A good housewife is of necessity a humbug--Vanity Fair by W. M. Thackeray

I am reading Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, and I thought the above quote was quite funny. Especially when taken out of context. :-)

I had a good Thanksgiving with my family. My brother was able to make it up, for which I am very grateful. His work schedule is so crazy we didn't know if he would be able to visit. He was in rare form too, and I just love hearing his work stories. He works with some characters. :-) My grandparents came down as well, and Grandpa gave me a knife that he had. He had shown it to us at Easter, and none of us were sure what kind it was. He said he talked to a guy at a show, however, and the guy said it was a librarian's knife. I'll have to post a picture. It's pretty cool looking, almost like a scalpel. I am intrigued, and I inter library loan several books. We'll see if I can find out more about it when the books come. I need to make friends in the ILL department. I miss being able to run over to Judy's office and ask her if she can get me another obscure book. She is amazing at her job. Now I need to find another Judy here. Especially when I want books that are only owned by one library or organization. That means that they are probably not willing to let them out. :-(

Mom and I had girl's day out on Friday and I drug Mom out for Black Friday, though we didn't hit town until noon, so it wasn't as crazy as the morning. I found some good deals. I now have my Christmas cards to send and Christmas lights for my tree. We also went to the movie Blindside. Mom had seen it about 2 days before, but she liked it so much she was willing to see it again. It was really good. I highly recommend it, and I LOVE Sandra Bullock's character. She is so good. It's based on a true story too, which is really cool.

Speaking of Christmas lights, I am looking forward to having my first Christmas tree. I am hoping to have friends over this weekend for a small holiday party including decorating the tree. I searched through my stuff at home and rounded up all my ornaments. When my brother and I were younger, Grandma and Grandpa Henry bought us Christmas tree ornaments, as they thought that we might want our own trees when we were older. (My parents don't do Christmas trees.) So, I found the ornaments they gave me, and that was pretty special. I will try to post pics of the tree when it is up.

Well, I should work on my collection development project. Looking for numismatic resources. It's actually pretty fun.

Blessings

Brilliant

I am so ready for a break. Case in point. I work two morning shifts, and my Monday morning shift is atypical, as I have class until 9:15. So, I work 9:30-2:30 while most morning shifts are 9-2. Today, I finished my duties per normal, signed out, and realized when I was almost back on campus that I should still be working. I skipped out on the last half hour of work! So, I had to turn around and go back to work and explain to my supervisor what I just did. Yeah... I'm going to make up the extra half hour tomorrow, as I don't have any classes.

So, after class tonight, no more classes until next Monday! Woohoo! I do have work though. But I like work, so that's not really a bad thing. I am looking forward to my four day weekend though. Lots of homework to do, but it will get done. It always does.

Sunday School

I am here in the library trying to work on an assignment for class, but I cannot do this if no one asks a reference question. Sigh. It's due tomorrow. Ugh. I am generally stressed and taxed emotionally and physically, as I haven't been sleeping as much as I should and starting to up the caffeine intake. Oh the joys of procrastination, work, and social life.

I am settling down, but I was NOT HAPPY with Sunday school today. Our regular leader was gone today, so he had one of the pastors/elders/big whig in the church come and "lead." Well, he did not have anything prepared and he liked to hear himself talk and it was very difficult to get a word in edgewise. There wasn't much discussion, and I knew where he stood when he said, about the Temple being destroyed "it would be like burning our Constitution and destroying our government, though that may not be a bad thing." ?! He then proceeded to talk most of the time about patriotism and nationalism in churches, displaying the flag in church, and being generally anti-war. Not that this was particularly bad, but it was not the time and/or place and it really rubbed me the wrong way, especially as I felt like I was the only one who really disagreed with him. We didn't discuss the chapter much or delve into the scriptures as I would have liked. Instead, it felt like he was just expounding on his own beliefs/ideas. And I was not impressed.

Community

I have realized that this is the first place I have lived that has not had a strong sense of community, and I think that is one of the hardest parts of living here. I am surrounded by peers, but I do not feel like I have many connections to the community as a whole or to people who are rooted in this community. Being a large university town, it has a more temporary feel, and many people come here from a variety of places. Some stay and others move on, but it is a different feeling and a different environment. It feels much more like you're on your own. There aren't a whole lot of people looking out for you. And it's harder at church because the church I go to is very large, and I don't know very many people outside my friends and Sunday school group. I am going to try to get more involved during break, and I may look for a different Sunday school group that is a bit more integrated. That is one thing that I don't really like about the modern church. It's so segregated. Especially in large churches. You only meet with peers and it can be kind of isolating. I really like meeting people in my same situation and my same age group, but I miss the connections I had last year. I miss HFMC's Sunday school so much! The Lord met me there so many times and I learned a lot from the dear people there. I was the youngest one by far, but it didn't matter. I need to visit.

Oh Western Wind, When Wilt Thou Blow

I love allusions. They make me feel like I am part of an "in crowd," and inner circle of knowledge that not everyone will pick up on, but that the author knowlingly snuck in there. And you read and recognize and and there is this sense of sharing a secret with the author. A "See, I know what you did there."

This weekend was very good. It was so nice to have friends over, but now comes the inevitable let down and the necessity of school work. Which I have been putting off horribly (what else is new) and is quickly approaching. Again, I seem to never learn. Oh well.

I am already looking forward to next semester. I will only have 3 classes, and my Mondays and Fridays will be free, but I will most likely have to work, though I'm hoping for Sunday/Monday off. I hope I will have more time to devote to volunteering, church, and making friends. I want to make a difference and do something outside myself. Being on my own is good, but it also means that it is very easy to be selfish and focus too much on myself.

I am really liking Bible study, and I hope that I can go on Thursday and also spend more time with people from that study. There have been a lot of social opportunities with the study recently, but I haven't been able to attend any of them.

I need to get back to homework. Ebooks. Oh the joy.

Blessed Be the Name of the Lord

Realizing that you are the only person who can make decisions for yourself and taking complete responsibility for those decisions is a moment of true adulthood. The Lord revealed this to me this past week, and it has really been an epiphany. I am responsible for myself to God. I need to make sure that I am in the center of His will and doing what He wants. This does not mean disregarding other people's advice and opinions, but I am ultimately responsible to God for my actions, not to other people.

I'm back, I suppose. I figured the "sabbatical" would not last too long, but I didn't want people expecting a post that I wasn't going to write, hence the courtesy warning.

Three very good friends are coming this weekend and I cannot wait!

I'm Giving Notice

Instead of not posting in forever, I'm giving notice. I'm going to take a little sabbatical from blogging, though I don't know how long it will last. Who knows, I may post tomorrow. But, I may not. Just so you know.