Friday Ramble

Before leaving for the weekend, I thought I’d leave a little ‘Nail Soup’ for you. Not ‘nail soup’ because I chew my nails, but from a story I used to love where a tramp makes soup from a single nail. (That long explanation is really just cause I don’t know how to spell pot pourri…)

Are you lookin’ at me?!
On Friday night I dragged two friends to a performance by PUSH. D and Hez were good friends of ours when we lived in Rochester. They’re a married couple who run a physical theatre (he's British) group and had been invited to perform at a visual theater festival here in Baltimore. After the (wonderful) set, I went backstage to find them in their dressing room. Hez and I often sympathize over the struggle against ‘saddlebags’ (those hideous lumps of cellulite that pop out on our thighs if we merely mention brownie sundaes). D is my age, but he’s in great shape, very muscular. Well, he’d pulled a muscle in his back and came out from the bathroom with an ice pack stuffed into his pants. I’m ashamed to admit it, but, yes, we mocked his pain, “D, you look like a 12 year old girl whose butt has come in, but not her boobs!” I laughed. Hez said in mock anger, “You mean like me?” I grinned at her, “Or like me!” We turned sideways and lined up so our profiles were behind Hootchie D in the mirror. Yup. The same. Sigh.

This book is sometimes SO aggravating and then has ok moments
My boss bought herself The Purpose Driven Life and asked if I would read it with her. I avoid Christian-hype books like the plague, but she’s so eager to explore and think about things, that for her sake I was willing to try it. The first third of it drove me (and her) a little nuts (OK, I got it, God likes me, but I better get my butt in gear and get out of neutral to respond. Enough with the guilt trip, dude!). His stuff on community is much better. The weird thing is that I've yet to find a single one of my Christian friends who have liked the book or been able to finish it. Who's reading it then? If it drives me, and every other Christian I know, a bit crazy, and we believe this stuff to begin with, what's it like for someone as an introduction to belief?!

When No Money is an Abundance
This morning PDL had something that reminded me of the year our family had no money. That year was our best Christmas ever. Not only did we qualify for all the free gift programs for poor people, but it’s also when my Mom started all the wonderful Christmas traditions my family enjoyed. When you don’t have money, time is the coin you spend. And it’s worth A LOT more than a gift.

The other book I want to finish soon
Baltimore has a great place called The Book Thing. It’s open on Saturdays and every book is organized by topic, but they’re all free. I picked up Sue Miller, While I Was Gone. For most of the book it’s a wonderful meditation on who we end up becoming vs. who we thought we’d be. But it’s starting to devolve into a woman’s midlife crisis and her consideration of an affair with someone from her youth. I wanted to stop, but yes, I read the last page, so it’s making me slog through to find out how it works out in the end.

B..B...B...Bad to the Bone
That evil habit has earned me more gasps of horror than the fact that I usually don’t bathe in the winter. It is just TOO COLD to get wet if I don’t have to when my house is 60 degrees. The space heater makes it bearable to wash my hair and face over the side of the tub (the dog likes to stick her nose under my arm to see what I’m doing). I clean up for special occasions, at least once a week for church, but that’s it, people. In the summer, sure the two showers if I get dirty, but in the winter I sit on my butt in the office or at home, there’s not much sweat. (Hey, I went to a hippie college, what do you want from me!? "The amount that Americans bathe is a waste of precious water resources, it's an expression of vanity, of not being in touch with your own skin", etc. Some people at school reeked! I guess they also refused to believe in deodorant. Don't worry, I'm not that bad. )

While I’m on the subject
Of my bad habits. The other one that seems to throw people off is that I love to go for walks at night so I can look into people’s houses. I don’t want to see them (at all), but I love to see how people decorate their homes.

Art (or something like it)

Two of the bookmarks I made on Saturday. I’m going to add calligraphy to the one on the left. I'll use white ink to write over the green square, and black ink over the blue circle. The bookmark on the right took on a life of it’s own, so the calligraphy will go on the back and echo the painting's curves. My passion and training is oil painting, so I can never just leave a watercolor alone. It always feels naked and I end up layering and laboring until it looks more like this.

Enough about me. If you want to read a really fun ramble, check out MetroDad’s chaos theory.