At the Latke Fest 08 that I recently attended at Josh and Selene's apartment, I came to realize certain truths about parties you attend in your 20's versus parties you attend in your 30's. To wit:
Parties attended in 1998:
- Discussion of who has eating disorders
- Search for over-age friends to buy booze
- Discussion of living with parents
- Leaving early to hit another all night rager
- Complaints about crappy part-time job
- Survey of who's hooking up
- Relaying antics of siblings
Parties attended in 2008:
- Discussion of how easily weight is gained post 30
- Search for good merlot someone recommended
- Discussion of current mortgage interest rates
- Leaving early to attend family function
- Tips on parlaying current job into consulting gig
- Survey of who's getting married
- Relaying antics of offspring
The trick, I believe, is to enjoy your place in life no matter what it is.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
On Faith
Faith is not something I often talk about. I'm the granddaughter of a Methodist minister, was raised Congregational and Episcopalian, spent 4 years at an Opus Dei Catholic School, socialize mostly with Atheists, Agnostics, and Jews, and thanks to the most recent wave of refugee resettlement in town, I work with a predominantly Muslim group of kids. I've seen quite a bit of religion and have never really taken to any of them.
When I was child, I remember talking often with God. God was like an imaginary friend - someone you just talked to that no one else could see. I didn't pray to God, I conversed. I talked about my day, had one way discussions on why world events were as they were, asked a couple of questions about Jesus, occasionally requested peace among family members. I played My Little Ponies with God sometimes. God was the only person I told about my secret metal box of treasures I kept in my closet in case the house burned down so I could grab it when I had to evacuate. I figured if anyone would remind me to take it, God would.
But I outgrew talking to God. At some point I started talking to myself instead. Not surprisingly, people react much more positively to children talking to themselves instead of "God". Too reminiscent of Joan of Arc, I guess. Also, God never talked back and I got a bit impatient with the one-sided nature of the relationship. God became this ridiculous part of my past - a figment of my imagination that I was foolish enough to believe in with my childhood naivete. By the time I was 15 I was a full fledged Atheist. The idea of a god or an afterlife seemed like the most ludicrous, arcane idea born of weak people who needed a fake higher cosmic being to give their lives meaning. I gave god away like everything else I'd outgrown.
I've been comfortable in my adult life vacillating between Atheism and Agnosticism. I've been confronted many times by people who believe that I must be without hope or inner peace as an Atheist, but I feel quite the contrary. When I, or others without organized religion, do good deeds, it's not because of Church doctrine or to get into an afterlife. It's a purely altruistic gesture. The more good I see done by Atheists, the more I can believe in the inherent goodness of humanity. I see people who choose a positive path because they want to, not out of fear of religious retribution. And that makes me happy and hopeful.
But I do miss the community that church provided. I miss singing on Sundays and smelling the lilies at Easter. I miss little kids dressed up for Christmas and bad pageants. I miss celebrating life with a room full of joyful people. I but I just can't consider myself Christian. I don't have those beliefs of the supernatural aspects in my heart and I would feel hypocritical and disrespectful to the congregation if I went to a service for the fun of it. I just don't believe in the idea of Jesus as anything other than a really good guy and grass roots organizer who made some pretty incredible changes in a corrupt society. And that supernatural belief in Jesus as the son of god seems to be a pretty fundamental Christian concept. It's non-negotiable to believers.
So today is the first day of Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, and in a few days Christmas will come. I tend to celebrate all equally since I have friends of those faiths. Truth be told, I love Hanukkah. It's such a wonderful concept and the candles and latkes can't be beat. But again, I'm not about to call myself Jewish because I enjoy the ceremony of the holidays.
But this Christmas Eve, I believe I will attend a service at the local Unitarian Universalist Church. I've done a lot of research and I think it will be a good fit for me. Many people I've met who share my views of religion feel quite at home as UUers, and I'm excited to see what it's all about. It may be great, it may be uncomfortable. I don't know. but I'm looking forward to finding out.
So to all of my friends and families, no matter what you celebrate at this time of year, have a very happy holiday season. I wish you all love, laughter and light.
When I was child, I remember talking often with God. God was like an imaginary friend - someone you just talked to that no one else could see. I didn't pray to God, I conversed. I talked about my day, had one way discussions on why world events were as they were, asked a couple of questions about Jesus, occasionally requested peace among family members. I played My Little Ponies with God sometimes. God was the only person I told about my secret metal box of treasures I kept in my closet in case the house burned down so I could grab it when I had to evacuate. I figured if anyone would remind me to take it, God would.
But I outgrew talking to God. At some point I started talking to myself instead. Not surprisingly, people react much more positively to children talking to themselves instead of "God". Too reminiscent of Joan of Arc, I guess. Also, God never talked back and I got a bit impatient with the one-sided nature of the relationship. God became this ridiculous part of my past - a figment of my imagination that I was foolish enough to believe in with my childhood naivete. By the time I was 15 I was a full fledged Atheist. The idea of a god or an afterlife seemed like the most ludicrous, arcane idea born of weak people who needed a fake higher cosmic being to give their lives meaning. I gave god away like everything else I'd outgrown.
I've been comfortable in my adult life vacillating between Atheism and Agnosticism. I've been confronted many times by people who believe that I must be without hope or inner peace as an Atheist, but I feel quite the contrary. When I, or others without organized religion, do good deeds, it's not because of Church doctrine or to get into an afterlife. It's a purely altruistic gesture. The more good I see done by Atheists, the more I can believe in the inherent goodness of humanity. I see people who choose a positive path because they want to, not out of fear of religious retribution. And that makes me happy and hopeful.
But I do miss the community that church provided. I miss singing on Sundays and smelling the lilies at Easter. I miss little kids dressed up for Christmas and bad pageants. I miss celebrating life with a room full of joyful people. I but I just can't consider myself Christian. I don't have those beliefs of the supernatural aspects in my heart and I would feel hypocritical and disrespectful to the congregation if I went to a service for the fun of it. I just don't believe in the idea of Jesus as anything other than a really good guy and grass roots organizer who made some pretty incredible changes in a corrupt society. And that supernatural belief in Jesus as the son of god seems to be a pretty fundamental Christian concept. It's non-negotiable to believers.
So today is the first day of Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, and in a few days Christmas will come. I tend to celebrate all equally since I have friends of those faiths. Truth be told, I love Hanukkah. It's such a wonderful concept and the candles and latkes can't be beat. But again, I'm not about to call myself Jewish because I enjoy the ceremony of the holidays.
But this Christmas Eve, I believe I will attend a service at the local Unitarian Universalist Church. I've done a lot of research and I think it will be a good fit for me. Many people I've met who share my views of religion feel quite at home as UUers, and I'm excited to see what it's all about. It may be great, it may be uncomfortable. I don't know. but I'm looking forward to finding out.
So to all of my friends and families, no matter what you celebrate at this time of year, have a very happy holiday season. I wish you all love, laughter and light.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Farewell my Fish
It's a sad day here. This morning, Thomas the betta passed away. I tried to give him an extravagantly large home, top of the line bloodworm food, a cat to sit on top of his tank, but ultimately it wasn't enough. I've had one of my turtles for 24 years, but I couldn't manage to keep a betta alive. Thomas, I failed you. And I'm sorry.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Fun with Coffee
It's early in the morning, I'm about to go into a Board meeting, and I haven't had coffee yet. I hurt. But, thanks to the good folks at ThinkGeek.com, at least I'm smiling. I give you good folks:
Weasel Coffee
Excerpt: There's a little animal in Vietnam which has magical properties. Locally, it's called a weasel (though technically, it's a type of civet, but let's call it a weasel like the locals) and it sure likes to eat the fruit of the coffee plant. But the seeds don't sit well in its tummy, so it vomits them up. And that's where the fun comes in - for local coffee folks gather up the beans and lightly roast them. The stomach acids seem to wear away the bitter taste of the coffee beans, and the resulting coffee is delicious and smooth.
Weasel Coffee
Excerpt: There's a little animal in Vietnam which has magical properties. Locally, it's called a weasel (though technically, it's a type of civet, but let's call it a weasel like the locals) and it sure likes to eat the fruit of the coffee plant. But the seeds don't sit well in its tummy, so it vomits them up. And that's where the fun comes in - for local coffee folks gather up the beans and lightly roast them. The stomach acids seem to wear away the bitter taste of the coffee beans, and the resulting coffee is delicious and smooth.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Welcome Back to Reality
This morning I returned to work after a fabulous Thanksgiving and post Thanksgiving Chicago trip. For the record, I believe my niece is the current title holder for "World's Most Awesome Baby". Five days of non-work fun have left me exhausted and refreshed at the same time.
However, now back at work, I believe I myself am the current title holder of "World's Biggest Idiot". Let me explain. The morning began with me waking up for the first time in five days at 6:45am, as per my usual work schedule. It was tired, I was groggy, I was annoyed. But I was up. And I managed to get myself into the shower. While drying off from a shower that included several moments of trying to figure out exactly what I was doing in there (shampooing? washing? standing blankly and looking at the shower head?), I heard someone enter my apartment. Blind panic set in. What the hell was going on? As the steps came closer to the bathroom door, I weighed the pros and cons of jumping out my bathroom window naked. Pro - survival. Con - death by embarrassment. Then I heard a quick knock and a "good morning". Josh was there, kindly helping me drop my car off at the mechanic's today. Within a span of 7 hours, I had completely spaced on this agenda item. Crisis averted and eventually, car deposited.
Arriving at work 15 minutes late to find my executive director already in the building, I figured the day wasn't going in a positive direction. She informed me that we had finally gotten a call about our federal funding and we would be down $40,000. Poop. I sulked back to my office. What to do? When in time of crisis, go back to the basics. No coffee, no breakfast yet. Must fix these issues. So off to the kitchen. No coffee filters. Poop. Solution? Reworking a filter from another machine. Solved. Next up - breakfast. Two pieces of bread inserted into toaster. Solved. Back to my office to check email while food cooks. Checking email...checking email...checking email...what's that smell...checking email...no, seriously, what's that smell? Off to kitchen to investigate.
FIRE!!!!!! Room full of smoke, and FIRE! The toaster was on fire! Blow it out! Blow it out! It's not working! Unplug it! It's hot! It's STILL ON FIRE! Bowl by the sink - fill with water and douse flames! Done. No more fire. But lots of smoke. Open door to fan out smoke.
FIRE ALARM GOES OFF! Sirens - lights - fire marshals! Threats of sprinkler systems! Firemen arrive and turn off the alarm, after laughing profusely at me.
Back at my desk. To summarize, my first day back I not only didn't get the full federal grant amount we needed (a major failure) but I also set the toaster on fire and set off the alarm system, and had to get the fire department on site to turn it off. Since on Tuesdays we have homeschoolers using our building, I've had the fun task of explaining to 20 people why our building smells like smoke. Oh, and there are a whole slate of other people scheduled to come in today who will also, I'm sure, require the detailed story of how I became the world's biggest idiot on a Tuesday morning.
However, now back at work, I believe I myself am the current title holder of "World's Biggest Idiot". Let me explain. The morning began with me waking up for the first time in five days at 6:45am, as per my usual work schedule. It was tired, I was groggy, I was annoyed. But I was up. And I managed to get myself into the shower. While drying off from a shower that included several moments of trying to figure out exactly what I was doing in there (shampooing? washing? standing blankly and looking at the shower head?), I heard someone enter my apartment. Blind panic set in. What the hell was going on? As the steps came closer to the bathroom door, I weighed the pros and cons of jumping out my bathroom window naked. Pro - survival. Con - death by embarrassment. Then I heard a quick knock and a "good morning". Josh was there, kindly helping me drop my car off at the mechanic's today. Within a span of 7 hours, I had completely spaced on this agenda item. Crisis averted and eventually, car deposited.
Arriving at work 15 minutes late to find my executive director already in the building, I figured the day wasn't going in a positive direction. She informed me that we had finally gotten a call about our federal funding and we would be down $40,000. Poop. I sulked back to my office. What to do? When in time of crisis, go back to the basics. No coffee, no breakfast yet. Must fix these issues. So off to the kitchen. No coffee filters. Poop. Solution? Reworking a filter from another machine. Solved. Next up - breakfast. Two pieces of bread inserted into toaster. Solved. Back to my office to check email while food cooks. Checking email...checking email...checking email...what's that smell...checking email...no, seriously, what's that smell? Off to kitchen to investigate.
FIRE!!!!!! Room full of smoke, and FIRE! The toaster was on fire! Blow it out! Blow it out! It's not working! Unplug it! It's hot! It's STILL ON FIRE! Bowl by the sink - fill with water and douse flames! Done. No more fire. But lots of smoke. Open door to fan out smoke.
FIRE ALARM GOES OFF! Sirens - lights - fire marshals! Threats of sprinkler systems! Firemen arrive and turn off the alarm, after laughing profusely at me.
Back at my desk. To summarize, my first day back I not only didn't get the full federal grant amount we needed (a major failure) but I also set the toaster on fire and set off the alarm system, and had to get the fire department on site to turn it off. Since on Tuesdays we have homeschoolers using our building, I've had the fun task of explaining to 20 people why our building smells like smoke. Oh, and there are a whole slate of other people scheduled to come in today who will also, I'm sure, require the detailed story of how I became the world's biggest idiot on a Tuesday morning.
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