Laxitudinous

Oh, I've been lax. Busy chasing after the walking boy, and preparing for interviews. This week is the Dublin Core conference, happening in Seattle, and just a short bus ride away from home. So, I get a leisurely morning. I'm going in sponge-mode. Dublin Core is tangentially related to my job activities through a special project, but not central. Will add links later....

Aaaahh! Hurdles Right Out of the Starting Gate

First of all, it was a great weekend, with a wonderful anniversary meal at Le Pichet (we ordered the chicken--put in your order right away, it takes 1 hour--served delectably with Cantal fritters and lovely green beans). Saturday we did grocery shopping and then took Michael to his first zoo visit. He was face-to-face with an orangutan who was pressing against the glass--hilarious. Yesterday was church (more below), food preparation, and more Michael hilarity--holding the phone and talking into it, putting it down on the floor, picking it up again. He also does this with the remote control. Very funny.

Yesterday continued our Fresh Start class at church and the second sermon in a series on money. It's hard having only 45 minutes to go over some of these big issues--we barely got off the ground before the time was up, and we ended with "why didn't God knock off Lucifer right after he rebelled?" A doozy. The sermon covered giving, which has me totally questioning my possessions and really, desperately wanting to get rid of my credit card debt, in even a more desperate way than before. So, this morning I take a quick Google-break with "Christianity debt" as keywords and get this site: Adult Christianity. What they are saying about Christianity is not necessarily off the mark and reinforces why All Saints calls people who follow Christ "Christ-followers" instead of Christians. As a result of another conversation with my friend Vern about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, I find myself doing a library search on the gnostic gospels, apocrypha, etc., and wonder if I'm just asking for trouble--shaking the faith before it's even taken root. Even so, I want to follow this path with my brain as well as my heart and rest of self. If anyone wants to assist in tilling my soil, please contact me.

The Passion

I'm very intrigued by this film. For the past several months I've been reading the New Testament. The Gospels definitely record Jewish priests having a role in Christ's death. What we do with that afterward is the main thing. The finger-pointing is counter-productive. Anyway, I'm printing this out to read more at home: Passion Misplay - Who killed Jesus? Time for both Jews and Christians to fess up. By Steven Waldman.

Weekend, here I come! No firm plans with the boy tomorrow.

Personal Holiday Recap

Yesterday was fantastic: since I had a meeting on Monday, my birthday, I decided to use my personal holiday (1 per year) yesterday, which was our anniversary (which we're celebrating on Friday), for some birthday indulgence. Still with me? Anyway it was a great day filled with work and play.

First, waking up normal time to take Michael to daycare, David to work, and pick up a folder from my library office. Then dropped the car off to get serviced and headed to University Village, my haunt for the day. First stop: A la Francaise for a croissant and coffee (avoiding Starbucks). Dug in a little bit to interview prep for my job applications. Next, more interview prep and hanging out in Barnes and Noble. I've always envied those people who take up table space for long stretches of time. Yesterday, I was one of them.

Noontime, meeting my good friend Heather for lunch. We decided to go to Zao Noodle Bar, quite excellent (I recommend the big fat Shanghai noodles). I also had a big glass of red wine.

1:00pm, my massage appointment at InSpa. They have reasonable prices and a "no tipping" policy. Fine by me. I never know what to tip anyway. Between my massage and manicure I hung out more at Barnes and Noble, looked through the Christianity books (an interesting one by Peter Kreeft called Ecumenical Jihad--perhaps worth checking out).

During my manicure I ran into my former counselor Barbara, who had just had a massage. We see each other in town occasionally, so I always get a chance to update her on what I'm doing. It seems like light years psychologically since I was seeing her. If you ever need to jump out of a grad-school, seasonal affective disorder induced depression, just let me know.

Of course I messed up my manicure not seconds after sitting down in the lobby to let the nails dry. Oh well. Stopped by Fran's for some treats for David, picked up the car and headed home. Great, balanced day!

Dean Press

Here's an article from David Brooks on Republicans for Dean. I just saw the news of Wesley Clark entering the Democratic race. I haven't been to a Dean meet-up yet, but it's interesting watching the campaign activity.

The day-after birthday and all is well. I'm looking forward to my "hooky" day tomorrow (and spa appointments). The spa I booked messed up my appointments, putting them on two different days. If they hadn't called to confirm for today, I wouldn't have been able to consolidate them for tomorrow. As it turns out, I have more of a gap between services. Ah, such is the price of pampering. If these were my only problems, I'd be a happy camper indeed.

Serendipitous Link.... what's next?

I was checking into the All Saints Church web site to see if anything was new and found a Seattle Times article (under resources, I'm not linking it). The find of the day is the Mustard Seed Associates site, which looks very interesting in terms of Christianity today: service, conversation, changing the world, etc. Not enough time to explore in detail, but I like what I see. I feel like changes are in the air for the Spags for the next year or so: a musing that makes sense on this birthday.

Birthday Tidings

I started my birthday with the usual work-prep routine, getting Michael ready to daycare, etc. The compressed work week is not working out in terms of morning punctuality. It's not too bad, but I wish it were better. I figure I work hard once I get there. Tooting my own birthday horn by bringing in cupcakes. Why not? Then I can make sure I get one. Hopefully it will be a smooth workday. Often Mondays are rough because of catching up from being gone Fridays.

Yesterday's sermon covered tithing, the first in a series on money. Pastor Bill is right on when he talks about giving and having that come from the heart. Thinking about a 10% tithe is rough, though, with all of our bills, especially daycare. David mentioned yesterday that he had figured that my contribution was really from "us" so he was okay, but he knew after the sermon that that wasn't really accurate. My impulse yesterday was to go through all of my possessions and liquidate as much as I could, especially books and clothes. I'm kind of serious about this, partly for pre-moving prep too, so if anyone wants to help keep me to my guns let me know.

Girl on Film

Today I got an email from fnac.com saying that my shipment has been sent. What am I ordering from France? None other than Eric Rochant's 1994 film Les Patriotes featuring Yvan Attal, Sandrine Kiberlain, Nancy Allen, Richard Masur, Allen Garfield, Yossi Banai, Emmanuelle Devos, and ME! During my year abroad my boyfriend and I got the chance to be extras in this movie, referred to the casting agency by a friend. I thought it was cool to be in a film with Richard Masur, of One Day at a Time, Encino Man, and Multiplicity fame (among other things).

They turned the Opera Bastille into the National Security Agency. I was a civilian office lackey with really big hair. They can only use you twice, once from behind and once from the front. I guess that's so you stay anonymous and don't get too famous. I also learned that you don't ask the director any questions when you're an extra. I remember having a question about my blocking and asking the director instead of his assistant, the guy in charge of extras. I never got as killer of a look from a French person as I did from him. Dude, I'm just doing my job!

All these years and I have never seen the movie. I never tracked it down. With all of the web commerce it's so easy to order things internationally. I hope they didn't leave me on the cutting room floor!

"Bling" is everywhere!

Okay, I can't remember the first time I saw the word "bling" and wondered what it meant, and went on that quest to know about things street. A couple of months ago at least. I remember asking the "peeps" about it at one of our spa nights, and having a joke that I pronounced it as a nerdly "bling" instead of more streetwise. But now, the word is appearing "everywhere." By "everywhere" I mean in places it shouldn't be, it just sounds wrong. Like whenever white folks try to talk like they're from the 'hood (a la Justin Timberlake). I saw it in a feature in Vogue magazine. The other night on Entertainment Tonight Mary Hart said "bling", I think in reference to Bennifer. I know I had this Ali G. fascination, but Mary Hart saying "bling" is just plain wrong.

Won't link it cuz it's probably dynamic, but today Slate features a Doonesbury cartoon on flash mobs.

Attack of the Angry Librarians

Sleep dep from slow-to-take baby sleep routines (we're using the "no cry sleep solution", which is gentler, but takes longer. Getting through the day as easily as possible, but here's something related to my profession that caught my eye today: A Guide to the Patriot Act, Part 1 - Should you be scared of the Patriot Act? By Dahlia Lithwick and Julia Turner. Lithwick and Turner analyze Section 215 of the Patriot Act under the great section title of "Attack of the Angry Librarians." Thanks, Dahlia and Julia, for recognizing the toughness of my fellow professionals. Libs RAWK! OK.

Vacation Recap

Will try to recap a bit of the vacation. One of the highlights was the overnighter to San Francisco, one of the best cities in the world. David and I stayed at the Carlton Hotel near Union Square. A nice accommodation and the right price. SF MOMA was closed, so I went off to shop (frilly undies at VS) while David gallery hopped (most were closed but he got a little action in). Had a nice drink break at Mocca cafe on Maiden Lane. Dinner was spent in North Beach: cannelloni at Sodini's. Browsing at City Lights. Books and beer in the hotel room. The next day was SF MOMA--Chagall and Philip Guston. I bought a Diebenkorn print for when I become permanent (no permanent office art while temporary was my motto)--Ocean Park #54. Dim sum at a great place on Clement Street--all the locals were there. Last culture stop at the Legion of Honor then home across the Golden Gate.

Caution to breastfeeding moms: the one danger in all of this was gradually filling breasts during the trip, and no pump with me. This meant regular manual expressing in the hotel room and a stall in the Legion of Honor. The ladies must have wondered what I was doing. The trip was definitely worth the pain though.

What Catches the Eye: Article on Internet Plagiarism

Doing my morning wake-up at work routine, scanning nytimes.com and email accounts. A Campus Fad That's Being Copied: Internet Plagiarism catches my eye as link-worthy. A lot of my buds teach at the college level, and they frequently share stories from the front lines. This is pretty depressing though. I have to admit that I have cheated once in college: I was taking a course that one of my classmates had taken before. He had the final test and knew that the professor didn't change it. So we "studied" for the final together. Young dumb stunts. So there's my confession. I hope my honestly-come-by graduate degrees make up for that.

Why go on vacation?

Back in the office, facing mondo email and paper inboxes, scads of to-do items. Plus, started off the day with Michael getting another round of immunizations at his 1-yr checkup. Some guy backed into us in the medical bldg garage, then got honked at while trying to dip into the loading zone in front of daycare. So much for the effects of rest and relaxation down in Cali.

Resolving to keep the head down today and churn through it.