Day 175 (The Bounty of SFTS)

Because I am more than the sum of my parts and don't want to be identified by what I am as opposed to who I am, I am changing the format of by blog titles. I was having a weird moment at Abiding Way today; I haven't been there in 2 weeks. The last time I went was the Sunday after I had coffee with the pastor and we talked about our differences in theology. Today's sermon was about how Jesus changes lives, and I sat there the whole time scared that he was going to make some kind of negative remark about gay people. Not exactly how I want to feel when I go to church. I could barely focus on the sermon because all I kept thinking about was how I was supposed to react when he does make a negative reference to homosexuals. I figured I could just leave and never come back, but what would that really accomplish.

Luckily, we were able to make it through the service without a showdown. One of the guitar players in the band invited me over to watch the Superbowl, but I told him I had too much homework to do. This is true, even if I probably wouldn't watch the Superbowl if I had no homework whatsoever.

When I got back to the school, I decided it was time to do some foraging. I don't know if any of you remember the weird wrinkled black mushroom I took a picture of a few weeks back.

It's called a black elfin saddle, scientific name helvella lacunosa, and I originally wasn't going to try to eat it because it seemed like it would disappear to almost nothing when I cooked it. Well, they started popping up all over the school! As I was telling Kimberlee, when you put enough insubstantial things together, pretty soon you end up with something substantial, and I figured there were enough of the things growing to cook up something. Here's a picture of my haul!

This one was as big as my hand!

Miner's lettuce has also started to sprout up everywhere, so I decided to pick some of that to cook with the mushrooms. All of this (the mushrooms and the lettuce) was collected from the campus. Miner's lettuce, as its name implies, tastes like lettuce if you eat it raw, and spinach if you cook it, but it doesn't have that weird alkaline thing that spinach does.

I found this huge one growing in the shade. You can't tell all that well, but it's kind of variegated with green and yellow. The flowers grow in the middle of the circular leaves, so it's really easy to identify this plant.

This is a normal sized one, about the size of a quarter.

And, this is the finished dish! As you can see, the vegetable shrunk a lot.I sautéed the mushrooms with olive oil, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and then threw the miner's lettuce in the end just to wilt it. It was delicious, and although all of the stuff that I've read on the Internet says that this mushroom doesn't really taste like anything, I found that they did have a unique "musky-mushroomy" flavor that went really well with the other flavors. This mushroom is easy to identify because no other mushroom in the area look like it, except for false morels, but those are brown, and it seems like it would lend itself well to almost any dish you would want to put it in, so it gets a thumbs up from me!

While we're on the topic, if you do choose to pick wild mushrooms, please be careful! Do your homework and absolutely do not eat any mushroom unless you are 100% sure of what it is. Only you can prevent mushroom poisonings!!!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 174 (Just the 1st Week)

We're only one week into the semester and already I'm exhausted. True, I could be getting more sleep, but it just seems like I've been running full speed since the semester started. There's just too much to do!

I just finished ordering books for the semester, which sucked in two ways. As you already know, the first week is over and I'm just ordering books now. There's no telling when the books will get here. I expedited the ones I'm gonna need first, but I'm going to be playing catch-up for a while... possibly the whole semester. The other reason, which if you follow this blog you should already know, is the whole money thing.

It's only 8:00 and I already feel sleepy. Maybe I can get myself to actually go to bed early today...

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 173 (Debt)

So, I got my financial aid check on Wednesday and I deposited it into my brand spanking new US Bank Student Checking account. I started paying off some money that I owe and watched as all of that new money slowly disappeared. I'm trying to pay off everything that I know I am going to owe through August of this year so that I can see how much money I really have and I won't have to worry about making payments on things all the time. I figure it'll be easier to budget this way. Right now, it totally looks like I have enough money, but I'm hoping I can pull in a few scholarships to supplement it. Student loans are nice and all, but they need to be paid back, and as I was filling out various forms for scholarship applications, I came face to face with just how large my student loan debt is. I'm not going to lie, I had to choke back a tear or two.

As most people know, I got totally screwed over a few years ago by the whole bakery thing. I'm not sure how long it will be before I recover from that (I'm thinking a decade or more), but I was saddled with A LOT of debt. I don't need more debt, which is why I need the scholarships. I'm having a very hard time imagining finishing school and trying to start the new phase of my life with that much debt hanging over my head.

It's like that line from Before Sunrise. Everything interesting costs money. Well, I would say most of life is interesting, and a lot of life costs money. This is a problem for someone who is in school and doesn't think s/he can do school and work at the same time. (this is me raising my hand) It wasn't a problem when I was in undergrad; I can't believe how easy it was to work full time and go to school full time in undergrad compared to being in seminary. I know this is not the first time I have written these sentiments, but it's what's going thru my head right now, and I'm sure none of you is that interested in how I learned how to play backgammon today. I'm going to sign off now and ponder my monetary fate. Good night, all!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 172 (Nikki One)

I got an email yesterday saying that a friend of mine died. It had been a really long time since I've seen her, and I have to admit, we didn't know each other all that well, but we were both part of the same poetry group that met every Thursday night in L.A., Poet's Jazz House. We called her Nikki One, and apparently, there was a Nikki 2, but I don't think I ever met her.

She was great; she was kind of the M.C., getting the event going and introducing each of the poets before they went up. She even made up a song to get everyone to quiet down based on Kate Vido's "The Way I Are/The Do Do Song:

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do.

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do.

I am standing on the stage,

And I need your full attention,

No more talking,

Papers rattling,

Other things I shall not mention,

And if your cell phone happens to ring,

Don't say, "HELLO!"

There's refreshments at the back,

And leave some money at the door.

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do.

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do,

Do do do do.

I'll miss you, Nikki. I wish I'd gotten to know you better.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 171 (Wednesday: Supposed Easy Day)

I generally like Wednesdays because they're usually a day where I can relax a little. Not so today.

I got up to go to Centering Prayer, which is not all that different from what I had to do last term, but this time, I had to pick up Faith because she is still on crutches, again, not a big deal 'cuz I did it all through Jan Term.

Class was about an hour, then Faith, Kimberlee and I went to the library to do our Exegesis homework. I must admit this is the beginning of my second semester and this is the first time I've spent any king of significant time in the library. (Read: ALL DAY)

For those that don't know, there are a lot of steps to get up to the library, actually quite a workout. Going up and down a couple times isn't so bad, but for some reason, the way the timing worked out on everything today, I saw A LOT OF STAIRS.

Noon rolled around, and it was time to pick up my student loan check. Down the stairs, up to the 3rd floor to the business office. I called Faith to let her know she should probably get to the business office before a line formed.

Down the stairs, met Faith at the bottom. I told her I wanted to go to the Sunflower cafe for lunch and asked if she wanted to go with me. She said she did and I told her I would meet her at the place where we were standing after she picked up her check and that I needed to make a quick run to my apartment.

Went down the hill, up to the 3rd floor that I live on, back up the hill, picked up Faith, and we had lunch.

Went to US Bank to open a new checking account 'cuz Wells Fargo sucks, went with Faith so she could take care of some banking at Bank of America, drove back up to the library.

I had picked up some pastries at comforts, so I went up to the 2nd floor of Scott to put them in the fridge in the student lounge. Down the stairs, up the stairs to the library, realized I didn't have the papers I had been working on to finish my homework. I went back down the stairs, up the stairs in Scott to retrieve my food since I was going to my apartment, down the stairs, down the hill, up to the 3rd floor and put some chicken in the oven. Took out the trash (I had my papers with me) went up the hill, up the stairs to the library, did some more work.

It was nearing 5:00 and I realized I still needed to get the reader for Theology. Down the stairs, into Montgomery (thank God I was staying on the first floor). Secretary wasn't there, someone suggested I go down to the mailroom to see if she was there. I went down, she wasn't, I went up, out, and up the stairs to the library to do some reading.

5:45 rolls around, time to turn off the oven, so I go down the stairs, down the hill, up to the 3rd floor, realize my roommate has already turned off the oven (hoping he didn't do it too soon) took phone call from Stacey, ate Napoleon (the dessert, not the person).

Down the stairs, up the hill, up the stairs, back at the library, did some reading, now writing blog. Gasp!

Before my day is done, I will have to at the very least, go down the library stairs, go up the stairs to my apartment and finish the reading for Theology. Now realizing why I don't go to the library.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 170 (CE @ PLTS)

I only had one class today, Christian Education at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Like SFTS, it is one of the 9 seminaries in the Graduate Theological Union and is not all that close to the other schools, although it is much closer to the other 7. (It only takes about 10 minutes to get there from the other GTU schools, as opposed to the 45 minutes it takes to get to SFTS.)

Like, SFTS, it is also at the top of the hill, but whereas SFTS is at the top of a little hill, PLTS is at the top of a REALLY BIG HILL, that I think should qualify as a mountain. Take for example this view from the school:

That's really freaking high! And, I SWEAR TO GOD, the road leading up to it is at like a 45 degree angle. Were we in a cute little car or some kind of SUV? NO! We were in a ten-year-old van that rolls backwards a little every time you take your foot off the brakes and try to accelerate from a stop while on a grade, no matter how fast you move your foot from the pedals! And, OF COURSE, I was the one that was driving as Christina was screaming her head off next to me!

Luckily, one of our classmates heard that we were going down the hill and told us of an alternate route that was much safer and easier on the nerves.

The class another huge one with 40-some students. The professor was cracking jokes the whole time, but you could tell she really knows her stuff. And, you can tell she's been teaching for a while because she only assigns about 70 pages a week, even though it's a graduate class, BECAUSE SHE WANTS US TO ACTUALLY READ IT! (her words, not mine)

This is going to be a very "hands-on" course, and I can tell that it's going to be really fun and I'm going to get a lot out of it. This semester is going to be so cool!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 169 (Exegesis, Theology & Prophets)

Phew, what a day! 8:30 Exegesis, 11:00 Theology & 2:00 Prophets. The way they scheduled the classes, I only have a half hour to shuttle Faith down to the vans and grab something to eat for lunch. Luckily, I'm not one of the drivers, so I can eat in the van, but I just got the updated schedule for Tuesdays, and I AM one of the drivers, but I'm not gonna be Faith's chauffeur on Tuesdays, so it should be okay as long as I don't dilly dally after Intro to Ministry.

The workload is going to be crazy; Annette already warned us that some of the Exegesis assignments could take upwards of five hours. She's also our Prophets professor, which looks like it's going to be a lot like The Pentateuch and Former Prophets, which means LOTS OF WORK! And, the amount of reading the Theology professor wants us to do is staggering, but I'm actually kind of excited about some of the readings. He's also quite animated, so I think being in his class is going to be interesting.

I wish we didn't have to drive all the way to the GTU for Prophets, especially considering the fact that about 2/3 of the class is students from SFTS, and we all have to be bussed down (not very environmentally friendly), but it is interesting taking a class with so many students from the other seminaries. The guy in front of me was even wearing white monk robes!!! There's at least 6 of the nine schools represented in that class, which is pretty cool actually. But, also for that reason, the class is huge!!! Not public university huge, only about 40 people, but definitely much larger than what we're used to. That's gonna be a lot of papers for Annette to grade...