People didn't believe me when I said I saw a rat the size of a small dog in my neighborhood in Calcutta. Whoa nelly. My friends who live there now found this in their bathroom on Christmas Eve. Squeaky the long lost reindeer. This is serious business, kids.

Jess & I took a 38 hour whirlwind megabus trip to Chicago. We were tired. It was cold. We spent lots of time walking around the big city and at Borders thawing out and drinking coffee. Our gracious friend Brian put up with my inability to figure out purchasing tickets for the el and our sleep-deprived moods, and we went out for Chicago style pizza at Giantonis (opposed to "hot cheesy cracker" that St. Louis calls it's signature "pizza."). Mission accomplished: one 10 year Indian tourist visa and a bit of relief for the travel bug.

My cousin Annie was in town this past weekend for the New Year, and we had a blast! Great coversations, thrifting at Value Village and the blind store, hanging out, a visit to Cahokia Mounds, cozy times in the house watching movies. She brought along the movie "Sweet Land" which was a beautiful story. Lovely, lovely time.

I worked on a series of Bible studies last semester and incorporated several songs from this band, and now they have a new album coming out. Their lyrics are poetic and worshipful. Supposedly, this guy is working on a new project too, and some of his songs from Chair and a Microphone Vol. 2 were included in my project as well. It was my favorite thing that I worked on this first semester of school.

Now, it is back to work at the ol library. It's mighty quiet in here tonight. One lone fellow, probably working hard on Greek. And I'm missing house church, which is sad. Not much to say. Chicago pics to come. Maybe.

Happy 2008, friends.