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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Thursday, November 30, 2006
Yesterday Bill and I inadvertantly dressed alike, wearing yellowed-khaki pants and an olive green sweater. So we decided to dress alike again today - wearing dark blue jeans and a black sweater (with a light blue shirt underneath). Layne joined in, so now it's like there are triplets on campus today. It's kinda fun, although I don't think I would have worn a black sweater with dark blue jeans if I were on my own. I prefer lighter jeans with a black top. Speaking of Layne, a few weeks ago I took the eye color quiz that she links to on her MySpace. Somehow, it figured out that I have "eden"-colored eyes.* Has anyone else heard of this? I have never, ever heard of eden-colored eyes. I just took it again and got the same result. I am not sure how the quiz figures this out, unless they perhaps weigh the last question more heavily, thinking that people will like wearing the same color as their eyes. Not sure. I have a massive headache right now, and I bet it's because I haven't been taking my allergy medication. My hair is also a mess because I was foolish with my time inbetween my break and I didn't give enough time to blow-drying it. Oh well. Maybe a few clips can improve it. I would like to mention that I had lunch with the extremely popular Tracey Cowan today. Tracey, as she likes to remind me, has friends scattered all throughout the globe. I had to sign up a month or two ago in order to get this lunch date. She said if I was fortunate, I might be able to see her tomorrow, too! Last night I watched an episode of LOST (The Whole Truth) with Nick and Noah. I really miss watching that show. I wish February would hurry-up already. After watching, we took a quiz to see what character we were and the quiz said I was Michael, the character I loathe. * Eden - You have eden eyes. Eden is the color of water. Your eyes symbolize your great flexibility. You are a creative person. You can think of many good ways to get your point across to people as you have very good communication abilities. When someone feels down or is hurt, you have the remarkable ability to help them and heal them. If you have too little going on in your life, you may be withdrawn and depressed, timid, manipulative, unreliable, stubborn, or suspicious. Some words to describe you: peaceful, sincere, affectionate, tranquil, intuitive, trustworthy, pure, loyal, healing, and stable. - Jenny, 11/30/2006 10:30:00 AM Wednesday, November 29, 2006 My spirit is bogged down. My room is a mess. I'm feeling just a tiny bit nauseous. At faculty lunch today, someone used the scoop for the broccoli and the spoon for the mashed potatoes. It still worked, but looked a bit odd. Other than that, I know what I'm going to write about for my atonement paper and it's kinda exciting to me. It will involve art. I need prayer. - Jenny, 11/29/2006 11:41:00 AM Tuesday, November 28, 2006 I guess I don't have much to say today (I have things I can talk about, but I'm not really in the mood to do so), so here are some random bits that have been floating around in my mind: A week or two ago I had a dream that I was having coffee with a couple of friends at a Starbucks somewhere in California. I don't remember much about the dream - including who I was with. All I remember is going up to the counter and noting their new frappuccino flavor - popcorn...flavored with butter and sea salt. Yuck. Thank goodness it was only a dream. I like it when people call Jesus "Jesu." I think it reminds me of my time abroad, meeting Christians from other cultures. I also find myself somewhat looking forward to snow this year. I'm not a huge fan of snow, but I think I've come to appreciate it if I find myself looking forward to it. Yesterday I changed my site counter to sitemeter, which I have put on other websites that have wanted site statistics. Overall, I am most interested in the "By location" section, which I did not have in my old counter. It is interesting for me to see where people are coming from when they read my blog! Some are predictable locations (based off of who I know reads my blog and where they're located in the country) and others are just bizarre. Welcome, Dubuque, Iowa and Louisville, Colorado! - Jenny, 11/28/2006 07:59:00 AM Monday, November 27, 2006 After class today I did some babysitting for Willy and Eli, two of KP and Wayne's four children (not sure where Abe or Zac were). Eli (7) and I went to the library (hence the post below) and on the way home he asked me: Would you rather be electrocuted or drink beer and smoke cigars for a year? Eli, apparently, would rather be electrocuted. Although I am a non-smoking Nazi, I'm pretty sure I'd go with the drink beer and smoke cigars for a year choice. - Jenny, 11/27/2006 04:13:00 PM Imagine the man in the yellow hat. But then imagine him in all black (complete with hat), wearing a sort of camoflague suede jacket and walking around with a little kid and not a monkey. That is who I am looking at right now at the Princeton Public Library. Needless to say, he caught my eye. - Jenny, 11/27/2006 02:33:00 PM I'm not really sure what I did this holiday break. I can guarantee you it wasn't work. My first year here I was here alone and got tons of work done. It felt so good when others were returning and they complained about not getting any work done. Last year my Aunt Trisha came out for the week, so I got some work done while she was here. This year I had absolutely nothing to do and I did just that (absolutely nothing). I should have gotten ahead on my reading or in researching my final papers (I did get some books from the university library) but I pretty much did nothing. Tried to make my way through Hamlet. In my five empty days (well, four if you remove Thanksgiving), I read only 220 pages, half of that being yesterday. The work I did was pretty much all floccinaucinihilipilification. I had gotten used to my almost empty dorm floor, so seeing people reappear yesterday was a bit jarring. It's not that I don't like them - the girls on my floor are quite nice this year - it's just that I got used to having only four or so people around and I quite liked it. Yesterday I didn't go to my normal church service. Instead, I visited this church to see my friend Nick preach for the very first time ever (except in preaching class). By the way, click to Nick's site and watch him sing his song "Whoever, Anyone and Everything." It's got a good beat: you can dance to it. Well...I probably couldn't dance to it, but it's really pretty and Nick's a good musician, so give it a shot. I think it reminds me of windchimes. Anyway, Nick did a good job preaching. Overall, though, I missed being at my church, which shows me how important community is in a church. Later on last night I went up to church for youth group and on my way back home, I stopped off at ShopRite and picked up my annual Christmas wreath. ShopRite sells these (plain) wreaths for only $6 and they smell so wonderful. Setting it up, however, is always a bit of a pain because it makes my room a veritable pine forest as it scatters needles all over the place. I don't have one of those little hand vacuums, so I use my lint roller to pick them all up off of my floor and comforter. It is a tedious process. You can see a picture of it here. If you want to smell what it's like, either come over to my room, get yourself a Christmas tree, buy yourself a car freshener or send me a little film canister and I'll try to capture the scent for you. - Jenny, 11/27/2006 08:13:00 AM Friday, November 24, 2006 My eyes hurt this morning. I think it is because I went to bed at 4 a.m. and woke up at 10. I wasn't doing anything fun at 4 a.m. - just couldn't sleep because I was thinking about the Thanksgiving dinner last night. I got very angry with one friend and yelled at him, losing my temper. I think my anger was justified but my actions certainly were not. I also was quite upset with a couple of other friends when I overheard a conversation of theirs. I lost respect for at least three people last night. So to help in calming myself down, I chatted online a bit with Ann and Nathaniel, watched David Letterman guess his mom's pies and painted a picture of an apple. I was hoping that I would paint at least once during the break, so I'm pleased that I actually did. But I have many things to be thankful for: Although there were a few bad apples that spoiled the crate last night, I am thankful for my other friends, who are so kind, loving and generous toward me. My turkey came out looking quite nice, and my friend Tony has told me that he thought the turkey was good and that he shouldn't have doubted me. [personally, as a dark meat fan, I was a bit disappointed because the dark meat was definitely tough and dry - maybe because of the crucial foil step I forgot about - but the breast meat was good.] Although I was not able to be with my family, I talked to them a lot throughout the day and I am thankful for that, as well as being thankful for the love we have for each other. Mostly, however, I am thankful for the news my aunt Sally gave me. She reported that when Grandpa went to the doctors at Loma Linda, they were very hopeful with Grandpa's condition. They said that they will have to have another surgery to remove the remaining cancer cells and then a bit of radiation, but since Grandpa is so healthy, they would imagine that he has another ten years to live. - Jenny, 11/24/2006 09:02:00 AM Thursday, November 23, 2006 After sticking my hands in the turkey's very indecent cavities and then rubbing it all over with a bronzing paste, the turkey has been in the oven for about an hour and a half and the good news is that it looks and smells like a turkey. I have been basting it every twenty minutes during this time and it seems to be going ok. Everyone is arriving around now. We now will be serving 16 people. Hopefully there'll be enough of everything. This morning while Geoff and Meagan were baking some pies, I made the yams (they're a little bit burnt, but maybe when I put the marshmallows on later, no one will notice), the corn pudding, began the carrots (which I will start when the turkey is closer to being done) and was more intimate with the turkey than was pleasing. - Jenny, 11/23/2006 01:49:00 PM Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Today I ordered something on the internet that is not for me, but I'm really excited for it to come! Last night I saw Babel, which I thought was an excellent movie, although heavy laden with its own commentary on current US issues involving the rest of the world. Some things were unanswered for me in the movie (that I wish were explained or perhaps had more clarity), but overall, I was interested in all of the characters and intrigued with how it came together at the end. In the movie there is a deaf Japanese girl and it made me yearn for my sign language days. I took a year of American Sign Language in high school and loved it. If I didn't have such bad hearing, I might consider becoming a translator. But too often I require my own translator, so this is the wrong road for me. One time I went to see a production of the Christmas Carol at the Deaf West Theatre and I loved the whole experience. I just think it would be so cool to be deaf or have deaf friends or whatever. Although talking on a TTY phone is a strange experience. - Jenny, 11/22/2006 02:06:00 PM Tuesday, November 21, 2006 I started this blog quite awhile ago (almost four years ago!) really as a means to keep updated with my friend Kathryn. She had been keeping a blog and I found it was helpful to read it to know what was going on in her life, since she was in Las Vegas and I in LA. At first, it was really hard to think up things to post about, but now it comes quite naturally. Sometimes I'll keep a list of words by my computer that will remind me about things I want to post about eventually (on the list now is weather blog, snow, Thanksgiving). Since I've moved to NJ to go to school, I have found keeping a blog to be particularly useful in keeping in touch with friends back home, who are curious about what I've been up to. But people also here at school read my blog, which I don't mind (although it often does startle me when I learn of a new reader), but is a bit curious because these people see me day in and day out. You'd think they'd have enough. Well, I have recently (and by recently, I mean within the past month) become aware of friends of friends of mine who read my blog (at least three different people!). I think it's really cool, albeit a bit perplexing that I could write something about my life so interesting as to have strangers desire to read about it. I suppose, with the alternatives of the weather blog and the climate blog, it is a bit more entertaining than some of the other blog options out there. Speaking of the weather, even though it proclaims that it's 45 outside, it really feels like it's freezing to me. So two days from now is Thanksgiving. I am not going home. Instead, I am going to attempt to cook a turkey for my friends. This is the first time ever I will have tried this. Initially, I was thinking, "How hard can it be?" Then I talked to my aunt, and it does kinda sound like an ordeal. But I'm psyching myself up about it and I have directions and I think I can do it because cooking, so long as I have directions, is a cinch. Mind over matter. I mentioned this trifle about not having turkey experience in my email to my friends and my friend Tony told me today at lunch that he's a little concerned that I have never cooked a turkey before. But in my defense, how many 28 year-olds have experience cooking a turkey? This is something that is usually passed onto the more experienced (read: older) people, right? Tony proclaims that he is an excellent chef and is quite stoked to be bringing the stuffing (which he calls "dressing" which I know is an acceptable way to call this, but still throws me off every single time) and some sort of potato dish. I was starting to get nervous regarding Tony's lack of confidence in me and his self-proclaimed "expert chef" designation but then I realized two things that make me question Tony's taste: a.) Tony likes the jellied cranberry sauce (sans cranberries) which indicates to me that he does not in fact have tastebuds. How anyone could prefer the jelly over a true cranberry befogs me. Furthermore, how anyone can insist that the jelly tastes more like "cranberry" over the actual cranberry mixture is absurd. b.) Today at lunch Tony (who is very good friends with Provolone and Peanut Butter Peter) was eating cauliflower and peanut butter. Together. I think I will be quite fine if Tony has less than pleasing remarks regarding my cooking. - Jenny, 11/21/2006 10:19:00 AM Monday, November 20, 2006 It is so funny to me that everyone is asking me what happened - through the comments, through IM and even in person! The conclusion of the story (warning: very anti-climactic): The house-sitting house has slippery floors. So, when I was tip-toeing down to the basement to see if I could catch anyone doing anything illegal (which I secretly hoped I would), I slipped on a short landing of stairs (that leads to another landing). Consequently, I have this huge and massively purple bruise on my left side (it really hurts initially when I sit or lay down). I have never seen a bruise more purply-black on my body, other than the one time when I had a small, perfectly round bruise on my side that I thought might be anthrax in the height of the anthrax scare a couple of years ago. I decided then that those stairs were evil, so I went to the other stairs on the other side of the house, peered down and saw no illegal action. Came back up and paced around. At about 11:55 p.m., the doorbell rang. I raced to come and get it, hoping it might be an irate neighbor or maybe even the cops. As you can tell, I was pretty upset at this party and wanted any excuse to end it early, even a mere 5 minutes early. Sadly, at the door was neither an irate neighbor nor the police. Instead, it was three more boys coming over to join in on the festivities. When they entered, I told them that there was only 5 minutes left of the party, to which they said they'd just go down, then, for the last five minutes. So I returned to my pacing (and wrote the blog entry) and then precisely six minutes after midnight (according to the microwave - I had to at least finish my blog entry, I thought), I went downstairs and told the girls that it was now time for everyone to go home. The teenagers were fairly compliant, and some even said to me, "Thanks for having us," to which I gave a very fake smile. In retrospect, perhaps I should have said something very sarcastic like, "Thanks for coming!" But, of course, in the moment I do not ever seem to have command over the English language at all. The girls went out to see everyone off, and I managed to catch the nice one and told her that I was very upset with them on several counts and then I went to bed. Of course, I couldn't go to sleep because I was still very angry, so I read for awhile and then went to bed, probably thinking of my own righteousness (which, of course, is a false righteousness that I rarely am willing to relinquish). I had to get up early the next morning to go to church and get the house in order (since Sunday morning was the end of my reign) and I was still upset the next morning (and very tired). The girls were not up yet, so I had no other interaction with them. Sunday morning as I was driving to church, however, I discovered that there is a station now playing 24/7 Christmas music. Much to Emily's aversion, there is nothing more than I love to listen to than 24/7 Christmas music. So, that put me in a considerably better mood. And church helped to lighten my anger. This weekend was fraught with discovering things about radio stations I listen to, as I discovered only through listening that 97.5 the Hawk - the classic rock station that I primarily listen to when I want to listen to classic rock - has changed to smooth jazz. At first, when I turned it on this weekend, I zoned out and didn't realize until 10 or 15 minutes later that all of this saxophone music was really peculiar for a classic rock station. So I switched it, and periodically kept switching back, confused each time that there was no classic guitar action going on, like I was expecting. Last night I also learned from my Aunt Sally that my grandpa has some form of rare nose cancer. Even though my grandpa is 89 years old, this news is upsetting to say the least, especially because Grandpa is so healthy. I guess he goes in to Loma Linda tomorrow to get more information on it all. So if you all can say a prayer for his health and my family's and my concern, I'd really appreciate it. - Jenny, 11/20/2006 12:40:00 PM Saturday, November 18, 2006 When I was meeting with the mom about house-sitting this time, she told me that her twin 18 year-old daughters might have friends over on Saturday night, but that - AT MOST - five people. She told me - stressed, even - that she did not want a party to happen. For the most part I don't have to worry about the twins. They do their thing, I do my thing with Brian. But, as the official babysitter, I do have responsibility for them this weekend. Well, it's Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. and I am just about to go to bed when not less than twenty teenagers walk in and go downstairs to the basement. Twenty. I go downstairs and locate a twin. I tell her, "Your mom said you could ONLY have over 5 friends. Choose your five - the rest have to leave." I told this to the nicer twin. She said ok and went to find her sister. About five minutes later (while I am pacing upstairs out of anger) the nice twin said that the other (more craftier twin) called her mom and said that her mom said it was OK that their friends were over. Naturally, I couldn't believe that their mom would say it was perfectly OK that twenty teenagers were over on Saturday night at 11:30. So I called and asked myself. First of all, the twin was not truthful with the mom - the twin said that there were only ten friends there. Neither did the twin mention that over 2/3 of the friends were boys. So I correct this information and then the mom does a total pushover mom thing and says, "Well, if you're ok with it, then it's fine with me. They're nice kids. Just so long as you pop your head in and make sure there's no alcohol..." First of all - I am upholding her rule. Second of all - If I were OK with it, I wouldn't have called, now would I? The long and short of it is that we negotiated that I would kick them all out at midnight, of which it is now six minutes after. Hopefully this will go smoothly. If not, I will be much angrier than I already am. And, really, only few people know this - but you do not want to see me angry. - Jenny, 11/18/2006 09:02:00 PM More with Brian: Last night, when taking him home from a birthday party, we drove by the university and he saw a college student driving one of these motorized wheelchairs. He exclaimed, "Wow!" I asked him what he was "wow"-ing about (since I was spacing out), he pointed out the guy and he asked me, "Do you think that kid is using that because he's handicapped, or because it's awesome?!" Today has been probably one of the most boring days I've had in awhile. I got up around 8 a.m. because Brian woke up, so I made him some breakfast and then he watched cartoons for the next six hours or so. He doesn't have anything to do until 6 p.m., so I just kinda let him be. I thought I'd study, but instead I read my murder mystery (which is awesome because every chapter is written by a different character, describing what's going on around them) and napped. I needed to go to Curtis & Hope's apartment at 2 p.m., so around 1:30, I asked Brian to get his clothes on (he was in PJs). I realize now that my problem was that I was making it appear to be an option for him to accompany me to my friends' house, when really there was no option. Eventually, I got the TV to turn off and Brian to go upstairs to get ready. Meanwhile, I was all ready to go, so I started flipping through a catalogue. Minutes pass and I hear nothing upstairs. So I yell upstairs, "Brian! Are you getting ready?" Silence. "Brian?" He eventually answers, "I don't know what to do." Hm...don't know what to do? This is odd. So I yell up (as I also walk up the stairs), "What do you mean you don't know what to do? What are your options?" I make my way upstairs and find Brian lazily lying on his bed, petting the cat. Eventually I coax him to get ready because I remind him that I cannot leave him in the house alone. So I go back downstairs and resume flipping through catalogues. I was starting to be alarmed around 2:20 p.m. that he still wasn't downstairs. It's not like I wanted him to shower or anything - just a pair of pants and a shirt was all that was called for, really. But I heard some noise upstairs, so I figured that he was probably going to be done anytime soon. Eventually he comes downstairs and still needs to put his shoes on. Shoes - you just slip them on and tie them. Really, it should take less than two minutes and even that is generous. So I'm flipping through catalogues. Eventually, 5 or 10 minutes later I ask, "Are you ready to go?" I make my way to see him with one shoe on, the other one he is putting a shoelace in. "Not quite, just one more second," he says. It turns out that the shoelaces for his Heelys are too long. So he's taking out his shoelaces from his other shoes to replace. I ask, "Why couldn't you just wear the shoes with the perfectly good shoelaces?" "Hm...I never considered that," he says. Finally, the shoe is laced, placed on his foot and as he is tying them, he realizes that there's a good 6" difference with each of the laces. I insist - just tie them and let's go. So he ties them and then starts taking off his other shoe. "What are you doing?" I ask. "I told you - the shoelaces are too long." Oh. My. Goodness. We finally left the house (one shoe on, the other one to be laced in the car) at 2:45, exactly 45 minutes after I was supposed to meet Curtis and Hope. Getting out of the house was good, I think, for the both of us. Both Brian's lethargy and my cabin fever subsided. While I was talking with Hope about their kitchen (they are very nice to let me borrow it on Thanksgiving so that my friends and I can cook ourselves a Thanksgiving dinner there on Thursday), Brian threw the baseball with Curtis, which he said was fun. I take him to the Jewish Center tonight, where he will see a movie or something and then sleep over at a friend's house, which means I have the rest of the night to myself. Perhaps I should study (making up for the time I squandered this morning/afternoon) or perhaps I'll watch some of the movies in my Netflix stockpile. Whatever the case, I hope the day will start looking up and be less boring. - Jenny, 11/18/2006 01:12:00 PM Friday, November 17, 2006 I love taking care of Brian (the 10 year-old I am watching this weekend) because he is so sweet and quirky. Last night and this morning, he keeps singing "Here they are....the dom-in-ant speCIES!" It's some reference from some cartoon he watches (I think Jimmy Neutron). But he'll change it up depending on the context. So this morning, when he finished wrapping a gift, he sang, "Here they are...the dom-in-ant gift wrAPPERS!" You may wonder why he was wrapping a gift this morning. Let me just tell you - it's interesting to play mom, especially when trying to keep kids on a schedule. Brian has a birthday party this afternoon, so last night we went to Best Buy so that he could buy his friend a gift card. We went to go and pick up a gift card and Brian wanted to get his friend the gift card that looked like the microchip Christmas tree. Kinda wrong season, but definitely interesting because Brian is Jewish. But maybe he didn't realize it was a Christmas tree. So this morning. All I needed him to do was eat his cinnamon toast that I made him, take the trash can to the curb and brush his hair and teeth in time so that I could take him to the place where we wait for the school bus. But no. He came down this morning and did practically everything besides eat his cinnamon toast (which he asked for). He played with the cat some, then decided that he needed to wrap the gift card he bought last night. So then he went in search for the wrapping paper. And then he went in search for the tape and scissors. And then he took forever to wrap the gift card. His sisters thought that this was probably the first time he's ever tried to wrap something in his life. When he comes up, I look at his wrapping job - which isn't horrible if it's his first time - and it's wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. Finally, now he's done with that, eats his cinnamon toast, and then spends forever putting on his shoes before he takes the trash can out to the curb. Then he comes in and all I need him to do is brush his hair and teeth, but we are past the time we need to leave to go to the bus stop. So I tell him, "Brian we are running late, can you just brush them quickly?" Nope. Short story made long - we missed the bus, so I drove him to school, which was no biggie. But it just started me thinking about when it is in development when people begin to be aware of time schedules? To some extent, I am a talking watch to Brian. I'm sure if I wasn't there this morning, pushing him along, he'd still be playing with the cat, unaware it was already the afternoon. In other news, my amaryllis is definitely growing. It may not be grown before I leave for Christmas, but it is definitely growing, which is exciting! - Jenny, 11/17/2006 10:19:00 AM Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Excerpts from my (bad) interview yesterday: (at the start of the interview) Pastor: California, California, California, California. Me: Yep...I'm a California girl. Pastor: So are you going to go back to California? Me: [thinking...if I were going to be going back to California, would I be interviewing with a church from Texas?] Well, I am open to where God will lead me. Pastor: I was just in La Jolla. Me: Oh really? La Jolla is lovely. Pastor: Yeah. But a bit far from Burbank. Me: Oh, just an hour and a half or maybe two. Not bad. Pastor: I have also been to Bel Air. Me: Oh. That's a beautiful church. Their sanctuary is very nice. Pastor: Yeah. I was looking out of their window during my own sermon. Me: [thinking...this interview doesn't seem to be going anywhere...] It's a great view. Pastor: Yes. Now, do you have any questions for me? Because I don't have any interview questions for you. Me: [thinking...is this interview all about you? Is this even an interview at all?] Later on in the interview, the pastor asked me, "Why do you want to be a pastor, why do you want to be a Presbyterian pastor and tell me what energizes you about ministry?" So I give my answer, following it up with: Me: ...and what energizes me about ministry is pastoral care, in getting to know a congregation and helping to figure out what the gifts of the congregation are and how to plug those into the larger body. Pastor: Well, the positions we're hiring for don't really have anything to do with pastoral care. [somewhat long pause] Well, I mean pastoral care is a part of all pastor positions, but we're hiring for discipleship and evangelism. So...you might want to read over our position descriptions before you come to the other interview tomorrow. Me: I certainly will do that. ------------ In all, it was a bad interview. Sure, there are things I could have done better. Mostly, however, I am upset at how I waited a half an hour beyond my appointment time in order to meet with this pastor and then, once in the interview, I felt that he didn't have even the time or inclination to get to know who I am for the measly 15-minute interview. To be honest, however, this is exactly what I expect from a megachurch pastor, which this man is. I really have no experience or no basis with which to say this, but I just don't understand how megachurches are built around the charisma of a singular person, especially when that charismatic person usually is fairly cut-off and doesn't really share their life with others. Personally, I'd rather attend a church that was built around the charisma of God rather than the charisma of a pastor. But, of course, I cannot venture to say whether this church is built in this mentality, as I have never been there and have only interacted with one of their pastors. The happy event, however, was that after having gone through that bad interview, I returned to my room and discovered I received an email from the South Carolina pastor saying that he was really impressed with me and wants to refer my name on to his committee. And that made me happy. Anyway, I begin house-sitting today until Sunday morning, so my weekend isn't really that interesting. I'll probably take the advantage to study in a very nice house. I can begin doing research on my final papers, which there is a chance I may do, but I'm honestly more likely to spend some time reading my new book, since I finished the Moldovan Tennis book. My new book is a murder mystery, which is uncharacteristic for me. I think I got it at our annual used book sale in the gym. So far, it's interesting and good and involves a Shiva gold statue, which ties it in with my Hindu class. - Jenny, 11/15/2006 05:43:00 PM Well, last night after dinner I went over to my friend Benjamin's room for some "German water." Benjamin is a special student from Germany, which basically means that he's getting his PhD elsewhere and is here for a time using our library. Anyway, awhile ago I was talking to Benjamin at some event and he was telling me that in Germany they wouldn't be drinking punch - they'd be drinking beer. Then he was telling me about his adventures accustoming himself to the horrible American beer and the horrible food in the cafeteria. It's really quite funny. All this is to say that I ended up getting home at 9 p.m., exactly as NOVA finished. Bummer. Guess I will have to find out when it will be re-shown in re-runs. Last year and this year I am one of the deacons here at school. Being a deacon means that you help people move in and then you are sort of the point of contact for the people on your floor. People might come to you with problems, questions, crises, etc. Last year, nothing like that ever happened. Well, maybe once or twice throughout the course of the year. This year people come by all the time! I would say that I've been approached by my fellow hallmates two or three times a month. I don't mind it at all - it's kinda cool that my hallmates trust me and value my opinion and think that I can get stuff done. I just think it's weird that last year nothing like this really happened. Maybe because last year we had a lot of returning students on my floor and this year it's mostly new students... My interview went well yesterday. I've found that with the two interviews I've had so far, I enter either feeling very apathetic about the position or even negative toward the position and then am surprised by the end of the interview that I'm so enthusiastic about the church, the position and its location. I have another interview today and tomorrow for another church in Texas. We'll see if this interview trend continues. If you're in the market for buying pop tarts anytime soon, I suggest you buy the hot fudge sundae ones. I bought them the other day and think that they're quite possibly the most delicious pop tarts I've ever eaten. - Jenny, 11/15/2006 06:52:00 AM Tuesday, November 14, 2006 Yesterday I walked to the Princeton Post Office, which is one of the cuter post offices I've been to. It is certainly a more pleasant experience than going to any of the post offices in Burbank, CA. When I got there, there was a line and three windows open. This was big for me because usually there's only one window open with the nicest man behind it. So as I was waiting, I was hoping that I'd get the same guy who helps me every time, and I did! His name is Ron and he is so incredibly nice. Yesterday he was telling me that he went to Michaels and purchased a couple of rubber stamps for his customers (one says Congratulations and the other one says Happy Birthday!). He keeps these stamps by his window for his customers' packages. He told me that it is amazing the work that God does through these stamps, how the stamps have repaired a relationship between a mother and a son, how someone appreciated the envelope more than the gift, etc. It was very endearing to hear of the love that he brings to people through his job. Then, once my transaction was complete, he gave me a tootsie roll pop. A very, very sweet man. Today was the Old Testament midterm exam. You could not pay me to go back and do that again, not even if I were able to retain the information I've gained in the two years since I've taken the exam. Old Testament class, in general, was a miserable experience for me. Tonight I hope to watch NOVA, my most favorite show which I always forget to watch. I get email announcements of upcoming shows and tonight's show is about this family that they found in remote Turkey who walk on all fours, which invites a whole host of questions of what it means to be a human being, since part of what it means to be a human means to walk on two legs. Watch a preview of tonight's episode. But before I can get to that tonight, I have another interview with a church today right before my atonement class (which I am liking more and more every day). This interview is with some people from Kentucky for a youth and family associate pastor. The Scotsman is against this sort of position (he has some good reason for it), but I disagree. I like, though, that he has told me this because I find it quite intriguing and challenging. Overall, however, I just wish I knew what I wanted to do. Two nights ago I was thinking about the hospital thing again and I went online to look at hospitals out west where I could do a CPE chaplain residency. Within the next couple of weeks, I think I'm going to contact them to look into doing that next year. It's just so confusing to try to figure this stuff out... - Jenny, 11/14/2006 07:24:00 AM Sunday, November 12, 2006 My more long-term blog readers might remember a post I made about a year ago about being on this email list for Italian-American professionals. [If you want to read the original post, click here and scroll to October 14th...by the way, October was a great month for interesting blog posts because that was also the month where I first wrote about my love for compact head, medium-firmness toothbrushes. If you'd like to read that post, scroll to October 18th. Or, if you want to read again about my parking ticket at the Trenton Train Station, that's the October 24th post.] Briefly, sometime my first year here at school, I somehow got onto this email list for young, Italian-American professionals in the Princeton area. This is strange because I did not sign up on the list, I am not Italian-American, I am not an upwardly-mobile young professional and I think Italian food is fair at best. Well, after I posted about that, I don't remember getting any more emails from the Italian-American group. I assumed that they discovered their mistake and took me off their list, which was fine by me. But no - I just got another email from them last week letting me know about their upcoming wine-tasting dinners. I missed the date for the five course lunch (which only cost a measly $25) (!), but still can catch one of two upcoming dinners (one costing $60 and the other costing $90, plus tax and gratuity). Maybe in the wake of my confusion in figuring out what to do and where to go, I should consider becoming an Italian-American Young Professional. If they can pay $90 for a wine-tasting dinner, then surely they must be doing ok... - Jenny, 11/12/2006 04:11:00 PM Friday, November 10, 2006 Addendum to previous post: I was talking with my good friend Tracey,* who I mainly see only in the context of Hindu worship (our preferred branch is, of course, the Hare Krishna variety). I talked with her a bit this afternoon regarding my ordination exams, particularly about feeling defeated about failing exegesis. And she reminded me that my call to ministry is not dependent on two readers reading one exam, which is a very true statement. So even though I feel defeated about that and don't particularly want to pick myself up and try again, I will remember that it is God who is calling me to ministry and that I can trust in God to help me through the hurdles along the way. * Tracey, by the way, organized and preached in today's chapel service and did an outstanding job. I am very proud and envious of her and think she has excellent taste in music. Additionally, I remembered that I wanted to post about two other things. The first is that I was chatting on AIM with my brother yesterday about LOST. LOST, by the way, was excellent this week, no matter what people who don't even like the show anyway say about it. Sure, I'm upset with the rest of them who are upset that we have to wait until February to know what happens, but I am excited that the show has been so exciting. I was very surprised to see Jack act the way he did in this past episode because I feel that he is acting apart from his normal character, which is very exciting to me because who knows what will happen. And I am so curious about what the phrase means on Eko's Jesus stick, how it got there and how Locke will interpret it. But since I don't think for an instant that they will kill Sawyer off, I am not worrying for his life. Anyway, my brother. So Joey and I were chatting and out of the blue he asks me, "Do you have your Christmas list ready yet?" Um, Christmas list? Having a Christmas list isn't even a glimmer in my eye, so I told him as such. Then he told me, "But there are only so many more shopping days until Christmas..." That, exactly, is the last thing I ever expected my brother to say. So, now he has given me the deadline of Thanksgiving. - Jenny, 11/10/2006 02:42:00 PM I received the results back from my ordinaton exams today. Before I only knew whether or not I passed. Today I got my scores and grader comments. The way the grading is done is that they have two different people grade them, assigning a score of 0-5, with a grade of 3 or higher as passing. Well, I was surprised to see that on one essay (I forget which) one grader gave me a 5 while another grader gave me a 2. I do not know how one essay can garner two completely different scores, from being unsatisfactory to one and yet excellent to another. It's dumb, but part of me just wants to quit and not to try to take the exegesis exam again. I probably won't do that, but it's seriously how I feel. Otherwise, my weekend is shaping up. I've decided to see Stranger Than Fiction tonight with Emily, Matt, Gustavo, Nathan and (Provolone and Peanut Butter) Peter. Nick, Noah and the Scotsman are seeing Borat tonight, which I also really, really want to see. So, I think I'll probably just see it tomorrow afternoon or late evening by myself. I can't see it during the regular evening because I'll be helping Nathan celebrate passing his PhD comp exams. Well, I have a lot of web design to be getting to this afternoon, so I suppose I should get on with that. - Jenny, 11/10/2006 11:53:00 AM Thursday, November 09, 2006 Feeling kinda down today. Maybe it's just because Thursdays are tough, long days for me. Maybe it's because I didn't enjoy the small group I was in for my Hinduism class. Maybe it's because my plant still isn't growing. Whatever the case, here are some positives: a.) My hair looks and feels great. b.) The view from my windowsill is beset with some beautiful yellow leaves. c.) I have now completed all of the work for my Hinduism class, meaning that I really only have to focus on my other three classes now. d.) I have a whole hour before my next class. e.) I had more payments than spending on my latest credit card statement. f.) It's almost the weekend! - Jenny, 11/09/2006 10:19:00 AM Wednesday, November 08, 2006 Well this morning I was able to sleep in past 5:00 a.m., which was nice. I still got up at 7 a.m. (by choice), but at least it didn't feel too bad to do so. I had to wake up early this morning because I signed up to interview with this pastor from a church in South Carolina that is looking for a generalist associate pastor. I was kinda nervous because this was my first foray in interviewing with churches. But then I remembered that I'm not necessarily interested in either South Carolina or this church. So I went and, actually, had a nice time. It seems like this church could use the gifts that I have. But, this is all very, very, very preliminary both on my part and on that church's part. But I suppose it was nice to start these interviews off on a good foot. I have two interviews next week, one with a church in Kentucky and the other in Houston. Both tantalizing destinations. Last night, instead of reading this book for class (which I don't particularly enjoy reading), I uploaded my pictures from the UK. They are available for viewing here. My agenda is full today. In a few minutes, I'll head over to do my weekly Faculty Lunch catering gig. Then I'll head up to Westfield to get my hair cut. From Westfield, I will go to Summit and talk to my church about taking over their website management. Then I'll come back and have a couple of hours of study until LOST. I'll tell you one thing - finishing my Atonement reading on the plane was one of the best things I've ever done. The rest of my studying this week seems tame. - Jenny, 11/08/2006 06:50:00 AM Tuesday, November 07, 2006 I am aware that it has been awhile since I've posted last. Here's a rewind of my last few days in London: Friday: I did not, in fact, end up going to Notting Hill. Briana had to do some laundry, so I just read for my paper that's due on Thursday and then later on that night we met up with some of her Biola friends (she goes to Biola and there are about 30 of them studying at this school this year) and went to Chinatown, but had Japanese food. Japanese food is really, really not my favorite but it ended up being ok. AND, they gave us salad cream for our salad and it reminded me of my time in Jamaica because that's what Mr. & Mrs. Bennett always bought for our salads, since they lived in London for so long. And that's another thing - going to London really reminded me of my time in Jamaica because a lot of the things (products, signage, etc.) were so similar. The conversation over Japanese food was less than enthralling...I don't know if it's because all of the people were in undergrad or whatever, but it just reminded me of superficial Southern California talk about Jen & Ben (or whoever). So afterwards, Briana and I went back to her room and watched When Harry Met Sally with a couple of her flat-mates. This is probably only the second or third time I've seen the movie totally through because I put up a resistance to it for a long time (I won't name names, but I had a couple of friends who loved the movie so much that I just refused to see it out of spite), but I really do like the movie and it was nice watching it with her two flat-mates (one American, one English) because neither of them had seen it before. Saturday: Saturday was Briana's Biola class fieldtrip. Apparently, it's a fieldtrip through their Bible class that, to me, has nothing to do with the Bible. It seems like it's a way for Biola to say that they're having a "Bible" class yet be able to get to know British culture. Anyway, we got up early, went to the Royal Academy Museum and saw the Rodin exhibition, then went to Starbucks, then walked from there to Trafalgar Square where we went to the Velasquez exhibit at another museum over there. Then, Briana and her group and I walked back to this cute little market/selling goods at this one church. But we had to fight to get there because there was this big protest/march about the environment. And when I say big, I mean big. There were so many people it was hard to move about in the streets and people just kept processing into Trafalgar Square from somewhere. And most of them hated George Bush with a passion, which I understand, but I overheard this person at the market saying that although George Bush can be hated for a number of things and although he does have involvement in the deterioration of our environment, it really started with industrialization, so it's unfair to blame him for the whole thing, which the West has been incurring (without guilt) for some time now. I think that is a very valid point. Anyway, from there we went to the play Stones in his Pockets, which was a play about this Hollywood production company coming to Ireland to film a movie. I was very tired and must have fallen asleep during the first act because in the second act, once I was rested from a brief nap during intermission, I was wondering what they were talking about when they were talking about this person who died. So, obviously, I missed something big. After that, Briana and I got dinner at Covent Garden and then went back to her school to watch another movie with her friends in their dorm. Sunday: We went to the church Briana has been attending with her friends. The people were fairly friendly there and the service, although a bit long, was nice enough. What I found really interesting was that they're in this very beautiful, old worship space and they've converted it to having this projector screen for their praise music. I guess that was somewhat shocking for me because I can't imagine either Central or Nassau or Fifth Ave. doing that to their sanctuaries precisely because of their beautiful, historic buildings. We have a contemporary service at Central where words are projected, but this is always in the auditorium. I was also impressed because their service was fairly contemporary and they had an impressive mix of ages, which usually does not happen. After church we went to the Tate Modern and looked around there for awhile. Neither Briana nor I went down the slides - Briana due to the height and me due to the enclosed space. Then we walked next door to the Globe, but I was disappointed that you cannot see much unless there's a show going on (but you can certainly shop in their gift shop - why is it that every place has to have a gift shop?). Then we went back to her room, ordered pizza and I wrote my Hinduism paper and then we had very good discussion about the church service earlier and what it means to be Reformed (Briana is also Presbyterian). Monday: Woke up early, went to the airport. I think that UK airports are crazy in that I can never figure out what's going on and where I should check-in or find my gate or whatever. And the signs are hardly clear. (Plus, I've noticed that the UK people put their Fire and Emergency signs in green...hello? Does green scream emergency to you? It doesn't to me.) It's actually a bit stressful for me because usually I'm on the top of my game when going to the airport. Plus - the security in the UK airports seems like it's too much. It took me at least a half an hour to get through the security yesterday at Gatwick. Anyway, my flight home was fine and fairly empty. We were on my favorite airplane of all time - the Boeing 777. More leg-room, cathedral ceilings, personal TV where you can select your own movies, etc. Beautiful. Read some, slept some, watched the Lake House, which I don't think I got. Very nice to be home. Very nice to sleep in my bed again. What I don't like about vacations is that there's no routine, which sometimes makes life exhausting for me if I don't have routine. Here are some impressions about the UK/from my trip: - There must be a high incidence of lung cancer. - Men seem to wear suits all the time to work. - London was kinda dirty and the people weren't too nice. To be honest, I think I'd rather go to NYC. - Scotland is awesome! Quite possibly my most favorite country now. - People set off fireworks 24/7 in London, and not just on Guy Fawkes' Day. While I was in London, I really wanted to see this movie but thought I'd see it when I returned home to America. I simply cannot look at this picture without laughing. Perhaps I'll see it this weekend. - Jenny, 11/07/2006 07:01:00 AM Thursday, November 02, 2006 Another packed day. Woke up late this morning and went to the Tower of London and spent a long while there. I thought it was pretty cool and am glad we stuck with the tour and took time to look around, instead of trying to quickly make our way over to Westminster Abbey in order to see the boy's chorus. After spending so long at the Tower, we had a late lunch/early dinner of fried chicken and fries and then made our way over to St. Paul's Cathedral. We arrived when it was closed on the inside, but about to re-open for service. Feeling like we didn't want to go in, look briefly and leave just before service, we decided that seeing just the outside was good enough. So we then made our way over to Leicester Square where we tried to find tickets for a show tonight. I discovered that London (at least to Briana's knowledge) doesn't have things such as student rush tickets or (really) even any discount tickets (no matter what the ticket agencies say). She really wanted to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which I was ok with seeing. We went to about four places and couldn't find anything under 35 pounds, so we went back to the place where we saw cheaper Lion King tickets. On a whim, Briana asked this place about Seven Brides and got us cheap(er) tickets for that show. After securing tickets, we walked around and saw Picadilly Circus, which is cool, but not as cool as Times Square. While we were there, we went to a drug store and bought Andrew's Liver Salt for my aunt Sally, who raves about the stuff. I bought her three larger jars of it and felt a bit embarassed purchasing it all at once because, beyond solving indigestion (which is what my aunt wants it for), it also solves constipation. While at the drug store, I also bought some of the candies that Tracey recommended to me: wine gums, jelly babies and a crunchie bar. The wine gums are delicious! I guess they're like really chewy gummy bears that have a faint taste of wine. I only had one jelly baby (which seems to be like a creamy gummy bear) because I had my fill of gummy products that night, but thought it tasted good. I have yet to try the crunchie bar. I also bought a small bag of chips that was Thai chili spice flavored (or something like that). I thought it sounded good (especially compared to the other options of prawns-flavored or steak-flavored chips) and they were good, but tasted almost exactly like BBQ flavored chips. After the drug store, we walked around in this mall in the area that had normal mall-type shopping stores along with: a bowling alley, bumper cars, video arcade, movie theatre, etc. It's like theme park meets mall and I found it to be a little bit much for my senses to handle all at once. Then we made our way to the theatre and discovered we had very good seats in this smallish, but beautifully ornate theatre. I've never seen Seven Brides, so the whole storyline and everything was new to me. It was cute and the actors & actresses did a good job, especially with the dancing! The British lady sitting next to me (who kinda smelled) said that she wasn't a theatre-goer, but then later on told me that she used to go to a play every night of the week and now only goes to a play once every week. I'm not sure, with those characteristics, who could be defined as a theatre-goer. Tomorrow I think we may walk around the Notting Hill area, although I think I might suggest that we find some coffeeshop somewhere and read for awhile or something because I think I may be too tired when I leave to write the paper I have due for Hinduism on Monday. Then, I think we're going to Chinatown tomorrow night with Briana's other American friends. - Jenny, 11/02/2006 04:50:00 PM Wednesday, November 01, 2006 FYI, Scotland is where it's at. I got up SUPER early this morning (5:45 a.m., after taking the most fabulous sleep ever!) to take the bus to the tube to the train to the airport to fly up to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. It was not that hard to figure out the system, but I did get to the airport just in time. And when I mean just, my plane left at 8:40 and I arrived there at 2 minutes before 8, which is also 2 minutes before they were closing the check-in desk. So, that was fortunate. I also sat next to a very attractive Londoner, which was also fortunate. Ryan Air is officially a strange airline with an unpleasing color scheme. When I entered the plane, I had to show them my boarding ticket. Normal, right? Well, when exiting the plane, I also had to show my boarding ticket. Weird, right? And Stanstead Airport is officially very secure - I had to send my shoes through their very own xray machine. When I exited the plane (I need to mention that it is officially glorious to be able to take a plane trip without having to have any sort of baggage), I saw Josh fairly immediately and we headed to the train station to go to Glasgow. Although I only walked through Glasgow from one train station to the other, I LOVED Glasgow. LOVED it. Would go back instantly. It is SO beautiful and hip and seems like there's a lot of life and stuff going on. AND, the people are SO nice. Anyway, we got on the train in Glasgow that goes to Edinburgh, and headed over there, which was a very pleasant train ride. Scotland has some amazingly beautiful countryside. When we got to Edinburgh, we decided to walk around the Royal Mile, which has the Castle, Parliament, the Palace and John Knox's house. Josh and I went to John Knox's house to get a deeper sense of our Presbyterian roots. Maybe failing the exegesis exam could be permitted if they only knew that I now have this experience. Anyway, Edinburgh was nice and I would go back there too, but I loved Glasgow. We got lunch while in Edinburgh at this place (I had a chicken, cheese and onion panini with a very good beer that started with a T) and it was there that I realized that Scotland has its own money that does not have "that lady's picture on it." Yes, I said that outloud and, yes, our waiter was from London. That lady (in case you don't get it) is the queen...maybe I should be a little bit more reserved with my words. After a few hours in Edinburgh, we took the train back to Glasgow and from Glasgow to Prestwick and I got to the check-in counter at the airport at exactly two minutes before the counter there closed. So, I narrowly avoided missing two flights today. Everyone here has been warning me about Ryan Air, about how they're always delayed and stuff, but both flights left on time (I think) and tonight's flight got in 20 minutes early. But even though I got in 20 minutes early, I narrowly missed the train to go back to the tube, so I had to wait the 20 minutes I gained. But I was listening to Tyler's iPod, which definitely helped pass the time (Tyler very graciously lent me it when I went to Jamaica last year...the iPod is great, except that I sing in the car, so when I'm riding in the train or sitting in the airport or whatever, I tend to almost break out into song in a public place, making for a potentially embarassing situation). From the train, I got onto the tube, which was no problem. But from getting off the tube at Hammersmith and onto the bus - that presented a little problem. Previously, I had only gotten off the bus at Hammersmith, not on the bus. And, since I'm from LA and have my own car, taking the bus is a very foreign concept to me. I figured that a bus route probably goes in a circle, so I could probably go to the exit I got off at and get back on and eventually we'd circle around to my stop in Roehampton. Well, not exactly. SO I wait forever for the bus to get there and I get on and I sit down and we go through everything and it's all fine and well until we get to the end of the line. I figured it was the end of the line because everyone got off of the bus. Except for me. And the driver. So I went up to ask the driver and it turns out that I got on the bus going the wrong way (who knew there's a wrong way?!). He said that I'd have to wait on his ten minute break and then his route would start again going the other way, and that he'd point it out for me. So, we stopped and waited and he had a cigarette. Now people in London - I don't think they're particularly nice. Actually, right now I think London is very so-so, and the jive people give has a lot to do with that. But this bus driver is quite possibly the nicest Albanian bus driver who lives in Brussels. He and I talked a lot, even as he resumed his route. People would get on and I'd be up front, standing, just chatting with him. He asked me why Americans were always so nice and polite, which was somewhat shocking to me because I was not aware Americans had that reputation. Good job, America! He also told me that he and his wife are going on a cruise this winter, starting at Miami. He wanted to know if people from Miami would talk like me, because he found me to be perfectly understandable, but finds some Americans have a difficult accent (I suspect New Yorkers, based on the way he was saying they said "water"). So we talked for a long while about accents and stuff. And we talked a little about his cruise and his family. It was actually quite nice and sweet. I suspect that if I smoked, he would have even given me one of his cigarettes. But then some of the Londoners were kinda mean to him, so that made me feel really sad for him and mad at the mean Londoners. Anyway, tomorrow we go to see the Tower of London and I think the boys chorus sing at Westminster Abbey. We may even go see a show later on that night. So, I gotta rest up a bit. - Jenny, 11/01/2006 05:35:00 PM |
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