Hijinx and Rexyhincs

Hanging out with Mom at home today has been, as it usually is, full of ridiculousness and fun.  We crafted and made these snowflakes:

Made of hot glue and glitter -- two of my favorite things.  Directions here.

 
Then we played Scrabble.  The first round we played regular rules.  The second round we played regular rules until we got bored.  The third round we played with made-up words.  You got double word score if it was a regular word.  We got a little creative...we can't help it.

The words are: Rexyhincs, Luanoj, Atalim, Geerpatar, Zenpot, Goomea, Haycuf, Giasnetti, Gerndsch, Dentist, Gwofvs, Ziodi, Albewi, Yeetepe, Calmorke, Bavoolp, and Forquitird.

Tomorrow is errands and shopping for Christmas Eve dinner.  Hopefully I'll get my passport renewal sent tomorrow too -- I need to have it done ASAP...March is not that far off.

And I priced tickets from Boston to Reykjavik.  I can get a round trip ticket for $550 right now.  Seems silly not to go.

Freedom, Sweet Freedom!

I'm halfway done with my degree?!  What?  Huh?  When did that happen?

My plan was to finish my last final on Monday and then pack, but I was totally out of steam on Monday.  It might have been the fact that I finished two other finals on Sunday (thanks to the 6" of snow that cancelled church and the kids' thing I was supposed to do), or it could have just been a gigantic case of the not-giving-a-craps.  So instead of writing on Monday I slept in, watched TV, packed, and baked cookies.  (I did do a small amount of cleaning in anticipation of leaving for a month.)  It was great until about 12am on Tuesday morning when panic set in. 

I panicked until 1am when I decided to give in and go to bed.  I got up bright and early at 5am to do the dishes from the cookies I baked (stress baking has its drawbacks) and made the half mile trek to the train station at 5:30 in 11 degree weather. 

The thing I hate the most about flying is flying with a coat.  Where do I put it?  Does it count as a carry on?  Can it go in the overhead bin?  Do I stuff it under my seat?  Do I wear it and then attempt to removed it mid-flight, knocking the glass eye of my seatmate out in the process?  Who is responsible for the damages--me, the airline, or the coat manufacturer?  What if stuff falls out of the pockets?  There has to be a solution!  Yesterday there wasn't one.  It was 11 in Boston and 60 in Missouri.  Flying with my coat happened.

Anyway...  Because I didn't get my last final done on Monday I did half of it at Houston Hobby and the other half in my sister's living room while my nephew screamed and made engine sounds, and my sister and brother-in-law tried to figure out why their pre-owned piano has a 110v power cord coming out of it.  I postulate that it's like a tractor engine warmer, and that this particular piano was once owned by a pianist who enjoyed brisk, outdoor morning practice. My final paper may or may not have been relevant to the topics I was supposed to write about, but sometimes done is better than good.

Bottom line, my finals are done and I'm free!!!!!  I did my first ever Wordle, which is a much more interesting way to show you what I've been working on.  I took the 100+ pages of stuff I've written this semester and plugged them in and, voila!

Now I'm watching Home Alone (the first one) and having an adult beverage.  Because, darn it, I can!

And now for something not-so-completely different, my 5 favorite Christmas movies:
White Christmas
Elf
A Matter of Principle
An American Christmas Carol
Home Alone

And even though it isn't strictly Christmassy, I always want to watch the 1988 BBC version of The Chronicles of Narnia.  That and Anne of Green Gables reminds me of breaks spent with PBS/BBC.  PBS and I are kindred spirits.

And now to bed for a long winter's nap!  I hope I remembered to pack my kerchief...

When a Final turns into a Sermon

Do you still turn it in?  Especially when your view and the professor's view aren't the same and you're basically preaching against the professor?  Since I'm halfway through the assignment, whatever it is, it's a little late to turn back...but still I wonder...

Sample for my mother so she knows I'm alive and well:

"This engagement of the world is the duty of Christians, and is done out of the understanding that we love others as God has first loved us. God’s love of us necessitates that we engage God’s world in transforming acts of love. 
 
In fact, this is the stated mission of The United Methodist Church, “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” Divine Christ makes this relationship with God possible, and human Jesus provides an incarnate model of a life lived fully engaged in God’s transforming work. The incorporation of both the divine and the human aspects of God’s son into our mission is no accident. Both are essential to our understanding of mission."

Then I'm going to sing a couple of verses of "Oh How I Love Jesus", drop the mic, and walk away (or maybe back away depending on how I confident I feel about it when I'm done).  At least that's how it works in my head.

The Finals Countdown: 7 Days

 The 80s...my life would be so much easier if hair like this were still in vogue.  Every morning I wake up basically looking like a hairmetal band.  It's a lot of work to undo that much greatness.

It's strange to think that I'm 7 days away from the halfway mark of my seminary education.  Really strange.  But it's also a good time to do an assessment of where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going.

Don't know if you could tell from my writing, but last year was rough.  Some of it was the fact that the core "BU education stamp" approved classes were (and still are, if rumblings are any indication) in need of serious re-evaluation.  A lot of it was everything going on at home.  A portion of it was being forced to regurgitate stuff you don't believe in order to make a passing grade.  Some of it was my weird living situation.  And some of it was my own pride and inability to learn from people I don't respect -- not one of my better traits.  I apologize to those of you who had to listen to me no-so-silently lose my mind.  It wasn't pretty.

This year has been much better.  This year I'm in classes with professors who WANT to know what I think -- who allow that disagreement and grace can exists side by side.  I get to write about things I actually believe, and in being forced to explain what I believe I get to experience the richness of our wonderful traditions.  One of the readings last year was about how academic study can be a form of spiritual exercise.  I didn't get it at the time because so little of what we read and wrote was life-giving for me (and maybe that was my spiritual exercise -- perseverance).  This year, however, I get to read things that make me excited to crack the books.  I know that education isn't all about fun, but if you aren't enjoying it why are you doing it?  Sure isn't for the money...

And the thing is, I wasn't the only one who had my experience last year.  Lots of people (people I was so glad not to see over the summer) experienced the same trauma I did.  It seems like the goal of the first year is to beat you down so that you can be built back up in their image of what you "ought to be".  Homie don't play that.  My stubborn streak is more likely to go in the opposite direction just to tick you off.  It's the silent-resistance-until-you-push-it-too-far-and-then-it's-war thing...I can't help myself.

This year, I am able to sit down with those people and have reasonable, rational, productive, holy conversation (which is good cause these folks are going to be my colleagues for the next, um, 50 years).  And it's wonderful to recognize the growth in others in the same way I recognize it in myself.  I sat down with a group of people yesterday to talk about a problem (the detrimental way language surrounding pro-LGBTQ is being used at the school -- hard to argue for inclusiveness when the language you're using is as hurtful and harmful as the language you're fighting against...) and despite the divergent opinions on the ultimate issue we all agreed that we had a problem that needed to be fixed, and set about fixing it.  This gives me hope -- that the future of the church is going to be in good hands.  

The last two months or so have been a real turning point for me in that I'm finally glad to be at BU, here, now.  Also, I finally have a reasonable grasp on theological language!  Seriously folks -- sometimes it's like trying to learn Russian with a yardstick for a guide.

Anyway, I should probably get back to writing my final assignments, but I'll leave you with the conclusion to this paper (I have yet to write the rest of it):

"When Wesley began his quest for social and personal holiness, he never dreamed that the people called Methodists would become a worldwide denomination.  When he suggested unity in essentials and a spirit of grace in everything else he probably did not envision the ways in which that unity and grace would be tested.  Much as individual lived experiences of the Christian life, the life of the Methodist denominations has rarely been smooth sailing.  The desire to truly discern the will of God and to live into that will has, oftentimes, caused as much pain and schism as it has truth and beauty. However, this constant seeking of God, with all of its fiery debates and tension, has been a hallmark of what it means to be Methodist.  We are collectively going on toward perfection.  Disagreements are a reality as we work out our collective faith with fear and trembling, but we are called to remember that we are not working alone.

 
As United Methodists we covenant to be in community with one another even when we do not agree.  We covenant to work through our differences, and to offer grace to one another while we sort these things out.  We covenant to love one another even when we cannot agree.  The value of steadfast love and faithfulness through disagreement is, to me, one of the most beautiful things about Methodism because it points toward God’s steadfastness toward us, even through our sinfulness and estrangement.  This is the heart of connectionalism.  We are connected.  Our baptism confirms it, and our participation in Holy Communion affirms it.  We cannot run from it.  Hallelujah!  Thanks be to God."

Side note: connectionalism usually refers to the way the UMC organizes (conferences, etc.), but in this case it also refers to the community we experience through being the body of Christ. 

There's a lot of Methodism in that, so kudos to you if you made it to the end!

Lots of Thanks

Busy, kind of crazy break.  But got lots of relaxing done too. 

I worked on Monday and Tuesday, which was good because I got caught up on everything!  On Wednesday Haley and I borrowed Evan's car (Yay Evan -- come up from Princeton and loan us your car any time you want!) and went to Glouster and Bear Skin Neck for the day.  I can't find my camera cord at the moment, so you'll have to wait for photos of the event, but suffice it to say that 1) it poured and we were entirely soaked through, 2) we ignored some pretty obvious road signs to traipse through a private yacht club to get to a light house, and 3) we had a blast! 

On Thursday morning I went with some school friends to another friend/TA/mother of student's house in Methuen.  The food was good and it was fun to be with people away from Boston.  Also, there were cats, so I got some quality pet time in.  On Friday morning we went to the Methuen Festival of Trees.  People decorate trees and then they sell tickets to win the tree and whatever is on/in it.  There were some traditionally beautiful ones and there were some real dogs.  There were also some really creative and weird ones.  Guess which ones I took photos of?

Two trees put together in a frame to look like an hour glass -- pretty neat!  Bumble, the abominable snowman from Rudolph, with rubber organs pinned to him and notes that explain what an MRI machine does.  There is nothing about this that makes sense to me.  Merry Christmas?

A T-Rex with a Christmas tree for a body.  An under the sea themed Christmas extravaganza.  It is conical in shape, so I guess it counts as a tree.  It had a hammer head shark coming out of it on one side and a Moray eel coming from the base.  There was a Manta ray on the other side.  You can see the jelly fish and coral and fish and things.  It's pretty neat.

Here's where the time crunch begins...

I got home at 12:30 on Friday.  Started a load of laundry.  Got a phone call at 1:00.  Packed a bag.  Caught the train at 1:20.  Got to South Station at 2:00.  Wandered aimlessly trying to find "the next building" and get a clue for 12 minutes.  And somehow managed to catch the 2:15 bus to Portland, Maine.  Notice how I didn't say I took the laundry out of the washer...that was a fun treat earlier this evening.

I spent Friday, Saturday, and most of today with Kathleen and her family (extended and immediate) in Augusta, Maine.  It was so much fun!  We played games and ate turkey for every meal (they cooked 44 pounds of it so it was mandatory).  I'd forgotten what it was like to play games with kids.  Everyone is so concerned about cheating, but really the issue is that they want to make sure no one else is cheating more than they are.  It's the whole log in the eye thing.  I also earned a sweet nickname, so you should know that I am now known in Augusta as Mrs. Turnip.  I have a pet turnip named Roofus.  I had so much fun and they were so lovely to be with!  Maine is beautiful and it was so good to be out of the city.

I went to church with Kathleen this morning and enjoyed it very much.  Today being the first Sunday of Advent the sermon was on hope, which is what I needed to hear today.  During the first service they had a mini hymn sing, so we got to sing about 6 additional songs.  Then I went to Sunday School where I met a sweet kid.  We had the following conversation:

Me: What's your favorite subject in school?
Kid: Language arts.
Me: Yeah? Do you like to read or write, or both?
Kid: I like to write.  Last year I wrote a 17 page story about a mutant hamster.
Me: What did he do?
Kid: He fought crime.
Me: Did he have a cool crime-fighting name?
Kid: Michael.

And this is why kids are a hoot.  The second service was also nice, and the sermon was good the second time too.  Plus I got double bonus communion!

Then I ate some turkey, and, while it snowed, I took a nap next to this:

And then I got on a bus and came home.  It was a good week/weekend.  Also, bought my tickets home for Christmas -- I leave in a little over 2 weeks!!  Gotta push through until then.  And the end of this semester marks the half-way point of my degree.  Weird.  But it really is weird how much difference one semester makes in how prepared you feel.

So that's what I've got going on, and I'm thankful for all of it.  Thankful I get to go to school.  Thankful that, for the moment, everybody is relatively happy and healthy.  Thankful that I'm enjoying my classes.  Thankful for friends who take me into their homes.  Thankful, thankful, thankful.