One More Writer

Exams begin in exactly two weeks and one day. The Oregon Ducks lost their third football game of the year. I am severely lacking in the sleep department.

But that's where the bad news ends. First, as everyone knows, the election went firmly to the Democrats. As champion of the underdog and a general anti-establishment malcontent, I was pretty happy that the Dems won. It net me $30 in political wagers, although I lost a little bit of that on football when the Trojans had Duck for supper Saturday in California.

There's another piece of good news, but I'll get to that later.

Sunday was a fantastic day. I went up to Corvallis to check out a church service that I'd been told about. It was held in an old theater downtown, with mostly 20somethings in attendance. A few too many college kids in my opinion, I know that sounds weird as a critique but I'm inherently distrustful of those Intervarsity types who grew up in the church, lived for three years in the dorms in college, went to Bible study four times a week and never strayed off the straight and narrow. I mean, more power to them, but if this is the parable of the prodigal son and I'm the one who blew his inheritance, I'm not gonna feel very comfortable hanging out with the brother who complains and whines when Dad throws a big party for my return. Maybe I have an odd complaint, though: Would my walk with God really be harmed by hanging out with people who are too moral for me?

So, back to the service: The sermon was on judging, and how we shouldn't do it. Which pretty much renders my entire past paragraph moot. Oh well. Worship service was fantastic. I really like going to a place where the whole church really gets in to worshipping and doesn't care what other people think.

After church I walked Jack, then went over to McMenamins to meet my friend Valerie, who drove up for the day. There was a ballroom dance at Oregon State on Sunday but we had a few hours to kill first, so we cozied up in a booth and took turns reading chapters of Hemingway aloud. We got all the way through book 1 of the Sun Also Rises, Brook's favorite.book.ever. If I were a bar patron that evening I would certainly have thrown dirty looks at the couple breaching protocol by reading a book aloud and sitting on the same side of the booth! But apparently the cynics don't go out drinking on Sundays, as we received not a wayward glance. The evening got even better when we went on a walk before the dance. It was pouring rain outside and the winds were starting to kick up, but Val had no problem with the idea of walking around campus in the elements. The mark of a true Oregonian is one who smiles when there's rain liquid sunshine.

So who is this Valerie I've been talking about, anyway? We went on a few dates in August before I left for law school and then started hanging out again a few weeks ago. She's a great girl, we have a great time together, and more importantly, she really puts God as a high priority in her life, which is something I aspire to but have rarely reached in the past. I'm used to girls being a stumbling block to my walk with God, so being with Valerie is refreshing. Anyway, at some point between leaving McMenamins for the walk and returning to the car an hour later completely drenched, we decided it made a lot of sense to just date each other exclusively. So yeah. Valerie = girlfriend. Good stuff.

A little backstory for those of you who are interested: Valerie and I met back in July, through this blog, ironically, when she commented on one of my posts. According to her, we met six years ago at a party I was at with my then-girlfriend Ruth (her best guy friend was dating Val, I guess) but I have little memory of that. Valerie also shows up at Gerlinger for the Friday night ballroom dances, so I guess that in itself means there's bound to be some connections, as pretty much everyone at Gerlinger has one degree of separation from every other person through dating, family ties, mutual hatred for merengue or what have you.

Well, it's time to go home, take a nap, catch up on sleep, start studying, and see if I can combat the silly grin I've had on my face since Sunday. Life is good ;-)