Darn, this train moves fast.

I just called the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale (because their perspective student day wasn't on the web site), and it's NOV. 3! Which might put a damper on my plans to go to D.C at the end of October... especially since my car needs to be inspected, and Mr. M needs new brakes.

The money involved with just getting in is daunting. Fortunately, the parish will help. Unfortunately, it's still a lot of money. I don't think I realized in high school that visiting colleges isn't a cheap venture. This time round, we also have to pay for a psych eval for Mr. M and I -- our rector remembers that amounts to about a grand. Then there's paying for the GRE and applications and moving expenses. It adds up.

There's some serious forward momentum at this point. A couple of months ago, Mr. M and I agreed that we needed to stop talking about the future so much and worry more about the "now." Last night, we agreed the future stuff is happening now!

I'm getting really excited, but I'm also petrified. This is not like undergrad was; there's a lot more upheaval involved, and it feels a lot more serious. And then there's the commitment... have I mentioned how I feel about commitment? Scared the bejeebers out of me. What the heck am I doing?!?!

Bellicose

(adj.) Inclined to start quarrels or wars.

There's been a lot of talk about politics today on a forum I visit. Unfortunately, it's been about how awful/incompetent/stupid _____________ (insert political party that is not your own) is.

I like debate. I believe in a free exchange of ideas. What I DON'T find useful, however, is politically picking a "team" and cheering for them regardless of their actions. I'm concerned that many of us pay less attention to issues, and more to who's at bat. I might be a Democrat/Socialist/Republican/Libertarian/Green, but I should have the discernment to stand for issues regardless of whether my party has seen fit to endorse them.

I'm concerned that our country's ideas of patriotism and international relations run along similar lines. It's somehow Team USA - but this isn't the Olympics.

Churches aren't exempt by any means. I know of more than one Christian denomination that believes they have figured out the only path of "salvation." Apparently, Jesus is a little more of an elitist than I thought.

So what's the answer? Are we too lazy/bored/proccupied to want to think outside of their group's perameters? Does it not occur to people that they can challenge the ideas of their organizations? Because chanting a team is not the same as bringing about change and growth. Wanting your team to always be right isn't going to allow any of us to learn very much.

"But You Don't Suck, So I'm Cynically Yours"

Happy 1st Anniversary to Mr. M and me.

Indulge me while I make some introductions.

We don't have kids, we have kits. 2 of them, in fact. And yes, I have a favorite. How could you not?

This is Anthony when I first adopted him. Insanely cute, right?



But to be fair, Romper was pretty cute when he was wee, too. (Hey mom-- anything look familiar?)



Of course, Romper and Anthony have nothing on Mr. M.



I'd like to share with you that our wee furry friends have some strange hangouts. For instance, it takes a better woman than I to get Anthony out of the rafters (OK, taller-- 5'3" just doesn't get a lot done sometimes).



Romper hides here because Anthony (who's smaller and younger, but faster-- think about that, Mr. M) likes to chase him and bite his tail.



But occasionally, they're buds.

Oy

Turns out, as soon as you cast someone as a villian, they do something nice. This obviously goes to show that once someone does something "bad," you should stop talking to them so that you can continue disliking them. (I'm kidding, guys.)

My StepMomInLaw (SMIL) called last night, talked to Mr. M for a while. At one point, she drove past an Episcopal church and noticed something about a rosary service. "Isn't that just a Catholic thing?" Mr. M said he'd ask me, and I'd never heard of it, so I jumped on the Net.

Turns out, there's this whole lovely Anglican form of contemplative prayer that takes the Catholic version and runs with it. It's much more flexible than the Roman. This was a GREAT discovery for me, because one of my few really positive memories of my maternal grandmother is our saying the rosary together. At this point in my life, I'm not interested in saying 25 Hail Marys, and for some reason it never occurred to me that you could play with it a little.

So SMIL saw something unusual, thought of me, and showed interest in it.

Check that out.

Lonely

Liverpool can be very lonely on a Saturday night, and it's only Thursday morning.
-- Paul Angelis

Mr. M is wonderful, but he's just not the same as girlfriends. (Yes, GL, you are the same as girlfriends.) And I'm just aching for my girlfriends these days. It feels like a catch-22, though-- I can call, but sometimes it's sadder to chat, knowing you can't get together.

I love having people in my life of all ages. I've always thought this was wonderful, and it's still something I cherish. But since I've moved to Central PA, it's been friends of other ages to the exclusion of people in my own generation. There are a couple of exceptions-- 3 of whom have moved, and another has had 2 kids in the 3 years I've lived here.

I think seminary will be a wonderful time socially as well as academically, but I'm starting to wonder what happens afterwards. How do I keep this from happening again? I'm not sure what the solution is.

Hee Hee

I'm not sure I'm going to get away with this, but someone made an exceptional piece of art for me while I was interviewing. It's titled, "Fish Playing Poker."

*doin' a little happy dance*

Woo-hoo!!! I made it, and... it's time to start looking at seminaries.

Of course, the dancing stops when Mr. M and I try to figure out how we're going to afford visits to said seminaries,and then moving, and then, well, school itself.

Geez.

But a tiny bit of dancing is still in order.

"I will not go to school today said little Peggy Ann McKay."

"I have the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash and purple bumps."

I feel certain Shel Silverstein wrote that after a premonition about my morning today. I would absolutely love to come down with a dreadful disease in the next hour. Something that warrents a hospital stay would be best.

Until that happens though, I'd better shower and finish packing for BACOM.

Alumnae, Alumni, Alumnus

I got my Alma Mater's annual solicitation in the mail today. It was great timing; I'd been telling Mr. M how much I'm looking forward to Homecoming / 5-Yr Reunion next year, and how fun it will be to take our kids to Homecoming one day. (OK, yes... I was saying I'd really like it if they actually went to college there... geez, get off my back.)

And I'm thrilled to say, for the first time ever, I've been able to send them a check. (The first time that wasn't a tuition payment, that is.) It was a tiny check, but I love that I contributed, I love that I'm still involved.

Go Big Red!

Dum Da Dum Dum.

I was sitting on the bed this morning, trying to think about what I wanted to get done at church tomorrow before I met with the wardens, when I suddenly realized...

The day after tomorrow I'm going to BACOM.

Holy Crap.

Dating

A friend of mine is about to start dating again. He's a little nervous about it, and I don't blame him. In particular, he's concerned about maintaining physical boundaries that he's set for himself.

I can understand that-- I think that the older we get, the more awkward that can feel. What was common at 17 become very rare at 25.

My friend was more concerned about his own actions than he was about how those actions will be received. This is largely because he came at the issue with the following concept: Because there are fewer men who are saving sex for marriage, people will appreciate it. Those few men will stand out as caring and sensitive.

Au contraire, I told him.

Look around you. Look at film, books, music, art. Look in bars, coffeeshops, grocery stores. What's the single thing for which women are pursued most? Sex. Obviously sex.

Now date someone, and tell her that you don't want sex with her. Every other guy she knows about wants sex with anyone who has 2 legs and the right chromosome (depending on the man's preferences, that may vary). But you don't want to touch her.

All of a sudden, my friend is doing the right thing, but his date feels about an inch tall. To her, even the person who seems interested in her still isn't as interested as he should be. What's she doing wrong? What's wrong with her? Isn't she pretty/interesting/funny/smart enough? She's pulled herself off the market for someone who doesn't even care that there is a market.


I don't envy my friend, I'm glad that dating is behind me. If only marriage was the noticeably easier of the two...