Swamped

Working on the last paper/journal of my M.Div. career right now, and hoping to finish it tonight, but camp is oozing in through every window, door, and crack in the foundation right now, and threatening to take over my life sooner than I can afford to let it. Likely to be fairly incommunicado for a while.

Quiz

I'm so supposed to be writing a play church paper right now. I'm so watching Gilmore Girls and reading blogs and taking quizzes instead.... Must... be... productive....

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

today sucks

Ok, I had a decent morning. But job has sucked big time and needs fixing, classes sucked, I have a meeting tomorrow I really don't want to go to, and someone acquired my debit card number and used it for two good-sized wire transfers tonight. (My bank called pretty immediately to verify them, so they've been reversed and all is clear, but it still meant an hour on the phone, getting a new card, etc.) Today sucks.

As requested

The play church service went very well, in the end. I got a chance to practice in front of a friend that morning, which helped a lot. It turns out I'm actually more comfortable doing it when there are people around, which was a surprise. It's also sort of amazing how real the whole thing felt - the sermon was a real sermon, the prayers for healing were real prayers, but even the invalid eucharist felt pretty real. It's also pretty cool - I'm glad that's not the last time I get to do it.

back

Both play church and the senior retreat went well. Now I'm glad to be back in my own space.

Y'all lied

Ok, dear readers. When I took Use of the Voice two years ago, and got freaked out by having to chant Gospels and especially Eucharistic Prayers, you told me not to worry, that by the time I got to play church and graduation, I'd be ready.

Not so much.

I'm cool with the deacon thing. But today I have to preach and preside at a service of public healing with Eucharist, and I'm way freaked out. Way, way, freaked out. We start at 1 pm CDT - if you think of it, say a little prayer that I survive, and preferably don't screw up too badly. (Oh, but I won't be able to post and let you know that I've survived until probably Saturday or Sunday, because as soon as classes are done today the seniors head off for our closing retreat.)

Gilmore Girls

The blogosphere is beginning to bubble with news and speculation about Gilmore Girls ending. I'd like publicly to note that I'm watching through the whole series on DVD, and have not followed season 7 at all, and thus do not wish to hear anything from anyone about what has happened this season or how the show ends. You managed it with West Wing; you can do it with Gilmore Girls! Thanks!

Song of the Week

Great Big Sea for the past week. Sadly, I think it'll continue to be just as apropos for another week or two, but I'll post it this week anyway.

"Consequence Free"

Wouldn't it be great, if no one ever got offended
Wouldn't it be great to say what's really on your mind
I have always said 'all the rules are made for bending'
And if I let my hair down, would that be such a crime?

[Chorus]
I wanna be consequence free
I wanna be where nothing needs to matter
I wanna be consequence free
just sing Na Na Na Na Na Ne Na Na Na

I could really use, to lose my Catholic conscience
Cuz I'm getting sick of feeling guilty all the time
I won't abuse it, Yeah I've got the best intentions
For a little bit of anarchy but not the hurting kind

[Chorus]

I couldn't sleep at all last night
cause I had so much on my mind
I'd like to leave it all behind,
but you know it's not that easy

[Chorus]

Wouldn't it be great, if the band just never ended
We could stay out late and we would never hear last call
We wouldn't need to worry about approval or permission,
we could - slip off the edge and never worry about the fall

Random thoughts and questions

~It's hard to practice the absolution with a straight face when you're absolving four Care Bears (one of which is winking at you) and a Care Bears Cousin. Also it feels kind of weird randomly absolving your stuffed animals every time you walk by them.

~Did Campbell's Tomato Garden soup always have so much zucchini? I'm pretty sure I ate Tomato garden a lot my year in St. Louis and my first year at SWTS, and I don't remember a particularly large amount of zucchini, but I poured a can into a bowl today and it looked like a lot, so I checked and found that zucchini is indeed the third ingredient, after water and tomato puree. This is very sad for me.

~828 words is way too much for the intro and conclusion to a 5-7 minute sermon. It's actually not a bad problem to have, though, since I have until Thursday to work it out.

~It's kind of strange that I have a stuffed raccoon (a purple one with a heart-shaped lightbulb on his belly, but a raccoon nonetheless) given how little I like raccoons and how much I really don't think they're cute. I'd sort of managed to forget that my Care Bear Cousin is a raccoon until I went to "anoint" him for "healing" this afternoon, and up close it's very clear that he's a raccoon. (That's not as weird as it sounds - I have to do a practice healing service in our play church class this week, so I'm practicing praying over stuffed animals. Hmm. Yeah. I guess it's still almost as weird as it sounds.)

Parents are funny, #498

In honor of Mother's Day, here's another way that my parents are funny, funny people:

My parents are pretty insistent on us addressing the ordination invitations traditionally - so, Mr. and Mrs. Man, or Mr. Man and The Rev. Woman, etc. I've pushed back on a few names where I know it's important to people, but mostly that's how the invitations are going out. (Which also means some people who would probably prefer another form will get the more traditional address... sorry.)

I just looked at the list they sent me, though, and I noticed two things: first, they seem to have made an exception for cousins. My two women cousins who are coupled but haven't taken new last names are listed as Ms. Allison and Mr. Bob, and Ms. Amanda and Mr. Jeff. Which is hilarious to me, given their traditionalism on the rest of the list.

Second, one of the clergy I put on the list is listed simply as The Rev. Woman, despite my having mentioned that the invitation should go to The Rev. Woman and Ms. Partner. Which is, of course, a lot less hilarious to me. I think it's an oversight, not an intentional thing, but it's still worthy of an eye-roll in the parental direction.

Ah, parents. Happy Mother's Day, everyone.

Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters

If you are, know, or think you might ever meet a girl or young woman, and you haven't already been persuaded to pick up Courtney Martin's new book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, go read Hugo's review of it now. I'll try to post my own thoughts about it when a)I finish the book and b)I'm a little more coherent than I'm feeling right now.

Hebrew gone

Also English syntax. Sorry. I imagine in half an hour or so I'll have returned to normal English. But the Hebrew exam is done, which means that the Hebrew course also is done. It means also that I have the rest of the term to ponder music, meaning, and liturgy. Hurray for that!

Song of the Week

Ani Difranco this week, after a friend pointed me back to the phoenix the other day.

32 Flavors

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
and I'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said

both my parents taught me about good will
and I have done well by their names
just the kindness I've lavished on strangers
is more than I can explain
still there's many who've turned out their porch lights
just so I would think they were not home
and hid in the dark of their windows
til I'd passed and left them alone

and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
and god help you if you are a pheonix
and you dare to rise up from the ash
a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
while you are just flying past

I never try to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do
I'm not saying that I'm a saint
I just don't want to live that way
no, I will never be a saint
but I will always say

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said