Baby, it's cold outside...AND

SNOWING! Yes, we had 75 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday and right now as I look out our picture window from the Children's Dept, cars are going a little faster than they were an hour ago (when they were inching.)

My car was covered in a thin layer of ice this morning, but the roads weren't so bad until I got to our own library parking lot.

My social calendar is just brimming over: I had two events, no, one more was just emailed to me FOR THIS EVENING. I decided that I'll go briefly [update: she stayed two hours. Briefly, my eye!] to the one where I know some folks.

Tomorrow I have TWO EVENTS too. I'm only going to one, the Women's Gathering for the OD.

I think I will make it to 7 hrs today!! [update: I DID, woo hoo!] I was late (but it was the weather's fault--it took 15 min to clean off the car) (I know, I could have planned ahead...) Well, and it took me an extra 10 minutes to get to work...but I took a short lunch...

Lunch was a feast. Is there an Irish word for that? Because the employee lounge was decked in green, the two Irish librarians (Irish descendants) were fighting in "Who can wear more green?" which they've done the past three years or so, and though there was no soda bread, the foodstuffs were great and there was even green (non-alcoholic) beer.

Okay, the real reason I was late today: I'm reading The thrill of the chaste by Dawn Eden. (She's also a blogger, hence all the links.) It's pretty captivating. Eden is a Jewish convert to Christianity and her book talks about how she realized she had to change her attitudes and actions about sexuality when she changed her beliefs. She deeply criticizes the world-view put forth by Sex and the City. (I've written on this before--it's a theme here at PS n'at, but the jury's out on whether I reject the show as far as she does*). The book is reminiscent of Lauren Winner's books Girl Meets God and Real Sex: the naked truth about chastity. Lauren has a review in Christianity Today, which speaks to some of my issues with the book, but overall, Eden's tome is a page-turner.

I guess my main beef with Eden's book is that she assumes there is one person for one person. Um, if free will is in play, then I guess I'm toast if he decided to marry someone else. And she's convinced that just because she wants to get married, she will be someday.

But other than that, she writes really well on the issue of women, sex, singleness, and Christianity and how the four come together.

I love the chapter titles, which play with words in a similar way to the (sometimes annoying) way Carrie plays with words in SATC. My copy is inaccessible at the moment, maybe I'll come back to this later. [Sex and the witty, "Meet" market, The Iniquity of My Heels: A Sole in Danger, Clothes Encounters...] One point that she made that had NEVER occured to me: if she sins in having pre-marital sex, she can ask forgiveness of God, but what of the man, if he is not a Christian. She has lured him into sin. (One of her former lovers died of cancer, unrepentant of pretty much everything.) We're so personal about sin--it's my sin, but sexual/relationship sins can bring another person down with you. Hmmm.

It's interesting reading these "I'm single and in my 30's, Christian and haven't found Mr. Right yet" books. I've read about three or four by now.

Maybe I'll write a post about how they all compare to each other. And why aren't men writing about these issues? (Have you noticed that it's not very often a single guy is moaning, "Well, I sure hope I meet Ms. Right...")

Okay, gotta go clean off my car. This post was written on Friday night and edited/added to Saturday morning, and the sky decided to dump more snow on my car overnight...

*Yes, my cell phone now rings to the "SATC" theme.

Weather report brings laughter--"it'll warm up today, expect 33 degrees F": Sarah Louise catches you up on everything and much much more!

And the Post Gazette front page that is in my car's backseat says, "What happened to winter?" (It's an old front page.) (My back seat is where things go to die, and books go to become overdue.)

Sitting at the Take Care Nurse-in-a-Box two weeks ago (right before I was diagnosed with the double ear infection) I read an editor's letter in a magazine that said, "Readers reading this will be saying this was the winter that wasn't." (not an actual quote, but from memory.) You'll forgive me for tossing that magazine aside.

Yesterday we had 1-3 inches of snow in the morning. We got winter, it just was a little late.

I got more antibiotics, this time for a sinus infection. Things I learned:

• Throw out your toothbrush! (I sort of knew that.)
• Warm vaporizors are great at harboring bacteria. The cold vapor ones are the way to go. That cost me $50 yesterday. This is counter to a magazine article I read, but as seen above, magazines LIE! Nurses, however, are smart!
• This one surprised me: guaf and decongestants might actually be detrimental if you're not drinking enough liquids, because they dry you up.
  

I came home, had the lovely leftovers of General T's chicken*, lay down for a nap around 7 pm, and woke up at 11 to take my bedtime meds. I was going to do a load of laundry, but nixed that idea and went back to bed, sleeping until 7 this morning. The news tells me it's around thirteen Fahrenheit. Yahoo tells me it's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Duquesne Light (call for the time and temperature: 412-391-9500) says it's 16 degrees. One of these days I'll figure out how to make the degrees symbol show up (tell me if you know, in the comments?).

I have no committment to be at work until 1 pm, but since I was all petered out at 3:45 yesterday, the plan is to go in today 9ish or 10ish (I'm not rushing!!). I was actually at work for six hours yesterday--a veritable record!! (I worked four hours on Tuesday.)

The Pens might go to Vegas? What would they be, the Las Vegas Pens? I mean, blech!!! I had planned to go see them at the Igloo (yes, the Mellon Arena) this season but it hasn't happened yet...

Oh, and Happy International Women's Day!!

And since my last post, folks have been clamoring for other bipolar symptoms.

So here's a "Could it be Bipolar?" test sponsored by Seroquel, a drug used for bipolar disorder. The last bipolar book I took out of the library (I don't even remember the name, it was that bad) was written by a doctor who was convinced that most of the population of NYC has bipolar to some degree. That Bill Clinton exhibited bipolar leanings. And a number of other people. Forgive me for not remembering--the book was trash!! The book sort of glorified the manic portion of what used to be called manic depression. As long as it was hypo-manic (the energetic feeling you get before it's really dangerous), use it. Well, if you have bipolar, you sort of know that, and that is when you clean the house, but seriously, if it goes to manic, then you get the "what goes up must go down"--depression!! The higher the high, the downer the down.

That pause was a call from my work-a-holic mom. Yes, she has a two hour delay, but she was calling me from the school parking lot. "It's like a gift of two hours!" I am grateful for Mary, over at My Vast Veranda**, for showing me that teachers do and can have actual lives. Over the weekend, my mother crowed, I work and then it gives me more energy to do more (extra stuff) (work). She claims it's because there's no one to do stuff with (that she puts so much into her work.) I cannot fix my mama. It's really good that I'm NOT living down there right now. I told her, I'll come down to VA and make you play Scrabble with Daddy!! No one in that house communicates with each other. I go home and stir the pot. Yeah, I think I'll stay up here in Pittsburgh for a while. My need to FIX THINGS could really get out of hand if I moved down there right now.

For the first time in YEARS, I don't have a crush. It's sort of a bizarre feeling, but I feel good. (Although, the first coupla weeks were HELL, as folks that I email to can attest.) I had hoped something might happen with the guy I met at the Jubilee dinner (from Annapolis) but there was nothing on his end, no "What's your phone number," or "Gosh, I hope to see you when you come down to see your Mom in a few weeks." Which I didn't. Sunday, I went to the fellowship where I had initially met him and he was nowhere. Oh well. And at breakfast, Friday, with one of my truth-teller friends, Sasha, when I told her about playing "Dutch Bingo" with the guy when I saw him at Jubilee, she said, no, that just means God is telling you there are guys out there. Oh. So I don't think I'm heading for lifelong singlehood, if God is telling me there are guys out there, but WHERE IS HE***???

Anyways.

Hmm.

So.

So, it's International Women's Day? What will YOU do to celebrate? bobbie, of Emerging Sideways, one year celebrated by giving her and her daughter red plates (a celebratory tradition in their house.) I think I'll celebrate by GOING TO WORK for seven hours!! I think I could actually do it! Be home to watch the Office? Hey, it sounds kind of fun...

*My local Chinese restaurant is great: for about $6, I get tea, soup or egg roll, water, and an entree. AND, the portions mean I get two meals. Chinese for lunch, Chinese for dinner. YUM.

**Okay, a bad choice for a post to show that teachers have lives. But she has time to blog. And she has pets. And if you read this, you'll see she has time to read, and watch TV, two things my mother doesn't do. (Gee, do I have issues with my mother loving her job?) My mother works 24/7. I-am-not-kidding. (It actually reminds me of my father, when he was fixing the economy in Poland, in the early nineties. Hmm, do you think work-a-holism can be contagious?)

***(Charlotte, from SATC. The actual full quote is: "My hair hurts. I've been dating since I was fifteen. I'm exhausted. Where is he?")

I heart Dolly Parton (and Lorrie Morgan)

On the bus ride home, a song was spinning on the jukebox in my mind,
"Except for Monday, which was never good anyways,
Tuesday, I get a little sideways,
Wednesday, I feel better, just for spite,
Thursday and Friday take too long,
Before I know it, Saturday's gone,
But it's Sunday now
And you can bet that I'm alright."

Okay, so it sounded like Dolly Parton to me! It's Lorrie Morgan.

On the drive home tonight from child watchin' for Sally (East End Sally, not North Hills Sally) I was thinking how Day Two is code that almost all women understand. (Thank you, Badger!!) As I got up from the sofa where I'd been watching shows on CBS (my house don't get CBS), she said, sofa feel good? And I said, "It's Day Two. I took a bath before I left Virginia, and I took another one before I came over here to watch your kids." Even my mother (who never got a cramp in her life!) understood when I said, "It's Day Two." But I got me the heating pad and since I can't take Ibuprofin or its cousins, and I am home for the night, I have me a Corona, and no one's the wiser.

So I took a lot of pictures this weekend...on the Greyhound. No, we didn't even see the eclipse, it was too cloudy. No, no pictures of the bunny, or my sister, or my mom's new birdfeeders. Me, playing with the digi camera, on the bus. Yes, this is what I look like, bored on the bus. Pictures are from Thursday's trip down and today (Monday's) trip back up.

Along with the Corona (Light) and bite me! It's a half decent import, and cheap!I'm eating the entire box of Samoas. A girl has got to have her chocolate on Day Two.
My day old manicure clutching my newest book form of crack: Sisterchicks books by Robin Gunn Something.
My new manicure examining the stitches on my Liz Claiborne purse.
The seats on the bus. Look, they have little blue dogs on them!
My bracelet. My nerves (Day Two) were too shot for me to wear the bracelet, so it lived in my pocket, except for this beauty shot...
The open road, with snow. Can you say GRAY???

Can you spot the Spanish in this picture? The USA Today? The pink sweater? The cross of the purse straps?
Yes, I've seen the movie. I am now reading the book (though not ON the bus) and listening to the movie's soundtrack. Which is quite lovely. (Which I did listen to on the bus, three times!)
My wallet...
So, do you like my funky tights?? I have them in black too.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

If you've been here for any length of time, you know that my dad is a true romantic. Um, yes, this is the guy who mailed me a book from Amazon for Valentine's Day. (You know, to a librarian.)

Well, it turns out he also sent me flowers. Which he pretty much does every year. And since I wasn't home last night to receive them, I had to call the guy on the first floor to please bring them in if they needed that.

Yes, everything in Pittsburgh is closed. Well, the library will be open at noon, but we have NEVER in my four years there closed by order of our director b/c of weather, or opened late, so I'll take it.

I'm writing this from my neighbor's computer. She lives five minutes from the library, complete with house, cat, three children, and husband. I have napped on her spare room bed before but never had I spent the night. It's fun to be a part of a family.

Anyways, I did mean to write a little bit more about this day and not the weather. If you've heard this before, you may be excused. When I was in kindergarten, at the ripe age of five, I thought Happy Valentine's Day was like "Have a good day" and regaled my father with said holiday greeting for weeks after the event. So it's a little joke between us--in the heat of summer, we'll say, "Happy Valentine's Day" and it's our little secret.

If I had not spent the night at someone else's house and woken up at someone's house, I might have all pretty graphics n'stuff. But going to work late is enough for me. Although I've just been informed that it's eleven, so I better think about getting ready...

Weather update...

So it took me ten more minutes travel time to get here. Total, more, because I had to stop in Oakland to drop something up and at Northway Mall to pick something up.

The library is closing at 5 and I have not one but two offers for a place to stay tonight!!

My goal today: to finish the Superman DVDs.

TTFN!

Oh, show and tell (Thursday) is a Valentine. Old or new.

Yeah, I actually don't think it's going to work out, but I'm pulling for you, Ru.

(Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Sandy Lyle in Along Came Polly)

I love this line from Along Came Polly, a movie I only watched because a co-worker recommended it, who loves Ben Stiller. This guy, Reuben (Ben Stiller) is a risk analyst and he does everything cautiously. In walks Polly (Jennifer Aniston), who walks to the beat of shall we say, a different drummer? Polly introduces Reuben to Latin dancing, spicy food, and her blind ferret.

The whole movie you're right there with Phillip (we're likethis) saying "I don't see this happening." I mean, c'mon!!

**********SPOILER ALERT****************

Ben and Jen end up together--it's a beautiful crazy chaotic thing.

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

I've been thinking about age lately (well, I did just have a birthday.) And it occurs to me that if you were to count my life in growth spurts, I'd probably really be 25. I've had to spend so much energy smoothing out my bumpy road that I haven't really been doing things that women my age are doing: buying houses, having their third child, getting job promotions.

Cue Rascal Flatts' song, God Bless the Broken Road...

And I am fine, working the mommy track at the library (yes, that's what this laissez-faire system of flex time is called.) I am happy at my job. I am happy in my apartment. I do not want to have to pay for a new roof, furnace, or think about siding.

I've been reading this great book, The Joy of Doing Things Badly. Actually, I haven't been reading it lately, because it is lost somewhere in my apartment. Probably in a purse I haven't used in weeks. But when I find it, I'll tell you more about it, because that Veronica Chambers is my hero. She is not afraid to live her life.

Right now, I'm still reading How to be Perfect by Jean Kerr and loving it. Oh, and I finished Good Will (the second novella in the collection by Jane Smiley called Ordinary Love and Good Will). Heartbreaker, but oh so good.

(That part was written in November.)

I have now just finished Gilead. It was so good that from Etna to twenty minutes later--it only takes me seven minutes to get home from Etna--I was sobbing. The first three quarters are slow and plotless but meandering. Best suited for audio books, actually. Believe me, it is SO worth the wait. And last night I had dinner at C&A's. Cameron has finished it, Amber has not, so we couldn't fully talk about it, but, we were able to talk about another amazing book, East of Eden. And then my phone rang. It was my dad, calling from Dallas. (They're most likely in Austin now.)
Today will be cooking, something, for the community dinner, and breakfast. I need sustenance! So here are a few pictures:

To remind me to work on my writing...

This was taken at my library, from the parking lot...

I think boys kids are playing hockey on Lake Carnegie. I would if I was a boy kid.

So, yes, yesterday, I worked a full day, I finished Gilead, I walked on water (albeit frozen) and had a lovely evening among friends. Maybe February isn't all bad. Lilly and I have sworn off boys and are going to Panera or something for Valentine's Day.

Tuesday Blues...

Or maybe not. After all, I've just had my Wendy's dinner: Junior Cheesburger Deluxe and a plain potato, two sour creams, and an iced tea. And I filled my tank (the top half) at $2.14, which is pretty good. It's about 10 degrees Fahrenheit out there.

We did in fact have Women's Bible Study, woo hoo! Which was good, because it was the sort of chapter you really wanted to discuss with others...

Afterwards, I went to lunch at Chili's. A dear friend waitresses there, and I think there is a special place in heaven for waitresses. I was so discombobulated (being with the women at Bible Study sometimes dissolves me to pieces...*) that she basically picked out my lunch for me, bless her! And she kept the decaf coming.

I've been listening to Gilead on CD in my car and so my music choice is only the radio (which is dying a slow death--I can't even get AM Radio) I dare not take the CDs out so as to lose my place... It is a wonderful book, tender, gruff, exhortational, and just plain crazy. An eighty year old preacher who is about to die is writing a book length letter to his now 7 year old son, a letter that he hopes the boy will read when he is older. It is heartbreaking and wonderful--and yes, it won the Pulitzer. I can only take it in doses, before I have to listen to something like "Good Golly Miss Molly" or something bright.

I love my job. I love my apartment. I love Pittsburgh. But I don't have as much as a cat (nor would my garret support such an acquisition.) So I am contemplating whether I should move South of the Mason Dixon Line to be closer to my parents. I'm not moving quickly on this, as it could just be the doldrums of February encroaching on me. (April is NOT the cruelest month--it's most definately February.)

Well, my dinner break is over, so back to work. I have some interesting titles and quotes to share with yinz later.

Keep on keeping on--stay on the sunny side, always on the sunny side of life... (for Kiki, who taught me that song)

*I've been hiding my pain at WBS since September, but today I shared that being not the youngest member anymore but still the only un-married, childless woman is a bit like a being a barren woman at a baby shower. I blubbered. Much Kleenex was used. I got prayed for but I didn't get hugs. I would have liked hugs. (Demanding, aren't I??)

I can see clearly now...

What do I love about winter? The whiteness. The austerity. Yes, it is cold, but very uncluttered. You can see through the trees because there are no leaves. And right now the hills are covered in white snow or icicles. This morning, on the way to the chiropractor, the Allegheny River was almost completely frozen over. And on the way home, the air was warmer than the river, because there was steam coming off the ice. It might have been the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and it reminded me of Genesis chapter 1, verse 2, "while the mighty wind swept over the waters." (NAB Translation)

School is cancelled for the second day in a row here in da Burgh. Monday is a day off for me, and I spent it cleaning the garret, napping, and doing homework for Women's Bible Study, which probably won't meet tomorrow, as school is cancelled. I also drove a friend home to Mt. Washington. That was a treat. I love driving around town and now that I spend so much time commuting to the North Hills, I don't see the grandeur that is this great city as often as I'd like. So I'm grateful that I have friends I can give rides to.

Today was a day of much soul searching and intense emails and phone conversations. And I labored over the Bible study homework. And I listened to Michael W. Smith's Worship album. The result? I think everything is going to be okay. Not in a Pollyanna sense, but in a real sense. I don't know when, or where, or how (especially how--as Babs would say, have you met me? And have you met the world we live in?) but I am confident:

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights. (Hab. 3:17-19, NIV)

I checked a coupla blogs that have been dormant for awhile and was rewarded with new content. (Yay!) Tomorrow is another day...in eight minutes. I plan to be asleep very soon.

It's -2 degrees out there...

There's a project I've been working on. Yesterday, I discovered that it was still in the very nascent stages, when I thought it was MUCH further along. That's life. But there has been a major breakthrough, because of some risks I took, so that's good.

So, in lieu of the "Mama said" post, which will come soon, I promise, I offer you this quote from Helen Hayes. It was the Monday "Financial Quote" from Women's Wall Street, an online newsletter I get. May it cheer you too--that hard work can sometimes be its own reward:

"My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.'"

Oh, and in case you've been living under a hole, the Colts won. Oh well.

In other news, I got myself some grocery store tulips. I put them in the vase Kristin got me for my birthday, which was made for tulips. Mayhap I'll post a picture later. But now, I'm off to cajole my car into starting so I can go to the chiropractor.