I read it somewhere on the Internet...
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| The Medieval Bestseller I read it somewhere on the Internet... |
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Monday, October 31, 2005
If you are looking for a recipe for African Chipotle Bread - look no further. Apparently you can find one if you search for it on my blog. Well, today has been a long Monday. Mondays are always long because of my classload, but today it just felt even longer. But it's over with, and if I can muster some energy up, I might go and play volleyball tonight. Right now, though, I can't say that's going to happen. I am one tired girl. My big news is that my Aunt Trisha called me yesterday to let me know that she has booked her ticket to come out here for Thanksgiving week (the 19th to the 26th or so)! I am so excited about this. She's the first from my family who will come to visit me while I'm at school (excluding, of course, when my dad and I first drove out here). She hasn't really been to the east coast (only to NYC briefly once), so she's excited to get a sense of what it's like. So, I'll have to figure out where to take her and what we should do and what to do for Thanksgiving dinner. Here's a shout-out to Ben Lattimer! And another shout-out to Hudson Neely! Ben would like me to say that he's the hottest man alive, which may be true... but this lady can't comment. Neither of them read my blog, but they happened to walk into the computer lab while I am writing this. Anyway, my weekend was good. Friday night was kinda uneventful. Saturday morning I went to NYC to meet up with a bunch of strangers to draw, which was fun. I drew these and another couple that weren't as good. More pictures and a write up about the event can be found here on Danny's blog. Overall, it was fun to go to NYC to draw (something that I've been wanting to do) and it was good to be purposeful in drawing, something that I should do more so that I don't get as frustrated with my here and there attempts. Wish I had someone at school that could be a regular drawing/painting partner with me. Saturday night was pretty uneventful. I had to figure out how to dress like a Duke for a murder mystery party I went to for youth group last night. Sunday went to church, actually stayed for coffee hour and talked with this lady I'm working with on Mission stuff, which was really cool. I like the church I go to out here...I guess, though, I just really long to feel like I am part of the community. I guess it just takes time and repetition. I really wish that I wasn't so shy. I felt totally shy on Saturday morning at the sketch crawl and I am always shy at church here. I think that I'm not so shy once I get to know people well, but starting out is just always hard for me. Anyway, need to get to work. - Jenny, 10/31/2005 03:46:00 PM Friday, October 28, 2005 It is official - my laptop is being sent back to Apple to get repaired. It should (hopefully) be covered under Apple Care, but I suppose you never know with all of those dumb, tricky clauses in warranty stuff. The CompUSA guy (who sent it in for me) left me a message saying that it will take a couple of weeks, so I suppose that's not bad. I can be without a computer for a couple of weeks, but it gets sketchier if it's a month or more. In the meantime, I've discovered it's a bit lonely in my room without my computer, which is interesting. It means that I can't chat with a friend online or look at blogs or email people back or what have you. As a side note, this computer lab smells like a lady's department store - like a strong combination of many different types of perfume. And, as a further side note, I think I may be developing allergies to perfumes. Anyway, it is lonely, but I think it'll be good for me. For one thing, I was so bored last night that it forced me to sorta start working on my second of three theology midterm papers. The brilliant thing is that I wrote one on Tuesday night and thankfully printed it out, which I wouldn't say is uncommon, but I definitely feel some mercy having had printed it out and not lost it. I am up early this morning because I took a professor and his wife (well, I guess he's actually a professor and the dean of something - academic affairs?) to the airport. I took him earlier in the week to the airport as a seminary driver and had a really great time because he's from First Presbyterian of Hollywood, and actually is friends with a former pastor of mine, and even dated my former pastor's wife. It was pretty funny to hear the connections and that he was sorta sad when Bill married Polly. Anyway, so he contacted me outside of the seminary driver program to see if I could take him and his wife to the airport this morning, which is really neat. I guess my driving didn't scare him off. :) I like doing these early morning runs to the airport because it wakes me up and gets me going way earlier than I would if I didn't do it. How I wish I could be a morning person. But, now I need to get to eating my breakfast and taking a shower (my armpits stink!) - Jenny, 10/28/2005 05:51:00 AM Thursday, October 27, 2005 Also, I've been posed with this intriguing question. Give it a thought over the next few days and let me know what you think. How is serving at a foodbank as a boy scout different than serving at a foodbank as a Christian? Or, is it not different? Why? - Jenny, 10/27/2005 10:20:00 AM So, my hard drive (probably) completely failed. I talked to AppleCare this morning and they told me to take it into CompUSA to see if this simple thing could be done (which I tried with Emily and it totally didn't work), and now...they're probably going to have to ship it in, which means that I won't have it for a few weeks, which means that I don't know what I should do about all of this. I could use the computer lab on campus, which would be a pain, but I couldn't use it to do certain things (design stuff) because I need my computer to be able to do that. So...I don't know. I guess I am considering going to buy another computer (a cheap iBook) to get me through the transition time, but the thing is that I won't need the computer after I get my old computer back. I really don't know what to do, and I don't know if I necessarily want advice. Maybe I do, maybe I don't, so only give advice if you think it's really good and you don't mind me getting upset with you about it. - Jenny, 10/27/2005 10:11:00 AM Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Serious computer problem today. Will have to erase and reinstall tomorrow. All my data up to 10/2 is safe - let's hope that I can get the other stuff saved with Emily's help tomorrow. Pray for my data. - Jenny, 10/26/2005 05:38:00 PM Tuesday, October 25, 2005 Spent all day listening at a conference for my work having to do with hunger and poverty. It was good but, man, am I tired of listening. Probably the most interesting speaker was the president from this place, who listed a number of interesting statistics of how NJ stands amongst the other states. I picked up a copy of their Snapshots 2006 book which lists pure statistics amongst all of the states. It was really interesting to flip through the book and compare NJ and CA regarding statistics like state population, cost of living, crime rate, state cigarette tax, minorities in prison, drinking water quality, gain/loss of college students, etc. Last night I tried to watch P.S. with Ann, which looks like a cute romantic comedy when you look at the trailers. We only made it in like 20 minutes and had to stop the movie because it was just so bad. Has anyone seen this? Does it ever get redeeming after the first 20 minutes or so? Well, it's almost the close of day two of Reading Week and I feel like I haven't done nearly enough. I've only written about 350 words out of at least the 3,000 words I need to write this week. I have three papers (each at 1,000 max words) that I really need to finish this week, but then I also have two - no, three other papers that I could stand to benefit from getting done this week. If you'd only had done ~350 words and had the same expectations as me, I'm sure you'd be slightly disappointed, too. Alas! There is still time. - Jenny, 10/25/2005 01:02:00 PM Monday, October 24, 2005 My providentially good Saturday day and really bad Saturday night: Saturday my friend Kevin showed up to my room just before I left for lunch. He goes up to Boston every weekend to lead worship at his church up there, so he normally drives himself to the Trenton train station every weekend. But on Saturday, his car battery died and so he came up to my room to ask me to drive him to the train station. The long and short of it is that I really shouldn't have been able to take him to the train station. This is where I truly believe God's providence comes into the story. You see, I was scheduled to play football today at 11 a.m., which means that I wouldn't have been back in my room by the time he came by to ask me if I could take him to the train station. The thing is that I decided to ditch football that morning and felt incredibly guilty about it because I knew that there likely wouldn't be enough girls to play (you need to have a certain number of girls on the field). But I wasn't willing to play on Saturday, for whatever reason. I was awake and fully could have gone, I just didn't feel like going outside, so I didn't go. Additionally, the team captain called me to come and play in the game because they needed people, but for whatever reason, I never even knew someone called me that morning until I was going down the stairway with Kevin to go, and I didn't even listen to the message until I was on my way back from the train station. If I would have answered his call, I would have gone out to play because I knew they needed me. All of this is to help you to see why I think it was very providential that Kevin asked me to drive him that morning. The normal way I know how to go to the train station was closed, so we had to go on that alternate road and he had to call his brother to figure out how to get to the train station (navigating in Trenton is not for the faint-of-heart). Furthermore, once we got ourselves to somewhere recognizable, Kevin showed me the "fastest" way (it's not, really) to get to the train station, which I never would have figured out on my own. So, I learned a completely new way to get to the train station. Fast forward to that night. I am a seminary driver and was scheduled to pick up Dr. Torrance from the train station at 10:01 p.m. So, around 9:30, I went down to pick up the van the seminary drivers are supposed to use. But just before I left my room, I noticed that my cell phone was on low-battery, and since I go to Summit all day on Sunday (I leave at 8:30 a.m. and don't get back until 9 p.m.) and don't have a car charger, I decided to start charging my phone. (This is where all of the suckiness of the story starts.) So, I left my room without my umbrella or my phone, but I figured it would be ok, since the train station is only about 20 minutes away. I go to get the van and I find out that the van wasn't there. At all. No van. So, here I am, standing in the increasingly pouring rain, no umbrella, no phone, time ticking, wondering where the heck the stupid van is. I look around the parking lot and don't see it anywhere. At this point, I figure that they would prefer for me to actually pick up the president instead of keep standing in the rain to figure out where the freaking van is, so I run to my car because I already know that I'm going to be late because enough time has already passed. So, I get to my car and I start driving and on my way there I remember that I don't have my phone and I'm trying to figure out how the president will even know that it is me picking him up because I'm in my car and he doesn't know my car. So, I start driving on the 1 and all of a sudden it starts POURING. Pouring so hard that I cannot see out of my windows and my windshield wipers couldn't wipe fast enough the rain was coming down so hard. This means that I had to slow down because I can't get killed on my way to pick up the president. That would just be bad form. So, I slow down, making myself even later than I am because the stupid van wasn't there, and get to that place where the 1 is closed and don't panic because I realize how amazing God is and to think of his providence for arranging things to have happened this morning the way they did. I have never, not once, taken that road we took to get to the train station that morning, so, if I hadn't have taken Kevin, not only would I be late, not only would I not have my phone in the pouring rain, but I would not have known how to get to the train station. So, I take the way we went that morning and I looked at the clock, saw that it was exactly 10:01 and I was now late in picking up the president. Here's when I started to feel really bad about making him wait at the train station so late at night and when I started REALLY getting upset at myself for forgetting my phone in my room because Dr. Torrance has my number (because I'm a seminary driver) and he'll call if he's late. Consequently, if I'm late, and he's waiting, he's probably calling me right now to see why I'm not there to pick him up. And in the midst of all of this, I'm thinking to myself, "Why wasn't the van there and where IS the van?!" Then I start thinking that maybe the housing office wrongly double booked two people to pick up Dr. Torrance from the train station and that maybe someone got to the van before me and that person is already picking up Dr. Torrance right now. I keep on driving and eventually get to the train station around 10:10, but Dr. Torrance is not there at all! At this point, I think to myself, "Crap. What am I going to do? Has Dr. Torrance already been picked up with the mysterious person who has the van? Is his train late?" Then I think to myself, "Maybe I can call Ann to see if she can check my phone to see if I have any messages from Dr. Torrance on my phone." But then I think to myself, "Wait! I can't call Ann! I don't know her number - it's in my phone which is on the bookshelf in my room." And then there's no parking by the train station. If I were to park, I'd have to park a block or so away, and it's currently raining hard, it's dark and I'm in the middle of Trenton, which is not the best of places to be alone by myself at night. What am I supposed to do? Why is this so crazy? So, I decide to park in the handicapped parking lot which is adjacent to the train station, and I hope against hope (does that make sense?) that the policemen won't come by and ticket my car. I park, put my blinkers on and then run into the train station and don't see Dr. Torrance ANYWHERE. I look at the monitors and it says that his train is running 20 minutes late. Praise God - it's late, so I haven't missed him, there can't be some phantom seminary driver who's already taken Dr. Torrance along with the van. So, I run back to my car and breathe a sigh of relief because there's no ticket on my car. I get back into my car and decided to just sit and wait there for the next ten minutes because, should a policeman come by, I can always move my car before he can give me a ticket. I tried to calm down and to think to myself that everything was going to be ok. 10:20 comes, so I start the car and circle to pick him up. But then he's not there, so I circle and I circle and it gets to be 10:25, and I think that he must have had to exit by now. So now I'm wondering if his train is even more late and I think to myself (yet again), "What should I do, what should I do?!" I end up deciding to park in the same handicapped space to run in for a second to look at the monitor to see if his train was going to be further late. I park, put my blinkers on, and run in to look at the monitor and the freaking monitor says that his train has already arrived and yet there's no Dr. Torrance ANYWHERE. At this point, I am thinking, "Where is Dr. Torrance? Where is the van?! Why is this happening to me?" I run up and down the terminal and don't see him there at all and don't even see track 4, which is the track he's supposedly already arrived at. Then I remember that I should get back to my car because I shouldn't be parked in a handicapped spot. Just as I start to run back to my car, I hear over the loudspeaker, "Amtrack 167 now arriving at terminal 4." And I think to myself, "Finally! Great! All is well!" and run back to my car. As I run back to my car, I notice that there is a police car with its lights flashing parked right next to my car and the policeman from the police car was standing by my car in the middle of writing me a ticket. Great, I think. Just great. I run up to the car and he said to me, "It's already too late. I've already started writing the ticket. What are you DOING, parking in a HANDICAPPED space with CALIFORNIA license plates?!" As if I'm really dumb for doing what I did and as if there were no story good enough to excuse my behavior. So then I start fumbling over my words, apologizing, trying to tell him why I'm parked there and that I really have a good reason and he says to me, "Look. If you would have been here 5 minutes earlier before I started writing this ticket, I might have let you pass, but you've parked in a HANDICAPPED space and I've ALREADY started writing the ticket. You can stop apologizing because you haven't hurt me, but you REALLY shouldn't have done what you did." And then I get flustered and I start saying to him, "What am I supposed to do, where I am supposed to park?!" Then he says to me, "You could have parked across the street," and I got really frustrated and just thought to myself, "Shut up, Jenny. There's nothing you can say and there's nothing he can do because he already started writing the fricken ticket." As I'm waiting for him to finish writing my ticket, I ask if he can tell me the procedure of how it works to get a ticket in New Jersey. I haven't gotten one here - for all I know, there could be a hugely different procedure. Furthermore, the last time I got a ticket was when I was in college or my first year or so working, and I don't even remember how it works in California (much less New Jersey). I mean, are they going to mail me something to my California address?! So he said to me, "You see this number on the ticket? You have to wait a couple of days and then call the number. Then they'll arrange for a court date and you'll have to show up to court to the Trenton courthouse. And I'll have to show up to court, too. And then they'll fine you, probably the fine for parking in a handicapped space, which is expensive - I think like $270. But I'll try fight for you to get a regular parking infraction, which will cost you like $40, but I can't promise anything." He tore off my ticket, I got in my car and I was super upset. Why didn't I take my phone? Why did I park in a freaking handicapped space? Where is this van?? Why didn't the policeman give a ticket to the other law breakers who were parking illegally two minutes before me?! I start my car, circle around and, finally, Dr. Torrance is there, just about to dial my cell phone (which, lest we forget, is in my room). I park illegally (again, but this time directly in front of the station, which I think is WAY more problematic than me parking in a handicapped space because it sorta blocks traffic) and jump out of my car and almost accost Dr. Torrance and I blurt out, "Dr. Torrance, the van is missing. I only have my car, I hope that's ok." Meanwhile, I see his face go from look of shock (to first be accosted and then hear that the van is missing) and then to a look of great concern and he says to me, "Jenny, are you OK?" And I say to him, "No, I just got a ticket for parking illegally. Are you ready to go?!" At this point, I think he realizes that I mean business and that it's probably best to just get in the car because, clearly, I am bothered and just don't want to talk about it. So, we put his stuff in my trunk, get in, and then start driving back to Princeton. Once in the car, he starts asking me all about what happened, and I tell him that I better just start from the beginning, when I took Kevin to the train station that morning and how providential it was because I would have never been able to find it on my own and the reason why I didn't have my cell phone, and why I parked where I did and why I even parked in the first place, etc. After telling him the whole ordeal, he's trying to reassure me not to be worried about it and that there must be some procedure for this and that he'd talk to someone at the school to see what could be done. Then I change the subject because I really just don't want to talk about this anymore and so I talk to him about his dad for a little bit and how I had to read a chapter of one of his books this past week and so we talk about a little theology and as I'm pulling up to his house, he brings the whole ordeal up again, and is insisting that it's going to be ok and to let him know my court date, etc. Then I park, go to get his stuff out of my trunk and then his wife comes out of the house and so then I have to start explaining the whole thing to her and then I finally leave, decide to drive by to see if the van was back (it wasn't there, but it was there on Sunday morning) and now this is the end of my sad story. Or, almost the end. I turned the key into the housing office this morning and they said they were sorry about my experience (some other guy apparently had the van to pick someone up at the airport and also had a horrible experience) and that they'll reimburse my mileage, but that they can't do anything about the ticket. So, I guess we'll see what happens. - Jenny, 10/24/2005 09:14:00 AM Friday, October 21, 2005 A choice paragraph taken from Central Presbyterian Church (1870-2001): A Brief History: "Mr. McKeever [the organist] proved a talented performer, director and composer, and Central's music ministry thrived under his direction for several years. By 1972, however, contention was developing between Mr. McKeever and the Session and Staff as to the extent of his non-church musical activities and other matters. After counseling and closer supervision were judged unsuccessful, his resignation was accepted. The adult choir generally valued Mr. McKeever highly, and some defections from both choir and church membership resulted, but the majority chose to stand with the Church." - Jenny, 10/21/2005 08:59:00 PM For my last class, we met in the special collections section of our school library. The point of it was to show us some of the super cool things Princeton has in its library collection. I saw original sections of papyrus that parts of the Bible were first written on, an original copy of the Geneva and King James* Bibles, some hymnals from the middle ages, the first Book of Common Prayer, an original page from the Gutenberg Bible and Isaac Watts' student notebook, among other things. Seriously cool and seriously humbling to think of the legacy that Christianity has had throughout the years and how I am a very small member of it all. * Funny story: When the King James Bible came out, people didn't like this new translation. They wanted to hear the Bible read the old way (Geneva-style). Weird to think how that has turned around now-a-days. - Jenny, 10/21/2005 10:32:00 AM Well, I've just tidied my room for the most part. Got rid of some of the papers on my desk, although there are still others to go through, but at least I'm one step closer to the goal. Do you know how happy I'll be once this stack of papers is no more? Pretty happy. Today is the last day of classes before Reading Week. Reading Week is this week that we have off of classes in order to catch up on our studies. I'll be spending most of the week writing papers that I have due the following, which will include some reading, but will not be exclusively reading (my fall reading week last year, if I recall, was almost exclusively reading). I'd like to do something during this week. Something fun. Joanne, Emily and I were thinking of going to Boston, but it looks like that may not happen this break. Maybe instead of going to Boston, I could do something else fun, like go to the Philly museum, or maybe go to the southernmost tip of NJ. Or maybe go and hang out in NYC and go to the Central Park Zoo. But something. I want to do something besides work this break. I feel that, as a Middler, I'm a little more entitled to. I briefly considered painting this morning, but looking at the clock, I don't think I'll have enough time before my next class. Perhaps a little later on. - Jenny, 10/21/2005 07:49:00 AM Thursday, October 20, 2005 Ugh. One of the things I hated most when I was a graphic designer was when people would say that they wanted something in this unbelievable deadline and I would say with utmost sincerety that their deadline was not reasonable and they'd push for it anyway and the deadline wouldn't be met because the time they allotted for it was, frankly, unreasonable. I thought I was done with all of that nonsense, but today I got an email from a girl I'm working with at work who's all of a sudden telling me that the deadline is very close and she's worried it's not going to get done and, you know what? It's not because the less than a month deadline they set up to do an entire ~160 page book using me, who only works here two days a week is just not realistic. I told them this, but they thought in their naivete that it could happen. Why? Why doesn't anyone trust the graphic designer? - Jenny, 10/20/2005 01:38:00 PM It is cold here today. I have to wear a jacket, even. I am wearing my green/brown jacket today as part of my ensemble. I like the jacket, but I almost never wear it because the material changes colors (unintentionally) under different light. So, sometimes (maybe under fluorescent) it's olive green. Other times (natural light) it's verified brown. Emily didn't believe me until she saw it for herself. Because I can never tell which color it will appear, I don't wear it because I cannot guarantee I'll match. I am wearing it today because it feels really cold and a sweater just won't do. In a few minutes I'll leave for the EWR airport (Newark for you non-locals) to pick up a professor of mine. I'm a little nervous because she can be pretty particular and it's a long ride, so...I don't know if we'll have things to talk about. - Jenny, 10/20/2005 10:12:00 AM Wednesday, October 19, 2005 In my zeal to write about toothbrushes yesterday, I totally forgot to write about what I did on Monday afternoon. I didn't have my normal afternoon class about Women in the Old Testament, so since I have a bibliography and an abstract due for my church history class on Friday, I decided to venture somewhere I have yet to go since I've started my Princeton career. I went to the library. To look for books. This is big for me. I hate the library, and have so far found it unsensical to go to do research, since we have online article databases we can use here at Princeton. I decided that I should, for this assignment, actually go to the library, so I went during the time I would have gone to my other class that was cancelled. I was surprised that the experience wasn't actually that bad. I was also surprised at the large numbers of books we have available to us in our library in all sorts of other languages. My drive up to my field ed church today was very pleasant. Bright, sunny, the air was great (except when I was stuck behind that bus). It's a nice drive when it's nice out. What I wonder, though, is just when the leaves will turn colors? Right now everything is in this green-brown phase. Where are the beautiful yellows, reds and oranges? I remember last year totally being captured by the beauty of fall when I drove to church. It seems late to me, or maybe this year the leaves are on strike. I also wonder - just when will I remember to bring some sort of cup to leave at my desk here at church? Every day when I show up (Wednesdays and Sundays), I am thirsty and each time I go to the water cooler to fill up my Dixie cup's worth of water, I think to myself, "Next time I will remember to bring my own cup." And so far I never have. Maybe I should put a note on my iCal for next week. - Jenny, 10/19/2005 11:23:00 AM Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Today I'd like to talk about toothbrushes. I really should be working right now, but I have to draw, and I always find it hard to get started drawing. So, to motivate myself to draw, I will first blog about toothbrushes. I prefer a compact-head, medium-firm toothbrush. In general, I like either the Colgate or Oral-B brands, although, I will take any compact-head, medium-firm toothbrush, except those made by Target. Target's toothbrushes are an anathema. There you have it. You now know some very particular details about me. I want to talk about this today because I went to Target to buy, among other things, a new toothbrush. The toothbrush I have right now is actually still in good shape, but I have had some cold and/or allergy symptoms lately and one of my ways to help gird myself when cold symptoms appear is to get rid of my old toothbrush that might potentially have cold germs on it and get a new fresh one. It almost always helps. My problem with my particular affinity for compact-head, medium-firm toothbrushes is that they are very difficult to find because compact-head usually only comes in soft-firmness. Ergo, I came back empty-handed because there was no compact-head, medium-firmness toothbrush in all of Target (not even in one of their crummy toothbrushes). Why is it so hard to find compact-head, medium-firmness toothbrushes? I don't understand the majority of the population who buys soft toothbrushes. Maybe I am just a hard brusher, but I'd have to buy a toothbrush every two weeks if I bought soft-firmness toothbrushes. I have to go later on today to Wegman's, so hopefully they'll have a toothbrush more to my order. In other news, I am feeling better today. Less upset about this whole language thing. A little concerned about my fantasy football team - both my QBs have a bye this week, which means no points. Hm...I'll have to figure out how to trade. - Jenny, 10/18/2005 11:16:00 AM Monday, October 17, 2005 So I'm kinda having a bad day. And basically I'm in a bad mood because I hate hearing how much I suck at things. But, apparently that's the gist of today. I suck at Greek, I even suck at Hebrew and, I've just checked my fantasy football points from this week and apparently I also suck at fantasy football. Why are things so tragic on bad days? I hate that I am bothered by these dumb things, but I am. - Jenny, 10/17/2005 10:13:00 AM Friday, October 14, 2005 Somehow, within this past year, I got onto this email list and I am unclear how they got my email, but it's this email list for everything Italian within the Princeton area. I think this is a bit odd because I did not sign up for the list, am not Italian (or Italian-American), and I don't even know if I really like Italian food that much...it's ok...not my fave. Anyway, the most recent activity that I am invited to (I get at least two emails a month, I'd say) is and invitation to an "Italian and Italian-American Young Professionals BALL at Davio's in Philadelphia." To be clear, as if the title for the event was somehow cloudy, it further says in ALL CAPS, "FOR UPWARDLY MOBILE, SUCCESSFUL YOUNG ITALIAN PROFESSIONALS." It is scheduled for next Friday, October 21st and I am free that night, but let's just go over some facts. I am not Italian, nor am I Italian-American (nor do I look like I can be anything but German or of Scandanavian descent). I guess I'd say that I'm still young, although I am increasingly aware that I am getting older. I am not a professional, nor am I upwardly mobile (and I think when I was a professional, I still wasn't anywhere close to being upwardly mobile). I do consider it somewhat of a success that I do go to Princeton, but...I don't really think that's what they're looking for. Furthermore, I am instructed to "dress to be photographed." I don't know if I even have clothes suitable to "dress to be photographed." How the heck did I ever get on this mailing list? So, I guess the long and short of it is that if any Italian or Italian-American (who is young and upwardly mobile) in the Philly area is interested in going to this "ultra-exclusive" "who's who" "private event," email me and let me know. I have an invitation for you. - Jenny, 10/14/2005 01:34:00 PM I stayed up late last night to finish reading some articles for my sytstematic theology class last night. Consequently, waking up this morning was very hard. Going to Greek was even harder. We talked about verbs. I think it was too hardcore of a lesson for the state I was in. I have a bit of a break now until a later class. I didn't make it to breakfast (I barely made it to class), so I came back up into my room hungry and I opened up my fridge and pantry to see what was available. (My pantry, by the way, is what I affectionately call one of my desk drawers that holds non-perishable items.) My makeshift breakfast is very far from what I would consider a "breakfast of champions." I had a glass of water, my last piece of string cheese, an apple, a little packet of hard salami that I brought home with me from the airplane last week, and the last of a bag of Halloween M&Ms that Jen sent me the other day. No - I am not proud. Yes - I need to go to the store. No major plans for the weekend. I probably will stay inside because of the rain. Tomorrow I have my first flag football game, although it is not our first game of the season. Hopefully I won't get too muddy. - Jenny, 10/14/2005 07:19:00 AM Thursday, October 13, 2005 Well, my Greek exam is done. I am hoping for a B - I don't think I did as well on the exam as I would have hoped. But maybe I made some genius guesses. Who knows? Another rainy day. It looks like it's continuing on throughout the week. I like it, it just makes it hard for me to wake up. Really hard. I think that I have an easier time getting up if it's somewhat light/sunny outside. Maybe I should look into one of those natural light alarm clocks. They seem to be kinda expensive, but maybe it would help in these fall and winter months when the light decreases. Emily and I were talking the other day about Seasonal Affective Disorder, which we both think we might get to an extent, and it seems you treat it with exposing yourself to certain types of light. Anyway, I am done with classes today, so from here on out I'll be working on the design for that workbook. Have a good day. - Jenny, 10/13/2005 06:56:00 AM Wednesday, October 12, 2005  I am proud of myself today. I have done things that I didn't really want to do. I went to my 8 a.m. class. I went to check with Financial Aid (finally) to see why my loan hasn't come through yet. I painted (see above) in the half-hour I had before going to my theology class. I went to my theology class, and then to my liturgical year class, even though all I wanted to do was take a nap. I have worked very consistently this afternoon on the stuff I need to do for redesigning CPC's website. Just thought I would share. - Jenny, 10/12/2005 02:11:00 PM Today is just one of those days where I want to sleep in and not get out of bed. Sadly, my desire did not match up with my schedule - I had to attend an 8 a.m. class this morning on preaching. As classes go, this one was ok, but I would have prefered to snuggle a little bit more with my comforter. It has been raining non-stop since approximately 7 p.m. last night., with varying severities. It's kinda nice - I like this sort of weather - but I like this sort of weather indoors, where you don't necessarily have things to do. I called in to church to ask if I could work from home today (I'm supposed to go in on Wednesday afternoons), and I've been given clearance, which is nice. So, I'll go to my other two classes here shortly, have a little lunch and then come back to my room and work on some church stuff and then study for my Greek midterm tomorrow. I think I get Greek - at least, I can come to a reasonably close translation. This is good. What is not good is that I am not so talented at naming why something is the way it is...I just sorta know, which won't help me out on the exam tomorrow because I'm supposed to identify why certain words are in the forms that they are. I think that'll be the main thing that I try to work on tonight is trying to be able to explain these things. So I'm not frightened about the test (I have, afterall, done reasonably well on all but one quiz), but I am a little concerned that I will do well on it. The good thing is that I've done fairly well at memorizing the vocabulary words, even though I conveniently left my vocab flashcards in California. That is about all - enjoy your rainy day (if you have one). - Jenny, 10/12/2005 06:39:00 AM Tuesday, October 11, 2005 So, I wish that it wasn't raining today only because I happened to blow dry my hair pretty well this morning, which is a rare occurence. Even so, I like that it's raining, and I like that it's starting to get colder. I like the cold - I just don't care so much for the freezing. I'm designing this workbook for my work (Bonner). It's funny, actually, for me to think about how I thought I was getting away from graphic design when leaving my old job to head off to seminary, and it seems like I just keep happening upon these sorta cool graphic design projects. This is now the second book I'll be working on in my life; the other I started in May for Wayne's dad's old newsletter entries (Wayne is the president of Bonner). This book for Bonner will be compiling the civic engagement essays from these posters I designed for Bonner last year for their campus programs. It's kinda cool so far, but it's also sorta stressful for me. The whole creative process is very stressful for me because I find myself constantly anxious about what I'm doing until it's done, wondering whether or not it looks ok, if I am being creative/dynamic enough, etc. I think it's good that I'm working on these things. Definitely, I think those posters I designed for Bonner last year were probably some of the best things I've designed. Way more creative than the stuff I did at my old job (I guess I feel a bit more free than I was at GNP), but more mature than the stuff I did in college. But it doesn't change the fact that it's stressful and that I constantly am fearful that my designs will be a failure. Anyway, I showed Ari & Ingrid (the girls I'm working with on this project) my rough draft today and they really liked it, so that's encouraging. There's stuff I need to do to develop the book, and they want me to design my own little icon things (which is really stressful), so there's stuff yet to do, but I am at least encouraged right now to go to the next step in this design. - Jenny, 10/11/2005 10:43:00 AM Sunday, October 09, 2005 The two things I love about the Philadelphia airport are, 1.) that they have this rule that everything they sell must be the same price as you would find it in the greater Philadelphia area, and 2.) that they have this soap in their bathrooms that reminds me of a scent from my childhood (peach scratch & sniff stickers!). Well, I am back from my super-quick trip to California. I give the family reunion a C-. Aunt Sally did a very good job of hosting it and all, and I really enjoyed seeing my family members that were there, but overall I just have very little connection to my extended-extended family that was there (which is the purpose of this sort of reunion). The generations are kinda skewed (eg: my dad's cousin's kids should theoretically be about my age, but they're half a generation ahead), I have virtually nothing in common with these people and I see them every three years or so. So, not very fun. But it was nice to see my family and talk to the elusive Aunt Trisha, who wants to try to come out sometime in November, which is exciting. I also got to see my little cousins, Keana (5) and Leila (2), whom I don't think I've seen since Christmas. It is nice to see that Keana is way nicer and less bossy. And she's finally started kindergarten! I think she's going to be a smart cookie. Leila is now talking and still has a very cute personality, even though she's in her twos, which is kinda evident. Sharon (an extended cousin) was looking at a picture of Leila (I think), and Sharon said to Leila, "Leila, is this a picture of you?" Leila said, "No." Then she reached for the picture from Sharon's hands, took it, looked at it, said, "No." And then walked away covering it up. So cute. Otherwise, nothing of interest to say at all. Friday night I was uber cool and sat at home alone searching on Netflix for movies to put in my queue. Dad, Joey and Carrie all had plans and I didn't think ahead to arrange to do anything with friends. Saturday was the reunion. The weather was nice, although it could have been maybe five degrees warmer and a little sunnier. Then I left so early on Sunday that "bright and early" doesn't even describe it. No talkers on the way back (thank goodness). I did discover something this weekend about myself - I work very well on airplanes. So well that I think there should be study cafes that are designed sorta like airplanes. You sit in tight, confined spaces where you basically only have the option to work because sleeping is so uncomfortable. THEN, there'll be staff people that will come by every so often with drinks and a snack. Occasionally you may get up to go to the bathroom, but these bathroom breaks are on a limited basis due to availability of the facilities and unwillingness to to disturb your fellow patrons too greatly. Maybe to make it fun and a full theme, you can go and "study to Los Angeles" or "study to Paris" or whatever. Then, the "Study Attendants" who bring you your drinks and snacks will come by and tell you when you've arrived at your destination. This is, perhaps, one of the five greatest ideas I've ever come up with in my life. Other highlights in the top five include "The Meeting Department," a department all companies should have whose job is to go to and hold meetings for other departments so that those who are actually doing work don't have to go to pointless meetings, and the idea that there should be a washer/dryer stacked combo where you put the clothes in on the top and they automatically drop into the dryer when the cycle is finished. - Jenny, 10/09/2005 06:49:00 PM Friday, October 07, 2005 Greetings from California! My impression when I got off the plane was not that it was really hot (it's actually quite pleasant), but that it was just really bright outside. There's not much to report on about my plane rides. The first leg was from Philly to San Fran and it was a good length. I slept some, wrote my paper on Augustine and watched a good portion of Martin Lawrence in Rebound. I usually am a fan of sports movies, but I think I'll pass on watching this one again. They also showed Batman Forever or whatever the pre-Batman movie was that came out this summer (I missed SO much with regard to pop culture being out of the country), but I was alternatively trying to catch up on sleep and write my paper during that showtime. There was a band (I have no clue which one) sitting directly behind me on the Philly to San Fran flight, and they were really obnoxious. I picked up from their conversations that they're flying to LA to record their second album, which is, I guess, what gives them license to be obnoxious. Then I got to the San Fran airport. Landing in San Francisco is always weird because it seems like you're going to land on the water because the runway is so close to the bay/ocean/whatever. I got off of the plane and proceeded to gate 87A, and discovered that I had to get on a bus in order to get to that gate. So, I got on a bus and they drove us through the tarmac and I got to the Commuter Terminal, which is the place where my flight to Burbank was flying out from. I got on the plane and it was literally the smallest plane I have ever been on. It was a CRJ50 Regional Jet and had two seats on both sides of the very narrow aisle. When I was standing up in the aisle, my head was two inches from the ceiling. I sat next to this guy named George. I know this because he's a talker. I am not a talker on airplanes, nor am I particularly excited when the person next to me is. But, George was, and as far as talkers go, he was ok. He was flying from TX to CA to go to his 40th high school reunion. We talked intermittently during the trip - he mostly asking me about seminary and religious things. The best part, however, was when we landed in Burbank, George started humming the Super Mario Brothers theme song. No joke. It was all I could do to not laugh. I wasn't too excited to be coming home, but now that I'm home and now that I'm finished with one of my papers, I am feeling better about it all. I have been thinking on the plane ride where I'm going to go for lunch, and I am dead set to go to South Street to get a Philly Cheesesteak. Dad thinks it's funny that I want to get a taste of Philly while in LA, but it just sounds so good to me right now. So, South Street it is. - Jenny, 10/07/2005 12:29:00 PM Thursday, October 06, 2005 Well, I don't know what to blog about today. I'm actually in kinda a lousy mood (perhaps we can call it a funk), which I have been in for a lot of this week. I think it's because I'm feeling really overwhelmed with all I have to do. I don't actually want to do any of it. Not my homework, not stuff for church, not stuff for Bonner. I like school, I like church and I like Bonner. I just don't want to do stuff. I just want to relax. Unfortunately, I don't think I can relax until maybe the 15th at the earliest. Bummer. Anyway, I really hate it when I'm in a funk. I bet you do, too, because this probably isn't fun to read at all. Sorry about that. - Jenny, 10/06/2005 10:06:00 AM Wednesday, October 05, 2005 Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I am currently in fourth place in my family's Fantasy Football league (out of 12 players). I find this to be amazingly great news, especially because I have not watched one lick of football yet! - Jenny, 10/05/2005 07:10:00 AM This morning was a bit scary for me. I came online and started to type a comment on someone's blog and everything I typed was coming up in numbers. I was trying to type Emily's name and what came up instead of Emily was "053." This was a little concerning to me. So, I restarted, thinking that restarting would be the key. When I restarted, I found the same thing to be happening. At this point, I was almost ready to call AppleCare. But then I thought to myself, "Jenny, you are a smart girl. You can figure out why your computer is doing this. If you can't figure it out, you have a bunch of engineer friends who could help you out (who are almost all sleeping at this point in the morning, but, hey, this is an emergency)." And I figured it out. On my own! Somehow, the number lock key was selected. I've never used number lock before, so I didn't know that it takes over the entire keyboard. Now all that was left to do was deselct the number lock key, which was a bit difficult because I didn't select it in the first place. I tried everything from the Function key to Function + Shift to Function + Option, etc. Nothing worked. Then I merely pushed the button down and it turned off. Thank goodness that I didn't call either AppleCare OR my smart engineer friends. I would have felt really dumb if I had done that. Anyway, my new thing in the past two days is Podcasts. Maybe this is old news to...everyone, but I just discovered it by virtue of clicking with curiousity on this button on my iTunes that says "Podcasts." You can find all sorts of free broadcasts of various things. Things I have downloaded/"subscribed" to in the past few days are: an interview of Aimee Mann on Studio 360, Andy Rooney's latest editorial on 60 Minutes, a 60 Minutes story on Ahmed Chalabi, A bunch of definitions of E=mc2 off of the NOVA website, A story on PBS' American Experience about the Carter Family musicians, and much more! I really wanted to download some CarTalk podcasts, but they charge a hefty fee for the episodes. Oh well. - Jenny, 10/05/2005 06:10:00 AM Tuesday, October 04, 2005 Good news - I did very well on my theology paper. Better than I had hoped, which is really exciting to me. I don't think I did that well on the quizzes, though. This week and next week are really heavy. I have loads of work to do for school this week that's all due next week. Next week I have a paper on Augustine (haven't read the stuff yet!), an exegesis paper due for preaching class on Luke-something, I have a Greek exam (mid-term-ish, I think), and probably something else I'm forgetting about. The problem is not that it's too much stuff to do, but it's too much stuff to do in the midst of the other stuff I have going on in my life. I have something to do virtually every night this week, and it doesn't help that I'm getting up SUPER early in the morning on Friday to fly home to the 818 for a short weekend to attend a family reunion in the 760. The beautiful thing about flying home is that when I land, I still have the rest of the day. The awful thing about flying back to NJ is that I lose the whole day. The meeting last night at church went well. I am surprised how nice everyone is now that people are actually talking to me. Anyhow, I am writing this and I think I have to meet now regarding one of the projects I'm working on, so I gotta go! - Jenny, 10/04/2005 10:12:00 AM Monday, October 03, 2005 A quick post because I'll be busy all day long and won't have time to do it later: My weekend was good! We had a nice party on Friday night in my room, Saturday I did some homework (unfortunately not enough) and watched one of my Netflix movies, Sunday I went to church and it was a pleasant experience (what kind of alternate universe is this??). Today is killer. I have a Greek quiz, a Hebrew quiz (neither I've studied for), and a paper due for my Church History class (which I spent all night writing last night and I don't think it should have taken that long - dumb Egeria). I also will be leaving my last class early today to drive up to church for a dinner with some guy from Malawi and a meeting that I have to attend for twenty minutes. It is going to be a long day. - Jenny, 10/03/2005 05:01:00 AM |
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