Meme of fives

As seen at Crunchy Granola's place...

What were you doing five years ago?
Finishing my first year of seminary and getting ready to begin CPE (clinical pastoral education).

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
The only thing on my to-do list for today is to get to bed earlier than I usually do. For tomorrow and Monday, though, I need to:

1. Buy a new chair for the computer desk.
2. Buy a light bulb for the fluorescent light fixture over the sink (a task that has been surprisingly difficult).
3. Do reading for the Tuesday bible study group
4. Take pictures, which I've sadly neglected doing for the last few days.
5. Go for a walk

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Peanut butter crackers with iced tea or diet coke
2. Popcorn
3. Ice cream
4. A nice cup of tea or latte with a biscotti
5. A bit of chocolate

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Give a bundle of money to my seminary.
2. Pay off all my student loans and all my kids' student loans
3. Buy an apartment in New York and a house in Vermont
4. Set up a foundation to support causes near and dear to my heart
5. Travel

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Staying up too late for no good reason.
2. Procrastination
3. Taking showers that are way too long
4. Being too sedentary
5. Not taking good advantage of my days off

What are five places where you have lived?

1. North Carolina
2. West Virginia
3. Iceland
4. Maryland
5. Florida

and five more

1. Virginia
2. South Carolina
3. Vermont
4. New York
5. Illinois

What are five jobs you've had?

1. Waitress at a diner
2. Child care worker
3. Library assistant
4. Retail clerk
5. Preschool teacher

Tag: Anyone who wants to

What it's all about

~My sister had surgery yesterday for a brain tumor. That's not my fault.

~Every single time something happens in my family the fact that we are largely estranged and don't communicate well becomes an issue; that, it seems, is my fault.

~If you've read here long, you may recall that my relationship with my mother and my sister is, well, difficult. There is plenty of fault to be had on all sides. I'll take my share. I have chosen in recent years not to be very involved with them. But it goes both (all) ways. And it's not helpful to have it thrown up at me how awful I am. Just. Doesn't. Help.

~To make it all more complicated, it was Elder Son who was taking me to task about it this time. I've never posted much about Elder Son--for different reasons, we have a complicated relationship, too, and he has a different relationship with my mother and siblings than I do. But him going off on me at 11 pm after a long and hard week--um....not helpful either.

~The good news is that my sister came through the surgery fine. I don't know what the prognosis is, nor what kind of tumor it was--still waiting to hear that.

~I'm really tired of being the Evil Awful Person in the family. It's not a role I sought, nor one I enjoy. And I'm not sure that it's one I can get rid of easily--especially when everyone else just thinks that it is all.my.fault.

~Cosmic sigh.

It's all my fault

~Once again there is angst in my extended family, and once again I'm getting bitched out because I am the evil awful person and it's all my fault.

~I'm tired of it.

~That's all.

Race, gender, class--and other naive political musin

~Listening to the commentary about this week's primary in WV--low income people with no college degree are more like to vote for HRC. Hmm...can we keep this straight? Young? Obama. Old? Clinton. Black? Obama. White? Clinton. Female? Clinton? College degree? Obama. Not? Clinton. Blue collar? Clinton. White collar? Obama. If it were really that simple....what happens when you are, for example, an older (Clinton), black (Obama), female (Clinton), professional (Obama)? Which category most influences one's vote? Is gender more salient that race? Does either trump class?

~I just don't follow the thinking of the Clinton supporters who claim that, if Obama gets the nomination , they'll switch their votes to McCain. Huh? I've heard Obama supporters say that they just won't vote at all rather than vote for Clinton, a position that I don't especially agree with but at least (sort of) understand. But to switch your vote to someone who is diametrically opposed to what your original candidate stood for? That just makes no sense to me.

~Meanwhile this article from the NYTimes magazine looks at McCain's views on the war in Iraq in light of his experiences in Vietnam. One friend of McCain's came to the conclusion that I was coming to in reading this piece--McCain is to some extent refighting the Vietnam war--like GWB finishing his daddy's war? Scary.

Yummy dinner for a change

~Once upon a time I was a good cook. When the kids were little I was the master of 101-ways-to-use-ground-beef-and-chicken-breasts. And we had lots of salad and veggies, too. But over the years as the number of people at home dwindled, so did my desire to cook. After NSLS went off to college and it was just the Kid and me, it really went downhill, and at seminary because we could eat at the refectory during the week, and eat (relatively) cheaply out on the weekends, I rarely cooked.

~Here we sorely lack the diversity of eating places we had in the city. But I have no real desire to cook. I hate planning meals. I'm uninspired. I don't feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen after work. So we eat a lot of salads. Frozen pizza (and I've found some really good frozen pizza actually). Pasta. A big pot of soup from time to time. And out--though it's not nearly as much fun.

~I hate shopping as much (or more than) I do cooking. So I put it off as long as possible. But this afternoon, I had to shop. I was picking out a chunk of Parmesan when I saw the container of fresh mozzarella in olive oil with artichokes and sundried tomatoes--yum! So I circled around and picked up some fresh basil and some of the tomatoes that come on the vine, and some crusty bread--still warm. And I brought it all home and we had panninis for dinner. And they were sooooo good.

Bambi

~Seen briefly in my yard this afternoon.

Crackberry

~My mother's day present to myself, I guess.

~I've been considering one of these for while, but was thinking about the Pearl instead of the Curve--but the fully qwerty keyboard is great, and so is the bigger screen.

~Nothing like something else to feed my internet addiction!