All Was Not Well in the Nance this Weekend

What could go wrong with parflesnarf and "The Sound of Music?" One would not think such a wholesome, good clean fun kinda night could possibly go wrong, especially not in the Nance, it's pretty much the safest place on campus.

Movie night started good, but by the end, things just weren't really right, no one could really hold attention, it was almost an antsy-ness in the room, but after the movie was over I was looking out my window and waving at the people who happened to be walking around campus at 1:30 in the morning (nothing I haven't done before) but then this creepy guy on a bicycle stops and stares right up into our window. Alright, well while Stephen is telling us to call campus police just by the looks of the guy, Chris and I were trying to be rational and not jump to conclusions, afterall, if someone was waving at you, you might stop and try to figure out who it was, not neccesarily in such a creepy way, but you know he continued on his way after a moment or two.

Well a few minutes later, he's back outside our window, staring up at us again, this time the guys as well as myself are gathered at the window and again, the staring just wasn't normal, it was creepy, not right at all.

Well, being in the Nance and all, we had to kick the boys out at 2 but before they left we had them stand outside our window for awhile, check around the building, keep on the look-out and let us know "it was snowing in Japan" (code for it was all good) but while they were still down there, the guy rides by again, and not just rides by, but comes out of the breeze way connecting our dorm to another building on campus. Before the boys had even noticed he was coming I had seen him out of the corner of my eye and hit the floor like it was no one's business. The boys watched him ride off and said he was going the opposite direction so we figured he was gone, and wouldn't come back especially after seeing the four boys outside our window.

And he didn't see him ride by our window anymore

but around 2:30-3:00ish after Maggie and I calmed ourselves down I am on my way to wash my face and whatnot and I open the door and right to my left is the man WITH HIS BIKE, standing right outside my door! What the heck! SO I slam the door shut, lock it and sit down right in front of it barely able to move and just get out enough words to tell Maggie to call campus police. So I am sitting in front on the door and I call my friend Stephen and he's trying to calm me down and rally the boys together.

About 10 minutes later, campus police finally shows up and get this he knocks on the door and doesnt even bother to identify himself! And after about 10-15 minutes of "checking the building" he comes back and tells us he's done or whatever (like one cop can search the whole building effectively and he didn't even do bathrooms which he later had Maggie and I go with him to do but he sent us in while he held to door) and in the process of this our heros the boys had come back to the Nance and returned to our window.

Well after the cop left, neither Maggie or I felt very safe and we knew we weren't going to sleep and we weren't about to go out in the hall by ourselves, so we threw Maggie's ID down to the boys and broke just about every visitation policy in the Nance to let the boys back up into our room. So they call Kenneth, our friend who is a security assistant (and by the way there was no SA on duty in our building which means there was no one at the desk, the doors werent checked and the alarms weren't set) and he came and he and two of the guys did a really thorough search of the building and in the end Maggie and I ended up sleeping on the floor in Chris's room in Richardson, which is an interesting experience in and of itself, and needless to say, I didn't sleep at all really.

Much more has progressed on this whole issue since then, including the fact that some freshman on the first floor actually LET THIS GUY IN AT 2:3o IN THE MORNING!! I actually met the girl tonight and it took everything in me not to chew her out, not in an angry way but just to let her know how serious it was because giggling over it isn't how she should be responding to the situation.

Sigh, there is a lot more I can say but I'm gonna leave on a few closing points.

1. HUGE props and eternal thanks to our boys (Stephen, Chris, Kevin, Joe, and Kenneth) for being so valiant in their efforts to protect us.
2. Thank you Emilie for coming down and encouraging us to pray last night, I really needed that.
3. Thank you God for showing Maggie Psalm 27 yesterday, what a comfort in the Word.
4. To be quite honest, I have never feared for my life until that moment when I opened that door and saw that man. I have been scared to tears before, but never actually afraid, it's a very different feeling. For example, I cried going down the zipline at camp, I was scared, but deep down I knew that that wire wasn't going to break and my harness was tight and secure. I didn't know what was going on in this man's head, I didn't know he was there beforehand, I just didn't know and not knowing is terrifying. Just praise God I couldn't move on step farther after I opened that door, and praise God I didn't leave just a minute earlier leaving me by myself in the bathroom and Maggie alone in the room with the door open. Just praise God!