poorlu's Xanga

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:30:19 GMT

"That's the Twentieth Century for you. Automobiles! Garages! Chauffers-- chauffer's daughters!" Hurrah for the chauffer's daughters, I say.

~Merry

Monday, September 25, 2006

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:55:29 GMT

Outside of church one mad little decorative tree has taken it into it's head to bloom riotously just as the weather turns cold and heads for the end of the year! Isn't life delightfully surprising?

~Merry

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:26:45 GMT

The thing about swearing is that taking God's name in vain somehow makes you feel unworthy to call on it at any other time. Know what I mean?

~Merry

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:29:04 GMT

I saw my first dead butterfly of the year today. It was resting in the drying grass outside the dentist’s office. It was black and shimmery blue and a little bit orange, and one wing was crumbling away. You could tell right off it was dead because of the way the wind ruffled the wings a little. It always makes me a little sad to see dead butterflies– a little resigned, as though our efforts somehow had failed despite the valiance with which we daily live.

I don’t know why I feel that way. I’m hardly a defeatist person. On the contrary, I’m quite likely to ignore the failures and sins of society and bounce gaily onward, delighting in life while orphans are starving in Nigeria. Of the two of us, Mel is more the hero.

Anyway, the butterfly made me stop and think, because I’ve been writing a lot of childlike thoughts on butterflies lately because my little dance students are having a performance themed around butterflies in September. So my storywriting and choreogaphing and costume-designing have all been centered around butterflies for a while now. But I’ve stayed half-consciously away from the subject of butterfly-death as it’s hard for five-year-olds to deal with things like that when they are dressed in a butterfly costume. Hardly the best of taste.

The rest of my lack of taste becomes evident in the date of our performance: Monday, September Eleventh. Good gracious! But you know, the chapel is in high demand for weddings, and we have to compete with them; and 9/11 is really one of the few days of the year I suppose people consciously avoid scheduling weddings!!!

~Merry

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:02:03 GMT

I just wanted to let y’all know about an event called Read for the Record that is occurring on Thursday, August 24, 2006. Jumpstart, a literacy nonprofit, is sponsering the event, which is designed to get as many people to read the same book on the same day as possible, and set a world record– and promote awareness of literacy problems in the US and resources that are available to combat it!

The book selected for Read for the Record is The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper, recently reillustrated by the wonderfully talented Mr. Loren Long, who happens to be an aquaintance of mine. He’s the sweetest most earnest man you ever met and the book is wonderful– I’m sure you remember it from your own childhood and would love to share it with a child you know!

To sign up and be counted for the World Record, visit www.readfortherecord.com. If you live in the Cincinnati area, join us at Barnes and Noble in West Chester! Bring all of the children and friends you know, grab yourself a Frappacino and settle in for Storytime with the Little Blue Engine. We have crafts, we have snacks, we have the story and most of all we’d love to have YOU!

Wow, that was peppered with exclamation points. Mea Culpa.

~Merry

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 03:13:21 GMT

I went back and found my New Year's resolutions to check how I'm doing Ready to find out?

1) Find out more about what God is really like. (I know, I know! It seems basic. But every time I think I've got it figured out, I realize that I've boxed him up somehow, and I'm suffering because of it. So, I want to learn more.)

Well, the progress isn't as rapid as I could wish, but yes, this is happening. I don't know if it's happening any sooner than it would have if I hadn't resolved it, though.

2) Improve the quality of my relationships with my family, especially my sisters. (Resounding cries of "Finally!!" are heard.)

They're getting better. Although they would get better faster if I could resolve the issues my family members accidentally hit like a sore tooth, though.

3) Write more-- more frequently, in more volume, with more quality, in more disciplined a manner, with more of an ear to what God is saying. Just more, period.

Getting there. Not as good as I'd like to be. But I've got finished drafts of stuff I want to return to (as opposed to unfinished drafts), and a whole lot more ideas than I had before. But I haven't been as disciplined as I wanted to be.

4) Learn how to diet. (Please don't yell at me. I literally don't know how to do this properly. If you think I'm going to be uncareful in this endeavor-- or that my friends would let me-- you either don't know me very well or you aren't thinking carefully.)

Yes, I think I have figured this one out. At any rate I am down from a fourteen to a ten and have stayed quite balanced about it all mentally and nutritionally.

5) Become more balanced (in most areas, but particularly my finances and my prayer life.)

No. Strike out. Okay, this is something to work on.

6) Develop my leadership skills, at church, at work and in other areas.

The funny thing is that I resolved in areas I thought God wanted to lead me into anyway. Was I right? Well...

A) Michele moved and left the adult end of the dance ministry entirely in my hands.
B) My supervising manager went on extended leave to have a couple of surgeries and left me minimally supervised.
C) I have served on prayer teams at church a few times.

Yup. Okay. Six is well on it's way.

So there you have it! An honest update. I'll check in with y'all again end of December.

~Merry

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 10:33:58 GMT

Lame, fun, and I tag Tony, Mae, Mel and Phil. ~Merry
(None of these are in any particular order.)

A) Name the last four books you have read/are reading.

1. Remembered Death, Agatha Christie

2. Haunted Ground, Erin Hart

3. Battles of the Bible, Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon

4. The Red House Mystery, A.A. Milne

(Can you tell I'm on a mystery kick right now?)

B) Name four CDs that you have in your car or been listening to over and over recently.

1. If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something, Rebecca St. James

2. Imagination, Bethany Dillon

3. Romance of the Violin, Joshua Bell

4. Sense and Sensibility soundtrack

C) Four of your favorite restaurant/fast food place

1. Tony Buxsel's kitchen

2. Lenhardt's (hungarian and german)

3. Grand Finale

4. The Claddagh

D) Four living people you would like to talk with one on one.

1. Michele Holland (*sigh*)

2. Douglas

3. Phil

4. Lauryl and Laura

E) Four favorite band/artist of all time.

1. Patrick Doyle

2. Michael W. Smith

3. U2

4. Joshua Bell

(That's like four artists that are in my top fifteen, but this is really hard to narrow down.)

F) Name four places you would like to go to in the USA.

1. New Orleans

2. Wisconsin

3. New Orleans

4. New Orleans

G) Last four DVDs you watched.

1. My House in Umbria

2. The Italian Job

3. Wives and Daughters

4. The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

Ten Most Favorite Things to do:

1. Being with friends / sisters

2. reading good books, thinking about good books, have discussions about good books (thanks, Jes!)

3. Teaching ballet / dancing with friends

4. Going to work (on a good day)

5. Going to Bob Evans with Mom

6. Baking

7. Working on a text

8. Shooting with Dad or Roger

9. Movies with Lori

10. Experiencing good art, whatever the format

Monday, August 07, 2006

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 03:24:12 GMT

So today at work I got visited by tons of people I knew! The Mullins family, Mike Cochran, Sean, and some other people came in a swarm and camped out in my kids department, and we so well behaved! Thanks, guys! When you come in and are respectful and courteous, you're an example to my coworkers (who are understandably teen-shy) of what Christian teenagers look like. Way to reflect Jesus!

Remember you owe me five bucks, Sean, k?

And I also saw Andrew Dean and his girlfriend. That was way sweet, because Andrew's ditching Cincy for Seatle, and so it was nice to get to see him before he left. *sniff*. The Deans are slowly but surely relocating. I can't imagine the rest will be far behind. And there goes one more childhood connection. Does it ever seem to you like your foundation is slowly disolving out from under you?

~Merry

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 23:46:23 GMT

Everyone in my family is being sweet to me lately. My dad came over to work today and changed me "accessory drive belt", whatever that is. It was falling apart and making odd noises, and could at any moment have snapped, making the car stop moving. It's cool that I have a dad to take care of my car like that. And Mel helped, showing how truely handy a gear-head she is.

~Merry

Friday, August 04, 2006

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 01:11:16 GMT

My sister is so good to me. So very, very good. She knows I collect rocks. Not, like, as mineralogical specimens. I don't know what half of them are. But rocks from special places. So I have one from the Wallace Monument in Scotland, and one from Cromer in England, where I spent time on the shore, and one from where we lived in New York when I was a child, and fossils from the creek near our house, and a paver from near the roman baths of Fiesole in Italy where my Dad does business sometimes. I even have a small bit of brick from Auswitz that I almost certainly shouldn't have taken. But I couldn't seem to feel that it was real and powerful and present to me without that little bit of brick sitting in the palm of my hand. I don't know why, but that's the way it's always been.

So Jackie was in Turkey for two weeks, and she brought me to gorgeous stones-- one from the Agean Sea with flecks of mica and-- get this-- one from the ancient ruins of Ephesus! It's a biggish rock, almost all quartz. I sit there looking at it in the palm of my hand, and I think, Paul was there. Paul lived there and worked there and taught there and loved there, and wrote letters to the people in the Church of Ephesus. And I think of that and my skin tingles a little, and I'm just so joyful and amazed. Because the historical facts of the Bible-- it's all true and real and present, but somehow you don't think of that unless it's sitting in the palm of your hand, so to speak. When I hold that rock I somehow lose track of the dimension of time, and think of all the action of history taking place simultaneously.

I love it that my sister, while she was sight seeing in Turkey and learning all about their military there and was totally distracted by the things she loves most, remembered me and thought to bring me a rock from Ephesus. Isn't she sweet?

~Merry