October 6

       The Disneyland Fastpass was a genius idea. Why can't Middlesex get something like that for their administration department? Granted, dealing with paperwork in not nearly as exciting as Indiana Jones or Space Mountain, but strangely the lines can be just as long sometimes.
       I woke up at 8 (which is still difficult for me for some reason) so I could make it to the "module changes" session at 9:30. All I needed was to switch one English class to a Music class. Consistent with my experience with Middlesex all along, it couldn't be that easy. I showed up to the lovely Garden Cottage at about 9:40, thinking that everything would be taken care of by 11 as it showed on the schedule. I was wrong. There were already a number of students waiting to speak with advisors, and the zany office assistant had us all wait together as she haphazardly greeted others as they trinkled in. She warned us that it would probably would be about an hour and a half before we would see an advisor (only 2 were working), and we were ok with that. Soon, we realized the situation was much worse than it sounded. We heard rumors (which proved true) of numerous waiting rooms along the way to the advisors, and we cheered each other on as we progressively got to move to "the other side(s)." As the hours inched on, I couldn't help but think of the multiple levels of hell in Dante's Inferno. I know this is an extreme comparison, but something about the confined rooms and continual disappointment brought this book to mind. We passed the time by asking each other questions such as, "If you could only have one appliance in your home, what would it be?" "What is your favorite dish?" "What is one thing you definately want to do before you die?" etc.
       After all was said and done, I spent about 4.5 hours waiting to get my 5 minute issue resolved.
       I miss Sac State's online enrollment system : (
       Even though waiting that long was horrible, I got to meet a number of people who are pretty much extended family members at this point, after all we had been through together. I got to talk with people from America, Spain, Hungary, Japan, and France for quite awhile. We all learned a big lesson in patience today.
       After eating my leftover tortellini from last night, I took a 3 hour nap (which definately was NOT supposed to be that long) instead of going out to get a local cell phone or decorations for my room. Aside from taking a short walk around the beautiful campus at dusk, I stayed in and did laundry, played guitar, spent too much time on facebook, and watched an episode of Glee. Altogether, I enjoyed the second half of the day very much. I love having time to myself.
       The internet is very slow here (another test of my patience), but I'm glad we have it in our rooms at least.
       In hindsight, I can see that the Lord was working in me today. It's easy to get super grumpy and complain all the time when things get difficult and you just have to wait them out, but somehow He gave me a spirit of joy and love that I was able to share with those around me. He helped me to make the best of a crappy situation, and for that energy and optimism, I am thankful.
       Any similar stories of patience and deliverance? Share them!

Prayer Request of the Day: That I would let God love others through me.