Tuesday, August 12, 2003

I’m pretty busy this week, not just at work. I’ve got that large payroll task that’s getting larger the further back we go in the fiscal year, so I’m going to be updating timesheets every day until we catch all of the missed codes. Yay!

I have a small group leaders meeting tonight at church. The email says we’ll be meeting until 9pm, so I may not get home until close to 10pm because you know we will run late.

Thursday I have worship band practice - we’ve moved it because Friday night is a women’s dinner and a movie night at my mother’s. So I’m seriously thinking of taking the afternoon off on Friday. That way I won’t be completely wiped out before dinner and the movie with the gals.

I’ll have to tape The Amazing Race, which I do anyway, but I won’t be able to watch it “live.” That’s a bummer.

I don’t like being this busy - I’m basically pretty lazy.

Monday, August 11, 2003

Surfing for anything to “watch” I happened upon the best Denis Leary movie, imho, The Ref. Absolutely hilarious and Denis Leary at his snarkiest. Good stuff.

Kevin Spacey is pretty good too.

Especially if directed at moi. I’m selfish that way. Case in point:

First, remember this little tidbit from the Birth Order list on the first born - Source of Anger: Lack of Respect.

OK, some of us were having a lunch time discussion with one of the contractors (RP). She is attending a training thing this week in the place of the USMS person (CC) from our office. There’s been a long debate about whether or not RP will be reimbursed for her travel. CC insists that she will not be reimbursed because she’s going on special permission from HQ, yada yada yada.

I, as a former contractor, say that it’s up to the contract company to decide whether or not RP gets reimbursed. I was telling RP to submit the expenses to her company and it’s up to them to either pay it or not.

It was at this point in the conversation that CC came into the conference room and cut me off rather sharply, with a pointed a finger in my face, and told me that I was wrong. She then sternly told RP that she would not be reimbursed at all for this training, that she had to get special permission for her to attend, yada yada yada.

I was seeing red, so I zipped my lip. Almost an hour later, I’m still royally ticked off.

I don’t mind being told I’m wrong. I don’t mind admitting when I’m wrong. Often, I’m happy enough to admit that I’m wrong.

But do not ever poke your finger in my face. If you disagree with what I’m saying, fine. Interrupt all you want, although that’s rude too. In this case, it was the manner by which I was being told I was wrong (which I’m not, btw) that made me livid.

The thing is, she does it all the time to RP, who just takes it. She does it one more time to me and she’ll have an unpleasant conversation coming her way. So far I’m managing to resist the unpleasant conversation right now. She leaves in an hour, I think I have enough self control to hold my tongue that long. And she’ll be out for the rest of the week, mercifully.

Sheesh.

UPDATE (8/12 am): She’s here this morning. I’m a little confused...ah well.

[via dave]

UPDATE: I forgot to add the following from the results…

A venerated sage with vast power and knowledge, you gently guide forces around you while serving as a champion of the light.

Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not - for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life greets it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere.

I’m not so sure I gently guide anything. I do like being called a venerated sage - that’s very cool.

An interesting post about crap detecting can be found over at Emerging Minister today. Just more fodder for the Ark discussion resulting from the GQ article.

You like my alliteration? OK, here are the random thoughts from the morning.

1. I hate my alarm clock.

2. It’s getting to be really dark at 5:30am - a sure sign that summer is nearly over.

3. Coffee is good.

4. While I love the way my long hair looks, I hate the hassle of fixing it in the morning.

5. I do not love my commute.

6. The soundrack to O, Brother Where Are Thou? is amazing. I borrowed it from my Dad because we’re having a youth talent show thing in September and the people who are organizing it asked me, another woman, and one of the teenage gals to sing a song from that album (Don’t Leave Nothing But The Baby). It’s an interesting song choice, I may see if I can switch it to a different one - I’ll Fly Away or In the Highways.

7. There was a weird “accident” on Burke Lake Road. Traffic was backed up a little as I got to Lake Braddock HS. As I got closer to Braddock Road, there were maybe 5-6 police cars with flashing lights in the left lane and an ambulance a little further, also in the left lane. There were three cops on the sidewalk on the right with a civilian, they were obviously in conversation. I saw no evidence of a car accident, there were no wrecked cars, there was no broken glass, etc. So I’m wondering if a pedestrian was hit. As I passed the scene another ambulance was driving up from Braddock Road.

8. I wish I had called in sick today. I do not feel like being at work today. I’m thinking of maybe taking Friday off.

I could add more, but I won’t. Happy Monday, people!

Sunday, August 10, 2003

I forgot to mention church from this morning. It was fantastic!

A bunch of our youth and three adults went to West Virginia on a mission trip a week ago. Last week one of the kids shared his thoughts on their week as a teaser for today’s service, which was led by the youth.

The prelude song was Undignified by David Crowder Band. After a few announcements, the youth worship team (it’s nothing official, just a few of the kids led by one of our 20-somethings who’s a great guitar player) led us in a set of songs. The first was actually more of a special, a duet by two gals - Amazing Grace a capella - and amazingly haunting. Then we all sang Forever, In the Secret, Agnus Dei, and Surrender. Surrender was new to all of us. I don’t know who it’s by, but it was a little familiar.

**Just did a little research, looking for the lyrics, no success. I did find a song called I Surrender by Dennis Jernigan. Maybe that’s it.**

Then came the testimonies. The first was one of the adults. Then came three of the kids, one of the girls from my small group. It was so fun to hear how God had revealed Himself to them, how He had answered prayer, how He had used them. It was exciting to hear them share and to know that they’re seeking, searching, growing.

Our youth pastor tied up the service. He was fired up (as he usually is)! He challenged us to serve in order to grow. Rather than rest or cease working when weary or empty, serve. And he’s right - I know in the times I’ve been the most empty spiritually, if I’ve kept on serving the Lord filled me back up to overflowing. I needed to hear that because I’ve been heading for a desert time, wanting to step back from everything to regroup, rest. And I am reducing my involvement a little by handing over the hospitality ministry lead to another on the team. But I’m still committed to my small group of girls and to the larger youth group. And I’m also committed to the worship team. So I’m praying that God will refresh me, give me the passion I once had for these things so that I can serve Him well, to bring Him glory. I’m most praying for a renewed passion for my small group responsibilities - the groups are bring realigned, changed and while I know this needs to be done, I’m selfishly reluctant to accept some of the changes coming.

And somehow this became a venting session for me. *sigh*

I’ve always been interested in those psycho-babble things that pigeonhole people. While others may hate to be pigeonholed, I love it. I’m a huge fan of the Myers-Briggs Personality Profile and other such tests.

So in my blog reading, I ran across the link for the Birth Order Plus website over at Dean’s World. I’m the first born in my family. Here’s the list of characteristics that define me:

Characteristic Bad Feeling: Guilt
Strategies for survival: Placating, Covering Up
Felt Loss: Love
Sense of Justice: People should get what they deserve
Thought Pattern: Research
T-shirt: “I don’t know, what do you think?”
Childhood Behavior: Demanding, Show off
Emotional Expression: Flat
Source of Anger: Lack of Respect
Nature of Humor: Teasing
Means of Relating: Placating
Spirituality: Relational
Relational: Fears others may be offended, Placater
The Child Within: Abandoned
Type of Procrastination: Dreaming instead of doing
Blind spot: Own thoughts, feelings, desires
Boundaries: Others have absolute boundaries
A walk in the woods: Plunges into the woods pursuing distant goal
Careers: Business, Research, Counseling, Promotion, Speaking
Strengths: Goal-setting, Compromise, Leadership
Parenting: Directs children towards goals
Marriage: Goes along with what partner wants
As Friend: Compromising, Serving
Social Contributions: Discoveries, Information, Dreams
Expression of Love: Agreement
Driving Style: As if everyone is out to get him or her
Common Phrase: “I don’t know”
Responds To: “You may not agree with this, but....”

Also, I’m noticing the word “placate” is used a lot. When I was younger I would have said absolutely, that’s me! As I’ve gotten older and more assertive, I think I’m not as placating. My family may have different thought on that.

I’m channel surfing - in search for anything to watch while online (I just found Stargate SG-1, although it’s an episode I just saw a couple of weeks ago). I got to MTV, found an episode of The Osbournes and stopped for a second.

Just in time to hear Jack yelling at Kelly about some fight they had and he asked her why she needed to “confrontate” him. Huh? I thought maybe I heard it wrong. Then he used it a few more times in a profanity laden rant.

I’m adding this to the list, along with orientate and administrate, as words that seem to be correct yet aren’t.

I watched Vanilla Sky last night. What an odd movie, but I think I liked it. I know I liked the music used, but that’s to be expected from Cameron Crowe. I really like Cameron Crowe’s stuff. Say Anything is fantastic. Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous are just great.

It’s because of his previous movies, that I loved, that I gave this one a chance despite mixed reviews. And I think the Cooties hated it...I can understand why. It’s definitely weird.

I liked the surprise of Kurt Russell. And it drove me nuts when I recognized another actor who showed up late in the movie (I won’t name his character, because it’s spoilerish) - it was in the last scene that the “Ah Ha!” moment came and I realized he played the young David Helfgott in Shine.

***POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT***
One thing that stuck with me was the line about sour and sweet - how in life the things that are sour make the moments of sweetness all the sweeter. I liked how that was the main theme of the whole story really. I could go into the deeper themes, but I have to get ready for church.

I liked it.

Saturday, August 09, 2003

I know most of you are probably tired of the discussion. This post is mostly for me - additional links that are relevant to the topic. I encourage you to check them out.

1. I clicked over to Internet Monk yesterday afternoon and came across this post about the “gay summer.” A very interesting read.

2. In a comment on a previous post, Bryan left a link to an essay at Doxos. I just had a chance to read it this morning. Thanks, Bryan, it was very moving and as you said in a comment there, transparent.

ADDED LATER (8/11): 3.  The Tipping Point from Eric at Fireant Gazette.

The youth are running the church service this weekend, so I didn’t have worship band practice last night. It was nice to have a Friday free.

I found Jerry Maguire on TNT, so I watched that while I read a book. When that was over, I surfed until I discovered Stargate SG-1 on the Sci Fi channel. (Yes, I’m a nerd!) I like that show, but I only see it occasionally because I forget about it. When that was over, the channel ran a promo for the Battlestar Gallactica remake they’re working on. It looks to be very cool. I will be tuning in.

I was stuck in traffic (surprise!) last night and caught most of the first hour of the Chris Core Show on WMAL radio. Chris has been on vacation this week, so there have been guest hosts each day. Thursday’s was Tony Snow from Fox News. Last night’s was Trevor Matich.

Who?

Actually, being a Redskins fan, the name was a little familiar and he was identified as a former Redskin player. So I was thinking, this will be different - he’ll talk about sports (Kobe, the NFL pre-season, etc.). I was so wrong.

He opened the show with a discussion about the Dixie Chicks new problems, the war in Iraq, how being anti-Bush/war isn’t helping the troops to do their job over in the sandbox, and how it may actually be encouragement to terrorists to keep on keeping on. It was fascinating and he proved to be more than the expected dumb jock.

One thing he said that I’ve thought as well (this is my loose paraphrase): It’s fine to criticize the President and Administration, but in the next breath you should articulate an alternative solution to the problem. So far, I haven’t heard a whole lot of the complainers present a workable alternative to what Bush actually did. Continuing on the path we were on wasn’t cutting it - something needed to be done.

Anyway, I was impressed.

Friday, August 08, 2003

It’s a fine line for Christians. Scripture says, “be in the world, but not of it.” OK. How do we do that? Especially today, when we have a Christian subculture that continually segregates itself from society. We have our own music, our own art, our own fiction, our own movies, TV shows, news shows, networks, radio stations, etc. We are separate, but at what cost? To ourselves as a subculture? To the Gospel? To the Great Commandment and Great Commission?

I don’t know the answer, although I know that I am troubled by Christians that so isolate themselves from “the world” that they don’t know what’s really going on in it. They only hang with their church friends, they only listen to Christian music, they only watch Veggie Tales videos, they only read Christian pablum. And sadly, although much of that stuff wears the banner of Christ, I don’t think it serves him or us well. And it certainly doesn’t aid in reaching out to those who don’t come to our churches or fit our idea of who we should associate with or whatever.

Backing up my point is this sobering article by a GQ editor, who decided to immerse himself in what he calls “the Ark” for a week. I found the link at Emerging Minister (post called “Sad Article"). Read the comments as well.

There’s similar discussion to be found at Thinklings.

Today’s Friday Five

1. What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country? New Jersey, upon the birth of my niece. Oh, no, actually the last place was Brunswick (Glynco), Georgia, for a training thing. I forgot about that.

2. What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling?  Nothing really bizarre. I was on the same flight with the 10,000 Maniacs when going from NYC to London in the late 80s.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?  Australia and New Zealand, I’ve always wanted to go there. Second choice would be the UK and Ireland. I also keep saying I’ll go to Alaska someday to visit a dear friend who lives in Anchorage.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?  It depends on how long I’m actually travelling and where my destination is. I’ve done the train a lot, which is a fine way to travel.

5. What’s the next place on your list to visit?  I’m headed to New Jersey again in a couple of weeks for the dedication of CootieGirl at church. It’s like a baby baptism without the baptism.