This morning we went to the big suuk in Abbaseya, a fruit/vegetable/everything open-air market that runs several blocks long, about a 10 minute walk away from where we live. On the way we passed either a polling place or some kind of political gathering--a bunch of people talking excitedly, and with Mubarak posters and postcards everywhere. We got stared at and talked to a lot, but I don't know enough Arabic yet to know if it was good or bad.
At the suuk we saw all kinds of things and all kinds of people--tomatoes, potatoes, greens, grains, pasta, zucchini, cucumber, mango, pears, apples, grapes, onions, eggplant, etc etc etc, plus kitchen utensils, pans, colanders, bowls, etc, plus hair bands backpacks and housewares--it was crazy and fun and wonderful. Prices are quite low--I got a kilo of potatoes (three very large potatoes, with which I'm making potato salad this weekend), a kilo of onions, a quarter kilo of grapes and a kilo of apples (split with Sarah), all for about...mmm...less than 10 pounds (3 of which sarah paid me for apples). That's less than 2 USdollars. Amazing! Other group members got green beans, zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. We made a stir fry and served it over rice with fresh tomatoes on top. It was SO GOOD. Garlic powder, salt and pepper, basil, emeril essence and soy sauce can do amazing things. Tomorrow night we girls (all four of us, assuming Jen feels better) are going straight from Arabic class to a new huge western-style supermarket while the boys take the van home and maybe, god willing, make dinner! Excellent.
I spent most of the afternoon studying, so no pictures loaded today. Maybe tomorrow. Also tomorrow, hopefully: Adventures in Arabic...once I've studied enough to be able to tell you something intelligently!
This is random, but fab: tonight I watched Buffy (1.1 and 1.2) with Sarah, a Buffy virgin. I'm evangelizing for Buffy, since evanglizing for JC is illegal. :-) She's converted, I think!! yay!
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
adventures in photo ops
Today we took a trip to Fayoum, a city about an hour and a half south of here. We went to celebrate the laying of a cornerstone of a new Synod of the Nile School--a secondary "language" school. It will be built behind the "American Mission School for Girls." While there, we were treated like celebrities--incessantly had our picture taken by the "official" photographer, constantly followed and videotaped by the TV man, introduced and asked to stand during the speeches by the mayor/clergy/principal/president of schools/etc. It was crazy. We also "toured" Fayoum a bit--we visited the famous water wheels (only a few left now, none in the city functional, just decorative and historical). Several in our group got their first taste of being a westerner in a middle eastern country--we were besieged by street vendors trying to sell us baskets, toy camels made of reed, etc. they just kept coming and asking and asking and asking--even when you say "la" they simply lower the price, hoping that you are just bargaining with them. Two of our group members bought baskets--bargained to GREAT prices of about 50 piastres apiece (down from 15 pounds as the merchants first offer!).
On our bus trip to Fayoum I got my first glimpse of the Pyramids. I knew how big they were and everything, but the road goes so near that you can actually FEEL how big they are!! These things are huge. And let me just tell you about trying to take a picture of them from a moving bus on a crowded and lumpy street. We had the windows open, so I was standing at my seat, my camera cord wrapped around my arm, with my camera out the window, trying to get a photo of a pyramid between trees, cars and trucks, the plateau, etc. It was insane. I probably took about 15 pictures before I got one that actually had a pyramid in it. Perhaps tomorrow I will load all of those pictures, just so you can see the process I went through trying to take a picture of a pyramid. It was hilarious and frustrating all at the same time. Every time I thought I had it, we sped up, slowed down, got passed by a truck, or my camera reacted too slowly (no flash (daytime and all that)=slower shutter speed). OY!!
In other news, Arabic class is okay for now. Crazy fast, and with one teacher so mean he borders on evil, and with a book that makes me crazy because the script is so small that it's impossible to read the vowel signs, but okay. I am good with languages, so I've been having a relatively easy time. Also, I've studied Hebrew (obviously) which is a sister tongue to Arabic. Some of our group are really struggling, so they need some supportive thoughts and encouraging prayers.
Tomorrow is the big day--Election Day in Egypt! We have no arabic class, government offices are closed, and no one knows what the Muslim Brotherhood is going to do, so we've been warned by nearly everyone to stay inside tomorrow. Carole says, however, we can go out, just not to downtown. Our neighborhood is harmless, and we need to eat, so we're going to the fruit and vegetable market tomorrow morning. I'll be very interested to see what happens with this, and even more interested in what happens after the election--particularly with the US pressure to have "democracy" here. We will see!!
I think this is enough for now. Not pretty and not well written, but a few snapshots of life in Cairo today. Visual snapshots coming soon...
On our bus trip to Fayoum I got my first glimpse of the Pyramids. I knew how big they were and everything, but the road goes so near that you can actually FEEL how big they are!! These things are huge. And let me just tell you about trying to take a picture of them from a moving bus on a crowded and lumpy street. We had the windows open, so I was standing at my seat, my camera cord wrapped around my arm, with my camera out the window, trying to get a photo of a pyramid between trees, cars and trucks, the plateau, etc. It was insane. I probably took about 15 pictures before I got one that actually had a pyramid in it. Perhaps tomorrow I will load all of those pictures, just so you can see the process I went through trying to take a picture of a pyramid. It was hilarious and frustrating all at the same time. Every time I thought I had it, we sped up, slowed down, got passed by a truck, or my camera reacted too slowly (no flash (daytime and all that)=slower shutter speed). OY!!
In other news, Arabic class is okay for now. Crazy fast, and with one teacher so mean he borders on evil, and with a book that makes me crazy because the script is so small that it's impossible to read the vowel signs, but okay. I am good with languages, so I've been having a relatively easy time. Also, I've studied Hebrew (obviously) which is a sister tongue to Arabic. Some of our group are really struggling, so they need some supportive thoughts and encouraging prayers.
Tomorrow is the big day--Election Day in Egypt! We have no arabic class, government offices are closed, and no one knows what the Muslim Brotherhood is going to do, so we've been warned by nearly everyone to stay inside tomorrow. Carole says, however, we can go out, just not to downtown. Our neighborhood is harmless, and we need to eat, so we're going to the fruit and vegetable market tomorrow morning. I'll be very interested to see what happens with this, and even more interested in what happens after the election--particularly with the US pressure to have "democracy" here. We will see!!
I think this is enough for now. Not pretty and not well written, but a few snapshots of life in Cairo today. Visual snapshots coming soon...
Sunday, September 04, 2005
adventures in kusheri...long term
Kusheri is an egyptian dish made with macaroni, vermicelli, spaghetti (sometimes), fried onions, tomato sauce, lentils, the occasional chickpea, and "spices". It is one of the best foods I have ever eaten. It costs 1 Egyptian pound for a dinner-sized portion. With the current exchange rate of approximately 5.8 pounds to the US dollar, I could eat Kusheri every evening for dinner and spend about $5.50 per month. That is roughly the same price as one venti caramel mocha frappucino from Starbucks, including Chicago taxes and a small tip for your local barista. One coffee, or 30 nights of dinner. It's insane.
However, the average young person working a government job (ie tourist police or some such thing) makes about 40-50 Egyptian pounds per month. So for him it would be 3/4 of his monthly salary, just spent on dinner. Teachers normally start out making 200 egyptian pounds per month, which would make a daily kusheri meal about 1/7 of the salary. No wonder bread is subsidized by the government and costs 5 piastres per "loaf" of aysh baladi--the brown pita bread. 5 piastres is roughly half of 1 cent. things here are very cheap...but then you realize that people get paid so little that even very cheap things are too expensive. it's crazy. To compare: the 50 LE per month salary for the tourist police, the 200 LE per month for the teacher, and 1300 LE a month for the PCUSA mission volunteer. Granted, the idea is that we'll save money to travel in the country (so we can get to know more about where we live and the people in the country) but still. It's a little insane. I was thinking I could save half my stipend every month for travel. Now it seems maybe more than that would be appropriate, if I really want to understand what people's lives are like here, to really be a part of the community. Hmm...
Well, I think that's enough musing for tonight. My kusheri-filled belly and I are going to fill up water bottles at the filter and head for bed. My air conditioner stopped working last night, so if it gets hot i'm coming to sleep in the very ac-ed computer room. If I can't sleep, you may hear from me again. lol!
tomorrow: grocery shopping in our neighborhood! woohoo!
However, the average young person working a government job (ie tourist police or some such thing) makes about 40-50 Egyptian pounds per month. So for him it would be 3/4 of his monthly salary, just spent on dinner. Teachers normally start out making 200 egyptian pounds per month, which would make a daily kusheri meal about 1/7 of the salary. No wonder bread is subsidized by the government and costs 5 piastres per "loaf" of aysh baladi--the brown pita bread. 5 piastres is roughly half of 1 cent. things here are very cheap...but then you realize that people get paid so little that even very cheap things are too expensive. it's crazy. To compare: the 50 LE per month salary for the tourist police, the 200 LE per month for the teacher, and 1300 LE a month for the PCUSA mission volunteer. Granted, the idea is that we'll save money to travel in the country (so we can get to know more about where we live and the people in the country) but still. It's a little insane. I was thinking I could save half my stipend every month for travel. Now it seems maybe more than that would be appropriate, if I really want to understand what people's lives are like here, to really be a part of the community. Hmm...
Well, I think that's enough musing for tonight. My kusheri-filled belly and I are going to fill up water bottles at the filter and head for bed. My air conditioner stopped working last night, so if it gets hot i'm coming to sleep in the very ac-ed computer room. If I can't sleep, you may hear from me again. lol!
tomorrow: grocery shopping in our neighborhood! woohoo!
adventures in internet quizzes
| Your IQ Is 120 |
 Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Above Average |
well, that was fun.
Adventures in Sufism
Last night we went to the citadel (fortified by Saladin to fend off the Crusaders, but never actually needed because they were fended off in Palestine). It's huge and amazing and well preserved. It is also where the Sufi Dancers (Whirling Dervishes) "perform" their prayers three nights a week, for an audience. It was AMAZING. The music was awesome, the dancers were great, and the whirling dervishes could whirl forever. The first one (who came on about 40 minutes into the evening) whirled solo (with some surrounding dancers/drummers) for 30 minutes without even thinking about stopping in spite of coughing. After he was done there was a musical interlude, then three dervishes came out and whirled together for about half an hour. It was very cool.
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, kind of like the mystics of medieval Catholicism. The Whirling Dervishes are, I think, a sect within Sufism and they use whirling as a way to work themselves into a trance and thus a deeper meditation, which brings them closer to God. It felt kind of weird to watch this as a performance, and then to applaud at the end, but it was amazing and beautiful, so I did. And I did so with only a small amount of shame at being a witness to something like this. Here are some pics, and there are more in my yahoo photos (link on the left sidebar).
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In other news, I hope you are all thinking about ways to help Katrina victims. It is such a huge disaster that it's all over the news here too, and I've been reading the NY Times coverage. I am appalled at the way the situation has been handled, and especially with the news (news to me, anyway) that funding for the levee system to be finished was pulled in order to fund the war in Iraq. UGH!
Also in other news, I heard that a few hours ago Chief Justice Rehnquist died. This makes me sad on so many levels, from his family's grieving to the pain he was in and the lengths he went to to try to heal, to the fact that there are now two vacancies on the Supreme Court and an imbecile president in charge of filling them. I hope this goes better than I think it will.
Now I am hungry, and Jason just walked in with a sandwich that made me extremely jealous. I'm going to eat now. And to try to stay clean. ha!
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, kind of like the mystics of medieval Catholicism. The Whirling Dervishes are, I think, a sect within Sufism and they use whirling as a way to work themselves into a trance and thus a deeper meditation, which brings them closer to God. It felt kind of weird to watch this as a performance, and then to applaud at the end, but it was amazing and beautiful, so I did. And I did so with only a small amount of shame at being a witness to something like this. Here are some pics, and there are more in my yahoo photos (link on the left sidebar).
~~~~~~
In other news, I hope you are all thinking about ways to help Katrina victims. It is such a huge disaster that it's all over the news here too, and I've been reading the NY Times coverage. I am appalled at the way the situation has been handled, and especially with the news (news to me, anyway) that funding for the levee system to be finished was pulled in order to fund the war in Iraq. UGH!
Also in other news, I heard that a few hours ago Chief Justice Rehnquist died. This makes me sad on so many levels, from his family's grieving to the pain he was in and the lengths he went to to try to heal, to the fact that there are now two vacancies on the Supreme Court and an imbecile president in charge of filling them. I hope this goes better than I think it will.
Now I am hungry, and Jason just walked in with a sandwich that made me extremely jealous. I'm going to eat now. And to try to stay clean. ha!
adventures in boxed beverages
This week we have done a lot! We've been to the grocery (a western supermarket, sadly, because our local grocer is on vacation until monday), ridden the Metro (the mass transit train system, partly above and partly below ground), visited Care With Love (an organization that cares for children with cancer, that trains home health care workers, and a variety of other things...one of the volunteers (Jay) is going to be working there this year) to attend a graduation ceremony for the home health training program, taken a felucca (boat) ride on the Nile, had several fabulous meals, and started Arabic class.
For this post, I first want to share with you how grocery stores work. They look just like ours, except almost all the product packaging is in Arabic. Duh. Luckily, the back side is often in English or French, so I'm doing okay with that so far. Beverages here (juice, milk, etc) mostly come in hermetically sealed boxes. I purchased a box of mango juice and a box of milk. When I went to open them in the morning so I could have breakfast, here's what happened:
I pulled the plastic tab. The milk one broke and I had to cut a hole in the top with a knife. The mango juice plastic opening came completely off, leaving me with just the hole in the box, which I am now covering with the plastic tab when it's in the fridge. Great. It was a fantastic introduction to the ingenuity and flexibility needed to live in another country!
For this post, I first want to share with you how grocery stores work. They look just like ours, except almost all the product packaging is in Arabic. Duh. Luckily, the back side is often in English or French, so I'm doing okay with that so far. Beverages here (juice, milk, etc) mostly come in hermetically sealed boxes. I purchased a box of mango juice and a box of milk. When I went to open them in the morning so I could have breakfast, here's what happened:
I pulled the plastic tab. The milk one broke and I had to cut a hole in the top with a knife. The mango juice plastic opening came completely off, leaving me with just the hole in the box, which I am now covering with the plastic tab when it's in the fridge. Great. It was a fantastic introduction to the ingenuity and flexibility needed to live in another country!
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
mango juice
Mango Juice might be my new favorite beverage. Since Dr. Pepper isn't distributing in Egypt yet, I'm having to drink other things. Milk comes in a box and doesn't need to be refrigerated, which creeps me out, so juice it is! I had a box of mango juice installed in my fridge when I arrived, and this afternoon we stopped as a group at a juice stand down the road where they literally blend up mango with a little water and serve it up to you in a real glass, right there on the road! Without the water, it definitely would have been a soft solid mass in the cup. It was FANTASTIC. The girl who talked to us about Egypt last week was right--you've never tasted a mango until you've come here. So good.
We have visited some of our neighborhood (Ghamra) and we've found our way to the place to print photos and the suuk where they sell fruits and vegetables, all perfectly fresh and in season, literally trucked in early in the morning from the delta region and sold during the day. crazy!
The pollution here is visible, which is a little disturbing, and at the moment it's quite warm. It's probably about 90+ degrees, but the humidity is reasonable so it's quite manageable to be outside. Our flats all have air conditioning, so being in my apartment is pretty cool, literally and figuratively!
I have a bit of a head cold, which is frustrating, but hopefully it will clear up soon and I won't be begging for cough drops or kleenex anymore!!
Let's see...is there anything else to say? Today we visited with the General Secretary of the Synod of the Nile Schools, who also is (or was?) the President of the Protestant Churches in Egypt, and something else too. He had a lot of titles. He had interesting things to say about politics and Islam and Christianity, so that was intriguing. Basically, Christians want Mubarak to stay because he doesn't oppress Christians. The other candidates would all, supposedly, make Egypt an Islamic state, including Shari'a law, which would make it exremely difficult to be a Christian here. Here's hoping that doesn't happen! While I'm not sure that Mubarak is the best choice, at least with him we'll be allowed to stay! The elections are September 7, just a week away. Good times!
While visiting with Mr. school-president man (whose name completely escapes me at this moment) we also had a chance to experience some Middle Eastern hospitality. All 9 of us were invited to take a seat in his office, and were offered a variety of beverages. We all opted for lemonade, which was pretty good. He also answered lots of questions we had, which was great. We were probably there for about 45 minutes with him!
Well, many of you have heard already, but Dawson Hall here offers some extremely nice accomodations, especially when you consider where some of our fellow YAVs are living in other countries (with host families, in the desert, etc). Each flat has a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. My living room is essentially the size of a living room and dining room. It's furnished with a couch, chair, coffee table, small kitchen table (in the "dining room") and two chairs, bed, dresser, closet, bathroom drawers (the plastic kind that I love--a three-drawer unit), and kitchen utensils and dishes. I am glad that I brought my measuring cups and spoons, though. Our stoves are butagas, which means we turn on the tank, then light a match, then turn on the burner and light it. This morning I thought I might burn my hair so I freaked and turned it off on accident the first time, but I succeeded on my second try and managed to boil the kettle for some tea. Thank goodness! I'm so glad I packed peppermint tea because it's just what my nose and throat (not to mention my taste buds) needed this morning.
I think that's about enough for now. Tonight we are headed out for dinner at a restaurant on or near the Nile, which is very exciting. (Last night we were welcomed with pizza and ice cream, which was fantastic after 15 hours of travelling!!) Tomorrow afternoon we begin language lessons! Send us some happy thoughts and prayers, because Arabic is quite challenging and supposedly our teachers are very demanding. :-)
I have posted pictures of Dawson Hall on my photo site, the link to which is to the left there. Enjoy!
We have visited some of our neighborhood (Ghamra) and we've found our way to the place to print photos and the suuk where they sell fruits and vegetables, all perfectly fresh and in season, literally trucked in early in the morning from the delta region and sold during the day. crazy!
The pollution here is visible, which is a little disturbing, and at the moment it's quite warm. It's probably about 90+ degrees, but the humidity is reasonable so it's quite manageable to be outside. Our flats all have air conditioning, so being in my apartment is pretty cool, literally and figuratively!
I have a bit of a head cold, which is frustrating, but hopefully it will clear up soon and I won't be begging for cough drops or kleenex anymore!!
Let's see...is there anything else to say? Today we visited with the General Secretary of the Synod of the Nile Schools, who also is (or was?) the President of the Protestant Churches in Egypt, and something else too. He had a lot of titles. He had interesting things to say about politics and Islam and Christianity, so that was intriguing. Basically, Christians want Mubarak to stay because he doesn't oppress Christians. The other candidates would all, supposedly, make Egypt an Islamic state, including Shari'a law, which would make it exremely difficult to be a Christian here. Here's hoping that doesn't happen! While I'm not sure that Mubarak is the best choice, at least with him we'll be allowed to stay! The elections are September 7, just a week away. Good times!
While visiting with Mr. school-president man (whose name completely escapes me at this moment) we also had a chance to experience some Middle Eastern hospitality. All 9 of us were invited to take a seat in his office, and were offered a variety of beverages. We all opted for lemonade, which was pretty good. He also answered lots of questions we had, which was great. We were probably there for about 45 minutes with him!
Well, many of you have heard already, but Dawson Hall here offers some extremely nice accomodations, especially when you consider where some of our fellow YAVs are living in other countries (with host families, in the desert, etc). Each flat has a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. My living room is essentially the size of a living room and dining room. It's furnished with a couch, chair, coffee table, small kitchen table (in the "dining room") and two chairs, bed, dresser, closet, bathroom drawers (the plastic kind that I love--a three-drawer unit), and kitchen utensils and dishes. I am glad that I brought my measuring cups and spoons, though. Our stoves are butagas, which means we turn on the tank, then light a match, then turn on the burner and light it. This morning I thought I might burn my hair so I freaked and turned it off on accident the first time, but I succeeded on my second try and managed to boil the kettle for some tea. Thank goodness! I'm so glad I packed peppermint tea because it's just what my nose and throat (not to mention my taste buds) needed this morning.
I think that's about enough for now. Tonight we are headed out for dinner at a restaurant on or near the Nile, which is very exciting. (Last night we were welcomed with pizza and ice cream, which was fantastic after 15 hours of travelling!!) Tomorrow afternoon we begin language lessons! Send us some happy thoughts and prayers, because Arabic is quite challenging and supposedly our teachers are very demanding. :-)
I have posted pictures of Dawson Hall on my photo site, the link to which is to the left there. Enjoy!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
chicago
i love chicago. too bad orientation means that i can't really hang out here. anyway, orientation is kind of long but i'm sure it's important. plus there are lots of fun people. good times. i haven't touched my egypt bags, so i must have packed well. thank goodness! if i had to open those, i think it would be very bad. anyway, we have sporadic internet access. i'll try to post again before we actually fly out. we leave monday at 11:30, and we fly away at 3:45pm. yay!
ttfn....
ttfn....
Sunday, August 14, 2005
bye, atlanta!
we are off. two hours after our planned departure, but we are packed and ready to go. so we're off on the long drive. no posting until we get into internet land again, approximately 2555.16 miles from here. happy new week!
peace
peace
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Getting Your Feet Wet
Getting Your Feet Wet
Matthew 14.22-33
CNCP
August 7 2005
Have you ever had one of those experiences where something is so uncanny, so perfect, so appropriate that you just know that there’s something or someone behind it? That’s the experience I’ve had with this text this week. This text is the perfect story for this, my last Sunday here with you before leaving for a year as a missionary in Egypt. I know we’ve all heard this story a million times before and we’re always being told that it’s about taking risks to follow Jesus, or making a leap of faith, or stepping out of our comfort zone. But I have something just a little bit different in mind this week.
Some of you may remember that about four months ago Jason and I took a trip to Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in a long weekend retreat for potential Young Adult Volunteers. During this weekend about 50 young adults between the ages of 19 and 30 came together to study, pray, and explore whether a year of mission work was for them, and if so where they were called to go. There were people who’d just graduated from college or who were about to, people who were planning to go to seminary when they came back, people who were looking for a change, people who were interested in doing something good while they figure out what to do with their lives, and all kinds of other motives and interests and backgrounds and gifts. There were site directors of a dozen countries and US sites—from Hollywood to India to Kenya to Thailand to Guatemala and everywhere in between. It was really a chance for us to just get our feet wet in the program—to meet people, find out information, and be in community for a short while with other people we might be living with later in the year. All weekend we talked, we listened, we met and chatted and ate and prayed. We worshipped twice a day, and the text we used for each of those 6 services was this very text—the story of Peter walking on the water. We heard this story 6 times, we heard it preached on 6 times, we heard what felt like every aspect of the story—from the part where Jesus takes some time out to pray and rest even though there’s a ton of work to do, to the part where Jesus walks on the water, to the part where Peter walks on the water, to the part where Peter sinks and Jesus apparently rebukes him, to the part where all the disciples worship Jesus because they finally figure it out just at the last minute. I feel like I have heard every sermon on this text that I might ever preach, and all in one weekend. When we weren’t in worship, we were often talking about this story and what we were thinking or feeling about it. The entire discernment weekend was saturated with this story of Jesus, Peter, and the other disciples and their modes of travel. So when it appeared in the lectionary for the Sunday I was scheduled to preach my last sermon before heading off to actually be a young adult volunteer, I found the coincidence too much to bear. Except, of course, I don’t believe in coincidence, so it must be providence. Clearly there is a reason that I’m supposed to bring this story to you all this morning.
Can you imagine the scene that Matthew describes? Jesus sends the disciples on ahead in the boat, and since they’d tried earlier to get Jesus to send the crowd away, they were probably delighted to get away from the crowd and have some peace and quiet. No one asked Jesus how he was planning on catching up with them, no one argued, no one even batted an eye. Now, the Sea of Galilee is not very wide—at its widest point it is 8 miles across. From the place where the feeding of the 5,000 happened up to Genessaret, the location for the next story, is basically due north, probably about 5 or 6 miles. You can see across from one side to the other. It must have been really windy, because by the time Jesus decides to join them, he can see that they’re out in the middle of the lake even after several hours. Remember, this is a boat half full of fishermen—they know how to move a boat, even in a storm. And these fishermen were straining at the oars, according to Mark’s version of this story. So when Jesus comes along, leisurely strolling by, apparently on the surface of the water, imagine what that must have looked like. The disciples have been up all night bailing water out, trying to keep the waves from swamping the boat, rowing against a strong wind, and making no progress. They’ve just had news that John the Baptist was beheaded—bad news for their own little group. And now, in the dark of the very early morning, they see this figure coming toward them, clothes billowing out behind him, face pale in the faint moonlight, hair whipping about. Between stress, fatigue, anxiety, and the impossibility of the situation, of course they were afraid! They scream, probably with the scream of a teenager in terror, and Jesus says “do not be afraid.”
Have you ever noticed that whenever the phrase “do not be afraid” comes up in the Bible, it’s always at the moment when people have every right to be completely terrified? Hagar thinks her son is going to die in the desert heat and she begins to hear voices. Moses sees a bush that’s burning up but isn’t burning up. The people of Israel come up against an army ten times their size. Jeremiah takes daily threats to his life, even from the king. Mary meets a so-called-angel that mysteriously appears in her kitchen. The disciples see a vision of Elijah and Moses with Jesus on a mountain and everyone is glowing. The members of the early church see their brothers and sisters stoned and burned to death for proclaiming Jesus as Lord. These are all pretty good reasons to be afraid, and yet every time God says “do not be afraid.” What? I spend plenty of my time being afraid for much less than this. And now I’m headed out to a place where everyone keeps telling me to be careful, often implying that I should be afraid of the people, of the situation, of some unknown thing. And that’s really what we’re afraid of, isn’t it? We’re afraid of the unknown. We as a congregation are afraid—because we don’t know what’s going to happen next, where we’ll be in a year or five years, whether new people will come or everyone here will get a new burst of energy or whether young families will move in to the new townhomes across the street. We as a nation are afraid because there are people in the world who aren’t like us. The people in those Bible stories were afraid of the unknown—what would happen when that army marched on the Israelites, whether Jeremiah would be killed or not, what this angel might require or what seeing God face-to-face might do to a person. Now, intellectually we all know that what we really fear is the unknown, and we know that the unknown thing usually turns out not to be very frightening at all—sometimes it’s even pleasant or rewarding!—but we are still afraid to move toward it, to get our feet wet in that unknown and risk getting in over our heads. So perhaps, in this light, “do not be afraid” makes some sense after all. Perhaps that is Jesus’ way of telling the disciples in the boat that he is not the unknown, but is someone they know and love and trust. Perhaps the phrase “do not be afraid” is almost a form of identification, a way for God to say “hey, it’s me! Not a stranger, but a friend.”
Once the disciples have heard this declaration, this identification, of their friend and Lord, Peter asks what seems like a silly question to me. He says “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Now, if it was a ghost, wouldn’t the ghost also say, “come” just as Jesus does? Granted, the ghost would assume that Peter would sink, but why not? It doesn’t seem like a very good test. However, you may remember the phrase from First John: “test the spirits to see whether they are of God.” Maybe Peter was confirming that it was his friend and, somehow, also displaying his trust that what Jesus commands is possible. In any case, Jesus orders Peter out of the boat, and the exhausted and frightened Peter obeys. Somehow he defies all logic, gravity, laws of physics, and everything else and manages to step out onto a non-solid surface that is heaving and spraying and swirling all around him. Maybe it was magic, maybe it’s a metaphor for stepping from comfort into chaos, maybe it somehow really happened, but in any case, the story tells us that Peter began to walk toward Jesus—and THEN he noticed the wind? Uh, no, he knew about the wind, he’d been in a boat, straining to make headway, desperately trying to keep the boat afloat against the waves. He hadn’t been comfortable in the boat to begin with—he had been anxious, bone-tired, soaked to the skin, and most likely decidedly uncomfortable. He knew what was outside the boat. He knew he might get even wetter, that it might not work…but he also knew that if Jesus called him out of the boat then it must be worth it. And he chose to get out of the boat and try his luck at walking on the water because that’s where Jesus was. He was more comfortable being close to Jesus than being on a solid surface. He was willing to get his feet wet in order to be close to the Lord he knew. And yes, he became afraid, and he began to sink—he may have even been in over his head—but with God all things are possible and Jesus held him up. Remember from Psalm 139—at the edge of the sea, in the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven, even there your right hand shall hold me fast. Or the psalm for today, Psalm 23—even in the depths of fear, sinking into the middle of the very symbol of chaos, Peter was comforted by the Shepherd. Oh yes, Peter knew what he was getting into, and he was afraid of what might happen, but his friend and Lord came through for him, just as he always had and always will. Jesus is Lord even of the elements and of the laws of nature, as we see so often in the gospels, and he was not about to let Peter fall. Jesus walked Peter back to the boat, to the stunned disciples who by now had probably forgotten to bail or row because they were busy staring open mouthed at Peter, and the wind stopped when they were all together again, and the disciples worshipped him—because what else could they do? There is no other response than awe and praise when something so completely bizarre happens, much as there is no other response than following when you are called.
In that moment, the moment where Peter stepped out of the boat, I think he got a little glimpse of what it must be like to be in the Kingdom of God. To be more comfortable being close to Jesus than being on solid ground, to do something strangely impossible, to so closely obey the command of the Lord, to forget the worldly rules and follow a new set of kingdom rules. I must admit that I’m not quite in the same place Peter was. When I was in a boat on the Sea of Galilee in the broad daylight when the wind and water were calm, we joked about who would prove their faith by stepping out—and neither I nor anyone else was willing to do so. And I will definitely be careful when I’m in Egypt—I don’t plan on going places alone at night, going anywhere with random people I just met at a coffee shop, or doing anything silly. Because it seems to us that what Peter did was really kind of silly, kind of bizarre, kind of rash and thoughtless. But in a way I think that’s kind of what we do at church, especially on days like today. We come together to proclaim something impossible has happened and is happening—that God became human, that a human being died and was resurrected, that being in community matters, that water, bread, and wine mean something beyond what they look like, feel like, or taste like. Every time we come to this table we act kind of silly, claiming that eating specific foods together in a specific place in a specific way brings us closer together, creates and re-creates the Body of Christ, feeds us with God’s own body and blood—that it is life-giving in both physical and spiritual ways. It doesn’t make sense, it isn’t always comfortable, and it makes us the subject of ridicule sometimes. And yet we do it; week after week millions of people around the world enact the same ritual we will enact here today, they eat bread and drink wine, they say the same words and they believe that in doing so we are all made brothers and sisters—even with people we don’t know or like, even with people we are afraid of, even with the one we call Lord. This immensely silly and seemingly impossible thing that we do, though, is like getting our feet wet in the Kingdom. We believe that we come closer to Jesus in this ritual, in this symbol, in this act of communion. And so we leave the solid ground that is strangely uncomfortable and we enter into something different, something swirling and mysterious, something holy. And we find that there is comfort there, even amidst the challenge, even in that place of uncertainty that is the place where Jesus often is.
Today I invite you to listen for Jesus calling your name, and to step out of the boat, which is not a comfortable place, not the place where we are at home, and step into the holy place where Jesus is and you can truly be at home. Go ahead and be silly! Get your feet wet here at the table, and keep them wet out in the world that God calls us to live in and to serve. Amen.
Matthew 14.22-33
CNCP
August 7 2005
Have you ever had one of those experiences where something is so uncanny, so perfect, so appropriate that you just know that there’s something or someone behind it? That’s the experience I’ve had with this text this week. This text is the perfect story for this, my last Sunday here with you before leaving for a year as a missionary in Egypt. I know we’ve all heard this story a million times before and we’re always being told that it’s about taking risks to follow Jesus, or making a leap of faith, or stepping out of our comfort zone. But I have something just a little bit different in mind this week.
Some of you may remember that about four months ago Jason and I took a trip to Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in a long weekend retreat for potential Young Adult Volunteers. During this weekend about 50 young adults between the ages of 19 and 30 came together to study, pray, and explore whether a year of mission work was for them, and if so where they were called to go. There were people who’d just graduated from college or who were about to, people who were planning to go to seminary when they came back, people who were looking for a change, people who were interested in doing something good while they figure out what to do with their lives, and all kinds of other motives and interests and backgrounds and gifts. There were site directors of a dozen countries and US sites—from Hollywood to India to Kenya to Thailand to Guatemala and everywhere in between. It was really a chance for us to just get our feet wet in the program—to meet people, find out information, and be in community for a short while with other people we might be living with later in the year. All weekend we talked, we listened, we met and chatted and ate and prayed. We worshipped twice a day, and the text we used for each of those 6 services was this very text—the story of Peter walking on the water. We heard this story 6 times, we heard it preached on 6 times, we heard what felt like every aspect of the story—from the part where Jesus takes some time out to pray and rest even though there’s a ton of work to do, to the part where Jesus walks on the water, to the part where Peter walks on the water, to the part where Peter sinks and Jesus apparently rebukes him, to the part where all the disciples worship Jesus because they finally figure it out just at the last minute. I feel like I have heard every sermon on this text that I might ever preach, and all in one weekend. When we weren’t in worship, we were often talking about this story and what we were thinking or feeling about it. The entire discernment weekend was saturated with this story of Jesus, Peter, and the other disciples and their modes of travel. So when it appeared in the lectionary for the Sunday I was scheduled to preach my last sermon before heading off to actually be a young adult volunteer, I found the coincidence too much to bear. Except, of course, I don’t believe in coincidence, so it must be providence. Clearly there is a reason that I’m supposed to bring this story to you all this morning.
Can you imagine the scene that Matthew describes? Jesus sends the disciples on ahead in the boat, and since they’d tried earlier to get Jesus to send the crowd away, they were probably delighted to get away from the crowd and have some peace and quiet. No one asked Jesus how he was planning on catching up with them, no one argued, no one even batted an eye. Now, the Sea of Galilee is not very wide—at its widest point it is 8 miles across. From the place where the feeding of the 5,000 happened up to Genessaret, the location for the next story, is basically due north, probably about 5 or 6 miles. You can see across from one side to the other. It must have been really windy, because by the time Jesus decides to join them, he can see that they’re out in the middle of the lake even after several hours. Remember, this is a boat half full of fishermen—they know how to move a boat, even in a storm. And these fishermen were straining at the oars, according to Mark’s version of this story. So when Jesus comes along, leisurely strolling by, apparently on the surface of the water, imagine what that must have looked like. The disciples have been up all night bailing water out, trying to keep the waves from swamping the boat, rowing against a strong wind, and making no progress. They’ve just had news that John the Baptist was beheaded—bad news for their own little group. And now, in the dark of the very early morning, they see this figure coming toward them, clothes billowing out behind him, face pale in the faint moonlight, hair whipping about. Between stress, fatigue, anxiety, and the impossibility of the situation, of course they were afraid! They scream, probably with the scream of a teenager in terror, and Jesus says “do not be afraid.”
Have you ever noticed that whenever the phrase “do not be afraid” comes up in the Bible, it’s always at the moment when people have every right to be completely terrified? Hagar thinks her son is going to die in the desert heat and she begins to hear voices. Moses sees a bush that’s burning up but isn’t burning up. The people of Israel come up against an army ten times their size. Jeremiah takes daily threats to his life, even from the king. Mary meets a so-called-angel that mysteriously appears in her kitchen. The disciples see a vision of Elijah and Moses with Jesus on a mountain and everyone is glowing. The members of the early church see their brothers and sisters stoned and burned to death for proclaiming Jesus as Lord. These are all pretty good reasons to be afraid, and yet every time God says “do not be afraid.” What? I spend plenty of my time being afraid for much less than this. And now I’m headed out to a place where everyone keeps telling me to be careful, often implying that I should be afraid of the people, of the situation, of some unknown thing. And that’s really what we’re afraid of, isn’t it? We’re afraid of the unknown. We as a congregation are afraid—because we don’t know what’s going to happen next, where we’ll be in a year or five years, whether new people will come or everyone here will get a new burst of energy or whether young families will move in to the new townhomes across the street. We as a nation are afraid because there are people in the world who aren’t like us. The people in those Bible stories were afraid of the unknown—what would happen when that army marched on the Israelites, whether Jeremiah would be killed or not, what this angel might require or what seeing God face-to-face might do to a person. Now, intellectually we all know that what we really fear is the unknown, and we know that the unknown thing usually turns out not to be very frightening at all—sometimes it’s even pleasant or rewarding!—but we are still afraid to move toward it, to get our feet wet in that unknown and risk getting in over our heads. So perhaps, in this light, “do not be afraid” makes some sense after all. Perhaps that is Jesus’ way of telling the disciples in the boat that he is not the unknown, but is someone they know and love and trust. Perhaps the phrase “do not be afraid” is almost a form of identification, a way for God to say “hey, it’s me! Not a stranger, but a friend.”
Once the disciples have heard this declaration, this identification, of their friend and Lord, Peter asks what seems like a silly question to me. He says “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Now, if it was a ghost, wouldn’t the ghost also say, “come” just as Jesus does? Granted, the ghost would assume that Peter would sink, but why not? It doesn’t seem like a very good test. However, you may remember the phrase from First John: “test the spirits to see whether they are of God.” Maybe Peter was confirming that it was his friend and, somehow, also displaying his trust that what Jesus commands is possible. In any case, Jesus orders Peter out of the boat, and the exhausted and frightened Peter obeys. Somehow he defies all logic, gravity, laws of physics, and everything else and manages to step out onto a non-solid surface that is heaving and spraying and swirling all around him. Maybe it was magic, maybe it’s a metaphor for stepping from comfort into chaos, maybe it somehow really happened, but in any case, the story tells us that Peter began to walk toward Jesus—and THEN he noticed the wind? Uh, no, he knew about the wind, he’d been in a boat, straining to make headway, desperately trying to keep the boat afloat against the waves. He hadn’t been comfortable in the boat to begin with—he had been anxious, bone-tired, soaked to the skin, and most likely decidedly uncomfortable. He knew what was outside the boat. He knew he might get even wetter, that it might not work…but he also knew that if Jesus called him out of the boat then it must be worth it. And he chose to get out of the boat and try his luck at walking on the water because that’s where Jesus was. He was more comfortable being close to Jesus than being on a solid surface. He was willing to get his feet wet in order to be close to the Lord he knew. And yes, he became afraid, and he began to sink—he may have even been in over his head—but with God all things are possible and Jesus held him up. Remember from Psalm 139—at the edge of the sea, in the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven, even there your right hand shall hold me fast. Or the psalm for today, Psalm 23—even in the depths of fear, sinking into the middle of the very symbol of chaos, Peter was comforted by the Shepherd. Oh yes, Peter knew what he was getting into, and he was afraid of what might happen, but his friend and Lord came through for him, just as he always had and always will. Jesus is Lord even of the elements and of the laws of nature, as we see so often in the gospels, and he was not about to let Peter fall. Jesus walked Peter back to the boat, to the stunned disciples who by now had probably forgotten to bail or row because they were busy staring open mouthed at Peter, and the wind stopped when they were all together again, and the disciples worshipped him—because what else could they do? There is no other response than awe and praise when something so completely bizarre happens, much as there is no other response than following when you are called.
In that moment, the moment where Peter stepped out of the boat, I think he got a little glimpse of what it must be like to be in the Kingdom of God. To be more comfortable being close to Jesus than being on solid ground, to do something strangely impossible, to so closely obey the command of the Lord, to forget the worldly rules and follow a new set of kingdom rules. I must admit that I’m not quite in the same place Peter was. When I was in a boat on the Sea of Galilee in the broad daylight when the wind and water were calm, we joked about who would prove their faith by stepping out—and neither I nor anyone else was willing to do so. And I will definitely be careful when I’m in Egypt—I don’t plan on going places alone at night, going anywhere with random people I just met at a coffee shop, or doing anything silly. Because it seems to us that what Peter did was really kind of silly, kind of bizarre, kind of rash and thoughtless. But in a way I think that’s kind of what we do at church, especially on days like today. We come together to proclaim something impossible has happened and is happening—that God became human, that a human being died and was resurrected, that being in community matters, that water, bread, and wine mean something beyond what they look like, feel like, or taste like. Every time we come to this table we act kind of silly, claiming that eating specific foods together in a specific place in a specific way brings us closer together, creates and re-creates the Body of Christ, feeds us with God’s own body and blood—that it is life-giving in both physical and spiritual ways. It doesn’t make sense, it isn’t always comfortable, and it makes us the subject of ridicule sometimes. And yet we do it; week after week millions of people around the world enact the same ritual we will enact here today, they eat bread and drink wine, they say the same words and they believe that in doing so we are all made brothers and sisters—even with people we don’t know or like, even with people we are afraid of, even with the one we call Lord. This immensely silly and seemingly impossible thing that we do, though, is like getting our feet wet in the Kingdom. We believe that we come closer to Jesus in this ritual, in this symbol, in this act of communion. And so we leave the solid ground that is strangely uncomfortable and we enter into something different, something swirling and mysterious, something holy. And we find that there is comfort there, even amidst the challenge, even in that place of uncertainty that is the place where Jesus often is.
Today I invite you to listen for Jesus calling your name, and to step out of the boat, which is not a comfortable place, not the place where we are at home, and step into the holy place where Jesus is and you can truly be at home. Go ahead and be silly! Get your feet wet here at the table, and keep them wet out in the world that God calls us to live in and to serve. Amen.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Thursday, August 04, 2005
last one!
i am serving my last on call shift at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. Thank goodness.
I will be having many lasts coming up. Strangely, this seems to be a theme throughout the years of my blog. In the beginning it was the last days of college or the last days of Chicago. Recently it's been the last days of seminary. Now we're in the last days of Atlanta and nearly into the last days of the US (for a year, anyway). Good times.
SO: tonight is my last duty shift. tomorrow is my last haircut here. Sunday is my last Sunday at CNC and probably my last preaching gig in a while. Next Thursday is my last day of CPE. Next Friday is my last day in my apartment. Next Saturday is my last day in Atlanta. Are you keeping up with all that? Just wondering. I'm not sure I am. I have so much to do. And it's impossible to do it here at the hospital. I am trying to work on the bulletin and my sermon, but we'll see. anyway...
happy wednesday!
I will be having many lasts coming up. Strangely, this seems to be a theme throughout the years of my blog. In the beginning it was the last days of college or the last days of Chicago. Recently it's been the last days of seminary. Now we're in the last days of Atlanta and nearly into the last days of the US (for a year, anyway). Good times.
SO: tonight is my last duty shift. tomorrow is my last haircut here. Sunday is my last Sunday at CNC and probably my last preaching gig in a while. Next Thursday is my last day of CPE. Next Friday is my last day in my apartment. Next Saturday is my last day in Atlanta. Are you keeping up with all that? Just wondering. I'm not sure I am. I have so much to do. And it's impossible to do it here at the hospital. I am trying to work on the bulletin and my sermon, but we'll see. anyway...
happy wednesday!
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
because Calvin is not attractive...
I've decided (with some mildly bitter prompting from patrick) to update my blog. here's what's going on in my life, and possibly some commentary on world events (if i have time before lunch).
1. i've continued the packing. it's moving along. slowly.
2. i've bought egypt-appropriate clothes. and sorted my other clothes into taking, storing, and donating.
3. i've interrupted my reading of the required books to re-read Blue Like Jazz.
4. i've spent all the money i have, and then some.
5. the "president" made a recess appointment of john bolton, which wasn't very smart. duh.
6. the king of saudi arabia died and the new king is young, reform-minded, supposedly, and i think he's western educated but i can't remember. i'm having some trouble keeping the royal families of saudi arabia and jordan distinct in my mind.
7. i'm preaching this sunday, on Peter walking on the water. (Matthew 14.22-33)
8. i got my shots for egypt yesterday. they were (still are) very painful and also very expensive. good thing i get reimbursed for those.
9. my mom is still sick.
10. my cousin max weighs over seven pounds now--he's about the size of a real baby!
11. i'm trying to figure out if we really can drive 38 hours and 32 minutes in three days without falling asleep and getting ourselves (and others) killed.
12. i haven't made the bulletin for this sunday yet. it's communion sunday, too. the only thing i know (beyond the text, obviously) is that we're going to sing "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" (Psalm 23 to ST. COLUMBA, i think it's number 181 or 151 or something like that in the hymnal, but i'm not looking at a hymnal right now so i'm not sure).
13. i am very very very hungry right now. hopefully lunch will be very soon.
14. that's all for today. hopefully this post has pushed john calvin's not so attractive face down the page enough to make certain people happy. :-)
1. i've continued the packing. it's moving along. slowly.
2. i've bought egypt-appropriate clothes. and sorted my other clothes into taking, storing, and donating.
3. i've interrupted my reading of the required books to re-read Blue Like Jazz.
4. i've spent all the money i have, and then some.
5. the "president" made a recess appointment of john bolton, which wasn't very smart. duh.
6. the king of saudi arabia died and the new king is young, reform-minded, supposedly, and i think he's western educated but i can't remember. i'm having some trouble keeping the royal families of saudi arabia and jordan distinct in my mind.
7. i'm preaching this sunday, on Peter walking on the water. (Matthew 14.22-33)
8. i got my shots for egypt yesterday. they were (still are) very painful and also very expensive. good thing i get reimbursed for those.
9. my mom is still sick.
10. my cousin max weighs over seven pounds now--he's about the size of a real baby!
11. i'm trying to figure out if we really can drive 38 hours and 32 minutes in three days without falling asleep and getting ourselves (and others) killed.
12. i haven't made the bulletin for this sunday yet. it's communion sunday, too. the only thing i know (beyond the text, obviously) is that we're going to sing "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" (Psalm 23 to ST. COLUMBA, i think it's number 181 or 151 or something like that in the hymnal, but i'm not looking at a hymnal right now so i'm not sure).
13. i am very very very hungry right now. hopefully lunch will be very soon.
14. that's all for today. hopefully this post has pushed john calvin's not so attractive face down the page enough to make certain people happy. :-)
Saturday, July 30, 2005
fun theologian quiz
true to my presbyterian form...
 | You scored as John Calvin. Much of what is now called Calvinism had more to do with his followers than Calvin himself, and so you may or may not be committed to TULIP, though God's sovereignty is all important.
Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com |
hahahahahahaha!!!! and oy.
this 911 call is why more people should be vegetarian. how many actual crimes were put on hold at the 911 call center because this woman wanted dead cow?
funny!
I found a post about this on a random website. it's hilarious--test it out!
The dialectizer.
also, check out the new link to the left for StoryCorp. NPR plays some of these stories and they have made me cry so often--sweet, sad, funny, fantastic, etc. you can listen to stories on the website. great.
The dialectizer.
also, check out the new link to the left for StoryCorp. NPR plays some of these stories and they have made me cry so often--sweet, sad, funny, fantastic, etc. you can listen to stories on the website. great.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
cool
so you know how up there in the right hand corner of the page there's a button that says "next blog"? I recommend that you push it and read some of the other blogs that are around. Some very thoughtful, some hilarious, some not-yet-really-started, but all fun to look at. spend some time on the internet, people!!!
finally!
PyroManiac appears to be a blog written by an evangelical who thinks. I'm so glad to find that such a thing exists! He is insightful in his commenting on Christianity in our culture, and has WONDERFUL things to say about harry potter from the evangelical perspective. thank goodness for people like this that make me think the world might be worth it after all.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Harry Potter VI
finished...and...
WHAT?????????
My friend Noell thinks there's a plan where evil man (not you-know-who) is now uniquely positioned to be of help. i agree but am not convinced that he isn't evil. so there.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? ugh. When is the next book due out?
WHAT?????????
My friend Noell thinks there's a plan where evil man (not you-know-who) is now uniquely positioned to be of help. i agree but am not convinced that he isn't evil. so there.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? ugh. When is the next book due out?
Friday, July 22, 2005
packing II
I have started.
i need more boxes.
target, here I come, looking for the plastic bins that will keep the mold and bugs away and protect my books from floods!
i need more boxes.
target, here I come, looking for the plastic bins that will keep the mold and bugs away and protect my books from floods!
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
packing
well, i haven't really started yet. BUT: my packing list arrived today, so I guess it's time to get a move on. I need to pack up my apartment before I can pack for Egypt, after all! So--tonight it is. the Books begin to go in the boxes tonight. the packing list says there are "hundreds" of books in Dawson Hall, the place I'll be living. I only hope that's true. :-)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
i'm so ronery...
this past two weeks i've been pretty lonely. jason's been away getting his stuff on ebay or going to florida for the shuttle launch that wasn't, i haven't had much of a social life because the hospital's been so tiring, and none of my friends have been available by phone. granted, i have things to do (write fundraising letters, pack apartment, prepare for sunday (I'm preaching), etc etc etc) but it's hard for an axtrovert like me to spend every evening at home alone. thankfully, my evenings alone will soon be (temporarily, at least) ended, as jason is supposed to return tonight from florida and maybe we will hang out. that would be nice.
i can't wait to be around someone again. someone not from/in the hospital.
yay.
i can't wait to be around someone again. someone not from/in the hospital.
yay.
Friday, July 08, 2005
chapstick and new job
Labello is the best kind of chapstick. it's so light and smooth, it makes your lips so happy....yeah. unfortunately, you can't just go out to the store and buy it--at least not most stores. should you want to try this out for yourself, try lipmedic. they ship anywhere. it's great. i just stocked up for egypt.
In other news, i received the information about the jobs I'll have in Egypt. Are you ready for this?
At the Ramses College for Girls in Cairo, I will be the:
1. English Chaplain
2. Lower Primary (K-3) storytelling and english enrichment activities
3. library person
These jobs are very me. Hopefully "chaplain" at a girls school and chaplain at a hospital are NOT the same job!! I guess we'll find out when I arrive, won't we?
Pretty soon I'll be starting my fundraising campaign (since I still have $6500 to go). It is highly likely that I'll post my fundraising plea here--probably more than once! If you would like to help me out, or if you know someone or have family members that might be able to help even a little, please please please send me an email!!!
so..that's the news for now. good times!
In other news, i received the information about the jobs I'll have in Egypt. Are you ready for this?
At the Ramses College for Girls in Cairo, I will be the:
1. English Chaplain
2. Lower Primary (K-3) storytelling and english enrichment activities
3. library person
These jobs are very me. Hopefully "chaplain" at a girls school and chaplain at a hospital are NOT the same job!! I guess we'll find out when I arrive, won't we?
Pretty soon I'll be starting my fundraising campaign (since I still have $6500 to go). It is highly likely that I'll post my fundraising plea here--probably more than once! If you would like to help me out, or if you know someone or have family members that might be able to help even a little, please please please send me an email!!!
so..that's the news for now. good times!
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
weekend
what did i do this weekend, you might be wondering. What do people who dislike blind patriotism to a country doing bad things, people who can't stand patriotism in the church under ANY circumstances, do on Independence Day Weekend?
Friday: Jason's last day of work cookout and pool party! Becca, Patrick, and Laura came over. There was pool, grill out, and cake and ice cream! yum.
Saturday: On Call. Wrote CPE assignment for this week. Took the beeper home. Read three books. Slept. (no calls. it was beautiful)
Sunday: Church--it wasn't patriotic. I even survived My Country 'Tis of Thee, though I do have a question about the grammar. "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing." Isn't "tis of thee" and "of thee" redundant? Does that sentence actually make sense? I'm not sure. Anyway, post-church was lunch with Becca and Laura (mmm..Camille's and their tomato soup!), then Buffy watching. I probably watched four or five episodes of Buffy. It was great.
Monday: sleep in. do laundry. watch buffy (just one ep). clean kitchen. go to Becca and Patrick's house (Jason met us there too). Grill out. Play cards. Play with the newly legal "fireworks" which are really just the fountain kind. Plan to go for Stone mountain fireworks, get rained out. watch Capitol Fourth and the Boston Pops fireworks and concerts. I'm all over the celebration of our independence and the things this country is supposed to stand for. It's just that I'm not sure we live up to that right now. I hope one day we can once again recognize that revolution (and true independence) comes from within--it can't be forced in from the outside. All in all, however, fireworks are cool.
Now it's time to go for an exciting movie night. with pizza. i love pizza. mmmmm.......
Friday: Jason's last day of work cookout and pool party! Becca, Patrick, and Laura came over. There was pool, grill out, and cake and ice cream! yum.
Saturday: On Call. Wrote CPE assignment for this week. Took the beeper home. Read three books. Slept. (no calls. it was beautiful)
Sunday: Church--it wasn't patriotic. I even survived My Country 'Tis of Thee, though I do have a question about the grammar. "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing." Isn't "tis of thee" and "of thee" redundant? Does that sentence actually make sense? I'm not sure. Anyway, post-church was lunch with Becca and Laura (mmm..Camille's and their tomato soup!), then Buffy watching. I probably watched four or five episodes of Buffy. It was great.
Monday: sleep in. do laundry. watch buffy (just one ep). clean kitchen. go to Becca and Patrick's house (Jason met us there too). Grill out. Play cards. Play with the newly legal "fireworks" which are really just the fountain kind. Plan to go for Stone mountain fireworks, get rained out. watch Capitol Fourth and the Boston Pops fireworks and concerts. I'm all over the celebration of our independence and the things this country is supposed to stand for. It's just that I'm not sure we live up to that right now. I hope one day we can once again recognize that revolution (and true independence) comes from within--it can't be forced in from the outside. All in all, however, fireworks are cool.
Now it's time to go for an exciting movie night. with pizza. i love pizza. mmmmm.......
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
oy
it's raining. again. and i only found out because someone came in. it's so weird working in a totally enclosed building with no windows in our office. it's like i leave the world then come back later. very strange.
who goes on vacation when their child goes in the hospital? weirdos.
anyway...it's raining. ugh.
who goes on vacation when their child goes in the hospital? weirdos.
anyway...it's raining. ugh.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
hmm.
sometimes working in the hospital makes me sad. especially when bad things happen to small children and the bad things weren't accidents.
In happier news, my mom's spinal tap was clean. no cancer in the spinal fluid/brain lining. Also the bacteria tests were all clear. The bad news is that she's still sick, like pukey. but i guess not from cancer, so that's good. and she's not pukey in my bed anymore. or her bed, actually, because she's in the hsopital where they can take care of her and give her IV fluids and stuff so she's not dehydrated any more. Which is better.
Still working on the stuff-placement issue. I'll get back to you on that.
In happier news, my mom's spinal tap was clean. no cancer in the spinal fluid/brain lining. Also the bacteria tests were all clear. The bad news is that she's still sick, like pukey. but i guess not from cancer, so that's good. and she's not pukey in my bed anymore. or her bed, actually, because she's in the hsopital where they can take care of her and give her IV fluids and stuff so she's not dehydrated any more. Which is better.
Still working on the stuff-placement issue. I'll get back to you on that.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
stuff
that's what I have, stuff. And it's what i need to put somewhere, but where is unknown to me right now. Putting stuff places is expensive. just saying.
I'm at the hospital, on call, and hopefully (everyone hope really hard!) nothing will happen and I'll have a completely boring day. Especially since I really want to go to Borders, I need to drop my computer at Best Buy, and I left my lunch at home. I need to be able to leave the hospital today.
I have to do worship this morning and I have decided not to write ANYTHING for my 5-8 minute sermon. Nothing. I've just read the text, made up a sermon in my head, and am praying that if I feel a ramble coming on then God will fix it up into something useful. That will work, right? I hope so. the only problem is that I don't know how to get from one place to the end. You see, I got distracted by something else (I don't remember what) and lost my train of thought at one point, so I know the way it goes up to a point, and I know the end, but I don't know the transition. Hmm....hopefully it will come to me in the next hour or so.
In the meantime, see y'all later.
I'm at the hospital, on call, and hopefully (everyone hope really hard!) nothing will happen and I'll have a completely boring day. Especially since I really want to go to Borders, I need to drop my computer at Best Buy, and I left my lunch at home. I need to be able to leave the hospital today.
I have to do worship this morning and I have decided not to write ANYTHING for my 5-8 minute sermon. Nothing. I've just read the text, made up a sermon in my head, and am praying that if I feel a ramble coming on then God will fix it up into something useful. That will work, right? I hope so. the only problem is that I don't know how to get from one place to the end. You see, I got distracted by something else (I don't remember what) and lost my train of thought at one point, so I know the way it goes up to a point, and I know the end, but I don't know the transition. Hmm....hopefully it will come to me in the next hour or so.
In the meantime, see y'all later.
Friday, June 03, 2005
done and begun
school is done, i'm graduated and even have my diploma--yay!
vacation was fantastic--alligators, great blue herons, turtles, kayaking with dolphins and brown pelicans, biking to the beach, visiting savannah and charleston, hanging out with the fam...
now i've started at the children's hospital. so far so good. tonight is my first on-call shift. woohoo.
i'm already tired.
be good...
vacation was fantastic--alligators, great blue herons, turtles, kayaking with dolphins and brown pelicans, biking to the beach, visiting savannah and charleston, hanging out with the fam...
now i've started at the children's hospital. so far so good. tonight is my first on-call shift. woohoo.
i'm already tired.
be good...
Friday, May 06, 2005
lasts
I am about to turn in my last paper.
I've been at my last chapel, cleaned up my last communion (in the chapel, anyway!), handed out my last bulletin, etc.
I'm about to go to my last small group. There's food.
I'm going to eat in the Refectory one last time--it's Cheese Quesadillas today!
I've been to my last class--yesterday.
all in all, woohoo! a little bit of sad, but not a lot, at least not yet.
4 days until grandparents arrive.
5 days until parents arrive.
6 days until Noell arrives.
6.75 days until pastor arrives.
7.5 days until graduation.
8 days to vacation!
I've got to go get rid of this paper. ta!
I've been at my last chapel, cleaned up my last communion (in the chapel, anyway!), handed out my last bulletin, etc.
I'm about to go to my last small group. There's food.
I'm going to eat in the Refectory one last time--it's Cheese Quesadillas today!
I've been to my last class--yesterday.
all in all, woohoo! a little bit of sad, but not a lot, at least not yet.
4 days until grandparents arrive.
5 days until parents arrive.
6 days until Noell arrives.
6.75 days until pastor arrives.
7.5 days until graduation.
8 days to vacation!
I've got to go get rid of this paper. ta!
Thursday, May 05, 2005
countdown continues
1.5 days to get the work done
1.75 papers/projects to finish
2 hours of class
2 chapels
1 communion shopping trip
3 days to youth sunday
9 days 13 hours 20 minutes to graduation
1.75 papers/projects to finish
2 hours of class
2 chapels
1 communion shopping trip
3 days to youth sunday
9 days 13 hours 20 minutes to graduation
Monday, May 02, 2005
the countdown feels like it's going faster
so I'm into the first of the last four days of class, last five days of work due...
here's the whole countdown:
4.5 days to get the work done
3.5 days of class
2 papers to write
1 paper to turn in (already written)
1 class to teach, using a clip from Buffy of course!
8 days until grandparents arrive
9 days until parents arrive
12 days to graduation
13 days to vacation!
3 months and 3 weeks until orientation in Chicago
4 months until arrival in Cairo...
here's the whole countdown:
4.5 days to get the work done
3.5 days of class
2 papers to write
1 paper to turn in (already written)
1 class to teach, using a clip from Buffy of course!
8 days until grandparents arrive
9 days until parents arrive
12 days to graduation
13 days to vacation!
3 months and 3 weeks until orientation in Chicago
4 months until arrival in Cairo...
Sunday, May 01, 2005
13 days!
4 days of class and a total of 13 days until graduation! Woohoo! two weeks from now I'll be on my way to Hilton Head for a much deserved vacation.
After that, what? You might be asking. Well...
The verdict is in.
Jason and I are going to Egypt to be YAVs for a year! woohoo!
Arabic, here I come!
:-)
After that, what? You might be asking. Well...
The verdict is in.
Jason and I are going to Egypt to be YAVs for a year! woohoo!
Arabic, here I come!
:-)
Monday, April 18, 2005
countdown
three weeks, four days, and 17 hours until the beginning of graduation. 3.4.18 until i've graduated. exciting! trying to get all the work done between now and then: not exciting.
going to Louisville this weekend to figure out the YAV thing. exciting! working on the Pastoral Care project while I'm gone so I can turn it in on Wednesday morning after we get back Tuesday night: not exciting.
prepared to teach in Rodger's class today. got bumped because others took too long, so now it's not until two weeks from now. woohoo! i guess. except it means i have to refresh when it gets closer. anyway: tonight's project: Paul journals. yippee skippee.
ta
going to Louisville this weekend to figure out the YAV thing. exciting! working on the Pastoral Care project while I'm gone so I can turn it in on Wednesday morning after we get back Tuesday night: not exciting.
prepared to teach in Rodger's class today. got bumped because others took too long, so now it's not until two weeks from now. woohoo! i guess. except it means i have to refresh when it gets closer. anyway: tonight's project: Paul journals. yippee skippee.
ta
Monday, April 11, 2005
I'm back
so after a really awful attempt at getting home, I bought a walk-up ticket on United, flew through Chicago (and left Chicago REALLY LATE) and got home Sunday morning aroun 2. great times. I slept through church but made it to youth group and session. The keepsake boxes the kids painted are gorgeous. Maybe I'll post a picture tomorrow. :-)
Back to school now...yippee skippee...
Back to school now...yippee skippee...
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
home, and homework
i've done more homework here than about, oh, ever. maybe it's the whole not-going-to-class thing. if only i could choose: either the work or the class time, but not both. i could handle that. it's the doing both thing that's problematic.
also problematic: according to the unhelpful delta woman earlier today, the flights going back to atlanta are looking 'not so good.' whatever that means. anyway....yeah. i may or may not be back when i want/need to be. we'll see! luckily, i'm borrowing some books from the 'rents so i won't be bored at the airport if i do end up sitting there all day long. yippee.
i love mashed potatoes.
also problematic: according to the unhelpful delta woman earlier today, the flights going back to atlanta are looking 'not so good.' whatever that means. anyway....yeah. i may or may not be back when i want/need to be. we'll see! luckily, i'm borrowing some books from the 'rents so i won't be bored at the airport if i do end up sitting there all day long. yippee.
i love mashed potatoes.
Monday, April 04, 2005
home
i have come to visit my fam for spring break. after a horrendous ATL airport experience this morning, with lines so long and a tag for extra security screening that I missed my first flight, I managed to make it. on the next flight, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. i even got a window seat with no one sitting next to me on the aisle, so i had two whole seats to myself. yay! i'll be back to atlanta before sunday afternoon, hopefully. barring more security checks that cause me to miss planes. grr. anyway, it's chilly here. my bro is out playing tennis right now. grandma is making dinner. mom's face is steroid-puffy. dad is pretty much silently watching tv, as usual. mashed potatoes and green bean casserole are in my future. AND the bed has two futon mattresses and a foam pad on it now, making it actually comfy. hurray!
happy spring.
happy spring.
Friday, April 01, 2005
sunburn 2
here's one of my burned arms. ow! Even my hand is burned, which you can't really see because I cut it off when I took the picture without looking at the screen...
sun
I am trying to post pictures of my sunburn. but i'm being oppressed. maybe one day soon you will see. maybe.
six weeks, one day, and 13 hours until the start of graduation.
six weeks, one day, and 13 hours until the start of graduation.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
spring break
it's close. reallyclose. I'm going home on sunday--yay! i'll be sad to not see jason for a week, but i suspect we'll both live through it. ;-)
The seminary prom is approaching. woohoo! I'll be sure to post pics afterward, if I remember my camera.
graduation is now 6 weeks, 2 days, and 14 hours away.
I think I might add a graduation countdown to my blog. or maybe just mention it in EVERY post. :-)
now that easter is over my life may return to normal, as in overworked student/pastor normal, not regular person normal, but still. hopefully it will be better.
I got a really bad sunburn today while having class outside. Perhaps I'll take pictures of that and upload them. I recently turned into a techno-dork with one of those USB storage things that goes on your keychain--mine's called a "jump drive". it's very cool. It stores as much as 173 floppy disks. however, the computers at church don't recognize it because they're too old. grr.
i'm going home to eat dinner now.
goodnight.
The seminary prom is approaching. woohoo! I'll be sure to post pics afterward, if I remember my camera.
graduation is now 6 weeks, 2 days, and 14 hours away.
I think I might add a graduation countdown to my blog. or maybe just mention it in EVERY post. :-)
now that easter is over my life may return to normal, as in overworked student/pastor normal, not regular person normal, but still. hopefully it will be better.
I got a really bad sunburn today while having class outside. Perhaps I'll take pictures of that and upload them. I recently turned into a techno-dork with one of those USB storage things that goes on your keychain--mine's called a "jump drive". it's very cool. It stores as much as 173 floppy disks. however, the computers at church don't recognize it because they're too old. grr.
i'm going home to eat dinner now.
goodnight.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Taco Bell
Everyone go to Taco Bell!!! They have reached an agreement with the tomato pickers and the boycott is over. How great would it be if there was an increase in sales today, proving that the boycott HAD been keeping people away?
Yay bean burritos!!
Yay bean burritos!!
Monday, February 28, 2005
books
I read a lot of them.
Sometimes they are for class.
Sometimes they are for fun.
The last fun book I read was very very good, though also very strange. I recommend it highly. As do about a zillion other people, apparently.
It's good.
Read it. It's worth the time and the thinking. :-)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Sometimes they are for class.
Sometimes they are for fun.
The last fun book I read was very very good, though also very strange. I recommend it highly. As do about a zillion other people, apparently.
It's good.
Read it. It's worth the time and the thinking. :-)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Sunday, February 27, 2005
hair
it has been cut. By a lot. You can see for yourself, kind of, though it's hard to take a picture of one's hair. Just saying. Anyway, about 8 inches of hair left me on Friday afternoon. It's a little weird feeling but is also GREAT!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
rain
it rained SO much yesterday. AND I left my sunroof open when I went inside because, of course, it was sunny out when I went in. When I came out it was pouring rain, thundering and lightninging, and my car was very wet. I got a very wet behind from sitting in my driver's seat. It rained so hard I could barely see. Then it hailed so hard that I thought it would break windows in my car, or maybe my blasted sunroof that leaks anyway, thus making me NOT get any drier while I was in the car with the heat on in an attempt to dry the passenger seat before Jason got in it. Luckily, my car is not damaged. it was just scary. My windshield wipers could not even come close to moving fast enough to get the water off.
when we came back from dinner (long after the rain incident...it was no longer raining, in fact I could see the moon and the occasional star in spite of the light pollution) i stopped inside the gate to put my window up and to put my gatecard away (and, ok, to try to stop someone from sneaking in, but I always stop there to put my window up) and the person trying to sneak in behind me got cut off/hit by the gate arm. then he got angry and when he finally did sneak in he drove around and gave me a dirty look. it wasn't very nice. if he lives there he should have a card. since he was originally in line for the call box, i assume he does not live there. there's reason it's a gated community and a reason the arm comes down between each car. just saying.
today it is nice outside. however, i am going to go watch buffy (for church!). yay!
when we came back from dinner (long after the rain incident...it was no longer raining, in fact I could see the moon and the occasional star in spite of the light pollution) i stopped inside the gate to put my window up and to put my gatecard away (and, ok, to try to stop someone from sneaking in, but I always stop there to put my window up) and the person trying to sneak in behind me got cut off/hit by the gate arm. then he got angry and when he finally did sneak in he drove around and gave me a dirty look. it wasn't very nice. if he lives there he should have a card. since he was originally in line for the call box, i assume he does not live there. there's reason it's a gated community and a reason the arm comes down between each car. just saying.
today it is nice outside. however, i am going to go watch buffy (for church!). yay!
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Weekends
I like them. However, there's so much homework to do that sometimes they don't even feel like weekends. Where's the fun in that? I can't wait until the end of school, when I have to get a real job--oh wait, yes I can. I just wish I could be done with school but not have a real job for a little while. I would give anything to be bored for a week. Just a week. That's all I'm asking for. Not like "desperate housewives" bored, but you know...
Friday, February 18, 2005
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
school
i got up early this morning and came to school through a "dense fog warning" or some such thing. fifteen minutes after class was supposed to start we got word that the professor is sick and there's no class today. sad. i wish i had slept in.
in other news, things are moving along nicely toward graduation, Jason and I finished our YAV applications and mailed them today, and i think i finally have my schedule under control.
however, speaking of schedule, i'm going to do some work now so i don't have to do it later. then maybe we can watch our norwegian movie tonight instead of me doing homework. yay!
in other news, things are moving along nicely toward graduation, Jason and I finished our YAV applications and mailed them today, and i think i finally have my schedule under control.
however, speaking of schedule, i'm going to do some work now so i don't have to do it later. then maybe we can watch our norwegian movie tonight instead of me doing homework. yay!
Monday, February 07, 2005
another semester, another homework assignment...
yeah. homework. it's great. right.
on the plus side, i'm going home earlier than I thought today due to the moving of a meeting. woohoo.
I am already tired, and it's only the second week of class. However, the classes don't look too bad right now, at least. Ask me in a month.
Sent in my YAV application--just the supplemental part to do now. Who wants to be my "personal reference"? Anyone, anyone? I'll be taking applications for the role of "personal reference" beginning now. Applications and Auditions close on Saturday February 12th, in order for there to be plenty of time for you to do it and get it in on time. :-)
Happy Monday! Lots of fun ahead with the homework and the church, and if I get lucky there might even be Buffy in my future. yay!
on the plus side, i'm going home earlier than I thought today due to the moving of a meeting. woohoo.
I am already tired, and it's only the second week of class. However, the classes don't look too bad right now, at least. Ask me in a month.
Sent in my YAV application--just the supplemental part to do now. Who wants to be my "personal reference"? Anyone, anyone? I'll be taking applications for the role of "personal reference" beginning now. Applications and Auditions close on Saturday February 12th, in order for there to be plenty of time for you to do it and get it in on time. :-)
Happy Monday! Lots of fun ahead with the homework and the church, and if I get lucky there might even be Buffy in my future. yay!
Sunday, January 30, 2005
tomorrow, tomorrow...
School starts tomorrow. Last semester! I am a mere 15 weeks from graduation, people. 15 weeks! AAAA!!!! What am I going to do with myself? besides, you know, all the stuff I still have to do in order to fulfill the requirements of my presbytery. hmm..
On the upside, my afternoon class was cancelled for tomorrow (prof out of town) so I won't be going from on-call to class, i'll be going from on-call to home. yay! Hopefully the power will be back on, because otherwise my newly purchased milk, for which I had to risk my life and use my four-wheel-drive yesterday, will be no good, and I will be sad.
and that's life. four wheel drive, hospitals, no class, and 250 pages of the private life book to go before Thursday. yippee!
On the upside, my afternoon class was cancelled for tomorrow (prof out of town) so I won't be going from on-call to class, i'll be going from on-call to home. yay! Hopefully the power will be back on, because otherwise my newly purchased milk, for which I had to risk my life and use my four-wheel-drive yesterday, will be no good, and I will be sad.
and that's life. four wheel drive, hospitals, no class, and 250 pages of the private life book to go before Thursday. yippee!
Saturday, January 22, 2005
so i lied
i went to publix instead of kroger. sorry. :-) there were a lot of people with children there--it's like the family publix or something. people were staring at me because I didn't have a four year old holding my hand. seriously. weird.
Friday, January 21, 2005
leaving at last
after almost 36 hours, i'm going home. after I go to Borders. and kroger. but in any case, i'm leaving the hospital now. thankfully. yay! and I'm excited about the weekend--and I hope you are all similarly excited about the weekend. Happy Saturday and Sunday! woohoo!!! two whole hospital-free days, coming right up!!!
Monday, January 17, 2005
ah!
it's hard to believe that I have to find a job sometime this year. craziness, actually. Who does God think he/she is, sending me here to atlanta, then into a small church, then into a hospital, and expecting me to somehow figure out where I'm supposed to go and what i'm supposed to do with my life, or at least the next little bit of it, without more concreteness? hello? a few years of school, five exams (four of which are graded half by people who are bitter about having gone through the same process and the other half are at least mostly clueless with a checklist, and the fifth graded by a computer) and some internships don't qualify a person to lead a church by themselves, do they? or even not by themselves, you know? it's a big job. I don't want it after all. just kidding. i've just been working on my CSC (Candidate Seeking Call) form and looking at other people's forms, and at some church forms, and websites, and desperately trying to find a way to do a Lilly residency, even though I know that none of them are funded any longer...trying to prolong the inevitable, I suppose. The dreaded call process. Give me a break--process? or noose? just wondering, temporarily. And, of course, I'm at the hospital, have been at the hospital for 13 hours, have another 19 or so to go, and i really want to be at home in my bed. but noooo....and i had to visit families who lost babies today. and a family about to lose the dad at age 62 to leukemia. i had to see the babies, touch them. i even baptized one. i know i'm not technically allowed to do that, but whatever. polity only goes so far when people's faith and emotional health are on the line, and they needed to have that baby baptized. so we did. communion of saints, priesthood of all believers, etc etc etc etc. luckily i got to follow that with a visit to a healthy baby and its adopting family. what a day. and there's more to come. oh boy. alone with nothing but my thoughts and a pager that tells me when someone's about to die so I can head off their family's run into the room. and To the Lighthouse which so far, in the first 25 pages, is not as easy to follow as one would normally hope for a book one is reading while on call. I need to get a life, but I can't because this hospital thing makes me too tired. and now I'm whiny so i'm going away to sit on the couch instead. prayers always solicited and welcome. thanks.
I love Dr. Pepper
but I hate their website. It doesn't really work the way it's supposed to, sadly. In other news, the hospital is relatively quiet right now. Please, God, let it stay that way. Please Please Please Please Please.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
saturday
my day is not going as i planned. silly thing like other people doing laundry, causing me delays in the dryer department. oy. why don't places have more dryers than washers? it takes longer to dry clothes than wash them. twice as long, actually. so you really need 4 dryers and 2 washers. then people could go in a nice smooth process. but no.....i am being oppressed, probably by a man because they didn't used to be ones who did laundry in the era when this place was built, and it's not cool. just saying.
Friday, January 14, 2005
hospitals
are very busy places. hence the lack of blogging recently. I apologize, and I also ask for your prayers for some energy for the rest of the month! I'm ready for a vacation and it's only been two weeks. Two more weeks to go, and then school starts (overlaps with this month of hospital land, actually) so there's no break for me just going going going going going..............and i'm tired. so there.
good news, though: today's mom's last radiation day. woohoo!
i hope you are all being good while I'm stuck in the hospital. I don't want to see any of you in my emergency room while I'm on call!
good news, though: today's mom's last radiation day. woohoo!
i hope you are all being good while I'm stuck in the hospital. I don't want to see any of you in my emergency room while I'm on call!
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Who?
Who?
Isaiah 42.1-9, Mathew 3.13-17
CNCP
January 9 2005
It’s been just four weeks since we heard John proclaiming in the wilderness that we all ought to repent and prepare the way of the Lord. Four weeks since we saw John getting ready for Jesus’ birth, right? Except for the part where Jesus and John are the same age. So now, two weeks after we celebrated the birth of Jesus, which was just four weeks after the annunciation, here we are standing in the muddy Jordan River. What was that about undue haste? On the other hand, kids just grow up so fast these days. Jesus went from birth to age 30 in just two weeks, which is pretty impressive even in our hurry-and-grow-up culture.
In any case, let’s just say it’s been four weeks. For four of our weeks, he’s been shouting about repentance and something about snakes and fire, he’s been yelling at sinners—maybe he’s losing his voice after all that shouting—and he’s dunking people in the water. He’s probably not into the Presbyterian sprinkling because it doesn’t go well with shouting. And all this time, he’s been telling people about the One who is to come, and how amazing that One will be, and that he can hardly wait. Who will it be?
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan. He stood in the line, waited his turn, made his way down the muddy bank to the murky stream they called a river, and waited to be dunked in the bacteria-laden water: the river that stopped running for the Israelites to cross into the promised land; the water that ran in the same place where Naaman the Syrian was healed; the water that feeds the Dead Sea and its spa-quality mud. When Jesus finally got to the front of the line, John looked up in order to shout out Jesus’ sins and order him to his knees in the water, but as he opened his mouth he found his words failed. Who is this man, the man who stopped John’s tongue? And suddenly John knew—in his mind and his heart; his gut feeling, his whole body were telling him that this man was the One, the One who is to come.
And so began the protests. I’m sure that we have only an abbreviated version of their conversation, standing there in the greenish brown water.
“Who do you think you are? I need to be baptized by you, what are you coming to me for?”
“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
“Huh? In Aramaic, please? I can’t baptize you!”
“Why not?”
“Because you have to baptize me! I’ve been telling all these people that you were coming. Let me tell them that you’re here.”
“no, wait, I want you to baptize me.”
“I can’t baptize you! You’re the One who is to come!”
“You know you’re going to ask me later if I’m really the One.”
“No I’m not. I can plainly see and feel that you’re the One.”
“Can you dunk me in the water now?”
“Do I have to? It seems so wrong, so…sacrilegious.”
“Just do it already. My toes are getting all pruny.”
“All right then. Hold your breath.”
And John, who was probably NOT using the Trinitarian formula, dunked Jesus in the water and said some words about forgiveness. Or maybe he said words we’ve all heard before, words like “I have called you by name, you are mine,” or “child of the covenant.”
And when Jesus came up out of the water, he stood for a moment in the traditional Jewish pose for prayer, face lifted up toward the sky, and he opened his eyes and saw…the heavens parting before his very eyes, like the curtains on a stage, like the clouds in the sky in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and he saw…a bird? he saw it coming very close…and I always imagine a sweet little bird, about the size of a canary, floating gently down to him and perhaps flitting about a bit…but Matthew says that the bird alighted on him—maybe it landed on his head, this dove. Doves are substantially larger than canaries, too. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like a bird landing on me. Maybe Jesus fought it off, or flapped at it a little, or maybe he just shook his head. I wonder if anyone else saw it and thought that maybe they shouldn’t get baptized today after all. Maybe John was even thinking, “whoa? what’s going on here? maybe I won’t tell everyone he’s the One, just in case he turns out to be crazy.”
And as Jesus was fending off the glorified pigeon, he heard it. The Voice of God. Matthew just gave us the abbreviated version of this too—it probably said something more along the lines of Isaiah 42: “here is my servant, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him, and he will not complain, but will do all kinds of good things like bring justice and heal the sick and bring light to those who sit in darkness. I have called him in righteousness and now he will be my covenant to the people, opening blind eyes and releasing prisoners, spreading my good news. Look at this new thing I’m doing, and I’m even telling you in advance to be sure you don’t miss it.” Now, it’s not clear that anyone else heard it, which is probably why Matthew just wrote “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Hopefully Jesus wandered off in a bit of a daze after all that. Probably he was wondering what it meant to be the Son of God. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to tell his mother?—oh, nevermind, she wouldn’t be surprised. All the Voice told him was to bring justice, be a covenant, release prisoners, heal the sick, bring good news…couldn’t it have been a little more clear? A little more concrete? A five-step plan of action? A glossary of difficult terms? Who was he exactly? What was he supposed to do? What did it mean to be the Beloved?
I wonder if someone asked Jesus, “Who are you?” if he would have answered as the youth have learned from the Belonging to God catechism, “I am a child of God.” And then, if he were asked the follow-up question, “what does it mean to be a child of God?” if he would have answered, “that I belong to God who loves me” or if he would have given a complicated seminary-speak answer like he tried to give John about fulfilling righteousness. What does it mean to belong to God? It means to be the beloved, to be taken by the hand and kept by God, and also to have a responsibility to help people to see, to bring light, to establish justice. Too bad neither Isaiah nor God ever said it would be easy. Jesus has to go out into the wilderness—though we won’t hear about that for another four weeks. In Christopher Moore’s imaginative novel Lamb he goes to Turkey, Tibet, and India to learn how to be the Messiah from magicians, Buddhist monks, and Hindu yoga masters. But after all that traveling, fictional though it may be, the answer to the question “Who?” was the same. Too bad it wasn’t an easy answer, it didn’t come with glib definitions or a neat package. It came, and still comes, in muddy water, glorified pigeons, mysterious voices, and strange words. It comes with a little bit of a daze and some confusion, with mystery and awe, with a bit of a mess, really. And because “who?” is never far separated from “what do I do?” it comes with an assignment to be God’s servant in the world.
We all ask the question about who we really are, or who others are. We hear the question all the time: “Who are you?” The heavens open to give us the answer. “You are a child of God, sealed by the Spirit in your baptism, and you belong to Jesus Christ forever.” May you go forth to be God’s faithful servant. Amen.
Isaiah 42.1-9, Mathew 3.13-17
CNCP
January 9 2005
It’s been just four weeks since we heard John proclaiming in the wilderness that we all ought to repent and prepare the way of the Lord. Four weeks since we saw John getting ready for Jesus’ birth, right? Except for the part where Jesus and John are the same age. So now, two weeks after we celebrated the birth of Jesus, which was just four weeks after the annunciation, here we are standing in the muddy Jordan River. What was that about undue haste? On the other hand, kids just grow up so fast these days. Jesus went from birth to age 30 in just two weeks, which is pretty impressive even in our hurry-and-grow-up culture.
In any case, let’s just say it’s been four weeks. For four of our weeks, he’s been shouting about repentance and something about snakes and fire, he’s been yelling at sinners—maybe he’s losing his voice after all that shouting—and he’s dunking people in the water. He’s probably not into the Presbyterian sprinkling because it doesn’t go well with shouting. And all this time, he’s been telling people about the One who is to come, and how amazing that One will be, and that he can hardly wait. Who will it be?
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan. He stood in the line, waited his turn, made his way down the muddy bank to the murky stream they called a river, and waited to be dunked in the bacteria-laden water: the river that stopped running for the Israelites to cross into the promised land; the water that ran in the same place where Naaman the Syrian was healed; the water that feeds the Dead Sea and its spa-quality mud. When Jesus finally got to the front of the line, John looked up in order to shout out Jesus’ sins and order him to his knees in the water, but as he opened his mouth he found his words failed. Who is this man, the man who stopped John’s tongue? And suddenly John knew—in his mind and his heart; his gut feeling, his whole body were telling him that this man was the One, the One who is to come.
And so began the protests. I’m sure that we have only an abbreviated version of their conversation, standing there in the greenish brown water.
“Who do you think you are? I need to be baptized by you, what are you coming to me for?”
“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
“Huh? In Aramaic, please? I can’t baptize you!”
“Why not?”
“Because you have to baptize me! I’ve been telling all these people that you were coming. Let me tell them that you’re here.”
“no, wait, I want you to baptize me.”
“I can’t baptize you! You’re the One who is to come!”
“You know you’re going to ask me later if I’m really the One.”
“No I’m not. I can plainly see and feel that you’re the One.”
“Can you dunk me in the water now?”
“Do I have to? It seems so wrong, so…sacrilegious.”
“Just do it already. My toes are getting all pruny.”
“All right then. Hold your breath.”
And John, who was probably NOT using the Trinitarian formula, dunked Jesus in the water and said some words about forgiveness. Or maybe he said words we’ve all heard before, words like “I have called you by name, you are mine,” or “child of the covenant.”
And when Jesus came up out of the water, he stood for a moment in the traditional Jewish pose for prayer, face lifted up toward the sky, and he opened his eyes and saw…the heavens parting before his very eyes, like the curtains on a stage, like the clouds in the sky in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and he saw…a bird? he saw it coming very close…and I always imagine a sweet little bird, about the size of a canary, floating gently down to him and perhaps flitting about a bit…but Matthew says that the bird alighted on him—maybe it landed on his head, this dove. Doves are substantially larger than canaries, too. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like a bird landing on me. Maybe Jesus fought it off, or flapped at it a little, or maybe he just shook his head. I wonder if anyone else saw it and thought that maybe they shouldn’t get baptized today after all. Maybe John was even thinking, “whoa? what’s going on here? maybe I won’t tell everyone he’s the One, just in case he turns out to be crazy.”
And as Jesus was fending off the glorified pigeon, he heard it. The Voice of God. Matthew just gave us the abbreviated version of this too—it probably said something more along the lines of Isaiah 42: “here is my servant, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him, and he will not complain, but will do all kinds of good things like bring justice and heal the sick and bring light to those who sit in darkness. I have called him in righteousness and now he will be my covenant to the people, opening blind eyes and releasing prisoners, spreading my good news. Look at this new thing I’m doing, and I’m even telling you in advance to be sure you don’t miss it.” Now, it’s not clear that anyone else heard it, which is probably why Matthew just wrote “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Hopefully Jesus wandered off in a bit of a daze after all that. Probably he was wondering what it meant to be the Son of God. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to tell his mother?—oh, nevermind, she wouldn’t be surprised. All the Voice told him was to bring justice, be a covenant, release prisoners, heal the sick, bring good news…couldn’t it have been a little more clear? A little more concrete? A five-step plan of action? A glossary of difficult terms? Who was he exactly? What was he supposed to do? What did it mean to be the Beloved?
I wonder if someone asked Jesus, “Who are you?” if he would have answered as the youth have learned from the Belonging to God catechism, “I am a child of God.” And then, if he were asked the follow-up question, “what does it mean to be a child of God?” if he would have answered, “that I belong to God who loves me” or if he would have given a complicated seminary-speak answer like he tried to give John about fulfilling righteousness. What does it mean to belong to God? It means to be the beloved, to be taken by the hand and kept by God, and also to have a responsibility to help people to see, to bring light, to establish justice. Too bad neither Isaiah nor God ever said it would be easy. Jesus has to go out into the wilderness—though we won’t hear about that for another four weeks. In Christopher Moore’s imaginative novel Lamb he goes to Turkey, Tibet, and India to learn how to be the Messiah from magicians, Buddhist monks, and Hindu yoga masters. But after all that traveling, fictional though it may be, the answer to the question “Who?” was the same. Too bad it wasn’t an easy answer, it didn’t come with glib definitions or a neat package. It came, and still comes, in muddy water, glorified pigeons, mysterious voices, and strange words. It comes with a little bit of a daze and some confusion, with mystery and awe, with a bit of a mess, really. And because “who?” is never far separated from “what do I do?” it comes with an assignment to be God’s servant in the world.
We all ask the question about who we really are, or who others are. We hear the question all the time: “Who are you?” The heavens open to give us the answer. “You are a child of God, sealed by the Spirit in your baptism, and you belong to Jesus Christ forever.” May you go forth to be God’s faithful servant. Amen.
Saturday, January 08, 2005
one week down, three to go.
this time, that is. three more weeks of hospital fun. You know, the usual. "hi, my name's Teri, I'm the chaplain. How are you doing today?" One woman told me that she wasn't going to like anything I had to say. One woman wouldn't talk at all (which may or may not be related to one of these two things: (1) her husband was in the room; (2) she had just discovered that she lost her baby.). It was a good week for pastoral care. Thankfully orientation is over. ugh.
In other news, my apartment is very clean.
and my cat is crazy.
that's all.
In other news, my apartment is very clean.
and my cat is crazy.
that's all.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Thursday, December 23, 2004
tomorrow, tomorrow...
we will get on an airplane very very early. ah, tomorrow. tomorrow we will travel for 14 hours, assuming that everything is on time, and including layovers. but tomorrow we will get to the land of the cold, except that it doesn't look like it's going to be all that cold. tomorrow we get to christmas cookies, my family, my mom's cat that doesn't like anyone except mom, and Christmas Eve, which just kind of happened while I wasn't paying attention.
happy christmas to all. hopefully some of you are ready for it. :-)
happy christmas to all. hopefully some of you are ready for it. :-)
Thursday, December 16, 2004
it is finished
the semester is finished at last.
i have never not been able to restrain myself from laughing while preaching. until today. it was just a quick giggle. hehehe. i was cracking myself up the whole time i was getting ready for it too, so i should have known i wasn't going to be able to do it with a straight face. ha!
now that school is done, hopefully successfully done, i get to focus on church stuff. girls movie retreat coming right up!!
but first, a nap. and some chocolate. not in that order. ;-)
i have never not been able to restrain myself from laughing while preaching. until today. it was just a quick giggle. hehehe. i was cracking myself up the whole time i was getting ready for it too, so i should have known i wasn't going to be able to do it with a straight face. ha!
now that school is done, hopefully successfully done, i get to focus on church stuff. girls movie retreat coming right up!!
but first, a nap. and some chocolate. not in that order. ;-)
Monday, December 06, 2004
airplanes
i have tickets for them. yay!
Jason and I are going to visit my parents for Christmas. I'm excited. I wasn't planning on going home this year, but now obviously I am going to. We will fly away from Atlanta on Christmas Eve and come back on Wednesday morning after Christmas. We are even going to go all the way to Yakima, which involves a very small plane that Amy would be very afraid of. Here's a picture. Good thing it's just the two of us super brave small-plane types. oh wait, not really super brave. well, whatever. we'll live. In other news, it will be cold there and Jason's never experienced anything of northern winter. I told him to break out the real coat. On the other hand, it's looking pretty much like here at the moment--40-50 degrees and raining. Hopefully by Christmas there will be enough snow for a snowman or a snowball fight or a snowangel or something snowy at least. :-)
now I have many things to do before the end of school so I must go. goodbye.
Jason and I are going to visit my parents for Christmas. I'm excited. I wasn't planning on going home this year, but now obviously I am going to. We will fly away from Atlanta on Christmas Eve and come back on Wednesday morning after Christmas. We are even going to go all the way to Yakima, which involves a very small plane that Amy would be very afraid of. Here's a picture. Good thing it's just the two of us super brave small-plane types. oh wait, not really super brave. well, whatever. we'll live. In other news, it will be cold there and Jason's never experienced anything of northern winter. I told him to break out the real coat. On the other hand, it's looking pretty much like here at the moment--40-50 degrees and raining. Hopefully by Christmas there will be enough snow for a snowman or a snowball fight or a snowangel or something snowy at least. :-)
now I have many things to do before the end of school so I must go. goodbye.
again with the monday
and it's monday again, and i'm super busy again. this is the last week of school. five days of class, then five days of "reading/exam week" which translates into, for me: 4 days of regular class schedule, 3 days of exam week, 8 assignments (including one sermon) due, and 10 days to do it all in. woohoo.
i'm going to go now. and, you know, do something.
i'm going to go now. and, you know, do something.
Monday, November 29, 2004
so i lied
well, it appears you do get to read it. because it went away on my screen but still appeared on my blog. lucky you. :-)
it left
i typed a post about it being monday and how much there is to do and how i don't want to do it because i've just had five days off. and i want to just relax and have it over but it isn't over yet. but then the post went away. so you don't get to read it. sorry. silly computers.
monday
back to school it is. After five days off, I'm not wanting to come back. blah to the homework. I have stuff to read, a sermon to write without writing it down, more stuff to read.....oy and oy. oh, and oy.
the library is cold, the outside is kind of chilly too, and i hate making copies. in case anyone wondered. so i'm probably going to read in the library. because that's an energizing place, obviously. again with the oy.
two weeks. two weeks plus some papers to write and it will all be over. then i can relax. maybe. wait...no...
ok, so a semester, a january, and a few weeks, and a summer, and then i can relax.
maybe i need some starbucks. maybe i should suck it up, copy the stuff, and go to starbucks. or at least outside. or to my car. i bet i can read in my car and i bet it isn't cold. because it's in the sun. on the other hand, it might smell like christmas tree because i put the greenery for the chapel in the car yesterday. i also took it out yesterday, but christmas tree isn't a smell that just goes away, you know?
i'm done procrastinating now. you should be too.
the library is cold, the outside is kind of chilly too, and i hate making copies. in case anyone wondered. so i'm probably going to read in the library. because that's an energizing place, obviously. again with the oy.
two weeks. two weeks plus some papers to write and it will all be over. then i can relax. maybe. wait...no...
ok, so a semester, a january, and a few weeks, and a summer, and then i can relax.
maybe i need some starbucks. maybe i should suck it up, copy the stuff, and go to starbucks. or at least outside. or to my car. i bet i can read in my car and i bet it isn't cold. because it's in the sun. on the other hand, it might smell like christmas tree because i put the greenery for the chapel in the car yesterday. i also took it out yesterday, but christmas tree isn't a smell that just goes away, you know?
i'm done procrastinating now. you should be too.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
not ready yet
My mom has cancer. And I'm not ready to talk about it yet so please don't call and ask how I'm doing. I'm ok. scared, of course, but ok. If by ok you mean occasionally crying for no apparent reason but generally operating as a normal human being. anyway. pray for my fam, and for my dad's cooking skills, and my mom's boredom factor lying on the couch, and my brother and I being far away, and none of us being able to do anything about it. there you go.
Happy thanksgiving...eat too much and have some mashed potatoes for me. I can never eat as many of them as I want to because my tummy gets full. :-) And don't forget the green bean casserole! mine is in the freezer because I forgot to take it to church on Sunday. Hopefully I don't forget to take it on Thursday....
Happy thanksgiving...eat too much and have some mashed potatoes for me. I can never eat as many of them as I want to because my tummy gets full. :-) And don't forget the green bean casserole! mine is in the freezer because I forgot to take it to church on Sunday. Hopefully I don't forget to take it on Thursday....
Sunday, November 21, 2004
wish list
I have updated my wishlist, for those of you who look at that.
Items 1-7 are what I really want this Christmas.
My brother claimed item 1. :-)
happy shopping season......or, better yet: happy advent! (almost)
Items 1-7 are what I really want this Christmas.
My brother claimed item 1. :-)
happy shopping season......or, better yet: happy advent! (almost)
moved
I have moved. Because so many of you are asking where, I'll tell you.
I have moved approximately 3 miles from where I was living this summer.
I have moved approximately 15 miles (25 minutes) from school.
I have moved approximately 2-ish miles from church.
I have moved approximately 10 miles from the hospital I hope to be working in during January and the summer.
I still live in Atlanta.
In fact, now I technically live in Atlanta.
I still live in DeKalb county, which is quite a feat in this weird county-line state.
I live in an apartment complex with gates. The gate phone rings my cell phone. How cool is that?
I live in a diverse community with African- Asian- Hispanic- and other- Americans. And probably some not Americans.
I live in a complex with children who play in the parking lots, grass, and playgrounds.
I live in an apartment complex with a gym and two pools.
I live in an apartment complex with 26 buildings--one for each letter of the alphabet. My letter is N.
My cat lives in the apartment with me. She is not allowed on the balcony.
Have I answered any questions?
Happy Sunday....
I have moved approximately 3 miles from where I was living this summer.
I have moved approximately 15 miles (25 minutes) from school.
I have moved approximately 2-ish miles from church.
I have moved approximately 10 miles from the hospital I hope to be working in during January and the summer.
I still live in Atlanta.
In fact, now I technically live in Atlanta.
I still live in DeKalb county, which is quite a feat in this weird county-line state.
I live in an apartment complex with gates. The gate phone rings my cell phone. How cool is that?
I live in a diverse community with African- Asian- Hispanic- and other- Americans. And probably some not Americans.
I live in a complex with children who play in the parking lots, grass, and playgrounds.
I live in an apartment complex with a gym and two pools.
I live in an apartment complex with 26 buildings--one for each letter of the alphabet. My letter is N.
My cat lives in the apartment with me. She is not allowed on the balcony.
Have I answered any questions?
Happy Sunday....
i love buffy
all i want for christmas is....
Buffy Season 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
They're all out on DVD as of this past tuesday.
my bro called season 1.
that leaves 6 seasons for the rest of you. Just saying. ;-)
Another Sunday is upon us. Another day of youth group. another day of no school, closely followed by the "oh crap, i didn't do nearly enough homework this weekend, where does all the time go, how is it possibly monday, can I have another four saturdays please?" feeling. Luckily three of my classes were cancelled for Tuesday, the one Wednesday class was cancelled, and thursday/friday are holidays, leaving me with monday and tuesday morning chapel, monday afternoon class, and tuesday morning class. maybe on monday between chapel and class i'll do laundry at school. and maybe i'll finally get around to vacuuming my room and grabbing my desk chair. who knows? maybe i'll even get productive and do homework or blog or something. or maybe i'll go to the bookstore and buy the "What would Buffy do?" book (a real book, I swear...). Then read it, of course. one never knows, does one?
well, i am going to leave the gym/cyber cafe now. happy sunday to all. :-)
Buffy Season 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
They're all out on DVD as of this past tuesday.
my bro called season 1.
that leaves 6 seasons for the rest of you. Just saying. ;-)
Another Sunday is upon us. Another day of youth group. another day of no school, closely followed by the "oh crap, i didn't do nearly enough homework this weekend, where does all the time go, how is it possibly monday, can I have another four saturdays please?" feeling. Luckily three of my classes were cancelled for Tuesday, the one Wednesday class was cancelled, and thursday/friday are holidays, leaving me with monday and tuesday morning chapel, monday afternoon class, and tuesday morning class. maybe on monday between chapel and class i'll do laundry at school. and maybe i'll finally get around to vacuuming my room and grabbing my desk chair. who knows? maybe i'll even get productive and do homework or blog or something. or maybe i'll go to the bookstore and buy the "What would Buffy do?" book (a real book, I swear...). Then read it, of course. one never knows, does one?
well, i am going to leave the gym/cyber cafe now. happy sunday to all. :-)
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Sunday
well, it's Sunday. I made my list for the week's homework and whatnot, and realized that everything I need to do should be done by Wednesday afternoon, because the rest of the week doesn't have any homework, really. A weird feeling.
I just had to order extra wristbands for the youth group. crazy!
i have to go do homework now. and come up with a youth group plan. oy.
I just had to order extra wristbands for the youth group. crazy!
i have to go do homework now. and come up with a youth group plan. oy.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
clean carpets
today the people from Stanley Steemer came to clean the Washburn's carpet. It is now beautiful. No more cat fumes to irritate the other cats. but the carpet is still damp. LOL. Tomorrow: the bathroom and kitchen. No, I'm not hiring someone to do that for me, much as I would like to. ;-)
The Washburn's condo (previously "home") looks so barren with all my stuff gone. i'd forgotten what it was like before I moved all that stuff in there! No more boxes of books in the dining room, no more files in the office, no more litterbox and food by the ancient and small tv (which was more than i have, and hardly ever used...), no more bins of things behind the recliner in the living room. just lots of space. very lovely.
and now: home. the new one. yay!
The Washburn's condo (previously "home") looks so barren with all my stuff gone. i'd forgotten what it was like before I moved all that stuff in there! No more boxes of books in the dining room, no more files in the office, no more litterbox and food by the ancient and small tv (which was more than i have, and hardly ever used...), no more bins of things behind the recliner in the living room. just lots of space. very lovely.
and now: home. the new one. yay!
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
i suck sometimes
ok, so i'm brilliant of course, but that leads me into busy-ness, which makes me suck at blogging regularly. i'm going to try to be better, but no promises. perhaps if i try just a few sentences a day...
so here's the few for today:
I'm moved into the apartment.
It's starting to be cold outside, especially in my car first thing in the morning.
I have too many classes.
I need to get my new contacts.
it's time to go to class.
so here's the few for today:
I'm moved into the apartment.
It's starting to be cold outside, especially in my car first thing in the morning.
I have too many classes.
I need to get my new contacts.
it's time to go to class.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Reformata, Semper Reformanda
Reformata, Semper Reformanda
Exodus 19-20, Luke 19
CNCP
October 31 2004
*Exodus 19.1-20.21* “Reformata…”
Can you imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have any rules? I wish that I could say, “Well, human nature is actually nice and logical and we would probably all just get along fabulously.” Unfortunately, that isn’t the case and hasn’t been since Eden—when there were only two people who had to get along anyway. No, it’s likely that if there were actually NO rules—not even the ones we think are common sense, natural law, so obvious and ingrained that we can’t imagine the possibility of living without them—then things in human community would not go very well.
Instead, it seems that life has a lot of rules. Rules about how fast you can drive, rules about what you can and can’t wear to work or school, rules about buildings and safety and animals and business. In church we have rules about who can stand up here and preach, who can stand behind this table and celebrate sacraments, who can be ordained, and more rules for how we make decisions and do things. In Exodus we find the beginning of a code of rules. Before this we had basics: don’t eat of the tree, circumcise your male babies, etc. Now we have a full blown set of rules, and these ten are the foundation for life in community.
They seem so obvious, but it’s possible that several thousand years ago, when the Hebrews first heard these rules, they weren’t common sense. Sure, to us they feel super obvious, natural, the normal state of being. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t cheat on your spouse. But maybe they weren’t so normal back then. Especially that very first one: no other gods. That’s a new development for these people! It’s much better to hedge your bets, have several gods and keep them all happy so you don’t have to worry about whether it will rain this season or not. But Yahweh says that is unacceptable, and insists that the people acknowledge only ONE God. After that radical change in thinking, who knows what the people must have thought about all these other rules. But in any case, these ten rules that may have been strange at one time became the foundation of their life together—and continue to be the foundation of law in many places.
As Christians in the Reformed Protestant tradition, we acknowledge several layers of foundation for our life together. This first set of rules, the Law, the Torah, is one of them. But, as you may have noticed, before we get to the actual “Ten Commandments” we have a whole chapter of rules about how to get ready for God to speak. Moses goes up and down the mountain several times—which, let me tell you, is no easy task! The people wash their clothes, take care to be especially clean and pure, husbands and wives sleep on separate mats, the people gather behind the ropes at the bottom of the mountain, and Moses goes up to speak to God, totally alone. But just in case, God sends Moses BACK DOWN the mountain to make sure the people aren’t trying to sneak over the fence like kids at Six Flags who are bored with standing in line and crawl under the fence to play in the dirt and rocks on the other side. I would not have been happy with this at all—I was in so much pain just going up and down once that I can hardly imagine doing it two or three times. And after all that, the people are so afraid that they just tell Moses to talk to God for them—they’ll happily just wait down here.
All this rule-making about speaking with God led the medieval Roman Catholic Church into some pretty serious corruption. The people couldn’t talk to God—only the priests could. The people couldn’t even have both bread and wine for communion, because they might come too close to the mountain. And, of course, with all the rules to follow and the difficulty of confessing everything, getting forgiveness was pretty difficult. Since the church needed money to maintain its political power, they decided to sell forgiveness to people. Imagine: the minister only pronounces the assurance of forgiveness after you’ve put enough money in the offering plate. How much is enough? The minister gets to decide. Maybe this week it’s $5 per person. On pledge maybe $150. On Christmas and Easter we’ll be looking for $10 from Bob, $100 from Sue, and $76 from Mike—in direct proportion to how many Sundays other than Christmas and Easter we’ve seen them in church.
This is the kind of corruption Martin Luther was worried about. He would very conscientiously confess every sin he could think of, but was constantly plagued by the thought that he had missed something. He would leave confession, and then run back in a panic. Finally his confessor told him that if he was going to confess for hours, he should at least go out and do something worth confessing! Then, while reading the letter to the Romans one day, Luther realized that there was nothing he could do to earn forgiveness, but that God’s grace had made him righteous because of Christ. This epiphany was profound. He became so upset with the sale of forgiveness (called indulgences) that he wrote up 95 theses, which were designed to be discussion points, things he wanted the church to talk about. On October 31, 1517, he nailed them to the church door in Wittenberg. He didn’t want to start a new church. He didn’t even necessarily want big changes in worship. He just wanted to talk about forgiveness and grace and the idea that we could sell God’s grace to the highest bidder.
This new idea that God’s grace was free was radical to the medieval Church——much as some of the Ten Commandments must have seemed radical to the Hebrews, newly escaped from Egypt. This once-radical idea is now another part of our foundation. The Law is part of the foundation of our life as a community. The free grace of God is part of the foundation of our life as a community. It seems the two might contradict, but they didn’t for the apostle Paul, so they didn’t for Luther. The Law tells us how we are to live with God and with one another. The fact that God’s grace is a gift, something we can’t earn but is given to us anyway, tells us that we can’t sell forgiveness, and we can’t decide who gets grace and who doesn’t. God decides, and God freely gives grace to everyone. As Reformed Protestant Christians, these two radical foundations are part of normal existence, they seem obvious and “common sense.” The rules that form our foundation no longer seem radical—which is one way we can tell that we are “Reformata”—the past tense which means “Reformed.”
*Luke 19.1-10* “…Semper Reformanda”
Has anyone ever invited themselves over to your house? I will admit to having done it myself, actually. As a student, I sometimes suggest to people that it might be great if we could have dinner sometime—at their house. Or I might say “hey, wanna watch a movie tonight? Since I don’t have a TV, how about your place, 8 o’clock?” But I have never, ever just walked up to someone and said “come here, I’m having dinner at your house tonight.” How incredibly rude!
And, of course, the person we see doing this very rude thing is Jesus, breaking the societal rules and making new ones all over the place. For all his claiming to fulfill the law rather than abolish it, he sure does break a lot of rules. Who invites themselves over for dinner? Then again, who stands around outside the tax collector’s house and gossips loud enough that the subject of the gossip can hear them from inside?
Can you picture it? Zacchaeus, who’s probably about as tall as I am, rushes down from the tree and guides Jesus, the rabbi, the healer, the Messiah, out of the bustling crowd and into his living room. Suddenly he hears some less-than-discreet voices outside. He turns red, then turns to Jesus and declares that not only will he fulfill restitution laws but he’ll actually pay from his own pocket to anyone who has been the victim of his tax-collector overcharging practices. Because, you see, tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Romans. They didn’t get paid, so they would charge more than the Romans wanted and take the difference as their salary. For Zacchaeus to offer to give back four times any excessive charges is essentially to offer his entire income and then some.
And then rule-breaker Jesus says things like “this man too is a Son of Abraham” and suddenly all the people outside feel that maybe they were the ones breaking the rules. Jesus has come to say “you have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” Is this rule-breaking, or rule-reshaping according to the way things were meant to be?
The Reformed church has said that we are “Reformed and always being reformed by the Word of God.” Maybe this is what it means to be reformed by the Word—not just by Scripture but by the Word with a capital W: Jesus. He’s just sauntering through and invites himself to dinner at the house of a sinner who he proclaims has been saved by the free grace of God. Jesus has just turned the foundations of community life in Judaism upside down. This community has been reformed by the Word of God in a very startling way!
Sometimes we experience the same kind of startling reformation. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century was startling and upsetting. Martin Luther and John Calvin turned Europe’s church system upside down. They also recognized that if they claimed to set a once-and-for-all system, then they would be falling into the same traps the medieval Catholic church had stumbled on. Instead they insisted that we are to be always open to continuing reformation.
This kind of reformation may take many forms. For example, many protestant churches now allow women to be pastors—something that was unheard of for hundreds of years. The Presbyterian church in many countries is uniting with, or at least in agreement with, several other denominations to share worship, ministers, buildings, or other resources. Many churches are experimenting with their worship styles, with new music, or with liturgical resources from other countries. In some places it may be in prayer style, or in new lifestyle or mission commitments. The reformation of the church is to be ongoing, according to both Luther and Calvin.
We all have a part to play in the ongoing reformation of the church. Because of the printing press and the protestant reformation, we can all read the Bible. We can pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We can gather in community to discern where we are being called and what the Word says to our context. We can ask the hard questions, pray together, and so be involved in the reformation.
In addition to the reformation of the church, we can follow in Calvin’s footsteps and participate in the reformation of our society and our government. As we approach the national election day, we all have a part to play in our nation. Calvin said that all Christians have a responsibility to be involved in government and civic life. Voting our conscience, being active and vocal for the things that are important to us, praying for our leaders—all these are ways we can be involved in the ongoing reformation of our national community.
But, for all the things we can do to be involved in the reformation, we must remember that it’s not WE who are doing a new thing, but God who does the new thing. We don’t bring in the kingdom, God brings the kingdom. Reformanda is the passive form of the verb—we are always being reformed by the word of God, not by our own ideas. When we are acted upon by the Word of God, however, we do take action. We do have something to do, a part to play, a responsibility to respond when we are called.
So we build on the foundations laid for us by God’s people of ages past. We don’t simply repeat everything they have always done: someone has said that the seven last words of the church will either be “we’ve always done it that way before,” or “we’ve never done it that way before.” But neither do we throw it all away and start from scratch. The rules and concepts that form our community, that shape our life together, come to us from Scripture and from the tradition. Then we discern the movement of the Holy Spirit and form and shape our life in this place and time according to the Word. Sometimes we may need to try a new thing. Sometimes we may need some startling discussion questions to lead us in a re-shaping of the way things are meant to be. Sometimes Jesus needs to invite himself over for dinner at the sinner’s house so we can see the way things are supposed to be. Because he comes to seek out and save the lost, we pray that we might be found and that we might hear once again that God’s free gift of grace has come to this house. That openness, that prayer, that expectant hope that God is always doing a new thing, is the sign of the Reformed church: Semper Reformanda, “Always being re-formed.”
Exodus 19-20, Luke 19
CNCP
October 31 2004
*Exodus 19.1-20.21* “Reformata…”
Can you imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have any rules? I wish that I could say, “Well, human nature is actually nice and logical and we would probably all just get along fabulously.” Unfortunately, that isn’t the case and hasn’t been since Eden—when there were only two people who had to get along anyway. No, it’s likely that if there were actually NO rules—not even the ones we think are common sense, natural law, so obvious and ingrained that we can’t imagine the possibility of living without them—then things in human community would not go very well.
Instead, it seems that life has a lot of rules. Rules about how fast you can drive, rules about what you can and can’t wear to work or school, rules about buildings and safety and animals and business. In church we have rules about who can stand up here and preach, who can stand behind this table and celebrate sacraments, who can be ordained, and more rules for how we make decisions and do things. In Exodus we find the beginning of a code of rules. Before this we had basics: don’t eat of the tree, circumcise your male babies, etc. Now we have a full blown set of rules, and these ten are the foundation for life in community.
They seem so obvious, but it’s possible that several thousand years ago, when the Hebrews first heard these rules, they weren’t common sense. Sure, to us they feel super obvious, natural, the normal state of being. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t cheat on your spouse. But maybe they weren’t so normal back then. Especially that very first one: no other gods. That’s a new development for these people! It’s much better to hedge your bets, have several gods and keep them all happy so you don’t have to worry about whether it will rain this season or not. But Yahweh says that is unacceptable, and insists that the people acknowledge only ONE God. After that radical change in thinking, who knows what the people must have thought about all these other rules. But in any case, these ten rules that may have been strange at one time became the foundation of their life together—and continue to be the foundation of law in many places.
As Christians in the Reformed Protestant tradition, we acknowledge several layers of foundation for our life together. This first set of rules, the Law, the Torah, is one of them. But, as you may have noticed, before we get to the actual “Ten Commandments” we have a whole chapter of rules about how to get ready for God to speak. Moses goes up and down the mountain several times—which, let me tell you, is no easy task! The people wash their clothes, take care to be especially clean and pure, husbands and wives sleep on separate mats, the people gather behind the ropes at the bottom of the mountain, and Moses goes up to speak to God, totally alone. But just in case, God sends Moses BACK DOWN the mountain to make sure the people aren’t trying to sneak over the fence like kids at Six Flags who are bored with standing in line and crawl under the fence to play in the dirt and rocks on the other side. I would not have been happy with this at all—I was in so much pain just going up and down once that I can hardly imagine doing it two or three times. And after all that, the people are so afraid that they just tell Moses to talk to God for them—they’ll happily just wait down here.
All this rule-making about speaking with God led the medieval Roman Catholic Church into some pretty serious corruption. The people couldn’t talk to God—only the priests could. The people couldn’t even have both bread and wine for communion, because they might come too close to the mountain. And, of course, with all the rules to follow and the difficulty of confessing everything, getting forgiveness was pretty difficult. Since the church needed money to maintain its political power, they decided to sell forgiveness to people. Imagine: the minister only pronounces the assurance of forgiveness after you’ve put enough money in the offering plate. How much is enough? The minister gets to decide. Maybe this week it’s $5 per person. On pledge maybe $150. On Christmas and Easter we’ll be looking for $10 from Bob, $100 from Sue, and $76 from Mike—in direct proportion to how many Sundays other than Christmas and Easter we’ve seen them in church.
This is the kind of corruption Martin Luther was worried about. He would very conscientiously confess every sin he could think of, but was constantly plagued by the thought that he had missed something. He would leave confession, and then run back in a panic. Finally his confessor told him that if he was going to confess for hours, he should at least go out and do something worth confessing! Then, while reading the letter to the Romans one day, Luther realized that there was nothing he could do to earn forgiveness, but that God’s grace had made him righteous because of Christ. This epiphany was profound. He became so upset with the sale of forgiveness (called indulgences) that he wrote up 95 theses, which were designed to be discussion points, things he wanted the church to talk about. On October 31, 1517, he nailed them to the church door in Wittenberg. He didn’t want to start a new church. He didn’t even necessarily want big changes in worship. He just wanted to talk about forgiveness and grace and the idea that we could sell God’s grace to the highest bidder.
This new idea that God’s grace was free was radical to the medieval Church——much as some of the Ten Commandments must have seemed radical to the Hebrews, newly escaped from Egypt. This once-radical idea is now another part of our foundation. The Law is part of the foundation of our life as a community. The free grace of God is part of the foundation of our life as a community. It seems the two might contradict, but they didn’t for the apostle Paul, so they didn’t for Luther. The Law tells us how we are to live with God and with one another. The fact that God’s grace is a gift, something we can’t earn but is given to us anyway, tells us that we can’t sell forgiveness, and we can’t decide who gets grace and who doesn’t. God decides, and God freely gives grace to everyone. As Reformed Protestant Christians, these two radical foundations are part of normal existence, they seem obvious and “common sense.” The rules that form our foundation no longer seem radical—which is one way we can tell that we are “Reformata”—the past tense which means “Reformed.”
*Luke 19.1-10* “…Semper Reformanda”
Has anyone ever invited themselves over to your house? I will admit to having done it myself, actually. As a student, I sometimes suggest to people that it might be great if we could have dinner sometime—at their house. Or I might say “hey, wanna watch a movie tonight? Since I don’t have a TV, how about your place, 8 o’clock?” But I have never, ever just walked up to someone and said “come here, I’m having dinner at your house tonight.” How incredibly rude!
And, of course, the person we see doing this very rude thing is Jesus, breaking the societal rules and making new ones all over the place. For all his claiming to fulfill the law rather than abolish it, he sure does break a lot of rules. Who invites themselves over for dinner? Then again, who stands around outside the tax collector’s house and gossips loud enough that the subject of the gossip can hear them from inside?
Can you picture it? Zacchaeus, who’s probably about as tall as I am, rushes down from the tree and guides Jesus, the rabbi, the healer, the Messiah, out of the bustling crowd and into his living room. Suddenly he hears some less-than-discreet voices outside. He turns red, then turns to Jesus and declares that not only will he fulfill restitution laws but he’ll actually pay from his own pocket to anyone who has been the victim of his tax-collector overcharging practices. Because, you see, tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Romans. They didn’t get paid, so they would charge more than the Romans wanted and take the difference as their salary. For Zacchaeus to offer to give back four times any excessive charges is essentially to offer his entire income and then some.
And then rule-breaker Jesus says things like “this man too is a Son of Abraham” and suddenly all the people outside feel that maybe they were the ones breaking the rules. Jesus has come to say “you have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” Is this rule-breaking, or rule-reshaping according to the way things were meant to be?
The Reformed church has said that we are “Reformed and always being reformed by the Word of God.” Maybe this is what it means to be reformed by the Word—not just by Scripture but by the Word with a capital W: Jesus. He’s just sauntering through and invites himself to dinner at the house of a sinner who he proclaims has been saved by the free grace of God. Jesus has just turned the foundations of community life in Judaism upside down. This community has been reformed by the Word of God in a very startling way!
Sometimes we experience the same kind of startling reformation. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century was startling and upsetting. Martin Luther and John Calvin turned Europe’s church system upside down. They also recognized that if they claimed to set a once-and-for-all system, then they would be falling into the same traps the medieval Catholic church had stumbled on. Instead they insisted that we are to be always open to continuing reformation.
This kind of reformation may take many forms. For example, many protestant churches now allow women to be pastors—something that was unheard of for hundreds of years. The Presbyterian church in many countries is uniting with, or at least in agreement with, several other denominations to share worship, ministers, buildings, or other resources. Many churches are experimenting with their worship styles, with new music, or with liturgical resources from other countries. In some places it may be in prayer style, or in new lifestyle or mission commitments. The reformation of the church is to be ongoing, according to both Luther and Calvin.
We all have a part to play in the ongoing reformation of the church. Because of the printing press and the protestant reformation, we can all read the Bible. We can pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We can gather in community to discern where we are being called and what the Word says to our context. We can ask the hard questions, pray together, and so be involved in the reformation.
In addition to the reformation of the church, we can follow in Calvin’s footsteps and participate in the reformation of our society and our government. As we approach the national election day, we all have a part to play in our nation. Calvin said that all Christians have a responsibility to be involved in government and civic life. Voting our conscience, being active and vocal for the things that are important to us, praying for our leaders—all these are ways we can be involved in the ongoing reformation of our national community.
But, for all the things we can do to be involved in the reformation, we must remember that it’s not WE who are doing a new thing, but God who does the new thing. We don’t bring in the kingdom, God brings the kingdom. Reformanda is the passive form of the verb—we are always being reformed by the word of God, not by our own ideas. When we are acted upon by the Word of God, however, we do take action. We do have something to do, a part to play, a responsibility to respond when we are called.
So we build on the foundations laid for us by God’s people of ages past. We don’t simply repeat everything they have always done: someone has said that the seven last words of the church will either be “we’ve always done it that way before,” or “we’ve never done it that way before.” But neither do we throw it all away and start from scratch. The rules and concepts that form our community, that shape our life together, come to us from Scripture and from the tradition. Then we discern the movement of the Holy Spirit and form and shape our life in this place and time according to the Word. Sometimes we may need to try a new thing. Sometimes we may need some startling discussion questions to lead us in a re-shaping of the way things are meant to be. Sometimes Jesus needs to invite himself over for dinner at the sinner’s house so we can see the way things are supposed to be. Because he comes to seek out and save the lost, we pray that we might be found and that we might hear once again that God’s free gift of grace has come to this house. That openness, that prayer, that expectant hope that God is always doing a new thing, is the sign of the Reformed church: Semper Reformanda, “Always being re-formed.”
Friday, October 15, 2004
this is actually old...
but still hilarious. Found this from novmeber 2003. Cant't believe how amused I STILL am by it. enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* uses of ice besides beverages, where it shouldn't be anyway *
Well, there are the obvious:
*ice packs
*freezing ice cream (in a homemade-ice-cream-maker)
*keeping in ice chests, lunch boxes, etc, to keep things cold while you get ready to use them.
*putting in plants, to water them slowly for a while rather than drowning them with a hose
*putting down your friend's shirts when they are hot. or when they are cold.
*melting, then filtering, for drinking water
*freezing your credit cards so you won't use them (theoretically)
*chilling wine (in one of those buckets designed to do this...not just in a pitcher you fill with ice then stick the wine bottle in. I mean, that does work, but it's much less efficient and much less easy than the wine bucket.)
*rubbing on your lips after you've played a wind instrument for too long. Popsicles are better, but ice works in a pinch. However, see below on nasty unfiltered water ice. bleah.
*put ice in front of a small fan to cool the air that is blowing through your room.
*put in pet's water bowl in the summer to keep water cool. Pets don't care about filtered water.
*cleaning gum off of fabric. or hair. peanut butter also often works for this.
*cleaning candle wax off just about anything. I haven't tried this on hair but it would probably work. However, if you have candle wax in your hair you need to rethink your habit of standing underneath dripping candles.
*getting paper wet. if you wanted to do this very slowly, you could...just put an ice cube on some paper. soon it will be wet.
*breaking things. ie: computers, printers, toasters, books, windows, etc. you can either throw ice cubes, thus shattering whatever it is you wish to break, or put the ice cube in it and wait for it to melt, thus disabling whatever you are breaking. I don't recommend this necessarily, I'm just saying you could.
*melting. i don't know why you would want to do this--you obviously already have water. and i already said this about 8 lines up.
*holding. i mean, if you were really hot, just holding an ice cube might help cool you down.
*put them in your bath. a cold bath is probably good for your skin somehow. maybe. but this means you can't have a hot bath, because the ice will melt. really this thought is only ideal if you are the person in one of those urban legends...who's had a kidney removed and wakes up in a bathtub full of ice. you know the ones. they aren't true.
*testing the strength of paper towels. how many ice cubes can your paper towel hold? I bet Bounty or Brawny or one of those B-brands can hold a lot. at least their commercials claim they can.
*preserving bugs. your ice maker probably does this for you already. look carefully when you get ice out of it, otherwise you might drink a fruit fly. eew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* uses of ice besides beverages, where it shouldn't be anyway *
Well, there are the obvious:
*ice packs
*freezing ice cream (in a homemade-ice-cream-maker)
*keeping in ice chests, lunch boxes, etc, to keep things cold while you get ready to use them.
*putting in plants, to water them slowly for a while rather than drowning them with a hose
*putting down your friend's shirts when they are hot. or when they are cold.
*melting, then filtering, for drinking water
*freezing your credit cards so you won't use them (theoretically)
*chilling wine (in one of those buckets designed to do this...not just in a pitcher you fill with ice then stick the wine bottle in. I mean, that does work, but it's much less efficient and much less easy than the wine bucket.)
*rubbing on your lips after you've played a wind instrument for too long. Popsicles are better, but ice works in a pinch. However, see below on nasty unfiltered water ice. bleah.
*put ice in front of a small fan to cool the air that is blowing through your room.
*put in pet's water bowl in the summer to keep water cool. Pets don't care about filtered water.
*cleaning gum off of fabric. or hair. peanut butter also often works for this.
*cleaning candle wax off just about anything. I haven't tried this on hair but it would probably work. However, if you have candle wax in your hair you need to rethink your habit of standing underneath dripping candles.
*getting paper wet. if you wanted to do this very slowly, you could...just put an ice cube on some paper. soon it will be wet.
*breaking things. ie: computers, printers, toasters, books, windows, etc. you can either throw ice cubes, thus shattering whatever it is you wish to break, or put the ice cube in it and wait for it to melt, thus disabling whatever you are breaking. I don't recommend this necessarily, I'm just saying you could.
*melting. i don't know why you would want to do this--you obviously already have water. and i already said this about 8 lines up.
*holding. i mean, if you were really hot, just holding an ice cube might help cool you down.
*put them in your bath. a cold bath is probably good for your skin somehow. maybe. but this means you can't have a hot bath, because the ice will melt. really this thought is only ideal if you are the person in one of those urban legends...who's had a kidney removed and wakes up in a bathtub full of ice. you know the ones. they aren't true.
*testing the strength of paper towels. how many ice cubes can your paper towel hold? I bet Bounty or Brawny or one of those B-brands can hold a lot. at least their commercials claim they can.
*preserving bugs. your ice maker probably does this for you already. look carefully when you get ice out of it, otherwise you might drink a fruit fly. eew.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
tired
i am so tired. so so tired. i would gladly give up chapel and/or class for starbucks if i could. i want a nap.
long day head.
long day head.
Friday, October 01, 2004
things i need
1. toilet paper for my house. not for the outside, you know, but for the inside. in the bathroom. which i guess is really "toilet paper for my bathrooms" except that that sounded kind of nasty. now i said it....oh well....
2. treats for my cat. that's how I keep her inside when i have to go out the door. i bribe her with treats.
3. an oil change (well, in the next week or so...). you know, every 3,000 miles or so. i will hit 3,000 in the next 7 days for sure. but where to get this done? and when? see #7.
4. an apartment. for living in. because soon i can't live where i currently live. but the apartment can't be too expensive because i'm kind of poor. but also not sketchy or tiny, please.
5. furniture for said apartment. preferably without actually buying any of said furniture. anyone have an extra bed, extra dresser, extra chairs, extra table, extra sofa, extra...well, anything furniture-like?
6. new black everyday-shoes. soon. and fashionably but not expensive. i like shoes that make grown-up sounds when i walk. but i also like shoes that don't, so when i'm late (or just walking around on hard floors (ie hallways) while classes are in session) i don't disturb the whole world with my grown-up-ness.
7. two more weekends per week. preferably without sundays. this should be obvious.
one might wonder what all these things have in common. I shall tell you, in case it really isn't obvious. I need them soon. I need them not to cost too much. particularly regarding 4 and 6, my options are running out if i don't get them. I suppose i could say that about number 1 too. Without these things, I'll be homeless, barefoot, and will really have to pee. none of this is good, particularly when one is trying to study for 5 classes with heavy reading loads, work as a youth director, and do work study hours, and have something of a life (you know, see my boyfriend, eat, talk to friends and family, etc).
just thought i'd let you know. :-)
2. treats for my cat. that's how I keep her inside when i have to go out the door. i bribe her with treats.
3. an oil change (well, in the next week or so...). you know, every 3,000 miles or so. i will hit 3,000 in the next 7 days for sure. but where to get this done? and when? see #7.
4. an apartment. for living in. because soon i can't live where i currently live. but the apartment can't be too expensive because i'm kind of poor. but also not sketchy or tiny, please.
5. furniture for said apartment. preferably without actually buying any of said furniture. anyone have an extra bed, extra dresser, extra chairs, extra table, extra sofa, extra...well, anything furniture-like?
6. new black everyday-shoes. soon. and fashionably but not expensive. i like shoes that make grown-up sounds when i walk. but i also like shoes that don't, so when i'm late (or just walking around on hard floors (ie hallways) while classes are in session) i don't disturb the whole world with my grown-up-ness.
7. two more weekends per week. preferably without sundays. this should be obvious.
one might wonder what all these things have in common. I shall tell you, in case it really isn't obvious. I need them soon. I need them not to cost too much. particularly regarding 4 and 6, my options are running out if i don't get them. I suppose i could say that about number 1 too. Without these things, I'll be homeless, barefoot, and will really have to pee. none of this is good, particularly when one is trying to study for 5 classes with heavy reading loads, work as a youth director, and do work study hours, and have something of a life (you know, see my boyfriend, eat, talk to friends and family, etc).
just thought i'd let you know. :-)
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