Meet Millie

Yesterday I stopped downtown to buy some sage. (Cooking sage, not hippie sage, for the record. Most of the spices did not make the cross country move cut.) I was feeling pretty fine since I'd had two good writing days in a row (booyah - sermon for Sunday has already been printed), so I popped into one of the cute boutiques on the way. I found a great little gift for A.L.Z., and when I was paying for it I noticed a very adorable Halloween witch behind the counter. As it turned out, she was 50% off. I couldn't resist. I was literally grinning as I paid for her.
We named her Millie.Even though she is more Halloweenish than the original, the reason she makes me so happy is she reminds me of our Grandma Watson's kitchen witch, who currently flies in the corner of my parents' kitchen. Kitchen witches are a Scandinavian and German tradition; they are supposed to ward off kitchen mishaps.
(photo credit: Marie's 2009 photo-a-day)

Millie will likely be an October-only presence. Though if the food starts tasting better - and if Juliette keeps cheerfully saying "Hi, Millie!" when we walk in the house - it will be hard to put her away for the season.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Juliette and I had planned to set out for IKEA this afternoon, as we have a mission to procure a particular item for Elizabeth, who lives beyond the reach of the Swedes. We were heading toward the highway when I decided that it is far too blustery to be on the road. Full trash bags had blown into the street.

2. Batten down the hatches, Ohio. It was a doozy.

3. Tell me this is not the cutest trio of preacher's kids you ever did see.
It was taken at the first of two parties we attended on Sunday, the cupcake reception for Selam's baptism. Juliette is a huge fan of Selam and Zora. And Zora's dad, who kept an eye on the girls as they raced around the church campus. As Erica pointed out, these girls might be a little too comfortable in churches. ;-)

4. I was more than a little nervous about going to party #2; between post-Sunday School lemonade and baptismal cupcakes, Juliette had reached a new level of sugar high. No worries. Party #2 was a Halloween party at church that brilliantly didn't involve any candy. The kids had so much fun - thanks to the high school youth group kids that lead games and crafts - they didn't even notice the lack of lollipops and chocolate bars.

5. Juliette loves church so very much. When we get in the car, she asks, "Are we going to church?" and is disappointed if the answer is no. She also contributed her first pre-dinner prayer the other night: "Dear God, thank you for... everything. Amen."

6. I've been reading Sit a Spell, which is the blog of a missionary in Haiti. I was going to include a little quote to illustrate how powerful and challenging it is, but I couldn't. I just wanted to copy and paste the entire blog, but not only would that overwhelm #6 in a ToT, it would also be altogether unnecessary when you can venture over and read it in its original context.

7. Next week, Over the Rhine is doing a train tour across the West, with concerts at every stop. Don't get me started on how much I would love to be on that train. It hurts to think about it.

8. As ambivalent as I am about Facebook, I posted a question last week soliciting advice about doing Christmas Pageants. The feedback I got was so helpful I copied and pasted all the comments into a Word document to put in my file. I have ideas for years to come.

9. Last night I was overwhelmed by the urge to knit. I haven't knit since I had a complete knitfail last fall, after I unwisely tried to knit scarves for all of the children in the family for Christmas gifts. (I finished half, but couldn't very well give out scarves to half of the children in the family, so they are just wallowing in handmade goods purgatory. Knitfail.) I can't believe I've done this to myself again; I didn't knit for years while Lara's prayer shawl was hanging over my head. Sigh.

10. I'm rereading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It's part of my emergency plan to enable me to actually finish my book manuscript by February 1st. It was good to be reminded, right on page three, that "telling the truth in an interesting way turns out to be about as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat." Mmmhmm.

Inseparable

That's me on the left. Back when I was Kay.

(Don't mind the enormous glasses. It was the late 1980s. Sally Jesse was setting the trends.)

The other little girl is Lara.

We were best friends. If you couldn't tell.

This was taken the summer before the 4th grade, which was, aside from the traumas of learning long division, a golden year.

Thanks in large part to Lara.

We wrote mystery novels, played detective a la Nancy Drew, and established elaborate scenarios in which we were searching for treasure while being chased my cannibals.

We were obsessed with The Princess Bride. One of the largest bruises of my life was obtained during a swordfighting battle with Lara. I backed up into her purple Barbie Dream House.

Drop. Your. Sword.

At the end of the 4th grade, Lara and her family moved to the suburbs of Chicago. I was devastated.

I visited Lara twice, flying on a plane all by myself. (Do I have cool parents or what?) Most of my memories of Chicago are from those trips. We hit all the big kid-friendly spots: the Field Museum, the aquarium, the lakefront ferry tour.

The zoo. I felt like I had been deposited in a memory the first time we went to the Brookfield Zoo.

Lara and I lost touch sometime in high school. But I tracked her down and emailed her while Juliette was napping this morning.

Hey. I live twenty miles away now. Any chance we're still kindred spirits, after all this time?

It Gets Better

The "It Gets Better" videos are part of a campaign to reach out to bullied youth - especially kids who are bullied on account of their real or perceived sexual orientation. I've watched the ones by Joel Burns, Tim Gunn, and Gene Robinson. They are heartbreaking but hopeful, just as the title of the project implies. As one of my internet besties posted on Facebook, she's "read the back of the book, and Love Wins."

It dawned on me today that I have my own testimony to add to the promise that it gets better. Joel Burns references in his message the many kids who are bullied because they are different. I was one of those kids. My entire fifth grade year was one big miserable lonely disaster. I got picked on every day. Toward the end of the school year, my girl scout troop went on a weekend trip to Amish country. At one point, all the girls were sent to hang out in one motel room (why the heck weren't we camping??). We weren't completely unsupervised, as the leaders were in the other side of the suite. But surely they would have intervened if they'd known that the girls made the two of us "gross girls" sit in the corner and cover our ears so we wouldn't hear what they were saying.

It got better. Where I grew up, all the sixth graders went to the same school. It was a chance to start over again. I avoided the kids from my elementary school as much as I could, and gratefully befriended the other "different" kids who were doing the same.

It got better, until algebra class my freshman year of high school. I was seated next to two popular kids - the stars of the soccer team. One of them had been in my class in the fifth grade; he'd pulled my chair out from under me and laughed when I landed on the floor. The other one was sort of friends with my boyfriend, who had tinges of popularity but was destined to be a band/church nerd, just like me. I thought that his sort of friendship with my sort of popular boyfriend might save me.

It didn't. That fall, Sassy Magazine ran a fashion spread full of funky schoolgirl clothes, with a bunch of models styled with plaid skirts and knee socks and plastic baby barrettes. I worked up the nerve to try it.

"Hey, Kay." TJM drawled. "Are you a lesbian?"

"No. Why?"

"Because you're wearing knee socks."

And then it just kept going and going, day after day, long after I'd stashed the knee socks in the furthermost corner of my bureau. Once I passed them in the hall while I was walking with my sort of popular boyfriend's older sister. They started in. I was mortified.

At the time I didn't know if I could survive it, especially fifth grade, when it wasn't just two boys in one class. Part of the problem was that I was so profoundly embarrassed to be disliked that I didn't want anyone in my family to know. Joel Burns talked about wanting to show his 13-year-old self how happy his life is now. I just want to go back in time and tell myself talk to Mama and Daddy.

It gets better. So much better. But I sure hope it gets better fast for the kids who are suffering through it right now.

It's All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses a Wedding Ring and Somebody Else Gets Leaves in her Diaper

(For the record, I am neither of the somebodies referenced in the title.)

Miscellany

1. I'm on study leave this week to work on my book. So far I have completed a new chapter draft, met with my wonderful writing group, and had a minor meltdown about the whole project. Seems about right.

2. Juliette and I stopped at the store before preschool to buy flour. Even though she does a lot of baking, she immediately headed for the flowers. I couldn't resist the sweetness of buying flour and flowers, so that's what we did. Reminds me of the Stranger than Fiction scene where Will Ferrell brings flours to Maggie Gyllenhal.

3. Today I am wearing leggings for the first time since 1989.

4. I ran yesterday for the first time since I hurt my foot in the 10k. No more pain! And it felt so good to run. That said, I'm keeping it to under 5 miles.

Alrighty, time to write.

Friday Night

Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken played in Naperville on Friday, and oh man, was it a good show. We were both a little uncertain. We thought it could go either way, but they were so fantastic live. They played at the Union, which is a converted church sanctuary/concert venue. It has giant black-and-white photos of musicians on the walls, right in between the stained glass windows. Can I just say that there is probably no surer way to make me feel like I've come to the right place than to decorate with a larger-than-life portrait of Over the Rhine?

So, Sandra McCracken was lovely. Her songs manage to be both gritty and delicate, much as she seems to be. I happily plunked down the $10 for her new album, In Feast or Fallow: New Old Hymns. Derek Webb played with her, and I was impressed by how he really puts himself in service to her music. They collaborate well.

Then Derek Webb played solo, and I cannot overstate how very, very good it was. He's such a confident and talented musician. He inexplicably reminded me of Justin Timberlake. Beyond his performance, the songs are just. so. good. I was especially glad to hear Freddie Please live; it's off of the mostly-electronic album Stockholm Syndrome, but it was perfect on acoustic guitar.

Freddie Please is so illustrative of the brilliance of Derek Webb. As he briefly explained, it's a doo-wop 50's love song to Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, sung from the perspective of Jesus:

Freddie, please
How could you do this to me
How could you tell me you love me when you hate me
Freddie, please

The stone's been rolled away
And you're picketing my grave for loving the things you hate
But why do you seek the living among the dead

Meanwhile, I've been listening to track #4 on Feast or Fallow on repeat:

Justice will roll down, oh, justice will roll down.
From high upon the mountain with a mighty river sound,
it will roll down. It will roll down.

Amen and amen.

Ten on Thursday

1. The situation with Ben's commute is getting a little easier - he leaves super early in the morning, but that keeps the drive to an even hour. He finished a Nick Hornby book-on-CD last week and started listening to The Historian this week, so he's even enjoying the time more. Juliette and I are getting into the swing of our new schedule, though we both miss the third person of our triumvirate.

2. Sadly, the 6:20am departure time makes running in the morning a lot trickier. But I wouldn't be running anyway, as my foot still hurts from the 10k race. I'm trying to make up for it by swimming and biking at the gym, but I'm surprised by how very much I miss running. I miss the company, I miss the endorphins, I even miss... the actual running.

3. On Sunday after worship, we headed out to the country for a Foods Resource Bank harvest celebration. It was so much fun. Juliette loved petting the goats and chickens, as well as her first ride in the back of a pickup. The pickup took us to the combine rides. We hopped on for one jaunt around the field. It's like magic, the way the combine collects all the corn kernels and leaves the rest on the ground to compost.Juliette was absolutely mesmerized.
Cowboy boots are not the best footgear on very narrow and slippery metal ladders. Thankfully I did not tumble.

4. Fidelia's Sisters has been better than ever lately. I hope that's not because I'm off the editorial team. :)

5. Juliette has known that a PBS television version of The Cat in the Hat exists for awhile lately, but we're not usually around to watch TV at 8:30am on weekdays. We were running late today and I needed a few uninterrupted moments to get ready, so she got to watch the first segment. She was absolutely beside herself she loved it so much. I, on the other hand, was a little agitated by it. They made it all educational and pbssey. The beauty of Dr. Seuss, whose books are among my very favorites to read aloud, is that 99% of the time they are a silly celebration of the English language. Every so often there's a message about the dangers of nuclear proliferation or environmental destruction woven into the rhymes, but not in a Now It's Time For A Lesson kind of way. It's just part of the worldview, the water in which the Seussfish swim. The PBS version clearly had an agenda: teach children about nocturnal animals. Fine. I guess Juliette can learn about bats during her morning TV fix if she must. Hmph.

6. We are going to a Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken concert this weekend. If it's really good, we may have to go back again next month when they return to do a show with Donald Miller.

7. Next week I am on study/writing leave. I'm really hopeful it's going to be productive, because I need to start cranking out chapters at a Kerouaclike pace. That said, unlike in Collegeville, I will still be required to cook, drive, and keep house.

8. When I lived in Ohio, I was always ambivalent about autumn because it meant that summer was over and winter was coming. I am in love with this season. Maybe it's because I'm glad the days of ninety degree temperatures and unbearable humidity are over. Maybe it's because I forget just what we're in for when the winter descends. Or maybe it's just because the air is crisp, the leaves are brilliant, and the soup is on.

9. Juliette still fits into her ladybug costume, if you use the word "fits" somewhat loosely. Would it be totally wrong to make her be the same thing for THREE Halloweens in a row?

10. Russell Rathbun, aka Debbie Blue's colleague at House of Mercy, has a new and wonderful lectionary website called The Hardest Question. I realize that now that I'm not preaching weekly, I need something to fill the hole where that structured bible study used to be. I've been reading this every week for the last couple weeks and it's great.

A Four-tissue Video

This video leaves me speechless. And very weepy. You should watch it.

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Those StoryCorps interviews are marvelous enough on their own, but with such tenderly-rendered animation? Oh, dear.