Wednesday, February 25, 2009

the semi-Pelagian narrower catechism

Courtesy of the beloved Professor Mary (whose last name is here unlisted for the protection of her career), I present to you a link to the Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism. Go ahead, laugh your socks off.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

epic coincidence

Last night was just full of exciting (and terrifying) surprises. I spent the entire afternoon working on my paper/presentation for my night class because I knew I would be going to dinner with Mary at 5:00. I finally got everything together and made my conference schedule for next week, emailed that to my cooperating professor, and ran over to the BTS office. Upon my arrival, I realized that I had left my laptop at home--kind of necessary for my presentation. So I RAN back to my apartment, got my laptop, and returned to the BTS office.

I was walking up the stairs to get my bag and pick up Mary when I ran into Joel, who said, "So, you're coming to dinner with us, eh?" Somewhat confused, I replied, "Uh...us? Uh...yeah, I guess so." When I got upstairs I gave Mary a quizzical look and she explained that she had gotten us a ride since it didn't make sense for us to go to Dawali and not sit with Joel and Brad. It sounded like a great idea to me, and that is how I ended up having dinner with three BTS professors last night.

The actual dinner was pretty sweet. It was as if my best friends had morphed into professors and we were just continuing our lives as usual. The guys were pretty theologically-focused as usual, with Mary and I commenting now and then, and all the while I was doing my best to redirect conversation a little bit (I have this irrational fear that someone will eventually discover that I never knew what I was talking about this whole time and will thus find me to be unintelligent). We discussed a lot of different things and shared great food together, and it was really fun to watch the three of them interact. There were some silences that I found to be awkward, but that doesn't mean they were awkward for them...I just hope I wasn't inhibiting conversation too much!

So, we all hopped back into Brad's car and made our way to campus. We all went in, including Mary who was not teaching a class, and I was slightly confused about that, but she did a stellar job of distracting me with pictures of her cute little cats. As we were walking up the stairs, Joel left us at the second floor and Brad and Mary and I walked into the classroom. I brilliantly said, "Are you coming to class today, Mary?" to which she replied, "Well, I heard there was going to be this really great presentation tonight" and then something about my reputation preceding me. I was terrified, but it went pretty well and everyone seemed to like it...

All in all, a very interesting evening, full of surprises. I'm interested to see what the backstory is since I didn't get a chance to ask yesterday...but I'll see Mary tomorrow! Haha!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

JULIUS MEINL IS AMAZING

I tripped briskly across the street from my dropping-covered car toward the entrance on the corner. The double doors were spotless and beautifully decorated with a lady's profile. As I entered that delightful place, I was immediately enveloped in a glorious cashmere sweater of sights and smells that I had never before experienced. Such was the immaculate beauty of Julius Meinl.


Cindy took me today. I had never heard of the place, but everyone told me I would love it, and I'm always up for breakfast! It turns out that there are only five of these lovely little tea shops in the whole world, three of which are in Austria and two in Chicago--both relatively close to us. It's so bad. I seriously think that any "extra" money I might come across this semester is most definitely going to Julius Meinl. I think I'm addicted.

It was so beautiful! I had the bacon and swiss quiche and Cindy had fresh fruit (show-off) and fancy toast. It was good food, but the very best part was the Highland Toffee black tea she suggested. It was presented to us in these absolutely adorable teapots with cute little cream pitchers (I don't think that's what they're called, but I have no idea what else it might be) and has been a great source of joy for me this whole day.
I ended up buying a bag of this lovely tea for twenty cents more than I got the pot for...and I'm getting SO much more tea. It really is a good investment. Really.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

i love tuesday afternoons

Tuesdays are just fabulous for a variety of reasons. I mean, really, I'm a dork who loves to go to class and so that's what I do for most of the day. I get to see my friends, be outside, laugh, and play. The very best part of Tuesdays, however, are the afternoons.
I don't want to make any of my friends sad--our shennanigans in class are beautiful bright spots on the otherwise completely normal MRI of my life--but Tuesday afternoons are the greatest because I generally get to sleep and do homework during that time. Every other time that I would have the opportunity to participate in those activities, I would much rather be with the people I love. This is generally how things go, but this Tuesday was a bit different...

Instead of sleeping and doing my homework, I decided to go with Josh (and Cindy) to listen to our friend Matt's paper with Mary and Scot. His paper was AWESOME and he's presenting it at the SBL regional conference a week from Friday! We all had a great time drooling over Mary and Scot's conversation and their very loving critique of Matt's paper, and Cindy and I were imagining what it would be like in a few years when she and I can have conversations like that...then, Scot an I had a beautiful interchange that went something like this:

Me: "Wow, this was so cool. I just loved listening to you guys talk."
Scot: "Well, we thought we'd invite you so as to elevate you to a level of intellectualism to which you would not otherwise attain" (only less eloquently).
Me: (looking at my handful of teabag) "Um, I have this teabag in my hand that I could put right on top of your bald head."
*everyone laughing hysterically, Mary looking really surprised*
Scot: (pauses) "...maybe you should--it might give me some color!"

It was beautifully epic and I will never forget it.

So, by now you're probably thinking that I must be nearly finished with this story...too bad for you. After this lovely meeting and tons of laughs, Matt and Josh and I went back to my place for lunch with Christina. We're so creative that our lunch consisted of Aldi shells and cheese, eggs with various peppers and some onions and cheese, and water. Oh, and the boys had mint chocolate chip ice cream with rainbow sprinkles...which was ridiculous because only minutes before, Josh had started whining about how cold he was, so we gave him a "blankie". He thought he was pretty awesome...
I can't help thinking he looks like the Theotokos--all he needs is a little virginally-conceived baby in his arms...Matt thought he was pretty hilarious...

Seriously, I don't think we're mature enough for this. If we can't wrap ourselves in purple throws, how are we supposed to do dishes or wash our clothes or THINK! What do we DO??

And that is how I spent Tuesday. The End.