Frustrating Friday

Well today my colleague who works every Friday covered the two hearings I have. There are a couple of bits of paperwork I need to do, like responding to motions and legal research and preparing for the four or five hearings I have Monday.  The printer attached to this computer doesn't want to cooperate and  I cannot for the life of me figure out why not. It's a laser printer (HP) and I've had it for about 10 years without so much as a squeak of a problem.  NOW is not the right time for it to crap out on me, believe me. My phone needs a new battery and it's not one I can replace myself. Oy!

But look at what it's doing outside:)

And you should feel the lovely breeze I just felt taking those pictures! This time of year is Merlin dressed up in its Sunday best, dancing and partying with the wine of nature:) And yes, getting just a little drunk and full of herself and why not?

So, despite getting precious little done at work, I did take a moment to appreciate the beauty that is around me.:)

And I did get a chance to add a few inches to the Guernsey wrap. I'm about to do those horizontal rows of 2P, 2K that make up the center of the thing, so it's going fairly quickly, given the limited amount of time I've spent on it. 

Speaking of knitting, tomorrow is Merlin's famous Sheep and Wool Festival (now why does that always sound so disturbing to me - I think it's the lamb cooking next to the exhibit barns with live sheep - ewwwwww). Anyway, I am going to go to meet up with my knitting peeps and see what treasures are out there. BUT I will NOT be purchasing.  And I have taken care of that by NOT bringing any cash:)! I will enjoy and get ideas and meet with like-minded knitters and ooh and aah over all the lovely things, but no buying. Why you may ask? Well, aside from the fact that I really don't have the moolah for such foolishness, here's another reason:

And that ain't all of it, honeybunchesofoats! For me to buy yarn at such an event would be the depths of selfishness.  I've got enough yarn to last me at least another couple of years worth of projects. So I think I'll pass.

What I WILL do is to go to the sponsored yarn crawl at the Columbia Sheraton tomorrow evening.  I bought the (cheap) ticket for that a month ago and it's wearing out in my wallet.  That will be fun.  And did I say not so costly?:) See? You can have fun without sacrificing the grocery money!

Before I go (because let's face it, I don't really have much to say here), I did watch two movies in the last two days - one very late last night which is why I am a bit tard right now. And the other at the end of the work day.  The first was Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts playing the main character in Ms. Gilbert's book.  Although still (relatively) young and beautiful, Julia Roberts plays a more mature, reflective version of her earlier reincarnations. It was a good movie, one I'd wanted to see, but I do agree with some of the criticisms I read about it a while back (criticism about the subject matter more than the acting, which was wonderful). The thought that people in Eastern countries have some corner on the spiritual market and that somehow, magically, they see things we in the West do not.  Although I believe Western thinking and religion can at times have its drawbacks too numerous to mention here, Eastern thinking can as well. The bottom line is, no other human being can really be our hotline to the Divine.  We all need to work out our salvation, as it were, with fear and trembling, to quote a famous theologian, IMHO.  The cinematography was lovely and the characters quite interesting.  Your mileage may vary.

The other movie was a documentary of a documentary.  Cinema Verite' is about the original "reality TV show:" PBS' true story, filmed in the 1970s of the Loud Family. This show was on television when I came of age, which means I was not watching much TV at that time - I was, after all, finishing high school and heading for college and had other things on my mind. So I missed it.  But I would see articles about the family, especially their oldest son, Lance and the breakup of the parents' marriage at the height of the Sexual Revolution and the Women's Liberation Movement. At the time, my own family was in its own thoes of upheaval, so I was not too interested in reading about the same thing elsewhere - I was too busy escaping.  No, not in the way you'd think - but into activism and friends and faith and trying to figure out the meaning of our sojourn on this "planet Earth, our island home."  I had a lot of curiosity about this film when I saw the ads for it and took the opportunity to see it on HBO.  You will think me silly, but at the end, I found myself getting emotional when the family, in so many ways, and in spite of as much as because of their parents' divorce, remained together in the real sense of the word.  When the criticism got horrible, the family did the talk show circuit, telling their side of the story.  For all their problems, they refused to be demonized.  Good for them! All of the children grew up to be interesting people, it seems.  And when the oldest, Lance, was dying of AIDS, it was one of his sisters who lived with him and stayed with him until the end.  The HBO credits say that Lance's dying wish was that his parents would reunite.  Apparently they are living together now in L.A. 

And I kept thinking, "and the greatest of these is Love."

OK, I'm not getting all sappy here, though I did hold back some emotion as the final credits rolled on this film. What follows is my own theological reflection and if this doesn't interest you, I get it and would simply advise that you finish reading this here. Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon:)

A good friend of mine and a fellow "EfM'er" and I have been debating back and forth about the nature of God and what "God's Love" means.  He is in the first year class which does a fairly intensive and thorough reading of the Old Testament.  There's a lot o' violence in them there OT books.  God is definitely not depicted as some sort of fairy godfather by any means.  I have often argued that everything one reads in the Bible should be done in the light of the New Testament and that oft-quoted line from 1 Cor. 13 about love - what it is and what it isn't.

In many way the Louds had it easy.  They lived a good life in California and at a great economic time in our history.  There was the usual smoking and drinking and sexual infidelity and the kids smoked the mild weed of the 70s, but there was no serious violence, child abuse, hard drug use or (other than his often unexcused or inexcusable absences from time to time) an absentee Dad. But they also laid their souls bare to the often excoriating view of the American public. Whatever you say about them  - and I'm sure there is plenty negative one could say about anyone - their love for each other was genuine. At least I thought so.

OK, have a great weekend and God be with you 'til we meet again!:)

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