So, I'm married now.  And in school.  And a music major.  And working two jobs.  Somehow, I still have time to go to the bathroom, though sometimes that must be sacrificed for the greater good of the potential to earn a degree and maybe own a bathroom of my own someday.

 Naomi and I are finally nestled comfortably into our first home, and go for frequent walks and frisbee excursions.  Pictured, you can see our attempt to feed ducks at a local park (which, if you're a faithful reader, you will know is one of my favorite pastimes), which turned into an accidental trip to the Renaissance Fair.  Let me tell you.  The Ren Fair is perhaps the greatest thing to ever grace Wichita, if you ask me.  Something about the entire atmosphere is just stellar.  We didn't end up feeding the ducks.

One thing about being married and being a student is that you find that you don't get much time to spend with your spouse if you don't try.  In an effort to give us fun things to do, we both went out to the local hobby shop and bought some model cars.  Her, a 1969 Ford Mustang, me a 1992 Dodge Stealth.  Here you see me in great concentration attempting to paint the little intricacies involved in the interior of the car.

Finally, I spend a great deal of my day on music and music related things.  So far, I'm still learning piano, guitar, and in voice class.  Those alone keep me busy, let alone playing for my church worship team and DJing (which I finally scored a regular spot at local club).

All of this is already paying off though.  When you finally get yourself involved in something you love, the pain of the hectic lifestyle and the ridiculous late nights all seem to take a back seat to the roller coaster ride that it is.  I love every minute of it. 

Well, we're down to the final stretch.  Yes, I've learned a great deal. Yes, I've worked hard. And yes, I've had to sacrifice study time to play XBox for the sake of my sanity.  It occurred to me that it is almost as important to maintain a sane lifestyle as it is to maintain an acceptable grade point average.  I began to wonder what things I could take part in to help relax myself a bit from the monotony of memorizing modes and scales and key signatures and the proper use of commas to replace the word "and" in a list.

Feed the ducks.  Don't feed the squirrels.  They can fend for themselves.  Ducks, however, are helpless animals that until humans began tossing bits of bread into rivers, were nearly extinct.  It is our job, nay, our very expectation to keep these majestic creatures from total extinction.  Support your local Mallards, feed the ducks.

The international pastime of the American college student is ping-pong.  It is quickly rising to become one of the world's most respected sports, only being eclipsed by Canada's curling, and East Timor's ball in a cup. Pictured here is a resident of Green Hall participating in an intense game of ping-pong.  Notice the red tint to his eyes, indicating that he is so focused on the ball that all the blood in his body has flowed to his eyes. 

So, whilst you study, please take a moment to relax a bit, and truly enjoy life.  Studying is important, but so is your sanity.  After all, you can see how well my sanity has served me!

So, what goes on near the end of October?  Well, in Wichita the end of October signifies the drastic change from nice-and-warm to cold, without really hitting any of the mid-range temperatures.  I think it's nature's way of preserving the pumpkins we all spend hours to carve and put on our porches for the neighbor kids to steal or for squirrels to eat. 

What pumpkins did I bother to carve?  Well, take a look.  I actually took no part in cutting out those particular pumpkins, but they were carved in my presence. My fiancée and I, after several minutes of indecision, we came to the conclusion that, rather than carve a pumpkin, we'd shoot it with my Airsoft rifle.  So we did. About 300 times.  There's something very cute about the woman you're about to marry firing a fully-auto M16 replica Airsoft gun. 

Also, I met a puppy named Ninja. 

As far as school goes, it's getting a bit more difficult, but I'm also getting more into the groove of what my teachers are asking for, and getting more of a feel of what to expect.  Also, it's getting colder, so I'm walking faster outside, which gets me to class a bit sooner, so that may be helping out as well. 

And on a final note, I saw a trashcan on campus that had a hole gnawed in it, resumably from a squirrel.  Quite industrious, really.  Only at Friends University.

Suddenly, fall break has fallen upon me.  It doesn't hurt though.  However, it did come somewhat as a surprise that it came so quickly.  I mean, obviously it didn't come any quicker than it would have; saying that it came quickly is merely a relevant perception issue, more than anything.  In fact, if I think back to the semester, it really has been awhile, and a lot has gone on.  Maybe it came at just the right time.

One thing stood out to me about fall break.  In any of my other schools, in any other break that I can remember, teachers would look at the calendar, find the breaks, and find ways to assign ridiculous projects with unrealistic deadlines in a mildly sadist way, and after slaving long hours making a poster of MacGyver and his talents, I would sit back and imagine my teacher in front of a fire, petting his dog, giggling lightly as he knew what he did to my free time. 

To tell you the truth, I was rather excited for school to start back up, mainly due to my music classes.  I am completely enjoying these particular times of learning, and I'm gaining so much more knowledge that I'm taking and applying to my own music ventures.  The ones I don't have much time to work on.  Because I'm in school.  Planning a wedding.  Having tons of fun. 

I spend a great deal of my time in the Riney Fine Arts building, learning piano, singing for Concert Choir (it's re-choired for my major ... ha-ha) and learning all there is to know about the Intro to Music Theory.  The one thing I've noticed about the Riney Fine Arts building is that the squirrels on this part of campus seem to be well-mannered and friendly ... as you can see.

Among all of my classes, I have been given the opportunity to supervise the Admissions Assistant team, which is in charge of calling people who have shown interest in Friends University as a school. I also am balancing a job in the Information Technology department (fixing computers and the like) with planning my wedding.  Yes, that's right, another college student found love.  Her name is Naomi. 

In line with my passion for music, I also find time to skip around downtown Wichita, DJing in a few clubs for the fun of it.  Recently I even ran into a group of four or five Friends University students downtown, proving that Wichita does indeed have fun things to do.  In fact, once you get the hang of the city, there's really no end to the hilarity and fun that can ensue.

Tune in next time for pictures of a mysterious troll that resides in the downtown area of the city.

Hello.  My name is Seth.  After moving around to a few colleges, trying a couple different majors (it seems as though you're lucky to graduate within the first five major declarations), I have finally settled at a school and am currently a transfer student at Friends University.  I've attended Wichita State and Oral Roberts universities and even spent some time in the PACE program here at Friends. 
What do I like about friends?  Well, that's easy.

 Most everything. 

You see, I'm a fairly personable fellow.  I like to talk to people.  I've worked at Starbucks, Best Buy, and many other places that put
you face to face with the public.  I don't like being a statistic.  When I started looking at Friends, I was immediately impressed
with the general professionalism coupled with personality that I found. It's comfortable. And it has squirrels. Every college student needs to understand the importance of Squirrels on campus. 

So, keep reading.  In the next few months, I'll try to get you an in-depth look at what life here is like for a transfer student.

Maybe I'll take a picture with a squirrel.  You never know.