That Was a Long December

I return from my hiatus, largely due to final exams in December kicking my ass and leaving me for dead. And I don't post at home because, well, most of the people who read this blog are gathered in one house.

I've spent my days back in Madison lazing around in my bathroom, piling up dishes for an hour-long washing at the end of the night, and slowly taking care of things I'd put off for weeks, months, even years. I finished a no-sew tie blanket that I've had for about two years (bringing the amount of said blankets in the house to a whopping four), watching Stranger Than Fiction and three episodes of Alias.

I went to fill a prescription that I should have started a month ago, a medication called spironolactone. I came out of Walgreens on the Square, surprised to see the bus I was going to catch 10 minutes early. As I considered what a stroke of luck that the no. 2 bus was early, the bus turned down E. Washington - the opposite direction I wanted to go. I was treated to a jaunty trip to the East Transfer Point. Not horrible; I simply caught the no. 2 bus going to the WEST Transfer Point from there, and caught up on an episode of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, a current events quiz show on NPR, via podcast.

Returning to the topic of medications and perhaps divulging a bit too much information, the main side effect of spironolactone is increased urination. WAY increased. The doctor recommended that I drink 8 glasses of water a day. And don't plan any long, outdoor camping trips. Ok, she didn't say that, but this increase in bathroom attendence is already stunning me. Spironolactone (which, if I haven't said before, is an experiment with my acne) is a suppressing drug, meaning that, if it works, I would probably need to keep taking it for 2 years minimum, maybe even for the rest of my life. That's a lot of peeing.

That Was Close

WARNING:

When writing a paper dealing with evangelical movements in the U.S., do not mix up the following terms.

APOCRYPHAL: adj. Of doubtful authenticity; spurious, fictitious, false; fabulous, mythical.

APOCALYPTIC: adj. Of or pertaining to the ‘Revelation’ of St. John; Of the nature of a revelation or disclosure; revelatory, prophetic.

And I always wondered what was wrong with calling those books of the Bible only Catholics use the Apocrypha (the preferred term is Deuterocanonical... and it's fun to say!).

Witnessing

"Witnessing was perhaps the most difficult aspect of the interview situation for me. To open oneself to evangelism is to be willing to offer one's own views for critique by someone who has already judged them to be inadequate. It is to set adside, at least partially, one's own agenda and the all-knowing position of the scholar. In interviewing situations, where I saw myself as primarily a strong, attentive listener, it meant I had to listen even as I was being told, however gently, that I was damned."

-Amy Johnson Frykholm, Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America

I'm writing a research paper on the affects of the Left Behind series on mainstream book culture. I'm eternally grateful that people have already written books about it. And even in the writings of a fallen-away evangelical scholar, I can find things, quotes to bring to my ministry team. You just never know where you'll find these things.