Happy Christmas!!!

With apologies to the chartreuse buzzards:

Three. Semi. Narians.*
Three. Semi. Narians.
Three seminarians sitting in a Toyota.

Oh, look! One has returned!
Let us rejoice! Alleluia!

Two. Semi. Narians.*
Two. Semi. Narians.
Two seminarians sitting in a Toyota.

Oh, look! One has returned!
Let us rejoice! Alleluia!

One. Semi. Narian.
One. Semi. Narian.
One seminarian sitting in a Toyota.

Oh, look! One has returned!
Let us rejoice! Alleluia!

*Sort of, except Jane's graduated. But I couldn't think of a more accurate version that worked in the song.


(In other words, Jennifer, Jane, and I all made it safely to and from Hope's ordination.)

hurray for Christmas traditions!

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Busy, busy, busy

Friday, the internet was down at Book and Bean. Today, there is a brand-new network. Hurray!

This weekend has been busy: the little brother came home for tree decorating, and our family went out for dinner Friday, all four of us. It's the most relaxed time we've had since I got home. The rest of the weekend was busy again, with trees to be decorated, Christmas parties to go to, grandmothers to be cared for, and presents to be bought and wrapped.

Tomorrow I head up to Jane's, so that we can head down to Hope's ordination Wednesday, and back to Jane's Thursday. So I'll be offline for a few days more, probably - hmm. Actually that seems unnecessary. Internet is more readily available at Jane's than it is here. Well, we'll see.

Today is most definitely Monday, and to prove it I met with my rector for lunch and will interview with my vestry for candidacy endorsement at dinner. (I've been told that I am to feel free to eat, not to allow speaking to interfere with eating, etc., but my father tells me he's yet to see a vegetarian meal at vestry. So we'll see about that too.)

Anyway, despite today being Monday, here's last Friday's Friday Five, since I didn't have internet on Friday:

1) Have you ever gotten a really good kiss under the mistletoe? I don't think so, although my high school boyfriend and I did so many Christmas shows with our show choir that it's possible I just don't remember.


2) Do you know anyone who makes real eggnog, not the stuff from the carton? And if so, do you actually like it?

Yes, and yes! My great-grandmother always made her own cranberry eggnog at Christmas, and my mother and I make it now. It's delicious.

3) What's your favorite Christmas party album/CD ever?

Oh, there are so many... probably my long-term favorite is Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song. But I also loved my Rainbow Brite Christmas album (yes, I mean album, not cassette/CD), and I love the Julie Andrews CD my parents have, and then there's Bing Crosby, and the Robert Shaw Chorale, and....

4) Does your office/workplace have a party? Do the people there ever behave the way people in movies behave at office parties, which is to say, badly?

I have no office. Although, maybe I'll turn my new extra room into an office. But it's unlikely to hold parties. That's the common room's job. It's bigger, better decorated, and has more and better seating. Also it's closer to the "kitchenette" room. Since I currently have no office, though, there's nobody in it to behave badly. Sorry.

5) If you have to bring something to a party, what is it likely to be? Do people like it?

Wine. Or maybe napkins or soda, if it's not a wine kind of party. My kitchen is in the same dimension of potential reality as my office, which makes it terribly difficult to cook or bake things in it.

A lengthy, rambling, discourse on piano fiddling

Hunh. That title makes it sound as though I've been doing something with a fiddle and a piano simultaneously. That title is misleading, I guess. I have no facility with the fiddle.

What I've really been doing is fiddling around on the piano. I prefer "fiddling around on" to "playing" because the latter implies that I can, in fact, play. Which is false. What I can do is read music and learn simple tunes, and fool around with things. I really like coming to my parents' and having a piano around (that I don't have to sneak into Seabury Lounge at unsettlingly late hours to use, and that Seymour doesn't have to hear me fiddle with). Yesterday, I decided it might be useful if I learned to play the "Lute Lullaby" that the Ladies of the Court sing for Ohio's Boar's Head, since my mother needs to learn the 2nd soprano part by Saturday for unit rehearsal. One of the things that makes it work for our volunteer, once-a-year, group is that it's fairly simple, so it wasn't too tough to learn - and it was really fun.

I keep forgetting how much I really like playing the piano when I actually sit down and do it. I'm still a little regretful that I didn't switch piano teachers earlier in life - instead, I quit after three years of lessons and got a new teacher after about six years off. I really loved my piano lessons with that second teacher, and I wonder if I would have stuck with them had I started with her. Piano lessons might have been the thing I missed most about going off to college, actually. I'm pretty sure I have more natural talent for piano than I do for singing or guitar, but I've never gotten to a level where I have any kind of useful skills in terms of playing for anyone but myself. Certainly piano is the only instrument I've ever tried where more effort and discipline produce remarkably improved effects, and it draws me in in a different way than either of the others.

At any rate, I've decided that piano lessons are near the top of the list of non-churchy things I'd like to do when I get a full-time church job, assuming I have access to a piano somehow. Don't worry - it's really a very short list, and I'm well aware that most of it just won't happen. Pretty much the list is dance classes, a second modern language (probably French), and piano lessons. Oh, and Girl Scouting. Ok, so not a terribly short list in terms of time consumption. But, like I said, I know most of it won't happen. Assuming I don't have to buy a piano to make lessons work, picking up piano lessons is more affordable than taking French (though a second modern language is certainly the most necessary of the three). Certainly starting piano lessons, which are generally not a group affair, is far less intimidating than getting back into dancing.

Anyway, enough rambling for now. I've spent almost all of the last 48 hours alone, and have just had a mocha - can you tell? I think I'd better go do something else with my caffeinated brain - maybe get ahead on some class reading or something equally, um, calming. Or I could always just go home and fiddle around on the piano some more.

Back to the grindstone, sort of

Well, in so far as my hometown's... thing.... is the grindstone, because it started life as a quarry town.* So I'm back to the land of the grindstone, but otherwise very much on break. Today my accomplishments have included going to Book and Bean to use the wireless (much, much faster and more satisfying than trying to read blogs and such on my parents' computer), returning a couple of library books for my mother, and looking at the questions I'm supposed to answer for my Seabury candidacy evaluation. Not answering any of them, mind you, just rereading them and sort of noting their existence. Now I'm off to the grocery store to pick up a few things - my parents have been home little enough recently that most of the food in the house is leftover sweets from their party this weekend, or frozen meat.


*What does one call that sort of a thing? It's not a mascot, quite, or a symbol or sign or anything like that. And it's more than just a nickname (The Grindstone City) because there are actual grindstones around and such. It's a... thing.

hey, look!

Micah just pointed me to this very exciting article.

STOP DOING THAT!!!

Roger, Gill, JD, and Caroline seem to think that they needed to leave Seabury just now. (Ok, to be fair, I don't think JD was really in the loop on this.) I disagree.

People should stop leaving.

Another one

Androgynous You scored 60 masculinity and 53 femininity!

You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 39% on masculinity You scored higher than 33% on femininity

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

More and more evidence that my ex was right about me (eek!)

A solution!

Brooke, in his comment on my last library post, has kindly demonstrated for us all why I refuse to use the Library of Congress system. I hope never to use a library system for my own books - Nielsen Library ruined me on that forever.

Susie, however, reminded me that my other thought had been to have ethics near cultural studies. So my new system will run:

~Reference
~OT, Bible, NT, Biblical Theology
~Theology
~Ethics
~Cultural Studies
~Missiology
~Leadership
~Pastoral Care
~Spiritual Biography
~Funky interfaith/generally spiritual stuff
~Books of prayers and liturgies that aren't officially licensed by ECUSA
~Liturgy/liturgical theology
~Various and sundry other, beginning with ancient languages of the sort used by the early Christian liturgists.

Methinks this will also make it easier to work in preaching - I imagine it will eventually go somewhere between ethics and spiritual biography.

That is so true.

You are bamboo.
Warm, cozy, and thoughtful, you take your time and
enjoy how things feel, smell, and taste. You
love the craft and beauty of traditional
things, and you value the comfort and
experience of knitting as much as the results.
But while you are reveling in your warm cozies,
don't get stuck. Warm is wonderful, but so is
the whole wide world!


What kind of knitting needles are you?
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Booklovers! Librarians!

Currently, my bookshelf looks as follows:

Top shelf: reference - Bibles, dictionaries, concordance, official prayer books, etc.

After that: OT, general Bible, NT, biblical theology, church history (chronologically), historical theology, theology, liturgical theology, liturgics, prayers, interfaith prayers, biography/autobiographical theological stuffs, Jung's autobiography, religion as academic curiosity, religion/sociology, women's studies, sexuality, race studies, Gospel Mission, pastoral care, other nonfiction.

In the bedroom: fiction, personal devotional stuff, periodicals, journals.

There is no ethics section in that schema, nor is there leadership (though I think I had leadership after pastoral care at one point, which I could live with). I now have ethics books (and leadership books). Oh, and preaching, but that stays on the "current quarter" shelf for a while because we're using those books all year.

The question: where should ethics go? It doesn't make sense to put it with my one other ethics book between pastoral care and other. Do I put it between theology and liturgy, because it really flows best from theology? Then there's a disconnect between ethics and liturgy. Do I move theology, and run "biblical theology, theology, ethics, history, liturgy"? Then I lose the great chronological flow from New Testament into early church history, and the great connection of "theology, liturgical theology, liturgy." Does ethics belong between personal testimony/biography and cultural studies? Then where does "religion as academic curiosity/sociology" go?

I know this is a subject dear to the hearts of many readers. (Ok, a large percentage of readers - I'm not sure I really have "many" readers to begin with.) What would you do? I value greatly having my subjects flow into one another, and would be sad to have to adopt strict library-style separations. On the other hand, the more books I get and the more specific they become, the harder the flow becomes in some places.

five books meme

Take the first 5 novels from your bookshelf... then do the following:

1. Book 1 - take first sentence
2. Book 2 - the fifth sentence on page 57 (see note on 5)
3. Book 3 - second sentence on page 100
4. Book 4 - next to last sentence on page 150
5. Book 5 - Final sentence of the book. (how is this different from what I did with book 2? I'm changing number 2.)

Make the five sentences into a paragraph. Feel free to cheat and make it a better paragraph. Name the sources and then post.

There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. There is something to be learned here, and we have to find out what. Worauf der Hund sich hinlegte und sich willig von Sofie streicheln liess. Meg had a quiet rapture, and then brooded over the letter, while Jo set the sick-room in order, and Hannah "knocked up a couple of pies in case of company unexpected." Es sah ganz danach aus, als sollte dieser Sommer viel besser werden als der letzte.

1. Cry the Beloved Country
2. A Swiftly Tilting Planet
3. Sofies Welt
4. Little Women
5. Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban

As penance for the fact that half my novels here aren't in English, and because I like books, here's the nonfiction version:

Geb the earth commanded the Ennead to assemble. He made many promises, which are repeated in the following chapters. And yet, ultimately, our underwater, intuitive selves are never really incompatible with the above-water, intellectual part of our wholeness. The Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants. I knew the dust would stay.

1. Old Testament Parallels (ed. Matthews and Benjamin)
2. Paul (E.P. Sanders)
3. Walking on Water (L'Engle)
4. Reformation Thought (McGrath)
5. The Shared Heart (ed. Mastoon)

Public Service Announcement

In case any of you have the memory problems of, well, a Campus Cook, may I remind you all:

SQUASH IS NOT AN ENTREE.

Also, chicken is not vegetarian. Neither is fish. And instant mashed potatoes plus mixed sauteed (boiled?) squash with a little tomato does not equal a balanced, satisfying, tasty, or otherwise positive dining experience. Nor does putting black beans in the salad bar to go with my macaroni and cheese at lunch count as feeding me for the day. Be less creative with the veggie alternatives at lunch (I don't really need macaroni and cheese with navy beans and asparagus in it as a lunch alternative to macaroni and cheese and salad bar) and feed me balanced dinners instead. It would be great if dinner didn't leave me hungry again three hours later, for instance. I can eat rice and beans every other day if I need to. Pasta dishes every Thursday will do. Rotate through your other ten real vegetarian meals on Tuesday nights and we've got a menu. But stop feeding me vegetable of the day with starch and calling it a meal.

Brought to you by the letter D and the number 5.

woot

One more step...

and I thought the GOEs were scary

I just caught that Katherine Watson's first exam in Mona Lisa Smile requires a 1500 word essay, on the fly, in 40 minutes.

Yeah... I'll take 6 pages in 3.5 hours, thanks.

erm, help?

There's something I'm missing here.

The Montreal talks follow on from the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and called for 30% cuts by 2020.

Mr Meacher earlier told BBC Radio 4's Today programme further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions - widely thought to contribute to rising temperatures - are vital.

"We need now to aim for more. That is what climate change is telling us. We need to say minus 25% by 2025."

Does he mean minus 25% again, after the 30%? Or is there some reason that in this particular calculation, the numbers run the opposite direction of what I expect? Mr Meacher seems a capable enough man to know that 25 is less than 30, so I don't honestly think he's got it wrong - I just don't understand how that works.

Ye great numbers of environmental statisticians among my readership, what does this mean?

Gospel Birthday Meme

Via Cheesehead:

Matthew 10:6: "but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Mark 10:6: "But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.”"

Luke 10:6: "And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you."

John 10:6: "Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them."


Well, the first three were fairly comfortable, anyway....

holy...

I so was not expecting RENT to be that good (even with my aunt's recomendation). I'm amazed.

And I haven't cried that hard in a long time. (Also hadn't realized it had been that long since I'd seen the stage version.)

Shower and bed now... but WOW.

from Cecily

A. Put your music playlist on random.
B. Post the first line of the first 20 songs that start to play (along with these instructions).
C. Have your friends try to guess the title & artist for each lyric in the comments
D. No googling!

1. Si got this. It's Hammer and a Nail, Indigo Girls.
2. Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi Dominus et sub pennis ejus sperabis
3. Si got this, too. Power of Two, Indigo Girls.
4. Si more or less got this. The actual title is Jacob in Egypt, from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
5. There they gathered, in the meadow, in the meadow two by two (Close, Rory, but try again.)
6. Some folks are born made to wave the flag
7. Slappin' leather was devised during a wild streak in her life
[skipping Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, since it's hard to post the first line of an orchestral piece]
8. We get to be a ripple in the water
9. Rory got this (eventually ;) .) It's Champagne Supernova, by Oasis.
10. It was in the March of the winter I turned 17
11. Rory got this. The Flood, from Children of Eden
12. Rory got this, which is only right. It's What You Wish For, by Guster.
[skipping Come, Risen Lord, because it's no fun if the title is de facto the first line]
13. Am I the kind of brother who would leave you standing on this lonesome railroad track?
14. All the corners filled with sorrow, all the streets are filled with pain
[skipping When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, for the same reason as Come, Risen Lord]
15. Living under June, living under her
16. At last, my love has come along
17. Let the phone ring, let's go back to sleep
18. Rory got this. It's Father of Mine, by Everclear.
19. I'm blazing a trail that leads to vice
20. The boy, he thinks I'm damaged goods

Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell...

Why, oh, why, do we have to listen to the sheep and goats passage so terribly often? Why, oh, why, can our liturgical committee come up with nothing more creative for half of our LFF days?

Why, oh, why, does that happen to be the text on which I find myself (no, really) preaching for preaching class sometime in the next two weeks?

And why on earth am I preaching the sermon toward which I seem to be moving?

Ugh.

Scratching my head...

While listening to "The Women of Smith" and reading G. Brooke's blog, I happened upon the Gender Genie, which purports to predict an author's gender with 80% accuracy.

After submitting my description of our trip to the reservation, it gave me the following score:

Female Score: 712
Male Score: 1498

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!


When I told it it was wrong, it replied:

That is one butch chick!

(I guess my ex was right....)

I'd love to know their rationale - on the breakdown of masculine and feminine words, "the" "is" "if" "in" and "this" showed up as masculine, while "him" "because" "since" and "too" were among the feminine keywords. Don't quite get that - what makes "is" masculine" and "am" feminine? I don't see any possible positive connection.

And now there's a part of me wondering "have I always been told I write well because I write masculinely?" That would be... disconcerting, at least.

Oh well.

[Later: my ice cream rant from this summer came in at Female: 517 Male: 2347, and even my "where are the books by women" rant came in at Female: 1389 Male: 1606. So content matter that might stereotypically or obviously be by a woman clearly has no effect, or at least little effect.]

pretty accurate, really

Your Power Color Is Red-Orange

At Your Highest: You are warm, sensitive, and focused on your personal growth. At Your Lowest: You become defensive and critical if you feel attacked. In Love: You are loyal - but you demand the respect you deserve. How You're Attractive: You are very affectionate and inspire trust. Your Eternal Question: "Am I Respected?"

What's Your Power Color?

Funny that this should be so accurate when red-orange might be my least favorite color...

And.... GO!

Well, we're home. We had an uneventful drive in, a lovely visit with my parents (also lunch with friends, and I had a meeting with my bishop that went extremely well), delicious food (ask us about the lentil roulade, if you haven't already heard), an equally uneventful drive back (the snow held off at both ends while we drove), and a delightful evening tonight. Blogging doesn't figure in there at all because in addition to being very busy, we didn't have much access - my parents' computer has decided to be slower than molasses, slow enough that internet use doesn't make sense.

You may notice that "got lots of homework done" doesn't figure in there anywhere. I've got yet another social engagement tomorrow (yes, just watch me flap those wings), but once I get home, the work begins in earnest. Mostly it's stuff I'm accustomed to, but I'm also in charge of a major power point presentation (or that section of it, more precisely), which is a bit of an adventure, since I've never done power point before.

So if I continue to be mostly absent for a couple of weeks, it's because I'm tearing around in the mad dash to finish out the quarter.

Now, I'm exhausted, and am going to bed so I have a little energy as I dive in tomorrow.

On my way...

We're off to Ohio!

We'll be back, well, later.

Oh, dear God...

This makes me sick. Absolutely sick.

Mmm, pie...

You Are Pumpkin Pie

You're the perfect combo of uniqueness and quality Those who like you are looking for something (someone!) special

What Kind of Pie Are You?

I might also be cream pie (combo of simplicity and divinity) or apple pie (combo of comforting and traditional), depending on what I actually decided to do on my spontaneous trip to Vegas. It's so hard to picture myself taking a spontaneous vacation right now that it's hard to say what I'd do first. (Also my immediate answer isn't really available - I'd likely eat first, but the only "eat" option involved spending lots of money.)

Please punctuate properly:

Only by human efforts (through God’s grace) can racism end; only by dismantling racism can justice come about – and without justice, we cannot live as members of God’s kingdom.

Without the final clause, I'd use the semicolon between the first two. Without the first clause, I'd use a dash between the second two. In conversational writing, I'd use a semicolon and a period, and just start a new sentence with "and," rules be damned. But I can't do that in academic writing, and the combination of semicolon and dash looks awkward to me.

Members of the jury, what is your decision?

veggies v. comfort

I want vegetables for dinner (or with dinner, at least).

I do not want to leave home.

There are no vegetables at home.


Forget the ethics paper - this is a dilemma!

OHIO STATE VICTORY!!!

Ohio State: 25 Michigan: 21

Tressel v Carr: 4-1 Carr v Tressel: 1-4


It seemed like there were a LOT of injuries on both sides today (or else I'm just out of touch from not having a TV), but the Buckeyes held it together and beat out Michigan (obviously) - as usual, in a close, exciting finish. (Not quite as satisfying as the game my senior year, where Ohio State beat Michigan just in time for Saturday tea, so that I could stand to show my face to all my Michigan floormates, but I'll take it.)


GO BUCKS!!!


(Oh, and go MSU, beat Penn State, so OSU can win the conference!)

Kiddie Lit

1) Earliest book you remember (read to you or by you)
We had a series of very, very short stories, teaching kids to read, where most of the words in each book had the same vowel sounds: so there was one about a cat that had the short a (Bad Max? Max the Cat?), etc. I remember one with a race car, and one with bubble gum, etc. I came across them a couple of years ago, packed away in a box from years ago. We probably put them away twenty or more years ago now, after my little brother learned to read (yeah, we were early readers).

2) Picture Book you would like to climb into
The Maggie B. It's about a little girl (I think she's actually only about three) who dreams that she has a ship of her own, with her baby brother James, and she takes care of the ship, and cooks them meals, and bathes him, and manages it during a storm, and all sorts of things, all by herself. It was probably my very favorite picture book, and I'd still love to be Maggie.

3) Favorite series of books (then or now)
Then: I liked lots of series - but probably the Baby-Sitters Club books were my favorite for the longest.
Now: Probably Harry Potter - though I'd read the Narnia books a lot more if I could find a set that's in the right order to own.

4) Character you would most like to meet
Oh, that's hard!!! Aslan is a great choice, I think I'll go with that.

5) Last childhood book you re-read (for yourself or to someone)
From my own childhood? Hmm. Either Little Women or A Swiftly Tilting Planet - those are the two I have here from my childhood. I've read Harry Potters more recently, but obviously those aren't from my childhood.

Good post for a Friday

Elvish


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
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My mother would be so pleased, and not at all surprised.

Interesting juxtaposition (sorry, seniors)

On Tripp's blog today, from Fast Company:

In their endless rush to embrace the next big thing, too many businesses have forgotten what they are and what they really do. The fashionable compulsion to break with the past has, bizarrely, come to mean abandoning the true value they once offered customers.

On Ryan's blog today, from his sermon this morning:

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a third year seminarian who spends thousands of dollars and countless hours learning how to disbelieve the Bible, only to realize late in the game that he had inadvertently forgotten the premise: that it is the Word of God and that it is true!

Insert cliche here

Good: My copy of A Light Blazes in the Darkness came today. I was afraid it might not come because I got a less-than-helpful email from Lulu saying "Oh my! There's a problem with your order. We'll refund or change it." and I didn't really know what that meant. But it came today! Yay!

Bad: My ethics paper is still no closer to being done than when I went to bed on Sunday. I took Monday off to do Greek and yesterday had a four hour rehearsal for Major Barbara before coming home and finishing the Greek, and so it's still just there. I really wish it were actually due tomorrow so that I'd finish it then. I'm going to try to convince my brain that there really is a deadline coming up and I need to finish it, but I work very poorly when I'm not writing against a moderately pressing deadline. At this point, though, I just need to get it done - or at least drafted, so I can start treating it as a writing piece and not a thinking piece (not that writing isn't thinking, but you know what I mean).

Ugly: I don't know whether it's pre-Thanksgiving blues, hormones, weather, plunge readjustment, or what, but I've been extremely moody since I got back from plunge, and it's driving me batty. Ugh.

Major Barbara

As previously advertised: The Ethics I class will present a semi-staged reading of Shaw's Major Barbara. The performance will occur two weeks from today, on November the 29th, 7 pm, in Seabury Lounge. It's on the long side, but there will indeed be an intermission between the second and third acts. We had our "dress" rehearsal tonight, and it looks like it will be a lot of fun - my fellow actors are hilarious.

The link

Apparently I am not the last person in the world to get around to playing with the Presbyterian Bible exams. Two fellow students asked me today to post the link for their quizzing enjoyment, so here it is:

Bible Content Exams

Enjoy!

I am victorious!

The damn window that wouldn't shut for two months? I totally just asserted myself and forced it shut, with no damage to either me or the window.

That'll teach it to blow a cold draft on me while I'm trying to do Greek.

Yeah.

Yippee!

Our ethics paper deadline has been universally extended to next Tuesday. I'll still want to get most of it done by Thursday, and I'll still need it done before I leave for Ohio, but now I don't have to try and channel Ryan in order to get Greek, ethics, rehearsal, and preaching all done this week.

I win!

Well, I passed anyway - as a study break, I finally tried out one of the Bible Content Exams that others were playing with while I was on plunge. Overall I managed a 90% on the 2005 exam - which I think is not bad for an Episcopalian, especially one who hasn't taken NT II yet.

The breakdown indicates that I know the things I know (Gospels, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, pretty high on Pentateuch) and I don't know the things I don't know (Pauline Letters and Minor Prophets). Go figure. It's nice to know that most of my weaker areas are the ones I haven't studied yet (Pauline Letters and Rest of the New Testament, although I do seem to know a little about the first half of Galatians :) ).

And now, back to the ethics of antiracism and good-guest-ness (really, is there an actual word for that?).

So there

I hate that my old files are all on floppy disks. I didn't like floppies when I was using Windows (for that matter, I didn't much like Windows either), but they were the most useful way to switch around between computers that might or might not have internet or CD-writing drives. Now I just hate having all my old stuff on them. I don't want to go to the bother of going down to the lab to see if maybe something I wrote a couple of years ago might be helpful, and I don't want to go to the bother of transferring all my stuff to my iBook (which is why I haven't done it yet).

Hospitality

Does the idea of hospitality cover appropriate behaviors/attitudes for the guest, or only for the host?

If only for the host, where (theologically/ethically, not in terms of plain etiquette) does good-guest-ness fall?

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go Home

We're back safely. I'd love to make the last chapter of this non-existent children's book more momentous and descriptive than this, but right now I'm looking at a shower and bed. Classes resume at 9 am tomorrow, matins at 8:30. (yay! matins!)

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Yellowstone Drug

Yes, gentle readers, it's true. We made it to Yellowstone Drug while they were open, and I do believe theirs likely are the best milkshakes in Wyoming. We've also got pictures and such to document the event.

Today we had a lazy morning, sleeping in, hanging out, and getting ready for the "ecumenical" preachers' group to come over for text study. The text study was moderately interesting, and afterward we listened to Luke Timothy Johnson talk about the gnostic infancy gospels, which was also moderately interesting. He didn't actually so much talk about them as describe their contents, actually.

In the afternoon, we took a lovely hike up Sinks Canyon to the falls. (Ryan, I think I saw where you stayed on our drive up there.) It would really have been a lovelier hike if the moleskin on my heels weren't totally ineffective, but it was still pretty. I think I may have to give in and buy new hiking boots. It's a shame, because I love these and the shoe itself is still in good shape, but I've tried various combinations of moleskin and insoles and nothing is helping. Anyway, Beth took lots of pictures, and the way back down was less painful. We came back and Tommy showed us a decent little Chinese restaurant in town, which was moderately impressive. (Yes, it's been a moderate sort of day.)

Tomorrow is our last real day here. We're planning to take lunches out to the nearby ghost town in the morning and then head to a hidden site of petroglyphs. We'll have dinner with Bob and Pat and then head back to pack - because Wednesday, it's back to Evanston!

we interrupt this non-existent children's book...

After catching up on several blogs tonight (our host for the night has internet and went to bed early), I'd just like to note that I move we OFFICIALLY cancel November 3 next year, for everyone. Or maybe the whole first week of November. Grump.

And now, to bed. Back online someday.

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To The Reservation

Well, yesterday was our trip to the Wind River Indian Reservation. It was an interesting experience. Our stops were limited to the Arapahoe Episcopal Church, the Shoshone Episcopal Church, the RC mission (which I think is on the Arapahoe side), and a trading post/gift shop. Oh, and the cemetery where Chief Washakie is buried, and the one where Sacajawea may very well be buried, depending on which story you believe. (If you believe the Episcopalians, the Rev. John Roberts did Sacajawea's burial in that graveyard.) They were lovely stops, and we drove through a good part of the reservation to get around to them all, but it was much more a tour of "what the white man does on the reservation" than the reservation itself. That's not really surprising, given that our guide was a white Episcopal priest who has very little to do with the reservation (I think actually we wouldn't have seen even the Episcopal churches there if we hadn't asked to visit the reservation). But it was certainly a very specific view of it, and one well in tune with the way Lander folk generally talk about reservation folk. There's a great deal of racism here, and while people I've talked to all seem to know it's there, most don't seem to understand their own role and complicity in that racism. (In other words, good liberal stock seem to be the same no matter where you go.)

It was also interesting, though, to see the differences between the two Episcopal churches. The church at Ft Washakie, on the Shoshone side, is very much straight prayer book, Anglo worship style. Their church building looks like many other western churches inside and out and they seem to use only the standard Episcopal liturgical resources. Our Father's House at Ethete, on the Arapahoe side, is almost the opposite. It's certainly an Episcopal church as well, but the inculturation is very different. The altar they use is a large drum-style altar, with an eagle feather on it for the epiclesis. It sits on a round, raised about a foot, and covered in what looks like a hooked-rug, quartered into four colored sections - yellow at liturgical north, red at liturgical east, blue at liturgical west, and black at liturgical south. Their music is much more varied - Hymnal 1940, praise music, chant, etc. and I think their liturgies themselves are somewhat varied as well, though I don't know.

Beth needs to check email as well before dinner, so here's the short version of the rest: Took our three hosts to dinner last night. Drove to Thermopolis this morning, stopping to see the world's largest hot spring before meeting with the rector of the Thermopolis/Worland churches, who are moving in the general direction of mutual ministry. Drove to Meeteetse for lunch, where we bumped into the local priest there. Drove to Powell for a 2 pm meeting with some of their congregation, including their local transitional deacon and their ministry developer, Ron. Beth and I are staying with Ron tonight and will go to the 9 am service 50 miles out in Basin and then the 11 am service 50 miles from there in Meeteetse (I think all those e's are in the right places). Derrick and Bob will stay with the Powell senior warden and go to church there tomorrow morning. We'll all meet up again to meet with the Cody local priest at her house tomorrow afternoon. Then we'll drive back to Lander, hitting Shoshoni on the way for Yellowstone Drug, home of the best milkshake in Wyoming (or so we're told!). Tommy, our house host, is cooking dinner for the six of us tomorrow nights. We're hoping he remembers only to put on five steaks.

After that, we have a slow last couple of days - or at least, we've got nothing concretely planned yet except a Monday morning ecumenical text study. Don't know when I'll be back online, but I'll be back at O'Hare in exactly four days now.

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Town

Well, I had thought that today and yesterday were to be very busy days. I was wrong about that - but pleasantly so.

Yesterday, we finished off the ministry developers' meeting, and then firmly resisted doing any more sightseeing that day. Instead, we took naps and then walked into town all by ourselves like big girls and boys. We poked into some shops - I bought a new hat at the outdoor shop - and found a pizza place for dinner, with delicious sundried tomato and artichoke pesto pizza. When we came home, we finally met the man in whose house we're staying, and he is wonderful.

Today we had a couple of meetings and a tour of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). Temptation, temptation. This afternoon we were free again and headed back into town, finding some jerky for Mitch and a cute eclectic tea-and-Christian-books store for us.

Now, it's soup and bread and off to meet with the Lander worship committee. More as I can.

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Get Their Heads Spun Around

... but may have them put back on again.

Yesterday, as advertised, Beth, Beth, and Derrick met with a ministry developer and a local deacon, drove back from Evanston to Lander, and went to a party. Some of what we heard yesterday turned us around but good - if you're actually interested in knowing more about that, I can tell you later. Certainly we're all pondering the nature of the priesthood anew. We did not stop for the best milkshake in Wyoming - I conflated two places. We stopped in Forsin for World Famous Ice Cream, but they seemed to be closed, at least for the season. The best milkshake in Wyoming is on the way to Powell.

Today, Beth, Beth, and Derrick went to Sinks Canyon and a ministry developers' meeting. Both were fantastic. Sinks Canyon is a place where the river goes down into a hole, then comes back up at the banks half a mile down the road. They haven't yet figured out exactly how it does that - dye tests have proven that it is the same water, but it takes 2 hours for the dye to move that half mile, and more water comes up than goes down, and they don't know why it does that either. It's beautiful, though, and the pool where it comes up (remarkably gently) is a dead end for trout, who just live there then, because you can't fish at that pool. You can, however, feed them pellets, so they're huge fish.

In the afternoon, we had a meeting with (nearly) all the ministry developers in the diocese, along with the diocesan coordinator, the canon/deployment officer, and the bishop. That was a fantastic meeting - it was great to hear about mutual ministry from other people, a couple of whom are actually not men over 60 years old. (There's one woman about 45 and one man about 35.) It also helped me, at least, to reorient myself a little bit and get some better perspective on how mutual ministry works in this diocese. I really appreciated hearing those different viewpoints, and from different people. (And if anyone doubted that the Episcopal Church is small, one of the ministry developers lives in Sundance, and his wife, who has been discerned to be a local priest there, knows my great-aunt from when she lived there.)

Tomorrow, we continue to meet with the ministry developers until noon, and then I think we might actually have the rest of the day free. That implies to me that I might be able to blog tomorrow, though nothing's guaranteed. If not, look forward to hearing about the meeting, a meeting with Lander's senior warden and parish coordinator, a tour of the National Outdoor Leadership School, and a worship committee meeting (yes, Thursday will be a busy day). We're very interested to see what the worship committee meeting will be like - they're supposed to be planning Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To A Potluck

And are thoroughly exhausted afterward.

The Evanston congregation is very, very different from the Lander congregation - not just in terms of personality, but in terms of the way they work out this mutual ministry thing. The Evanston version is not quite as tight an operation as I think I'd expected after seeing the Lander one.

Tomorrow, we meet with the ministry developer for this region, and then with the local deacon for this parish. I'm looking forward to asking the MD some questions that it seemed wiser to save just for him. One thing I'm learning about MDs, though, is that they like to talk a lot. I'll be interested to see if that's true of all of them when I meet the rest later this week.

I'm terrifically excited that there is no time change in the next 24 hours. I might start to figure out what time my body thinks it is.

It seems unlikely that I'll have wifi access tomorrow, and it's hard to tell after that. In upcoming chapters, Beth, Beth, and Derrick return to Lander, checking out a nominee for "best milkshake in Wyoming" on the way; go to an ordination anniversary party, meet with Wyoming's ministry developers for two days, and potentially go to a sweat, which I'm now being told will be a four hour endeavor rather than a 45 minute one. More when I can.

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Evanston

Evanston, Wyoming, that is.

In this chapter, they leave right now for a church potluck and meeting, to prove that small churches are the same everywhere, even where they're radically different.

I'll try to post more later.

Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Wyoming

... but do not write a children's book about it.

Seriously, all three of us are now safely in Lander. And I, as you can see, have managed internet access. This makes me very happy. (Actually, both those things make me very happy.)

Wyoming is beautiful. This does not surprise me - I have never known Wyoming not to be beautiful. I've also never been here in the fall, nor to this part of Wyoming, so it's nice that my expectations weren't disappointed. Beth, Beth, and Derrick are borrowing a house for the two weeks we're here and the back windows look out over mountains and prairie. (Yes, I know I just talked about myself in the third person again. I'm amused by the sound of "Beth, Beth, and Derrick" right now... sort of like "Duck, Duck, Goose." Anyway.) It's lovely.

Very soon, Beth and Derrick will join me at our non-home-host's house, and we will meet the Bishop of All Wyoming for conversation and dinner here. After dinner we will go to Trinity Episcopal Church, Lander, to meet a couple of local priests and local deacons. (That's "local" in the sense of "locally ordained," not just "who happen to be in this particular place.")

Tomorrow, we head to Evanston, Wyoming, where there will be a 70% chance of snow. That's after we cross the mountain pass to get to Evanston. And yes, it's a long way to go just to end up in Evanston. :)

Yes, we're already/still tired (especially Derrick, who got up at 4 AM EDT to fly out here, where that was 2 AM). But I'm very glad we're beginning to be busy now, and are likely to remain so for a week or so.

'Tis nearly 4 PM now, and the bishop and Beth and Derrick should be here momentarily, so I'll close this chapter (of the children's book that Beth, Beth, and Derrick aren't writing). Thanks for your prayers, and keep them coming.

Plunge!

For those who don't live and breathe Seabury culture, tomorrow begins the "Plunge" - where they ship us off around the country in small groups to observe congregations. I'll be with two other students in Wyoming, learning about Mutual Ministry.

While our host has wireless, we're not actually living with our host (yeah, I know, it sounds weird), and I don't know how much spare time we'll have hanging out at his house. So, like when I go home, it's still possible that I might blog daily or nearly daily - or it's possible that I might not blog again until I get back. We'll have to see.

Pray for safe travels for all the "plungers." It makes me a little nervous to be sending a third of my active community off around the country, all traveling at once.

Things to be done between now and 10 pm:

~Pack
~Look at camera stuff
~Straighten common room
~Organize books
~Wash dishes
~Community Eucharist
~Dinner
~Shower
~Breathe

zzzz....

I had a very odd night last night. I slept straight through for nine hours, but I remember distinctly having a lot of dreams about sleeping. In my dreams last night, I just kept falling asleep - while preaching in Seabury's chapel, while getting something out of a friend's room, while playing the piano. It wasn't like narcolepsy, though, it was just that I was so sleepy in all my dreams that I simply couldn't stay awake. I can't remember that ever happening before - and while I've had a couple of late nights in the last week, I've made a good effort to catch up on that sleep, so I'm not entirely sure what this is about. I've been somewhat sleepy during the day lately, but not ridiculously so. Very, very odd.

And yes, I'm still kinda sleepy this morning.

Toys!

AKMA points today to this UK list of the Top 100 Toys. It's the best remembered ones, not necessarily the best, which may explain why neither Legos nor Care Bears make the list (though, really, how do you not remember Legos?). I could also readily believe that the UK simply doesn't have the same access to the joys of Care-a-Lot (though I know that not to be true about Legos).* On the other hand, they do admit in the postscript that Legos ought by rights to have been included.

My favorite bits:

Their description of Weebles as "ovoid characters with heavily weighted nether regions" and Rubik's Cube as "54 multicoloured facets of hell"

The box they show for Perfection is the box I had, not the box all my two-months-younger friends had.

My favorite toys from the list:

Rainbow Brite (Not "Rainbow Bride." I didn't run across that one until much, much later.) Don't be fooled by the site - the dolls weren't the least bit hard for a "soppy softie" to love. My Rainbow Brite dolls are still sitting in their rainbow-shaped house in my parents' basement, waiting for me to buy a house (or at least get a job).

Viewmaster: I think I actually liked the old one at my grandmother's house better than the new one at ours, though.

Strawberry Shortcake: Obviously - although, admittedly, I was just slightly too young to be as into these as I was into Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, and Cabbage Patch dolls.

Stay Alive!: my brother and I spent hours trying to make this game work properly. I don't think we ever succeeded, but we had fun.

Perfection: that was the funnest game! No, really, the funnest. I wonder what happened to it...

Etch-a-sketch: Well, duh.

Speak and spell: I wanted one of those so badly... My parents seemed to think it was a ridiculous gift for a child who could already do both. Oh well - as the forbidden pleasures of friends' houses go, that was a pretty innocuous one.

My Little Pony: Another toy my parents weren't big on - I got my first ones as cast-offs from sympathetic friends, so that I could be part of the My Little Pony club at school, and my first new ones as birthday presents from friends. They were superfun.

*I do notice, however, that Care Bears feature in the Rainbow Brite description and the Strawberry Shortcake one, so I guess that doesn't really work. Their loss, then.

Sox win!

So I have seen one game of the Series. The way the Sox are playing, it may well be the only one I see, since I have rehearsal tomorrow. But it was a good one.

And now, to bed.

wow

iBelieve

Brings back memories of my high school football team chanting "we believe" at the end of a game...

Yesterday, play. Today, work.

So far today:

Church
Clean bathroom
Sweep common room
Wash dishes
Eat something
Wash lunch dishes
Tidy common room
Return phone call
Laundry
Eat something more
Dewax clothing, and if successful, try dewaxing shoe (both were a grand success!)
Four and a half chapters of ethics
Two chapters for plunge
Wash dinner dishes

Still to go:

---

Let's pretend:

One and a half more chapters of ethics [Turns out there's a limit to how much I can read about purity and sex in one day. Who knew?]
Two more chapters for plunge Tuesday
Read prep materials for plunge trip
Begin setting aside clothes for plunge trip
Look over Greek for Wednesday
Call parents
Check whether/how cell phone works in Wyoming
Attend to stack of non-class reading

All in all, not a bad day's work.

Priest!

Jane is a priest!

It was a lovely service, and now Jane is a priest! Did I mention that yet? (During and right after the service, once Jane had been properly priestified, Hope and I kept looking at each other and whispering "She's a priest! She's all priesty!" Pippa gave us the same look she gives me when I talk about Care Bears.) Yay.

After the service, we had a lovely reception and house party with the gang. Then Hope, Andrew, Joelene, Pippa, and I came slowly back to Evanston, by way of the Michigan City Outlets. We didn't by a long shot hit all the good stores, but we hit most of the ones where it was logical to consider spending money. I came away with some socks, a pair of jeans, a new wallet, and a Christmas present from my parents which I don't know I bought today and will not see when I take it back at Thanksgiving for them to give me at Christmas. ;) (No, I have no problems with instant gratification. And between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I could easily forget about the present.)

Eventually we found some pizza and soda and drove back to Evanston. At least, I assume we drove back - about all I stayed awake for was pulling out of the parking lot, stopping for a bathroom break, and pulling up on Haven. And now, having blogged, I shall resume my sleeping. (As Pippa pointed out, I didn't do enough of that last night and ought to do better tonight. Pippa is very astute.)

Math quiz

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

As several of you probably assumed, they did not ask me to recite the quadratic formula from memory.

This one's from Caroline:

answer and then add your own :)

1. smoked a cigar – yes
2. crashed a friend's car – no
3. stolen a car – no
4. been in love - yes
5. been dumped – yes
6. dumped someone - yes
7. taken shots of alcohol- yes
8. been fired - yes
9. been in a fist fight – no
10. snuck out of a/your house – no
11. had feelings for someone who didn't have them back- yes
12. been arrested – no
13. made out with a stranger - no
14. gone on a blind date – no
15. lied to a friend – yes
16. had a crush on a teacher- no - well, wait... technically, yes, I guess
18. seen someone die – yes (can you do CPE and not see someone die?)
19. been on a plane – yes
20. thrown up in a bar - yes, if the bathroom of a bar counts
22. miss someone right now - yes
23. laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by - yes
24. made a snow angel – yes
25. played dress up – yes
26. cheated while playing a game – yes
27. been lonely – yes
28. fallen asleep at work/school – yes
29. used a fake id - no
30. felt an earthquake – no
31. touched a snake – yes
32. run a red light - yes
33. had detention – I don't think so... Marisa? Kiery? did I ever have detention?
34. been in a car accident - yes
35. hated the way you look – yes
37. been lost – yes
38. been to the opposite side of the country – yes
39. felt like dying – yes
40. cried yourself to sleep – yes
41. played cops and robbers - yes
42. karaoke – yes
43. done something you told yourself you wouldn't – yes
44. laughed till some kind of beverage came out of your nose- yes
45. caught a snowflake on your tongue - yes
46. kissed in the rain - yes
47. sang in the shower - yes
48. made love in a park - define made love... as I define it, no
49. had a dream that you married someone - yes
50. glued your hand to something – no
51. got your tongue stuck to a flag pole - no
52. worn the opposite sex's clothes – yes
53. Been a cheerleader – no
54. sat on a roof top - yes
55. talked on the phone all night - yes
56. ever too scared to watch scary movies alone - yes
57. played chicken fight – yes
58. been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on - yes
59. been told you're hot by a complete stranger – yes
60. broken a bone – no
61. had a 3-some? - no !
62. dipped snuff? - no
63. lived overseas - yes

(For the numerically inclined, that's 43 yes and 20 no.)

Not quite ready for bed yet...

So I'll take this from DawgDays:

Time Magazine picked the top 100 English-language novels published since 1923 (when Time was first published.) You can find out more about the list here.

Here's the list. Bold [italicize - bolding doesn't work well in my font color] the ones you have read.

The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
The Assistant - Bernard Malamud
At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Beloved - Toni Morrison
The Berlin Stories - Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder
Call It Sleep - Henry Roth
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time - Anthony Powell
The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
A Death in the Family - James Agee
The Death of the Heart - Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance - James Dickey
Dog Soldiers - Robert Stone
Falconer - John Cheever
The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
A House for Mr. Biswas - V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius - Robert Graves
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Light in August - William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien [though technically this is not a book...]
Loving - Henry Green
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Money - Martin Amis
The Moviegoer - Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs
Native Son - Richard Wright
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
1984 - George Orwell
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski
Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth
Possession - A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
Rabbit, Run - John Updike
Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions - William Gaddis
Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor - John Barth
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Ubik - Philip K. Dick
Under the Net - Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
White Noise - Don DeLillo
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

I've read 12. There are also some where I've read other books by that author, but not the specific book.

Sports fans: If I've counted correctly, 18 are by women. While part of me wants to rejoice that it's over 10%, still most of me mourns that it's not higher.

The play's the thing...

One of our more creative final assignments this quarter is a class reading (staged) of Shaw's Major Barbara. I've never read (nor seen) the play before, but the cast list went up today... and yours truly has been cast as Barbara.

I'm kind of excited about this. So far it seems like a neat play, and a fun part, and it's been a while since I've been involved in any sort of theatrical endeavor, especially as a player. I'm uncertain about the idea of having to do an accent, but I'm starting to have fun trying to work into a role in my head. I'm not much of an actor, really, but this is not major theater (no pun intended, really), and I think it will be fun.

Alas

One of the great parts of my discernment process has been that my COM chair is also a friend. I learned today from my COM liason that my friend's term with the COM has ended. I'm sure I'll continue to pick her brain about negotiating the territory, but I'm sad that she'll no longer be at COM events and such.

The most exciting day ever

Well, the morning wasn't so exciting (sorry, worship committee). But then:

~Several people informed me that Tripp was in the library and I should go find him. I did, and I got to have lunch with him. Hurray!

~Pippa and I played several rousing hands of Nerts. If that doesn't sound exciting to you, you clearly don't know the wonder that is Nerts.

~At choir, not only did I hold my own on most things as the only alto, but I discovered on another piece that I have my A back. I haven't sung an A well in several years, and today it came easily. Seriously, that might not have happened in ten years or more.

~After choir, I discovered that I had a package at the front desk. I remember now that my parents had said "oh, the last part of your birthday is coming late." But the package was a surprise.

~The package contained three books I've been wanting a lot:

Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle: This is my new favorite book of hers and it will be nice to own it now.

Confessions by St. Augustine: Some of you may remember that I tried to read this earlier this summer and had to give up on the language in that translation. This translation comes highly recommended and I'm really excited to try again.

AND.... Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - IN ANCIENT GREEK!!! I am thrilled with this one (as those who saw me in the hall this evening can attest). I will exercise the greatest of self-discipline, however, and make myself continue translating Galatians instead right now. I'm pretty sure that I'll get a severe look if I say that Galatians 2:1 reads "Harry Potter was a remarkable boy" on Wednesday.

Also it turns out that we're going to do some wilderness hiking/sight seeing our last day in Wyoming, in areas that tourists don't usually find. I am getting very excited about our trip - have to remember to get my hiking boots repadded tomorrow.

Hurray for exciting days!!!

Try again...

"being women in a patriarchal culture, they did not matter much to Jesus' enemies and therefore had nothing to fear" from following him.

Yes, of course - being the least of a society, being forgotten, certainly means one has nothing to fear. No need to fear that one's father or husband will abandon one in the face of devotion to another man, or out of embarrassment that one's daughter or wife persists in following a scandalous or ridiculous cult. No need to fear that following Jesus would mean leaving behind one's means of support, because clearly the Gospel doesn't call women away from their homes. No need to fear that leaving would mean death, since traveling and living on one's own were definitely safe for women. Certainly officials and soldiers would never dream of taking advantage of a woman as an example to others inclined to follow this rebel, or out of a refusal to acknowledge her as human. Nope, definitely, women were safe.

I'm pretty sure Volf means well here, but he's missed the boat. The women may have had different reasons to fear, but I don't generally think of safety as a hallmark of womanhood.

this one made me laugh

You Are French Food

Snobby yet ubiquitous. People act like they understand you more than they actually do.

What Kind of Food Are You?

interesting...

The first picture you get if you google images of "nation without war"

The first picture for "John Nineteen Forty-one"

at least it's veggie-friendly...

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

sisisisisi!

Si is home!

It was very very good to hang out with Si tonight. It's true that he'll go back to his wilds soon, but it's good to have my nephew back on the block, even for just a couple of days. :)

ok, who rigged it?

You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy)

You're a great thinker and a true philosopher. You'd make a talented professor or writer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

By popular demand

Yesterday's movie quote was from The Muppet Christmas Carol - right after Gonzo/Dickens and Rizzo go out of the snow, into Scrooge's office.

Idle

Plunge reading - finished
Preaching assignment - simmering
Thumb twiddling - done

Surely there's something I really ought to be doing right now...

It's not that I can't find anything to do, it's just that I'm not used to having nothing to do on a school night. I suppose I could start my ethics reading for next week, but I have a full week still on that and I have time this weekend and next Monday. I could play my guitar, but my roommate's working. I could read or watch a movie, but somehow it seems as though I ought to be using this time somehow...

Um. Well.

You Are Likely a Third Born

At your darkest moments, you feel vulnerable. At work and school, you do best when you're comparing things. When you love someone, you tend to like to please them. In friendship, you are loyal to one person. Your ideal careers are: sales, police officer, newspaper reporter, inventor, poet, and animal trainer. You will leave your mark on the world with inventions, poetry, and inspiration.

The Birth Order Predictor

brain patterns

Your Brain's Pattern

Your brain is always looking for the connections in life. You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first. You're also good at connecting people - and often play match maker. You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

"Actually, I think it's colder in here..."

There's something utterly ridiculous about sitting huddled by the space heater when it's still almost 60 degrees outside. Gotta love the stone buildings - ovens in summer, freezers in winter.

(But you get bonus points if you recognize the movie reference in the title of this post.)

In honor of Kirsteen's candidacy:

You are St Brigid's Cross: St. Brigid is an Irish
saint who hand-wove a cross,out of rushes she
found by the river. She made the cross while
explaining the passion of our Lord to a pagan
man.


What Kind of Cross are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

As requested

You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Funny, I seem to recall announcing last year that I was going to preach socialism.... Not sure I like being characterized as "permissive" though.

And the award goes to...

I'm not yet far enough along in the quarter to say which assigned books I like best, find most helpful, or consider most intelligent. I can, however, assess the gender balance in this quarter's reading assignments. So for those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to hear how this quarter would pan out - for Pete's sake, find a new hobby. For the rest of you:


Church, Ministry, and Culture: 5 assigned books - one by a woman, four by men. Rating: sadly, acceptable.

Ethics: 7 assigned books (6 in print, 1 out of print): 6 (all in print) by men, 1 (out of print) by a woman. Rating: Well, it doesn't put a book by a woman on my bookshelf. On the other hand, the professor didn't know the Lebacqz book was out of print until just before school started. So we'll go with another acceptable and hope that next year's class might get one that's in print and by a woman.

Preaching: 3 assigned books - 1 by a man, 1 by a woman, 1 co-authored by a man and a woman. Rating: Excellent!!!

Praying with Scripture: 1 assigned book - authored by "The Episcopal Church" but edited by a woman. Rating: Very good.


This quarter's classes all made a respectable showing (none assign only books by men), but the award clearly goes to... Preaching!

Tune in again in January to see who will win Beth's "Winter Quarter Gender Balance Award!"

add this to the list...

You are Marcie!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Things I learned today

I am capable of cooking polenta.

I need new black boots - the old ones are starting to hurt.

Trader Joe's is closer than I thought.

I'm no less absent-minded at 25 than I was at 24.

Barefoot wine is about as good as I thought it was.

My back is as out of shape as the rest of me.

My new turquoise corduroys do indeed fit.

I have a lot of good friends (ok, knew that one, but it got reinforced).

birfday!

Today I am 25 years old.

As usual, being 25 doesn't feel like anything much - I've felt I was already that old for a while. But not being 24 any more feels very healthy and good, in a sort of superstitious way.

Once more I thank God for life and health and friends.

Thecla

Yesterday Seabury observed its now-annual celebration of the feast of Thecla. This is becoming one of my favorite services of the year, I think. Partly this is because I've been satisfied with how Hope and I have planned the service each year. Partly this is because the two Thecla sermons I've heard have been good ones. I think they have done well affirming Thecla as a model and inspiration for women in ministry while simultaneously insisting that Thecla is important for men as well as women - that she is a saint of the whole church, not just half of it. (Ok, only the Eastern Orthodox officially recognize her as such anymore, but still.) Plus, Thecla's just really darn cool.

Since she is a saint of the Eastern church and some of us feel she ought to be one in ours, Hope and I are working toward putting her up for inclusion in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. If you're somewhere in the Episcopal Church (another seminary, for example) and would like to help us in that by celebrating Thecla where you are, please let me know, and I'll be happy to email you the collect and readings we use, and a sample ordo if you'd like. (The Eastern church celebrates her on September 24, but we transfer her to a day more congenial to Seabury's academic calendar.)

(If you're at Seabury and already celebrated Thecla yesterday, come to today's service review at noon at the high table!)

Ten gallons of theology...

My childhood dentist always told me I had ten gallons of teeth in a five gallon mouth.

That's how I'm feeling right now about my ethics paper. Admittedly, we only have to give our "initial understanding" of "what it means to be holy and how each of the themes of purity, justice, and reconciliation is related to holiness, and to each other." Still, it seems like a lot for a 5 page paper...

Hunh?

"Religion refers to 'the offices and direct religion and intercourse with God.'"

Religion refers to direct religion? Thanks, that clears that right up.

...frejeugffreffufffruhfrujiwha...grr...

Hallelujah! The six months are over!

This morning I shall go to the ATR 8 am mass. Then I shall get in my car, alone, and drive out to Skokie, where I will buy a DVD player and have my car emissions tested, so that the state of Ohio will accept my pleas for plate renewal and I may continue to drive my car.

For health and strength and daily bread, we give you thanks, O Lord!

Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God...

Well, it turned out Ryan was right. The rehearsal was a little tighter than I expected, and a little more rushed than we might have liked, but the service was lovely. My heart was racing until I finished the epistle, even though I knew I was perfectly well prepared and I didn't feel nervous, exactly. I was able to pray well in this service, and it felt smooth and worshipful to me. It's amazing to me how much more comfortable I am in the chapel this year, even for the wedding a couple weeks ago. It's been a long time since I had that kind of visceral sense that I know more or less what needs to happen, and I am glad of it.

And for those who were waiting to hear about the war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated. :)

I do like hearing stories over again.

Preparing for war in heaven

Thanks for the input, y'all. I'm still unsure about what I want, and beyond that about whether what I *want* for me is the best choice for my likely future, but I'll keep plodding along on that. I'm still working on tomorrow's alb-borrowing, but I imagine I'll find a way to make Judith's work, assuming I can find her again. Also I've forgotten how to tie a cincture, but I'm pretty confident that if I can get an alb, I can find someone to help me tie the cincture.

I am excited for tomorrow's St Michael service. We'll be proceeding on fairly little rehearsal, which makes me a bit nervous, but Ryan assures me that we'll be fine because the middlers and seniors have done it before. I do feel excellently well prepared to sing about war in heaven, however. (Someday I aspire to sing a normal-sounding epistle - my last one was about circumcision and uncircumcision.) So we'll see how it goes, but if we can pull it off all right, it should be a good service.

Soliciting Advice

I've been planning not to buy myself an alb until next year or so - you know, until I really need it for field ed or something. Partly this is to stall on paying for it, and partly because I'm not all that acquainted with various albs, and I don't yet know just what I want.

However, I'm subdeaconing Thursday for St Michael and All Angels, and I need an alb. This is the second time I've needed an alb at Seabury for subdeaconing, and I'm inclined to hope it won't be the last. The problem is that it's exceedingly difficult to borrow an alb when you're not quite 5' tall. I found one last year, but it graduated and moved to Ohio.

I'll find one for Thursday somewhere, but I'm wondering whether maybe I shouldn't just bite the bullet and buy myself an alb now, saving myself the pain of trying to borrow one. Does anyone have any advice on how I might best go about that, or what kind I ought to buy, or whether it makes sense to do it now at all?

Ta.

ya think?

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (50%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (44%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

meme

via Brooke:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

I had told the rest of the staff that week two would be way more relaxed and really fun, and luckily they agreed (though Frog admitted that during week one, they weren't going to believe it until they saw it).

Not terribly exciting, but hey.

well, damn

I thought I was fairly well aware that my seniors will not be here this year. I'd pretty well got over that denial and have now even started active denial of the possibility that, say, Hope and Andrew might leave this year. But apparently I was wrong, because today at Eucharist I realized that I hadn't quite found a chapel seat I really liked because subconsciously, I was listening for a place where I could hear Jane, Susie, and Dave singing around me.

In case you were wondering, this was not exactly a pleasant realization. It helps that the incoming class is really great, but today - I miss my seniors wicked bad. Y'all should feel free to return any time now. ;)

whiling away a few minutes before [mandatory] compline

You Are a Freedom Rocker!

You're stuck in the 70s - for better or worse Crazy hair, pot soaked clothes, and tons of groupies Your kind showed the world how to rock Is that freedom rock?... Well turn it up man!

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

wasn't even on my list...

You Should Learn Swedish

Fantastisk! You're laid back about learning a language - and about life in general. Peaceful, beautiful Sweden is ideal for you... And you won't even have to speak perfect Swedish to get around!

What Language Should You Learn?

Day One

Well, th' incomin' students be here an' busily gettin' (dis)oriented. We successfully transformed them this mornin' - first into various an' sundry famous swabbies/characters, then into elephants, palm trees, an' bandits. Then we stuffed the'r bellies wi' food an' the'r heads wi' Very Important Details. Somehow, this be actually an exhaustin' task. If thar`s time after th' dean`s dessert reception, I intend on watchin' Gentleman o' fortunes o' th' Caribbean t' celebrate Talk Like a Gentleman o' fortune Tide.

Next high tide': academic advisin' an' faculty introductions. I`ll keep ye posted.

Don't Lay Down

One of the things I like about iTunes is that some songs get played regularly and others don't show up for months - and then they switch patterns. I don't think this one has come on all summer - so when I heard it just now, I realized it's not the same. I used to appreciate the sentiment objectively - now I see pictures.

Don't lay down if you're gonna fall alseep
Don't lay down if you're gonna lose me
'Cause I'm with you pulling for a miracle
I'm with you pulling for a cure
I know that you isn't what they're giving you
But I'm with you taking some more so
Don't lay down

Don't give up gently
Don't give in to what they say will be
I'm not ready to lose you
I'm not ready to see
Your light shining on the ocean
Your love swimming in the sea so
Don't lay down

Let's go down and watch another night fall
Someday darkness is gonna find us all
So don't lay down
Don't lay down
Don't lay down, hey hey

Don't lay down
Don't lay down
Down
Don't lay down
Hey

Coincidentally (?) this song was followed by "Christmas Lullaby," with the lyrics:

"Glory, glory, I will sing the name of the Lord... And I will be like Mother Mary with a blessing in my soul..."

Which makes me think of a third song, written by a friend for contemporary worship services:

I believe in God
He made everything
He had a son named Jesus Christ
That's what I believe.

I believe he died
Hanging on a cross
Then Easter day God raised him from the dead
That's what I believe.

I believe he lives
And we live in him
And he will always care for us
That's what I believe.

Anyway...

General Appeal

If you and I are eating ice cream together, and especially if I am eating chocolate ice cream, and especially if I am eating a cone - please, please remind me to wipe off the ice cream that is inevitably around my mouth after I'm done. Thanks.

alleluia

Hope and Andrew are married.

It was probably the loveliest wedding I've ever seen.

I am dead tired.

ding-dong, the bells are gonna chime!

Well, I don't really know if bells will ring or not. I think probably not. But tomorrow is the wedding! We had a very successful rehearsal today - thorough, and longer than average, as the cantors pointed out to me, but helpful and smooth.

Later I got to spend some time with Susie and Tripp and Dave and Stephanie, none of whom I get to see as often as I'd like, since none of them live in Evanston any more. That too was a good thing.

Did I mention we're having a wedding tomorrow?

Ok, people...

Let's get back on the ball. While the weather forecast still shows tomorrow to be 70s and partly cloudy (which is excellent), today is 55% chance of rain. Let's all be praying that the rain holds off until after the BBQ today, and that we get a fair amount of sun and good temps for the wedding and reception tomorrow.*

*Yeah, don't bother telling me that neither God nor the weather works this way. I'm not listening today. :)

even longer day...

Your Element is Water

Your power colors: blue and aqua Your energy: deep Your season: winter Like the ocean, you evoke deep feelings and passion. You have an emotional, sensitive, and spiritual soul. A bit mysterious, you tend to be quiet when you are working out a problem. You need your alone time, so that you can think and dream.

What Element Are You?

Fall Meme

We've already established that I can't resist these, plus I'm dead tired from a very good but very long and full day, so I'll pop this in here and head off to bed, to wake up refreshed for a lovely, exciting day of "retreat" (read: work) with this year's worship committee.

Favorite fall dessert: Ted Drewes' Great Pumpkin (pumpkin pie topped with frozen custard and whipped cream).
Favorite fall holiday: Thanksgiving. There aren't a terrible lot of big fall holidays, and I love the time to spend with family or friends just eating delicious food and talking together.
Best fall memory: Best? Probably the feeling of waking up on my 22nd birthday next to a brand-new girlfriend and going to chapel with her for Sunday services, having just set up the Shower of Stoles exhibit together in the chapel the night before. Most unadulteratedly positive, though, was my 19th birthday. I was the first first-year in my college house to have a birthday, so my friends went all out with a pink things scavenger hunt, door decor, etc - plus it was Mountain Day, so we had the day off! (Why doesn't Seabury have Mountain Day?)
Worst fall memory: Five weeks of missing Emily.
Most puzzling fall memory: Maples and oaks that didn't turn colors (Hamburg)
Best thing about fall walks: Crisp air and colorful leaves (doesn't count if it's only one - the best thing is both)
Favorite fall chore: Buying school supplies
Least favorite fall chore: Dealing with Rockwell House leaves
Best change in the home: Sweaters!
Favorite flower: I'm supposed to like fall flowers? Are there other fall flowers besides mums (which I don't like)? My favorite fall flowers are leaves.
Best tree in the fall: Maple
Fall ritual: Starting school
Most frustrating thing about fall: November
Favorite childhood game: specifically for fall? I guess jumping in the leaves... I don't think we had games specifically for fall.
Favorite childhood memory: Dressing up as a red crayon
Favorite decorations: Fall leaves outside the window
Favorite clothing: Sweaters and jeans
Best scenery: Pioneer Valley. Specifically, any area of Smith campus where you can see both pond and mountains.
Best fall travel tip: um? I don't think I have any unique tips
Favorite drink: Hot apple cider. Red wine, too, but that's most of the year.
Best method of transportation: Where are you going? It does seem sad to take public transport in the fall, though, when scenic drives and walks are so nice.
Traditional fall candy: Well, candy corn is traditional, but I don't much like it. I don't eat much candy, really, any time of year. I do like caramel apples though.
Favorite Sound: Football cheering
Best for fall sex: I suppose having a spouse/partner would be a good start.
Fall song: Hmm. The one that comes to mind is "Elizabeth" (Catie Curtis), but I'm not sure what makes that a fall song.
Reliable prediction: School will start? (What kind of question is that?)
Best fall television show: "Shibboleth" (West Wing)

ok, ok...

I've been holding out on this one, mostly to prove that I could, but clearly I am powerless over the internet quiz.

Pure Nerd 91 % Nerd, 47% Geek, 34% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations! My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 98% on nerdiness You scored higher than 69% on geekosity You scored higher than 54% on dork points Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) About Me Beth View my complete profile Blog Archive ►  2008 (3) ►  July (1) ►  June (1) ►  February (1) ►  2007 (99) ►  November (3) ►  October (8) ►  September (4) ►  August (7) ►  May (13) ►  April (16) ►  March (16) ►  February (18) ►  January (14) ►  2006 (202) ►  December (1) ►  November (16) ►  October (9) ►  September (29) ►  August (8) ►  July (7) ►  June (11) ►  May (23) ►  April (24) ►  March (23) ►  February (25) ►  January (26) ▼  2005 (287) ▼  December (20) Happy Christmas!!! With apologies to the chartreuse buzzards: hurray for Christmas traditions! Busy, busy, busy A lengthy, rambling, discourse on piano fiddling Back to the grindstone, sort of hey, look! STOP DOING THAT!!! Another one A solution! That is so true. Booklovers! Librarians! five books meme Public Service Announcement woot and I thought the GOEs were scary erm, help? Gospel Birthday Meme holy... from Cecily ►  November (27) Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell... Scratching my head... pretty accurate, really And.... GO! On my way... Oh, dear God... Mmm, pie... Please punctuate properly: veggies v. comfort OHIO STATE VICTORY!!! Kiddie Lit Good post for a Friday Interesting juxtaposition (sorry, seniors) Insert cliche here Major Barbara The link I am victorious! Yippee! I win! So there Hospitality Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go Home Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Yellowstone Drug we interrupt this non-existent children's book... Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To The Reservation Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Town Beth, Beth, and Derrick Get Their Heads Spun Around ►  October (38) Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To A Potluck Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Evanston Beth, Beth, and Derrick Go To Wyoming Plunge! Things to be done between now and 10 pm: zzzz.... Toys! Sox win! wow Yesterday, play. Today, work. Priest! Math quiz This one's from Caroline: Not quite ready for bed yet... The play's the thing... Alas The most exciting day ever Try again... this one made me laugh interesting... at least it's veggie-friendly... sisisisisi! ok, who rigged it? By popular demand Idle Um. Well. brain patterns "Actually, I think it's colder in here..." In honor of Kirsteen's candidacy: As requested And the award goes to... add this to the list... Things I learned today birfday! Thecla Ten gallons of theology... Hunh? Hallelujah! The six months are over! ►  September (25) Now is come the salvation and the power and the ki... Preparing for war in heaven Soliciting Advice ya think? meme well, damn whiling away a few minutes before [mandatory] comp... wasn't even on my list... Day One Don't Lay Down General Appeal alleluia ding-dong, the bells are gonna chime! Ok, people... even longer day... Fall Meme ok, ok... ►  August (22) ►  July (23) ►  June (23) ►  May (26) ►  April (22) ►  March (19) ►  February (25) ►  January (17) ►  2004 (77) ►  December (22) ►  November (17) ►  October (7) ►  September (8) ►  July (1) ►  June (8) ►  May (6) ►  April (8)