Just dandy, how are you?

Momentous occasion: Poetry reading is like riding a really good roller coaster. When it's over, you've either just puked all over everyone or you're laughing and screaming "I'm alive!"

Vocab word: What's worse than those dreams where I'm trying to get ready for the day but end up spending the whole day trying to gather everything I've lost or forgotten? Insomnia.

Awkward moment of the day:
I walk into the laundry room to get my laundry and low and behold there's a freshmen couple mid intimate moment. I restrained myself from my favorite line: "Please. Don't stop. It's too beautiful." Instead I played it cool:
"Hello there!"
Calmly walk past flustered couple, attempting to quickly gain distance and a semblance of dignity.
The second they left I died...doubled over laughing with cruel glee. I'm pretty sure they heard me. There's just something so fulfilling about interupting cheesy moments. Hehe.

Latest weird habit: Using laundry detergent as shampoo and body wash AND detergent. Best kept secret ever.

 

Confessions, quotes and random moments

THE CONFESSION: OK! So I bought flowers for myself! People here love to talk. I enjoy giving them something to talk about. :)


RANDOM MOMENTS:

1. That moment when I'm jogging on the treadmill and realize that while I was singing along to my girly-workout songs, the huge muscular man on the next treadmill was huffing and puffing and sweating profusely.

2. When you realize that yes, you are actually sitting in a Lent service being reminded of your mortality the day before Valentine's day. Carpe Diem?

3. I'm drinking hot chocolate and mending books and accidentally dip the glue brush in my hot chocolate.


QUOTES:

"This place makes me want a cigarrette and I don't even smoke! Let me tell you, when I graduate...there is a gin and tonic with my name on it."

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"I collect antiques. That's why I married him."

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-"The purple one's are the best. They're fudge-filled."

"It doesn't look like there are any left."

-"Oh. They were the best."

"Are you blushing?"
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On having no life- a "how to" post :)

So it is 10 pm on a Friday night and I find myself wide awake and entirely and totally bored. What did I do?

 I dumped everything out of my"get rid of" pile including an old picnic cloth I made into a do-rag to pretend I was "gangsta." Then I got tired of pretending to be a gangster and attached a hanger to the do-rag and becam Spok reporting to the commander about a "strange substance" I had found. (Some old food dye-I considered going out and painting blue hearts in the snow.) I practiced balancing an old box on my head, pretending it was a massive basket and I was at an African market. Then I found and old scarf and pretended I was a Muslim woman. I made a sock puppet and had quite the diologue with the sock puppet. I considered markering "PARIS" on my largest suitcase. Then I climbed into the suitcase to see if I could fit inside. (Warning for anyone else who's considered sending themselves to exotic locations: sitting inside a suitcase is highly uncomfortable.)

Epiphany moment: I realize I am sitting in a massive pile of random objects, a sock puppet in one hand, a do-rag on my head and an open suitcase which I have just attempted to fit into. "AH! WHAT AM I DOING!?"

I have yet to admit to craziness.

Back to being a student

Hey all,


I took the first weekend off to be in my dear friend’s wedding. Took multiple buses there and then flew back. The journey, as always, was a delightful adventure. And a wedding has never meant that much to me. It was such a blessing to have received her letters gushing about “this guy” and then to see them actually get married!

I am still working to catch up on the work I missed, but it was so worth it. So now I’m back kicking up dust in college. I’m taking a drawing 101 course. I was promised an extension. So I come into class on Monday and all the other students have hung up their finished object drawings. And I see this wall filled with drawings and realize. Every other student in the class was Leonardo da Vinci and I was the only normal human being. However, after spending a couple of hours on the drawings, I actually might have found the tiniest smidge of potential.  I am not used to such an unstructured class. It’s good for me.

Presentational speaking is a fun venue to vent my dramatic tendencies. (Speaking of I came back to find friends elated that I was not a dead body rotting in my room: “We threw a Birthday party for you, and ended up having it without you!”

Global Issues is incredible. I am beginning to realize the full implications of the call to feed the hungry. We are currently reading Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Really powerful. I definitely recommend it.

It’s strange being back after so long. It’s a little lonely. The harsh reality is that each of us, as we should, have grown and changed and life has gone on. This compounded by the business of academics. I find myself craving one of those wonderful, 2 hour heart-to-hearts over tea.

But there are so many blessings. Just today God offered me the unexpected opportunity to tutor an international student. (Yay for more teaching experience.) It was so wonderful being welcomed back. I am ready to get back into a routine. But even more ready to face the “real world.” To find a job…the adventure of settling-however counterintuitive that may seem. God’s teaching me patience.

THE HOBBIT -snow sculpting!

J instructing H on an impressionistic painting

 While he draws up the designs for our snow sculpture

 "Oh look! I can make it a lady dragon! What are those cigarettes Audrey Hepburn has?"

Some final design: An open book with Bilbo peaking around one side and the dragon looking down from on top of the book.

Note the "form" (piece of wood) in the lower left hand corner here. The form was about 7 feet tall -each slab of wood created a side of the box. We filled this with snow-H stamped it down like a wine press-and then left it overnight. This preps the snow for carving.

 Bilbo hiding

 The dragon "Smog" (?)

 Bilbo peeking out from just inside the front cover

The pages



Another game night: Scum

Skating!!!!

The middle child :)

 "The Omega"

 Still trying to learn Latin Dance

 Dad dragging K away despite her protests  "Evil cackle? I prefer a mildly disturbed chuckle" :)

Attempting to grab J's precious camera?