I'm not kidding, but I sort of wish I were

Okay, so I now know that my generation will change the Mennonite Church, for better or worse. As I was playing on facebook, in the group called The Mennonite Game I came across the following post: "Introducing MennoMeet, an online dating service for Mennonites." The post goes on to describe a dating service specifically for Mennonites. On the one hand I completely understand, but how could non-Menno's (and those who haven't spent significant time in Menno culture- i.e. at a Menno college) understand about four-part harmony, the blue hymnal, and knowing all your relatives (not to mention pacifism, etc) It was scary, and sort of interesting all at the same time. And just to make sure it wasn't a joke, by a young Menno with an extremely satirical sense of humor I checked it out. It really does exist. www.mennomeet.com. Unfortunately I am married and so cannot discover the intricacies of the site, because as the facebook post says, you can't enter if you're a "nosy gossipy married."

Grief

I'm getting tired of saying good-bye to my friends. This year, once again, I'm faced with the realization that some of my best friends will no longer live in the same town, or even the same state.
When I left college I didn't know quite what it would mean to say good-bye. I knew that in a few weeks I'd see everyone at my wedding, and a few weeks after that I'd see everyone again at another wedding... and I thought it would just go on like that forever. But now I know-- when your friends move away you're lucky if you see them three times a year. You get really excited if you get to spend a weekend together. But it's not the same as coffee, lunch, a movie or a good hug whenever you want one.
And now I must say good-bye to my support system once again. Both Theda and Jill will be gone by the end of the summer- ironically they are both moving to Denver. (I'm an introvert and can only really sustain about two meaningful relationships (aside from my spouse) at any given time.) So now I spend some of my time crying, some of my time fighting the urge to pretend they're gone already so it doesn't hurt so much when they leave, some of my time trying to fit in as much time with them as possible, and of course, some of my time scoping out potential "new" friends. Which of course leaves very little time for anything else.
This experience has taught me two things. 1) I had no idea what was going to happen to me when I left my warm Bluffton bubble. 2)I will not be able to spend the rest of my life in an institution where the students (and my friends) leave every year or two.

Learning to Drive

Burned into my memory is my first driving experience. My Dad took me to the high school parking lot with his Nissan Sentra. It would have been fine, with one exception- Dad's car was stick shift. I then preceeded to spend a very jerky 45 minutes in the car. In fact, I have never been in a car that jerked or stalled that much- until two days ago. When I was faced with the same dilemma- almost. The only cars we currently own are stick shift and so it's learn to drive or go without a car. So Brandon and I went to an abandoned parking lot where I proceeded to jerk my way into motion with our Jeep. After about an hour of stopping and starting Brandon decided I needed to drive on the road. Which we did. I stalled. I freaked out. I cried. And I drove. Eventually, after many tears, I flat out refused to drive anymore. And that ended the lesson for the day. Unfortunately, unless I want to be car-less for awhile, the lessons will have to continue. But I might find a new teacher. Like Risha, my ballet teacher, who offered to help me. She has a very calming voice and is very good about asking things like "okay, no one's freaking out are they?" at least in ballet she does.
But this opens me up to a new question: am I ready to make myself look dumb in front of others. This I think is the primary drawback to asking someone besides Brandon to help me learn. I'm afraid of looking stupid. Actually this is the drawback all together. The reason I freaked out was because I was afriad I would look stupid to the other drivers (that and run into them, or stall in the middle of an intersection and have them run into me).
And I keep saying- why didn't I learn to drive in Ohio, where the roads were flat and there were many fewer cars per mile than here?

15 minutes of "fame"

I never imagined I'd see my alma mater on CNN (okay, I didn't actually see CNN, I saw CNN's homepage, we don't get CNN). When you come from a Mennonite school that even some Mennonites don't know exists it's hard to imagine that it will one day be on national news networks everywhere. Not that I don't think it should be on national news networks. My love for Bluffton is probably the closest I will ever come to loving a place (although admittedly it is the people in the place, rather than the place itself that I really love). But yesterday it happened. A bus accident killing four students and two others caused a national media circus at our beloved little campus. I nearly cried when I saw students walking into Founders Hall and the president give the press conference in front of the familiar gray curtain. I felt profound sadness for the students, who I know from personal experience become like a very large, sometimes awkward family, as they deal with the loss of four students.
I felt sorry for the brand new president, who in his first year of presidency had to address the nation on television (something I'm sure has not happened in Bluffton's history up to this point). I was proud of him for sticking to his Anabaptist roots and not chewing out the reporters when they asked the same question six times. I'm not sure I could have done it.
I thought of the PR office, where I once held a work-study position. I remember the binder with "Crisis Management Plan" written in thick letters down the side. That binder was surely in use yesterday. One friend sarcastically remarked that the PR office was always trying to figure out how much news coverage Bluffton was getting (She tends toward humor and sarcasm in the face of tragedy).
But 15 minutes of fame is just that. By last evening some other story had taken top billing on CNN and today it's probably gone. And perhaps folks at Bluffton are relieved. After all, we are Mennonite, with "the quiet in the land" in our genetic makeup. We were fed humility and humbleness with breakfast. And we want to be remembered for our faithfulness. We were not made to be famous, even if just for 15 minutes.

Happy Birthday to Me

God gave me a birthday present in the form of an inch of ice and freezing rain, so EMU was closed, which by the way is big news, because EMU never closes. So now I get to sleep in, stay in my pj's until sometime this afternoon and finish my laundry. Unfortunately my day will not be work free because of a strange policy EMU has for it's employees where they have to make up or take personal time for the time they don't work. So I'll be working from home today, but only a little.
Yesterday when I was watching the weather do very strange things outside (like fog, mist, a little snow, rain) I started to remember a birthday I had when I was little, maybe 10 or so, where almost the same thing happened. We had an ice day. The exception is that then we didn't have electricity, so mom couldn't make the special birthday dinner we had planned. I seem to recall eating birthday cake that day and that's about it. I think then I was little disappointed because when your in elementary school birthday's are cool. You get to take treats for your classmates, and the added bonus of valentine's day meant that there was a party.
The strangest thing about remembering this birthday is that I think I wrote about it at the tender age of 10 or so. Or maybe Mom did. I seem to only be able to remember it in certain words, which makes me think I wrote a story or a journal or a poem about it. I keep thinking of things like "Ice Valentines Day" or something like that that used to be the title. It might be worth a trip down memory lane into my journals, if they weren't stuffed in some box in Ohio. Oh well, for now I'm going to enjoy my coffee, my pj's and my "day off."

Old Habits Die Hard

Yesterday I met some undergrad students in the cafeteria for a lunch meeting. Only one showed up, which reminded me of the joy/trial of working with undergrads, you have to remind them more than once. And at least the once the week of.
I also discovered that I am a creature of habit. I went through the line, picked out some edible food items (some that turned out to be more edible than others). Then I saw the bowl of fruit. First, unlike Bluffton, the fruit bowl is accessible to all and not at the mercy of the cafeteria workers (No Fruit for You!). Second, I had almost no choice but to take an apple, not to eat for lunch, but to take with me. I knew I wasn't going to eat the apple for lunch, I knew I was going to take it with me for later, a snack maybe, or breakfast the next day.
So now I am sitting in my office, eating an apple "stolen" from the cafeteria yesterday. And I realize, I'm not as far from Bluffton as I thought.

Work Avoidance

Your results:
You are Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson 62% Teal'c 54% Thor 49% General Hammond 45% Jack O'Neill 41% Samantha Carter 39% Dr. Frasier 35% A Goa'uld 13%

You are sensitive to the needs of others and are a good communicator. You always stand up for the little guy.

Click here to take the StarGate SG-1 Personality Test