Tuesday, July 21

Today is the randomest of random days to begin a blog. It's Tuesday, and I stayed up unusually late last night, so I'm not feeling at all creative or spunky. I did get to the office only 35 minutes late, and the one appointment I had did not show up. By 8:40 a.m., I was picking up my friend Carol from her house so we could go to Starbucks for a free pastry. Yes, it's "free pastry" day. Fortunately she printed two copies of the coupon that's required; I would have been out of luck otherwise.

For once, I prescribed for myself a regular mocha instead of decaf, because I'm tired and draggy. Caffeine intake is one of those oddly taboo subjects for past Adventist generations. My state of mind is that it's not good for you and something to be taken as infrequently as Tylenol, which I limit to extreme headache situations a few times a year. In addition, it's not a salvation issue in my mind and falls in the realm of cultural oddities in Adventism. Ellen White didn't set up any particular substances as cultural icons, not in the way we have allowed them to become such. If only we were as averse to refined sugar as we are to caffeine. Tea and coffee as daily or hourly drinks :) are certainly a detriment to one's overall health. Are they more or less detrimental than daily or hourly sugar or snack foods? Should they be more or less taboo than cheesecake and Little Debbies? Judging by the number of overweight Adventists, I would say the beverages should be no more taboo than the junk foods. And perhaps no less.

Is a constantly running HVAC fan a cheap alternative to a "white noise" device? I go back and forth on this as I listen to the big, loud fan running 24/7 outside my office door.

My late-morning appointment was with a professor on campus who became the innocent victim of an assumption I made during the first summer session that a student she had previously spoken to was telling me the truth. The student was telling a straight-out lie about this other professor. One likes to assume the best about people, and I failed in two ways. I failed to critically evaluate what was being said to me, and I failed to consider the possibility that the other professor was innocent. Today I talked to the professor for an hour about what happened. She was very gracious and kind. I learned from her that one has to make each and every mistake in the field of education at least once, and often many times, because new situations arise that one has never seen before. She showed me by her attitude and demeanor that she has learned from tough experience and is filled with the Holy Spirit. I have the promised Holy Spirit, and now I have to go through some of those tough experiences.