Have I mentioned lately how much I love Doctor Who? No?

Well, then, let me tell you that The Planet of the Ood was a fantastic episode.

Why does American TV have to suck so much?

God has a weird sense of humor...

...and he's exercising it at my expense, I think.


So I said my bit about fundraising and youth ministry this morning. Apparently, I didn't suck. In fact several people complemented me, and several others asked if I've ever considered ministry. Including the pastor.


I was a little dumbfounded. I know I'm a good speaker when I put my mind to it. And I am a theology geek - especially when it comes to Scripture and church history.


But I come from a tradition where that was never a possibility that was open from me. In fact, until I got to college, I didn't realize that a woman in the Catholic church could do something in professional ministry other than teaching, nursing, or social work (Thank you R - my campus minister - for showing me otherwise). And while I appreciate women in pastoral ministry - especially those serving as pastors - it isn't a role I ever saw myself in.


I stumbled through my answer to my pastor. I think she saw that I was uncomfortable a little, and she suggested I should consider the Associates in Ministry program. For those of you who are Catholic...well, I can't think of an analogy. You can read about it here. Apparently, we have someone in our congregation who is currently doing this.


The problem is that I work more than full time, in a job I really, really like (usually). I don't have the time or luxury to travel (she's taking most of her classes in Texas), so that method wouldn't work for me.

Plus, I have the issues left over from my miserable time at the CCC. I don't know if I really want to do anything like that ever again.

I'm really torn, but I guess it gives me a lot to think about.

So I have to talk about fundraising for the 2009 National Youth Gathering tomorrow at church.

I hate asking people for money. I hope I don't completely suck.

I'll be glad when November is finally over.

Cooked the chicken. It was good.

Now, I try to be very tolerant of the fact that the majority of the people in my building are younger and don't really work for a living. But I have issue with the girl in the apartment next door setting up a karaoke machine - with a microphone - outside. At night. (It's quite warm tonight - The Weather Channel says it's currently 72).

It's still early, but if it goes on after 10, I think I might be brave and tell her to stop. I have to be at work at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Since I'm the only person in my department not out of town this weekend. The joys of being single and utterly without family.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I got a flu shot at my doctor's appointment today. My arm started to really ache about 8 hours later. Never had that happen before.

Tomorrow I'm cooking a chicken, assuming the flu shot doesn't give me the flu.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Oh, and this is kind of exciting: when you type "groovy title" into Google, this blog is the first thing to come up.

I'm sorta kinda famous, except not really at all!

blerg

I'm so tired. I think Thanksgiving dinner this year might consist of rice and broccoli, and I'll just sleep the rest of the day.

Sigh.

I have a huge and evil project I'm working on at work. If Iwere you, I'd expect most of the rest of my entries this month to be very short.

Sunday Funnies

So today I was talking about fundraising for the ELCA National Gathering with my high school students. I was trying to get them to give me some suggestions so that they had some ownerships in the process (didn't work so well, if you are interested).

One of my kids pops up and says, "We could sell indulgences after services!"

After we recovered from the minor earthquake caused by Martin Luther rolling over in his grave, I was actually kind of pleased that they remembered that from our discussion on Reformation Sunday. And they all remembered, because they all immediately started laughing.

I have a good group of kids.

Slow Saturday

So, I'm sitting here in CC's, a local coffee house chain that is popular enough that Starbucks was forced to close the majority if it's stores in South Louisiana. I'm working on a project for work and watching Season 2 of Torchwood. I couldn't do laundry today because the laundromat was closed due to the LSU game.

Only in Baton Rouge.

So I bought a winter(ish) coat...

...and it pained me to do so.

See, it really only gets cold enough here that I need more than my sweatshirt with a couple of layers underneath to be warm for about three weeks out of the whole year, and those days are spread between late November, December, and January (with maybe an outlier or two in February).

But I'm not sure about this year. We're expecting a freeze tonight, and it's awfullly early for our first hard freeze of the year (that usually comes sometime in December). So I gave in and ordered something a little bit heavier. Really, it's just a heavyweight sweatshirt. But combined with my regular sweatshirt, it should be enough to get me through the winter.

Oh, and I've decided not to go to Pittsburgh in January. I'm going to buy a sewing machine and a card table instead.

Critical Decision

And no, it's not whether or not I should go to Pittsburgh in January, for those of you who are also my Facebook friends (for the record, the jury is still out on that one). No, I have to decide what to wear to the company Christmas party in December. It is the one day out of the year when I get all girly and stuff.

I am wearing a black skirt (I have 14,000 of them - roughly speaking), and I'm trying to decide between these tops:

I like this one a lot, but it is very different than what I typically go for. Also, it is red, which scares me. I look good in it, but it seems to me that it is too attention grabbing.

I like this one, too. It is different, and it is sparkly, which is always good for Christmas. I just don't think I have an appropriate bra to pull it off, and I don't want to buy a bra that I am going to wear exactly once.

>

This is kind of casual for a semi-formal event, I think, but I really like the color.

I like the neckline and the cut of this, but it might be too casual a fabric.

I would totally pick this one if I were a little bit braver. But again, I have a fear of red, and I still have the bra issue.

I love blue velvet. That's why this one is here.

.

I thought the cut of this one was interesting, and it's in a plesantly Christmasy color

.

Same shirt, different color. I'm partial to neutrals

Any preferences among the fashionistas of the blogosphere?

I had pizza for dinner tonight...

...just thought you should know.

 

So sleepy...

Enjoy...

...this cat riding a Roomba while I read a 350+ page RFP.

I had something to say....but I forgot what it was.

So this morning I decided I was going to make beef stew. Actually, I decided it yesterday, because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have had anything to make it with.

So I cut up the potatoes, counted the baby carrots (which I don't actually eat, but they give good flavor), put in the rest of the ingreditents, turned the Crockpot on, and went to church. The stew was supposed to cook for 10 hours on low.

So I got home from church about 5 hours later (Sunday school, service, and shopping), and was surprised I couldn't smell the stew cooking when I came in the house. I went into the kitchen, looked at the stew, and it hadn't cooked at all.

I forgot to plug in the Crockpot.

Fortunately, it was a cold day here in BR, and I turned the heat off before I left for church. The stew got off to a late start, but it was worth it.

Loveys

M. Giant, one of my favorite recappers at Television Without Pity, wrote an entry in his personal blog about his son's loveys. It made me all nostalgic.


I had three loveys when I was a kid. One was a stuffed Snoopy with a music box in his tummy that played Brahm's Lullaby. I loved that thing literally to death. He got to the point where they music box wouldn't play anymore, his fur had been rubbed off from petting, and his ears were all frayed. It took a lot for me to finally give him up, but I really couldn't justify holding onto what had become a moldering pile of foam and furless fabric covering a music box that didn't work.


Then there was Jon-Jon. Jon-Jon was a fabric bear that was about 2.5 feet tall that my aunt bought at a flea market for a quarter. I think he might have originally have been vaguely patchworky, but I honestly can't remember. Once the fabric started fraying (which didn't take long, considering the bear was alreay used and I dragged him everywhere when I was three), my mom made him new pants and a new "shirt" out of polyester double knit. It took a lot to destroy that fabric, which is why our landfills are filled with fashion mistakes from the 70's. Anyway, Jon-Jon lasted with his polyester duds (brown pants and a weirdly patterened top - that actually covered the back of his head as well) for a good long time until I decided in college that he needed to be restuffed and needed a makeover. I opened up his seams and restuffed him (and honestly, his original stuffing was really gross), and made him new clothes with fabric from my mom's stash, which...was polyester double knit. She sewed a lot of our clothes in the 70's, you see. Jon-Jon got lost in my move south, sadly. I had him when I moved (he was looking outside the back window of the van that didn't go over 35 on the interstate all through Kentucky and Tennessee), but somehow or another he never made it inside my apartment.


Then there was Teddy Roosevelt. I have no idea how I came up with that name. Teddy Roosevelt was a little brown bear who was very soft and fuzzy. I slept with him all the way into adulthood (blushes). He was my big source of comfort, and made me feel safe. He was also the very first gift my dad bought me, the day I was born. When I was little, I used to stage weddings between him and a pink teddy bear I had that was not very soft and cuddly. Her name was Eleanor Roosevelt. I have no idea how I came up with that name, either. Granted, I was a precocious little kid, but I wasn't that bright. Unfortunately, Teddy Roosevelt was lost in the move south, too. I think that hit me even harder than losing Jon-Jon.

I had other stuffed animals I loved, and I still like to buy little stuffed animals every now and then when I need a pick-me-up. But none of them have ever compared to these three.

Church and State

This article and the actions of this priest make me mad.

No letters like this were sent during the Clinton presidency, and by all accounts, he was as pro-choice as they come. If we had elected a white, pro-choice Democrat, would this letter still have been sent?

But the thing that makes me most mad is that this priest has no idea what the disposition of these people's hearts is. He doesn't know why they voted for Obama. For that matter, he doesn't know why people voted for McCain. It's entirely possible that some of the people who voted for McCain did so out of sense of hatred for Obama's skin color, and that those same people are pro-choice. Isn't that worse than someone who voted for Obama because because of his stance on the war or healthcare, and is against abortion?

There is a reason why we separate church and state in this country. And I know that it is more so the government doesn't interfere with churches, but the churches need to stay out of government, too. I have no problem with individuals using their faith as part of the criteria of how they vote. It is - or should be - impossible to set aside that part of your personality. But I don't think clergy should have the ability to judge the disposition of a person's heart based on how they voted.

Quick Post...

I was feeling under the weather today, so no real post. Instead, enjoy this interview with David Tennant from a British morning show the day after he announced he is leaving Doctor Who. My little geeky heart broke when he announced that, even though I knew it was coming.