Wow, I didn't realize I had so many silent readers. Thanks, folks. Not only do I have readers, but it seems like everyone reads regularly, considering you all said hello within a day or two of my entry.
Besides my excitement that I have more than two blog readers, life has been very good lately. Let me name the little things that have been making me happy. Tonight I am going salsa dancing, which I love. My classes are actually useful and challenging and interesting this semester. I invented a frittata-esque egg dish last week that features asparagus, and I like it so much. One of my favorite TV shows (in syndication) is finally playing reruns of the episodes that I've never seen before. My roommate and I are taking a step aerobics class and our instructor is fabulous. I have eaten so much good Indian buffet lately. Oh yeah, and I've been getting to watch a lot of movies. I have never gotten to watch movies as much as I would like, and I am finally making a point to do it, and I really enjoy it. I'm guaranteed funding for this summer (yay!! who wouldn't be happy to have a job?). Also, I discovered the movie I have been dying to see, Hotel Rwanda, is finally playing in South Bend; when I found that out today it was pretty much the cherry on top of a good life.
Sure, there are things to complain about, namely how FREAKIN' COLD it is (try highs above freezing maybe once a week) or how there is too much soap opera-esque drama (I thought I left that when I left Brown, but apparently not everyone outgrows it when they graduate college). But overall life has been treating me so very well, and I'm thankful for that.
So, I have a couple of real (more deep) posts that will go up soon, but I couldn't just plead for comments and not thank you all when you left them, right? Thanks!!!
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Here's to My Only Two Readers: David and Cohen
The classroom where I have one of my statistics classes (Longitudinal Data Analysis to be exact) is a relatively small classroom. It has three tables in a U-shape with chairs around the outside, and a podium in the front where the professor can talk from. The tables that make the U are rather large, and so when people are seated in the chairs it's practically impossible to get by them around the back. (When people get to class, the common courtesy is to take the seat farthest in as possible so that climbing around people is minimized). The classroom also has a blackboard and no fancy AV hookups (computers or projectors or anything). This is of note because most classrooms here at the Dame smack of the university's money, with fancy computer hookups (they are actually useful, as most professors lecture with powerpoint instead of overheads).
In any case, this classroom is apparently our professor's favorite classroom where he teaches every class of his, every semester. The other day as I was watching a girl who had to go to the bathroom climb under the table to get back to her chair, I wondered why Scott (our professor) didn't try to upgrade to a better room. When I realized what I was thinking about, I kind of was annoyed with myself. The room is functional. Sure, more space and nicer AV hookups would be nice, but the room works perfectly fine for its purpose. I started feeling like I need a lesson in learning to be happy with things that are functional, if not state of the art. (As Americans, we usually think to want the best, most state-of-the-art things possible).
So, recently I've noticed that it appears I only have two blog readers. Cheers to them, my very very dear friends David and Cohen, who really are more like family. Part of me wants to lament the fact that no one else reads my blog anymore. Some of this is silly "why aren't i as popular???" sentiments, and some of it is just sadness that it seems I'm becoming disconnected with my old friends. Except for Steve, no one at the Dame reads my blog, so the lack of readers somehow seems directly proportional to the closeness I retain to old friends.
If anyone other than David or Cohen is reading this, well, let me know that you are still keeping up with me via reading my blog, and heck, leave a comment.
But hey, I'm not asking for pity: I couldn't be more thankful for my two very faithful readers, D and C, even if I am preaching to the choir with most of my entries and talking to you on the phone regularly (thus perhaps negating the necessity for the blog). I don't have a pithy last sentence for this entry, so here's what I'm thinking about: I made vegetable enchiladas and Mexican beans for the first time ever tonight, and they turned out really well! Yay!
In any case, this classroom is apparently our professor's favorite classroom where he teaches every class of his, every semester. The other day as I was watching a girl who had to go to the bathroom climb under the table to get back to her chair, I wondered why Scott (our professor) didn't try to upgrade to a better room. When I realized what I was thinking about, I kind of was annoyed with myself. The room is functional. Sure, more space and nicer AV hookups would be nice, but the room works perfectly fine for its purpose. I started feeling like I need a lesson in learning to be happy with things that are functional, if not state of the art. (As Americans, we usually think to want the best, most state-of-the-art things possible).
So, recently I've noticed that it appears I only have two blog readers. Cheers to them, my very very dear friends David and Cohen, who really are more like family. Part of me wants to lament the fact that no one else reads my blog anymore. Some of this is silly "why aren't i as popular???" sentiments, and some of it is just sadness that it seems I'm becoming disconnected with my old friends. Except for Steve, no one at the Dame reads my blog, so the lack of readers somehow seems directly proportional to the closeness I retain to old friends.
If anyone other than David or Cohen is reading this, well, let me know that you are still keeping up with me via reading my blog, and heck, leave a comment.
But hey, I'm not asking for pity: I couldn't be more thankful for my two very faithful readers, D and C, even if I am preaching to the choir with most of my entries and talking to you on the phone regularly (thus perhaps negating the necessity for the blog). I don't have a pithy last sentence for this entry, so here's what I'm thinking about: I made vegetable enchiladas and Mexican beans for the first time ever tonight, and they turned out really well! Yay!
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Iraqi election security measures
From BBC, on the Iraqi election next week:
"The interim government has announced sweeping security measures to protect voters in the 30 January election.
"The interim government has announced sweeping security measures to protect voters in the 30 January election.
- Curfews will be extended
- In many areas, election staff intend to keep the location of polling stations secret until the last minute
- Iraq's borders will be closed for three days around the election
- Baghdad's airport is to be closed for two days
- The movement of pedestrians and cars close to polling stations will also be restricted, and non-official cars will be prevented from travelling between Iraq's 18 provinces
- People will be barred from carrying weapons ."
Granted, I suppose it is good people can't carry weapons to a polling place and start shooting people who look like they'd be voting for the opposition. But does this all sound a little extreme to anyone else? Maybe a little bit like the country isn't ready for a "free and fair" electoin yet?
Friday, January 21, 2005
Who is a terrorist?
On inauguration day, Bush announced his national policy "with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Bush didn't actually use the word "terrorism" or "terrorist" in his speech, but those are implied in ending tyranny. I won't tackle "Who is a tyrant" (that might get too touch!) but I will tackle another question: who do you consider a terrorist?
Bin Laden and his lackies are for sure terrorists.
Israelis consider Palestinians who do things like suicide bombing terrorists.
Palestinians consider many Israeli soldiers terrorists.
Some Middle Eastern leaders consider Israeli a terrorist state. (Here's one example: Turkey)
What about people who bomb abortion clinics? Are they terrorists?
Did you know that many in the Arab Muslim world considers George Bush a terrorist?
ter·ror·ism (n.) : The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
Now this makes it interesting. Since terrorism is defined as "unlawful use of force", we get to the question of who decides what is lawful. It's pretty agreed upon that terrorist attacks such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks count as terrorism, since these acts are clearly unlawful and aimed at intimidating American society/government. However, there are stickier situations.
Most of the world called the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 "illegal"; that would make the war an act of terrorism, especially since it was aimed at "intimidating" and "coercing" a government. (Then again, maybe it was just aimed at "obliterating" a society and government. In that case, does it count as terrorism?)
Obviously Israelis consider Palestinians to be acting illegally when doing suicide bombings. But Palestinians (along with the rest of the Arab world) consider the entire state of Israel to be an illegal creation, so anything Israelis do to displace or control Palestinians would pretty much be illegal. Even if we consider Israel a legal state, some of its acts could still be considered terrorism. For instance, the wall fencing off the West Bank. Explicitly the purpose was to keep out Palestinian terrorists; but it seems like the real purpose is probably attempted intimidation of Palestinian society/government. Now the question of legality: 150 nations in the United Nations voted the creation of the wall was illegal, 6 voted it was legal. Incidentally, the United States was one of those 6, and so the US government can't consider the act terrorism.
Abortion clinic bombings. Those could be terrorism. It depends if the bombers intend to coerce the society or government into making abortion illegal, or if they are just trying to shut down the one abortion clinic.
This is interesting to think about, right? We want to end terrorism. What kind of terrorism? If we are working towards any kind of international cooperation, understanding, or peace, it seems we need to look to international definitions of legality when considering what is terrorism. Until then, we will be ridding the world only of a narrowly US-conceived idea of terrorism.
Bin Laden and his lackies are for sure terrorists.
Israelis consider Palestinians who do things like suicide bombing terrorists.
Palestinians consider many Israeli soldiers terrorists.
Some Middle Eastern leaders consider Israeli a terrorist state. (Here's one example: Turkey)
What about people who bomb abortion clinics? Are they terrorists?
Did you know that many in the Arab Muslim world considers George Bush a terrorist?
ter·ror·ism (n.) : The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
Now this makes it interesting. Since terrorism is defined as "unlawful use of force", we get to the question of who decides what is lawful. It's pretty agreed upon that terrorist attacks such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks count as terrorism, since these acts are clearly unlawful and aimed at intimidating American society/government. However, there are stickier situations.
Most of the world called the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 "illegal"; that would make the war an act of terrorism, especially since it was aimed at "intimidating" and "coercing" a government. (Then again, maybe it was just aimed at "obliterating" a society and government. In that case, does it count as terrorism?)
Obviously Israelis consider Palestinians to be acting illegally when doing suicide bombings. But Palestinians (along with the rest of the Arab world) consider the entire state of Israel to be an illegal creation, so anything Israelis do to displace or control Palestinians would pretty much be illegal. Even if we consider Israel a legal state, some of its acts could still be considered terrorism. For instance, the wall fencing off the West Bank. Explicitly the purpose was to keep out Palestinian terrorists; but it seems like the real purpose is probably attempted intimidation of Palestinian society/government. Now the question of legality: 150 nations in the United Nations voted the creation of the wall was illegal, 6 voted it was legal. Incidentally, the United States was one of those 6, and so the US government can't consider the act terrorism.
Abortion clinic bombings. Those could be terrorism. It depends if the bombers intend to coerce the society or government into making abortion illegal, or if they are just trying to shut down the one abortion clinic.
This is interesting to think about, right? We want to end terrorism. What kind of terrorism? If we are working towards any kind of international cooperation, understanding, or peace, it seems we need to look to international definitions of legality when considering what is terrorism. Until then, we will be ridding the world only of a narrowly US-conceived idea of terrorism.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Devastating Humility
"CNN has confirmed that the undersea earthquake off Sumatra and the giant waves it triggered killed at least 159,487 people." --as of January 13, 2005
"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian Health Ministry said Wednesday that the December 26 earthquake and tsunami killed 166,320 people in Indonesia, jumping the regional death toll for the disaster to 212,611." --as of January 19, 2005
Some things are absolutely unfathomable to me. I try to consider them in comparison to other things. On September 11, 2001, 3500 Americans died in the terrorist attacks. Remember the national mourning then? I went to a university of 2700 undergraduates, and 1500 grad students. Comparably speaking, that's equivalent to almost our entire student body.
The tsunami killed over 160,000 people. I can't even fathom that amount of life and death. It's like the entire population of Providence, Rhode Island. The entire world seems to be in a state of mourning. Even when the death toll was only around 50,000, there was so much talk about the incredible loss of life.
On the other hand, over 100,000 Iraqis have died since the United States started our war over there. And that number is over two months old, so is surely a conservative estimate. In the US, most people don't even know that number. Sure, it's a war, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an incredible loss of life, and much of it is civilian deaths.
Isn't it crazy how our perceptions and emotions are manipulated? Even on such a somber topic as massive loss of life, it is crazy to me how we can be persuaded to think one thing or another. I don't mean to be such a cynic, but have you noticed the images we see on the news? American media had almost none from Iraq, but from the Tsunami we see bodies floating and children in the midst of destruction.
As for me, I'm sobered by it all. I want to see the pictures from both Iraq and the Tsunami, because it reminds me of what is out there. I don't want to be a numb, rich, American lug. For me, seeing images of such suffering brings devastating humility and shame at my own self-centeredness and self-absorption. Seeing what life is like there reminds us that the war in Iraq is not a political fight in America, but involves so much life and catastrophe of so many people. It reminds me that the Tsunami is not about a contest of who donates most, but a race against time to save as many lives as possible, and to salvage the spirit of so many others. Images remind us that these things are not abstractions, but involve human lives like our own.
I'm reading a book by Gordon Allport called The Nature of Prejudice for a sociology class. It's a classic from he 1950s. In one chapter he has a little diagram that is a bunch of concentric circles, each representing a group we affiliate with. The smallest circle is the family. It's followed by the larger and larger groups with affiliate with, such as our circle of friends, our school, our city, our state, our region, our political party, our nation, our linguistic group. The biggest circle is "humanity". Allport talks about how the smaller a group is, the easier it is to be a strong in-group. He says that it's possible for "humanity" to constitute an in-group, but it is the hardest to get any solidarity for, because it's so big. I think this is unfortunate, because in many ways it's quite desirable for "humanity" to be our in-group. I mean, let's be cliche: that's how we'll achieve world understanding or world peace or whatever.
Suffering defines life in so much of the world, and I know zero of the real suffering the people in Iraq and Asia are experiencing now. I want to see the suffering that my fellow humans are in the midst of. Logistically speaking, I can't talk to these people or offer them any kind of direct aid. The least I can do as their fellow person is see and know about a tiny bit of what they are going through. For some reason seeing others' suffering is one way I feel the slightest bit involved with their lives and the slightest bit like humanity is my in-group.
(I just did a search and apparently I'm not the only one thinking about this. Here's one aticle from Australia.)
"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian Health Ministry said Wednesday that the December 26 earthquake and tsunami killed 166,320 people in Indonesia, jumping the regional death toll for the disaster to 212,611." --as of January 19, 2005
Some things are absolutely unfathomable to me. I try to consider them in comparison to other things. On September 11, 2001, 3500 Americans died in the terrorist attacks. Remember the national mourning then? I went to a university of 2700 undergraduates, and 1500 grad students. Comparably speaking, that's equivalent to almost our entire student body.
The tsunami killed over 160,000 people. I can't even fathom that amount of life and death. It's like the entire population of Providence, Rhode Island. The entire world seems to be in a state of mourning. Even when the death toll was only around 50,000, there was so much talk about the incredible loss of life.
On the other hand, over 100,000 Iraqis have died since the United States started our war over there. And that number is over two months old, so is surely a conservative estimate. In the US, most people don't even know that number. Sure, it's a war, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an incredible loss of life, and much of it is civilian deaths.
Isn't it crazy how our perceptions and emotions are manipulated? Even on such a somber topic as massive loss of life, it is crazy to me how we can be persuaded to think one thing or another. I don't mean to be such a cynic, but have you noticed the images we see on the news? American media had almost none from Iraq, but from the Tsunami we see bodies floating and children in the midst of destruction.
As for me, I'm sobered by it all. I want to see the pictures from both Iraq and the Tsunami, because it reminds me of what is out there. I don't want to be a numb, rich, American lug. For me, seeing images of such suffering brings devastating humility and shame at my own self-centeredness and self-absorption. Seeing what life is like there reminds us that the war in Iraq is not a political fight in America, but involves so much life and catastrophe of so many people. It reminds me that the Tsunami is not about a contest of who donates most, but a race against time to save as many lives as possible, and to salvage the spirit of so many others. Images remind us that these things are not abstractions, but involve human lives like our own.
I'm reading a book by Gordon Allport called The Nature of Prejudice for a sociology class. It's a classic from he 1950s. In one chapter he has a little diagram that is a bunch of concentric circles, each representing a group we affiliate with. The smallest circle is the family. It's followed by the larger and larger groups with affiliate with, such as our circle of friends, our school, our city, our state, our region, our political party, our nation, our linguistic group. The biggest circle is "humanity". Allport talks about how the smaller a group is, the easier it is to be a strong in-group. He says that it's possible for "humanity" to constitute an in-group, but it is the hardest to get any solidarity for, because it's so big. I think this is unfortunate, because in many ways it's quite desirable for "humanity" to be our in-group. I mean, let's be cliche: that's how we'll achieve world understanding or world peace or whatever.
Suffering defines life in so much of the world, and I know zero of the real suffering the people in Iraq and Asia are experiencing now. I want to see the suffering that my fellow humans are in the midst of. Logistically speaking, I can't talk to these people or offer them any kind of direct aid. The least I can do as their fellow person is see and know about a tiny bit of what they are going through. For some reason seeing others' suffering is one way I feel the slightest bit involved with their lives and the slightest bit like humanity is my in-group.
(I just did a search and apparently I'm not the only one thinking about this. Here's one aticle from Australia.)
Friday, January 14, 2005
More Boring than Dry Textbooks
In this episode of more boring than dry textbooks: the answer to the question, "What do you do all day when you say you are working on sociology 'research'?"
This morning: now entering hour 2 of writing/editing programming code to set up a data set I need for my next project. And the end is nowhere in sight. My files are all set up for different statistics programs so I'm having to fix them to get them all to work in the one statistics program I need to use. And it just so happens that despite the files being set up for all various statistics programs, exactly ZERO of them are set up for the statistics program I use.
Oh yeah, and there's the little fact that I suck at understanding programming code.
This morning: now entering hour 2 of writing/editing programming code to set up a data set I need for my next project. And the end is nowhere in sight. My files are all set up for different statistics programs so I'm having to fix them to get them all to work in the one statistics program I need to use. And it just so happens that despite the files being set up for all various statistics programs, exactly ZERO of them are set up for the statistics program I use.
Oh yeah, and there's the little fact that I suck at understanding programming code.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Back to the grind
What to say? The best Christmas break EVER (at least, thus far in my life) has come to a close. I came back Monday evening from Europe and classes started Tuesday. Luckily jet lag didn't really hit me (except that I keep waking up at 7 am, when I don't need to get up until 8!) And luckily I don't actually have any classes on Tuesday. But I do already have a paper due tomorrow and a presentation next week, so it's not like I'm just sitting around.
I haven't even gotten a chance to post about Las Vegas yet, and I should be posting about Europe and my New Year's resolutions and starting a new semester!
Well, as for Vegas, I'm betting that post will never get fully written, so what can I say in short? I had a fabulous reunion weekend. We got dressed up and went out on the strip (the strip of casinos) for New Year's Eve, where we mostly meandered through various casinos, had some drinks, gambled a little, enjoyed the water show at the Belagio (absolutely gorgeous!), watched the fireworks from the top of all the hotels at midnight, and went to a dance club. We stayed up until about 8 am talking and then managed to get up at 11 for lunch together. I couldn't have had a better time, catching up with friends and enjoying Vegas.
My friends and I discussed our New Year's resolutions over Thai food for New Year's day lunch. We made academic/professional resolutions and personal resolutions.
My resolutions:
- Start running again sometime this year.
- Use my vegetables before they go bad in my fridge. (I have vegetables go bad ALL THE
TIME! I just forget to use them!)
The most amusing of my friends' resolutions:
"Take off my makeup every night."
"Change out of my clothes before going to bed every night."
DVC, just for you, I didn't shave while in Europe. Or really, just because I forgot my razor in my friend's apartment in Vegas. Not too much of a problem since it was so chilly I was constantly in sweaters, sweatshirts, and thick jackets, and thus hardly noticeable (even to myself). My sister took hundreds of digital photos but unfortunately she is still off frolicking (now in Greece) so it'll be a little while longer before she uploads them for me.
Wow, coming back, everyone has the typical question, "How was your break?" I think everyone expects the typical answers: "It was nice." or "Not long enough!" or something generic. I whip out my answer. Some combination of, "It was fantastic!" "It was the best break ever." "There wasn't a single bad part." This is usually followed by a moment of stun from the question asker, not expecting such a hearty answer.
I am still reeling from it. Will I ever have such a great few weeks again? (I don't say that sadly, like, "oh the best days are gone, woe is me!" I say it happily, like, "I'm so happy I got to have such a fabulous few weeks!"). I have never slept so little in a span of a few weeks as I did in these few weeks. And it felt great!
And back to the grind... it doesn't take long! I feel like I have mounds of work to do already.... and I actually do. Most grad students don't take the full three or four weeks like I did, so my work is piled up.
Unfortunately, I can't report any soul searching finds. Mostly, I didn't do much soul searching of the sit-in-a-room-alone-and-ponder-the-meaning-of-life sort. I don't think I'm cut out for that: it just sounds boring or lonely. No need for that when I have so many lovely people around to enjoy, ponder, and live life with.
I haven't even gotten a chance to post about Las Vegas yet, and I should be posting about Europe and my New Year's resolutions and starting a new semester!
Well, as for Vegas, I'm betting that post will never get fully written, so what can I say in short? I had a fabulous reunion weekend. We got dressed up and went out on the strip (the strip of casinos) for New Year's Eve, where we mostly meandered through various casinos, had some drinks, gambled a little, enjoyed the water show at the Belagio (absolutely gorgeous!), watched the fireworks from the top of all the hotels at midnight, and went to a dance club. We stayed up until about 8 am talking and then managed to get up at 11 for lunch together. I couldn't have had a better time, catching up with friends and enjoying Vegas.
My friends and I discussed our New Year's resolutions over Thai food for New Year's day lunch. We made academic/professional resolutions and personal resolutions.
My resolutions:
- Start running again sometime this year.
- Use my vegetables before they go bad in my fridge. (I have vegetables go bad ALL THE
TIME! I just forget to use them!)
The most amusing of my friends' resolutions:
"Take off my makeup every night."
"Change out of my clothes before going to bed every night."
DVC, just for you, I didn't shave while in Europe. Or really, just because I forgot my razor in my friend's apartment in Vegas. Not too much of a problem since it was so chilly I was constantly in sweaters, sweatshirts, and thick jackets, and thus hardly noticeable (even to myself). My sister took hundreds of digital photos but unfortunately she is still off frolicking (now in Greece) so it'll be a little while longer before she uploads them for me.
Wow, coming back, everyone has the typical question, "How was your break?" I think everyone expects the typical answers: "It was nice." or "Not long enough!" or something generic. I whip out my answer. Some combination of, "It was fantastic!" "It was the best break ever." "There wasn't a single bad part." This is usually followed by a moment of stun from the question asker, not expecting such a hearty answer.
I am still reeling from it. Will I ever have such a great few weeks again? (I don't say that sadly, like, "oh the best days are gone, woe is me!" I say it happily, like, "I'm so happy I got to have such a fabulous few weeks!"). I have never slept so little in a span of a few weeks as I did in these few weeks. And it felt great!
And back to the grind... it doesn't take long! I feel like I have mounds of work to do already.... and I actually do. Most grad students don't take the full three or four weeks like I did, so my work is piled up.
Unfortunately, I can't report any soul searching finds. Mostly, I didn't do much soul searching of the sit-in-a-room-alone-and-ponder-the-meaning-of-life sort. I don't think I'm cut out for that: it just sounds boring or lonely. No need for that when I have so many lovely people around to enjoy, ponder, and live life with.
Monday, January 03, 2005
I haven't forgotten you all....
I've just been running around like crazy! And I still don't have time for a real update... My average amount of sleep I have gotten a night for the past week or two is probably somewhere around 4 hours. Here are some highlights of my past few weeks until my next post:
Christmas party and seeing my dear Ecclesia fam/friends. I can't say enough how much they mean to me.
We celebrated Christmas with my mom's extended family at our uncle's house in Washington DC. Sooo much good food, several games of mafia, it was overall quite enjoyable.
I got a food processor for Christmas!! (This is really exciting for me!) I also got a chocolate desserts cooking book. mm....
Had a wonderful time hanging out with a few of my high school friends, catching up and hanging out.
- I met my friend Alison's fiance who I absolutely adore (good thing, since I'm in her wedding this May)
- I caught up with my friend Laura who is a Christian working for the Human Rights Campaign in DC. We also had a lovely afternoon tea with our high school debate coach/english teacher. (I've known Laura since 6th grade, so that's 11 years now!)
- I hung out tons with my dear friend Hannah (the one who made up the name VALF) who now is in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, working for a legal aid kind of place in DC.... As always I had a great time with her, chatting, shopping, walking, seeing movies, discussing cooking, etc. Hannah (like Laura, too) is someone I've seen change a lot over the years, but I'm so thankful because despite changing independent of one another, we have ended up in similar places in our outlooks and lives, and we are still kindred spirits. I really appreciate having these girls in my life, and how they have known me for so many years.
I Spent New Year's in Las Vegas with my gaggle of college friends. It was an amazing New Year's, and an incredibly fun weekend. Partly because we were all hanging out together for the first time since last January, and partly because Las Vegas is a really fun place to do New Years. I'll write a full post on it ASAP.
Now I'm with my sister in Cambridge, England. She is studying abroad here for the year, and my parents graciously dipped into their 300,000+ frequent flyer miles to fly me here for free for a week. It's lovely. Tomorrow we are going to Italy for a few days, which will be super fly.
This is a random tidbit, for sure: I went out on a limb, and didn't bring makeup on the trip here to Europe. Ack! Granted, I only started wearing a decent amount of makeup within the past year, but the stuff really is addictive, I enjoy wearing it, and now I feel naked without it! We'll see how I feel at the end of the week.
Christmas party and seeing my dear Ecclesia fam/friends. I can't say enough how much they mean to me.
We celebrated Christmas with my mom's extended family at our uncle's house in Washington DC. Sooo much good food, several games of mafia, it was overall quite enjoyable.
I got a food processor for Christmas!! (This is really exciting for me!) I also got a chocolate desserts cooking book. mm....
Had a wonderful time hanging out with a few of my high school friends, catching up and hanging out.
- I met my friend Alison's fiance who I absolutely adore (good thing, since I'm in her wedding this May)
- I caught up with my friend Laura who is a Christian working for the Human Rights Campaign in DC. We also had a lovely afternoon tea with our high school debate coach/english teacher. (I've known Laura since 6th grade, so that's 11 years now!)
- I hung out tons with my dear friend Hannah (the one who made up the name VALF) who now is in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, working for a legal aid kind of place in DC.... As always I had a great time with her, chatting, shopping, walking, seeing movies, discussing cooking, etc. Hannah (like Laura, too) is someone I've seen change a lot over the years, but I'm so thankful because despite changing independent of one another, we have ended up in similar places in our outlooks and lives, and we are still kindred spirits. I really appreciate having these girls in my life, and how they have known me for so many years.
I Spent New Year's in Las Vegas with my gaggle of college friends. It was an amazing New Year's, and an incredibly fun weekend. Partly because we were all hanging out together for the first time since last January, and partly because Las Vegas is a really fun place to do New Years. I'll write a full post on it ASAP.
Now I'm with my sister in Cambridge, England. She is studying abroad here for the year, and my parents graciously dipped into their 300,000+ frequent flyer miles to fly me here for free for a week. It's lovely. Tomorrow we are going to Italy for a few days, which will be super fly.
This is a random tidbit, for sure: I went out on a limb, and didn't bring makeup on the trip here to Europe. Ack! Granted, I only started wearing a decent amount of makeup within the past year, but the stuff really is addictive, I enjoy wearing it, and now I feel naked without it! We'll see how I feel at the end of the week.
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