by the bright shining light of the moon

 

oh, wisconsin.  how do you do what you do to me? 

 

as many of you probably know, i was in madison and appleton for a very brief stay this weekend.  i have recently been quoted as saying that i really love and miss wisconsin, but only in the summer.  turns out...that's not quite true... 

 

as soon as i got on the beltline, my heart felt different.  i drove past fish hatchery road and todd drive and was flooded with memories.  the places and faces and tastes of madison...there aren't enough words.  i got to see dan and holly.  i ate pho.  i played ultimate.  i got adjusted by chad, the best chiropractor in the freaking world. 

 

although it was butt cold, the weather was relatively cooperative and not much worse than indiana.

 

...and cheese.  OH, THE GLORIOUS CHEESES OF WISCONSIN!  it's something you just can't understand unless you have lived there.  when it comes to cheese, every other state is terrible.

 

and oh yeah, there was that great heart time with mj and jb.  nbd.  lots of giggling, quoting, and eating. 

 

considering i moved to wisconsin seven years ago on a pretty much just a whim, that state grabbed hold of my heart and refuses to let go, no matter how long i am away.

 

it's a terrible, good ache.  just think how bad it would be had i gone to a brewers game or the farmer's market or the farm...

hello, old friend

yeah, i have been absent.  not just from posting.  from reading blogs, too.  so if you have been writing super important things with funny little jokes that i should be laughing at, i haven't read them.  sorry.  i will spend some time catching up on those.

life update: i am still in madison.  still working for dan.  still playing frisbee.  but i am tired.  my body is worn out, and i miss home.  i love madison, and it will always be a home place for me, but it is not home anymore.

i am still looking at and applying for jobs.  waiting on one in particular, but we'll see how it goes.

i decided i am moving back to indiana in the middle of november.  unless i am called somewhere else earlier.

finally, a new little project.  miranda and i are doing beth moore's bible study on the psalms of ascent.  it's called stepping up, and i am super loving it.  one of the things i love most is that we are rewriting those 15 psalms in our own voice at the end of each section.  so great.  really helping me connect to the Word and to the Lord.

so...i think i am going to rewrite all the psalms.  and i am going to post them here randomly.  no timeline.  just want to share my heart a bit in that way.  i welcome your comments.

the end.

30 by 30 update: wild weekend adventures

it was a whirlwind of a weekend. i definitely am feeling the effects of it right now...my normal wednesday night of reflection is taking place in my bed instead of starbucks because my head decided we shouldn't go out in public tonight.

here's a little list update for you:

i wrote a fatty check to my dad for $850, so my debt is down to $1000. smackin it in the face. booyah.

i officially became a warrior. my friend, nate, and i ran the warrior dash on saturday. he has some pictures that i will post whenever he gives them to me. but you can also see a couple cool ones of me by going here: http://www.warriordashphotos.com/?SiteID=2 choose 2011 wd twin lakes, wisconsin--saturday. then enter 60345 for the bib number. you can see me jumping over fire and crawling through mud.

i fixed a meal right at the beginning of the month, but in the chaos of school starting and me moving, i never posted a blog about it. here it is: steak with bleu cheese crumbles, sauteed asparagus and shrimp, hawaiian bread, and watermelon. yup. it was sooooo good.

i am in the middle of a ton of books for school, but haven't finished any of them yet. i will keep you posted.

the other big thing you should know is that i am going to be rolling out some changes to the list in the next month. hey, it's my list...i can do what i want, right? as i mentioned, i moved...into a house with three super cool women from grad school (i'll do a post on them some other time)...and i want to shift my list so it resonates with where i am at right now...with this community of mine. so expect five or six things to get changed or removed completely from the list.

deuces.

brief pause in the action

a) i wish i had the money to subscribe to a bunch of scholarly journals, including this one. yup, i am super nerdy.

b) a week from now, i will be living in the wigger house. yowza.

c) although last week was a full week for me, this one is technically our first 'real' week. but i am claiming next week as my first real one. so take that.

d) ouch, colts. ouch. at least yovani and the brewers stopped the bleeding for a moment. and the badgers rarely disappoint.

e) my super cool boss, sara scheunemann, sent me home an hour early today and commanded me to spend time outside. i like her.

f) in my snail-paced packing, i have again affirmed that i might own too many books, movies, and shoes. in that order. and most of my books aren't even in marion...

g) i am making a speedy trip to madison this weekend to run a race i haven't trained for...even a little. should be great fun.

the monthly cooking segment: beautiful food on a beautiful day

yeah, yeah. i made a pretty similar meal last month. but i can't help it if the farmer's market is so freaking awesome.

fresh spinach.

fresh asparagus.

fresh strawberries.

amazing ravioli.

oh, and spicy cheese bread.

i love madison. good heavens, do i love madison!

heads up for the summer

i am taking two classes this summer...they go from tomorrow until the middle of july. they're online, which means i get to hang out in madison for a few months. shaboom. for our online classes, we always have to write an autobiography...not all of us actually know or have seen one another, so it's an effort to get to know the class. this time, i threw in a link to my good old blog...since i tend to process and write about school stuff on occasion. so we'll see if we get a little traffic from my pals up in this neighborhood.

the two classes i am taking this summer are special topics in higher education: mental health issues facing the college campus and administration and finance in higher education. so those should be...interesting. maybe. i'll keep you posted.

i'll move up to madison next friday. i'll be living with jennifer (read: eating awesome food), working, and playing crap tons of frisbee. i'm going to work on my 30 by 30 list, commit serious time to my book, and soak up the awesomeness that is madison.

yeah, it's gonna be a good summer.

1) what are your summer plans?

2) do you have any goals for me this summer?

(yeah, i DID take this picture...it's the terrace. almost two years ago. haha.)

30 by 30 update: 16 months to go

just for kicks, i'm gonna walk you through the whole list. shaZAM.

1. get my master's degree: past the halfway point of my second semester. like any good semi, i'm truckin' along.

2. pay off my debt to dad: wrote a check to the old man yesterday. $400 more into his pocket. down to a cool $2000. woot. (it's hard to have a lot of joy about this one, knowing that as soon as i finish paying him back, i will owe the government $17000. ah, well.)

3. leave the country: i haven't personally left the country, but i have been faithfully watching amazing race. does that count?

4. become a warrior: i'm gonna go ahead and pretend that 5k i ran in oshkosh was the start of my training program. yup.

5. take a weekend trip by myself: no. any suggestions for where to go or what to do?

6. make my t shirt memories quilt: maybe aunt betty and i will work on this the first two weeks of may...

7. make another cd: i've been writing a bunch of songs, so i bet i have a good selection for another cd. kyle is working on jazzing up that piano part i wrote for the hymn. i'm gonna put the cd making in a pile of things to do this summer when i live with somebody who owns a mac. :)

8. get something published: uh, haven't so much been working on this one.

9. take a road trip with miranda: colorado? indiana? so many options.

10. host a theme party: oy. sort of regretting this one. it seems like a lot of work.

11. do a monthly cooking segment on my blog: on track. wrote about the last one here. hey, i've just been doing a lot of cooking anyway. cause food is great.

12. plan a project reunion: ummmm...

13. get a pet: i might go for this one in the fall. it's probably better if i don't get one before i leave for the summer.

14. get a different car: amazingly, bj novak is still moving. i'm just as surprised as you. and now he has an indiana license plate. weird.

15. eat chicken: thanksgiving 2011 is gonna be EPIC. and hopefully not life-threatening. whatevs. i live on the edge.

16. finish my book: nope. not yet.

17. sit in abe's lap: DONE! i totally get to cross one off at last! shorty red graciously took pictures of me looking like a total idiot as i tried to climb up. wasn't easy. definitely wore the wrong shoes. i'm just gonna put it out there...i think abe and i make a very handsome couple.

18. go rock climbing: abe is made out of rock, i think. so maybe that counts. but i think i'll go this summer in madison. or colorado. or both.

19. learn bass guitar: not yet. haven't saved enough dollar bills to buy my bass.

20. sing karaoke in public: i think heather dawn and i might do this in colorado. song ideas?

21. learn to drive stick shift: getting offers left and right...might happen soon since the snow is [theoretically] gone.

22. paint something: nope.

23. take a spa day: no, but my back thinks it sounds like a super great idea.

24. go skinny dipping: well, someone IS getting married at a lake in august...

25. go on a blind date: i'm beginning to think the promised blind date isn't going to happen. any of you want to set me up with a stranger? (i mean to me, not to you. don't pick a rando off the street. creep.)

26. create a self portrait: not even done a little except in my head.

27. get another tattoo: no new ink yet. you probably would have heard.

28. run a half marathon: i'm thinking the indy mini or hodson half next year.

29: read 100 books: i managed to finish one last month. haha. it was the first year out (it's about students their first year out of high school).

30: scrapbook the list: well, not so much. obv.

brain vomit

i'm in vacation mode, so you aren't going to get a pre-planned blog post today. you're just going to get a random smattering of thoughts about my time in wisconsin thus far. feel free to stop reading now if that concerns you.

it's 9:45 in the morning here in wisco. and i am exhausted. so while these are fairly unstructured thoughts, you're getting them even more filter-free than usual.

*because i love wisconsin and its beautiful people, i planned a week full of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and coffee dates. literally at least 3 scheduled events with people every day. as i may have mentioned anywhere from one to a thousand times, i am an introvert and get tired out by people. so this might have been a disastrous plan...as evidenced by the exhaustion i am currently experiencing. when jennifer heard my schedule for the week, she looked at me like i was a crazy person. she might be right.

*it's a little strange how people keep telling me nothing has changed here...my world is completely different than it was 7 months ago.

*many people in madison do not understand how my faith--my love affair with Jesus--shapes my decisions and life choices. the concept of not drinking for a season of life because that is part of the culture of the community in which i am now invested is too foreign for them to wrap their brains around. part of that is because alcohol is such a big part of the culture here (and not always in negative ways). but i think it's more because their view of life is so different from mine. and always has been, honestly...it's just more apparent now because of where i am and what i am doing vocationally.

*i am thankful that there are people who know and love me. like...really know me. and really love me in spite of...and in the midst of...really knowing me.

devotional thought: home

in my 28.5 years of life on this planet, 25 of those have been spent in one part of indiana or another. it's where i grew up, where i went to school, and where i currently live. i can (and do) call it home.

but i spent a kind of random 3.5 years in madison, wisconsin. it took me a full year before i really liked the change. i'm not really sure how much longer it took before it felt like home. but it did eventually, and then it grabbed hold of my heart in a truly unexpected way.

i moved back to indiana for grad school, and leaving wisconsin felt much harder than i expected. i hadn't really missed indiana when i left it--there were moments when i missed the familiarity, and my family all lived there, but leaving the hoosier state was nothing like being away from wisconsin has been.

i miss wisconsin--especially madison--and all the people in it. every. single. day. it doesn't matter what i am doing; things relate to wisconsin. random people on the street remind me of my friends in wisconsin. it's super weird.

i was aware that i missed wisconsin, but i didn't know the extent until i started making plans to be here for spring break. driving up here felt magical and wonderful.

i was driving home.

***

it's a very good thing i am so madly in love with what i am doing (in life, in indiana) right now, or this could be an emotionally devastating time.

as it is, it just feels nice to be home.

***

where do you call home?

my favorite...awesome idea involving food!

so i was craving the southwestern crab cake salad* from bluephies the other day, and sara and i started talking about places where we love to eat in madison, wisconsin. at times, it is both wonderful and terrible to work with someone who knows how fantastic madison truly is. wonderful because we came up with a super cool idea. terrible because it made me SO HUNGRY.

hungry like a wolf.

we decided that we need to roadtrip up this summer and EAT OUR WAY THROUGH MADISON! (you may clap and dance with glee at the brilliance of this idea.) instead of a bar crawl, we would do a restaurant crawl (potentially the same amount of vomit, just for different reasons). we could make t shirts, invite all the wisco people we like to join us, and eat some RIDICULOUSLY good food.

here are some places we thought of:

bluephies (duh)

the great dane (obv)

harvest (oh.my.heavens.)

sa-bai thong

the nitty gritty

ella's (no, i haven't been, but sara says it's fun)

so...any other suggestions?

*i will love you forever if this shows up on my doorstep. although that will probably violates several health codes.

a list, wisconsin style

w: wisco weekend. heather and i drove up friday night and hung out in madtown. it was good and loud and random. we spent saturday and sunday in milwaukee with stephanie and miranda. yay! we also saw cousin katie. double yay!

i: i wrote a new poem today in class. it's called 'puzzle pieces,' and it's over on the side of my blog.

s: somebody awesome did all the driving (and in crappy weather) so that somebody else could do her homework in the car.

c: cheese, grilled. thank you, stephanie. magical, as always.

o: on our trip north, we made a list of 300 things for heather to do in her 30's. haha. i am obsessed with lists. i'll admit it.

n: not many things are funnier than hyperactive irish people. although...

s: skinny dipping in a bowl of whale's milk might come close.

i: i miss wisconsin. bunches and heaps.

n: november is practically over. how did that happen?

ok, i got tired after o. you're lucky i finished the list.

cast of characters: sara scheunemann

**who she is**

this is sara:


(this is how you say sara's last name: shine-uh-man)

**what she does**

sara is the program coordinator for the john wesley honors college. that basically means she gets to boss me around for four hours every day. also, she runs the world, stabilizes all the crazy people in the honors college, and thinks of everything needed for every situation ever.

all while being incredibly patient and humble. she's kind of awesome.

**where she's from**

sara grew up in west bend, wisconsin, and has an english degree from marquette. she has a master's in higher education administration from the university of dayton. essentially, i am repeating sara's life.

**how she fits in my life now**

part of my job as the jwhc graduate assistant is to be sara's emotional bodyguard--i protect her from staff members trying to abuse and take advantage of her.

while sara is super nice to everyone, she is quietly very funny and kind of snarky. i very much enjoy her commentary on life. it must be noted that sara is slightly prejudiced against coffee-drinkers...but only because she thinks they are judging her for not drinking it. i am working to bridge the gap and heal this wound in her heart.

**stuff about her**

sara likes dark chocolate, tea, MADISON, running, travel (especially to national parks), hiking and camping, and trees.

she strongly dislikes (i actually think 'hates' is in order here) our copier at work and bedbugs.

sara has an almost two year-old niece named cadence; they like hanging out. because nieces are stellar.

her first crush was on a boy named tommy thompson--not the politician.

**what people are saying**

i think the following sampling of quotes will tell you more about who we work with than about sara, but here you go:

our boss, david, has this to say about her: 'sara is more aware than the typical freshman.'

coworker rusty says, 'sara's great.'

hilary, one of our student employees, keenly observed, 'sara is always the go-to person.'

finally, lisa, our coworker who is never ever sarcastic, boldly proclaimed, 'sara is a beacon of lucidity in a vague and uncertain world!'

**other stuff you should know**

this year, God told her not to set any goals. she is learning what it looks like to really live in the present and abide in the Spirit. she's pretty much a rockstar.

sara is an amazing person to work with and for. she is gracious and thoughtful, always looks out for my well-being, and genuinely cares about people. i have much to learn from her.

yowza

my bad. i don't know how a week can slip by without writing something. though, dear void, you are not holding me accountable in the least, so that makes it easier.

i wrote two poems today in class. you must think i never learn anything in there. well, you'd be right some of the time. but the first poem actually applies directly to a video that we had to watch. so there. as it turns out, docstoc will not let me publish that one because it is suspected of having adult content. probably cause it says the word 'naked' 7 times. oh, well. i'll just publish that in its own entry.

in other news, this was not a very relaxing weekend. it was full of people. great people, but still a lot of them. yikes. brief summary of the events:

slumber party with the dundores--nail painting, pizza eating, pumpkin carving, settlers playing. all in all, a good time.


the food explosion--making guacamole and fruit salad for 5 hours. oh. my. heavens.

the shid--christine shidla meandered down from madison to hang out at a starbucks in target in castleton. i like that redhead. yup, i am fully aware of the irony of making that statement and then using a black and white picture of her.


it is your baby shower--a lot of people. holy moses, a lot of people. oh, and also a fun time of celebrating my little sister and baby ez-c.

just a quick one

i had a great weekend in madison. saw friends, played frisbee, got hurt...all the ingredients necessary for loads of fun.

if you've never seen a dislocated shoulder, it's pretty sick. don't worry. it didn't happen to me.

the colts are awesome. i had forgotten how fun it is to listen to them on the radio...which i had to do for the first half since i was driving back to marion.

don't you love guys who hug? ;)

roast beef for lunch again

points of interest:

the poll is up. and it's working. so if you tried before without success, try voting again. otherwise, i'll just keep writing random nonsense that has no purpose or direction.

2. if you're reading this in google reader or something of the sort, go to the actual site...well, because you need to vote. but also because i adopted a pet duck. his name is puckerman. puck the duck. ;) how dare you accuse me of having a glee theme to my blog?

c. travis and i played racquetball yesterday. my right arm feels barely functional today. which could be a problem for frisbee tomorrow. not to mention the fact that i haven't run for months now.

next: madison is calling my name, and i am so excited to go. as usual, bj novak is a loser and will likely strand me somewhere. let's hope he doesn't.

(sidenote--real bj novak, if you're reading this, i don't think you're a loser. i love you deeply.)

it might go to my head

in two days, i have generated 8 followers! feeling pretty darn special. although that does mean i probably have to write about quality things.

i'm going to try and create a poll about said quality things, so please vote.




also, i'm going to madison tomorrow! yay!