The Blessings of Institute

Ok, in a few of my prior posts I have complained just a little bit about the walking required for my grad school classes.  :)   I want to explain a bit about that and then I will get to the title of this entry.

When I finally decided that I was going to move to Denton my mom and I spent 2 different fun filled days here looking around for an apartment.  The very last one we saw was this perfect apartment.  It's location was unbelievable.

As you can see from the map above my apartment is RIGHT next to the Speech and Hearing building.  At the time that we were searching for an apartment I was under the impression that all of my classes would be in that building so it was PERFECT!  Unfortunately our class group is larger then usual and will not fit in any of the class rooms in that building so the Dean had to scramble to find classrooms that would fit us.  The problem with the last minute scramble is that the classrooms are not necessarily in the most convenient places.

This is the walk I made several times last week, the one I have been complaining about.  I know it is good for me, and thankfully the weather hasn't been too bad.  It is beautiful today.  I am looking forward to cooler weather but not rainy days.   Today brought with it a whole new set of classrooms to get to and believe it or not they are even further away then last weeks class room.

I am not in the best physical condition so I approach long distance walking like the tortoise, slow and steady.  I gave myself an hour so I could stop and rest if needed.  I needed to leave for class at 11:30am.  At about 10am it occurred to me that I had not yet signed up for Institute.  When I got on to the website to sign up I remembered where the institute was located...

TaDa!  Hoorah!  *chorus of angels singing*  Hallelujah!  OK, so If you attend institute you get to park in the lot for free all semester!  Hooray!  Needless to say I signed up for Institute class right then.  Maybe, later in the semester, I will do the long walk but it is nice to have this shorter walk option.  Especially for bad weather days and because my last class on monday night doesn't get out until 8:30pm I am counting my blessings.  So, I parked there today and who knows, maybe it will turn into a missionary opportunity... "Free Close parking!  You just have to attend a bible study class once a week!" :)

Which brings me to the title of this blog entry.  I know there are other, spiritual, blessings of institute but for me, today, I am thankful for the immediate blessing of free parking close to my classrooms.