Because I don't know when I'll have time to post again...

Y'all, I'm stressin' a bit at work. I will have seven consecutive days away from the office. A bit unusual for me. And I'm trying to make sure everything else is taken care of before that. And the office is in meetings/workshops for Two Whole Days. Where I need to take notes. Oh dear Jesus, if you would only return sometime tonight so that I can avoid tomorrow's meeting.

Last night I was up in Wisconsin, I mean the far north suburbs, helping with wedding prep. It's all craziness now. And no, I don't think I'll make it up there at 9am to help decorate the church Thursday morning. I don't even get to work before 9am most days. I know, it sounds like an easy schedule. But I stay late because our classes start in the evening so I'm here 'til 6 or later most nights making sure that all is well before I head home or off to my evening activity.

So Wedding - yes. Saturday. I'm off Thursday and Friday to do whatever. I mean, I do plan to sleep in and all that. Hopefully my dress will get done. Hee. And the dress for the matron of honor gets to Paris before she gets on a plane to come here.

But this weekend.

I am old. OLD! And this was confirmed by a lady in the dressing room at Loeman's or however you spell it. So a friend and I did a little shopping Friday night. In my group of people she has been nicknamed "Kid" probably because she's the youngest of us. Makes sense, right? Honestly, I had nothing to do with that nickname so I don't know where it came from. But I perpetuate it so whatever. And while we were shopping I was doing some fetching for her different sizes and such. And calling her Kid when I went back to the dressing room looking for her. The lady working in the dressing room starts talking about how lucky Kid is to have me come shopping with her. "So nice...Lucky...blah blah blah... Because HER MOTHER would never go shopping with her when she was that age." She thought I was Kid's mother. Kid is 25. Me? I'm half-way through 29. Even if she thought Kid was shopping for prom or graduation. Still-I do not look old enough to have a 17-year old child. Rather sucky. I must say.

BUT...

This weekend my friends threw me a little graduation party. Yay! They so completely rock those friends of mine. Note the balloons and yummy parfait looking things and the fresh fruit. And... the fun colors and the napkins with "h" on them. Because I'm pretty self-centered and thrilled when anyone makes a fuss over me.

(Kid is in the striped shirt)

And this cake. Oh My God! My roommate made this awesome cake. So awesome that I thought about it all day yesterday and the one thing I did when I got home last night from wedding craziness was to get a slice of it and then I crawled into bed. Somehow I have gotten it in my head that I love this chocolate & lemon combination so it was chocolate cake with lemon frosting. (And that's an H on the top in chocolate shavings in case you are wondering)

OK. And besides the kick ass cake, she gave me a little gift. With a card so funny and so me that I just laughed and laughed. And one of our friends pointed out it was an interesting choice for a seminary graduation.

Hah!

Oh, and after the wedding? I fly out the RI to see the familia. Dad turns 60 next week. Everyone say happy birthday to Dad!So maybe I'll be back in a week or so. Be safe and get in some relaxing over the long weekend.

Five Things

Because it's Friday!

I'm so sorry to neglect you all so terribly this week. I've just been stressing a bit over work. Figuring out what was done (or not which is usually the case) by this chick that was fired in my office. I get to pick up the pieces and we're behind and I'm losing sleep (!) over the things that need to get done. And I'm feeling like a horrible office manager. HORRIBLE! But I'm not, I know that. I just feel like one right now.

How many "I"s are in that last paragraph? Can anyone say self-centered? That's me right now.

Five things - dedicated to the fertile folks in my life and inspired by the sweet sight from this morning that I hope to have a picture of soon.

1) There's a Baby Raccoon in the Tree of Evil Raccoons! SO CUTE it's ridiculous and I was so sad this morning that my batteries are running low in my camera and it won't take pictures. Must take care of that before the wedding. Now I know where the mama raccoon has been - tending her baby. They were both poking their heads up checking out the loud kids as they walked to school this morning.

2) This sweet boy is my cousin's baby Austin. Isn't he so cute? Hopefully I'll get to meet him soon.

And the baby shower madness that will soon encompass the globe - or at least my corner of it. Two baby showers. In one weekend. For:

3) Rach. Their second girl is due end of June/beginning of July.

4) Ang. Their first boy is due ... in August? I think. Or around there.

Must get on that crocheting. Soon. And do nothing else until the showers.

5) This week I got my new phone. I made a commitment to Cingular - after doing pay as you go for almost two years. Stupid, I know. But there it is. A new sleek phone. So pretty. So colorful. So able to take pictures. So smart. I love it already.

Such richess

I skipped 24 last night to watch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. Anyone want to catch me up? I did flip back and forth a bit during the commercials but what I saw was rather garbled.

OK. I just looked at the ABC site for Grey's Anatomy and it's so fabulously fun. Seriously. And Shonda answers FAQs. She's actually a friend of a friend's wife. Not that I've actually met her but I could have if I didn't have a wedding the same day as my friend's baby shower (which Shonda threw! And I MISSED!). But it's a cool site. Must read character bios... But Shonda's a Chicago girl and hey, I've pretty much decided I'm one of them too. Because I love Chicago winters and crazy stuff like that. If that doesn't make me a Chicagoan, I don't know what does. Well, perhaps actually living in Chicago-proper someday would be a good start. But, I lived in Cicero - home of Al Capone - for 5 years. So, that's a pretty good start, right?

So besides the fantastic-ness of two hours of new Grey's Anatomy last night! Oh sadness with Izzy. And how about that steamy scene with Grey and McDreamy? That really went on a little too long.

But, can I just say my friends are rather fantastic? They are! And while you may not know them all - they are uber-wonderful. Yes they are. And one of them knows that I'm a bit self-centered and love to have a fuss made over me on occasion (really, who doesn't love a fuss every so often?). So she's making a fuss over my semi-graduation thing. So, if you want to come over for a little deal on Sunday afternoon, very casual, let me know and I can direct you to the right place.

Five things Friday #3

Happy Friday Everyone!

Much Graduation Craziness abounds in all areas of the US.

1) Three of the ladies involved in the student group I advise are graduating, including two former presidents. And another former president graduated in December but stuck around for a few months. These kids are fantastic. I often feel as if I have not given them enough of my time or attention or love and support. But it's amazing what little things mean so much to them - a note of encouragement, a kind word, showing up at an event or a meeting. Mid-post one just showed up to say hi and pick up a gift I made her. *sniff* I will be sad to have them leave.

2) I mentioned last Friday that I'm graduating (sort of) and then I saw my name in the seminary program yesterday and it was insane to me - a line and category all for me! INSANE Y'ALL!

3) My friend B. (she of wedding fame) graduates tomorrow too with her M. Div. and I go to that little fiesta tomorrow night.

4) Two friends from my small group walk this weekend or the next.

5) And... a graduation of sorts. A friend of mine from college and his wife are having their children christened this weekend. (What does one get for a christening? Any ideas? I'm stumped.)

Memories of Spring

Someday I will post a picture of my new backyard because you people need to know how gorgeous it is. New things appear every day and it's all so fun! Especially since I have nothing to do with it except enjoy it. The people that own the house care about the yard! It's a novel concept to me considering the last place I lived barely had grass. And my roommate and I were the ones that tried to grow it. I was very excited to notice a fuschia plant appeared over the weekend.

There are a few perennials (that means it comes up every year, right?) in the front yard. I was happy to see what looked like a peony coming up earlier this spring. It started blooming over the weekend and it's beautiful. There are iris blooming along the side of the house. These two things always make me think of my maternal grandmother. Grandma had the most beautiful garden in the backyard. At least to my thinking.

When my parents split Mom, Brother and I moved to Kansas, in with Mom's parents. I think we knew it before then, but it became clearly apparent that Grandma and I were kindred spirits. Grandma was crafty and wonderful. She painted china and crocheted and read a lot and sewed. She had this fabulous house that we got to live in for a few months with a library full of books and old National Geographic magazines. At one point she had a photography studio and would take pictures of the family but also friends. She got paid for it. Quite handy. She actually did the high school senior photos for Brother and I. I'm sure it was important to me because it was a hard time what with the parents getting divorced and moving and all.

But her garden. There must have been peonies because I always associate them with her. And roses. And the iris. One of her brothers hybridized iris - he had a few acres behind his house of different varieties of iris. So Grandma had the most incredible selection of dutch iris. Beautiful frilly ones. Dark, dark purple ones that were almost black. Two-toned salmon and lilac ones or light purple and dark purple. Some that smelled like vanilla, others that had no smell. She also had an apple tree that produced four different types of apples. That spring we moved to this tiny house around the corner that had a lilac bush. It was lovely.

I would walk over to see Grandma and visit her and paint with her. I would borrow books or just chat. The summer before my senior year of high school the family moved to Texas so I was removed from both sets of grandparents once again. That spring I had to decide where to attend college, Ivy League or the school down the road from Grandma, the alma mater of my parents, my brother, cousins, aunts and uncles. She asked me if I was going to come and live with her. But I opted for New England. She struggled with Grandpa who was suffering from Alzheimers. Brother moved in to help her with that while he was in college down the road.

Sophomore year of university Abuelito was diagnosed with cancer. He died the next summer. I flew to Kansas for his funeral and we all stayed with Grandma. She died the morning of Abuelito's funeral. Over the next two weeks two of her brothers and a good friend of hers died as well. I was at four funerals during the two weeks I was in Kansas that summer. It was pretty devastating.

Seeing flowers in the spring remind me of her. How much I loved her and how robbed I feel from her sudden death. The flowers come but often don't stay long. One or two good days and they fade.

Five Things Friday

So I didn't post five things last Friday. I was out of the office. Whoot! Getting ready for the wedding shower that was held at my place on Sunday. It went well. But, I am grateful that it is over. Now I have to worry about that dress. And my hair. And the flowers for the wedding. But, if you want to see fun pictures, they're at flickr.

Today, five things I'm glad to be done with.

1) Did y'all know I sometimes take seminary classes? I'm halfway to my masters in christian ministry. It's surreal. But along the way, I finished up a certificate in leadership and adminstration. Another oh-so-useful type of education. I "graduate" with my certificate this month! Not that I'm walking or anything. But it's a little exciting, right? Right??

2) This shower thing for B. Yippeeee! It was a beautiful day and we loved up on her and now she has some sketchy (and not so sketchy) lingerie to enjoy with her husband to be. But, I'm glad it's over.

3) The work week. Since we fired the other girl that helps out in the office a week ago Wednesday, I've been a lot more dilligent about work. And I've gotten lots done. But I'm glad the work week is over. 'Cause it was pretty crappy. Except that we hired someone to replace her and she'll start after Memorial Day. And I really like her and I'm glad I don't have to stress about that.

4) Driving long distances for the week. My morning and afternoon commutes take 45 min to and hour each way. I'm happy that I don't have to drive so much on the weekends. I'm tired of driving. But grateful that I have a car in which to drive b/c the train? Would take 1.5 hrs - at the bare minimun.

5) The lack of raccoon sitings. I know, I might have mentioned before that the neighborhood racoons and I have a cautious relationship. But recently I hadn't seen them and was worried. A bit silly perhaps. However, two dusk sightings in as many days has reassured me that they are alive and well and terrorizing the nieghborhood. Phew! If I can get my camera to work I might be able to post a picture of one of the little buggers on Monday.

But happy weekend everyone. I'm off to find a margarita...

Cinco de Mayo

Y'all, Happy Cinco de Mayo! (insert grito here)

In college I made the useful *snort* decision to major in history, and, more specifically Latin American history. I loved it. Still do. It was what I wanted to study. I wasn't about practicality at the end of my sophomore year in college, that's for sure. Still, who knows, in the end, it may be just as practical as other things I might have studied. But I have no head for numbers or dates or important sites. Sometimes those are important in history.

Here is my public service announcement to the blogging world for Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo - not celebrating Five Jars of Mayonaisse Day or Mexican Independence Day even (that's 16 de septiembre). Cinco de Mayo is to celebrate the routing of French troops by Mexican insurgents in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Did you know that France occupied Mexico once upon a time? Or that they got their French butts kicked on Cinco de Mayo? Take a few minutes to read about it and enrich your knowledge base.

That's Good Stuff

Y'all, I might have a bit of a problem.

See, last night, after shopping for a bridal shower with my roommate, I settled in to watch Hotel Rwanda, which I had not yet seen. Just a side note, I have a cousin in Rwanda right now and his sister is heading over to teach at a school for MKs soon. It was a seriously disturbing movie. And, see folks, the thing is, this sort of thing is still going on in various parts of the world. Today. Tonight. Tomorrow.

But, that is not the point of my post. No, it's much more trivial. Because after watching this horrific movie and crying, I popped in one of my other Netflix DVDs - disc 3 of season 1 of 24.

Jack Bauer is amazing in all that he does.

Jack Bauer is a god. And he will kick your ass if you get in his way. He's way hott.

Here is my theory folks - 24 is television crack.

I got hooked on 24 because some marketing genius somewhere thought it would be a good idea to send out DVDs of the first two episodes of season 2. I watched and was hooked. I then proceeded to rent the ENTIRE season in about a week. Folks, that's 24 hours (more or less) of 24. I was up late at night. I couldn't sleep. I was spending ridiculous amounts of money at Blockbuster. It was bad.

Last night, my solution to dealing with all the ickyness inside of me from watching Hotel Rwanda was to watch 24. Do you see what I mean when I say I might have a problem?

And I've hooked other people in my family. My brother got me season 3 for Christmas two years ago. We started watching them when we were at my parent's place for the holidays. One night, after watching the first two episodes on a disc, my father stayed up until 2 watching the rest of the disc. This year, he bought last season with a Sam's Club gift card. My father occasionally teaches at the university level on Monday nights. He has been known to end class early so that he can get home to watch 24.

Last night? After I finished an episode I gathered all my willpower and turned off the television. Then I heard myself say "That's good stuff. Good stuff."

Confirmation

Yep. Yesterday was fairly disastrous as predicted. Being shat on by a bird = beginning to a bad day. My roommate was kind enough to listen to me for a full hour as I ranted about the crappy day (ooh, a pun) I had. I actually had a small meltdown at my desk at the end of it all and emailed angry.

Angry, spur of the moment email? Never a good thing. Thankfully, I was not vulgar or name calling. Just angrily pointing out a system in place that does not seem to be working as it should. And as I hit "send" I thought "oh my god, what did i just do?". Then I forwarded the message to my boss to let her know what I had done. Because she needs to know if I've been causing problems in other departments.

But Eric wanted a recap of the May Day march.

Well, Eric, Chicago had the biggest crowd nationally - an estimated 400,000 people participated in the march for immigrant rights. I didn't get to go. But my kids from school did. They also did up a table for the entire school so that there was information on immigration and white ribbons for those folks that couldn't attend the march and rally but wanted to show their support.

I watched streaming video online of the march and it was awesome to see. Barak Obama, whom I adore, addressed the crowd. As did Luis Gutierrez and a host of other folks. This host of other folks included people from all sorts of other ethnicities and groups, confirming what so much of the country needs to know - immigration is not just a Latino/Latin American issue. It's an Asian issue. It's a Middle Eastern issue. It's an Irish issue. It's a Muslim issue. It's a Christian issue.

A student who works downtown came in for classes in the evening and noted my white ribbon. She said that she had gone to a corner that the march passed and said it was just so "nice". People were being nice to one another. Not a single arrest. To have that many different people gathered together, all in agreement, all working towards a similar goal - immigration reform - was just really nice.

Honestly, I don't know if it will have an impact. I'm afraid to say it might not. While immigrants, legal and undocumented, pay taxes just like the rest of us, many contribute to social security and will never see that money, most will not get a chance to vote in the US. But their kids will. And their grandkids will. And I hope we all remember when we vote that most of us have family that came here as immigrants with very little money but dreams to make a better life.

People like Jim Oberweis, who was interviewed Monday morning on NPR, piss me off. He is a xenophobe and blames budget problems on the alien. He wants to blame the illegals for everything and has made that a huge part of his platform when he tried to run for state office. He appeals to the "Christian Right" whatever that means. As a Christian, he offends me. And while he might have good ice cream and milk, I will never buy another Oberwies product again.

In his book Mañana, Justo Gonzalez discusses the issue of school prayer and how people who arestrongg supporters of prayer in public schools are the same people who are supporters of the English-only movement. These people, while claiming a Christian perspective, have not applied theentiretyy of scripture to their lives. Instead they have made an idol of their god. Their god is not the Christian Yahweh who, instead of instituting a Hebrew-only policy, confuses things linguistically with events like Babel and Pentecost. Their god is not the Christian Yahweh who tells them to welcome the alien and care for the widow and orphan but the god who says that health care and support for the poor are not our responsibility.

But folks, if we want to take the Bible it's supposed to be taken, as a way to live our lives, we can't just take the parts that we like. We have to take it all, even those hard bits that say that life is not meant to be easy and following Jesus isn't going to be easy. We are not meant to be complacent or complicit in the world that we inhabit. W e are meant to be salt and light.

Almost Certain

I'm almost certain that getting pooped on by a bird as you walk to your car to leave for work is a bad sign.

Unless you're in Tuscany and trying to buy an old villa.