I Passed my Written Comps!

Hooray!  Now I just need to finish my thesis and defend it (and turn in a bunch of paperwork), and I will be done and have my MA.  Finally.  One more month.

Post-Apocalyptic Musings

Do any of you remember that DC Talk cover of the Larry Norman song "I wish we'd all been ready"?  I've been thinking about it all week, of course, because of the furor surrounding the group who's been spreading the word that the rapture will happen May 21, 2011.  "And there's no time to change your mind.  The Son has come and you've been left behind."  Wow, that song used to scare me!  Not only did it all seem like some crazy sci-fi horror movie, but I've never been one of those people convinced that I would be one of those chosen few.  Yeah, chronic feelings of inadequacy left little Christian me unsure that I wouldn't be left behind.  Looking back on it all, that seems like a pretty heavy burden for an eight-year-old to carry around.  I was a scared little kid.
I do wonder what it would be like to believe that I knew the exact date and time of the rapture.  I'm not even sure I really get the rapture, but that aside, wouldn't it be crazy and exciting and terrifying to be sure that you knew when it would all go down?  Wow.  Still, I think the Bible is pretty clear we'll never know this mysterious date.  No one can calculate it.
So why the obsession with trying to figure it out?  I mean, this has been going on for two thousand years.  Why do people keep trying to pinpoint the date and time?  They keep failing and looking really, really foolish.  Maybe some people feel more safe and secure because the 'know'?  But they were following this man who had been wrong before.  Didn't any of them feel even a twinge of doubt knowing this?  How do you pick yourself up after being disappointed on that level?  As misguided as I think those people were/are, I feel bad for them knowing they have to put their lives back together starting today.

And on my end, it looks like I still have to take my rescheduled comps on Monday, since I didn't get raptured.  Bummer.

Spike: an update

Exhibit A: Spike this summer (possibly July?)  Not looking so good/barely hanging onto life after being moved and not watered adequately during my research trip to Philly.

Exhibit B: Spike today at 9:45 PM.  Lookin' good!  Please note my giant, flowering geranium next to it.  The other greenery is from a gladiolus. 

Exhibit C: After approximately 9 years together, Spike is growing in new directions.  I believe my words when I saw this were, "Jimmy, Spike is having a baby!"  I don't understand plant biology, so I am not really sure what's going on here.