Autumnal

I am sleeping under blankets again. Weather is so fluxiuary in Texas (take that Steven Colbert or G.W. Bush). It was 80 degrees at 2pm today and then by 4:30pm it was 61. It is the season of multiple light layers or a change of clothes constantly on hand.

There are a lot of small things happening. Joyful dances, good dinners, intentional communing, harvests, funerals (a raccoon got one of our chickens), homecomings, blossoms, bees, bounty, color, space, laughter, children, and wind. Lots of small things. My life is an obvious sum of its parts. I am very glad. I think a lot of people strive for that sort of life.

I am finding a lot of joy in freerice.com. They have several trivia type pages which allow you to donate rice through the UN by your right answers. One of the trivia pages is on artistic masterpieces. It may sound silly but even this small addition to my life makes me deeply joyful. These paintings have been speaking to peoples souls for hundreds of years. They speak to mine now. I am learning.

Roommate Kris is home from California finally. I missed him. We are still working our research job for Baylor with very little enthusiasm. Its a disheartening project. We will keep on, I suppose.

All of the sudden I see myself with adult friends. I know this sounds silly. I am twenty five. My friends have three, four, and five year old children. We quite obviously have been adults for a while. It is just recently that I feel like an adult in my church, and adult in my work (at least one of them), and an adult within my friends.

I'm not going to talk about politics, though I feel like I could. There is a lot of dissension amongst the people that I love. I am voting early, voting strongly, feeling very content in my choice, but I am hoping that, once this is all over in a couple weeks, we wont have to talk about it anymore.

Octubre.

Do you ever befriend someone and then get disappointed when you realize they have other friends? Like, another group of friends? That their life was complete and probably awesome before they met you? I think I live to much between the covers of books, or the credits of movies. They teach you expect concise, uncomplicated lives. No old friends from high school who crop up occasionally. No guy that you sat next to in freshman comp who you still sort of know. I always get this ridiculous pang of disappointment when I glimpse someones other life. Like when they are making plans on the phone with someone you don't know. Such a silly response.

I have a pretty good life plan at the moment. My parents expect a new one from me every few weeks (and I am happy to oblige) but this one has stuck for a while. I think that is because this is a sound, good, responsible, possible plan. Most are not. I still want to live on a house boat and make chocolates. I still want to live in a Bronco in a National Park. I still want to sail the world (maybe learn to sail first). And maybe I will do all these things. In fact, I think I will make a point of doing all these things. But first I will take advantage of the MCC University Center, I will get a degree, then I will take advantage of Mission Year/Easterns lovely masters program and I will get one of those as well. Then I will do these other things.

We called an exterminator. Our house has many non- human inhabitants. Rats, mice, roaches. And we have lived side by side for the last four months. Only, last week, a rat waddled into our bedroom (slowly so as to allow us a nice glimpse of him). We called an exterminator. He came to day and sprayed poison all over our house (we are not fans), tossed bait in the attic and under the house, and left sticky traps in a few pertinent places. We are not fans of sticky traps. One caught a mouse a few mintues ago. Jessica couldnt leave it there, flayling as it was. I whole heartedly agreed but am unfortunatly not very brave. It was a fairly traumatic experiance, ending with an injured mouse being put out of his misery under the wheels of a car. We do not like sticky traps.

The weather is changing. I am looking forward to this.

On Tuesday, after school, Mayada had volleyball practice, which left me with Jeffery alone. Jeffery had a flag football game at 4:30, his first as starting quarterback, and he was incredibly excited. We rushed home to get him a snack then loaded back into the car and rushed over to the field . As I dropped him off I said,
"I have to go pick Maymay up from volleyball but we will hurry and come back as soon as we can to watch you play. Okay, kid?"
"That's Kiddo to you!" Jeffery hollered as he tumbled out of the car.
I often call them kiddo. I think this is going to work out.

Being a research assistant is turning out to be pretty hard. I need a boss to be accountable to, I think. I have never been a very good self starter. Plus, as far as the women we are calling are concerned, we're just telemarketers, and no one likes a telemarketer. We are running into lots of interesting obstacles.

Waco has been the recipient of some beautiful weather lately. A week of seventies and blustery afternoons makes me grateful for being alive. Our garden is thriving. I am blessed to live with three people who know how to love and tend a garden. It seems so easy at the farm and here in our front yard, but I'm not sure I could have done this by myself.

Two of our chickens turned out to be roosters. When we got them they were so young and scrawny it was hard to tell. We suspected, but thought that maybe there was a chance that they were just hilariously scrawny hens. However, Old Warsaw and Mr. Bultitude have blossomed into beautiful, strutting, proud roosters. We're trading them in for two more hens. Its a pity to lose animals who have already become so beloved and well named, and introducing new hens could be a little rough on our flock, but the benefits of having two more layers sort of outweigh any objections. We've only named three of our hens, and one name is in contention, so I am hoping that these new ladies show some personality (and defining traits).

This has been my first full week working all three jobs. My boss at Starbucks is becoming one of my favorite people simply for the compassion he shows for me. He has a lot of employees to keep track of but I know that he keeps me and my crazy life in mind when he makes the schedule. Today he said something along the lines of trying to give me every other morning off so that I wouldn't get burned out. It is appreciated.

I've been praying about telling the Boltes that I can't nanny for them for a while, at least while I am working for Baylor. Jessica really needs some extra money, and would be a prefect nanny (shes done it before for years and years) . The only thing stopping me is that I haven't worked for them for very long. I feel badly ducking out this soon.

One of the most beautiful things in my life is this: TJ walking up to me and quietly handing me a book of poetry open to the appropriate page. Charles Wright. Scar Tissue.

So, in summation, my life is good and I enjoy it.