What? You have a blog?

Wouldn’t know right?   I thought that if I put my blog address on my Christmas card that I’d write more.  Not so much… so welcome Christmas card people… if you have had that kind of patience.  I would also like to introduce you all to Macbook the sequel.  It is lovely and thin, and functioning and  you know… not stolen.

So you can look forward to

• Did I melt down at confirmation this year?
• It’s director selection time!
• Crafts, crafts and more crafts
• The new job

I want to be a writer

Really I do.  I want to be cleaver and witty.  I want to write stuff that people will want to read.  So I tried to make myself a writer.  I started blogging daily when I was out of school and out of work, I wanted to create discipline in my life.  I would write 500 words every other day.  And I hoped that writing funny, personal little things would convince me that I could write long and scary things… like dissertations.  It didn’t work.  Writing still seems like a chore.  I was sitting here at work with literally nothing to do for hours before I said to myself, I guess I’ll go write something. 

For me, writing is laborious. I have little to say and I always feel like I’m saying it badly.  And today I am even less inspired to go back to school and all the writing that entails.  And I have thought about writing a theatrical adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Under the Greenwood Tree” for like 3 years, just as something interesting to try.  Well guess what just opened in London? (not that I was going to get a London opening… it’s just the principle.)

I did one of my lectures in my Teaching seminar on emotions and I did an activity to illustrate that making yourself smile actually make you feel happier.  And CS Lewis says that doing good things will make you into a better person.  Dr. Wagner (my major professor) said “it’s not that you are a bad writer, you just need to work at it more.”

I’m working on it… less now that I had been.  But it’s the kind of person that I want to be. So please bear with me while I try.  I have a feeling I won’t ever be Steinbeck, but I just want to be Erin.  Whether that includes dissertations, 500 words or 200.

And I believe that actions can change your attitudes… eventually.

More is on the way.

I’m sassy y’all

Catch me over at Heat Eat Review taking down a Pesto Panini.  It’d been a while since I wrote this so I surprised myself on the biting sarcasm.  I kinda like it.  And what was I thinking giving it 3 stars?

It’s Today!!!

Happy one year anniversary WordPress blog!  In honor of the occasion, I’ve started an “About me” page… it’s about time. Check it out.

When did I become a music snob?

This is old news I know, but I was bummed that Adam Lambert did not win American Idol.  I could be influence by my love of tenors and or the fact that he was a professional theatre actor before coming on the show.  But the weeks that have followed have got me thinking.  Kris is completely my type of artist… my taste, you know? Singer, acoustic guitar the whole bit… and he did the song from “Once”, great stuff.  So why did I find him so boring, never bad just dull?

This and I’ve been using my iPod as intended lately (for music, as opposed to just podcasts) and so I decided I’d listen to the whole Tyrone Wells (singer songwriter, former “Christian” artist) CD on my car trip home for memorial day weekend.  And I have to say that it moved down a few pegs in my esteem.  I bought the CD in iTunes late one night about a year ago after hearing some songs (“Wondering Where You Are” rocks my socks)… and “Dream Like New York” and “Sea Breeze” and “What are We Fighting For” are awesome.  That first listen through the whole thing, I thought “this is going to be one of those CD’s that I love every song.” I was lying in bed smiling the whole time.  But this time I found myself scoffing at some of the lyrics’ predictable metaphors and slant rhyme.  It bummed me out.  When did I get so hypercritical?

Could be the hipster music on TBTL, my newest podcast/ something to do at work.  And I would not even know what a slant rhyme was had in not been for Musicaltalk… my first podcast/ still something to do at work, (besides write blog posts.)  My iPod is at war… the podcasts against the music.  The music is holding ground, no Sondhiem or She & Him yet. But who knows what tonight will bring.

The words of prayer

From UMC Young Clergy’s 40 days of prayer.

Stay tuned

Oh my poor neglected blog! I have so much to tell you. Two shows in a row is a bit much.

Happy Purim and 200 Posts!

I learned about Purim 2 years ago when I was getting ready for Confirmation. Who knew that Esther has her own holiday? (Well Jewish people probably.) I was hoping that the number 200 had some symbolism, but alas. There’s only triangle cookies for Haman’s three cornered hat. Who knew he had a three cornered hat?

I made these at home once.  Remember, family?  But they involved too much rolling pin to do again.

I went to Temple with this years confirmands on Friday and it was interesting of course. I think that the last time I went to a Jewish service was for Molly’s confirmation.  It was really a good object lesson for what I’ve learned lately about hospitality.  Feeling welcome takes more than a warm hello.  (Though that’s always a good place to start.)  You have to think about what the whole experience will be like.  And it made me remember what it’s like to be a visitor and particularly one who doesn’t know what’s going on.  I did really enjoy the rabbi’s sermon, which was from a Torah selection in Exodus about what sort of clothes a priest should wear.  I bet you rarely hear a church sermon on that.  Plus he did this whole Project Runway bit.  I think sermons need more bits.

A Jane Austen “Did you know?”

Jane Austen was a just as bad a speller as I am. She didn’t have spell check to fall back on. She once misspelled one of her teenage works as “Love and Freindship” and is infamously known to have spelt scissors as scissars. I have to say that this makes me like her even more.
ht: Mental Floss

Realistic Expectations

Happy New Year to everyone… and I’m back once again.

Okay I’ve been gone awhile, but keeping up a blog while you’re unemployed is immensely easier than when you are working full time. But like everyone else in the world does it. So I’m gonna work back up to posting more often. And in the meantime I’m going to continue to get used to having a real job.