The Craptastics

Last night I went to a little shindig, or a shindy as I like to call it, with some Wycliffe friends.  We had barbecue and baseball.

BBQ:

I see lots of booze… not much meat.  Must be an Anglican shindy.

Baseball:

I look like a surprised Disney woodland creature.  On the left is Krista who provided the highlight of the evening by declaring “I hate blacks” while eating jelly beans just as a nice black lady showed up on the giant viewscreen thingy.

Prejudice seemed to be the topic of the evening as Krista also described the racism she experienced in Korea as “backwards racism.”  Apparently racism is only supposed to spawn from the white community.  When other groups are racist, that’s just backwards.

Finally, here’s a picture of me and Thea.  We’ll be throwing that one in the wedding slideshow.  Mostly because we don’t have any pictures of us as a couple.  And it may create the illusion that we do more than fall asleep watching television.  We also fall asleep watching professional sports.

I’m sitting here typing on my laptop as strangers wander through the house.

I’m finished classes but I’m still stressed.  All of the little wedding plans that still need to be worked out, the preparations for leaving the country for a year, and that stupid looming thesis.

In addition to pre-marriage counseling, Althea’s father wants us to attend two two-hour marriage seminars in Ajax.  I appreciate that we can’t really understand what it is to be married until we’re married… but frankly I think Thea and I are in pretty good shape going in.  We’ve been together for a while and been friends for a long time.  We never really had a lovey-dovey idealized phase of the relationship… It’s not like we still have surprising faults to discover.  Although… I guess it’s possible.

I wonder what sort of secret life Thea could be hiding.

I thought everyone knows that if a man comes to your door offering free breast exams… say no.  No no no.

Well I finished the exam.  I don’t really have any idea how I did… but I’ll find out next week.  At least it’s done.  Now I just have to write a thesis.  I’m so tired of school.

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Edit: These first two paragraphs were supposed to be unrelated.  But side by side… it seems like I invited a fake doctor to give me a breast exam and I’m awaiting the results.  Oh well.  The second paragraph is about the Greek exam I just wrote.  I think the other exam would have been more fun.

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After the exam I wandered down Yonge Street with Thea, Lina, and Dan.  As I stood outside a shoe store with Dan, watching Thea through the window browsing for shoes… it seemed wild and bizarre that I’m going to marry her.

Also, I hate when people spit.  Spitting into the sink while you brush your teeth… fine.  Making a horking noise and spitting a big goober thing on the sidewalk… disgusting.

I’m so tired.  I’ve spent so many hours the past few days studying Greek my brain just feels exhausted.  I can’t wait to go to sleep.

Anyway, some bunny suicides for you.

I’m feeling completely overwhelmed by Greek.  A mere week ago, my goal was to get an A in the course.  Now… happy with a pass.  There’s so much… so very much.

I just want it to be over.  I took Greek as an elective because I’ve wanted to learn it for a long time.  Now I wish I’d taken… anything else instead.  Except for Hebrew maybe.  That would have been worse.

I suppose it’ll all be worth it in the end.  I’m just dreading the moment of getting that exam tomorrow and realizing that I don’t know the answer to anything.  ANYTHING.

“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.”  – Robert Wilensky

This quotation made me think of all of us on our blogs.

Thea’s dad’s birthday tonight.

Easter weekend over.  On Good Friday, Thea and I went to see the Toronto Passion Play at Queensway Cathedral.  It’s interesting how all those years I spent at Queensway Christian College… and I never saw the big Easter production the church puts on every year.  I remember people talking about it… and now I’ve seen it.  I can die a happy man.

My running commentary of the musical was cut short 17 hours in by a cutting glance from Thea.  She shared my opinion of the quality of the play… but apparently voicing this opinion while other people are trying to watch is bad form.  I liked Jesus though, he reminded me of Roy from ECF days.

Some unfortunate asides about our Passion Play experience:

• We accidentally parked in the “cast parking lot” because we arrived earlier than the “Do No Enter” sign.  When we tried to leave after the performance, a stage hand chewed us out and refused to believe that we could have possibly arrived and parked before him.  Apparently I somehow drove right through the gate and past his vigilant guard without anyone noticing.

• Right before the finale and Jesus’ triumphant resurrection, the pastor came out and gave a short spiel about the high cost of the production and how they were in debt because of it and he needed everyone to give $20 because tickets were free so non-Christians would come…  I just think it could have been handled a little better.  Churches have such a bad reputation for only wanting people’s money.  I’ll probably have a different perspective if I ever become a pastor and have all these expenses.

On Saturday I worked.  I short gruff man threatened to “hurt me” because the computer won’t let me issue a blank bank draft.  And he needed a blank one.  I’ve never had anyone physically threaten me in the bank.  Out in the real world… yes… in the bank, no.

Sunday… church service.  Since Square One was closed for the holiday, our church met with our sister church in Meadowvale.  However, I didn’t realize that they were meeting with the Youth Service… So Thea and I went to the later, regular service also known as the So Boring You Want To Kill Yourself Service.

The pastor got up and said he wasn’t going to put us through the Seven Last Words of Jesus (traditionally a series of seven “short” sermons based on the last words of Jesus).  Yay!  What a relief.  That’s a lot of Jesus for one day.  Instead, he did a sermon from Luke 23 when Jesus says to the other guy on the cross, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  Unfortunately, he analyzed this little sentence word by word.  By word.  By word.  Still… better than last year when we were in church for six hours.

Easter should be our biggest celebration as Christians.  Why do we kill it?

And then last night Thea and I scrounged through old pictures to use for our wedding slideshow.  If anyone has any pictures of us together… please let me know.  We’re lacking pictures as a couple.  Lots of pictures of us from childhood, though.  I like seeing pictures of Thea as a kid… She looks like someone I would have been friends with when I was a kid.

And now I have three days to cram as much Greek into my brain as possible for my final exam on Thursday. 

I can’t get to sleep.  And as I’m lying here I realized that tomorrow is my last day of classes at Wycliffe College.  I have to hand in a final paper tomorrow and next week I write my final exam for Greek.  It doesn’t really feel like the end, though.  I still have the ginormous thesis to write by July.

I haven’t really felt attached to Wycliffe since I moved out of residence.  I loved living there.  I used to walk the halls and sit in the chapel in the middle of the night… thinking and praying.  Very peaceful.

It is the end of something, though.  Soon I’ll be saying goodbye to good friends… maybe for forever.

In a few months I’ll be married.  Then we’re moving to the other side of the planet for a year.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

It’s all so scary and exhilarating.  I’m definitely ready to not be in school anymore.  A few years ago I was so frustrated, not knowing what to do with myself.  And then I decided to go for Wycliffe… and I got in and I was so excited.  And here I am at the end of it all.  A few more letters to put after my name… nearly.

You would think think that theological school would tend to close your mind… but it’s opened mine wide.  Now I just have to figure out my purpose.  Plenty of time for that.

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

I love this idea… it’s so dynamic and tangible… The energizing charge of God raising the hair on my arms and back of my neck.

I’m rambling.