The cutest little boy ever...

...goes to my church. He is adorable. He's so precocious. He sits with his mother in the very back pew. The other Sunday, he didn't want to go down to the front for the children's sermon, so he sat in the middle of the aisle, at the very back, right next to his mom. But he couldn't see what was going on up front, so slowly he scooted forward, one pew's distance at a time, and kept looking back at his mom to make sure it was ok. It was so adorable. And then tonight!

Titus was taking down prayer requests and the little boy is standing on the seat of the last pew. Titus saw that he had his hand raised. This conversation followed.

Titus: Yes, Will?
Will: Can we pray for my tongue to stop bleeding?
Titus: Can we pray for your tongue to stop bleeding?
Will's Mom: He just bit it.
Titus: Oh, yes! We'll pray for your tongue, Will.
Will: Ok, thank you!

It was the cutest thing I think I've ever heard. I almost cried, I'm not kidding. Then again, I've been emotional lately. Graduating? Getting married? Who knows.

In other news, we joined the church today. And I got an amazing lead on a job. Wow. I'm stoked.

And I just used "stoked".

End of the Semester

It's the end of the semester and I don't know how this is all going to get done. It's 4:46 a.m. and I have many, many pages left to write about the sociolinguistics of Pittsburgh.

Jesus, thank you for joy.

So, there is a photo going around picturing Presidential candidate Barack Obama wearing a turban. The original source of this photo was on The Drudge Report. This show claimed to have recieved it from a Clinton campaign staffer. Here's what the Clinton campaign has to say:

"Enough. If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing
traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamend. Hillary
Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had
those photos published widely."

You know, there's a part of me that could understand their response to all the hype. Except for a few things.

1. Hillary's name doesn't rhyme with Osama
2. Hillary's middle name is not Hussein.

There's one other fact that makes the response of the Clinton campaign absolutely absurd to me.

This past December, in Iowa, a Clinton campaign volunteer sent out an e-mail saying that Barack Obama was a Muslim and wouldn't swear into office on the Bible. This was effective because when talking about the election with one of my friends, she got all fired up about how Obama is a Muslim and he won't salute the flag and he wants to be sworn in on the Koran. The Clinton volunteer was fired. But if it has happened before (2 months ago), who's to say that it isn't happening again?

Do I think Hillary herself or even someone high up on the campaign staff published this photo? Not really. But do I think that she has a right to call Barack's suspicion of her campaign shameful? Absolutely not. Politics are dirty. It happened before. The biggest fear of close-minded Americans is that there might be a Muslim somewhere with some sort of power. I wonder if they know about Congressman Keith Ellison on Minnesota, who happens to be ... Muslim.

By the way, Barack Obama attends a United Church of Christ church which professes to be "evangelical, congregational, and reformed". Sounds Christian to me.

important...

I think more than anything, being an RA has really impressed upon me how important it is to talk. When you have a problem, talk about it. Don't understand something, talk about it. And especially - when you are upset with someone, talk to them about it.

There are two main reasons for talking to them about it.
1) You may find out that they didn't at all mean what you thought they meant.
2) They will respect you a lot more and maybe think twice about doing whatever they did again.

The thing is, life is kind of ridiculous sometimes. But there's no escaping it. And there's no way you can get through the rest of your life just putting off the difficult conversations you have to have. It's really important.

Maybe more thoughts later.





P.S. This post is dedicated to the blessing of finding Pastor Selvaggio's sermons online.

Congratulations?

Well, interestingly enough, today I got congratulated on my recent engagement.

Except that I'm not engaged. :-D

It was an honest mistake, really. I don't really mind honest mistakes. I just mind the pressure some people put on myself, and Dave too, by asking all sorts of questions. I don't know when he will ask me to marry him - why would HE tell ME that? It's supposed to be a surprise!

Oh well.

And the news about Andrew Jackson got out. So...I am going to get a no-kill trap tomorrow.



This post is dedicated to my Jeep, who braved the snow and poorly salted roads this evening to allow Dave and I a late night snack.

In my defense...

For some reason, when I signed in here, it acted like I had never blogged here before. So I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out why the heck it was doing that. Finally, randomly, it worked.

But, on to the big news of the day - the mouse.
Actually, it's not big news quite yet because it just happened and only Colleen was awake in the house to know about it.

I was filling up the Brita pitcher in the kitchen, when I saw something scurry from the corner of the counter near the sink, behind the sink, under a handtowel, behind the mixer, blender, and popcorn popper, and then dash into a burner on the stove. I mean, really. If you were a mouse, would you hide in the STOVE?

Regardless, this one chose to hide there. I guess he wouldn't hide there if he didn't know he could get out.

I started screaming hysterically, which makes no sense because I love mice. I have had pet mice. I think they're adorable. I think it freaked me out because earlier tonight I watched a movie about the poisonous snakes, spiders, and jellyfish of Australia, and it made me really jumpy. Until I realized it was a mouse, I really could only tell it was a brown thing.

I just don't want to have to tell Tom or Sarah about it because I don't want them to set up mousetraps. I think I am going to name this little mouse-fellow. He needs a very sophistocated name. Like --- Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson, our kitchen mouse.

Just don't tell the other girls. They'll think he carries germs.