Stories That Are All True

I got to Vesta on Wednesday at 12:50, and read my Kindle until about 2:40. It was all right- the intake process is a first-come, first-serve sort of operation, and I was lost in Obama’s Wars. Now that I know a lot of soldiers, I was looking for their pictures, even in text. I found them. Every single base is somewhere that a friend was stationed. Then, when I got home, I scared the absolute…

In Silver Spring, there’s a great mental health facility that offers both therapy and psychiatric services called Vesta. I thought that today was open enrollment, because they do it every Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00 to 4:30. The part I missed was that Tuesdays are in Germantown and Wednesdays are in Silver Spring. So, basically I Ubered over for nothing… well, perhaps not NOTHING. I did get…

On Thursday night, vandals cut the word “black” from our large #blacklivesmatter banner in front of our church, and placed a picture of the reporters in Roanoke being shot on the glass doors that mark the entry. The police are involved because the picture looked like a direct threat. Despite this, the church was nearly full this morning as Rev. Jeffrey Thames guided our thinking in facing fear.…

WE’VE MET

Grant has moved out, and I’m getting another roommate soon. I would prefer a man, but at the same time, a woman is also acceptable. Once Nasim got over living next door to a lesbian, she was fine, but it took some convincing. By the time she moved out, I was genuinely sad to see her go, especially because she used to talk loudly to her family and friends in Farsi, which reminded me of Argo (the…

My Mood & Behavior

My psychiatrist changed my protocol, and my dad asked me how my mood and behavior were. I’d never been asked that question, and I liked it. It was a doctorly thing to say, and yet, I haven’t had any doctor say that to me at all. Really must send my dad a thank-you card for that one. I owe him several, but this was special. It was a MOMENT, one of those things that sticks out in my brain as…

A Little Bit of a Lot

I’m waiting for the second page of an article that “lawyer chic” sent me- nothing is worse than waiting for the second page of something to arrive. Maybe it’s that Starbucks has less bandwidth than I do at home, but I needed to get out of the house and do something, even if that doing something is searching for jobs at Starbucks instead of my bedroom/office. Since I didn’t get the youth director…

I took a break from blogging because I didn’t want to tell you that I didn’t get the job. The woman from the church that called me said that the meeting went on for a long time, that they thought I was brilliant and that I had a bright future in ministry, but that I was just a little too green. I asked her what might happen if the already ordained ministers got a call for churches of their own…

Just As I Am

As I am starting this, I have exactly two hours before I go in front of the search committee in front of my church. The hymn that keeps going through my head is just as I am, without one plea… I just want to be accepted for exactly who I am, because the things that make me fallible also make me invincible. I am one narrative, and I hope they see it. I also hope they see the light of Christ that…

I’m Ready, I’m Ready

A feeling of calm has come over me that I haven’t felt in weeks. I’m going to get this job, or I’m not. All I can do is my best, which I believe is pretty amazing. I gots da mad skillz. I just have to prove it. If nothing else, I get time in a room with power players in the church, getting to know them and how things work. That is invaluable as a member as well, in case I want to be on any…

I wrote this for one of my own youth-led worship services- I must have been about 14. My dad was looking through one of his old sermon boxes this morning and sent me a copy of this hymn I wrote when I was a kid. I must have been about 14 or 15. It was my freshman year at HSPVA. Being almost 38 now, it’s fun to look back at my growth and development, both as a liturgist and as a human being. For…

I thought I was going to read On the Origin of Species next, but I didn’t bother to search my Kindle for it. I was on the Metro and wanted something fast. I chose A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I’m several chapters into it, having had to go from Silver Spring all the way to Tenleytown just for a SuperCuts (worth it- I’m hot again), and I am just gaga over it. The…

Get a Haircut, Hippy

You should never get a haircut the day before a job interview, but I’ve been putting it off and putting it off and now I feel shaggy. I’ve been wearing it in a crew cut with it a little longer on top because I have a bald spot on my right side from an EKG contact when I was a baby, so I have to have my layers a little longer…. or perhaps I will go the asymetric route, which Auna calls “sex.” So…

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Technically, it wasn’t even morning. It was closer to 11:30 AM, the moment at which I’d planned to be at Starbucks in Columbia Heights, drinking tea and working on my interview for Thursday. The reason I wasn’t is that I stayed up nearly half the night reading. I had to put down Ulysses for a while, because it is thick, hard reading and I am…

Today I met a woman at church that had a boy going into eighth grade this year. I found that out when I told her I’d applied for the youth director job. She told me about him at length, about how he was high energy, ADHD, and a great kid. I said, “can I tell you something? I am high energy, ADD, and a great kid, too. I know the struggle.” She looked at me with palpable relief. I told her that…

Praying at the Bridgeport Youth Retreat, 2004 One of my friends from high school, Rev. Dan, stopped me in my tracks today. Literally knocked me on my ass because what he said hit me like a ton of bricks and I still haven’t recovered from it. I was recommending a band to him that one of my neighbors from Portland helped found, and he said, heck yeah!!! thanks, Rev!!! This goes into the pensieve…

One of my Fanagans, and I’m not sure which but I have a good lead, sent me a package through Amazon. It contained Girl Scout Cookie Nestle Crunch in Thin Mint, Samoa, and Peanut Butter, 12 Packages of Happy Cola, and two large packages of Walker’s Shortbread. I now have diabetes. However, it is one of the sweetest things that anyone has sent me (literally), because they have no idea how much…

I think I have finally wrapped my brain around why it’s so hard for me that Argo has walked off. It’s like the parable of the one lost sheep that the shepherd searches for until he’s finally found her. Of course I care about the other sheep. Of course I do. But one is lost, and some part of me wants to search for her until she is found, rejoicing and fireman carrying her to safety. This image is…