Eclectic

Where on earth might you go to a concert at midnight to hear all the following performed on a French organ?
*Theme from The Simpsons
*Scott Joplin's Pineapple Rag
*Oliver Messiaen (something fancy & French)
*Max Reger's Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor

In other news, John and Maggie were here today, for all of 18 hours.
Now you see them; now you don't.
Why is it that this last leg of our separate lives seems harder to bear than ever? The end is in sight. Parting should be easier than this. Sigh.

Tunes in the Drugstore

Today, when I was whining to myself that taking six courses this term was one of my more stupid moves in seminary, I solved the problem of which assignment to start next by...

...starting none of them, and instead walking to CVS for yet another notebook. I stood in line with my book bag crammed full of reading that I'd brought along to take to Peet's, the new notebook cradled in one arm, and some odds and ends in the other. Of course, as soon as it was my turn in line, the items to be purchased spilled out from my arms. In bending over to retrieve them, I then dropped the contents of my purse. I held up the line. The cashier looked both bored and annoyed. Just then, a song played from the store's sound system: "Helpless, helpless, he--el--elp--less!" I think that the vocalist was Linda Ronstadt, singing about my pitiful, self-absorbed state of mind -- and I burst out laughing. When I looked at the cashier I was pretty sure that she would've paid me not to have been in her line. We so easily take ourselves too seriously. Thanks for the reminder, Linda.

Preaching Gifts

I love Preaching class. Once again, I am astonished by my classmates' passions and gifts for proclaiming the gospel, and also by the caring way in which we treat one another when we critique what we've heard. How is it that we are so lucky?

Higher Mathematics

6 days ago, John and Maggie arrived for Holy Week to attend 7 services with me. They stayed for 7 days and left today after John checked in with his 3 Independent Study Professors. In 8 days, they'll appear again for 1 night and then head back to Iowa till mid-May, at which point J concludes his 24th year of professing botany! He'll return to Evanston for the last 3 weeks of class. From then on, we won't have a long-distance marriage (all 31 years of it!) anymore. Thanks be to God! Alleluia!

Alleluia!

It's still perfectly dark and quiet at 4 a.m., and oddly delightful to be blogging at this hour. Since I've been wide awake since 1:30, I may be one of the most alert people at the Easter Vigil that begins in just over an hour. Last night was the fourth night in a row that I could not sleep more than a few hours. I surely hope that this sleeplessness doesn't keep up. It could be an long day, with our driving out to church in Barrington later this morning.

Even the dog thinks it's way to early to go out, and when I turned on the computer looked at me as if to suggest I've lost my mind. But I do think I just heard a bird singing. Today we can sing alleluias again! Christ is arisen! Happy Easter.

Blue Books!

While at Seabury's RecReption desk yesterday (check it out, those of you who think I'm kidding -- the plaque in the reception area does in fact read "Recreption"), I saw them arrive....

...General Convention's thick and juicy Blue Books are here. As one of four lay deputies from Iowa, it's my responsibility to gather all the knowledge I can before heading to Columbus in June. So, now that I'm fully engaged in work for six courses this spring, I have more reading in which to fall behind! Please bear with me if I do not blog or respond to blogs as much as I would like to. I promise to continue reading my friends' blogging entries. I'm with you.

Lift Up your Hands?

Yesterday, as I was sitting in an overly warm classroom raisin(g) my hand and watching classmates raise theirs, I wondered: from where did the custom of raising one's hand when wishing to speak come? Then I wondered why, oh why, do I want to know weird things such as this.

Notes from Chapel Cleaning

1. Watch out when you sit down! Lemon oil makes for slippery pews.
2. Now that the windows got cleaned, we found out that there are latches. This suggests that the windows can be opened...theoretically, anyway. That's good news, as the weather is sure to warm up here...someday.
3. Hot pizza tasted wonderful after lots of work, and helped make us all really want to take
4. A nap.

Special Delivery

Good news arrived today: John, Beth P and I all were granted candidacy last week. When our bishop, Alan, saw Beth over the weekend he said, "We should have called you." Then he suggested that Beth could simply come back to Seabury and give me the news. But Beth insisted that he do it himself. Yay Beth!

So he did....he gave us the word on what looks to be a hastily torn-out page of notebook paper (he complained that he didn't have any letterhead on him! Ha!). Alan promises that a formal letter will follow. It's good not to wonder any longer, and I'll treasure that funny piece of notebook paper for some time to come.

April

"April is in my Mistress' Face" is the title of an odd little madrigal that we often sang when we were in a traveling vocal quartet in North Carolina. The inner vocal lines were as strange as the title.

Other than its association with foolishness, what else is strange about "April?" For reasons I do not understand, I'm sometimes called "April" -- even by those whom I've known for a while! One of our seminary professors even called me April last month (and then said, "Oh no! WHY did I just call you April?!" It's very weird that this started in high school, and continues to happen now that I'm, er, mature.

Happy April Fools' day. And a special Happy Birthday to my friend Jerry, one of the best fools I've ever known.