I'm moving.  I'm not going to do any more posting in this blog, but I will be moving to a new, conveniently linked page.  It seems like a natural time to make a break in blogs.  You shouldn't stick with the same one forever, right?

So, come on over to the new Trace Tracker.  (Click the underlined name.)

T

I'm in Illinois, again, with the Hagers.  We arrived this morning, around 4:30.  I proceeded to sleep until 11.  I'll be flying back to Little Rock on Tuesday. 

Lately I've been reading C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity.  It's not a secret that MC is a good book.  The Christian community has kind of had the word out on that one for the last half century.  Anyway, it is a refreshing book to read, and if you haven't, you should.  Go.  Now.

T

Well, I've been to the dentist, eye doctor, and regular general health checker this week. No cavities, still contacts, and apparently I have some sort of micro-capillary issue in my fingers and toes, but it's no big deal because my circulation is good, my fingers just don't get it all right in the tips. Also, I have a muscular hernia in my calf. Which is basically a miracle, because I don't know of any trauma that caused it. Fortunately it's that, though, and not a varicose vein, because that would mean I'm older than my time. Also, fortunately, the PA was utterly amused by the randomness of my maladies for today's visit. So, all told, she looked me over and said, "Yep, nothing we can do for that. Hmm."

Other than that, not too much is going on. I got free coffee and pigs-in-blankets today because my friend works in this cafe. I had no idea she works here. Score. Free coffee, breakfast, and wireless internet.

Olympic update: Apparently we (the USA) are ahead in medals but behind in golds. Spin doctors, get to work! Who's winning: Us, or the Commies?

T

I'm now operating on Twitter, which is something like a de-cluttered Facebook. I wonder how long it will be before they add applications and adverts. I give it six months of widespread popularity before people start feeling entitled enough to make changes. Anyway, it's now on the left of my blog, and that info there is all there is to it.

The Olympics are now on, and it's pretty interesting to watch. The Chinese are ahead in the medals (AND the golds), and I don't doubt that they're pretty smug about that. However, I don't think it's back to Cold War kind of Us vs. Them mentality on this side of the pond, so I don't feel like it's as big a deal. (Besides, we're still doing pretty well...)

I'm in Texarkana this week, hanging at the parents' house and getting ready to head back to Chicago and then to school in Conway. I was in Conway the other day, and I'm kind of excited to be back up there. On the other hand, I'm none too excited about moving back into a dorm. I walked around what will be my building this year, and it's gonna be a big transitions. Did you see how nice my apartment was? Sigh.

This morning I went to the eye doctor. Now it's time for the dentist. Oh, boy, oh, boy.

T

I'm worried about the political and social climate in western China right now. I hope the Uighur people didn't completely shoot themselves in the foot with this attack in Kashgar on Monday. I'm also concerned about the plight of the people who will be corporately punished as a result.


Please pray for the Muslim population of Xinjiang province.

T

I'm now in Chicagoland. I realize that my last post was from the greater Bay Springs, Mississippi area. I realize this.

Here's my other realization. I'm kind of a gypsy. I have had this realization in that I am not really employed, I work just a tad, that is, long enough to be poor, and then I go off places. Like Chicago. Or Mississippi. Or Texas. Or Cambodia. Add to this the element of mystery current surrounding my life (apparently I'm vastly mysterious), and that I take trains, and poof! I'm a gypsy. Not ethnically, of course, but you understand what I'm saying.

Speaking of trains, that's how I got from Little Rock, AR, to Joliet, Il. It took me from Wednesday morning at 12:30-ish until about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. You do the math. It was a long time, but I read a good bit of church history and finished watching the second season of the American The Office. I also slept, ate mysteriously tasty chocolate chip cookies, and looked as the midwest whizzed past my window. I spent most of today in the observation car, not in my seat. And I think it's better that way. Big windows, spacious, and a plug-in for my laptop... thus the tv watching.

If I tried to explain my itinerary for the next month, it would be wasted, because it requires drawing diagrams and whatnot. Suffice it to say that I'll be starting school in Conway on August 21.

T

In Mississippi

Here's the skinny. I'm staying with Granny in Bay Springs, MS. And I realized that I've been basically recording my daytime events on someone's Facebook wall. So here it is for everyone else to see, slightly edited.

Day one:
My cousin's kids are adorable. And shy.
Uncle Donnie built a zip-line (to and from what, who knows?) and he fell off it and hurt his rotator cuff, and so he isn't moving his left arm much.
A deer ate Uncle Lee Roy's rosebuds and messed up the whole season.
Granny made open-faced tacos.
Tomorrow I'm talking to people at the nursing home about China and helping Granny put together like 25 Christmas shoeboxes for kids like the ones I gave out in Cambodia.
And I forgot my cell phone charger in Texarkana. :(

Day two:
I talked at the nursing home for a solid 45 minutes, and I look like everyone's grandson. Could be all of their twins. A (crazy-ish) woman told me that if I'd help her get her money in the bank she's give me a thousand dollars of it. Right.
Filled up the shoeboxes.
Took an oh-so-brief nap.
Had fried green tomatoes for lunch!
Took a picture of Granny and Uncle Lee Roy together... in drag. LONG STORY.
Had dinner with some old hands at the international game and Granny. It was fun, and I got to see someone I lived with this past year. You know, the L7.
Tomorrow will have lunch with the Cowboy, and I'm hoping some good hash-it-out talking. Not that we're feuding.
Also need to make a PPT for Sunday, because Mississippi people are especially generous when they know that pictures are coming. (It's a joke...)
Ate fresh purple hull peas at lunch today, too.
And fried catfish for supper (catfish and I are cool now). With hush puppies.

Planning to take a week of salad detox from the corn meal and grease diet when I get back.

The end.

T