I Need Help*

I had some of my mom's fried sole last week. It's very simple and tasty, so I asked her to send me the recipe so I could try cooking it myself. I bought fish and crackers (for the coating) last night, and arrived home this evening to find the directions in my email.

Step One: Roll out crackers on wax paper with a rolling pin.

I have neither wax paper nor a rolling pin.

PA-thetic.

Fortunately, I am not entirely hopeless/helpless, and should be able to improvise.

But still. . . .!!!


*"Help" as in people in my employ who take care of all the domestic details regarding which I have little interest and less skill.

The Dark Side

It's been at least a couple of months since I ranted about Star Wars, hasn't it?

Hasn't it?

As you all know, I was already unhappy about George Lucas releasing his brand-new "enhanced" versions of the original trilogy instead of the theatrical versions. It's bad enough that now Greedo shoots first. But the situation is even worse than I had feared.

George has added gungans to The Return of the Jedi.
Gungans.
As if the ewoks weren't bad enough.

My dad sent me this op-ed piece after I told him to make sure not to buy me the trilogy as a gift.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/191639_starfan.html

And today's Dork Tower strip is worth a clik. I particularly like the small print in the last frame. You may have to be a serious Star Wars geek to get the reference, but maybe not.

http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/archive.asp?nextform=viewcomic&id=910


Help me, Peter Jackson! You're my only hope!

We Don't Need No Stinking Wax Paper!

Roll out crackers on wax paper with a rolling pin.

1. Take out a rectangular baking pan.

2. Open crackers. Dump crackers into pan.

3. Pretend you are four years old. Take handfulls of crackers and crunch them up as small as you can.

4. Get out a can of peaches. Roll can of peaches over crushed crackers until they have been pulverized to the desired granularity.

5. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as written.

Ha!

Mentioned in Dispatches

Today I was copied on an email from my boss's boss to her own boss, the Chief Operations Officer. The B'sB sent the COO a copy of the newsletter, and her message included the words, "I am very proud of the work of [qos] and team. . ."

I was, of course, pleased by this, but didn't place all that much significance on it. But when a friend in another dept. asked how things were going, and I told her about the email, her eyes got wide. Evidently this kind of mention, to someone of executive rank, is a rare occurrence, and constitutes my having "rock star" status. Especially from the B'sB, who is very hard to please. What's more: the COO evidently has a rep for remembering names presented to her in this way.

Later this afternoon, the B'sB forwarded to me an email from someone else in the org who had commended her on the newsletter draft. She wrote to me, "It's all you!"

The B'sB just posted a "Sr. Manager of Communications" position for our division. I don't have the credentials, but once this person is in place, s/he will need at least one staff person. And there is no one better positioned than I am to get that job.

I would hate to stop working for Jeannie. But how could I pass up a chance to do work that was more challenging and satisfying, paid better, and did not involve being yoked to Miss Vicki?

Day of Reflection -- Labyrinth

I'm working my way up from the ridiculous to the sublime this afternoon. . .

Yesterday I had my first Day of Reflection with the MATS group instead of the M.Div. cohort. I hadn't thought much about that transition until I got to the site and realized suddenly that I was no longer going to be experiencing this ritual with the people I had come to know and care about last year -- and I felt real grief over that. I missed the people, and felt grief that I would not be sharing their journeys in the same way as I had.

The formal program was pleasant enough, but the unexpected highlight of the day for me was walking a labyrinth. I had never done this before. In fact, despite all the glowing words I'd read about such experiences, I had never been interested. My rational mind was entirely unconvinced that walking a twisted pattern painted on the ground could possibly have any kind of positive spiritual impact. (Yes, my spiritual life involves a constant tension between my trusting, intuitive, creative side and my rational, often cynical, intellectual side.)

What struck me almost immediately as I began to walk was that the turns in the path were hairpin turns: they seemed to send me right back where I started from. But that was an illusion, because the path continued onward. I was not walking back where I had come from. The lesson was completely non-subtle, but no less valuable for all that. That was my primary insight on the inward path: that "the road goes ever on and on" even when it first seems like you are retracing your steps.

I was taken entirely by surprise by my experience in the center. I stood in the very center of the center and closed my eyes, and could feel energy pulsing around me. I was vividly reminded about everything I have ever read about the dark caves of initiation in the ancient Pagan faiths. The word omphalos kept repeating in my mind. I felt as though I had stumpled into a cave of Mystery, even though I was standing in a totally exposed flat space in the afternoon sunshine. It was a place of gestation and re-birth. It was profoundly Feminine and sacred.

On the outward journey I was aware of re-tracing my steps but being on a different journey. More vividly, I felt that I had left a dead skin and excess baggage back in the Center, and that I was going forward lighter. All that I did not need, that no longer served me, had been left behind. I was re-born, but not new. I carried with me all the gifts and strengths of my previous journey/life. I wanted to run or skip through the path, I felt so light.

It was only this afternoon, as I reflected again, that I remembered my repeating Queen of Wands, and the Kali aspect of destruction and creation that continues to resonate with me. I had a gentle experience of that energy yesterday.

The rest of the afternoon, I felt very peaceful and centered.

It was truly an amazing experience, in a very quiet way.

Get Thee to a Study Hall

I have just set a personal record for the most posts in a day since they turned off my LJ access at work. I am now going to shut down the computer and go read Evolutionary Faith: Rediscovering God in Our Great Story, by Diarmuid O'Murchu, which is one of my required texts for this weekend.

[BTW: does anyone know the correct pronunciation of Diarmuid? It looks beautiful, but I have no idea how to say it.]

O'Murchu and I are in basic agreement on some important concepts, but he gets there on an entirely different path than I do, and is spilling a great deal of ink to convey concepts that I have no trouble accepting but he seems to feel must be argued strenuously. I keep wanting to tell him "just relax!"

He also keeps bringing our spiritually-advanced ancient/primitive ancestors into the picture as the spiritual ideal, with a kind of reverent naivete I previously had associated solely with Neo-Pagan romantics.

There is actually quite a bit of Pagan-ish material in this book, especially in his discussion of the nature of energy, which could be straight out of a discourse on magic.

It's fascinating and annoying at once. I'm going to write my three-pager on it, because it's far more interesting than the bland The Active Life, by Parker Palmer. I can work up some enthusiasm for bringing my Pagan sensibilities into the paper -- always a fun undertaking at seminary.

So far no one has so much as lighted a match in my presence, so I feel pretty safe.