Today

I was awakened by an enthusiastic mom,
flinging open the door to the bedroom and saying
"There's another one!"
Me: "Hmmm? Another what?" (sitting up by now)
Mom: "She brought another one! And it's white and gray!"
Me: "Another kitten?"
Mom: (no longer at the door, but has taken off down the hall)
So, I go look out the dining room window,
and indeed,
there is another kitten -- siamese-esque in coloration,
which is starkly different from the 3 strictly black and white kittens to date.
I wonder aloud whether there are more tiny baby kitties elsewhere.
Around 9am, the lady from the CatNip program at UF's Vet school arrives.
We called yesterday when we returned home to find their postcard
announcing free spaying until the end of January.
The nice vet student assures us that if there are other kittens
mama kitty will be able to go get them soon
even if she has the surgery today.
AND the nice vet student says she can foster the kittens until they are adopted!
So, we painstakingly corralled the cats into her carrier and off they went.
All but one, that is, for whom I had found a home in the ATL.

So I drove back to Atlanta with a kitten in the passenger seat.
Every time I stopped, I opened the door to the carrier and petted her
and let her walk out.
She walked across my lap,
climbed up the door armrest,
and looked out the window to see what was going on in the world.
She's adorable.

In other news, my phone died.
It did the same thing it did 6 months ago
when the buttons would light up
but the screen was black.
Alas.
I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get the kitty to my friend
since I can't remember how to get to her house.
Alas again.
I guess I'm going to go get a new phone tomorrow.

Sweet Mama and some Tiny Baby Kitties!

My aunts decided to call the mama kitty "Ms. Claus" and they tried to come up with holiday themed names for the tiny baby kitties. Noel is the only one that stuck. She's the one with the white face, and she's the boldest.

Rock on.

Happy Christmas!

The 25th:
* sleeping in
* BACON and eggs with CHEESE
* crazy family fun
* entirely too much food, with the ham and the potatoes and the broccoli salad and the wild rice salad and the regular salad salad and the rolls and the haystacks...
* presents... including jewels, a trivet, books, the traditional calendar, some dvds, coffee from my cousin's shop, and some other nifty whatnots
* brunswick stew leftovers!
* um, and the 1987 World Series, in which my Twins bested the Cards, and of which Shanfro and I watched the first two games. Phil -- who actually remembers the games since he was 37 while Shannon and I were 5 and 9, respectively -- kept asking "Is this when Gagne gets a double?". Shannon kept reading the cliffnotes on the dvd case and saying things like "I bet Hrbek will get out at first." All in all, a good time. And 5 games to go!

The 24th:
* I cannot really remember what happened, except we ate brunswick stew, went to church and hung out with my cousins and the flying monkey.

Rock on.
Hope you had happy days as well!

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.


~ David Whyte
from The House of Belonging

Talk about productive...

I watched 17 episodes of The Office
today (which is still Sunday to me because I am still awake).

My favorite way to watch a television series
is straight through on dvd.
Similarly, I'm a sucker for a reality tv marathon.

Rock on.

The Christmas Shindig

Our tree!


white elephant and new friends...


Craiggers in curlers... I love it.




BFF trumpeteers

Happy Advent!

www.paperlesschristmas.org

It's good.

I went to the UF/FSU game

from the Turkey Potluck

Or not...

On my way home
I saw a street sign lying on the side of the road.

Yield.

Heavy

today

child abuse conference
all day
staying at a family shelter
overnight


but!
turkey potluck...
mmm...
i love tomorrow.

when I was searching the blurg-hives...

to find that Autumn poem
I re-read the burnball post from last October.
Funny stuff, my friends, funny stuff.
That was a good night.

Last Year's Autumn Poem

The leaves are
Donning new gowns of red and orange
Making their olympic high dives
Swirling around my head

Sometimes
on sunny days
I like to walk with my eyes closed
peeking quickly every five or six steps
to avoid a concussion

Just now
wind danced
sun shone
leaves fell
and I remembered
to look
when I crossed the street

Autumnal

my back porch

gorgeous!

commuting...

Halloween...

Sara and I had a tandem costume...
Peace and Quiet

Hmm...?

So, I had heard that ER would be getting a chaplain this season.
We, the seminary crowd, have frequently said "a doctor shouldn't be doing that!" and "augh! where's the chaplain?" when watching ER or Grey's.
Well, it's a weird thing to add a new staff position in such an established series, but I was excited about the possibility. I mean, for a while there was a social worker who was a regular character, so...

Anyway, I've been watching this season out of curiousity. (I used to watch ER every week, but stopped watching last year when that guy was trying to kill Luka.)
So weeks went by... no chaplain.
But tonight, she appeared. She looks normal. She came in, talked softly to the patient to soothe her during a procedure.
And then she says, "do you want to pray?"
The patient nods.
Chaplain says, "we can do it together."
Silence.
Then they look up again, and the dr. says that the procedure went well.
Chaplain says, "that must have been one hell of a prayer."
Seriously? Seriously.
She didn't actually pray, but she did actually cuss.

However, later she tried to explain to John Stamos that she "has a spiritual life, and a spiritual job, but [she] live[s] in the real world."
So that's helpful.

Anyway, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad there's a chaplain, but one of the things I read online said she'd be a "sexy chaplain." I definitely appreciate the attempt at balance between the holy and the human. I do hope that ER tries to, as we'd say in the seminary, live in that tension. And I hope they don't make chaplains look trashy. That's not helpful.
We'll see how it goes.

We're all pretty much the same

just older and fatter.


I went to high school with these people. And Saturday, we got together and ate tacos.
It's odd how little we have changed in a decade or so, yet we are also completely different.
We laughed. We looked at pictures and mocked each other's high school style. We reminisced. We tried to understand what Brian was saying.
And everyone left by 10pm. Because we're old.

Rock on.

I really do

have a pretty strange life.

It's mostly good strange.
But it certainly is crazy.

Rock on.

I've had some pretty cool experiences, but I'm glad I didn't miss frisbee today.

In 4th grade, I went to my first Major League Baseball game at the Metrodome (Twins v. Orioles).

At 16, I worked on a roof for the first time.

When I was 21, I stood in the grass and daisies in the sanctuary ruins of an 8th century monastery.

At 23, I swam with (and kissed) stingrays.

At 26, I held my best friend's 4 day old baby.

At Emory, I have heard Jesse Jackson, Margaret Atwood, and Elaine Pagels speak in the auditorium (i.e. sanctuary) at Glenn Memorial UMC.
I also heard Jimmy Carter (thrice) answer questions from Emory students ranging from the inane (he actually still is a peanut farmer, which is why he doesn't miss it) to the silly (his favorite movie is Casablanca) to the seriously political (he really is not thrilled with this administration, and he has helped broker peace in countries I haven't heard of).

And I've played a lot of ultimate frisbee on the Quad (as evidenced somewhat in the picture below of us all soaked after the really rainy day a few weeks ago). We've had loads of passersby join in the game, whether intentionally or incidentally. Once a year or two ago, a Tibetan monk caught (or picked up) the frisbee and tossed it back to us. That was pretty cool.

But today, the Tibetan monks (there's a Tibetan program at Emory) were walking by -- several of them. One of us asked if they wanted to play. They looked at each other, grinned, secured their deep red robes, and took the field.

We played frisbee with three Tibetan monks.

It was surreal. It was serene. It was crazy.
It was pretty amazing.

We didn't worry about who was on what team. We just tossed the frisbee to a monk and followed his lead. Early on, I had said to one of the monks that I was going to guard him if that was okay. I looked around and none of the other monks were being "guarded," but I had committed. So I stayed near this one monk. And he asked me questions about the game (because obviously I am an expert).

They seemed so glad to be included in our funny little Friday tradition.
And we were all so glad they were willing to run (maybe shuffle) around the warm messy quad in full monk garb.

It was good. Maybe (okay, certainly) not quite as good as cuddling that 4 day old baby whom I love dearly. But really good.

I went to Tallahassee

and it went pretty well.
I saw some old friends.
I ate at some familiar old restaurants.
I reconnected with my church.
I hung out with my cousins.
In fact, these pictures are from my one cousin's new coffeeshop in south Georgia, just north of Tally.






In other news, it's rainy in Atlanta, and my hands are stiff.

I should go to bed

since I have to be there at 8:10 in the morning.
There are three services.
Rock on.

So goodnight, friends.

Holy Crap

Code blue
during Grey's Anatomy.

I don't think I have run that hard in ages.

False alarm. Amen.

soaked. and blurry.

We got this picture yesterday on Candace's phone. We're assembled on the steps of Pitts after what may be the best game of ultimate frisbee in my life...
We stopped playing (and by playing I mean sloshing and sliding around the quad, fumbling for the frisbee) when the lightning and thunder were simultaneous.
It was beautiful. Soggy. Hard to see. Muddddddddy. Delightful. Crazy. Amazing. Just what I needed.

I'm still hoping my car seats will dry without smelling terrible.
Fingers crossed... (and a dryer sheet in the front seat with the windows rolled down).

Rock the heck on.

Um, makeover?

So, I got a haircut today.
Instant gratification after a helluva week.
And then tonight we went to a Mary Kay party.
That's how I got the gold-green eyes and the sparkle lips.
Pretty awesome, huh?

Rock on.

I heart Live Music

So I was talking with a friend the other day
about how many concerts we've each been to.
He's been to like 4 rock shows.
I know I've been to significantly more than that,
and I decided to try to tally them up.
I've included people that I intentionally went to see
as well as music festivals with more than one artist.
People I saw more than once are noted with an *
though some are listed more than once since I saw them with other bands.
Also, I didn't include people that I saw but didn't like at the time.

Here's the list, as best I can figure:
(remember that some of these were a LONG time ago...)
- NKOTB
- Hootie and the Blowfish, Edwin McCain
- Tom Petty
- Blues Traveller*
- Sarah McLaughlin, Indigo Girls (Lillith Fair)
- Bare Naked Ladies
- Jump Little Children*
- Cowboy Mouth, Vertical Horizon, Gran Torino
- Train, Jude
- Cake*
- Everclear (and solo Art Alexakis)
- Mike Doughty*
- Weezer*
- Ben Folds
- Foo Fighters, Weezer
- Indigo Girls*
- Dixie Chicks
- Rebecca Loebe*, Abi Tapia
- Ward Williams*
- Jay Clifford*
- The Decemberists
- Patty Griffin
- Bo Beddingfield*

Feel free to comment with your own list,
or to comment on mine.

Rock the heck on.
Seriously.
Go.
Rock on.

And now a word from our sponsors

This was my lunch, half eaten, last Thursday in a small town diner in Minnesota. In at least one town where we lived, this particular sandwich (white bread, roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy) was called a "commercial." On this diner menu, it was called a hot roast beef sandwich.
Mmmmm... delicious!

Some blurbs for the blurg

* My folks (which is what you call parents in Minnesota) picked me up this morning in Brainerd, where Ben & Marie live. We headed to Milaca, the town my folks lived in when I was born. My parents like to just show up in Milaca and hope that the 3 people they want to see will be available. But now I have friends there too -- 2 friends from elementary school (across the state) who married each other and moved there and now they have 2 kids. We ended up seeing all those people, even the ones who had no clue we were coming.

* There really are a ton of lakes in MN. It's lovely.

* My dad and I had this exchange in the car today:
Phil -- Up ahead there's a place where the cows used to graze under the road.
Me -- There was a cow overpass?
Phil -- It was an over-pasture.

* I started making a throw. I needed something to do for all those hours we will spend in the car in the next several days.

Sleep...
Rock on...

monday

I got up early, though still 45 minutes after my alarm started to sound. I rushed around, and Candace and I left for the airport just after 7am. We stopped by the bank, which had no envelopes at the ATM, though Candace had some in her car. We got to the airport, I checked in and stood in a heinously long security line. I took off my shoes and walked through the metal detector. I got to my gate and found that the flight was delayed 2 hours.
I wandered around -- got a bacon/egg/cheese sandwich on croissant, read some Emma, sat in the sun and listened to M Ward (who made the world melt away with his lilting mellow tunes). We boarded the first plane -- that's right, the first -- got settled, and de-boarded 15 minutes later. We were redirected to another terminal where a larger plane was waiting, hoping to hold a few more of the other passengers from delayed/canceled MSP flights.

When I finally got to MN, Ben and Marie had been on an adventure of their own. Having gotten a flat tire the night before, they took the opportunity afforded by my late flight to get new tires installed on their minivan. It was drizzly and grey. We found our hotel, checked in, discussed some tourist possibilities in the cities, nd headed to the Mall of America. We wandered. We shopped. We bought snacks. And then we found the light rail and set off for the Metrodome.
Our seats for the Twins game were primo. We were on the top level, but directly behind home plate. And the top level at the Dome is the height of the Lexus level at Turner field. We had pretty good seats, but we were in the middle of the row. So we had to repeatedly climb over folks, and the inevitable happened -- we lost a hot dog... down the pants of the lady in front of us. We scurried (good thing we had those extra napkins in our purses) to clean the mess.
The game was not a bang up show, either. The pitcher gave up 4 homeruns in the first couple innings, and the Twins lost pretty decidedly.
But there was beer, there was baseball, there were kids... and we were in the Dome.

Aside (imagine Don Saliers stepping everso slightly to his left): I love it. I know most people think it sucks as a baseball stadium, because everyone loses the ball in the white ceiling... but I love it. I saw my first major league game there, and I can still hear the announcer saying "Now batting, Kirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrbbbyyyyyyyyyyy Pucccckkkkkkkkkkettttttttttttttttt." It was the most magnificent thing. It's why I love baseball. That game lured me in, and the 1987 world series got me hooked.

(stepping back to center)
After the game, we rode the lightrail back to the car at the Mall. I sat beside a kid and his dad. The kid kept looking at his dad's scorecard, asking question after question. What does this symbol mean? What's in this column? Why do the Twins have so many injured players? And then he turns to the front, looks at the player's uniform, and asks "Why is there a 34 on his sleeve if he's #33? Just because of Kirby Puckett?" I was aghast. Just because of Puckett? I said, "How old are you? 'Cause I was 9 when the Twins won the '87 World Series, and 13 when they won in '91. And that's why." The dad chuckled. The kid looked just as puzzled as ever. And I felt disgruntled. Just because of Kirby Puckett... what are parents teaching their kids these days...?

So, we eventually got to the car and went back to the hotel. And then there was sleep.
Rock on.



[Tuesday we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and saw the Nordic Landscapes exhibit, which is evidence of the Scandinavian pride rampant in my birthstate.]

i need a moment

i'm sitting in Ben's mom's office in Brainerd, MN.
at this desk on this computer i found out 3 hours ago that i got denied for health insurance. i can only guess that the determining factor is my arthritic condition, for which i have not received any medical treatment in over 3 years, since i moved to atlanta.
i applied for another plan with a different company (after Ben's mom said i should be glad i didn't get the first one because they have repeatedly screwed over her friend). here's hopin...

on the window sill in front of the desk is a picture of a couple who i assume is Ben's parents in the 1970s. the man looks just like ben. just.
further to the right on the sill is the prayer of st. francis. let me sow love...

we had a wonderful dinner. there was delicious food, laughter, stories, an irreverent family atmosphere, a sharing of meal blessings from various Christian traditions (the Catholic one, Johnny Appleseed, the Methodist one...), a bit of religious banter, passing plates and drinking of drinks.

we watched turtles race earlier today. i love minnesota.

tomorrow, my parents will pick me up and we'll visit a town we lived in when i was a baby and see friends of mine from elementary school who are married with kids and live there now.

i'll post in a moment about monday. it was a day for the blooper reels for the 3 of us (Ben, Marie and me). but despite the craziness, it was really good to see their faces at the airport and to sit high above home plate in the metrodome, even if gravity works harder on hotdogs.

rock on.

I'm taken aback.

I just visited a different church.
I got doorprizes.
And the sermon included a sexist illustration.

I was on call last night, and I spent a little extra time at the hospital this morning. So I wasn't ready in time to get to the church I had planned to go to, which is at least 20 minutes away.
Well I have passed this sign for a UM church between my apt and the hospital, and I decided that since it's less than 10 minutes away today might be a good day to visit.

I almost walked back out as soon as I arrived. The guy was praying about winning souls, and that's not really my jargon or theology. But someone spotted me. I was greeted and given info about the church and a fancy pen in a box. Then I was ushered to a seat.
The pen was really fancy, so that felt a bit like a bribe to come back.

The minister had picked a topic and used the concordance. He sited at least 9 scripture passages. No joke. I wrote them down.

So up until this point, each of those things on its own is tolerable. Not my ideal worship experience, but tolerable.

The sermon was about love, and the guy was trying to say that love endures because it's a decision that is enabled by God and that it requires adaptation and commitment. The most outstanding illustration mentioned the jogger this morning -- "guys, you know the one" -- "her parts that you admire now will be sagging tomorrow." I didn't know what to do. All the old men laughed, and the women looked uncomfortable. I was so horrified.

I thought about walking out (for the second time now). I thought about telling the minister that I was offended when I met him at the door after the service. But then when I did meet him at the door, an usher told him I was a first time visitor, and the minister shoved a bigger box into my hand. So now I have a pen and a travel coffee cup with the ensignia of this church that creeps me out.

[Additionally, the church is in a predominately hispanic area, but none of the service was in spanish and there did not seem to be any outreach to/opportunities for the surrounding spanish-speaking folks.]

I am terrible. I can't go to a church without analyzing everything. There's more here, but... that's enough. I feel so crazy.

What a weekend

And how.
Why, you ask?
When I'm ready, I'll tell someone.
Who? Perhaps you.

Ha. I just used the Big 5 question words.

So, this weekend I:
* was on call Friday night (which includes one death call)
* broke a tooth
* ran a (very little) bit Saturday
* vacuumed
* pruned the plants
* hung out at Craig's pool
* got a bit o' sun
* napped
* had dinner with a Wesley grad
* helped with Rachel's late night move
* went to church
* had lunch with Sara and Allen
* returned shoes to REI
* watched an Amanda Bines movie
* talked to the wireless router people for almost an hour

"That's a fresher. I'm going on break."

Hm.

Um, tonight I watched three new reality tv shows.

Scott Baio is 45... and Single
The Pickup Artist
Who Wants to be a Superhero

They were,
shall we say,
quality.

Why does reality tv suck us (and obviously I mean me) in?
Is it because we can relate to those folks?
Scott Baio is trying to figure out why he can't commit.
8 normal guys are on The Pickup Artist because they're scared of women.
A bunch of grown ups wear spandex and take Stan Lee's challenges trying to be a hero.
Like many of us, these folks are looking for some secret to fulfillment, some brighter, shinier version of themselves.

also

the air today
was so heavy
I thought I might have to chew my way through it
to get to my car after work.

that's not our fish

Did she think that putting a plant in there
and tiny little rocks
(instead of the cool big clear blue rocks we had)
would divert my attention so much
that I would not notice that this fish is
smaller
redder
and has a tiny little tail?

That, my friends, is no Fritz Hundo.
No Fugitsu.
Not even a Chewbacca.

I mean.
Seriously.

I stared at that fish a lot.
And this is not that fish.

I have a crazyred tongue

When I'm on call,
I get an icee.
That's the only time.
They have an icee machine in the cafeteria, but I restrict my icee intake to duty shifts so I have a reason to look forward to being on call.
I prefer cherry icees.
In fact, I only get them if they are cherry.
Thus, red tongue.

I wonder if parents I see tonight will wonder why they have a younger, cuter, less make-up-ed Gene Simmons for a chaplain.

The hotel was much posher than we expected

I ended up having a three and a half day weekend, so Dana and I went to Savannah!

scenes from Tybee



down by the riverside, down by the riverside


joined by a Shanfro!

oh, so very Methodist

Dana enjoyed the trip thisssssssssssssss much!

Beach

I want to see ocean and sand.

Soon.
Like tomorrow.

So Dana and I may go.

Overheard

"When they found him, he was all wet. And when they got him home and gave him a bath, they opened his backpack. What do you suppose was in there? A live penguin. The kid had jumped in that tank and took it with him."

A fun story, because I'm pretty sure it'll be a long night

I visited a kid today, and when I was leaving his mom said, "Say goodbye to Miss Beth." So, he said, "Goodbye, Miss Beth." And I said, "Goodbye Mr. Brian." He scrunched up his face, laughed and laughed and laughed really hard, and said, "Mr. Brian... you're crazy."

"Strange how hard it rains now..."

It's been a weird 24 hours.

I'm spending the afternoon in the Emergency department,
and I'm on call tonight.

It's pouring.

It seems like a very long time until I get to go home tomorrow noon.

Weekend Movies

Last weekend, I read like a fiend, finishing one book, reading all of another and half of a third. This weekend, I watched some movies. (I did a little reading, too. I'm laughing my way through Sarah Vowell's Take the Cannolli.)

So, I can check these movies off the to-watch list:
Music and Lyrics
The Break-up

La Dolce Vita

My Current Soundtrack

These songs are in my head right now:

Never Knowing (Jack Johnson)
Bottom of the Barrel (Amos Lee)

Smudge toe

Sara and I got pedicures today.
I promptly smudged my big toe
carrying her rocking chair.
And that's funny because
I made Matt and Craig come help
my brother move a couch
so my toes would be safe.

Our internet is acting screwy.
The cable guy came out on Wednesday
and the problem then was that we had
accidentally hit the "standby" button,
which we did not know existed.
At this point, the problem is that the internet
does not appear to be there.
So that's exciting.

This is a really boring blog.
I should do something spicy to make it better.
Jalapeño!

sniffle, sniffle

I'm sick.
It's "just a summer cold,"
says the nurse at employee health.

Here's a tip:
if you're ever cooking
and you think
"yeah, this could use some more barley,"
think again.

867-5309??

My phone quit working on Thursday night.
Here's how I've described it
(if you've already heard this, I apologize,
but once I find a good metaphor
I have to milk it for all it's worth):
it's like the phone went on strike
and only the keys crossed the picket lines.

I have thus far been to a Cingular/AT&T store 3 times in the last 2 days. Turns out, they cannot port my number directly because I don't own the number; the local phone company in SC does. It's complicated. But I'm requesting that they release it so that I can be a general AT&T customer and keep my number.

So, I still have the crazy phone, probably for a month. Then I might be able to get a contract through the local AT&T store and get a new phone.

Ah. I don't think I'll have to switch numbers, which is what I was afraid of. I have no idea who all I would need to contact to change that number as my primary contact info.

I think I might go to the pool.
This phone stuff is exhausting.

Take a Gander at These

Happy Matt Day!

living room basketball

solo cup martinis...

Matt loves pictures

lovely Dana

Oh Boy

I just figured out how to
move players around
add new players
drop players
on my fantasy baseball team.
That's right. Just now.
I might have moved a player or two before,
but I just never tried to dump guys on the DL
or get new folks.

What has sparked this sudden interest in my fantasy team?
1.) I am now 6 games back, whereas before I was winning without trying.
2.) I realized that several of my players are on the DL, including Smoltzy.
3.) I am sitting in a computer training all day.

Rock on.

Lots of Blue

There are several large blue items of furniture in my new living room,
including two humongous ottomans (ottomen?).
This morning, Candace and I lugged in the latest addition,
a chair that's almost a loveseat
plus an ottoman that's almost a twin bed.
We almost didn't make it.
The stairs nearly captured us.
We each had a moment where we accidentally sat down under the chair and couldn't stand back up.
But never fear. We did, in fact, prevail.
The massive chair and its likewise massive footrest
are now in my home.
If you come to visit, the monkey doormat will greet you
and you can enjoy the comfy blue seating.

The rest of the house is still full of boxes,
but we do have seating.
And a porch swing. Which I guess counts as seating.

And we have cable and internet now,
though I haven't gotten the wireless set up yet.
But we do have a huge remote with lots of funny buttons
for the digital cable box.

Okay, I'm driving to SC now.
Annual Conference, here I come!
Rock on.

p.s. My first on call night as a chaplain went smoothly. No calls at all.

This Week

I moved this weekend.
So did a LOT of my friends.
Moveapalooza 2007

I have a monkey doormat now.

And lots of boxes of stuff.

I started CPE today at a children's hospital.
We had a little commissioning service so now I'm a chaplain.
Rock on.

It's going to be an intense summer
since all the sick people in that building are kids.

But the hospital is pretty cool.
It's bright and colorful and cheerful and
there are fish tanks everywhere
and they have bins of candy in the gift shop.
They also seem to take a more holistic approach to care,
considering all aspects of the patient
(who in this case is a child, so "all aspects" includes play and developmental stages and family).
I dig it.

Oh, and there is an ICEE machine in the cafeteria.
Awesome.

Two Things

This has been a weird week.

I hate packing.
Packing, you are tedious!

What a Weekend!

Friday:
- got TB test & other blood stuff for the hospital
- drove to Gainesville, and then rode with my dad the other 2 hours to the rehearsal dinner
- went to an Irish pub with my bro and cousin

Saturday:
- ate bacon at Cracker Barrell with an insane number of relatives and psuedo-relatives
- went to my cousin's wedding, which was lovely
- sat in a circle of hotel-room chairs on the sidewalk outside my grandma's room with 10-15 relatives, talking, laughing and eating

Sunday:
(that's today for 5 more minutes)
- hugged relatives and wished them safe travels
- drove to Deland and had lunch with Bob and Erin!
- drove the rest of the way back to the ATL, stopping briefly at a Gap Outlet

and now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow, I have to get the TB test checked, get a vaccine, pick up a headboard, pack some more, and probably sit on my porch swing.
Rock on.

My days, in bullet points

Today, I have done the following:

* woke up at 8:15 after two really creepy dreams

* installed our wireless internet router (after we tried for hours the other day, and by "we" I mean Dana and her dad), with the help of a funny technical support guy from India who talked to me on the phone for 58 minutes and kept saying "okay, just do one thing" and who told me I am not good at technology but that he would help me

* watched The Good Shepherd

* sorted my dress clothes and put them on super duper new hangers, which do not fit in on the bar in my closet

* put my winter clothes into the storage containers under the bed

* uploaded graduation pictures onto yahoo

* ate some chicken and corn

* stayed in my pjs until at least 1:00, and still haven't showered (it's 4:00!)

I think I will fold up some clothes now and then move some stuff out of my closet into John's empty room so I can see what I need to do in my room.
Oy, the day is nearly gone and I have so much to do! I'm going to Florida tomorrow for my cousin's wedding, and I'll be gone until Monday. I have next week to finish this packing stuff, but I'd like to get some more done before then.


Yesterday seems much more productive:

* got a drug test for CPE. I'm clean, but I should drink more water.

* spent an hour and a half in Target, where I bought super duper clothes hangers to consolidate my skirts and dress pants into just 5 hangers!

* packed 11 boxes -- 8 of books, 2 of movies, 1 of framed pictures

* watched 4 movies -- Steel Magnolias, Ever After, Jersey Girl, and Catch and Release (all of which deal with death, it turns out... maybe that's why I had creepy dreams last night...)

* ate dinner at Athens Pizza with Candace

A Couple of the 250+ Graduation pics...

Moving

I've moved a lot. Like, for real a lot.
I hate packing. And unpacking.
I told Joy last night that I am moving in a couple weeks, and she said "so, you're going to start packing the night before?"

I was helping one of my students move his stuff into storage the other day, and he was frustrated with himself for waiting so long to pack. So, I had to tell him about my own college packing joys. Many readers will remember the excitement... always last minute, always a mess, always confusing and dreadful. I always had so much stuff. It multiplies...

One of the years I was an RA, my parents came up with the minivan and took a load of stuff home in my car. I waited until all the residents had moved out, and loaded up the minivan. It took for-ev-er. And it filled the van from top to bottom. I couldn't see out the rearview mirror, and the passenger side mirror was broken. So the only mirror I had was on the driver's side. Luckily (???), I left G'boro in the middle of the night, so there wasn't much traffic to look out for as I drove 3 hours in the dark, stopping every so often to do sprints in a gas station parking lot so I wouldn't fall asleep.

This move shouldn't be quite that bad, since I'm just moving across the apt. complex. I've given myself 6 days where I'll be an official resident of both apartments, so I take as many trips as I need. My parents are bringing the minivan, though.

At Last

I am done with school.
Next Monday, they will proclaim me a Master of Divinity.

Almost...

So, I am a bit of a wizard.
I did get that crazy paper done the other day.
And I wrote 5 pages this morning to finish a 9 pg paper.

It's been a busy day:
Last paper... check!
Last presentation... check!
Last exam... check!


Last WTM retreat...
One more day...

Holy Crap.

I might be a wizard.
It remains to be seen.
I just wrote 5 pages in about an hour.
I have another half hour to write the remaining 5!

I'm eating skittles and drinking coke.
Seems to be helping.

Rock on.

Some stuff:

* I have two rather long papers due tomorrow. I'm about to email for an extension on one.

* I just ate some cotton candy, left over from the Braves game on Tuesday. It's the first thing I've eaten today. Mmm, breakfast!

* In a minute, I'm heading to campus for my final advising with LTJ. It probably should have been done a month or two ago. Rock on.

* I put on an outfit this morning, checked myself out, and decided I was way cute but looked too much like an Emory undergrad. Now I'm just wearing jeans and a brown tshirt.

* I got accepted to the CPE program I was hoping for. I'll be a children's hospital chaplain this summer.

* I emailed a guy about a job this morning. It would r-o-c-k (except that it's part time -- but I could tutor small Koreans again...) But I had to ask whether I should bother to apply since I'm doing CPE all summer and won't be available until late August.

* Tonight, I will flip pancakes for hundreds of Emory students. Should be an adventure. And adventure that will mean that I cannot work on my papers that are due tomorrow... but fun times nonetheless.

* I must go iron my hair and go to school. Good day.

No Place

I need to read.
Like hardcore.
For a solid two hours.
And there is no place for me to do it.

Pitts is cold, dark, and evidently today it's loud.
Woodruff is good for writing, but there are billions of people there.
Brooks has old people studying very very loudly.
I'm going to try sitting on one of the couches I selected
for their comfortability,
putting in earphones
and listening to some Schubert
while I try to plod through the Bonhoeffer.

Is it bad that I want to punch that lady across Brooks?
She's loud. "But, what I'm sayin' is that what happened is..."
Her bag has wheels. And an adjustable-height handle. If you know what I'm saying.

BAH!!!

More Candler Prom pics