Barbie Theology. For real.

In the Sea-Tac Airport bathroom last night, a 6 year old kid is holding a blond Barbie doll as she exits the bathroom stall. Her mom says to her, “You know, Barbie’s never been baptized. It was good we took her to church today, huh?”

I really wonder about the theology of having Barbie be baptized.

Saturday the 28th, Memphis

The Lorraine Hotel

Friday the 28th, Memphis

Goin to Graceland



Stax



Best Barbecue EVER

Thursday the 27th, Jackson

The Clarion Ledger (Jerry Mitchell)




Tougaloo Card Catalog

Wednesday, June 26th Jackson

Medgar Evers' Home

Tuesday, June 24th, Selma

Voting Rights Museum






The March from Selma to Montgomery





Edmund Pettus Bridge



St. James Motel

MondayJune 23rd, Montgomery

Southern Poverty Law Center

Sunday, June 22nd, Birmingham

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church




Heels Too Big

Saturday, June 21st, Nashville

Picture Break



Old Brick Buildings



We're definitely in the South.



I want all the boots in this store.



Soul Food

Two things

the Nashville airport has two items of interest to travelers exiting planes:

1) There is a vending machine outside the women's bathroom that gives bouquets of flowers. Real ones. i did not check prices, but was intrigued.

2) In baggage claim, courtesy of Cracker Barrel, there are white wooden rocking chairs with backs that reach to the sky.

Ridiculous Work Conversation #387

Gretzky: (in hallway where bathroom door is opened) "I have to go to the bathroom."

Ricardo: "We're having a meeting in here."

Gretzky: "I have to pee. I'll go fast, I promise."


I went to go to the bathroom at work today and found the guy who was repairing the h-vac system in there with the building manager. Apparently you can get to the system through the bathroom ceiling. But I had to go and there was no other bathroom available. When he told me they were having a meeting, I wanted to be a smartass, but I restrained myself admirably.

"slap it like gretzky" - kiki d

The opposing team thought kiki didn't know what she was talking about, and made the assumption she thought gretzky was a kickball player. Instead of being what it was, which is my nickname. (Dan says my nickname should be "The Great One" since this was gretzky's nickname. I'll take that one, too.) In plain view on my headband as I went up to kick. Which I did, badly. One foul, and then one good one that somebody caught. Immediate out. But then Ti saved the day on several levels, by catching 2 flies in a row and also kicking brilliantly to get us 3 runs in the second to last inning. Yeah Ti!!!

But I can't find any famous kickball players, beyond Internet celebrities who play at a conference. But good kickball players??? Anyone know of any?

"Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs."

- Jack Lynch


Johnny V Thumbs up to this map of soda versus pop versus coke. My question is: What the heck is the other category? What else do people call carbonated beverages?

"I do not fear to be alone...

...or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I'm not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake, and perhaps as long as eternity too. "

- James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Here's to living unafraid of mistakes.

Reasons I love my Dad

5) 2008

Gretzky: Dad, can you take me to the airport Friday?

Dad: Sure.

Gretzky: We gotta leave at 4:30 a.m.

Dad: Yeah, that's great.


4) 2006

Gretzky: Dad, where's the hammer? It's not in the toolbox.

Dad: It's on the shelf behind the toolbox. Do you need nails? What size do you want?

Gretzky: Little ones.

Dad: (Goes to the nailbox, gets about 100 tiny spiky nails.) Here you go.


3) 2007

Gretzky: Why'd you marry mom, dad?

Dad: Don't tell her this, ever. You are sworn to secrecy. It was because she was pretty. Just beautiful.


2) 1998

(Right after a car accident, my fault. I didn't have a chance to say anything before Dad said this.)

Dad: Are you all right?


1) At every family celebration where there is a cake of some kind, since pre-1980.

Dad: Should we take a picture of the cake first?

(By this, he means, I'm going to take a picture of the cake. We have a lot of pictures of the cakes we've eaten, and very few of the people eating the cake at the time.


1) (It's a tie.) Fall 2006, at my grandmother's funeral.

Dad: I remember that time we were playing pinochle in butch and granny's kitchen when Betsy was pregnant with Gretzky, and her water broke and granny wanted to finish the hand because it was a good one.

"As I wander far from view/ Read, and bring me home to you." - Salman Rushdie

Rushdie was at Elliott Bay today reading from The Enchantress of Florence, and he looked in person just like he does in pictures or on tv - kind of like a grandpa. He took his glasses off to read, and then he started with a passage about war, and continued with one on love. I was worried he was going to kill off the warrior I was in love with, but he didn't. At least not in that scene. Hopefully he'll stay alive. I will read it soon and then know...

"give me another waking moment" - laura gibson

One of my favorite things to do is to have people over for artsy things. Like a talent show, except with all my friends singing or reading poetry or what have you. Turns out other people like this too. Last night I talked my tuesday night potluck people into going over to the Round at the Fremont Arts Abbey, mostly because I thought my friend Lacey would be there and also because I needed some music in my life.

My favorite thing about the Abbey is this quote from their homepage:

Do monks live there? Why is it called the Fremont Abbey?

Historically Abbey's have been places of community gatherings offering safety and comfort. And we just like the name. Even though it's a multi-use community center now, it is obviously a church building so the name stuck. But no monks live here and you do not need to wear burlap or shave your head in order to attend an event. We encourage people of all faiths and belief systems to take part in events at the Abbey.

Wait, actually, my favorite thing is this concept: Musicians, poets, artists, all up onstage, all performing. How cool is that? It was awesome.

Performers included: Laura Gibson (fav line: "this is not the end"), Pablo Trucker (fav: "smoke by day", although the whiskeytown cover was also awesome), Molly Rose, (fav: "canopy of smoke", and Matt Gano (fav: "i wanna know the truth" tied with the one about the revolution of cupcakes and turnip bombs....

“How do I get off the fucking friend pile?”

This was the question of the day last night, as one of my best friends in the whole entire world compared herself to Fred on the Bachelorette . I have not watched the show, but apparently Fred is great. Heck, Ellen endorsed him. I would totally take Ellen’s opinion of a guy any day. What’s wrong with this DeAnna chick?

“He was great. Funny, sweet, etc. DeAnna said something like ‘one day you’ll make someone very happy’ and I wanted to scream. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that? For fifteen years, people. Just like Fred, I’ll be sent home every time, even though everybody knows I’m great.”

So Fred, if you’re in the market, I’ve got a great girl for you.

"pies and pints at 7:30" - K-Train

Kickball got rained out tonight, but then it turned sunny. Although it was windy enough I thought I was in Chicago....

So instead we met at Pies and Pints, and forgave our waitress for being slow because 1) the pies were melt in your mouth concoctions of goodness 2) she was the only one working the front, and 3) she split up our checks for us.

"This is the story of your red right ankle...." - the decemberists

For those who are squeamish about feet, you shouldn't read this. It's pretty gross.

I love the red right ankle song, and I've been singing it a lot lately....mostly because two months ago blunt trauma happened to my right big toe and half my toenail fell off. And then last week, I was moving furniture around in my room, which I do about every ten seconds. I moved my bed to every possible place it could go in my room, and in the process I stubbed my two baby toes. They've become black. So only two of my five right toes are normal at the moment. It's a good thing I've got closed-toed shoes for the upcoming weddings...and I am wondering what will happen next to the two remaining healthy ones. At least feet can be covered up. It's not like half my face fell off.

things my friends have on their gchat status:

A.K.A. my friends are the coolest people ever.

Craigslist Personals (bob)

Katrina Politics (johnny v)

Breakfast Cake (k8)

Bobby Kennedy on MLK's Death (meg)

woohoo mhgs! (april)

"I wore a wool coat today." (lkt)

And Rachel Evans is spending the day "convincing the scared kids to ride rollercoasters at Six Flags."

Only laura lives in Seatle. This means I either need to get more friends in this city, or the ones I have here need to step up their gchat status.

My status is: "There's a wideness in God's mercy I cannot find in my own," which is from an ancient Rich Mullins song and is true, because I am very angry at someone who miscommunicated with me in a major way. I understood for the first time this week why there are lawyers in the world. To advocate for us when we don't know how to advocate on our own. And I really appreciated Princess Consuela's advice, on a side note. Just so she knows she's appreciated.

My status is about to change, though, to "papasans might be the most underappreciated furniture ever. get yourself one." If nothing else this week made sense to me, I know that papasan chairs are fantastic, and I am getting one tomorrow.

"This whole week has been a mistake." - Mom

My mom and dad were supposed to go on vacation this week. Mom was taking a class on shibori fabric dying, from one of the world's leading experts, the woman whose material was used in costumes for The Lion King. Pretty cool stuff. (on a side note, I saw the Lion King in London in spring 2002, and I paid 10 pounds to stand up in the back of the theater. It was perhaps one of best uses of $15.00 I've ever made.)

But in the place they rented, Dad kept falling off the tiny bed, and the heat didn't work. Also, Mom woke up sick and went to her class, which was using space heaters since their heat was also out. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but in Washington, sometimes you need heat in June. Actually, most of the time.

They rented a different place, but the only pet-friendly place they found was a smoker's room, which makes Mom wheeze. And she didn't feel well enough to go to her class. So they came home early and Mom's still sick, in bed, and Dad's puttering around the house.

Some weeks are like that, even in Australia.

I took Dad's truck back home last night since I had used it to move a table, and I was very angry about some miscommunication that happened earlier this week. Mom, in her infinite wisdom even from her sickbed, said that everyone makes mistakes, and no one is perfect. It helped me calm down a little bit.

"I'd like to point out three words to you: Lots of pulp." - Dad

I spent a lot of time with my family this weekend. It's good I like them or it would have been difficult.

• Friday night, my cousin Anne graduated, and I went instead of going to a potential date-getting opportunity. I'm just sayin.' Graduation speakers ought to be shorter. Also, nobody has yet topped the Everybody's free to Wear Sunscreen article. I vote this just gets read at all of 'em.

• Saturday, we had a barbecue in the rain and Dad grilled steaks, Mom made old favorites, and we celebrated birthdays, graduations, and Mother's Day all at once. The remodel, which is still not finished - 12 months and counting - is almost done and has improved things. The patio's gorgeous, there's room for tons of people, and after cake from Remo's we played whiffleball and badminton in the backyard. And Grandpa recreated the moment Kruschev took his shoe off: "We will bury you!" Exciting stuff.

(For the record, Princess Consuela was the best batter. She hit about 8 of 11 pitches. I think the Mariners should sign her given their current track record. And in badminton, Redman and I beat Floyd and P.J. even though we had the disadvantage of having to watch where we stepped since the neighbor's dog Hercules slips into the back and does his business there. He is called Hercules for good reason -there were several places on the field we avoided by leaping. We still won.)

• Sunday morning Dad made omelettes like he always does, thankfully without the 18 garlic cloves he likes to put in. He gave us all our omelettes and got some orange juice out of the fridge. He noticed Mom had gotten another carton of o.j. and mentioned he needed to tell us all something. I turned my letters to the editor over, P.J. flipped the sports page, and Mom kept reading the comics.

Dad: "Betsy, did you buy this orange juice?"

Mom: "Yes, I did. It was on sale." (over her shoulder.)

Dad: "I'd like to point out three words: lots of pulp. " ('lots of pulp' is accompanied by finger tapping on each word of the offending container, even though I am the only one facing him to see the finger movements.)

Mom: "Mm-hmm."

Dad: "I hate lots of pulp."

Greta, P.J.: laughing hysterically.

Mom: (laughing.) "Okay, honey."