perk/ins

My new position means I now have "status." And status means perks. The latest perks were two tickets to the concert no one can get tickets to and a free expensive meal.

The "no ones" who can't get the tickets are mainly people in this town. And the concert is a classical Christmas one, but still. They're perpetually sold out for a reason. And we were lucky as heck the whole way through.

We showed up at the dinner late and missed the speaker. Yay! Finishing dinner late, we then were facing a long walk over to the concert -- except that we accidentally found the shuttle over. And then the line to get to our seats was the shortest. And they were THE BEST seats, seventh row floor center. (My sister said they were the best seats she's ever had to anything.) On the way out of the concert we caught a shuttle back to where we parked, and because we were the only car coming out of a small lot the cars in the long line took strange pity on us and we missed all the traffic!

And then the concert was worth any trouble we could have faced, anyhow.

There are several full choirs and an orchestra. Once again I found myself with a bizarre appreciation for the brass. There's something special about watching how an instrumental ensemble works together -- whole is greater than the sum of its parts and all that. Dozens of pairs of eyes all focused on one conductor to direct their lives and make harmony from the chaos. Everyone following the rules. Everyone with a common goal. Everyone cooperating.

One piece was called "Christus Paradox."
You, the everlasting instant
You, whom we both scorn and crave

Another was "Arise, Shine."
What joy to know, when life is past
The Lord we love is first and last

Then there were some classics written by a former resident of this town. They ended as usual with a piece that the NWC choir also ends with, except in the spring. I could tell I was home, though, when I heard it here -- I always think Dr. Holm sets it too fast. But of course I would think that -- I first heard it here, slow. And in my mind other choirs sing that song at all because they sing it here. But that's just the vanity talking. :)

There were lots of other songs, too, of course, including one Danish carol that the audience was supposed to sing along on, only there wasn't any tune written out. Yet about half the audience seemed to know it as well as "Jingle Bells." Megan and I decided we have to brush up on our Danish before we go again.

The mouse has been caught.
The ceiling began caving in because it is so wet from the leaks from the roof. The editor began tearing pieces out to guarantee it would happen while someone was there to clean it up.
One staff writer's desk had to be evacuated.
People were kind and donated their trash cans to the cause of catching water. When the custodienne came in last night she had very few actual cans of trash left to empty.
Because water was leaking through the light fixtures, the entire editorial department will be in the dark until further notice.

the fabric of this world

The unexpected has finally happened: I have finally finished quilting my sister's quilt. This has been a three-year process (because I was not diligent).

This means that it is finally time for a new project! The new quilt is one for my bed that matches the colors in Van Gogh's (? that suddenly sounds wrong) "La Chambre."

I've spent this weekend inventorying my currently-owned fabrics. Yesterday afternoon I sorted through my tub-o-fabric.

You have to understand that my mother is a seamstress -- as in makes wedding dresses, made most of our clothes when we were little, sews doll clothes for fun. (We had well-dressed Barbies.) Sometimes I like to say that I grew up in fabric stores. They were one of those places where you did touch instead of just look. We'd wander through the aisles of sequined and furry fabrics when we were little, or find the ugliest print we could, or decide which we would use for our prom dresses some day.

Some of the scraps in my box I recognized from an old dress of my sister's (or her doll's). Those were fun to see. Going through my mom's scrap bags is far spookier. The long and short is I had enough scraps on hand to cut out a third of my pieces for the new one. I even sewed the first piece! :) Trouble is that sewing machines are noisy and downstairs neighbors aren't big fans of them. That will make this quilt tricky, since it all has to be done on machine.

I will try to take a picture in about a week after I have the first few squares done.

today, I saw a mouse

It's curious, isn't it, how something so tiny can do so much damage?

This afternoon the sports guy found a mouse "no bigger than your thumb" in the break room. Great, just what we needed -- we just finally got a new roof after months of serious and dangerous leaks. We're just beginning to get over widespread computer troubles. Now we are infested.

That office isn't big enough for the two of us, I joked -- only one of us was going to be there on Monday as far as I was concerned.

At the very least, the possibility of creaturely surprise caused me to do some serious desk cleaning before I left tonight.

At about 7 p.m., I stepped away from my cubicle to find some dinner. Apparently our tailed friend was through with dinner, because he was seated along the wall outside the editor's office. I indicated such to the editor and announced I was going -- immediately -- to dinner. As I picked up the pace I heard "Gotcha, you rascal!" and felt a bit of relief. Yet, where there is one mouse there are likely ... well, more than one.

That remains to be seen in our case. For the time being, somehow that one mouse that was caught managed to become un-caught before he could be escorted out, and he ran behind an unmmovable desk in the editor's office and has not come out since.

cultural learnings...

Right about now, little blond 100-percent Dutch children all over Northwest Iowa, Pella, Western Michigan and Holland itself are beginning to dream of Sinterklaas -- hopefully he will come and leave some almond patties and Dutch letters in their wooden shoes. Etc., etc.

Children in Minnesota are not so silly. The blond children here are typically Scandinavian -- they are busy wondering how many helpings of lutefisk and julekage their grandmothers will force them to consume this holiday season. Others are constantly reminding their mothers that the family simply must have lefse for both Thanksgiving and Christmas... and maybe every week while she's at it. (They are also swordfighting with Mother's lefse-rolling sticks.) The mothers are busy dreaming of their Swedish tea rings. Some cry out for krumkake, but most don't have the special iron for making them.

(Younger Swedish girls are also putting on airs because they get to play Santa Lucia in early December and wear fake candles on their head and a pretty white robe like Jesus might have had after he rose again.)

And the blond children here who are not Scandinavian are German, but most are both anyway. The German children know securely for the rest of their lives that their family holiday dinners will never contain a Tofurkey, for meat and potatoes are the staples of any reasonable household. German children sing "O Tannenbaum" and watch "The Nutcracker" with extra pride.

How about other ethnicities? What are your holiday traditions?

Maybe I won't miss the city council meetings that much after all. Tonight they seriously spent five minutes arguing about the number of the resolution in front of them.

CBS's CSI: NY

Channel-flipping (and ironically, I get in fewer stations than in NW IA), I settled upon CSI: NY. What ticked me off was that halfway through, they talk about a contest. You text-message your choice for who the killer might be given three options. That's lovely, but now viewers know with half an hour left in the show that it can only be one of three people. Then I didn't like how they ended it, or at least didn't like how the characters reacted to the ending.

My new job means I need to alter my sleeping schedule to a little later -- two nights a week I'll work 'til sometimes the wee hours of the morning.

Our dog is getting old, and it's sad. Today my mom took her for a walk and when I went home to do my laundry this afternoon, she wasn't even using one of her front legs because it hurt so bad. I gave her an aspirin in some ham, and half an hour later she still couldn't make it up the stairs on her own. Half an hour after that, she could barely stand up at all. We even had to rearrange normal seats at the dinner table to accomodate where she happened to have laid. After dinner, she did manage to get up but just sniffed around for crumbs and limped around to lay on the other side of the table.

For awhile before I gave her that aspirin, she just wanted to be petted and petted. It was kind of unusual for her. So I petted her for awhile, and sang her some songs. I hope she's feeling better tomorrow.

"The Incredibles" is an incredible animated film -- impressive all the way around.

snow!

They said on the weather last night that they could get six inches of snow between Rochester and LaCrosse, but little to none in the metro. I woke up this morning and looked out the window from my bed and since it was still dark it was hard to see if the trees had any sort of coating or were just reflecting lights.

Got up and looked out another window ... the cars are slightly buried! The news says we have seven inches here, but that seems a little high to me. Nevertheless, a high-quality first snow overall: unexpected, thick enough to cover the ground, with light winds, and fell overnight so that you wake up to a transformed world. I am well pleased. Just wish I didn't have so much crap to get done today.

Just yesterday I was riding in the car and decided the world was looking like God was fiddling with "desaturate" in his version of Photoshop. But it looked neat.

'bout them big decisions

Wynia, I'm sick of big decisions. You're welcome to mine. :)

But thanks for the prayers all the same -- they were felt. This week I got ANOTHER new job. I almost didn't take it because I'm tired of switching jobs so often, but it was a promotion and a raise and one of those chances you can't really pass up.

And, this week I got a new loveseat and chair. Both comfy and both blue. The chair is one of those rocking gliders, and I'm excessively fond of rockers. Almost as much as porch swings -- almost.

This week was also elections, as you well know. Being a twice-weekly paper that prints Tuesday nights, we didn't get to go to bed until the results came in, which didn't conclude until midnight. I became frustrated because most of the Democrats I voted for lost and most of the Republicans I voted for also lost. There was at least one huge upset here and one really, incredibly, senseless choice on the part of the voters. This is not an answer based on partiality -- it really was clearly an uninformed decision, because the person they all voted for didn't campaign at all! He was not at all contactable -- I've called him more than 20 times -- and he didn't attend candidate forums and ... yeah. Apparently people have been sending flowers and sincere condolences to the losing candidate, who has run for office several times and is probably more informed than half of the actual councilmen. Whether or not you agree with him, at least he's involved and responsive.

"Won't you pray for me? (And I'll pray for you)..."

But seriously. More decision-making today. Thanks. :)
And heaven help us all as we vote.

Last night at church one of the preschoolers looked up at me and my mom from his coloring page and said, "Hey, you guys talk the same." That was a very perceptive thing for a four-year-old to notice, as he didn't know that we were related and we don't look alike.