Summer Days, Drifting Away...

I realize that my blogs are few and far between, considering the fact that I don't have any cute baby pictures to post or funny kid stories to tell. Oh well. Life plods a long quite nicely and God is always faithful.

Summer has come! Oh summer, how I love you! I love the sun, the warmth, the sandals and shorts, the damp, sweet smell of the morning air (I'm up early enough to experience it), and even the wind we've been having hasn't been too terribly awful (though it has made wildfires a real danger). I love cookouts and hiking and watermelon and corn on the cob and swimming. If it could be summer all the time there would be no complaints from me. Alas, it is always a short season so I am determined to enjoy it while I can.

Cooper has begun his internship with Arizona Monuments, which is part of the National Park Service. He really likes it, and we both feel slightly more secure with a second full-time income.  If nothing else, paying the rent isn't as much of a drain. And the uniform looks cute on him. :-) We're hoping that he can keep the internship through the fall, which would require him to be in school part-time to keep it, but that might be an okay trade-off if staying in the position and getting experience may give him a leg-up  into a permanent position. Prayers for this would be appreciated.

I am still working my receptionist position. It's slower in the summer in some ways and busier in others (like filing. I think I have filed hundreds, if not thousands of files. Utter tedium!) I'm in the process of applying (again) for an academic advisor position. I had a phone interview and waiting on an in-person interview, assuming they liked me enough this go-around. I think the process might move a little slower considering we have 2-3 new student Orientations throughout the week that take up advisor time. Again, would love prayers.

Cooper and I are three days away from celebrating our one year anniversary. It is mind-boggling how the time has flown by! But marriage has treated us both well, I think, and I know we are both growing so much as we muddle through life together. Muddling with another person is such a comfort, even if the fact that you are muddling doesn't change. :-) To celebrate one year of successful muddling, we are traveling next weekend to Palm Springs, CA, where we will enjoy Resolved, a great Christian conference. I'm very much looking forward to the relaxing time with Cooper and hopefully, prayerfully, a spiritual kick in the pants. Working and living in such a secular, anti-Jesus environment as this city can be a drain, so I'm looking forward to soaking up as much Jesus as I can this next weekend.

I'm writing again. I'm still working on this persecution idea that's been bugging me, though I've abandoned the one I posted on this blog and going with something else, which I may post later. However, I'll share the work with sympathetic people only; if you don't like my content, then you don't get to read it! I feel like I am slowly picking myself off the floor of grad school workshops, and am enjoying reminding myself that the books that I have the most fun reading do not usually contain the most experimental or ground-breaking writing (in fact, one of the books I was assigned in a grad school workshop of that sort was so confused and hazy that I wondered it got published at all), so I don't necessarily have to write that way, or please people I don't agree with in the first place. To one friend, I likened getting back into writing to getting back into exercising: really hard and painful at first, and not super fun, but easier and more fun the more I do it. Persistence is the key, I suppose.


In other news, I have been rehearsing for Hello Dolly!, as a chorus member. Musical theater is a new challenge but very fun! I have sorely missed performing from my dance and choir days. If you are in town, mark your calendars for the first two weekends in September and come see it!

I also had the amazing experience of seeing Les Miserables in concert in Tempe last weekend with my parents. It was a fantastic performance and I would give anything to be in it myself, except I would opt out of the Lovely Ladies scene and Master of the House. Slightly inappropriate. But the rest of the musical is wonderful and all about Jesus and what it means to please God and live a good life. If you haven't been blessed with the experience of Les Mis, do yourself a favor and find a DVD or CD.

A sample of the lyrics: Do you hear the people sing?/Lost in the valley of the night/It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light/For the wretched of the Earth/There is a flame that never dies/Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise/They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord/They will walk behind the plowshare/They will put away the sword/The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward...

Could I enter heaven to that music? That would be great.