new home

Well, I've been in this house about two days now... today had my first day of job training in the English Dept.'s copy center. It's all a little different. Instead of carpeted stairs I'm used to taking two at a time, these wooden ones squeak and squawl like living animals. My room is a decent size, but the adjoining half-bathroom features a leaky toilet and a non-working "cold" spigot. This is, after all, one of the 10th or 11th oldest houses in Lincoln!

I'm getting used to the idea of making most of the meals I consume - although when attempting to make scrambled eggs on the gas stove this morning, I set off the fire alarm :( Mom, I was just trying to be like Julia Child and put butter in the skillet first! I didn't have it turned up very high and still the pan filled up with smoke. Thus they tasted of butter and burnt egg. Good thing the toast with strawberry jam came out just fine! (And that they had free sandwiches in the Eng. dept... speaking of that...)

The 'monster' copier was broken when I walked in. Something about the toner being surly. But that was worked out. Things were ok. The job seems a little tedious, other than the possibility of annoyed professors showing up complaining about your copying or scanning ability. I'll go in for training again tomorrow and then again times after that if I feel I need it.

Everything is a little nerve-wracking, to be honest... But I feel like this will be a good arrangement. I've already gone to one little social thing last night, visiting a house that some guys from the Christian group live in with two of my roommates. I feel like living here, I have a better chance of being plugged into a world larger than my own, i.e. filled with people. Right now I'm typing in the living room listening to my friend and her significant other trying to work out when and how they'll spend time together. He's studying community planning and spent upwards of five minutes trying to explain to me what he thinks sustainability means.

So far, so good. I hope things go as well for Julie, who I believe is moving in towards the end of this week or weekend. Pictures at some point.

abstract attempts

Frustrated after trying to photograph some roses, I began purposefully moving the camera as I took a picture. I find the results - interesting, maybe good. This is how the better ones came out. I think the last one is my favorite. What do you think? EDIT** I see now that trying to see them closeup is rather impossible as the file size is still too big. Whoops. It's just too much work to make them smaller! Ah well, live and learn.

photos from the day

It was a really good evening. About 8-9 other people performed, including a dance number. I found myself musing on the fact that none of this would have happened - including the composing of the song and dance - if Connie hadn't had the idea for this night and went through the work to set it up.

She told me people gave her great compliments about me; I reminded them of this or that singer and (most notably to me) that I should make a CD. It's always kind of been a quiet hope of mine, but thus far I've been content just singing along with CDs in my room. So it was wonderful to hear that encouragement.

singing from the psalms

All of you are invited to Berean this Saturday at 8:15. I'll be singing three songs as part of a songs-inspired-by-the-Psalms night in the coffeehouse.

It'll have been a while since I sang a solo with an audience. The lady who wrote the songs, Connie, and I played two songs a couple months ago for video cameras, for a different art project. She has written so much... When she was first asking me to help her select a Psalms song, she had an entire box crammed with folders and drafts and inspirations. She has two bookshelves filled with even more music. She 'hears' music in her head; for her it's not difficult to take a few snatches of Scripture, set it to music plus whatever else God gives her, and make a song.

Today we finalized the songs to be sung, and I finally feel like I'm getting comfortable with her. I felt like another woman friend, not just the young kid from the now-expired songwriters' group, which is a weird feeling.

I have this thing with perfection.... so I'm a bit nervous. But the coffeehouse atmosphere isn't an intimidating one, and so much of the time I think that songs are about the singer, and not the song. Or in this case, the One who inspired the scriptural psalms. Some of Connie's lyrics are so strong and trusting in the Lord that I feel that I haven't experienced all of it... that I'm still so broken and doubting. But I can feel the truth of the words when I sing, even when I haven't experienced exactly what the line is saying about God. Doubt is all too common. But I have been blessed, and I want to give that back - in a song, in a thought, in anything my hands can make.

new blossoms

It's strange without the 'rents here. I'm finally getting sick of leftover lasagna, and it is now Julie who takes the role of 'nagging' me. I have more leeway to do whatever I please, and so the tasks as yet unfulfilled - cleaning my room and the living room for guests, writing two English papers - become ever more apparent in themselves. Don't think I like this.

The nasturtium I planted on the side of the house had 2-3 blooms on it when I inspected it yesterday - hooray! One red, one yellow.

I spent a bit of time on my knees trying to get good macro shots of the flowers - always with the end goal of producing something stunning that would do well at the state fair - and towards the end I thought I was getting there, with the yellow blossom. But it's always a different matter when you can view something up close on the computer screen. I do my best to edit them, but then wonder if I've "ruined" shots simply because I can't do better, more 'sophisticated' editing with Photoshop, which I don't have.

I feel like I have a lot of pictures (well, I KNOW I do), but nothing that would score big in a state fair judge's eyes. I have a nice "eye," sure; I love getting a close-up shot fairly well in focus. But other friends of mine will go on a vacation, come home and post pictures on Facebook - and I'm blown away. For example, an old roommate. One photo set is from fishing on a lake. She has shot after shot of incredible, well-shot skies over water, sometimes with a perfectly-in-focus bird swimming in the forefront. They are truly striking.

Is it the subject matter? Maybe the camera? Mine rarely handles the sky well; it likes to "blast out" clouds or put anything on the landscape side in pure black silhouette.

There's my whining for today.

Perhaps I will post a couple "new flower" shots from yesterday. The yellow ones were very much in shadow, so I was never sure how much to brighten them to a true yellow with my editing program.

job-ness

I have a phone interview today at 3 for a paid internship at a local publishing house. Score!

Better yet, if that doesn't work out, I got an e-mail from a copying job within the English Dept. saying that I can come in and work out a schedule. So basically I have it.

I'm amazed at how that worked out. I only applied to two... and stuff is happening! I was getting a bit anxious since it seemed nothing was happening - and then things progressed in both positions in one day! Thank you, God!

I'm not sure how to do a phone interview, though... from the DN job, I'M used to being the one doing the interviewing!

happenings

Just finished a strikingly easy round of math homework, and watching "So You Think You Can Dance" for two hours. Yep. I'm pretty drained of energy.

Nevertheless, some good things have been happening:

-This last weekend I found myself in northern South Dakota with some friends for a wedding. It is -gorgeous- up there and I even got to see Mount Rushmore again! Pictures below.

-In August I'm moving into a house with 5 other girls downtown. I cannot be happier. I've never done my own grocery shopping, etc., so I imagine it'll be different but good. I shouldn't get *too* comfortable down here in my parents' basement! :)

Their stipulation was that I get a job. I've applied to two and, from today's voicemail, sounds like a phone interview is coming up for one of them. It's been awhile since I've had any income, which really hurts!

- I'm working on some songs inspired by the Psalms for a music night in August. We'll be performing at Berean's coffeehouse. Any chance to sing = wonderfulness.

Now for pictures.





My friend caught the bouquet.



Exuberant bubble-blowers.