Musings on an Assortment of Subjects

Parents! Hiking! Sunshine! Warmth!

I’d better write this, lest I procrastinate any longer…it’s already been a week since Thanksgiving!

A few things I’m thankful for today:

• Sunshine! (Okay, not today…but there has been a remarkable string of nice days lately.)
• The fact that our home has a working heater keeping us at a balmy 68 degrees! (Of this one I am acutely aware, since our thermostat batteries died last night and the heater didn’t run.)
• This one probably deserves a post of its own, but if you haven’t heard yet, I’m simply delighted (and still just a little awed) to announce that this beautiful, amazing young lady is now my girlfriend!

(Sorry about the poor-quality photo…there was an Amishman running the camera and he forgot to turn on the auto-focus.)

• Today was the 20th birthday of the awesomest little sister ever. Happy birthday, Beth! (Aww, blast, I guess I can’t do anything with the “I am a cow” poster this year…) I’m glad you’re along for the ride that is this life.
• My wonderful parents, who are faithful correspondents, good people, and always supportive.
• So many friends in the Goshen College diaspora…I miss you!
• My MVS housemates, who are good cooks, good listeners, and pretty much fun.
• The chance I have to work at ONE/Northwest, doing something I enjoy for a cause I care about while working with people who have lots to teach me but also are interested in my own opinions.
• The church communities I’ve been a part of — Assembly Mennonite and Seattle Mennonite — and the energy they give me for working for peace and justice in a world that has too little of both.

And for those of you looking for an update, here is a brief visual synopsis of my Thanksgiving weekend…

Thursday: dinner and general laziness at Sean and Aaron’s

Friday: I met Katie downtown after detouring around the big parade…

…and we headed up to visit her aunt and uncle on Camano island. It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend of Christmas decorating, playing Ti Chu, dozing by the fire, baking shortbread cookies, and generally pampering ourselves.

Life is good!

Don’t spend too much time around me unless you are prepared to listen to some pretty disgusting puns. I can’t really help it; I get it from both the Glicks and the Weavers.

From my comments on a friend’s blog post:

[Meryl tells us she just won 155 Bach CDs.]
“Wow, that???s enough to fill a whole Bachs.”
[Meryl expresses doubt over her desire for that many CDs from one composer.]
“I suppose if you don???t want them, you could always give them Bach.”
“You could put some of them in a time capsule. Then it would be Bach to the Future.”
[Abby accuses me of being our high school choir director, a serial punster*, posing as me]
“You can make accusations, Abby, but you???ll never get me to come out from Haydn.”

And from an IM chat this evening:

Me: What’s the midterm problem this year?
Naf: So there’s this spring and a mass and they go into this bar…
Naf: Sounds like a bad physics joke, doesn’t it.
(later)
Naf: Yeah, there’s the spring, a mass, and a driver.
Me: I guess that would be the designated driver…

You have been warned. And yes, I confess I spent 10 minutes this afternoon trying to come up with a pun on “Rachmaninoff.”

*awaiting further pun-ishment, no doubt

Just before I left Goshen, I spent some time converting some old video from my childhood into digital form. I’ve been meaning to post a few clips since then, but due to technical difficulties and moving across the country I haven’t gotten to it until now.

So enjoy this clip of what happened when it was time to take paper off the cans for recycling.

As you can see, not even my sister’s embittered cries could stop me from be focused on recycling those cans. So much sibling love going on there. 🙂 Fortunately now we can watch this and share a good laugh.

My parents finally got around to selling our trusty, rusty old 1988 Honda Accord. It was time–the bumper has been tied on for a couple years, we haven’t dared take it out of the county since we got our new car in 2003, and with Beth and I out of the house there is little need for two vehicles. Still, I can’t help feeling wistful. We owned the car beginning in 1993, and it served us well on many a cross-country roadtrip in its day.

Ah well…I’m sure the hundred bucks will be useful as well. 🙂

Today I traveled to eastern Washington for the Mennonite Country Auction and Relief Sale. For those of you who don’t know, a relief sale is a type of event held around the country to raise funds to support the relief and development work of Mennonite Central Committee around the world. Mennonites gather from all around to gorge themselves and spend lots of money on quilts and antiques, all in the name of giving in the name of Christ to those in need. (I’ve heard that part of being Mennonite is living simply and reducing consumption…except on relief sale day!) Definitely it is a must-see ritual of the Mennonite subculture, and perhaps the closest thing that there is to a real Mennonite sacrament.

The auction opened with a loaf of bread. (sold for $625)

happy consumers of kraut runzas, groundnut stew, and homemade pies

making apple butter (for sale in freshly sealed jars, still warm)

If you have been a Mennonite for any length of time, you are familiar with the “Mennonite game.” This is the strange (and unfortunately sometimes exclusive) ritual by which Mennonites interrogate new acquaintances to discover how they fit into the Mennonite web and (more importantly, if she is cute) check to see whether the two of you are cousins.

Some of the coincidental connections I discovered today:

• the fellow I talked to at the MCC booth is a third cousin of the parents of one of my MVS housemates (a fact ascertained because I noticed that he shares her last name and hometown, and inquired)
• a couple of decades ago, my MVS host parents helped start a church in Texas with the parents of a college friend who I attended a church small group with in Goshen

No need to freak out, says the Mennonite. It’s a small (Mennonite) world, and this is actually totally normal. So if I meet you and start asking strangely personal questions, don’t be taken aback. I’m just used to finding connections when I meet someone, and am trying to find a point of commonality.

It’s fall!