Last night Charles and I watched "The Fountain." It was a weird semi sci-fi. It was very interesting. It was basically a commentary on death and rebirth (very Buddhist) and the search for the tree of life, taking place in the past, present and future.



It was the kind of movie that you just need to think about for awhile. I may need to watch it again, just to get it. But Hugh Jackman was amazing in it.



So - if you want your mind blow, I suggest this one.



In other news: tomorrow i'm off to Louisville with the other consultant and the director to a 3 day financial aid conference. Apparently, a lot of this job, and especially this conference, is about politics and schmoozing the right people. Should be fun.



What will most definitely be fun is swimming in the heated pool, eating at P.F Changs (which I hear is amazing Chinese), and playing beach blanket bingo (it's a beach theme this year - Through the Sands of Time [sounds like a soap opera]) while watching everyone else get drunk.



I'll be back Friday afternoon.



In the meantime, if you see my husband, make sure he is eating somewhat decently! :)

Because one of my friends from college just had a baby shower and my boss is pregnant, and my co-workers sister-in-law just had a baby, we have had a lot of "baby" conversations in the office lately. And I guess it's getting to me.

Last night I dreampt that I was pregnant... with twins. And I was devastated because it was definitely not a good time for that and also because one of them was deformed because I didn't know I was pregnant and was taking birth control that mutated the poor baby. I didn't want to tell anyone, and I especially didn't want to tell Charles because I thought he would be mad, so I went to my friend Aimee's house (yes, Aimee - I was dreaming about you last night!) and totally lost it and started crying and she couldn't figure out what was wrong and so I told her.

And then on the way home I ran into Charles, who had found out from Aimee (and, although he wasn't mad, he wasn't very excited about it), and he dragged me into the mall to buy plastic sippy cups and the whole time I'm trying not to be upset and am begging him to just let me go home because we didn't have to buy sippy cups right away and probably people were gonna get some for us anyway.

And then, in my dream, I couldn't remember if I was really pregnant or if I had only dreampt that I was and then thought it was real. And so I was going to see a doctor, just to make sure. But he said he wouldn't see me until I got some counseling, because I was so upset about it all. So, I ended up going to see this lady at Asbury who was talking to me about the joys of children and why I should be excited - and I was trying to be happy but it just wasn't working...

And then my alarm clock went off. And I realized that I am most certainly not pregnant... and with twins, at that (at least, I hope that was just a dream and not an omen), and then I really was excited! And I, for the first time in a long time, was very happy to be woken up by my alarm clock!

In choir we are singing "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
And when we got to the last verse -
(Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come, and leap, ye lame, for joy)
Dr. Goold stopped us. I think we weren't singing joyfully enough.

But this is what got me. He stopped and was talking about what that must have been like. And he asked a lady in the choir "what do you think they (the blind who could see colors for the first time, and the lame who could skip and run and jump, and the deaf who could hear laughter and singing and the sounds of children playing) were thinking?"

And she said this - which I found incredibly profound:
"I didn't know anything until today."

What about me? Did I realize that simple, yet profound truth the day that Love saved me? Did I realize (and do I really understand, even now) that I knew nothing until that day. And if I do not live by that truth and if I am not transformed to the core of by being by that truth - then do I really know anything at all? Or do I take that precious knowledge and understanding which is offered to me, and throw it away.

Lord, open my eyes. Open my ears. Stregthen my limbs. I want to know You.

with the white hot intensity of a thousand burning suns.

So I totally wasted my Saturday. Well, I guess it wasn't wasted, but I didn't clean the house or work-out at the gym or do any of my normal Saturday activities. What did I do? I read Harry Potter #7. The whole thing. 751 pages. I had to read it in a day. I couldn't put it down. It was unbelievable!! (I won't give anything away.) ;)

However, the rest of the weekend was great (and a little more active as well)! Friday, Charles and I went to a cookout that the PhD people do every weekend. The NS of New Zealand invited us, and that was a lot of fun! There is a couple that we met who were at our church in Coffs Harbour for a month, a few years before we were there. It was great to meet them and we are really hoping to get to know them better. It is really such a small world! After that, Danie and I went to a purse party at Amy's. That was fun! (I've never seen so many purses in my life!) I'm not a big purse person, but I love food and there was lots of that there! :D

Yesterday was another beautiful, warm day so after church we packed a picnic and went to HighBridge park. It's a little like letchworth but not quite as big or spectacular - a big valley (but not a gorge), with a river and a high train trestle! It's very pretty! So that was a fun, relaxing time! I can't believe it is only 5 minutes from our house! I'll get a few pics up on flikr soon.

That's about it. We got an antenna for our TV so we pick up a few stations without having to pay for cable, which is nice. We don't watch a lot of TV and we don't get a lot of stations, but at least now we can watch football. (But they never show Bills games here, which stinks for me.)

We finished watching season 2 of Corner Gas last night. That show is so so funny! It's a super dry, super clean canadian comedy. I cant' remember the last time I saw a sitcom that wasn't full of dirty jokes and sex talk and stuff. So if you can get your hands on Corner Gas, do it! You won't be disappointed! (Unless you don't like dry humor, in which case you may not like it at all.) Either way, I highly recommend it!

I guess that's that. Time for work!

Well, I at least have a case of "It's Tuesday and I want to go home and sleep." This morning was great but this afternoon has been rough, to say the least. I am constantly surprised at how obnoxious seminarians can be. I'm not pulling that "Christians should always act perfect" thing because I have done some stupid stuff and been told that I'm not a Christian because "Christians don't act like that." And even though we shouldn't, it's still dumb to expect us to be perfect.

But for Pete's sake. Here are people studying to be ministers and church leaders, who talk about trusting God with their lives and their finances and then they flip out over every little thing and are unbelievably rude to anyone who is trying to help them. I guess I'm just surpised, although maybe I shouldn't be. I know everyone here is just a regular person, like me, trying to live Christ-like lives and failing miserably more often than we'd like to admit. I just thought that being here would be different (and I think it should be different). And it just makes me kind of sad.

And it makes me want to go home and not have to help them with their money. And maybe that's not a very Christ-like thing to say right now. But I'm not meaning to be a jerk. I'm just tired.

On a much better note, yesterday for the spouse ministry we met with our small groups for the first time, and I love my group! It is going to be an awesome year with them, I can tell! They are some of the sweetest ladies I have met here on campus so far! So I'm excited about that. This will be a good opportunity to make friends with more girls. I am really needing that right now. So hopefully this will encourage deeper friendships and accountability and prayer parters, etc. Not just social acquaintances. One can only hope...

Lastly, I found out last week that I have to travel for work. My boss, the other consultant and I will be in Louisville for 3 days at the end of the month for a conference. Boring, you say? Well, it consists of 2 1-hour seminars a day (one seminar even being "financial aid jepardy") and the rest is eating and hanging out. The theme this year is the beach so we are playing beach blanket bingo and swimming in the pool and the seminary pays for our hotel and our food and our car...
I think it's going to be rather fun! And Dawn and Laura are fun to hang out with!
Bring on the travel! :)

Ok. Time to finish up some emails to some angry people. I have to keep telling myself "I can be kind - I can be patient - I am the little engine that could: I think I can, I think I can...." :D

Choo Choo!