click, clack, moo

Greetings from the Oratory, where I have been in this chair for the majority of the past week and will continue to be until Monday at noon. Here's the update (in large part to make myself feel like I'm making progress).
New Testament Canon formation summary: Complete! (6 pages, turned in on 4/21)
Curriculum Assessment for evangelism: Complete! (15 pages, turned in on 4/25)
Paper on The Shepherd of Hermas: Complete! (15 pages, turned in on 4/28)
War and Christian Conscience paper: Needs editing. (15 pages, due on 5/2)
Ethics of Bonhoeffer paper: In progress. (8/11 pages, due on 5/3)
Modern European history paper: not started (15 pages, due on 5/5)
Congregational Ministries paper: not started (12ish pages, due on 5/5)
If you have a calendar handy you might notice that all seven of these are within a two week time period. So that's about 2.5 papers to go and 5.5 days to do it. I'm on a 3 days/paper schedule and that's working so far. I'm also on a multible episodes of Bones/day schedule, which is less conducive to productivity. Still sleeping 7 hours/night doesn't help that either.
I'm excited to soon blog about things other than writing papers.

no more school, no more books

or at least no more classes. Plenty of books and plenty of papers. But no more classroom for at least a year. Wierd.

On to the Good Stuff

I've written 3 of my 7 papers so far, getting out of the way all of 1 of the uninteresting/unengaging/unchallenging papers. Now I get to move on the good stuff: Central Europe. I'm managed to get three paper topics that actually relate to my future field of study.
First, due next Friday, a paper for War and Christian Conscience on a Catholic pacifist priest in Hungary in the mid-1980s.
Then, due next Saturday, my Bonhoeffer paper on the role of community in moral discernment.
Finally, due the following Monday, the big one for my PhD seminar looking at the writings of a Czech theologian and socialist in the 1960s.
After all those are done I'll throw something together for paper #7 and then all work will come to a screeching halt by noon on May 5. It's no close I can taste it. Now if only the rapidly approaching deadline would shock me out of my need for 8+ hours of sleep nd my love of the show Bones . . .

It's Official

After graduation I'll be a live-in nanny in Kinnelon, New Jersey. It's a very small town about 45 minutes West of NYC, in what has to pass for mountains out here. The kids are a really cute a talkative 3 year old boy and equally cute but not at all talkative 6 month old girl. I have to figure out whether I'm going home after graduation and work out the logistics of moving in and all that, but that's where I'll be for the next year or until I get accepted to a PhD program.
And now I'm going to go attempt to write a 15 page paper in one sitting.

I take that back

Since I posted this morning one of the families filled their position, so as soon as I officially talk to the other family I will officially announce where I'm going after graduation.

Decisions, Decisions

On Sunday I took the train up to Stamford, Connecticut to meet with a family about a nanny position. They have a 7 year old boy and a 5 year old girl, a beautiful home on a peninsula surrounded by public beaches and parks, and are a really nice family. Then on Tuesday I drove up to Kinnelon, New Jersey to meet a family with a 3 year old boy and a 6 month old girl. They were also really nice, and live out in a wooded mountainy area with deer and hiking trails and stuff. The good news is, I should know by this weekend where I'm living and working after graduation (which is 1 month from today). The bad news is, I have to say no to one of these great families. I have my first choice picked out, but I'm going to wait until everything is final to post about it.

On a different note, yesterday was a bunch of senior class hullaballoo. We had a class photo, which Rachel and I barely made it back from tutoring in Trenton in time to be in, a nice dinner, and a worship service. I think this is the point where we're all supposed to start feeling nostalgic and taking tons of photos and savoring every moment. I'm just not there yet mentally. I still have seven papers to write (well, it's six now) before I get there. So while others went out for drinks and savoring of precious moments last night, I came back to the dorm and watched 3 episodes of Bones with Rachel and Rebecca then went to bed. In all honesty though, wasted evenings watching TV on DVD are probably some of the times I'll miss.

. . . but I'm not daunted . . .

I have seven papers due in the next 4 weeks. Seven. One of them only sort of counts because it's a 5-6 page summary on the New Testament canonization process. The others are biggies. All 15ish pages, all worth over 50% of my grade in their respective courses, and only one pass/fail. Four of the topics actually interest me, five of the papers have something approaching a thesis, and there is a remarkable overlap in topics regarding Central Europe and pacifism (surprise, surprise). I would say that the bright side is no matter what I'm done on May 17th, but I do actually have to pass all of these classes to graduate.
I'm going to go play with a toddler now, before the shock and panic kicks in.

the plan

To all of you who were freaking out about what to do after college graduation and I was unable to empathize because I knew I was going to PTS, well now I understand where you were coming from. About half of my friends have real jobs lined up, most of them even in the fields they intend to stay in for a long time. I decided last semester to take a year off while I apply to PhD programs, which means I need a plan for next year. I applied for an internship in Harlem, but they don't make their decision for another few weeks (i.e. painfully close to graduation), and my plan to stay on at the Foundation where I work now is probably not going to pan out for them financially. So the new plan? Nannying. That's right, I'm probably going to be a live-in nanny for the year. The pay is good, the beach houses are beautiful, the kids are cute. Hey, why the heck not. I've already had three interviews and I'll probably know in the next week or so whether my first choice of those three is going to work out. So there's the temporary plan, during which I'll take the GRE's, apply to PhD programs, and reading stuff. Sounds delightful.