Well I might as well take advantage of this time to do a little writing. The reason I have time right now is because somehow, my presentation for Friday got deleted from two places, so I'm running a scan to try to undelete it. Of course by now, it probably would have been quicker to just start over, but I was hoping for a quick solution (kinda like beginning to watch the Astros game the other night during the ninth inning and then having to wait for another five innings before being disappointed).

So let's see... On the morning of the the wedding, I slept in later than I had meant to so I didn't get around to printing up the pictures. Then Luke told me we were meeting people at a hotel to give them rides to the church. That was fine, it was kinda fun driving around Houston playing tour guide and telling people how nice the humidity is. After ferrying people over, we got to the church and I had a great time seeing friends, some of whom I hadn't seen since graduation (cough::Brandon::cough).

On a side note, the results are in and my presentation is gone. Thankfully its 11:50pm on the night before the conference starts and not 11:50 on the night before I present. Ok, another update. It is now 1:45 am and I've recreated my first presentation and expanded it. If I feel really ambitious, maybe I'll make it into a webpage or something so you all can see it without downloading the powerpoint show.

Hmmm. I guess the rest of my thoughts about the wedding will have to wait for tomorrow. I would write more, but I have to be at UTA at 8:30 and I still have things to do tonight.

Ok, so here's my post about Mike and Alison's wedding and subsequent events. I am really, really busy this week (as I'll explain later), so it is going to take me a while before I actually finish the post. So I'll keep adding parts as I get time, but don't hate me if I don't finish before Friday or Saturday. I'm also going to post some of the photos that were going to be on the slideshow and some of the ones that I took during the ceremony and reception. For now, go here and here to look at the pictures that were going to be in the slideshow. The ones of my grandparents probably weren't going to be included because they are my grandparents and not Mike's or Alison's.

Ok, so my week was already busy with classes and such because it was the end of a session, meaning my classes were coming to an end and I had to study for finals and final projects and such. The good news was that it meant that once I got done, I had some free time without (much) work to do. I also rearranged my work and class schedule so that I would have Monday and Tuesday off, meaning four day weekend. That was really nice. I borrowed a car to drive down to Dallas on Friday after my final and got there at around 10 or 11pm. I found the honorable Luke Probst who I would be staying with, and when he had to do work, I wandered off to Lovett to find some of my friends. I always thought that Lovett was about as 'uninviting' as possible if you don't include fire, gothic architecture, armed guards, or withering trees. But once again, Rice engineers prove me wrong. In their ongoing attempt to make Lovett more 'secure' they have construced large glass and metal gates to block people from going up the stairs. They already made the elevator inaccessible without a key or card, and now I couldn't even walk up to my friends' room to tell them I was here. Of course, the telephone was also gone, so calling wasn't an option. Thankfully I have my super secret entrance powers (waiting until someone comes in or out) and I managed to get up to sixth floor and completely surprise them all. Either they masked their anger/disappointment well, or they were actually happy to see me. I hung out with them for a while and then excused myself because I had to be up for the wedding, and I was hoping to print up some pictures beforehand. Of course, before I left, I had to borrow a friend's phone to call Luke because he's staying in the Grad apartments which are also 'Rice secure'. I've decided that moving between two secured buildings is a lot easier when you have a cell phone and can call people to let you in. Moral of the story: cell phones really are convenient at times. More to come.

In Other News...
Here's the link to conference where I'll be presenting a paper on Friday. I'm not prepared yet, but I still have a little time. I'm talking about cognitive linguistics in newspaper comics ;-)

I'm contemplating the ark of the covenant and why it is revealed so magnificantly in the holy temple in heaven (Revelations 11:19). I'm not to the point where I can articulate it, but my intuition tells me it is something like a statement of our eternal dwelling with God in Heaven compared to His previous temporary dwelling with us on Earth. Revelations is interesting in an unsatisfactory sort of way.

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
-Revelations 11:19

In Other News...
I would appreciate prayer because I have a lot of big projects coming up in the next two months. I have Comprehensive exams, a linguistic presentation at UTA, a couple more classes to finish (that I haven't even started yet), oh and I need to find a job for after I graduate.