umm...i don't mean to brag, but i took this test today that i found on http://badchristian.com/index.php/2004/08/18/how_to_tell_if_you_re_a_bad_christian

it's run by something called the Worldview Weekend and i guess they do workshops and conferences and books and stuff on cultivating what they would term a "biblical Christian worldview." 

so what i don't mean to brag about is that i scored a -2 out of 170.  yeah, that's a negative sign in front of the two.  i am classified as a "communist/marxist/socialist/secular humanist". 

i knew i had it in me.

I've been cleaning out my e-mail box and I found a really funny one from my junior year at Messiah.  I'll post it here:

hi sarah. 

how are you?  are you well adjusted to grantham yet?  or are you still in philly?  i forget.  if you're in philly maybe i'll see you this weekend, because i think i'm coming up for a wedding.  so hey, i was wondering where my bike lock keys were.  did i give them to you?  i couldn't remember.  oh yeah and did you get the food we mailed you from germany?  they kind of melted in my bag, so they might have been kind of gross after they got to pennsylvania.  sorry.  well, i hope you're good.  study hard and get good grades so you can get a great post graduation job like i did, making subaru bumpers in a big brake and bumper factory every night from 11 pm til 7 am.  stay out of trouble and fight the student union until no one cares anymore.  don't get married before you graduate.  buy a cat for your on campus housing.  meet lots of nice boys in case things don't work out at all with darren.!   look both ways before crossing college avenue.  take some classes with henry venema and crystal downing. start at least one fire this semester in your apartment - i think todd and i started about six our last semester there - engine starter fluid works well for that its only 99 cents at sheets.  eat vegetarian food, preferably from the healthy grocer, located across from camp hill mall on trindle road.  brush your teeth before going to bed.  read lots of books.  don't watch too much tv, except maybe the simpsons and kids in the hall if its still on comedy central.  piss off public safety.  make pretty music.  go to rock and roll shows.  ride a bike.  don't get the new coldplay cd, because i'm listening to it now and its not all that super.  learn italian.  learn to skateboard.  use baking soda for bee stings.  don't drink creekwater if you can help it.  throw things at makeout couples on the swin! ging bridge/fit trail after midnight.  make lots of noise.  tell somebody i said hi.  use your food-only dollars on batteries at the cstore, and if you have some left at the end of the semester buy the clerks whole boxes of candy.  spray paint obscene slogans all over campus.  throw big parties in your apartment.  don't buy skyy blue for said parties.  go for a run every other morning.  don't smoke cigarettes.  call your mother on her birthday.  do your homework.  chew your food 32 times or you could choke.  visualize world peace.  be all you can be.  tell kevin to turn his music down.  wait 30 minutes after eating before getting into the water.  step on the grass.  mess with texas.  and if nothing else, at least once this semester sneak into the radio station and duct tape a freshman dj to their chair leaving them to moan for help into the microphone un! til one of their three listeners realizes that they're not joking and comes down to untie them.  i always wanted to do that.

write back if you have my keys.  or maybe if you don't you can anyway.

josh. 

(that's josh ferguson for those of you who knew him)

Currently Playing Hymns of the 49th Parallel By k.d. lang see related

today is my birthday. and i just have to say, that even for feeling stressed out at work and still sick with a cold, it might just be my best birthday ever.

i had lunch with donna, my birthday twin today.  she's all of 35 years older than i am.  she was 35 when i was born.  we couldn't be more different and yet somehow it works.  so here's to donna.  and kim and tatti roro both called me, which was awfully sweet.  

the best thing about my birthday was the big surprise birthday party that my friends and roommates threw for me.  i was so surprised.  i had suspected something, but had no real idea and they planned way over any expectations i might have harbored in my heart of hearts.  so many friends from church and then even some messiah friends and EVEN a friend from work were there.  and they had my favorite kind of ice cream and a bon fire later. it was just so great to have lots of people i know in very different contexts be all together.  i feel like a lot of my life has been spent in very different kinds of spheres and it's truly like heaven when they get brought together for a little while.

so i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped make this a very fun day for me.  it might sound trite, but most trite things are still worth saying, so anyway, i'm so blessed to have the friends that i have--everywhere--but in this moment of my life, especially in central PA.  i never thought i'd say it, but you've really made it feel like home.

Currently Playing Grace By Jeff Buckley see related

- -

A Standing Ground

However just and anxious I have been,
I will stop and step back
from the crowd of those who may agree
with what I say, and be apart.

There is no earthly promise of life or peace
but where the roots branch and weave
their patient silent passages in the dark;
uprooted, I have been furious without an aim.

I am not bound for any public place,
but for ground of my own
where I have planted vines and orchard trees,
and in the heat of the day climbed up
into the healing shadow of the woods.

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn
and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.

-Wendell Berry