Right now I'm in Santa Clara at the JASPA Institute. I signed up before I knew how awful the timing would be. Most of my spare moments have been occupied with freshman room assignments, like an artist obsessed with completing a terribly bleak painting. I finished this evening, and the news is not good. Currently we have 172 more applications than spaces, and it doesn't take much more than a grasp of basic math to realize that this is a major problem.
It's good to write this way again. I purchased the iBook to enable me to finish the assignments process while I went on this trip; journalling again is a great bonus. I kept my journal by hand for a number of month— since my last trip to the bay area, actually— but this is more my style, I believe. Deep down, I'm a digital man, and I need to be at my best as much as I ever have before.
I'm planning to see Daniela tomorrow, which is much more exciting to me than any of the institute (though Regis McKenna may rank a close second). It's been too long, and I've done far too poor a job maintaining our friendship. Thankfully, all is gift, and Daniela is uniquely possessed of His grace. Just as I need to be at my best right now, I also need my friends.
I need to be home, too. To find home, to create home. Living off campus is a great gift, but it's mostly rooms full of junk. Effectively I'm living in a studio with a bunch of storage! JASPA throws a real wrench in the settling process, because I won't get home until late Sunday afternoon. Duty calls on Monday, so I expect little rest until next weekend, if then. And I just remembered that there's an RA retreat on Friday night, so Saturday will be the earliest.
One of the reasons I'm planning to be so occupied is that I have a staff to train. Another wonderful gift, the faithful stewardship of which will require some great effort on my part. I feel like a captain bracing for a terrible storm, praying that his battered little ship will hold together long enough to see his crew home.
