Working the Garden

Just some photos of the boys picking green beans out of my dad's garden, this past summer. :)

WTF on WFTV

Holy cow. This is the worst example of journalism that I've witnessed since the days of Geraldo Rivera.


(Thanks Lance for giving me the heads up on this interview.)

Collections

I was reminded tonight, while watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, of a rock collection I had as a child. And all the other collection my sister and I had growing up. Here's a list and memory of each:

Angie's Collections
Angie had a sticker collection when I was young that I loved to look through her sticker book at all the pages of fun stickers. My favorites were the really shiny, metalic stickers, the fuzzy stickers and most of all the scratch and sniff stickers. She had a scratch and sniff sticker of a dill pickle. That thing never lost it's scent.

She also had a pencil collection which she kept in a special pencil cup. It was an old tin can with the top cut off. She had taken construction paper (red, I believe) and decorated it with bubble letters and taped it around the tin cup, to create her pencil cup. One day I thought I would do something nice for her so I sharpened every last one of her pencils. She was so upset.


Olivia's Collections
My first collection was my rock collection. Our neighbor, Ed Brown, worked at the Science Center of Iowa and was a science teacher at the local high school. He gave me a box of polished rocks of all shapes and sizes and I would show them off proudly to whoever I could. I bought a quartz rock in the Ozarks once to add to the collection.

Starting in high school I began to collect shot glasses. I had one for almost every state. One from France, Italy, Israel, Spain, England and Mexico. The one from Israel was beautiful. It was a special cut of glass from sand type of sand only found in that region. My friend in college went on an archeological dig in Israel and brought it back for me. It was by far my favorite. In the end, I had almost 60 shot glasses.

What things did you collect growing up?

Undecided Voters by David Sedaris

Read Me.

Lost 2009

Thanks Tim for this preview for Lost 2009!

Dignity Diner

Last night Michelle and I volunteered at Dignity Diner. Dignity Diner is a program, operated through my church, that serves a vegetarian meal every Tuesday night to the hungry/homeless folks of Chicago. About 50 people are served. It's not a typical soup kitchen as it's a sit down meal and the diners are served their meals (like in a restaurant). Their motto is "dignity is always on the menu".

I was really looking forward to helping out but walked away a little surprised by how I felt about the experience.

Most of the diners were very nice. We met a man named Wade who walked up and shook our hands. He said he helps set up and tear down after the meal and he also dines there. Wade was really nice and polite and probably the best person I interacted with that evening (besides the volunteers).

Now I understand that mental illness is a leading cause for homelessness and I was expecting to see some mental illness in the group of 50. But there were a couple of men who, I felt, were overstepping my comfort zone. But I didn't know how to handle it and no one was really around to help out in those situations.

One man kept walking up to Anne, Michelle and I and shaking our hands and staring and saying "niiiice". It was very uncomfortable and poor Anne got cornered by one diner who talked to her for at least 15 minutes. But he also kept sort of petting her arm and just doing what I would consider uncomfortable touching. She handled it really well but I know I would have not been ok with that.

This other guy, who had been sort of following Michelle around a bit, came up to me and asked me for some cold water in his glass. I said 'Sure' and went and filled the cup up. I brought it back to him and he took the cup and just sort of stood really, really close to me and then he put his arm around me. I tried to pull away but he leaned in and kissed me on the side of my cheek.

And I feel bad admitting this (like i'm not being very christian or something) but i really didn't like that. not only was the kiss a total invasion of my comfort zone (hell if a guy at a bar did that i would be upset too) but it was wet and gross and he smelled really bad and i felt like there was nothing i could do about it. like i couldn't say 'don't do that!' cause then i would have looked bad. and there were people who lead this volunteer effort and they weren't really doing anything about it either so then i really felt like i couldn't say anything.

while we were cleaning up the man who kissed me was following Michelle around and kept putting his hand on her back. There was just a lot of touching going on. And I don't really care for when any strange man touches me but these were obvious touches in that I knew their intention was to 'get off' on it. Does this make sense? And I don't think I'm being shallow or over dramatic about it...because they weren't touching/following all the volunteers. They were just doing it to Anne, Michelle and I and sometimes Meg. Donnelle didn't get touched (she's a little older and a bit heavy set). None of the male volunteers got hugged or touched. A couple of the older lady volunteers (in their forties-fifties) didn't get touched.

Anyway. I enjoyed serving the people that were respectful and kind. I really enjoyed working with the volunteers. But I don't know if working at Dignity Diner is part of my personal ministry because I left feeling very uncomfortable and towards the end of the meal...I just really wanted to get out of there.

I'm Chuck Bass

This is a mix of two of my guiltiest of pleasures: Britney Spears pop music and Chuck Bass.
xoxo

Merry Christmas to the Bride to Be!

Here are some pics from Sarah's merry Christmas party!

Rustik

We celebrated Sarah's bachelorette party on Saturday night. I have a billion photos to sift through to post on the blog but I thought I could post this pics from out dinner at Rustik. Rustik is a new restaurant in Logan Square that has a cozy atmosphere and serves gourmet comfort food. I ate the chicken breast stuffed with ricotta cheese, basil and sun dried tomatoes, green beans and garlik mashed potatoes.

They have a drink there called a Treetini and everytime you order one Rustik pays to have a tree planted in your name!

I loved this restaurant and was so glad we were able to take Sarah there for dinner!

Pics of the Christmas party will come later! :)

Aladdin

I understand that elastic waistbands are much appreciated by us girls whose waist line fluctuates those stupid 5 lbs from season to season. I am in no place to judge a girl and her love of elastic. No siree.

But Katie, love, the only reason a lady would need elastic on the bottom of her pants would be if she were to fluctuate from ankle to cankle, from season to season. And sweetie, it appears you haven't eaten anything since 2007 so you are in no danger of the dreaded cankle.

You look like a genie. Put on some real pants.

I'm not even going to mention the lacey crap she's got going on around her neck. I gotta pick my battles, here.

3.2 Miles

My sister ran 3.2 miles yesterday.

Angie, you rock!!

Conversation

I met up with my pastor last night for dinner at Bad Dog Tavern. I've been wrestling with the idea of joining Holy Covenant Church, the church I've been attending off-and-on for 4 years and regularly for the past year.
The reason why there was some wrestling with this decision is because I have only ever been a member of a Disciples of Christ church and Holy Covenant is a Methodist church. I wasn't sure if it was ok to join a Methodist church if a large part of me will probably always consider myself to be a DOC.

I was really glad to have had a chance to speak with Pastor Trey about this. I was surprised by how grateful he was to hear that I had been thinking on this for awhile. He said some people join churches and then rarely ever attend or when called to help, rarely show up. He appreciated that I was taking the decision seriously. He also felt that in today's culture it's common to have multi-demoninational experiences and that it makes sense that one's faith could be a jumble of many different traditions. So he was not only fine with me joining, he was excited about it!

He asked if there was some other reason why I might be hesitant; he had picked up on my worry that I might not be wanted at the church. I hadn't realized it but something that happened to be years prior was probably playing a big role in why I was so concerned about joining the church. So I told him what happened. That after attending the church a couple of times, that a woman emailed me and asked me "to find my own church". Basically, I was asked to never come back to Holy Covenant.

Trey was shocked. I told him I don't want to make a lot of drama about the whole thing and I'm not angry anymore about it; actually it's become sort of a joke in my family that someone on a church's welcoming committee had specifically asked me not to come back. That would only happen to me.

Trey said he had about 4 ideas on who could have said something like that but he respected my choice not to volunteer that person's name. But he did say that a person who would go out of their way to say something like is probably "mentally ill" and that her opinion is not his opinion or the opinion of the church. I told him I hadn't realized that a part of me was still hurt by that and that it probably was a reason why I was so worried about joining. I guess a part of me still worried that I wasn't "wanted" at the church.

To make a long story short, it was so great talking with Trey last night. He and I had a good time conversing about lots of different topics. He each shared personal stories with each other and I feel a stronger friendship with him.

Also, I brought up another moment that I shared with him a couple of years back...where I cried at church and looked to him for help. It was definitely not my strongest day and I am embarrassed now on how that whole thing went down. I had been worried, this past year, that Trey didn't like me or that maybe he thought I was a drama queen. When I told Trey about that, he sorta looked down and said "Olivia, I'm so sorry to say this...but a lot of people cry at church. Almost every week someone is crying as the walk out the door. Church is a very moving experience and often times people are most vulnerable when they're surrounded by God's love. So, I'm sorry...but I don't remember you crying."

What a relief! Cause I didn't want him to think that that was a typical Olivia experience!

So I left dinner feeling wonderful. Feeling empowered. Feeling God's presence in my life, at that dinner table, during that conversation. It felt good. And I plan on joining Holy Covenant Church in mid-November.

Let's Learn Lindsay's Lesson

Sarah and Paddy's wedding is T minus 2 weeks and 4 days and counting. The lovely bridesmaid dress that I'm donning is a knee length cocktail dress, and my legs are incredibly ugly when they're pale.
So instead of fake baking I decided to try one of those lotions that make you look tanner. Which is always a bit of a risk as you could end up coming out looking like a neon carrot.

Because I love Dove's ad campaign, I thought I would give Dove's Energy Glow a try. (My mom used a Neutrogena version this summer which also looked really good.) So far I really like it! I don't look anything like a carrot!

Sarah is also trying one of these lotions out and she's planning on getting a spray tan a few days before the wedding. I warned her NOT to get a pedicure after getting the spray tan. She couldn't imagine why I would offer that advice.

Well Sarah, take a look at Lindsay. When nail salons give you that relaxing, exfoliating scrub....well, they take your tan with it.

Ugg or Fug?

Now that I'm working in the city and walking around town a bit more, I think it's about time I get some warm winter boots. I never, ever thought I would buy a pair of Ugg boots but I have heard so many people talk about how warm they keep your feet. It's even suggested that you don't wear socks with them.

So Rock the Vote folks. Ugg or Fug? (or fug but still rock the ugg?)

Grandpa's Cider Mill

Last night the church's Green Team met for the second time, at Cassie's house. I brought along some cider from Grandpa's Cider Mill which I bought at last Sunday's farmers market. It was delicious! We heated it up on the stove with some cinnamon sticks and it was just what we needed to kick off our meeting.

Cassie made peach and raspberry cobbler with fruit she bought from the farmers market.

Church meetings never tasted so good!

Pork Barrel Quiche (I Just Came Up with that Name)

I made my first quiche last night! I had some eggs leftover from the meat share pick-up and was trying to think of a new recipe to use, so I thought I would try my hand at quiche. The ingredients were: 3 large eggs, milk, cheese, bacon, red pepper, salt and pepper.
Chris and I dined on this pork barrel quiche while watching the debates. :)

Coordinates

Angelina showed off her new ink at the NY film premiere of The Changelings. I like that she had the coordinates of where all of her children were born, tattooed on her arm.

And I want to see The Changeling on opening night. It looks fantastic!!

The Battle of Wits

Here are some pics from the costume party we had in Wilmington, NC last week. What a way to celebrate Thea's 30th birthday! Chris went as the Dread Pirate Roberts and kept challenging people to a battle of wits. How that battle went down was that two glasses were placed on the table. One glass had vodka in it. One had water.
Man in Black: All right. Where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is right... and who is dead.
Vizzini: But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
Man in Black: You've made your decision then?
Vizzini: Not remotely. Because iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.
Man in Black: Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

I lost the battle.

U2 Eucharist

Today was the U2 Eucharist at Holy Covenant Church. Carolyn, Michelle and Tim joined Chris and I at the 11:15am service. The entire service was filled with U2 songs about social justice, peace and faith. It was fun hearing the band and watching people sing out to the songs!

Today's sermon was wonderful, as Trey's sermon's tend to be. It was about The Bible and how each and every person can approach the Bible and find something new and different in it. How, whatever you are looking for in life...whatever questions you may have, you can find those answers in the Bible. He made a great point that the Bible can also give you the weapons you want to hate the people you hate, even more. Or love the people you love, even more. I thought that wording was quite powerful.

And then Trey touched on the point of how people tend to think that God fell on the 'side' of the Hebrews, when He drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea. And how most people feel like if they are anything in the Bible, they are usually the Hebrew character. Someone who is kind-hearted and hard-working; someone who is always the protaganist of the story.

But Trey raised the idea that actually, if we really took an honest look at ourselves, we are all Hebrews and we are all Egyptians. We are all the oppressed and the oppressor, at different points and places in our life.

Those can be uncomfortable thoughts. that perhaps at times I am not being as kind as I can be....that I fall short of being a good person....that I can be selfish and rude and jealous. But there is truth in these thoughts.

I was reminded over brunch today of that truth when a mirror was held up to me and I got to see an uglier side of myself. And I was ashamed.

The point, though, is to forgive others when they fall short, because we've been forgiven by others when we've fallen short. And we have all fallen short before. So this afternoon I keep hoping for grace and forgiveness for my shortcomings and I will wake up tomorrow and try to be a better person.

Thanks Carolyn, Michi and Tim for coming to church this morning. :)

Like Herpes, Only for Good

I sent this link on to 5 people, just now. Go ahead and take 5 minutes to listen. And here's the link so you can pass it on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAU1vEDXKIQ



*and I can totally do that thing with my bra, too* :)