mark wahlberg works in the cafeteria at the seminary

i'm sick.

i said to the doctor on Monday, "i think i'm getting sick"

and she said, "yep, you are. isn't much i can do about that"

so i've been pumping myself with water, zinc, vitamins, and lots of extra sleep.

 

In addition to the sickness, i'm still not drinking coffee. I've had several thoughts today about how my sinus headache would be slightly alleviated by some nice, dark caffeine. and i'm still not watching tv (ok ok, i snuck in a half a movie the other night when the sick started creeping in - but just half of one while i ate dinner then went to bed). And i'm still waking up at 6am every day. but this has been the week of 9:30 bedtime and i like that.

Boom Shock.

 

I'm strugglin to find interesting things to write about. Going apple picking this Sunday (if i'm not super sick) and can't wait to take pictures. I might be more excited about the photo-ops than the apple picking itself. Oh, and the hayride. And the cider. And the apple cider donuts. And making applesauce. Ok, i'm excited now.

 

Also, my brudder is turning 17 in November and has never been on an airplane. I think i'm gonna fly him up for the Needtobreathe concert and tour him around the city, then force him to play guitar at church on Sunday. Brilliant plan if I do say so myself. except for the fact that it means missing the weepies concert

 

i've got that ridiculously annoying itchy feeling in my nose. and the whole rest of my face.

 

we went on our navigate retreat this weekend, which was fabulous. who doesn't love being out in the woods all day with your best friends, throwing on a dress in 2 minutes, and being taken out to dinner at the yacht club? not this kid, that's for sure. it was lovely.

 

what is also lovely is the fall. i am in love with the in between seasons. I think its mostly the air. you can smell everything that nature is doing. and i don't like extremes, so its a nice blend of everything. so apple picking it is!

my bedroom is a vortex for smell. good and bad. when fletch is cooking in the kitchen and i can smell it stronger in my room than the kitchen, it's nice. but when neighbors are smoking various things on the porch, it's not so good.

 

mark wahlberg works in the cafeteria at gcts.

andrew ripp is the president of a new club i like to call,

"No Freakin' Way, Man. Ain't No Way We Lettin' the Devil Have All the Good Music"

 

This is a miracle.

I only hit the snooze button once today. I climbed back into my bed for 5 more minutes, then when it when off again, I turned off the alarm and went to the shower at 6:05am.


This is a miracle.

Now, I did it groaning and grumbling the whole time. But God, I just love my bed so much. Can't I just go climb back into my bed for a few more minutes? It's just so cozy there...

But I had resolved to wake up when my alarm when off. I've resolved to do that practically every day since high school, but always seem to forget that when the alarm starts buzzing. But I did it today (almost) and actually got going without wasting another half hour in bed. And you know the reward? I realized that when i'm done showering, making breakfast, and go back to my room, I get to climb BACK into bed to read. That, my friends, was the quite the enlightening discovery. So I climbed back into bed to read for Navigate, read a few other passages I felt led to, and then gotdressed and got going with my day.

AND i'm doing this all without coffee. I've had a dull headache since Saturday, my first day without it, but i'm getting through. I'm praying that this isn't a forever decision, but coffee was just starting to consume my thoughts in a way that was not healthy. Where can I get it? When can I get it? Should I leave early so I can stop to get some? Do I have time before work to make it?

Not. Healthy.

So I bought some delicious decaf Apple Cinnamon tea so that i'd have something yummy and warm and fall-like to drink in the mornings. I keep it in my desk at the office, and now that everyone can smell it, they know it's here. Let's just say i'll be making some friends real soon. Between the tea and the lemon-raspberry cookies I brought in today, i'm practically famous.
In other news, we officially have tickets to see Needtobreathe in Boston in November. This is the 4th time i've attempted to go see them. This is the 2nd time i've actually had tickets. Let us hope and pray that it actually happens this time. The Jesus-shaped hole in my heart has been filled, but the Needtobreathe-live-in-concert hole has been screaming at me for a year now. The time has come, Bear Rhinehart.

Also, I officially exist at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary because my nameplate was finished and has been added to the sign on the door outside of my office. Lovely.
So many good scriptures i'm clinging to today. Don't worry, i'll share one:

The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor. The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly. Isaiah 60:19-22
 
 
in honor of the tickets....

i wear a demeanor made of bright pretty things.

It's great working in an office where people want to know what you did over the weekend, but not when you're someone who consistently blanks on that question.

"Good Morning, Jenna! How was your weekend?"

"It was great, thanks!"
"What did you end up doing?"
"..........Great question. I don't remember. Let me get back to you."

 

It WAS a good weekend, though. I've been a bit disconnected because the hard drive on my Macbook died and i've been either using my work computer or Elisa's computer for email and such, so not really keeping up with my normal blog-o-rama. But that has been fixed, and I shall now share, in great detail that no one will actually be interested in, what exactly it is that I did this weekend.

 

Friday night was taco and hang out night at Becky's new place with lots of new Gordon Conwell friends...it was awesome to have good food and get to know some new people. Activities involved eating, talking, and walking to the beach. A brilliant evening.

 

Saturday I got b*fast with Sara, she helped me go get my Macbook fixed (wonderfully simple and free because I have AppleCare, but also a little sad because it means I lost everything on my old computer), we wandered the mall briefly, said hello to Miya and family, scoped out an old building that is for sale (always on the church hunt), and went back to her place to steal Josh's guitar. Sara time is always good time in my book.

Then I planned some more for worship before finding the deal of the century. I've been wanting a chair for my room for the longest time, and this weekend I finally found the perfect one. Leave it to Savers to SAVE the day. (I crack myself up) It was $25 and it's green and brown and perfect for my room. Then I got a $25 full sized bookshelf, something every grownup needs, and threw a party. Actually, I joined some others for a party of playing trains. We're addicted to Ticket to Ride.

Sunday I woke up and built my bookshelf, rearranged my room, prepared for worship, and went to church. It was my first Sunday as the new co-worship leader. This is a transition that has been brewing for a little bit of time, but is actually something i'm now able to share about clearly.

 

After lots of prayer and decision, we're making a shift at the harbor to a transitional period of myself and josh booth co-leading the worship ministry. josh will be handling mostly the sound aspect of things, training other sound people, leading occaisionally, etc. I will be seen more on the musical end of things, planning and leading worship this week. It has definitely been an interesting few weeks of processing and praying about what this time could look like after coming out of a time of such exceptional worship pastoring from sturg, but i'm excited that things are finally somewhat "set" and we can sit back and dream and scheme for a while. now that things are pretty more in place, i'm feeling  the freedom to get excited and really vision-cast for this season.

 

So that was church Sunday - I introduced a new song and met a new baby, and then we hung out at my house afterwards with Chinese to bid Sheralynn goodbye. The crazy fool moved to california yesterday. so pumped for her adventures.

Yesterday, i slept in nice and late before Elisa and I drove to Maine. We went up to the LLBean in Freeport, wandered the outlets a little bit, took some silly photos, wandered down to Portland to do the same thing, then stopped at her parent's house for beach pizza on the way back home. It was a gorgeous day and i'm hoping I got some ok photos.

i like this one.

We didn't even go inside. After the LL Bean outlet, we just wern't all that impressed. But we DID need a picture with the boot. 

Portland, ME.

Portland and LLBean.

 

Now back to work. Back to the daily grind. lol - students are all coming back, orientation is this week, and i'm excited to keep meeting new people. Dash's wedding this weekend, and Navigate starts up on Wednesday.

 

i love life.

who died and made you king of anything?

Finally, the rain is gone.
And I cannot wait for the fall. I'm in love with the changing seasons. Forget the extremes of Winter and Summer, and gimme that breezy, shifting uncertainty anyday. I'm such a commitment-phobe.

Ocean Grove was fantastic. I saw so many people I love sooo much, got to lay on the beach, and ate FAR too much ice cream. I saw the "Newsboys" in concert, which really threw me for a loop - since when did Michael Tate of DC Talk start fronting for the Newsboys? It was more like a Michael Tate show with a few DC Talk and Newsboys classics. But I had the best seats in the house - how can you beat the Northwest balcony in the Great Auditorium?
The drive home, however, was another story. Absolutely miserable. We left just before 6pm and didn't get home until 1:30am because it was raining the entire way home. Hard. I think my eyes are still recovering from the constant state of trying to stay focused.

My computer is dying. The IT guys here at work are currently trying to get the data off of it so I can take it to the apple store - but it's not looking so promising. If you are a praying person, please pray for my dear computer.

Do yourself a favor and go buy Brooke Fraser's new song on iTunes - can't wait til her CD comes out.
I would tell you about all the other concerts i'd love to go to this fall, but they're on my computer which is currently in a coma...did I mention you should pray for it?
Finally feeling pretty settled in this job - almost finished with week three - but still in this state of long-term transition. This summer was crazy and now i've got this job to kind of ground me and my schedule, but i'm still trying to figure out how to balance possible voice lessons and extra babysitting jobs. Navigate Mod 2 will be starting in a couple weeks, and that mixed with some added worship leading at church equals a continued state of transition and falling into some kind of groove. But i'm stickin to my guns that God is way super good and provides absolutely everything I need. Life is in transition, but rich and exciting.

my heart and mind will not agree.

I'm at work this morning - I know, I know, why am I on the computer updating my blog? Because it is just that slow. Last week was a little crazy because I was training during a week with both Rent and Tuition payment deadlines. Lots of students at the window last minute, and lots of new things to learn. It was great - it forced me to get comfortable enough with the systems to do things (mostly) on my own this week after everyone left. My supervisor is gone, her supervisor is gone, another woman in my office just got back yesterday, and our student worker left Wednesday. It has been pretty empty in here. And because we're in the limbo weeks between Summer and Fall semesters, not a lot is going on. I'm ok with it - with supervisors gone, it has been good to know that the stress level is down and most things I have questions about can wait til they get back.
I am, however, told that in a short while, this will all be just lovely memory from the past - that as soon as students start to show up around here and Fall gets into full swing, my job will get pretty crazy. When it's that time, bring it on. Until then, i'm chillin with my coffee and my blog and Needtobreathe playing through my iPod headphones on my desk until it's time to open the window for students. I don't even have any voicemails to return.

I am finally making friends around here - that sounds so lame, but there aren't many students around yet, and just hadn't met many people yet. But the ladies in Admissions are lovely and let me sit at their lunch table every day for a small fee (kidding). I'm starting to feel good and starting to find my niche a little bit around here and i'm still loving the consistency. It's amazing how quickly I fell into a morning routine. I'm obeying the alarm clock more than I had been (we'll see how long that lasts), shower, start the coffee, grab breakfast and take it back to my room to check email/weather/twitter/facebook (the essentials), get dressed, go make my coffee mug and lunch, then finish getting ready. Then I hit the road, jack. And the drive is lovely. New England back roads - I can't wait til the leaves change. It will be GORGEOUS.

The beauty of this job in the summer is being able to take shorter lunches and leave at 2:30pm on Fridays - Elisa and I (assuming she's feeling better) will be hopping in a car right after that the trek down to Ocean Grove. I could not be more excited and it could not come at a better time. My brain is absolutely full. New job, end of summer, transitioning into fall, lots of things going on up there in that noggin of mine and I definitely need the time to step back and clear it out a bit. PLUS the people there just make me feel so good. I'll get to spend time with kids and staff and friends and family and it is SURE to be good for my soul.

My computer is on the fritz and I desperately need to take it to the apple store to have someone look at it, but haven't had the chance yet. Keeps freezing and then not wanting to restart - I realized late last night that today is the deadline for the Donald Miller blog contest and I need to get my entry in. It's already written, so let's hope i'm able to restart my computer later and get it up here before hitting the road after work. If so, you might be getting 2 blogs from me in a day.

Lucky you.

Getting me through:

so, are you a seminary wife?

No, I'm not a seminary wife.
Evidently that isn't typical for where I work - and i'm getting funny glances that seem to say, "and you work here....why?"

I just finished my first full week as the Cashier in Student Accounts at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Lifelong dream of mine?
No.
2 year prayer for a full-time job fulfilled beyond what I could have dreamed of?
Absolutely.

Basically, my new job is like being a bank teller...but at a seminary. I sit at a window and take payments from students and all different kinds of offices on campus. Pretty much, if you write a check to the seminary, it makes its way to me and I have the joy of entering it into the computer (i'm learning 3 + new computer programs), counting it, re-counting it, making deposits, copying checks....

I love that I get to interact with the students. I love the people in my office. I love working in a place where going to chapel is part of the job in the middle of the workday.
Here are some classy pics of my oh so standard office area (taken with my phone):

My chair, computer, limited counter space, the window with the shade down, and cheat sheets on the wall for entering things into the computer. 

My tall wall looking out into the rest of the office, adorned with my pending box and the cashier's handbook.

My new favorite lunch spot. 

Things i'm still adjusting to:
-My schedule is the same every day. I don't have to fall asleep reminding me of the next day's schedule, what time I need to wake up, and which 3 homes I need to be at.
-What the heck to do with an hour for lunch. I don't know a ton of people yet, and I can eat lunch in well under 30 minutes - i'm so used to eating with children and eating quickly, that i'm swimming in extra time at my lunch break.
-Oh, and my supervisor will be on vacation all next week - so we'll see how much I've actually learned and retained this week.

Moral of the story: i'm loving the consistency.

side note: new people moved in on the floor above us and they're LOUD. a little worried.

When it rains, it pours.

The holding pattern has ceased.
I was offered 2 positions and have chosen one.
I have turned down the awesome role in the musical.

The first position was a job as an office assistant to a psychiatrist. While slightly appealing in some very minor ways, I decided against this offer.
On Friday afternoon, I got a call from Human Resources at Gordon-Conwell telling me that although they were very impressed with me, I was not selected for the job in Registration. However, if I would like to come in that afternoon for an interview, there is another office who has heard about me and would like to interview me. I let them know that I would love to come but had a deadline by Monday to make a decision about the psychiatrist job. I went in for the interview, loved the people, and got called before I even got back home that I was offered the position. As it turns out, the first office I had interviewed with had given me a glowing recommendation to this new office, who promptly told HR that if I didn't get hired for the job in Registration, they would like to interview me in the Financial office.

I am now the Cashier at Gordon-Conwell.
I start Monday and I couldn't be happier.
Well, except for actually having to dress like an adult and losing free laundry access at Casa Baird.

God works in crazy ways.

After all of this job nonsense, I turned down the role in the musical. I'm still a little bummed about this - i've been wanting to get back into theater for a while, and was so excited to be offered a part. (I'm learning more and more how difficult it is to turn down people who compliment you and encourage your ego.) But I just never really had peace about doing the show. I kept telling myself, "it's only 3 months, it's only 3 months," but it would have meant missing out on a lot of crucial community, and i'm already coming out of a summer where I haven't felt like i've been in any kind of groove lately. I'm feeling the need to get back into that groove - and starting a new job and a new musical in the same week just wasn't going to help that. I'll probably go audition again sometime soon - and pray for a schedule and timing that works better. I'm also still waiting on this CD to get finished, and when it does I want to be free to promote it and play out and all that jazz.

So I followed David Burke's advice: "No peace, no go." At least now I know I can do it, and there are options out there for me - this just wasn't the one.

I gotta go back to posting a video with each blog.
I can't say that I love rap music, but I love Heath McNease. He's hilarious and a genius. This one, not so hilarious. This one is rich.