website!

oh yes, we have a website! see the "Sojourn Collegiate Ministry" link to the right, or go to:

http://www.sojourn-ne.org/

bobby is the best.

ATL

so last weekend i was in atlanta for the National Missionary Convention. it was tim, nate, hank, and myself representing Sojourn and The Boston Partnership in our very own booth! exciting times for sure. hank tagged us as "the most irreverent booth present." many would probably agree. i mean, not only were we from the evil East Coast, but we were young and kind of loud. no one actually came out and said any of this, we just figure these were the thoughts behind the many stares we got. especially the booth next to us, where the people were roughly 4 to 5 times our age.

anyway, bobby drew out a sweet "Boston" sign on canvas for us since, sadly, he did not join us in ATL. upon arriving, nate and i constructed a frame for said canvas, about 10' X 9'. then, the four of us painted it over the course of the convention, inviting others to paint as well. so the canvas served a few purposes: advertisement, interaction, and entertainment for us when we got bored. so, some pictures... [click to enlarge]

tim with a staple gun = terror.

i'm such a pseudo-artist!

good work hank.

the final product!

ATL was good times. on the canvas, we had some fun facts about Boston written above "Boston," things like "1/2 of world leaders study in Boston" and "95% of population will not attend church this weekend." then at the end, we painted over those facts with "God is in..." the canvas was this "work-in-progress," much like Sojourn and The Boston Partnership are.

other highlights: my friend lindsay lives in ATL, so i got to hang out with her a bit...and, my "second dad" Rob was at the convention from my home church in Indiana. it was wonderful to see both of them...i was very encouraged.

it was nice to get away for a few days, but it is so good to be home. and tomorrow is Thanksgiving! it will be a "very Sojourn" Thanksgiving, looking forward to it. plus, i just made two pumpkin pies, my first pies ever! all without the smoke alarm going off.

to copy from an email i just sent: life is good. jobs, tutoring, running, everything. i love boston, and i love where God has me right now. lately i've felt completely overwhelmed by who God is, and the personality traits of Jesus, and the needs of people, and where i fit into all of that. i've been trying to absorb and learn all i can...about ministry, about people, about God. i wish i could absorb more, but i think i'm learning a lot.

a few other things:

• i've been thinking about and researching the U.S. National Debt lately [random, i know, but $8.1 trillion is ridiculous].
• Don Miller rocks my world.
• i can be a big idiot sometimes. i hate that.
• we got new nametags at work [harvard] today...they are pretty sweet.

that's all. Happy Thanksgiving!

plans

so, it's been some time since i last posted, mainly because life has gotten busy-ish (which is how i like it) and blogging isn't so much a priority. but also i've been thinking about a lot of things, which i can do quite easily since i'm a girl. lots of things, kind of heavy things, but very good things that i am now moving forward in processing. so yeah, i will share a few in this post. but first, not-so-heavy things/events to let you all in on.

two weeks ago, i got to spend a day at the Cape with a friend. (the "Cape" is Cape Cod). i've been to the Cape a couple times before, and it's always beautiful and definitely never gets old. this time was unique because it's fall, so everything was in different hues and colors. also, no one was there except the locals, which was great. my friend and i drove scenic route 6A, and took lots of pictures, and hung out at the beach for a couple hours. it was great time with a friend, and also great solitude time as well, as we went exploring in different directions while on the beach. it was just a great day.

last weekend, i got to go camping and hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. it was a short trip, but even just one night of sleeping under the stars was a needed escape from urban life. don't get me wrong, i do love life in the city and all, but mountains and the ocean are practically in my backyard...and i LOVE anything having to do with mountians and forests and water and oceans. i don't think i will ever get used to the fact taht the mountians are 1.5 hours away, and i can pretty much see the ocean whenever i want. amazing. i love it.

so today i visited Eitz Chayim, a Jewish congregation that is a couple blocks from my apt. they have lectures on sundays, and today's was on building Abrahamic partnerships...basically, how Jews and Christians and Muslims can be an interfaith community of learning. the guy who gave the lecture had some pretty interesting points, and while i didn't agree with everything he said, i did walk away with some new perspectives. plus, this was my first visit to a Jewish congregation and i am learning Hebrew (slowly). so, it was good.

so i've been listening to Death Cab's new cd, Plans, a lot lately. thus, the title of this post. great music, great lyrics. you should get it.

now for some deeper thoughts. and i probably won't be super deep b/c this is a blog, not my journal. one thing i've been wrestling with in my mind lately goes along the lines of, what are the driving forces behind the passions in my heart? like, for example, there are so many things i want to do in this life, too many to list here; a couple of those things involve living outside the US at some point, namely the continent of Africa. and then i think about how i would love to go here and do this, and go there and do that, and if i think about it long enough, i have from now until the time i'm 70 all taken up. but, i wonder, do i have the passion to go and do all these things because i really want to go and i really want to help people? 100%? or is it because i want to be transient, always meeting new people and changing locations often enough that i never fade away or am forgotten, but i'm always a new face to someone, some group of people, some place? or maybe i want to just do diffenent things involving ministry, or social justice, or medicine, or whatever because i would be constantly surrounded and working with those that have the same passions, and that would be, in a sense, comfortable. i thought all of this out loud while walking home one night, half hashing it through my mind, half praying. the next day some cool stuff happened, and it's a story in itself, so i'll just say, God showed me some things about my heart that i needed to see. it was good.

things with Sojourn are going really well, but i must be honest: working in ministry is hard. and starting a ministry is even harder. in many ways we see how it likens itself to starting a business, and i am pretty clueless when it comes to that kind of stuff. but, i am learning...i think we all are. i like it, and i'm excited.

much of the time i wonder if i am cut out for this, for being a campus minister. i mean seriously...who am i to be a minister for Jesus when i do a pretty poor job of representing Him, in my thoughts and my knowledge and my heart and my love? i'm just...me. thankfully and graciously, my God is God, and He supersedes anything that i was, and am, and will ever be. good news, indeed.

ok...it's late and work is early. if you made it through to the end, thanks, and i'm proud of you. :) g'nite friends.

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?

out with the honda, in with the trek

so i sold the honda before i left indiana, and there are small moments when i kinda miss her. but these moments are few and very far between. i ride my bike now pretty much everywhere, and i love it. here's why my Trek is amazing:

• working out and commuting are now one in the same. the quads are so getting back in shape.
  
• the trek can go all the places cars can't...like, when traffic is backed up at a stoplight, guess who gets to go to the front? it's like cutting the line at disney world, but no one can get mad at you.
• there is no bike insurance, bike parking pass, or bike parking meters. nor must i ride around the block five times looking for a place to lock up.
  
• on the trek, especially during rush hour, i go the same speed or faster than everyone else. like today, i definitely passed a porsche.
• how much are gas prices now?
• one-way streets (and that's pretty much every street here) are still one-way streets on a bike, so the law still applies. yet, it's also slightly optional...the shortest distance is still a straight line, so if that means going the wrong way down a one-way every so often, the trek can do that.
  
• there is this special adrenaline rush that comes only when riding through rush hour. dodging cars and peds and taxis and other bikes, that's all great. inches between me and an MBTA bus, yeah, that's AWESOME. [mom, i'm fine]
  
• and finally, and this would be the best part of all: more exercise = more calories burned = more food!! and i do love food. however, right now that means a lot of pb&j's, couscous, and spaghetti, but that's fine by me. :)
  

so the trek has replaced the honda. i'm pretty happy with that. :)

run

so i joined this women's running group, and tonite was my first time running with them. i got my butt kicked! we did a 4 miler along the charles, plus i ran a mile to get to the meet-up place. it was really good though...cool people and now extra motivation for preparing for my next race (whenever that might be). i'm excited to be getting back in good running shape, and even more excited to get to know my fellow runners. :)

also, i've been listening to snow patrol a lot lately, and i love their song "run." just thought i'd add that tidbit since that's the title of this entry.

anyway, so there's a ton of news to tell, seeing as i haven't posted in over a week. i started working at the harvard athletic center last thursday, and it was awesome. i met a few people i will be working with, and i had some GREAT conversations, especially with this guy named mike. he is just great. we talked for pretty much the whole four hours i was there. he is involved with athletes in action at harvard, and so he was very encouraging and excited about our campus ministry and church. we just had a lot of fun working; unfortunately, i don't think i will be working with him that often, but the other three people i met on thursday were just as cool. i was pretty amazed at how "normal" the people are, seeing as they are harvard students. they are so down-to-earth, and really aren't that far off from purdue (or any other school) students. i got a new perception of harvard, and i like that.

tutoring started last week as well, and i LOVE it. i have two students on friday, and one on saturday, and they are just great kids! i am incredibly amazed at the kids at this high school...their ability to work hard and stay focused challenges me! the tutoring sessions are 4 HOURS long, which for me seems long, since i have some slight ADHD action going on. but the kids are just all-over the practice problems, and they listen, and i think i actually did a decent job of teaching them some new things. i also got to meet some fellow tutors, most of whom are BU or BC students, and all of them are great. so yeah, tutoring is really great, and i'm afraid it might convince me to become a teacher, but we'll see.

random event of the week: sunday night part of the outside wall above my bedroom window just decided to crumble and fall. like, big chunks of concrete. so hopefully that gets fixed soon.

i get another visitor tomorrow!! my friend john is coming for the day, it should be a great time. i've been missing hugs lately (they are kinda rare out here), so a 'big john' hug will be very welcomed. plus, john is just a great guy and he's one of my best guy friends...so yeah, i'm glad he's coming!

things i thought i'd never say, and other thoughts

example #1: "i work at harvard."

yes friends, i got the job at harvard! i'll be working at the athletic center part-time, working the front desk and washing towels and other miscellaneous things. i go for training tomorrow, so i will know more then.

the whole harvard job is so God. and the interview...yeah, it was great, but not for the reasons i thought it would be. so i walk into the interview on friday, and the woman is skimming over my resume, and she comments that i went to purdue. so she asks when i graduated, and then asks if i know a girl named kristi [i'm withholding the last name here]. well, yeah! kristi and i have been friends since practically our first day at purdue, we played lacrosse together, were both super-involved in campus house, even worked at the same coffee shop...yeah, i know kristi. :) so, i'm thinking, wow, small world! it gets better...the woman keeps looking at my resume and notices that i worked at springhill camp. so i'm like, yeah, i worked there back in the summer of '02, and she asks me if i remember a girl named miriam [again, withholding last name]. i say, yeah! and she says, "that's my little sister."

as i walked out of the interview, i pretty much knew i had the job. not because the interview was great (it was), but more because of the connections. i mean seriously, there are 40,000 students at purdue and millions of people here, and this was not coincidence in any form. i smiled and kinda laughed on the way home, you know, a joyful laugh. God just blows my mind sometimes, and i think He is [still] trying to get me to expect the unexpected. so yeah, i have a part-time job, i'll be getting to interact with college kids a lot, i have some pretty crazy connections with my boss, and to top it off, i get free gym membership. yep, God is taking really good care of me here.

example #2: "my butt smells like moth balls."

to my knowledge, no one has actually heard me say this, as it's only been said to myself in the privacy of my room. so, i got this chair on saturday at a yard sale. it is a sweet chair, exactly what i had been looking for: simple, wooden, painted white, $10. the people that sold it to be also gave me this black cushion, which is great because it goes perfectly with my black/soft yellow/green motif in my room. it wasn't until i got the chair home that i realized the cushion smells like moth balls, and pretty strongly at that. but i still use it, and thus, i am decently certain that my butt now smells like moth balls. :)

final thoughts for the night. i have had a LOT on my mind lately, and this is just one topic, but it's a big one. i have thought, and tried to pray a lot for the people of the gulf coast. but it's hard for me to pray about it, and it's hard for me to give money (since i really don't have any), because all i really want to do is just get down to louisiana or mississippi or even houston and help...sorting supplies, playing with some kids, talking to the people. and, i can't do that, for numerous reasons. so i feel trapped...my desire to serve and help these people is not able to be fulfilled by an action. or at least, a tangible one.

this leads me to think about how much i really desire to help people. it's huge. this is why i am part of a team in boston trying to start a campus ministry and a church, to help people find their way back to God. this is why i am volunteering at an inner-city charter high school, tutoring kids for 10 hours/week, helping them learn and have a greater confidence. this is why i hope to return to school at some point for nursing or education. i just want to help people. but this is not my deepest desire...more than anything, i really just want to love and know my God. and because of this desire, i am able to love and help people, and that in turn reveals new attributes of God to me and grows my love for Him. so it's a pretty sweet cycle. but i know, and have been very aware as of late, that my desire to help can not overcome or get in the way of my desire to be with my God. i know of several times in my life that i have allowed this to happen, and God has not hesitated to call me out on it. so yeah, there is really no conclusion to all of this thinking, aside from the fact that i want my desires to be in their respective places. all this thinking just leads me to more questions, about what i need to be doing in boston, what i need to be doing a couple years from now, but more than anything, what i need to be doing today. and i think i need to just focus on that last one, and that will eliminate most all my other questions. one day at a time, kimmy, one day at a time.

the past 24 hours, in numbers

6-3: the score of last night's red sox/angels game. oh, and yeah, i was there.

5: price, in american dollars, of a foot-long hot dog at fenway.

3: miles i ran today, along mem drive as the sun was setting. my motivation today? keeping up with the harvard crew team as they were rowing the charles.

and one closing thought for tonight...i have an interview at harvard tomorrow. yes, the university. and yes, for a job. ok, so it's for a part-time job at the athletic facility, but STILL.

i love boston.

the first visitor!

last wednesday i got a call from my wonderful friend jaime (she's on the sojourn team as well, but won't be out in boston until next summer). she had found this amazing deal on a plane ticket for labor day weekend, and since she is moving out here next year but has never actually been here before, AND since she's just pretty awesome, she came. and yeah, we had a great weekend...surprising tim and his family (and spending a lot of great time with them), being tourists on the freedom trail, dancing the night away at the Phoenix, beach time and jaime seeing the atlantic from THIS side, people-watching and reading while laying on the grass in the middle of harvard yard [haah-vahd yahd], and job-searching at universities. yep, it was pretty great. :)

i have a lot on my mind and heart tonight, mainly things i can't write about for the whole world to see, and some other things that i really can't define right now. you know what i mean? like...i feel certain emotions (that i don't think have words matched to them) that are just, well, there. for no reason. but really, for probably a very significant reason which i have been trying to hash out for a couple days now. much of what keeps pacing around in my head has to do with decisions, some for tangible things (i think i need a part-time job...a paying one, that is), others for heart-things. nothing completely overwhelming or anything...no worries. having much time by oneself leads to much thought, and that is a good thing.

time for bed. tomorrow: time to get real about the budget...and other fun adventures. oh yeah, and the sox game!! yay for fenway and our beloved sox...

pad thai bliss

so i've been craving pad thai for the past week, and today i finally got it. it was great, but i definitely stuffed myself stupid. after tomorrow, it's back to cheap groceries and not much eating out anymore, since we will FINALLY be moved into our apartment!

this morning, tim (our team leader for campus ministry) and i met with a prof at BU. she is mad cool, and it was good to talk with her...we shared our vision for campus ministry (at BU and in general), and she shared with us some crazy stories of churches she and her husband tried to get plugged into over the past three years. like the one church that sent them a LETTER basically saying, "yeah, you can come here, but we don't want you to be involved." or another church where the overwhelming attitude is: "you need to have lived here 3-5 years before we can be friends with you."

seriously. no worries: our church will not be like this.

last night was dinner at tim's place. invited guests were me and a few others that are in some way connected to sojourn (those of us starting campus ministries) or the boston partnership (starting the church). it was fantastic...great conversation, home-cooked food, and 6 little kids chasing each other through the house. :) with each week, maybe even daily, the purposes and vision for why we are here becomes more and more clear. in talking with tim this week, we are totally on the same page with a rough outline of starting campus ministry: basically, we just want to form some really solid small communities over the next couple years. and as those communities grow, then campus ministries can start forming on the different campuses, depending on where the people in these communities are students. kinda like mitosis!! (me = biology nerd). we sketched out a 5-year plan for this. and, i mean, it's a sketch...it's on God's time, not ours. but i think starting small and being patient are two really good things, and definitely always better than cramming Jesus down everyones' throats (i'm not alluding to any specific organizations here, i'm just saying) because no one likes that, including Jesus.

so, it's going to take some time. but, then again, most good things do.

small revelation

so, i got the tutor job! (well, i guess it's not a "job" b/c i don't get paid, but i'm not exactly getting paid to be a campus minister either.)

i was walking back from the interview (which was GREAT by the way), and i realized that i'm excited. i'm excited to be here, to be starting a campus ministry/church, and now to be tutoring inner-city teenagers. it's like i'm living out my dream...i'm pretty blown away by that.

and i realized something else. while i do have this passion for medicine, i think the whole nursing school thing can wait. i figured out that i have a good 1.5 years before i need to act on applying for the master's program at BC. and...i know my deeper passion is for campus ministry and teenagers and education. so maybe grad school for education at some point?

for now, i'm happy with no school. :)

okay...

so, i've given in to this whole blogging thing. partially out of boredom, but mainly to share what's going on out here with all of you, whoever and wherever you are! so whether you are back in the Midwest, or you are overseas, or even if you are my neighbor here in Boston, you get to know just a little bit of what's happening with me.

today. it's rainy, but i like it. i've been checking out more options for school...this morning i talked to some people at BU. i don't know, i keep going back and forth with what to do. take classes? apply to grad school? take classes so i can apply to grad school? i need to make a decision pretty soon...classes start next tuesday. so much of me just wants to take some fun classes, like ones i never got to take in college. but, most of the fun classes are not available at night, which would be fine for me, except that night classes are 1/4 the cost of "normal" classes. and i have no money.

anyway, so after i perused around BU, this guy named michael stops me on the sidewalk and tells me about his views on LaRouche and Cheney and Iran and economic policy. it was great. one of many things i love about boston: people actually utilitize their freedom of speech, and they give a crap about politics. i will admit, i'm pretty ignorant when it comes to politics, but that's the reason i stopped. i want to learn. so we talked for a good 20 minutes. i learned a lot.

i've been at the espresso royale cafe for a couple hours. it reminds me of vienna. but without the vienna smell. :) and they played ben folds' annie waits. and they have great mango green iced tea.

next up: interview for volunteer tutoring!