Round Two

Round Two for a year of college. Round Two for updating this blog regularly...I think that's all the Round Two's that I can think of...

I'm almost done with my first week of my sophomore year at Harding. It's great to be back. Not only have I missed all my friends, but I honestly missed being responsible and having to do homework and study. The responsibility keeps me in check, so I don't just spend all my time on ridiculous things.

I'm not going to tell you that I'm going to keep writing in this blog regularly. I think I'm going to try though. I enjoy writing in general, it's just for some reason I can't keep up with things like this. Back in the xanga days I was so off and on with it.

Anyways I just realized that if you're spending time reading this then you want to read something interesting. But I don't know if anything going on in my life is interesting enough for even me to put on here. I'll be back for more though...

Hodges

I may have forgot how to do this...

I haven't done this in so long I might have just forgotten how to do a blog! A lot of things have happened since the last post, April 22. I finished my freshmen year of college, broke my hand, got a haircut (nothing drastic though), changed from working at the Carmichael Center in Searcy to Lake Hefner Golf Course in Oklahoma City among other random things probably not worth mentioning.

I'm already done with my freshmen year of college. That blows my mind. This semester went by SO fast. It seemed like it was last month that me and Binkley went down to Dallas for New Years. This last semester was so much fun too. I had a great room. AB was a great roommate and it was always a party in the 125 mafia. That room will be hard to beat for years to come. I made so many good friends. I'm glad I was so social this year and met so many people because I won't have the regret of not meeting them until my senior year. Some of the classic memories have included me getting caught naked in the lobby by the pizza lady, Ben Woods go narco anywhere from The Underground to Arby's the last day of the year, Grandpa Woodcock and all of his wisdom, Pete Snell and all his amazing imitations, the camping trip over spring break, Charlton being a front lawn whore, being totally useless at the Carmichael Center, everything Cole Sessions says, the 9 hospital trips between 7 guys because of our football games, watching all the TNT guys doing Spring Sing haha, Miller taking a knee, Satisfaction, the week that Charlton took a nap in my bed every afternoon. I could go on for so long, but I'll guess I'll stop there.

The school part ended up alright but not what I wanted. I planned on having 3 B's and 2 A's, but I ended up with 1 C, 3 B's and an A. Somehow I got a B in Art Appreciation even though I had a 100 average going into the final. I'm still pretty heated about that. But I worked pretty hard, harder than first semester. All I want is to have a 3.0 average when I graduate, and I will get that, I'll just have to be more focused.

I also broke my hand kind of. During dead week we got together for our last football game and about 10 minutes into the game I broke my hand you could say. I had a spiral fracture of my metacarpal bone on my ring finger. I had surgery almost two weeks ago and I just got my wrap off yesterday, so I had some kind of wrap on for 3 weeks and it was a big hassle. But now I have both my hands and I can type with reasonable speed and pretty much do everything a lot easier.

This summer I'll be working at the Golf Course, which is always an event simply because Brett Beesley is there. I'll also be doing random lawn work and hopefully coaching tennis again if my hand heals correctly and soon. I'll also be selling the Cadillac. It has had a good 2 year reign in my life, and I've had some great memories in it, but it's time for it to go. I need something with some good gas mileage.

I'll be doing this more often so check back...

...Hodges

It's been a little while

I haven't been keeping up with updating this very much. I've just been busy with random stuff. Since the weather has brightened up, I've been spending my afternoons at Heber or Latona instead of playing football or hanging out on campus. It's been a lot of fun, but I've been missing out on quality homework time. And I've also just haven't had the desire to write about anything in my blog.

Work

Easy as always. Yesterday while on the clock, I went to Grandpa's BBQ and ate dinner, left again to sign out Arbuckle back at campus, and left a hour early. Today, no one has shown up so I've just been playing basketball and off and on watching "Friday After Next". I'll probably be leaving at around 5 instead of 9 like I was scheduled. Tommorrow I have to be up here at 7:30 in the morning to open up, but after I unlock everything I'm going to get in my sleeping bag and sleep for a while. I don't mean to brag, but it's without a doubt the easiest job that I know of.

School

Going pretty good actually. I looking to finish out for this semester with a 3.4 or 3.2 GPA for 12 hours. I had 15 hours until Monday when I dropped my Algebra class. I found out that I didn't even need it for my major; I needed Stats instead. So taking that class was completely pointless. Also, I had gotten behind so it was pretty much impossible for me to even end up with a B in the class, so it was going to kill my GPA. And it also opened up my afternoons on Tuesday and Thursday so that was an added bonus. For next semester I have almost all of my classes. I have 13 hours signed up right now, and after I get a teacher override I'll have 16 hours. I got all the classes that I wanted for the time slots that I wanted too, so I'm pretty excited.

Summer

I'm pretty excited about the summer too. I love working at the golf course. It's not quite as easy as working at the Carmichael, but I don't really have much to do there either. It's just really nice to be out in the sun all day, and having a good time working. I'm also ready just to be home. I'm going to miss having all my friends in walking distance of me, but it will be nice to have my own room and to see all my friends from high school. Gerald was originally planning a trip up to Oregon, but apparently now it's a trip to Vancouver. It should be pretty crazy, but I'm excited. Gerald will be up in Tulsa all summer, so that will be sweet. I'm sure there will also be trips to Nashville, Texas, and other random places throughout the summer.

The Harding Game

I almost forgot about this. If you don't know what the Harding Game is let me explain. My friend Drew Fralick invented this game. You pay 2 dollars to get in. The game starts on Wednesday morning at chapel when one person is handed the football. If you are in possession of this football it has to be in sight and with you at all times. You can get the ball by any means necessary. The ball must be returned to a mat in the middle of Harding Park on Friday afternoon in between 3 and 3:15. And you can't drive a vehicle onto Harding Park so someone must carry the ball onto the mat. So pretty much everyone in the game and lots of spectators are there at Harding Park on Friday to see what goes down. Last semester was the first time the game was ever played and my room mate Austin Bryan got really lucky and won the game last year, so he started off with the ball on Wednesday morning. So in the middle of chapel he walks out and I have a car waiting for him. Then we just burn some time until it's time for our 10 o'clock Bible class. So me, Ryan, and Austin are walking up a flight of stairs in the Bible building and right as we get to the top of the stairs, we hear this guy Derek Wilson talking to Kristin Dellapace (both of these people are in the game), and he says "Austin Bryan has the ball right now". Right as he says this he looks over and sees he us so me and Austin pick up our pace while Ryan throws Derek up against a wall. Then me and Austin are running then as he is about to walk into class I tell him to pitch me the ball, so he does and I run off with the ball, and no one knows I have it. Fast forward to Thursday afternoon. We were actually getting bored with the Harding Game. We really didn't have any action, so we call Drew Fralick and tell him that we're bringing the ball into the caf at 6. So we expect a huge brawl. So we have our crew at the back of the caf and then Jordan Whetstone provides a little bit of a diversion so Bear (Nathan Hoffman) can run up and try to steal the ball, well pretty much 5 of our guys jump on him and pretty much everyone in the caf was watching it was amazing. So we run out of the caf with the ball. So 2 hours later another brawl happens in the Armstrong courtyard, and somehow we end up with the ball again even though we were going up against some hosses. Fast forward to about 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon. We have our plan ready, and we're all getting ready to just go crazy. Our plan was to have everyone except me, RF, Sloan, and JonMark create a diversion with our fake ball that we had, by running up at the front of Harding Park. Our crew of 4 were going to come up from back either through a creek or a house. It ends up we come up from a creek in Harding Park, but we didn't realize how long it would take for us to come up the creek. So right as we hear that everyone found out that it's the fake ball, we run up from the creek. It was pretty intense; I was running up with the ball and all I see was a huge mass of people. So then about a 12-minute brawl goes down between our crew about probably 15-20 people against about a dozen huge football players. Somehow this hoss from our side Brady Easter ends up ripping the ball out of a guys arm and crawls to the mat and wins the game. It was amazing. A crew of pretty much freshmen was able to beat a contingent of some upperclassmen football players. We ended up winning about 75 bucks so we're going to just throw a party and celebrate our victory. 3 people ended up with dislocated/every ligment torn shoulders, one man with a fractured ankle, and another with serious lower back pain. But it was so worth it. And after the huge brawl everyone just shook each other hands because we all just had a fun time going all out against each other.

Hopefully you made it all the way through the Harding Game description without zoning out...

...Hodges

Mae show cancelled

So right now I should be on the way home from seeing Mae in Memphis. But instead I'm sitting at my computer writing this blog because they cancelled the show on Saturday, only 3 days before the show. It was definetly a heartbreaker when I heard the news. At first I really didn't want to believe it, but I had a really good day instead. My 1:00 algebra class was cancelled because the internet was down, so that allowed me to go Bee Rock with Ben and Charlton. It was really nice to just be out on the cliff looking over the river, and knowing that before God created the world he knew that today instead of going to concert I would give my time to God. Then me, Ben and JonMark were going to see a movie, one that was probably going to be inappropriate, but we missed the showtime so we just went on a random shopping rampage through Searcy, and picked up little fun things, it was really cool.

So pretty much God took over for the day, and it was a blast. Good night to that...

...Hodges

Just Another Update

If you've been expecting blood and tears posts, sorry I just haven't been able to provide them lately.

Right now I'm listening to The Fray's CD, How to Save a Life. Until about 2 hours ago, I was going to see them in Nashville on Monday, April 10. But I got a call from Jennifer last night, and she said that Mae and Yellowcard were coming to Norman on Thursday, April 14, so I got to thinking and I thought maybe I could make it to both shows, or maybe I'll just go to Mae and Yellowcard. So I couldn't decide pretty much. Then tonight I decided that I wasn't going to go to either show, then right after I told my roommate and Chris, Ben called me and told me that Mae was coming to Memphis on Tuesday, April 11. Then I started thinking, and then I decided that I was going to see Mae in Memphis. So I called a ticket vendor and got tickets for me, Ben, and Arbuckle. Having the show in Memphis is so nice because instead of a 4.5 hour drive to Nashville or a 5.5 hour drive to Oklahoma City, we have an hour and a half drive to Memphis.

So I pretty much have a killer week next week. Monday, I have a Bible quiz, and a 20-minute Macroeconomics group presentation. Tuesday I have an Art Appreciation test. Wednesday I have a Western Civ test. Thursday I have an Algebra section due and a 20-minute Bible group presentation. Like I said, killer. I've been stressing pretty bad, but I got a sigh of relief tonight. Half of my Macro group met tonight, and my part of the presentation won't be hard, it will just be me giving me testimony if you will on why I prefer Apple computers and mp3 players. Then my Bible presentation is pretty much the last thing to get done so I'll have more time to put into that. I usually dominate the Art tests too, so I should be alright there. I want to get my Western Civ study guide done this weekend somehow.

I just got the Keane-Strangers DVD in the mail. I haven't been able to watch it all the way through yet. I might have to wait until after my huge next week to dive into it. But I watched a few of the live performances and they are really good. They should have a new album out around the end of May. I'm very excited to get it.

I wish had more to say right now, but I don't...

...Hodges

An Update

As requested by anonymous, here's an update. I'm back at Harding now. It feels good to be back. I missed the dorms a lot while I was at home. Living at home with no siblings can be boring because I'm so used to having people so close, and everyone just hanging out in my room.

I had a really good break though. I kept myself occupied for a lot of time. Usually on the breaks I spend most of my time sitting around my house not doing much of anything. On Monday and Tuesday I worked for Austin Sharp's mom, doing her garden. It was fun, and pretty easy because it took her longer to decide what she wanted me to do than for me to actually do it. Wednesday me and Eric hit up some thrift stores and the mall and stuff, it was fun. Thursday Ryan, J.C., Jennifer, Allison and I went down to Turner Falls to go camping. Then Jenny, Karen, Chase, Tim, Trey, Patrick, and Robbie caught up with us a little bit later in the afternoon. I brought Austin's 2-bedroom huge tent that sleeps 8, except no instructions came with it. So me and Ryan just winged it, and with a help of a couple others we jammed some rods in the ground and somehow we got it stay for the night. The downfall to the whole camping trip was that there was a burn ban, so we couldn't have a fire, so we just sat by a lantern at night, and then we couldn't stay the night on Friday because it rained. So we came back and then we planned on staying the night at Jennifer's but it ended up only being Karen, Jenny, Jennifer and me sleeping over.

It's March Madness. My favorite time of the year. I haven't been able to keep with college basketball as much as I would have liked to this year. The cable connection in my dorm room is really fuzzy so I get a headache when I watch TV. Therefore I couldn't watch games very often. My bracket is doing alright right now though. I still have my Final Four intact after the first two rounds, which hasn't happened in the past 5 years. I have Duke, UConn, Gonzaga, and Boston College, and Duke beating UConn in the championship. I'm feeling pretty good about my picks, but i doubt I get 2 of my Final Four picks right.

My favorite CD right now is Everything in Transit by Jack's Mannequin. It took me a while to give them a chance, but they have a really neat sound. The lead singer is the same lead singer from Something Corporate.

I guess that's all I really have to say for the moment...

...Hodges

Keane and TNT

"She Has No Time" by Keane. I love this song. I can relate to it. Maybe it's just me being overdramatic or me over-analyzing things, but I see the words of this song reflected in my life. Not so much the words "she can hardly breathe without you" but more like "she has no time for you now." Sometimes it just seems that I put myself out there for a girl and make an effort, but the girl doesn't have the time for me. It's frustrating, and it's happened to me multiple times in my life. I don't know how to else to expand on this...

I can't get away from TNT. For a while I tried to stop hanging out with or meeting new people in TNT, but it's inevitable. I've pretty much met nearly every member of TNT. Tonight I ate dinner with Kyle Chandler and Jody Caruthers, both former members of TNT and Jeff Fowler and Ilex Pounders were visiting and they ate with us too. It was just another example of the many different connections I have to TNT. I'm probably going to end up going to the TNT Canoe trip with Kelly. I mean, it's just become a part of my life to be friends with pretty much everyone in TNT. I don't really mind it though. I still love Knights, and I love Knights more than TNT. There is no way I'm jumping clubs, and I'm still very glad that I'm in Knights.

More random thoughts to come this spring break...

...Hodges