Back 2 School Festival

I've been meaning to post about this, but I have been super busy and it's not something I want to do quickly...

So last weekend Bryan and I helped put on the Back 2 School Festival at our church this year. Every year Hope gives out free backpacks full of school supplies to needy families in the area. We see it as a way to minister to the community in a tangible, very appreciated way. This stuff is expensive, and some of these people have a lot of children. One woman I spoke to told me what a great blessing this was for them - she has eight kids in school. And she's a single mother. Whew! Another woman said this was so important she walked for over an hour just to get there. Thank God the weather was nice! I think we gave away over 400 backpacks this year.

It was a really fun day. We had inflatable games (a big obstacle course and bouncy house), carnival games (a football throw and a beanbag toss made by Team Besomason), popcorn, cotton candy, Sno-Cones, face painting, a teen zone with board games and video games, tons of food, and live music in the sanctuary. Families came and got the backpacks, and then just stayed and hung out with us. It really was fun, and it made all of the stressful days leading up to the event totally worth it.

I think the people at the church really enjoy this event every year. Last year it was really our first opportunity to get involved, and it was awesome. This year we had 35 volunteers signed up before the event, and at least 5-10 more show up the day of. In a church of maybe 120, I think that's impressive!

All in all, it was an amazing event. Just wanted to repor

Afternoon nap

It's 3:50. It's raining. I had a big lunch.

Can I please take a little nap?

Sacred Pursuit

Here's a picture of Bryan's band (and me!) at the Back 2 School Festival on Saturday. They played a set right at the end. Hopefully someday you'll be hearing about them much more! We'll see...

So, starting at the top, going left to right, there's me, Kristin (guitar/lead vocals/writing), Amy (backup vocals), Bryan (drums), Kellie (backup vocals), and Stephen (bass guitar).

Good morning!

7:43 am
Two minutes before I have to get out of bed
Trying to sleep a little longer
Just outside my window

A jackhammer starts.

Souvenir

My supervising attorney on one case came in just now and gave me a "souvenir" - a misprinted copy of the brief I helped develop. It's all pretty and bound, and formatted beautifully (it just has the cover page printed as the first page of the brief, throwing everything off by one page). Even more striking is the fact that a substantially similar booklet is sitting somewhere in D.C., waiting to be read by a Supreme Court clerk, who will then hopefully hand it off to a Supreme Court Justice, who will then hopefully decide to grant certiorari, and clear up this legal issue that I've been staring at for weeks. I can't believe I helped produce something that could be read by those very important nine people. OK, so my contribution was incredibly small; I found a few law review articles and newspaper articles supporting our proposition. But still, it's kind of exciting. And it makes me feel like I am really doing something important, that I really am a part of something big.

Growing up?

Just a few days ago I heard from a friend from junior high (my dad used to date her mom, just after my parents' divorce). She's married now, with a two-year-old. Her husband is a Marine. It's so strange in some ways... I can't imagine her as a mother, or as a doting wife. I guess to me she's always 13. It's been ten years since we really spoke. We had mutual friends in high school, and I sometimes heard about her. I knew she was having a rough time of it at times (didn't we all in high school?), but it looks like she's pulled her life together, and she seems really happy. And grown up. Weird how it's OK for me to be grown up but strange for everyone else. sometimes it's like I'm getting older and everyone else stays the same.

It's much like my stepbrother, who just joined the Army, and is in Basic as we speak. He's eighteen, and he's made some very mature decisions of which I am very proud. When I saw him 4th of July weekend I was surprised at his maturity, and his attitude about the whole situation. He's making really smart, well-thought-out decisions which fit into his long-term goals. But part of me will always see him as ten years old. He's going to Korea soon, and to part of me he's a preteen. Weird.

Redheads

I have always had a weird bias against red-haired women. It's just ingrained in me. I think it started when I was very young, and my grandmother was married to a man who had a red-haired daughter from a previous marriage, who was a bit older than me and got me into trouble a lot. (I say I have a bias, but one of my good friends in high school had red hair, one of my study buddies in college is a redhead, in junior high I was obsessed with Reba McEntire, etc. It's a weird thing. It's like, I dislike them as a rule until they give me any slight reason to be friends...) Anyway, when Bryan dated a redhead in high school, that was pretty much the last straw. I was OK with my irrational bias, but I understood that it was irrational.

But then, I realized that Bryan's mother's family has a lot of red hair in it. To the point where three of her four siblings are redheads. That is 60% of her family! And I had a frightening thought: what if we have a red haired daughter?!?! I'd be biased against her! Or at the least, I'd be disappointed in her! I realize that this is a fear just as irrational as the bias, but nonetheless, I've been worried about it for a few years now... until today.

Today, while I was sitting in South Station eating my pizza and reading my book, a mother and her two children (one boy and one girl) came to the other end of my long table. She sat them down, with their happy meals, and I didn't really look up. When I did, I noticed that the girl - maybe 4 or 5 years old - was the cutest little redhead I'd ever seen. I mean she had some orange hair, but it was offset by these beautiful blue eyes, and a few freckles on her little nose. She sat there silently eating her chicken nuggets, staring behind me at something. She was very polite, very well-behaved, and darned adorable! I left the station smiling, almost wishing for a redheaded little girl.

Weekend Update (a little late...)

Last weekend we went to Connecticut (returning to the scene of the "accident") to spend some time with John and Kelli (Kelli's there doing an internship-like-thing for the summer) at Kelli's parents' place. It was nice to get out of the city (even though we just got back to it!) and chill. It's nice to see trees in the backyard! :) We went to this stream and had a picnic, and then Bryan, John, Kelli, Kelli's mom, and I got into the stream and walked around. The weather was perfect! Kelli's dad took pictures, but you know how good I am about posting them...

Speaking of which, I saw pictures of that "fateful day" in January - Kelli's dad took pictures of us sledding, and then there was one of me getting put into the ambulance... that was pretty intense. Just remembering that pain makes me shudder. Thank goodness it's so much better now!

We came back on Sunday morning, in time for Bryan to practice at 8:30 am. What an early morning! It's an hour and a half drive, so we had to be out by 6:45 (because you never know how traffic's going to be on the pike at 7:30 am on a Sunday, right? ;) )

Yesterday Bryan got a bicycle on craigslist. We're both really excited about it, because now we can ride together. Last night we got him a helmet and lock, and he's good to go. :)

Well I guess that's it...

How do we solve this?

I don't understand why these people hate those they don't know; I don't understand why that hate is so deep, so ingrained, that it permeates a group so vast, and fills them with desire to die by killing. I wish I did understand; I wish I could reach out and fix it all. It sincerely pains me to think about the lives wasted on hate, both the lives freely given for it and those violently taken for it. I wish we knew how to solve it. I don't think nuking them all is the answer; and I honestly don't think that rooting them out one by one will ever really be effective. Somehow it's a cultural problem, and we've got to try to understand each other, and come to the table and explain our differences and try to live in peace. I think that's a totally idealistic view of things (big surprise) and it shows my rose-colored glasses. And I think that we (Westerners, Americans, whatever) won't be able to get these groups to the table. I think it has to be an internal movement. Some sort of miraculous enlightenment. Not beyond the realm of possibility, though undoubtedly way outside the realm of likelihood. I just wish I understood.

Towed!!

We've officially joined the ranks of those who LIVE in Cambridge... Our car got towed yesterday. It was an inevitable event, considering the constant moving van zones and street cleaning. We ended up parking Monday night on an unusual street for us, and sure enough, the second Tuesday is street cleaning. Bryan went to get the car yesterday afternoon and, lo and behold, it wasn't there. So he had to walk to Fresh Pond to get it. Thank goodness the towing fee and ticket weren't outrageously expensive. I have had friends who paid $200 for incidents like this! I guess we were lucky! But we feel like we really live here now - we've gotten the (first) tow out of the way!

Weekend Update

Friday:

• Went to a softball game (Bryan played, and did an awesome job as catcher!)
• Had dinner with KF afterward - amazing authentic Italian food. This girl can cook.

Saturday:

• Married womens' brunch. My Rachel Ray inspired dish was a big hit! :)
• Bryan went golfing, and got super-sunburned. But he had fun with his new Craigslist-purchased golf bag.
• Dinner with the Lucases, and watched Broken Flowers - I'm not sure how I feel about this movie. It had some interesting parts, some pointless parts, and in the end it's one of those "hmmm.... what just happened?" movies. I usually like those, but I think I wasn't in the mood.

Sunday:

• Church was great - I had nursery with the church matriarch, and loved it. We had one little girl, and she just wanted to read books the whole time. She's 2, and she's at that stage where she parrots everything, trying it out on her tongue. It's almost like she does it without noticing. I ask, "What color is the dog?" And she replies, "Color. Gog." I ask again, and she says, "Geeen."
• Walked to Anna's for lunch. It was only our second time there, and it was a bit intimidating. They ask you what you want so quickly you're not sure what they said until they're already annoyed. "Sourcreamandguacamole?" "What? Uh..." "SOURCREAMANDGUACAMOLE?" "OH, um, no, thanks."
• After lunch, went to a bike shop to look for Bryan a bicycle. I'd really like to be able to ride together. He got a massive case of sticker shock, so we went to Target, and still came home empty-handed. Not sure if he's going to get one or not. Maybe Craigslist...
• Goofed off for a few hours and then went for a walk. We went to Central Square to explore. This old man in a motorized wheelchair came up to us and said, "Do you guys ever watch the Science Channel?" "No," we replied. "Well, they just interviewed the first test-tube baby; he's 16 now. They asked him if he remembered anything from his birth and he said, 'I remember I had a great womb with a view." And the old man sped away laughing.

Now the weekend's over and it's Monday. This morning I got onto the T and who's coming off but Dan Schwarcz, my legal research and writing instructor. He gave me a weird look, and I think it was either, "I know I know you..." or "What the heck are you doing here?" I said hello and he said hello and he got off the train and I got on. That was it. But it reminded me that school will start soon. Shudder.

So-Far-So-Good-Summer

So I've been on a hiatus. And once you've neglected blogging for awhile, it gets harder and harder to get back in... I've been meaning to catch up, but also dreading the long post this must be. Here it goes.

Going home was nice. We spent some time with his family, my family, friends, etc. I didn't take the law review competition, because I didn't want to do law review, and I didn't want to deal with it on the car ride home. And I am totally OK with that decision. I worried that I wouldn't be, but I am.

The trip to Mexico was fun. At times it was stressful; there were nine of us. B and I have become accustomed to our little family of two, and being constantly surrounded was a lot to take in for so many days in a row. But it was really fun; it was nice to hang out with my family, to have one last family vacation before we all head off in our own directions. And it was awesome of my parents to do that for us.

Working at the Firm was wonderful. I learned so much. I can't even describe it. I felt like every day was exciting, every assignment was the greatest, and I feel like I made a real contribution this summer. I put together a binder of all my work, and I was a little impressed with what I'd done. The people, too, were really great. My paired associate worked in Boston before she moved back to OK, and one of the other summers went to BU for undergrad, so we had some Boston moments. :) There were lots of funny moments this summer. If you want to know them, ask me about the Big Mamma (aka "Panty Dropper") and the golf cart. (Yes, I went golfing. Yes, I am horrible at it. Yes, I'm OK with that...) Most of all, though, it made me realize that I can do this whole lawyer thing. Totally. And it's not as boring as people claim!

B spent his time working for Barnes & Noble and taking a class online. He was so sweet - he brought me Mansfield Park the first week, then Kite Runner, and then an advance copy of a young adult novel about a servant of Leonardo. And at the end he brought me Wuthering Heights. :) He really enjoyed working at B&N. The work was easy, and interesting. I think he'd be a really great bookstore owner. Someday, maybe. :)

Now we're back in Boston. Coming back was weird. We were really ready, even though we knew we'd miss our families again, and notice the void of living with J&G, two of the most amazing people on this planet. But to us, Boston has become home. It was strange walking into our apartment; it was smaller than we remembered. But we've made it ours again, and we feel at home there now. B played the drums at church the day after we got back. It's funny how we feel more spiritually fulfilled in Boston, probably one of the most un-Christian cities in the country, than in Oklahoma, where Christians are everywhere. I guess it's because the difference is so stark, or because there's so much more work to do; I don't know. But the spiritual atmosphere here is so much more alive. That's probably the thing we missed the most.

I started work at the Foundation two days after we got back. It's been a bit slow so far, but it's going OK. I feel like the work here is intellectually stimulating, the people are incredibly intelligent, and the things we do are important.

I ride the subway every day, and in an odd way that has made me feel even more at home here. I feel like the people on the train are my people: the old Japanese man falling asleep next to me, the young seven-months-pregnant woman resting her swollen feet in a seat across from me, the middle-aged man in a tie, holding his briefcase and reading the paper, and the lady dressed in black, black eyeliner smeared all over her eyes, her armpit hair bursting out as she holds the bar above. Ecclectic, I know. But that is the great beauty of the city. And I love it.