Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 170 (CE @ PLTS)

I only had one class today, Christian Education at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Like SFTS, it is one of the 9 seminaries in the Graduate Theological Union and is not all that close to the other schools, although it is much closer to the other 7. (It only takes about 10 minutes to get there from the other GTU schools, as opposed to the 45 minutes it takes to get to SFTS.)

Like, SFTS, it is also at the top of the hill, but whereas SFTS is at the top of a little hill, PLTS is at the top of a REALLY BIG HILL, that I think should qualify as a mountain. Take for example this view from the school:

That's really freaking high! And, I SWEAR TO GOD, the road leading up to it is at like a 45 degree angle. Were we in a cute little car or some kind of SUV? NO! We were in a ten-year-old van that rolls backwards a little every time you take your foot off the brakes and try to accelerate from a stop while on a grade, no matter how fast you move your foot from the pedals! And, OF COURSE, I was the one that was driving as Christina was screaming her head off next to me!

Luckily, one of our classmates heard that we were going down the hill and told us of an alternate route that was much safer and easier on the nerves.

The class another huge one with 40-some students. The professor was cracking jokes the whole time, but you could tell she really knows her stuff. And, you can tell she's been teaching for a while because she only assigns about 70 pages a week, even though it's a graduate class, BECAUSE SHE WANTS US TO ACTUALLY READ IT! (her words, not mine)

This is going to be a very "hands-on" course, and I can tell that it's going to be really fun and I'm going to get a lot out of it. This semester is going to be so cool!

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 140 (Points North)

After driving back and forth a few times, I have figured out that taking the I-5 from LA to San Francisco (or vice versa) as opposed to the 1 or the 101, will reduce your travel time by approximately 1 hour. Personally, I do not think this makes up for how boring the drive is, however there is an AMAZING Indian restaurant right off the I-5 called "Taste of India", where I was TOTALLY planning to stop at, but as I was not very hungry when I was driving by it and I am experiencing a crippling shortage of cash, I decided not to, THUS eliminating any real reason to take the 5. ALSO, there was traffic on the 5 today, not too much, but it was something that I had NEVER experienced before. I guess there were a lot of people heading back home after the holiday.

I tried an A&W burger for dinner (a poor substitute for Taste of India), and it wasn't half bad. (It wasn't half good either.) I passed up In & Out because I've been eating that pretty frequently and what I really wanted (since Taste of India was no longer an option) was Wendy's, but those are few and far between, so despite my general loathing of fast food, I decided I would try an A&W burger since I had as yet to try one. I really needed to eat something other than cheesy poofs, which I had been munching on during the drive (2 varieties: White Cheddar Corn Puffs and Baked Cheese Crunchies, both from Trader Joe's and both really really good. I also had a bag of crunchy Cheetos, but I couldn't justify opening the bag with the other two bags being open.)

So, now I'm back and blogging after a brief D&D session with Rus, Matthias, Ian & Terra. My back is sore from the drive and I am not looking forward to starting the Hebrew intensive O_o. Should be interesting.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 6 (Driving)

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Holy crap! I'm 30 now! Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!! (j/k) It hasn't really bothered me at all cuz I've been so busy with all the craziness of moving. Turning twenty-five was so traumatic for me, I doubt any other birthday will compare. It was just the idea of becoming a quarter of a century old that kind of got to me.

Driving up the coast wasn't so bad. The Madonna Inn is CRAZY!!!! There's waterfalls instead of urinals in the men's rooms! There's a copper one in the upstairs bathroom and a more "traditional" rock waterfall urinal in the downstairs bathroom. The upstairs bathroom had motion sensitive old fashioned water pumps instead of faucets, and the downstairs one had gigantic clam shells instead of sinks. My mom said there's nothing special in the women's restrooms. That's kind of sexist isn't it? And, kind of weird, cuz isn't the bathroom more important for women than men?

Then we stopped at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. If you don't know what this is, please do a quick search for it. This is the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen in my entire life. We made this one of our stops because I wanted to show it to my parents.

I'm so exhausted right now; I totally should have gone to bed earlier last night. My dad wants to wake up early tomorrow to go to the Winchester Mansion. O_o It was my idea to go, but I didn't say anything about waking up early...