RGBP Friday Five

With the inevitable July 4th on the horizon, we respond to these questions...
1) Do you celebrate 4th of July (or some other holiday representing independence?)
Not with any great fervor or gusto .... we often travel or are with family over the holiday so that becomes a celebration.

2) When was the first time you felt independent, if ever?
This question is far too existential for me this morning...

3) If you're hosting a cookout, what's on the grill?
Not hosting... if we were -- chicken, burgers, corn on the cob, and my favorite grilling delicacy -- apples and cinnamon in a foil packet for dessert.

4) Strawberry Shortcake -- biscuit or sponge cake? Discuss.
Um, both ... either... whatever is available? More important to me is the presence of whipped cream...

5) Fireworks -- best and worst experience
Don't really have a bad experience -- two good ones stand out: National Youth Gathering, Dallas, TX, 1991. And, much later, being in a kayak in Lake Superior as the fireworks went off overhead. That was by far the coolest.

Family

One of the best things about living several states removed from family is that they sometimes come visit. This happens to be one of those weeks.

One of the hardest parts of being a pastor is that people die, and there's not a lot of warning when that happens. This happens to be one of those weeks.

I'm here, my posts might be few and far between this week, but I'm here.

Evening Ride

The circumstances could have been different, but the setting was perfect!




It made me miss the land of the lakes and the trees, especially this afternoon upon returning to the land of the cars and buildings.

Back

I think I'll start feeling like a human being again next week sometime. At least I hope so. It's a strange feeling to be "away" for much of a week and then re-integrate into life... Everyone else has been moving at a different pace and I'm trying to merge back into it.

I stopped at the office on my way home today -- to check voicemail, door messages, email. Things that would be easier to do today without the child than tomorrow with kid-in-tow. I didn't notice while I was there and it was happening, but as I was driving away I could tell that nearly all of the tension and freaking-out that I had lost this week has returning. In about a half hour.

It made me really sad and a little bit angry, and it made me wonder what to do about it. I'm still thinking -- maybe when I've gotten a good night's sleep I'll see a bit more clearly!

10 Things

I leave tomorrow for camp. It's a pretty good set-up in that I'll be working the whole week, but will also have large chunks of time to myself and won't actually be sharing a cabin with any kidlets. It's still a week away from my family, though, which I'm not thrilled about.

However ... here are 10 random (or not-so random) things that I've been thinking about -- comment while I'm away and keep leaving your music suggestions below!

1. I'd much rather eat ice cream for dinner (or breakfast or lunch for that matter) and leave the "real" food to someone else. Left to my own devices I did just that often and it worked out just fine.

2. My husband will watch just about any sporting event. He has his favorites, but in a pinch, he'll watch absolutely anything. Happy Father's Day!

3. This is the first June that I've worked as a pastor, even though I've been ordained for over two years. It's almost over and boy, am I glad.

4. I'm a really bad packer. Which reminds me that I still need to do that.

5. For a moment today I really loved this calling. That's more than it's been lately and for that moment I was glad to get a glimpse back at why I do this.

6. Sassy, not crabby. That's my hope for the coming week.

7. My family is burying my grandmother this week. The ground was too wet in April when she died. They're also cleaning out the farmhouse. I'm devastated that I'm not able to be there with them.

8. While I've established my husband's sports-watching tendencies, I'll admit that I was the only woman in the room at the bar watching the first US game of the World Cup on Monday, and I know who's playing for the Stanley Cup, which game of the series it is and where they'll play next, if necessary. It "helps" that the baseball teams that I cheer for aren't so good -- therefore necessitating interest in other sports...


9. I'll miss this little guy this week.

10. I have no idea where those curls came from, but I love them and everything else about him. (Well, except that screaming thing that he does occasionally and the stinky diapers aren't so fabulous either, but other than that...!)

Music recommendations, please...

On my way back to the office this afternoon I found myself dancing in my seat to Shakira's new song and thinking, "I should download this to my iPod so I can listen to it all-the-time." It also got me thinking, "Thank goodness there's no one around to see this dorky-lookin' white girl doing some bad car-dancing."

Which got me thinking that I should ask you, my dear readers, what music you can't get enough of these days... I've seen a few recommendations recently for the new Dixie Chick's... I've discovered Over The Rhine thanks to my blogger-friends... you've all been gems about books to read... So, here's the deal -- songs, songwriters, bands, solo artists, new, not-so-new, songs that make you want to hit repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat... bands that you have listened to for what feels like ever, or those you've just discovered... Let me know! I need to expand my musical repertoire... As I did with the books, I'll post a recommended listening list in a few days... ooooo... maybe I could even figure out how to make a list on iTunes... well, we'll see -- I am leaving for confirmation camp in a few days...!

Opportunity for Acronyms

Are you a YA with interest in the NCCC-USA or the CWS? Do you know what that means? Somtimes I feel like I'm about to come unglued with our use of acronyms -- a language that creates insiders and outsiders in the attempt to make communicating easier... Because let's be honest, it's a whole lot easier to say "the NCCC" than "the National Council of the Churches of Christ."

Regardless... Upon reading the latest issue of Ecu-Link, I discovered this really cool opportunity for 18-30 year olds (their definition, I guess of Young Adult)... the General Assembly (GA) of the NCCC and Church World Service (CWS) will be in Orlando in November ... They need "stewards" to do things like hospitality. All expenses, except personal, will be covered by the assembly, and you can download an application here.

It looks pretty cool... And, while you're at it, check out the general site, if you're into that whole ecumenical thing... :)

They also publish a yearbook of American and Canadian churches and this year's book focuses on the impact of the blog! Yearbook 2006: Postmodern Christianity: Emergent Church and Blogs, ed., Eileen Lindner.

Sleepless in ....

Ugh. That was my first thought when I woke up (again) and saw the time. 0430.

Now, I know that many people get up at this time regularly to go to work. I don't. I'm more of a 6:00 (via the Boy) or 7:00.... creeping toward 8:00 if for some fluke I'm home alone. Which, since the Boy, doesn't happen a whole lot. Regardless. This morning my body decided that 4:30 would be a good time to wake up... I had other ideas, but since my mind, and it's anxiety-ridden tendencies, took over at about 4:31, I figured I was up for good.

So, here are my questions (since the RGPB Friday Five hasn't been posted and I'm leaving for a two-day meeting shortly):

1. When you wake up in the middle of the night do you have trouble falling back to sleep?
Sometimes. Especially if I'm particularly worried about something.

2. Do you have any techniques that you use to fall asleep, either for the first time or again later?
Some meditation, occasionally warm milk, getting up and writing down whatever was bothering me.... these work if I do them.... that's a big if.

3. Do you fall asleep with some "white noise?" (radio, tv, fan...)
Nope... used to with the radio

4. Do you snore?
I don't think so, and I don't believe MDH when he says that I do, because I think he sleeps too soundly to know. He does snore, though!

5. What would be your ideal sleeping pattern, work/kids/etc not considered?
I'd go to bed between 11 and Midnight... waking between 7 and 8. That sounds very civilized to me.

See ya when I get back!

Sweet, sweet sweat

I'm not a runner. Not in the sense of... well, really, not in any sense. Though at one point in my life I was walking so much that my massage therapist *thought* I was a runner, which to me meant something. Secretly, I've always wanted to be a runner... I think mainly because I've always wanted to have really, really great legs... and runners often have them.

Two very good friends of mine and a host of acquaintances are runners... runners in the sense that they talk about how many miles in a week they run and how fast and how their toenails are doing and how often they buy new shoes and how many pair of shoes they rotate through. Maybe some of you are runners.

Well, tonight I ran. Jogged might be a better term, interspersed with walking. It was (embarassingly?) the second time that I'd attemped running since having a baby, with decidedly better results. The first time made me feel as if half of my body (the inner half) was moving in a different direction)... not a good feeling.

But tonight, after a meeting at work I came home, kissed my husband, peeked on my baby (how much longer do I get to call him a baby?) and headed out into the beautiful summer night. I make no promises about keeping this up (which I know and understand is key to being a runner), but it sure felt good tonight.

And now, I'm heading to shower. Because really, I stink.

Coolness Meme

With a hat tip to Will Smama, and Katherine, I really don't *feel* cool and have had some periods in my life when I was decidedly NOT cool... so given that, I've decided to play along... Without further ado, five reasons I think I'm cool (also known in my head as "things that make me smile on a crappy day"):

1) Even though I fainted each of the first three times that I tried to get my ears pierced, as well as countless times while having my blood taken, I gave birth without any pain medication. While on pitocin. Hear me roar. (Which isn't to say that anyone who chooses/has no choice in how they give birth isn't cool... to each their own, really.)

2) I grew up north of the Laurentian Divide, which means that for the entirety of my childhood the river that goes through the backyard was flowing north.

3) As a freshman in college a guy pointed out to me that I didn't really have much (any?) cartilege in the end of my nose. It's a great party trick.

4) I'm married to a brilliant man. Which makes my (few and far between) victories at chess, jeopardy, and trivial pursuit all the sweeter.

5) My first several airplane rides were in small planes. Really small planes. As in me-and-the-pilot small. Because of this, I've seen pens float off the 'dashboard' of an airplane and felt my legs go weightless. It's pretty thrilling when you're 9.

How about you -- what makes you cool?

Disappearing

Without going into un-necessary details, a crappy thing happened in the office this morning -- the kind of thing that makes me doubt my entire calling and the worth of the church around me; the kind of thing that makes me wonder if my pseudo-retired colleauge will ever leave; the kind of thing that made me so angry that I shook and then wanted to cry and then got angry with myself for being so close to tears and through it all wanted to slam my door and quite possibly break something; the kind of thing that has consumed me the rest of the day and made me very, very unproductive. It was a little thing really to have sucked so much of my energy.

I give thanks to the two friends who heard the inital force of my anger and frustration and sadness about what seems currently like a hopeless situation, but probably isn't.

Now, near the end of the day I find myself wanting to disappear. I joked with someone that if I showed up on their doorstep (several states away) to give me a drink (or six) and then tuck me quietly into the guest room and let me sleep until everything was all better. Ahem, nothing like a little avoidance.

Now, I crave the soft comfort of someplace familiar and gentle, someplace where no one will ask me questions and I won't be responsible for anyone or anything. I would simply like to disappear, resurfacing someplace else where things are calmer.