Check out time

I'm officially gone for the semester, which is unfortunate since I have a 15 page paper due tuesday and a final exam on Friday. Gone is a purely emotional state rather than a physical one. I haven't even started packing yet, and I move out of my room for the summer in less than 2 weeks. I don't yet know where I'll move too, but that's a story for another day. I've spent most of the weekend working on this paper, which consists of answering 13 doctrinal questions for ordination in the United Methodist Church. I think what makes it such slow labored work is the fact that I'm not learning anything new or researching something I'm interested in by writing my answers. It's stuff I know from theology classes and the Bible and life and John Wesley's sermons. I'd rather be researching something and constructing an argument. Really, I'd rather be on my way to Colorado. I am so excited to get to see Claire and Dave, and then all the Spokomptonites who will be at the wedding that I'm pretty much useless for doing anything else. I am in fact so excited to go, and so eager to not work on this paper, that I took a picture of myself being excited while I should have been working on my paper.
No offense to my PTS friends. I love you all dearly, and am looking forward to fun times this summer and next year and beyond. But my soul longs for the fellowship of the people who know and love me best, and it's only two weeks until I get to start wrapping my arms around those little slices of heaven who are Claire and Dave and Jeni and Mary and Becky and Kyna and Anna and Shelly and Jasmine and many more who I won't mention because I don't think they read my blog.
And now I will continue the procrastination trend by going to the Wawa.

Since Jeni is my hero . . .

. . . and I want to copy everything she does so I can endeavor to be nearly as amazing as she is, here is the Meme from her sight. Sadly, many of my answers are different from hers, so I have a long way to go to attain awesomeness.

Accent: Depends who I'm talking to. I pick up accents quickly. I'm from Colorado, so it's pretty neutral, but their are a few words I pronounce weird for no particular reason.

Booze: Guiness, Fat Tire, Alaskan Amber for beer. Anything that sounds like it would be good on ice cream otherwise (Bailey's, Frangelico, Kahlua, etc.) and Mike's hard.

Chore I hate: Dishes. Luckily I don't have a kitchen here.

Dog or cat: Dog, as long as it's past the destroying things stage.

Essential electronics: cell phone, laptop.

Favorite cologne(s): Since I'm allergic to it, I'm gonna go with none of the above.

Gold or silver: Silver.

Hometown: Littleton, CO, though I spent more time in Wheat Ridge, am most recently from Spokane, and currently live in Princeton.

Insomnia: rarely

Job title: Student, and intern at the Bonner Foundation.

Kids: I like other people's

Living arrangements: A 12x15 dorm room in Alexander, out of which I soon be kicked for the summer. Hopefully kicked into a nice housesitting gig.
Most admirable trait: my friends are super important to me
Number of sexual partners: zero
Overnight hospital stays: One, last semester after my ear surgery.

Phobias: Birds, and things closely resembling birds (bats, Central American moths, etc.)

Quote: "Honey, I'm home!" - Me, Kyna, Becky. Many many many others.

Religion: Christian.

Siblings: One younger sister

Time I wake up: between 6:30 and 8.

Unusual talent or skill: I'm pretty good at languages.

Vegetable I refuse to eat: maybe radishes, but I'll really eat just about anything

Worst habit: not doing my laundry, picking at my face.

X-rays: Other than routine ones at the dentist, my ear last semester.

Yummy foods I make: Mac and Cheese, Curried Fruit. I can cook chicken breast and put cheese or spagghetti sauce or something on it.

Zodiac sign: Virgo (surprise, surprise!)

The beginning of the end

Well folks, I've had my last class of my first year of seminary. That's right, no more class until September. I do still have 2 papers (one of which is due this Monday and I haven't starting researching it yet since all I've done this week is Aramaic) and 1 exam, but mostly I'll spend reading week and finals week working, hanging out, packing, and letting the excitement over upcoming reunions and weddings build in my little heart.
I leave for Colorado 3 weeks from today!!!

'Tis the season to be pastey

That's right, the time of year has come when I am reminded of how truly special my pastiness is. Nothing reflects the sun quite like my pastey legs. One might think that now that there is a sun to be reflected my legs will soon be pastey no more, but one would be wrong. I will spend the next four months startling others who only thought they were pigment deprived. It's a fun hobby, winning the white legs contest. And I embrace it with pride. So if you are ever feeling a little blue about the summer sun leaving you with less that the exotic tan you were hoping for, feel free to take a gander at my shins and know that you are sun-kissed after all.

Past, Present, Future

Hey, if it's good enough for Jeni, it's good enough for me.

20 years ago I . . .
1. Moved to Colorado with my parents and little sister.
2. probably did something mean to my little sister.
3. Was learning how to read.

10 years ago I . . .
1. Was "dating" my first (and last so far) boyfriend.
2. Was in my first year of Latin.
3. Decided I wanted to be a pastor.

5 years ago I . . .
1. Graduated from high school.
2. Went to Nicaragua.
3. Had the worst summer of my life (but I'm all better now).

1 year ago I . . .
1. Got accepted to Princeton Theological Seminary.
2. Graduated from Whitworth College.
3. Learned how to Lindy Hop.

So far this year I . . .
1. Started (and have almost completed) my second semester of seminary.
2. Visited friends in Spokane.
3. Learned Aramaic.

Yesterday I . . .
1. Transcribed my Aramaic homework.
2. Went to the Easter vigil service.
3. Watched 2 episodes of Dawson's Creek.

Today I . . .
1. Went to the 5am Easter Sunrise service, and the 9:30am Easter service.
2. Transcribed more Aramaic.
3. Had good conversations with a few friends.

Tomorrow I will . . .
1. Transcribe more Aramaic.
2. Go to 3 classes (no skipping during the last week!).
3. Talk to Claire while I should be transcribing Aramaic.

It may not be the Rockies . . .

. . . but the Delaware Water Gap recreation area provides a pretty decent hike. A few of us hit the trail today, Good Friday, since we didn't have class and it was a great way to avoid studying, get away from campus and into nature, and to get to know some people better. It drizzled rain most of the day, which kept us cool and, well, wet. But it was warm enough to still be pleasant, and it cleared up long enough for us to eat lunch by the pond that was the telos of the trail.
This also expands my definition of hiking, which has been strongly influenced by growing up near the Colorado Rockies. To me, hiking is steep, high altitudes, occasionally treacherous, and climaxes with an amazing view of the city or the canyon or the rest of the mountain range. Here hiking 7ish miles was no problem with pretty slow inclines, hardly any elevation (anything below 5000 might as well not be elevated), really no danger at all, and a final view of the still waters of the pond. I like it, although I wouldn't trade my mountains for the Pennsylvania hills.
Many people emerge from hiking with a heightened awareness of God's goodness and creativity in creation. I admit that this is not often my reaction. I see God much more in the people with whom I am enjoying creation, and today I rejoice in having glimpsed Christ in each of my companions on the trail.

The Cure for the Common Bibliophile

This here is Whiteley Gym, where I have spent the last week selling, sorting, pricing, cleaning and acquiring books. I have skipped about 1/2 of my classes, and done VERY little homework because of the annual book sale, but it's been a blast. An exhausting, dirty blast. We raised over $26,000 for seminaries in Kenya, Ghana, and Ecuador, so it's worth all the hard work. In all fairness, I didn't do that much work compared to the three people who were really in charge. A group of us is going to get hour-long massages to recover from hauling all of these books around, and it's been a lot of fun hanging out with and getting to know the other people who were working on this project. Next year my friend Rachel and I are going to have Special Collections (sets, rare books, etc) as our pet project. We are planning to meet the with special collections guy for the seminary and learn about how to price rare books and stuff like that. It'll be a fun hobby. I also came out of the sale with some pretty cool stuff, other than what I listed in the previous post. And not all of it is as dorky as those ones are. I do need to get another bookshelf for next year though.
In other news, I got hired for the summer at the Bonner Foundation so I'll be in Princeton when I'm not at weddings. More to come on that later.

Bookish Bliss

The Missions and Stewardship Committee puts on a HUGE book sale every year. A group of us have been spending many back-breaking hours sorting books, moving boxes of books, and being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of BOOKS. The great thing is that you earn books by helping. I do so love me them books. So far I have picked up the following:
The Hebrew Prophets by Newsome
The Minor Prophets by Boice
God of the Oppressed by Cone
The First Theologians by Gillespie
The Epic of Gilgamesh
a tourist book of Gotha, Germany (where I once spent many hours pouring over Greek and Hebrew texts with the great Jim Edwards)
The Steps of Bonhoeffer (a photo biography of my husband Dieter)
a commentary on Zechariah-Malachi by Petersen
a commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah by Blenkinsopp
A History of Prophecy in Israel by Blenkinsopp
Syrische Grammatik (so I can learn Syriac after I learn German)
Chrestomathia Aethiopica (various ancient church writings in Ethiopic with a Latin glossary)

There's a lot of great stuff, so if you are in Princeton you should come by. Better yet, come help us sort the rest of this week, and move boxes to the gym on Saturday. It's a great workout!

Academic Insecurity

For Aramaic today we translated a 5th cent. BC fragment from the Words of Ahiqar, a widely-attested document of a similar style to Proverbs in the OT. Well, I thought the translation went okay, but today in class Dr. Seow spent most of his time rattling off how to figure out what the vowel points would have been in the 5th century, and how the Masoretes (the scribes who added vowel points to the Bible) would have pointed it, and what word it came from in Proto-Semitic and Akkadian and Phoenecian, and Lord knows what else. I've had linguistics, so I understand what he's talking about on a theoretic level, but he just whips out these ancient hypothetical forms and them some PhD student asks if there should be a circumflex over the aleph and he says it's just a mater, and then starts erasing and rewriting things and before I know it I'm as lost as you probably were at "Aramaic". Apparently I'll be able to do this with my eyes closed after I've taken Historical Hebrew Grammar. At any rate, there's nothing like being in a class of mostly PhD students to put me in my place, so to speak. And just to thoroughly humble me the other junior (first year M.Div. student) in the class commented on how he got most of the Masoretic pointing right. I hate the competitive nature of academia, but that was really the first time in interacting with a fellow student that I've thought "this is my competition." I guess this all means that I need to step it up a notch. But how high is that notch? I need to keep finding that balance between working hard and chastising myself for not being on the same level as the PhD students. Of course I don't know as much as they do! They have 3+ years more education than I do. One of them is a native Arabic speaker, and therefore obviously Semitic languages come naturally to him.
None of this stopped me from drooling over the Near Eastern Studies department while I was hanging up posters at the University this afternoon. Like a moth to the flame, and come back for more linguistic burns.

Ode to Chick-fil-a (in prose)

I have eaten at Chick-fil-a in 4 states. Colorado, Georgia, Tennessee, and New Jersey. It is approximately the best food in the world. Claire and I ate there when we were stuck in the Atlanta airport for 24 hours (concourse A, in case you're ever in a similar predicament), and it was the first place we went to eat during Christmas break this past December, and where we had lunch in Oak Ridge the day before we left for Germany last year. Now I eat it in Princeton with different friends, but the same great chicken. Adam Neder, famed theology professor at Whitworth College, was the first customer at one of the Chick-fil-a's out here, and he may rival me and Claire in our devotion to the wonder that is the 8-pack chicken strip meal. Sadly, many of you are not in places where you can experience this great joy of life, but my hope is that one day you two may discover your new favorite restaurant. I think the closest one to Spokane is in Grand Junction, CO (about a 14 hour drive).
So here's one for the chicken, and the great people with whom I've eaten it.

Voting, round 2

The adventures in bridesmaid dresses continue. For Fishy's (aka Becky's) wedding she is looking at this one or this one. I have always loved wearing formal dresses. I used to do it a whole lot (for a reason, not just like around the house or anything). So tell Fishy which of these you like, because I already told her my opinion, and y'all know that just about anyone except me is more qualified to make decisions of fashion.
Incidentally, for Claire's we are going with the second option (tropic skirts and different tops). And I'm going to do something fun with shoes for the reception, since I sure won't be able to dance in the ones we're all wearing for the ceremony.
So there it is. I know you were all just dying to know. And now I will go back to reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Lovely things about today

1. Waking up with a slightly sore throat from talking to my best friend on the phone for 4 hours.
2. Skipping my 8am class
3. Wesley's doctrine of Christian Perfection
4. Dinner with nuns
5. Reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
6. The Well
7. Crayons and cranberry juice
8. Finding reasonably priced wedding favors on-line
9. Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream for dessert
10. No more looming papers until finals
11. things coming together
12. God is God, and I am not.

Are you this girl?

The one who's not me that is. If so, you should leave me a comment so I know you were here. And if not, you should leave a comment telling her to read my blog. Claire is the shizz.

So you're telling me I'm a student?

I'm tired today, and it's actually because I was up late writing a paper for a change, instead of because I got too much sleep. My academic life is wierd here because I really only HAVE to do things around midterms and finals. Other than that noone really cares whether I read (well, except when it's my turn to translate in Aramaic), and if a few things fall through the cracks it's no big deal. Maybe that means I'm not going to get as much out of seminary as I possibly could, or maybe it means I won't be as neurotic about grades as some of my friends here. But I got to play real student for a few days, since I had a 12 page paper due yesterday and a 7 pager (which took more thought than the 12 pager) due today. My current state of exhaustion is due to the fact that I didn't start the latter until about 5pm yesterday. Obviously it was more important to translate a few verses of Aramaic and talk to Claire for two hours on Monday night than to start the paper. Seriously, it was more important. Never any regrets about talking on the phone instead of doing homework. Tonight I'll buckle down on the Aramaic then call Meagan to further congratulate her on getting accepted to PTS. Yay, I'll have another Whitworth buddy next year!

I miss you!

Friends I loved seeing and now miss terribly: Shelly, Jeni, Matt, Kyna, Jasmine, Jocelyn, Mary, Erika, Emily, Annemarie, Virgie, Matt G, Corby, Christine, Jaime, Roger, Adam, Saundra, Terry, Jerry, Anna, Pablo, Melanie, Andi, Jim, Caitlin, Jessie, Janie, Heather, Catherine, Jenny, Ashley, Kim, Ally, Sarahbeth, Tina, Billy, Josh, Justin, Alison, Ben, Layla, Chris, Kelsy, Micki.

Friends I didn't see and so continue to miss terribly: Claire, Dave, Fishy, Bianca, Andrew.

Now you are all famous for, if nothing else, being cherished by little ol' me. What can I say, I get sentimental around bed time.

Who am I?

No, I'm not gettin deeply introspective. I'm procrastinating, but in an interesting, informative, and potentially helpful way. Go here and help me map my personality!

Friends!

Family Dinner Friends
D-Group Friends

My week in Spokane was amazing. I got to see almost everyone who is precious to me, drink a lot of coffee, eat a lot of cake, talk, and hug, and be with some of the best and favorite people in my life. It's amazing how it still feels like home, even though it's been almost a year and so much has changed.
Though I'm sad to not be with my Whitworth friends all the time, I feel rejuvenated to finish this semester well, and every encouraged by the advice and love of my wonderful friends and professors. It reminds me of how much I want to have those kinds of relationships here, too.

Lent

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Lent. I used to give things up for Lent. One year it was ranch dressing, one year it was cookies (during Girl Scout cookie time that was a hard one). I've always wanted to try actually fasting, or just eating bread and rice or something, but I've never been in the right place for that spiritually. A few years ago I decided to read the passion narrative from one of the Gospels every day, only up through the crucifixion and excluding the resurrection, in order to enter into the somber spirit of the season and cultivate a hunger for the Risen Lord. I lacked the discipline to do it everyday, but it still made Easter more powerful. I don't know what spiritual discipline I want to dedicate this time to. Any discipline would be an improvement really. Sometimes being passionately devoted to Christ in a settled long-term marriage commitment kind of way makes it hard to have the desparation to connect with God daily. I find myself getting a little envious of people who are reading their Bible for class and remember how much I love doing that and how important it is. I'm in the middle of Exodus right now, so it's not like I get warm fuzzies from the Bible. It's more like reading the life story of the most fascinating person I'll ever meet, and understanding him a little better, and wanting to know him more every time I read it. That sounds good. I'll do that during Lent.

thoughtiness

Looking at the condition of mainline Protestantism, I imagine the tongue-lashing we could earn from the apostle Paul. Many letters have the underlying theme of unity, being like-minded (meaning all having the mind of Christ), bound up in the common life of one another as we are inextricaply joined by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on each of us. So at what point do we divide? What is peripheral and what is non-negotiable? And what if negotiating the peripheral issues ends up jeopardizing the non-negotiables? I'm being vague here, and purposefully so. The question is not, in the end, one of deciding what we think about specific issues. There will always be another issue to argue and divide over. It's a question of what one must believe in order to be saved, and of what the natural consequences of that believe ought to be for one's life. What does faith in Jesus Christ and confidence in salvation through his blood necessarily imply where beliefs about the authority of scripture, the human condition, and morality are concerned? Is it worth fighting tooth and nail over things that are not essential for salvation? And to what extent ought we to risk division for the sake of protecting what we believe to be True, albeit not essential? Is a particular belief about a non-essential necessarily indicative of wrong faith leading to condemnation? And if we cannot even agree about what the essentials are then how can we really talk about any of this constructively anyway. Thank God it is not in our hands ultimately, but we do have to make decisions in this life about how we will live in a way that brings glory and honor to our God. I have answered many of these questions in my own mind, but living in the tensions and paradoxes of the Christian life mean constantly revisiting them and evaluating the answers, lest they become my own iron-clad rules rather than God's gracious leading. Grace, Truth, Humility, and Love.

What's your vote?

Claire and the maidsies are trying to choose dresses. These are the two options she's narrowed it down to. What think you?



This is very twirly and very bright blue. There are only 4 bridesmaids though, so the color might not be too overwhelming.

This would actually be with a tea length skirt, and we wouldn't all have the same top.