7 Quick Takes Friday #50

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

I continue to work off a borrowed laptop while my poor computer languishes in some repair warehouse on the other coast. Received one call a week ago to tell me that those in charge remember that they have a little laptop in need of care. So, what does one do in the interim? Post less and forget about graphics...I can, however, do a quick-takes round-up of the week.

1. The week began with a trip to Los Angeles to a conference. As a member of the Executive Committee, my room reservation had been made for me. The organization's president knew I would be arriving late. Somehow that message had not reached the front desk, and I arrived in the middle of the night to a cancelled reservation and the room given away. However, a very kind night manager told me that he did have some rooms available on the second floor, which he would give me for the conference discount. Wonderful! Donnie and I took the short elevator ride to the second floor and found ourselves in an executive suite. Valet parking came with the suite. Whee! We had a great weekend and conference. On Sunday, we checked out in our well worn travel clothes and with our battered suitcase. We handed the valet station our car check, and soon, to the disapproving looks of the debonair door guards, up drove one of the valets in our old Toyota with crumbled fender. Ma and Pa Mahlou were leaving the big city!

2. Recently, our landlord asked us if we would like to buy the house we are renting. We thought it over and decided that we would not like to do that. Our house is on the register of historic homes, and no modifications can be made. It fits us pretty well, except for a few things such as no extra room for guests, which we have quite often, and no closet space, which is a real annoyance. Out of curiosity, we looked around to see what houses are selling for these days and found one we love on a hill, overlooking San Ignatio, but within town limits and still walking distance from the mission. (Every place in town is walking distance from the mission.) We made an offer, the bank accepted. This has happened in the last two weeks. I never used my GI bill for house buying, so I am eligible for VA -- perfect timing, given the current lower prices on homes. We had an inspection done. That was disappointing. Nothing in the house seems to function, and we are concerned that the bank (the house is a foreclosure) will not fix it, so we will have a lot to fix before we can habitate it. We know very little about house buying, so we are hoping that the VA will give us some help. If not, we will have to look around for someone knowledgeable so that we know how much we can demand from the bank and what we are stuck with. Oh, well, one day at a time, one step at a time. Any advice out there in blogland?

3. Hurrah, hurrah! I finished my next book, A Believer-in-Waiting's First Encounters with God (BIW), on Thursday. I took Wednesday and Thursday off to write and had just the right amount of time away from writing -- noon Mass, attending our Bible Study group Wednesday evening, teaching catechism on Thursday evening -- to keep me fresh and on task during the rest of the two days. Amazingly, it has taken only ten days to finish this book. Six friends, including two college professors of writing and a high school English teacher, are reading the manuscript right now. As the feedback comes in, I have been revising the book. I hope to have all the feedback by Thursday, and then, over the the long weekend, I hope to finalize the book and send it off to the publisher. (That's not the end of my writing tasks, though, because I have one professional book that has to be completed this year sometime, sooner rather than later being better, for Georgetown University Press, my third book with GUP, and I really want to move on to finishing a book I began before the current book, Raising God's Rainbow Makers (RGRM), which is only about 20% done and really needs some concentrated attention to finish.) I have posted from both spiritual books and will post more from BIW in the next few weeks. If anyone would like to read and provide feedback on the pre-publication manuscript of RGRM in exchange for an acknowledgement in the book and a copy of the published book when it comes out, please let me know.

4. While we were in Los Angeles, we heard the devastating news that the whole nation received about the shooting of several people in Tucson. Among those people was someone I had had lunch with just a couple of months ago: Gabriela Giffords. Gabriela, from my small amount of interaction with her, is a charming, highly intelligent, caring young woman, and I have been asking everyone I know to pray for her. My interaction came with her because she wanted to learn more Spanish in order to be able to communicate better with her Hispanic constituents. My teachers who taught her told me that she was the best student they had ever taught! Please join me and others in praying for her if you are not already doing so.

5. Just two days later, I heard from a friend in Lebanon that the government there had collapsed. We get little international news here in San Ignatio so I am dependent upon friends in foreign lands to fill me in. They usually have better information, anyway. Apparently, the concern was that the Hezbollah were about to be exposed by the UN investigative committee as the force behind the murder of the president's father when he, the senior Hariri, was president. So, eleven of them walked away from the government, collapsing the coalition. There were concerns of another civil war, but I have kept in touch with folks there, and that danger has passed. Whew! (But now it appears that the government in Tunis has collapsed; that has struck close to home because we were in the process of planning to send some of our folks there for research and study. Back to the drawing board...)

6. Tuesday evening was great fun. I had dinner with a couple with whom I have been friends for nearly 15 years and with a dating couple from one of the other offices at work. Both men are photographers/videographers. Bob, my long-time friend, has done a lot of videography of war zones for the United Nations, as well as a lot of film for PBS. A couple of years ago he won an international film award for his video of mating butterflies -- amazingly up close and personal photography. Brian is our organization's photographer. Recently discharged from the US Army, he spent three years in Afghanistan (where Bob was filming years ago when the Russians were leaving) as a combat photographer and accompanied me on my October trip there. When I gave Brian Bob's URL, he fell in love with Bob's films and wrote to me, "he's my new hero." The two got on famously at dinner, and they made plans for getting together and doing some things together in the very near future. As for me, Brian was so happy that he paid for me dinner! Nothing better than great food, great company, no cost!

7. Today was party! party! day. For those not in the know, today is what the Russians (and other Orthodox) cal "staryj novyj god" (old new year). I was stuffed in spite of training to keep my plate from being overfilled once, twice, three times by the eager Russian staff members who had invited me to their celebratory lunch. I am always flattered that, because I finished my PhD in Moscow, they consider me an honorary Russian. Donnie, at home, worked on taking down the Christmas decorations -- he had not put it off until today in order to enjoy old new year but through simple procrastination. Nonetheless, hopefully the neighbors got to enjoy Christmas just a little longer!

And now, I wish all of you a restful weekend - and a happy old new year!