The Perry Mastodon Parade

On Thursday, Wheaton's beloved Perry Mastodon was moved from his resting place in Armerding to his home in brand new science center. Like all good Wheaties and a many children in the neighborhood, I have warm feelings in my heart for this large, dead mammal.

Since I saw this article on Wheaton's website, I was looking forward to the parade for Perry all week. Perhaps this is because I lead a boring life, but I'd prefer to think I take joy in little things.

This was happening during my lunch break. I ate on the quad and watched.

And here's a view of Perry's bonier side.

The website said "visitors of all ages may also enjoy these downloadable crafts," and I took that to heart. I am holding a mask, which is probably not immediately identifiable as such. The white things are his tusks and the orange thing that looks like a tie is actually his trunk. I convinced Betsy, my supervisor last year, to give me a balloon.

This tough looking guy is my boss, Fred. He is great. He and his Harley Davidson buddies, "The Black Sheep," led off the parade.

My hermeneutics prof, Dr Green, played the bagpipes.

Wheaton student and Olympian Nancy Swider-Peltz roller bladed in the parade with her dad while her mom, also an olympian, followed on a unicycle.

Just a shout-out to Wheaton's Arcives and Special Collections.

I never imagined I'd see Perry in front of Williston Hall.

Visitors are not allowed near to the new science center yet. Perhaps come September I'll post a picture of Perry in his new home. Perry, I believe, will be directly below a new Foucault pendulum, this year's senior class gift. The pendulum is to be named after Dr. Litfin. I find this wonderfully ironic considering how often Dr. Litfin warns students against pendulum-like swings with regard to social justice and gospel proclamation and suchlike.

Summer Days

I love summer Saturdays. I love the way the sun wakes me up, and I feel rested and excited to start the day wide open with possibilities. This morning after cereal with strawberries and a few pages of Gilead, I hopped on my bike and joined the throngs at the French Open Market just across the tracks behind the Wheaton library. I bought a two dollar coffee and sat across the street in the shade to people watch and pet the puppies that walked by. If I make it to old age, I'm pretty sure I'll still do this. It was a lovely way to start the day, but would have been more fun if Megan had been there.

Summer mornings like this remind me of childhood - screen doors banging shut, swinging in the backyard with Lewie hopping around munching the grass, coming inside to collapse in front of the fan on the living room rug and watch Steffi Graf with her pony-tail and white sweat band compete at Wimbledon.

I've set myself some goals for the summer.

Several weeks ago I saw Dr. Howard, a soon to retire economics prof, balancing on one side of his bike while coasting up to the bike locks. It reminded me that I need to learn how to get on and off my bike in that cool way rather than the old-lady-like way that has been my style up til this summer. I will learn to swing my leg over the bike seat to get on and off or die trying. My second goal is to learn how to catch a 175 gram frisbee more often than I miss it.

This first goal demands absolutely no other people present, while the second requires some patient friends. Any Wheatonites want to help me out?

On my way back from the French Market I stopped in a deserted church parking lot to practice. I'm getting pretty decent at getting on the bike, but I haven't figured out how to kick-start myself to get some good momentum with my foot that isn't on the pedal yet. No success on getting off. That's where I might do myself some serious injury. I hope the neighbors aren't watching.

Last year Megan started to teach me to throw and catch a baseball. I'm not a natural. But if frisbee catching comes quickly, and I find a friend to help, maybe I can add throwing a ball to my summer accomplishments.

Opportunity

This summer I'm working for Conference Services again. All of us conference service assistants have key cards that get us into every dorm room in Fischer and Smith-Traber, as well as various closets and storage rooms. Unfortunately, for some reason all of my teammates' keys weren't letting them into certain rooms that they should have opened. I was the only one whose key worked. So today my boss called the woman at Public Safety who is in charging of programming keys, and he found out that she had accidentally programmed my key to access every room on campus. Tomorrow morning I will lose my privileges, but I am currently in possession of a card that could get me into every single room on campus with a key card entrance. I wonder if Dr. Litfin even has such a key. And yet, with such power for exploration within my grasp, I have settled down for the night and here I stay, but with a tinge of regret.

Graduation 2010

Commencement is bittersweet. My friends are leaving me. I don't like thinking about senior year in Wheaton without these ladies.

Arwen has been a dear friend to me since the very beginning of freshman year. Actually, I met her when I came for connection senior year, but she doesn't remember this. I'm pretty sure that I could talk to Arwen about anything at all. She is thoughtful, funny, principled, engaging, endearing, helpful, generous, unique, opinionated, and frank. She is many more things, but I won't detail them here. I am very glad that she will be in Wheaton this summer, so I can have some more sweet times with her before she marries Nick this August, and they go off to Westminster Seminary together.

These two lovely ladies were my apartment-mates this year. I didn't really know Laura before this year, but it has been a delight to live with her. She is amusing, occasionally goofy, independent, bright, and, which is important for a roommate, loves good music. Donna Grace grows more precious to me the more time I spend with her. Who would have thought my kindred spirit would be a chemistry major? To use Hawthorne's language, I think she "speaks my heart's native language." Laura and Donna both graduated summa cum laude. I will not be. :)

Becky Redline is an honorary roommate. She graduated in December and came back the week before graduation, sleeping on a mattress on my bedroom floor. I wish I'd known her longer. She is delightful.

Javan graduated this year. The sash thingie (I can't remember the special word for it) is because of his participation in Wheaton's HNGR program. It was great to see Jonathan, Rebekah, Aunt Karen, and Uncle Bert again. Joel was back in Washington for AP exams, but he'll be a freshman at Wheaton in the fall. The minor Miner dynasty continues!

Selected Shorts

I can tell B quad was busy because of the dearth of blog posts since spring break. Here's a quick catch-up by way of a few pictures.

I loved my bedroom in the apartment this year. I looked into the trees each morning when I woke up - sometimes they were aflame with color, sometimes covered with a coating of snow, later budding and green. My bedroom window next year looks over a parking lot. They paved paradise, I guess.

I had Easter lunch with the Tiewes family and then headed to my friend Amy's house to join some friends for dinner.

Fast forward a few weeks and spring has fully arrived:

Robin, Barnabas, and I studied for an American lit final on Blanchard lawn.

Sometimes I think my "college experience" has been more marked by things outside of Wheaton College than within it. Sophomore year I lost my heart to a Goldendoodle, and he still has claim to it.

Most every Saturday I joined some friends for Saturday Morning Breakfast Club. This last week Arwen's mother cooked traditional Filipino breakfast for us. It was delectable.
This picture is unfortunately not equally flattering for everyone. Sorry.

B quad was particularly busy because I picked up a class without dropping any. I took self-defense from Miss Marilyn Scribner. She's turning 80 this summer and has taught this class for over 40 years. If you stood still and cooperated, I could probably throw you to the ground. It is great fun.