library update

"You did it! After hearing from more than 20,000 of us, the Bureau of Prisons has reversed its book banning policy. As they put it in an official statement:

In response to concerns expressed by members of several religious communities, the Bureau of Prisons has decided to alter its planned course of action with respect to the Chapel Library Project. The Bureau will begin immediately to return to chapel libraries materials that were removed...

We can't thank you enough for the crucial role you played in winning this exciting victory for federal prisoners and religious freedom. It couldn't have happened without you."

thanks, guys. well done.

Prison Libraries

i got an email this morning from a friend of mine that was disturbing to me. here's what it said:

Dear friend,

Imagine walking into your local library, planning to read a
theologian such as Reinhold Niebuhr or Karl Barth, or a popular
inspirational work, such as Rick Warren's _Purpose-Driven Life_
or Harold Kushner's _When Bad Things Happen to Good People_.

But instead of finding such important and popular titles, you
discover that the religion section had been decimated - stripped
of any book that did not appear on a government-approved list.

That's exactly what's happening right now to inmates in federal
prisons under a Bush administration policy. As _The New York
Times_ put it, "chaplains have been quietly carrying out a
systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once
available to prisoners in chapel libraries."

I've just sent a message to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
protesting this absurd policy. Will you join me?
Just click here:
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/prisonlibraries?rk=_dSEq5E1p0BpW

Do it.

it has a head!

hey, look! i'm not sure if this is petri or dish, but it looks like a baby! hooray! they're both in there, but this is the best picture, i think. and their little hearts are beating 170 times a minute. wonderful.

in other news, stuff is going well here. i started my new job a few months ago, and i really love it. i had a full day of supervision today at grove city, and i got to visit one of the students who was in my youth group at the church last year who is a first-year student there this fall. he's doing really well, and it was good to catch up.

my mother told me this weekend that my blog is boring, so i felt convicted again to update. i'm not entirely sure what to write about though... i'll tell you one thing i've been loving lately though is my new church. these last few weeks, i've been thinking a lot about it, and i've really been understanding the song of ascent in psalm 122, where it says, "i was glad when they said to me, 'let us go to the house of the LORD.'" the church i've been going to is in my neighborhood, and it is committed to two things: being centered on Christ, and on being intentionally cross-cultural. they (we?) really believe that Christ can unite us over all kinds of barriers, and even though sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week, that's not true at my church. it's a really beautiful picture of the Kingdom, and i love it.
well, that's it for now.

twincredible

so, great news! my older sister, sarah, is pregnant! and better news: it's twins! i'm so excited to be an aunt. and i'm going to be the best aunt ever. look at these babies! the first one is right before they were implanted, at two days after conception, and the second one was taken this week, at six weeks. look at them! if this were a video, you'd be able to see their hearts fluttering. they're about the size of raspberries right now, according to this website that tracks their progress. i'm so excited! be prepared for a lot of talk about Petri and Dish. i'll try to restrain myself from going overboard, but i can't make any promises.

haircut city!!

so, i let someone cut off most of my hair today. it's short. i like it today, but i am afraid i won't be able to do it myself tomorrow. but, i think it makes me look more professional, which, according to justin bratt, is my life's ambition. what do YOU think?

committed

who's licensed to drive in the state of pennsylvania? I AM! and registered to vote to boot. i'm in it for the long haul, folks. it took me awhile (a titch longer than 60 days), but i'm officially a resident of the state of pennsylvania. it only took two hours at the dmv. (wow, is that place slow.)
i got a little nervous over the weekend, as we neared the date my license expired, since the state was locked in budget talks, laying off all "non-essential" government employees until they got it taken care of. i was picturing myself getting pulled over next week without a valid license, trying to explain that it was not MY negligence but the state's that caused me to be living (and driving) outside the law. but, no reason to worry; i am a licensed driver.
alright, gotta go. happy trails, y'all.

where i've been sleeping

after reading a scathing post on duderus about small-time bloggers' lazy posting, i have decided to update my site. due to the severe lack of comments, i had all but given up on my blogging project, but i've been assured that i have at least two people still coming to check occasionally. so, nate and sam, here you go.
i've been all over the country of late, spending a lot of time away from home. i'm going to tell you about it by explaining where i've spent my nights, sleeping in strange beds. over labor day weekend, i moved into my new house. i spent the first night on the hardwood floor, because i needed a new bed. but then the next morning, my parents bought me a new mattress for graduation! (oh, i graduated too. that was a little over a month ago.) so then i slept in my new bed, which is so amazing that i actually think about during the day. (it might sound pathetic, but if you sat on it, you'd understand.) then, after only three nights in my new place, i went to GR and spent a week at my parents' house in caledonia, listening to a chorus of bullfrogs singing from the pond behind the house. in the daytimes i enjoyed my own private resort, lounging by the pool doing crosswords and reading books, thoroughly enjoying the backyard while the rest of family was at work. i also attended my cousin's wedding and had a lovely luau party for my supporters. the next week i slept in a stateroom in the bottom of a houseboat, floating around dale hollow lake somewhere between kentucky and tennessee, getting rocked to sleep by the waves. oh, sweet bliss. while we were there, my family and i went swimming, boating, jetskiing, hot-tubbing, and star-gazing, and it was wonderful. then i drove back to the real and not imaginary place where i live, and stayed home for five nights. i started my new job and hung out with full-time. then i went to the o.c. in new jersey for four nights and visited my students at the beach project. i got to sleep in my old hammock-shaped bed in my old room with the sea breeze wafting in the through the window. it was glorious. it rained most of the time i was there, but i hung out with my students, met some new ones, visited two supporters, hung out with my staff friends, and went to the beach. on the way home, we got 83% lost in south central PA, somewhere around shippensburg. it was a good time, and a funny story. then i came home for one day, and then i went to grove city college for four days. i slept in the nicest dorm i've ever been in. every student has their own room, it has wireless internet, common lobby space, front-loading washers and dryers in EVERY APARTMENT, dishwashers, and a classroom in the basement. it was super nice. then i came home again, and i think i'm going to stay home for a bit. all that traveling was fun, but i've had about enough. so that's why i haven't been blogging.
right now i'm at the union project right by my house, which has a great little cafe with wireless internet and pretty stained glass windows. and my friend morgan works here, which is an added bonus. i'm going to finish my iced coffee now and go home.
the end.