Like and Love, Ramblings of a Theologian in Progress

I haven't forgotten about the blog, I've just been gone/super busy this past weekend. It was the annual Young Pro's retreat to the Barkley farm in Marquez, Texas. Central Texas is beautiful, by the way. There are actual hills! (this is a super rare thing in Houston) and we could see the stars. If you don't believe me, take a look at this beauty of a picture (of us sitting on the barn roof at sunset) I sadly did not take these pictures. The very talented, Sarah V. did and we have so many beautiful pictures as a result. Including this one: I did take a lot of photos that are now on our Facebook group  page Otherwise, let's see what I've done this week... I crocheted a terrible looking scarf. I don't want to include it as a success for the sake of the blog, but it did remind me  how  to crochet. I also started Jane Austen's  Persuasion , which I'm not loving yet. Hopefully it'll pick up in a chapter or two.

It's been an exciting week. It's been an even more exciting weekend because it's the first weekend that I don't have an event scheduled (well at least for the last month). I also have Monday off for President's Day and it is gloriously unscheduled for the most part. Last night Jack and I went to Rice to see "Star Geeks" as our Valentine's Day date. The musical was written and directed by from Sid students. Going to see it meant that we didn't have to deal with the crowds that Valentine's Day + Friday was bound to yield. It also meant we were being good Sid Associates. The musical pretty much embodied my freshman year at Rice, and in particular the MOB- hard to understand, slightly off-key, and lots of sci-fi/fantasy references I didn't understand.  It made me super nostalgic though.  I get nostalgic a lot though, ask my husband. Wednesday night I went to the gym and ran 4 miles at a pace that is definitely higher than my natural pace.

I didn't realize this when I was younger. I blame my friends from high school and college for not being people that perpetuated the social custom of women eating salads in public. We gorged on pizza or mexican food or some other delicious but less than healthy foods. It was glorious.  It was also terrible. It set me up to not fully exist in a society that expects (not an outright expectation, more like a clique that defines social norms) where I'm the odd duck out if I don't order a salad. I noticed this tonight at a board meeting at a restaurant. All of the women in attendance ordered salad. Would something have spontaneously erupted had someone ordered a sandwich instead? Doubt it, but by the third or fourth person had sat down with a salad a pattern had been established. Now I legitimately wanted a salad- I think. What I really wanted pizza or a hamburger. But I was coming from the gym and I felt like I would be doing a disservice to my aching bones and digestive sys

Week one is drawing to a close and I'm exhausted. Work's gala was this week (last night specifically) so I've literally had only one thought this entire week: GALA. The theme was Prom: the Retro Romance. Turns out there is a good reason to hang on to your prom dress- you never know when you're going to need to wear it for a work event. Gillian and I did not coordinate our outfits on purpose For me, it was amazing that I was even able to fit into my prom dress again. By the end of the night I remembered why I regretted the dress choice. You can't see it well in the above picture, but the dress is covered in seed beads. It isn't as heavy as I remember, but it was just as scratchy. We got home and Jack told me that he could see where the beads had left an imprint on my back from sitting in the car seat. But anyway- woohoo! ten years later (oh my goodness), I still own it and had a second wear of it. That seems almost as rare as re-wearing a bridesmaid dress.

The Super Bowl was tonight. I normally don't like football. Tonight was no exception. I still don't like football. I do, however, like reasons to make ridiculously spicy food and subject those around me to it. Two weeks ago, in preparation for tonight, I made my first bowl of chili. It was glorious. I cried. I literally cried. It was that spicy. My lovely weapons. But I felt I could up the ante a bit. This chili wasn't just for me anymore. Tonight started with the South Main Manna Chili Bowl, which is a giant party for the Manna ministry (homeless ministry) community in the Fellowship Hall to eat chili and watch the game. It turned out to be a fairly fortuitous event as well since it is cold and rainy here and was a good time to be off the streets. One thing I've learned over the past 2 years of working with the Manna guys is that homeless men like spicy things. I've yet to see something that can't have peppers or hot sauce applied to it.  The chili b

I decided at some point in the last week that I wanted to make a checklist of 30 things to do before I turned 30. Creating a list of 30 things is harder than I imagined it would be. But, to quote Julie Andrews (which I suppose is actually quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein), "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." There's nothing magical about turning thirty. I imagine that on July 2, 2015, when I wake up, my eyes will still be blue, my fingers will still number ten, my instant desire will be to go back to sleep. That said, it is one of those watershed points in life. The idea of approaching thirty is both reassuring and daunting. At least I'm theoretically past the point of having a quarter-life crisis. What I want to do is be able to look back at my 20s and tell my future kids about all the adventures their parents had before they were thirty. Creating this list isn't going to create those adventures. We've already had s