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Your Christian Hipster Quotient: 66 / 120

Low CHQ. You probably belong to the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Christian establishment, even though you are open to some of the “rethinking Christianity” stuff. You seem to like edginess in some measure but become uneasy when your idea of Christian orthodoxy is challenged by some renegade young visionary who claims the virgin birth isn’t necessary.

Yeah… I’m totally into traditional worship and would probably be Antiochian Orthodox if I wasn’t Lutheran. You know… incense (oh wait… allergic to that), standing for 3 hours (oh wait… can’t do that either because of the fibro), bowing/kneeling, acapella music, 1500 year-old liturgies…

I’m sure some Orthodox wear Hawaiian shirts.

I also would rather burn a copy of The Purpose-Driven Life than read it.

Daniel is now mobile.

I’ve gerry-rigged two baby gates together to take care of the entrance to the kitchen. At some point this week, we’ll head to Kids R’Us and get a baby gate that can span that space.

Enter the sitch at Ground Zero. While it’s a bit of a different situation because of the events of 9/11, the Muslims using the building have been using that space for awhile now. They were interviewing a couple Christian pastors who know the imam and they’ve said that he’s down-to-earth and totally into blending with the community. His wife is very chill and I feel like it’s a different situation than it would be if he was anti-American and anti-Western. It’s honestly no different than building a JCC or a Christian church in the building.

I’m really a bit angry at a lot of the protestors that are fighting the building of a mosque. If you’re going to blame all Muslims for 9/11, then you should blame all Christians for the shooting of abortion doctors or all Catholics for the abuse scandal. Nineteen people do not represent a whole religion. Adherents of a religion only know what they are taught and I think at this point, it would be better to allow a mosque with a mentally-balanced imam to show what Islam truly is and what it isn’t.

And seriously, I have been treated better and shown more hospitality by Muslims at mosques I’ve visited than I have by my fellow Christians. I’d rather encourage their attitude than the attitude of my less hospitable brethren.

It might be all the “Your Baby Can Read” commercials that bombard us on Qubo but I do worry about Daniel being ready for school, especially since I have no idea where we’ll be once he hits school and what will be available to him as far as preschool and all that.

I was having visions of creating math flashcards out of 3×5 cards, some kind of poster with the letters of the alphabet, and just a bunch of things. We’ve got a pretty decent amount of childrens’ books thanks to my mother-in-law who gave me a huge gift certificate to Amazon.Com for that purpose last year.

For my readers who homeschool your kids: why did you decide to do so and what do you use? There’s no definite plan to homeschool Daniel but I’d love to know what’s out there.

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I have a modest proposal:

SEND RACHEL HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously… that girl is EVIL.

My thoughts: I could honestly care less.

I know, I know. I’m a conservative Christian and I’m not flipping out about how it’s an abomination and all that. Thing is… it doesn’t change my life either way. It’s not like Jon is going to have to start performing same-sex unions (it’s one of those things in our denomination where it’s up to the pastor and the church) and it’s honestly not harming anything. Will I go to the weddings of my gay friends? Probably not but I also haven’t managed to attend the weddings of most of my straight friends either.

The other thing: I’ve got four burners on which I can deal with things. They’re being taken up right now with Daniel, Jon, job-hunting, and finances. (My father-in-law gets put on when one of the last two can be taken off and stirred.) I don’t have the mental and emotional energy to put toward being righteously indignant about this.

One of my friends who is pissed over Prop 8 being overturned asked on Facebook about “what one does when something one has voted for is thrown out”. I really had to force myself not to tell her to ask those who were disenfranchised under our ex-president about that.

Receptionist: You’re not on the schedule. I don’t have you scheduled for a follow-up appointment at all. You’ll have to re-schedule because Dr. Rheumy is double-booked and I *HIGHLY* doubt he’ll want to see you today.
Me: This is interesting because I scheduled the appointment with you when I was in here three weeks ago.
Receptionist: Do you have an appointment card?
Me: *pulls the card from my wallet* Why yes, I do have one.
Receptionist: *sullenly* Well, I still doubt he’ll want to see you today. You’ll probably have to re-schedule but I’ll go check.

I went and sat down, mentally trying to figure out how I was going to re-schedule if they wanted me tomorrow because I’d have to find someone to watch Daniel. I’d been sitting there for about 5 minutes when I heard my name called.

Nurse: Jennifer K-M?

I went back with her and told her that I was surprised given the exchange with the receptionist. The nurse’s reply: “Somebody screwed up and they’re seeing you because you had the card that proved that you *DID* have the appointment.”

After seeing Dr. Rheumy, I went out to make a follow-up appointment and got Evil Receptionist again. She scheduled me and told me to hold on to the card because “if something gets screwed up, he’ll work you in if you have the card.” I smiled politely and left.

OK… this is the same office staff that has cut me off when they’ve put me on hold, lost my faxed lab work TWICE, and now this. I think I would have been fired within three days if I’d done this when I worked as a receptionist. Seriously, these people are so awful and incompetent that it’s quite amazing.