I’m off to the Twin Cities. I’ll update if I get a chance.
Monthly Archives: February 2003
Reflections
*sniff* I wish I was back in Santa Cruz. I love a good peace or civil rights protest and they never are as good back here as they were when I was at UCSC.
Oh President Bush… explain how exactly you are anti-affirmative action when it was the only reason you actually got into Yale. I looked at the UM guidelines for admission and as a white female, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, in the extras category you get 20 points if:
-you are a Michigan state resident (it’s a state-funded school — this is not unusual)
-you are an athlete that they want to recruit (Yeah… let’s make them take that out so that all us non-athletes have a chance)
and finally…
-you are of a minority race (Tell me with a straight face that a preppy white kid from a Michigan day school and a black kid from an inner city Detroit high school are going to have an equal footing in their coursework and admissions. I’m waiting…)
My To-Do List for the Next Few Weeks or So
I’m posting this to see how much I can get done by the end of March:
-clean up mess immediately around my desk in my study
-see if anyone at the church can give me sewing lessons on my machine
-put books in bookcases
-sort through remaining boxes in study
-sort through papers
-get taxes to Sally to prepare (got this done relatively quickly)
-get FAFSA done
-sort through boxes in basement
-re-pack non-essential stuff
-go through closets for Goodwill/consignment shop donations
-organize papers and bills into file folders
-organize cat records
-register at a temp agency
I think that’s a good enough start.
Home Again
My babies are home again. I am a happy Jen. They are not pleased with us, but they had their foster mommy there (who wanted to keep Finian) and the vet treats them well.
Kitties at the Vet
We got up this morning, threw on clothes, and stuffed the boys into their carriers. As there are now two carriers, I couldn’t sit in the backseat with them and when I reached back to let Finian sniff my fingers, he clawed me and refused to let go even though I was screaming. Jon finally helped me get my fingers loose (while driving 60 mph) and we made it to the vet. I washed and banadaged my finger and we got the babies out of their cages and into the arms of the vet techs. (One of the vet techs was the one who fostered the kitties and she really wanted to keep Finian but couldn’t at the time.) As I was handing Finian to Cindy (his foster mommy), he caught my nose and clawed me. He did a pretty good job because the puncture is still clotting and I now look like I’ve been beaten up.
The kitties got weighed before we took them back and Finian is 9.5 lbs. Cullen is only pushing 9 but still… this is 3 times what it was in August and September when we got them. They’re not fat either — just very muscular and solid. We get them back tomorrow morning, but I’ll miss my babies until then. At least Jon is home today so that I have company…
Update: I just called the vet’s office and the babies are OK. They performed the surgery first thing this morning and the kitties are awake but not moving. The vet always keeps them overnight, so we’ll get our babies back tomorrow morning.
Letter from the Challenger children to the Columbia children
Healing Service
Jon preached on healing today in his sermon and suggested to Bill (his supervisor) that we have healing services after all the normal church services. Bill OK’ed it and there were probably 10-20 people that stayed after each service and went to the chapel for the healing service. I went to the one after the 10:45 service, since I’d really like healing from my depression and from this nasty virus that is refusing to leave my body. I managed not to cry when they were laying hands on me and anointing me with the olive oil and I was very thankful that it was just straight olive oil. (The dean of the chapel at Trinity usually mixes in a ton of lavender or rosemary oil and you smell like an herb garden for the rest of the day. Those were the days I showered immediately after chapel.) I think that we’ll start doing it a lot more frequently, especially since a good portion of the congregation is senior citizens and many people are dealing with flus and colds right now.
The reason I would probably have cried is that having hands laid upon you is a really humbling experience as it opens you up to a power that is beyond your comprehension. I remember praying for people in college and being prayed over and you start crying, regardless of how calm you were going in. At the seminary, we do healing services quarterly, if not monthly, and grown men and women will break down in tears in the line to be prayed over and anointed. I thought it was one of the better attended days in chapel because a lot of people would stay after for this experience. It’s something that I would love to do when I am a parish pastor someday because the Christian faith deals with the body as well as the soul. The healing effect of this is usually just psychological, but then again, many illnesses have some psycho-somatic causes.