Traversing the Path: February 2007

2.13.2007

Can you say Indie? Vol 2!

2.05.2007

I'm sure most of the people who read this blog will have already experienced Matt sans long hair, but on the off chance that you have not yet... I shaved my head! (I didn't bic it however, that would be crazy.)

I should start at the beginning. I have mentioned that I am going on a missions trip to Jamaica with people from McKernan Baptist Church. It is going to be an awesome experience and I hope that we can spread the Good News of God's love to a bunch of people. Way back in January I had a crazy idea for a fund raiser and foolishly told my small group. I somehow committed to letting people bid on the privilege of shaving whatever they wanted into my head. Over the weekend at the College and Career Winter Retreat I started the bidding. Thinking that people wouldn't raise that much, and giving myself an out, I said I would not shave it unless $250 was raised total. Everyone surpassed my expectations (remember, these are poor college students and people just starting their careers) and raised over $500! They must have really wanted to see my lovely locks gone.

Matt Penner raised the most and therefore won the right to do what he wanted with my hair. He devised a plan involving hidden cards with the fate of my hair written on them. I chose card "C" and only had to loose a lock of hair! It was still scary however. When the deed was done however, the crowd wanted more. What happened next is difficult to write down; I may have suppressed the memory. Thankfully Cait recorded everything on tape and has made this video so I can relive the whole event. You can't tell, but my legs were shaking the whole time.

Here are some pictures of the final product:

Alicia's hand was shaved into my head...

My long hair in the back was left... however they shaved it up the middle...

Probably the best picture of the "hand" that I can find.

They made me wear it in pigtails for the first day. Oh, and that is Matt Penner on the right.

I called it the Red Sea Blessed Mullet for blessed business in the front and its parted party in the back. Part of the whole deal was that I had to keep my hair how they shaved it for a full week. My hair was shaved on Sunday morning which meant that I had to keep it that way until after church one week later. By the end of that week I absolutely hated the hair in the back. It drove me nuts. So, almost immediately after church I got my Mom to shave the rest off. To prove to everyone that I kept it for that whole week and didn't hide it under a toque all the time, I told people that I would take a picture every day with one of my profs at Taylor. Here are those pics.

This is Pat Fisher. She teaches most of the Leadership and Spirituality classes at Taylor. She is also my Academic Adviser because I am in the Leadership Emphasis (it's like a minor, but different because it requires work experience as well). She also attends McKernan where I work and worship. She wanted to feel my hair, so we took a picture of that. Both my classes with her have around 5 people on average. It is a weird and interesting dynamic. Pat has lots of quirks and I used to think that's all she was. Now I am starting to get past them and realize that God can and does speak through her. It is sorta cool I guess.

This is Ralph Korner. He teaches some higher level Religion courses at Taylor part time. He also used to be the Campus Pastor at Taylor. He is a great guy, a great teacher and a great example. And, apparently he wanted to give me bunny ears.

I told him we needed a picture of him "with his hand on the hand." We shared a moment as you can tell.

This is Nathan Kowalsky. We attempted to take a picture making weird faces. He looks like he is eying a delicious pie on the table and I look like I am trying to stop time a la Hiro or something. I think we both failed at the whole picture thing. But, I do have to rave about this prof too. He is teaching at St. Joseph's College at the U of A and teaches one class (Science and Religion) here at Taylor. He has two Masters degrees and a PhD and he is only like 30 or something. He is an amazing prof, incredibly knowledgeable yet still shows that he is continuing to develop his ideas. His classes always feature great discussion, although Taylor is making him have tests in his class and he doesn't want to. Last term grades were determined by papers alone and I loved it and learned a ton.

And I had to include this picture of him that he put up on his profile at St. Joe's.

He loves the outdoors and has told us about his "primitivist" leanings. For Halloween last year he came dressed like a hunter and wore a full bear pelt. I don't know many profs that would do that.

This is Brian Gold, or as most of his students call him, BG. The other guy is Jeremy Cook and BG wanted him in the picture because of his sweet suit. So I had to try and look badass. I don't think I am very good at it. BG is fairly hilarious in a weird way. He has spent a bunch of time in South Korea and is currently doing his PhD in a related field. He always has one class each semester where he requires his students to sing a song. One year he taught everyone a Korean kid's song with actions (he also taught that whole day like a Korean teacher would teach, and we had to act like we were students in Korea. It was memorable). Watching him sing in Korean and get really into the song was priceless. He also likes to put a chair on a table, sit on his "throne" and ask the class questions which correspond to participation marks. He also takes out all willing students to a authentic Asian restaurant where you all eat on the floor in a separate room, then everyone goes and sings Karaoke. I haven't went yet, but I have heard it is a blast.

So there's the story of how Matt lost his hair. It's a good one. Although I don't mind short hair, I really do miss the long hair. I probably would have cursed it in Jamaica though, so I guess it is a good thing. To truly grasp my feeling of horror the first time that I saw my hair, I tried to recreate my facial expression.

Later.