Tuesday, October 31, 2006

One down...

I just submitted my Duke application. Why do I never feel relieved after doing so? Always more nervous...maybe because now it's totally out of my hands and there's nothing I can do cept pray. So guys, pray that I get into to and get money. Because that's where I want to go. Big time.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Sigh of a Bit of Relief

I just wanted to share the news with you all that I did not bomb said Greek quiz. I got it back today and got an 86 on it, which is a good solid B. So as of now I think I've got a nice solid B in the class, which is fine by me. It's not what I would like but hey, it's still "above average," and I have the rest of the semester to try and pull it up. Whew. Talk about a relief. I expected to have done much much worse, but thankfully I didn't. I did however spend four hours memorizing verb forms yesterday...I'm hoping that I've gotten back into the swing of language study, as it's been two years since I did any. So that's heartening.

I'm trying to figure out why I always insist on taking a nap even when I know it will make me feel icky when I wake up. Maybe it's because it's cloudy and cold and windy outside, and my room was so warm and cozy. I like to tell myself that it's Monday and I have class until 9 PM, so the nap will help with that, but I think that's just me rationalizing things.

Spent the weekend reading several Anglican Communion related documents. I'd actually never read the Windsor Report before, and I thought it was definitely a document worth reading. I think if more people had actually read the report we might have had some good conversations in the past couple of years. While there are some things that I didn't necessarily agree with (why were ECUSA and the Canadian church only asked to apologize? What about those on the other side who had been just as divisive?) on the whole it was a good insight into what the worldwide Communion is struggling with. But here's the thing I really don't get: If right now we're trying to figure out what "communion" means, and we're having dialouge, etc., then why ask the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada to step down from their ACC positions? It would to me that this would be the last thing we want if we truly want to be in communion. It just seems to be contrary to the stated intentions of the report. But there could be something I'm missing...I think I'll bring the point up in class and see what kind of answer I get.

Speaking of which, I have to run to the lirbary to make some copies for class tonight. Hope those of you in KY are staying warm (I saw on the weather channel website that there's a slight chance of a few flurries tonight...my dad said he was going to start his rain dance). In the mean time...

Peace y'all.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Back Again

Well hello.
Sorry it's been a while...nine days to be exact. I know you've all been checking this page frequently to see when the next update would be. I apologize for not posting more pics from Vermont...however, it takes a bajillion years for them to upload, and then by the time it gets done the damn thing has timed out. Oh well. But if you are on Facebook, I've uploaded an album of the pics there. It's called (gasp) Vermont.

Had somewhat of a crappy morning. I think I totally bombed a Greek quiz, mostly because I'm exhausted from travelling and because I was out of town for two days this week, so I didn't have the time to devote to studying that I would have liked. But I was gone for good reason.

I spent some time travelling to the good ol' south east this week. Why was I there, you may wonder? Well, I was visiting Duke Divinity School. I'm applying to their MDiv program, and it's my first choice. So I wanted to go down and get the lay of the land so to speak. And I LOVED IT. It was truly amazing...the faculty is beyond awesome, there's a real sense of institutional vocation, and the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies seems right up my alley. So pray that I get in and (more importantly) can get some good funding. I'm going into debt at HDS...can't afford to go in to anymore. But I should know, assuming my transcripts get there by Nov. 1st and my recommenders get everything done by then as well, by mid December about whether or not I got in and hopefully whether or not I got a merit scholarship. Needless to say I'll be praying hard about it. But it definitely seems like an environment where I could really grow spiritually and intellectually. It would be a "win win win" situation (for those of you who haven't seen The Office...it's a reference from that.)

Now, I should point out that I'm not the biggest fan of flying, although I'm getting better about it. I mostly dislike sitting there waiting around for take off, after we've been told to put up tray table sand turn off eletronic devices. So I amuse myself by looking through the shopping catalogue (www.skymall.com) to see what kind of great stuff they have. And there's always a million things I'd love to buy for folks, mostly because they're so ridiculous you wouldn't want to pass them up. For example, they had a three layered pool table. Pretty interesting. But by far the most amazing gift (and one which I couldn't find online; I was going to post a picture of it for you) was an IPod dock/radio/clock/toilet paper roll holder. The picture even demonstrated how good the device is for holding said TP and advertised itself as making the "royal throne" even better. Amazing. The fact that a. someone makes such a thing and b. that someone would buy such a thing is pretty remarable. I would like to meet said person and ask them how they feel about their new toilet paper roll. Too cool.

Anywho that's about all for now. I'm going to do some more homework (as it's getting to be that time of the semester). It's been raining all day and thus I've been sleepy all day, but I think I've had my first productive Friday of the semester. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be similarly fruitful. So you guys have a great weekend.

Peace y'all.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

more pics





Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Howdy Howdy.
I realize it's been a little while since my last post, but I've been busy (to say the least). I spent this weekend in Vermont checking out the fall foliage. For those who haven't been to Vermont, it looks exactly like you would expect it to look. The people all look like they eat granola all of the time, and it's very...farmy, in a New England sense. I really liked it, although I'm not sure I could live there. It was 30 degrees on Saturday night, and it was just October 7th! Hard frost in early October=not for Hilary. I'll post some pictures from the trip, though, so you all can see what it was like. Great times.

I've been working a lot on my "container" for the AND...group. I'm doing a four week session on "why we do what we do," which is basically how being Episcopalian informs our actions. Last week was about Scripture, and then next two weeks are about...you guessed it. Tradition and Reason. and the fourth week will be about Action. I thought it went pretty well last week. The group seemed to be engaged, and when Paige FIsher (a priest at Trinity) asked a question, the group really responded and started dialoguing with one another, which was in my opinion the best part of the night. It doesn't really matter what I say, as people are most likely to forget it anyway, but if I can facilitate thinking and interaction, then I feel that I've done my job. I've been thinking a lot about what to say this week, but I'm a little less sure about the next two segments than I was about Scripture. I'll have it done by tomorrow evening, though, so ask me again then and maybe I can tell you something. But here's a teaser: it involves a clip from Animal House : ) That one's for you, dad.

I heard back from the national church office today about the investiture. I didn't get tickets, which is too bad. I was really excited about going. They said only 25% of the requests were honored, but I overnighted mine on the fifteenth and it got there in time, so I don't know why I didn't get them. Oh well. There's not really much I can do about it at this point. Watch it online, I guess, but that's also the day of teh UL-WV game, so I may be trying to find a place to watch that. Although in all likelihood I'll be studying somewhere.

Speaking of which, classes are going well. We had a long weekend, which was great. I'm hoping I did better on this Greek quiz than I did on last week's, which I am referring to as my personal comedy of errors. Other than that, just doing a lot of reading. Will be meeting with my group for my EDS class sometime in the next week, I think, to go over stuff for our case study assignment. I'm probably going to the library here soon to work on a paper for Prof. Koester's class, do some Greek, and read some for the EDS class (because at some point I have to read the next three Narnia books for next week). I'm also working a lot on my application for seminary. I go to visit Duke next week, which I'm really excited about. I hope the visit goes well, and that it turns out to be a good fit. That application is due November 1st, so I've been working to try and get that all ready. Got to get the transcripts sent out soon.

Anywho, that's all for now. I'm going to post the VT pics later, so you can see what it looked like. Gorgeous.

Peace y'all.