Christmastime is Here

It cannot be disputed. Thanksgiving is in the past; the 2005 Christmas season has arrived. This is the official 2005 Ryan Bailey Christmas tree in my living room in Pasadena. This picture was taken with the night flash on, so it's kind of blurry but I think the lights look cool. And yeah, that's spray snow on the window.

Back from the Valley of the Sun

The Thanksgiving weekend I spent in Goodyear, AZ (Phoenix metro area) courtesy of one of my good friends here at Fuller was a great one. My friend Tim's family extended incredible hospitality to me, and I had a wonderful refreshing weekend before coming back to Fuller yesterday to finish the fall quarter. Traffic going and coming wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but it was still pretty heavy. While in Arizona, I enjoyed a lot of good home-cooked food, hiking, watching football, putting up Christmas lights, and relaxing in the hot tub. I was also treated to my first taste of Chick-fil-a (not that I've never seen one before, we have them in IN) and Maggie Moo's ice cream (similar to Coldstone for those of you who know what that is). I've posted a picture above from our hike in/around the White Tank Mountains right outside Goodyear. Pictured left to right are me, my friend Tim, and his brother Phil. It was a great trip, and I've added Arizona to the list of places I'd rather live than southern California.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's definitely been awhile since I've posted, but regarding my previous post, I haven't had pop for almost two weeks now, and I'm doing fine. Not even craving it really.

In a couple of hours I'm heading out for Arizona for Thanksgiving. One of my friends lives there, and he has invited me to come spend Thanksgiving with his family. I'm definitely grateful for the opportunity to get out of Pasadena for a while. However, that getting out may take a while itself. We'll be leaving in the height of rush hour, and what is supposed to be a five hour drive (to the west side of Phoenix) could take much much longer. It's not inconceivable that it could take twice that long. I'm trying to prepare myself for this. I can't read in a car when it's moving, but when it's parked on the freeway I should have no problem. Therefore, I'll be packing some things that might help me get a jump on my next paper.

Since I'll be gone until Sunday, I put my Christmas tree up last night so it wouldn't miss a moment of the season. It looks pretty good. Perhaps I'll post a picture of it sometime. I'm still getting used to having a Christmas tree up with the windows open and 85 degree temps outside. Strange... I like cloudy days, because then I can close the window and pretend it's cold outside. Soon enough though, I will be where it's cold. I'll be exchanging palm trees and blue skies for leafless trees and gray skies in just 2.5 weeks. I make it sound bad, but I prefer the latter this time of year. Time to get my laundry so I can pack...

No More Pop!

I just came from the dentist - pretty much the worst place you could take me. I went because one tooth was hurting a little last week. It stopped after I made the appointment, but I decided to keep the appointment since I hadn't been to the dentist for so long. It's a good thing I did! Turns out the tooth in question was perfectly fine - not a thing wrong. However, cavities were found all over the rest of my mouth. I seem to be cursed with poor dental health. I won't say how many there are because it embarrasses me, but there are far too many. Some of them are in my wisdom teeth. The dentist said she would like to remove at least two, but preferably three wisdom teeth. I start my string of appointments next Friday at 7:30 a.m. with two fillings. Please pray for me. I hate going to the dentist; it is always very stressful for me. On the bright side she said everything is totally fixable. Once I get all this taken care of I plan to go regularly for cleanings so this doesn't happen anymore.

In addition, I've already decided to address what I believe is the main cause of my dental woes: pop. I've decided I'm not drinking it anymore. It will be hard, but I'd rather keep my teeth and preferably without cavities. Now I have a paper to write.

Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

10. A man's place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be "unnatural" for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievment of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father's Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

This list was compiled by Dr. David M. Scholer, a member of the New Testament facutly at Fuller. Dr. Scholer is a well-known supporter of women (and men) in ministry. His list reveals how ridiculous the argument against women in ministry can be. I hope you enjoyed it!

Random update

I don't have much to say, but I feel like I need to post something. This has been a good week. I've stayed on top of all my work, and things are going well. I got my first paper back in my Exegesis of Mark class and I got an A. That definitely made my day yesterday. It's not an easy class really, and it's hard to discern what the prof's expectations are sometimes. Therefore, I didn't know what the outcome would be and was incredibly relieved, even surprised, to find the A on my paper. By the way, I cannot remember the last time I wrote more than one draft for a paper. I guarantee you the last time I did it I was required to do so. Other than that, we had another great chapel service this week, and we've got two really good ones in the works, one of which is a Thanksgiving service.

On a side note, my roommate is watching Hoosiers in the living room. Now that I live so far from Indiana, that movie can move me to tears. I think it's really awesome that someone thought enough of what we do in small town Indiana to make a movie and tell the world about it. Yay for November and the start of basketball season! Let's hope Boiler basketball is better than Boiler football this year. I'd love to see Purdue basketball get back to its Big Ten championship-winning ways.

C'est tout pour maintenant!