Ecstatic

Right: NOT the first picture to come up after Googling "ecstatic". But so worth scrolling down for.

Teach

At right: The first image that came up when I Googled "teach".

I have sent three resumes, complete with cover letters, this week. Really, I could have sent a few more, but trips to the post office and library and walks in the neighborhood and fields around my house have taken up a lot of time. Plus, I spend forever trying to find information about the schools and their surrounding countryside.

Then, too, my mom and I went shopping on Tuesday to look for a suit. I remember sitting in an education class my (first) senior year at Union, listening to Yolanda Blake tell how she, suitless, would have missed out on a potential job. Point taken, Mrs. Blake. Suit boughten.

Query: is boughten even a word?

Anyway, T.J.Maxx is a wonderful place. God found this suit, in my size, of an amazingly soft fabric, for a reasonable price. I put it on, hoping it would make me look older. It didn't. I tried squaring my shoulders, raising my chin and squinting down my nose at the reflection in the dressing room mirror, piling my hair on top of my head. The hair trick worked, a little. No wonder the stereotypical teacher wears a bun.

Auugh. What am I saying? I don't want to be a stereotype. Or old.

I want to teach, like Jesus. Radically.

...The Rest of the Story

I like Paul Harvey. I listen to his radio show and it makes me happy, like tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with pickels and french fries on the side. Yum.

Anyways, the point is that I have my own "rest of the story."

It started Friday, when I realized I couldn't drive on I-80 due to closings. I read that they actually put gates up and that since I wasn't in a movie, it probably wouldn't work out too well to drive on past or try to fly or tunnel underground to get to Muscatine, IA.

So I sat cozily in my apartment, curled up with a mug of hot chai tea, my fuzzy blanket, and a good book. I even went to bed early.

Sabbath, I enjoyed the sermon and visited the Something Else Sabbath School class. I was very blessed. (Thanks, Kristina, for your hopings.) For lunch, my roommate and I were welcomed by the Nazarios. Amazing food and company, by the way. There, I found out the news of Krissy and Jeremy's engagement. Woo hoo! I think you might be able to read about it on her blog.

Then, Saturday night. Mitch called. We had sundown worship together and then worked on a work proposal for an assistant ranger position at Camp Heritage. I looked up some examples online; I'm not sure any of them fit. But we went through generals and I told him I'd work on it later. It was difficult to do over the phone. He couldn't see what I was doing and it was confusing. The proposal is important, and it was by the grace of God that we stayed calm and collected.

Afterwards...

I felt as blue as a blueberry. It had been a wonderful weekend, but...

I checked the roads and found I-80 was open and yellow and green across the state of Iowa. No reds, pinks, or closings anywhere. It was nine o' clock, and I started to get this half-baked plan.

"Mitch?"

"Yeah?"

"If I started driving to Iowa right now, would you kill me?"

"Yes."

"How badly?"

His voice changed. He said I was crazy. But there was hope and excitement and a little bit of joy. I think my insanity rubbed off on him.

So, that's how I ended up in Muscatine, IA at 3:00 Sunday morning.

Amazing...

No Go

It's just me and Mr. Snowman this weekend.

Ah, well, I really have a lot of things to get done, anyway.

Ha. That's not true. For once, I'd done all Sunday's laundry and Monday's homework ahead of time so that I wouldn't be rushed to get back to Lincoln. Stooge.

At least I know I won't be stuck, freezing and alone, on the side of the road!

Moping Blizzards

This is Mitch.

I figure it's high time I posted a picture of him on my blog. He is my amazing boyfriend, and there aren't really words enough to tell you what he means to me.

I am thinking of him right now, especially now, because I am crazily thinking of driving through a blizzard to get to him tomorrow. Dangerous, I know. If he saw that I was even writing this...

I just miss him like crazy.

So I was looking online at the weather, at the roads, at the warnings, and I realized how many people are out of power or missing work or missing friends and family who are trying to get home. I have no right to complain.

Plus, this weather makes me think of the end of the world. When I put everything into perspective, into eternity, this weekend shrinks in comparison. It's a moment, a blink of the eye.

But oh, how I hope the roads are miraculously driveable by tomorrow!

Snow Day!

I didn't think we'd have one this year. Goes to show you pessimism is overrated.

My roommie and I woke up this morning to a world covered in white. Let me tell you, as we galloped through parking lot drifts to the Lifestyle Center for a morning treadmill jog, ours were the first footprints in the snow! It was beautiful.

Now the sun's behind the Thunderdome and the lot is mostly clear. Wind has swept a lot of the snow away; the grounds workers have shoveled and the plows have piled mounds of it, mostly, so school can resume tomorrow.

As for me, I've enjoyed sitting by the window, candles burning on the sill, clothes tossing in the dryer, and fingers typing...homework, job searches, e-mails. I've been thinking, too.

For those of you sometimes visitors who read my blog, I'm happy to say that, at long last, I have plans for an internship this summer! It probably doesn't seem like such a big deal; after all, I haven't blogged about it, and if I haven't blogged it, it isn't worth reading right? That's one fallacy.

So...I'll give you three guesses. Nope, I'm not raising alpacas in Montana. No, no newspaper job for me, either. Not even the amazing camp counselor/writer/designer position that Wendy dreamed up for me (thank you Wendy, Katie, and God). No, it looks like I'll be working (volunteering) at Guide magazine for a couple months this summer. Amazing! It's been my dream since...okay, well just since last semester. But it's proof that God works with dreams, even gives them to us in the first place. And, it's been an inspiration to me as I've seen one of my teachers work to make this happen. That's what I want to be for my students: an empowerer, a possiblity-maker. The cliche is true: it's not what you know, it's who you know. Which includes God, of course.

Before you go, here's a couple more pictures from this morning.

Snow!