hermionesviolin: a build-a-bear, facing the viewer, with a white t-shirt and a rainbow stitched tattoo bicep tattoo (pride)
I read Harry Potter Book 7 on my flight down to Nashville.  I think a month-long moratorium on uncut spoilers is a good idea, but if you've been being careful solely for my sake, you now have carte blanche.

Please don't mention spoilers in the comments of my entries*, though, as I know my parents at least have not yet read the book.
*Other than entries specifically about HP7, of course.  And yes, before I leave for Europe, I will make a post specifically about the book.




Amy-Jill Levine speaking on the pericope of Jesus stilling the storm (Mark 4:35-41) was MOTHERFUCKING AMAZING.  I was progressively less impressed as the weekend went on, but I still had lots of fun and learned a lot.  I also found myself in love with the idea of the story of the bleeding woman (Mark 5:21-34); twelve years she suffers before she is healed.  Not that I'm saying my life is that bad (My mom e-mailed me the Aug. 3 FBofW remembering when I was 11) but you know what I mean.

I re-met Becca.  I tend to forget she's a Methodist, so it didn't occur to me that she would be at Convo.  She was introducing me to everyone as her one friend at Smith :)  I also have the honor of having known her longer than like everybody there -- back in the day, back when she was straight ;)

At one point, Will told me I was being more social than anyone else from CWM (well, excluding him and Tiffany, and Jeremy).  I didn't have a lot of specific expectations about Convo, but one thing that did surprise me was how little time I spent with CWM people -- which was not particularly of my own volition, but it didn't turn out too distressing.  I'm still not very good at initiating conversation (especially somewhere like this where I really don't have a lot in common with the other people -- I'm not a United Methodist, don't have a denominational affiliation, am not a social activist, am not involved in any stuff outside of just attending church [e.g., call to ministry, attending seminary, serving on committees, etc.]) but I did talk to lots of different people, and I did find myself tagging along with one "clique" during much of the weekend.  I did not get any blue drinks or dancing girls (or boys), but I am okay with that.  I have got to read Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal given how many times I make jokes about eating babies.

Turns out Convo is every other year, so it'll be WriterCon in the even-numbered years and Convo in the odd-numbered years.




Early in the trip I was thinking yes, I would take another vacation day and go to Liberating Love, Celebrating Hope! The National More Light Presbyterians Conference (Atlanta, GA. - August 31-September 2, 2007), but my travel issues on my return made me less excited about doing more traveling.

Can anyone tell me what happened over the weekend to bump the Terror Alert up to orange and make electronic devices suspect?  I see bahletegate exploded again while I was away, but I doubt the two are related.  (Unrelatedly, LJ changed the look of its Message Center while I was away.  I like that there is a Flagging option now.)  In related(?) news, Brad is leaving SixApart to work for Google. Edit: Brad clarifies. /edit

[Addendum: In unpacking tonight I almost thought I had misplaced my "Ask. Tell." necklace, and while I've been fairly laid-back about all the stupid shit around my return flight, that was pushing me into a fit.  I found it, though.]

The Convo program also included a listing for Voices United, conference and workshops, in St. Paul, MN (Oct. 12, 6-9pm; Oct. 13, 9-5).  The website link given actually gives me less information than the advertisement in the program.  Sigh.




I was gonna make a post about the daily_deviant "miscegenation" thing (reminder: IBARW), but I still need to finish my femslash_minis fic and I'm tired.  (And still unprepared to leave for England.  Kaite, I may well have to borrow your Internet during part of my stay to finish figuring out my travel plans.)

I have also skimmed the skip=200 of people-only, but haven't been able to engage much.  This does not bode well for my return from Europe.



God of rainbow, fiery pillar, leading where the angels soar,
we your people, ours the journey, now and ever, now and evermore.


-refrain of "In the Midst of New Dimensions"
hermionesviolin: (paper symbols)
My mother commented recently:
I would love a world where everyone can speak their mind and heart and expect a respectful response -- not that they will always meet wtih agreement, but with respect. And it would be REALLY nice if we could all stop making assumptions about each other based on some piddidly piece of information we imagine we know about one another and actually LISTEN.

To me, it seems to always come back to being present. If I can truly be present with you, in a moment in time, and begin to understand you, that moment becomes a glimpse of the Kingdom.
If you are so inclined, I would really appreciate prayers for Reconciling Convo.

I'll have my cell phone if you need to reach me, but I don't anticipate any internet access.

Below is an edited version of the schedule (probably more for my own reference than anything else).

ExpandRead more... )
hermionesviolin: (that's not incense)
Expandone of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. )

***

Tallessyn told us a story from Trelawney.
She's in Northern Ireland, and there's a town called "Derry" which got renamed "Londonderry" by the Protestants.  So there's this enclave of Irish Republican Catholics which has this big gable mural of black letters on white background saying: "You Are Now Entering Free Derry."
For Pride, the white was painted pink :)

*

Will asked me what I was gonna do with my Mondays and Wednesdays now that ASL class is over.  Without hesitation I said, "Now can I go to the gym after work again," and he shuddered.  I was amused, 'cause I've gotten used to a very different culture.

We were talking about Convo, and I mentioned how I'd been looking at the schedule and it's 10pm Vespers and 7am "greet the morning," and said that the last time I went to a convention, we didn't sleep, but that's 'cause we were getting drunk and making out with people, which I didn't expect would happen at Convo.  He said: You never know; I'm hoping.

I talked about what Eric had said about how Convo would ask me to change the world and how I would respond: Yeah, no.  I said that I was going to hear brilliant academics speak and that I'd forgotten that there was an additional purpose to Convo.  He said there'd be plenty of that (the brilliant academic stuff) at Convo and that I should always feel free to take time for myself when I needed it (he had been saying that Marla was gonna be doing like everything during Convo, and I'd commented that in looking at the schedule I felt I could skip a bunch because I wasn't gonna do the world-changing).

[above two paragraphs edited for comprehensibility]

He said and I'm more okay with evangelical style worship, right?, and I was like yeah I guess.  He said there was a lot of that at Convo.  I didn't mention that I tend to approach worship services as academic exercises, so....

He got asked to preach by MOSAIC, so I'm sad that I'll be getting in too late to see that.

Marla's gonna be blogging Convo.  Yes, I asked for the URL.  She said if I had any "experiences" (good or bad) at Convo that I wanted to tell the world about, to let her know, because she didn't think the blog should be all her, that there should be other voices (guest-bloggers).

*

Tiffany's going to a Methodist Conference at Oxford (Christ Church -- yes, having studied at Oxford I always ask "which college?" now when people mention Oxford) around the time I'm in England.  I told her I was tempted to crash her Methodist conference, and she said actually she'll have a lot of blocks of free time and it would be great to see me and she'd send me the schedule.  (Not that I'm trying to avoid you, of course.)
hermionesviolin: image of Katie Heigl with text "gay patron saint" (gay patron saint)
Tifffany's traveling, and she's the only one who has the key to the new office, so service prep was a bit interesting. We did okay, though.

Will found the Communion goblet and plate (complete with pita bread) and I quipped, "You found Jesus." As reply, he quoted, "They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have put him." FTW.

ExpandRead more... )

***

I may have a roommate for Convo. Laura may be going, so Marla asked me what I was doing for housing and I told her I'd gotten my own hotel room and was happy to share.

[It is kind of ridiculous how much this is like WriterCon '06 in my head -- 'cause, queer con down South where I know people but am going on my own.]

***

Given how enthusiastic Will has been, including signing at every opportunity, I was surprised that he didn't sit near me and Kirk at dinner and force me to sign. He was sitting with Rob (whom they had met at Conference and who's sharing a room with them at Convo but who hadn't been to CWM before) which was of course totally fine, and of course he did join us later.

I am so at sea understanding even basic signing, it's so fast. And I'm not good at mimicking signs either. (I am way less of a gnostic than I used to be, but I'm still so bad at being embodied.)

Kirk taught us some signs we didn't know, like "sorry" and "slowly," and explained some of the ASL grammar.

He's also great about giving the why's for signs -- sister (woman+same), transgender (beauty, but at the torso rather than the face), Protestant is kneeling (which I think is kinda lame), Lutheran is an L at a door which is awesome I think (95 theses!), Episcopal is miming the sleeve (but not "trash), and Methodist is miming enthusiasm. He also told us a little about ASL poetry, and ABC poems are AWESOME. I hadn't quite realized what it was when he was explaining, but then he demonstrated and, omg AWESOME.

Kirk says the Name Sign Will thought of for me is v. awkward and breaks too many rules of ASL grammar (yeah, this is would be why they don't let hearing people create their own Name Signs). He also explained that part of the fact that it's given you by a Deaf person rather than you making your own is that it's used to refer to you when you're not present.
hermionesviolin: 3 saguaro cacti silhouetted against an orange sunset, with the yellow sun setting behind one of them (summer)
Meh, the past couple nights do not bode well for me and summer.  The warm weather makes it harder for me to fall asleep, and all the water I'm drinking means I have to pee all the time.

We were coming back from getting lunch, and MaryAlice was saying she suspected she was dehydrated -- "You know that taste you get when you're dehydrated?" she said.  I said no actually I didn't and proceeded to tell the story of how on our first cross-country trip my mom, having learned from experience her previous cross-country trip, made sure we were never dehydrated.  Plus I'd spent the morning drinking my 27oz bottle (from CVS) of water.  She said all she'd had this morning was coffee.

The weather's been fairly mild, though, so I still have an actual appetite for food, which is good -- though I think the pseudo-fullness one gets from all that water has been messing with my ability to discern what I actually want to eat (or maybe that was just tonight).

***

Tee hee from today's Metro (Transit Transcript):
South Station, June 15, 6:31 p.m. --- Officers were alerted by a station cleaner and security guard to a male and female engaged in sexual relations in the men's bathroom.  Officers identified the parties and escorted them from the area.
***

I booked my hotel for Convo and found plane fare, but travelocity won't give me my password.

I also got information about the workshops, though I'm a bit confused 'cause it says "Please select EITHER a single track OR your top three workshop choices (you will be scheduled for two of the three)." but the schedule reads as follows (excerpted, of course):

Friday
3:00 PM          Workshops 1
4:30 PM          Workshops 2

Saturday
3:00 PM          Workshops 3
4:30 PM         Workshops 4

(I'm also trying to figure out why the name Amy-Jill Levine -- one of the speakers -- sounds familiar.) Edit: Got it, thanks in part to Rhi. /edit

I think I'm gonna go for the transgender workshops, 'cause I'm fairly well-grounded in queer Christian stuff (and there's always a wealth of information on that out there).  And yeah, I am totally flashing to HomoCon (tm Hedy) in this whole workshop selection process.

***

I have little of interest to say about work stuff.

Full marks to Cambridge University Press website for ease of ordering.

"The Children Who Saved an Island" in Yankee which is full-size now; what up? (July 2007), the island in question -- Frenchboro, Maine -- is the island FUH has a house on, and where he'll be for his on-leave year.  (There are no street names, and you just pick up your mail at the post office, but if something requires a street address -- like FedEx or UPS or whatever -- I am to make something up 'cause it'll just go to this lobsterman on the mainland anyway who'll bring it over; apparently their preferred made-up street is "Sunset Boulevard," but I can make up whatever I want.)

***

Katie and I went to the gym after work.

Since I'm only going 2-3 times/week I'm doing half-hour elliptical (interval program) and some weight room.
1mi @ 11:22min
2mi @ 22:53min
2.60mi @ 30min


I saw Prof.D. briefly and then in the locker room this woman asked me if we'd been an Extension School class a few years ago -- apparently I look v. much like someone from her "Archaeology of the Southwest" class.

Peter and I were leaving campus at the same time, so we were chatting on the walk to the Square.  (He seemed surprised that I've only worked here a couple of years.)
He asked about my dogtag, so I explained, and then he was asking me about Pride, saying he didn't think of Boston as a particularly gay-friendly city.
"Okay, it's not Provincetown, or San Francisco -- Castro District," I said.
He said, "Yeah, it's not San Francisco, but it's not even New York."  Checking his bio after I got home, he got his A.B. from Princeton and his PhD from Stanford.  He said you think of Boston as being largely "blue collar conservative."  I talked some about the size of Pride before we parted ways, but the whole conversation I was thinking about how, while admittedly in part through self-selection, I've found Boston+environs to be a fairly solidly gay-friendly place.

***

Remember that ice cream etc. place between PJ Ryans and House of Tibet Kitchen, with the Italian name I could never pronounce or remember?  It's now Holland Street Cafe.  I suspect I only noticed that because there's a big Brigham's Ice Cream poster in the window.  I grew up with that, yo.  Like Ari, I think in hyperlinks; as I was composing the entry about this on my way home, my instinct was to hyperlink in a photo of the Brigham's from my Norwood youth, and then it registered that that image exists in my brain but probably not on the internets.

***

"This woman is supposed to disgust you." (from [livejournal.com profile] viggorlijah off friendsfriends; also on BFB).  Not only is it an offensive sentiment, but the supposedly unattractive women look very happy (which is attractive in itself) and are really not that inherently unattractive.

Edit: It occurs to me that I now have a terrific image source for a "real women have curves" icon. (And voila. Okay, the upper text needs work, and really it should be in a curvy font, but my computer's being tetchy.)
hermionesviolin: (hard at work)
On Thursday at the gym Rita (who works downstairs in Finance) and I were walking from the check-in counter to the locker room and she casually asked me, "What are you doing here?"
me: [very confused as to what the question was] "Uh, going to the gym?"
Rita: "You're not taking a class?"
me: "Oh, no, I'm just working out."

ExpandThursday gym stats )

***

Friday at lunch I forget how it came up, but MaryAlice was complaining about Ebonics.  She mentioned a Wesley Snipes movie in which Wesley Snipes is cheating on his black wife with a white woman and the wife gets together with her friends, all black women who are like Yale grads, and they lapse into Ebonics to bitch about this white woman.

*

ExpandFriday gym )

***

ExpandGame Night at Sue's -- music, tv, Apples to Apples )

***

I left Saturday open in hopes of showing the apartment.  We ended up just having one taker (though there are a couple other people OriginalRoomie still needs to get back to).  Fastest showing of the apartment ever.  Tufts student looking on behalf of his girlfriend who's moving up here from Miami.  He was very positive about the apartment and will be in touch.  I'm not getting my hopes up, of course.  OriginalRoomie says there are a couple people she needs to get back to.  We need someone to move in ~2months from now, so obviously we've got time, but it would be nice to get this settled soon.

I was thinking later that one of the benefits of living with your friends is that you're less likely to have such turnover.  (At least OriginalRoomie's staying for next year.)

***

My mom e-mailed me: Mr. Jacobs (my 5th grade teacher, and one of my very favorites) died last week.
"Instead of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Caritas Good Samaritan Hospice [...] or the ALS Society of Dedham."
Lou Gehrig's disease?  I had thought he had Parkinson's.

***

Friday morning at work I noticed someone was standing in front of my desk, so I said hi as I looked up and then realized it was John P.  He's been working at the b-school, so every Singspiration he says he's gonna come see me, but he never has 'cause he's always so busy.
During our conversation he asked me: "Will we see you on Sunday?" / "Why would -- oh, Father's Day."  (I'd seen plenty of ads, but it didn't really stick 'cause we never do Father's Day -- my dad being the one who's not into obligatory celebration dates and really doesn't want much in the way of gifts.)

I was telling CAUMC!Meredith how it's not like my dad would be going to church anyway (though possibly he assumed I would be coming home for Father's Day celebrations of some sort and would thus go to church) and later it was occurring to me that I should say "the church my family goes to" rather than "my parents' church" or "the church my parents go to" 'cause while I say "my parents' house" or "where my parents live," my dad never went to UCN except to see me and my brother performing; the current UCN contingent is my mom because of my my grandmother, and sometimes my brother when he's home.

Both of my churches today only mentioned Father's Day in the Prayers of the People (though CWM did a special blessing for anyone who self-identified as a father in some way, as they had for Mother's Day).  I am very okay with that.

Everyone's clear on the concept that my father is awesome, right?  The concept "daddy's girl" is really not how my family functions, but my father was the primary caregiver and I am so my father's daughter -- prizing honesty, intentionality, and logic; libertarian leanings, etc., though obviously I'm not a clone (of him or my mother, appearances to the contrary).

***

I checked out the new exhibit at the Nave Gallery: displacement.

It's . . . interesting.

So much modern art the accompanying explanatory text is really interesting concepts but the actual visual is kind of meh.  I was thinking about how I appreciate the artwork a lot more knowing what the artist is trying to do with it, and how this is true to some degree of so much visual art (I'm thinking of looking at paintings in art museums and checking the labels to see who the portrait is of), and then of course I think of all the pomo stuff about not privileging authorial intent.

***

[Reconciling Convo] The Marla-Sean-Will room is filled up (they invited a guy from Conference) so Jeremy is starting Room 2 with Mark and Kirk.  Sharon's fairly certain that Michele has a wedding to go to and so can't go to Convo.  Trevanna really wants to go but hasn't (yet) been offered a permanent positiuon at her job, so she really doesn't wanna ask for days off.  So do I book my own room at the Holiday Inn (hello, WriterCon), or do I crash in their room (sleeping on carpeted floors is no problem for me, btw)?

Also: Trevanna's looking for a place to move into by September, so of course I suggested my house, but sher upper limit is $475/mo (with $350/mo being preferred -- she currently makes $9/hr).  Yeah, I wish her the best of luck (she's, obviously, looking at big multi-room apartments).  She said if she can't find anything and has to move her price range up she'll totally be in touch.

***

Bunker Hill Day is tomorrow.

***

Edit: Is that rain I hear outside? Whee! *loves on the cool breeze*
hermionesviolin: (glam)
As some of you may know, my birthday falls on a Monday this year. Which means [livejournal.com profile] antheia's birthday falls on a Saturday. And indeed a la 2 years ago when the Saturday actually was my birthday, she is planning a big bash at some NYC bar.

This however does beg the question of when I'm gonna do a Boston celebration of my birthday.

The Saturday following my birthday is already claimed for Northampton birthday etc. celebration.

And my brother is definitely in town for the summer, which means the possibility of a joint family celebration -- complicated by the fact that I leave for the long weekend of Reconciling Convo the day after his mid-week birthday.

***

Schedule:

Saturday June 9 - Boston Pride (queer church in the morning, then somehow meeting up with people at Festival)
also: Wednesday June 13 - "a regional training for the new Called to Witness initiative" (which I have until June 11th -- Monday -- to RSVP for) [edit: This has been trumped by dinner at "Firefly" with an aunt&uncle I haven't seen in years. /edit]
Saturday June 16 - open
Saturday June 23 - open -- edit:
     I was looking through some old entries, and dude, Mermaid Parade!
     Alternatively, Amy picked up a flyer at Pride for gay day at Franklin Park Zoo.
     And Sue's hosting a women's potluck at 5pm that day. /edit
Saturday June 30 - great-aunt Grace's funeral in Falmouth (which I haven't yet decided if I'm going to, so I guess could do a non-family birthday celebration that day)
Saturday July 7 - NYC for [livejournal.com profile] antheia et al (need to solidify crash space -- would be a convenient way to see Beth or Alexis, though it would make the most sense to crash with someone who'll actually be going out with us, and I'm not sure either of their schedules would allow that)
Monday July 9 [my actual birthday] - get taken out to lunch at work, go to Norwood for the evening and have Terry take me out for a drink
Saturday July 14 - Northampton for Emma et al (specific dates TBD)
Saturday July 21 - open
Saturday July 28 - open [edit: CWM benefit concert /edit]
     Details: "CWM Benefit Concert at the Cantab Lounge in Central Square // Invite your friends for a benefit concert with the Milling Gowns headlining a diverse array of local bands." [9pm-1am]
Saturday August 4 - Reconciling Convo (Thurs. 2nd - Sun. 5th -- need to talk with Marla or someone about housing)
Saturday August 11 and 18 - in Europe (need to solidify dates/plans) [Edit: Europe = Thursday, August 9 - Saturday, August 25 /edit ]
hermionesviolin: image of Anya from the Buffy season finale (episode title "Chosen") holding a sword, with text "We are who we choose to be" (choose to be [unhappyending])
I misquoted that as "Life is hard, and it's fighting, and it's every day." at church book study tonight.  BtVS reference ftw.

My cold has remained at low-grade status.  I am behind on writeups (though currently caught up on tv watching) and feel like I haven't been very good at engaging with the flist.  I'm tired and feel like I'm not accomplishing much.  I have so much joy in my life, though.

I withdrew from my Medieval Church class and registered for Convo.

I have been reminded on two separate occasions this weekend how amazing my mother is.  (My father is also awesome, in case that sentence seemed to imply otherwise.)  And many thanks to my dearly beloved (in a gen way, of course) for continuing to put up with my crazy.

I'm also going to College Reunion (as I have mentioned before).  Arriving some time Thursday night, leaving some time after Graduation ceremonies on Sunday. I am very much looking forward to seeing so many people.  My only specific plans are:
* "Read With Us" sessions on Friday from 9am-1pm
* and the Saturday class dinner ("Class dinners include social hour with appetizers, salad, entrĂ©e, dessert with coffee or tea, and wine during dinner."  For only $28) social hour at 5:30, class dinner at 6:30.
I suppose I should do Ivy Day.

I'm trying to start getting more specific about dates for Europe, so I started looking at festivals in Scotland, and I think I need to be in Scotland somewhere in August 11-18 to see a new version of Euripides' The Bacchae with Alan Cumming as Dionysus.
    I think London-Wales-Belfast-Scotland-Prague makes the most sense, so the next step is to figure out if there's any specific time I should visit Prague.  I hope to get to pick Mr. Mac's brain about this as well.
[Edit: Actually, given Trelawney's stated preference for my visiting after August 18, London-Scotland-Belfast-Wales-Prague might make more sense.]

(Sidenote: Gillian, I was at a party Saturday night and chatted with a guy who's doing a Ph.D. in Celtic at Harvard and is from Cardiff -- and apparently one of his colleagues at Harvard is a Smith grad who's doing a Wales program this summer to boot.)
hermionesviolin: (andro)
ExpandRead more... )

Tiffany, Marla, etc. are pushing Convo.
It's the first weekend in August, so it wouldn't interfere with any of my other plans (birthday celebrations throughout July, the UK & Prague in mid-late August). Cheap registration is until April 30, so I have a little time to make up my mind.

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hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
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