huckleberry merriweather strannigan-mayfield, aged 6 weeks and 1 day.

tell me more, tell me more

well, i did it.
i think i was prophetic in my last post. i had planned on rescuing a kitten from a garage sale when my parents went to alaska for 3 weeks this summer, but the plan was put into place much earlier. two nights ago i had a dream that i got two kittens and a mother cat who was white with black and brown spots and who turned into a sailboat and sailed away. when i woke up, my mom called me and told me that she was at a garage sale and that there was one kitten left that needed a good home. i woke up krispin and we went and got our new gray-striped love kitten, Huckleberry.
she is my new favorite.

in other news, summer is here, complete with too many hours spent at starbucks and the ability to read and devour literature.

here are some lists.

books i have read thus far (summer 2007)
Persuasion --Jane Austen
O Pioneers!--Willa Cather

books i am in the midst of (and aim to finish)
One Hundred Years of Solitude--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
East of Eden--John Steinbeck
The Fortress of Solitude--Jonatham Lethem
Everything is Illuminated--Jonathon Safron Foer
The Book of Exodus

books i have every intention of reading
The Heavenly Man--Brother Yun
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossions
Something by somebody russian.

that's it. it's summer time, i am in a brightly lit room with a bundle of fuzz and my sister is on her way over. we are going to see pirates of the caribbean. booyah.

please come shine on me

some developments. recent ones.

school ended without much fanfare and with the usual melancholy feeling in the pit of my stomach. i turned in papers in which i didn't fully digest anything and yet will still get an A. i took some finals, and for the first time discovered what it is like to look at a page full of questions and not know an answer to any of them (Revelation and Botany). i talked to people in both the student ministries department and financial aid, and was reduced to tears by the end of it all.

i was angry, exhausted, disappointed, and yet relieved. it was over. and luckily i know that i am always taken care of in the long run.

so yesterday i celebrated the end of everything. my co-workers have long complained that i am never around to hang out with, which is quite true. i haven't been anywhere but everywhere for the past several months, and my spirit has suffered for it. i feel an emptiness at the thought of hours to myself, of free time not consumed with work--good strong work, that makes me feel as if i am doing something worthwhile. it always takes me awhile to transition back into stillness with christ. right now i still feel slightly anxious. but we have been reading exodus together, just for fun, at night when it is still warm enough for me to leave the window open right by my bed. and he is there. in my room, in the book of exodus, in my life.

hanging out with co-workers was frightening for me and my social anxiety, but i got through. one vodka tonic, one order of potato pancakes, 5 formerly work acquaintances only, and one amazing haircut later, i realized that summer truly is an organic thing. you wait around long enough, and you make things happen. i look forward to seeing what is going to happen.

my love is not leaving for china, there are kittens to be rescued from garage sales, there are possessions to be gotten rid of, there are days to sleep in past 9, there are cut-offs to be made, there are people to pour into, people to question and challenge and hear and love.

also, there are folk bands to be formed.

they'll be shouting on the hills of glory, shouting on the hills of god

so i lost my car, my phone, and my financial aid from multnomah in the space of ten days.
it was a rough week.
but, here are the good news:

1. my parents are giving me a car! yeah, it is a lovely and comfortable camry, very suburban and work casual, complete with several scratches that i put on it several years ago. i am so excited and overwhelmed.

2. somebody found my phone! i lost it at mt. tabor, and although it has taken a week, i talked to a girl yesterday who found it. so i should be getting it today. what a weird world.

3. tearing up in the financial aid office does a little bit of good, evidently. when they told me they had cut my aid by over 2/3's, i was at a loss. i refuse to go into debt. i refuse to believe that they did this on purpose knowing that this was my last semester at multnomah.
frankly, i was just upset at the entire institution.
but i got an e-mail yesterday saying that they were just going to go ahead and give me some more money. it's not as much as i was getting, but still . . . it's something.


there you go. i've been taken care of again.

other things:
i got my little promotion at work, krispin bought me roses, i don't have to work or go to school today, there is folk music on right now (thank you KBOO on saturday mornings! i love you!), and this semester will soon be something i laugh about as:
"well, that was a rough time, wasn't it? man, i'm sure glad that's over. mmmm, yeah.
life lessons learned."