I wanted the poem electric...

(mismatched lines from a poem in Writer's Digest, eons ago.)

Two friends asked this week if their RSS was broken or if I had merely stopped blogging. Neither is the case, I've just taken a long break. Life broke in, my computer is breaking down, and excuses abound.

But driving to work this morning, I was determined that if I arrived before 9 am (I DID) I would spend the first few minutes composing a little something bloggy.

So readers, if you're out there, a big HIIIIIIIIIIIII from Sarah Louise.

So much has happened while we've been apart. And this summer will be full full full.

What has happened:

• I went to Austin and didn't see Badger. (Please forgive me--it was familyfamilyfamily) I did, however, see the Bat Bridge (pictures forthcoming) and eat lots of great food. I was having my lady troubles, so I spent two days in pain and napped every single day but overall it was a great trip and I'm sad that my brother no longer lives there. (He and my dad are driving back to Virginia as we speak.)

• I have jury duty on Monday. Which meant I had to cancel all my Monday dr. appointments. FUN. (not.) This is our busiest time at work as we prep for the kids to get out of school, so I really hope I don't get assigned to a case or however that works.

• I've read lots, of course. For my Austin-cation, I read two of the Dailsy Dalrymple mysteries, which are fun "cosy" mysteries that take place in 1924, in between the wars in Britain. I'm returning the third one today since they really are vacation reads and I'm back at brass tacks. Currently listening to Leif Enger's latest, So brave, young, and handsome. (Going to airport bookstores helped me to see what is in vogue.)

• Twitter takes up a lot of my online time. I like the 140 characters, the fact that at a glance I can see how all my librarian, Presybterian, Pittsburgh, hockey friends are up to.

• What else? Well, this summer, NH Sally moves to Michigan, probably for keeps. Her DH got a job as a professor at Calvin College (the arch rival of the college my parents, grandparents, and brother went to, Hope College.) So a 30 minute from home, 5 minutes from work drive to see her will be a 8 hour drive or a trip on the airplane.

• I might be moving in the fall, into a community house. I feel that right now I need community, since Sally is moving, I'm not finding enough of a community at the OD where all the babies are popping or have popped. (Childless, single woman here.) This will be an adventure in its own right, woman who has lived in a garrett for about ten years on her own, moving into a house with about nine other folks.

Well, my time to blog is up, I gotta go get my tea or coffee and start working.

Oh, and tonight I'm going to an NHL Tweet-up for the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Go Pens! (and pencils.)

let it snow...

Well, okay, I'm not saying snow should pile up in April, but it sure gave Pittsburghers something else to talk about today.

Especially after the past coupla days: 3 police officers killed on Saturday, a house invasion in East Liberty on Monday, a wife shoots a ex-husband on Monday, oh, and there was the guy that drove into the Subaru dealership. Literally.

Calling all angels??

So, yes, I'm glad we had something else to talk about today. And I'm glad the Penguins WON! Woo hoo!

I'm in and out and around (it's called vackay) !!

To bed so I can wake at the crack of dawn...later I'll tell you about egg decorating and the day SL thought her vackay was a goner b/c of jury duty.

Keep smiling...

Next year!

Okay, I'll talk about the game in a minute, maybe. But first, get a load of this one. Citizens Bank (link from Post-Gazette) (which used to be Mellon Bank in this part of the world) is not going to finance some community college loans. Ouch. I have a handful of friends (and some of the toughest cookies I've known) that have gotten their B.A. by attending a CC somewhere. A quote from the article in today's Post-Gazette:

Likewise, Mr. Means (of Westmoreland Community College) could not say how many among his school's 6,200 students are affected, but he predicted confusion and frustration will result from the bank's move.

"The way I look at it is they're losing business," he said. "I think it's a mistake."

Oh yes, it's a mistake. Not that I've ever had an account with Citizen's since I closed my Mellon account when I left da 'Burgh in 1991, but now you better be sure I'm not going to support them, and I bet folks that get shafted will talk with their checkbooks more than my measly blog post.

Okay, I'll let some other people talk about the game:

"They lost to a better team, folks," is the DJ on da X. They are rightfully scolding folks that are calling and asking about the goal that Fleury scored on himself.

Oh, hey, I just got a Tweet from Chris Lucas (Hockeyskates) about the empty net at the end. "I saw your tweet about the empty net - yes, it is so the offense can have an extra man at the end of the game to help tie it up."

"It's the hardest trophy to win in sports," someone else.

"Those guys did a hell of a job."

"They lost to a better team."

Right now they're talking to Sergei Gonchar, defense man. Heartbreaking.

"There's a lot of venting that needs to be done, there's a lot of consoling that needs to be done, and that's why we're here" -- the morning DJs on da X. (I finally added "da" to my computer's dictionary.)

Ron Cook's column: tough being the forgotten bridesmaid.

Video from P-G: Penguin Fans Disappointed but proud.

Last Rink Rat report with Mike Lange, sponsored by Gullifties. Good times.

Mitch Albom's column:

The Wings may have won this thing in six games, but let's be honest: The Penguins are a sleeping young giant, who could be awakened at any time. And for a while, it looked like this series might actually tilt their way. They are a formidable young group, these Penguins, with star power of Crosby and Fleury and Evgeni Malkin -- who finally awoke Wednesday night, scoring the Pens' first goal -- and with 17 players under the age of 30, it would surprise no one to see these two teams in the finals again.

"The hockey gods were not on our side tonight," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said. "They deserved to win the Stanley Cup."

Okay, gotta go. Time to get ready for work.

Elvis has left the building!

(Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)

(Mike Lange, as Petr Sykora scores the winning goal in Game 5, this morning.)

Well, I was awake through the first two overtimes. (No, Kiki, it wasn't because I was sleeping and dreaming of a Pens victory, though I did sleep with my Pens shirt on and yes, I was dreaming of a Pens victory.)

Mike Lange had a great one when we tied the game with 35 seconds to go, "Get in the fast lane Grandma, the bingo game is ready to roll! We got a brand new hockey game!"

And, hockey neophyte that I am, I've never watched a game into double overtime. WOW! And being the only person in my living room, I just couldn't stay up 'til the end. I was exhausted, and I took my bedtime meds as regulation time was running out. Blame chemistry.

So. very. exciting.

I woke up with the radio blasting "The X" (105.9, the station that plays Mike Lange's commentary).

So I've been hearing all about the last minutes, oh, so thrilling. Cannot wait to buy a paper today.
The best was when on TV they showed the guy who watches the Stanley Cup take it out and polish it off. This was when it was close to the end of regulation time. Apparently they had champagne ready too.

More quotes:

"One for the history books."

"Yeah, I did have a little pizza...Domino's" (Petr being funny.)

Not so fast. (Post Gazette coverage)

Not so fast. (Detroit Press--Mitch Albom, as in Tuesdays with Morrie)

And this I love on the Post-Gazette's "Latest Local News":

5:41: Stanley Cup Game 6 tickets on sale at 10 a.m. today

5:49: Sykora's goal in third OT gives Penguins 4-3 victory

Um, which comes first?

Hey, you know, I'm over-compensating for sleeping through the winning goal by sitting in front to the computer and soaking it all in.

Live blogging the Stanley Cup finals, Game 5

Here's the thing. Hockey is the only sport I can stand to watch or listen to. I don't understand it, but I understand it more than baseball or football. And we don't have a basketball team in Pgh, so I never got into it. (Although, I do like basketball, and do understand it.)

So the fact that my team, my home team, is the game I get to cheer for in the Stanley Cup is the icing on the cake. It's acceptable to be a hockey fan. Everyone's talking about it. Even Sally!

I'm a girl. I don't know anyone that plays hockey except Bab's boys and I don't see them much. Plus, they know more about the game than I do, and they're not even 10 years old. I remember one time sitting in Bab's living room and Seggie and Primo arguing about who was the greatest, whose jersey they'd want to wear when they're in the NHL, predicting which numbers will be retired, arguing with Babs about whether Gretzky or Lemieux is the Greatest. It was so great. It was one of the overheard conversations I will remember a long time.

And I am not superstitious. Well, I haven't thrown any Stanley cups at anyone on SuperPoke, but that's respect. The cup isn't anyone's to throw until one of the teams has won.

I'm a girl that doesn't drink much. Or go to bars. Or hang out with folks who do, well, unless you count the beer snobs at my church. They go to the SE because of the beer menu (which is over ten pages long), not because the Pens game is on.

I'm not competitive by nature. I like a good game. I think one thing I want in a man I marry is someone who doesn't bitterly say to the TV, "well, they don't deserve to win if they couldn't win that game." (I shut up my treadmill lady today, she wanted to trash talk the Pens and I shut her down right away. Don't be talking down my team.) It's a game! It's our team! Believe! Was good hockey played? That's the important part! And that is what Mike Lange has taught me. That you look at the sport that was played. Team loyalty, yes. But the other team, win or lose, deserves our respect.

At the end of the night, win or lose, I want to have had a good time.

Someday, I'll meet a man who loves hockey. And Jesus. And I'll marry him and we'll have our own little hockey team...

A girl can dream, even this girl.

End of first period: Pens 2, Wings 0. I cheered and clapped in my dark living room, Mike Lange's voice filling the room, the TV giving the dark room a slight glow.

Getting ready for the second period. Well, I'll get back to watching. Maybe I'll wait to publish this...nah. I'm a "write it now, publish it now" kind of girl.

Why I love Mike Lange and yes, we have a hard row to hoe, Penguins fans

Okay, so we lost. But I have to hand it to Mike Lange (listened to him on the way home from a fête of grilled veggies and chicken and the game on a leather couch, not my own.) As I'm turning from Highland to Jackson, he says, "You know, they knew they had to win a game in Detroit, why not Game 5? They've come back from stats this bad before." And the respect they give to the other team, whoever we're playing--the "three stars" and "the best play" aren't always the Pens, but when they're not, they give credit where credit is due--that good hockey was played tonight.

I have a defense mechanism. When in groups of people and the mood is bad at a sports gig, I nod off. So I was sort of aware that we were losing, but more aware of the trash talking towards the TV. Remember the year Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl? I slept right through it. The world series in 97? (I have no interest in baseball and only was watching it because my Bible Study had been canceled for the evening and I wanted company.)

So unlike the fabulous game played by the Pens on Wednesday, which I slept through because I'd had a day of cramps and drama, tonight I dozed through a game played hard by the Wings, a great hockey club. I watched the TV version, with whomever NBC had doing color-commentary and it was tepid at best. I missed Mike, but you can't really ask your hosts, gee, why don't we turn down the volume and listen to the radio?

What I love about Lange is that while he is optimistic about the Pens and truly loves them, he loves hockey the game more than the particular team he announces for.

While I was searching on the Post-Gazette site for something, found these "Pens Cheer Cards." My printer is currently on the fritz, but these are fun. Especially love the ones for the Rangers, with the "I heart #87," (I do!) parodying the "I heart NY" logo that NYC is so well known for.

Tomorrow I'm going to go see SATC the movie, with or without my girls (whose numbers have dwindled due to boyfriends, husbands, and children. *sigh*) Well, the Fab Four will be there.

In other news, I seriously need a haircut. My bangs are long enough that I should cut them but I haven't done it yet. I looked seriously cute tonight with my hair air dried, my official Stanley Cup Finals t-shirt (grey heather with the helmets of the two teams) and I even wore contacts. I was told the party was going to be at the S. house and indeed, there were many grilled veggies and chicken to be had and enjoyed. It was nice to just sit and enjoy food. But the folks that told me about the fête didn't show. Um? Their loss.

In other news, tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of Date #1 with Max. Not that I'm that into remembering that day, but June 1 is just an easy day to remember. Um. Don't think we're going to be friends. He's just not talking to me. At all. (If you're new here, we dated for six months but still live in the same apartment house, he on the first floor, I in the third floor walk-up.) I'm not torn up completely, just a tad sad, but as J said at work today when I confided in her, "His loss." Love J, who totally was astounded when I told her that this week I sent food back. She totally understood how HUGE that was for me to have done.

What else? In the end, you can't convince anyone of anything they're not ready to hear. So me buying a friend a copy of It's a break-up because it's broken won't do any good until they're ready to hear it. It pains me that they can't see that, but since I held the torch on a crush over B for three un-fulfilling years, I'm not one to talk, just one to recognize the tortured behavior in someone else and the desire to FIX YOU. Which never really works. Sigh.

Well, the clock will strike midnight in five scant minutes and this girl is home, so need for a carriage or a pumpkin is not necessary, but I do hear the couch calling my name. So I bid you farewell, and a pleasant night's sleep. I'll sleep, to dream of the Pens winning the series. Because if Mike Lange can believe it, I can too.

We won we won we won...we need three more wins.

(Peter Diana for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Yep, it's a bipolar title. What do you expect from yours truly?

I have very few rules about answering the phone, but here they are:

1) If it says unknown name or blocked--No.
2) If it says University of Pittsburgh and I know it's my grad school asking for money--No.

and 3) I don't answer the phone during a televised Penguins game. (radio games are OK, Kiki called Monday to wish me a "Happy Memorial Park" at the start of game 1)

or 4) when I'm falling asleep because I've lived through a day of drama and cramps.

I got a phone call from #2 JUST as the first goal was being scored. I did not answer, of course. I didn't even check the caller ID until after all the hoopla about the GOAL! had subsided. A little later, as I was drifting back to sleep (not for lack of exciting hockey, mind you) my folks called, and as I had sent a couple emails this week about some big stuff, I thought, I had enough drama for one day, they can leave a message too.

I fell back asleep, to the voice of Pittsburgh Hockey, Mike Lange, woke up to my phone alarm to take my bedtime meds and WE WON! So I missed this amazing game, 3-2. Well, in these games, the first goal and the last goal are the most important, so I was awake for at least one of those, maybe two.

I mean, c'mon, I went to the University of PITTSBURGH. Don't they close down telemarketing for the Pens playing for the Stanley Cup? I mean, I haven't given back yet (I will, don't worry) but I most certainly am NOT going to give back while Sidney Crosby is making his first goal of the series. (Don't you love the picture?) It's all I have, I slept through the game. I wasn't even facing the television when the goal happened.

(This snarky, spirited post is brought to you by Day 4, sleep, and the fact that I came here first, instead of reading Philip Yancey. Now I'll go read PY, but you know, I have to get the snark out once and a while.)

GO PENS!

How I stimulated the economy...

SATC complete set is currently half off until supplies run out (until June 2) at Borders. So the first $150 of my stimulus check went to Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha. I've started watching episodes in English first and Spanish after. It's fascinating to see which things don't translate and which do. Some things actually come out better in Spanish...Like Mr. Big saying that Carrie's apartment is "Lindo."

Gonna read some more Helen Clay Frick bio and then GO PENS!

Call your mama!

(Bear Bryant)

Excellent Mother's Day article by Tom Friedman in the NYT.

Unbelievable what you can fit in 140 characters. My latest twitter: "Call your mama" -- Bear Bryant. Great Tom Friedman article in NYT on mamas today. and it's NOT raining. GO PENS! Also, taking the late bus.

Will be getting Mom a geranium--she asked for it when I mentioned that the folder wouldn't be done and I said Dad said I should get her a plant or something. Wish I could get her a trip to Alaska with the whole fam--that's what she wanted for her 65th, but circumstances are out of our control.

Dad wants a picture of the whole fam for his 66th, something nice, like for a Christmas card. He'll probably get it.

*sigh*

Father's Day, after Christmas, is the biggest "retail holiday." I learned this while working at Fox Books and it's true. We fear our papas a little more, and we don't know what to get them, so we get them big glossy coffee table books about golf. Mama says "Oh, I don't need anything" so we get her flowers.

Breakfast yesterday with S., she talked about how experiences are more important than things--that going somewhere with someone lasts longer than something that gathers dust. So I hope my visit this weekend and the walks she and I have had are something she can hold onto in her mind. Because, we all know, in mama-speak, it's true: She doesn't need another thing.

I'm sitting here, holding it in, because as soon as I get up, Dad will take the reins of the computer...

one more thing. Proverbs 31 was the brainchild of a future mother-in-law. But she has a lot of good points.

Happy Mothers and Others Day. I always say Happy Mother's Day to everyone--because even if we aren't one, we have/had one.

mtc,

SL

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

(Abraham Lincoln)

I wanted a cool "Cinco de Mayo" quote and so Google took me to this post which reminded me that today is more than margaritas, it is a patriotic celebration.

So happy Cinco de Mayo! And happy moving day Bird! (Today she is a woman, my sister is moving into her own apartment with her friend L.!!! I'll be there later this week to celebrate the move, Mother's Day and see Kiki, who lives in PA, but not near me.) Multitasking vacations, I love it!

Today is a HUGE day for me. I have appointments from 9:30-8 (just about) and then a East Lib meeting to go to, which the title quote mirrors well.

9:30 Treadmill Lady (whom I adore)
11:45 Meet a potential new therapist
2-4 Last meeting for Summer Reading Committee, with lots of food and fun.
6:00 E. Lib meeting.

I tried watching The Lives of Others (a German flick that two men I like, my dad and someone else, recommended) and gah! I'm just not interested in a movie that is pretty much (as long as I watched it, which might have been a half hour) about the Stasi (East German secret police) doing surveillance on this playwright, whose girlfriend is also dating a Stasi official. I think it must be a guy flick.

Katy and Kiki both gave me encouragement and good thoughts and tips about the resume/cover letter process and Kiki pointed out that most first interviews these days are phone interviews. Ah! Good point.

***********

The Pens won yesterday!! I don't understand hockey that much, but I like it enough to listen to it on the radio and then listen to the call-in shows afterwards. Oh, it was so exciting, I was screaming in my apartment every time they got a goal. And it even went into overtime. (I'm sure it was on TV too, but I was happily adding links about interviews to my del.icio.us page.)

************

Church was good. Eileen and hubby did the music, the songs were not songs we knew, but they reflected E and her husband's personalities well (quieter that the normal OD fare) and the lyrics to the last one ROCKED even if the music was more folksy. And we sang "Come Ye Sinners" which I ADORE.

It fascinates me the dynamics that exist in the Great Hall, this one big room with slant-y floors. People come early and leave early, come late and stay late, cry, laugh, open themselves up, shut down. I am amazed at how easy it is to avoid someone if you don't really want to talk to them--in our small community, there is still so much for us to learn about community, about tiptoeing and stomping. And I've gone beyond talking about me, because even I can't exhibit all those sorts of mood swings in the short span of the two or so hours we spend there. How easy it is to have Facebook lives, to beat someone at Scramble, but not have a word to say to them when you see them face to face. The sermon was really good. I took notes. (Well, and I always do, it helps me listen.) I can't remember what it was about at the moment, but I will later. Ah, it was about the tower at Babel and then the regeneration of language at Pentecost. The speaker was a man who left the OD just as I was coming in, so I never knew him, but he's back now. It was a GREAT sermon, mirroring the two stories. I was glad I took my Bible along. (Our scriptures are on a screen so that you don't need to carry one.)

Slowly I am telling people about my Queens dreams, mostly when they ask me about the car I turn it into, we-ell, I might not need a car after this summer... There are a few people I need to email, as I think they'd like to know before they hear it on the grapevine...but how I'd so much rather tell them in person...with a hug. So maybe I'll wait one more day.

The communion table is supposed to be a place where we experience grace, and last night BJ told us to serve one another, which we generally do, but the wine was at the other end of the table and so the woman next to me was waiting to serve me and the woman on the other side served me with grape juice, because I didn't tell her, I'm already waited on. ACK! I felt horrible, which I know I need to let go of, because hello, it was the LORD's table and if anywhere we are going to experience the life of God, it is there--as I write this out, I think how I have just written about the tapestry of what happens in the Great Hall and how the Eucharist starts out with "on the night he was betrayed." We make it out that communion is this holy wonderful thing and yes, it can be, it should be, but we are human, we screw it up, just like everything.

I remember a paper I wrote in college about a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem that talked about how we screw everything up but ends with that the Holy Ghost is always fresh. And Sister Maureen wrote, why did you end your paper on a sour note, instead of a fresh one, like the poet did? Hold the phone, I'll get the poem. I love me some GMH. God's Grandeur. (I dare not cut and paste, this website really does their HTML, and I'll be editing for hours.) But this is the last line:

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

There is a phrase I love, "dearest freshness deep down things," that reminds me that "nature is never spent," that we think we have screwed up God's world when duh, it is his world. If he wanted us to not screw it up, he would have locked it away. He wants us to hurt and heal. I think we forget that we can't heal until we hurt so bad that we actually get out the peroxide, put on the Band-aid, wait some days or months or years. So I didn't screw up that woman's communion experience just by an inadvertent word. She was already wounded. And I was already good at wounding, by wanting to please everyone. Oh how humbling it is to let things go.

I just finished another "Sisterchicks" book (I adore these, they are fluffy travel books that actually express women's fiction the way I think it should be expressed--and they aren't romances!! If the woman is married, she stays married. If she's single, SHE IS NOT FIXED UP by gettting a man!!!) Sisterchicks in Gondolas (and now I am in the last 15 minutes before running out the door). I'll write more about Sisterchicks in Gondolas later, but the one phrase I love is "shame off you." It takes the shame out and says, let it roll off your back like water off a duck's back.

I think with this walking thing (yesterday I walked to Whole Foods, about a mile) (and back, so two miles) I am expending more calories, so the small amounts of food are not going as far--I had a frozen dinner before church, but after church, I was FAMISHED. And no one was going to the SE, so I went with Jen Weiner (we're now Facebook friends!). (I started re-reading Certain Girls, am picking up the details I missed the first go round.) I had my "usual," Mediterranean Nachos and an iced tea. And I ate the whole thing. Then I went BACK to Whole Foods (I had to buy frozen waffles, which wouldn't have weathered the walk home, esp since I went to Goodwill after I went to Starbucks and Borders.) Then I walked to Walgreens, got their house brand of Claratin on half price, WOO!

Okay, gotta hit "Publish." Have a great day.

It's a great day for hockey!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you hear voices?

(standard question in a psychiatric evaluation.)

Voices is the "theme" for May's NaPoBloMo. Friends, I don't think I can guarantee a post per day in a month that includes Mother's Day, a trip to the Nut (my folk's house), the publishing and sending of the resume and cover letter (which I worked on some more this morning) and a lot of possible goodbyes.

I think about voice though, a lot in blogging. I know I have a sassier persona sometimes when I get in the groove of "being Sarah Louise." And a more business like tone when writing cover letters. I'm trying to not have it be form letter-ish, but how many ways can you say, "I look forward to hearing from you soon."

Well, let's try:

"Let's not say goodbye at the end of this missive, let's say fare thee well, and fare me well when you reply."
"Call me, we'll do lunch. I'll have my people call your people..."
"I will sit by the phone everyday until you call." (or) "I will keep my emailbox open, waiting for your reply." (or) "I will sit out by the road at the mailbox and I will flag down the mail man every time I see him."
"You read my words. You call me. I come in, you interview me. Deal?"

This "coming out of your comfort zone," well, it's NOT comfortable.

I finished "Certain Girls." The Pens lost in a shut out, 0-3, to the Rangers. It rained so I missed walking this morning. Or more truthfully, I chose to get on the computer first this morning and when I was ready to walk, it was raining. One of these things made me cry. And that thing made me want even more to write, so that I could capture a moment in words. I may have to re-read it.

On the way home, I listened to the call-in show for Pens fans. And even though our team lost, everyone was so kind. "We lost that game fair and square." (After work, I went to a nearby pizza shop to finish reading my book, finish watching the game, and feed my hungry stomach.)

Another thing people do with their voices is sing. So here's one for you: "Goodnight sweetheart, well it's time to go..."