Thanksgiving Anecdotes

Hello all. Again, apologies for not writing more regularly this month. Time is flying- anyone else know how it’s already late November? I have one week left of classes, one week of study time, and one week of finals until I’m done with my first semester in seminary. Crazy.

I thought I would indulge you all with some Thanksgiving anecdotes.

Painfully Easy Plane Trips

Growing up with Logan as my home airport, I haven’t always had the best (or fastest) travel experiences. I always give myself at least an hour and a half to check bags, get through security, find my gate, and maybe eat something. Well my wonderful friend Michelle drove me to the airport on Wednesday at 5:10am (she really is amazing). We got to the airport at 5:36, and I texted my dad at 5:45 saying that I was already through security. Nine minutes. Funny thing is, there were actually a LOT of people there, but they also had a lot of people working and every line of security open. Same thing happened on my flight back from Boston (although it took a bit longer, about 15 minutes). Still I found myself pretty lucky!

The best part of my flight to Boston was that because of my earliness, I had time to find a place to eat breakfast. I went into one restaurant then decided I wanted a cheaper place. I started walking by my gate and I saw someone waving at me. Well low and behold it was my friend’s boyfriend Hyatt, who goes to Duke Law! How exciting! We had breakfast together and the random hour passed by much faster with someone to talk to. A lovely start to the trip!

Greetings from Grammy

Having lived with my Grammy since I was in 4^th grade, I miss her when I’m not at home. So after saying hi to my doggy, I went over and spent some quality time with Grams. I walked in and she was reading the newspaper. When she put it down I saw that she had rollers in her hair sprouting out in every direction. She looked at me and before even saying hello she said that she tried to do her hair, and asked if it looked ok. I smiled a huge smile, went over and helped her take the rollers out. This is something I used to do for her pretty often in high school, so it was cute that she wanted me to do it again. I made her look as good as I could (she still had some stray hairs all over her head). But honestly, it’s hard for a 94 year old Grammy to not look adorable all the time. :-)

Grams also has a picture of me and Jenna in her bedroom, and she is convinced that it’s not actually Jenna. She asked me multiple times who my friend was in the picture, and refused to believe it was my sister! Quite funny. Also, she’s made this claim to other members of my family too. I think she thinks they were lying to her and I would tell her the truth. Hahaha.

Wednesday Night Shenanigans

The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, my high school friends and I always get together and pretend to watch a movie while we catch up on our lives. This time we “watched” Mamma Mia (which makes two times in as many days for me, ha!), and shared about what’s happening in life. It was really nice to see a few people that I haven’t seen in a year!

We also gave each other nicknames based on what we’re doing. They’re pretty funny :-)

“Yo Miss” for Caroline, the teacher. “Master Cheryl” for Cheryl who will have a CCC LSP in May (I may have gotten those letters wrong… speech pathology). “Dr. [What Went] Wong for Chris who’s getting his Ph.D. in Chemistry, “Father Christa” for me… apparently “mother” sounded too much like a nun :-P. “Randi Jazz Hands” because Randi doesn’t just have a cool job, but she’s also dancing in a company. “Amy Zack, Esq.” for the one who works for Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown. “Erica: The Man” because she works for the Man- an insurance company. (A bit of confusion with me and her! Lol) “Exhibitionist Hannah” because she works at a museum setting up exhibits. And “Rachel: The Tool [to save the world]” because she’s getting lots of tools in her toolbox to eventually save the whole world and promote peace everywhere. She rocks :-)

Worried About my Sister

Jenna dropped the bomb for what she wants for Christmas this year. A ukulele. She wants to teach herself how to play it. This combined with her fashion sense, her music choices, and her moccasins… makes me worry she’s turning into a hipster. Help! :-P

Thanksgiving Day in Pictures

Lovely table, set by yours truly.

Yes, I can make napkins into fleurs de lis. :-)

Jenna, cutting the cheese. ha.

Bailey! Good girl :-)

I had a treat in my hand, so she did tricks.

The nice table

The Levesques (Aunt Sharon, Pepere, Nana, Daddy)

Time for wine? Yes. I think so.

Facial!

Is that Ceelo or Christina? haha

Turkeys are done!

Bad picture, but you get the gist.

Uncle Gale and Grammy!

Me and Alicia!

Cheesecake!

Dessert time!!

The apple pie I made- so yummy!

Me and Jenna

Fire in the fireplace

Five-Year High School Reunion

Part of me couldn’t believe it’s been five years. Part of me feels like it’s been 15 years, I’m so far removed from most of the people in my class. Regardless, I went to my 5 year reunion, and it was both more and less awkward than I thought it was going to be. More awkward because the music was really loud, and there were a lot of drunk people- the music made it very hard to make conversation with anyone, and it was an attempt to make it like a dance. Well, it wasn’t Prom again, but that was the atmosphere. But, I did get to see the few people I went there to see, and everyone was very nice and willing to talk. Graduating with over 500 people in my class, there were plenty of people there I either didn’t know, or forgot existed- so that was weird. But it was nice to catch up with some key people who I wish I had kept in better contact with.

I think the 10 year reunion will also be a lot of fun. And now we’re entering a time in our lives where time is actually going by really fast. We are starting to recognize this, and I think want to make more moments count.

Lots of other fun things happened over break, but I think this most is long enough. I'm also thankful for all of you who read this. 

Looking forward to finishing up the semester. Hopefully I’ll be able to update again soon.

Peace, Love and Smiles, y’all.

Christa

Breaking and Baking [Bread]

Sorry for the lack of blog-posting the past two weeks. Life has been crazy! Luckily I have no plans tonight, and I couldn't be happier. 

Baking Bread

 If you've been following this blog, then you know that this semester I have been trying my hand at baking bread (and other various bread-like yummies). I don't know why I have all of a sudden begun to bake. Maybe it has something to do with wanting to feed my roommates and friends. Maybe it is because I feel the need to do something productive with my weekend that doesn't involve school work. Maybe it is because I feel more adult when I successfully follow a recipe and cook a meal (or dessert!). For whatever reason, I love it. I usually go to church on Sundays and come back and bake, however this weekend I chose to spend my Saturday evening in the kitchen, dancing and singing along to music as I cooked. It was wonderful.

Kat is not here this weekend, she is on a retreat with her church, so T.J. and I thought a good roommate bonding experience would be me cooking for him. ha. The main dish is on the right, meatballs from Lesley and David's cookbook- oh my goodness do they taste amazing! Made some pasta to go with them. Then for dessert, Lesley's delicious gingerbread. It came out really good.... a large part of it is gone already (but I told T.J. we had to save some for Kat.... haha). All in all a really yummy dinner!

Breaking... the Kitchen

In the process of all my afternoon cooking, the drain decided it didn't like all the things I was putting down it. That silly drain. Well, I thought I had clogged the drain and we'd have to call in a plumber- yuck. However, with the help of Google and the best male roommate ever who can use a plunger, we fixed it! Wahoo!

Thanks, Google. :-)

Although T.J. was looking forward to a weekend without being able to do dishes... I was not. So I am quite happy now.

Breaking... Down.

Since coming back from fall break, I have felt very run down (ironic, no?). The week after fall break I had a big paper due (that I procrastinated incredibly on...), and lots of other work that didn't get done on break. This past week was even more horrible- Church History paper due yesterday, and a Hebrew exam, on top of all the normal stuff. I started counting the hours I spent at school this week, and got depressed. However I will tell you that the only day this week that I went to bed the same day I woke up was yesterday (when I was happily in bed by 10pm!). I'm not the kind of person who ever only allows herself 5 hours of sleep a night, I just can't do it. Well, apparently I can, I'm just miserable. I drank more coffee and tea this week than I ever have. (Tuesday night coffee resulted in being very wired... who knew that I'm actually pretty good a Hebrew after midnight?? haha) And although I was up until after 2am the day a paper was due, it's not like I was wasting away my time during the week. I was pretty diligent about writing during every possible moment, short of skipping my classes and worship. Luckily I had a good writing buddy most of the week which was helpful- solidarity in misery. ha. 

As I drove home one night/morning this week I thought- I hope I don't burn out soon. I've been in school for a long time, and sometimes I wish I didn't have to worry about school work at all. I wonder if doing four years in undergrad, a one-year masters, right into a three-year masters was the best idea... Don't worry, I'm not going to stop or drop out or anything. It's probably the exhaustion speaking, but I hope I don't have to have another week like this for a while.

Breaking Bread

Even though it was a busy week, there are some things I wouldn't skip- like going to Chapel. Some of my happiest moments this week were in Chapel- there was a great music service on Tuesday, and on Thursday our Church History professor celebrated Eucharist, which was pretty awesome. Another great part of my week was the All Hallows Eve service at Duke Chapel. I didn't dress up for Halloween, I wasn't home to give out candy to trick-or-treaters (we didn't have any... haha), but I was able to go to this really neat service honoring saints. The Duke Vespers Choir sang (oh how much I would love to sing with them!!), and it was beautiful. I was able to reflect on the lives of the saints they honored, and I've been thinking a lot about the wonderful Lynn Broderick this whole week... <3

Its weird- the past two Sundays I have woken up thinking "I really don't want to go to Church..." This is not like me at all, because usually I love church. I mentioned this to Kat who said she sometimes has similar feelings when she's still new to a church. Even though I didn't want to go, I got myself out of bed and went. Well, I had to go last week- I had to sing a solo! I was actually pretty flattered that the director asked me sing a solo, since I rarely sing them and I don't really like to... haha. I sang the second verse of "One Bread One Body" and it went very well, got some compliments :-)  I think it's funny that the two weeks I really didn't want to go to church were weeks when I felt like the priest was speaking only to me during the sermon. Anne and Joe are such good preachers, I don't think there has been a week when I haven't full-heartedly meant the "Amen" at the end of the sermon.

I've also been able to break bread more informally with my friends during meal times. I think that sharing meals with people is really important. Monday lunches are wonderful- Kat and I always see Rachel, and then Jeannie comes to sit with us after work. Yes, this time could be spent studying Hebrew vocabulary, but building friendships is just as important. Last Saturday a bunch of us went over a friend's house and ate dinner with his family- eating is a special thing to do with people whose company you enjoy.

Building Up Knitting Muscles

I've been building up my knitting collection, spending time with my projects. This week I didn't have much time, but last week I finished the beret I started in Geneva. With the hurricane this week, the weather was pretty cold here, meaning I got to wear the hat. Here are some pictures :-)

Oh, I also got a haircut!

slouchy

I like the way it turned out!

Pink to orange to light orange to white

I'm currently working on matching mittens (almost done with the first one!).

Building Community through Song

Wasn't sure what to call this section exactly, but by far the BEST part of my week was when we got the cast list for Broadway Revue! This is a big show at the Divinity School (about 20 acts) that is completely student-run. I was cast in all of the all-cast numbers, and three others. Get this- without even knowing my obsession with Disney movies they cast me in "I Just Can't Wait to be King." eek! I'm also in a piece from The Addams Family musical (I didn't know this existed... haha), and a piece from The Music Man. One of the all-cast numbers is Dancing Queen. Get pumped, because I sure am. In fact, I may listen to that CD tonight and get even more excited.

Breaking Bread in Geneva!

I will be in Geneva next weekend for Diocesan Convention! I'm actually pretty excited because I am a nerd and love convention. Plus, since I'm taking Episcopal Polity this semester, I have a new knowledge of the Constitution and Canons. I'm also planning on asking people some questions that I want to use for my final paper. Wabam. :-) 

I'll also be staying for church on Sunday at St. Peter's! Can't wait to see everyone!!

Great Roommate Advice

Yesterday when I texted Kat that I had finished my paper she said, "Good job!! Now sleep forever :)" And sleep I did. ah.

Today when I wanted to watch a movie T.J. suggested my favorite "Beauty and the Beast"- what a great suggestion! I watched it in French because I have been truly missing speaking French, and it was wonderful. (And tonight I got a call from one of my Senegalese friends, so it's good that I had at least thought in French today!!)

My song today is the French version of the best Disney song ever. hehe. 
"La belle et la bete"

Peace, Love, and always lots and lots of Smiles, 
Christa