Some things to think about:

What role does/should the government take regarding family?  What institutions does the government have an interest in promoting and, in practice, does that promotion help or hurt?  In what ways would promoting ‘healthy families’ help communities like Englewood, a troubled neighborhood on the south side of Chicago where my mom works, and how would it help an affluent community like Yale-New Haven?  I think the answers are more complex than I have had time to think about just yet.

How do we perceive of citizenship? In what ways does categorizing people as “in” or “out” affect other ways in which we see and treat them as a nation and also as individuals?  What does citizenship get a person that just being a human does not? Are we ok with that discrepancy?  I thought a lot about Paul asserting his Roman citizenship in class today and how much that affected how he was treated. Of course you can’t help but be glad that Paul was a citizen, but you also can’t help but be horrified by what must have been the reality of so many of the people who were not.

I will have lots to think about this semester.

Combined with the beautiful weather, the day turned out to be very relaxing and was a good reminder that CT is much bigger than New Haven or Hartford and that much of what this state has to offer is not to be found in its cities.  Thanks, Olivia, for sharing Stoney Creek with us!

Wow.

I’ve been itching to get out and enjoy the crisp weather and beautiful scenery, but school and an ailing cat have taken up much of our time.  This morning we finally found the time and went for a mini hike at East Rock, the very big, rocky hill  our neighborhood is named after.

We packed up some real NY bagels, hot coffee and a couple Honey Crisp apples and walked up till we found a pretty place to sit. After realizing that we had completely forgotten about day light savings time (and calling our moms to check), we reveled in the extra hour we had and went exploring a bit.

I can’t wait to put my hiking boots to use again–being outside makes me like living out here a lot more than I usually do.

Cats do not like bubble gum.

Turns out they don’t like Maalox  either.  We tried that this morning.  Yep Maalox.  Also, Peptid AC.  The vet told us we could mix the Maalox in with some wet food and the cat would eat it.  That is most definitely not happening.  Nick is a food snob.  He has refined kitty tastes and will have nothing to do with the mint gravy I put in front of him.

Izzy on the other hand thinks it’s delicious.

We figure, if this is the worst of our worries we can totally work with with it.  Nick is 100% back to normal except for the shaved bits all over his body and  the pink goatee he’s sporting. We’re loving it!

Turns out old blue eyes is quite the charmer and is quite possibly New Haven’s favorite cat . (Shh. Nobody tell Izzy…)

Sadly, Nick’s celebrity status came about because he got sick.  After exhibiting signs of illness (i.e. not annoying the heck out of us to change his water first thing in the morning and, worse, not eating) we took Nick to the vet.  She didn’t seem too concerned but said we should do some diagnostic tests just in case.  After a few twists and turns in the process we were told that Nick had severe renal failure and that based on ‘his numbers’ he really should be dead.  But he wasn’t.  They still aren’t sure why.

Amazingly, he just keeps getting better and even gets to come home today!  Izzy will be very, very happy to see him.  turns out people love just isn’t the same when you are used to a constant kitty companion.

We are really grateful that Nick is feeling better and would like to thank everyone at the animal hospital who gave him so much love and attention.  You guys are great!

I am so amused by the banter that seems to work its way seamlessly into the otherwise serious conversations that happen here.  Yale Divinity students rock the world of puns and word play–they give our UChicago friends a run for the money in both quantity and quality of puns used each day.

Sometimes the un-funniness of the law leaves me feeling like I will never be a worthwhile contributor to this banter, but this past week we read a case that will make anyone laugh.  We refer to it as the ‘Batman case’.

Basically, a woman was sued after she ran her car into an oncoming truck.  Her explanation of the event? I quote, “The psychiatrist testified Mrs. Veith told him she was driving on a road when she believed that God was taking ahold of the steering wheel and was directing her car. She saw the truck coming and stepped on the gas in order to become airborne because she knew she could fly because Batman does it. To her surprise she was not airborne before striking the truck but after the impact she was flying.”

My teacher found this particulary funny because, in fact, Batman cannot fly.

*Alternative forms include: check this, please; check it; please be sure to check that; that one…please be sure to check it. A phrase commonly used by our Turkish tour guide.

I have officially moved to Connecticut!  We’re still settling in a bit, but have done the majority of our unpacking, etc.  Once things are cleaned up a bit I’ll post pictures of my new home.  Actually, I have two new homes.  For safety’s sake we have rented a small apartment in Hartford (where I will be in law school)  in addition to our place in New Haven (where Ryan goes to school). This way I always have a place to say when my schedule or the weather make it impractical to get back to New Haven.  Ryan’s friends have taken to calling the apartment in Hartford our ’summer home’, despite the fact that it is further away from the water than our New Haven apartment and in a more urban area.

I’m enjoying exploring New Haven.  Yesterday I went downtown to get a hair cut and then walked to Nica’s Market to meet Ryan for lunch.  Italian delis/markets are very easy to find here and filled with delicious food.  Ryan’s favorite (and the one that is closest to our apartment) is Romeo and Caesar’s.

I’ve also been spending a good amount of time trying to get my bearings. As my mom will attest to, navigating in New Haven can be a little confusing.  The ‘grid’ (if you can even call it that) is set on a diagonal and there are parts of town where four streets in a row all run one-way the same direction.  I’m doing better, but for a while I really couldn’t keep things straight in my head.

Last night we went to see Dark Knight at the movie theatre downtown which was old school, but very well kept.  We both really liked the movie and were very impressed by the questions regarding the politics and psychology of terrorism it broached.  The acting was awesome and the adventure certainly did not disappoint.  At times, the movie did make me miss Chicago.  Being able to identify so many places (including the Randolph St. Metra/South Shore station!) was really cool.

On Saturday we will attend a Shakespeare in the Park performance of Hamlet. For now though, we’re going to finish organizing the kitchen! More to come later…