Done

Being done feels like ...



Or maybe ...



Then there's...



Ahhhhh. Time for bed. Sorry for my absence. My body, having permission to completely relax, is a stranger to me. My head is cloudy, my back is achy, I am sleepier than ever, and sudden movements are disturbing to behold and impossible to execute. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel less like a zombie encased in jell-o, and more like a functioning participant in the world around me.

A girl can dream! And I think I will. Good night!

EDITED TO ADD
As of now, I have posted more this month than I did in all of 2006.

What was up with me in 2006?

Serenity

With my Hebrew exam approaching in T-minus 16 hours and 39 minutes, I need some. Not to mention an iPod full of tunes to psych me up. Like "Holding Out for a Hero" by Frou Frou ~ the hero being, this time, my own superspeedy translational powers!
I know you are in there somewhere!

Time for a deep breath and one last dive into the Exam Preparation Pool, Olympic-sized, with all sorts of iced lattes and assorted grammars and lexicons floating about. See you when I emerge!

Flikr Magic!

I took this photo of my friend Katrina when we traveled to Poland together 2 years ago. I was diggin' the reflection. So the other day on my flikr site, I did some photo editing to play up that aspect of the photo. First, a simple crop:



Nice. How about even closer? With a bit of color saturation action?



Ooooo! Interesting!



Here's the other eye. (See my arm there?)

Which photo is your favorite? Au natural, cropped or one of the funky shots?

P.S. I'd like to give a shout-out to this blog posting. Go PeaceBang!

Happy Birthday ...

...to my dad!

This photo was taken two years ago, when my aunt, cousin and I surprised my dad in the middle of the night to eat cake. I had just gotten home from ... Kansas? I think it was Kansas, where I was visiting a couple of churches to speak about my time in the Netherlands. I arrived back in Ohio as my dad's birthday commenced around midnight. So together with my aunt and cousin (who had picked me up at the airport), I stood outside my parents' bedroom door and started singing! They both arose, ever the good sports, and we enjoyed some cake together.

Dad looks pretty awake for a wee-hours-in-the morning photo, doesn't he?

Today my dad turns 74. Happy Birthday Dad!

EDITED TO ADD: Need I point out that today is 08/08/08? I love that type of thing. It's almost as cool as my Grandpa Stuckey's birthdate on 09/10/11.

Special Delivery

It was waiting for me at my apartment door.



Oh, the tantalizing first glimpse of fabulous orangeness!



Orange!



Whoah.



See the tiny little "beans" inside?



It's big, alright.



Big and comfy.



Not to mention cozy for reading.



What can I say ... I think I'm in love!

In the Midst of Studying Hebrew ....

... I've been able to fit in some fun.

Today, I baked 5 dozen cookies and an apple pie. First apple pie of my life! I used my Grandma Stuckey's recipe.

Before baking ....



And after...



Most of the cookies and the whole pie will be sold at the bake / yard sale my church is having tomorrow.

Usually, me baking = havoc wreaked on the kitchen.



There you have it. Havoc. Here's a close-up.



So much fun!
Earlier in the week, I had another kind of fun:



Though it was less fun when the Braves lost 3-12. But nonetheless, my companions Katie, Ingrid, Jamie and I kept things hopping with our operatic singing and discolike moves in the stands. It was Katie's birthday! She is in the foreground, below.



Oh,and I do believe I had promised you some more Ohio pics:



There was farming. I mostly observed.



There was a birthday dinner. Mmmmmmm. My mom's mashed potatoes with hamburger gravy. Plus homemade applesauce. Corn, frozen from last year's garden, and kohlrabi fresh from this year's.

Then there were the cakes. Can you read the message hidden in the candles?



It was good eats.



My great-nephew Aiden especially liked knawing on the kohlrabi.



Ah, evening drives along straight-as-a-ruler Ohio country roads!

I also enjoyed a great 24 hours in the fun city Columbus with my good friend Frank. We ate Turkish food, we ate Polish food, we ate Western European food, we ate the best ice cream in Columbus. (Their signature flavor "salty caramel" is to die for!) We bought used books. We chatted far into the night. Who could ask for anything more? Well, I guess you could ask for a picture, but I forgot to take one.

I do have a picture from the family get-together at the historic Wyse homestead: my dad with three of his siblings, on the farm where they grew up.

Me, Again

Modern Art Museum by dumpr.net

Me, museumified

Art Museum by dumpr.net

Earlier this month, while in Ohio ....

I turned 33,

saw some old friends,

took a drive with the top down,

hung out with farflung family members,

and even took a turn in the pulpit.

Aren't the visuals lovely? Thanks to Luana and Peg for their creative response to a few of Jesus' parables as recorded in Matthew. My sermon was titled: "Seeds, Pearls, Yeast and a Fishing Net." If I was studying New Testament instead of Hebrew Bible, you can bet I'd be writing on the gospels. Nothing against Paul, but the spare, unornamented gospel narratives are the ones I would want with me on my desert island. Along with the entire Hebrew Bible, of course!

More Ohio pics coming soon ....

Inauguration of the Summer of Blogging

Here I go with my summer of blogging! Sorry for the delay.

I would like to begin by sharing quotes from someone who makes me laugh. Last week, he opened his show by declaring: "This is the dawning of the age of Colbertius (kohl-bear-ius)." Tonight the following got my goat: "Guests of the Colbert Report are housed in the luxurious Crashing With Friends." All this from the Peabody-award-winning satirist who invented the word "truthiness," which (rumor has it) appeared in a New York Times crossword puzzle last week. I love the guy!

So far, my summer has been very French. I am taking an intensive French language course: French for Reading Comprehension. Today I translated 375 words by Paul Riceour, which felt like a milestone. Class ends Thursday; I am taking the Religion Department competency exam on Friday. If I pass, I will have fulfilled both departmental modern language requirements. You see, I consumed a German grammar on the boat last summer:


Thus thorougly grammatified, and assisted by my knowledge of Dutch, I was able to wend my way through the German reading exam last summer.

In some ways, it is odd to learn to read a language without necessarily learning to speak it. Throw some Ricouer at me, and I and my 5-pound dictionary will have a little party. Throw my self toward France and ask me to order a baguette, and I will be overcome with fear and trembling. Hopefully someday I will have the opportunity to gain some confidence in baguette ordering et. al. That said, if anyone needs to buy some cheese in the Netherlands, I'm your woman!

EDITED TO ADD:
Colbert ended his Report tonight with the words: "I hope you've enjoyed watching me for the past half an hour. Now it's my turn to watch you." (followed by intense wordless stare)

What do you think of my new haircut?

6 more nights


I will be sleeping in my Dutch bed for 6 more nights. Whereupon I will embark upon 14 nights of sleeping aboard a boat much like this one.

Pippi 2.0

Yesterday's lazy Sunday afternoon led to experiments with hair and an eyeliner pencil. This is me and my friend Mirjam.

You Only Live Once



OK, who among you hasn't wanted to try this?

Last week we had our final gathering of the kids' club at the inloophuis before the commencement of summer vacation. We followed our usual pattern of:

1. gathering: sitting in a circle and chatting for a bit about whatever blows our hair back
2. reading a story related to the day's theme
3. doing something creative, usually involving markers, paint, scissors, glue
4. playing games, indoor or outdoor, depending on the weather

The spontaneous hand-painting occurred during phase 3, obviously.

During phase 4, we went outside. The kids wanted to play "War." In spite of my Mennonite reservations, I did not protest, for I must admit, I was curious as to what sort of cultural phenomenon I was about to witness. (Does this make me a bad missionary, or a good one?) The children proceeded to use sidewalk chalk to draw out a map of five "countries" on the blacktop (I believe they were Holland, Belguim, Germany, Amsterdam and Almere -- the distinction between countries and cities wasn't entirely clear for all participants). Then the kids took turns dropping a piece of chalk onto their five-part map. Then everyone, except the person upon whose country the chalk had landed, started to run around chaotically. The remaining person waited a bit before yelling: STOP! The runners froze. If the non-runner could stre-e-e-e-etch out and touch one of the others while her feet were still safely within the boundaries of her own country, then the tagged runner had to draw a chalk circle around her feet: that encircled area thus became a new "territory" belonging to the conquering country (ruled by the stretchy person). This process was repeated several times. Then everyone gathered back for another go at chalk-dropping. All in all, an interesting game, reflective of the Netherlands' colonial past, no? We only played it for 10 minutes before surrendering (no pun intended) our piece of blacktop to the older, tougher soccer crowd -- but they were kind enough to wait until we were ready to leave before taking over. So I'm not sure how the game ends: I assume the one with the most territory wins.

Here's a few photos of War: