ever seen were smiling at me. I am glad God made flowers and gave me eyes to enjoy them and sweet people to send them because it all just makes me praise him. I came in my house and instead of plopping to pity, I plopped to praise. To praise him for daisies and roses and his children who are so in tune with him and so obedient to his leading that they do just the right thing at just the right time to be just the right blessing for just the right person.

Who knew there was such a thing as "RA appreciation Day." Hilarious. Well, Wednesday was that day, and it's kinda funny, because I walked into the activity center and there was a vase with more pretty flowers that had my name on it. My wonderful parents had sent them to me telling me they were proud of me and that they loved me. (The Clemson housing office tipped them off about the RA Day thing...) But wasn't that so nice!? So after never receiving flowers,EVER, I got TWO bouquets in two days. Layne came in my house today and said it looked like somebody had died. I like to think of it more as a Serendipity, the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for... I hope that I am sensitive enough to the fathers leading that I can be a serendipity to someone. What a blessing it has been to see those who have been one to me...

Wednesday, October 20, 2004


My dad and Mrs. J and me on Homecoming. Note the neutrality of my daddy's wardrobe. He was here because he loved me, no other reason, he made that clear. I love my family!

Friday, October 15, 2004

Stop being nice. Join the Revolution.

It's Friday afternoon. I really like Friday afternoons, because it means the weekend is here and like I said before, weekends are the best! Clemson is buzzing with people and excitement over homecoming and the floats and the football game. It's always amazing to me how many people move into town for a football weekend. It's like they just fly in and parachute down into the town. All of a sudden, they are just HERE. Weird. It's fun going to a big school during times like these, makes me feel like I am a part of something big and great.

Last night at FCA, the speaker talked about "Jesus the Revolutionary." I haven't ever really thought about Jesus as a revolutionary. He talked about how Jesus wasn't just this, nice, moral man, parading around, convincing people to become, nice, moral citizens. Jesus was bold. He had more on his agenda than just making a "nice" world. Jesus saw the reality of the battle that is here all around us. The battle between good and evil, God and Satan, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. He saw that everything we see is only a mirage. The things we hold onto, the things we prize, beauty, money, pride, self, stuff, is just a painted eggshell, seemingly solid and important, but in reality, hollow and unsubstantial- ready to, at any moment, crush in on us. He challenged the authority of the day. He stood in the middle of the town square and challenged the people to quit their lives, their striving after all the mirages, and with all they have and all their being, to follow Him. NOT because he is "nice" or whatever, but because He is life. Anything apart from Him is death. As the darkness is trying to come in and destroy the light and the good, Jesus says, no. I cannot have this. At all costs, I will do what I must to stop this from happening. He pleads with us to join him. Not for His sake but ours. To see the reality of things and stand up against the darkness, resist the mirage, recognize the hollowness of things and seek truth and fullness and reality. God made the world and everything in it. He looked at it and said it was good. But sin has tainted every little thing. When Jesus spoke out against the rulers of the world, against darkness and evil. Herod, sent out soldiers to hunt Jesus down.. When some of the pharisees told Jesus he needed to leave because he was being hunted down by Herod, Jesus says this, "Go tell that fox 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.. In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day..." I think that would qualify as Bible smack. Jesus is talking smack to the King! Who knew Jesus did stuff like that? I didn't. Lately I have been really wanting to know more about who Jesus is.. his person. Not the theoretical, unapproachable idea of a guy named Jesus, but the real live PERSON. I guess I have been expecting him to show me who he is through, I don't know nature or people or whatever whatever, but he showed me through his Word. It really is powerful, and living, and I don't understand how, but it is.

I am excited to be part of bringing the light. I am glad Chrisitanity and knowing Jesus isn't just about being "good" or "nice." How boring. It's about a revolution. It's about pulling back the veil that satan has placed over the world, to expose the truth. It's about adding more and more to this glory of God's that I cannot understand but that grips me. It's about knowing the person of Jesus and knowing that the same boldness that caused him to live and die and procliam truth and life and light lives in me. I am part of something truely Big and Great. I am part of the revolution.


Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. Photo by Jeff Widener
"For out struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. " Eph. 6:12
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the Light." Eph. 5:8
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." Col. 2:15

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Deaf Nigerians, Vulgar Signs, and Chinese Moms

I love weekends. They are the best. This was a good one... quick as always, but good.. Deaf Awareness Night went really well.. we had about 100 people there... the presenter's name was Jubby (Ju-bee) Rabiu (Rab-e-oo). He is from Nigeria. He is married to a lady who is also from Nigeria and who is also deaf. They have three hearing boys, so cute! He was born hearing and went to a public school until he was seven, when he became sick and lost his hearing. In Nigeria, deafness is looked upon as a curse. If someone is deaf, people think they must have commited some sin that resulted in punishment of God taking away their hearing. Jubby was born into a muslim family. They all shunned him when he became deaf. When he was eleven he went to the deaf school in Nigeria. It was run by Christians who took the children to church each week. After a while of playing church, while still participating in muslim practices, he eventually became a Christian. He now boldy says that if he had never been deaf, he would likely have never come to know Jesus Christ, so he considers his deafness to be the biggest blessing in his life. After moving to the states, he has become very educated and respected in the area of advocacy and empowerment of people with disabilities. His family no longer views his deafness as a curse. They see what and who he has become and they respect him. Many of them have even become believers. He teaches and preaches the gospel wherever he goes, not because he is a preacher, but because he is a believer in Christ and he recognizes and responds to that through his life. He wasn't even there to give his testimony, but someone ended up asking a question that allowed him to go there and he did- and what a blessing it was. Isn't it amazing what God can do with a life surrendered to Him. A life that asks not to be removed from pain or struggle, but who asks to be sustained through it for His glory. Jesus is able and he will do it.

Saturday I went to see "chicago" at the Fox theatre in atlanta with my friend Will. We crashed the deaf section. It was interpretted by three very talented theatrical interpretters. I had fun, but I can say I learned some signs I wish I'd never known. I guess if I have any plans of being around deaf high schoolers, I should know them, but yuck.

I sat outside all day today. I love beautiful sundays. I just took a blanket out back and slept a bit and read a bit and studied a bit. It was delightful. My neighbor xing xing had the same idea. She brought her little baby Anning, which means peaceful, outside to play. They just sat on a blanket and were together. That's one great thing I have noticed about Chinese moms, they are so devoted to their children. Time and again, I have seen the moms and children just play and play on the playground together. Running around, sliding down the slide, swinging together... American moms are good too, they take their kids to the playground, but mostly they just sit on a bench. I want to be like a chinese mom.

I think coke is better than Pepsi.... and there is definately a difference. I like all coke products, but my all time favorite is Caffeine Free Classic Coke. It's good with ham and pineapple pizza and popcorn.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

No glorified jon boats for this girl!

Ok, so it appears my Blog has become nothing more than an online photo album.. my apologies, really... the semester got rollin and whew.. there is NO time for anything, even the blog! Sad. Today is good because I have no plans this afternoon. I am one of those gals who plans an 'event' for every night of the week and then complains about not having enough time to do everything. Oh well, such is life. I guess it's all just a balancing act. Everybody has the same amount of hours in each day, the same amount of minutes.. but we all spend it in different ways... mine lately has been spent with naps because of late night studies... right now, May seems far away. It's coming soon though and I have no idea what I will do. I was talking with Rodney the mail man today about the future and where I'll be when I graduate... there are some options, but nothing is really jumpin out at me. I guess mostly I want to avoid trying to stear my own ship. Sailboats have sails and some have motors. I have been on a sailboat before. Once. It was in a sailboat race. We started out good... I think we were in first place... we were really gettin it.. then, the wind died. We just chilled for a bit, then got fed up and turned on our motor. Once you turn on your motor, you're out of the race, cause you can't use motors in sailboat races. Duh. We still had fun just tootleing around the lake, but we were out of the race and weren't really doing what the boat was made for.. we were moving, but not sailing, it was just like being in a glorified jon boat. Not quite as mystical. Man, I do not want my life to be like that. When there seems to be no wind, I don't want to just turn on my motor simply to be moving. I want to be able to wait, be still and trust that the wind that fills these sails isn't some haphazard, by-chance phenomenon. I want to trust that the wind that fills my sails is purposful, directed, strong but gentle, and good. It's a struggle, because it's fun to be moving and fun to be able to see where you are going... but I guess that doesn't require a lot of faith and what's faith if you don't ever excercise it...
Speaking of excercise, I need to... I have tennis class two days a week, so that provides some physical activity, but all the late night pizza eatin and afternoon ice creams are startin to catch up!
Deaf Awareness night is this friday, October 8 at 7:00 in Lee hall auditorium. A good time is sure to be had by all... if you ever wondered about sign language or deaf people, you should come check it out.. we'll have a good speaker (signer, but voice interpretters will be provided) and door prizes and I'm even making those lil pig-in-the blanket things...


so fresh and so clean clean


please, please, no pictures..


Stephabulous and Jess, yes ladies and gentleman, these are your Clemson University American Sign Language Club Presidents... yet another good reason to come to silent dinners! :)