7 Quick Takes: The books I'm reading

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I am in the middle of a shockingly large number of books right now, so I've decided to make them this week's 7QT. It will almost certainly be more interesting than another post about how I need to go grocery shopping (I do) and I'm tired and disorganized (I am).

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Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity" by Andrew Solomon. This book investigates what happens when parents have children that are very different from the children the parents expected. Usually, Solomon says, children get "vertical identities" from their parents--black parents have black children, etc. But when a child has a "horizontal identity" that he doesn't share with his parents, it can be hard for his parents to deal with that. Solomon talks about different kinds of horizontal identities, such as autism, deafness, criminality, and transgender issues. What to change? What to accept? I've only read the first chapter or so, but am intrigued.

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The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist by Angel Mendez-Montoya (sorry, I don't know how to make accents in this text editor). This one is for a class. The topic is interesting: What do we learn about the Eucharist when we explore it as a food? What does how and what we (as humans) eat reveal about the Eucharist? There are some interesting insights here, but they are frequently buried underneath popular platitudes (for instance, about accepting differences--not that this is bad, but cliches aren't interesting theology). I may have more positive things to say when I'm done; there is, for instance, a chapter about transubstantiation that I haven't gotten to yet.

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The Anatomy of Anorexia by Steven Levenkrom. I bought this book for $1 at a bookstore because I had time to kill and it looked interesting. It is interesting. I don't know enough about it to know whether it is correct. He's talking a lot about societal and personal factors that lead to the development of anorexia, but so far he's said very little about what makes some girls actually succumb to this pressure while some are able to resist. Again, he may address this later.

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Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri, translated by Robert and Jean Hollander. Another book for class. I tried to read the Divine Comedy in high school (different translation), but became one of those people Dante scholars complain about who gets bored halfway through Purgatorio. This time I intend to make it all the way through! If nothing else, the pressure to not fail will force me to. In all seriousness, though, I am enjoying this. I can't comment on the translation, but the notes are generally helpful in providing historical and biographical background. They are woefully inadequate when it comes to the theology, unfortunately; for instance, some very obvious Biblical references are missing. But it reads smoothly and is (according to people who read Italian) a very accurate translation. Plus it has the Italian on the facing page, so I can use my Latin to pretend that I read Italian.

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The Jewish Study Bible. Is this cheating? Don't know, don't care. I am reading it, even if not all the way through. Maybe I should have called this "Exodus and Leviticus." We are focusing on the construction of the Tabernacle. Interesting and helpful notes. Fascinating to read a Bible whose notes refer nearly exclusively to Jewish thinkers.

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The Brethren by John Grisham. Okay, this is definitely cheating. I read the first chapter so that I had a 7th book to include. I picked this up off one of the give-a-book-take-a-book shelves (to which I owe quite a few books by now...) because a friend of mine had mentioned he wanted to know what I thought of Grisham. So far I'm not impressed, but we'll see how it goes.

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Is it really Friday again already?

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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!)

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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I'm not dead; Seven Quick Takes to prove it

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Hi. Sorry for the radio silence. I am not dead. I am busy and distracted. I've been thinking for a while about how scattered and disorganized my mind has become. This has resulted in the scattering and disorganization of my life. I'm thinking of writing a post about this. Maybe next week's 7QT will be 7 small steps towards simplicity. For now I leave you with this: The Real Reason to Quit Facebook (and 10 What-Ifs).

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I just noticed that my last 7QT post was all about how organized and responsible I'm going to be. Ha. Sometimes life doesn't work out the way you want it to. In my defense, I have a lot of papers to write: a draft of my thesis, which is supposed to be 50 pages long, and a 20 page paper, and a 10 (? I forget) page paper/play. And I have lab work, which isn't a paper but takes a lot of time.

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Have I talked about my thesis? I'm writing about autism and Thomas Aquinas, and the idea is that using Thomas Aquinas and his model of flourishing can help us choose treatment goals. It's interesting, but I'm basically at the point where I've thought enough that I have a good sense of what I want to say. So now I have no interest in actually writing the paper. I thought I liked writing, but usually I write and think simultaneously (which works much better than it sounds like it would). I guess I like thinking, not writing.

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Does anyone read this blog? Just leave me a comment and say hi. I feel like I'm talking to myself.

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I totally failed at the buying-Christmas-presents before Advent goal. Here it is almost week 2 and I haven't even decided for everyone. Fail! On the plus side, I'm going to make a Jesse tree with my CCD class. So I must get some bonus points. It seems like a Jesse tree is the ultimate Overachieving Pinterest Mom symbol and I don't even have kids.

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Kyle got a job in Chicago, so we'll be moving there when we graduate. All other details TBD, but we want to try to go to this church. Jealous? (If not, you probably have terrible liturgical taste. Just kidding. Except not really.)

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Well that was a fairly unkind note to end this post on. But I can't think of anything better to say. I will try to post more in the future so people don't scold me for abandoning my blog (HI SOPHIE).

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Becoming a grown up

I've been living in my house for about two and a half weeks. It's been a great experience so far. My sister has been subletting from one of my roommates for the summer. She and I have been shopping and cooking together. (My other roommate has mostly been eating at her fiance's apartment.) I've made a price book (result: food is CHEAP here!) and a coupon folder and have signed up for rewards cards. So far, I've been enjoying this taste of adult life. We'll see whether I still like it a year from now!

My biggest hassle has been transportation. I don't have a car, so I've been riding my bicycle everywhere. I got a trailer so that I could carry a lot of stuff, so I've even been grocery shopping with my bike. This is fine, in theory, but there are two big problems: The first is that it's fairly warm here, and so I wind up covered in sweat. That's not great at work and it's no fun to get home and just need to collapse and dry off. The second, bigger problem is that I don't live in a very convenient place to do all my shopping and travel by bike. There are not a lot of sidewalks in places you'd want them to be (hello, the mall?). I need to investigate the bus a bit and see if that can make up for some of the missing sidewalks. There is still the problem that a lot of local drivers don't seem to realize that bikes can be part of traffic. I try to stick to sidewalks so I don't die. (Yes, I realize I'm enabling their bad driving. No, I don't care; when cars nearly run over a BABY TRAILER, I'm not sacrificing myself on the altar of a principle.)

My plans for the next few days are to finish unpacking/organizing my room and to get some supplies to make jam. We don't have the right size pots, but I am going to try it anyway before I buy more because pots are expensive. I might be able to just make smaller batches. I'll keep you updated!

Seven Quick Takes

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Are you looking for a cool t-shirt and/or a way to help orphans? You can get one right here from my friend Megan. She's running a fundraiser for orphanages in China, which you can read more about here or follow on Facebook here. The shirt pictured is the women's shirt; a unisex shirt will be available soon (by the time this is published, it may already be available.) Megan says that these are good-quality t-shirts and the printing is well-done. It's a t-shirt you could actually wear in public, not just something you'd have to use for pajamas.

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I got home on Tuesday just in time for my little brother's Confirmation on Tuesday night. He's so old. My little sister was his sponsor. He's taller than she is. I remember when he was born.

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A cousin that I thought was five made his first Communion this spring. All these little kids doing big-kid and grown-up things. I feel so old. :(

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My mother is driving me to my house this summer so she can help me set up. I'm looking forward to this! It might be just the two of us. Road trip! K and M and G will be there that weekend to help too. (Legal, responsible) party time!

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Packing up all my stuff in my dorm took longer than I thought it was going to. I rented a pickup truck and moved it all out to a storage locker. My sister and R also shoved some of their stuff in there. I think we'll need to make a couple trips to get it out. Sounds like fun right? Not.

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I've been trying to pick up more knowledge about homeschooling and homemaking and budgeting wisely. I'm realizing that I'm a terribly disorganized person. If I could fix that, the rest of my life would be awesome. It really would. (For an example of disorganization, see this post.)

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On that note, one of my main summer goals is to get more organized. I'm hoping to blog about progress. Watch this space. But not too closely, because I don't want to be embarrassed when I forget.

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Seven Quick Takes: Mostly Cooking and Cleaning

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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?

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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.

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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.

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Seven Quick Takes

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I am very sorry that I haven't posted recently. (Maybe I should make that the name of my blog. Somebody help me think of a catchy way to say "Sorry I haven't posted, but I am allergic to everything in the world and have a chronic sinus infection from it! Also I'm busy and lazy!")

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Here's Kurt's family! Go check them out--they seem awesome to me. I am Facebook friends with his mother and he's going to have some adorable siblings. ETA Here's their blog! They need to raise about $20,000! Please consider helping them out.

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Look at these adorable little girls: Nadia and Nancy. I love them! I'm going to help Kurt's family home and then probably start advocating more heavily for these two. FAS and siblings both scare a lot of people, so they'll need a lot of exposure to find a family.

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Want more adorableness? Bert and Ernie. AWWW. Ernie looks like he could have been my fiance's brother. These two will also probably be on my list. Siblings and boys--another hard combination to overcome.

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I realized that so far, everyone I've advocated or fundraised for has gotten a family except for Aisha. (Her country's new rules, which you may have read about in the news, make the chances of her ever finding a family much lower. But I'm still hoping she'll get adopted by a domestic family or a non-US family.) I would like to say that I'm a great advocate, but truthfully I think I just tend to pick adorable kids with mild needs.

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I have figured out my schedule for next semester and it looks like I'll be taking 14 credits. This is unusual for me--a regular courseload is 15, and I have almost always had 16 or 17. I feel, however, that I have been spreading myself too thin, so I'm just going to take four courses plus my thesis and try to do a good job on less rather than a poor job on more. (Of course the danger is a poor job on less. Please pray that that doesn't happen.)

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I'm sure you all (all two of you readers) are dying to know what my thesis topic is, now that I've mentioned I'm writing one. I haven't finalized yet, but the general topic is going to be autism from a Thomistic/Aristotelian perspective. How does autism limit or enhance flourishing? Can we talk about "autism" as a whole in this context or do we have to look at specific deficits and skills that come alongside autism? I'm hoping it will have broader applicability in the theology of disability field, but we'll see.

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