Looking forward to Chicago.
So, one week from today, I'll be on my way to Chicago to see my good friends Keri, Kevin, & Sofia Sheckler. Keri and I served overseas together in Turkey and have a wealth of shared experiences. She was the one who showed me the ropes overseas and I'll always be grateful for her adventurous approach to living in another culture. She was always the one to ask the question "Why not?" in relation to all things cultural and adventurous. I love that about her! Kerr and I also have a shared love of the theater. Les Miserables in London and now we are adding Wicked on Broadway in Chicago to our list of theater excursions. I'm starting the book this weekend in preparation for the theater experience. It's rare that I actually get to read something for fun (and not for teaching) so I'm looking forward to that too...hopefully the clouds and the rain hang around to make for good Saturday reading time.

Hmm...what else? Spring Break is just around the corner and it's obvious my students' minds have already turned to mush. They are there in the flesh but simply absent in the mind. I can't blame them, I guess. I was there fairly recently. I remember the frantic thoughts just before the end of the semester and the lack of sleep I suffered from my plain old procrastination. Oh, I am so glad those 10-15 page research paper days are over! My roommate from grad school can testify that I never really felt like the academic type and often wondered, "What the heck am I doing here?"...which makes me wonder why in the world God has chosen to place me back into academics...but that seems like another blog entry entirely. He definitely has a way of placing us where He wishes and doesn't always expain why. I guess that's why He's God and we are not. He defines us and we don't define Him. Believing that allows me to trust His infinite wisdom and be continually reminded that if I was in control, this would be a very scary journey indeed. I'm grateful that He sees the big picture and I don't. Otherwise, I fear I would be obsessive about how to move to what's next, instead of trusting Him to hold my future and patiently guide me on the journey...