Her Highness

I am an art senator in KSU's Student Goverment! Hearing that a postion was open, and that if appointed, I would be one of the first to register for classes as well as being paid 25% of my tuition, I applied for the postion. I met the president and attended two meetings. The third meeting I was appointed along with six others, after very little deliberation. I had to give a one minute speech about myself before they voted; I was so nervous I started rambling about how I loved art, and never said anything about what I could bring to Student Goverment.

As an art senator, I will hold a forum once a semester for my constituents to fill out surveys and voice complaints, I will take those findings to the Dean of the art department, I will help staff the SG office, and make banners advertising upcoming events.

Skiing

Over Martin Luther King weekend, I went skiing with the church youth group. Now, the south is not the best place to go skiing, for obvious reasons. We drove 8 hours to West Virginia, where the skiing prospects are a little bit better. (Notice I said "a little").

For a few weeks before we left, the weather forecast was predicting beautiful spring temperatures in the 60's and raining. Perfect weather for skiing, eh? Fortunately, the weather cooperated a few days before we went, and the temperature dropped into the mid 20's, low enough for the resort to make snow.

We stayed at a house about 8 miles from the ski mountain (for those that live in the Western US, you can call this "mountain" a hill). We were able to ski for five or six hours each of the three days we were there, which was a sufficient amount of time each day to wear you out.

For those of you that prefer to find fun in ways not involving barrelling down a hill at break-neck speeds, there are three classifications for ski slopes: Green, Blue, and Black. Oh and there's double-black, but those are for the really stupid people who like to live with the question of weather or not they'll make it down the mountain alive. It was probably a good thing that there were no double-blacks where we were skiing; much less in the Eastern US, otherwise we might be looking for a new youth director.

I managed to go down the black slope a few times. Even fewer times without making a fool out of myself. But it was still fun. On the last day we skied, there was a lot of ice on the slopes, which provided some extra fun in watching the snowboarders spin out of control when they hit the ice. I personally didn't have any truly spectacular mishaps. I was the cause of one or two - but I'll leave that out of here ;-)

Pickled Ramses Finishes His Vacation

In Art History today, Professor Huang was trying to get the class of about 70 students to tell her about mummies. Bit by bit, we pieced together a mosaic of how the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. But she wasn't satisfied with the answers. So I piped up with, "They're pickled!" It made her laugh-the first time I saw her laugh.

So Prof. Huang started describing a mummy that was owned by the Carlos Museum at Emory University, here in Atlanta. From all indications, this mummy appeared to be a Pharaoh. Egypt had all their pharaohs, except for one, Ramses I. "They lost Ramses." Huang said, then started laughing again. After extensive tests, Egyptologists are pretty sure the Carlos mummy is Ramses I. So in 2003, he was returned to Egypt. My friend leaned over and whispered, "He finally got to go home after his long vacation."

Off to Slovakia!

No, not us, and no one in our family. We have friends headed to Slovakia as missionaries at the end of February. They recruited various ones in our family to help them to get ready to leave. We have sorted clothes, packed toys and crafts supplies, inventoried books, tossed old and broken down thingies, pawed through their attic, and more. David spent a whole day organizing and reconfiguring their computers. He copied over 10 gigs of files between three computers. Tonight we hosted a meeting for them, and just before they leave we plan to host an Open House at our home for the entire church. For fun, I made one of their daughters some doll clothes. One is patriotic, so she won't forget the USA!

Awkward Days and Funny Moments

Awkward Day:

Monday, I had brought my lunch, but was still very hungry, so I bought some Chinese food. I asked for some "fried noodles", even though I had seen the sign that clearly marked them as Lo Mien. The server looked at me strangely as my friend corrected me. In broken English he told me, "We no have noodles, we have Lo Mien." Later, when I was filling out an application for Art Senator on Student Goverment, I misspelled my name, forgot my e-mail address, and didn't know my GPA. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror after I left: my hair was so frizzy it looked like I had stuck my finger in an outlet, and my clothes were rumpled. What a great first impression I made!

Funny Moment:

In the thrift store today, I wore a full calf-length skirt with silver sequins scattered over the design. I was leaning over a bin, rooting through the fabric while a girl was diddling around the bins, too. Finally she got up her courage, and came close to stage whisper, "I don't know you, but I really like your skirt." I smiled as I whispered back, "Thank you."

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head...

We got a new roof last week. Thirty minutes after the work crew left, we got to test the quality of our new roof when a rain storm hit. It's been raining off and on ever since, and we have NO LEAKS! Time to retrieve the drip bucket from the attic. We chose a gray-green roof this time, rather than the ugly old tan/rust/brown, or whatever the other color was supposed to be.

Dürer and Revelation

I'm teaching a series on Revelation Sunday mornings after the first church service. Along the way of teaching, I'm discovering the series of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer. Dürer did a series of 16 woodcuts on Revelation related themes. You can find images of these woodcuts at Connecticut College's Website.

Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a contemporary of Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 - February 18, 1546) and seemed to have some sympathy with Luther's movement. But Dürer died before Luther's movement was banished from the Roman Catholic Church. Whether Dürer would have been a Protestant Reformer is any one's guess.

In any case, I am having fun trying to insert classic artwork into my class notes in the Revelation class blog. I'm having a great time studying Revelation and creating notes. I've got at least six commentaries plus two sets of audio lectures from seminary professors on Revelation. Revelation was one of those mysterious books to me. I didn't know what to make of it. I was intimidated by it, and by people who read it a lot. Over the last few years I have found discovered the book is not as mysterious as I once thought it to be (not that it's not mysterious). I don't follow the currently popular writers and teachers on Revelation, but rather an old historical approach to the book that was popular for well over a thousand years that really makes a lot of sense to me.

The biggest challenge in teaching the class is keeping people awake and interested. I have 12 weeks to cover the entire book in a one-hour and fifteen minute class times -- and I use every second I can get.

Oops, I see that you're falling asleep reading this. I'll leave with a bang!