An Update At Last

Well, it's taken almost a month and a half to write again, but it's been quite a month and a half. There has been a lot happening, a lot to process, and a lot to struggle with. Now I find myself way behind and most likely needing to request extensions for deadlines and classes.

So where to begin? My sister visited me back in October, and that was a lot of fun. The third family member to come to visit in Princeton (after Paul and uncle John), and it's always exciting to show new people around. Unfortunately, I broke her camera while we were in New York, but thankfully she had mine to use to take pictures. She got to see the fall colors, the Princeton University museum, and most of the city. Pretty exciting.

Then my friend, Cathy, came out to visit. Before that, through numerous phone conversations, I found out that my grandmother was beginning to decline fairly quickly, and probably didn't have much more than three weeks left. That was when my schedule came to a screeching halt. My thoughts and feelings were all at home at that point, and I was just waiting for the point when I could come home physically. Still, I tried to push on (unsuccessfully), and having Cathy come out was definitely uplifting.

We went to New Hope, which is a location I was told I had to see. I can see why it is, but it's definitely a Fall/Spring place. The outdoor entertainment is the draw, but when it's 40* outside, there's not much outdoor entertainment to be had. But, believe it or not, I actually found a decent Mexican restaurant in New Hope. It's still only good by East Coast standards, but still good. Her visit was enjoyable, but unfortunately cut short.

While Cathy was visiting, I received the phone call that my grandmother had passed away. It was right after we had gotten back from New Hope. I was shellshocked from the news, but I had alerted my professors to what was going on, so I was able to leave quickly. Being at home was good, though hard under the circumstances. I was happy to be able to see family and church friends. But my grandmother is also the closest person I've known who has passed away, and dealing with that first close loss is always difficult.

It didn't hit me until the day of the funeral, and a lot of the emotional outpouring happened on that day. It has been difficult since then as well. Being back at school as been a struggle. My mentally and emotionally I'm not here even though I physically am. It's only two weeks until I am back at home again, which sometimes makes me wonder why I came back out here at all. But with final papers due and other obligations, I suppose there's no way it could be avoided. For now, I have to try to focus on what's going on out here, and deal with the rest as it comes.

It's moving toward winter here, though it's still pretty warm (mid 50s most days, down into the high 30s at night). And registration for Spring classes begins on Wednesday. I have no idea what I'm going to take; its been the hardest semester to try to figure it out because none of the classes look all that appealing. No doubt my current emotional state is partly to blame for that.

I'll be home again on December 15. Seems so far away, even though it's only two weeks. Hopefully when I update again, things will be a bit cheerier than they are now.

My 100th Post!

I've reached my 100th post! Hooray! I feel like I should throw a party or do some sort of giveaway in celebration. But, then again, 100 is just a number, like 99 or 101, so I suppose I can just do a standard update and that will suffice. =)

This week is going to be a high stress week. It's that time of year again: midterms, midterms, midterms. Thankfully, I don't have any formal midterms, but I do have a five page paper due on Tuesday and a presentation to do on Thursday. So there is always something to do.

It is scary how fast time goes by. On Monday morning, I will be leading the worship service for the seminary's Chapel, which I am very excited about. I will have audio and video recordings of the service, so if anyone wants one, let me know and I'll figure out how to get those to you. I will be the owner of the master copies, so I can make as many copies as I want (in case anyone was worried about that).

I'm also at the halfway point of the semester, which is equally scary because it means I only have half the semester left to work on my independent study. Enough time, but the clock is winding down quickly.

But I'm also excited because starting next week, I'll have little moments of respite in my busy schedule. Melissa, my wonderful sister, is coming to visit on Wednesday, and I'm so excited. (Ali, you're wonderful too, but you aren't visiting yet, so you need to rectify that somehow. ;-) ) Then I have another friend visiting in November. Then I get to come home for Thanksgiving, and then a few weeks after that, I'm done and will be home for Christmas. So I'm about to enter a rapid-fire portion of the semester, so time management is going to be important.

My teaching ministry internship is going so well. I'm realizing more and more that teaching is my strong suit. I'm good at it, and I feel most alive when I'm doing it. The current session we're working on now has been going great, and the next session I get to teach solo, which will be a fun and challenging experience.

I should probably get back to my studies, so I will end this post here. Reading week (our fall "break") is coming the week of Halloween, so I'm looking forward to that, not only for rest, but to hopefully get some work done on my research paper and maybe some exploring of the East Coast. But more on that next time...

Some Fall Pictures

I just added some new pictures of the fall colors. You can follow the link below to see them.

Pictures