January opened up in the least favorable way: The start of winter semester. Ruth's semester started on January 3rd, but Matthew was able to enjoy one more week of freedom before returning to UVU. Ruth is taking volleyball this semester, which she always enjoys, and two graduate-level courses, one of which she enjoys considerably more than the other. The one she enjoys is called Theology in Film and Literature, and by far the best part has been finally getting around to reading the wonderful Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. (Oh my gosh, if you guys have not read this yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!?!?!?) Ruth also gave a presentation on Babette's Feast last week with two other students, one of whom baked and provided a bundt cake for the occasion, and all were pleased when the professor announced that "these three are now my favorite students!" The class she does not enjoy is called Comparative Studies 615, and it involves getting criticized every other week by a professor whom we shall refer to as Professor Pithy (given his love for the word) for giving presentations that "ended with a whimper" (one week) and "wasn't pithy enough" (next week). The criticism would not be so difficult to bear if it weren't for the fact that other students in the class were being praised for their "beautiful, eloquent use of inflections" and "great visual images" on their PowerPoint slides....
In addition to her classes, Ruth is working three different jobs - two as research assistant and one as a teaching assistant. Her easiest job and the one where she spends most of her time is working for a prominent religion professor on campus. The job mostly involves routine editing and secretarial work, but one day this month Ruth found herself driving her professor's car from her house to campus and moving forty books (with a dolly) from the JKB to the JSB. For those who don't know, it's normally a ten minute walk, but took about 25 minutes moving at a snail's pace with an extremely precarious load of cargo. Fortunately, there was no ice on the ground, no books were lost, and the most witty comment that she received from passersby was "You must do a lot of reading!"
Matthew continues to work at Ancestry.com from 6-10 on weekdays, and it is hard sometimes for him to convince Ruth to go to bed early enough that he can get enough sleep. He is definitely more of a morning person than Ruth is. In addition to work, he is taking four classes that keep him at UVU all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fortunately, he has no school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and he and Ruth have been using the extra time to go to the gym. They love swimming, weight-lifting, and stretching together. They also enjoy going for a run on Saturday mornings and stopping by the grocery store to buy what they run out of most quickly - eggs, yogurt, and orange juice.
The biggest news of January happened in Matthew's family, first with the return of his younger brother Stephen from his mission in New England. Ruth and Matthew drove with some of the family to pick Steve up from the airport and it was exciting to finally meet him. He gave a very thoughtful, uplifting talk in his ward's sacrament meeting the Sunday after he arrived, and we are looking forward to spending more time with him this year. There have been hints of him maybe going on a "friendly" date with one of Ruth's sisters, but no concrete developments so far...
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| Brothers, brothers, there were never such devoted broooothers.... (Eh, never mind) |
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| This is one of my favorite pictures of them... taken at my wedding reception, ha ha |
And that's it for January! Except to say, thank goodness it's over!
Love,
Ruth and Matthew
