Things that make me smile, vol. 2

Not because I am overflowing with happiness and simply have to share it with the world, but because "light a single candle instead of cursing the dark." I am also going to use lots of exclamation points! Because they make you happy! Here goes:

1. I got a free chair! Well, actually it's a footstool, but could be a chair in a pinch. Now I can invite three people over for dinner. That's everyone I know!

2. My bosses are gone for a week (which is not the happy thing; it is boring without them), but a good chunk of the work they left me to do is "fun" stuff: creating itineraries, designing brochures. I like my job! (Well, some of it at least.)

3. I have one whole new complete hobby: making greeting cards. My mom sent me cardstock, stamps and ink in my Christmas package, and I also got all of our old office Christmas cards to recycle into new, better-looking ones! What's great about this hobby is that it can be done alone in a pinch, but I can invite others to play along!

4. I put up my Certification of Consecration (one of very few items to make it all the way across the ocean so far, see previous post) in my office. I had to temporarily displace Katharina von Bora to do it, but I think she'd understand. Woo-hoo, I'm a diaconal minister!

5. When I complained to my friends at home about my life being boring/lonely/uneventful/pathetic, they gave me lots of helpful suggestions. I am going to go through them and try out all that are even remotely feasible.

6. The Nature of Doctrine. This is the book (the first of several, I hope) that I am going to start reading with my friend Melissa to prepare us for our respective graduate-school admissions essays and interviews. I like this SO MUCH MORE than reading the book on my own!

7. If you recall, last November, I asked you for book recommendations. I took the list with me to Half-Price Bookstore in the Twin Cities, a.k.a. Mecca (and then to the Des Moines branch when I visited my sister). I found several of them there (for 5 bucks or less, oh yeah!):
-The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
-Two or three of the Ender series by Orson Scott Card
-The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (plus another one by him because I heard a Minnesota author on NPR raving about his work).

I should also mention that three of your suggested works came to me by strange and mysterious means while I was still in Wittenberg (I borrowed them from Heather):
-Life of Pi by Yann Martel (worth every bit of hype)
-Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (also marvelous, though the second one had a bit of a mean bitter streak)

I acquired The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri by more traditional means: with my Barnes and Noble giftcard. That is, full-price (gasp!). I am told it is worth it.

The rest I could not find, afford, or fit into my (not delivered yet!) suitcases. But they are still on the holy and sacred list. And that makes me happy!

to be continued...