Bombeck

Let's see.

The past several days have been pretty good. The weekend was a lot of fun; I got to meet Colin's dad, which was cool. I also got to use my call sign for buggy on Saturday morning...one of those "exciting in an utterly nerdly way" experiences.

I spent a lot of time Sunday studying for a computer security midterm, which went poorly. I really need to make sure I get more sleep before midterms - I had some people over to study so I didn't go to bed until around 12:30, which shouldn't have mattered, but then I woke up at 6 and couldn't fall back asleep, and had class all day until the test, so by the time I took it I was just exhausted and couldn't think straight. It was frustrating because I completely blanked on a definition that we really needed, and it was one that I hadn't had any trouble with while I was studying. Even worse was the fact that while I was studying I felt really comfortable with the material, and for some reason I just got to the test and couldn't think. It wasn't even that I was too nervous to think, I just ... couldn't. Blah.

I will say this, though. Overall, I've been thinking a lot more clearly this semester than I have almost at any point in my time at CMU. I think there are a lot of reasons for that, and I'm kind of sad that it took me 3 years to really get to the place I would have wanted to be starting freshman year, but I guess it's better late than never.

Oh, yeah. The homily at Mass on Saturday was pretty good, too. I don't know why I've felt the need to write about them all of a sudden, but in any case... The Gospel was the story where there are a bunch of lepers and Christ cures them. Out of the group of 10, only 1 goes back to him to express gratitude. He doesn't condemn the ones that don't come back, but to the one that does, he says "...your faith has saved you." So, the homily was about gratitude, and not taking things for granted. In this case, being "saved by faith" seems to indicate that the "good" things (in a material sense) that happen aren't supposed to be "rewards" earned from God, and that what comes from faith is really just a deep appreciation for all the good things in life. With that appreciation comes joy, and what could be a better salvation?