For those of you who don’t know, I’m 23 and have yet to get my driver’s license. I passed the Ohio written test with flying colors but I hadn’t gotten the physical part of driving done. I’d been out twice in my parents’ minivan which has the tightest steering column on the planet and freaked out, so my parents have (for the most part) left me alone with only a few occasional snide remarks from my dad. The local driving schools have yet to contact me (and yes, I’ve called them) and I can’t really wait much longer. So… I asked Jon if he could take me to a parking lot to do doughnuts today.

I was doing really well at doughnuts, so we moved on to neighborhood driving. That went well, so I decided to try 30th Street (in Heath). Well… one thing led to another and when I finally stopped the car and got out, I’d moved from 30th Street to State Route 79 to Interstate 70 and driven to Columbus. Jon treated me to dinner in Bexley (Chipotle for me and Grinder’s for him) and I drove back to Newark. 90+ miles on my first day of driving on 5 different types of road and me being really OK doing it. Boo Yah!

(Part of it is that Sable, our ’84 Volvo, handles the road really well and responds to the driver impeccably so all I really had to do was watch the road. I did have a few tight spots such as missing the exit for SR-79 on the way back and having to sneak on, almost hitting someone head on while trying to get in the left lane on Hebron Road, and almost hitting a stop sign while turning on the side street leading to ours, but hey… it was my first day.)

The doorbell rang this afternoon and since Jon was just getting out of the shower I answered it.

J=me
S=salesman

J: Can I help you?
S: Yes, is your mommy or daddy home?
J: *taken aback* I’m the lady of the house. *thinking “how old does he think I am????”*
S: Oh… I’m sorry. I’m from [some random windows company] and we’re doing free estimates.
J: We’ll pass since this property is actually owned by a church.
S: Oh… so you’re a pastor’s wife? You look too young to be a pastor’s wife.
J: *smiles pretty* Uh… thanks. *mentally growling*

It turns out he’s thinking of doing some seminary work and is working with the homeless at a shelter in Columbus and knows a good seminary friend of mine. He was a nice guy, so I didn’t lose my temper. I *KNOW* I look like I’m 12, but geez… can anyone give me the benefit of the doubt on this???

Of course this *had* to happen the day after my birthday…

(Translation of title: today is my 23rd birthday, yo!)

So far I’ve gotten (in addition to comments) cards/emails from:
-my in-laws
-my aunt and uncle in-law (I didn’t expect them to remember my birthday)
-my seminary friend Jill who is my cheerleader/prayer warrior
-my parents
–Tina
–Leenie

My boys have been lover cats and haven’t left me alone all day. Jon and I will go to Olive Garden for dinner (thanks Mom for the check covering dinner and groceries) and it’s been a quiet but nice day.

Let the record show that Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk Ice Cream is the most karmically-balanced ice cream on the planet. It has a base of cinnamon ice cream that is perfect for the humongous chunks of oatmeal cookie that sit embedded in it. Ecstasy results upon the addition of the chocolate chunks.

This is an order: go here and tell them to not just make it a limited batch — make it a permanent part of the Ben & Jerry’s family.

That is all. (And no, I am not high on anything while writing it. Yes, I know that I profess Christianity while talking about karma. It’s a California thing, OK?)

I didn’t get either job. I got the letter from Second Presbyterian yesterday and the letter from Caribou today. Am I pissed? Yes. Am I hurt? Yes. Can I deal with this and not let it ruin my life? Yes. I mean, if I’d gotten the Caribou job, I would have been doing Orientation yesterday instead of helping my cousin Sarah move and getting better acquainted with her. (She’s a 2nd cousin who I hadn’t seen in 6 years and she’s attending college nearby.) If I’d made it to the second round of interviews with Second Pres, I would have missed small group last night and not gotten the chance to hang out with someone who needed someone to listen to them. God knows what’s up and I respect that. I just wish that the “what’s up” included “Jen having a job”. At least we got our money back from Uncle Sam and it’s not being used to fund the purchase of tanks or fighters or anything else that the government buys in excess. (I’m a pacifist. Deal with it.)

I think this would be a good time to call the driving schools and schedule my behind the wheel instruction. I need to do that ASAP and I now have a lot of spare time.

Maybe someday, I will…
1.) learn to drive
2.) have a garden where I grow all my own vegetables and herbs
3.) be able to hang my laundry on a clothesline to dry
4.) learn to sew and make my own clothes
5.) be ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
6.) own a laptop
7.) homeschool my kids, depending on how good/bad the local schools are
8.) learn Arabic, Spanish, Syriac, Aramaic, Romanian, Italian, Russian, German, Korean, and Swahili
9.) learn to knit and make this hat and this facecloth
10.) cook all of our food and just buy ingredients from the store
11.) learn to make clerical shirts that actually fit me in colors that I would actually wear and don’t look dippy
12.) get my Ph.D in Church History or a D. Min with my thesis being on the influences of Celtic Christianity on the way we evangelize and worship
13.) visit Israel, Egypt, Syria, Greece, and Turkey
14.) backpack across Europe with Jon
15.) have kids and raise them in a loving Christian home
16.) have a female cat named Freja (pronounced “Fraya”) in addition to my current feline stallions
17.) read the entire Bible and Apocrypha
18.) translate some obscure text
19.) read the works of Louisa May Alcott other than “Little Women”
20.) complete a journey through a labrynth
21.) learn to quilt and make them for our bed and for my children’s beds
22.) learn to finish furniture so that I can get it cheaply and do the finishing stuff myself
23.) write a book on spirituality that is Biblically-based but reflects my Celtic roots
24.) live in an ecologically sustainable home with at least one room with broad windows (thanks Leenie)
25.) study in Ireland for a few months or more
26.) learn to play a wind instrument (i.e. flute or recorder) or the violin
27.) be part of a chamber music group that sings music composed before 1800
28.) teach a college or seminary class on Celtic Christianity
29.) write a curriculum for the Church to use to learn to minister to sexual harassment victims
30.) write a curriculum for the Church to use to learn to minister to people with depression
31.) learn to let God take care of the details and enjoy the ride
32.) serve as a missionary in the Muslim world or in Latin America
33.) read the Psalms in Hebrew
34.) become better with HTML and PHP and CSS and make a layout that looks good
35.) serve in my local government
36.) teach my kids (and my confirmands) about good ecological stewardship of the earth that is Biblically based
37.) read the Book of Concord (don’t tell Jon!)
38.) learn to love myself for who God created me to be rather than who the world wants me to be
39.) advise a ranking member of government (I wanna be a Congressional chaplain!)
40.) learn to love others as God has loved me

(Thanks to Leenie and Sarah for the inspiration to make this list.)

Saturday was spent doing my second interview at Caribou Coffee, which I thought went well — I mean… getting a second interview means that you’re something. They told me I’d hear from them today if I was hired. I’m giving them until tomorrow, being the eternal optimist that I am and the time here nearing 2200h. Later, we ran to the store… during which time my father-in-law arrived from Louisville where he was attending a conference. We ordered pizza and talked late into the night. The cats were NOT amused to have company and Cullen used some words that I didn’t even know existed. He turned from an attention-starved kitty into a demon — he even bared his fangs as he hissed and growled. Finian let me take him into the living room and let Ray (my father-in-law)pet him while I was holding him. However, when left alone with Ray, he hissed and fled.

Sunday, I got to sleep in a little bit because Ray had a rental car and could take me for Sunday School and worship. My cats were more than happy to let me sleep in as they were missing some affection from being left alone the night before (when they *COULD* have been more social). Sunday School went better — my attendant showed up and she loved up the littlest of my charges. Worship went well — we were baptizing the newest grandchild of Jon’s supervisor and we were invited to the christening party afterwards. Then Ray and I went for a drive so that he could see what was wrong with Sable (our ’84 Volvo 240 GL). We went to dinner at Olive Garden and I gorged myself on Minestrone Soup, some salad, and calamari. (Mmmmmm…. squid.) We stayed up and talked after that. That night, the cats went out to sniff Ray up and Finian apparently decided to walk all over him. They woke us up at 5 this morning, wanting attention and a boost onto the windows above our bed. CATS!!!!!

Today… we all got up at 9. Jon and Ray had oatmeal for breakfast and I had leftover cold calamari. Ray left about 11 to head to lunch with Dr. Ramseth and then to the airpoty and Jon left for church at 1. I paid bills… and discovered that the cable bill was 3 months late because of a mix up with the church paying it. (The church pays the base rate and we pay the difference — well… our treasurer didn’t know that and had sat on the checks I’d given her.) Tomorrow, I get to go down and pay off all of my part after our treasurer gives me the church’s share. Good thing I caught this because our cable was going to be disconnected on Friday morning and our boys are kind of fond watching the native dances of Malaysia on the Travel Channel. Jon picked me up at 4 and we deposited his paycheck and transferred some funds into our checking account so that we could cover any emergency groceries or whatever. (With Jon’s paycheck and the funds in the checking account before the transfer, we had literally enough to cover bills. The definition of “daily bread” as “all one needs for the day” isn’t lying!!! Tip for young married people: put your wedding money in a savings account so that when your checking account is short for the month on bills, you can have money to make up the difference.) We went to church and I printed off some more resumés and got some other computer stuff done.

It’s already 22:15 on Monday night, which means that Caribou likely found other people. Second Pres might call me but I’m really not holding my breath because I could get a letter in the mail saying “we’ve chosen someone else” tomorrow. So… I’m still looking for work and ask prayers that I can find a job. I’m thankful that much of my current monthly payments for my February stuff will be done come August or September and I’m praying that I can find work so that we’re not so strapped until then.