Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ridiculousity 2

I think maybe I already titled a post "Ridiculousity," so this is the 2nd one. But if I haven't done so, then it's the first.

Anyway, a grand jury tossed out the charges levelled against two men in Lexington for hanging an effigy of Obama during the campaign. Part of the article reads: "Defense attorney Fred Peters said common sense prevailed among Fayette County grand jurors. He said they realized the case "had been blown way out of proportion." Fischer and Bush apologized Tuesday for what they called a "political prank." They said they hung the effigy after seeing a similar display of unsuccessful GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin hung from a tree in a California man's yard."

This, my good readers, is beyond ridiculous. It's just another example of racism that is inherent within our society and will stay that way if people don't get a clue! The defendants argued that they had seen a similar act done with Sarah Palin as the figure in California. Now, I want it to be noted for the record that I do NOT condone hanging Sarah Palin in effigy. There are issues with that as well (particularly the use of such a violent means of expression against a political candidate whose opinions I happen to disagree with). I'm not so sure I'm for effigies in general--I don't know in the end how effective they really are for accomplishing anything, not to mention that they are pretty violent expressions. I'm all about freedom of expression but NOT about cultural insensitivity. Did these men not understand the unavoidable racist and lynching implications of their actions? I'm not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. How can you be an American in 2009 and NOT realize that hanging the figure of any African-American in a tree would not bring to mind such things? SERIOUSLY. And the fact that the jury threw this case out means that such hate crimes will continue to go unpunished and be tacitly condoned by fellow citizens.

We may have elected our first African-American president, but racism is by no means absent from our society, and if this article is any hint, it won't be absent for quite a while...

I'm disgusted.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Boo.

This is a stressful year, to say the least. Right now I feel like I'm caught up in the middle of...nothing. And yet it's everything at the same time. Waiting for PhD admissions or rejections, waiting to find a job, waiting waiting waiting. And it's wearing me down, especially with the school work I need to be doing. I'm ready for Feb. 4 to be over, to be honest. Then the ISM project will be done and I can put it behind me. I was hoping to do a lot on it last week but the funeral and everything kept that from happening. I'm not blaming anyone...it is what it is, and family comes first. I don't have class tomorrow so hopefully I can get a lot done. Well, not hopefully. I have to get a lot done. I've been completely unproductive today. Every now and then I have those days when stress reaches a level that keeps me from being able to concentrate. Today has been one of those days. But that means tomorrow shouldn't be one of those days, which is a good thing. So hurray there. Nathan is sick with an infection, so he's in the hospital while they try to get that sorted out. Dad is currently en-route to Louisville from PA, where Erin will pick him up around midnight. And Mom is in IA with Nathan. We're all over the damn place!

Not much else really to report. I'm thinking of changing the blog background. This one is starting to get boring. Rick and I have a photographer for our wedding. I like his stuff and he seemed really nice over the phone so he should be easy to work with. The only major thing we have to do now is flowers, and figure out the food situation. The rest is just stuff my Mom, sister and I can do. And Rick when he's there to help : ) It was nice and warm one day this week...Friday I think. It was incredible. And then it got stupid cold again. Alas for winter! Ummm...my birthday is coming up, but this has been such a stressful time that it doesn't even feel like it! Because of the trip to Canterbury (which should be awesome!) I won't be able to see Rick until a week after my birthday, which is a bummer. Yep. don't know too much more than that. Everything is ice here, because of the melt on Friday. Rick's drive way is a skating rink. Seriously. Too bad I don't have any skates...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Funeral Homily

For those who don't know and read this blog, my grandmother passed away this week. I've been in PA for the funeral (which was this morning). I preached the funeral homily, and just figured I'd post it here. Who knows if any of you will read it, but there you go.

"Ever Onward"
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
It’s amazing how the Holy Spirit works. When I heard that my grandmother had passed away, I began thinking about her and what her life had taught me. Over the next few days, ideas for this homily began to swirl around in my head. Then, last night, I was talking to Jerri Smith and learned something new about my grandmother. Whenever she would leave the room, she would say "Ever Onward!" This is not something that I had ever heard, I guess because the occasion never arose. But more and more people began to mention this phrase, and I couldn’t resist making this the center piece of the sermon. So, as she would say.
It is fitting that such a phrase would be central to a funeral service. Often we think of these times as times of mourning and remembering. And to a certain extent they are. We are here to celebrate the life of my grandmother and to remember her spirit as we mourn together. But we also come here to do something more. We are an Easter people—always looking forward to the Resurrection. Indeed, the first lines of the burial service in the Book of Common Prayer say "I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord. Whoever has faith in me shall have life, even though he die…" (491). In this time it is easy for us to get caught in a kind of "Good Friday" mode, scared about things to come and saddened by our loss. But as Christians we do not live in the Good Friday moment. We live in the Easter moment.
The scripture readings today speak to such a moment in different ways. The Hebrew Bible readings note God’s constancy in the face of trouble. Job, the man who had everything taken away from him yet still remained faithful to God, proclaims, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth" (19:25). Psalm 46 makes a similar statement: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult…The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge" (46:1-3, 6-7). These are good words for us to hear, even when we are not in such a state of loss. In our world it often seems that the nations are in an uproar and the kingdoms are tottering. And now, when our personal grief threatens to overwhelm us, to totter our own kingdoms, Job and the Psalmist assure us that God will remain firm to the very end. Even on Good Friday, when Jesus’s words on the cross "My God My God, why have you forsaken me?" echo in our ears, God is there. And God is with us now.
The New Testament readings provide us with another view of this Easter moment. The epistle speaks of the future time as well, yet not in the catastrophic sense of Job and the Psalm. Rather, we get a picture of the kingdom to come, the heavenly city where we will "hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike [us], nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes" (7-16-17). Jesus tells of this time in the Gospel of John, when all who see the Son and believe will be raised and have eternal life (6:40). If there was ever a vision to help us move ever onward, these pictures from the New Testament provide it.
These passages also provide us with comfort at the passing of our mother, grandmother, and friend. We can be assured that she has moved Ever Onward. As I told Mrs. Smith last night, I’m sure her soul uttered those words as the passed. But what about those of us who are still here? What do we do when the ones we love have moved ever onward? We can take comfort in the hope of the Resurrection, but how do we go about our day to day lives when someone close to us has died? How do we rebuild when our kingdoms have tottered? One of the hymns we sing today is about the saints of God—but not those saints we might think of ordinarily. These saints are ordinary people. You. Me. We all have the ability to be saints. And we can learn from the lives of the saints who have gone before us, people like my grandmother.
When I was about eight years old, one of my homework assignments was to put together a family tree. This included the creation of a construction paper object that looked something like a tree with people I drew who looked something like my family. The other part of this assignment involved an interview with a family member who was not your parent. I decided to interview my Gorgeous Ma (so named because she always told us to look Gorgeous in pictures), because how many people in my class had a British grandmother? She told me one story in that interview that has always stayed with me, though I have never known why. I think the reason is becoming more and more clear as I get older.
The question I asked her had to do with school. "What was your least favorite class?" I asked. She responded "art." I asked her why and she told me that as a girl, she had been told to draw a picture for art class. So she drew a picture of a local shop. The teacher, however, was not pleased with her rendition. "Why didn’t she like your picture, Gorgeous Ma?" I asked. "Well," she replied, "the store window was empty." As I said, I have long wondered why I remember this story. It sounds like something my grandmother would have done, but it was not particularly inspirational for whatever artistic talent might have been budding within me.
The night I heard that Gorgeous Ma had passed away, I once again thought of this story and began to wonder, what if each of our lives were a store window, filled by the events of our lives? And this got me to thinking, what would be in Gorgeous Ma’s window? It’s likely that the answer would be different for each of us. We all knew her in different ways and have particular memories of this wonderful woman. For me, this window would be filled with many things: a map of England, a tray of warm strawberry tarts like those she used to make with my siblings and I, a picture of her Yorkie Love, some knitting, a book about Jewish spirituality, pictures of family that have long hung on her walls, calendars done for the historical society, a Book of Common Prayer, a bottle of Estee Lauder Beautiful, and the bear skin rug in her living room. The list could go on for quite a while, but you get the idea. We could each sit here and fill that window with so many things.
These windows are things we can carry with us throughout our lives. Just because she has passed, doesn’t mean that my grandmother’s window is all of a sudden empty. It remains in our lives, to be cherished and viewed whenever we like. It also challenges us to think about our own windows. What will people put in my window when I am gone? What do I want to be there? How do I want my window to help others?
As my grandmother moves ever onward, so do we. We move onward in the knowledge that God is steadfast even in the midst of turmoil. We move onward in the hope of the Resurrection, and of the time when our tears will be wiped away. And we move onward with the memory of this wonderful woman, looking to her window as we try to become saints in our own ways. Amen.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Loss.

I'm in Pennsylvania right now. For those who don't know, my grandmother passed away unexpectedly on Thursday evening. She had broken her leg and had to have surgery to repair it, but they had to go in and do something on her heart first. Her body just gave out, and her spirit went home. Although thinking about it, I'm not sure (in retrospect, obviously) that she would have been able to handle the 6-8 hour surgery for her leg. That's pretty tough on the body and everything. Needless to say, my family is in shock. First Nathan got sick (although he's doing better and the chemo is doing what it's supposed to do!!!), then my grandfather had some life-change stuff (don't really think I'm supposed to write about it here, just has to reorganize his life a bit, basically), and now my grandmother dies. Seriously-this kind of thing only happens in novels and in movies. When my mom called to tell me, it really felt unreal. In a way it still does. I'm staying in her house with my dad (mom is with Nathan in IA and Erin has to work) and there are just all of these reminders that she did not expect to enter that hospital and not come back. For example, her clothes for when she got home are laid out on the chair in her room. Her mail is in the backseat of her car, as if she just grabbed it and stuck it there to check it later. There's a book half-read on the coffee table. The fish are swimming lazily in their tank. The freezer is full of various foodstuffs that she bought. It's just so...weird. Surreal, really. When my Fluffy died (my mom's mom) I was 10, and didn't really notice those sorts of things. Not to mention that she was at the Barn (the country house) when she died, and we were in the house on High Street for the funeral. But now that I'm going through this kind of loss as an adult, it's seriously a completely different experience. It is a different experience, but one would think there are similarities. Maybe there will be Yoohoo at the funeral home (at my great-grandmother and grandmother's funerals in BG, we drank a lot of Yoohoo at the funeral home. So now Yoohoo always makes me think of death, and therefore I can't drink it). Gorgeous Ma will definitely be missed. I have a card by my bed in CT thanking me for the engagement photo I sent her, and it said the date was already on the calendar for next year. And I know she was really looking forward to my ordination, and that was something I really wanted her to see--graduations didn't matter so much to me, it's the ordination that I thought would be best for her to be at. But now she'll be seeing it from a different perspective. Oh well. At least she'll be present in some sense! I'm preaching the homily at the funeral. I asked Carol, the vicar, if I could. I feel like it would be a way to honor her, and to honor her excitement and joy about my vocation. Now I just have to write it...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Righteous and the Rest.

I don't do this often, but I figured maybe I will start whenever I do preach (which is less often now, more often in the future I'm sure). This is the short homily (3-5 minutes) I will be preaching at St. Luke's tomorrow morning. The three texts listed are the lectionary readings we're doing in Chapel in the morning, so they give a Scriptural context for what I'm doing. The idea actually came to me in chapel today, which was convenient as I preach tomorrow.

“The Righteous and the Rest” Ps. 14, Mk. 1:29-45, Eph.2:1-10

Religious groups can be exclusive. I know, it’s hard to imagine that we could be an exclusive bunch, interested in our own salvation and our own journeys to God, but it’s true. The psalmist today provides a perfect example of this. The psalm is full of “they did this” and “they did that.” It reminds me of listening to four year olds complain about their peers who haven’t shared a toy, or are eating one too many cookies. Or, for that matter, one group of church goers critiquing the liturgical practices of another church. One of the great things about the psalms is their ability to hold a mirror up to humanity—both the good, and the bad. The psalmist speaks of “they” and once uses the more direct “you”—words meant to create a dichotomy between the righteous and the rest. The beginning of Paul’s passage almost seems to run along the same lines: you were dead when you followed the ways of “those who are disobedient.” We are the righteous. They are the rest.

I bring this tendency to exclusivity up because I want to make a few comments about mission. Now, you might think that this would be a rather odd way of bringing such a topic up, but I think it is important in seminary, where we can easily ignore the outside world. An example: this December, when I had about seventy-five pages of writing due at the end of the semester, I spent an entire evening writing at my desk. The ground was clear when I started, and when I glanced out of the window I was startled to see three inches of snow on the ground. Mind you, I sit right next to a window. Literally. It’s about a foot away from my desk chair. And there is even another window in my room. I had gotten so wrapped up in what I was doing that I had not even looked out of the window for hours. And this is just concerning the weather—much less the social justice issues, the poverty and helplessness that seems to pervade my neighborhood. I have to ask, am I too busy to look out of my own seminary-world window to see that? And the answer, if I’m honest, is more often yes than no.

This leads me to my next point. Forgive me GOE takers, but I want to talk a minute about the missio Dei, or the mission of God. In the mid-twentieth century as the ecumenical movement gained more and more momentum, there was increasing conversation about the mission of the Church universal. Before this time, mission had actually been missions, carried out by individual churches with the focus on conversion. However, by the time the 60s rolled around, Christianity had spread throughout the world and denominations were finding that missions might not be the most pressing need for the church anymore. This was known in missiological terms as the missio Ecclesia, or the mission of the church. The implications of this term are that missions were dependent upon the actions of the individual churches—the Church of England, for example. However, by the 1968 World Council of Churches meeting in Uppsala, the ground had shifted to the missio Dei. The WCC defined the missio Dei as something meant “to bring all people into this new creation. All who work for justice and peace in the world participated in this new creation” (Douglas 272). In more stark terms, the mission of God was not dependent upon the church. Indeed, the mission of God worked outside of the church.

It’s interesting that it took almost 2000 years from Jesus’s time to figure this out. Genesis 1 does not read: “the spirit moved across the deep from it’s source point of St. Stephen’s by the formless void.” No. That spirit moved before an institutional church even existed! Similarly, in today’s Gospel passage we see Jesus responding to the deep needs of those around him. In yesterday’s Gospel he preached repentance. In today’s he goes about curing the sick and casting out demons. All of these outside of an institutional Church.

Now, at first this all seems like an odd message to give to future leaders of a church institution. Hopefully my last two points will show it is actually quite relevant, however.
The first point comes from the Ephesians passage. As Paul writes: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (8-10). We were created to do good works; to be a just people who work for justice. Our very nature as a Christian people is to be a people who reaches out to the deep needs and hurts of the world, as Jesus shows us in Mark. The hardest part is done—we’re already made for good works. Now we just have to do them!

The second point, and the one thing I’d like for you to take from this if you don’t remember anything else, is that the mission of God is not confined to the church. I said it before, but as the dean said, redundant communication is key to leadership development. There are going to be people responding to the mission of God whether or not they go to church. But think of all of the great resources we—as part of a larger institution—can bring! Prayer, advocacy, people-power, and money, to name a few. But we have to respond to that call. We have to look out of the window and see not only the snow falling on the ground, but the homeless who are forced to sleep in that snow. The missio Dei is going to happen with or without us: the question we must ask is, do we want to be a part of it?

Monday, January 12, 2009

Jobs jobs jobs

Well, PhD applications are in and now it is just a matter of waiting. And waiting. And waiting. I hope and pray that I get in somewhere, but I know things will be OK if I don't. Ordination is on the horizon (God willing) and there will (God willing) be a job at a church for me somewhere up here, be in part time (for PhD plan) or full-time (for not that plan). We've started getting job notices in the weekly mailing for the Berkeley. And I keep seeing these great youth and young adult jobs coming up. Only one is in a part of CT that is way too far for me to drive to work (3.5 hours) and the other is in Pensacola (and that would be a Diocesan job!). It's frustrating to see all of these coming and me being unable to respond to them except to think "nope, can't do that." I'm not saying I'm mad at my situation--I love Rick, and he has a house and a good job. Those are things that cannot be given up in today's economy, and now that Rick is finally doing the job he went to his company to do in the first place, he should revel in it! Not to mention that there are tons of churches up here. I just keep telling myself that all of these are coming up for other people, and that God really will show me some paths sometime soon. I guess I'm just hoping they're paths that I want, which is the problem, isn't it? Vocation isn't about what I want, it is about responding to the deepest needs of the world, as Beuchner put it, and that doesn't always involve our exact desires. Yes, your vocation must feed you, but it's not a self-vanity thing. I just have to be aware of that. And my boss at chapel has told me that a person willing and wanting (even better) to do young adult and youth work, I should have no problem getting a job.

So phew. The search is on. I hopefully hear from PhD programs in mid-February, which is when they usually start giving positive replies. Right now I just feel very up in the air, because I don't know what kind of job I'm looking for (PT or FT). Hell, Rick and I can't even discuss insurance for next year because we don't know if I'll be in school or at a job somewhere. Sheesh. My entry into the job market begins...now I just have to find something.

Other than that, today was the first day of the semester. Had a good class, which has now been moved to Wednesdays (this doesn't effect my ability to change it). I have no class on Mondays and Fridays this semester, which will be awesome. I have an oral presentation on a 300 page book next Wednesday, but I took that date because A. it's on John Donne and who wouldn't want to present on him? and B. I can get it out of the way now, and all I have left in that class will be a short 4-6 pp paper and a 20-25 pp paper. Shouldn't be too bad. And ISM. I've picked up more on that research, and am meeting with my partner in crime on Friday to plan our presentation. At this point I just want to pass it and get it over with. Because two days after that...I'm off to England! Woohoo! Haven't been back since I studied abroad in 03, so this will be good. We're going to Canterbury for the most part, but we'll be in London for a day (which is where I studied), and I think we have a free day. Alot of people are going to Cambridge, since we have an exchange there, but if it's a free day I'm going to go somewhere else. I've been to Cambridge (liked Oxford better, actually) so I would like to use this opportunity to go somewhere I haven't been. Or go to London and explore some more...who knows! Any suggestions?

Friday, January 09, 2009

Disgust and prayers.

Sometimes the government really grinds my gears, in the words of Peter Griffin. The UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. And what does the US do? Abstain. Seriously guys, come on. People are dying over there, and it is the ordinary civilians who have already been suffering from the blockade of Gaza...and now the ceasefire is being ignored, even if it means pushing Gazans into more and more impoverished situations...and they were already impoverished before! I realize the history and politics of the area are complex, but seriously. Human rights are an issue here, and the UN had to call off aid efforts because their people were being attacked and some even died. Come on. I'm not one to demonize one side over the other-it seems to me that both are at fault. But there are innocent people suffering for all of this.

So I'm asking us all to pray for Gaza. Pray for the people of Gaza. And pray for the leaders of our world, that they figure out that ordinary people ARE important.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Another day done...

That's right. Another day of the GOEs has come and gone. Today we had contemporary society and liturgy. The contemporary society question was no surprise--it was on the MDGs. I wouldn't have predicted that, but as it is the primary mission objective of the church today, it wasn't too surprising. What was funny about it was that I wrote on this question yesterday afternoon when talking about missio Dei and the role of the Son and the Spirit in that. And then here they showed up again. Ha. Funny how that works out...The liturgy question wasn't even really a liturgy question. We had to talk about two ways a community's and two ways an individual's lives are shaped by participation in the Eucharist. I'm not so sure how I did on this one...I don't feel bad about it. It just felt blah.

None of this was helped by the fact that I'm having a cold/sinus/allergy thing. I knew it was coming on last night, so I tried to drink OJ and rest up but to no avail. Luckily it didn't really bother me too too much until late this afternoon. Now my face is all stopped up and my nose is turning pink and raw from all of the blowing. Ew. May take some nighttime cold and sinus meds tonight to try and dry things up a bit. And drink lots of water (as that and milk are all I keep around...I finished the OJ). We don't have exams tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be horrid, so aside from a trip I have to make out in the afternoon, I'm lounging about watching TV.

I've started to work on this Golden Compass project for ISM. I think it may be quite interesting...but I'm not sure how I'm going to present it (it's in collaboration with another student). Nevertheless, there's one book I'm especially interested to read about how it is an allegory of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Paradise Lost. That fact in itself is not new to me (I think it's pretty obvious when you read the book), but I'll be interested to see how this particular author approaches it. Milton's so crazy to begin with (don't get me wrong...I LOVE me some Milton), I wonder how this guy is going to say Pullman "turns" him on his head.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Day One Down...Three to Go.

For those of you who don't know, right now I'm taking the General Ordination Exams for the Episcopal Church. It's basically a series of 7 3.5 hour exams that test various areas in which ordinands are supposed to show competency. Today we had scripture and theology. I felt pretty good about both of them. My scripture answer was a little long, but I tried and tried to cut stuff and felt that everything in there was essential. So we'll see. Theology was...interesting. The past few years have been questions concerning patristics, so I was expecting that. This year they added missiology to the theology part, and what do you know we got a mission question. Luckily my class with Ian Douglas prepared me somewhat for it, so I didn't feel completely out on a limb. Tomorrow we have contemporary society and liturgy and church music. What's funny is that on the liturgy and church music question we can't even use hymnal resources! That doesn't make ANY sense to me whatsoever, but then again no one asked me so there you go. So overall I felt pretty good about today's exams. Unfortunately right now I physically feel kind of cruddy. I worked out mid-day today (I finished exam 1 1.5 hours early so I had time), but this afternoon I started feeling gross. Now I feel like I'm coming down with a cold or something. So I have a big glass of OJ here next to me and hopefully that will help (too bad I don't feel like drinking it!)

Here's my funny news article for the day. I love the BBC news feed on Firefox. I always come across articles like this that are completely random but that I would probably not ever find otherwise. It's also a great way to read American news from a European perspective. There was an interesting article on Obama and his silence concerning the recent events in Gaza. I guess it makes sense, but I figure lots of people are going to be disappointed if he doesn't say something in two weeks.

That's about all I know. Have to start working on my ISM project. I hope to do some stuff on Wednesday. And maybe tomorrow night. We'll see how I feel after the exam. Everything was a sheet of ice here this morning. Rick called me at 8:15 to make sure I was OK (didn't pick up as I was in chapel, but I thought it was sweet). Apparently his house was surrounded by a solid sheet of ice this morning. It was pretty bad here, but it warmed up during the day so lots melted. It's supposed to be cold tonight, though, so I guess we're in for the same thing tomorrow. Yay New England.

Wear some crampons if you're going out there...

Sunday, January 04, 2009

I'm Back...

Sorry for the several month hiatus. A lot has happened. Here is a summary of the past few months:

1. PhD applications. I have one left to do (UConn, due on Feb. 2) but other than that I'm pretty much done with them. They've taken up tons of time, both in work and in stress levels.
2. The semester. School. Same ol same ol really but finals week I wrote 75 pages in 5 days. Pretty impressive, I think.
3. Job. I'm a chapel minister this year, and that involves planning the Wednesday night services as well as the every day morning prayer. It's pretty labor intensive but I really like it.
4. Life. This is a big one. My brother (age 22) was diagnosed with Berkitt's Lymphoma in November. It's thrown us all for a loop. He's started chemo (finished round 3 of 7 during Christmas week) and will have his first CT scan since this all happened on Thursday. Needless to say, prayers are welcome. I'm also planning a wedding. I got the dress over Christmas, and the bridesmaids picked theirs out. We have invitations too. So planning is coming along.
5. Future stuff. Now I have to turn to job things. If I don't get into a PhD program I'll be looking for a full time job in a parish. Otherwise I'll look for part time. GOEs are this week, which is stressful in and of itself. AND my ISM project is due in a month and we haven't done anything on it. Yikes. That's my project for this week-after the exams and going to the gym I've got to read like a maniac. Woowoo. And I have to get my CDO profile done so I can try to find a job. Yeehaw.

All of that has kept me away from my blog, but I'm hoping to be better about it this year. The semester should be interesting. I go to England the day after my birthday for a week, which will be fun. Mid-Feb. to March I should hear from programs and then I will have a better idea of what is going to be happening next year. Until then it's kind of up in the air.

I hope you all have a good 2009! See you around the blog!

Cheers