Dear friends,

I have decided to real update my blog for the first time in years. And instead of constructing some elaborate piece from my inspired thoughts on my Guest-Checks, I think I'll simply give you a long overdue update on my life.

It is currently the last day of spring break (also cleverly called "reading period"). The football player I mentor left for a crazy week on the beaches of Florida; I stayed home in my sweatpants. 2 years ago, I was in Belfast. 1 year ago, I was in Oxford. This year, I was in my house without a couch on 616 S. Buchanan Blvd. Nonetheless, it has been quite delightful to read some books, relax, and hang out with friends.

That's probably the biggest difference from last semester. The hanging out with friends bit. I think that I have some now, and it makes a difference. "Social needs" is the third level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, after physiological and safety needs. So last semester, I had bagels and a security alarm; this semester, I have bagels, a security alarm, and facebook event invitations (That's kind of a lie--I don't have any bagels right now). But anyway, I'm very grateful for the friends that I have made. I think that I usually need to have 5 casual encounters with a person before I can think of them as an acquaintance and greet them freely and voluntarily. My roommate Hannah thinks this is ridiculous and asks people if they want to get coffee the first time she meets them. She doesn't realize that this is totally against the rules (of Sara Moser).

I probably have more friends because I have less existential angst. I have no reason to have less angst--my life still has no purpose or direction--but I think I just stopped caring about it as much. Yeah, I'm probably never going to have a career or health insurance or dental, but such is life. I already spent 2.5 years devoting my existence toward reaching a goal that is no longer my goal. Maybe I shouldn't do that again.

In other news, I think I have gotten dumber than I was at Northwestern. Maybe. I just don't care as much about my work here because Vonder Bruegge and Mead aren't reading my papers. Rather, a random doctoral student is, and I'll probably never have that doctoral student as an instructor again. Whenever I wrote a paper at Northwestern for my religion profs, I was convinced that if he didn't like it, then he most certainly would lose all respect for me as a person. This is not something I wanted. So I worked hard. [The next thing I say is going to sound horribly pretentious.] However, here, I feel like being ahead of the curve is as easy as it was my freshman year of college. If you write well, you get a 96 or a 97. So why put forth a lot more effort?

But then I got an 87 on a paper that I thought was pretty good. "Mr. preceptor man," I said, after I had called a meeting in a small room, "I don't really get 87s. Please explain yourself" (I didn't really say that). But I did tell him it was the lowest grade I'd gotten on a paper since Ancient Greek Philosophy my sophomore year, when I'd gotten a B- from Randy on my paper on Plato's Timaeus (I didn't include all of those details). He looked confused and told me he didn't believe in grade inflation (although he wrote on my first paper that he would have given me a 100, if my conclusion hadn't sucked). Anyway, maybe I'm becoming a B student. I don't really know if I'm okay with that. I guess we'll see how the rest of the semester unfolds. Maybe I should stop doing the least possible amount of work necessary to get an A. Because maybe that's not going to work anymore.

In other news, I sprained my ankle about a month ago. That was kind of exciting. I've never really injured myself before. Except for that time when a broaster exploded on me when I was working at the Pizza Corral my senior year of high school. I still have my "lawsuit journal" saved on my computer, in case that ever became necessary. Here's a fun excerpt:

"Tim [my boss] called, intoxicated, asked if we were busy, I told him the broaster had exploded on me – he was not very coherent–asked if I was going to go to the hospital and if I was ok – said he was coming in

Tim & Michelle [his woman] came in

Michelle rubbed aloe vera gel on the burn

Tim didn’t talk much…started making chicken [in the broaster that had just exploded on me]."

But anyway, that's a completely irrelevant story about the one time I was kind of seriously injured. I don't really know how I sprained my ankle; I just kind of fell over when I was walking to school that day. I remember that I had just crossed the street and was very intent on not making eye contact with the people walking by me. And then I biffed it big time. A kind lady picked me up and helped me walk the 2 blocks back home. It was all kind of exciting. I got a boot and crutches. My friends and I used to throw ourselves off the monkey bars in elementary school in an attempt to break our legs and get crutches. It never worked. So I was really excited about the crutches for about 2 minutes. My ankle is mostly better now, but not really. It's just not normal yet, so I'm still wearing a brace and occasionally complaining.

Looking ahead, I have 3 incredibly exciting things to look forward to:

#1 Pete Rollins and Padraig are going to be in Charlotte, NC on April 2nd as part of their Insurrection tour. http://peterrollins.net/insurrection.html We met and talked to both of these guys in Belfast, and they both stole our hearts (Padraig, in particular, with his Irish accent and beautiful words about his forgiveness project). I want to go SO BADLY and hope that I can find some people to go with me.

#2 I am going sky-diving on April 10th. It's going to be terrifying (We'll talk later, mom).

#3 I am going to Texas with my family after school ends in May. This will be our first family vacation ever. I used to never want to go to Texas, but now I think of it as a dreamland filled with guns and obese people. I'm so excited.

So I only have 6 weeks of classes left + a reading week + finals. Then I'll go to Texas, and then come back and start my summer field ed. I will find out where I'll be on March 26th, and then I'll let you know. I'm very excited to leave Durham and meet real people. Although it will probably be the scariest thing ever. I'll probably stop being excited and start being terrified on April 22nd. That's my usual rhythm of anticipation for change, anyway.

So that's some of my life right now. I hope you are all well. You should probably give me a call or send an email or something. I would like that very much and would probably wait a month and a half and then respond.

Best,

Sara