I'm still here...

My blogging hiatus has been mostly unintentional. We went to Vermont for a few days, and I stayed pretty busy taking care of Baby J, and didn't spend as much time as I normally do on the computer.

Then there's been some computer weirdness: first my new bluetooth mouse quit working. I'm not sure whether it's the mouse or the bluetooth receiver thingy in my computer; none of the trouble shooting tips I've found seem to help, so I'm going to have to call apple, I guess. I can manage without a mouse, but I prefer using one. I gave my old usb mouse to the Kid who had wrecked his apple mouse by always tapping it in time to his music.

I upgraded my software (Leopard, iLife 09 and iWorks 09) when my new hard drive was installed, and then I had to buy a new version of Photoshop because when I went to reload my old one, it said some files were corrupt. Now nothing works quite the same and I have to figure all that out. Trying to post a picture here doesn't work right; again not sure if it's my computer or something else--bloggger wouldn't let me upload any pix the one time I tried to post while I was away, and now it's trying to upload my whole iPhoto library instead of lettting me select the picture I want. Craziness that I have little patience for.

I had lots of fun with Baby J who is a very active one-year-old; if I can ever figure out what's going on with my computer I have more pictures to post.

Now it's back to the real world, I guess. Laundry beckons along with other work duties, domestic and ecclesiastical. (For some reason I just felt like throwing in a big word.) More interesting stuff later, I hope.

I know I'm biased

but is this not a beautiful baby? (in the church library the night of the baptism)

Meta bloginess

I went some 400 days without missing a blog post, but I have fallen off the bandwagon the last couple of weeks. In some ways that's really okay. I know that I haven't had much to say, and really, is a boring post better than no post? Eh.

On the other hand, daily blogging had become a discipline, and in some ways, it was good for me to committ to writing something every day, no matter how banal. So I'm rethinking the whole blog thing and how I write. Once upon a time I started a blog using my real name to post sermons and reflections on, but I didn't maintain it very long. And then there was my photo blog on which I faithfully put a daily picture for half of 2008. Sadly, I haven't taken any pix lately, and even more sadly I lost most of what I took last year when my computer crashed (yeah, I'm still trying not to think about that.) Maybe I need to roll that all together again, whether as RDM or as the "real" me. We'll see.

In the mean time, I've been "recovering" from Holy Week and Easter. Work doesn't really take a break (although if I'm ever in charge, I will ban all meetings the week after Easter--really, everyone needs a break), but I've been vegging out evenings, reloading software on the laptop and watching Dancing with the Stars and Grey's Anatomy (even if it is reruns). I have the next week off (yippee!) and the Kid and I are heading out Sunday for a few days in Vermont. I am ready to just relax for a bit.

Apple store, how I love you

I made a trip to the Apple Store about an hour away today, and they were able to install a new hard drive right away, so I am back on line. They also replaced a piece of the casing that was cracked. Thanks to Apple Care, I could've walked away without spending any money, but given my propensity for crashing hard drives, I decided to upgrade to Leopard so that I could use Time Machine (which will do automatic backups as long as I plug in the external drive which I also bought). Since I had to spend the Christmas money I've been holding onto for something special, I bought myself a bluetooth mouse, too. I am truly a computer addict--it's a good thing I was so busy this weekend, or I would've had worse withdrawal.

I am however, trying not to think about all the data I lost, because it might make me cry. Some things were backed up, but not everything. Most of my job search materials still exist in my gmail sent folder. All my sermons are also on my work computer so I have them. And many pictures were shared around various places so they still exist. But many more were lost. Ack. Maybe I really will learn my lesson this time.

I also got to go to Whole Foods since it is in the same shopping center as the Apple Store. That was a bit of a treat--I had lunch there and then did some grocery shopping. I had the best tofu I've ever eaten--barbequed. I need to learn how to make that.

I'm not nearly as tired as I was, but I wish I had another day off....or a week. I'm actually off next week because that is the Kid's spring break, but I could really enjoy being off this week, too.

Happy Easter

So my hard drive died yesterday morning....before I printed the sermon that needed to be preached at noon--the one I'd been up til 1 am writing. Can we say rewrite in 1 hour? First one was better, but it preached.

Easter Vigil tonight was AWESOME. Lots of work, but worth every bit of it. Really. Baby J was amazing; she wore the dress I wore when I was baptized.

I am EXHAUSTED and going to bed. More when I get my computer fixed. I'm sneaking minutes on the Kid's now.

Middle of Holy Week slump

Holy Week isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, and I've been trying to pace myself accordingly. I've done 5 services so far this week (one Monday, 2 Tuesday, and 2 today) and it's been good, but this afternoon I definitely lost some steam. Unfortunately a nap was out of the question.

I still have two sermons to write, and I've been trying to do some laundry in the evenings so that I don't have a pile of it for the weekend when I usually do it. But I'm behind. Tomorrow NSLS and Baby J arrive for the weekend--yay! I just wish I didn't have so much work to do. And on Saturday, many more people will be arriving for the Easter Vigil and Baby J's baptism.

It's definitely not a sprint, it's a marathon.

Proud of Vermont

I'll always be a flatlander, and I don't live there anymore, but I am so proud of Vermont today, and so happy to be even remotely by adoption a Vermonter.

April 6

Nineteen years ago today I met the Kid's father. It seemed like a star-struck night, the beginning of something wonderful, and it was, for a while. A short while, as it turned out, but the Kid came of that relationship, and I can't imagine my life over the last 17 years without him, so I can't be sorry it happened.

Seven years ago today my dad died. He died after a valiant struggle with lung cancer. I wrote about my dad here a couple of years ago. We all still miss him.

For some reason I thought about the juxtaposition of those two events today. They're not related; it's by mere happenstance that they share the same date. Yet they both mark my life in indelible ways. It's funny, too--when I met the Kid's father, his best characteristics, and some of his manners of speech (calling people "sugar," for example) reminded me of my dad. I took that as a good sign, but as it turned out, the only things he really had in common with my dad were things that were not their finer qualities (including a fondness for bourbon and cigarettes.)

Memory is such a funny thing. It's painful at times, yet would I want to be without it?

Today I'll be thinking of Daddy, and wondering about things that might have been.

A pretty good day

~The sun was out! It got up to 60! It felt like spring might really be coming after all (of course I know better than to think this will last).

~Palm Sunday liturgy went well. The youth were the readers for the passion narrative and they did a great job. We started out palm procession across the street and even had a bit of incense.

~The adrenaline was still pumping when I got home, but as soon as I sat down to eat my lunch, it was like someone punctured a ballooon--whoosh--the energy was completely gone.

~Busy, busy week--at least one service everyday this week. Three sermons to write. Company coming next weekend. But a week off in just 12 days!

~If I get off the computer RIGHT NOW I can be in bed before midnight....g'night!

Friday Five~Holy cow, it's Holy Week

Beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday, I will have 12 services to participate in (but only 3 sermons which is actually fewer than some years). While I love Holy Week, there is no question that it is exhausting. This week's FF asks faced with such a busy week:

1. What restores you physically?

Naps will be important this week. In seminary I mastered the five minute power nap, but I don't take advantage of them often enough. And I need to make extra effort to get to bed on time (something that sounds so simple, but as regular readers here will know, something I'm not good at.)

2. What strengthens you emotionally/ mentally?

Preparing for liturgies is hard work, but participating in them is often restorative. Being part of a loving congregation helps, too. And having a mentor and friends who understand what the week is like (and the extra stresses I have right now) is immensely helpful.

3. What encourages you spiritually?

Same as # 2. And trying to remember what this week is really all about--not all the details that make us crazy, but celebrating new life and all that means for us.

4. Share a favourite poem or piece of music from the coming week.

This prayer is not for Holy Week, but it is one I've been praying a great deal lately (and I think I posted it earlier.)

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
~Thomas Merton

5.There may be many services for you to attend/ lead over the next week; which one are you most looking forward to and why? If there aren't do you have a favourite day in Holy week if so which one is it?

The Great Vigil of Easter is always my favorite part of Holy Week, and this year it will be even more special because I am baptizing my granddaughter, the wonderful Baby J.

To be or not to be

Not gone

Just thinking....

It figures

After not having (or watching) TV for 12 years, last year I discovered abc.com. Watching Grey's Anatomy there became part of my weekly routine, and recently I've added a few more shows to my repertoire--Dancing with the Stars, Castle, and Brothers and Sisters.

So today's New York Times has this article. I guess it's inevitable, but if abc.com follows the lead and I have to subscribe to cable to watch TV on my computer, my watching days will be over again, I guess.

Which may not be a bad thing, as I (re)discover how addicitive TV can be.

Signs of hope

Spring peepers! And daffodils pushing up through the dirt.

Spring (such as it is here) can't be far behind!

Exhausted

The last six weeks or so have been extraordinarily stressful, and the last couple of weeks have been similarly busy, what with Lenten activities on top of everything else. I don't think I realized how tired I really was until around noon today. I had gone in to work for a meeting only to find chaos--broken copy machine on the day we were trying to produce both bulletins and a newsletter, wrong dates given in a memo about the spring rummage sale, etc.

Around lunch time I had done enough that I could come home, and then it hit me that I was so tired, so, so tired. I came home and watched last night's Grey's Anatomy (and the extent to which it made me cry may also reflect my tiredness) and then realizing that I couldn't really keep my eyes open any longer, took a nap on the couch. Which helped a lot. But I am still tired. And I have a sermon to write. Among other things, like laundry which is piling up again, and my last week of Lenten activities to plan, and then there's Holy Week to think about.

I feel like I could take another nap right now. I could just go to bed, but 9:30 seems insanely early. Perhaps I can muster the energ to think about my sermon for a bit. Or something.

34 and counting

That's the number of school days left until the Kid's graduation. And they're going by fast. We've paid for his AP exams, his cap and gown, and his yearbook. He's thinking about his prom date.Waiting for that last college acceptance letter.

Tonight as he helped me prepare for an activity at church I realized how very soon he'll be gone. Wasn't he an infant just last week? And didn't I just put him on the bus for his first day at kindergarten? Where has the time gone?

There are a lot of us in my bloggy world with high school seniors this year: Songbird, Cheesehead, jo(e), timna Come June I feel a cyber party coming on.

More radom bits

~It's another one of those days (weeks?) in which there is just no time enought to do all the things one has to do. And so I sit and spin my wheels, making matters even worse.

~I don't know what to do about such times. I just keep plugging away in an tempt to shorten the list but to no avail.

~I'm teaching on the Gospel of Thomas tomorrow--out of my comfort zone on that one! And then leading a Lenten activity for families tomorrow evening. Fun stuff, but I need to prep for that, too.

~I know that I've been incredibly boring here lately, and yet I feel compelled to write SOMETHING--anything?--here every day, no matter what. Maybe I should get over it. Eh....

~And on that note, I'm off to bed

Random bits of Tuesday

~Can I just say one more time how wonderful it is to have a president who speaks in clear and complete sentences and has coherent thoughts? Really, it's so refreshing.

~ I think these ladies are awesome! I want to be a nonogenarian with that much spunk. And I think the rabbi who offered these ladies a bat mitzvah is awesome, too.

~The Kid has been rejected at one school and waitlisted at another. Sigh. Still one to go. (He has been admitted to his safety school). The thing is, the school that rejected him is the one where I used to teach. And I sat on the admissions committee. Faculty read the marginal files, and we admitted students with FAR worse records than his. Their applicant pool must have improved significantly.

~And for the record, he has really good SAT scores and fair to middling grades--not terrible but not stellar. And enough extracurriculars. And good recommendations.

~It was cold and windy today, with snow flurries off and on. Spring, where are you?

~I do know better than to really expect spring while it is still March--or April for that matter.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Hard as it is for me to believe, today is Baby J's first birthday.

You light up all our lives! Happy birthday!

The Frick and other NYC delights

I went to the Frick today with D and J, especially to see this painting (which is totally not done justice here!) I'd never been to the Frick before, and it was incredible. I cannot imagine anyone ever living in a mansion like that. And of course, the artwork is fantastic. (My adjectives are lame here, but I'm tired and doing the best I can.)

The weather was wonderful, too, and daffodils were beginning to bloom in Central Park---enough to make you believe that spring is really coming. After the Frick we went home and had a lovely late lunch of bagels, cream cheese and salmon, and then it was time for me to head to Penn Station and the train. I got home about 9:45. I love traveling by train--it is the least stressful way to go I know.

Spring is less evident here...and there's even snow in tomorrow's forecast :(

ETAon Monday: I totally forgot to hit the publish button last night (tired, much?), but yes, I am indeed still counting it as Sunday's post...