Monthly Archives: June 2003

Quiet Blog

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My blog may be really quiet for the next few days because I’m helping with the cooking and set-up for the funerals tomorrow and Thursday. As we’re worshipping in our fellowship hall while they replace the heating/air-conditioning system in the sanctuary, I’ll be putting away chairs and setting up tables while they’re doing the burial after the first funeral (which is the only one I wanted to attend) and then I’ll be helping with the cooking for the second funeral. On Thursday, I’ll be cooking all morning for the funeral and basically watching the kitchen because most of the ladies cooking will want to attend the funeral service (for someone who I pretty much knew just by name).

It’s going to be a crazy few days but I’m glad I volunteered to help out. Two of the three were active and faithfully attending until fairly recently and a lot of people are really in pain over the deaths. It’s one of the few times that I’m thankful that I’m only here temporarily — I have less attachment to the people than I would have if I’d attended here for years. Besides… many of the WELCA ladies are old enough to be my grandmothers and they all feel horrible about me being 2500 miles from my family members, so I get spoiled rotten by them as they try to compensate. 🙂

Three Deaths and a Wedding

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In the last 24 hours, three people (two women and a man) have died at Jon’s internship site. Thus… three funerals will happen this week with a wedding on Saturday at a local church (our sanctuary is torn up to install a new heating/air-conditioning system). I knew one of the women sort of well so I am sad about her — she was in her 80’s and offered to teach Jon and I how to drive and me how to sew! She loved Rennie, the fox in Jon’s children’s sermons, and was one of the first people we met when we came to the church.

In all of this, there is a hymn that is offering me comfort

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Reasons Why I Frequently Dream of Moving to Canada

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The following is a hypothetical situation:

You are part of an organization of businesses. Your business is the most successful and you host the meetings of this group at your lavish company headquarters. One business in your organization is treating its workers badly and is employing slave labor. There are also allegations of fraud within that business. You want to take over that business and liberate the workers from the tyranny of the business owner. Other businesses stop you and say, “Let’s try to do this through discussion and see if we can’t get the offending business to sell to us.” You’re not enthusiastic about that suggestion and damage the reputation of the businesses that suggested it. Against the wishes of the leaders of this organization (who exist to ensure fair practices), you engage in a hostile takeover and liberate the workers. The owner of the offending business is forced to sell and you acquire the shares of the company and claim that you will help the workers to rebuild the company rightly. You then lead a charge to disband the organization that you are part of because you didn’t like its criticism of your (possibly illegal) actions.

OK boys and girls, raise your hands if you think this is a ludicrous and completely selfish move for the most successful business to take. *multitude of people raise their hands* Wonderful. You all get gold stars. Now… how many of you understand why I’m putting this hypothetical situation forward.

*sees raised hand*

Yes Johnny?

Ms. K-M, could it be because there are seriously deluded people who never paid attention in their History classes who think that the U.S. was right to launch a smear campaign against France and suggest that the U.N. be disbanded because they don’t agree with us and criticized us for going into Iraq on charges of WMD that are yet unproven?

Very good Johnny. You get a cookie.

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This is the foolishness to which I am referring:

I call right now for the US to establish a group of allies and dissolve the UN. As the world’s sole superpower and leading democracy, the US should now create a new multilateral association of countries limited to countries that are broadly and successfully democratic and display a committment to to peace for all. This body of allies would promote peace and democracy throughout the world. The US would be the fulltime chair of this group, and membership in this group of allies would be a privilege not a right.

OK… it looks like this person slept through U.S History because they have obviously missed the ball on this. Evidence? Well… they didn’t know that the U.S. *does* have allies — the group is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (a.k.a. NATO). Membership *is* a privilege as many former Warsaw Pact countries are having problems gaining admission. It was started to combat communism and the former Soviet-bloc nations formed the Warsaw Pact.

Another thing: since when are we automatically “right” because we happen to be the wealthiest nation? I have many issues with this as our culture has replaced elements of other cultures and much of our pop culture is damaging to the cultural mores of other nations. We have 5% of the world’s population yet control over 50% of its wealth and consume 60% of its energy. Does this really sound like the kind of nation you want running the show? I seriously think NOT!

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Another Round of Random Bursts of Thought

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There has been so much in the last few days that has needed to be in my blog subjects that I think I’ll start another round of this.

  • Signatures flowing in to recall Davis. This really scares me because they’re doing well. Thing is… Davis was *NOT* a bad governor. Wilson was ten times worse. Davis hasn’t done much for education other than oppose vouchers (which would literally drain the school system of needed funds) but Wilson turned down $40 million with NO STRINGS ATTACHED from the feds for education. Davis is getting blamed for the power shortages but they were due to the deregulation of electricity passed in 1996 under a Republican governor and were supported by the voters of the state. This led the way for no regulation of Enron (and we all know how credible they are) to jack up the price of electricity during the power shortages. In other words, the citizens of California voted for this, having been warned by multiple TV ads (which I remember) about what deregulation would mean. (And yes, Crystal, I know that people hate him for more than that.) He also won the governor’s race against Bill Simon fair and square (which is more than I can say for *some* politicians). Would Simon, who even alienated himself from his own party, be a better governor? I seriously think not! Y’all elected Davis — you’re stuck with him for the next few years. So… tell Darrell Issa (the impetus for this recall who LOST the Senate campaign in 1998 and is bitter about it) and his fascist thugs to kiss off! *sighs* If only we could recall presidents…
  • We have a few laundry baskets in our bedroom and Finian has claimed the big white one. Yesterday morning, he came and mewed at me. I followed him and he stopped at the laundry basket and mewed very loudly… because his brother was curled up in it. It was a “MOMMY!!!! Cullen stole my laundry basket!!!!” kind of mew. I had to explain to Finian that he needs to share and give Cullen a turn. I’m not sure if he understood the concept of sharing because he is a cat, but Cullen soon jumped out and Finian claimed his rightful throne.
  • Jon and I attended the installation of one of the local pastors of the Other True Church (the one that doesn’t ordain women) on Sunday afternoon. We were treated very well and were able to rub elbows with some clergy we know from Columbus. (Jon attended the church for a few months and one of the pastors is the father of my worship team leader at my home church in Bexley.) Doug was happy to have us there and asked if we could do lunch on Tuesday. We spent two hours talking about seminary stuff, the colloquy process in the Other True Church, politics in the

    • One True Church, theology, our churches… We had a great time and if we can squeeze it in, we want to do lunch next month as well. As someone on my blogroll IRREVERENTLY (!!!) put it, “it was nice of him to hang out with [us] flaming liberals.” To this person, I’d say, “yeah… but we’re right-wing flaming liberals.” 😛

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    I Just Wanna Be A Sheep Baa Baa Baa Baa

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    I. – Alphabetical.

    A – Act your age? I think so. Then again, how is a 23 year old supposed to act???

    B – Born on what day of the week? Monday’s Child

    C – Chore you hate? Cleaning the bathroom or the cats’ commode.

    D – Dad’s name? Jim

    E – Essential makeup item? I don’t have one. The closest thing I have in the makeup/hair category is my addiction to Clairol Herbal Essences Spray Gel.

    F – Favourite actor? Robin Williams

    G – Gold or silver? Silver most of the time

    H – Hometown? San Jose. Home of many computer companies and yuppies.

    I – Instruments you play?

    J – Job title? Domestic Administrator

    K – Kids? Someday…

    L – Living arrangements? A three bedroom vicarage with a finished basement, screened patio that reeks of dog, my husband, and our two muchly beloved and spoiled cats.

    M – Mom’s name? Kathy

    N – Need… a job. Those with phatty jobs, please send some karma my way.

    O – Overnight hospital stays? 2: one because I was a premie and it took three weeks before I was allowed to go home from the hospital and the other for a “mysterious stomach ailment” when I was 21 (it was five days and a lot of painful and invasive procedures before they discharged me)

    P – Phobia? Dogs, snakes, heights, tight spaces

    Q – Quote you like? A few from my time at UCSC:

  • “You mean I can’t take all my clothes off and chain myself to the chancellor?” (my friend Jen when she heard that the protest for the NES at UCSC was going to be silent)
  • “It’s occasions like these that make me want to wear makeup!” (my friend Kurt upon hearing that there were tours of the campus being given)
  • “Do I really have to have a reason for being neurotic?” (if you know me in real life, this should need no explanation at all.)

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    Questions Answered

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    In this entry, I offered to answer any questions (within reason) that were put to me. So…

    Jake asked me TWO questions. 🙂

    1) What is the best piece of advice you have ever recieved?
    This is a hard one because I’ve received lots of really good advice. The top five pieces have been:
    -pick your battles
    -love yourself for who you are and not what people want you to be
    -when dealing with difficult people, remember that they are God’s children too
    -diplomacy is saying “nice doggy” until you find a rock
    -live your life in a way that will leave you with no regrets at the end

    2) Where is the one place you have always wanted to go but you have never been?
    Probably the continent of Europe. I’ve been to Ireland (both the Republic and the North) and I spent 24 hours in London; but I’ve never been to France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia, Italy, Portugal, or Greece. Next on my list are the Holy Land and Scotland, Wales, and England outside of London.

    Krissy was next.

    When did you know Jon was the one for you?
    There were two points when I kind of realized that this was gonna last. The first one was January 2000 when we were on the phone one night discussing our ideal weddings and I realized that it was “when we get married” instead of “when I get married” coming out of our mouths. The second one was when I was visiting Jon at the seminary in March 2000 and one of the students told me that they would put money on us being married within at least five years. We were married almost exactly two years later.

    Crystal had two questions too…

    1.) If you could live *anywhere*, where would it be?
    At this point, the Pacific Northwest near the coast (or at least a substantial body of water). I’d love Washington or British Columbia (probably pushing more for beautiful BC because it’s *CANADA* and the people there are so wonderful) but if I couldn’t be in the Pacific Northwest, I’d probably go for the coastal areas of Maine or Massachusetts. Ireland is kind of a dream but probably not going to happen.

    2.) How’s the marriage going?
    The marriage is going well. We’ve learned each other’s breaking points and pet peeves and we try to avoid pressing those buttons. The adoption of the kitties was a plus because they give us something to love together. We’ve made it a year and three months at this point and we’re thinking this should last for a while longer. 🙂

    If you have more questions, leave them in the comments of this entry.

    Layouts

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    The red layout with many languages was a special one-day Pentecost layout. If you missed it and would like to see it and the full entry from yesterday, click here.

    This new layout is for Ordinary Time — the period between Trinity Sunday (which will be on the 15th) and Christ the King Sunday (last Sunday before Advent starts). I chose a dark blue color because I’m an indigo fan and I’m hoping the text colors are easy enough to read. The leaf picture works pretty well for the colors.

    I may get sick of the layout in September and make a fall one — I just don’t know. Pentecost/Ordinary Time is a long season.