Nominate Will Smith for an Oscar

just got back from a family viewing of the pursuit of happyness, and lemme tell you right now, you need to go see it. go see it, take 25 friends with you. see it with your mom, your dad, your cousin moe, your sister leslie, your room mate curly. we'll see in the longhaul, but i think it has really changed my understanding of three major things: hard work and determination, family, and material possessions. add in there the importance of the church being charitable - it hasn't changed my understanding of that so much as intensified it soooooooooo much. and it's making me ask questions about whether capitalism has good consequences without the church's heavy involvement in loving people in practical ways.

i am exhausted, but i need to wrap my sister's gift before i go to sleep.

merry christmas!

Hello World

i know i have been AWOL. sorry i didn't ask for leave before leaving. things just got absolutely insane the last week or so of school: i pulled 3 more all-nighters; i wrote gobs and gobs of pages; i studied for exams; i even threw a little dinner party. then i drove home, and guess what: my car was leaking oil. it should be ready to be picked up tomorrow. anyway, then i came home, slept a bit, and then i started back at barnes and noble for the holiday season. it has been SO fun - they've put me back in the kids' section pretty exclusively, and i love it. my favorite is when people come to ask about gifty books for kids they know pretty well. it's a blast. i can get so excited about these books, because they are good, and i love people. i love working with people, i love helping them find good things to read or give, and i love to spread the love of reading.

i know i know - i'm a total dork. so sue me.

and the last bit of my excuse for not writing is that the internet connection at my parents' house is awful most of the time. i've even been a slacker at checking email.

i did want to talk about covenant theological seminary - i know some of you were curious about what i thought. granted, i'm late enough in posting (and irregular at this point) that no one may read what i think. but at least i'm putting it out there.

i liked covenant. the people were really sweet and made me feel at home. i sat in on chapel and two classes. hans bayer, whose intro to the bible i sat in on, was sooooooooo fascinating. it was great. and i think my favorite part of the school is the focus on relationships and relational learning. the big talk of the campus was a group project that was being done for the class on the book of job - the teachers commit to fostering discussion and relationships with and between students, because the church is in many ways the antithesis of "every man is an island" and God didn't design us to be hermits. the community life is strong, particularly since there is an actual campus with a lovely library, a student center fully rigged for studyage, and on campus family housing, which brings keeps alot of the married people around. i love the fact that you can look out the window and see parents and kids playing on the campus playground.

that said, i just can't tell whether i like covenant or just seminary. i'm hoping to visit wts-dallas and rts-charlotte before march, so that should help. it should also be quite telling - i think it's more than probable that i will wind up at covenant, but i want to be totally open to what God wants to do. whatever He is up to i want to be a part of.

So Recently...

...blogger hasn't been letting me post. not sure what that is about.

anyway, i just finished my final paper for jane austen. i'm about to start a paper on plath, and then i have a paper for wilde. then there are the two exams.

meanwhile, i must confess that i'm not really ready for my second semester senior year. it's just odd to be here. it's just bizarre. not that i don't feel old enough, but still i feel like i'm...not ready. maybe mostly because i'm not ready to leave my friends.

one week from now and i will be home. :)