Thursday, July 23, 2009

written the following day

I bombed out in Hebrew again today. And I sit here and let out a sigh as I think about it. Here's to hoping I simply pass the class!

On the up side, Marilyn walked with me to go find myself some lunch and convinced me to go to Subway and split a veggie sub with her. So we ordered to go and thought to eat outside, but the Kentucky summer was rearing its unpleasant head, so we sat in the student center instead and ate. A good way to begin my Hebrew studying for the day. Always a joy to get to chat with Marilyn. You just never know what might come out of her mouth.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wednesday was a whole lot of Hebrew. I'm ssssoooooooooooooooooo tired of Hebrew. I've come to hate it. We didn't have class today, so I studied, but it doesn't feel as if I'm getting much of anywhere.

So I took a break and watched So You Think You Can Dance! Which I missed last week. And it had the most amazing dance on it about fighting breast cancer. Brilliant. Watch it.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

written later

Perhaps it’s time to remember Jesus. I seem to have pushed him by the wayside in the midst of this ocean of Hebrew I’m drowning in. One might think that studying Hebrew would bring you closer to God, but anyone who might think that has never taken Greek or Hebrew. It will bring you closer after that fact, but in the midst, it will make you want to shoot yourself. I feel as if one of these days I ought to learn a language that is not dead. Someday, Bengali will fill that roll, and in my dreams, so will French and Italian, but don’t put much stock in that actually happening. I dream a lot and I dream big.

On a high note, I got my glasses! They’re awesome! I’m loving them! And this day is exactly one month till my birthday. Let the countdown begin.

Now back to Hebrew. Ugh.

Monday, July 20, 2009

I should be writing a post that repeats yesterday's post...but I'm not. Because I can't. Because I wore myself out on Hebrew. I tried, I really did, to study Hebrew today, but alas, I didn't get particularly far. We don't have a quiz the following morning, so I let myself slack a bit. Not smart, but maybe needed. Instead, I was able to go get my splurge of the year! My purple Ray Ban Wayfarer Original sunglasses, Bob Dylan style. They are currently at the eye doctor getting the perscription lenses put in. I can go pick them up after my next class is over. So excited. This is a picture of the lovely babies. Morgan got matching, though tortoise shell instead of purple, glasses and we will be taking pictures soon. So wait for some goodness to show up on here. Well, more goodness;).

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I studied Hebrew all day today. And I mean aaaalllllllll day. And it felt a bit like this picture.


Off to bed, now, to do it all again tomorrow.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

I was supposed to pressure wash the concrete and wood in the garden behind the chapel today with Marilyn, but Marilyn bailed on me. This is not particularly surprising. If she doesn’t set something in stone, then it’s set in nothing at all and free for the changing or canceling at any time. And so I decided to go work some more on the labyrinth pattern and hopefully finish it.

Finish it, I did! And it’s damn impressive if I do say so myself! And my quads are killing me because of it. All the standing and squatting and standing and squatting and crawling around on the floor gave me quite a workout, apparently. I was preparing to fold up the labyrinth and carry it over to the garden to see how it would fit when I ran into Marilyn in the student center. This may not seem strange except that it’s Saturday, a day she doesn’t work. But a friend of hers is in town and she was showing her where she works, so Marilyn, excited I was finished, took the friend in to the gym to show her what I had done and to see it herself for the first time, and needless to say, I blew her out of the water. She was shocked at how well it turned out. I mean, this thing is all but perfect. Marilyn was impressed and on her way out of the building, she called back to me, “I owe you lunch!” “You owe me cupcakes, too!” I reminded her. “I know!” she replied and I laughed as I wandered back into the gym to pack up the labyrinth.


A few minutes later, I wandered over to the garden with the pattern and again ran into Marilyn who was telling her friend about the garden and what was going to be done to it. When I got there, I realized I had not taken into account some of the measurements of the place and panicked for a moment that it wasn’t going to fit. These are the times when I realize that as detailed as I can be, over all, I do not have a detail oriented personality. Marilyn and her friend helped me unfold the nearly 15’ by 15’ pattern and to my great relief, it fit perfectly. And Marilyn was excited. It was fun to have her there as I unveiled the temporary version, and her friend gave some advice on how to refinish the currently tattered built-in wooden benches. As Marilyn and her friend got in the car and they prepared to go their way as I prepared to go mine, Marilyn smiled and said, “You know, I have to admit I doubted you.” I smiled with a rather cocky grin and said, “I know, Marilyn. But I didn’t. I may doubt myself in many things, but art is not one of them.” It is good for me to remember that there is something in my life that I am inherently gifted in and as much as I may be unsure about many things, my gifts are something I should never lose sight of.

Later, in the evening, Morgan and I went to Brewster’s to grab some ice cream and then went out to Highbridge and stood on the lookout that overlooks the railroad bridge to the right and a fork of the Kentucky river to the left. I love that lookout. Looking down at that river with the Kentucky tree covered hillsides all around makes me think of Huck Finn traveling up the Mississippi river (or was it down?) in his exploits, because I always imagined it looked like this. It’s always delightful when the things you imagine end up actually existing.

And so I go to bed feeling as if today was a day that filled me well. I am not stuffed at the end of this day, but I am satisfied. I was successful in finishing the labyrinth and was delighted to spend time with a friend. Tomorrow, it’s Hebrew all day. Alas, back to regular life.

Friday, July 17, 2009

It is two weeks into my four week class which means today was our midterm. This class may kill me, but maybe I’ll kill it first. I sit here at my desk and let out a big sigh. In truth, I’m simply relieved it’s done. Now for the last two weeks! I’m not sure how I did; though I don’t think it was too bad. Certainly better than the last two quizzes!

When I walked out of Hebrew today, I didn’t want to look at anything even resembling Hebrew, and so I didn’t, and it was great. For most of the afternoon, I worked on figuring out the labyrinth pattern for the prayer garden Marilyn and I are designing. I spent about four hours in the hot gym attempting to lay it out and I feel as if I didn’t get much of anything done for the hours I worked. But that’s how it goes with art, especially art that takes a lot of math to get it right. Math. Oh my. My tenth grade geometry class has come back to bite me in the ass. I even had to utilize the Pythagorean Theorem today, which really means I had to find something online that would calculate it all for me.

The labyrinth is set to be fourteen feet ten inches across and will largely resemble the three-circuit one shown in this picture. It took three hours to roll out all the paper, draw the lines, find, measure, and cut string, tape them to the paper, calculate all my measurements, and finally draw out the outer circle with my make-shift compass, which, I will say, I was quite proud of coming up with. And then I was hungry and ready to go home for the evening. In three hours, I got a circle drawn. Well, hopefully the slowest part of the process is over—getting the initial lines measured on the paper.

Tonight for dinner, I sautéed up some of the vegetables from the co-op and tonight I had local organically grown potatoes and orange tomatoes for the first time in my life. It was quite amazing. It’s exhilarating, I have to admit, to eat vegetables right out of the dirt. I’m such a city girl. I know nothing about these things.

And then afterward, Morgan and April and I watched the movie Wonder Boys. It had been a while since I’d last seen it and I was in the mood. The mood was satisfied. I always enjoy that movie and it’s dark, witty, cynical humor.

I debated going to bed after that, but I decided to watch another movie. For Marilyn’s vacation, I lent her some of my movies, one of which was Pieces of April. I find this movie fascinating and always good to watch. A few days ago, Marilyn handed back over to me the movies she’d finished watching. She took out Pieces of April and said to me, “You are that girl.” “What?” I said back. “You are that girl. That girl is you. She is totally you,” she replied as she tapped the movie cover. I had never thought of that character as much to do with me, let alone as me, so I was curious and thought I needed to watch that movie again soon. Tomorrow, I am meeting up with her to do a little work on the garden and so I decided I would watch that movie tonight and then ask her about it. In light of her comment, I laughed at a few things in this movie I hadn’t laughed at before, because, well, some of these things were things I would do. But is this character, in essence, me? What did Marilyn mean by that? Hopefully, I will get some answers tomorrow. But I won’t put much stake in it, because when you’re with Marilyn, the conversation can go anywhere, and it can fly out of your control quicker than you thought you had it. Of course, it’s always an interesting one.