First Week of NSA

I would like to apologize to my loyal readership for leaving you all in the dark as to how my first week of NSA classes is gone. I can only imagine all the heartache and soul-searching I have subjected you to. I intend to set this straight right now.

I'll start with the academic side first. . . Classes started on Wednesday August 20 but as every NSAer knows, the pain (and fun) begins before classes even start. At the end of convocation all the Professor chaps in their cool robes come up and tell their students what they want them to do for their first class. My class had to prepare for a small Latin vocabulary quiz (DOWN WITH BUSH, I've got political Turrets), read 190 pgs. of "How to Read a Book" (for Thursday), and finish C.S. Lewis' introduction to "On the Incarnation", and the first five books of St. Augustine's "Confessions." This was light compared to what the uppaclassmen [sic] had to do. They like had to answer the question "What is the meaning of life?" with an answer that doesn't involve a number, solve all the issues behind world debt, and cure cancer and AIDS (as long as they're curing cancer they might as well cure AIDS).

Anyway, my point is WE HAD IT EASY!!!

Anyway, I did all that with the help of my compadres who stayed late up into the night with me comforting me that it would "be alright."

Speaking of compadres, I still haven't spoken of any of the wonderful people I have come into contact with in this, my first week of NSA. I can't name them all but let me just tell you that they are wonderful. All the homework does not seem as daunting when I am around people with such good attitudes.

God Bless Us Every One.

and this my friends, is a dead muskrat:

P.S. my apologies to Charles Dickens; that last part just slipped out on its own