Saturday, December 29, 2007

the post about after christmas

  • i'm still here.
  • visitors, visitors, visitors: my mom, my sister (who i haven't seen in 1.5 years b/c she lives literally halfway around the world), the in-laws, the sister-in-law, the brother-in-law. not all at the same time. the mr and i refused to travel after last year. it's just not a good time for a pastor to 'get away,' particularly if you're stuck with preaching the sunday after christmas (which i have been for the past two years... got to love being an associate at a larger church. i mean, would the world truly end if the congregation was left to their own devices? then again, i really like preaching sundays that returning college students are here).
  • woke up on advent 4 at 3 a.m. to the mr puking. he looked awful all of sunday but didn't throw up again and was eating again by christmas eve.
  • will never again have to preach my first christmas eve sermon. ever. yay. i ditched the notes halfway through and walked out of the pulpit. gasp! i've done that all of... twice, both occasions when someone died (once during a wedding!) and the pulpit felt too removed (it's very statuesque).
  • have decided that netflix's watching videos instantly on the computer is pretty much the best thing ever, when your brain is too mushy to read. on wednesday and thursday, i watched hours and hours of the office, puccini 4 beginners (not so great), and sense @nd sensibility.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

does anyone want

to tell me how it's practically december 21 already? the mere thought of that makes me feel really, really nervous.

the post with no title

the deluge of food stuffs started yesterday.

to the parishioner who wrote on the tag of the chocolate chip pie: "freezes well": i've eaten two pieces in the past twenty-four hours (it's very, very yummy), so i don't think i'm going to find out how "well" the pie "freezes."

to the parishioner who gave me slice and bake cookies so burnt and thus inedible i had to throw them away: is this a passive aggressive gesture, particularly since last year you gave me burnt chocolate chip cookies?

to the parishioner who gave me a single serving of chex mix: thank you for not giving me too much. i'm being totally and completely serious. i already ate all of it, but it doesn't feel like that big a deal, which is oddly satisfying.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

the post about how i feel

in response to ppb's kind comment, asking me how i feel...
  • health-wise, i feel better. i think the crud is more or less gone, after almost four days of laying around. still don't know if it was a virus or bacterial and probably never will know. i'm still slightly coughy and sniffly, but i can walk about now, and that's an accomplishment.
  • i feel like if we have to do another funeral, my head will explode. two funerals in one week, particularly if that week happens to be during advent, is enough.
  • i feel like the pulpit is getting an awful lot of me lately. advent 3, funeral homily, christmas eve, christmas day, sunday after christmas.
  • i feel mediocre about my christmas eve sermon draft, and i don't want to preach it. don't worry, katherine, i won't steal yours.
  • i feel like if my little insomnia spat doesn't end soon... well, something. i don't know.
  • i feel pissed off. a couple of months ago, a youth lector changed the pronouns referring to the divine from 'he' to 'she' in the pulpit (after checking with the head lector about five minutes before the service, which to me was inadequate advance notice). she was up again last sunday, and the head lector asked her not to switch the pronouns because "some old women disguised as men" had complained. she no longer wants to read, which i can respect. i received an email from her mother saying she no longer wants to be on the lector list, either, and talking about how the episcopal church is a big tent, but now she's not so sure. this whole situation pisses me off for numerous reasons:
    • don't assume, mother, that just because you personally didn't hear me defend your daughter that that means she wasn't defended. i talked with people about the divine feminine after that; i simply didn't pick up the phone to let you know about it every time i did so.
    • i don't like that it seems that the complainers 'won' and the lector is being censured.
    • i'm also not sure that i'm entirely comfortable with her switching the pronouns in a scriptural reading. other places? prayers of the people? fine. but the lector's job is to read the text as given.
    • 'big tent' doesn't mean that everyone gets what they want publicly all the time. that'd be impossible. the bigger the tent, the more likely we'll have clashes of opinions.
    • i would have preferred a note from the daughter rather than the mother. also, i think standing in solidarity by yourself is stupid (like people who boycott without being part of an organized boycott... ).
    • i feel frustrated that you chose to send this email on this week. thanks.
    • i'm not saying i'm right about any of this; this is just how i feel.
  • i feel a little anxious about my mom and sister visiting. this is cleaning and entertaining anxiety, mostly, along with a little family dynamic anxiety. fortunately, the mr. is a huge help. that, and i've secured us several invitations to eat with some fairly low-stress people while they're here, too, to mix it up a little bit.
more than you bargained for, more than you need to know, but there it is.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

the post about the crud

sometimes i'm secretly happy when i get sick. i get to stay in bed and read and watch movies, things i like to do and don't do all that often. this is not one of those times.

i have the crud. again. i just had the crud over thanksgiving. i'm in the mood to bake, paint, clean, write something slightly more thoughtful than my blog. but i have no energy whatsoever for those kinds of thing. so i'm not only sick, i'm really frustrated.

/whining.

Monday, December 10, 2007

another post

this weekend:
  • got eyebrows waxed after seeing them and their hairiness in pics from campus ministry xmas party
  • pedicure (ahhh...)
  • visited parishioner in prison
  • friday night potluck with presbyterians
  • i seem to attract presbyterians. i'm not complaining. i'm just sayin'.
  • massive cleaning-out of paper in the mr.'s crap room (yes, that really is what we call it). i went through and filed a bunch of stuff and then went through our file cabinet (and all these papers he had thrown all over the place) to the tune of one GIANT trash bag's worth. he nearly had a heart attack when he saw me in there cleaning, but i have to live here, too, and that room makes me nuts. and i was extremely generous in what i did not throw out. so there. we're going to use the paper for kindling.
  • unfortunately, it was in the high 60s yesterday, which makes fires pretty much a non-option right now.
  • i like cleaning out. not cleaning up, but giving things away or throwing them away. i find it cleansing.
  • i married a packrat.
  • the nutcracker. it was pretty good, all things considered.
  • another advent wreath lighting fiasco. i am almost to the point where i want to refuse to be involved with lighting the damn thing at the main service.
  • led bible study on the gospel text for this week. preaching this coming sunday. for the first time in my life, i feel sorry for john the baptizer. before, he's always just made me squirmy. you can still be called by god and be really, really, really (really) off about what that means.
  • the mr. is doing some major structural stuff underneath the house. i can't even describe it, b/c i don't understand it.
  • present-wrapping
  • primed bookshelf for painting
  • laundry
  • made lentil-spinach soup. it called for three cups of water. i substituted two cups chicken broth, 1 cup white wine. it cooked down nicely, though i was nervous right after i put in the wine.
  • weird tickly throat... had to go to sleep sucking on cough drop... wasn't i just sick?
  • cat in love with (fake) christmas tree... won't stop sitting under it.
  • yesterday: one year as a priest
  • today: need to be very productive/focus at work. in the meantime, if anyone talks to me at the gym this morning, i will hurt him. i'm not feeling talkative.
  • i'm perfectly aware that this blog has gotten fairly boring fairly quickly, which is somewhat disappointing, but i seem to be unable to muster the wherewithal to change that.