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?
brought to you by Quizilla


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 things you can't mapquest... If anyone has decent driving directions from Skokie to the parking lots near Lake Shore Drive and Navy Pier, please let me know asap. I can get people there from Evanston, but from Skokie I'd have to take them out Dempster to Chicago and then up and over to Sheridan. Anyone have a better way? Monday, September 12, 2005 who'd have thought that even Jane was organized enough to remember which bag she put the four iron shelf supports for my bookcase in while moving? Thanks to Jane, though, my shelves are all stable and my books are halfway organized. Thanks to Cliff, Andrew, Hope, Pippa, and AKMA for their moving help as well. I was amazed that we were able to get it all relocated in one day (during which I still had to do some last minute packing, even). And now, back to finish a shelf of books before heading to bed. The room needs to be reasonably tidy and organized for my new roommate's arrival on Thursday. Friday, September 09, 2005 Amendment Thanks to those of you who've offered help tomorrow! An important amendment for anyone desiring to help move things: We'll be starting the moving party at 12 noon, not 10 am. I don't foresee this being a big deal, since we're moving the time because that's when people can come. See y'all tomorrow! Thursday, September 08, 2005 plea Some of you know this already, but I am planning to move dorm rooms on Saturday. This involves moving a fair amount of furniture, which I am hard pressed to do alone. I *think* a couple of you have in fact agreed to help with that, but I'm quickly losing track of who can be around when. SO - if you are able, I would greatly appreciate help moving that day. I'll be ready to go from 10 am on, and will provide cold drinks and eventually pizza. If you can help, it would be super duper great if you could tell me ahead of time when you are able to be here. If, for instance, no one can come before noon, that would be great to know. I don't want to wait for people who aren't coming or despair of people who are. I know there's nobody anywhere in the Chicago area who owes me any sort of favor, and in fact I'm still in most of your debt, but I'm asking anyway, out of sheer physical limitation. Thanks to any and all of you who can help! just for fun From Caroline's journal: i-Pod game: How many total songs? 1596 songs, 5.64GB Sort by Song Title - first and last songs? First: 'Comes A Time - Ani DiFranco Last: Your Tongue Like the Sun In My Mouth - Sophie B. Hawkins Sort by Time - first and last songs? First: (0:24) 'Comes A Time - Ani DiFranco Last: (27:15) Blind Frail (Hidden Track) - Jars of Clay Top Ten Played Songs 1. Black Heart Today - Amy Ray 2. Falling Silent In the Dark - Catie Curtis 3. I Still Want To - Catie Curtis 4. Don't Cry Anymore - Catie Curtis 5. Kid Fears - Indigo Girls 6. Hold On - Sarah McLachlan 7. February - Dar Williams 8. Free In You - Indigo Girls 9. Fatherless at 14 - Kendall Payne 10. Laramie - Amy Ray (tied with Elizabeth - Catie Curtis and Come On Home - Indigo Girls) Last Ten Played 1. Just Like Downtown - Carrie Newcomer 2. Luka - Suzanne Vega 3. The Women of Smith - Smith College Glee Club and Chorus 4. Superstar - Various (Indigo Girls et al) 5. You Oughta Know (Alternate) - Alanis Morissette 6. Stormy Weather - Joni Mitchell 7. Such a Way - Stephen Kellogg 8. When the Sun Goes Down In the City - Big River soundtrack 9. Soulfully - Catie Curtis 10. If I Had a Hammer - Peter, Paul & Mary Find 'sex.' How many songs show up? 15: the entirety of Mary Chapin Carpenter's Time*Sex*Love and a Sufjan Stevens song Find 'death.' How many songs show up? 1: Judas' Death - Jesus Christ Superstar Find 'love.' How many songs show up? 105: everything from "Of the Father's Love Begotten" to "When We Make Love" to "Four Leaf Clover" Wednesday, September 07, 2005 Then again, maybe I'll post a lot Two fun facts: First, You are Athanasius! You are willing to fight a losing battle, just to make sure that the truth is told. But don't get discouraged; sometimes it takes more than one lifetime for truth to triumph. Which Saint Are You? brought to you by Quizilla Second, I FOUND MY ROSARY!!! Now, I actually have a few rosaries. I have a Tibetan rosary with smooth wooden beads that's lovely but works better as prayer beads than for praying the Catholic rosary, since it's, you know, Tibetan. I have a gorgeous clay rosary that I coveted in the gallery case all through college, and told my parents I'd love it for my ordination present, and which they decided to buy me at the start of seminary instead. I have a sweet little wooden one from Notre Dame that I keep at my parents'. And I made myself one from hemp and pony beads in May, so that I'd have a sturdy praying Catholic rosary while I tried to decide what to do about losing my favorite rosary, the sturdy jade rosary a friend gave me as my very first rosary - the rosary I took with me to the hospital over spring break, which got me through several uncomfortable hospital nights over the last year. I hadn't seen it since March, and I was convinced I'd left it caught in the bedclothes at Rush, which meant it was lost forever by the time I gave up looking in my room. It's both a perfect fit for my hands, comfortable to pray with, and irreplaceable as a gift and reminder of learning to pray it in the first place. Anyway - today as I prepared to move, I picked up the Vogue I'd bought over spring break as a distraction, which I'd never finished reading. As I paged through looking for good pictures to keep, I came to where I'd stopped reading - and THERE IT WAS!!! I'm the most excited ever. Weather prayers While trying to coordinate some orientation/wedding process, I noticed just now that weather.com is predicting heat to break next Thursday night and give us a sunny 78 degree high on Friday Sept 16. Generally, I don't trust weather.com much, and especially ten days ahead of time, but let's all start praying that "sunny and 78" is an accurate description of both the 16th and the 17th, shall we? Back I'm safely back in Evanston and slowly working towards a move on Saturday. Anyone who's around is welcome to join in my "moving party" Saturday 10 am until we finish moving at least the big stuff. There will be cold drinks, also pizza at some point. The more, the merrier! Between the move and the impending start of school, which brings with it a wedding and orientation and liturgical responsibilities, I'm still not sure how much time I'll have for blogging. I'm still way behind on reading all your blogs, and I'm pretty swamped by just the move itself. So keep stopping by... just know that my "routine" may not get reestablished until orientation actually starts. Sunday, August 28, 2005 family, history, family history... I'm enjoying my vacation, as you can tell from the lack of posts. This morning, though, I wanted to be in Evanston. See, if I'd been in Evanston, I would have gotten a good sermon and Eucharist. At my home parish,* I got a Lesser Feasts & Fasts history lesson (with a plea for more deaf priests attached at the end) and morning prayer. Eucharist and good preaching... daily office and history. Eucharist and good preaching... yeah. I've got nothing against either the daily office or history - they're just not what I'm looking for in my main Sunday worship service. On the other hand, our rector did a lovely brief service for transferring my grandfather's ashes from the unmarked columbarium behind the main altar to the new columbarium in the back of the chapel, where he and my grandmother will eventually share their double niche, with their names on the front. And, you know, I like my parish. Besides, my New Orleans family has reported in - they've migrated to northern Mississippi, just outside Memphis. They'll still be wet, but they'll be safe and wet. And really, that matters a lot more than what kind of church service I got this morning. Right now I'm praying for those that are still in town - and praying that the dome holds up. *I'd give you a link here, but my home parish currently has such an abysmal website that I don't dare. It's been utterly useless for a while now, and is just starting to turn around. At least we've stopped the false advertising (we used to have lots of useful-looking dead links). Thursday, August 25, 2005 look how smart i is! Some of you may remember that in May, I posted to sing the praises of a fairly new Berea coffee shop, The Book & Bean. I'm back again, this time to report that I'm not the only one doing so - Book & Bean was voted Cleveland's Best Coffeeshop of 2005 in the Cleveland Free Times Reader's Choice Awards! Not only is that cool for the Book & Bean, but it's a pretty big deal that Free Times readers would pass over all the trendy, hip places in East Side suburbs to pick a coffee shop found only in Berea - hardly the sleepiest town around, but hardly the most happening either, especially for Free Times readers. Monday, August 22, 2005 vacation post Yes, indeed - for the first time in ages, I can say I am on vacation. I am at my parents' house now for ten days of useful appts (eye doc, dentist, massage), relaxation, and playing with kids in my mom's new PE classes. Then I'm off to St Louis for five days to play with friends. All this means that I will probably not post every day for the next two weeks (not that I always do, but still). I could post twice a day or I could go a week - it will vary greatly, I expect. Sunday, August 21, 2005 Not a city girl I want to go back to spending my summers out in the woods. There may be more animals out there to deal with, but at least I know the protocol. I cannot figure out city animals. They are entirely too bold, and I can never tell if, for instance, a skunk is going to ignore me no matter what I do or lift his tail and spray if I move another muscle in any direction. Also there are entirely too many skunks in this neighborhood to begin with. Don't they have some sort of predator around? a very long day Yesterday felt like a very long day. And by yesterday, I mean Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Thursday I went in for my last day of CPE, but left early to come back and see Susie and Si. I got home late-ish, then Friday got up and did a couple of Practical Things before heading downtown to hang out at the Art Institute, have dinner with friends, and see Tripp's show. I realized around 10 as Jeff and I were leaving for the show that I was going to have to take the L home alone at 1 am afterward, so Trish and Tripp were gracious enough to give me lodging overnight. I got back to Evanston in time to change and brush my teeth before heading back to Andersonville for a bridal shower, then went to Home Depot on the way back and helped Hope and Andrew paint the Canterbury office until about 11:30. When I got home at about midnight, it felt like I'd been gone since Thursday morning. 60 hours is a very long day indeed. Thursday, August 18, 2005 addendum Sorry, Frank - Susie and Andrew pointed out today that I missed Judges and Method, which is edited by Gale Yee. Add one to the total of books coauthored by women. (Thanks for the thoughtful comments, y'all - I will respond more fully when I'm not quite so exhausted. Keep them coming.) Wednesday, August 17, 2005 you are what you read? Feminism isn't new to this blog. Neither are books. And I've occasionally commented on both at once. But G. Brooke has inspired me today. A while back, I commented that of the 200ish books on my shelf, 32 are by women - counting several just by Madeleine L'Engle and a few specifically about women - and relayed Hope's comment that that's probably more than most seminarians have. More recently, Hope and I were discussing how little we read at Seabury that's written by women. I suggested that, in my experience, at least some of the faculty make a sincere effort to include works by women. Hope reminded me of my 32 book statistic and I went home and looked at my shelf - and I was even more dismayed: **In my one year at Seabury, I've been assigned 46 required books, 10ish recommended books (there may have been a couple others I didn't actually buy), and one assignment where we had to pick one of three books to read. **Of that count, 4 required books, 2 recommended books, and one of the three possible choices for the assignment were by women. 3 more required books were coauthored by women. That's about 1/8 women, 7/8 men; 1/11 women and 10/11 men on required books. **The 4 required books authored by women: Women in Travail and Transition; Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality; Preparing and Evaluating the Liturgy; Soul Feast. In other words, mostly from disciplines examining the "softer, gentler" side of priestly formation/theological study, rather than the "harder, more academic" disciplines. None of these four books came from classes that might be offered in the Smith College Department of Religion & Biblical Literature. It's cultural studies and prayer. That's not to say that we don't need to hear what women have to say about liturgy, prayer, gender studies, pastoral care, etc. - or that women have had an easy time breaking into those publishing fields. But they're still areas that have opened a little more readily to women. Of the three coauthored by women, one is on race, one is on systematic theology, and one is the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers (so you can guess how equal the writing in there is). And incidentally, of those four books, most of my class pretty well dismissed two of them - just didn't like them at all. Fewer than 10% of our required books were by women. Half of those that were, students deemed to be subpar. I want to know why. I know there's still less out there by women than by men. I know we read articles by women, and that's great, but when I want something on baptism or Jeremiah or Calvin, I don't look back through my syllabi and files unless I have to - I look first to my bookshelf. I know there are classes where primary source readings will just be mostly by men - most of the church history primary sources, for instance. I understand that sometimes you can look and look and just not find things. But I will no longer be satisfied with that answer. I have heard it and found it false in too many other situations. I have heard professors acclaim the work of this or that female theologian/scholar outside class. I have read excellent articles in class by women who I know have also published books. There are books out there. I'm not even asking for equal press time just yet. But it is ridiculous that I have taken 14 classes here and only 5 of those syllabi have required books by women (if you count systematics as one of the 5 but not the desert fathers & mothers). It is ridiculous that I can't assume that any of the books I'll be assigned this fall for ethics, preaching, and congregational development will be by women. It is ridiculous that the prize for "best gender balance" goes to Systematic Theology, where one book was coauthored by a woman, two were a reader that included articles by women (but not as editor), and two were just by men - that this one class makes me feel like there might be a place for me if I chose to try writing and publishing. I know most Seabury faculty never read this blog, and I don't want it to appear as though I'm speaking particularly to those who do. Nevertheless - Seabury faculty: Where are the books by women? Who on your syllabus teaches me not only about biblical studies and theology and pastoral care and history, but also that I too can write and publish - that if I have something worth saying, someone might listen? Who on your syllabus brings a female perspective to your subject? When I look on my shelf for a book on your class's subject, because I trust that you have taught me well and your materials would be worth reusing, what will I see that was written by a woman? It is not too much to ask that every class at Seabury include at least one book by a woman author on its syllabus. Not a reserve reading, not an article, a required book. Make us buy one more book if you have to - if there's simply nothing on your syllabus that a woman has said as well as the man you have there now. I know I don't have much power to change this. But I will no longer give adequate or excellent ratings for "gender balance" on evaluations simply because we read articles by women, or talked about women, or read books by men about women. I will no longer consider it adequate unless the class syllabus requires at least one book by a woman. If that means no class is adequate in this regard, so be it - I will not engage in "relative evaluating." I encourage my classmates to join me in this. I want to see women on my shelves. Tuesday, August 16, 2005 props to raisin and susie Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc. I can dig that. Lupin is a good teacher and a good friend. Also the actual letters don't surprise me in the slightest - I never know whether it will be J or P, but P has been more frequent, especially in the last five years. (And see? I'm not Hermione!) Monday, August 15, 2005 Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us Reverend Mommy shares a sad story today. Apparently a 70-year old man walked into a hospital, up to the ICU where his wife was a patient, and shot her and then himself. Her recovery had not been going well after several weeks and apparently he decided to take matters into his own hands. I think about the patients in my unit at LGH, the surgical intensive care unit. I think about the patient who died this weekend when they withdrew life support, after over a month on the unit. I think of his family, people of great prayer and passion. I think about the traumas that came into the ER just this afternoon: two kids on bikes, two adults in cars, and a little boy whose sister and grandma also came in from the same car accident. Some of those folks will be spending some time in our critical care units, including one of the kids. I think of the family of the brother/sister/grandma, also people of deep prayer, and of their pastor as he laid hands and prayed over the children. So many people. So much pain. And even as I type this, there are sirens passing my window, presumably on their way to the local hospital. Will you pray with me? Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. We lift up to you especially those lying in intensive care units and their families, as they wait and hope for your healing grace. Sunday, August 14, 2005 nine on-calls: check! Last night, I had my last on-call shift at LGH. A friend told me at one point, "God won't let you get through CPE without doing what you need to do there" - and for several people, that's meant that their last on-call is the time when they get that call they've dreaded all summer - the dead baby, the gunshot wound, the organ donation, whatever. Last night, I wrote a page and a half of my final self-evaluation, watched an episode of West Wing, and got six hours of sleep. Oh, and I took a valuables envelope from ER to security, and began expiration paperwork and called the son to let him know his mom had died (she was in hospice and it was expected). I had two pages all night - both at the same exact time, so that one ended up not needing me by the time I got there. Apparently, what I needed to get out of last night was sleep. I left the hospital this morning, went to church, went home and wrote the rest of my eval, went to church again, and just finished the last peer evaluation. I did not take a nap - sure, I'm a little tired on only six hours, but I did not have to come home and collapse. It was a great night. Cross your fingers that the next five days will follow suit. Friday, August 12, 2005 thanks Just saw this on reverend mommy's morning prayer post for today: Lord, when they came for you in the garden, you experienced the pain of the betrayer’s metaphorical knife in the back. Lord, he was someone you loved and I ask myself how could you bear it? Have mercy on me, even though what I experience is only a shadow of what you felt. Help me to forgive -- especially those who I love and are close to me. Keep me from participating in sin by giving me forbearance. Grant me the wisdom to find a way to repair or transcend the situation. Help me be a solution to the problem and not part of it. Lord, I do not understand all the things that trouble me now. Therefore I thank you for these problems, because it has brought your will into sharp focus, it has brought me closer to you and to others, and it teaches me my need for you. I ask for your grace to persevere in faith as long as this stress in our lives shall last. I ask for wisdom to know when and how to be helpful to others -- and how to ask for help when I need it. I hand it over to you, so that your will be done. Thank you for you loving care, which I know endures forever. Amen. It seemed worth borrowing today. deeply tired Worked harder this morning than we've worked all summer put together in CPE open group. Which was good. And tiring. Wednesday, August 10, 2005 everybody's doing it... Well, all my St Louis blogging friends anyway. It's one of the sillier blog fads, but it's mindless, and that's what counts, right? Or something. Directions: Type "(your name) is" with the quotes, into a Google search then pick out your favorite 10 responses. Copy, then repost your responses: 1. Beth is a blogger's blogger whose lucidity and uncommon insights offer a sophisticated alternative to the din of sarcasm and self-righteousness of Wonkette-wannabes and the Instapundits-in-training. 2. Beth is getting airplay on 103.1fm in Los Angeles! 3. Beth is short, Stout, remarkably ugly, incredibly pixilated, and only makes a noise when she's hit - sort of "ugh" 4. Beth is simply the most elegant small squareboat we know. 5. Beth is the most stereotypically ideal sister 7. Beth is sanctified for our benefit 8. Beth is a Grand Officer in the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights Templar of Jerusalem and is one of the few women so honored on their own merit. 9. Beth is always willing to stand her ground in a debate and would make a good negotiator. 10.Beth is adamant about the fact that double process blonding is the only guaranteed method to achieving a balanced, rich, blonde result on Level 4 (light brown) color or deeper. Wind in the Door Does anyone in the area have a copy of A Wind in the Door that I could borrow? Mine is in Ohio, and I'm trying to write a clinical presentation on Naming, Not Naming, and Un-Naming. Thanks! (Also, someday I'll start writing real posts again, but right now I've got a lot of writing for the end of CPE - which is eight shifts away.) Monday, August 08, 2005 quick plea I confess it - I have bowed at the altar of convenience. That is to say, I have finally given in and set up an RSS reader. Therefore, if I read your blog (or you think I might) and you don't have a feed enabled (which means you're probably from or associated with St Louis), please enable it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I can explain elsewhere. Of course, if there's an RSS-blocking conspiracy targeting St Louis, I completely understand, and will take that into account. If not, though, it would make my life easier if y'all could click those little boxes. And of course, making my life easier is everyone's first priority in life. ;) Sunday, August 07, 2005 Someone explain this Why is it that non-profits can't bring themselves to ask for competence, let alone demand excellence? Really. I don't f**king get it. Why? Saturday, August 06, 2005 maybe that's why When I am looking for theologians to stimulate my creativity, theologians who are contemporary enough to speak to these last years of our troubled century, I turn to the Byzantine and Cappadocian Fathers of the early years of the Christian era, becuase their world was more like ours than the world of such great theologians as Niebuhr and Tillich and Bultmann, who were writing in the framework of a world which was basically pre-World-War-II, and definitely pre-the-splitting-of-the-atom. In the first few centuries A.D., Rome was breaking up; civilization was changing as radically as is our own; people were no longer able to live in the luxury they had become accustomed to, as the great aqueducts and water-heating systems broke down and the roads were no longer kept up. Such people as St. Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and his brilliant sister, Macrina, were facing the same kind of change and challenge that we are, and from them I get great courage. ~Madeleine L'Engle Walking on Water Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) About Me Beth View my complete profile Blog Archive ▼  2008 (3) ▼  July (1) I made croutons! ►  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) ►  November (27) ►  October (38) ►  September (25) ►  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)