as the new year dawns....

I used the above line in a sermon once and got teased endlessly for it. I actually teased myself for it...
Anyway! shamelessly stealing from Rainster:

XTINA'S FIRSTS!! OF 2007.

Getting a masters. This was pretty significant (obviously). The actual graduation experience was just the end to a three year journey during which I grew into myself, as a woman, as a theologian, as a pastor...

(easy segue way) Becoming a pastor. This is still sort of surreal. I worked in ministry before, in fact most of my jobs have been in ministry, but the title of pastor gives a person the sort of authority I don't always feel ready/qualified for. It's not like a regular job, it's a job where people ask you to help them hold their pain, where people expect you to explain God to them. All that is... kind of scary. But kind of exhilarating at the same time.

Did a funeral. Case in point. The senior pastor at our church was away and I had to conduct the funeral for an elderly woman at my church. When the family left they said "Thank you, pastor." Heavy, heavy words.

Tried internet dating. On a lighter note! Craigslist, eharmony, match, crazyblinddate.com. None too successful, but each time I am a little bit better at not being a spastic mess. I can carry on a conversation and it has seemed more possible that I might meet someone who is interested in me for who I am.

Went to a Celtics game. Bonus! Big Papi was there.

Started and extinguished a grease fire. Trying to craft sides for a sideless baking sheet out of aluminum foil so you can cook bacon in the oven instead of on the burner does not work. But! baking soda does put out oven fires. But then you can't use your oven until you clean it. Which takes 3 months, if you're me.

Watched more TV via internet than actually on TV. This comes from having the internet and not having cable. Doing this also got me into watching international shows, like BBC's Robin Hood, Project Runway Canada, and Asian dramas (shut up.)

Lived by myself. This is amazing. I love love LOVE having my own space.

Drove (and continue to drive) a totaled car. Did you know you could do that? You can, because I do, everyday. For the past 3 months.

Visited LA. Liked Venice Beach (except for the scary muscle men). Seeing the enormous houses in Bel Air/Beverly Hills was interesting, but disheartening at the same time. Why does anyone need that?

Saw Alcatraz/ Learned about Native American occupation of Alcatraz. I can't believe I didn't know about it before... a great story, for more info see this page.

Met lots of babies These included 1. Torgo's Sequel, who liked me when his mom was around, but not so much when she left. Actually not at all when she left. There was much screaming. BUT, when smiling, Sequel is adorable. 2. Eddie K., child of previous roomates in college. Eddie and Sarah (the mom) stayed with me and ate my bananas. Also adorable. 3. Oskar G., child of seminary classmate. Oskar and I each thought the other was great. He was really easy to make laugh.

Watched (almost) every version of Jane Eyre. Blockbuster online at its best. Still would recommend the Zelah Clarke/Timothy Dalton version.

Visited Walden Pond. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." -- Thoreau

Wrote a REEEEEAAAAALLLLLY long paper. Otherwise known as a thesis. Otherwise known as a year of my life, or 90 pages. Otherwise known as Ain't I a Mother?: A Theology of Motherhood informed by and Beneficial to Women in the Innercity. Otherwise known as a thing of which I am immensely proud.

Had my car towed by city officials. Dern street sweepers!