Is it really Friday again already?

~~ 1 ~~

In the last week, I've decided on and purchased all my Christmas presents except one. Yay for me! The other one is a joint present that I am still waiting for confirmation on before I buy it. (If you're reading this, and you know what I'm talking about, and you owe me an email, email me!)

~~ 2 ~~

A lot of my homework that I mentioned last week has turned out to not be necessary: I don't have to turn in the first draft of my thesis, and I don't have to do more lab work. Yay! Of course, the reduced stress has caused me to procrastinate. But my current project (a play about John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, creative genius, inspiration, and bipolar disorder) has captured my interest. I hope to have that finished tonight and focus on my 20-page paper over the weekend.

~~ 3 ~~

I have been Facebook-less for about a week now. Do I miss it? Yes, and no. I find myself wanting my Facebook back when I am bored, procrastinating, or depressed. When I am happy or doing something worthwhile, I never even think about it. This just confirms my belief that Facebook isn't good for my soul, because I seem to use it as a sort of short-term narcotic. (I think of soma from Brave New World.)

~~ 4 ~~

One exception: I also wish I could post to Facebook when I read an article that I want to share with the world. I was a page admin on What We're Reading, a page where we'd all post the cool articles we'd stumbled across. It was pretty cool. I just discovered when I went to look up the link that you can read this page without even having a Facebook account. So much for the little productivity I had left! But seriously, go check it out. We're all interested in different things so it's a fairly eclectic (that's the polite word for random, right?) bunch of stuff.

~~ 5 ~~

I need to go to the grocery store....I decided not to go yesterday so I could go to a Mass in a language I don't speak with liturgical dancers. But it's supposed to snow tomorrow. I guess it will be a bus grocery store trip! I would wait for better weather, but looking at the weather forecast, I think I'd run out of food and starve before the weather got better. Also if I don't go before Sunday the flyer will change over and I will have to make a new shopping list. I hate making grocery lists, so this is good motivation.

~~ 6 ~~

About that Mass, no, it's totally not my normal style. So why was I there? It was a Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe. My friend invited me to go with him. He tells me that Hispanic culture has a tradition of dancing as worship. I take his word on this; I'm not Hispanic. So I wanted to see what it was like. While I see that the style could be a form of worship, I think it was badly integrated into this particular Mass; they just stuck some dancing before the presentation of the gifts. Since it didn't accompany any actual liturgical action, it really felt like a performance. Disappointing. The music was also disappointing; the balance between singing and accompaniment was off and the microphones were terribly distorting.

~~ 7 ~~

On a side note, I totally get now why some people don't like Mass in Latin. I've never been in a Mass where I had so little orientation as to what was happening. On the other hand, if I had had the text and translation, as well as a crash course in how to pronounce Spanish, I think it would've been fine.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Seven Quick Takes: Mostly Cooking and Cleaning

~~ 1 ~~

I take back what I said about next semester being easy. I just put it all into an actual weekly calendar with colored in blocks (the only way schedules make sense to me) and there's a LOT of color and not very much white space. (Well, right now there's a lot of white space, but I know most of that is going to be colored in once I finish scheduling lab and work hours.) I guess I'll buy a crock pot and learn how to make crock pot meals that last for a week! Just kidding.

~~ 2 ~~

Actually, speaking of cooking, I'm going to try going gluten free this summer and see what happens. My sister has just gone gluten free and it's made a big difference to her overall health. That kind of stuff tends to run in families, we are (suspected identical) twins, and I have a lot of the same symptoms. For the record, I hope the experiment totally fails because I LOVE NOODLES and I don't want to stop eating them.

~~ 3 ~~

I'm also on the lookout for recipes that are easy to make ahead of time and then pack. I'm lactose intolerant, so combined with the gluten experiment, my old strategy of cheese sandwich is going to need to be rethought, as will my "noodles and cheese" strategy. Suggestions welcome. Easy and cheap suggestions very welcome.

~~ 4 ~~

I'm in the middle of tidying for move-out. For some reason that I don't quite get, our rooms are supposed to be ready for inspection (i.e., reasonably tidy and posters down) by Sunday night. Inspections are on Thursday. Are they just trying to make sure we get things done in time? I don't know. Whatever! Saves me some of the last minute rush to turn my disaster of a room into neatly stacked boxes. (Of course, I'll create a different last minute rush. That's just how I roll.)

~~ 5 ~~

Speaking of mess, packing, and rushing, what's the best organization book you've ever read? I have trouble staying organized and I finally figured out one big reason why: I like to have things where I can see them. If I can't see something, I won't remember it. So things that I need to remember to use on a regular basis, such as medication and toothbrushes, need to be visible. Something can only stay hidden if I only need it when I know I need it (e.g., Tylenol, spoons). But if I just set things around on top of tables and shelves, I start putting everything I have on there until my horizontal surfaces are piles of mess. Is anyone else like this? What do you do about it?

~~ 6 ~~

Did you see that the Boy Scouts now allow gay boys to be scouts? They still require leaders to be heterosexual. I will write a more in-depth post about this later, but I think this was a wise move pastorally.

~~ 7 ~~

Lastly, in orphan news (you thought I would have a SQT without orphans, didn't you? Ha, not likely): Recent negotiations with Russia have not yielded any results, and Russia will not reopen to American adoption in the foreseeable future. (Of course, with international adoption, the future is always uncertain.) Because of this, Reece's Rainbow decided to give the grants of waiting Russian children to children in other countries. Because she was my Christmas child, I got to decide which child would receive Aisha's grant. I was asked to give her grant to a child with DS who was in greater need, and I chose Mark in Latin America. He already had a significant grant, so his adoption is now nearly half paid for. He needs a family quickly--he is an older boy, and he has leukemia as well as Down syndrome. I have absolutely no idea what conditions are like in his country; I hope he is getting treatment for his cancer. But he still needs a family.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

On Life

Sorry for the lack of posting. It's midterms week! I'm taking a break from writing my final midterm, a logic takehome, to post this because I don't think I'll get a chance to post over the next week.

This logic midterm is stretching my brain in a good way. It doesn't have very much to do with what we're doing in class, and requires a lot of thinking about stuff that's essentially new. My modern philosophy midterm, also a takehome, was kind of fun to write, but not nearly as intellectually exciting. Psych and Greek were not fun or exciting to study for or to take. I got a 92 on Greek, we'll see what happens with psych.

My friends and I are going on a road trip over spring break. We're hitting up A's house, P's house, B's house, and my house. I'm really looking forward to it, but also somewhat worried because I'm going into it sleep deprived. I am pretty introverted and need some time to myself every now and then, and if I don't get that over this trip, which I'm not sure I'm going to, I'm going to lose my mind somewhere around Monday. My friends tend to assume that I'm withdrawing because I'm not okay, though, and then they come talk to me. I may just have to say look guys, I am okay at the moment but if you don't give me some space I will soon not be. Another sad thing is that I'll probably have less time than I do now to talk to K.

K is an awesome boyfriend. We have skyped for almost eight hours over the course of the last five days (I know, I know), and he's writing me a letter. We always end our Skype sessions with a prayer (except once when we forgot). K makes these prayers up on the spot and they kind of make me want to cry because he always thanks God for me. His faith is just so amazing. He makes me want to be closer to God. He also got me to clean up my room. All around a great guy.

Today has not been a good day

I have been feeling angry and irritable all day for no reason. This has been happening more than I would like recently, and I am thinking it may be a sign of depression coming back. The reason why I hesitate to say this is because the sun has been shining more than usual over the past week, which usually correlates to a better mood for me. I also haven't been having anxiety problems, which is usually a more reliable way for me to track depression than depression symptoms themselves, which (in my opinion) are more subtle. On the other hand, I've had to take a 2.5 week break from running due to a hip injury. So maybe those balance out. Anyway, something to keep an eye on--I really hate feeling this way and would like to nail down and eliminate the cause.

I was going to do homework with friends with the super bowl on in the background, but plans fell through. So I was going to do homework alone (I have a paper due this week on top of my normal workload), but so far I have done nothing since dinner. Go Patriots, I guess, since I have family from New England. Can you tell how much of a football fan I am? (I have never watched a super bowl.)

About my hip: I've been having pain in my right hip joint/groin since about the middle of Christmas break. I was initially diagnosed with a hip strain by university health services, but after two weeks of rest and naproxen (an NSAID) didn't fix it, they are looking for another answer. It appears to be something muscular rather than structural (pressure hurts), so they scheduled an ultrasound for Thursday. The good news is that since running didn't seem to bring on pain, and stopping running didn't help much, I have official doctor go-ahead to run. So I went running this evening, only for 20 minutes, but still. I went a little over two miles, which is a decent pace for me (I know I'm slow). In terms of long-term running goals, I think the half-marathon I was planning to run at the end of March is out of the question at this point. So maybe I'll run the 10k they have at the same event.

Lastly, more good news: I've officially been matched with a child to pray for on Reece's Rainbow! Reece's Rainbow is an organization that helps to facilitate international adoption of children with special needs (with a focus on Down Syndrome). One of the ways to help, if you can't adopt or donate money, is to offer to pray specifically for one child every day. I emailed them, and they gave me Kurt. He's four and a half, and he has mild CP. That's him on the left. Isn't he cute? I kind of want him to be mine, but of course hope that he has a family by the time I'm old enough to have any children of my own.

Well, I need to go take a shower and then work on my philosophy paper. It's about Descartes, whom I happen to dislike very much. :/