Gym Membership: Why, you might ask, would I be waking up at 5:45 AM on my late start day? I could lay comfortably in bed until 1 Pm if I felts so inclined. But instead, I wake up before the sun does, and get on a bike, and travel one mile to use our new and wonderful gym membership. The reason is that we finagled out way into using one gym membership for 5 people. And it's not breaking any rules. It works out to be about $11/month per person if we have the membership until at least May. The deal is that we have one primary, and pay an extra little fee so that the primary can swipe in two people with him for free when ever he goes to the gym. This means that poor Tomás has to go to the gym twice a day. He works out in the morning before work with two people, then swipes in two people after work. I work late on Wednesday and Thursday, so if I want to work out those days I gotta get up at the crack of dawn. I thought I would hate it, bit it's actually pretty great to get up and get going. I have tons of time in the morning to do anything I want: write letters, practice the guitar, make lunch for my roommates, read... I never thought I was a morning person, but maybe I'm changing :)
First Public Performance: If you weren't aware yet, I am finally putting my musical skills to use. I, Erin Cooley, am part of a band. My friend Sean in one of the Portland houses and I have formed a band called the Styrofoam Snowflakes (based and his traumatic childhood experience with packing peanuts). We play acoustic covers of Top 40 and Hip-Hop songs including Beyonce's If I Were A Boy, Rihanna's Umbrella, Down Down Down by Jay Sean, Hey Ya - Outkast, and of course some Damien Rice, Tristan Prettyman, and Ingrid Michaelson thrown in the mix. Our most popular song: What Would You Do by City High - brings me back to middle school. Not gonna lie, I can sing and play guitar, Sean just likes to be loud and dance in front of people. But it's fun. And it's motivation to play my guitar that has been sadly neglected for the past few years. On Halloween, we had a cute little performance in the attic of the Portland Morris house in the middle of their epic party. I was SUPER nervous, but I believe it was a success ;) We may be making an appearance at the Retreat we have this weekend.
New Addition to the Gresham House: The lovely nuns at Bridal Veil down the road sent us a PIANO! it is big and beautiful and sits nicely in our dining room. Though I haven't played in a very very long time, I find myself spending a good chunk of my afternoons plunking my way through the thick book of Disney hits. I love it. I love music. I love making music. This is going to mean good things.
Putting my Whitworth Education to good use, Who woulda Thunk it? - so a little progress on my frustration with Catholicism: I lead a discussion on Niebuhr's Christ and Culture Models for my spirituality night last week. As much as Whitworthians complain about Core, it was such a great background to have and be able to more universally talk about how you view the world, how you know what you know, and what you think the relationship of faith an culture is. I essentially gave one of the Core 350 lectures to my roommates to explain these christ and culture models and it was really interesting to see where the discussion took us afterwards. Not just the role of Christ, but God and Faith in general. Who would have thought I would be so thankful for Core.
Any who, this weekend my roommates and I are going up to Whidbey Island to hang out with all the JV's from Seattle, Tacoma, Yakima, and Portland for the Cascade Region's fall retreat. The focus is right relationship. It will be nice to have a little break from Gresham, and hopefully I'll come back rejuvenated and ready for the busy holiday season.
