Link o' the Day

This is my new favorite blog. It cracks me up. I check it like 5 times a day (and Liz, I stole the idea for the February list from them. So the fact that you stole it from me is lovely. I feel like the middle man.) cuz they update it all the time.
From the makers of Hallmark's Shoebox Greetings: The Shoebox Blog.
Happy time wasting.

Power Tools

My one male co-worker and I were talking the other day about some thing or another that was broken. I said that I could fix it, and I believed I could. He looked at me and said, in all seriousness, “OK, but just don't own too many power tools or you will never get a man.”

I gave him the blank stare that I hope you are currently giving his words.

“A guy can't date a girl who has more power tools than him, and if you own too many you'll never find a guy.”

OK, interesting thought process there.

I was not only baffled, I was mildly offended. I think being able to do is one of the more attractive characteristics, in both friends and relationships. The ability to do on one's own is downright sexy in my mind. I am drawn to these people. I have great respect for people who learn what needs to be learned and at the very least try. I don't care if that's in music, in art, in construction, in remodeling, in words, in whatever, the thing that truly matters is caring enough to try. Owning tools is part of that, is a symbol of that, that desire to create and retain, to make ones own. I don't own power tools to speak of (besides my drill, whoot whoot) but I can use most of the tools put in front of me. That is something I love about myself and I hope would be seen as something appealing rather than appalling. And show me a guy who can fix his own shit and...well, just show me that guy. If he likes Jesus, liberalism and beer as well you may never see us again, we will have run off somewhere together. With our power tools. And maybe some books too.

Many Faces Of The Faithful

Today the Washington Post had a great Op Ed piece on being Evangelical and a Democrat. The subtitle was "I'm an Evangelical--and a Liberal. Really." Ahhh I love it--I'm not alone! It's short, so read it. Love you, Wash Post.

February

Reasons February Doesn't Suck:

(1) It's two days shorter than other months...wait, not this year.
(2) Football season! Wait, that ended last month...and doesn't start again to August.
(3) You can start wearing all your new spring...no? You can't? Cuz it's still cold? Whoops.
(4) All those new episodes of favorite shows...that don't come back on til April cuz of the strike.
(5) Winter Olympics! No? Not this year?
(6) Valentines Day! And I'm still single? So...that's not good, right?
(7) President's Day! It's a national holiday! Yet I still had to work?

That's it, this month sucks.

Myopia

I got glasses when I was in second grade. I was very farsighted, which is apparently rare in young children and I got these plastic glasses that were pink on the top and faded to blue on the bottom. I loved them. In third grade I went back for my yearly checkup only to discover that now my left eye had become nearsighted as my right had stayed farsighted. They gave me plastic glasses that were blue on the top and faded to pink on the bottom...except they had bifocal lenses in them. An 8-year-old wearing bifocals. Awesome. I was self-conscious about the line running across my lenses, feeling my oddity like itchy wool. I only had bifocals for a year. My right eye eventually got with the program and became nearsighted and I've been in glasses or contacts ever since. Now my left eye is so nearsighted I have trouble distinguishing not only form and distance but also color—things blur together without lenses to pull it all into focus, to show me what is the what. Without lenses I have problems seeing my own hand in front of my face.

This is the effect of the literal lenses through which life is viewed; how much more important are the figurative ones. The ones that can see the whole mess and yet focus upon the beauty within it, the moments where life is sustained, love is actioned, hope a bulwark against all evidence to the contrary. I don't know what it all means, but those are the lenses that matter more and more as the intricacies of each day, each situation become overwhelmingly distinct. I need to see those edges.