thanksgiving begins

my house started celebrating thanksgiving on saturday night. we had 30 or so people over for a potluck...and we were all ready for a nap by 7p. my contribution? apple pies from scratch. none of this pre-made crust business. lindsay's pumpkin pies are also on the tray in the picture at left, lest you think i made particularly pumpkin-colored apple pies.

on sunday, emily, usama and i attended the thanksgiving celebration hosted by the austin area interreligious ministries. there was a non-denominational service followed by a reception. this year, the methodist church downtown hosted it. i ran into one of my professors at the reception and he mentioned that he and his wife had been attending it for years. from the name, one would think that this organization would be filled with people wanting to work together, but my professor had an interesting story to share. apparently last year, the hyde park baptist church was supposed to host but when the congregation found out there would be muslims praying in the church they said no...one week before thanksgiving celebration was supposed to happen. one of the synagogues in the area stepped in and hosted it at the last minute. the thanksgiving celebration last year ended up with the largest attendance ever and the whole story was written up in the local papers. ouch. anyhow, the service was a sing-a-long of sorts in various languages and it was pretty cool. various organizations had booths set up at the reception afterwards with info on service opportunities available in the area. i got information for one that runs a farm (that grows plants not animals). another one of my roommates has volunteered with them before and says they're a really good group, so i'm going to try and go out sometime in the spring.

i just finished another lab report and problem set. this leaves me with one lab report and two term projects to finish between now and next friday 12/5. its still a lot, but feels a lot more doable than it did about a week ago. maybe its because i'm working more, but i am beginning to miss this summer. i'm missing being outside 24/7. it was dark when i started running this morning. the temperature, i found out after the fact, was in the 40s and the sky was clear. you could see the stars clearly despite the fact that i live in a city. i slowed down a bit and started looking up. when you live on an island, you only have to look out to gain perspective. here i have to look up. regardless, the view is amazing. i am really excited for new years and skiing, and i'm excited for hiking on friday.