Hi Chris, Tanya & LOF Listeners!

This is Allie with your weekly update of my “Catholic Life on Campus.” Good news this week is that my computer is now all better…YAY! Apparently, some “adware” snuck onto my system and was causing a lot of problems. So here’s some quick advice: EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING THREE PROGRAMS TO PROTECT THEIR COMPUTER!

1) A good anti-virus program, such as AVG
2) Spybot – Search & Destroy, which eliminates any “bot” programs
3) Ad-Aware, which gets rid of any “adware.”

I had the first two already, but once I installed Ad-Aware, I was able to isolate the problem and now my compy is happily working again. You can find all three of these programs for free on the Web.

Anyways, onto the big topic this week. This weekend will be my first encounter with “Spring Fling,” the last chance to “party hearty” before finals. The festivities started last night since some of the students don’t have Friday classes. I, unfortunately, had THREE classes this morning, which is actually a light day for me. This was further irritated when a complete stranger “drunk dialed” me at 5:30 this morning. Anyways, some good friends and I made nachos & ice cream sundaes last night so we were just talking, laughing and having a good time. It’s nice that we don’t need booze or drugs to have fun – we’re goofy enough with chocolate in our systems! But when I went back to my apartment, I found my suitemate and a group of strangers passing a bong around my living room. So I retreated into my bedroom and locked the door for the rest of the night. I’m starting to think that I’ve been too tolerant of their smoking and drug use this year. I’ve actually gotten used to the smell of pot and that disappoints me now. I wasn’t sticking up for myself just to avoid confrontation with these people I had to live with for the rest of the school year. Thank God I’m only here for one more week! Right now though, I’m just trying to figure out now how I’m supposed to survive Spring Fling. Some of my friends are smart and are going home for the weekend. If things get too crazy around here, I may do the same, as embarassing as that may sound to others. If I do stay on campus, hopefully I will find some friends level-headed enough so we can just relax and not be completely stupid. I really don’t want to spend the whole weekend holding someone’s hair back as they puke their guts out. I’ve mentioned before how being on this campus with peers who like to party can be a great challenge to my faith & the decisions I make in general. Spring Fling Weekend, however, is going to push those limits even futher. Luckily, my fellow music students and I have a major concert tonight and Sunday afternoon, which minimalizes most of their drinking to just tonight after the performance. Hopefully, no one is stupid about it because performing hung over or with a foggy head usually doesn’t go very well. Whatever happens this weekend is sure to be interesting. So please pray for me and the other students, that they will use good judgement the next few days in terms of partying, substance abuse and overall reckless behavior.

So I hope this was much easier for Chris & Tanya to read. I even enlarged the font to reduce your agonizing eyestrain! God Bless everyone and Be safe!!