Towanda's Window

Baseball Update

2008-05-16T23:19:00.002-06:00

MLB is now in the 1st go-round of that abomination called interleague play. But the good news is, the yanks are still in last place! (OK, their game against the Mets was postponed, but we'll take it!). As of this moment, their record is .476. Who's better?

Tampa Bay (1st in the AL East?!)
Boston
Baltimore
Toronto
Cleveland
Chicago
Minnesota
Kansas City (they're back!)
LAAngels
Oakland
Texas
Florida
Philly
NYMets
Atlanta
Chicago
Houston
St. Louis
Milwaukee
Arizona
LADodgers

That's 21 teams! Do you think God is doing this just for me???

Mark This Day

2008-05-16T12:43:00.001-06:00

The yankees are in LAST PLACE in the Eastern Division. Chorus dropped me a note, as well as my dad.

It's a beautiful day!

Thoughts for the Day

2008-05-15T15:53:00.002-06:00

Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.
But your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.

- Jeremiah 22:15-17

Nothing is so important as human life, as the human person. Above all, the person of the poor and the oppressed... Jesus says that whatever is done to them he takes as done to him. That bloodshed, those deaths are beyond all politics: They touch the very heart of God.

- Oscar Romero
March 16, 1980
(that was just four days before he was assassinated)

Thought For The Day

2008-05-14T14:07:00.001-06:00

I don't care if you're dead! Jesus is here, and he wants To resurrect somebody.

- Rumi

Sadness Is A Symptom

2008-05-12T19:51:00.004-06:00

A wasp has been flying in and out of the house in the last week or so, since we've had the front door open for the nice spring breeze. I had noticed that s/he likes to hover around the upper corner of the doorjamb. I figured s/he was just trying to figure a way out. I would talk to the wasp, tell her/him that inside was not the best place for a wasp to be, and to please go enjoy the outside. I know that we stupid humans make up these stupid rules, but wasps being outside is really better for all involved please.

I thought that worked.

Today I came home in the early afternoon from a meeting with our lawyers, opened the screen door, and up above my head was the wasp, at that same spot on the doorjamb.

The wasp was building a nest.

Well shit.

Wasp, wasp! I thought we had an understanding! Now you are building a nest in the worst possible place, and you don't understand what this means.

The nest was about as big as a thimble.

I waited for the wasp to leave, and I knocked the nest to the ground outside, and ground it under my foot. The nest was as fragile as dust.

I did not feel good about this.

I came in and sprayed cleaning solution on the doorjamb, hoping to kill whatever scent had attracted the wasp.

When we got ready to leave about an hour later, I opened the door, and there was the wasp.

There was the wasp, crawling around the spot where the nest was. I knew, I just knew s/he was screaming (at me), "Where's my nest? Where's my nest? My beautiful little grey paper nest, the sections angled just so...where is my nest?"

I begged the wasp to leave, but s/he wouldn't. S/he just kept circling there, grieving, and then I wondered if s/he was planning a new nest in that same spot.

So I killed the wasp.

And I cried.

And I still feel horribly guilty.

Baseball Update

2008-05-11T21:22:00.002-06:00

Before getting to the update, here's an interesting, if completely unrelated to baseball, bit of information: My spellcheck does not recognize "clergywoman." It does, however, recognize "clergyman" and "clergymen."

Guess who added a new word to her spellcheck dictionary today!

OK, now the update: the yankees are at a dead even .500 as of this evening, all games played. Baltimore, the ChiSox, and Cleveland also have .500 records. Who has a better record?

Boston
Tampa Bay (still!)
Minnesota
Oakland
LAAngels
Florida
NYMets
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Chicago
St. Louis
Houston
Arizona
LADodgers

Seventeen teams with equal or better records. NICE.

Empire or Humanity?

2008-05-10T12:41:00.000-06:00

Thought For The Day

2008-05-09T15:03:00.000-06:00

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

- Jeremiah 7:5-7

Hmm...

2008-05-08T16:22:00.001-06:00

Just got word that the city attorney might add more charges to our cases.

I'm incredulous. I can't imagine what else they could add.

Probably trying to scare us into taking a plea.

Ain't gonna work.

This whole process is so eye-opening, and so, if you'll pardon towanda's language, FUCKED UP.

Grumpy Day

2008-05-07T22:07:00.003-06:00

I'm grumpy today...no clear idea why...tired some, but also just ready to snap off somebody's head.

I wonder if this had something to do with it:

Because BearGoddess had class and meetings today, I offered to pick up her daughter, LilBit, from pre-school and stay with her until her "cocoa date" with BlueEyes later on in the afternoon. I had okayed with mom swinging by the post office and so we went.

After mailing our package we went back out to the car and LilBit climbed into her carseat in the back. Now, I am not used to having children in the car and dealing with car seats and such (LilBit is 4-going-on-5). I was fussing with the seat belt, making sure it was on right and tight (but not too tight) and secure, and making sure everything in the front seat was placed so that if I had to stop quick it wouldn't fly back and hit her. The car door was open, but there was no one in the parking space next to us on that side.

I had been doing this all of maybe three minutes, when there was a squeal of tires and a car jerked in next to us. The woman was screaming at me before she even got out of the car, dropping f-bombs and telling me I was inconsiderate and she had been waiting 10 minutes for me to move and that I was a bitch and really I don't know what all. She got out of the car and just kept yelling at me.

I eased out of my car, made sure my keys were in my pocket, and quietly closed the door so LilBit wouldn't hear (my hope, anyway). I kept my voice quiet and said, "I'm just trying to make sure my child's safe, ma'am" (thinking it was not the moment to go into a detailed explanation of my adopted auntie status to LilBit...).

She didn't quit. Ten f-'n minutes she'd been waiting! Ten! F this and F that. She kept taking a few steps away then turning back to yell at me more. I just asked her to calm down and quietly moved around the car and got in. And locked the door.

I was scared...I was worried she might attack me or something, and not only was I not interested in getting hurt, I really didn't want that to happen in front of LilBit. Sheesh.

For the record, and not that it matters because her behavior was inexcusable: I checked the time stamp on the post office receipt: 1:07. And I checked my cellphone, because TheologyBabe called me right as I got in the car: 1:11. Four minutes. Four minutes to sign the receipt, walk out of the post office, wait for a car to turn into the lot, go to the car, unlock the car...crazy lady hadn't even pulled in to the lot yet when we got to the car, because we were right at the entrance and it was clear when we crossed.

Unbelievable.

Man, I hate people sometimes.

Demand It!

2008-05-06T12:09:00.000-06:00

Upcoming Events by Eventful

Gulp...

2008-05-05T19:39:00.003-06:00

The trial starts two weeks from today.

I am trying not to think in "X weeks from today" increments. Just focusing on what I need to get done today, and worry about tomorrow tomorrow. But it's starting to sneak in.

We have a meeting with the lawyers tomorrow. Thinking about that makes my heart pound. The other trials have mostly met with partial guilty verdicts, and tougher sentences than the January trial. We did have two people get completely exonerated last week, which was encouraging news. I am curious as to what our strategy will be.

Other encouraging news: the Colorado ACLU is investigating the city for violating our rights regarding excessive jail time and not allowing us to post bond and all that mess. We'll see what happens with that!

Hope y'all are well. Back to schoolwork for me!

Baseball Update

2008-05-04T21:22:00.003-06:00

The Rockies actually pulled off a win today with a nice pitching performance by Aaron Cook and good hitting and defense. The last time they won...he was pitching as well. Seems like half the team is on the DL too. Sigh.

Let's check in with our apparently now-weekly update on how many teams have better records than the yankees (at .515 as of tonight).

Boston
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Minnesota
LA Angels
Oakland
Philly
NYMets
Florida
St. Louis
ChiCubs
Milwaukee
Arizona
LA Dodgers (who've been feasting on horrible Rockies pitching...)

That's 14. Go Cleveland! They will be our 2nd favorite team Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. After that, it's the Tigers for the weekend series. Go Tigers!

Thought For The Day

2008-05-04T12:21:00.000-06:00

And thus I understood that any man or woman who deliberately chooses God in this life, out of love, may be sure that he or she is loved without end. This endless love produces grace in them. For God wants us to hold trustfully to this: that we be as certain, in home, of the bliss of heaven while we are here as we will be, in fact, when we are there. And always the more delight and joy we take in this certainty, with reverence and meekness, the better it pleases God.

- Julian of Norwich

Bill Moyers For President

2008-05-03T12:19:00.002-06:00

Seriously. Moyers responds powerfully to the controversy surrounding Rev. Wright. Go read it.

Deliberate

2008-05-02T18:28:00.003-06:00

Deliberate

Being a poem in the margin of the notebook page after watching clips of the film "Romero," about the life and assassination of Monseñor Oscar Romero, including the one above, in class this morning.

The deliberate
protecting of the body
body of Christ
scattered
called together

The deliberate
putting on of the stole
the sacred garments
vesting to confront evil

The deliberate
reclaiming
of the sacred space

The deliberate
baptism
of the whole body
the whole

sacraments as
revolutionary acts
revolutionary

The deliberate
threatening
beating
raping
torturing
killing
of the prophetic body

The deliberate
resurrection
again
and again
and agin

Thought For The Day

2008-05-01T16:30:00.000-06:00

Ask the loveliness of the earth, ask the loveliness of the sea, ask the loveliness of the wide airy spaces, ask the loveliness of the sky, ask the order of the stars, ask the sun, making daylight with its beams, ask the moon tempering the darkness of the night that follows, ask the living things which move in the waters, which tarry on the land, which fly in the air; ask the souls that are hidden, the bodies that are perceptive; the visible things which must be governed, the invisible things that govern—ask these things, and they will all answer you, Yes, see we are lovely. Their loveliness is their confession. And all these lovely but mutable things, who has made them, but Beauty immutable?

- Augustine
Sermons 214.2

Yet Another Reason To Love The Game

2008-04-29T20:00:00.000-06:00

Read this.

Have a Coke and a Smile

2008-04-29T09:12:00.003-06:00

I finished another assignment late last night and emailed it to the prof., who has already written back saying it's an A and to cross it off my list.

I nearly wept into the keyboard.

I'll be having a Coke -- ice-cold, in the glass bottle -- with lunch to celebrate.

Here's an update on my "exit strategy," as another of my profs. calls it. What is in red is finished.

GREEK:
--Exegesis Topic (doing this today)
--Text Translation (I think I'm going to to this today also)
--Exegesis paper (5 p.)

FIELD ED.
--Theology of Ministry paper (8-10 p.)
--Evaluations

CONGREGATIONS
--Reflection Paper #1 (3 p.)
--Reflection Paper #2
--Reflection Paper #3
--Website comparison paper (really???)
--Congregational Study final paper (15-20 p.)

RITUAL & WORSHIP
--Chapel Report (4 services attended...report will be written this weekend)
--Group Project (in progress)
--Final Paper

THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION AND CONSTRUCTION ("TIC") II
--Author Assignment (2-3 p.)
--Embodiment Assignment
--Book Assignment (worksheet)
--Final Paper (our integrated theology. It's churning in the brain)

The Exit Strategy:
Week 1 -- well, that was just reading and getting oriented.
Week 2 -- Theo. of Min. paper, Cong ref. #1
Week 3 -- TIC #1, TIC #2, Cong. #2
Week 4 -- Greek topic, TIC #3
Week 5 -- R&W report, Cong #3
Week 6 -- R&W Final Paper, Gk. Trans.
Week 7 -- Cong. Website thing, Cong. Final
Week 8 -- TRIAL. Field ed. evals on Friday.
Week 9 -- Greek paper, TIC Final Paper
Week 10 -- sleep, graduation paperwork, sermon for June 8th.

Baseball Update

2008-04-26T23:20:00.002-06:00

The Rockies pitching stinks big time. Fortunately, the yankees still have a losing record. So all my second-favorite teams are doing well!

Teams with better records than the yankees (a .480 winning percentage as of this moment):

Baltimore
Boston
Tampa Bay (!)
ChiSox
Cleveland
LAAngels
Oakland
Florida
Philadelphia
NYMets
Atlanta
ChiCubs
St. Louis
Milwaukee
Arizona

Yeah, that's 15.

Time Warp

2008-04-26T17:50:00.001-06:00

I keep thinking that it's Sunday, and then have a little panicked feeling that I missed church.

Wonder what that's about.

Prayer Chain

2008-04-26T13:04:00.003-06:00

Last week I asked to be put on the prayer chain at HappyChurch. The organizer is one of my favorite people there, and talking to her about the prayer-type help (support, encouragement, energy, etc.) I was going to need over the next several weeks felt better -- safer -- somehow than standing up in church (which means getting the pastor's attention from behind his back, which feels very odd) and talking about it. I have no idea who is on the prayer chain -- both the chain members and the prayer requests are confidential -- but she told me Sunday that the people were so very happy to pray for me. And honestly I have felt a kind of buoying presence as I've worked through the things on my list since I asked for prayer-chain prayers.

This poem that came via the Writer's Almanac this morning made think of that.

Prayer Chain

My mother called to tell me
about an old classmate of mine who

was dying on the parish prayer chain—
or was very sick—or destitute—

or it had not worked out—the marriage—
or the kids were all on drugs—and

all the old mothers were praying intensely
for all the pain of their children

and for life—they were praying for life—
in their quiet rooms—sipping decaf coffee—

I bet they've been praying for me at times—
so I'll find my way—so I won't rob a bank—

I'll take them—the mystical prayers of old mothers—
it matters—all this patient and purposeful love.

--by Tim Nolan

To My Friends

2008-04-24T22:04:00.001-06:00

"When we honestly ask which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness...makes it clear that whatever happens in the external world, being present to each other is what really matters."

Henri Nouwen

What I've Done Today

2008-04-24T14:30:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was a bit hard. I am mostly keeping centered but was way off kilter yesterday. Thanks to my cielo and friends I am doing better today.

So today I:

Slept in with my cielo instead of going to Greek at 8am.
Had a nice visit with BlueEyes.
Played catch with BearGoddess's son (he's 7, going on 8) for about 1/2 hour in front of the school.
Chaired a meeting that lasted only about 45 minutes, and had lunch during it.
While BearGoddess was at a meeting, played "soccer" with said son on the balcony in front of their campus apartment, occasionally chucking the ball at friends walking down below. Believe me, this is great fun.
Had a nice conversation with him about why I was crying at their house last night (we thought he was asleep, but he wasn't).
Wrote a song with him about the environment, and another one about allergies.

I really am going to study today. Really. But I needed to move my body, needed to be silly, needed to have a good time with a sweet boy. Needed to remember that life is good.

Hope y'all are having a good (allergy-free) day, too.

For Alwen

2008-04-23T16:48:00.002-06:00

via Trinity Stores. Icon by Robert Lentz, ofm.