It's a Blustery Semester, Piglet.

It's a blustery day today, and my friend Beachcomber says she is simply tired of looking at my latest entry's picture of Bush, which gave me pause. I haven't posted since 23 September?!??!

It's been a blustery semester, Piglet. I've been picking up on all kinds of weird (bad?) vibes on the seminary campus, causing extreme distraction and a hesitancy to post anything at all. Since the beginning of September, I have compared my feelings to those I had upon arrival last year.

As a bright-eyed new student, I was ready to be indignant about too much Latin-dropping and overuse of obscure liturgical words. Later I was ready to stand up for my rights as an experimental Episcopalian, to worship outside the chapel and outside the rubrics of the Most Holy Book of Common Prayer. And later, more settled, I just settled into the sweeping power of my studies, and widened my reflections to things beyond seminary.

This year, all such energy for indignance has dissolved into a different kind of energy which cannot yet be named. The winds, as the blow and sweep this morning, have blown for me all semester. It has been the strangest thing: I have fewer classes and less reading but find it harder to keep up. I enjoy talking with the first years about their experiences and find them much more mature than I was at this time last year -- and actually than I am now. They have their own personality that is forming -- it strikes me as full of justice and wisdom.

I feel like as the wind picked up this morning, waking me up at 4 am, the wind of the semester actually dying down for the first time since August. It's Reading Week here at CDSP - which means Spring Break in the Fall. I'm taking my first real breath since August; I woke up feeling fresher than the flowers Pooh is holding. I started Still Life with Woodpecker last night and continued it this morning, my last unread masterpiece by Tom Robbins. Nothing makes me as giggly as Tom -- starting a new one from him is like whipped cream and cherries on the Ice Cream Sundae of Reading Week.

Stories of the past two months gone undocmented:

* Sitting next to Rick Sutcliffe (former Cubs pitcher, current ESPN announcer) on the plane back from my dad's surprise 50th birthday, who gave us 4 great seats for the first playoff game between the As and Detroit. Even though we lost, I sure enjoyed that pretzel, those nachos, that bite of hot dog, and that soda!

* My dad's surprise 50th birthday, a gathering of 60 or so of my dad's kids, industry friends, and frat bros from all over the country. The 2 classics playing on the deck and the dance where all the 5 kids and their Sig-Os found the dance floor at the same time. the soup, the fish, the wild boar, the cheese course and the amazing chocolate souffle and all accompanying wines. Tasting a glass of wine that's going from $1000/glass in NYC.

* Grading papers for a professor and all those with whom I've repeatedly (as in again and again and again and again and again and again) shared my wisdom of footnote structure. Getting good experience if i decide to go the professor route.

* Getting the fish smell out of my kitchen. Have you ever not been able to eat ice cream because the carton has become permanently infused with fish odor? How about scrubbed every inch of your floors, cabinets, walls, and ceiling with cleaner and still smelled fish? I never use air fresheners; now I have two.

* Stay tuned for the biggest reflection of all, to hit the blog soon.