25 random things

i got tagged in this silly thing on facebook, so i'm just reposting it here. it was surprisingly hard to think of 25 things about me. anyway. a real post will be here soon! i promise! we're getting crappy weather so maybe things will be frozen and beautiful in the morning, and if that's the case i'll take some pictures and post them. happy tuesday!

1. i like to move furniture around. when i was in undergrad i moved my room around at least once a semester.

2. i don't like to use capitalization. punctuation is a necessity, but not capitalization. 

3. i wish i was an artist.

4. i have a birthmark on my neck

5. i suck at math. when i was in high school i was in remedial math, algebra I over two years! 

6. i love LOVE murder mystery things- tv shows, movies, books, games (clue!)

7. i think i was born in the wrong decade sometimes. 

8. when i'm at a restaurant i have to make sure that all the packets of sweenter are turned all the same way. 

9. i'm horrible with money. if i was uber rich, i'd have to have britney spears' dad be my conservator.

10. sometimes i don't want to tell people i'm in seminary because i don't want to have the awkward conversation that comes after that. "so can you drink?" "can you swear?" "can you get married?" "so you're going to just talk about jesus all the time now?" ugh.

11. i think i would be a really good actress, but i hate the thought of people looking at me.

12. i've contemplated the practicality of being a functional alcoholic. 

13. i often wonder if i've already met the person i'm supposed to marry, but i just wasn't maying attention.

14. i daydream way too much

15. my favorite color is green.

16. i can play the guitar and sing alright, but i hate doing it in front of people (the looking at me thing)

17. i LOVE coffee.

18. when i was in high school i played field hockey for a year and then quit. quitting it is one of the few things i regret. 

19. i'm totally terrified of the day my grandmother dies, i don't know what i will do without her.

20. i still can't talk about my grandfathers death without crying.

21. if i won the lottery the first thing i would do (after becoming debt free) is go visit julie in vanuatu.

22. i love to listen to npr, and sometimes i drive around much longer than i need to just to listen to the radio.

23. i want a happy ending.

24. deep in my soul i am afraid i will grow up to be the crazy cat lady. except that i'm a little allergic to cats, so i think i'd be the crazy dog lady.

25. i love giving people presents. now if only i had some more money...

little break!

hello blog readers! how are you? i hope that you're having a lovely january! i finished my january term class yesterday and now i have a break until the first day of class- feb. 2! i'm excited to really honestly have a break. i worked 3 different places over christmas break so this is my first actual break since i suppose thanksgiving? i am super excited. i'm applying for a job at the local domestic violence shelter, it's a part time job in the shelter so hopefully i can get it. i've done basically the same job in PA so hopefully i'll be a shoe in. i have to get my resume onto my mac and then i can email it to the person! wahoo! i also need to cram fall semester hebrew back into my brain and i'm hoping to get a jump start on my spring semester reading. oh and i want to finish 'the omnivores dilemma', which i'm reading for fun :O) it's been a great week, i think i watched about a million hours of inauguration coverage and i loved every minute of it! i hope you've all had a great week! i'll blog more on my week off!

paper writing....

i'm stuck slogging through a final paper (oh and 1 page self evaluation) and powerpoint presentation for my jan. class. this prof wants things to be written single spaced with a 10 pt font. who wants that? it's madness!!! so anyway i'm writing my paper and such on the use of something called 'biblical storytelling' it is just what it sounds like, people tell the stories of the bible. they do it from memory and employ many tricks of the acting trade. modulating their voice to depict different characters, moving around on stage, it can be really freakin' cool. i've seen it done a few times, we had a guy who was a biblical storyteller on our trip to israel and so each time we had a worship service he would do the scripture reading. pretty neat. one of my workshops was by a woman named sarah arthur who has written the book 'the god- hungry imagination; the art of storytelling for postmodern youth ministry'. she was amazingly cool and i'm enjoying checking out her book and writing this stuff. so the work is interesting, i just need to get it done. after tomorrows class is over i have off until feb 2! i'm going to apply for a job and spend the week getting ready for spring semester. i need to cram hebrew back into my head and i might try and get a head start on reading for the spring semester. i started going back to the gym! it's so exciting! i really do like going, i am going to sign up for the weight lifting program. if i do 6 weeks in a row at least twice a week, i get a free tshirt! wahoo! it's all about the free tshirts (right americpeeps?!) ok,well i should stop rambling here and go back to rambling in my paper :O) happy thrusday! have a great day everyone!

hugs, r

From Obama's 2004 DNC speech: 

It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

Epluribus unum: "Out of many, one."

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end -- In the end -- In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?

John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope.

I’m not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope -- Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do -- if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as President, and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.

Thank you very much everybody. God bless you. Thank you

one of my favorites...

Six months before he was assassinated, King spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967.

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you fell that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well.

And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

— From the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

pictures from the conference

now, there were people there, i just chose to take pictures of "The Nature" instead :O) 

there are more pictures on facebook :) happy thursday! i hope you're all staying warm in this crazy cold weather that's sweeping across the country!

hey! the ducks are mandarin ducks! 

relflectioning from the conference...

I’m here at a conference for youth ministry workers. It’s an event called ‘the blaze’ being held at the montreat camp and conference center in North Carolina. Up in the mountains, near Ashville. It is a lovely place, and the conference is fantastic. My only complaint is the lack of downtime. I’m at this conference as part of a class ‘emerging trends in youth ministry’ and so each moment of scheduled free time, we are scheduled to be in class. Our teacher is a presenter here at the blaze and so we have that opportunity.  The keynote speaker here is a guy named mark yaconelli. He’s written a few books on the theme of contemplative youth ministry. So seeking out the time to be quiet and pray and listen for God. Seeking out God in the relationships you have with the kids you work with, letting yourself be delighted and captivated by these relationships. Finding God everyday. Part of his morning keynote address yesterday was 20 minutes at the end to just go and do whatever you felt God was calling you to do. So I went and took pictures of the lake, there were two swans and three or four crazy looking ducks hanging out in the lake and I went and for 15 minutes just stood there and watched them and took pictures. This morning at the end of the session we did a guided prayer exercise where we closed our eyes and went to somewhere sacred, somewhere that we had experienced God before. I went to the camp by my house where we took our youth group. It’s a beautiful camp out in the middle of the mountains and we were out there with the seniors, it was January so it was pretty cold and it was probably 8:00pm. Some of us decided to go for a little walk, knowing we couldn’t go far because of snow or ice or frigid cold. We walked a little ways and came out to a clearing. I remember breathing in the cold, crisp air, breathing out and seeing the breath leave my body. I looked up and saw a billion stars. The sky was just lit up with the beauty of the heavens. As I stood there with life happening around me, staring up at the stars all I could think of was “How can people see this same sky and wonder if there is a God?” The vastness of the universe overwhelmed me, the goodness of God was there in every star, every voice, every breath I was taking. As I looked around tears came to my eyes as I tried to take it all in and imprint this place at this exact time in my memory. While I was staring in literal wide eyed wonder, the wind rustled the trees around me and I felt a joy in that cold, crisp air. It was like God was talking back to me, like God too was in amazement at his creation.

In Hebrew there is a word, bahra, which means create. And this particular word can only be used to refer to God creating. It is the second word in my Hebrew bible. I try daily to notice the glory of God’s creation. I try to record it in the pictures that I take, and in the stories that I tell. I am frequently overwhelmed by the awesomeness of God and of this life that I have been given. Which is not to say there aren’t challenges. After we took ourselves to our sacred space, we sat for a while and just remembered it. Then we were asked to invite all the negative things that were present to come in. As someone who still struggles with depression this was fairly easy. Self-doubt, self-hatred, shame, sadness; it was all there. After we sat with this a while we were asked to bring God back into our sacred space. And to be there with us and with all the negative things we had invited it. We were asked to see ourselves with compassion, to see all the negative things but to also see God there in the negative things. See God spending time with us as we worked with the negative things. It was a powerful prayer. I think for me it is easy to only thank God for the good things. Only see him in the good things, it’s hard for me to see the hand of God in my depression. But I can see God sitting with me in the depression. In moments I can see how this brokenness will benefit me in the future, help me to sit with others through their own depression, and in that there is the hand of God.

After the keynote address this morning we were supposed to go to another workshop. I decided to blow off the workshop and instead spend some time writing, reflecting on the experience. Letting myself feel God sitting with me in all my negative thoughts that I can think. Mark had said that the negative thoughts are like a jail that you create yourself, and knowing that God is there with you helps you to have a tunnel out, you just have to allow yourself to take it. I don’t know if I’m there yet. I don’t know if I can tunnel out. There are moments when I feel like I’ve already left it, and moments when I feel like Andy Dufrane before he gets his rita Hayworth poster. All I see are solid walls, with no way to escape. As I sit here in my room and type this sun is coming out from behind a cloud and shining down on me. The ever-present touch of God upon my shoulder, reminding me that he is here, he is sitting with me.

gone to carolina

i'm at this place till wednesday night! at a conference on youth ministry. i'm super excited, it's a conference but it's also my jan. class. the books we've read have been pretty awesome, so i have high-ish hopes for the conference. it's at a place called montreat conference center, a presby conference center that i've never been to, but is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. it's near ashville in north carolina. supposed to be almost 50 out the whole time we're there! have a great week! i'm not sure if there will be internet or time to post, but if not i'll post when i get home. i'm taking the camera and hopefully there will be some time for picture taking. 

icy mountain on the way back to richmond

back in the rva

i'm back in richmond! my next few days will be filled with cramming reading into my brian and churning out a few papers before a conference. i will most certainly post when i get back, if not from the conference. happy friday!

winter "break"

well, my winter break is almost over, and i've managed to work almost every single day that i've been home. between the bookstore, the center and dogsitting i've only had about 3 days off since i got home. and those days have been stressed because of all the stuff i need to get done. i have 6 books i need to read for my jan class and i've read about 2.5 of the 6. and that needs to be done in the next week. during which time i'm supposed to work 34 hours in 4 days, pack, clean, have dinner with grammy, see my friends, NOT spend money, and leave thursday night. maybe i need to take a day off this week. sigh. it's been a difficult time at home. emotionally draining and i feel like i've not really had any time off at all. i can't wait to get back to school and to see my friends and go to the gym and not be working all the time. i'm ready for things to get back to normal. or what was normal all fall semester. i'm trying to get my room cleaned up tonight, it's not working so well as i keep getting distracted, but i think i can do it. hope you're all having a lovely 2009!

favorite trees

i have two favorite trees in centre county. (doesn't everyone have favorite trees?) i always say i'm going to take pictures of them, but then i feel weird because (as you can see in the background) they're on someone's property. so this year i drove past and decided to just stop on the side of the road and take a few pictures. 

*i can't make the pictures smaller. ugh. so if you click on them they'll get bigger and you can see the whole thing, but you get the gist.