Christmas Letter

I was going to write a Christmas letter about myself but then I realized I’m really not that noteworthy.  Instead you’re getting a reminder about something much more exciting: Emmanuel, God with us: 

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people…to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide us to the path of the peace.” Luke 1:68 & 79

So this Christmas I rejoice in the reminder that in spite of the darkness all around us, God, in the form of Jesus, came to earth to save us and show us the way of eternal life.

an update on recent happenings

Hello again, and Happy December!  You may wonder why I haven’t written since way back in August…I have two words for you-- grad school.  Even though UNM is probably one of the least stressful MBA programs around, between that and working and planning business school happy hours, and church potlucks I run out of time. But that doesn’t mean I’m not perpetually sending you mental updates.  Now I have the task of summarizing the last 3.5 months in less than 3.5 months. 

I’m officially 75% finished with grad school and will graduate in May! Today I’m starting Christmas break with a flight to Orange County to catch up with some truly lovely people before heading back to Concord on Monday where I’ll chill until sometime in January. Hopefully I’ll get to see some of you while I’m gracing the golden state with my presence.

This will be my first time back to CA since August and I was feeling all lame about never going anywhere but then remembered I went to AZ in October and PA in November so I haven’t exactly been bound to Albuquerque.  My Arizona trip was preceded by my sister et al. and my parents coming to visit.  Theoretically they came for the International Balloon Fiesta but I will spare you the details on that disaster.  After a week with them in New Mexico we went to the Grand Canyon.  They all think I’ve been there before but I had absolutely no recollection of that so I was completely awestruck. I’ve attached a picture of Julie and baby Stella and myself (Stella was obviously thrilled to be there).  PA was great too, I stayed with the Grieco’s and they have college-aged children so weren’t shocked by my wake-up time (plus I saved them money since they didn’t have to feed me breakfast and lunch).

Work is interesting.  If you recall, I started working with a man who is in the early stages of developing a mentoring and tutoring program.  I’m learning a lot about start-ups, and Judaism and teamwork.  Yay. About once a month I consider quitting but I’m quite confident that God plopped this job right in my lap so I need to keep it (plus I get paid).  Next semester I’ll still be working for him and also be a research assistant for one of the professors on campus (they pay for tuition!).

What else to say…the weekend before last I hosted a Christmas party. I made a pot of soup (gasp!) and cider and people brought over way too many cookies.  My roommate Raquel and I both pulled out our fancy bow sweaters (another reason why we shouldn’t shop together) and took this lovely picture.

Evidently you don’t have to be a citizen to get a New Mexico driver’s license; we’re very non-discriminatory like that.  That’s all fine and dandy for driving but the feds doesn’t like it so maybe starting in January my NM driver’s license won’t be proof enough for any federal agencies such as TSA.  Basically that question, “do you need a passport to go to New Mexico?” will soon be answered “no, but you do need one to leave.”   

On that note, MERRY CHRISTMAS, I hope you’re able to reflect this year on the amazing love God demonstrated by sending His Son (and keeps demonstrating through His Holy Spirit).

5 jobs, a vice presidency and a 1st anniversary

In a few days it will be one year since I moved to New Mexico.  This is especially exciting because it means I get to pay in-state tuition for the classes I start Monday! I’m taking 4 classes this semester and have my scheduled set so I only have to be on campus Monday and Tuesday evenings.  Maybe it’s weird that my first time commitment Monday’s is 7pm, but I’ve been finding plenty of extra-curricular activities to prevent laziness.

One of these extra-curricular activities is I am now the Vice President of Associated Graduate Business Students (AGBS).  Officially this is an elected position but close examination of the voting process may bring up some issues of credibility.  Anyways we have 25k to spend on planning mixers that usually 15 students come to.  What does this mean for me? a) my professor this summer called me Vice President Eklund b) I got a free breakfast this morning c) I’m getting a free dinner tomorrow night…actually I anticipate a lot of free meals in my future.

Since AGBS only pays in free meals and swag, I have collected an assortment of paying jobs as well.

1)   Dog/house Sitting aka Paid Living:  I don’t actually know the home/dog owners but they have a hammock in the backyard and buy M&M’s from Costco.  I’m not sure why I’m in business school since I’ve already found by dream job.

2)   House Cleaning: While house sitting I met the neighbors and, over a prime rib dinner, the lady offered to hire me to do some house work and organizational assistance.  I am really bad at saying no, but she did turn on CNN for me while dusting so it was educational.

3)   Dowd and Guild: I just can’t get away from them but that’s ok, I have moved past deleting old emails and onto cleaning up files.  Theoretically I can do all of this while watching TV but I’ve yet to even work TV watching into my schedule. 

4)   Diaper Bank of New Mexico: I somehow got connected with this cowboy hat wearing real-estate agent who wants to start a diaper bank in the area.  I’m supposed to help her get 501(c)(3) status, something I’ve never even kind of done.  Fortunately she’s been a slacker getting me necessary information so I don’t have to feel really bad about not doing anything.

5)   MATCH, New Mexico: This is the job I got at the end of May when God just handed it to me over a lovely lunch.  MATCH is a program, at this stage, that pairs 3^rd grade students with college-aged mentors who donate their time in exchange of a generous stipend.  Ideally this will actually happen in the Santa Fe area in January.  It’s a start-up program so I’ve been learning a ton about what it means to actually get an organization off the ground from writing business plans to branding to curriculum development.  I work with a group of liberal, practicing Jews between 60-80 years old, so that has been an embedded learning experience.  Every day is different but I also get free food there too, sometimes random things like packs of lamb chops.  But really that’s $13 I don’t have to spend next time I want lamb chops.

I have other jobs too that are much more difficult.  Like making sure I’m daily living submitted to God’s will for my life. And loving people. And not getting frustrated that no one eats my potluck contributions (I’ll be eating a lot of orzo salad this week).  And not using my busyness as an excuse to live in isolation. And not putting my light under a bushel. And getting out of bed.  And not being a hypocrite.  And watering my dying vegetable garden. 

So with “real” jobs getting a professional mentor is all popular right now.  The good news is I can get one for these other jobs too, 3-in-1 really.  And through a relationship with this strange Trinity all these things can fall into a sane and rewarding order.

love, joy

Hey June

Welcome back to my life.  I guess a bunch of stuff has happened since I last updated in March. 

I finished my first year of grad school.  If I had to sum up my experience on a bumper sticker it would say, “If I knew grad school would be this easy, I would have gone here first.”  I’m staying in Albuquerque for the summer too and taking my first ever summer school class, Managerial Finance.  What are your summer plans? 

I got a job, yesterday.   I used my preferred method of job searching, sitting back doing nothing.  Somehow this worked and unbeknownst to me it turned out to be the perfect match for the stuff I said I was going to grad school for, combating anti-Semitism by raising awareness of Israeli innovations.  If you’re wondering if I’m joking, I’m not.  I’m getting business cards.

I had visitors.   My friend Jenn from Davis came the end of April, and my parents came the middle of May.  It was really exciting to get to explore New Mexico with them, I think all left hungry for more New Mexico. Maybe you’ll be the next visitor?

In honor of my parents 36^th anniversary next week, here is a picture of them at the amazing Tent Rocks National Monument (the weather on this hike was split between 90*+ and hail).  

 I went to Tucson.  Some people may think Tucson is lame, but they don’t live in Albuquerque. I know this seems contrary to my last point but they are really different.  Take for instance the restaurant scene, in the weekend my parents were here I completely exhausted my restaurant repartee, Tucson not so much.  And the variety of cacti…WOW. 

I went to California. I got to see lots of wonderful people and go to Legoland. The trip was not long enough and every day was a high-point so I don’t really have a blurb to share.

I planted a little garden.  I have two tomato plants, a bell pepper, basil, and mint.  They’re looking good and I hope they will bear fruit soon.

I’m getting a new roommate.  My roommate April is getting married this weekend and decided once she gets married she should live with her husband.  After a long and frustrating Craigslist search we got a replacement, Audrey, I think she’ll be moving in within the next few weeks.

And now for some inspirational thoughts.  The last part of this semester was potentially discouraging, I had ideas of how things should maybe work out and God seemed to have completely opposite ideas.  I think I’ve been learning more and more the importance holding plans loosely.  Pressing forward where I think I’ve been led, but meanwhile completely believing that things will be better all around if God’s plan wins out. So recently he has been really faithful in making His plans extra clear for me, and of that I am very appreciative.  Because now, when things seem a little wonky, I can cling to the clarity of His voice.      

Out with the New, In with the Old

I just finished the first half of this semester and although some of my grades have now dropped below 100% I’m still getting by. I have one class in particular this semester that has been pretty grueling but it makes me feel like I’m actually in grad school and I really like it.  Although I did have last week off for spring break and I really liked that too.

The church I’ve been going to owns a campground and last month I went up with them for a work weekend to get ready for the summer camps.  It was great to get to know people on a different level and it was in a part of New Mexico I hadn’t visited, the Gila Wilderness.  One afternoon I went on a little walk though some nearby mountains and was amazed by the awesome rock formations.  I don't think these pictures give justice to the beauty.  

 

 

On the drive down we passed a bunch of huge radio satellite things at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  The official name for the site is the “Very Large Array,” which totally cracked me up. 

UNM has a pretty good basketball team and I finally got around to going to their last regular season game (they made it top 32 post-season).  I really like live sporting events and went to my share of Davis basketball games but this was totally different because the team is actually competitively good.  Our arena, The Pit, seats like 15,000 and was totally packed out with screaming fans.  It was lots of fun and I’ve resolved to go to all their games next year, especially since they’re free for students and I’m all about that.  

I totally get that New Mexico is beautiful, sometimes when I’m out and about I’m blown away by the mountains and rocks and cacti.  That aside, it is brown.  I mean it’s the desert and I think we average less than 9in of precipitation a year (a fair amount of that is snow) so zero-scape is really popular.  I was walking with a friend a few weeks ago and she pointed out that someone had an actual lawn. I pointed out that it was brown and her response was that not all grass is green.  WHAT? I mean come on, the phrase “the grass is greener” I think is comparing shades of green not other colors altogether.  I mean if you are comparing brown grass and green grass I don’t think anyone would judge you for thinking the green grass is greener.   I was in Concord for a few days last week and walking outside I felt like everything was in technicolor, it’s just so bright! And all that grass (obviously green) and flowers!

I’ve still been blogging about my food mis-adventures and you can read them on my other blog.  I hit the 2 month mark spending less than $70 total so I feel like I have that area of spending under control.  Many people spoil me so it’s not like I never eat.

So that updates you a little on the New, now onto the Old.  Last week I had spring break and went to Old Mexico with my mom to visit our friend Luz.  You may remember some of Luz and her town Mascota from previous posts (I was there once in 2006, once in 2008, and twice in 2009) and you can read lots of posts about previous trips looking through some old posts.  I love Mascota, it has quite a bit of drama for the size of town but still safe.  There were lots of adventures this past week and I’ll share some highlights.

On Sunday nights you can walk around the town square and eat freshly fried churros.  Sunday I was in search of churros and ran into my friend Dalia.  The last time I saw here I was also walking around Mascota’s town square looking for churros.  Her response was that if she’s ever looking for me she will go to the churro stand.  That is mostly accurate although on non-Sunday nights its more likely I’m at the popsicle store by the bus stop.

One day we went to visit Luz’s friend Ofelia, a great lady that I’ve spent time with my last few times there.  When we were walking around her yard picking fruit she asked me if something was there last time I was there.  My Spanish is limited so I had no clue what the “something” was but Luz answered no for me.  Guess what the “something” was.  A COUGAR (a word that had never come up with my vocabulary).  They built a habitat for this wild cougar someone gave them a few years back.  Evidently on their other property they have a jaguar.  Both eat live chickens.  As my mom phrased it, Ofelia is a little eccentric.   It was pretty awesome.  I was really bummed that I didn’t bring my camera.

This trip I also spent a fair amount of time with Luz’s sister/neighbor Lupe.  I never really knew what was going on but one day I did go to her classroom.  She left me in there alone and it brought back nightmares of teaching in Nicaragua. Except these kids mostly stayed in their seats and no one peed on the walls.  We talked about their home lives (fruit trees and chickens and horses and living multi-generationally) and I taught them “head, shoulders, knees and toes.”  Later on we ended up outside with me teaching “duck, duck, goose.”  They really liked to pick me so I did quite a bit of running in circles.  Finally we switched to steal the bacon so I could rest.

One day I got my teeth cleaned. I think Dra. Lucy was trying to kill me.  No joke.  I have a pretty high pain tolerance and about 5 minutes in I couldn’t imagine how I could sit through a half an hour of her torture.  Not just the pain but she used this electric pick thing that made the worst sound imaginable and whenever she would pull it out of my mouth water would spray in my eye.  She kept asking, “does it hurt?” over and over but nothing ever changed. Then she would explain that they were getting really clean. I was all excited when she pulled out the rubber twirly brush thing because that would be better.  Her “toothpaste” tasted like cement, and spitting it out of my mouth it looked like cement too.  It was cheap; it might have been worth it.  

Compared to my previous trips this one was pretty laid back, most days only had one Bible study, and the neighbor hood visitations were more limited. To fill up some time Luz had me paint a picture.  It’s mostly house paint, with some acrylic on plywood.  I was going to attach a photo but you can just believe me that it is the most beautiful picture of impressionist cacti ever painted.

One day there was my birthday (some more oldness).  When we were visiting Ofelia she was giving Luz suggestions of nice places to take me. We did have a nice breakfast and then an interesting lunch and some carrot bread for dinner.  Here I am at my birthday lunch. Luz kept laughing because of its extreme ghettoness. The hosts did say next year they would be more prepared with balloons.  Evidently in Mexico the cool thing to give people for their birthdays is a big hug. Yay.  I hadn’t met the lady whose house we had lunch at but as soon as I walked in she gave me a big birthday hug.  Then later on I saw my friend Dalia (not looking for churros) and she apologized for not giving me a hug because she was sick. Really it’s OK.   Back at home my aunt bought me a heated throw blanket and it is my new best friend.  Really it’s amazing. 

Well this is long but I know you’ve been missing me.  I’ll try to work on that.  What adventures have been going on with you?

Happy New Year!

I’m back in Albuquerque but you might have thought I never left.  I was in California for 5 weeks living the high life.  The life where you mention that there are no more English muffins and the next morning the cupboard is full of them.   I got to see lots of cool people and was reminded why certain people are my friends. Or more why I’m friends with people, I’m not quite sure why they’re friends with me.  Other people are much nicer than me.  Besides the time it took to make that discovery I was back at Dowd and Guild being an ambassador of goodwill.  I considered my work schedule “fulltime” but evidently 9ish to 4ish 3-4 days a week isn’t officially fulltime. 

Now that I’m back in New Mexico my life is full of enchantment.  I’m taking 4 classes again and I think this semester will be much more gradschoolish than last semester.  We only have 1 week off and I think in general I’ll need to put in more effort.    Probably the most challenging is “Strategic Leadership and Development,” so far there is a lot of talk of feelings and life goals.  By Tuesday I’m supposed to make a list of 27 things I want to do before I die. I’m confident that if I died tomorrow I’d be totally satisfied so I’m having a hard time thinking of things to write.  So far it is like make cookies and do my laundry.  But I have a feeling I’m supposed to be thinking “bigger.”

I’ve been working here too, still for D&G just with some projects I can do on my computer requiring no brain activity.  What that means practically is I’ve been watching too much daytime TV.  We only get like 12 channels so the variety is seriously limited.  I did learn about trophy husbands that stay at home while their wives have high-powered jobs and, on the other end of the employment spectrum, real people have the 12-month job driving the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile.  Maybe that can be on my bucket list.

I started a new blog http://whatjoyeats.blogspot.com/ chronicling my eating habits. I guess if I keep working regularly I can probably afford more assortment but I like the challenge of thriftiness.