In the heat

We are in India! We had absolutely terrific travel out of the 'Stan,
and then in Delhi we went to see Alice in Wonderland in a 3D movie
theater where we sat in leather recliners. It was nice. Now we are
hanging out on the beach with D's cousin, and having a good time.
It's nice to not have to keep track of what time it is.

We were reading about the 11th brother, and wondering if his ten
brothers spoke in their family language or a trade language. It was
an interesting discussion.

The Curtain

KSU! Elite Eight, WOOHOO! Now, we just have to get past Butler and it's our first Final Four in over 45 years! Here's to hoping we get a banner this year!

D and I are in Delhi on the way to Goa. We had a great trip out of the 'Stan yesterday, then when we got here we went to a mall and watched a movie while sitting in big leather recliners,dining on our waiter-provided brownies and ice cream. It was great! This will be a nice relaxing vacation and a needed break out of the 'Stan.

A Fire Upon the Deep

We just celebrated the new year. I went with D to two of her classes, met her students and talked to them to help them practice their English. That was a neat experience. I feel like I've been 'out and about' a bit more of late - I went to the University with a friend a couple weeks ago, and now D's class. It's good.

Work continues. I just had a performance evaluation that was pretty good. I guess either I'm not as incompetent as I often feel, or my boss doesn't interact with me much. Not sure which is which.

We cooked for ourselves a bit over the new year break, since our kitchen staff was off. We can make lemon chicken pretty capably now. Yay us! Mostly unrelated to our cooking, we've also both had a fair bit of random digestive issues in the last week, which has been unpleasant.

Our excitement is increasing for our upcoming trip to India! We are going to be there for a week over spring break. I think we will have a very good time. Beaches and malls. It may not sound the most exotic thing to do, going to India to go to a mall and to a beach, but we are pretty pumped about it. I am splurging a little and buying myself a couple new books for the trip (yay, Kindle!)

We are, little by little, getting our wedding plans shaped up. We've also got the fun of jobs to find, too, which stresses me out more than it perhaps should. Just have to keep the head down and trust.

I've been reading the first book to the people who are also known for their leather, and it's been talking about gifts and roles. I am solidifying more and more my opinions of who I am, and trying to figure out what I need to change. One of the things in my personality that seems to be both a strength and a weakness is that I can, relatively easily, be content, and that contentment sometimes manifests itself as laziness. So I'm content with being a number 2. I'm content with not being the best. I'm content with not being in charge. A good thing in many cases, but sometimes a severe weakness because it means I don't push myself. I'm not self-motivated because why do I need to change? I'm content. How do I change the balance on this and become less content with where I am so I push myself, at the same time not losing my ability to be content generally? Do I even need to change? Argh. Someday I will be perfected.

The choice we all make

I talked at Meeting today. I was worried it was not going to go well, but it ended up fine.

We helped a friend enter in her grades today. It's nice to be helpful.

For supper, we made canned corn, frozen chicken, easy mac, and I ran out to buy naan. We are awesome.

We are doing skype premarital counseling, and let me tell you, this is the strangest premarital counseling I have ever done. That must be what happens when you live in a third world country!

And a dose of ice

Today was another day. We dealt with frustrations about local only travel, had mock Chinese and American food for supper after which I baked cookies for my lovely fiancee. It's been an up and down week - we're ready to get off the compound, and we will be able to get out in just over two weeks. We are looking forward to that.

I'm speaking for our Meeting in a few days, and I'm combining my enjoyment of science with my enjoyment of the elder book. So that should be interesting. Do you know how stupendously awesomely powerful gravity is? It moves entire galaxies! And yet, we can defy it, even if just for a second. But it keeps up its work with, in, and through us.

I find the need for Direction stronger each day. Hopefully the leaps we take will be guided ones, but in the case that we don't get the guidance we want, we'll do the best we can to find it and then leap anyway, trusting that all things will work together.

Quite the pair

D helped me polish up my resume tonight. I am starting to apply for jobs in the U.S. It's kind of a hard waiting game, because I can't really get my hopes up too much yet, since I am not going to be available for a job until mid-August, but at the same time, I don't want to wait too long. It's also hard because we feel we have a leading on where we are going to live in the U.S. but since we don't have family there, it's going to be a leap of faith to go there without a lot of support structure.

Work is going, same as it ever does. I get frustrated at it more than I should, but that's part of the price of life here.

There is so much to think about regarding the future, with a new marriage, new job, new place to live, new meeting place, new almost everything, that sometimes it is hard for me to live in the present. I am focused on becoming too much sometimes, and it comes at the expense of being. I do have to strike the right balance between the two, and recently I fear I am erring too much on the becoming side.

Some days, I wish I had been born a thousand years later.

Lack or jaundice

D and I are planning for our honeymoon and our vacations. It's exciting.

I'm struggling here with some aspects of my job here. Including some people I'm kind of frustrated with. I'm trying to have the proper Perspective, but it is hard.

I've been reading the book to the capital of the empire, and I'm struck by how powerful and powerless sin is, and how both of these are true at the same time. Powerful in that we all suffer under it's law, powerless in that it has been broken by one act, just as it broke us by one act.

I get to speak at meeting week after next, and I think I'm going to talk some about how being called, especially to a place like this, is not always comfortable and can be down right nasty sometimes.