I should explain… for the last 4 years, my dad has made “pictures” for Mom to cheer her up when she’s been travelling. Originally, it was of her evil cat Bessie. Bessie passed away in February and so Mom’s new kittens (Homer and Jethro) and their sissy Maine Coon cat Trail Kitty are now the subject of the pictures.
I guess the cats got licensed by the City of San Jose recently?
I spent Thanksgiving with some pastoral colleagues of Jon’s and their families. Good fun, good company, and a really cool jam session of Advent hymns afterwards with people playing guitar, piano, recorder, bodhran, and other instruments in addition to those singing. We also had snow flurries that day, so the first snowfall of the year is definitely upon us.
Yesterday, I was at the doctor’s in the morning because some problems from earlier in the week were refusing to go away. (Some of them are birth control related.) I got more antibiotics, some pyridium, and instructions to haul butt over there on Monday if things don’t improve. Joy of joys.
Today, I baked black n’ tans for church coffee tomorrow at Church #1, made some minestrone soup, and helped to fold bulletins like a good pastor’s wife. Oh yeah… there was also the sleeping in until 10 something and getting woken up by the phone.
I have a black cat who has her front paws on my lap, so I must go be a good cat slave and attend to her…
The Seattle pics are here.
I’ve been boggling my mind for the past few days over what to write about in my guest post. Fortunately, Eileen posted about something that I can definately identify with. The struggle with vocation, and what it is, exactly, that we’re called to do.
I decided this week that I most likely will not be continuing as a computer engineering technology major. I will be transferring back to liberal arts, finishing what I have to finish (if anything), and graduating with a associates degree in liberal arts. It’s an exciting yet terrifying place where I am now. On the one hand, I’m relieved to almost be done. On the other, I didn’t quite expect or plan to be in the position I am now quite so soon.
I’m searching for a job. Currently, I’ve got one prospect. A clothing company by the name of Maax is looking for a art/marketing director (with a concentration in web design). I sent my resume last night, they emailed me back this morning thanking me for my application and asking if I had any design samples. I sent them my samples tonight. I don’t know how good of a chance I have at getting a job with this company, but I’m praying that the chances are good. They seem like a neat company to work for. But you can’t put your eggs in one basket, I need to keep looking for other things…
I don’t really know what I’m called to do for my vocation. I’ve been leaning towards web design, but I dont’ really know… I know things will all work out in the end, and I will end up exactly where God wants me to be. But, I can’t help but wonder sometimes how I’m going to get there…
A week ago yesterday, Jen emailed me about guest-blogging. Predictably, I forgot until about ten minutes ago. Hurrah for Eileen.
Today, my senior class read John Donne’s “Meditation 17.” We discussed how to read figurative language (which I thought they would hate, but they did rather well with it), and then we compared it to “I am a Rock” by Simon and Garfunkel (which I thought they would enjoy, but they laughed at it and ridiculed it and asked me if this was the music I listened to when I was growing up, which made my 22-going-on-23 inner self giggle). They don’t really like anything I give them to read. They are what can be termed “HATERS.” Some of them seemed to enjoy Macbeth, but a lot of them very vocally thought that it was stupid and worthless. They are very delightful people to teach.
Sometimes it is very frustrating to love literature, especially brilliant, gorgeous literature like John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, which have inspired me as an artist and as a person of faith, and bring that literature into a classroom full of seventeen and eighteen (and, um, twenty-one) year-olds, only to have them denounce it as “stupid,” “pointless,” and “without meaning.” But I teach students, not literature. I have to remember that.
I suppose most people struggle with vocation (and most often, I guess, would be struggling to decide whether one job or the other is actually their vocation). Jen has struggled (differently than I have), my parents have struggled, my boyfriend struggles. I want a life-work, you know? I’m just not sure if teaching is going to end up being it… but if I quit, I’ll wonder if I just didn’t try hard enough. Guess I’ll stick with it for a few more semesters and see if it doesn’t get better. I’ll end up where I’m supposed to be, one way or the other.