Tuesday, October 18, 2005

listing

Every Thursday, it seems that I get struck by a warped optimism. It never fails. I start keeping a list of all the homework that I can do over the upcoming weekend, but somehow my brain decides it has about a week off… because there’s no way I can finish even half a list in two days! This weekend, I thought I could read about six hundred pages in various books, write a few papers, prepare for a test, and run a half-dozen errands.

No doubt, I should be able to do it all with poise and grace, and an unshakable sense of peace… Ha ha ha.

(I remember learning in fourth grade about idioms and figurative language: I was shocked by the phrase “my eyes were bigger than my stomach.” But I’ve been trying to come up with an equivalent phrase for my little listing habit… the closest I can come is “my eyes were bigger than my head,” or the slightly more weird, “my eyes were bigger than my brain.” Neither one seems to fit… and both have an alarming visual image… so forget I said anything.)

Well, I did not pull off the Wonderwoman act this weekend, but I was still able to get a lot done. David Copperfield is still going strong… I’m on page 460, and I’d really like to strangle Dora Spenlow. Davy C deserves so much better. We’ll see what happens. And I finished Feed, a really interesting, somewhat disturbing sci-fi book about what life would be like if we all had a chip in our brains that connected us to the Internet. (Think about that one for awhile… pretty strange.) Then I had a few readings for my Craft of Writing class, and a chapter on the properties of water for Oceanography. Lots of planning for my honors thesis, and a major cleaning session in my room. Whew!

I took a break Saturday night and went to the Psalm festival. I stayed for about three hours and saw almost sixty psalms. I loved the variety, both in the forms that the psalms were shown and in the content of the psalms themselves. There were readings, all kinds of songs, and artwork. One of my favorites was Psalm 29, and the campus choir sang “The God of Mercy Thunders,” and when the organ joined in… I got chills, and not just because the chapel was cold. I also loved hearing the Children’s Ensemble, leading us in “I Will Call Upon the Lord” for Psalm 18, and later on reciting Psalm 23. Then everyone joined in singing several hymns… It was a great way to refocus in the middle of an intense work-weekend. (It also doesn’t hurt to hear King David’s faith and frustration in the midst of all his problems… makes six hundred pages of reading sound like no sweat.)

So it was a pretty quiet weekend. Yesterday was rainy and cool, today the trees are brilliant and the sun is out. Gorgeous weather for studying on the balcony…—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 10/18 at 02:28 PM
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