Sunday, November 19, 2006

roses, cars, and colors

So, last weekend my friend Rose came to visit me. It was pretty awesome. I got to see a friend who I don't get to see often enough, and she got to see where my world has been for the last three-and-a-half years.

And what was the most interesting thing we did when she was here? We watched Cars. And dyed our hair. Rose, Katie, and I. Neither Katie nor I had ever dyed our hair before. She went for a natural black: I went for a reddish-brown. Rose went a darker brown, and got a haircut to boot.

As you can see, my hair isn't so much reddish-brown as it is ORANGE.

So, I washed it vigorously the next morning and it faded some. Now it's what I like to call a "violent strawberry blonde." In dim lighting, you can't really tell it's been dyed.

So I'm a temporary redhead. My blonde should be back in a month or so.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

glow sticks and the french language

A few random thoughts (four to be exact):

1.
I haven't written here for about a month, unless you count the post on Halloween that I wrote 15 minutes ago but dated as being written 4 days ago just because I wanted to make it a separate post. (I know, nerdy of me.) A lot has happened: papers, pumpkin smashing, mid-terms, studying, visiting friends, the Car Rally. Now that the second half of the semester is starting, I feel like I have a little bit of breathing room, but not too much. I really need to work on minimizing distractions, and getting my rocks into the jar before I start adding gravel and sand.

2.
It's been cold recently. It even snowed a few days ago. This brings me great joy. Although it's been a bit warmer in the last couple of days, I'm hoping that this early freeze means we're in for a cold, snowy, and fun winter. I took these pictures a couple weeks ago while I was on on one of my morning runs in the frost.

Note that this picture is entirely and completely posed. I normally don't have such a victorious grin on my face as I'm running, nor do I look at the sky. I find that it's more useful to keep an eye on the ground ahead of me. It prevents painful and unnecessary things from occurring (falling on my face, for example).

3.
In church this morning, Pastor Bill made a distinction between knowing information about God and knowing God personally. It was a passing comment; it wasn't the main point of the sermon, but it made me think of French. In French, there are two different words for the verb "to know," as opposed to English's one. Savoir (pronounced saav-woir) means to know about, to know intellectually: You'd say "I sais that Courtney is that short girl with blonde hair in my Hist o' Christ class. She is a Theology major, and she lives in a Theme House." But connaitre means to know personally. You'd say, "I connais Courtney: I sit by her in Hist o' Christ and we laugh together at the professor's jokes. We like to go ice skating together, and talk about life." I think that the distinction is an important one, and I'm sad that it's been lost in English. We shouldn't just know about (savoir) God... we need to know (connaitre) God.

4.
These last few days I've had several different "moments" when I'm convicted, either by something I'm reading or thinking about or hearing. But it's not a complete conviction: I'm almost-convicted. It's hard to describe. I feel like if I could just force the concepts that I'm mulling over into my head and heart, it would have a big effect on the way I live and operate, whether it be physically, emotionally, or spiritually. But it's like that conviction is just beyond my grasp. Today the perfect illustration came to me. In the middle of the sermon, I suddenly thought, I feel like a glow stick. I've got all these truths bumming around inside of my head, and all I need is a SNAP! and they'll break through their little intellectual barrier and combine with my life, causing me to glow.


So I'll end with this picture that I took while I was home for Fall Break. Calm; peaceful; beautiful; glowing. All I need is to be bent until I snap. If that makes any sense at all.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

afterthoughts on halloween

This was the first Halloween in my Whitworth career that has taken place on a class-day. Every other year it has occurred over Fall Break. So it was kind of fun to have the opportunity to dress up and wear weird things to class. The students who dressed up were definitely in the minority, but it was fun nevertheless. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment:

This one is of my friend Mary and I, before we went to a costume party at the Piano Theme House on the 30th. I was a farm girl; she was a 70s girl with a fro. We made a cute couple.

This next one is of my friend Michelle and I. We have both of our Tues/Thurs classes together in the same room (Christian Anthropology and World Religions), so we both wore costumes. I'm in one of my mom's old dresses from the 70s with a viking hat on my head, and Michelle is wearing this awesome orange dress that I found once at Value Village. I definitely wore that viking outfit all day. It was glorious.

Later that evening, we had a friend over to our house to make some pies and watch Hocus Pocus. I can't remember what exactly brought it about, but Katie and I ended up augmenting our costumes by using pillows to make us look pregnant and dancing in the kitchen while we cooked (I know, I know... just don't ask.) I think this picture is pretty funny. Pregnant women in the kitchen making pies: the epitome of the housewife stereotype.

So, in summary: as much as I dislike the connotations that surround Halloween, I've gotta admit that it provides a fun excuse to dress up, goof around, and eat candy.