special engagements

so my buddy just pops online now and says "hello" to me (all over msn). it's about 12:30 am and i worked till 11 tongiht. i honestly would jsut rather go to bed. but just as i'm about to message him explaining that i was heading to bed he mentions that he just broke up with his girlfriend. so i'm obligated to stay and chat right? But i dont really want to. this guys live is like a soap opera when it comes to relationships. it seems like when we haven't talked for a while he gets around and has had three relationships and then when we do talk he's got a steady girlfriend. This girlfriend (like about three or four before) was supposidly the one. I've even had the 'yeah, i'm going to propose' talk with him. I thought it was too early, but it's not me and i'm not going to be the one to stop his desire for no reason other then the fact that he's only 23 or 24 which feels too young. Well i guess when you think about it, 24 isn't a bad time to get engaged, cause you are engaged for at least 6 months and by that time are almost 25. What a real probablem, i think, is thinking that this is the one only after a few months. you have to concider the honeymoon period. If your in the honeymoon period for a really long time, that's a good sign. My rule is two years. A lot happens to a person in two years and if a couple can withstand that together and still have a desire to be together then it's a good chance that relationship is a keeper. but really, if you want to get engaged that's cool by me, but just don't jump the gun.

My friend Heather is engaged. She got engaged after about 7 or 8 months. Wow i say, but i'm happy for her and hear that Ron is a great guy. My friend Kristy got engaged as well but i'm not sure how long her and Chad had been dating. She was the one though, who we all thought would be the last to be married. It just seemed like she had the least desire to settle down with someone. As well Maggie is engaged. her and Andrew have probably been together for about two years and even though 22 seems young, i think they know what they are doing. I really like Andrew, i couldn't wish any less for Mags. of the three i think Heather is getting married first and then Mags and then the fallowing summer is Kristy. I think the next to get engaged out of the ten Aylmer friends is Jenn becasue her and Nick have been together for a while now. Then maybe MIchelle, but i don't want to through any money down this time in our lives is a new one and one must never be too caught up in the present.

well the boy has let me go for the night so i will end this blog and hit the hay for the night of January 21, 2005.

travel lit so far is just a bunch of babble to make us wonder what he smoked before class

My travel lit professor criticized blogs the other day. i forgot exactly what he said, but it was towards the fact that anyone can have a blog and write stuff on the internet. well i'm sorry if you come across my blog by mistake and have to read my uneducated babble. I don't really have a reason for a blog and i don't really know why i insist on keeping it. it's like an online journal. i guess i feel that there is no point in writing in a journal if no one is going to read it. I wrote a journal two summers ago and reread it last summer and it was pretty informative to how i was feeling and it was nice to read again, but i haven't been able to pick it up to write in it again. i should though.

so it's about three weeks into the second semester of my fourth year at University of Waterloo. As i may have mentioned in a previous blog i am taking three lit courses and one geography. Mennonite lit has some good readings so far. We took some time to discuss the mennonite faith and then read some short stories and tomorrow we start with our first novel, Peace Shall Destroy Many by Rudy Wiebe. Today my big goal was to finish the book, and i did, all 141 pages left to read were read. i have smaller readings for Canadian lit to do for tomorrow but i will probably succeed in getting them done tomorrow before class. And shortly i should start reading my books for travel lit.

Travel lit is an interested class so far. i don't know whether to laugh at his jokes or be annoyed that he's wasting my money by doing nothing in class but watch videos. Actually we do do more, however, it consists of him standing infront of the class making us wonder what he smoked before he came to teach. i'm curious about what we are actually going to be learning in that class. The first class was a waste of time and during the second class i started writing down a travel experience because that is something that we might be able to do for one of our essays. i'm not sure what to think of it, the story that i have started and the class. i'm always nervous that when i try something different its not what the proff is looking for. But this guy said that as long as it was entertaining it should be acceptable.

i started a new hobby of hemp. i went to michaels today and bought a spool of hemp and some beads. i looked up on the internet how to do some typical knots, because as a child who had to endure an hour bus ride each morning, i learned how to make other types of bracelets by knoting. i got quit good i must say. i've made a few necklaces so far and look forward to making more, however, i lack the creativity to make each new one look different.

A Complicated Kindness

He leaves her. it was an ending that i didn't really expect.
This book is written by Miriam Toews (apparently pronounced Taes). It made the top sellers list and both my Will and my sister thressa had it on their wish lists. Will said that it was going to be on the list for my Mennonite Literature list so i've spent the last week reading it. It wasn't a hard read. I enjoyed the book because i, as a good mennonite, hadn't yet read a book about the life of one. The book told a story about a teenage girl growing up in a very mennonite community and dealt with issues that she thought were strange and accussed Menno Simons for her discontentment.

I should say that i'm a black and white reader. What i mean by that is that a red car is just that: a red car. To me it doesn't symbolize pain or passion, it might but it's not the first thing on my mind. To summerize this book, Nomi is a teenage girl who is grieving the fact that her older sister Tash and her mother Trudie have left the family in pursuit of something better. Tash left for a boy and her mom left for the city. Her dad is a strick menno always in a suit and tie but slowly and more so after Tash and Trudie left Nomi has had no interest in the church.

Mennonites became a sect when Menno Simons around 1520 left the Catholic church because of altered beliefs, the persercution we have faced (not so me but my ansestors) due to leaving the church has set a sturdy base for the mennonite heritage. To not believe in God isn't really a choice as much as other religions. I've asked people if they go to church and many different types of christians have replied with: sure, if Christmas and Easter count. I'm a little amazed by that, really you don't feel guilty? If you ask a mennonite the same question... well you don't have to ask, you pretty much only ask where. See, it's just part of our lives, we don't think twice about it. (Normally. i'm making a large assumption based on where i'm from and general patterns that i have noticed.) it's not carved in stone, going to church to some mennonites is not the most desirable thing to spend a sunday morning doing, but it takes years to releave the guilt of skipping.

A Complicated Kindness deals to a great deal with the process of excommunication. I've never actually been involved in one and i am pretty sure our church does not believe in them. But I think the Old Colony does. The Old Colony is a father church to most people that attend Mt. Salem EMC and is still attended by many many mennonites. It does not say what type of church Nomi and her father attend but it's most likely Old Colony or Sommerfield. Don't ask me to explain the difference, history is not my forte. First Tash was excommunicated, that's when the church decides to "ban" them from attending services for at that church because of a certain behaviour. Tash swore a lot and "became too worldly." After she left and Trudie went a little crazy and rebelled against principles, she obviously wanted out of the town as well. We don't know what happened to her when she left, but in the same fashion she too was excommunicated and left to save Ray, the dad, humilation of living with someone who was shunned by the town. For three years Nomi and Ray lived together dealing with the situation and slowly getting to the point where they knew life was better lived somewhere else.

It ends with a different twist then i thought. Nomi is excommunicated, with her actions you forget that Nomi actually attends church or is part of a church family. I don't think it was hard to see coming, but i didn't see it. I thought maybe Ray was just selling all of his furniture to get rid of the memories he still kept from Tash and Trudie. But finally one day after Nomi's excommunication, he's gone, he leaves Nomi the car and the house (to sell because he knows that she has no reason to stay nor would want to). It just ends and nothing is resolved, i guess through reading the end does provide some type of resolution, but where does Nomi go? Does she ever see her mom or her sister again? or for that matter her dad? Does she ever speak to Travis again? Why would his parents lie to her? What does become of Lids? I don't even know if Miriam could answer some of these questions and rather just say "it's a book, let it go."

I recommend the book. it was well written and the story line is somewhat interesting. I'll end here because i dont' really have an expertese to go into vast detail on meanings and ideas that the book presents, it's merely just my thought on the book.

A promise for future blogs

I know that it's been a while since my last blog. i meant to write, but becasue i was at home for Christmas i didn't have a great amount of time on the computer. my family and my christmas are scheduled for different entries. i have a list of things i should add to my blog. the holidays is one and so is the issue that i started this blog with: Mike, but i should use this as a useful school guide. I just read a book called a complicated kindness by Miriam Toews which is a book on the reading list for one of my classes. i want to write down my final thoughts of the book and possibly with the other books i have yet to read.

i don't want to add too much to this blog becasue it's 10:30 PM and i have an 8:30 Am class tomorrow that i have no idea how i'm going to wake up for as it is. But like i said i have a list of issues to mention in blogs to come. I guess (like the last blog but it never really happened) this blog is a promise that more blogs are to come. I know i have only a few people who know about my blog site and probably less then that who read it now, but as soon as it's more established i'll start advertising it. I could change my msn name to it but that sounds too self assured. i think i may just put it in a signiture at the end of emails that i send out, as well as a statement of my degree. i see that a lot, "Canditate of ...." really? to me Candidate sounds like there is a possiblity of not getting something. as long as your grades are good you'll be awarded with whatever you went to school for, right? i sure hope so.. that's too big of a debt for someone to say at the last minute "Ah, sorry, you were a candidate but you weren't choosen."

Well good night.