blue drinks and dancing girls (or something)

At dinner on Tuesday night, somehow I said that when I get drunk I wanna make out with people -- but straight girls are really unsatisfying to make out with (not that any of the straight girls at dinner were volunteering -- though I was bemused that they were like, "We should take you out and get you drunk so you can make out with people!") and this led to talking about WriterCon 2006.

I said that I was all vague when telling faculty about my vacation -- "I went to a writers' convention... I met a lot of really great people... I had a lot of fun" -- all of which are TRUE, but... at lunch with MaryAlice and Eric I was like, "I went to a strip club and made out with girls.  It was awesome."

MaryAlice had been having a conversation at the other end of the table, and asked what we were talking about.  Laura was like, "Writer... Con...?"  Without missing a beat, and with a total straight face, MaryAlice said, "Oh, the erotica porn..."

For WriterCon 2009 I was Order 22 :)  I feel sort of bad about getting an early-bird discount ticket since I can totally afford to pay the full price, but we were doing noon lunch, so I just registered while Katie was in the ladies' room.

Similarly, I feel almost like I'm cheating someone out of a muskratjamboree slot, but marginaliana and fox1013 and jadelennox are all going... so I think I will enjoy myself.

And it sounds like we'll be rooming together, which yay -- since I know from experience that sleeping elsewhere than at the con hotel cuts down on your fun.  Hotel registration doesn't open until January, though.

writercon hotel registration is open, though, and itsabigrock got us a room.  (It's a room for 4, so if you need a place to sleep, be in touch.)

election 2008, blah blah, almost over

( MA down-ticket races )

( MA Q1 & Q2 )

( third parties and stuff )

( collage for change :) )

( partisanship? )

(found on friendsfriends) rwday made a post I really liked on the "Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow." meme.

+

( Newsweek article on same-sex marriage )

online quiz seen via ann1962: ( my body gets 33 miles per gallon )

All Saints' Day

I really don't do All Saints' Day, but having talked to Ari earlier this weekend, I found myself distressed that we didn't do much around All Saints' Day at either of my churches today.

***

At morning church, Karl's sermon was entitled "All The Saints."  He said that we don't come to our faith by ourselves, or maintain it by ourselves.  He talked about our contemporary individualistic belief that we can get rid of anything we don't like, and our belief that now is superior to the past.  He said that for all our talk about community, we don't know much about it.

( I also liked the unison prayer of confession and the Affirmation of Faith. )

We started a bible study on biblical authority after fellowship dinner at CWM tonight.  (I found myself arguing for the value of tradition and the community that has preceded us in history!)  We talked about Galatians 3:28 and how it's potentially in tension with stuff like 1 Timothy 2:11-15.  I said that I would really love to hear from women in those really conservative churches that do take things like the Timothy passage fairly literally, because while I'm sure there are often undercurrents of subversion and whatever, I think that it's a positive experience for a lot of women -- and while we understandably have difficulty putting ourselves in that mindset, I think it's really important that we hear those voices.

Afterward, Joy (one of our seminary interns) was talking to me, and we had a sidebar conversation about finding books on Christian sexual ethics, but we talked a lot about bridging the liberal-conservative divide, especially within the church, and I talked about my experience having gone to the Baptist church down the street last Sunday and wanting to talk further with the young adult minister there and I was just so excited to be talking to another liberal church person who really wants to break down walls and heal the wounded body of Christ that is the "lacerated" (her word) church.

Joy said that in Night, Elie Weisel says, We are lifted up to God by the questions we ask.  [Google tells me, "We raise ourselves towards God by the questions we ask God."]