i love...

Back-to-School Shopping! I love getting organized at the beginning of the year. Us student-types (and maybe faculty-types, I can't speak for them) are lucky in that we get two new years. Its just a good feeling to get energized about the new beginning, make resolutions for the school year (I swear, this year I'm going to start my papers earlier!), get everything organized (and color-coded. Go J personality!). Now, a lot of this will fall to the wayside by mid-November, but then January 1st rolls around and its time for a whole new batch of resolutions. So, one of the things I'm thinking about for starting this school year is a haircut. I'm thinking something along these lines:
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I realize that this means nothing to some of you, having never seen me, but I like posting pictures on the web anyway.

Please pray for us folk here at Seabury as we start another year of school!

Overheard

Dave & I visited the United Library booksale this week. I picked up a couple praise music hymnals, Luther's Shorter Catechism, and On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kueblher-Ross. It was a good time. While we were there, Dave made this pronouncement: You can definitely have too many books, but you can never have enough. Wise words, my friend!
(Dave did attribute this to someone else, but I don't remember who...)

Gracious and Unending

I love evensong, which should come as no surprise, given the title of this here blog. I especially like evensong at the beginning of the year at Seabury, when attendance is high and voices are strong. Tonight though, I was tired and sort of out of it. So when the Phos Hilaron got to the part You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of Life, I felt a bit guilty. So, as a result, I'm sharing my favorite link to praise music downloads: higherpraise.com I can't vouch for anything else on their site- I havne't really ever checked it out. But they have an immense amount of praise music lyrics & guitar chords, some with sound bites too. And while I realize that not everyone who frequents this site is overjoyed by praise music, I am. Don't you just love that anyone can post anything they want on the web?

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I love the Twin Cities. They are absolutely gorgeous, and we all had a great time. Coleman is cute and smiley, and his sister Svea holds conversations and is much more of a little girl than a toddler now. Time flies! Anyway, we are back safe and sound in Chicago, and life moves on quickly! Luke started orientation this morning for his school, and Seabury orientation is in full swing. I have been practicing music and getting ready for other worship committee jobs all day. Happily, life is not so swinging that I don't have time to watch football. Raiders v. Broncos on Monday Night Football! woo-hoo! TV is my weakness. I just really like it. And this is premiere week, starting off with the Emmys - where West Wing received some awards. For those of you who don't like to watch as much TV as I do, here are are two things to check out on your computers: an article about the primate of South Africa speaking against Anglican schism, and the website for Trevor's band, the Lyndales. (Trevor being our gracious host in the twin cities)

malls, minnesota and mystery

Today was a blast and I bought things. I know its superficial, but I am a serious fan of retail therapy. Today's purchases were made at Gurnee Mills. Trish, Anna, and the beautiful baby Sofie and I trekked up to the outlets, and returned with many bags. I got red pants, a new purse, a purple tie for Luke, and an outfit for my friend Devon's baby. The baby clothes will be a present for Coleman, who is six months old, and whom I will meet for the first time tomorrow. Another road trip! Tripp, Trish, Luke & I will be piling into the Civic and taking off for Minneapolis for the weekend. Its really a lovely city, with big lakes and walking paths, and a really good ice cream store called Sebatian Joes. Then, orientation will start here at Seabury and down at University of Chicago for Luke. Sigh. Road trips are absolutely the best way to end summer vacation though... kicking back in a tank top and shorts, listening to Paul Simon and Lauryn Hill, and just driving. Anything becomes possible.

I could go crazy on a night like tonight
When summer's beginning to give up her fight
And every thoughts a possibility
And the voices are heard, but nothing is seen
Why do you spend this time with me
Maybe an equal mystery
-Mystery, Indigo Girls

Another quiz

I liked this quiz that I found on Wes' new page. Um, does this really sound like me? I'm not sure what I did to get this answer....


You are Revelation.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

going to the chapel

surprisingly, this song hasn't been in my head until now. Friday was the Worship Committee retreat here at Seabury, and it went well. Retreat is a misnomer, its really a long meeting with food and Eucharist at the end of the day. But, we have a great group of people, and I'm really excited to be working with them this year.

The rest of the weekend was fun... I spent a lot of time with Tripp and Trish, since Luke was out of town from Wednesday to Saturday. Then, joy of joys, Tripp and Trish got engaged! I'm incredibly thrilled, as are many other folk who posted nice things on Tripp's page. Yay. I just think the whole thing is fan-flippin-tastic. Now, I am off to watch football, for the third day in a row. Life is very good, yes?

quotes

"For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God." -The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas

I like quotes. Real Simple magazine uses the most random quotes for their articles. Graduate school has taught me to read for quotes - it helps me get through all the reading faster. So, in my fun reading before school (The Count of Monte Cristo) the above quote jumped out at me. I don't think I agree with it. However, it made me think of CPE. I wonder if this philosophy is why we're requred to do the program?

3 states, 3 bands, 1 day

Monday, I went to Indiana, met up with Jane, then to Michigan to see Heather and the Allegan County Fair. While the sloppey joes, homemade raspberry pie, and HUGE eclairs were enough to warrant the trip, we went to see Sixpence None the Richer and Jars of Clay. What a fabulous concert - we had a great time! The lead singer for Sixpence is about seven months pregnant (Jane's guess, I concur) and did a whole show. You go girl! Jars of Clay did a bunch of songs I knew, so that was fun too. Before their encore, the lead singer came out a did a talk on the AIDS epidemic in Africa. It was powerful. He talked stats - 8,000 people die every day from the disease. He talked about the people he met when he visited last year, about the loss of hope and dreams, and the dreams and hopes of one child who will not likely live long enough to fulfill them. Then he talked about the Church's response. He called the Church to do more, and not ignore these people in need just because some say AIDS is the consequence of sin. He said "We have been so well loved. We should be able to love well." He gave us a link to check out - World Vision's Hope Initiative sponsors children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Just thought I'd pass it on. Blessings, y'all!

Routine

I like routine. At my old job, I had a great morning routine that involved coffee, checking my email, stopping by my friend Amy's office, reading the headlines on nytimes.com, and eventually getting down to business. Jane has been talking about conditioning her brain back to seminary reading. For me, its getting myself readjusted to having a routine. Inertia is definitely working against me on this one, but I think that routine is very good for people. I think that this year, I will insititute more routines into my life: going to Einstein's with Luke on Sundays between work and football, balancing my checkbook more regularly, getting up at a reasonable time (9:00) even when I don't have class in the morning, starting papers more than a couple days before they're due. Now, nobody hold your breath - I've been working on some of these for several academic years with very little progress. But here is one routine I think all us bloggers could do - go to The Hunger Site everyday, and click on the little button. There are six of these sites now, and its a very easy way to do a very little bit to help out. So check it out, and add it to your routine. Cuz hey - routine is good for you!

Spon-tay-nee-us

So, I have been away for awhile for a couple of reasons. First of all, I couldn't log in to my page for a couple days, but I appear to have come back to life. Yay. Secondly, Luke and I decided this week to take a very spur-of-the-moment trip back to Ann Arbor. We were being a good organized married couple on Tuesday, and sat down to compare planners for the next couple weeks, to figure out who had what appointments, when we could go home for a couple days, that sort of thing. It turned out that this week was the only time we could go home, so we packed up and left. It was fun to just get up and go. We only told a couple people we were leaving, and made plans to see friends on the way home via cell phone. It is a strange world we live in, where we can travel and communicate in an instant.
In other spontaneous-related news, my mom sent me the link for an Improv jazz festival in Baltimore called High Zero. My sister, Katt, is one of the musicians there. They like her a lot, and say nice things about her such as "one of the most inspired of the new generation of Boston improvisors". I have tried to explain to people in the past the kind of stuff my sister does with her music - this is it folks.
Tonight there will be a wedding rehearsal, then a dinner, then tomorrow a birthday bash for Heather and a wedding. Ah, life changes. They happen, may as well mark it with a party!