snow

it's october. it snowed today. here's a couple pics from my apt as proof.


so yeah, it was kind of exciting, it was coming down pretty good for most of the afternoon. and the flakes were huge, definitely not midwestern snowflakes. so snow is fun, but in october it's, well, wrong.

if you know me at all, you know i love the weather channel, so i'll pass on tomorrow's forecast: 63 and sunny, no lie! new england weather is wack!

oh, and tomorrow starts daylight savings time!! i am so excited, for this is my first-ever experience in setting my clocks back! all thanks to indiana, the indecisive state that doesn't observe DST...however, they are finally getting on-board in april '06. anyway, i am a nerd and i'm excited about the extra hour of sleep. NOT so excited about the sun setting at 430pm. my momma is the coolest though and is ordering me one of those "natural sun light" lamps. thanks mom. :)

wicked cold

this past sunday i ran a 5-mile road race in nahant with the running team [Team Luna Chix, i don't know if i've mentioned our name before]. it was great! weather conditions, however, weren't....it was freezing, and raining, and the wind was a beast! but i guess you'll have that, seeing as nahant is on this pennisula that goes pretty far out into the atlantic. i'm told on a good day [i.e. one with sun] you can see boston from where we were. but i was just way excited to see the ocean so it didn't bother me too much.

so here's some of us right before the start...we were all huddled together, jumping around. the race was wonderful and absolutely beautiful, especially with the peak of fall foliage. there were a good number of hills, and many times the road would curve and i would look down at the waves crashing over these huge boulders. it was breathtaking. the race was really good God-time, as running typically is for me. very much needed. very much worth getting up at 6am for.

i ran a 46:57, which i was very pleased with. i'm getting back on-track for half-marathon training and it feels great! i'm looking forward to running a half with the team in march, and i'm very much looking forward to getting to know them better. it was really good to meet some new faces and have some good laughs with them on sunday...they are all so fun! i rode to/from the race with jenn and cynthia...they are so encouraging and hilarious. :) most of the race i ran solo, but sometimes i would catch up to emma, who has the best irish accent ever. and even though i'm pretty much the 'baby' of the group [most are in their late-20's/early-30's] and i'm definitely not the fastest runner, they have welcomed me in and asked lots of questions about my job and are happy to have me around. so yeah, i like them a lot! so even though the name is slightly cheesy, i'm glad to call myself a Luna Chic.

full moon

this was the view from the last part of my run last night. so i thought i'd share a little bit of boston through my eyes...

from missouri to mass...

bobby and nathan are finally here!! yay! the boys officially moved out here last weekend, and then moved into their sweet new bachelor pad on saturday. and when i say sweet, i mean it...their place is definitely in the heart of downtown boston, with a nice 2 min walk to the T and something like 1300 sq ft of living space. i'm a little jealous. however, i'm not so jealous of their monthly rent. :)

so God has been and continues to be totally providential in every aspect of us being here. the big things, like housing...all the way to the little things, even the shortest of conversations. so if you are one who has been praying for sojourn, thanks! and praise God for bobby and nathan's new place. now they just need a couple jobs, please pray for that.

the sun decided to hang out in new england today, so that was great. it was something like 10 straight days of darkness and rain...slightly depressing.

one of the highlights of the past week: every so often, high school or college groups come out here by way of restoration house [church planting organization] in new hampshire. usually it's for some service work and a little exposure to the northeast. well...we had such a group last week...but it was definitely seniors. and by that i mean senior seniors, not seniors in college. anyway, they were from crawfordsville, indiana, so i was happy for some home-state representation. and because i am the lone hoosier of Sojourn, i think it's safe to say they latched onto me the most. or maybe because i'm the only girl. well anyway, they were all really sweet people, and we were very encouraged by their words and prayers.

oh, and how can i forget to mention that my friend john was out here again last weekend! this time he came to run his first half marathon, which i shamelessly convinced him to do. and he did great, actually beating my personal record by five minutes. it was pretty fun for me to be the spectator at a race, a first for me. however, after a few minutes of watching, i was wishing i was in the race instead...but cheering on a friend was pretty great too. great job john!

sorry it's been awhile in writing...a lot has been happening, i'll try to write more later. i have work at harvard in t-minus five hours, g'nite friends. :)

things

so tim and i had a meeting today with some website/advertising people, and it was really good. they were excited for the 'challenge' of developing creative stuff for us...so yeah, it was just a great meeting, and i'm excited to see what they come up with for sojourn.

also, bobby and nathan left today to move out here!! i can't wait for them to be here...for our team to be together...yeah, all of that.

recent realizations, in no particular order:

• for not being a morning person, i am really enjoying my early shift at the MAC (malkin athletic center, at harvard). each monday, i get up at 445, and i like it.
• david gray's new cd, life in slow motion...pretty amazing.
• i really suck at hebrew, but i promise i'm getting better. i'm up to 6 consonants, 4 vowels, and a handful of vocabulary words, my favorite being אָבִי
  
• old fashioned hand-written letters are the best thing ever, and in my opinion, the best form of communication because you get to read, re-read, and listen to the person's voice all at the same time. letters from far-away friends are so good, and i've gotten 2 in the past 6 days. so if you've sent me a letter, thanks for making my day. hopefully i can do the same.
  
• i really do love to run.
• i went to a grad nursing info session at BC on monday. i think i should still keep the looking into nursing, but probably not at BC. it's a great school, but $30,000/year in tuition isn't for one who is in ministry.
  
• candy corn is so addictive.

time for some sleep before 7am spinning class. :)

october wedding

yesterday was daniel and jen's wedding, and i hate to say this, but i really enjoyed it. the wedding ceremony itself was really great, and i definitely enjoyed that the minister gave a real perception of marriage. the reception was amazing...it was on the 33rd floor of this building downtown, and the view was spectacular. not to mention the food. :)

i had fun at a wedding. this is hard for me to comprehend, considering my current view of marriage. since i am fairly convinced no one reads this blog anyway, maybe i'll share that view sometime. or maybe i should keep working on it, since i know my feelings toward marriage are largely based on several lies that float around in my head that i choose to believe. they are comforting lies, really, and i'm not ready to give them up yet.

so i'm really happy for jen and daniel...they are so wonderful together and apart, but are individually better by being with one another. and i think that if marriage should be anything, it should definitely be that.

so other things to mention...i've been working on learning some hebrew again, which i am loving. i've also been doing a lot of reading, enjoying that a lot too. the art and wonder of reading pretty much got shelved for me starting in high school, and of course, college gave no free time for that luxury as well. i'm reading Don Miller's second book right now, along with The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser. Rolheiser's book is an assignment from tim, and at first i approached it as such, but now i'm really into it...it paints a good picture of our culture's struggle with spirituality in our post-modernism, and that is something i want to deeply understand. the core of the book is his explanation of God and the Church to a world that largely doubts both. he addresses several divorces that have occurred within spirituality, one being the divorce between religion and eros ("the fire inside of us; our soul"):
"Like all divorces it was painful, and as in all divorces, the property got divided up: Religion got to keep God and the secular got to keep sex. The secular got passion and the God got chastity. We, the children of that divorce, like all children in a broken home, find ourselves torn between the two, unconsciously longing for them to come back together again. But, for now, we live in a broken situation. Religion, especially as it is lived out in the churches, is perceived as being antierotic, antisex, anticreative, antienjoyment, and anti-this-world. The God who underwrites the churches is then perceived as stoic, celibate, dull, cold, otherworldly, and threatened by sex and by human creativity. The secular world is seen as the champion of eros, sex, creativity, and enjoyment, but is seen as anti-God and antichurch. And we are torn; how does one pick between the two?"

this is the underlying nature of American culture, most demonstrated on the Coasts or the City. very much the story in the city i now call home. so again, the question that's always in my mind and in my prayers: how do we start a campus ministry and a church here?