This should have been posted last night, but I was too tired when I got home from class to finish it. So all the "todays" &etc. remain as if it were posted Wednesday night.

-----

( gym )

***

Ed Rollins (R) was on CNN AM and said that neither candidate was inspiring, which was what he thinks people want, that it was a lot of Senate floor talk. That sounded exactly accurate to me.

I avoided the liveblogs last night, but I just about hurt myself laughing reading this one [Will Wilkinson]. (I don't know what the "transvestite" line at the beginning is about, and I'm choosing to ignore it. It's a libertarian blogger, so a lot of the economic stuff &etc. may rub my liberal flisters the wrong way. It gets better as it goes along. The timestamps are Central time zone.)

( excerpts )

Daniel Drezner summed up:

In the end, both candidates put forward mainstream internationalist positions on most issues related to national security, stressing the prudent use of military force, working in concert with allies and insisting that America could still be an active force for good in the world.

What was odd was that this hopeful vision of America's role in the world clashed badly with their rhetoric on the global economy. When talk turned to economics, the rest of the world was viewed as a scary, scary place.

***

The power went out shortly before noon (and stayed out for a half an hour).

Ian went and got lunch (tofu stirfry!) and was hanging out by my desk chatting while the power remained out. (It's hard to do much work here without our computers, and we FAs were still gonna wait until about 12:30 to head to lunch in order to miss the student rush.)

I forget how we got on it, but Ian said, "You're not worried about getting electronically outsourced?" I said the amount of person management I do...

Talking about how people are forever asking me where something/someone is, Ian said, "You like it. You could be all passive-aggressive [mimes turning his head down and away as if sitting at a desk avoiding someone] but instead you [demonstrates how I'll perk up and say, "How can I help you?" -- I didn't nitpick that what I actually say is, "Can I help you?"] I've seen you." I said yeah, I totally love being helpful. (I didn't mention that it connects to my being a control-freak, but that might have been implied.)

I said if someone could develop a Marauder's Map, that would be great. Ian asked, "Marauder's Map?" I said yeah, from Harry Potter -- it's a map of Hogwarts, the school, and it'll show you where anyone is on the school grounds, as a dot on the map with their name.
He said he's the only person who's never read one word of Harry Potter. I said my mom read them to my younger brother when they were first coming out in England and I was doing homework on the computer in the other room and got sucked in.
He said, "You're a geek, I know," in this tone of like, "You don't have to defend yourself, it's okay." I said I'll get militantly defensive about other stuff (I didn't specify, but of course Buffy was what immediately came to my mind), but I wasn't getting defensive, just explaining.

[Dude, you can get it as a screensaver!]

***

I used the phrase "marginal utility" at lunch, and MaryAlice said, "You are taking an econ class." She said she recognized the phrase, but she wouldn't have thought of it to use it.

She said something about Chinese buffet night, and I restrained myself from saying, "AT THE CHINESE BUFFET, WATER IS ON THE HOUSE." (ref. this Dinosaur Comics, and musesfool's subsequent tag)

***

How have I not learned to just be proactive ALWAYS when it comes to work stuff? It always works out better that way. Sigh.

***

I got to Rest and Bread early and walked into the church office to make myself useful. Laura Ruth introduced me to Jamie, the new church administrator (I think), and said, "Elizabeth is..." I thought, "I see you searching for a phrase appropriate for public company" -- because when she introduced me to Meck at brunch a few weeks ago, she used the phrase "church whore," among others -- and she ultimately finished her sentence to Jamie with: "resident church whore." I laughed. She continued: "She frequents all the houses of worship up and down the street." (This is an overstatement, because there are at least six distinct faith communities on College Ave. and I'm only affiliated with three of them, but I LOVE that phrasing.)

At one point while we were setting up I said to Laura Ruth, "Am I allowed to ask you how you've been, or would that be too distracting?" She said yes at the moment that would be too distracting -- but the short version is that she's doing great.

Rest and Bread ("Welcoming the Stranger")

In the Welcome, Laura Ruth said, "We know each other some," but that we don't know all parts of each other -- which in light of Sunday at CWM I read as a subtle nod to National Coming Out Day &etc., whether it was intended so or not.

She said when thinking about welcoming the stranger, we have to ask ourselves, "Who is stranger, us or them," which I thought a nice pun.

The Psalm was Psalm 120.

The Sacred Texts were from Deuteronomy ("...love the stranger") and Hebrews ("let mutual love continue ... entertained angels unawares").

Reflection:
Laura Ruth talked about welcoming the stranger. She talked about how encountering strangers brings newness into our lives and that can be disruptive and threatening.
She said that prayer is about curiosity, not control. (I forget exactly how that related, but I liked it.)
She talked about the "entertained angels unawares" thing and said that one way we can react when we encounter the stranger -- even when it's that crazy guy in the park yelling -- is to think, "Maybe it's Jesus" (I thought of that bit in Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies I think it was, where talks about making a conscious effort to just when she takes the dog out for a walk to see Jesus in the face of every single person she encounters -- or maybe it's just the first person she encounters? but I think it's everyone). She said that Jesus is pure holiness, . I have issue with this because thanks to Old Testament classes and stuff, I can't help thinking of "holy" as "whole," and we are (as she said) broken. [By the time service was over, I had forgotten about probing about this -- and I couldn't stay too long anyway, as I had class -- so I'll be emailing her about this.]

(In other news, Laura Ruth made me an official, computer print out, clip-on, nametag.)

***

Today's mail included:
* my voter registration confirmation (though "I Vote You Vote - a project of the non-partisan American Democracy Institute" says, "Sorry. We can't confirm Elizabeth [redacted] is registered to vote in Massachusetts." -- I suspect they're just a little behind)
* a $36.75 refund check from RCN
* my American Red Cross donor card (I'm O Positive!)

***

Yom Kippur began at sunset tonight. If I've hurt you, or you think you've hurt me, please let me know.

Eileen and Yong-Li did arrive around 12:30 last night (and they brought me gifts!) but we ended up staying up talking until about 2am. I got up around 11 this morning ('cause I knew Yong-Li was was meeting a friend downtown at 12:30), and looking out the window as we were getting ready to go, there were bits of snow falling. It was more like rain by the time we left, but it wasn't really precipitating enough to be a nuisance.

We all three walked to the T station and then Eileen and I got brunch at Johnny D's. I got one of the specials -- mango pancakes -- and considered getting their St. Patrick's Day drink but didn't. We stayed there for a good couple and hours and then headed out. We took the T to Harvard and walked to the b-school. I showed her my office (yay swipe card access!) and Spangler and the Chapel (though we couldn't actually get in). We walked back to the Square, got our pictures taken over the River in the grey, and went to Tealuxe -- where I got the chocolate cherry I'd almost gotten last time, and since it was fairly crowded we walked back to the b-school and sat in front of one of the fireplaces in Spangler. I felt kinda weird being there in my "Smith College: A Tradition Of Women In Exciting Positions" t-shirt and light blue jeans.

I told her stories of the random guys who've tried to pick me up, and she pointed out that the fact that I walk alone all over the place makes me literally more approachable, which sounds obvious now that she said it but which had literally never occurred to me before since I take it so for granted that I go lots of places by myself.

Edit: Negotiation Genius was on display at the HBS Coop, and I got talking about the book, and it was interesting talking about it, really trying to remember ideas and examples and turn them into normal-speak. /edit

I had no idea where we were going to eat dinner (Yong-Li had vetoed Indian, and Eileen had vetoed Mexican, but otherwise anything was fine), since I go out to eat so rarely and all, and I was seriously considering calling Nicole to ask for recommendations, but the Garage reminded me that I like Le's, so I decided on that.

We got dinner around 6:30, with Yong-Li's friend Victor. Yong-Li got a chai bubble tea, which was tasty. Afterward we considered going to Tommy Doyle's (Victor was heading to a party) but ended up just going home -- in part because Yong-Li was carrying bags of fruit (they had gone to Quincy Market, Mike's Pastries, the farmers' market by Haymarket, and back to Boston Common -- hi, I envied their walking a little, to be honest). We talked about going to PJ Ryan's later (we got home at like 8:30), but we just sort of crashed on couches.

I started making serious noises about calling it a night around 11:30, and I appreciate that Yong-Li pushed for plans for tomorrow, because we ended up totally 180-ing what I thought their plans had been leaning toward and in the process lowering my anxiety. (P.S. Why is it so hard to find details about where exactly the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade is?)
It had been sounding like they wanted to go to Nicole's brunch and that meant I would have to skip out of CHPC AdultEd early or something (I want to go to Nicole's brunch, too, but the decision-making gets more complicated when I'm responsible for other people), but they ended up deciding that they (Eileen) more wanted to go to the Parade, so we're all just gonna leave around the same time tomorrow morning and they'll go to Chinatown and then to the parade and then who knows and I'll get to do my thing (including evening church) and will give them a spare key in case they need to crash. I really don't mind playing hostess -- and I had been worried that I wasn't in a state to have the requisite energy, but it's been fine; and Eileen and I have been really comfortable despite not having been in touch much this past oh eight years -- but I'm also kind of attached to some of my own stuff (though I have no problem bringing people along) and yeah, coordinating with other people makes things more complicated. Does anyone wonder why I do so much stuff alone? (Though really there's a multitude of reasons for that, and I do totally enjoy doing lots of stuff with people.)

Okay, I seriously need to go to bed.

via friendsfriends, I saw an article on BadScience.net critiquing the the "zomg Prozac is no(t much) better than a placebo" media 'splosion.  [rydra_wong states: I am not a fan of Big Pharma. I am even less of a fan of people who are happy to jump on the bandwagon of "the pills don't work and are just a way of dodging your Deep Freudian Issues" at the expense of factual accuracy.]  ( crit also discusses Big Pharma more generally )

from whedonesque: "Dollhouse" has a seven-episode order from Fox, will star Eliza Dushku, who used to be on "Buffy," and will go into production in about six weeks.  (The article linked is actually about how Joss asked two executive story editors from Angel to work on Dollhouse, but that bit was what jumped out at me because there is so much potential for Dollhouse to go badly that I'd actually been hoping it wouldn't end up getting made.)

***

Today's Lenten Labyrinth continued the week's theme of rest and quoted from Hebrews about entering into God's rest, which is an idea I hadn't thought much about before.  Something to chew on.

***

( gym )

---

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]
"Sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well."
-Julian of Norwich, Showings

Five good things about today:
1. There was still nice snow on the ground today.
2. The Grille menu did not lie to me and there was indeed potato leek soup (and spanikopita).
3. My wireless keyboard quit on me last night, and indeed it only needed new batteries.
4. Good discussion at CHPC Bible study tonight (writeup to follow eventually).  I worried I would regret skipping ASL class for it, but no,
5. I keep thinking I've fucked things up ("We built on a river," indeed) and then it turns out we're okay, which is such a relief.  I handled stuff badly, and I regret that (la la la, learning experience), but to be reassured that we're still moving forward?  Yeah.
Bonus: CHPC-Rachel is indeed attending the TransLaw conference (at least the Saturday sessions).

Three things I did well today:
1. I dry-swallowed my iron supplement.  Yes it's a tiny pill, but I used to try to dry swallow vitamins and couldn't, so I was excited when I put it in my mouth and was like, "Hey, I bet I can swallow this without drinking any water," and then I did.
2. I cleaned off my computer desktop at work.
3. I donated to the Huntington.  They called, and I'm less good at saying no to solicitations on the phone, but they talked about good stuff the Huntington does and which I support, so I felt good about making a donation to them.  Funny story, before I could open my mouth to say, "OKay, I'll make a donation of $X," the guy said: there's the blah blah donor level of two-hundred-something dollars a month . . . and right along with laughing silently at the idea that I had that much disposable income that I would want to spend on them, I thought, "anchoring!"  Oh b-school osmosis :)
4. I washed dishes.  (Recently, there keep being dishes from RoomieKatie sitting in the sink/drainer, but tonight my own dishes had started to pile up, so I took the dishes out of the drainer and put them on the table, and moved the dishes in the sink out of my way and washed my dishes.)
5. I finally replied to CHPC-Rachel's e-mail from Sunday.

Two things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
1. CAUMC small group.
2. Hanging out at the library between work and CAUMC and reading and/or napping.

"Humility is priceless. For everything else, including diamond bitch collars, there's Mastercard."
-Peyton Manning in "Life Lessons for Peyton Manning" (a Yuletide 2007 fic)

Though a New Englander, I'm really not much of a football fan (though I have jennyo on StalkerPin and have been kind of enjoying her postings about football), and also not much of a tv watcher so I haven't even seen any of these Peyton Manning commercials, but the line was really too good not to post.  The fic itself is a bit too cracked out for my tastes (though okay, it isn't Slave Bear of Care-a-Lot, which was 2005 but which I didn't get around to reading until this year and yeah, don't so much recommend).

However, I am stealing one of soundingsea's Yuletide recs:

Shakespeare - Hamlet
Before the end of all things
"Thoreau was an idiot," says Ophelia, "and there's nothing quiet about our desperation. Knowing our past does not make us any less doomed to repeat it."
Ophelia and Hamlet keep dancing the same dance throughout history. Only the details change.

---

joy sadhana for Christmastide (6)

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy." -mylittleredgirl [more info]

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.  And they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
-Isaiah 9:2

Five good things about today:
1. Despite not being able to fall asleep until like 2:30am, I still got up at a decent hour (9:15) AND stayed awake through the whole CHPC service, sermon included.
1a. And I liked the sermon.
1b. I had positive socializing experiences during CHPC Coffee Hour.
2. My brother called.  As I hear more about people's negative experiences with family (though usually it's in reference to their parents) I appreciate more the easy relationship I have with my brother.  Yeah we just talk superficial stuff, but I don't feel like I need that kind of close relationship with him, and I'm grateful for the good relationship that we do have.
3. OriginalRoomie and I had a pleasant conversation.  (Ari, she says the UFO noise is just the fridge.)
4. economics discussion -- this sort of thing apparently now fills me with joy.  (I actually looked at Intro Econ on the Harvard Extension School website, but Spring it's offered on Wednesdays and this spring I'm taking ASL 3 on Wednesdays; this Fall it was Thursdays, which is CAUMC small group, so I'm looking at Spring 2009, though I should remember to look at the Summer offerings -- though they're usually during the day, which is awkward.)
5. I didn't (don't) feel stressed about the stuff I did not accomplish today.

Three things I did well today:
1. I lifted up Certain People in Prayers of the People at both my churches.  (It's kinda funny in a way that this has become like a Spiritual Discipline for me.  Ari, at evening church, I totally laughed after getting called on and said "I say this every Sunday" and Tiffany smiled kindly and said something vaguely encouraging, 'cause she's good like that, and when I said the part about your having bought a ticket I totally Freudian slipped and said you were going to "visit" your girlfriend before I caught myself.)
2. I stuck around at Coffee Hour at CHPC despite kind of wanting to leave (and as stated above, was rewarded with decent social interaction).
3. I finished church writeups on the day of!!!

Two things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
1. Private-posting assorted writeups I haven't yet finished but want to have up before the New Year (I have Organization Issues, shut up). edit: Except that I realized that I would hit four thousand entries in the middle of the private-locked entries, which doesn't work for me. Sigh. /edit
2. Finishing various e-mails.

Yesterday morning, Ian e-mailed me (in response to something else): "I'll be in in about 20 minutes.  I'll have a surprise for you."

He actually didn't get in for more like 40 minutes, and I never did get anything, so I e-mailed at the end of the day:

> I'll have a surprise for you.

Why does that frighten me?

(However, I was still hoping I'd get a toy surprise* or something.)

* From BtVS 3.20:
GILES: You did good work tonight, Buffy.
BUFFY: And I got a little toy surprise.

This morning he walked in and handed me a large hot chocolate.  Which had marshmallows.  Which led to an extended conversation about gelatin and what products contain it.  [snopes on JELL-O]

[I'm extra-amused because I prompted a comment thread about the use of miniscule amounts of dead cow in McDonald's french fries on one of Amy's filtered entries last night]

I'd forgotten about photo emulsion and pills.

Cosmetics, lozenges, and ointments.  Okay, this makes some sense, though it had never occurred to me to check.

News to me: Salad dressing?  Sour cream and cream cheese?  Cake icing and frosting?  I've always thought the frosting on store bought cakes was gross anyway.  Though cream cheese?  My mommy's awesome frosting is cream cheese based.  *pouts*  (I guess after my yogurt issue I shouldn't be surprised by all this.  Wikipedia also suggests jelly and ice cream and, oh, good grief, "Gelatin is used for the clarification of juices, such as apple juice, and of vinegar. Isinglass, from the swim bladders of fish, is still in use as a fining agent for wine and beer."  Oh and then there's fun stuff like "Gelatin is closely related to bone glue and is used as a binder in match heads and sandpaper." and "As a surface sizing, it smooths glossy printing papers or playing cards and maintains the wrinkles in crêpe paper."  *facepalm*  Also: "Used as a carrier, coating or separating agent for other substances, it, for example, makes beta-carotene water-soluble, thus imparting a yellow color to any soft drinks containing beta-carotene.")

Theater lights?  I'm unclear as to whether this is still true.

***

Yesterday, Laura put up (blinking!) multi-colored Christmas tree lights around her desk.  They subsequently showed up on Rich's and Katie's desks as well.  They actually don't bother me as much as I might have thought they would, but I remain a white light girl (as well as one who's not particularly into seasonally decorating, at her workplace in particular).

This afternoon she asked me, "Do you want some lights?"  I said no politely, and she said, "Okay, if you want to be a scrooge."  I said I was fine with that.  She said she was just teasing, and I said I knew that, but that I was still okay with that identification.

In other news: The other day, Katie said the ice wouldn't be so bad if only people put sand out on it.  My immediate thought (unspoken) was: Nah, if it doesn't melt the ice (like salt) then what's the point?  However, recent commutes have convinced me of the error of my thinking.  Traction is awesome, people.

I got my hair cut at Salon Cu tonight.  (And checking my tag, I'm comforted that it's been about a month since I last got it cut, so it's not quite as ridiculous as I had feared.)  It goes down to my ears, which takes a little getting used to (it's only about two inches shorter, but at that length everything feels a little dramatic) but I think it's what I want.  The woman who cut my hair, Christine, basically didn't talk to me at all, which as I've said here before is fine by me, though it was weird to me that she didn't even make any effort to engage me (I mean, I don't think I sounded that stand-off-ish or anything when I answered her question about what I wanted done to my hair).

If only I could pull off butch short hair.  Really my life would be easier in so many ways if I were a boy (hello finding dress shirts and pants that fit, and no bras, and pants with pockets, and on and on goes the list).  Not that I have any actual desire to be a boy.

***

I was browsing Reason online today and read "Why The Right Shifted on Immigration" (Steve Chapman), which was interesting.

Later, reading the comments on a post by Megan McArdle on needle exchange, I learned the term "negative externality."  I used the term "opportunity cost" in conversation this morning, and I've started jokingly using the term "human capital" (as in "building human capital").  I need a quippy tag for my budding usage of business school terms.  [I'm not entirely sure what to do with my "it's the economy stupid" tag.]

---

Advent meditation: Matthew 11:2-11 (NRSV)
     Tom did the meditation, in which he mentioned (re: Jesus): "Maybe the important thing is not so much who he is or what he does, but the effect his presence has on those around him."

+

joy sadhana for Advent (17)

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy." -mylittleredgirl [more info]

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before our God to prepare the ways, to give knowledge of salvation to God's people by the forgiveness of sins.  By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
-Luke 1:76-79

Five good things about today:
1. Strawberry yogurt parfait, still making me happy.  (I didn't have breakfast, and after the gym I was hoping to have one, not quite feeling in an omelet mood, and indeed they had some.)  And while I really wasn't into the Alsace GlobalVeg for lunch, dried cherries turned out to be pretty good.
2. Tomorrow's CHPC Bible Study got canceled, so now I can go to the Blue Christmas Longest Night service at the UCC.
3. I got my hair cut.
4. Dear Ari: Your card came today.  You referenced one of the greatest fics you've ever written, so no worries about the general plotlessness or whatever of the ficlet.  I am envisioning Charlotte having made a collage card and am trying to decide whether she went traditional skin mag or suggestive combination of pictures and text from like Good Housekeeping or something in her collage selection.
5. Southland Tales graphic novel Volume 2 had some interesting bits to it, and I'm liking Our Lives As Torah a lot.  (Supposedly -- meme at the bottom of this entry -- I've already read the latter, but I don't actually have distinct memories of it, so I'm discovering it anew.)

Three things I did well today:
1. I did ~15 minutes in the weight room.
2. I purchased (and wrapped) a Christmas gift for Nicole.  (I had the idea on a whim based on recent chance incidents.  I really do like doing nice things for people, but obligatory gift-giving occasions do not agree with me.)
3. I made myself dinner and washed dishes.

Two things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
1. HBS holiday party
2. Coffee with Tiffany.
BONUS: Longest Night service