what a crazy weekend! on friday the first order of business was to perform my first pelvic exam. i couldn’t even be nervous about it because i kept thinking of the poor girl who’d be lying on the table with her feet in stirrups. (really, is there possibly any more vulnerable position? did you know that there are at least four or five other perfectly acceptable ways to position patients for a pelvic? just what you wanted to discuss, i’m sure. but seriously.) everything went perfectly fine, stirrups notwithstanding, and she was a good sport. then nick swooped me up in the mustang for lunch at our favourite sub place in squirrel hill. uncle sammy’s serves up foot-long hoagies mounded high with meat and cheese, and a veritable half-pound of piping hot matchstick fries. buried somewhere in all this deliciousness, a little star-brite peppermint (a la rachel christine!) is inevitably waiting for you to discover it. half the time i think they forgot it, until i pick up a couple of smug french fries and — eureka! anyway, we had a delightful time. as we were walking around we saw this adorable baby asleep in a stroller who smiled just as we were smiling to each other about how cute she was. i about died. the only thing that could have made the afternoon better is if we’d had time to stop at dozen cupcakes, because i was yearning for a cosmo cupcake and i knew nick would definitely love their chocolate peanutbutter ones. but alas, he had to heed the call of the cathedral and actually stayed in pittsburgh later than he should have. it’s awfully selfish of me, but i’m glad.

then there was the sex-and-the-city movie, and liz’s first cosmo, and milano’s pizza with blue cheese, and seven hours at starbucks, and devon’s party, where tim and devon assembled a grill in his backyard and then guarded the burgers vigilantly, while amy and i cooked the (shockingly!) pre-husked corn and made brownies and laughed about the perpetuation of gender roles. fortified by our supper, we watched the penguins play the redwings, and i found myself yelling at the TV which is strange because it’s the first hockey game i’ve ever watched. something about the pittsburgh boys just makes you want to root for ’em.

sunday afternoon i stretched out on my beach towel in the back yard and indulged in the last few chapters of a hysterical romance novel amy bought a while back. then promptly shifted gears and read Introducing Early Christianity by Laurie Guy, an overview of ancient church practices and doctrines. most of the books i’ve been reading are from a Catholic standpoint; it was interesting to see a Protestant perspective on some of the same controversies. what i really can’t get over is how adamant most of the early church fathers (Irenaeus, Ignatius, Clement, and Cyprian to name a few) were about the actuality of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist. then there’s Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus who hold that the elements are symbolic, but they lived in the fourth century as opposed to the Real Presence gurus who lived in the second and third. so, is it valid to assume that the closer you are century-wise to sharing Earth time with Jesus, the closer you are doctrine-wise to understanding the truth? i was sort of inclined to think that, before embarking on my literary travels. but there have been heresies ever since the start of Christianity. in search of further elucidation, i listened to Mark Driscoll’s sermon on The Lord’s Supper from his 1 Corinthians series while watching the cotton candy clouds glide overhead. (there’s really no better venue for sermon-listening.) didn’t know he’d been raised Catholic. unfortunately he didn’t tackle the root of my theological tizzy, but it sure was good to hear him comparing heaven to a huge feast of red meat and red wine with good music and good friends.

fitting, too, because last night that’s just what we had. we cut up big chunks of chicken, steak, green peppers, zucchini and onions, skewered them, and grilled them over our little table-top grill. mmmm, shish-ke-babs. along with crusty bread dipped in herbed olive oil, the leftovers of tropical black bean salad, garlic mashed potatoes, and amy’s finlandian cherry wine and organic cabernet sauvignon, it made quite a tasty (if eclectic) meal. we should do it again sometime.