Life recently...

Has been busy and satisfactory. Since the semester ended, I've finished Lone Survivor and The Perfectibility of Man, and read Flying Colours (a Hornblower novel), and The Swiss Family Robinson (a hardbound copy of which I picked up at a thrift store for 50 cents. I love thrift stores). And now I'm 100 pages into Les Miserables; when I went into Borders to buy that, I discovered a store which presents a gigantic temptation to impulse buying. I only meant to buy Les Miserables and ended up with that, Glenn Gould's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations on Piano, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. I almost ended up with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and several albums of Liszt, Saint-Saens, and Prokofiev (and some more Bach, of course), but sanity kicked in somewhere along the line....

On that note, I actually have cash in my pocket for once, because I have gone back to work at Carlos O'Kelly's. I was blessed with favor in that--it initially appeared that I'd be picking up only shifts that people had to drop, but I was put on the schedule and picked up a few extra shifts to boot. I think I worked 7 last week (there are the lunch and dinner shifts) and, especially considering it was my first week back at work, made out quite satisfactorily. Most of it is, of course, being saved for school, but some of it is making its way to expanding my literary and musical libraries.

A short digression: waiting tables is a crucible for refining patience and dependence on the providence of our Father. Waiters are paid below minimum wage by their employers, and are dependent on tips--we are, in a way, at the mercy of the customers. And there are some, that, no matter how kind and attentive you are, will be unkind and demanding, and then leave a token pittance. Then there are some that, even when you have fumbled over your introduction and brought them the wrong drinks and brought out their appetizers with their meal, will monetarily bless you far beyond the tipping standard that I, at least, was taught--not to mention the supreme blessing of their kindness and understanding and good humour through it all. And ultimately, I can have confidence that the Lord will provide all I need to work His will--their hearts are in His hands. Just as God moved the heart of Cyrus (and many others who did not know Him) to bless the nation of Israel, so does He move the hearts of men to bless His spiritual Israel and fulfill His plan for us. Amen.

And I received my Army uniform for LTC today.... :-)

I've come across about half a million references to the military life in one way or another in the last month or so, so I think I'm about due to write that series on it that's been on my mind. One should go up tonight (since it will be mostly other people's writings), and I hope to get a few others up before I go to LTC (next Friday!!!!). Some topics I hope to cover:

--The sacrifices of the military wife and mom
--Why I'm joining the military, and some sources that have influenced my thought on the matter (perhaps a two- or three- parter)
--Life as a military child