Does anybody else remember the magazine "Highlights for Kids"? Our dentist used to have it in his waiting room. Someone had always circled the hidden items in the picture search...lame. Let the rest of us have a go, 7 year old stranger.
Anyway, here are two pictoral highlights from my very long day today:
I got a newer computer at work. This monitor is twice the size of my last one and now I will be able to see my work from space. It's a little bit much.
No, no I don't. But I wish I did -- $1200/month! And other than the whole "being a man" thing, I totally have all the other qualifications. This is discrimination! Also, I kind of hope this is a gag since it looks a lot like a financial bank ad. ...just went to the website. Not a joke. And one of the options is "Share Your Own Sperm". I wasn't aware you could donate someone else's sperm. ...wait, just read it again. It says "Store Your Own Sperm". That's very different. Ya know, surprisingly enough, the pricing on that isn't terrible.
I am making a concerted effort to blog more, partially because I'm not going home for Thanksgiving and partially because spending so much time with family makes me realize how much I don't want to lose that connection. Grandpa's memorial was as happy as a sad event could be, but the best part was hanging out with family. There was a reunion of our family band, The Bi-Coastals. It was honestly one of the most fun things I've ever done, singing with my aunts and uncles and getting to hear my cousin play guitar (we've been cousins for nearly 30 years and this is the first time I hear him play...downright shameful). So, thus, heretofore I blog more.
Also, I'm crazy on top of stuff. I just finished a project that's not due for another 72 hours...Sometimes I don't know who I am. Seriously, who am I? If I met me on a street corner I wouldn't know me. For a lot of reasons.
I've been on sound overload lately. I'm not sure why now exactly, but I've been feeling crabby so I know I have to hide to counteract the crab. Being forced to talk is exhausting and frustrating. Probably has something to do with having to dissect all my words all the time. Seriously, I now do things like stop myself mid conversation to correct a theologically questionable pronoun, sometimes only to find that I've entirely over-thought the conversation (I know you find this surprising) since using 'he' for Jesus is totally okay because Jesus was a dude (Have you ever seen him and Jeff Bridges together? Makes you wonder...). Exhausting. So, Desi, if you're reading this it's not you. It's me. I just need some silence.
Yesterday and today were nice because I had the house all to myself (Desi, see above paragraph). Yesterday I slept in and then Sarah and I went and had Mexican food. The place didn't serve Pepsi or Coke, because apparently Somerville makes its own cola. I didn't know. It's pretty good. Then I went home and watched the most recent James Bond movie -- I love a good (or bad) spy/action movie! And then I went to sleep. At 8. It was glorious! Today I went to the reading retreat and got a lot of work accomplished (with headphones in and minimal discussion) AND I got free meals! It's a win/win.
Tomorrow is my pre-K Advent event. So far as I can tell it hasn't been advertised, so attendance may be minimal. If no one shows up I'm going to trace my hands to make my own Advent wreath...so...stay tuned for that... After all, aren't we all just giant children?
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!
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.
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!
