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I had my 6 month ring inspection a couple of days ago (all these new things married people have to do, goodness). It was uneventful.
Yesterday, as I was squirting shampoo into my hand I discovered a crack all the way through one of the bands on my ring. Sad! Now they have taken it away for 10 days and my hand is naked. Sigh.
Our "currently reading" shelf is getting a little big for its britches these days. It might look more ambitious than it actually is due to its co-function of holding library books, though. Right now we've got:
The Annotated Alice, Carroll, Gardener
Northanger Abby, Austin
The Baron in the Trees, Calvino Coyote Frontier, Steele
Representing Women, Nochlin
Printmaking for Beginners, Stobart
Prints: Art and Techniques, Lambert An Architectural Guidebook to Portland, King
Art in Theory: 1815-1900
Read the Bible for a Change, Lubeck
The Reason for God, Keller
The Well of Lost Plots, Fforde
and whatever it is Josh is laying on the floor reading.
So I've discovered I have an almost unhealthy love of apple cider and cornbread. It could be worse.
I have also recently discovered a ridiculous part of town called Forest Heights. If you want some entertainment, go for a drive down Cornell, take a right on Miller, and get ready for some giant houses, wild hills, and absurd sub-gated communities with weird, quasi-European themes (at least I think that's what they were going for).
This week I discovered that Portlanders, while they will keep cycling and running in fluorescent jackets, will not come out in the cold for First Thursday, and that the only way to get in to a hip martini bar where the menu is as entertaining as the beverages themselves, is to go before nine pm. ("Are we cool enough to go in there?" "Um, Yes - did you not see that old lady in there? Maybe she's rich, but we are definitely as cool.")
I also discovered in the recent past, that -with bookshelves- the more the merrier. This week we had to drive over to our storage unit (aka Emily's basement) and pick up one of ours that was lying in wait for a bigger house. Its services were needed sooner than we anticipated. Now our storage closet has shelves and our "currently reading" books have a new home - with beautifully carved details.
Josh's Sunday school class started last week.
[The goal of this class is to provide historical context (both geographical and cultural) and narrative context while following the Godʼs plan of redemption through the entire Bible. Like a giant connect-the-dots picture we will read the Bible and follow Godʼs revealed plan step-by-step. Not for the faint of heart, this series will include a syllabus, homework, further reading suggestions, and even a quiz or test (gasp). Bring a Bible, notebook, pen, and a folder for handouts.]
And, as it is not for the fainthearted, delivered, and were given homework.
For Sunday:
John 20-21
James
Ruth
Habakkuk
Daniel 9:20-27
Philippians 2:6-11
Psalm 121
Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you-
the LORD is your shade at your right
hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nr the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming
and going
both now and forevermore.
At the end of the quarter I usually make some comment regarding my grades. I sort of got caught up in other things this year and forgot to mention it. Not that it actaully needs to or even should be said, but I suppose I'm rather vain and would like my hard work to be rewarded with little pats on the back. These were my last undergraduate grades I will ever recieve, though they do not represent the last time I will be at PSU. Actually, as a matter of fact, I'm headed there even today to continue the extended "project", if you will, of getting my transcript straightened out so I can graduate. I just discovered YET ANOTHER problem that has appeared, so I'm sure I'll be there more than once this month. But back to the matter at hand: grades. My final grades were two A's, two A-'s, and one B+. Better than I expected, to be sure!
A happy ending to a tough quarter.
Usually I don't feel obligated to write some sort of End of the Year Blog, but I think 2008 deserves it. It's been quite a year.
Last New Year's we were in Portland, but just visiting. This year we're in Columbia, visiting. That's how this year started - flying back to Columbia to finish school. Then things just kept happening:
Josh graduated.
We road tripped to Portland.
Josh got a job.
We got a living situation.
We got married.
I graduated.
We came out to Columbia.
And that's just what happened directly to us - not to mention all the stuff that happened to our family and friends! Emily (both Emilys) graduated, Pamela went to Nicaragua, Alyssa moved to Oman, Nick and Liana got married... last night at Twigs and Kandace's, Twigs prayed and thanked God that we could get together and hear what God has been doing for us all in the last few months. That's pretty much all we can think of in regards to this year. It's pretty crazy. And a good thing, too, because we've got another year full of decsisions and changes.
Mmm... it has been a good year. We are celebrating by sitting on the couch together, Christmas tree on, laptops out, watching football and waiting for friends to arrive.
Happy New Year.
"Ah-wer is for Wooster!"
-Lizzy
Yesterday, while waiting for the bus, I saw two of my professors. I never see professors at the bus stop at 3:45pm. And these two professors, in particular, I have never seen outside the classroom. One, my Mark Twain prof from 3 years ago has grown his hair and beard out to be quite curly and bushy. He hopped on the 12. Then I saw Janet Cowell the awesome linguistics prof! I think she got off a bus. And busted out her industrial sized razor scooter thing and rode off toward the center of campus. It was quite entertaining.
I'm not terribly concerned about Christmas commercialism (for myself personally, as a Christian).
To take a break from paper writing yesterday, Josh and I ran out to Big Lots to buy some cheap decorations (my little gold ribbon tree!), wrapping paper, and the like. I had planned to not go out on Black Friday, but it was 5pm and I needed a break, and the craziness is mostly over by then, anyway. We got home with all our treasures and dug through the storage room for the Christmas things we had from before. We put up our beautiful new Nativity set from my parents, more candles, shiny things, and our little fake tree. Not to mention made a Christmas mix on itunes and drank hot chocolate with candy canes!
This does not bother me because we did not stress over the purchasing or putting up of the decorations. We just had fun. Christmas joy comes from Jesus, yes, but putting in a little effort to make the holiday sparkle - adding a little magic, if you will - helps me to spend a month thinking about Christmas, rather than two days, which is probably what it would be for me, if there was no big build up.
Josh is out helping to decorate at church (and yes, I am writing papers - right now!), which I'm sure is so much fun. God likes us to get together and have fun! We still have a few more presents to buy, a bunch to make, and some socks, towels and toothpaste to buy for the gifts for the homeless thing at church, and I'm excited about it. I'm also excited to sing songs about Baby Jesus with Lizzy, have time to hang out with people, and be generally exited about life.
Yay Christmas!
Josh falls asleep reading Harry Potter 2
He distracts me from my homework even when he's sleeping
"This is the single scariest collection in Mesopotamian art. They're staring at you and it's personal. I mean, how many cups of coffee are we talking about?!"
-George Armantrout in Ancient Art, on the Statuettes of Worshipers at the Square Temple of Abu in Tell Asmar, Iraq.
I was recently telling someone in class how much I enjoy riding the bus. It's true. I love it: you can sleep, do homework, listen to music, not look for parking. I especially love that I, in my current bus rout, do not have to change buses at any time. Sweet.
Last evening's ride was particularly entertaining. Usually I catch the bus that all the noisy highschoolers get on. I also nearly get sat on. Yesterday's breed were, as I discovered, the more geeky kind. They are less likely to make lots of noise or sit on (or even near) you. They do, however, increase in volume when they are talking about topics they enjoy.
I heard a lull of adolescent male voices behind me, not taking much notice until I heard the words "stem cell research". Hm. A somewhat interesting topic. Then some uncertainty about babies. Creamation. Bio waste. Zombies! Now I'm really interested. I love it when boys talk about zombies. They begin arguing about how to go about creating zombies and how to make them mutate faster. Hm, yes. One seems to have the most plausable solution. They talk about zombies some more. I return to my ipod. Something about cloning zombies. Cloning Obama. Multiple Obamas - "Can you imagine what would happen? 10 Obamas?" "Yeah, lots of stuff!" "Lots of assasinations - they'd be killed all over the place!" "What? No they wouldn't..."
In short: Bus. Highschool boys. Stem cell research. Zombies. Obamas. This might be why I ride the bus.
My foot is asleep and I need to be doing homework.
Allison studies and writes many words.
In search of a proper vessel in which to put my bouquet (thanks sweet husband of two months), I went to the Wedding Reception Glass Decorations box. After plowing through three water pitchers, some sort of decanter, and a trifle bowl I made a discovery. The slightly unpleasant odor of our storage room was not from our boxes of outerwear, nor the laundry hamper. Indeed, it had a much more sinister source. As I detangled yet another water decanter from a long strip of brown paper, much like an overgrown grocery bag, I saw what appeared to be a sci-fi chemistry experiment. Brown, multi-textured, foreign. I squealed and gave it to Josh.(Thanks, Ben, or whichever other Capernwrayer decided to squish a lemon into a too small space.)
This quarter I feel like I'm in some sort of linguistic maze or dream, of sorts.
In my Ancient Art History class (mostly worthless), the categorizing words are Latin (?) based made to sound scientific and smart only because the scholars have no idea what they are looking at, and there is no good way to talk about any of it. In Linguistics 300 I learned out to make up scientific sounding words. It's easy.
In Iran Through Film (fabulously adorable prof), we are reading a book titled "Strange Times, My Dear" (which I highly recommend), an anthology of contemporary Iranian literature full of translated stories and poetry with most incredible uses and manipulations of language.
My class with the hilariously ambiguous title "The English Novel" (it makes my Scottish prof laugh) is taught with a strong accent and an attitude of awareness about the differences of dialects.
One of the most entertaining professors I have is a poet. He teaches Modern British Literature. If he, by chance, says a word combination that sounds nice, or is complex in irony or existentialism he repeats it, lovingly. He loves words.
In the Modern Middle East 2, we constantly face loaded words with meanings that must be chased after and pinned down, and words from other languages or eras or empires that will never translate all the way (and somehow, a lot of words that sort of rhyme). Yesterday, the weirdest thing happened. We were discussing the "Seventeenth century crisis and its effect on the Middle East" in small groups and I feel weird discussing things with nameless people, so I asked my seatmates their names. I was sitting with a Don, Allison and Doug. I started and said "Ha! Wow, random!" and forgot to explain why.
October humbly glides in - fall, with just a little fog. Perfect timing, too: last night I bought apple cider, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves (20 cents in the bulk section of WinCo!); this morning I dressed Lizzy in a brown thermal.
I should probably wear socks today. Or maybe a hat.
When the majority of people you see from day to day are between the ages of 15 months and 3 years, the world becomes slightly skewed. I'm begining to pick up their behaviors and have started responding to things in the negative.
Here's a sampling of what I hear:
Bella: Nonononononononono!
Lizzy: I do NOT want to do _____.
Kylie: Waaaa! Nono.
Maranda: No. I don't like that.
Today I know I should inconvenience myself and go Back to PSU DARS office and explain exactly where the ball got dropped yesterday and exactly what I need done, but I am tired (and tired of PSU offices) and I do NOT want to drive downtown, pay for parking, and talk to people who do not pay enough attention to get it right the first time.
Nononono.
Bacon, Cheese, Peanut Butter Omelet- creamy peanut butter
- bacon bits
- cheese
- eggs
1. First, crack the eggs, put them in a bowl, and mix until yellow. 2. Next, pour into a pan on medium heat. 3. Then, flip when cooked at bottom. 4. While eggs are cooking, melt butter in microwave. 5. When melted, mix butter, peanut butter, and bacon bits together. 6. Pour mixture onto eggs. 7. When finished cooking, fold in half and enjoy!
Have a great breakfast!!!
...or a NASTY breakfast! This recipe calls to mind Doug Drinnon and his nasty peanut butter grilled cheese sandwiches at Ft Stevens. Peanut butter and cheese do not go together! What is wrong with you people?!
Here is my business card mock up. Opinions?
Josh is wearing my Pucker-Up shirt today - yay!
As of Tuesday, Josh and I have been married for a whole month now. It sounds so short, but each week feels like a month (hey sort of like Capernwray) with all the things we've had to do, learn and figure out. Incidentally, we spent our one month anniversary in court. Or rather, I did - I had to serve jury duty for the first time. I've been putting it off for four years so I figured I'd just get it done. (It wasn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be, btw.)
I had thought about writing a post about different things we like/have learned, etc, in our month of being married (people ask us about that all the time - such a pointless question, really - as if we're really going to sit down and tell you about it), but as I was thinking about it that night, I realized my favorite thing - something that sort of sums up why I'm glad we've been married, even if only for a month: standing in the bedroom door brushing my teeth, talking theology and philosophy of God (are they the same thing?) with Josh. I also love that I was brushing with all natural toothpaste from Trader Joe's (we're addicted - to TJ's that is, not the toothpaste... we're only just getting used to that), and that the conversation stemmed from our small group study of Hebrews: God always provides, if not always in our most conventional ideas.
(and a few old ones)
-vanilla yogurt with fresh, blanched peaches.
-our hundred and something year old trunk (yes it smells that old).
-looking at new Fall clothes online (it makes me so happy).
-listening to little voices and footsteps through the ceiling.
-Trader Joes.
-having a sink of dirty dishes (= having my own kitchen and dishes).
-listening to my ipod (thanks Em!).
-cold, sunny Fall mornings.
So last night Josh and I spent thing evening/night distracting/entertaining our friends Nathan and Jody while they waited for their parents to arrive from Seattle. We had arranged an exchange: they provide dinner, we provide Quelf (it seems to be the one thing we are consistently capable of).
Their contribution of dinner consisted of homemade chicken pot pie. Delish. While discussion the food, it was mentioned how pot pie is a wonderful comfort food. "Word"
As I walked in to Costellos this morning, I was again struck with the idea of comfort food. Not being Southern, my comfort food is probably a little different: sushi for summer comfort, mexican soup works for fall comfort food. Costellos is comfort food any day of the year. And even more comfort than just food - walking in to find friendly baristas who know who I am, Florence and Barcelona on the screens, Caffe Umbria espresso in my americano, and friendly patrons, asking to join me with their macs and dells at my table.
Perfect comfort breakfast on a sweater wearing first day of September.
We end up with lots of leftovers (not necessarily our own) in our fridge. 
We harass our upstairs neighbors for cooking supplies. We spend a lot of time at the library (I am putting a hold on this book). 
We don't wash our cars (and frequent the particular gas stations most likely to wash our windows). We drink a lot of tea (it comes in bulk at WinCo!). 
We spend a lot of time on the "free" section of Craig's list wishing they weren't such a long drive away or that we had a big enough house for whatever is free on any given day.
Last New Year's we were in Portland, but just visiting. This year we're in Columbia, visiting. That's how this year started - flying back to Columbia to finish school. Then things just kept happening:
Josh falls asleep reading Harry Potter 2
He distracts me from my homework even when he's sleeping
our angry faces (Bella doesn't really get it)
we all made it into the frame - amazing.
I spend most of my time with this one - she loves Photobooth (woo!), paper dolls and Pixar.
I finally ordered my Party Lite candles from MaryBeth! (The cool ones on the ends are from her) They are fantastic. You should get some.
We drove to Spokane for the weekend to attend my Great Great Aunt Ethel's memorial. And to drive some of her stuff back to P-town.
And I got some new glasses!
"This is the single scariest collection in Mesopotamian art. They're staring at you and it's personal. I mean, how many cups of coffee are we talking about?!"
