Happy Easter!

In tradition's (and Jesus') honor:
Carrie, Vanessa and I sat down to an Easter picnic breakfast.
It was amazing.
(Note the monkey bread.)

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!

Have you met...

Check out my other blogs.

Intercultural Communications: It's there till the class ends. Go now, before it's too late.
(jimneycricket.blogspot.com)

1000 Words: Wait, why does that sound so familiar? Anyways, its description says it all: "one picture, once a day, for one year". Yeah, let's see how long I can keep that one up.
(1000wordsapiece.blogspot.com)

I can't figure out how to post links.

Sleeping

Mitch has been lying on the floor, asleep, for over an hour. He looks so peaceful.

It's time to wake him up.

I know, I'm heartless.

It's just that it's Sabbath, he is here, and there's a few minutes left for a before-sundown-walk.

He's moving.

That's a good sign. Maybe it means he won't be adverse to a stroll...

(Note: This picture is NOT Mitch. I repeat, it is not him. But they're both so...zonked. Ha. I don't know this man, but I like the way he sleeps.)

Succumbed

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Camp Counselor
2. Cardboard box partitions assembler
3. Library...
4. Day care teacher

Four Movies you would watch over and over:
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Braveheart
3. Anna and the King
4. Sound of Music

Four Places you have lived:
1. Kettering, OH
2. Munising, MI
3. Collegedale, TN
4. Lincoln, NE

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Grapefruit
2. Tofu
3. Kale salad
4. Traverse City Cherries

Places you’d rather be right now:
1. Lying in a hammock in the breeze
2. Kyaking on a woodsy river
3. Floating on my back in the ocean (PR)
4. Hanging out in Muscatine, IA

People I hope will respond by posting on their blogs:
1. I may be the last in a long line.
2. If not...
3. Anyone who hasn't posted.
4. Like...you.

Beans

Tonight, my roommate made burritos. She grabbed a can of refried beans out of the cupboard, some salad mixin's out of the the fridge, and a can of olives out of...somewhere.
The olives were ginormous. She offered me one, but I was incredibly full of my own burritos.
Then, as she started making her last burrito, she noticed her beans smelled a little iffy.
"These smell kind of weird," she said. Her nose wrinkled and her eyebrows drew down close together, huddling.
"They should be ok. They haven't been opened, right?" I asked her.
"No," she said.
Then I thought of something...
"Are those vegetarian?"
My roommate looked at me, then back at the can of beans, turning it around to see the label.
"No..."
(gasp)
(giggles)
"I'm a porker!" she said, mouth open in horror. "I'm a lard lover!"

Five Minutes

How many things can one do in five minutes?

You can...
Get up.
Eat.
Grab clothes.
Jump in the shower (leave your clothes on the floor, preferrably).
Get out.
Brush your teeth while dressing.

Leave for class.

Apparently Beau Snyder can do these things. Krissy says it's multitasking.

I, on the other hand, would be stuck on step #1.

The Buzz

It's more of a resurrection, really. Today Union College came back to life.

I came back to school early, only to find the campus dead. There were no signs of life anywhere. The Dick Building? Its windows were dark, blinds drawn. Engel Hall? Locked, with a sign on the door informing me it would be closed until January 8, 2007.

And that's today.

So the campus came alive with students, faculty, and staff. And lo and behold, new neighbors!

That's right. Carrie and I now have bottom-dwellers living underneath us. No more jumping jack parties or tap dancing on the kitchen floor, but hopefully a lower heat bill. Woot!

We might start up a "Reflections" type meeting for the apartment complex...I don't know my neighbors all that well so we'll see how it goes. Just a once-a-week meeting, some time to relax, to reflect, to study the Bible or share God-things with each other.

Whatever happens, I am excited. It's good to be back, starting new classes, and knowing that this is the last semester!

Rock on.

God and Money

Free and Clear: a book I'd like to finish reading.

I started reading this book while I was doing laundry at Mitch's, looking for something to pass the time. Back in the day, when laundry had to be scrubbed by hand, people didn't have this thing called boredom. My boredom didn't last long, though, because I found the book.

(Even if I had never found the book, there are always so many things to do. Breathe. Stare at the wall. Mow the lawn. Shovel snow. Sing a song. Do a dance. Make faces in the mirror and scare your socks off.)

This book contains the most amazing thought: Money is a big deal to God. Not because He's a miser or a penny-pincher. He owns it all and yet He lets us choose what we do with it. (While requiring tithe--1/10--He encourages every money decision to be brought before Him since He's the owner. Hmmm. What about that division between "secular" and "sacred"?) Anyways, since He has the corner on the money market, He's shared with us His money secrets.

Get this: there are over 2,000 verses in the Bible that talk about money. I wish I had the exact number, but that figure alone boggles my mind. It's just such a relief to know that God understands. He knows how important money is, and He's got it covered.

Main point: Debt-free living--freedom by truth. Thank you, Jesus.

Alive

How much that one word means.

More than breathing.
More than brain waves.
More than wiggling a toe.
More than feeling raindrops on your forehead.

I was thinking today about being alive.

See, God wakes me up each morning with the blessing of breath. He gives me a new day, a whiteboard squeegeed free of yesterday's problems, and prepares a meal for two in the breakfast nook.

I have this choice: eat, fellowship, knit my heart with His throughout the day, and be wholly alive.

Or, I can rush by. My day after that? Brain dead. It's choosing to die, except that for some reason, God has me hooked up to the respirator. Maybe it's because there's still hope. Maybe it's just some coma that I'll wake up from. Maybe my analogy is falling apart.

But the point is, being truly alive means living abundantly.
I've seen how meaningless life is without Him. I see the effects of soul death every day.

God does, too, and all the while He reaches out to point us to Himself.

"Look!" He says. "You'll find it in Me!"

"Find what?" I ask, tired of looking and afraid of another dead end. "Who's going to be able to see me, and love me, and make me alive?"

"I Am."

Disappearance

It's Saturday night. My Big Fat Greek Union is probably full swing in the gym. The VonTrapp family singers are performing in Omaha. Numerous movies are being watched. And I am doing laundry.

I haven't figured out why.

On the way to Wilderness Park this afternoon, I asked myself what has changed. Where am I? Or, where has my sophomore self gone?

I used to come up with things to do with other people. Now, I end up driving to the library alone, walking by myself at the park, or (horrors) doing laundry on a Saturday night.

I like solitude. But when did I lose the desire to be part of a group? I miss it. I want it back. But I don't want it back without first realizing what's happened.

Tap Dancer

Vanessa stood on my kitchen floor, a little embarrassed at all the attention. The rest of us cheered convincingly.

“Come on, show us!”

“Yeah, you can do it!”

Grinning, Vanessa agreed. Her feet began to move across the floor, and even muffled by her socks, I heard the rhythm of a true tap dancer, soul-dancing, uninhibited and free.

Grapefruit

I love grapefruit.

I like citrus, and I like pink. Grapefruit are perfect.

The best way to eat a grapefruit is to cut it in half and scoop out the fruit with a spoon. My roommate has grapefruit spoons, spoons with sharp metal teeth on the end made for scooping.

This is beginning to sound redundant, but--like a thirsty man without water--I can't stop thinking about grapefruit.

The problem is simple: I ate my last grapefruit on Monday. And I'm hungry. And SuperSaver is too far away when class is in ten minutes.

Shaped

"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand."
Isaiah 64:8

How is God shaping you?

Autumn

At home, the sumac bushes burn with color. I take a walk in the field behind our house over school break, trying to capture fall with a camera. But my lens can't hold autumn.

The acrid smoke, the cold, the crunch of leaves under my feet, the foggy puffs of my breath: my lens fails.

I love fall. I like to watch Nature stretch as God tucks her in for the night, lowering His voice to the whisper of winter. I see her bare and break and freeze, and I hear her rustling as she settles under the covers, trusting.

Frankly, I'm a little envious of autumn. It's a struggle for me to trust so simply. It is hard to die each day in want of rebirth. I don't like baring my soul.

But I want to be broken more than anything. And I see the leaves, falling.

It's time.