Monday, September 24, 2007

Yo.

Wow. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. Sorry about that, Mom (as you're the only one who reads this). Things are going well. School is, well, school. I have a paper due next week so I'm kind of scrambling to get it done. Topic: anything you want to write about the patristic period. So I'm doing mine about patristic approaches to what we today consider classical literature. Hopefully. I think I got a lead on material this morning when I was looking some things up in the library, so I hope they pan out. Unfortunately I have to work tonight and tomorrow night from 6-11, but maybe I can get some homework done then so I can work on the paper during the day. Then this weekend Rick and I are off to Ocean City, MD for H2O international. It's supposed to be a blast. I'll just be glad for a weekend at the beach. Woohoo!

On random notes, apparently there were some tornadoes in England last night. Being from a place where tornadoes are pretty frequent, I thought the BBC article was rather amusing. Scared Britons worried by the 60mph (don't they use the metric system?) winds. I guess when you're not used to those sorts of occurrences, it can be crazy. Don't get me wrong, there was some damage and everything, and I'm not downplaying that. I just find the outcries of "Holy cricket! 60 mph? Don't worry, stiff upper lip and all that!" to be somewhat amusing. But maybe that's just me.

And UL lost again this weekend. I'm hoping to make it to the UConn game, but I'm not sure I want to go if we're just going to suffer another embarassing loss. And what will I do if we lose to Rutgers? (that's where Rick went...) I'll never get over the shame. Well, yes I will. I'm a Cardinals fan, so that comes with the territory, I think.

Other than that...I have an Ember Day letter to write sometime soon. I don't know what I'm going to say. Chapel's ok, but not great. Classes are ok, but I feel rather intellectually stifled. It's not that their easy or that they're bad, I just don't have any avenue in which to engage with the material other than my own mind. That's fine, but I'm in a university. One would think I could do that sort of thing in classes. But when there are 100 people in your class, it's rather impossible. Bleh. Hopefully I'll be taking more seminars than anything after this semester, and that should make things a bit better. For now I'll just keep on trucking along.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I just got back from my run, so I'm going to change and cook dinner. Then it's off to work. Exciting, no?

Oh and the leaves are starting to change up here. I think I'll miss peak leaf season as I'll be in MD and then KY, but there are some really gorgeous trees right now.

Anywho, that's all for now.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

First Aid

I think I helped save a guy's life today...well, only if there had been no one around and everyone was injured when it happened. Anywho here is what went down...

YDS is on a huge hill, and as I was walking up the hill a friend and I saw a biker going down the hill out of control. We turned to watch him, and his bicycle ran smack into the middle of a mini van, leaving a huge dent and breaking the side window. The guy ended up on the ground bleeding and in really bad shape. Being a lifeguard, I ran over to him, called 911, told whom who I was and started helping. An EMT who saw it came over too. The guy had about a 3 inch gash down the middle of his forehead/head, and the back of his head had a big flap of skin hanging down. Some other guy had a first aid kit so we put on gloves, stabilized his head, and started to clean up some of the blood out of his eyes. While the others were talking to each other, I talked to the guy to see how he was. Luckily, he was conscious and knew who he was, where he was, and wasn't really confused. He also had feeling everywhere, which is another good sign. It was a major head injury, but hopefully he avoided brain trauma. So the ambulances came and got him, and I answered some questions for the cops and that was that. I was shaky all afternoon though, as the adrenaline hit my system and then crashed. It was insane to watch, but I'm glad I was there to help. The firefighters only said thanks to the EMT guy (not that it matters) but the cop did say thanks to me. I mean, hell I was on the scene first. But that's not important. The guy was taken to a hospital and hopefully is recovering.

Lessons learned: Keep First Aid and CPR current, because you'll never know when you need them.
Keep a set of gloves in my backpack, for the same above reason.
And, most importantly,
ALWAYS WEAR A BIKE HELMET. This guy's injuries would not have been so bad (probably) if he'd had one on. I think breaking the window actually helped absorb some of the impact, but sheesh. His head cracked open like a melon.

Keep him in your prayers...

Monday, September 10, 2007

Prayer Before Study

My friend Noel here at YDS sent this prayer to me (apparently Prof. Volf used it at the beginning of Systematics--a class I'm not taking--one day). Anywho, it really is a beautiful prayer, and I think I shall incorporate it into my being, especially now.

Ineffable Creator...

Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom, has established three hierarchies of angels, has arrayed them in marvelous order above the fiery heavens,
and has marshaled the regions of the universe with such artful skill,

You are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom, and the primal origin raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness into the darkened places of my mind; disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born: sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants. Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech.

May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion.

You Who are true God and true Man, Who live and reign, world without end.

Amen

Grrr...

I am quite miffed with the KY DMV. WHY on earth does my registration form need a notary????? No other state requires it...this is getting ridiculous.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Weird?

Classes have started, and started well. I had two good classes on Wednesday (OT and History), and the profs were pretty amazing. One of them plays evangelical praise music at the end of every class to remind us that there are many ways of interpreting the Hebrew scriptures. The other was talking about symbols and he ripped up a dollar in front of us. That would normally be ok, if it hadn't been for the fact that I went and paid $260 for his books that afternoon. Sheesh. And then today I had my other two classes and one colloquia (the ISM doesn't meet until next Wednesday). Those were also good. So it looks as though the semester will be pretty intense but full of really interesting stuff, and I should be able to work with my interest in religion and literature in a couple of my course papers. Also, and I may be singing another tune later, almost all of my papers are due before December 1, which at this point in the semester I think will be nice. I have one due on October 4, but because of the Maryland trip the weekend before I'm going to try and get it done a little early. And I don't have any paper longer than 10 pages!!!!!! I don't think I've had that happen since college. Pretty amazing.

So this is weird...my patristics professor lives in the apartment across the hall. The normal prof. is on sabbatical this year, so he's a visiting professor from Notre Dame. And he and his wife live across the hall. I guess this means I'll have to stay on my toes especially in that class, so as not to have to deal with increased awkwardness when I pass him in the hallway...

Clifford is sold as well (finally). Now I can bring Beethoven (my blue 1993 Subaru Legacy AWD wagon) down from Worcester, hopefully on Saturday. The guy who bought it was a total hippie, which was pretty funny. I hope he gets some good use out of the truck, though (he's a painter).

Other than that, it's basically just homework time here. I had to dive right in as I have 130 pages of reading due tomorrow--which I would like to point out I've already finished. But there's other reading to be done so I'm going to try and stay on top of it. I won't get to see Rick this weekend (SAD!!!) because he's in New York state on a business trip; thus I'm hoping to be extra productive this weekend so I can start thinking about the paper that's due in three weeks. Woohoo!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

First Day of School

Today is the first day of class here at Yale. The Daily Office for today includes the passage from Mark in which the people elect to free Barabbas instead of Jesus. The student who preached this morning called her sermon "Barabbas and the first day of school." Ha. Not sure what this particular passage means for the coming school year, though. I thought about that as I went in to chapel this morning--how the readings from Mark this week have all been leading up to Jesus's crucifixion (granted, one could claim that his whole life led up to that moment, but in this case I mean that it's the passion scenes that are being read). An interesting juxtaposition, to say the least. I have a meeting with my advisor this afternoon, at which point I will know for sure what I'm taking. But, if he gives the go ahead on the schedule I drew up, I'll be taking Old Testament Interpretation 1, Christian Social Ethics, Christian Theology to 451 (Patristics, basically), and History of Christianity 800-1300. It looks like it will be an alright schedule. Now I just need my loan money to hurry up and be deposited in my bank account so that I can buy books. I think I have about 150 pages of reading due on Friday, so I need the books soon. I'm glad to have homework, though. I've gotten bored just sitting around, and it makes me miss Rick even more. But hopefully with the homework I'll be able to distract myself and knuckle down for school. Anywho, here's to the first day of classes.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Labor Day Weekend

Howdy Folks
It's Labor Day weekend, and I'm in Worcester for the weekend before school starts up. We start on Wednesday, although there's registration and such on Tuesday. I'm not really sure what all that entails, but I don't think it's too complicated. I have to be in chapel that day at 8 AM, so I'm going back to New Haven on Monday night. I was hoping to stay up here and go back on Tuesday, as I won't get to see Rick next weekend since he'll be on a work trip, but oh well. I can't miss the first full chapel of the year, so what are you gonna do? I'm hoping like hell to sell the truck this weekend. The Subaru has just been sitting in Rick's garage because I still haven't been able to get the truck sold. I even dropped the price to 1800! It's not a bad vehicle, and it works, so you can't beat that. I thought I had a buyer this past week, but the guy never got back to me. So now I've got a couple of people who might be interested today, but one of them is also looking at a car with less miles on it that is 1000 but is a '91. That makes me think he'll be less likely to buy my truck, which has more miles and is more expensive. We'll see though. I would just like to get it sold so I can start driving Beethoven (the name for the new Subaru). I don't think I wrote anything about him...He's a blue 1993 AWD Subaru Legacy wagon with 180,000 miles. Automatic transmission, power windows and locks, etc. Hopefully it will be a good car in the snow. Rick swears by them, and he's the car guy so I'm willing to take his advice.

I can't believe school starts this week. Where did the summer go? The leaves up here are already starting to change, which seems a bit early to me. But it has been a little cooler I guess, albeit dry. The grass everywhere is brown and brittle, much like it was in Kentucky when I was home. But fall is definitely on its way. And with that comes school. I'm ready for classes to start, as I hate the waiting around stuff. I think I'm going to be taking Old Testament Interpretation 1, Christian Theology to 451 (Patristics), History of Christianity to 1300, and Christian Social Ethics. They all look to be interesting classes, although the history course has 19 books and a course pack, which frankly I think is ridiculous. And those books aren't at th Div school, they're downtown at the bookstore, so I'll have to make a special trip down there to pick them up once I get my loan money. Oh well, 'Tis the life of a student.

That's about all I've got for now. Just waiting for classes to start and enjoying my long weekend with Rick. Hope everyone has a good Labor Day!

Peace