In order to avoid annoying the crap out of Facebookers and Tweetsters by over-posting about wedding planning, I hath created a blog into which I can pour my excitement.

http://coffeeandmatrimony.blogspot.com/

Subscribe if you wish, ignore if you like :)

(P.S. I will still be updating this blog. No worries.)

Joe and Matrimony

I have a short paper due tomorrow on a topic I am yet undecided on, and therefore haven't started writing. So of course, I'm blogging.

A few updates of life (if you're at all interested):

One, I'm sipping about my 5th cup of coffee in a month. For no particular or intentional reason, I've been drinking a lot of green tea lately and haven't communed much with good ol' Joe as regularly as last semester. I must say, this cup is pretty muddy, and I think I needed it; not for the energy, but for my soul. Probably not unrelated to my random hankering to blog, either.

Secondly, I got my grades back from the last 20 credit semester... Eight A's and two B's. Woop woop! Getting ready to start an 18 credit semester next week, 7 credits in the Summer, and I am DONE! Take THAT, college! (We'll see if I feel this feisty at finals... better yet, mid terms.)

Third: I got a bread maker! (No real back story, I'm just stoked.)

Lastly, and certainly NOT least... I'm engaged! As of the day of my last post, actually... I won't get into all the juicy details here... you want 'em, you can ask. But I've been a woman on a mission to get the big bizznass out of the way before semester starts. Sooooo... in last week we booked the ceremony, booked the reception, picked out bridesmaids dresses, AND bought a dress... among planning other microdetails that we've yet to execute. This weekend we're finalizing the guest list. I have to say, I'm loving the planning process so far, and I'm looking forward to sharing this celebration with all our friends and family. I'm thinking about starting a little side blog on the wedding planning... I really want to avoid being that person; you know what I mean... that girl who only and always talks about her wedding. So I figure I can outlet it in a blog, and people can choose not to read it if they're uninterested.

Short and sweet tonight. I've gotta get back to Academia Land. Wish me luck.

(P.S. Check out Hawk in Paris. Listening to them currently on Spotify. Purr-ty catchy.)

Blogging Equals Irresponsibility

It stormed today. It was wonderful.

As I stood at the window watching the rain, sipping some coffee, I had the strongest desire to step outside, sit down on the street curb, and allow myself to be immersed in the cold downpour. Alas, I had to go to class, otherwise I guarantee you that I would have.

I recognize this to be a completely typical scenario in the current chapter of the Book of Lisa. Everything must wait; everything; from sitting in the rain, to finding time to call my own mother (which I could actually probably be doing instead of blogging). I pondered this as I ripped myself away from the lovely scene outside and wandered back to the classroom.

Don't get me wrong. I'm actually obsessively addicted to school (as you may or may not have gathered from recent posts). I get a disturbing high off of going, going, going, stressing myself out, working my toosh off, and seeing the fruit of it. And I love learning. Love, love, love learning! I've found a new and surprising interest in music theory and music history. And what's absolutely insane is that I am seriously considering getting a 2nd bachelor's, and continuing to graduate and doctorate work! And what's even more, I want to teach music history in college! (She proclaimed through deranged, hysterical laughter). Some one, please sedate me.

Despite my true love for it, school is rough, because it demands all of my attention. I can't compartmentalize my college career. It's there, looming, always; filtering into every nook and cranny. Anything that's not fulfilling an educational obligation comes second, and if I don't have time to gather my entrails, then I simply don't have time, and instead I have to press on across the battlefield, with or without all my limbs intact.

The fact of the matter is, I enjoy what I'm doing, but I need a recharge. I need to get out of this town for a day or two; drive for a few hours, find a new coffee shop, a change of atmosphere, and gather myself.

Anyone up for a road trip?

God is in my coffee.

Lately, I've been attempting to form a spiritual perspective with what I accept rather than with what I reject. I realize what I hypocrite I am to say that my connection with God through admiring nature is sufficient divine conversation, while some one else's Sunday morning service is not. Yeah, it's not really my cup of coffee, but we all have different palates.

It's like a painter at the easel, or a baker and her cupcakes; like the writer of a novel, or even the three-year-old and her play-dough village. In all these "products" there are signs and reflections of the producer and their personality. The artists style, the baker's taste, the author's vocabulary, the three-year-olds imagination. You see where I'm going with this... If God is the creator of all things, then why do we dismiss the possibility of understanding Him more through, well... all things? And if each of us possess different passions, different perspectives, different interests, then how can we misunderstand how the musician is more inclined to hear Him in music, the church-goer more apt to witness Him in a sanctuary, or the doctor more prone to find Him in the intricacies of the human body?

So, let's be real here. No, seriously. Let's shed all of our labels, reputations, prejudices, yada yada, and let's be real people. Bona fide, snot-nosed, everybody-poops, hurting, lying, crying, we're-all-dying type of REAL people...

The manifestation of God IS in all things. All things. I don't mean the interpretation of truth, but rather the realization of it. Not "what's right for me is right for me, and what's right for you is right for you," regardless of contradiction. No. I mean truth and God are revealed in all things, good, bad, beautiful, and ugly, and the places that I find Him are no better than the places that you find Him. So, why not be excited to share with one another the ways that we've come to know Him, and eager to learn from others without bias?

All to say, though we should always approach ideas and theories with discernment and precaution of delusions, let's be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater :)