Good moments from the holidays (so far)

– driving home to Goshen with Becca listening to loads of Christmas music and get a glimpse of blue sky right as we approached Goshen

– watching the candle dance at the Assembly bread & soup Christmas Eve service (I have been in this dance countless times and watched it even more, but I don’t get tired of the simple melody, the circle steps and the whole congregation lit by candlelight)

– trying to bake another batch of chocolate caramel cookies with sea salt that I had made earlier this week with Becca and ending up with a molten field of chocolate dough and rivers of caramel that despite their complete lack of cookie-ness are quite tasty

– seeing a Great Blue Heron from about 15 feet away on a pre-dawn walk  with my Mom

– completing one puzzle, two games of tichu with family and the various prep work (cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc) required for our Christmas dinner tomorrow

– indulging my great weakness for Christmas music by falling for Amazon’s 99 Christmas classics for 2 dollars deal (and then forcing my family to listen to it with me)

– working with my Mom to successfully sew a pair of mittens out of old wool sweaters.

– seeing all the assorted “kids” from Assembly who have since grown up and away and seem to be frighteningly adult now

– hand delivered Christmas packages

– the very traditional snowman the neighbors made in their lawn.

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays and I wish you the merriest of Christmases!

happy winter solstice

Hmm, I guess in retrospect that was a bit of a downer post yesterday.  I mean I should clarify that I am really quite happy to be done with my masters and excited about being a librarian.  I think I just find it odd how quickly even big things in my life can feel like normal all over again.  That said I figure I would give you a little peak into some of the highlights of the past few weeks other than you know the work part.

Miriam can up for a visit and it was truly wonderful.  We watched two movies (one in the theater and one on DVD*) and while neither were what one would call “a quality achievement in film-making” they were both highly entertaining.  We put together two puzzles, listened to lots of Christmas music, ate yummy Italian food, went thrifting and generally obtained the perfect balance of sitting around being cozy and warm and venturing out to do fun things.

I went to the library and checked out a bunch of books for fun!  Several of which were the most recent volumes in the Fables graphic novel series.  I then proceeded to spend much of yesterday afternoon laying in bed reading them.  Ah the luxuries of vacation.

I also helped one of my housemates out in preparing flowers and decorations for a wedding at our church.  I have never really worked with flowers before and was kind of intimidated by the idea of doing so.  But in the end it was kind of fun.  See look, I helped make this:

Now I am only 2 days away from heading back to Goshen for a full week of fun, family and probably no falafel.  I think I might try to keep posting here through the end of the year and maybe even if I am feeling up for it taking a stab at updating my long neglected about page.

*And I will only tell you what they were if you promise not to judge! Okay, you just pinky swore right? We watched Knight and Day on DVD and despite being silly and cliche it was oddly hilarious.  I think in part because Tom Cruise is really only designed to do one thing and that is do the action star thing and he does it quite well.  And the other is not one that I am embarrassed to say that I liked, just maybe a bit embarrassed to say that I actually went back with my housemate yesterday and saw it in theaters again.  However now I can say without any doubt (not that much existed before) but don’t waste your money on 3D, at least not on Tangled.  But do see that movie at some point because it contains the single funniest horse ever animated.

cough, cough, is this thing on?

There is no good way to open up a new post after a 20 day unexplained absence, especially when you know you write a personal blog with no discernible theme other than the random debris that floats through ones head.  Let’s just say that I was on blog vacation due to the lack of vacation in my life.  Of course the other problem with this whole “actually writing a post again” thing is that all those half-thought out posts that lingered in my head during the time I was not blogging always disappear leaving me staring at an opening paragraph that is rapidly filling itself with half-apologetic meta stuff.  So let’s cut to the chase –

Since we last talked, I finished up student teaching, wrote a final paper, pulled together a portfolio, and got a job (or at least re-enlisted for my old job at the high school).  So now I am sitting here on “Christmas break” with all but the actual diploma to mark the end of two and half years of grad school.  You would think at the end of this long trek, I would have at least some idea of how I ended up here, but I have to say I look around and think to myself, “So that’s it, I have a masters?”.  Now don’t get me wrong I did learn a lot, experienced a lot and feel much more prepared to actually do the work of a librarian, but as is often the case for me when I look back on my life, I don’t actually feel that much different.  I remember feeling a bit like this after returning from my crazy summer trip of 2007.  Somehow exciting/challenging/new/frustrating/different experiences have a way of feeling a bit like a bubble that as soon as you finally get through one side, pop right back into reality.  That said, I am quite glad to be standing at this end of the papers, classes and endless commuting, than where I was back in September of 2008.