spoons and such

I have spoons!

This doesn't sound like much, but, as some of you know, I have until now owned a grand total of one spoon. (I have a few cooking spoons, but not eating spoons.) Today, though, Hope and I went scavenging for wedding fabric and a graduation gift for her sister, so while we were at Ikea getting her sister's kitchen set up, I bought a cheap set of silverware. Now I have both teaspoons and tablespoons, each in the plural. (Also more than two forks and one table knife.) I can now serve tea, hot chocolate, soup, beans and rice, etc, and not require that everyone bring his/her own utensil to eat with.

I am excited.

peace on earth

I've had that U2 song in my head most of the night, and before I go to bed, I want to link here to a post on my friend Mike's blog that I found very moving. I've struggled with the pacifism v. just war debate for years, and this post is the sort of thing that makes me want all the more actually to be a pacifist. Regardless of your stance on the issue (and the post is really not about that debate), it's worth reading.

(Ok, like me, Mike still uses haloscan for comments, so you'll have to scroll down to April 11 to find the right post. It's titled "Peace." Sorry.)

deep breath...

Still cranky today, but at the end of a long day and long week, it's very nice just to sit and read about the Bible, instead of having to think of clever or useful things to say in papers. Tomorrow I'd better be back about the business of researching and writing, but tonight it's a relief just to do some class reading.

Almost there

No, I don't mean the end of the quarter, or reading week. I'm staunchly refusing to believe that. I am, however, almost finished with both this day and my theology paper (which was due today, but I took an extension in honor of yesterday being death day and this paper being sort of kind of about death). I have been informed that my paper does indeed address the prompt adequately, so I will put a conclusion on it, and then I will go to bed. And then this day, which has not treated me particularly kindly, will be over... and tomorrow I can get up and talk more about death. Woot.

oh. my.

Some of you know what the spaceship game is. Some of you don't. All of you should take this quiz. The official title is "Which Devastating Hope crew member are you?" but for those who read this blog, it could just as easily be titled "Which of Beth's friends in St Louis are you?" So humor me... go, now, and take the quiz. And don't forget to leave me a comment and tell me your results.


First Mate Emily: Your military training has made
you into a warrior, but your inner pacifism is
apparent to those who love you. You seek
redemption for the evil deeds of your past, and
you find the first hints of forgiveness among
the friends you've made in your new home.


Which Devastating Hope crew member are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Dark humor

In response to all of our classes focusing on death today:

Jane: What's next after we get through death in AKMA's class?
Me: Misery and frustration.
Jane: Oh, yay. What's after that, abuse and neglect?
Me: No, church and state.
Jane: Yeah, that's what I said, abuse and neglect.

I like Jane. She's funny and she makes good chai.

get out of my head...

So when my ex and I were still dating, she would drive me nuts by calling everything she didn't like binary and continually telling me to break the binary. It was cute at first, until things like my insisting that the alarm had to be set for earlier than class started became "binary". Last year, I lived with Ryan, and therefore thought about the binary not at all after/between breaking up with her.

It's been very strange, therefore, to find myself (yes, find myself) objecting this year that things are too binary. I'm pretty sure I first noticed that I was doing this in Gospel Mission, though maybe not. It could very easily have been Early Church. Anyway, I'm apparently now at the point where I had to speak very sternly to myself and explain that I may only use the phrase "binary opposition" once, or at most twice (intro and conclusion?) in my 3-5 page paper on God's omnipotence, our ability to affect God, and the logic of intercessory prayer. Oy.

Yeah, she'd be proud (if she were speaking to me... but that's another post. Or maybe not.)

condensed version

Things still needing to be done:

Write systematics paper (due Weds)
Fill out faculty eval sheet (due Fri)
Bills
FAFSA
Financial aid app
Finish biblical theology reading (due Tues) - done

Should add to that:
Read for NT Weds/Fri
Read for systematics Weds/write question
Read for PC Tues/Thurs

Still, not a bad weekend's work, especially since most of what's left I didn't expect to get done this weekend anyway, and I've still got a good hour or so to go tonight.

No, you don't have to care...

but if I put this here, I can't lose it. Nor can I pretend it hadn't occurred to me to do these things.

Things that must be done soon:

2 pm haircut - done! yay! happy!
Write pastoral care paper - done, and magically morphed from just over eight pages to just over five
Edit pastoral care paper - done
Write systematics paper
Fill out faculty eval sheet
Clean futon - done
Clean "desk" (coffee table) - done
Wash dishes - done
Read for systematics/write question - done
Look over bills & make appropriate calls
FAFSA
Financial aid application
Decide about art show
Take trash out to dumpsters - done
Map out how all my papers are getting written this quarter - done
Call Milner about singing tomorrow - ask about time and part - done
Look over alto part if it turns out I'm singing alto - unnecessary, singing soprano
Read for biblical theology - book (wow) and one article done

Hmm. On the one hand, that's a lot - on the other hand, there are plenty of opportunities to cross things off.

boo

This will be short, in lieu of sweet, or something. I'm feeling rather grouchy tonight. I made it through a week with several papers that I didn't mind writing but cared about doing well, and now get to write two next week that I'd really rather not have to write at all. Two for next week, I should say - they're due Tues & Weds, respectively. Then I get to start on a nice long one for the week after. I know I signed up for it, but I'm feeling grumpy today, so I'm whining. I also got stood up tonight, which is something I really don't like. I cut out of my evening plans promptly so I wouldn't be late to meet someone at 10, but at 10:30 he was still in his conference, and it didn't sound like they were wrapping up at all. This frustrates me. Also, because I had to leave so promptly, my groceries are still at Davies', along with my coat. This means that while I did acquire pudding pops at the store tonight, I can't eat one now to console myself. A good thing, in general, but it doesn't help the poutiness.

Anyway, I'm going to head toward bed now. If nothing else, I can get a good night's sleep, so I can be well rested to write that damn paper tomorrow.

PUDDING POPS!!!

We interrupt this New Testament research for an important service announcement:

PUDDING POPS ARE BACK!!!

So last Sunday, Seabury had a pizza dinner for prospectives, with yummy ice cream. In helping eat the leftover ice cream, I discovered that Swiss Miss makes Premium Fudge Bars, which are delicious and taste more like Jell-O Pudding Pops than anything I've had since they stoppped making them. So I told Rory, because she too has missed Pudding Pops greatly.

AND THEN: Ryan IM'ed me today to tell me that they went looking for the Swiss Miss bars and found Pudding Pops instead!!! She also gave me links, including a store locator which tells me they sell them at the Green Bay Dominick's. This makes me all the more excited for my grocery date Friday with Davies. I refuse to allow the fact that my freezer is about six square inches to faze me - I will figure out how to make this work.

Rory and Ryan are the best.

We now return to our regularly scheduled research.

I like these things.

Since the only thing I can say on my own today seems to be theology of religions gobbledygook, it seems like a good day for a quiz post:

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

25% Yankee

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Surprisingly, I have no Midwestern in my speech... despite spending the great majority of my life in states that are at least technically Midwestern. I'm ok with that, honestly.

Si and Hope are terrible people

Well, ok. Terrible, wonderful, marvelous people. Si wrote a lovely post in honor of Jane's ordination yesterday. It was so lovely that I called across the hall to Hope that she should read it. Hope's response was something along the lines of "ohhh... we can't let him leave either!"

Now, on two hours of sleep last night (plus an hour this afternoon), a reminder that Jane and Si and a lot of other really great people are going to be leaving soon was enough to bring me to tears. (This is why Si and Hope are terrible - crying was not in my plans for today.) I'm very grateful that Hope is not graduating and that therefore Andrew will also be around next year, and I appreciate that Jane has the decency to stay in a reasonable distance next year. I'm steadfastly refusing to acknowledge that the following year all three of them and Heather will likely be much much farther away.

Someday, in addition to aspiring to an apartment with a kitchen, I aspire to live in some sort of circumstances that don't involve major parts of my social circle moving away every spring.

goodbye week!

I guess it's been a busier week than I realized - didn't notice it had been so long since I blogged. Between Prospective Student Days Sunday - Tuesday and the Day of Silence and another overnight visit to ENH yesterday/last night, I haven't had much time on the computer. It's been a good week overall, though, despite the chest pains and hospital time (and those of you who haven't already heard will be happy to know that, among the other things that aren't wrong with me, I do not have a blood clot).
~Note to self: email parents and tell them about that. And call tomorrow to say happy birthday to Mom and apologize for not calling Dad for his on Tuesday. (bad daughter! bad!)
Anyway, likely I won't end up on here again until Saturday, either: Jane's being ordained tomorrow (yippee!) and I'm headed down to South Bend for the night to attend that. (I hear also that there's an excellent chocolate company across the street from the cathedral. Or the hotel. One of them.) Saturday morning, instead of heading to softball practice, we'll head back here, and then I'll have plenty of time in front of the computer, since I owe AKMA one position paper, one research probe, and one case study next week.

Today's A-List

Susie - for being good company and a good friend
Laura - for being far more helpful than certain others ;)
Micah - for good chat at various points today
Si - for being funny and informative
Laurel & Kathryn - for a ride to church and helpful consult on the way

I know that's short and cryptic - but that's the way the cookie crumbles, at least until someone decides none of us can talk in cookie metaphors anymore.

gotta quatta?

While my parents were here, we were remarking that we hadn't seen any new state quarters in a good long while - in fact, none of us could remember seeing any for 2004, let alone 2005. Well, today I went down and requisitioned quarters from the bank, at the insistence of my mountain of laundry. Lo and behold, in the two rolls I got, I discovered Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin from 2004 (maybe one more) and California from 2005. Admittedly I stopped paying close attention a long time ago, but all of those were new to me. Kind of cool to see so many new ones at once.

My father's got collections running for my brother and me, so if anyone is actively collecting and needs one of these more recent ones, lemme know. Quarters are of course equal to gold, so I'd like a different quarter in return, but I'm perfectly willing to trade. The washing machines are utterly indifferent.

Also, I think there should be a natural law against invisible bruises. It always feels really wimpy to complain about a bruise when you can't even show off its six different colors, yet I usually find that my most painful bruises (like the one on my leg from practice this morning) don't show themselves very well. Maybe that's a matter of how internal a bruise is, or something - I don't know nearly enough about anatomy for that. But if it's going to get any mileage out of hurting me, I want to be able to back that up with evidence.

That was originally related to the laundry discussion - dragging laundry down to the basement was harder than usual because I didn't want to keep banging even clothes against my shin - but I guess I missed the transition part. Oops. Well, time to stop whining and go back to work.

Seabury Silence

Susie surmises that a side effect of the recent Seabury plague must be that none of us seem to have much to blog about lately. So I'm joining the line of folks blogging about our lack of things to write about (Si, Ryan, Susie), not to mention those who just haven't blogged much recently (notably Jane, though others have also written less this week than usual).

So yeah. Not so much to say.

ponder, ponder

Yes, I'm feeling pondersome tonight. Various discernment-type questions have been floating around my brain lately, and are starting to needle at me a little more than usual. Some of this is because of questions my parents asked while they were here.

I could be more specific, and make this a more interesting and informative post, but I've just spent the evening doing Greek and planning a service for Thecla, so I need to do some reading now for my two (credit) classes tomorrow.

a list!

I can't think of anything useful to post, but it's been a couple of days since I've posted anything, so let's have a list day.

Things that make me happy today:

~Baseball season
~Eucharist (for more than one reason)
~Food
~Warm weather!!!
~Having class outside in the warm weather, barefoot. (Well, I was barefoot. Most people weren't.)
~The prospect of thunderstorms tomorrow.
~The Bible (We've established that I'm a dork. Get over it. :) )
~Brief reading assignments
~Tomorrow is Wednesday, and Wednesdays are looking like my favorite day of the week this term: two excellent classes and no icky ones, noon Eucharist (often with healing), work, and Greek.
~Tomorrow I have Greek!
~Thursday I have spiritual direction. (Not only do I like spiritual direction in general, but it's been a good long time since the last meeting, what with spring break and Holy Week and Easter and all.)

Overall, a satisfying day.

come again?

From one of my pastoral care books:

"In order to model emotions and choose topics, the minister might find a non-sexist approach to counseling helpful"

I'm sorry - might find a non-sexist approach helpful? Under what circumstances is a sexist approach helpful? or even appropriate at all? Why is a non-sexist approach optional?

In addition to the statement itself, I can't decide whether the fact that this is in a book on pastoral counseling for men makes the statement worse or not. I'm leaning toward not - in that it's equally inappropriate for any gender-specific discourse, and only slightly less inappropriate in non-gender-specific discourse (and I do mean "less inappropriate" rather than "more appropriate").

wwjd?

Following this week's discussion about the phrase "doing x makes the baby Jesus cry," today I noticed that a Smith housemate has the following away message:

"being lazy makes the baby jesus want to drink gin out of the cat dish."

I guess there's a first time for everything.

Annunciation practice

(Ok, that's weird... the previous post just appeared today, despite my having told it to publish on Monday.

Hmm. In blogging, would one refer to "the previous post" as "the above post" or "the post below"? I mean, usually previous is above, but that's spatially ridiculous on a blog... Experts?)

No, I haven't been practicing my public speaking. The last few days have been a whirlwind of parental visits, trying to squeeze in some homework, meetings, and a rehearsal today for our Annunciation service on Monday. I'm very excited about this service - it kicks off at least a month of weekly high church worship services at Seabury, it's a Mary-day, and I get to be thurifer (thurifer: one who carries a thurible)! I've never been a thurifer before - I'm not even sure they exist in the diocese of Ohio (or Missouri, for that matter). I've never seen incense used in either place, except for Ohio's annual Boar's Head when the three kings come in with their gold and frankincense and myrrh. I got to spend a fair amount of time rehearsing with someone who actually knew what he was doing (Si, Jane was right about my needing time to practice) and will spend some more time doing so on my own this weekend, now that I have something to practice. It's more complex than any liturgical action I've participated in for a while, but I'm excited. I do love complex liturgical movement and incense both.

Now, however, it's time to try to get an hour or so of reading in tonight before I go to my dinner. One of the consequences of the parental visit is that I'm barely caught up with my work, and I need to get moving on that pronto.