Updated on August 2, 2011
She asked
So Stefanie wanted to see a few more fundraiser shots, and since Stefanie is one of my favorite people, I couldn’t disappoint her. For those of you who have been hanging around here awhile, a few of these may be familiar. You may remember the funny story associated with the golden field picture. I still find it hard to believe that someone would pay money for a photo of mine, but I guess for a good cause people do all kinds of crazy things!
Updated on August 2, 2011
Morning noodles
Earlier this week, I was asked to provide some of my favorite scenic shots of China to be sold at a fundraiser. I was more than happy to oblige, and had fun sorting through some of the shots of the past year. There was one shot in particular that I hadn’t remembered nor lingered over before. However, for some reason, this time it powerfully struck me. It was taken in one of the most scenic places I’ve been to in China, Lijiang, so I think it got a bit lost in the midst of photos of striking architecture and mountains. And yet, I think this might be my new favorite shot of that trip. It was one of those rare “lucky” moments as a photographer where lighting, background and subject all come perfectly together.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Quick & Tasty
I don’t have a dishwasher. I don’t even have hot water in my kitchen. I drag it by the bucketful from the bathroom. Consequently, the mere thought of a large pile of dishes is at times enough to deter me from cooking. On nights when I’m either short on time or on energy, my go-to meal is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (with homemade jam of course). However, earlier this semester, much to my chagrin one evening I realized I was out of bread. I had students coming over in a little bit, so needed a dinner to throw together quickly. And I didn’t want a lot of dishes to do. I happened to be craving my lemon cream sauce, but knew I didn’t have the time to put it together. Instead, I whipped up a quick variation of lemon pasta using ingredients I always have on hand and one pan. Dinner was ready in about 15 minutes, it was delicious and there were hardly any dishes. I knew I had a winner. Now, this concoction is not going to win any cooking challenges, and nor is it likely to fill up the ravenous males in your life, but for a quick light meal it’s absolutely perfect. You could throw in some sauteed chicken for protein, but for me that would mean dirtying another pan. 
So here’s what I did (if you’re the type that likes precise measurements, turn away now). Cook up some linguine, and while it’s cooking cut up some cherry tomatoes. By the way, the following are ingredients I almost always have in my fridge: tomatoes, lemons, onions, and garlic. Always. Just in case you were wondering. Back to the pasta. If you want to, you can use a strainer. I’m lazy, and aim for fewest number of dishes possible, so I use the lid of the pot and gingerly fight against the linguine slipping out. Return the pot with the linguine to the stove on very low heat. Drop in some butter (probably about a tablespoon) and a little bit of olive oil; not too much, you don’t want greasy noodles. Go light and you can always add more. Squeeze in about half a lemon’s worth of juice (depending on the size and juicyness of the lemon). Generously dump in some dried herbs–I use basil and thyme. If you have fresh herbs? Even better. My basil plant has yet to get to pickable size. I also sprinkle in a bit of lemon pepper and garlic powder. At this point, taste a noodle. Add more of any of the above ingredients to your taste and preference. I warned you about the preciseness of this recipe. Add in the tomatoes and stir around until they’re just warm. (If I had spinach on hand, I might have added some of that as well.) If your mother taught you good manners, transfer pasta to a bowl. If you want one less dish, proceed to prepare to eat from the pan. I have yet to bring myself to do that (good work mom), but I will in no way look down upon you. And here’s the vital step…pour on the parmesan cheese. Don’t hold back. Parmesan cheese is your friend. If you have fresh, consider yourself a lucky man/woman. If yours comes from a green can as well, don’t worry, it’ll do. Then, and here’s the important point, eat and enjoy. You’ll enjoy it even more if you have some leftover italian herb bread to accompany it.
Fast. Easy. Few dishes. Perfection.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Leaves & Vision
I remember the drive clearly. My mom was taking me home from the eye doctor with my brand spanking new pair of glasses. I pressed my face up against the car window and stared in wonder. Leaves. I could see leaves.
No one had realized the problem with my vision until one school day I traipsed off to the nurse’s office for the required yearly check-up. I had some difficulty telling her the letters on the sign, and she started to ask me questions about the blackboard being fuzzy. Sure enough, when far away, I was having to squint quite a bit at the board. I was sent home with a note (or did they call my parents? this part of the memory is a bit fuzzy), and shortly thereafter I had an appointment with the eye doctor. Always one with keen fashion sense, I picked out a large pair of glasses with pink, purple, and green paint speckles all over them. It was the early nineties folks. They matched my bangs that were teased and curled six inches above my head.
Anyways, before that fateful day of picking up my glasses, I assumed that for everyone, trees from a distance were just a blurry mass of color. I had no idea that even from a considerable distance, you could actually see the defined edges and texture of leaves. And so I stared out of that car window in fascination at the world that had been opened up to me.
I always think about that experience whenever I’m reading through Mark and get to the account of Jesus healing a blind man. It’s always been one of my favorite healing accounts because it proceeds a bit differently than most. Jesus spits on the guy, puts his hands on him, and then inquires about his vision. Instead of replying with the expected, “Why yes, my vision is perfect!”, the man proclaims, “Sure, I can see, but the people look like trees.” So once again Jesus lays his hands on the guy’s eyes, and it’s only at this point that he sees everything clearly.
I’ve always wondered, why the two times? Why wasn’t his vision fixed perfectly the first time? While I don’t have a definitive answer to that question, the story has come to be picture of a common experience within my own life. There have been times that the Father has radically altered my vision in a way that entirely changes the way I view the world around me. Things come into sharper focus…things that I previously didn’t even recognize as blurry. This change is perhaps most obvious when a person decides to follow the Father and recognizes for the first time his sovereign control in this world. However, many of us need the Son to continually come back and lay his hands on us again, to aright our vision again. Our perspectives and vision are still to a great extent marred, and the difficulty is that many of us don’t even realize the problem. We assume that the trees are just supposed to be a blur of color. These untrained and unpracticed eyes only see a shadow, only a distortion of what is really around us. Thank goodness the Son is patient enough to lay his hands on us again, to continue to peel back the scales that cover our eyes until that glorious day when we see fully and clearly–even without speckled rimmed lenses.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Sunday Snapshot: The Freshmen Halloween Party
This is the team’s second year in a row to throw a halloween party for the freshmen in one of the teaching buildings on campus. In the past, we’ve done Halloween open houses at our apartments. But we discovered having hundreds of feet traipsing through the classrooms is preferable to hundreds of feet traipsing through our homes. This also prevents a mass of students from congregating in the family’s apartments just staring at the kids.
This year the party went off without a hitch, thanks to the large bevy of students volunteers we recruited.
The various freshmen English major classes had set times to arrive to the party, and Seth (aka Abe Lincoln) served as door keeper to attempt (attempt being the key word) to halt the entry of upperclassmen/other majors that were quite intrigued by the happenings.
Upon entry, the first stop was a spooky haunted house, complete with fog machines (also known as humidifiers), scary music, and creepily dressed creatures that jumped out or grabbed your ankles. In case all of that wasn’t spooky enough, Anthony would get the students all riled up with a scary story before entering.
And then he would sometimes even hold the exit door closed as they tried to escape. Apparently he has a bit of an evil streak in him.
The thoroughly spooked students would then move on to the “carnival” room, which featured the games of Eyeball Plop and Bat Toss, as well as Mark’s impossible puzzles.
One of the puzzles involved cutting a long chain.
And another was trying to get two ropes untangled that were tied to your and your partner’s wrists.
The next room housed musical chairs and face painting. Last year, Lauren was the sole person responsible for painting hundreds of faces. This year, she wisely trained a group of students to handle the job.
Which meant the designs were maybe slightly more…shall we say, unique? Well, they started out quite normal…cats, and lions, and so forth. But as the evening progressed, the tastes and preferences started to stray from the typical.
One of the most popular choices of the evening was having your English name scrawled across your face.
Musical chairs was definitely one of the more popular activities, and under Lauren’s encouragement the students learned to be quite vicious when it came to pushing someone else’s bottom out of a chair.
The last room featured “pumpkin” carving, where students put their creativity to work cutting out jack-o-lanterns.
All in all, it was several hours of mayhem and posing. While it may be hard to believe, I think I might have posed for more pictures than I took…which is quite a feat. While a constant onslaught of picture requests and large crowds is not necessarily my first choice for an evening’s activities, it was worth it to see such wide grins on the faces of the freshmen.
Updated on August 2, 2011
The Daddy & Me Car Wash
Like I mentioned before, I’m very behind on editing. Way back in August when I was down in Florida visiting my sister and her family, I headed out to capture Ethan as he helped his daddy wash the car (a job his dad takes very seriously). One of my favorite things to photograph is just everyday, non-posed happenings. When I did a first glance over these shots last August I didn’t like any of them. However, the other day I started to play around with a few of them, and once I converted them to black and white, the images started to grow on me. I know the vast majority of you preferred the color image I showed you last week, but this time I’m not going to give you the choice. I must admit, although you had good reasons for selecting the color, I tend to agree with Aaron’s rule, “When in doubt…always, always, always black and white.”
Updated on August 2, 2011
Food for thought
From one of my all time favorite childhood books, Petunia.
Now I understand. It was not enough to carry wisdom under my wing. I must put it in my mind and in my heart.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what the Father’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Updated on August 2, 2011
Heat, Keyboards, and other random updates
A bit of a random and brief update for all of you before I head off on the night train tonight to Beijing.
- The high today was 37. The low is 10.
- It snowed (albeit briefly) yesterday.
- We still have no central heating.
- I’m very thankful we have small wall units that provide some much needed heat right now.
- I no longer need to run the AC from those units when I work out in the morning.
- I (many mornings) no longer have the motivation to climb from my warm bed to work out.
- My keyboard randomly started working about two days after “the incident.” In my requests that it would be able to be fixed during my one day in Beijing, I never even thought to ask for it to be fixed all on its own. Either way, I’m quite thankful that I will not be without a computer in the midst of midterm season. While in Beijing, though, I do have an appointment to see if my dented V key (which you see is working just fine) can get replaced.
- In approximately 14 hours I will be eating Kro’s Nest pizza. This makes me a very happy woman.
- The Long Underwear Debate has never been so fierce as right now. Temps will be dipping near that low of 10 when I head to the train station. I will have to wait in the frigid non-heated train station. But then I’ll get on the train, which is the one place likely to be overheated this time of year. We’re talking roast a thanksgiving turkey hot. So the debate currently is: freeze on the way to the station and during the first half of the day in Beijing, or roast all night on the train. I have yet to come to a satisfactory decision.
- I’m afraid my discussion of long underwear of late has perhaps revealed an overly analytical tendency. My apologies!
Updated on August 2, 2011
Sunday Snapshot: We wait for you to ache
With the energy we have, we begin the day, waiting and watching and hoping.
We wait, not clear about our waiting.
But filled with restlessness, daring to imagine that you are not finished yet–so we wait, patiently, impatiently, restlessly, confidently, quaking and fearful, boldly and daring.
Your sovereign decree stands clear and we do not doubt.
We wait for you to dissolve in tender tears.
Your impervious rule takes no prisoners, we wait for you to ache and hurt and care over us and with us and beyond us.
Cry with us the brutality, grieve with us the misery, tremble with us the poverty and hurt.
Attend to us–by attending in power and in mercy, remake this alien world into our proper home.
We ask in the name of the utterly homeless one. Amen.
Words taken from Walter Brueggemann’s Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth.
Updated on August 2, 2011
The Purchase
Many of your guesses as to the cause of my excitement were quite perceptive. A new camera lens, an iPad, and anything for my kitchen are all purchases that would give me delight. However, Heather hit the nail on the head in naming one thing that is far more exciting than anything on that list.
A plane ticket. And not just any old plane ticket, but a plane ticket to see people I love dearly.
This is my sixth year in China. Which means I’ve spent five Thanksgivings, Christmases, New Years, and birthdays in Asia. Single. I’ve been blessed with an amazing team to celebrate with each year. We’ve hacked turkeys to pieces so we could cook them in toaster ovens. We’ve done breakfast and present opening Christmas morning. We’ve done extravagantly themed birthday parties. I’ve made batches and batches of my Grandma’s rolls. We’ve bought little Christmas trees and hunted for the least tacky ornaments. These efforts, as well as visits from friends and family, have made the holidays quite tolerable. But…but…it’s still not the same. And the holidays are still some of the harder days in China.
Which is why I’m super stoked to be headed to the States during the holiday season this year. I won’t quite make it in time for Christmas (I have to teach until the 30th), but barring any flight delays, I should make it into the presence of family just before the clock strikes to welcome in 2011. Holiday decorations, cheer and food should still be lingering.
However, sharing in the holiday spirit is not what I’m most excited about. I am most excited to hang out with this guy…
…and to snuggle with my niece. My niece who is due to arrive the day before I’m due in Florida. I’d greatly appreciate it if she postponed her coming until after my arrival. However, I’m quite certain my sister will not be sharing this sentiment come December 30. I didn’t get to meet my nephew until he was three months old, so I’m quite ecstatic to have the opportunity to love on my niece in her first few weeks.
So excited, in fact, that I’m not even thinking about the headaches of the journey. About teaching my last class at 5 pm on the 30th, six hours later getting on an overnight train, and then heading straight to the airport for a never-ending December 31st that will take me through San Fran and Chicago before arriving in Florida. After two and a half weeks that will surely fly by, I’ll head back to Asia and begin my grad classes shortly thereafter in Thailand.
But for the boy who calls me Honey and Haffrin? And the little lady soon to make her appearance? Not to mention my sister and brother-in-law? Totally worth it.
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