Book #20: Into the Wild. Jon Kr@kauer. Swoon. Major, major swoon. Singular complaint: I read his other two books in audiobook form, and he read the other two himself. This one was some other guy.

Book #21: Pillars of the Earth. Someone please tell me why this book is such a big deal.

The Mr and I just bought some midnight blue raised panel shutters "to update the exterior of our home" (I looked for a picture to post, but they're all a little off). They're midnight blue, so we're painting all the outside doors to match.

Other than that, I've been... well, working (and reading, apparently). We've had some turnover in staff, and I was made the priest in charge of administration about a month ago to help with the transition, etc. etc. I can't figure out if I'm incredibly inefficient or if there is just a whole lot of work to be done.

Okay, so I'm pretty boring right now. How are you?

the long overdue post

You know how when you don't update for a while then the thought of updating becomes overwhelming? Yeah.

Voici a pic from the top of Notre Dome, taken on the long awaited, and highly enjoyable, Paris trip. It was so wonderful I resolved to take all of my vacation this year, rest of the staff be damned (I work with a former Franciscan who I actually really like but who doesn't take half of his vacation). I thought that jet lag, etc. would cancel out all restorative vacation benefits. Thankfully, I was incredibly wrong. This is also one of the first major vacations we've taken that didn't revolve around family. We forfeited two graduations to go on this vacation, and we definitely made the right decision, though some of the family, which is full of teachers, forgets that not everyone has three plus months off (my time off is generous; the mr's is not). Anyhow.

I have a writer crush on Jon Krakauer right now. I finished Into Thin Air recently (book #19), about the 1996 Mt Everest climb. It was fantastic. I'm just a huge sucker for someone who teaches me something while entertaining me at the same time. Next is definitely Into the Wild.

In other news, I said the invocation at a local women's grant giving organization. I purposefully wrote an inclusive one, as I thought the occasion warranted. I may have received some passive aggressive backlash from the president of the organization, who picked a question to ask the guest speaker-- a famous country music singer-- if she felt the need not to talk about Jesus. I may use this occasion to restart my very, very stale work blog.

books #17 & 18: Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and A Movable Feast. The former seemed like a whole lot of name dropping at first. The Mr. thinks I didn't like it b/c Hemingway is a "man's writer." However, after reading the latter (over the course of one day waiting as a potential juror), I appreciated his stripped style much more. I don't think I could process it in audio book format (which is how I "read" The Sun).

• book #whatever: a cook's tour: in search of the perfect meal. not the most brilliant writing in the world, but i enjoyed it.
• i have to answer a jury summons today around noon. if they pick me, i can't even tell you how screwed i am.
  
• related to the above: a popular refrain around the church of late seems to be, "ms. rev or not can do it!" i exploded wednesday night. "NO. i'm not taking on one more thing. i CANNOT do everything. find someone else."
  

• you know how sometimes you really want to go to bed but can't manage to peel yourself off the couch in order to do it? i'm totally there right now.
• the mr's parents were here this past weekend. it was like his mom took all of her annoying habits and cranked them up, just for fun.
• i'm pretty sure the above two bullet points are related.
  

• book #15: Heloise and Abelard: A New Biography. I had it lying around and had never read it.
• I have spring fever, as in, I really want it to be warm again. I want to wear dresses and skirts and to go to the beach on day trips again.
• We're hiring a new parish administrator. I'm going to be supervising this person. Uh...
  

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• how stale is my blog?
  
• holy week and easter were really pretty good... less tiring, too, i think because i knew what to expect from this community.
  
• i recently returned from a mission trip with the high school students. new orleans is still in pretty bad shape in many parts.
  
• book #13: memoir of a race traitor by mab segrest (organizing against klan/neo-nazi activities in NC in the 80s... interesting for me since i live here)
• book #14: paris: a secret history... for rapidly approaching trip!!! a narrative that speaks of people histories tend to leave out (lower classes, thieves, prostitutes, working peeps, etc. aka anyone not nobility). only makes sense if you have the original framework of history to hang it on. otherwise, hard to make sense of (i was familiar with some time periods and really enjoyed those chapters and was a little more lost in the other ones).