Science (non) Fiction

Since U been gone…

So I love Kelly Clarkson – she’s fabulous and fun and I’ve been playing this song a lot, but the one thing I dislike is the fact that she used the letter ‘U’ in the title of this song, rather than saying ‘Since you’ve been gone’ – bad grammar – grrrrr!

Anyway, it’s been a little while – but there’s not much to report so I don’t want to bore the (very few) people that actually read this!
Dad is now back in the States, safe and sound (YEAH!), with lots of intersting stories and pics from Kenya – and yes, they would make you drool Dawn, he saw giraffes and lions and wildebeasts and everything! It looks like they got a lot of work done while he was there, and the guy that went with him say he made a real impression on the people there – of course, you won’t hear Dad say that, he’s too modest – but he does love a good project! Mom’s got him working on several already now that he’s back – she’s still looking for a job – so I think they’re both trying to keep busy…

We had our ‘relationship’ talk last week and overall, it sparked some good dialogue, not necessarily at the talk itself, but even afterwards, other conversations have been started because of it – so that’s good – basically, I think we’ve all concluded that relationships are super hard, whether or not they involve romance, and that without God being involved, people would drive themselves crazy with worrying, obsessing, etc… even with God being involved sometimes – sigh… I sometimes envy my brother and his adorable wife for getting married so early, but I know that old problems are just traded in for newer problems that come with being married, but at least they have each other to share the problems… hmmmm…

Also, I’ve been reading more on reformed theology – figure I should know more about what I claim to believe, both in being a Christian, but also as a member of a reformed church – so I’m starting with some of Dad’s books he lent me on Calvinism and the 5 solas of reformed belief – most of his books (from seminary mostly) are way too far above what I can understand in theological studies, but we found a few ‘easier’ ones to start with – I’m trying to balance my somewhat voracious fiction reading habit with some non-fiction – we’ll see how long that continues… especially since I’m also reading (or rather re-reading) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (#5) in prep for #6 coming out this weekend – I know, it’s a guilty pleasure – I would never recommend them for young children, but they’re fun and super easy reading, which is nice after days of reading science journals and protocols! hehehe… On a more grown-up note, I just finished the newest Elizabeth Peters novel, which is the latest installment in her series about a family of Egyptologists (excavators) in the 1920/30s – they’re really fun to read, and given the author’s background in Egyptology, I’m hoping they’re also somewhat historically correct – the newest one is called ‘The Serpent in (or on?) on the Crown’ – very good reading!

Sorry this is turning so long – but several of my closest friends are all about to undergo some serious changes themselve – Alexa’s baby is due in less than two weeks (ack!), Thea will be moving to NY (Cornell) in August, and Frances will be moving across the country to CA in a month and eventually getting married next summer – I’m going to miss them (Thea and Frances, since Alexa is still here, but will be getting quite busy, I’m sure!) – we’ve all stayed pretty close through several years (I’ve known most of them since I was about 10 and we moved from WI to Charlotte) – it will be hard to maintain that closeness over the distance, but I’m going to try REALLY hard, ok?!?! Love you girls!

I’m out – gotta wrap this up to leave my volunteer shift for the night – pretty quiet night here in the Ronald McDonald Family Room at the Children’s hospital – that’s good, but it makes it a bit lonely/depressing at night – good time for reading though!