The trip to Minneapolis went well. My mother kindly took me shopping for maternity clothes and we found no small number of nice shirts, dresses, and skirts. All but a few snow flakes here and there of the snow from the storm a few weeks ago have melted, which I was quite sorry to see. In fact, the weather reached up into the fifties, something all but unheard of in Minnesota in February. When I was young the winters were cold and long, and the snow on the ground always seemed to be at least a foot and a half in height. In the dim mornings of Saturdays and the fading light of weekday afternoon the neighbour boys and I fashioned some termendous forts in the snowbanks on the street in front of our house. The past six or seven years have seen something of a snow drout; it’s been hard on the snowmobile sector of the economy. It will be interesting to see where the climate change is headed.
My old roommate, Karin Pedersen, was married to Trevor Tungseth on Saturday afternoon at Hope Lutheran Church in north Minneapolis. It was a lovely wedding. The bridal processional consisted of her friend playing U2’s ‘All I Want Is You’ on an acoustic guitar. At some point in the wedding one of the bridesmaids sang Over the Rhine’s ‘Rhapsodie‘. They’re currently honeymooning in Mexico.
Upon arriving on Thursday I found out from my mother that one of my childhood friends was having a baby shower on Sunday. Uncanny timing. It was great to be able to attend. She’s due next month — a boy which she and her husband have already named Jackson.
My brother-in-law, Bryan, was recently accepted to two seminaries, Masters in Los Angeles and one in Denver and is currently trying to decide which one to attend. He’s leaning toward Masters, as the one in Denver’s problems with gender differentiation have left a bad taste in his mouth. However, it’s very likey he could get a full-ride to Denver, so he’s torn. If he attends Denver he must write in neuter or inclusive pronouns. I don’t think I could do it. Aside from genderless pronouns being a lot of egalitarian ridiculousness for which I have no temper — masculine pronouns come as naturally to me as s’s and ou’s in place of z’s and u’s.
My sister Meggan tells me that since she was married in early January and left the house, our youngest sister, Jessica, who is disabled, has kept to herself and been rather quiet, even at school, where formerly she was all giggles. She’s non-verbal so it’s hard to tell exactly just what’s going on. Something to watch.
While I was away N. hosted the first Bible study, which I’m told went well. They read ‘The Apologist’s Evening Prayer’ by C.S. Lewis, ‘Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau’ by William Blake, and Acts 17. For the next meeting we are reading, insomuch as I’m aware, ‘Evangelism and Apologetics’ by Greg Bahnsen.
Received a lovely invitation to Michael Minkoff’s wedding in Monterey, California, in March and immediately began to consider whether it was financially possible to attend. It seems as though it is not, and we’ll have to attend the reception in Atlanta. Since the Minkoff wedding is an impossibility, we’re hoping to go to Minneapolis for Easter and celebrate at St. Dunstan’s. I’m really dying for N. to see their lovely Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Even services. Now that their daughers are finally married off my parents finally have a guest bedroom.
N. and I are giving up alcohol, tobacco, and films for Lent (of course, I’ve already more-or-less given up the first two passtimes until August). We’d give up television also, but, thankfully, we don’t have one. For Shrove Tuesday we went to the bar down the street, had a drink and shot some pool, and came home and watched the remake of The Manchurian Candidate.
Since Trinity doesn’t observe Lent, we’re going to the Ash Wednesday service at St. Paul Lutheran this evening.
