golf & two rivers

I slept through my first class today. It was kinda nice, actually, except we took a test last time and he probably gave them back today since he has two TAs to help him with grading. I'll just get it next time maybe. I also skipped my second class today to be at a golf practice early, so I would have plenty of time to go to Cairo. I missed a discussion accompanied by a related assignment, so my participation grade may go down a little. That's okay. In photojournalism, you don't need good grades to get a good job. Just experience and a portfolio. *thumbs up!*

So when I finally got out of the apartment this morning, I made my way over to the office to pick up new photo request forms. I had a good 5 or 6. Two for volleyball, one for football, one about the library construction, one about something else, and one for golf practice today at 3. I then decided, since I had some checks from the wedding I shot a month ago, I'd go to the bank in Marion. *20 MINUTE TIME INTERVAL* Whoah I'm at the bank in Marion and I forgot to go pick up my paycheck I should've got this morning BEFORE coming to the bank. *20 MINUTE TIME INTERVAL* Yay, got my check and its $361! Damn I forgot to fill out my timesheet at work like we're supposed to before noon on Fridays. So I did that. Then I went home to make myself a little more representable like anyone else would before going out in the morning, aka trimmed my beardness, and then headed off to the bank in Marion once again! *20 MINUTE TIME INTERVAL* Yay, deposited my $361. Luckily, I had called the golf coach earlier in the day and asked him which golf course for sure the team would be playing at, because last week Stephen had to drive to like 3 different courses to find them. Today they played at Crab Orchard Golf Club, which is in Carterville, a sort of filler-town between Carbondale and Marion. It was cool because the coach drove me around in a golf cart while I took pictures and he told me about a lot of the players. These guys are freakin good at golf. The coach, who's name is Leeroy Newman by the way, told me they better play at least par today because they were playing qualifying rounds for tomorrow's tournament/match/thing at ISU in Bloomington-Normal.


I then went straight to Cairo from the golf practice to meet my new friends from Two Rivers Ministry, which is what they're called. They have a nice place in what used to be St. Joseph's Catholic school. When i got there, they were cooking all sorts of things like baked spaghetti, caesar salad, some rolls with butter and garlic on them, some stirfry stuff, and I met a guy named Jesse who was cooking some chopped up eggplant. Jesse's pretty cool, he knows all about SIU and he has a Canon 10D which is kinda like the 20D I just got, only
older and not as awesome. Still, we were able to talk about some camera stuff for a bit.

We had the good meal out in their worship place, kinda like a contemporary sanctuary, only more like a giant living room with a stage. It was a very comfortable and pleasant place to eat, to sit, and to worship. There was also a guy there named Gregory who was nice, but probably said about as little as I did. Then there was a girl named Melissa, who is in her first year teaching at another school there in Cairo. Other than that, I knew everyone else there from the day before, except for this pastor from another ministry who popped in with a surprise visit and another lady who had a couple kids with her.

When they started worship, Gary asked that I not take anymore pictures, so I respected his wishes and turned my cameras off. I don't usually take pictures of someone if they don't want me to. Unless I need the pictures for work or something and they're on public property so I have a right to take their picture. That wasn't the case here though. They began by praying and singing and after Gary made a comment to the other pastor about drumming, I mentioned that I was a drummer and they brought out a jimbe for me to play. or a jimbay. however you spell it. It's a big drum that sounds cool and they actually got this one in Africa. It was a lot of fun.

It lasted for a couple hours and finished with a communion. It was a good experience for me, since I seem to have been spending less time on the Lord since I moved away from home. I told Heather lots of things about my life and my relationship with God and she listened and talked and I listened. It was nice.

I'm really really tired and its like a quarter after 1 in the morning, so, instead of typing lots of commentary to go around these pictures, I'm just going to put the pictures and call it a day.




TB