Photos from Wedding #1, Lauren and Paul

If you want to see some more photos, the public link to my FB album is http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150652364300243.688552.890485242&=16a19bed75. Here are a few others.

The church.

The carriage ride.

The cake cutting. As I took many pictures of this, I was standing next to some teenagers who worked at the winery. I asked if they had a lot of weddings, and they said they were booked for 68 weeks. I said, "But this is the best one, right?" They said, "She is really pretty."

Some of the views we're talkin' about. Who knew this was in Missouri? I would seriously go back just for the heck of it.

Lauren's grandfather playing the clarinet at the brewery. He also played at the rehearsal dinner a little bit.

The sweet puppy at the brewery.

The kind of thing that makes my day

, or at least my hour, is often in the category of funny cars. Beer also works wonders on occasion. So this was pretty big. 

Dejeuner du Jour

This is what I had for lunch today. Under the lettuce and homemade dressing (!) are raisins, glazed walnuts, and feta, to be tossed within moments. The yellow circle on the plate is a tiny cheese sealed in wax. I am posting it because I'm quite pleased with myself, especially because yesterday was an eat-everything-in-sight kind of day.

Thank you for your attention. That is all.

Lundi Links: Art and Visuals

Today's focus for Lundi Links is the sites that make me go "ooh" and "ah" in a purely visual sense.

http://www.guidodaniele.com is the site of an artist who paints mostly on other people's hands. It's awesome stuff.

http://azuregrackle.com/periodictable/table/ is a project that recruited different artists to design prints for each element of the periodic table. Extra points for blending art and science.

http://www.brickartist.com has some very impressive Lego sculptures, including Conan O'Brian.

http://www.abelardomorell.net is the site of a really neat photographer. One of the first things you find is camera obscura work.

At http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/, you can find grown folks reenacting pictures from their childhoods. Cross-reference: Funny.

Five at a time is enough, so that's all for today's Lundi Links. Check back next week for more, and possibly some regular posts in the meantime.

The True Meaning of Easter

...is sweets plus arts and crafts. Or so it would seem if one observed my behavior today, the day before the day.

Here is one of the latest additions to our family here at the Jenkins house.

Not all of his brothers and sisters were ready to greet the world.

Another new resident of my parents' house.

The arts-and-crafts portion features eggs made from a tie-dye egg kit. Among some sweet rocks.

And perhaps my favorite part of the day, thanks to Real Simple magazine. Check it: gumdrops, smashed thin with a spatch, cut in half and rolled into roses or cut into leaves. Tip: use lots of sugar as you'd use flour in kneading bread, because when you roll them out, you expose a much stickier side of the 'drop.

In short, I feel very accomplished today! How fun.

I'm glad I decided to blog for Lent, and exceedingly glad it's about over. While many of the posts have not been as theological and Lent-y as I'd envisioned, it's been a helpful and thought-provoking exercise. Thank you so much, everyone, for reading and supporting this and so many other projects. I'll be posting regularly, just not holding myself to doing it every day. Expect lots of links, which I've been looking forward to sharing after Lent.

Have a great Easter tomorrow, everyone. What a joyful occasion! Celebrate renewal, redemption, love, and faith.

The Little Things

Sometimes, I really don't like my job. You may have picked up on this from the blog, and you almost certainly have if you spend time with me in person (or on the phone like my patient and understanding mother). For instance, today, I left home at 7:45 a.m. to make it to a primary school music program at 9. This was not something I was asked directly to do by my supervisor, but the news is so slow that I need to do such things in order to have items in the paper each week (I accidentally typed, "I need to do suck things...." Like many typos, pretty apt). I realize it could be monumentally worse. I have a job, it pays a living wage, and it's not physical labor, to start with. Also, it is in the field I'm trained for. There are many advantages. Trying to make a news story out of five songs sung by first-graders is not one of them. So I get pretty crabby about it on occasion. But then something like this happens. I get to look at the old papers every few weeks to write the "This Week in History" column, which is one of the perks. Not so much writing it as spending time with bound copies of papers from 1981, 1991, and 2001, seeing pictures of the police chiefs and mayors when they were younger, studying the ads. Last time I did this, I got an extra special treat. Here it is. Now doesn't everything feel just a little bit better? It's amazing what a tiny thing can do for one's mood. Lent mode engage! Think of how you can be that tiny thing for someone. A smile, a compliment, picking up a dropped item, can work wonders, especially from a stranger. What a beautiful opportunity. Or you could cut your hair like this guy and seriously be a public servant.

I'm headed to Austin in a few hours until Saturday. After that, I will probably be able to make a quick decision about where I'm going. Hint: probably Union in Richmond, unless something unexpected happens in Austin. I've realized that as independent and world-traveling as I am and want to be, I don't want to have to take a plane or drive for days to see my family or many of my friends. Or eat at Flaming Amy's. Many other factors are also making Richmond edge ahead. Anyway, expect some sort of official announcement soonish. I may even break out the big fonts if I can figure out how.

Pictures and Thoughts

A few images from the last legs of the trip:


New York knows how to do mosaics. Not a few subway stops had their names like this.

Here's a staircase at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

This was in the Boston subway, as you go down a set of stairs.

And this is something in Boston.

And now for our regularly scheduled programming:

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Peter called me while I was driving from one assignment/meeting to another. I stopped at a coffee shop, partly to avoid talking and driving at the same time and partly because it wasn't yet time for my next thing. I sat in the parking lot talking to him for a few minutes, then I went in, but I didn't get very far. The place was closed, apparently for painting. So I went back to my car and turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened. I wiggled the steering wheel. I tried it with my foot on the brake. I took the key out of the ignition, got out of the car, and got back in. Still nothing. So I called AAA and called the person I was supposed to meet. Took out my Harris Teeter bags and laid them on the ground so I could sit there and read. It was a nice day to be out of doors.

The nice man came and jumped the car, and I got home without a problem. But when I got here, it wouldn't start again. So I asked my roommate what one does in this situation, called Mom and Dad, and made a last-minute semi-appointment at the Honda place for this morning. So much for the day of mellow productivity I had planned for today. It wasn't so bad, though; I took my reading material, drank their free coffee, and got a new car battery. Afterward, I went to the grocery store and stocked up for just a little over half the full price, all told. Love it! It's super double coupon week.

I made some granola this afternoon for the first time in a long time. Got some reading done, and now after a little primping I'll be ready to go to an oyster roast, more for the company than for the bivalves.

I missed posting yesterday, due to nothing but neglicence. And car trouble. So let me say now that thesis readings are the best things in the world, and our creative writing program attracts brilliant, funny, big-hearted people and turns them out even better. What a privilege. I heard on Thursday night about a sketchy hitchhiking incident, a snow-and-ice rescue, a mob burning the home of a black woman for dating a white man, a southern boy's meeting with the Russian grad student who's running the psychology experiment he's part of, and two girls who are maybe in love in the midwestern winter when one of them gets involved with a paraplegic man. Where else can you get all that in one night, and so well done? Thank you, readers, writers, for sharing your talent and joy.

Princeton, Day 2

For some reason, I can only put pictures at the beginning of a post. So here they are! First, a cool sculpture, the first thing you see when you go in the museum. If you know me extremely well, you'll be glad to hear I did continue into the museum and was able to avoid walking directly under the dudes. There was a room full of statues, though, set too close together, which I skipped, but not before saying out loud, "ooooh, no." (If this is confusing to you, the explanation is that I have never liked things hanging from the ceiling. As a child, I would have whimpered my way under these guys with my eyes shut tight and someone holding my hand, if I went in at all. As for the room full of statues, that's a new thing, probably because I never saw one before. Museums in general are pretty dicey places for me because of these and other sensory dislikes, but I guess the art value outweighs the fear factor.) The captions apply to the pictures below them, not above. I would change this, but I can't cut and paste on this blog.

These little guys were all over the place today.

Here is a saint in someone's yard presiding over some of the same flowers.

I like the way this wall fits around this tree.

Just another day at Hogwart's. This is the university campus, not the seminary's.

Finally, how about that academic building? Most of the seminary's classes are in here. The interior doorways have pointy arches too.

This morning, I woke up before my alarm, maybe from excitement, and crossed the street to the admissions office to get a list of classes I could choose from to visit. I accidentally looked at the Thursday list instead of the Friday list, so instead of going to the beginning of a class on women and preaching, I went to the middle of a class on the three African novels of Chinua Achebe. It took me longer than I'd like to admit, to realize I'd goofed. In my defense, they had just finished lecture and were breaking up into groups, so it wasn't obvious that I had come in the middle. It turned out very well, though, because the discussion was lively and intelligent; everyone was clearly enjoying themselves and learning. And I knew one of the people in my discussion group! I had an inkling that it might be her, so I asked at the end what her name was. Turns out we did Youth Council retreats together in high school. But that's not all; our families go way back to when we lived in Raleigh before I was in first grade. "Had my parents died," she said, "I would have come to live with you!" That was the case on our side too.

We had dinner tonight; she was very helpful and said some thought-provoking things about seminary. One of them (I'm paraphrasing): if you plan to go into church ministry, why would you spend time at a very liberal seminary learning more liberal things when your career will probably put you in a moderate setting? Most churches are moderate, and it could be frustrating to have one's liberal ideals built up during seminary and then basically not be free to act them out or preach them the way one would like to. Not that a pastor isn't free to enact her theology, but I don't think anyone accomplishes anything by coming in like gangbusters with ideas no one will listen to, no matter what those ideas are. She said Princeton is pretty moderate as a whole, and the students run the gamut on most issues. I agree that this is probably a better environment for me, or for anyone, than a school that's mostly one way or another.

The main thing that bothers me, and that I'm looking at in each place, is housing. I basically will not live in a dorm. I'm past that for many reasons: 1) What would I do with my furniture? 2) Living in the dorm requires a meal plan, and cooking is very important to me. 3) No one likes to share a bathroom. But because I'm single, it's unclear what my chances are for getting an apartment through the seminary. At least one other school gives preference to married students for apartments. I see the logic in this, but that doesn't make it easier to accept. What I'm saying is, harumph. As for the cost, I just stick my fingers in my ears and say "La la la" when I start thinking about it. Unfortunately, that doesn't drown out one's own thoughts. So I blog.

Great things about Princeton: The students said it prepares people for various careers, which is great because I don't know where I'm headed afterward. Some seminaries are narrower. The town is beautiful and feels safe, and I would walk and bike a lot. (Except, the weather has not been representative. It was at least 70 degrees and sunny today! I truly don't know how I'd handle a real winter. So what I mean is I'd walk and bike a lot in April through September. The rest of the time, I'd dream about April through September.) There is a pool. Every class with more than 26 students is broken into small groups led by Ph.D. students or the professor. This is awesome and the way things should be. I could come for summer language school in July. They have chapel five days a week (all the seminaries have it, but they range from one day a week to five). Everyone left their bags and coats outside the chapel, which shows that they trust each other. (Davidson alert!) My initial reaction to arriving on campus was a deeply felt gut positive.

It's possible that I'll gush about everywhere I go. (Oh, I got word from Iliff in Denver. In.) We'll have to see. But at the moment, this place is pretty sweet. Austin is the other front-runner, but I don't even know if I'm accepted there. Uncharacteristically, I do not feel anxious about this decision. I almost wrote "do not feel anxious yet," but there's no reason to think that way. God is in control. It was his idea in the first place, so he'll make the rest clear.

My Precious

And while I'm doing pictures, I decided to take some of my recent pottery purchases in Seagrove. In the group picture, the bowl is Chris Luther's, the teacup/teabowl/wine cup is Tom Gray's, and the light green mug is Travis Owens' from Jugtown. All three of those were part of the Seagrove Potters for Peace event, as well as the bird pendant at bottom by Jennie Lorette Keats at Jugtown. The plate is Tom Gray's, and the dark mug at right is Michael Mahan's of From the Ground Up Pottery. I call it my caveman mug because it's big and heavy. The others show some of the details.

This last is a group shot of some of the pieces I've had for a while. The wine goblet is part of a six-piece set my mom got in Scotland; the purple mug was a gift from Dr. Wills for graduation, bought at Summitt Coffee; the green mug I found at the Habitat for Humanity store in Cornelius; the blue bowl in the center is from Taize; the blue and green bowl is from Dirt Works Pottery in Seagrove, a gift from Mom; and the two small bowls in front, I made during my pottery class at the Icehouse in Davidson.

Hooray for pottery! Thanks for indulging my image fix.

Nest Analysis

I'm happy to present some pictures from my sea turtle nest analysis assignment.

Here are the two Sea Turtle Project area coordinators excavating the nest. Sea turtle nests are shaped like an upside-down lightbulb, large at the bottom and narrow near the surface. The left pile between them is hatched eggs; the right pile is unhatched ones.

Here is the baby turtle they found alive. They had to put him in a bucket and release him only after dark because baby turtles are too vulnerable and visible to predators when it is light.

Here they are using a flashlight to candle the unhatched eggs and tell if they are fertilized. If they had found any, they would have reburied them in anundisturbed nest.

I don't know how to get just the funniest part. The part I want to show you is about God and Jesus, several minutes in. Cracks me up for a good 18 hours now.

Something is wacky on my taskbar. Lugging the ol' computer to IT on campus tomorry and hoping someone there knows from Vista.

I spread out some butcher paper on my kitchen floor and made a sprawling map of things I could write about. Lots of connective lines. Groups of topics are becoming clearer. It's fun stuff.

Rocky Mountain Fever

Either Audubon or Muir called Glacier National Park a place with "care-killing scenery," and that's what it is. When work is ridiculous and tiring, I forget it when I step outside and see the mountains. The Blue Ridge is (are?) really nothing in comparison. We have this peaceful coexistence thing going with the big-horn sheep, the marmots, the Columbian ground squirrels (who sound like birds and are nicknamed whistle-pigs), and we just let awe take over in case of bears and moose. I saw a moose swimming across the lake one day, only its head above the water.

My motto for the summer is "The world needs all kinds of people." Slow hikers and non-hikers in addition to hard-core, race-ya-to-the-top hikers. Reserved alongside gregarious, sweet next to salty. We can't do without each other, no matter how one type dominates in certain settings. And if one's gifts are private and hidden rather than obvious to all, they're just as valuable and dazzling as the easily-spotted ones. This comes, as most of my insights do, after a childish fight with the way things are. I got here and felt like a slow-hiking, taciturn fuddy-duddy. It took me a while to realize those first two terms don't make me inferior to anyone who walks fast or talks a lot. Hence the motto.

I had planned a much grander blog post, having waited so long to write it (the internet at the hotel is--shudder--dial-up, so I'm now in Canada, in the parking lot of a Safeway, which for some reason has WiFi). I think you've got the gist of my summer so far, grand or not. I'm sending you the wind on the lake, the reflection of the trees, a patch of snow the shape of South America, someone eating a bug on the front porch, profoundly inane conversation, sweet fatigue, and knowing on the steep way up that you get to take it easy on the return. I'm going to try to get some pictures up, a lame simulacrum being better than nothing. I can't really see them, so I've picked three more or less at random. Enjoy.

Woooooo.

I'm trying something new and exciting. Will we be able to see this video? I hope so. Enjoy.

Art!

I'm doing an art show in April with some other MFA students, and now that I have a blog, what better to do than post some photos? I only have a couple things so far. Everyone in the show is doing a box the same size and shape as the one on the left, with different stuff inside or on each. It's a very cool project, and I think I may be addicted to the three-dimensional.