Coloring Like an Egyptian

School is scuttling past like the leaves blown up by the wind. I keep rotating between my fall herringbone coat and my winter Columbia jacket, with my black fleece worn in-between. I am working on my art history reproduction of Return from Abydos (Egyptian wall painting on plaster, 1410 B.C.) and am being constantly reminded why I am not an art major. It's not looking bad at all, but I feel like I would derive more pleasure from this project. Or maybe it's the four looming papers due after Thanksgiving break. Deo gratias that at least I've finished writing the accompanying paper for art history!

Tomorrow is Heather (my dear roommate)'s 22nd birthday. We were planning on going out for drinks after our chapter meeting tomorrow night, but the Chicago Water Grill burned down tonight! CWG, for those unawares, is a favorite in the college community. It was a nice restaurant and bar in Jonesville, which is right next to Hillsdale. I was just there on Friday after the Kappa Senior Date Dinner with Matt and a few friends, so it seems a bit surreal to think that it is completely demolished now.

I have been reading lots, both for school and not for school (although, if you learn for life, not for school, as my high school espoused we should, then it's all in my life's curricula!), but I found this really great poem:

"High Flight"
by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr., 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF
(killed December 11, 1941)

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew -
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

In sad news, my Flannery O'Connor book, Mystery and Manners, split absolutely in half today. I shall have to tape it back together! Although it is a little easier to read now :)

I leave Hillsdale Tuesday (two days!) to go home for break; my Tuesday class got canceled, but I have a lunch date with my good friend Sarah Willis and around 1:15, when Kate is done with her exam, off we shall drive! Homeward bound!

I may be having lunch with my cousins Tommy and Nick on Wednesday with my sister Katie; that night, I shall pick up my friend Andrew from the bus station. He's coming in from Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with my family, which should be a blast and very overwhelming. I'm sure he'll leave 10 pounds heavier because they'll just keep trying to feed him.

Friday-Saturday will be reading research, taking Andrew around Cincinnati and hanging out with friends, per is my homecoming ritual. I'm sure I'll take Heidi on a few walks too, so I can waddle off the loads of pumpkin pie, turkey, stuffing, etc. I intend to eat. Andrew, you can come too. :)

Continuing to pray about life and what it's been scooping up to me. It's not always easy trusting, but I know it's best. I mailed my first fellowship application on Friday, so that's a good feeling. The mom of two of my Kappa sisters died yesterday, so please keep her soul in your prayers. One of my fellow American Studies majors has oral comps tomorrow, so keep her in your prayers too. I took her coffee and pop-tarts tonight. She sent me my favorite line of the day too:

Emily: you are drawing with crayons and I'm reviewing 4 years of education. hmmmmmmmph.
(except I am using colored pencils, not my preferred medium of crayola crayons, of which I need a new pack if anyone is interested in supporting the Julie Art cause; I'll draw you a pretty picture!)

I'm incredibly excited to see my family and friends. I like to think that to be home is to be.

This was part of the commentary in The Magnificant for today, the Feast of Christ the King (and St. Cecilia!). It's from Pope Benedict XVI's homily on September 8, 2001 on theFeast of Our Lady's Nativity:

"The Gospel passage we have just heard broadens our view. It presents the history of Israel from Abraham onwards as a pilgrimage, which, with its ups and downs, its paths and detours, leads us finally to Christ. The genealogy with its light and dark figures, its successes and failures, shows us that God can write straight even on the crooked lines of our history. God allows us our freedom, and yet in our failures he can always find new paths for his love. God does not fail. Hence this genealogy is a guarantee of God’s faithfulness; a guarantee that God does not allow us to fall, and an invitation to direct our lives ever anew towards him, to walk ever anew towards Jesus Christ."

Happy last Sunday in Ordinary Time!