home, for a short while

I'm at home today... I came back yesterday to buy my wedding dress. At last! It feels really fantastic to have that checked off my list. Mom and Grace also found the dresses they're going to wear and they look like total babes. I've had a quiet morning here with Mom. Grace left for Asheville this morning, Sam is at a friend's house, Dad is playing hockey. We had breakfast, talked about reception centerpieces, how to make the favors for guests, and on wishing we knew better than God. I've been trying to work on my thesis, but I haven't written more than a paragraph. It's too difficult to accomplish things at home. I don't really want to go back to school in an hour. The drive here was long, lonely, and even a little scary; practically no visibility and I saw six bad wrecks (two completely totaled cars).

"Some elders once came to Abbot Anthony, and there was with them also Abbot Joseph. Wishing to test them, Abbot Anthony brought the conversation around to the Holy Scriptures. And he began from the youngest to ask them the meaning of this or that text. Each one replied as best he could, but Abbot Anthony said to them: You have not got it yet. After them all he asked Abbot Joseph: What about you? What do you say this text means? Abbot Joseph replied: I know not! Then Abbot Anthony said: Truly Abbot Joseph alone has found the way, for he replies that he knows not." -- The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, LXXVII, ed. Merton

I resurrected my book blog, The Unrehearsed Reader. After a hiatus since November, I figured it was time to pick things back up again. Mini reviews of "Vanessa and Virginia" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" come next.

Our invitations came in the mail last week and I'm delighted to have them here, along with being quite pleased with how they turned out. I need to go buy a calligraphy pen today at Michael's so I can start the fun and arduous task of addressing them.

I gave Win "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" for his birthday and as I handed it over, I wanted to read it again, right then. It is one of those books that is difficult for me to say why I love it so much. It's not even the characters that are so compelling or powerful; it's something about what Kundera is releasing. His prose is like freeing birds from a net.

I happily discovered this week that two of my favorite humans, Danielle and Sarah H., have blogs. For inspiration and entertainment, please read Dannilynn and Intervals of Sanity.

"Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is longing for repetition." -- Kundera, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"