High/Low Tea

Something out of the ordinary: I attended a high tea this afternoon at work! Well, it was called a "high tea," but it was actually an afternoon tea. Those Interwebs have just revealed to me that today's "high tea" organizers are not alone in mistakenly referring to their afternoon tea as a high tea. A high tea is a full meal served with tea in the evening; an afternoon tea or low tea is tea served around 3:00 or 4:00 P.M. with light savories (finger sandwiches) and sweets (cakes, pastries). Go search those Interwebs if you want to know more about the difference or the origins of each kind of tea service; it's kind of interesting.

Nevertheless, I joined other colleagues from across campus for some hot tea, some light sandwiches, and some cookies while we watched an excerpt from a documentary about international students' struggles to learn and use academic English at American universities. Afterward we discussed it as it pertains to our own university, whose international student population continues to rise each semester.

Sadly, some of the professors who most struggle with and/or complain about our international students' writing in English were not present at the high/low tea. Since arriving at this university, I have found that to be typical of voluntary professional development events such as this. But would it be any better to mandate that those professors attend? Knowing them, I think not!

In any case, it was good to get together with colleagues today at an out-of-the-ordinary event to discuss professional issues, even if it felt a bit as though the organizers were preaching to the choir. Perhaps attendance and participation will continue to grow with subsequent events. Hey, call it high, call it low, call it medium--as long as there's food, I'm there!

Chinese Valentine

The day started off with the girls' giving their parents valentines that they had made at school. In fact, two of those valentines were made thanks to me (remember?), so I was not surprised to see Suzanna and Abigail give them to Mommy--although I hadn't seen the content of their Valentine's Day newsletters until this morning after Susan opened them, so that was a sweet surprise. A relaxing day at home followed.

This evening we took Susan out for supper and said that she could choose the restaurant, but she had no strong feelings one way or the other. Therefore I drove to a restaurant that I thought was less likely to be super-busy than some of the more standard spots: we got Chinese food at China Doll, a cozy little spot that's not far from our house, actually, and from which we like to get take-out occasionally. We saw several people there whom we know and got to visit on the way to and fro the buffet. Everything was tasty--and, best of all, Susan didn't have to cook!

Here's a fun Valentine's Day-related tidbit: the girls got a card in the mail the other day from a married couple in our congregation at church. Larry and Margaret were assigned to us as mentors when we first joined St. John (remember?), and we were fine with that; I already knew Margaret as a colleague at work, and they're a friendly, down-to-earth couple whom our girls "took to" right away. Well, Larry and Margaret have "taken to" the girls, too. The card that they sent the girls was a Valentine's Day card in which Margaret wrote a note explaining that, because the girls bring such joy to Larry and Margaret's lives each Sunday with their energetic singing, friendly greetings, and warm hugs, Larry and Margaret decided they wanted to return the love. Inside the card were ten gift certificates to Dairy Queen. How thoughtful! And how wonderful for the girls to receive that gift out of the blue and to read about how their normal behavior and personalities bring joy to others.

I hope somebody brought joy to your life today--and that you did to somebody else's life, too!

Reformation Sunday

In honor of today's being Reformation Sunday, we all wore red to church today. A family of religious geeks, yes, I know. Poor Suzanna's tonsils are as big as golf balls, so she stayed home from Sunday school (with Susan) while I took Hillary to her class and then joined Abigail for the third of three Sundays that parents and third-graders have together been studying the Bible as a pre-confirmation thing. Abigail was supposed to have chosen one of four Bible verses to memorize (she memorized all four) and to memorize the first few books of the Old and New Testaments (she memorized all the books of the Bible). So, she did just fine!

Susan and Suzanna arrived just before church so that we could meet with Larry and Margaret, the couple assigned to us as mentors for the year--to invite us to church events, check in on us, make us feel welcome at St. John, etc. They're great. I work with her, actually, so I already knew that she's great, but her husband seems to be, too. They sat with us during church and gave us supportive looks when we joined the other new members at the communion rail during the service to say our "I do"s to various questions from Pastor Lisa. Now we're officially members! Our photo outside the church door and our listing in the church bulletin announced as much to the rest of the congregation.

So, to fit the theme of the day, we have re-formed our church family in a new church home and are looking forward to many good things to come (not the least of which has been renewed dialogue at home about religion as we've helped the girls with their Sunday school "homework" and carried out the suggested activities that they've brought home for each week) (and yes, I, too, now know all the books of the Bible in order from memory).