Saturday, March 31, 2007 | by nathan

160 - Jim

The man my aunt married in middle age is a silly, smart, kind man who has loved her through debilitating illness. He has my ultimate respect.

Friday, March 30, 2007 | by nathan

by your wounds, we are healed

I think I just found my favorite paragraph on the entire internet:

"Before attempting fisting, a Christian husband and wife should pray together and ask for divine guidance. The husband should ask that God guide his hand and work through him, and for the skill and patience to fist his wife correctly and maximize her pleasure. The wife should pray for openness and readiness to receive God’s love and grace in the form of her husband’s hand."

That can be found right here. It’s probably NSFW, though there’s little obscene imagery on the site.  

Friday, March 30, 2007 | by nathan

159 - Doug

I like you, but this thing where you’re a really nice-looking 37-year-old man who dates 20-year olds is skeezy, no matter how much you work out.

Thursday, March 29, 2007 | by nathan

158 - “Janice”

Tired of her claims to have read every book the English instructor mentioned, we started making up books with ridiculous titles. She enthused over every one.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 | by nathan

157 - R.

He was this cute little guy whose eyes shone just right; I wanted to ask him out for coffee all through college, but I never did.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | by nathan

Hey, Big Spender

When I was a senior in college, I wrote a rather long honors thesis for my religion major about sexual theology, and homosexuality in particular. As part of my research I conducted a semester-long Bible study on campus about these issues that, while not particularly successful, fed my thesis so perfectly that I felt as if most of the work had been done for me.

I could not have been more wrong, of course, and I realized this when it got to be April 13-ish and I realized I HADN’T WRITTEN A SINGLE DAMN WORD. Yes, I had researched, and made notes, and prepared for the study, etc. etc. But I had not written a single page of the 40+ pages I was expected to have for my thesis. This on top of having both papers AND finals in every class I was taking, which was a lot. It was the single most rigorous semester I had at Wake Forest - or, one of them, anyway - and here I hadn’t done a single damn thing to get the honors for which I had applied and which, because of the credits I still needed to graduate, was now required for me to receive a degree.

So, I wrote the thing. In four days. That’s ten pages a day, plus editing, footnotes, end notes, and additional research I had not completed. Four days.

That same semester I was nominated for Senior Colloquium. This is a program at Wake where seniors are nominated by members of the faculty to write end-of-the-year speeches. These are submitted to a faculty panel, then narrowed down to 15 or so. These 15 students attend a dinner at the President’s house and give their speeches to a group of trustees, faculty, and the President and his wife. From there the students are whittled down to three, each of whom speaks as part of graduation activities. It’s a great honor. I was nominated by one of my favorite people at Wake Forest, Chaplain Ed Christman. It was an honor, but I was so busy procrastinating on my honors thesis that I didn’t bother to write my speech until the day it was due.

It took me 15 minutes. I was selected to attend the President’s dinner, and then selected as one of the three who would give his speech at the colloquium in May. For a speech that I wrote in 15 minutes and did not edit. I reread that speech recently, as I included it in a portfolio I submitted for a job application (look! I can write speeches!). Upon reviewing the work I thought it fairly well written, but it was so riddled with typos and amateur mistakes that not only was I shocked that I was chosen to give my speech at President Hearn’s house, I’m kinda surprised I wasn’t expelled from Wake Forest, or shot.

Now, here I am in my last semester of graduate school. I have three huge projects coming up: most important is my thesis novel, which must be 50,000 words, all of publishable quality (read: not a rough draft like in every class I’ve taken, but hey, thanks for teaching me ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT EDITING). The second is a marketing plan, submission packet and first 50 or so pages of a nonfiction book. I haven’t started this. The third is a large set of revisions to a novel I wrote last year. These are all required for my graduation. 

I’ve got 7,500 words of my thesis novel written. I decided to stay in my cozy, creativity-inspiring little office on campus and work instead of going home, where I would be distracted by my deep need to cuddle with my husband on our incredibly comfy sofa and play with the dog and the Wii. I thought, "It’ll be okay. I’ll get it out."

What have I been doing instead? Watching every single one of these. The second one’s my favorite. 

I am so screwed. You think I can pull off another miracle like I did as an undergraduate? Five years, two inches on my waist and two metric tons of alcohol separate me from that time in my life, but I’ll see what I can do.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | by nathan

156 - Jon C.

My Hawaiian roommate loved cycling but not school, really. He asked me to move to San Francisco after graduation, and for years I wished I had.

Monday, March 26, 2007 | by nathan

155 - James in Waterford

You followed me around, everywhere, “missing” buses and trains home from Waterford and acting creepy. You taught me about boundaries, that saying no can be compassionate.

Sunday, March 25, 2007 | by nathan

154 - Eric

It’s strange how you can have the biggest crush on someone until you meet the people they date and think, “We are both better than that.”

Saturday, March 24, 2007 | by nathan

153 - Paul

My friends’ dad is everyone’s hero; a fantastic father who loves his kids unabashedly, a firefighter, a rescuer during the Oklahoma City bombing and after 9/11.