I just finished reading Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster. It was a thought-provoking book about the spiritual discipline of simplicity; I recommend it highly. It is very well-written, and I feel like he does a good job of giving concrete suggestions for living more simply without making it seem like "10 Steps to a More Simple Life."

I've been thinking and struggling with the idea of simplicity a lot lately. My life is filled with so many things, and so much of my time is spent acquiring them. It makes me sad to think of how many hours of my life I spend shopping for and buying things. I go to Wal-Mart at least three times a week every week. But even though it is distasteful to me, it is hard for me to give that up. I enjoy buying things, even groceries. Although the idea of a simple lifestyle is appealing, it is difficult to implement the changes that would make that possible. I'm trying to make small changes and praying that God will free me from materialism and selfishness.

One interesting point Foster made in his book is that North Americans should not strive to raise everyone's standard of living to our own. If we were successful, our world would be depleted of natural resources. Part of helping the poor is drastically lowering our standard of living so that there can be a more equitable distribution of resources. Obviously, I knew that giving to the poor requires financial sacrifice, but I never thought of it requiring a drastic lifestyle shift. It is so much easier to just give money away rather than seriously evaluate our own consumption habits. This book really got me thinking. Now, I just have to do the acting, which is much more difficult.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I know...I'm one day late. I have always loved Valentine's Day, mainly because my favorite color is pink. It's just such a happy, pink day. Yesterday was no exception.

I got to work in the morning and Pam, our receptionist, had put Valentine's candy on everyone's desks. She pretended Cupid had done it...too cute! Last night, I made pancakes and eggs for Darby. I wanted to make heart-shaped pancakes, but I didn't have a heart cookie cutter :( We also exchanged gifts. He gave me a gift card to JCPenney because he knows I haven't had money for clothes lately. Plus, a box of Thin Mints! Yum! He's very thoughtful; I can't wait to use my gift card. We're having our actual Valentine's celebration on Friday because we had church last night. We're going to go see Music and Lyrics, and I'm going to make us chocolate fondue. Yay for stretching out holidays!

More books!

Yay! Another book quiz. This one I found at a new blog I stumbled across. It is devoted to books. Woo-hoo!

Amazon or brick and mortar? I love going to an actual bookstore to browse, but if I know exactly what I want, I usually order from Amazon, especially gifts. It's just nice to have it all taken care of. Plus, then I can justify buying another book to qualify for "Free Super-Saver Shipping"

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Unfortunately, Abilene has neither. Boo, Books-A-Million! In Waco, I love going to Barnes and Noble. Books and Starbucks coffee! Can life get any better?

Bookmark or dogear? Definitely bookmark. I hate dogeared pages.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? I try to group them by category (American fiction, British fiction, nonfiction, etc). But usually they just end up stuffed on the shelf however they will fit.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep! I would NEVER throw away a book. Occasionally I sell books that I know I will not read again and that I don't think anyone would want to borrow.

Keep dustjacket or toss it? Keep.

Read with dustjacket or remove it? Read with, because I'm afraid I'll lose it otherwise.

Short story or novel? Novel. I just can't seem to get into very many short stories. Not enough character development.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Anthology. I have ADD. I rarely listen to a full CD by the same artist. Likewise, I usually don't read stories by the same author in one sitting.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter. Lemony Snicket is clever, but his books cannot compete with Harry. I don't get emotionally invested in his characters like I do Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I usually try to make it to a chapter break, but if a book has really long chapters, I have no problem stopping in the middle of a page.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Once upon a time, definitely.

Buy or Borrow? If it's a classic or one that I know I will re-read (i.e. Harry Potter), buy. I'm trying to build up a library, so that my children will have access to any book they could ever want or need to read. If it's just a fluff book, I don't mind borrowing.

New or used? Gently used. I won't buy books if they have significant damage, but if they are in good condition, I love saving money.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? All. Darby got me a subscription to the magazine Bookmarks, which has tons of book reviews, so I often go off of that.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? In between. I like books that end with uncertainty but point to hope.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Saturday morning is prime reading time, but any time is great.

Standalone or series? Depends on the series. I enjoy reading series, but I usually don't read them one after another. I break it up with other books.

Favorite series? Harry Potter, Ender series by Orson Scott Card, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Hmmm...I don't really read books no one else has heard of. I like to know that at least one other person liked the book before I spend time reading it. I guess most people haven't heard of Breaking the Tongue by Vyvyane Loh, and I loved that book. I read it for a class, though, so obviously some people have heard of it.

Favorite books read last year? The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Favorite books of all time? Jane Eyre, The Time Traveler's Wife, Little Women

Thank You, J.K. Rowling!

The 7th Harry Potter book is coming out July 21!!!!! I had heard rumors that it was going to be 7/7/07, which made me very depressed. How could I read when I had to get ready for my wedding? And who would want to stop reading to come to the wedding? Then, when I found out the fifth movie was coming out in July, I figured it wouldn't be July at all. Brittany and I were bracing ourselves for it to be as late as December. But July 21 is perfect. I will have been back from my honeymoon for a week, plenty of time to get settled in. And I can do some re-reading of books 5 and 6 on the plane. Woo-hoo! I know I am a total nerd, but I am so excited!

My glass is always half-empty

I have recently been confronted with how pessimistic I really am. Darby and I were having a discussion about statistics, and I said that statistics don't comfort me at all. If someone says, "There's only a one in a million chance of dying in a plane crash," I think, "Yeah, but that doesn't matter if you're the one." In fact, statistics often make me worry more because I think how sad it would be to be the one in a million. If your family member dies of a heart attack, for example, you are sad, but you realize that heart attacks happen to a lot of people. If your family member dies of some rare, flesh-eating bacteria, you have to think, "Why them? It was so improbable!" I realize that logically this makes no sense, but it's the way I think.

I discussed this further with Brittany, and I think I came up with the reason why I think this way. I read too much. Books, newspapers, and magazines don't focus on the 999,999 people who don't contract the flesh-eating bacteria; they focus on the one who does. The smaller number is much more important in literature than the bigger number. Plus, I become very emotionally invested in books. So, although I personally have not been the victim of improbability, I feel like it happens all the time. The English major is very depressing. Science is much more uplifting. In science, the big number matters. So, Darby, it's not my fault that I'm pessimistic; it's my major.

The Poor Woman's Starbucks

I have discovered a great way to make coffee drinkable without paying $3.50 per cup. Just mix one package hot chocolate mix into a cup of coffee. That way, you get all the caffeine of coffee but the taste of hot chocolate. Yum! The best part is, my office provides the coffee and the hot chocolate, so it's totally free! Aahhh...the simple pleasures of life.

A Culinary Disaster

I volunteered to help make food for my friend Kalyn's art gallery opening (which is tonight at 7 p.m. in Shore Art Gallery, by the way). I was supposed to make a triple recipe of sausage balls. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought 3 pounds of sausage, 3 pounds of cheese, and Bisquick. I've never made sausage balls before, so I found a recipe in one of my many cookbooks. I started browning two pounds of the sausage. Brittany said, "You don't have to brown the sausage, do you?" I told her that's what the recipe said, and she said her mom never did it that way. This should have been my first clue, but foolishly putting all my faith in the recipe, I kept going. So I add the Bisquick to the sausage and start mixing. I realize it's going to be really dry and not stick together at all. Clue #2. The recipe says to melt the cheese, so I figure the melted cheese will help it stick. So I melt close to two pounds of grated cheese in the microwave. When I pull it out, it is one big, gooey glob. This should have been clue number three, but I kept going, pouring it into the sausage. That was dumb. The spoon would hardly even move through the cheese. After ten minutes of valiant effort in my extremely hot kitchen. (By now, the oven's been preheating for close to an hour), I give up. So, at 10 p.m., I'm off to United for two more pounds of sausage and cheese.

This story does have a happy ending. The second and third batches of sausage balls turned out well. (I let Brittany direct me). I will be rushing home at 5 today to make one last batch before the show. I just couldn't finish last night. (Kalyn, if you are reading this, you don't have to pay for all the sausage and cheese I wasted). Everyone has to have at least one cooking disaster, I guess. And mine naturally had to happen at 10 p.m. when I was trying to cook for 100+ people.

There has been snow or ice on the ground since Saturday! That is five days! This is unheard of in Texas. Every other time it has snowed, the temperature has gotten up to forty or fifty the next day, so it all melts. The high has been below freezing every day since Saturday, though. I think tomorrow it's supposed to get up to the 40s, but then another cold front is coming in on Friday, and there's a 50% chance of more snow!

Unfortunately, I have not had any days off work :( Monday was already a holiday; on Tuesday school was cancelled, but staff still had to come, and today they made us come because they can't delay the start of the semester any more. Oh, well! I'm nice and cozy in my office watching all the students walk by bundled up to their eyeballs :)

Snow Day #2!

Church is canceled tomorrow. That's right: CHURCH is canceled. It was icy today, and it's not supposed to warm up tomorrow, so they went ahead and decided to cancel church. Darby and I got the call at about 8:00. I can't say we were too disappointed. I feel a little guilty being excited about it, but I figure I deserve it. I've never skipped Sunday morning church. I mean, I've missed because I was sick or on vacation, but I've never just skipped. Now, I have permission to not go. It's awesome! Darby called his friend Ben to tell him, and Ben asked if Darby wanted to go to another church with him. Darby said, "Uh...no, I don't think so." I said, "Is Ben crazy? That's like going to another school district on a snow day. It's just not right." Don't get me wrong. I love going to church, and I really love Westgate, but for the first time in 21 years, I get to sleep in on a Sunday morning. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Plus, I have Monday off of work, so it's like I have three Saturdays in a row!

Just another breezy day

Oh, the Abilene weatherpeople...I could write a whole book about them. They provide me with much entertainment in the morning. According to the ever-optimistic Kristen Connolly, today is going to be "breezy, with winds from the south 20-30 miles per hour and gusts up to 35 mph" 20-30 mph! How hard does the wind have to blow to be characterized as windy, not breezy? Breezy makes me think of a gentle wind that tousles my hair as I walk along...not a gale force that blows open my car door and rattles my house. Actually, though, the wind hasn't gotten that bad yet. So maybe it will be "breezy" today.

My Favorite Pastime

According to this list, Kayla was the 46th most popular girl baby name of 2006. I feel like that's a pretty good place to be. I wouldn't want to have the most popular name because then there would be a million Kaylas (That looks weird; maybe it should be Kayla's, but I don't think so). But I also wouldn't want to have a name that didn't even make the list because then people would always be mispronouncing and/or misspelling it. I was disappointed to see that many of the names I really like were in the top 10 (Ava, Emma, Olivia, Ella; I'm into names that begin and end with vowels). I wouldn't want my daughter to be one of 5 Avas('s?) in her kindergarten class. Of course, I don't plan on having a kid for 8 more years, so maybe some of the names I like now will have moved down the list some. Anyway, baby names are just fun, so if you like them as much as I do, go look at the list.

Happy New Year!

I am getting married THIS YEAR! Yay!

I think the Christmas season should last until New Year's Day. It seems so sad to have all the build-up just for one day. I'm doing my part to fight this by continuing to wear Christmas socks and not taking down my Christmas decorations. (Okay, really, I can't take them down because I'm not in Abilene right now. But even if I were in Abilene, I wouldn't take them down). So for me, today is the last day of Christmas, which is sad. But I'm happy because I let it slowly die out rather than having it all be over on the 26th.

Last night, Darby and I went over to Jessica's house with some other people from church. We learned how to play 42, which is really fun. If anyone knows how to play, please play with me and Darby sometime in Abilene!

The Perks

Here's what I have gotten for free since I started working for Campus Life:

- a coffee thermos filled with purple and white M&Ms
- an ACU coffee mug
- an ACU candy jar filled with peppermints
- an ACU decal
- an ACU sticky pad
- two free movie tickets
- tons of desserts at the Christmas party

I love this job :)

I went to see The Holiday with some friends last night. It was soo cute! The perfect chick flick - two gorgeous leading ladies, adorable little girls, and a cute old man. The leading men I don't care about so much. Surprisingly, I found Jack Black believable as a love interest. He was so sweet and funny without being too over-the-top. I actually like him better than Jude Law. Jude looks like an elf: those pointy ears, effeminate features, and diminuitive stature are just too much. Elf-boy excepted, it was a great movie. And even I'll admit Jude's character was pretty endearing.

I'm finished!

No more homework! (At least for a year and a half). Graduation was on Friday. A bunch of my family came out. We had a yummy dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse, and afterwards everyone came over to my house for dessert. It was so fun. Here are some pictures:


Darby and me at Spaghetti Warehouse before the ceremony.


Mom, Dad, and Me. Dad hooded me, which was really fun.


Me - happy to be a graduate! (That folder doesn't really have my diploma in it, though)


Hannah, Matt, and Me at the Graduation party Darby's mom threw for me.

A Long, Somewhat Sappy Reflection

Okay, in my last post, I said I wasn't sad about graduating at all. I think I am now. Thursday night, I was driving by Morris Hall (where Brittany, Kalyn, and I lived sophomore year), and I started crying. It really surprised me because I hadn't been feeling sad at all. I just thought about how much fun we had there and how it really seems like that was just yesterday. I can't believe it was two years ago. College went by so fast! I know I still have a lot to look forward to in life, but I get sad thinking about how quickly it all goes by. Each year in college has been so different, but there have been great things about each year.

Freshman year was probably the most purely fun year. Classes were easy, and it was incredible living in Gardner and getting to know Brittany, Kalyn, Em, Carolyn, John, and Will. We were a really weird group, but I loved it: learning how to two-step, throwing Valentine's Day parties, playing Taboo, midnight Starbucks runs, and eating, eating, eating. I had been so sad when I left all my girlfriends from church in Waco. I didn't think I would ever find a group of friends like that again. But God blessed me with great friends in Abilene. We could talk about anything (and did!)

Sophomore year Kalyn, Britt, and I lived together in Morris. It was, at times, stressful. Good friends do not always make the best roommates, and I was as much to blame as anyone. But there were a lot of good times, too. Dancing around in Kalyn's old hats, my sleeptalking, practically knocking Em over when she got off the plane from Oxford. And, of course, Darby had come to ACU, and we were awkwardly navigating the rebuilding of our relationship. We both finally realized what our relationship could be, and it was wonderful and exciting and scary all at once.

Junior year Brittany I moved into a little house together. Although our first night was horrible (no air conditioning, an extremely dirty house, and slashed tires), we turned that tiny house into an amazing home. We came to embrace its quirks. Who else has an upside-down house with three front doors? And of course, junior year was the beginning of Fat Tuesdays, which has been the highlight of my week for the past year and a half. I discovered my love for cooking and entertaining and even cleaning, but don't worry, I'm still a feminist. I cook because I want to! : ) Our plan sophomore year had been for me, Kalyn, Brittany, and Em to all live in a house together. That didn't work out, and I'm so glad it didn't. It probably would have killed our friendship. We don't see each other as much, but the time we do spend together is relaxed, not strained.

This year (well, just one semester, actually) has been a transition period. I only took 11 hours, so I spent more time working. All of my friends stayed here for the summer, so I've really started to see Abilene as my home (which is good since I'll be here another year and a half). Darby and I have really gotten plugged in with the college group at Westgate. I actually feel like the people there are my friends, not just people I see at church. I'm glad that, because I am graduating in December, I can sort of ease out of the college experience. All my friends will still be around at least another semester. I get to enjoy five more months of living with Brittany and hanging out with the Fat Tuesday girls! Plus, I'll still go to campus every day for work.

Freshman year, I thought, "This is as good as it gets." And I think that probably was the most fun year of my life. But I wouldn't say it was the best. Since then, I have been challenged intellectually, relationally, and spiritually. There have been tough times, but I don't think I'd change any of them. (Well, except maybe the journalism classes).

I am overwhelmed by what God has blessed me with in college. I really do feel like I grew up in my three and a half years here. When I look back on freshman and sophomore year, I can't believe some of the things I said and did. Fortunately, God blessed me with understanding, forgiving friends. I know I still have more maturing to do, but I feel more confident and secure about who I am than ever. I learned a lot about language and literature in college, but I think the relationships I developed at ACU taught me much more important lessons.

Procrastinating

Today I will have my first last class. At 4:20, I will be done with American Lit! (Well, I still have the final, but you know...) Right now, I am supposed to be finishing my paper for that class, but how can I when Blogger is calling my name? How did people procrastinate before the Internet? Seriously, I don't think I would waste so much time if I didn't have the Internet. But when you're at the computer, and you have your paper pulled up on Word, suddenly you just think of all the people's blogs you should read and all the e-mails you should send. I guess I would probably still find other stuff to do, like reading or cleaning. But it is a lot easier when you don't even have to move to procrastinate. You just have to click.

I'm graduating in 9 days! Woo-hoo! After I finish this paper, I just have one more paper and two finals. Then, my undergraduate career will be done. I'm sure I'll be a little bit sad about it later, but right now I'm just ready to be done.

Snow Day!

School was cancelled today! We heard that it was supposed to snow last night. I was doubtful, though, since there have been so many fake-outs before. When I woke up this morning, I didn't want to look outside because I was afraid it wouldn't have snowed at all, and my hopes would be dashed. But when I looked out the window, the ground was covered with snow, and it was still coming down!!! At first only 8:00 classes were canceled. I don't have an 8:00, so I wasn't that excited. Pretty soon we heard that AISD had closed, so we figured ACU would close, but they never did. So at 9:20, we headed to school. When we got there, no one was there. Evidently, they had sent out an e-mail at 9:30, saying school was canceled. I was mad that they waited so long. But at least we got to go home! Here's some pictures:


Don't worry. This isn't mine and Brittany's slide. It belongs to our landlords.


Me and Brittany enjoying the snow!

I bought a Christmas tree for Brittany and me. We put it up on Sunday. Here it is:



Our house looks so festive now! I took a picture of the front of our house today with all the snow on the roof. I decided not to post it, though. I didn't want random people who might stumble on this blog to know where I live. So, take my word for it, our house looked very Christmasy with snow on the roof.

I got a job!!! I will be the Administrative Coordinator for Campus Life at ACU. Woo-hoo! I am so happy that I can relax over the break knowing that I have a job. A lot of people were praying about this for me, and I appreciate that so much. I think it will be a very fun office environment, and I still get to be on campus every day! I am so excited to start!

The end is in sight!

This weekend was awesome! I did absolutely no homework. I did take the GRE on Saturday, but after that, I did not use my brain at all. On Saturday afternoon, Brittany, Darby, and I spent 4 hours watching the ACU football game on T.V. We lost in overtime : ( But it was still fun making fun of the low-budget camerawork and commentary.

Saturday night, Darby and I went on a "real" date for the first time in I don't know how long. Our definition of a real date is just the two of us going out somewhere and not working on homework. We saw The Prestige, which was really good. Afterwards, we went to Starbucks and sat and talked. Usually, we go to Starbucks to study, so it was wonderful to just get to talk to each other. I am so blessed to have him in my life, and it's wonderful to be reminded of that in little ways every day.

On Sunday, I took a three-hour nap. I probably could have slept several more hours, but I made myself get up. It felt so good. This weekend was a little taste of my post-college life, and I'm liking it a lot!

I Love Books!

I found this little blog activity on my friend Kalyn's wedding photographer's blog. Random, huh? But I love thinking about books almost as much as I love reading them, so it looked like fun.

A book that didn't change my life: Moby Dick; I know it's supposed to be some masterpiece of American literature, but I just couldn't get into it. All the technical descriptions of ships and whaling...aahhh! I guess if I liked blood and guts parts of it would have been cool. I think a whale spontaneously combusted or something...obviously I wasn't paying that much attention.

A book I’ve read more than once: I try not to re-read books because I can't feel okay about reading a book again while I still own books I haven't read once. But occasionally for school I re-read. I read The Scarlet Letter twice. I read it for the first time in high school. I definitely got more out of it in college. I really want to re-read Possession by A.S. Byatt. I hated it the first time, but everyone says it's wonderful. I think I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.

A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island: Hmmm...this is a difficult one. I'd probably take the dictionary or an encyclopedia. (Can you take more than one volume?) At least, those would keep me busy for a while.

A book that made me laugh: A Series of Unfortunate Events; they're kids' books, but they are so clever. I read a few of them over Christmas break freshman year, and I kept reading the funny parts out loud to my mom. She wasn't as amused as I was.

A book that made me cry: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This is one of my favorite books ever. It has a weird premise, but if you get past the first few chapters, it is an amazing love story. And it avoids being cheesy by its sheer weirdness. The male protagonist has a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel spontaneously, so he's always a different age when he sees the woman he knows he will eventually marry. I can't really even explain it, but it's awesome. Plus, he's a librarian, which means that he's nerdy hot :) I cried several times throughout the book. It talks very candidly about the experience of a miscarriage, which was difficult. But I also cried happy tears because of the strength of the characters' love for each other, in spite of the strange circumstances. I feel like it's kind of an intellectual response to Nicholas Sparks. It still makes you feel mushy inside, but you don't feel dumber after reading it.

A book that I wish I had written: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Although the story itself is wonderful, it is really her language I wish I could imitate. She writes from a child's perspective, without making the book childish. She also feeds you just enough hints about what is going to happen to make you keep reading. I finished the second half of the book in one sitting because I just could not stop. I knew I was being propelled towards catastrophe, but I couldn't slow myself down. When I finished, I felt like I had to lie down for a while and process everything. But I recovered quickly. It wasn't one of those books that makes you feel horrible for days; I don't like those that much.

A book that I wish had never been written: This is tough. I've never really read a book I didn't like or couldn't at least somehow appreciate the value of. Probably I wish Ann Coulter's books had never been written. I've never read them, but on talk shows she makes me so angry. She is so judgmental and divisive. I'm sure there are others like her, but she's the first one who pops into my mind.

A book I’ve been meaning to read: Oh, gosh. I could go on forever. Here's the ones that are on my shelf in Abilene that I haven't read yet: Memoirs of a Geisha, Daughter of Fortune, Everything is Illuminated, Gilead. There are about 5o more in Waco that I own but haven't read yet. I make myself limit my Amazon wish list to 20 at any one time. Otherwise it's too depressing. Hopefully, I'll knock a few out over Thanksgiving and Christmas. And now that I'm about to be a college graduate, I imagine I'll have a lot more pleasure reading time.

I’m currently reading: The Kite Runner, barely. I'm on page 5.