hermionesviolin | Entries tagged with links

Janelle Monáe's Rolling Stone interview
And she has another rumor to confirm. "Being a queer black woman in America," she says, taking a breath as she comes out, "someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker." She initially identified as bisexual, she clarifies, "but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.' I'm open to learning more about who I am."
I am really not interested in the "bisexual" vs. "pansexual" Discourse, but I'm pleased that Monáe feels able to be public about who she is, and that she feels comfortable exploring what language feels best for her.
On Dirty Computer, the only hints of sci-fi are in the title and the storyline of the accompanying film. The lyrics are flesh-and-blood confessions of both physical and emotional insecurity, punctuated with sexual liberation. They're the unfiltered desires of an overthinker letting herself speak without pause, for once. And she wants to help listeners gain the courage to be dirty computers too. "I want young girls, young boys, nonbinary, gay, straight, queer people who are having a hard time dealing with their sexuality, dealing with feeling ostracized or bullied for just being their unique selves, to know that I see you," she says in a tone befitting the "commander" patch on her arm. "This album is for you. Be proud."
Yawkey Way renamed back to its pre-1977 name of Jersey Street (because Yawkey was maybe kind of a racist) I haven't dug into this issue/history, but I feel like erring on the side of "this is probably not a person we want to be celebrating" is probably the way to go.
Bill Cosby found guilty on all 3 counts of aggravated indecent assault (yes, the carceral system is deeply flawed, but given the long history of no justice for any of these victims/survivors, and how often there are basically no consequences for people [especially men] who sexually harass and assault [especially when they do so to women], this symbolic victory seems worth something)

Feel free to add your own good news in the comments.

[Also, it took me a really long time to find my "celebrities coming out" tag, because "everyone's gay" is definitely not the way I would have worded the tag now -- though in fairness I also use/d it for learning that people I knew personally were LGBTQ.]

Democrats Just Flipped Seats In 2 Districts That Voted For Donald Trump [HuffPo]
Alabama governor to sign law giving thousands of felons their right to vote back [Think Progress]

Monday night I was gchatting with Batshua and she asked:

How do you feel about prayer beads?
I am drooling at them.
I already have two sets and am not buying more.
But this woman does lovely prayer beads for … pretty much anyone.

I'm not much of a prayer beads person myself, but I browsed and we had this conversation:

me: I keep looking at the Jewish ones and going "ooh!" and then remembering that oh, that's a Jewish symbol, not a generic star. Why's my religion gotta have its core symbol be one I'm so not into?
her: Well, I don't think there's anything WRONG with having something with a Jewish star on it just because you like it?
I mean, it's not like you're gonna nail Jesus to it.
That would be weird.
me: Fair -- it still feels somewhat appropriative to me, though.
her: <— is an eclectic pagan
her: <— politely appropriates all kinds of stuff

Later, I read Sarcastic Lutheran's "Sermon about Mary Magdalen, the masacre in our town, and defiant alleluias," and was surprised to find that in reading it I found a way to approach/embrace the Cross that makes it more palatable for me.

Nadia writes:

My Bishop Allan Bjornberg once said that the Greatest spiritual practice isn’t yoga or praying the hours or living in intentional poverty although these are all beautiful in their own way. The greatest spiritual practice is just showing up.

And in some ways Mary Magdalen is like, the patron saint of just showing up.

Because showing up means being present to what is real, what is actually happening. She didn’t necessarily know what to say or what to do or even what to think….but none of that is nearly as important as the fact that she just showed up. She showed up at the cross where her teacher Jesus became a victim of our violence and terror. She looked on as the man who had set her free from her own darkness bore the evil and violence of the whole world upon himself and yet still she showed up.

[...]

And then after Beer & Hymns we sat in a noisy Denver bar and sang Vespers together, we sang our prayer to God, and in our singing I heard a defiant tone. The sound of a people who simply will not believe that violence wins, a people who know that the sound of the risen Christ speaking each of our names drowns out all other voices.

It drowns out the sound of the political posturing, the sound of cries for vengeance, the sound of our own fears and anxieties and the deafening uncertainty – because all of it is no match for the shimmering sound of the resurrected Christ calling our name. Because in baptism we are a people marked by the cross of Christ. Upon our foreheads is the mark of violence and death but this violence and death has been overcome by the love of a God who in the 3 days between Good Friday and Easter reached into the very bowels of hell and said even here I will not be without you. //This is the God to whom we sing. A God who didn’t say we would never be afraid but that we would never be alone. A God who shows up. In the violence of the cross, in the darkness of a garden before dawn, in the gardener, in a movie theater, in the basement of a bar.

[...]

Singing in the midst of evil is what it means to be disciples like Mary Magdalen.

Because to be disciples like Mary Magdalen is to show up. It is to be a people who stand – who stand at the cross and stand in the midst of evil and violence and even if we are uncertain we are still unafraid to be present to all of it. We are unafraid to name the dark demons of evil and to call a thing what it is. And to be disciples like Mary Magdalen is also to be a people who weep. A people who show up to the tombs and weep. Weep for ourselves and weep for each other and weep for our city and weep for dead 6 year old girls. And to be disciples like Mary Magdalen is to be a people who listen and turn at the sound of our names. Amongst the sounds of sirens and fear and isolation and uncertainty and loss we hear a sound that muffles all the rest: that still, small voice of Christ speaking our names. And finally, the very reason we can do these things is not because we happen to be the people with the best set of skills for this work. Trust me, we are not. But the reason we can be disciples like Mary Magdalen – the reason we can stand and we can weep and we can listen is because finally we, like Mary are bearers of resurrection. We know that on the 3rd day he rose again. We do not need to be afraid. Because to sing to God amidst all of this is to defiantly proclaim like Mary Magdalen did to the apostles, that death is simply not the final word. To defiantly say that a light shines in the darkness and the darkness can not will not shall not overcome it. And so, evil be damned, because even as we go to the grave, still we make our song Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

Amen.

The idea of thinking about the Cross as (Deity) facing the horrors of the world, showing up, knowing that this is not the end of the story, persisting in and through the darkness.

In some ways I worry that this is retrojecting the Resurrection onto the Cross (I don't think my theology is that the Resurrection was already contained in the Cross), but Nadia's sermon reminds me about showing up in the darkness. At interfaith discussion last night, Jane(?) talked about having faith ... not necessarily that things would turn out "well" but being at a point where "good" and "bad" don't matter in a way (I didn't think of this language at the time, but I think relaxing into that it Just Is).

And as as I mentioned, at Rest and re/New this week, we heard an excerpt from Living Buddha, Living Christ in which Thich Nhat Hanh talks about the Eucharist using language of "the body of God" (instead of the "Body of Christ" language I'm more familiar with) and talking about the cosmos.

(The fancy crosses still creep me out, though. The Cross is not a fancy decoration.)

I don't request anyone's queer cred ID when bringing them on for Pride Interfaith -- so it's extra-bonus to find out that someone is in fact queer on MULTIPLE dimensions.

Small group meeting turned out to just be me and Brita+Carolyn G., but that was fine -- and we went for a nice walk around Radcliffe Quad and environs (I have now been past Quad Bikes -- though I don't think I would be able to find my way back there easily without a map).

(On my way home, I encountered Jeff B's small group, and people said hi but no one invited me to join them, nor did it occur to me until afterward -- which was fine. Jeff B teased, "We don't want you anyway -- you're a girl.")

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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mylittleredgirl [more info]
Thus says God to these bones: "I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am God." (Ezekiel 37:5-6, NRSV, alt.)

( Read more... )

I felt more awake when my 7am alarm went off this morning than when it did yesterday -- having gone to bed ~9pm as opposed to ~midnight.

Jeff M. said on Friday night Liz&Megan's small group was at Orleans for Trivia and he saw them and stopped by to say hi. The trivia question was which female musician set some record for digital music sales in 2010. He guessed Lady Gaga (which was wrong).
He said his second choice was Jesus. Someone said, "But Jesus isn't female," and in unison a whole bunch of people said, "Elizabeth [my surname] thinks so..." ♥♥♥

I told him how Ari had commented, "A lot more of your people know about my lesbian Christology than my people do, which says a lot about the kinds of people we are, I think."

I think it was Harold who said, "Elizabeth is not afraid of conflict. This is a true thing." -- I disputed this...

Ben said to Harold, "Did Liz tell you she gets all her news from your facebook feed?"
Harold: "Other people have told me that, but Liz did not." (He said he once posted saying no more NYT for the month because he'd hit the paywall and Molly gifted him 3 months becaue she said she needed him to tell her what she needed to know from the NYT.)

cadenzamuse called ~11am, while Harold and I were still talking, despite office hours having ended ~10am. He and I kept talking until ~11:45am and then I went to the gym and got groceries and came home ~2:30pm.

cadenzamuse and I did phonecall later -- which, okay, had the problem I always have with people I haven't talked to in ages -- "How have I been? Um, it's been 6 months... Um, stuff... At this exact moment, nothing is v. exciting..." But I was glad to get to hear from her -- and possibly we will get better at this if we do it more frequently :)

FCS Bible/book study potluck barbecue was fine. I was glad I had brought fake burgers so I could eat food. We had some good conversation about how next round might go.

Marlin's small group was meeting afterward and he invited me and Harold to tag along 'cause it was just him and Jamie and Lisa C.

Harold's going to the Zoo tomorrow, where he'll see dinosaurs -- because birds are dinosaurs.
I think it was in Harold joking about having a dinosaur dealer that Jamie mentioned if we couldn't get a donkey for the Palm Sunday Donkey Walk, we could have someone riding an ostrich.
I said I could imagine Carmen riding an ostrich -- so Jesus was a tiny ~~blonde~~ 6-year-old girl, I'm glad we can agree on that.

I've been frequently biking during ~rush hour (e.g., heading to 8:30am office hours) and it was so nice to bike home ~11:30pm when there was barely any traffic! (Yes, after about an hour, Marlin's husband came to pick him and eventually Lisa C. headed home, but the 3 of us stayed for quite a while.)

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-

mylittleredgirl [more info]
"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." --Anne Lamott

( Read more... )

I have been spending lots of time on Tumblr in recent days, and this might be relevant to some of your interests: mountain goats singing the mountain goats

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"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-

mylittleredgirl [more info]
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. And they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2, Handel's Messiah)

( Read more... )

Huh, today was weirdly relaxing. I'd accidentally turned my 5:30am alarm ON when I re-set it, and I never fell back into solid sleep after that, but I feel like I got a good amount of sleep. I worked on "overdue" posts and didn't feel crunched for time (I tend to feel like I need to have an open block of umpteen hours in order to get anything done). Okay, so I didn't feel confident enough of my free time to email Scott to try to set up a phonecall, but...

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-

The other day I was thinking, "What happened to my vacation?" -- and then I remembered that I was sleeping ~12hrs/most days and various things involved travel time and etc. This has been a way less productive vacation than I would have ideally liked for it to be -- I know I'm never gonna have as productive a break as I "plan" to, but I still feel a little like, "Did I do ANYTHING this vacation?" I still have to finish my sermon (and select music and do the bulletin) and I spent most of this evening on stuff like this. Sigh.

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-

Hey, remember when I said:

While the readings of the Last Supper story that accompany Communion are very powerful, the actual partaking of Communion is really not powerful for me. I think in part because the food is so insubstantial. I have long wished that we had pita bread or something evoking the unleavened Passover bread instead of regular white bread. (I really liked a few weeks ago at First Churches when we had bread the confirmation class had baked because that was bread to be chewed.) If there were a ritual sacrifice (by which i mean that i'm thinking of how strict Jewish law requires that animals be slaughtered a certain way, with all the blood drained, and the preparation be overseen by a rabbi) and i held flesh in my hands, particularly because i don't normally partake of meat (because of the pain/suffering/death involved), then that would be powerful to me. That would be a powerful reminder of the flesh suffering and sacrifice that Jesus underwent for me personally and for all of humanity. But Communion as is now, just doesn't do it for me. (I've also had Communion at Anglican Mass, and the foodstuffs there also totally didn't do it for me.)

See the second "A Cheaper World" (A Softer World meets Groupon) here.

Edit: I am LOVING the various food+drink folks have had for Communion (yes, I have the comments on StalkerPin). And yes, I already knew about the Catholic gluten wafer thing.

At the gym this morning, after working out, I was changing out of my gym clothes and into a towel to shower ... and I felt like I was flaunting the fact that I had smooth underarms/legs; and I felt very weird, like this is not how my body is usually, there is something off here. I've talked before [e.g., here and here] about the fact that I prefer the look and feel of hairless skin on myself and others regardless of gender, but apparently I've internalized sufficiently that that is not how my body looks/feels. (I still want to get the hair on my face lasered, however; apparently that started growing in after I had at some level solidified my sense of who I am and how I experience my body -- or something.)

***

I'm not entirely caught up on my personal Internet, but I think I am mostly caught up on work Internet (and am acclimating to Windows 7).

In catching up on all that:

The St. Sebastian Review is an LGBTQ Christian literary magazine, founded to give voice to a community often disenfranchised and unheard.

We exist as a forum within and from which LGBTQ Christians of any denomination can engage both critically and compassionately the culture in which they find themselves.

We are purveyors of fine poetry, fiction, nonfiction essays, and visual art from among the LGBTQ Christian community and its allies.

The first issue just came out and is available (PDF) on the website.

And next week's Sacred Eros:

Sacred Eros: "Eros Outside the Box"
Monday, March 28th at 7:00pm in the Perkins Room
Arlington Street Church, 351 Boylston Street, Boston MA
Entrance next to Parish Cafe, meeting downstairs in Perkins Room

We all have ideas about sexuality and relationships, from convenient labels to assumptions about ethics and pleasure. How can we learn to think and look “outside the box” and embrace the full diversity about us. Come and join us in spiritual discussion, and bring food or drink to share.

I arrived at Thursday morning prayer and took off my hoodie. Joan boggled, because I was wearing a tank top. I was going to the gym afterward...

Apparently this week I have been really rocking the "not as cold as everyone else," though. Tuesday I'd packed a sweater, but I wasn't ever actually cold enough to wear it, so I just wore the thin-material long-sleeved shirt I'd packed to wear underneath it. Thursday and Friday I wore a sweater but don't think I ever put my hoodie on over them in my various evening commutes (and certainly not in my cross-campus midday travels).

I was promised inhumanly frigid temperatures this weekend (e.g., seen on facebook Thursday evening: "‎4-6 more inches of snow tonight/tomorrow morning, followed by an Arctic blast with temperatures in the 0s, or even in the negatives.... I can't believe what a terrible winter it's been!"), but apparently that's just the overnight lows. (Though weather.com is currently predicting a high of 12F on Monday, so I may yet be uncomfortably cold.)

A facebook friend posted earlier today: "just heard on the local news that Boston has received over 4 FEET of snow in 4 weeks...that plus the super cold weather really makes me miss California."

***

Various times Thursday evening I heard rumors of ~16inches of snow predicted for Friday [yes, on tu b'shvat!], but the actual accumulation was more comparable to the first above-cited facebook post. It started some time in the middle of the night and had stopped by early afternoon.

I sloshed through the light snow on my way to work Friday without incident, and walking around campus it was all glittery. And the plows were so on top of keeping campus clear. I think I encountered a plow every time I was outside on campus while snow was falling. (In contrast, the amount of shoveled sidewalk in Norwood was about equal to the amount of unshoveled sidewalk I've encountered in Medford/Somerville/Cambridge. Traffic was minimal enough that walking in the street was okay, though.)

+

Attendance at Singspiration Friday night was low, nonetheless. (I counted 80 people. Joe F. said before we started that after years of packed houses, he's gotten spoiled, but he knows that in the early years -- we're in year 13 or something -- we would have perceived this as a big crowd; plus it's not about the numbers, it's about the spirit.)

The first soloist was a woman who apparently also has a ministry to women who've had abortions called The Heart of Forgiveness. I had mixed feelings hearing about this, but I definitely support 'meeting these women with love.' Continuing in his introduction, though, Joe F. also talked about having gotten a call from a Tennessee church about a family who had recently moved up here from Tennessee and were having a really rough time, asking did he know anyone who could maybe just visit them or something. And he put out calls to two people he knows (one of whom was this soloist) who then showed up and were a blessing to that family. Yes, this is what being church is all about.

The second soloist sang "O, What a Savior," and during one of the lines about praising Jesus' Name, I was thinking that the idea of someone who will save you, the idea of someone who loves you enough to die for you... these are powerful ideas that fill a deep need, and so at some level, whether any of it is "true" (nevermind all the nuances of theology we can debate for eternity -- says the girl who is reflecting on Trinity at Rest and re/New this Wednesday) don't really matter.

"It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sumbitch or another. Ain't about you, Jayne. 'Bout what they need."
-Mal in "Jaynestown"

***

Sara posted to facebook: Iron And Wine: Tiny Desk Concert : NPR

The second song he plays is "Big Burned Hand," which is a new song, and I had trouble following all the words, but the recurring/evolving line about the lion and the lamb is interesting.

***

I have mixed feelings about the opening of "You Should Date An Illiterate Girl," but I really like some of the stuff from the second page:

The girl who reads has spun out the account of her life and it is bursting with meaning. She insists that her narratives are rich, her supporting cast colorful, and her typeface bold. You, the girl who reads, make me want to be everything that I am not. But I am weak and I will fail you, because you have dreamed, properly, of someone who is better than I am. You will not accept the life that I told of at the beginning of this piece. You will accept nothing less than passion, and perfection, and a life worthy of being storied.

Singspiration this Friday was kind of odd.

When Jeff C. first opened it up to requests, there was silence. "This has never happened before," he said. (Usually people already have their hands up, and some people will just call out numbers.)

When we got to the Christmas carols section, the first hymn requested was a generic "Jesus is awesome" sort of hymn. And someone else requested "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." Elyse and I were both like, "This is a hard song to sing." Don T. didn't even know the hymn. (At least we sang it with the held notes instead of all the weird slurs, so it actually felt fairly easy to sing.) When I told Ari this story, she said, "Maybe they figure they'll get to sing the songs like 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' on Christmas Day, but the only way they're going to get to sing 'Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming' is if they request it."

***

There was a Sunday NYTimes out during Coffee Hour at FCS, and an article on the front page opened, "It sounds like a tough sell: a game that involves catapulting birds at elaborate fortresses constructed by evil pigs."

Keith and I were both like, "How is that a tough sell? That sounds awesome."

This is why we are bffs. DTR followed by research into perpetual virginity of Mary Mother of Jesus, leading to assorted AUs, also involving Thomas the Twin (largely thanks to Prof. Koester's class last night). "Kate. Short for Bob."

References from the evening:
* Oh Ephraem of Syria No
* "creative nonfiction"
* "sex on the Sabbath is a double mitzvah" (see also, Kita)
* dragon IN LUV

Edit: Bracketing my evening:

Before phonecall, Melissa said, "You'll appreciate that Echo Bazaar just had the phrase 'All shall be well; all manner of things shall be well' -- though I'm not sure how all will be well, since I just killed seven people."
me: "God's grace is sufficient?"

After phonecall, I got called in as resident Biblical scholar to settle a pomegranate vs. fig forbidden fruit question (I said I had primarily heard pomegranate -- Wikipedia indicates there is no consensus and many other options besides). Melissa informed me that Jewish tradition says pomegranates have 613 seeds. [613 always makes me think of this blogpost.]

via friendsfriends: "Tom & Lorenzo: Fabulous & Opinionated": Miss Universe 2010 National Costumes: Part 1 & Part 2

No wonder I was feeling cold and my feet were hurting. It was TEN O'CLOCK when Jeff V. and I parted ways at Powder House Rotary.

After Rest and Bread tonight, he and Jason D. were talking about functional vs. ontological theologies of ordination. Then Jeff and I finished cleaning up and talked about various things, including Jeff's Reflection and how apparently I'm so over reflections on transition etc. (but I affirmed to him that it was a very good topic of reflection for this community in this moment -- it just wasn't anything I apparently needed to hear in my process right now, but I talked about my Easter Wednesday reflection and how I really needed to write that sermon for me as well as for the community). But it couldn't have been much past 8pm judging by how bright it was out. I saw some sunset colors in the sky as we were walking.

We talked about Laura Ruth's departure and Tiffany's departure and the fact that Laura Ruth did a lot of pastoral care, rather than a lot of "programming" per se, but she did do a lot of work for re/New for example and the tension between things that are important to the community and things that the members of the community have the gifts and ability to make happen (see also, Sunday night's CWM meeting about Fellowship Meal). JoeF often invokes the aphorism, "God's work, done in God's way, will never lack God's supply," which makes me uncomfortable.

We also talked about his parents-in-law's ELCA church in Iowa (liberals tend to leave the church as individuals, conservatives tend to leave and form a breakaway denomination -- which, now that I write it down, strikes me as interestingly in contrast to the Protestant Reformation) and denominationalism and Jeff raised the question of whether one reason evangelical megachurches seem exponentially bigger than mainline Protestant churches is because "we have 17 churches with 25 members each, and they have 1 church with 17 times 25 members." [Sidebar: parody video of Sunday Mornings at a megachurch]

***

Housemate (as I walked into the house ~10:15pm): "How goes?"
me: "I'm already up past my bedtime, I haven't packed for Northampton, and I'm getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning."
Housemate: "Ouch. [Pause] At least you don't have to go to work tomorrow, so if you're a little out of it that's okay."
me: "... Um, no. I'm getting up at 5:30am, going to morning prayer, then going to the gym, then going to work, and leaving early at 4pm to get a bus to Northampton."
Housemate: "Oh... I thought you were getting up at 5:30 to leave for Northampton."

***

I left work today feeling irritated at one or two people, and during the silent period of Confession at Rest and Bread I focused on letting go of that anger.

***

femslash_minis is having a Wishverse round, and

mosca made a "Unicorns, Fuck Yeah!" Tumblr.

I didn't go to the Harvard Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer Women's Lunch today -- both because I am antisocial and because I am overly committed to my job (I have a wicked "Just in case").

***

Yesterday afternoon, Jeff emailed the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance book group:

Hey everyone!

Greetings after such a long break! I think we've been apart for too long, and even though the trans day of remembrance vigil is friday, let's get together for our next installment of zen. Let's read at least the next two chapters and go from there. See ya then!

Jeff

Sent from my iPhone

Yeah, I winced. It took until tonight for me to email him back. I read (okay, mostly skimmed) a bunch of stuff today (see list below) about representation etc., and while I was on the phone with Ari I was thinking about what a position of privilege I'm in that I could even be debating whether to say anything.

sage_theory: This is why I don't watch Heroes anymore...
seeksadventure: [links] feminists and disabilities links
fox1013: If you're on Heroes, I GUARANTEE your Christmases will be white! Also male. JSYK.

In talking with Ari tonight, I realized that CWM hadn't announced anything about the TDoR vigil this Friday or any of the related events this week. I suspect this is because Tiffany was still recovering from being sick and also had a memorial service that same day and Marla and Sean were at Boston Common in case any students got arrested* and Jordan wasn't there and yeah. I still think it is a bit o' fail for us, though. Christ the King Sunday is next Sunday and now I am thinking about trying to combine the two in my sermon. (Full disclosure: I haven't looked at the lectionary readings yet.)

*College students are sleeping out to protest their dorms being powered by dirty electricity, and in Boston they're sleeping on Boston Common on Sunday nights and lobbying legislators Monday morning, and summons were handed out the previous Sunday.

Friday night, I didn't go to bed until after 1am, but I got a good solid 8 hours of sleep \o/

It is not yet Advent, I swear. We are having lovely autumn weather. And yet I had parts of "Joy to the World" stuck in my head Saturday afternoon when I was heading out to the library.

At one point Saturday afternoon, my housemate's in her bedroom on her laptop and she goes, "Oh, you're logged on!" (I'm like never on AIM.) She said she was like, "Who's VelmasLizard? Whoever it is, she's coming to my party tonight. Oh -- that's my roommate." [My Away Message was "homework/sermon -- party @ 8pm"]

The party ended up being me and my Smith friends in the dining room and everyone else in the living room (which at one point included a couple people playing Dominion on the floor), but it was fine. I was flipping off Allie and Jessie like whoa, and Jessie hugged me when I said one of the first things Ari and bonded over was Santa Issues, and I didn't get to talk to Hilary barely at all until v. late which I felt sad about 'cause I haven't seen her in ages but she seemed to have a good time and she and I did get to catch up near the end (and did I mention she brought cookies? oh, and Mark brought peanut brittle). And at one point when there was a mixed crowd in the dining room a bunch of us were talking about Yuletide and we didn't have to define it for anyone (though we did have to define OT3). And I blathered to

eisa about sermon-writing. And Jack complimented me on owning Apples to Apples (I like Jack) and Jessie said I should have a game night. After the holidays, we agreed. Melissa points out Arisia is late January (January 15-18, 2010) so, I dunno, we'll figure something out. We did actually eliminate 3 bottles from our bar (coconut rum, vodka, tequila), so we will actually have to do some restocking before our next party (Amy: I thought of you every time someone picked up the giant bottle of strawberry daiquiri or the not-as-giant bottle of margarita mix). And I got some petting from Jason -- and some serious shoulder/back massage from Cate.

Hilary recommended eco-comics -- which looks at comics through the lens of economics. She mentioned the one about a recent Dinosaur Comics and I was like, "When I first read that comic I thought of the marriage problem," and I talked about the conversations we'd had in Maine.

By ~1:40am, everyone was out and we had done sufficient cleanup to go to bed. It took me about an hour to wind down, I think in part because I'd collected about a dozen mental notes over the course of the night that I wanted to at least write down to follow up on later. These included:
* My Thai Vegan Cafe in Chinatown [Yelp]
* The conference in Kalamazoo is the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS).
* Mr. Potato Head
* "Sleep No More" (ART -- "an immersive production inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, told through the lens of a Hitchcock thriller.")
* public tax records in Norway

My alarm woke me up at 7:30am; I turned it off ... and got up ~20minutes later. L. had accidentally finished off my (1%) milk making Irish Coffee last night, not realizing there was a smaller thing of whole milk out on the dining room table with all the other drinks. (When I came home from church Sunday afternoon, bearing a gallon of milk from the corner story, Melissa said, "There isn't room in the fridge for that." My dad would be proud, however -- I rearranged things and made room.) So I didn't have breakfast until ~10am -- I hit Dunkin' Donuts between SCBC and CHPC. I got 2 egg&cheese on an English muffin, and a small pumpkin coffee -- which I finished in about a half an hour. I think the coffee made me feel a bit sick -- hi, drugs -- though it's hard to tell precise causality. (And we had a guest preacher, so I probably actually would have stayed awake through service, but oh well.)

I went to bed at like 8:30 last night.

Dreams included a not-very-good date with Jason. /o\

Walking to work, I was feeling better (as in, less sick). I was also thinking that maybe I should have just skipped the gym, but I actually did my entire usual "strength training" workout in ~45 minutes. I was really conscious of not rushing myself -- since I wasn't feeling well -- but I think having gotten a lot of sleep made the actual work feel a lot easier (inorite).

Greg to Kathleen: "Are you around--?"
Kathleen: "I have a break--"
Greg: "Not today, just broadly speaking, over the next two or three weeks."
Kathleen: "Yeah, I'm around."
me: "What, your answer isn't "No, I'm in meetings all the time"?"
Kathleen: "Elizabeth points out that "here" and "available" aren't the same for me. So you should probably try to get on my calendar. Thanks, Elizabeth."
me: "Do I get a bonus for the fact that I manage EVERYONE?"

edit: I sent off Jim's visa application around 3:30, and I kept feeling like I was missing something, despite having double- if not triple-checked the list of what was needed. As I was walking to the T after work it occurred to me: CIBT wants a photocopied set of all submitted documents, and gee, maybe it would have been a good idea for me to make a copy for myself as well. Sigh. /edit

***

Things wot are awesome:
+ ninja heads (aka, buckeye candies)
+ church history in 4 minutes (set to "We didn't start the fire")

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Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

May 2025

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Style: Adjustable Gradient for Bannering by branchandroot

Page generated Jun. 19th, 2025 11:20 pm

burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

when faced with my demons I clothe them and feed them

Entries tagged with links

good news from today

today's good news links

headlines I have seen in the last hour:

stars not crosses (except maybe yes crosses)

[Friday (P+6)]

[Thursday (P+6)]

[Lent 10] joy sadhana

[Second Saturday after Epiphany] joy sadhana

[Christmas 9] joy sadhana goes back to the office tomorrow

[Christmas 6] joy sadhana has no energy

"break me off a hunk of that there tasty Jesus"

hair (and other queer topics)

[snow] not actually so cold

(no subject)

4:48:34 ... srsly?

I kind of wish there were a way to iconize the Miss Switzerland image+commentary.

Today I also had the busiest workday I've had in a long time.

my facebook status: "is trying to be a better Ally."

not a cocktail party

Tuesday

Profile

May 2025

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