Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Progress Report

Almost to midterms. Can I survive? Tune in next week to find out! ;)

So far I think my favorite class is Greek. It's pretty exciting to read the Greek New Testament and (kind of) know what it says! I guess I sort of hate having class at 8 AM thee times a week, and I'm not crazy about taking tests, but oh well, it's worth it.

I'm also really surprised by how much I'm enjoying my Renaissance Romance class-- I expected it to be a little dry and dull, but the teacher is surprisingly funny and the material is much more alive than I'd expected. I'm a fan of Boiardo already! And I'm looking forward to Spencer very much.

My least favorite class is my required class-- Introduction to the Study of Religion, which every first-year has to take. Ugh. The prof is very smart and very helpful but I hate reading Paul Ricouer-- he's impenetrable, really. I'm falling behind in the reading a bit because I just hate slogging through it. Have you ever seen Fantasia? Do you know the Rite of Spring section with the dinosaurs, where the meteor hits and all those dinosaurs get stuck in the tar pits? That's how I feel when I read Ricoeur-- like a poor little stegosaurus stuck in a pool of tar, sinking further and further in. Blech.

I'm looking forward to next month-- Adam's friends are coming to visit, and then Adam and I are traveling to Ohio to see our families for Thanksgiving! It'll be nice to see everyone, especially as we won't be able to visit for Christmas, since Adam works then, obviously. My sister is graduating from college this winter so it'll be nice to talk to her, too. 

Now, let's see if I can't pull myself together and get back to work...

Monday, October 1, 2012

Augustine is a tool.

No, seriously. St. Augustine drives me up a wall.

We're reading (or in my unfortunate case, rereading) the Confessions, and you can tell it's starting to get to me because my notes have moved from normal, factual notations to angrily scribbled blots interspersed by an increasing number of exclamation marks (eleventy!!!11) and I've started muttering things under my breath while I'm reading, like, "Oh, come on," and "You are not even serious, right? You cannot be serious, dude."

I don't understand how he gets away with massive, gaping loopholes in his logic and still gets to be one of the great theological minds of all time. Um, what about his whole moral relativism deal in Book III? He's all, "Oh, true, inward justice is separate from society's ideas about right and wrong, and things change over time--what was wrong or right in the Old Testament may not be wrong or right now. Oh, wait, except sodomy--that's always wrong because I think it's gross." Real mature, Augustine. Real mature. Are you five?

Or what about how he's all like, "I became a Christian and had to quit my job because of God! Because I wanted to sacrifice for God! Except also because I had a medical condition and it hurt to breathe. But mostly because of God!!!" Seriously? Seriously? Can't you just be honest and say that you quit because your ill health made it too difficult to teach? I think that's kind of a glaring coincidence there, buddy.

Ugh, he's just such a whiner. All the tears and the screaming and the tearing out of hair and the beating himself up--what a drama queen. Jesus died on the cross, and you know what? He didn't complain about it. He just f-ing did it. LIKE A BOSS.

I don't understand all Augustine's back-and-forth about being baptized. At the end there it's like he wants to be baptized and he considers himself a Christian and he believes the creed and loves God and completely rejects all that stuff in his past, and yet, he still can't convert, somehow. Because...he likes vagina too much, or something. Except he's totally willing to bang some married vagina, so I'm not sure why that's a big deal. Paul did say you could be a good Christian and still be married, right? So where's the big agonizing dilemma here? And way to totally dump your twelve-year-old virgin bride because you decided you couldn't love God AND a wife at the same time. I bet she totally understood how you found her mere presence to be a slutty, slutty impediment to your relationship with Jesus.

If Augustine were alive today, I don't think we'd be friends.

Updates

Long time no post!

In summary:
-We live in Chicago now. It's pretty awesome. Our apartment is lovely and cozy and slightly less horribly cramped than the one in NYC, and there's a Great Lake pretty close by, which is nice.
-I've started classes; this quarter I'm taking Introduction to the Study of Religion (required class for all firsties), Beginning Koine Greek I, and Renaissance Romance.
-Adam has started work as the Director of Christian Formation for Children and Youth at a church outside the city. He loves it, but it IS only part-time, so we're not out of the financial woods yet.
-Because Adam's job is a million miles away, we bought my parents' Yaris. So we have a car now. So...that happened. I still don't really know if I'm happy about it, but whatever, you do what you gotta do.
-I am still editing part-time, though I'm also looking for a nice work-study job.
-CB and Lenore are still very happy and healthy, and CB may have even put on a little bit of weight! Yay!

And that's it. I'll try to write more often, I swear. Really.