No Pants Thursday is Two Days Away

Just thought you should know so you can celebrate with me.

So I finished my paper and submitted it last night at 11:20 -- it was due at midnight, so I think I did a good job of getting it done on time.  It usually takes me about an hour to write one page, so for a 10 page assignment you're looking at an all day event, however this time I wrote 12 pages in 7 hours (including proofreading and editing time, which I normally forgo), so that's either a mark of personal growth, or a sign that I wrote a really crappy paper.  I really need to learn to properly outline a paper.  I am working on it.

So, that really was all I had to get done this week.  I'm sitting in the library feeling like I've forgotten something, which is bothersome.

Oh!  I've discovered my new favorite pop album.  It's a couple of years old, but I'm totally digging the Givers In Light album.  I ended up listening to that while writing my paper yesterday instead of the usual.  It's pretty harmonically simplistic, but the grooves are good.  Here's my favorite track so far:

So I ordered this DVD called Essential Yoga for Inflexible People and it came in the mail yesterday.  I think I'm going to go home after work tonight and do it.  I'm getting creaky in my old age and I'm not okay with it.  Plus stretching is just good for you.

I have to do this ritual for my Resource Scarcity & Resilience class and I was just going to do a group prayer, but apparently that's not sensory enough...  So I was thinking about providing some kind of focal/meditation point and doing some kind of intoning thing (which might actually be too sensory).  These are the things you get when you search for "glass aquarium rocks" on Amazon: Nature Shimmer Aquarium Glass Pebbles, The Roots of Rock Drumming Book/DVD, and NFL Buffalo Bills Two Piece Rocks Glass Set.  One of these things is not like the other, and it's the thing I actually need.

I'm working on a Sunday school lesson series for 12-16 year olds for the same class, which, though I've never written curriculum before, is turning out to be a lot of fun.  It's kind of evolving as I work on it and I'm able to incorporate a lot of the stuff I'm learning in other classes into what I'm planning for the kids.

I also have to write an Advent devotional for 4-6 year olds, you know, because Advent is a simple theological concept..  Academic writing, sensory writing, and writing for adolescents and kids...it's stretching my brain in weird new ways.

Emily -- send me some nephew photos stat!  I've got to keep up my cute nephew street cred!  Also, I would like to point out that I haven't gotten a care package from home all semester.  Text me if you need my address, but I'm measuring your love for me in cookies mailed to my house.

Okay, I'm going to go find Chinese food before discussion group.  Go China!

Wait, it's November already?

In three weeks I begin my last year of my twenties.  Weird.  Alternately, as my friend Alex likes to point out, it's the beginning of the 30th year of my life on Earth.  Thank, Alex.  And all I've got to show for it is this ashtray, this paddle-ball game, and these matches...for sure...

Not a banner day for me thus far.  My meeting with my adviser was mediocre and too brief to cover what I needed to.  Class was preachy and boring.  I was struggling to stay awake.  Now I have a 10 page paper to write (due at midnight) and I forgot my headphones.  Hope everyone else in the library likes Vaughan Williams and/or The Hunger Games...

Why those two things?  Well, Vaughan Williams is calming and Fantasia on Thomas Tallis is almost exactly 15 minutes long, so it helps me keep track of the passing time.  I can't explain why The Hunger Games helps me write papers.  Maybe because it makes me thankful I'm writing papers instead of offing my colleagues. 

But this paper is really all I have to do for this week, so maybe I'll get some of my other projects done.  And I have lunch with Sarah tomorrow!  And the lunch I planned for WSA is on Wednesday and then it's over!

I am excited about the classes I get to take next semester though -- couple of worship classes, two travel seminars, and a class on contemporary evangelism.  I'll only have class on Monday and Wednesday, which is pretty darn wonderful.

And now I should really go buy headphones and get back to work.  Scheduled break begins in 2 hours.

Recent Haps: Rhode Island, Festival of Activist Bands, Maine, and Never Making It to the MFA

So the last bits.

We went to Providence: it's uphill both ways.

We took the train.  They were concerned for our safety -- there were lots of signs.  Providence is home to the oldest Baptist congregation, established in 1638.  This building was completed in 1775.  We also found a fish light.

We found a cow too.  Whoever "Hoes" is gets progressively less sure about their identity.  The fountain was commissioned by Paul Bajnotti for his dead wife, but I like to think he was the Italian inventor of the banjo.  Then we happened upon this other statue in a park -- he looks like he's laying down some beatz for downtown Providence.  Super-bonus: we found a craft festival!

Apparently Providence sets the river on fire in the summer/fall.  They blare New Age, Native American, and Celtic music and light these big, floating fire pits.  It's pretty neat.

We found this boat in a park.  We took ridiculous photos, just because.  You could take a gondola ride on the river (why you would do this I don't know), but you can see the floating fire pits before they were lit.

The capital.  They were having some kind of breast cancer event so it glowed pink.  And the train ride back after a successful day of exploring.

When I got home there was a New Orleans style band event going on at the train station.  As it turns out, this led into a parade the next day.  Honk: The Festival of Activist Bands puts on a killer parade.

My favorite group (not pictured) was Colonel Pope and the Hartford Hot Several.

And then we went to Maine, where I had a love affair with reflections:

A really, really good use for the panorama setting on my camera.

No photoshopping

No photoshopping

I've decided to transfer to the New England conference on the condition that I get to live in either the little white house, or one of the houses across the inlet.  I'll let you know how that goes once I propose it to the DS here.

No photoshopping.  The reflections!

The reflections!

Acadia National Park, closed due to bipartisan idiocy.

Reflections of everything, including the grass!

The reflections -- gah!  Easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Then on Friday Sarah and I were going to go to the Museum of Fine Arts for something fun and free to do, but instead we got BBQ and talked all afternoon, which, though not free, was way more fun.

It's been a wonderful 10 days or so, but midterms are coming up (already?) and I've gotta get back to work before I get behind.  Heading back to CA this week -- looking forward to seeing the whole clan!

Victory!

I bought a $125 bathing suit today for $6.50.  I feel like that's a personal victory.

Dinosaurs Aren't Just for Kids

It's been a long couple of days.  Actually, from a school work perspective, this has been the week I've been dreading.  On top of all my regular assignments and reading, I had a paper due yesterday at noon, a project due today at 5, and another paper due at midnight.  In addition to that this is the week I have my intensive class, so we met for 3 hours last night and all day today.  This means that my normal routine of working steadily on half of a project for a couple of days and then frantically finishing it at the last minute wasn't going to work...times three assignments.  In addition Desi's dad and step-mom are visiting Boston and are staying with us.  While it's great having them here (they really are fun people, and it turns out I share a birthday with not only Brittany Spears, but also Desi's step-mom -- that was a hilarious conversation) it's just another schedule-busting event.  But it's over and now I get to have fun!

But before the fun: today for class we went to Harvard's arboretum.  We just got to wander for an hour.  I found a spot and just watched.  I saw a bunch of cardinals (male and female) and another kind of black bird I couldn't identify.  Plus, I saw some squirrels and a snake!  It was nice to see trees, and touch new grass (didn't pick it since I don't have a vase) but I spent 4 hours on the train in total where all I could think about was the paper I wasn't working on.

This reminded me of the hillside at Grandma's where Josh, Em, and I used to build forts to keep the Gerries out.  Josh was obsessed with Gerries.  Emily and I just liked being outside.

I love all the different colors of green in tree leaves, especially as the sun shines through them.

 So Desi's folks are staying in our living room.  We had friends over tonight so that they could all meet Desi's family, so I made minestrone soup and we served a loaf of homemade bread (we make the communion bread for church and it always makes two loaves -- that's right, communion every single week).  The soup was really, really good.  Desi made me use a recipe (but I didn't follow it...ssssh...).

Ben brought wine and we ate and laughed and talked.  It was fun.  Then I went and finished my paper.

 Nothing screams "adult meal" like a dinosaur Ramen spoon.  Truthfully, I don't remember anymore where I got this spoon, but it has always made me happy.  Somehow it ended up in Boston with me, and it still makes me happy.

Tomorrow I'm going to Providence, Rhode Island with Haley, Lauren, and Evan, and then on Monday I'm going to Maine.  Happy Columbus Day weekend!  I guess I'm conquering new lands...?  But in a totally non-colonial sense. 

But let's be real, you'd be lucky to be in any colony I ran.  I'll let you know when applications are available.  That's right, applications -- I'm not taking just any Joe Schmoe.  But if you know a Joe Schmoe let me know; that'd be some feather in my colonial cap.