Raaargh. Life is beginning to pick up the pace. I'm glad I'm being proactive on everything except my housecleaning. My recital music is almost picked, and pretty well learned. Little Red Riding Hood is in less than three weeks, and I'm pretty near to being memorized....getting there anyway. And my dress is getting there! Except that on the trip to San Antonio last weekend, someone wadded up my skirt and put a bag on top of it. It's a wrinkled mess. But beaded must still be done. The last thing I need is a wrench thrown into things. I have a lot of family and may-as-well-be-family coming to see my recital! Last year I didn't publicize anything...I dind't want anyone to hear me. SO, if any of you are free on April 6th, come hear me! I'd love to have you!

I found this in a commentary, and liked it a lot. I thought I would share it with all of you, if for no other reason than I'm too tired to be creative tonight. Enjoy!

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that every one who believes in HIm should not perish but have everlasting life.

ALL great men have had their favourite texts; but this text has been called "everybody's Text." herein for every simple heart is the very essence of the gospel. This text tells us certain very great things.

(i) It tells us that the origin and initiative in all salvation lies with God. Sometimes Christianity is presented in such a way that it sounds as if God had to be pacified, as if God had to be persuatded to forgive. Sometimes men speak as if they would draw a picture of a stern, angry, unfogiving, legal God, and a gentle, loving, forgiving Jesus. Sometimes men present the CHristian message in such a way that it sounds as if Jesus did something which changed the attitude of God to men from condemnation to forgiveness. But this text tells us that it was with God that it all started. It was God who sent His Son, and He sent His Son because He loved men. At the back of everything there is the love of God.

(ii) It tells us that the mainspring of the being of God is love. It is easy to think of God as looking at men in their heedlessness and their disobedience and their rebellion and saying: "I'll break them: I'll humble them and lash them and discipline them and punish them and scourge them until they come back>" It is easy to think of God as seeking the allegiance of men in ofder to satisfy HIs own desire for power, and His own desire for what we might call a completely subject universe. But the tremendous thing about this text is that it shows us God acting, not for His own sake, but for ours. It was not to satisfy His love. God is not like an absolute monarch who treats each man as a subject to be reduced to an abject obedience. God is the Father who cannot be happy until HIs wandering children have come home. God does not smash men into submission; He yearns over them and woos them into love.

(iii) It tells us of the width of the love of God. It was the world that God so loved. It was not a nation; it was not the good people; it was not only the people who loved Him; it was the world. The unlovable and the unlovely, the lonely who have no one lese to love them, the man who loves God and the man who never thinks of God, the man who rests in the love of God and the man who spurns the love of God - All are included in this vast inclusive love, the love of God. As Aufustine had it: "God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love."

The test is over. Didn't study. Did just fine I think -- my lesson learned, I'll never study for this class if I can help it, and the next section is on American Musical Theater! YAY!!!!

Wow, I have another test today. Isn't that wonderful? But the good thing is that the class I'm taking is almost identical to a class that's a requirement for my major. So all of us music majors sit in the back checking off the list of things we already know, and Dr. Boyd teaches to the non-majors. We only have to participate when they've obviously missed the point of her lectures, at which point she calls on us in the back row. So, altogether not bad. I'm not going to study. Maybe glance over my notes a bit before, but no hours of reading. Especially not for short answer and matching. Anyway -- off to the test!

Finished the second half. It's the best movie I've seen in ages and aeons. Besides the obvious beautiful and tragic ending, may I say that it has the best love scene I've ever seen. Anne and Peter are upstairs, and she's playing with a pencil....there's like five minutes of conversation (I should say monologue -- she does most of the talking) as they play back and forth with it. Sounds cheesy, no? But it was so emotionally tense -- made every fiber of your being long......why don't they make movies like that anymore? I would far rather watch something with content, and plot, and characters that you can relate to than all the sex and violence in the whole world! And yet, there was plenty of terror and violence in this movie...the terror was more real because it was, obviously, REAL. The worst part of course is knowing the inevitable. Kind of like Titanic....you know eventually the boat will sink. Anyway, more on this later -- I have to go wash the mascara off my face.....

Has anyone ever watched the old black and white "Diary of Anne Frank?" It's a wonderful movie! I'd never seen it before -- but I'm sewing, and I need something to listen to, not read (a little hard with both hands occupied). The girl who plays Anne is very convincing. I really like her characterization -- the whole cast is strong. The only one I have problems with is the Dentist -- Mr. Dussel? He is played by the actor that played the buffoon in so many Disney movies. He was the toymaker in "Babes in Toyland" and the man who floated on the ceiling in "Mary Poppins." I just have trouble taking him seriously as I picture him bobbing about and laughing. I suppose every actor has a right to break out of a steriotype -- he's still playing the bumbling idiot, and that's pretty close. Anyway -- part two is rewound now. Time to go watch her have her first kiss, her first love, and then off to the tragic ending. Where's my kleenex?

CONGRATULATIONS! To my friend Matt Moore who just won the regional competition for the Metropolitan Opera! YAY! 1st place is nothing to sneeze at -- now on to the finals in New York!!!

For those of you who know the hymn "Eternal Father Strong to Save" (otherwise known as the Navy Hymn) a new verse was just added to the Episcopal hymnal:

O God who names the starry host,

and by whose love not one is lost;

who stretched thy arms wide to the sky,

from cross to heav'n so death would die:

Oh care for those who traversed space,

Embrace them now who touch thy face.

The Rev. Vincent Uher, February 1, 2003.

More beading of the recital dress. Oh I'm losing perspective quickly. I've hit the point where I can't tell if its going to look good or not. As dad says, non only can I not see the forest for the trees, I can't see the bark for the microbes under it. Anyway -- back to the sweatshop! And I have to pick out more recital music tomorrow! One more italian set, on Bach thing-y from some mass....and maybe some english if I have time. We'll see how much music I'm talking about. But I've break-ed long enough. The beads are calling. Here I come master! Oh and yes, my Italian extra credit recital went splendidly. We all did very well....and we now have "extra credito" as we so masterfully call it! Ciao! A domani

Well Crap! We have a four hour choir rehearsal tonight for TMEA. Blech. Basically that means that we'll stand there for an hour and a half waiting for Dr. Bailey to "fix our windows." -- (otherwise known as placing us all on the risers so you can see everyone). He always takes forever counting and re-counting -- somehow he doesn't ever count correctly. Never! Takes forever. Other than that it's Adrian's birthday -- so we're probably going out beforehand to celebrate. Does anyone else thinka daquiri would take the edge off? Oh, maybe not.