My first experience with amnesia

The stage opens with me getting up and out of bed at 7:30 on Monday, the 20th of July. I am at my aunt and uncle's house in Wasilla, Alaska. Uncle Mark left for Anchorage for business earlier that morning, Aunt Cindy and cousin Stephanie just left for the gym, so I'm home alone with the dogs and cat.

I get up and have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, then Facebook. I hadn't had time to go through my pictures yet, so I spent some time looking at them and choosing all the ones that I wanted to upload. I was going through my pictures and catching up with all my friends on Facebook until Steph and I went over to Grandpa Pete's house and talked with him for a while and then played some pool. It was a fun game, neither Stephanie or I are very good, but we had a fun time anyway. On the way to Grandpa Pete's Stephanie bought me a Latte. I had told her that I didn't care for coffee, but she said that I had to try a Latte, because it's mostly milk anyway, and doesn't have a strong coffee flavor. So anyway, we're at Grandpa Pete's playing pool and sipping our Lattes, which are not that bad by the way, definitely better than any other coffee product that I've had. After our round of pool Grandpa Pete showed us his workshop that he's been working on. Then we departed for the ice rink.

Stephanie is an excellent skater. She has won trophies and tournaments and stuff. Whereas, I can just skate, forwards, and that's about it. So, Steph and I were at the skating rink, and we met up with two of Stephanie's cousins. (My cousin's cousin, but not my second cousin.) We all had a fun time skating around and playing tag and just having a great time. There weren't very many people at the rink at all, 4 people other than our group, so we pretty much could do anything that we wanted. Tag was fun, I never was able to catch Stephanie, she can skate circles around me any day of the week. :P

We finished playing tag and I was just skating around, and I must have fallen. I don't remember falling, but I must have. I remember sitting on the bench… with an icepack…. I couldn't remember what the time or date were. I looked at my watch: Monday, 20th of July. I remember thinking, "Monday, the 20th. So, I'm done with fishing. I'm staying with Uncle Mark and Aunt Cindy… Monday… I've only stayed with them one night then…. Wait. 20th? Yeah, ok. So, I'm still in Alaska, I haven't gone up to Grandpa Art's farm. Monday… yeah, Steph and I played pool this morning…, and I had a Latte? Wait, no. That was a dream, I didn't have a Latte. No, wait, I did. I remember Stephanie getting a picture of me with my Latte. Yeah. That was this morning. When is it? Oh, it's the 20th. That's right, it's Monday. 20th of July. I'm done with fishing. I'm leaving on the 30th? Yeah, that's right. I drove up from Ninilchick yesterday. That's right. I kept looking at my watch, and at the pictures on my camera. I also kept reaching for the candy bar in my pocket which I picked up at Grandpa Pete's. I was checking to make sure that it wasn't a dream.
That sort of thought process kept going on for a while, I'm not sure how long. I must have fallen at around 1:15 because I have a picture of me with an icepack to my head taken at 1:21.

I don't remember returning my skates, I don't remember driving back, I don't remember coming back in the house. I do remember that on the way home Stephanie kept asking me if I needed to see a doctor. I kept saying that I was fine, I think. I remember looking at my watch, 2:00. I remember Aunt Cindy asking me what I wanted for lunch, I remember sitting down at the table, but I can't remember what I had to eat. I went downstairs and showed my cousin's cousins my juggling and rubik's cubing. I juggled 3 ball mills mess, Rubenstein's revenge, Factory, Chops. Then I picked up two more balls and juggled 5 ball cascade. I can't remember if I did well, but I remember that it was fun to juggle again. Then I solved the rubik's cube. 1:16 min:sec the first solve, 48 seconds the second solve. Then we came upstairs and Jayden (one of Stephanie's cousins) showed us her violin playing skills, she was pretty good for a 7 year old.

At 3:00 p.m. the whole morning seemed like a dream, I knew that it really happened because I kept looking at the pictures that I took on my camera. But it was weird, it really just seemed like a dream. I'm pretty sure that I was acting rational and reasonable, but I don't really remember what I was doing. A little before 4 o'clock, I went out on the porch and Stephanie was in one of the chairs relaxing, I asked her what she was doing, and she said that she was just relaxing until Dad (Uncle Mark) came out and told her to paint something. I kept talking to her, and sure enough, 5 minutes later Uncle Mark came out and asked her to paint some round wood things for the yard. I went out and helped her paint the "stepping stones." And then from then on I can remember things like normal. I can remember painting the wooden boards, and everything after that. But the whole morning is kind of fuzzy, but I think that I remember it pretty well now though. I can remember playing pool, but from the time we left for the ice rink, to the time we got home is a little fuzzy. And I don't remember falling at all.

It was weird. I feel fine now. I've been fine from about 4:00 p.m. yesterday. Other than some pain on the left side of my head, I feel perfectly normal. I had a headache yesterday, but it wasn't a bad one. Several people told me to take pain medication, but I generally try to stay away from Ibuprofen, or Tylenol, or stuff like that unless it really, really hurts, and there's no other option.


So, I'm fine now, it still hurts a little to chew, because my jaw hurts on the left side. Other than that, I feel great. I want to go skating again though, because I can't remember what skating feels like. :P

Well that's all for now, I'm having a great time chilling with Stephanie. :P

Tim

It's all over

When the fish are gone, it's all over.

Well, my fishing season is done, finish, skoińczony.
As far as fishing goes it was a terrible season, the fish just didn't show up. I don't really know what else to say. No one is really sure why there weren't very many fish, it's just a cyclical thing that happens sometimes.

It's not like there aren't any fish, just not very many where we were. Over at Bristol Bay, where I fished last year, they had an excellent season. And there is supposed to be a strong pink salmon run starting in a couple weeks. So, there are fish, but just not where we were fishing.

We fished in Prince William Sound. At first we did a couple weeks of gill netting and caught very little, then we switched to seining (different type of fishing) and did that for about a week and a half, and caught even less. But that's just the way it is. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)

I don't know how much money I made yet, but it's not going to be very much. After paying for my plane ticket and other expenses, I'll still come out in the positives, but probably not as high as I would have if I had just had a regular 40 hour a week job. So, I'm feeling a little disappointed. Disappointed that I won't be able to buy some of the stuff that I was really hoping that I would be able to buy. But when I look back and think of the spiritual victories that God has given me this summer, then I know that it was God's will for me to come here and work. I may have earned less money than I would have earned working at Burger King, and I may have had less fun than I would have had if I worked at The Anchorage, but God taught me some things that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else. He needed to take me away from the internet, from electricity, from people, from the civilized world, so that He could have my full attention.

Why didn't God teach me the lessons I needed to learn, and still give me a profitable fishing season? To be honest, I don't really know. I don't know why He allowed this year and last year both to be poor seasons for me. I don't know, but I know He has a reason. And I also know that according to God's promise in Romans 8:28 it's going to work out for good. My job isn't to know "why" but to simply trust that God's knows "why."
At any rate, this is my last fishing season, my last year of torture. :P
It's funny, about a week ago, Rick was telling us about one of his friends that he brought fishing with him years ago. And Rick said to him, "If you get excited when you see a fish jump, and if you get excited when you see the fish come aboard, then you'll enjoy it. But if the fish jumping doesn't really do anything for you, then it's going to be a long season." After two days Rick's friend said to him, "Rick, I think that it's going to be a very long season." I find that very funny because that is exactly what I figured out a couple weeks earlier. Fishing seems to be a long harder for me than the other guys, they seem to actually enjoy it, whereas, well. . . if you've read my blog much recently, you know how I feel about it. They get a rush when they see a fish jump out of the water, whereas I really don't think that I could care less. But, anyway, praise God that's it's over. :D
It's not that I don't like work, I love my job on Public Safety at school. And I am really looking forward to hopefully working at The Anchorage camp, I just don't think that I was cut out for fishing and the boat life. I am, however, very thankful that I had this job for two years, I learned a whole lot, saw things here in Alaska that I wouldn't have been able to see, and experienced some many different things that I never would have experienced anywhere else. So, praise God that I had this job, but praise Him even more than I'm done with this job. :P

So what now? Well, I'm leaving on the 30th, so until then I'm planning on visiting my relatives up here in Alaska. All my family on my dad's side is up here in Alaska, so I'm hoping to visit some of them. Probably spend the majority of the time with my grandfather on his farm. :)

The tentative plan right now is, first, hitchhike down to Ninilchik to get one of my bags and some camera equipment that I left there. Spend the weekend down there and say goodbye to the people at the church. Then on Monday I'll hitchhike up to Anchorage, then get a ride from my uncle Mark and aunt Cindy and stay with them for a couple days before heading up to my grandfather's farm.

That's kind of the plan, like I said it's a tentative plan so it's not set in stone, I still have to make quite a few phone calls.

I'm just so glad I'm done. I've been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I'm so thankful that it's finally here. God kept me by his grace. Thank you dear Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Tim

College life: Second Semester

About two weeks ago I was thinking about college and my most resent semester. Then I realized that I never wrote about my second semester on my blog. I wrote about my first semester, but I neglected to write a review of my second semester, so I'll write one now.

My second semester started off very well. I can remember stepping out of the van and feeling great to be back on Bob Jones soil.

The second semester started up much faster than the first. I felt sorry for all the new freshmen who were starting on the off-semester. Classes started up pretty quickly, but it wasn't nearly as daunting, having gone through it already before.

Let me tell you a little about my classes, most of them were continuations from the previous semester, but I had a few new ones.

English 102, Composition and Grammar:
This was a pretty heavy class, with the big research paper, and all of the other various writing that we had to do. Some of my most frantic memories were made while writing my research paper.

History of Civilization, 2nd semester:
Most people dread this class, but I actually kind of liked it. It's not that hard of a class if you put the time in. But most often that is the challenging part.

Fundamentals of Performance Studies:
Very fun class, Similar to Freshman Speech, but more focused on the performing aspects. You get to know and become friends with the people in your speech classes better than you do in most of your other classes.

Computer Applications, 2nd semester:
Ah, the only class that I didn't have to work extremely hard to got a good grade. Most people find this class either very easy, or extremely challenging, depending on if they "get it" or not. I "got it" so I was able to do well and even help some of the others who were having a hard time with it. I helped a total of 10 of my friends on different occasions, and I helped a couple people in the computer lab, just as I was passing, and I saw that they were having a problem with some of the homework. Believe it or not, I actually really enjoyed helping everyone with the projects in this class. It is such a good feeling when you are able to help someone understand a concept or process. I especially enjoyed helping those who tried to work it out on their own, but got stuck, and were always very grateful to receive help. :D

Preacher Boy's class:
I found this class to be a great source of information and practical knowledge that I know that I will continue to draw from for the rest of my life.

New Testament Messages:
Loved this class. Mr. Crockett is an exceptional teacher. He really did a lot to reach out to his students and teach them.

Rapid Reading:
That's right, a class designated solely to learning how to read faster and more efficiently. It is a zero credit course, just taken as an elective. It was a very beneficial class for me. I learned how to read much better than before.

Basic Aural Skills:
This is the only class that I dreaded. It is a class that teaches you to sight sing and sight read music. I took it as an elective because I wanted to learn how to sing parts better. Of the 30 people in the class, three of them were not either music majors or music minors. I was one of those three. I loved the class and learned a great deal from it, but I struggled to stay on top of it. Most of the material was beyond my abilities. But that's fine, I passed and I benefited greatly from the class.

Voice Class:
A small class of 5 young, ambitious students. A very good class, I wish that I could have spend more time practicing my voice though, because I would have benefited even more if I had. I'm going to be taking private voice lessons next year, and I am greatly looking forward to that.

So, those were my classes, all had their own unique joys and challenges. It sounds like a lot because it was. Balancing this class schedule with 18 hours of work a week didn't leave much time for hanging out with friends, or extra curricular activities. I was a little too consumed with my studies. About a third of the way into the semester I started skipping lunch and eating dinner alone, so that I could wolf down my food in 15 minutes or less, then leave to go back to studying. After a month or two I decided that I was being a little extreme, and that I could afford to spend either lunch or dinner eating with friends. And then I'd skip the other meal. It seemed like a good compromise. So that's what I did. Usually I ate lunch with friends and then skipped dinner, for more study time.

I'm afraid that in my desperation to find more time to study I also cut God's time down to a minimum. An act that I greatly regret now. I would just rush through my "God and I time" and get by with the bare minimum. It was getting better as the semester progressed, but even by the end I wasn't where I should be. Which is not something that I can be proud of. But, since summer started God has really been at work in my life, and He's been drawing me closer to Him. And it is very exciting.

Work:
I have a job at college. I work for the Department of Public Safety as a Dispatcher. That means, I am the person in the welcome center, answering the phone calls and monitoring the radios to make sure the people running around in the patrol vans are doing what they are supposed to be doing. I enjoy my job tremendously. I have many excellent co-workers and supervisors, who love God and show it.
By nature the job has to run around the clock, 24/7. So that means somebody has to work the night shifts, and two nights a week I was that somebody. Tuesday nights and Saturday nights I would work from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. which would be fine, except on Wednesdays (the next day) I would have work again at 7:30 a.m., traffic. And I since I always get breakfast every morning (except for Sunday mornings) I would have to be at breakfast at 7 o'clock sharp if I wanted to eat and then get to my traffic position in time. Which meant that I would have to get up at 6:30 in the morning. (22 minutes to get ready, and 8 minutes for the hike over to the dinning common.) Now, if you do the math, I get off work at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning (Tuesday night) and then get up at 6:30 a.m., that only leaves three and a half hours of sleep. Yep. So, every Wednesday I would run off of 3.5 hours of sleep, but I didn't mind, it was actually kind of cool to know that my body would still function under such circumstances. :P

Friends:
One of the main things that I love about college is the people there. As a missionary kid, growing up I didn't have many friends, and none that were nearby that I could talk to. I found ways to entertain myself though, juggling, Rubik's cubing, etc., but I always had that desire to be around people my age. At college there are over five thousand people my age. It is amazing! I have been blessed with so many Godly friends that it seems every time I pray, I have to thank God for all the friends that He has given me. I have friends from work, from classes, from my room, from extension, from other friends, friends come from everywhere. And I am so very, very thankful for the friends that God has blessed me with.

Sports:
Well, I didn't play any sports for my society, but I did go to most of the games and get pictures. Then another guy in our society took some of those pictures and put them on the society website. So, in that way I participated, even though I didn't play.
At the beginning on the semester I went out to the track 3 times a week and ran 3-4 miles each time. Although, as the semester progressed and I started to get swamped, that too fell away. About 2/3 of the way through the semester I started running again, but it would be short, a quick 1 or 2 miles. Just long enough to clear my head from all the dates and facts that I was trying to pack in there. There were consistently more people on the track at the beginning of the semester than there were later on, which makes sense, but I thought that it was interesting to observe.

Girls:
Still no girlfriend, don't worry Mom. ;)
I went on a good number of dates with girls, but just as friends. Of course, Jeremiah and Sarah (among others) give me a hard time about all the dates I go on with different girls, but that's their job as older siblings (Sarah is practically a sibling). :P
Two of the musical recitals were spectacular. The first, was an orchestra (directed my Michael's, my roommate's, uncle.) performing Dvorak's 9th symphony. I love that piece, and to see and hear it performed live, was simply amazing. The other was a Japanese hand bell group. The hand bell ensemble was astonishing. I liked it so much because it was superbly performed, and I hadn't seen anything quite like it before.
My society's dating outing was pretty memorable as well. I almost didn't go on my own society's outing because there was a scheduling conflict with a Living Gallery rehearsal. The rehearsal and the outing were going to overlap, so I wouldn't be able to make it, but I ended up going anyway. I was going to be late for the outing so I wouldn't be able to leave on the bus with everyone else. And since I don't have a car I had no way to get there, but I got a ride from my campus Dad, Dr. Boyd, and made it to the outing about halfway through the round of mini golf. I joined my date who was hanging out with Jeremiah and Jessica, and played out the rest of the round and then continued on with everyone else. Anyway, that turned out quite well, and we both had a very good time.
When I counted it up I figured out that in my Freshman year (first and second semesters combined), I took out 12 different girls, on 21 different dating events. That number can be as high as 15 girls depending on how you define it. An observant reader will recognize that there are more events than girls, so that means I've taken out some of the same girls multiple times. I've taken some girls out twice, some three times, with four times being the highest.

Well, that's about everything. I started out the year strong, and I think that I was able to end strong too. It got very busy there in the middle, but God provided. I didn't do everything correctly, but thankfully God forgives and lets us go on. I'm looking forward to next year, because I really like my class schedule. I think that I'll have some really nice classes. Plus I might have a very interesting job opportunity, we'll see about that though. :D

This is Timmy, signing off.

We've been fishing

We've been fishing, too bad we haven't been catching.

The fishing has been quite poor, and we are never in the right place at the right time. When we try to move to see if it's any better some other place, the place where we just left always seems to get a big run. *sigh* Oh, well… It's hard to believe that I only have 3 more weeks of fishing. We better catch some more fishing soon, if I going to make some money, hopefully seining will be profitable.

The weather has been beautiful! Sunshine and in the low 60's, high 50's. I've been skipping the sweatshirts while fishing normally. I've been just wearing a T-shirt and my rain gear, when I take off my rain gear then I have to put on a sweatshirt or something, because it's too cold for just a T-shirt, even for me. :P Last year I usually wore a lot more clothes: a T-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a sweat shirt, and a hooded sweat shirt.
So, I've been enjoying the nice weather while we have it.

We went seining a couple days ago. It was only a 24 hour opening, from 8 p.m. July 3rd, to 8 p.m. July 4th. There weren't many fish, but we knew that there wouldn't be very many. We had a lot of learning to do, because this is the first year Rick has had his seiner. So, he's never been the captain of a seiner before, and none of his crew had ever seined before. So, we're all rather new to this.
Seining is quite a bit more complicated than the gill netting that we've been doing. There are more lines, and more shackles and releases, it's a lot to grasp. It's also exhausting. And we need all 4 of us to run the boat, so every man has to be working at the same time, so we can't take shifts. My job is stacking the lead line. (That's my main job, I do other things to like run around hooking up lines and hooks here and there and attaching other things and such.) Rick told me (the day after we did our seining) that stacking leads is the hardest job one the boat. Maybe not the most difficult, but it is the most physically demanding. Anyway, we fishing from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. then, we got 3 hours of sleep and were back at it at 4 a.m. and we didn't stop until 7:50 p.m. that night, with breakfast and lunch thrown in there in the little bits of time we could spare. By the time we finished I was fully, totally, completely, and utterly exhausted. It was in the 50's and I was only wearing a T-shirt and my rain gear, and I was completely soaked with sweat, head to toe. Often, while working, my glasses would fog up from the sweat evaporating off my face. After a huge dinner, (I was starving too) I took a lukewarm shower, (I'm so thankful that we have a shower on this boat, even though the thermostat is broken and it only gets slightly warm.) and then rolled into bed, and thought about how good of shape I'll be in by the end of the season. :P
By noon I was so tired, that as I was pulling in the lead line I was praying, asking God for strength and endurance. Just praying and stacking as fast as I could. And the Lord gave me the strength to keep up until the very end. It was one of the longest 24 hours in my life. 24 hours, that I don't think I will ever forget. Next week we are supposed to start seining all the time, no more gill netting for the rest of the season. I know that it's going to be hard, but I'm looking forward to it. :) God will provide, like He always does, because He is faithful.

I've been doing pretty well, I don't feel discouraged or lonely like I did about a month ago. The Lord has definitely been at work. Thank you all for your prayers.


Anchor Man Tim