oooooohhh...second edition

It seems to be that time again. For one thing, I'm sitting around at the church waiting for Caleb and the youth group to get back ice-cream in hand. For another thing, it's been about a month...or maybe two...since I've filled Good Rocky in last. So, in the spirit of keeping in touch, this is what I've been up to:

1. Facebook. I just can't get enough of it. It's simply the best thing to ever happen to me. I love to catch up with long-lost friends, see all their latest photos, get invited to innumerable activities and be kept posted on everything teeny tiny thought that flits through the minds of so many people I know.

2. Lying. See above.

...ok. Seriously now, I can't really think of anything major that I've been up to since my last post. In truth I could probably sum it up in 3 words: work. school. rest. (repeat). So instead of what I have been doing, I think I'll turn my attention to things I will be doing in this very glorious time of year I like to call Summer. Well, maybe like half and half. (Half things I hope to do, half things I've done.)

1. going to the chapel...for so very many weddings this summer.

Jody & Jase. Sharelle & Matt. Mike & Lani. Geoff & Brielle. Christy & Evan. ravishing women. dapper men. bound by arresting delight and beatific devotion, i always find that weddings are the intrusion of hope into the world.


image cred


i don't know who took this...but i love it


image cred


2. Pretending I am Simon &/or Garfunkel.

Caleb and I are taking the bus out to Vancouver at the end of the summer. Epic bus-trips such as these remind me of the song "America" by S & G. (...maybe I should be pretending I'm Kathy, come to think of it...) We've mostly met terrified glances as we tell people our plans. Nevertheless, we are prepared for it to be chaos, to be toast by the time we get there, and to love it anyway.


PLUS once we get there we will be visiting all the friends that we never get to see enough AND we'll be taking in one of the aforementioned weddings. The excitement is intolerable. This also leads me to...

3. Reading

I finished Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner a little while ago. I promised a post about it. Not going to happen. I'd recommend it - it's delightful and full of Canada and intriguing and well-told. Parts of it were a little slow-going. It's no Catcher in the Rye. (Yes, that was an unfair comparison.)

A few days ago one of the most wonderful men I know (who happens to be an honorary assitant here at St. Margaret's) left a book called Take This Bread by Sara Miles on my desk. We'd talked about it before, mostly because he was enjoying it so thoroghly. I was pretty touched that he thought I'd like it to.

I just finished it. It's subversive, compelling and incredibly well-told. It's basically a memoir of a woman who comes to convert to Christianity late in her life through Communion. I found some of her descriptions of the sacrament absolutely breathtaking and profoundly inspiring. However, at other times I found some of her ideas to be a little repulsive (eek! sorry) to be perfectly honest. But then, I imagine that's the point or at least the consequence of revolutionary thinking. Anyway, it's worth a read. (I just realized that one of the things that bugs me is that it says "the memoir of a twenty-first-century Christian" on the cover. As though if you're not a liberal-social-justice-minded Episcopalian you're living in the fifteenth century or something. Just bugs me, is all. Still worth a read.)



As far as what I'm looking forward to reading?? I still haven't had a night alone and a bottle of wine to start/finish The Magician's Elephant by Kate diCamillo. I'm looking forward to doing just that on a beautiful screened in balcony in the coming days. Also, I was noticing the other day how many books my parents have that I'd like to scooby and read over the next month. At the top of the list: Positively Fourth Street by David Hajdu. I heard it's fantastic.


4. delighting in a compadre

Spiro came out for a visit. A surprise visit. It was great. One of the funniest things, though, was that the day she arrived she kept asking me if it was ok that she surprised me. Now, it's definitely possible that if she'd have come out a week earlier I would have had a little break-down but that would've really only had to do with how choked I'd have been that I had to write a paper while my friend was out. And then, once Spiro was here, some of my other friends were asking me the same kind of questions ("are you OK after being surprised with a visit?"). Well kiddies, I'm here to tell you that I love being surprised and I rarely am. Mostly because I'm sneaky and I figure things out. But if ever you feel like showing up in Winnipeg, just try to find out if I have a paper due and then I'm all yours.

ANYway...the visit was stellar. Caleb and I were house sitting so we had tons of space, a backyard and a dog to play with. Spiro and I pretended we were on SNL for most of the week. We camped with Caleb's family. We walked the dog. We drank wine. We talked (and not-talked...for hours...). We sat near one another. We danced.



I took some new pictures of her. I just don't have them.

Up next: the rest. Yes.

5. strolling about

i used to walk all over the place - both for pleasure's sake and out of necessity. for one thing, I lived farther away from school, work, & church than I do now. For another, I feel like I walk faster than Winnipeg transit. (ouch).

I've missed walking all over the place. It's funny how once the element of necessity is gone it actually becomes more difficult to find time to do. Anyhow, now I get up early and roam the streets of Winnipeg alone (but sometimes Caleb comes...but we still feel alone) for a couple hours and eventually find myself at work. It's enchanting. Except for the joggers. They make me want to trip people.

Well, I feel like that might be enough. Until next time...