I should start going back to church. Monday, January 28, 2008

Firstly, THIS IS AMAZING. It's the video for the first single off the new Mountain Goats album set to come out in February. I am a video snob and I think it's amazing. The song? Also fantastic. Their last album was really slow-paced and sad, so I'm excited that this next album looks like it's going to be a lot more upbeat.

I took this picture last week while I was out grocery shopping and I thought it was kind of amusing. HEART BREAKER! (those are candy hearts, hard-of-seeing parents)

Portland has been very, very cold and all of the fountains froze over. This is at the beginning of last week, before everyone chipped the ice out and took it to other parts of campus, leaving ice cubes everywhere.

On Saturday night Rob, Devon, Lizzy L., and I all went to cheap sushi at Sushi Takahashi. This is kind of a not-every-but-several Saturday tradition because most of the sushi is only $1.25/plate.

We all got steamed bean buns. Rob got kind of attached to his.

Devon is but a stalk of bamboo.

Devon and Lizzy, bein' silly.

The next morning Rob, Rachelle, Chelsea and I drove up to Olympia for the 11:00 service at the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Our main purpose of the visit was to check out the site (since that's where we're hosting con in April), but the service was so fantastic that had I known, I might have come up anyways with no ulterior motive. The Olympia church has a tradition where at every service they ask if there are any birthdays in the congregation. When they asked if there were any birthdays, Rachelle nudged me and I whispered "not til NEXT Sunday!" and she whispered back "but you're not going to BE HERE next Sunday!" The woman in front of us turned around to us and said "Wait, it's YOUR birthday?" and then announced it to the congregation. They asked me to stand up, wished me a happy birthday, then everyone sang me this song:
Each of us rising from the earth
Seeking love and wholeness from the moment of our birth
May this coming year bring to you
A gift of knowing love and a life that touches truth.

It really was amazing, and I was so glad that Rachelle had made a little fuss. The sermon itself was wonderful. It's theme was "The Committee Meeting in Your Mind", given by the Reverend Joan Montagnes, who was visiting from Bellevue.

After the sermon the four us of walked around, taking pictures to put up on the con website. Behind the church there is a forested area with paths. We did a little exploring and took this picture on the way back up... this is where we're hosting con!!!

Greetings from the CONga Line dean, co-worship coordinator, and registrar!

After exploring the church we stopped at Evergreen to visit a friend, then went for Mexican. I took this picture, mostly for my Budapest friends, as a reference to this video.

These are new shoes I got in the mail last week. Pretty!

Rachelle on the way home, bein' cute.

Chelsea = also cute.

It snowed last night! This is the view from my window.

Same view this morning. Classes were canceled until 10 am, so I didn't have to go to CS 1. Yaaaay snow!

Section Line Drive met for the first time last night and it's going to be an absolutely amazing time, I can already tell. We have so many new voices, so much new music, so much energy... I'm excited!!

Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I'll put a link in here to my calendar, in case people are curious and want to take a look at my incredibly busy life.

Now it's time to go to voting theory, then finish my German Lit in Translation homework, get decorations together for the UU booth at the activities fair, GO to German Lit in Translation, then join Liz N. at the activities fair. Egads. Busy afternoon.