The Year of Paul

Happy year of Saint Paul!! We as Catholics are taking a year to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of Paul's birth. Let us reflect closely on his life, words, and actions this entire year.


Ora pro nobis.

Pictures

David already posted these on Facebook, but I promised I'd put them here too.

I like this one because you can see how close we got to the falls and actually got wet from it.
One of our friends remarked that we don't look very happy in these pictures. I don't think that's necessarily true. We had a great time, but neither of us like looking really cheesed out for the camera. I got this non-smiling trait honest from my dad. He hates pictures. We only had one family portrait and that was for the church directory, and we didn't buy any copies of it.

Here's another picture of us at Niagara. David grew his mustache out all crazy, but you can tell that we aren't smiling because we're afraid the camera will steal our souls. Or at least I look scared in this one. David looks kind of arrogant.

Niagara Falls

Hey all! I just wanted to let everyone know that David and I will be leaving for Niagara Falls tomorrow and we will be back Thursday night or Friday morning. We kind of decided to do this about two hours ago. Luckily for us, they had perfect hotel packages for the middle of the week. For two nights we get a king size bed, free breakfasts, vouchers for the hotel's casino, and a free dinner all for $300 bucks. And we're only a block away from the falls. Not bad considering we just hatched this plan today and we'll be at the falls tomorrow. This is especially good because I thought any chance of a trip this summer was lost when I decided to manage the writing center and teach two new classes*. But I have this week off, and we decided to do something with it!

Anyway, I hope to have pictures for everyone by Friday afternoon. Say a prayer for us that we get there and back safely!

*Sorry to Anne and Peter. We truly didn't think we were going to be able to do anything this summer and only decided to do this a short while ago.

Summer Reading

I've wanted to make a real post for about about a week now, but the term is ending and everything is getting quite hectic, so a short one will have to do.

I've started my summer reading list and I've even added a "Currently Reading" tab on the side of this blog. My list is entitled "Books I Should Have Read Before Now". I guess it isn't even a real list per se because I'm only thinking about one book in advance. But it has made me question what "Books I Should Have Read Before Now" means. I get a nagging feeling every time I see these books and a sense of guilt to go along with it. That's how I know I should have read them by now, but why? Does it make me less of a human because I haven't read all of Catch 22? Does it make me less of an English teacher? Less of an English major? I don't think so, and yet the guilt persists. I'm not even sure I believe in the list that I created. People should read books that they like. There shouldn't be a sense of responsibility and duty in reading for pleasure. But here I am. Maybe that's how we know what makes up the literary canon- the feeling we get in the pit of our stomach when we see a certain book that we haven't read. "Oh, I feel like I'm going to puke every time I see Moby Dick on the shelf. I suppose I should get around to reading it." Or maybe that's just me.

I do have to say though that I have liked every book on the list that I've forced myself to read. Next up is Crime and Punishment, which David has been telling me to read for the past year because it always seems to come up in our conversations. Well, there it is. I'll be airing my dirty little secrets all summer long on the side of my blog. Are there any brave souls out there who would be willing to post a comment about a book they "should have read by now" ?

A New Vice

This is David looking professorial. Notice the goatee and crooked pipe.

Yes, David is smoking a pipe now. I'm not thrilled about the actual smoking part, but I think the pipe is pretty cool. He says he wants to get a churchwarden pipe next because they "keep the smoke out of your face while reading and the long pipe gives the smoke a chance to cool before it hits your mouth." Yeah, that and they look like something wizards and hobbits use. The actual pipe collecting hobby is one that I support. There are some fantastic looking pipes out there. David actually owns more pipes than he has smoked at this point. I bought a pipe for a quarter at a garage sale a year ago because I thought it would be cool to use as a prop or something. Then yesterday he bought the one you see in the picture and a corncob pipe. The corncob pipe is claaaaasy.

We went to a specialty smoke shop and the old man who owned the place introduced us to the ways of pipe smoking. Actually, I think he followed us around to make sure we weren't going to steal something. But he gave David helpful little tips along the way, like "the ladies love the smell of 'very cherry' pipe tobacco" and so on.

Anyhow, just a little David update for all of you.