Prayer isn't a sweet, nice, safe, naive little activity to do in your flowery hat. It is a crash helmet action for people who flip kayaks into raging spring rivers.

 - Martha Grace Reese

Mid-Term Time!

Well, I've been working on papers and studying for most of the weekend. This is mid-terms week!

My paper for Worship class is done, I've got a good start on my History paper. I need to study a LOT more for Old Testament because I'm not good at memorizing maps so... I don't really know Assyria from Judah from what have you yet... It just doesn't stick... but I'll learn it.

I'm also participating in the campus coffeehouse on Wednesday night so that will be fun. I'm going to play guitar and sing... probably a song from The Pogues, but I'm still not sure. Maybe, if I can get a small enough file, I will put it up here for y'all to enjoy. :)

So, this is really just a quick check in because it's been a few days. More after mid-terms are done!

An Attitude of Gratitude

One of the things I'm doing as part of my spiritual practices class is trying to cultivate an attitude of gratitude... you know, for class and for life in general. Well, I just wanted to share something...

Yesterday a woman came into Starbucks and ordered a Venti Soy Latte. I was making her drink and talking to her at the espresso bar. She told me it was her birthday and that she didn't have anyone to celebrate it with so what she was doing was treating herself to a venti instead of a tall. That didn't sound like a great birthday so I asked if I could sing to her. She said she'd enjoy that very much. So I sang Maureen happy birthday. She thanked me and told me it made her day and she was glad she stopped in. I thanked her for letting me be a part of her birthday. When I was walking home, I thought it over - she let me into her vulnerability, her loneliness, she let me take residence there for a brief time.

I am grateful to be invited into a few moments of Maureen's life and that I was gifted with the honor of being a bright spot in her day.

A Family Affair!

Mom, Shelbie, and Laurin came up to Boston for Suffolk's family weekend!

I went out to the hotel for the weekend and us girls had a grand old time. Saturday we went to watch Raph and the Suffolk Ramifications compete in an a capella contest, then we went shopping. We went to Fire & Ice for lunch, an awesome place that's like hibachi, except you can make whatever you want. We went to Jillian's Lucky Strike near Fenway for bowling, billiards and tons of free (junk) food. Fried mac and cheese? Yep. Today, Mom and Shelbie came out here and saw my room all set up before heading to the bus to go back to CT. It was a lot of fun!

Now on to the homework...

Celebrating Sukkot

Tonight was awesome, really amazing.

I need to preface the explanation of the night with this: (caution for the easily offended/young - there is a swear that also means donkey herein) there is a bar down the hill that hosts a trivia night. Every Wednesday a bunch of people gather, most every week there is - among the many other teams - a team from ANTS and a team from the rabbinical school next door. We are the Sinister Ministers, Hebrew College is the Bad Ass Rabbis. Trivia is a great time of community building, not only on our own teams, but, it turns out, between our two schools.

This evening, the Sinister Ministers were invited to join the Bad Ass Rabbis to begin the Sukkot celebration. It was amazing. A slight mist didn't keep us from enjoying each other's company. There was plenty of fruit and baked goods (amazing almond biscotti!), apple cider, and other libations. Sukkot is a holiday where the Jewish people have to be happy, and they were and they shared that with us! We ate in a sukkah in the backyard of one of the students and his wife. We had some great dialogue about the different faiths represented (different types of Christianity, UU, and, of course, Judaism were all around the table) and questions from all parties were welcomed.

An example of a sukkah, though this is not the one we celebrated in... this one is from Google Images...

The atmosphere was one of friendship and generosity. It was a real blessing to be a part of the beginning of Sukkot with the Bad Ass Rabbis... I just hope that we can continue the conversation that has started up the past few weeks!

Hanging out with Brother Bear!

On Thursday, Jer and I went to The Garment District and looked at all the great Halloween costumes they've got. He tried on a pirate coat, boots, hat:

We saw 50/50 at the movie theater on the commons. If you haven't seen 50/50, you definitely should. It was a great movie, all around.

Today, we're going to Guitar Center by Fenway to peruse their Columbus Day sale offerings.

The true magic of our universe, and the one that is older, deeper and more powerful than all others, is love. Love conquers all."

- from the UCC's "15 Lessons a Muggle Can Learn from Harry Potter

I GOT A JOB!!

I'm so excited! Today I went to Community Day (we helped the pastor from Monson, MA move from the parsonage that had been damaged by the hurricane earlier this past summer) and I noticed around lunch time that I had missed a call. I checked my voicemail and it was Sue from Starbucks asking me to give her a call back. I did and she said,

I'd like to offer you the job, if you're still interested.

So of course I was like,

YES!

And so now I go down Friday to get everything in order and start working! I am so grateful to have found a job, and a flexible one where I get to interact with lots of people is amazing!

Thank you for all your prayers and positive energy! It worked!

Hello again, School!

Hey all! I'm back at school again. It was good to see my friends, family, and church this weekend. Of course, I didn't get to see everyone, but that just means I'm going to have to come back!

I went to church and picked up a lot of information on the history of the church that Pastor Deb had. I'm going to start going through it - one of my projects for school includes writing a history for a local church so I figured why not my home church? I'm excited to get to work on that.

I had an interview today with Starbucks. I'm still emailing with Hebrew College. I plan on widening my search to Brookline if I things don't pan out here. Hopefully I will find a job before mid-October because I really need to start working by the end of this month.

Tonight, the UCC fellowship is having their first event! I'm so excited to be a part of this group. I love the UCC and I guess that the fellowship has been kind of "eh" the last year or two... No longer! :) We're having a Theology Slam (kind of like a poetry slam but with theology instead). I'm not sure what to expect but I'll let you know!

Also, I need to plug the Be Bold, Be Bald! fundraiser here.

Finally, the weather here is beautiful - sunshine and crisp autumn air.