conversations & soundbites

Two posts in one day! I am on FIRE!!

I just sent this out in an email, so this is probably redundant, but I love it so much I need to share it here too.

Let me set the stage for you: We are about to go to lunch, and I have an Alabama Power envelope in my hand (it is, in fact, my power bill).

One of my students, B: “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa???? PAY that power bill, Miss Hardin!! Gotta keep those LIGHTS on!!”
Me: “I try to keep them on, B, I try.”
B: “Can I come home with you and spend the night, Miss Hardin?”
Me: “Uhhh…”
B: “Can you cook?”
Me: “Yes.”
B: "Well, you know, I don’t have nothing going on this weekend. I’m free. Are you sure you can cook?”
Me: "I’m fairly certain"
B: “You seem like the kind that goes to McDonalds everyday and then says you cooked it.”
Me: “I don’t claim to be able to cook anything as immaculate as the big mac B.”
B: “SEE????? You got the whole menu memorized!!!”

Then there is the boy in my homeroom class who I am CERTAIN has tourettes. He is OUT OF CONTROL, is constantly in trouble, and ALWAYS has on his baseball gloves. I'm fairly certain he is one of my kindred souls. Just to set the stage here – his tendency to yell out random words has been in overdrive today, so I thought I’d share some of them that I have heard…you should know that he yells them out in absolutely no logical context whatsoever. And for some reason, he pronounces all of his e’s as long e’s, which gives him an interesting accent.


Pimp slap, pimp slap, COKE!
SHORTS!
New socks!
Goatees and crew cut!!
Jackhammers!
AmNESIA!!!
Pepsi, pepsi, COKE!!
I have monsters under my bed!
Lemon shrimp!
COKE!
You’re uncle WILLY’S son!
Space invaders! Butt ugly MARTIANS!
Chinese checkers!
PAPER BOMBS!!!!
Penguins!!
Crayola Crayons!!!
SEAWEEEED IN MY POCKET!!
Sweet n’ low!
No strings attached!
Chocolate payday on the flo!

He's in my room for some of this, during my planning period, and my principal appears in the hallway right as I chime in and yell out, "BABY OX!!!!!"

Glory.

Happy Friday, all.

what I'm reading

My dear friend Meredith sent me The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard in the mail, and as soon as it landed on my doorstep I dove right in. At the rate I'm going, it will be 2012 before I finish...it is demanding to be read very slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately, and I'm finding that after one page I need to stop and chew on the words for a day or two before I read on. So make that 2018.

It is very, very good so far, though. If you want a whopper of a book to give you plenty to ponder, pick this one up.

One more day till the weekend, and I get to see this friend and this movie in just over 24 hours...

Yesssssssssss.

Also, a few golden online spots for your reading and viewing pleasure...

Quirk Gallery

Whisker Graphics

You Are My Fave

A really good article on the season of lent

And for you Bachelor enthusiasts....I Hate Green Beans will have you in stitches.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, sunshiny (hopefully) weekend.

a second career?

I was having a conversation with my friend Shauna a few weeks ago about what vocation we would choose if we did college over again and HAD to pick one other than what we do now. We decided she would blend her love of science with her love of writing and have a medical Q & A column in Seventeen magazine. Her pseudonym? Shonorrhea. Her tag line? "Ask me, don't catch me."

I couldn't narrow mine down or come up with any satisfactory commixture, until recently, when I decided that I want, nay, NEED to play the recorder for NPR's studio. The recorder has always had a special place in my heart, as many of you know. Besides rapping Birdman in the classroom, I can think of nary a task I would feel more at home fulfilling than this.

This is Piers Adams, the current guy on the job. Very swift on the recorder, that one.

Tell me you cannot see me in this picture.

Only mine might look more like this.

I dare say it's meant to be.

calling all babies and baldies!!

If you have a baby girl, or if you're just BALD, then BOY do I have something for you this Christmas.

Allow me to introduce to you the Baby Bangs! headbands: What I should have gotten for my sweet niece, Nita, this Christmas...

"The wispy hair strands have been arranged in the cutest most adorable elfish coiffure!" - Baby Bangs! Web site

As I have several friends who are are either expecting or have babies, be they little girls OR boys, I started browsing the selections on the site. When I saw that they are going for the steep price of $29.95 per band, I decided I could make a craft actitivy out of this, easy.

Why do Locks of Love when you could give a sweet baby some BANGS?? So, I'll gladly cut my own hair to make Baby Bands! for all my new and/or expectant mothers out there - Meredith, coming right up. Kate? Consider it done. Meaghan? Mary Reeves' is in the mail. Heather? Jones is all set. Emily? Sarah Beth won't know what hit her. Emily & Hunter? Don't think I forgot about William. Anna Katherine? Sarah & Matthew? Laurette? And of course my niece Nita. How TENDER to have one of these jewels made from your aunt's hair!

Don't worry - I have enough hair for all of you.

stick a fork in me.

this is where I am physically today...

but in my mind, I'm already here...

holding this...

and reading this...

I keep trying to sneak in a few pages here at school. I can't put it down, and when I have to, I can't stop thinking about when I can get back to it.

HIGHLY recommend, so far, if you're looking for a good book to read over the holidays!

Just two more days until my body follows my brain to that cozy chair by the fire...

Book Review #1: The Sacred Meal

Thanks to Alison, I got the memo awhile back about Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger program - mention free books, and you've got my attention. I signed up and got very excited to find a book on the list about Communion. So as tempted as I was to select A Beautiful Mess: The Story of Diamond Rio for my first review, I opted for this book on the Lord's Supper instead.

Nora Gallagher's The Sacred Meal is a part of The Ancient Practices series, which explores centuries-old spiritual disciplines in the church. This book reads like a memoir, divided into sections: Introduction & Communion as practice, waiting, receiving, afterward, and thanksgiving & application. Here are some snippets from her work that, to me, sum up what she asserts in each section of the book.

Intro & Communion as practice: "To engage in a practice is to show up and not get attached to the outcome. Unlike a habit, like driving down the same street from work to home every day, the purpose of a spiritual practice is to help us stay awake." (pg. XIX)

Waiting: ...the art of noticing: it helps us shift our perspective, from...the greed and envy we share with Sodom and Gomorrah to the kingdom of Heaven." (pg. 35)

Receiving: "The model for being valued in this society is produce, produce, produce...by making our greatest and most important goal the one of productivity, we miss out on the ways that God's gifts of grace come to us by doing nothing." (pg. 41)

Afterward: "The practices are 'after words,' after the events are long in the past, and whatever words attached to them may no longer be accurately recalled. The practice remains to keep us in tune with what the original event pointed toward and so that we can add to its meaning and history." (pg. 56)

Thanksgiving & Application: I began to see that if you don't act on what you hear in the Gospels...it doesn't stick." (pg. 109)

When I picked this book, my hope and expectation was to find solid commentary and Biblical references on Communion's history and purpose; on the service and practice itself. What I found instead was one woman's reflections on her love for and experience with Communion in her Episcopal church, with very little (and by very little, I mean zero) reference to scripture or the cross.

While I loved much of what she had to say and found her to be a captivating writer, this book was not what it appeared to be in a disappointing kind of way. There were simply one too many references and/or comparisons involving yoga and global warming for my taste. It was more feel-good than authentic, more soap-boxy than substantial.

My recommendation: If you're in the mood to read a well written memoir on one person's affection for and encounter with the practice of communion, which is certainly of great value, this is your book. If you're wanting something a bit more expository and grounded in scripture, this is not your book.

Thank you, Thomas Nelson, for sending the book for review!

library rave, new moon & an art show

Hope you're all having a wonderful December so far, now that it's half gone...wow.

A few thoughts for you tonight...

1. Forgive me if this is old hat by now, but did you know that there was a RAVE in the MSU library during FINALS?? See video below. Seriously? I cannot believe my eyes. I...I...don't know what to say. Why didn't this happen when I was in school? Do you SEE the guy crowd surfing WRAPPED IN GREEN CELLOPHANE?? Had I known THIS was coming, I might've stretched my college education out just a little bit longer...

2. What did all you Twilighters out there think of New Moon? My 2 cents: A) I thought it was much better than the first movie, albeit still rather hoaky, of course. B) I still think Kristen Stewart is the worst actress under the sun, right along with Cameron Diaz and Miley Cirus. Completely one-dimensional. MILEY could have done a better job as Bella. I could have done a better job. She knows how to make ONE facial expression for the camera, and boy does she STICK WITH IT. She drove me nuts.

See? This is what she looked like the. entire. movie.

I can guarantee you I could have made that face and held it for a couple hours, running around and looking scared and distressed (I almost took a picture of myself making that face to upload, by the way).

I really did love it, despite KS. I saw it twice.

3. Just got back from an art show to benefit Birmingham's Exceptional Foundation at Homewood's Art Alley, just a few blocks from where I live. This gallery boasts the work of my artist friend Susan, as well as other local artists. You can browse some of her art here.

Yay Swan!
4. I've made my Christmas CD for this year. Want to know what's on it? 12 versions of the same song. Yep - and I think it's the best mix I've ever made. 12 versions of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Best version - Selah, bar none. Download it.

I leave you with this passage, stolen from my church's e-newsletter.

"The authentically hopeful Christmas spirit has not looked away from the darkness, but straight into it. The true and victorious Christmas spirit does not look away from death, but directly at it. Advent begins in the dark."

- Fleming Rutledge

Hope you're all having a peaceful, quiet, hopeful Advent season!