Finally!

Friends, that wasn't a long book (the one I talked about yesterday), but I just couldn't finish it quickly.  But, done it is.  Now I can listen to my lectures & write my essays for the week.

Tonight, I'm seeing Eclipse (3rd Twilight movie, in case you've been living under a rock), and I'll be going early to try to ensure that I get a seat somewhat near my friends.  Since I'll be there about an hour and a half early, I'll be taking Sea Glass with me, and I may finish it.  Well, maybe not.  I'm really enjoying it and don't want it to be over, since the next one doesn't come out for a few months.  I do have C.S. Lewis to read, though, so I can always do that, but it's nice to have some fantasy to escape into.

I also have Chi Running on the way from the library, and that should be interesting.  My problem with that, though, is that I'll feel like I really need to pay attention and read a little at a time to incorporate what it tells me. 

I've been a reading fiend lately, but that's totally okay with me.  I think I'm also going to put Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into the rotation, because I've only read it once and the preview for the movie made me all goose-bumpy and excited. 

Cheers!

Trying not to fight the change

Right now I'm plugging through Men at the Crossroads: Beyond Traditional Roles & Modern Options for class, and I'm having a bit of a hard time.  At first, I was feeling pretty bratty about it, thinking things like, "Oh, poor men!  They have it soooooo hard!" and rolling my eyes at the different men's movements. 

What makes me angry is when men, especially Christian men, moan about society being all about women and how men are at a disadvantage now.  Um, hello?  No, they're not.  Women still make 20-30% less then men do, we're still expected to be more like men at work....but this isn't why I'm here right now.

Basically, I was blowing off all questions and issues that men may have.  Sometimes I get a glimpse and understand a little bit the stress that men are under, but I often think it's all their own doing with their machismo and weird ways of thinking and why don't they just knock it off?!  And this doesn't help. 
I want men to care about and try to understand women's issues, so why shouldn't I do the same for them?

So, I go back to my reading with a different frame of mind.  I will listen to these lectures with interest and compassion, and my eyes will look forward, not at the ceiling. 

It's only okay

I didn't write earlier, while it was still Sunday, because I had a headache and was busy feeling sorry for myself.  So there.  Harrumph.

I was feeling down because my teaching was only okay and I gave myself a stress headache beforehand and I was beating myself up about not being a perfect speaker.

I've only taught 5 times.  I know that no one else expects me to be perfect, but I feel like they're all quite ready for me to not teach anymore.  I don't know if they realize that I'm new to this and I have to grow and learn. 

My problem is that I have too many ideas that I think go together and flow, but they only really do so in my head, at least not without a lot more connection.  This isn't a new problem, but one I've run into writing papers- I get entirely too many sources- and here on the blog, where I quite often get long-winded when I don't mean to or want to do so. 

So I must learn to prune my works a bit and find the main ideas I want to express, keeping all the other stuff for a different work of its own, or as support for something else.  I don't have to express everything I'm thinking just this minute.

Reading:  I read my notes & parts of Hosea again, and I finished Out of the Silent Planet, which was pretty good, but Lewis went a little overboard with the descriptions.   I was often waiting for something to happen besides description of the flora. 

Fantastic!

Today, I read 3 things: the end of Redeeming Love, which was nice; Hosea, which is in preparation for teaching tomorrow; and the credits at the end of Toy Story 3.

It was lovely.  I woke up after sleeping for 12 hours, and I went straight to my book and finished it.  It definitely is a Christian book, but it is well-written and not afraid of dark places.  I did roll my eyes a couple of times, because it always annoys me in books when people hold onto grudges or cockamamie ideas longer than they need to just for the book to go on longer.   But I would still recommend it.

Then I got to work on the yard, which was a sweatier job than I expected it to be.  I tied up the little dog in the front and let Underwood wander while Seth put up the front screen door (yeah!) and I raked, picked up piles, and praise the Lord- cut down our yellow rose bush.  I wasn't sure if there would be room in the greens bin for it, because it was so freaking tall, but I was determined and it is GONE! 

I puttered around the back yard a little bit, picking up weeds and a little poo, hosing off the clothes line, and just getting a move on. 

Seth and I then walked into town and saw TS3, which was good.  Yes, I like the Toy Story movies, but I'm not in love with them.  I probably like the first one best.  We laughed a bit and I cried a lot at the end, though I was fighting it, so I got a headache.  I enjoyed the fact that the Gipsy Kings sang "You've Got a Friend in Me" in Spanish, and, although it wasn't in the credits, one of the pieces of music in a sad part definitely sounded like "A Heart Full of Love" from Les Mis. 

We walked to the post, office, split a burrito at the mall, I got a decaf coffee with a Starbucks gift card, and we played in Brookstone.  Lovely.  We played Rock Band, but only for 3 songs, because I was much more tired than I thought, with a bit of a headache. 

Tomorrow is church, helping friends with a luncheon they're having after church to talk about their missions in Mexico (enchiladas!), and teaching tomorrow night.  It will be a great day.  Smooches!

This is NOT a blog post

Were this an actual blog post, it would either be much more interesting or much more boring.  In any case, it would be longer.

Regular blogging will continue on schedule tomorrow.

Thank you for your patience.  I'm going to read now.

Ah, a read for fun day

I didn't do any homework today, and that was totally fine.  I would have read a little bit for school, but the book I need hasn't come yet.  Other than that one, of which I read as much as I could on Amazon, I'm pretty much done with my duties for this week.  We had an essay due tonight, and I appear to be the only one who has turned it in.  I was going to be all proactive and respond to others tonight, but there are none there. 

I had a lovely, social day, and had a good time at the gym tonight, and I read.  I'm working on Redeeming Love and I mostly like it.  There are sentences & scenes every once in a while that are a tad on the "corny Christian fiction" side, but not many, and I'm enjoying the story. 

This is the problem:  when I'm into a book, I'm kind of okay with not going to bed at a decent, human hour, because I want to read.  I've always been this way. 
I may need the help of nyquil tonight, because I was at the gym later than I expected (doing an  hour of cardio will do that) and I...well, I took a nap.  Kind of.  Fell asleep on the couch.  But I was so tired!!  I could hardly keep my eyes open.  Gah. 

Tomorrow we have a YA event at a park, where we'll be hiking (wandering in the hills, really) for a couple hours, then grilling by one of the lakes.  It should be lovely.

Also, I realize that YA can refer to teenagers, like Young Adult fiction.  That is not this group, though there are some teenagers involved. It's college and other young adults, up to around the mid-30s mark, meaning that I'm too old, but I'm a leader, so there.

Power point slides, y'all

That's what I've read today.  I had a very busy day- not just busy for me, but busy for anyone- and I didn't get much homework done.  At my volunteer job, I listened to one of my lectures, following along with the slides & taking notes there.  I'm currently listening to another lecture, and the professor speaking right now reminds me a little of Eugene Levy, with a little bit of a Brooklyn accent thrown in from time to time.  So he'll make a really smart statement with big words, but he slightly mispronounces the words (which he admits) and then I kind of want him to add a "badda-bing!" on the end.  Which would be especially wonderful, being that we're talking about sex.

I did pick up three books from the library, though.  I got another C.S. Lewis book, Surprised by Joy, the next Maria V. Snyder book in her Glass series, Sea Glass, and Redeeming Love, which is a novelization of the story of Hosea and Gomer.  I would like to get this read before Sunday, if it could help me with my teaching.  (Yes, I spoke on Hosea last week, but I'm also speaking about it this week.)


I think I'll write my essays for this week tomorrow, then start hitting the fiction, including Lewis, so I can get ahead for my class. 

Didn't blog yesterday, but slept AT NIGHT

thank you, nyquil. 
I didn't remember about blogging yesterday until I was safely tucked into bed at 11pm, and I decided to stay there, rather than get up & turn the computer back on to blog.  Sorry, blogging goal.

I had a good day yesterday, and I mostly read for school.  I continued to work on Authentic Human Sexuality, which continued to be really interesting and good.  It is really one of the best, most realistic Christian books on sex I've read.  Of course, it's written by a family therapist and a sociologist (my professors for this class), so you would hope it would be honest and realistic.  The section I read was still a basic introduction/overview, so I'll be interested to see how specific issues are dealt with moving forward.

I also started on Beyond Sex Roles, which is a nice complement to the class on women in ministry that I took.  At first, I didn't think it would have anything really new to add to what I learned there, but it's nice because it appears that he's starting from the creation accounts and may analyze every relevant passage in the Bible about men & women.  So far, I just read about Genesis, and I was both reminded of things I learned in my class and shown a new way of seeing some things.  It's pretty exciting.

I wasn't sure that this class was going to be what I wanted it to be, but it's going to great.  I think it's going to be very good for real-life issues in ministry, and just in life.  As I've gotten to know a little about some of my classmates (through our message board), I see that we all have vastly different ministry experience, but we all have similar questions on issues in sexuality that we're bringing to the discussion and we know that the church needs to address these issues more clearly and, well, at all. 

Surprise!! It's the first day of school!

I thought I had another week until the summer quarter began, but I was wrong.  I realized I was wrong when I received an e-mail reminding me that payments were due today.  Uh...crap.
No worries on the money, though.  I do a payment system, so I don't need to pay until July. 
On the other hand, I wasn't prepared to start reading for class and figuring out all my online stuff.  This class is all done online, with the lectures (videos, thank goodness) and handouts, message boards, exams, etc all done on a website.  So, I had to go through a boring orientation-type thing, which mostly told me things I could have figured out on my own, but there were a few good points. 

So, I feel a little stressed today, but I think I'm mostly over it.  I was partially feeling scrambled, because it was, "Crap! How am I going to start reading for the C.S. Lewis class? How am I going to finish The UltraMind Solution before it's due in 3 days?  How am I going to spend time on ancestry.com before I have to pay again? AGH!"

Then I calmed myself. I poked around on the message boards and "met" the other people in my class, introduced myself, and then I went for a run.  I will remember that making time to work out always pays off.  After the run and a trip to get fruit & veggies, I am home & calm.  I've started reading for this class, and I'm already digging on it.  I also remind myself that everything doesn't have to be done TODAY.  If I keep with my 3 hours of homework per day regimen, I will be totally fine.  And I also get to read for fun when I budget well like that. 

My class is on issues of gender and sexuality that occur in ministry, and it seems like it's going to be great and right up my alley.  We'll be talking about things that I'm passionate about and that are relevant to my church experience, such as dealing with pastoral indiscretion. 

In the book by the professors, Authentic Human Sexuality, I'm only about 20 pages in (to the wrong edition, grrrr. and there is a difference), but I'm already impressed.  One of the first things they talk about is hermaphroditism and gender assignment at birth, and the need for a space for gender-neutral persons.  Wow.  Not what I expected, even though I go to a liberal school.  I guess I still expected the Christian writers to, I don't know, talk about people cursed by God that we need to pray for. 

Don't worry, I didn't order the wrong edition of the book (I hope).  It's just not here yet, so I'm reading the previews on Amazon & Google books. 

Hasta mañana.

Today? Oh, it was mediocre

I was up till past 5freaking30 this morning, so I ended up skipping church, which I guess was okay because I missed all the Father's Day whoo-hah.  After attempting to call my own dear father, I went back to bed. 

But I did buy him a book!  I bought him the audio version of The UltraMind Solution on iTunes, because I'm really digging on it and I think my parents will, too.  This book is blowing my mind, and part of me can't wait to try the dietary changes the author recommends because he makes it seem like magical fairy dust will come down and everything will be better. 

Believe me, I'm going into it with skepticism and not a ton of enthusiasm, because I'm not particularly excited about giving up gluten & dairy, if even for 6 weeks.  But if I see a change, you know I'll tell you about it.   Everything this guy is saying makes a lot of sense:  that our medical practices have gotten all out of whack and that we now treat every part of our bodies as completely separate and disconnected from the rest, and then we throw different pills at each part whenever something goes wrong.  He posits that our diets are so dysfunctional that many many of our ailments, both physical and psychological, would be greatly improved, if not cured, by taking better care of ourselves, with the chief manner being a change of diet.

Like Pollan & Schlosser, he says tat we eat entirely too much processed food that is lacking in basic nutrients.  The FDA guidelines for vitamins and minerals really only get us to a survival level, not a place where our bodies are healthy and thriving. 

I'm excited about this approach because I have noticed and lamented the fact that I could make a fairly long list of things that are amiss in my body, and in Seth's.  I'm entirely too young to have a laundry list of medical problems and not wanting to bring them up to the doctor because I don't want to have to get one more prescription. 

So, I read the book.  The author repeats himself a lot, and I'm skimming a lot, partially because he doesn't really have to convince me and I'm not wowed by his illustrations of lipids and cell walls.  At times, it feels a little like a horoscope, in that he's casting such a wide net that everyone would have to say yes to some things in his checklists.  The thing is that I find myself wanting to check off nearly everything in his list of woes, and I do believe that medication mainly addresses symptoms instead of causes.

I suspect that, starting in July, we're going to be eating very differently, at least for a while.  And we'll see how it goes.  I really want it to help with a lot of things, because that will be our impetus to continue eating healthily. 

Hugs, friends!  Tomorrow I keep reading this book & I'll probably read the C.S. Lewis one I have up there on my Good Reads list.  I don't remember exactly which one it is, so you'll have to look up & slightly to the right. 

Saturday night

I had 2 parties to attend today, but I was feeling more motivated to work on my Bible study (better term) for tomorrow, so I skipped out.  I also knew, though, that I had to work out.  I'm trying to keep my new motto in mind: Depression can't hit a moving target.  I should have gone to the gym to do some backwards elliptical-ing, but I read to pass the time on that, and I wasn't in the mood to read anything.  I don't have a magazine I'm into right now, I don't have a book I'm salivating over, and I just didn't want to be distracted by anything.  So I took both dogs out for a walk, which was lovely.

In the end, I felt good about my preparations for tomorrow, so I headed to the second party.  We have a pretty low-key approach in our YA group, with a lot of group discussion and an open forum vibe, so I just needed to get my order of operations straightened out.  I'm still new to teaching, so I get a little nervous. 

Also, I didn't end up getting a satisfactory movie clip relevant to Hosea.  I wanted something more surprising and maybe edgy, something about loving in the face of rejection and hatred, but I couldn't figure anything out. I'm stuck with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which feels like a cop out.  I mean, I love it, but it's blatantly about Jesus, so using it to represent redemption isn't all that creative. 

Oh, well.  Have an awesome Sunday!  Read your Bible! 
 

Not in the mood, y'all

I have placed my order with Husband's Delivery Service for 2 movies &  a bottle of wine.  We're going to watch Alice in Wonderland, which I fully expect to hate, so I also rented The Time Traveler's Wife, which you know I love, in order to have a back-up.  I didn't want to punish him with Leap Year just yet.  Maybe next week. 

Today I finished reading through Hosea and poked around a little bit on the topic of redemption.  I don't really have an outline or real focus to my thoughts yet.  We've had a laid-back format lately, though, so I could just read through it with everyone and we could discuss.  We'll see.  I'll work more tomorrow, in between a graduation party and a housewarming party. 

Since we also have a movie theme this summer, I have a pile of DVDs on the couch so I can skim through and try to find relevant clips to illustrate my points.  I don't HAVE TO, but it would be nice.

In other news, I brought out some more summer clothes, packed away winter clothes, and worked on putting things away, and I realized that we are so very rich and spoiled.  I was setting myself a small goal, so as to no be overwhelmed with the pile of clothes, so I was counting things I put away.  Usually when I set a tiny goal, I end up going beyond it once I get into actually getting things done.  Today, I put away 70- SEVENTY- items of clothing (not counting socks & underwear) and we still have quite a mountain, plus the things already in drawers and the closet.  Wow.  I have a large bag started already of things to be donated, but maybe I need to have a second, truly ruthless go round through my clothes.  I mean, how many hooded sweatshirts do I really need?  Really? 

A good day

Today I am finishing up Storm Glass and I started working more earnestly on my--can we just call it a "sermon" for ease of conversation? thanks--sermon for Sunday night.  Hosea is pretty heavy, and it reminds me a bit of Job, in the "Gee, thanks, God, for trusting me so much in this way!" sort of manner. 

I had planned on staying at church for all of Big Time (so, until after 9), but I just couldn't.  I did have a fantastic time talking, eating nachos, and laughing maniacally with some of my students, though.  We in the office had a slow night, so we just chilled, I watched some of the water jug baseball game out in the field, and then my comfy couch & book I'm almost done with called to me. 

So here I sit, on the web instead of reading, because The Internet is what I read the most.  Twitter, links people put up on twitter, links Seth sends to me, catching up on FB:  these are what I do the most.  But I have made better time for reading and have found a good balance between school reading and reading for fun.

If you'll excuse me, I have to find a way to look up movies about prostitution without finding porn sites. 

My Nose Ring

I'm not certain that I'll ever stop playing with it.  I've asked a friend who also has her nose pierced, and she says that she has never stopped fiddling with it, and she's had it for 4 years. 

Wednesday if often Blergday

Today has not/did not go as planned.  I wanted to and needed to get some things done before my volunteer job, so I set my alarm for a reasonable hour.  Unfortunately, I had my earplugs in entirely too well, and I woke up at 12:09pm.  Ugh.

So, my fabulous day of doing dishes, working out, then lazily reading while volunteering turned into hurry-hurry-chaos-hurry.  I only read a little bit, because it was just a busy day.  There was a National Geographic camera crew at ADI, so people were constantly in and out of my area of the building, and people were actually coming in and wanting, gosh, help!

Then I got to feel like a complete noob trying to wrangle a design program on a Mac since my lovely student helpers were MIA at Big Time.  I was stupidly printing multiple pages when I only needed one (of color! my little tree-hugging heart was bleeding), and couldn't figure out how to fix that until the last name tag (yep, it's 2 words today) was printed.  Then I fumbled my way through a database, having to go back and find almost every person I put in to add something that I forgot.  When one of the students finally showed up, I made her enter the last two people as a punishment, though she knows what she's doing and it took her about 2 minutes. It's not like I'm 85 and know nothing about computers!  I'm intuitive, dammit!

So, I'm at home again instead of being at the gym.  I was feeling harried, and I am going to sit and start anew tomorrow.  Dishes are clean, laundry is washing, I'm sitting with my husband.  I shan't have guilt.

Reading:  I'm working on Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder, which is not really a sequel to her "Study" series, but kind of is.  There are some overlapping characters and it is set in the same world, a few years after the last book of that series.  I'm really liking it so far.  She doesn't write in any sort of sensational way, but I get sucked into her stories.  They're earthy, but not slow.  I wish I could describe it better. *

*edited because I used the wrong they're/their/there.  I told you it was a blerg kind of day. 

Prostitutes as Metaphors

I'm teaching at the young adult group on Sunday (actually, the next 3 Sundays, I think), and I'm starting out teaching on the book of Hosea.  For the summer we are having a focus on story, while also trying to draw together the Old and New Testaments, since not everyone understands their cohesion.

Hosea is about the prophet (Hosea), who is told by God to marry, well, a ho.  Some translations say, "a woman of whoredom."  (Best word ever?  Likely.  Whoredom.  Work it into your conversations, if you can.)  Anyway, God tells Hosea to marry this woman and raise another man's (men's? possibly) children.  It's a bit heartbreaking, and Hosea has to go and buy back his wife, I think more than once.  God did this as a representation of what the nation of Israel had done in it's relationship with him.  They had turned from their covenant with him and turned to worship other gods, basically whoring themselves out to whoever they thought would serve their purposes best.

The thing is, it isn't just about the old nation of Israel.  It's about all of us.  We're all dirty whores who look for security wherever we think it can be found, trying this and that, worshiping our own desires instead of trusting God and remaining faithful, even when we can't see what he's doing.

And the great thing is that, even though there is a covenant and rules and God always threatened to destroy Israel, his abiding patience and desire to be with them/us overcame his anger.  There was always, "But if you'll turn to me and obey my commands," and other conditions like that.   And Jesus did all the buying back that we need.  That's the best part.  "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8.  

He loves us in our whoredom, in our filth, in our stank.  He adores us and wants us and already bought us back from sin.  We have to choose to stay.  

Magazines and Nametags

Today was a lovely day spent with my sister.  We both slept in quite late, then got ourselves ready to do some running around.  First, we went over to ADI and played with the 3 litters of puppies that are there, including 3 teeny, tiny pups just born via c-section two days ago.

We then went by the library where I picked up Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder, the last week's EW, and Perelandra, which I'll be reading for class. I also returned a book that I thought I returned, but Seth found it in my car after I filed a "claim returned" at the library.  Oh, well. 

Then, we had a great time at the park.  We moseyed around a bit, then I had a great 1/2 hour run while my sister moseyed on her own.  We both stood in the lake for a while, then got b.o.g.o. burritos for dinner.  Ahhhh, good day.

Tonight was the kick-off for Big Time, our yearly, week-long party for the junior high students at church.  Last year, I was a small group leader, but I decided to pass on that this year.  I don't like corralling and having to discipline more and keep students in line, which is why it bothers me so much when my high school girls are overly-wacky.  So, this year, I'm working in registration, which is a breeze.  I sit in the back office with some of my favorite students while they put kids' info into the database & make nametags.  I, then, have the fabulous job of cutting the nametags out and putting them into lanyards.  It's a rough job. 
Of course, I also got to help put garbage bags over all the chairs in the sanctuary, since many of the kids were going to be quite wet and/or dirty from the insane games they were playing. 

I'm going to keep trying to just borrow EW from the library and not subscribe again.  I just love magazines.  I did, in fact, subscribe to Rolling Stone since I got an offer of 6 months for $1.  I don't necessarily care to read about music that much, but my love for magazines will carry me through.  I also got a free subscription to Christianity Today, which I have also had on and off over the past few years. 

Ah, magazines.  Such an excellent way to have little snippets of entertainment when I need it.

Hasta mañana. 

Learning

This blogging everyday about reading is an exercise.  Often, I'm sure it will mostly be an exercise in frustration, but hopefully it will often be good for growth.  I want to grow as a writer and a communicator. 

I know that I am already okay at speaking and writing, but I'm not very good at organization of my thoughts and having a well thought-out plan, which is necessary for getting your points across.  It's easier to sort of make it up as you go along when speaking, as far as being able to find your train of thought and get things headed in the right direction.  At least, I think I can do it. 

So, I read and write a lot.  I don't know that I often stop and take notice when I'm reading something really well-written, because I think that I just get caught up in it, but I do notice sometimes.  I read an old essay by Garrison Keillor, who I normally cannot stand, and it was very very good.  It was funny and human and, for the first time ever, made me want to read one of his books.  Maybe I should, just to observe and try to figure out what I like about what he's doing.

I definitely notice bad writing, and I read a lot of bad writing being that I read romance novels and kids books for the most part when I'm not in school.  The book I'm about to finish, Seducing a Scottish Bride, is passable enough, but the writer has a few writerly tics that are quite noticeable and annoying.  The worst one is that the characters are constantly going, "No-o-o" or "O-o-oh!" in surprise or shock.  Seriously.  Always with the three syllables. 

I want to be aware of the crutches and tics that I rely on in my papers, in my teaching at church, and even in the fiction writing that I dabble in.  I want to clear them up, use different words, and write with clarity.  Then, for some of the those purposes, I still want to be funny.  And here, in my blog, I'll probably go back and forth between attempts at propriety and quality and just blurting out whatever I want because it's my blog, so there.  

Today's and Yesterday's Blog: It's a 2-for-1 bargain!

mood: hot and meh with a pain in my foot

Yesterday I read menus, checks, and the backs of books.  'Twas my sister's birthday, so we went to Denny's for her free Grand Slam.  I got a $4 "Value Slam" and a Coke for $2.29.  That annoyed me.  I'm turning into a total old person, practically telling people that their prices are highway robbery. 

After our healthy breakfast, we headed down to the city, where we looked at fancy houses, wandered, and slowly made our way to the deYoung museum.  The museum was fine, but I don't think I need to go back.  The nice thing was that there was a party going on, so there was music and people bustling about.


For dinner, we wanted to take advantage of the Dine About Town program that was going on, so we could get a 3 course dinner for $35 at a number of restaurants in town.  We decided on Le Central, a very cute-looking French bistro right by the Chinatown gate.  At first, our waiter was very good and went above and beyond.  My sister was torn on what to order for her main course, so he brought her out a taste of one so she could decide.  He also gave her some veggies in addition to her fries, even though she asked too late.  But then, it all went awry.  After giving us our food, he asked us once how things were, and then he truly paid no attention to us for half an hour.  He helped the people to our right and left, offering some dessert, but never looking at us.  We had to ask the busser for more water and to box our food.  We asked the busser to let our waiter know that we wanted to order our dessert.  Nothing.  Finally, we spoke with the manager, asking for our desserts to go.  The waiter dropped them off with an attitude, and brought us our bill in a huff.  So strange.

After the awkward exit, we moseyed over to Borders, where I looked at Father's Day cards, with no luck, then looked in vain for the books for my class.  I so wish that I could buy books with abandon, but it is not to be.

Wow.  Boring yesterday post. 

Today! I didn't read much at all today.  I have yet to pick up the fantastic romance novel I'm reading, Seducing a Scottish Bride, but I'll be bustling off to relax and read that soon.  You know you're jealous of my smut.  It was another freebie from RT.  I didn't read all of them, but I at least give them a try.  This one is okay, so far.  I'll finish it. 

Tomorrow is a busy day with church and a possible trip to the beach.

May future posts be more interesting. 

A chapter and a magazine

Today was a good day that kind of flew by.  I slept pretty late, but I always figure that my body needs a lot of sleep, so that's fine, if a bit annoying.  My sister slept even later, though, so I felt all up-and-at-'em. 

I had to finish up some homework today, so I had to read a chapter from a book on prayer, and it really gave me some mixed feelings.  It was talking about tearful prayer, and that a surfeit of tears is necessary for repentance and closeness to God.  It didn't exactly say that you couldn't be close to God without tears, but that's the impression I got, and I call that a bunch of hooey. 

Not to say that I don't think brokenness is necessary in our lives, but this author went so far as to say that if, after asking God for this tearful spirit, it doesn't come, you should keep knocking and asking for it, because it is just that important.

I think that if you ask God for a broken and contrite heart, and you mean it, and the weeping just doesn't come, than that is God saying, "That's okay."  Sure, examine your heart and make sure you're not being hard and trying to block out things, but move on in joy, already!  Sheesh. That author ticked me off and I told my professor so in my reaction.

I also swung by the library to return a few things and see if a book I'm waiting for was in, but it is not yet, so I just grabbed an Entertainment Weekly.  I've subscribed to EW on and off for years and years, and every time I cancel I end up subscribing again, because I'm just so sad without it.  I'm going to try to keep grabbing it from the library, for now, because I shouldn't need to have it delivered to me to enjoy it.  I read them very quickly anyway.  I'm already done with the one I got today, thanks to my hour on the elliptical and a few articles I didn't care about (24, Katy Perry, Shrek (double ugh)). 

So much for "Every Day"

I'm going to try, though.  Really.  I've just had a busy couple of days. 

Today I finished a silly, romance novel that was a freebie from the Romantic Times convention this year,The Selkie Bride.   To tell you the truth, it wasn't all that bad.  Sort of a mystery set on a Scottish island in 1923 or so.  A tad disappointing in the end, but not a waste of time. 

I'm pretty much done with my class, and my sister wanted my laptop while I was gone, so I let myself relax and read while at my volunteering job.  It's so nice to feel that freedom to read without guilt.  Tomorrow, I just need to read a few chapters for school, write a couple short responses, print everything up and mail it off.  Then I have two weeks before my next class starts.


My next class is also an online class, but with more structure than this one.  I'll need to log on every week & take part in discussions with the professors.  It will be better for me.  I'm also taking a 2 week class on C.S. Lewis in July, so I may read a bit of him during my 2 week break.  The rest of my free time will be spent on ancestry.com, digging around as much as I can so that I don't have to pay for another month.

Oh, it's on.

I watched Julie and Julia Saturday, and other than making me want to be a better cook and live in France, it also made me want to write more often.  As you can tell, I haven't been really good about blogging this year, mostly because of school.  I have to read and write a lot, so fun writing doesn't usually happen. 
Well, NO MORE!  I am going to write here every day, I tell you!  I've always been intrigued by people who do something daily & post it, like take a picture of themselves.  I often think about doing one of those things, but I'm going a different way.  From time to time, I'll have my normal posts on random things that strike me, but my focus is going to be on what I'm reading.  Every day, I will write for at least a few minutes about something I read that day, be it a book, an article, or the back of a cereal box.
Hopefully, I can become a better writer with more practice, and maybe some good conversations can start!

I also know that reading a blog every day can be overwhelming, so I don't expect you to do so.  I'm a horrible blog reader, catching up in large chunks on days when I have free time. 

Thanks for joining me!