Last Friday Heidi and I decided to use our Weber grill and make some pesto chicken breasts.  It seemed like a good idea, until the storm with 70 MPH winds came.  The chicken breasts finished broiling in the oven and Heidi and I looked out in amazement, thankful we were inside and safe.

The next morning Samantha, Beau’s girlfriend, hosted an old-fashioned house-raising party in the morning where we went to La Salle, IL and helped tear off the roof of an old foreclosed home she bought.  She had tons of family and friends to help and it was a good time.  But I overdid it in the morning when I was throwing bricks off the roof.  I think it was a combination of sun, heat, dehydration, and physical exercise.  At one point, I couldn’t see or hear anything.  I just laid down on the roof, waiting until it got better.  That was pretty much the end of my productivity that morning.

That night, Heidi and I joined our friends John and Alicia for the Ravinia festival where we hear Garrison Keillor do a live recording of “A Prairie Home Companion.”  It was GREAT!  Normally I’m lukewarm about the show.  I didn’t grow up on it and some of the voices and personalities don’t make sense to me.  Seeing it live made all the difference.  Now I have faces to go with the voices — including all the crazy sounds coming from this one man:

Most of the musicians we heard were good.  Sara Watkins, from Nickel Creek (!!), was incredible!

Elvin Bishop and some other yahoo played misogynistic blues songs that objectified women and talked about them like animals = not cool, old timer!  Garrison seemed to be cut from the same cloth at times, especially with his casting of many of the women (including Sara Watkins!) as aloof bimbos.

Most of the show was great, and the company was even better.  It’s fun to have such generous friends.

Sunday morning I drove over to Bloomfield, IA for Tiffany Austin’s ordination.  It was a good event where I saw many friends I’ve missed since living here in Chicago.  Tiff is a friend who went to TCU and stayed there for seminary at Brite.  She plans to stay in TX to do youth ministry at First Christian Church in Granbury, TX.

I updated my website’s User Interface (UI) over the past two days.  The wider interface allows me to post bigger pictures; but it also lets me organize my site so that it can serve as more than “just a blog.”  I’m eager to start forming the sections of Ministry and Photography, and to see how much of their content is cross-linked between the two sections.   The practice of labeling parts of my life in one category or the other may help define the relationship and enmeshment between the two categories and how I live them.

I’ve been super-busy recently.  Since I have my degree, I’m “a working man.”    I’m doing freelance computer programming and website design.  I hope to post about these projects when they’re no longer hush-hush, but they’re certainly exciting.  I’m learning A LOT as I re-engage my computer programming past.  Much of the technology has changed, and I’m glad I learned how to learn so it’s not nearly as daunting.

Heidi and I are doing to a friend’s house in mid-state Illinois tomorrow to do an “Old Fashioned House Raising.”  In truth, we’re tearing down half of the house and at least putting on the new roof and floor.  It should be a good time.  Then, we’re hearing Garrison Kiellor tomorrow night.  On Sunday I’m driving to Iowa for Tiffany ‘Tiff’ Austin’s ordination at Bloomfield, IA.  I’ll finish Father’s Day at my parents’ house and then return to Bolingbrook on Monday afternoon.  This weekend will rock!

And, just to highlight the coolness of the UI change, I’m going to post a higher-resolution photo of an HDR exposure blend I took of the worship space of University Church in Chicago, IL.  Enjoy!

Oh, and Tabitha’s Ordination last week was a blast!

733.9 pages. That is how much I had to write in the three years I spent on my Master of Divinity degree.  Just think, what if I would have used that time for Good instead of thinking about Evil?  (Just kidding!)

I finished my final paper last Sunday and will get my degree this coming Friday.  Actually, I will not get it then because I decided after all this time that I did not want to spend those hours at a ceremony.  I have not liked my past two graduation ceremonies, and this one did not look any better.  Thankfully, the Disciples Divinity House will have our convocation service on Thursday night.  It is a worship service, where we honor graduates and the passing of the year — but more importantly, we still worship!  ‘Tis much better than a graduation ceremony, if you ask me!  (Plus, I don’t want my transition ritual from the UofC to be the bagpipe ceremony — instead, it will be my Ordination on July 18th.)

After finishing my last paper, I decided to organize all of my digital files from my degree and figure out how much work I’d done.  Here’s the breakdown of words written, how many double-spaced pages that is (assuming an average 350-words/page).

PDF

The chart at the bottom shows how much was assigned, how much I wrote, and when I wrote it.

Many M.Div. students at the University of Chicago Divinity School live with this story.  The school has a policy where students have up to a year after the class finishes meeting to turn in any work without having an “I” (for Incomplete) show up on their transcript.  After the year, they can still get the grade and turn in the work, but the “I” will show up.  Thankfully, I never took beyond the year to finish my work.  But, every spring quarter I was struggling to finish a previous paper.  This spring quarter, I wrapped up 2 previous assignments and my senior thesis.   So, even though I was relatively close to writing around the amount assigned, I still had an extra 57 pages to write by the end of my final quarter.

The two lines did cover the same amount of work; my work was integral to the work needed for my degree.  (Get it?  Area under the curve = integral).  Jokes as that mean that I’m pretty exhausted, which makes sense every time I look at this data.  I’m tired for a reason!  733.9 pages.