Today was an interesting day. My usual Sunday involves packing up really early and going to the Rock (the library) and staying there in the same chair at the same table and doing hardcore work straight for between 6 and 7 hours. Then I go home. Last weekend I went shopping for necessities, and the week before that I went to a Super Bowl party. But this Sunday was a bit different because of President's Day. Half of my professors decided that this was a good time to go off on their various trips, cancelling class for the entire week (Inverse Theory and LVS! woot!). One of my professors was like, "Well... let's see, we're not allowed to have official classes over the holiday... so let's just have an unoffical class, same time same place. See you Monday." Greeeaaaat.
I have to try and do some research this week. Recently Jim's given me a really interesting project, and if I work really hard on it I could win myself some time living in Paris with Francois and Jean-Baptiste et les autres. Magnifique! Still, I rather hoped to hoodwink my way onto an Antarctic expedition next year. I've been drawing up my personal Five Year Plan, and right now it involves living like I've been living (eg saving hella money), paying off all my debts (it's possible, I swear) and then saving $6,000. That's perhaps a tall order if you add up all my debts, but we'll see. Then, when I graduate, I'll sign up for the expedition to Patagonia that I learned about at Pomona. I've got all the necessary qualifications and more, so they'd have to be crazy to turn me down. Especially if I had a field season in Antarctica under my belt. During the expedition you fly down to Patagonia and then you go through crazy intense training so that you learn everything about being safe in the wilderness. Then you go expeditioning. The point is to study the geology and ecology going on in the alpine regions of remote Patagonia. I think you go for three weeks at a time like several times throughout a year or something. And it's only $5,000 something for the whole thing, including housing and food. Of course, we'd be living in tents, so that's not particular expensive per day, but come on! We'd be LIVING IN TENTS!!! SWEET!
So I think I'll find a good picture of Patagonia to put on my wall and focus on gaining skills in my classes in order to be more useful to my hypothetical expedition team. That'll keep me focused and motivated.

So anyway, Sunday-- God has been calling me to church for the last couple of weeks... I always drive past the old Episcopal Church on the way to the library just as the service is starting... so since I wasn't going to go to the library this week, I decided to go to church after all. Sam said that the Episcopal Church was a little too full of costumes and incense and all that for my plain, Lutheran sensibilities, so I went to St. James, the Lutheran church in Barrington. The pastor there is a woman, apparently. I wonder what synod they are a part of. They have a little bitty church with a lovely wooden sanctuary and everyone comes up and kneels at the bench for communion. A nice lady gave me her service guide paper thing when I came in because I came in a minute or so late.

The pastor gave a good sermon (and short!). It was about the part of the Bible where they go up on the mountain and Jesus is transfigured and Moses and Elijah appear next to him. The disciples are like, "Hey! We should build three houses here, one for each of them, and we should stay up here on this mountain!" Then this crazy-ass cloud comes along and it's like, "JESUS IS MY SON! LISTEN TO HIM!!"
Of course, Jesus says that they have to go to Jerusalem, because this is right before the crucifixtion.

But what the pastor talked about was how people like to retreat from the world to find enlightenment, God, wisdom, peace, etc. When you go up to the top of a mountain, it's hard not to believe in God, with all the wonder that is stirred inside of you. It is easy to want to stay there forever to hold on to that feeling. It is also tempting to associate the feeling with the place, that there is something about this mountain that stirs the spirit. That's the same way Peter felt, perhaps, wanting to stay up there on that mountain where Jesus' true nature could be seen, shining through his skin, and where the forms of Moses and Elijah could be seen with him, proving to everyone that he was what he claimed to be.

But what she said was that key was that God is not only present on the tops of mountains. God does not have a particular place on the Earth- He is everywhere at once. He is just as present in the valleys as he is on the mountaintops. He's just easier to see on the moutaintops sometimes. So the real challenge for us, then, is to find God in the valleys of civilization... the valleys of our lives. Amid the cluttered wash of humanity. This analogy works just as well if you think of the valleys and mountaintops metaphorically. It takes great vision to go through great hardship and see how God works amid all that, as well as when things are going well.


That's my friend Michael, by the way. He takes amazing pictures. You can check 'em here.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the day napping (I slept last night from 10pm-8am, then napped today from 11am-4pm!) and scrubbing the floor, on which somebody has been spilling ice cream and blueberries. UGH. I'm trying to get ready because my friend is coming this weekend. I just hope that my filthy roommates can keep it together between now and Friday.

On that note, apparently I've been mentally blaming a lot of mess on Chris which was actually Emmanuel's fault. Emmanuel is also the one who has been eating our food (especially Chris'). Like, come ON! Why you gotta eat my food? Somebody has eaten almost all of my cinnamon, which is the only spice I own. I don't even know how it is possible to eat that much cinnamon. Chris had been suspicious for weeks but he finally caught him red-handed. Then Chris didn't know what to say, so he just said that it was totally fine for E to eat his food. Greeeaaat.

Nice picture
That's an amazing shot. Looks like the photographer is on a helicopter, capturing the climber in the middle of a jump.
Steady hand + professional camera. I am impressed.
» Causalien on 2007-02-19 01:59:42

Thanks for the welcome!
» Centipede on 2007-02-19 03:12:56

No biggie about the long comments, you must've really liked what you see and I appreciate that.

As for the pictures and layout, I wrote about them here and here
» Causalien (70.55.149.36) on 2007-02-19 08:03:51

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