New York update

This is my last "I'm super late updating the blog" post. And I'm going to excuse it a little bit because I started it over Christmas break in Memphis, but the Internet at my parents was just too slow to handle all the photos ... then I just got lazy and didn't update it once I got back to Kennesaw.

Way back in September, I realized I had a flight credit (thanks to a canceled flight this past summer) with Southwest that I needed to use fairly soon. I had planned on using it towards my May 2012 summer conference trip, but long story short, that just wasn't going to work. I told Stephen the dilemma, and he said, "You should go to New York for Christmas."

Um, yes of course. Why didn't I think of that?

So, I booked my trip in September and got a deal on tickets. I flew out of Nashville (because Atlanta doesn't get Southwest until February), but that was no big deal. I went a day earlier and stayed with my friend Hannah and her husband Caleb, who graciously watched over my car for the time I was gone. Despite it being 30 degrees, we hit up my favorite Nashville ice cream place — Jeni's. I miss that place! Then when I flew back into New York, I got to spend the night with my Murfreesboro roomie Tara, and visited with Mallory, the Vandy intern. Nashville was a nice bonus in the New York trip.

In New York, I stayed with one of my best friends — Madeline — from high school. She just got her master's from Christie's (you know, the place that just auctioned off all the Elizabeth Taylor collection? Yeah, no big deal), and she's staying in New York job hunting. She is a fabulous hostess, and graciously took me all around the city to do the not-so-touristy things. We ate lots of good food, saw lots of interesting art, did some shopping, did some more eating, you get the idea. I also got to catch up with two friends from journalism school — so great to see them and catch up.

I did take a ton of photos. I don't want this post to be forever long, so here are some highlights:

We saw lots of art. Here's just one of many pieces.

Some galleries were better than others. Yes, those are trash bags filled with aluminum cans. 

Madi said it's a critique of our society, talking about waste and consumption. I get that ... but still.

Madi & her boyfriend threw a fabulous Christmas party. Tacky Christmas 

wear was encouraged — thus my ridiculous fleece hat. 

Us at the Museum of Natural History — origami tree!

Madi had a department Christmas party one night, so I went exploring. 

And this series of photos is what happened that night.

These soldiers were everywhere at Rockefeller Plaza

The light show area at Rockefeller Plaza. 

Rockefeller Center — the ice rink is right below this.

Rockefeller Center in the background — huge!

The most touristy thing I did was visiting Top of the Rock (top of the Rockefeller Center). 

I was SO cold, but it was totally worth it. Best view of the city ... in my humble opinion.

My last night in the city, we went to the New York City Ballet's Nutcracker. 

(This is outside the theater — you can't take photos inside.) It was so wonderful! Plus, a guy 

proposed to his girlfriend during intermission (so sweet to see hundreds of strangers 

cheering and clapping), and Kelly Ripa walked right by us in the lobby after the 

performance. (She's cute and really tiny!)

That's not everything ... but I don't want to bore y'all. So fun to visit Madi (thanks for being a wonderful hostess!), and such a great way to start Christmas break. If you ever get the chance to visit New York at Christmas, do it!

Fall semester part 2 - photo edition

As promised, here's part two of the semester at Kennesaw! (Next up is the New York update ...)

In November, Georgia Tech hosted the first-ever semiformal for all the Georgia schools with RUF: GA Tech, UGA, Kennesaw, Mercer, Emory, Georgia Southern, and SCAD. The theme was the 1920's, and Kennesaw absolutely rocked it. It was so fun to get dressed up, visit with other RUF students, and dance the night away at the Georgia Tech's Alumni House.

The Kennesaw crew

Interns at the semiformal: Jake (Southern Miss) came to visit Rachael (Emory)

Thanks to Emily C (who works for RUF's main office in Atlanta), our girls Bible study was able to help NightLight Atlanta with their Christmas project — wrapping 100 Jesus Storybook Bibles and 100 giftbags for children who live in at-risk areas. NightLight Atlanta is "a faith-based, grassroots movement that addresses the complex issues of commercial sexual exploitation through prevention, intervention, restoration, and education. NightLight Atlanta seeks to mobilize the Body of Christ to loose the chains of injustice, while partnering with local law enforcement and service providers to set the captives free." (from NightLight Atlanta's website) Emily invited us to come help write notes in the Bibles, wrap them, and fix gift bags for the kids. Two of our girls who live in the area were able to attend the Christmas party and meet some of the kids. 

The girls writing notes in each Bible before wrapping them.

The girls who wrote, wrapped, and tied ribbons — thanks for hosting us, Emily!

Part of the fun of Kennesaw and Atlanta is trying all the yummy food places around the area. One of said places is Big Pie in the Sky, which has been featured on Man vs. Food. (The challenge: 11 pounds of carnivore pizza — two people have one hour to eat it all and not throw up. Sick dog. It's $50 to try, but if you win, you get $250.) The pizza slices are as large as a baby, and they're cheap. We visited Big Pie in the Sky right before exams — pizza is brain food, right?

See what I mean about the slice?

To close out the semester, we had a Christmas party at my apartment. We wore tacky Christmas sweaters, ate tons of delicious food, had a gingerbread house competition (the guys beat the girls), sang some Christmas carols, played Christmas charades, and watched "A Christmas Story." It was wonderful to have everyone over — I'm very glad to have an apartment big enough to host people!

Singing Christmas songs — we had a full house!

The crew — so so so thankful for them!

That is our fall semester in a photographic nutshell. Thank you again for your prayers and support!

Fall semester part I — the photo edition

I figured since it's now January and we're into our spring semester, I should give a brief update on last semester! (As a side note, one of my New Year's resolutions was to blog more. We'll see how that goes.) Here's part one:

In September, Kennesaw RUF joined with UGA, Georgia Tech, Alabama A&M, Samford, Emory, and Mercer for fall conference in Temple, Georgia. We had a great time of fellowship and teaching, and the weather was wonderful.

Most of the Kennesaw crew at fall conference

One of the fun things about transferring has been exploring a new city — mainly Atlanta, but Kennesaw and surrounding areas are fun, too. Jennifer and I hit up an apple festival in Ellijay — who knew that Georgia was famous for apples as well as peaches?

This is what happens when you ask a random guy to take a picture — dark, but hey, we got one!

More fun things about Atlanta — when friends come to visit you for a weekend, you get to go all over town doing things! Two of my college roommates came for a weekend, and we hit up IKEA, Flip Burger, and the Atlanta Aquarium. 

Starfish at the aquarium

I went to visit Stephen in Knoxville for a weekend in October, and he surprised me by taking me to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville! It is absolutely beautiful, and we definitely want to go back. 

Stephen has all the photos of us together — he took this one outside the house. HUGE.

RUF had staff training in Atlanta for four days at the end of October. A group of us met up in Chattanooga the weekend beforehand to hang out — and celebrate three of our birthdays. Great way to spend my 24th!

The intern crew after church in Chattanooga. Thankful for them!

I got back from staff training and rushed over to campus for what I thought was our weekly girls Bible study ... instead, my sweet students completely caught me off guard by throwing me a surprise party!

Can you tell that the theme they picked was "White Trash Bash"?

To close out October, we did pumpkin carving. I think we did pretty well, don't you?

Mine is the one with the goofy face

The gift of life

It was January 2007. I was just starting my second semester as a freshman at Mississippi State, and was enrolled in a public speaking class. During one of the first classes, my teacher spoke to us about topic selection, and how to choose a proper topic for your audience. She explained that polarizing issues like abortion, gay marriage, and politics caused disputes, and some of those issues could really be quite personal for some audience members.

She then brought up the topic of organ donation.

"Organ donation?" I remember thinking. "People are opposed to that?"

While I've learned some people are opposed to it, that wasn't the point my teacher was trying to make. She told our class that sometimes certain topics would strike closer to home for audience members; and for her, organ donation was one of those topics.

I don't remember all the details, but long story short, her first child was sick and needed a transplant as the only option for getting better. He didn't get one. If I remember correctly, he wasn't even two years old yet.

That year, when I went home to update my driver's license, I made sure to register as an organ and tissue donor. I had always thought about it, and had even mentioned it to my family, but never made it official. Now, my Tennessee license is signed on the back and I've got a heart stamped on my license photo.

Today, The Commercial Appeal ran a beautiful story by David Waters on how one young man's tragic death resulted in life for five people. While his death is sad, the story is a beautiful picture of redemption — God bringing life and second chances for people close to death. You can read the story about Michael Gilmore here.

If you're not registered as a organ or tissue donor and are not sure how to register, you can visit Donate Life America and select your state for registration information. (Be sure to tell your family members about your plans.) It's easy, and it's quick. As of October 2011, 112,178 people were waiting for an transplant. 1,746 of those are children.

I'm thankful my public speaking teacher shared her story that day. I'm also thankful for people like Michael Gilmore who register their donation wishes and for families like the Gilmores who honor those wishes.

Why I need math: a lesson in my humanity (and humility)

A humorous heading from one of my
study prep books

I don't like math.

This isn't a recent development. In elementary school, I remember sitting down working multiplication problems thinking, "I don't like this." In middle school, I disliked math even more when variables starting showing up — "Why put English letters (something that I like and understand) in with all these numbers (something I don't like)? Why work one long division problem for 10 minutes? Why can't we agree to just use decimals and no fractions, or vis versa?" Once algebra rolled around in eighth grade, I really hated math. Math was the source of many, many tears from eighth grade through twelfth grade — my brain just doesn't think that way!

(As a side note to any of my former math teachers who might be reading — I'm extremely thankful for y'all and your patience. I liked y'all, just not the subject matter — although I did end up kind of liking Algebra I and II in high school!)

I've made it through 12 school years of math classes, four ACTs and one SAT with math sections, (and hours of lunch break tutoring sessions for those ACT sections — thanks, Mrs. Mars!), and two college math courses — and I've lived! I'm not kidding when I say one of my greatest accomplishments is finishing all those math classes.

I'm 24 now, and I'm faced with more math — the GRE (basically a big version of the SAT) for entrance requirements for masters' programs. I took it in July, and I'm taking the new version tomorrow. The whole test is hard, but I'm dreading the math.

In the past two or so months, I've started to realize the root of why I dread math — it reminds me of something terribly painful. It reminds me that I'm human, which means I'm fallen, which means my brain doesn't work properly. It reminds me that even though I might work for hours and hours, understanding may not come. How frustrating.

Perhaps most painfully, it reminds me that I'm not good at something, no matter how hard I work to understand it or compensate for it. I hate admitting that.

Throughout the years of agonizing over math, I've just told myself that math is something the Lord has used in my life to teach me the importance of working hard. That's certainly true. Until algebra in eighth grade, school came very easily for me. Were it not for upper-level math (and science), I probably would have never learned to work and study hard.

But now, I'm starting to see that teaching me to work hard isn't the sole purpose of this thorn in my flesh. When I sit down to work a math problem, and I can't figure it out, it reminds me that I'm human — I'm broken, messed up, and not perfect. And that's really hard for me to admit. I like having it all together. I despise not being able to figure something out or understand it.

I'm a lot like that in life. I like having it all together. I really hate it when I can't figure something out — whether it's a router, map, computer, whatever. I'm a fixer — if I see something, I want to figure it out and fix it. I'm the same way when I meet with my students — I want to have all the answers, and I hate having to say, "I don't know" or "Let me think about it." Once I've put my mind to it, I don't like having to ask someone else to help me figure it out. Why? — because it means admitting weakness.

Often times, I've found that my cry to the Lord is a simple, "Lord, I just want to understand [insert life problem here — algebra, a relationship, pain, etc.]."

And unlike a true math problem, we don't always get answers in life. We can't always solve the problem. We can't plug the number into the equation and make it work.

Throughout these past few weeks of studying, I've tried to remind myself of the Bible characters who told God, "I don't get it, but OK." I've tried to admit and take my inadequacies to the Lord. As I find myself getting frustrated with a geometry problem, I take a second to mull over a Bible verse or two (usually one about man's best efforts being futile, but God being sovereign over all things).

I still really dislike math, but I'm thankful the Lord is using it again in my life to make me run to Him. Is it painful? You bet. But pain isn't necessarily a bad thing — it just reminds me of my humanity. I don't have to get it all figured out, and honestly, I won't ever get it all figured out. And guess what — that's OK. Jesus never demands that I get it all figured out — He's figured it out for me, and He's done it all perfectly, with no mistakes.

Jury duty

Several weeks ago, yours truly got summoned for Memphis jury duty.

I know what you're thinking: "No big deal! You live in Atlanta now."

Yes ... however, I haven't changed my residency. When I first moved, I didn't know if I'd want to stay in Georgia for a while, and I was still thinking about grad school in Tennessee. Having lived in Georgia for four months now, I know that I like it, but I'm still not sure if I should try to change my residency. It's just easier to keep it in Tennessee, right?  — until you get called for jury duty.

I got my summons several weeks ago and spent about a week and a half calling the office to try to see if I'd be exempt. I wasn't able to get hold of anyone, so I drove 6.5 hours on Thursday to get home to Memphis. (To clarify; I'm OK with serving, and I'm not trying to get out of it. I just wanted to see if I could sign up for a slot without coming home three days early, or if I was somehow exempt because I live out of state.) I'm just glad it was close to Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful my boss was understanding about me having to come home this early.

Reporting for duty was ... an experience. It should have taken me about 35 minutes to get downtown from my house; it took me an hour and 15 minutes. Thankfully, I wasn't late, but I was certainly frazzled.

There are some interesting characters in my hometown — I already knew that. When I entered the room of 5,000 potential jurors, I headed to the back and seated myself. Little did I know I'd be close to a woman who yelled at the judge to "Shut up!" when he greeted us at 9:15 with a cheery "Good morning!" I also didn't know I'd be sitting close to a man who was telling everyone that he couldn't serve because he didn't have a driver's license "due to a run-in with the law," but "they're still gonna make me serve! My buddy served last year on a case, and one of the other jurors was a murderer!" Oh boy.

I made it through jury selection unscathed, and even got my second preferred time slot. Apparently, Shelby County is the only place that allows jurors to select the week that they serve — whew! I'm very thankful for that.

I'm sure I'll have some great stories/meet some great characters when I report back in January for my week. Should be interesting.

A cooking post: chocolate chip pound cake (oh yes!)

As more of my friends graduate and/or get married, I'm noticing more and more food/cooking blogs popping up everywhere — either my friends are posting links on Facebook, saving them on Pinterest (my latest weakness — add me!), or blogging about what they've cooked lately. 

I swore up and down that I wouldn't turn my blog into that — and I'm not, at least not yet. (No offense to my friends — I do like reading your cooking adventures.) However, I promised several girls that I'd post this recipe, so here's one cooking post ... hope you enjoy. 

Anyone who knows me (or has ever eaten with me) knows that I have a huge weakness for sweets, especially the really high-carb ones. (Isn't that always how it goes? Ugh.) Several years ago, my mom started making this wonderful chocolate chip pound cake, and now it's definitely one of my top three favorite desserts. She usually makes it for my birthday (that or a cheesecake, which is another top three fav). Since I wasn't home for my birthday this year, I asked her for the recipe. (And sorry I can't cite it, but it's probably from Southern Living.) 

It really is pretty easy, and it's SO delicious. I decided to take it with me to girls Bible study — and we (ten or so girls) ate the WHOLE THING in 30 minutes.

Here's the "equipment" you'll need:

Non-stick bundt pan (bought mine at Walmart, and it works great! make sure it's a 12 cup pan)

Hand mixer (you could probably do without it, but it'd be a pain; again, grab a cheap one from Walmart)

Two mixing bowls 

Measuring cups & measuring spoons

The cute apron isn't necessary equipment — but oh so recommended. 

I mean, who doesn't like Anthropologie's adorable aprons? 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened (make sure it's softened, or it will be a pain!)

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional: I omitted it because we were out, & it turned out just fine)

1 cup milk (I used lactose-free milk because that's what I drink, but you can use whatever!)

1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips (or ...  the whole bag. and of course I used the whole bag — did you need to ask?)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (our oven cooks too hot, so I adjusted it to 325). Grease your bundt pan, and be sure to grease it well, especially around the middle core/tube area. I recommend using a spray with flour (or just dust the pan with flour after you grease it). 

Ready to go!

Cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat them a while until the mixture is fluffy. 

Add the eggs one at a time and beat the mixture each time you add an egg.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. Add this mixture to the butter/sugars/vanilla mixture alternately with the milk. (So take part of the flour/baking powder/salt mixture and add it, then beat. Then add some of the milk, and beat. Then add more of the flour/baking powder/salt mixture, and beat. Then add more milk ... you get the idea.) Keep it up until the milk and flour/baking powder/salt have been completely beaten into the butter/sugar/vanilla mixture.

It should look smooth like this.

Now for the great part — stir in the mini chocolate chips. Be sure to sneak a few for a taste test (duh).

Don't you love the smell of chocolate?

Pour the mixture into your greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees (again, feel free to adjust if your oven cooks hot) for 60-70 minutes. You may need a little more time, but mine was definitely done at 60 minutes. Do the traditional "stick a toothpick in it" test. Let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip it onto a large plate. You can put it a cake holder, or you can keep the bundt pan covering it. My mom likes to keep the bundt pan covering it to help seal in the moisture — I definitely recommend that, especially if you're going to be serving it over a number of days. It helps keep it from getting too dry.

Don't panic if it looks a little brown.

Now for the best part — serve it up to your friends! Be sure to take it somewhere so you don't end up eating the whole thing on your own. :)

Yum.