When angels dream of space and time
And look into that sacred rhyme
That descends into earthly climes
And makes flesh out of stone hearts

It would not do for human race
To disavow that sovereign grace
That unveiled heaven’s holy face
And covers us with mercy

me: is it weird that i keep thinking of these little two-stanza poems?
me: for some reason i’ve had some randomly pop into my head out of nowhere lately.
Teacher Dave: hm
TD: weird.
TD: you were always more of a formal poet than i was.
me: heh
TD: i’m a freeverse rebel, livin’ by my own rules.
me: heh
me: i haven’t written in form in a while.
me: need to remedy that.
TD: DON’T FENCE ME IN, CHIEF!
me: haha
TD: *drives off on a Harley*
me: *”born to run” starts playing*
TD: TOTALLY
me: that’s it.
me: i’m going to write a villanelle about bruce springsteen
TD: hahahahahaha
TD: you are such a dork.
TD: it’s cute, but you’re a dork.
me: i know 
TD: blinding me with your library science.
me: heh
me: i pretty much embraced my dorkiness the moment i applied to college.
TD: your FB profile comment should be “Library-science is a compound verb now.”
me: heh
me: compound verb?
TD: (i know it doesn’t work grammatically, but no one else would know.)
TD: (shut up)
TD: hyphenated
TD: a hyphenated verb
me: you make it sound like a way to get killed in a teen girl squad episode.
TD: i don’t care. shutup.
me: heh
me: “LIBRARY-SCIENCED!”
me: “dewey decimaled!”
me: *large pile of books falls on cheerleader*
TD: “Filed in triplicate’d!”
me: haha
me: card cataloged!
TD: i’ve been adding ‘d! to random things.
TD: Babystroller’d!
TD: Curse you, Punk’d!, for your inescapable cultural ubiquity!!!
TD: Now THAT’s a band name.
TD: for a college band of philosophy majors
me: what, inescapable cultural ubiquity?
TD: yup
TD: with tee-shirts that say ICU
me: that was going to be the title of my next book of cyberpunk poetry, actually
TD: there you go.
TD: Title’d!

if you were to woo me
with e.e. cummings
a dylan song
a dozen daisies
or a small kiss on the cheek

i don’t think i’d mind
not so much the methods
as the actor
not so much how you did
as that you did it at all

You know the drill. By the way, if you’ve never participated in this, I’d like to use this opportunity to invite you to do so. Put it on shuffle, give us the first 20 that play, no matter how embarrassing…

1. St. Jacob’s Chamber Choir, “Introit” (oddly appropriate)
2. Vigilantes of Love, “River of Love” (…man, I *love* this song)
3. Kosmos Express, “Just Say It”
4. The Secret Machines, “Blue Jay Way”
5. Eva Cassidy, “Way Beyond the Blue”
6. Jason Lytle, “Brand New Sun”
7. Elton John, “My Father’s Gun”
8. Ceili Rain, “Everybody Clap For Everybody”
9. Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights”
10. Andrew Osenga, “The Broadway Bartender”
11. Rich Mullins, “Hard”
12. Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
13. Adele, “Cold Shoulder”
14. U2, “Heartland”
15. Josh Ritter, “Come and Find Me”
16. Shane & Shane, “Be Near (piano version)”
17. The Khrusty Brothers, “Just Opened Up”
18. Delirious?, “Revival Town”
19. Shaded Red, “Revolution”
20. Ceili Rain, “Bliss That I’m Swimmin’ In”

Hey, it’s back. This week: 13 random things to be found in your house/apartment.

1. I use a power strip to plug all my TV-related things into (DVD player, converter box, etc.). Saves me money on my electric bill, for serious.

2. Blue and white polka-dot pajama pants.

3. A travel iPod charger, which comes in handy more often than one would think.

4. Actually, I left my phone there this morning (whoops).

5. There’s a bag of clementines on my dining room table (mmm).

6. More scarves than are probably necessary for someone who lives in central Texas.

7. A project I’m making for my mom and dad for Christmas (muaha).

8. A couple of CDs I’ve been meaning to send to my friend Erica (they’re coming soon!).

9. A jewelry box full of earrings that are missing their partners (uh-oh).

10. Two guitar exercise books that I almost never use, but should…

11. A blank application to Barnes and Noble that I’ve yet to actually do anything with…

12. Three library books (The Stand, The Death of Adam, Getting Things Done).

13. The liner notes to Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome (which I have not stopped listening to since I got in the mail on Monday).

(I’m really only blogging this because I don’t want to read any more articles about information management. *head explodes* But no, it’s great.)

Great theology is always a kind of giant and intricate poetry, like epic or saga. It is written for those who know the tale already, the urgent messages and dying words, and who attend to its retelling with a special alertness, because the story has a claim on them and they on it. Theology is also close to the spoken voice. It evokes sermon, sacrament, and liturgy, and, of course, Scripture itself, with all its echoes of song and legend and prayer. It earns its authority by winning assent and recognition, in the manner of poetry but with the difference that the assent seems to be ultimate truth, however oblique or fragmentary the suggestion of it. (Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam, p. 117)

Teacher Dave: i had a “Seattle’s Best” Peppermint Mocha Trio at Borders after lunch.
TD: mmmmmm, peppermint mocha.
me: mmmmm.
TD: it’s practically the reason Baby Jesus was born.
TD: i mean, REDEMPTION OF MANKIND, obviously. but also peppermint mocha.
me: LOL
TD: ;- )
me: i am so totally blogging that.

Father in heaven, thank You for creating sound waves, rap music, and Lin-Manuel Miranda:

(I haven’t done one of these since June of last year. Figured we’re about due.)

The Time Traveler’s Wife
The book, not the movie, which is apparently terrible, which didn’t surprise me while I was reading the novel, because it is basically unfilmable without some serious alterations–which would kill it. The book is lovely, though, a long meditation on the nature of relationships and, perhaps, terminal illness (at least that’s what I thought, anyway). A caveat: Lots of sex (much of it unnecessary), lots of strong language. So proceed with caution.

All these really great sermons at redeemer.com
I know, I know, we Reformed folk are in danger of making Tim Keller our Presbyterian pope, but that’s hardly any fault of his (and I think making an idol of him is terribly ironic, considering the topic of his latest book). Anyway, for Redeemer’s 20th anniversary, they’ve put up 150 of their recorded sermons and forums and such, and there’s a wealth of material there. I’m a rather big fan of the ones on singleness, myself.

HEB brand Oreos sandwich cookies
They make some that are chocolate with peanut butter cream (creme?) inside. They’re as excellent (and unfortunately addictive) as they sound.

College football
I’ve recently discovered the joys of this. I went to a high school with a not-so-great football team (let’s face it, we were a basketball school), I went to a college with a not-so-great football team (again, basketball school)–and now I find myself in the position of going to a university with an undefeated team, at least this season. It’s a lot more fun when your team at least has a shot at winning in division games. Or I may just be a fair-weather fan, I don’t know.

John Adams
The miniseries by HBO, that is. I’m about halfway through it, and I find it to be excellently acted and directed and researched. Very real, very unsentimental about the time period. Again, a caveat: Seeing as it was on HBO, it can get pretty gritty (e.g., the scene of the guy getting his leg amputated during battle), and there’s a scene when John and Abigail, um, express their marital rights (no nudity or anything, but it is there).

The Texas weather of late
Seriously, y’all, it’s kind of amazing.

The Avett Brothers
If you haven’t heard them yet, shame on you. I recommend their EP The Second Gleam.

The hours since Friday at about 5:30 have been pretty epic, I have to say. Since then I:

*hung out with my old roommate and a bunch of her friends (who are becoming my friends, too) for her birthday party–we went out for a bit and had some eats and some wine and some good conversation. While I don’t entirely agree with them sometimes, they’re all very interesting interlocutors and fun brains to pick.

*had aforementioned roommate over to my place for brunch on Saturday. We found this ridiculous pancake mix–it came with chocolate chips that had bacon in them. Yes. Surprisingly tasty. We also went to drop off her U2 ticket (she couldn’t go, alas) with a very cordial guy who bought it off of her on Craigslist.

*made soup! (Chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, spinach, brown rice, corn, black beans, chickpeas, and a bunch of Italian seasoning. Yum.)

*drove to Arlington, and got stuck on some back roads on the way there (I have never been more grateful for my GPS)

*hung out with Teacher Dave for a bit before the rest of the crew came up from Houston. (Today’s Dave’s birthday, by the way. Go say hi.)

*missed a connection with Jonathan/eustacepedler, sometime commenter on this blog (sorry again about that, man).

*went to go see U2 and Muse. HOLY CRAP, PEOPLE. Amazing. We were down on the floor (which, if you think about it, is kind of amazing in and of itself, considering professional football games are played down there). There were points when we were literally about 70-80 feet from the band. I am now kicking myself for not bringing a camera. The only thing is, everyone was so packed in that in the back of my mind I was sort of freaking out (I’m a little bit claustrophobic), and there were these two girls there that were sort of drunk and completely not mindful of other people (they almost smacked Steph in the face a few times; I very nearly told them off). However, there were moments of utter, utter beauty and transcendence, such as, for instance, this:

The nice thing, too, is that I got to hang out with some excellent people from Houston that I’d met but didn’t really know very well, and it was lovely. Much sarcasm and ribbing and show analysis (and lots and lots of walking) and such tends to help people bond. (Also, we kept losing Dave, to the point where we wondered if he had been raptured.)

*drove home to Austin on four hours of sleep in torrential rain, which was probably not the smartest thing I have ever done (but oh well).

*called Steph when I got home, only to find out her car had hydroplaned and crashed–everyone’s okay, but she’s now without a car for a while, and that crew all had to shove into one vehicle for the duration of the trip back, which I imagine was less than fun…

*went to go hear one of my old professors talk about, of all things, U2 and faith, at a local bookstore. (He wrote a book about it.)

But today, it’s back to the grind. And that’s okay.