EXCHANGE INTERFACE

Some thoughts I had the other day

( a whole set of thoughts about 'the church' distancing itself from 'politics' )

We got invited to Christmas Day with the cousins.

Cousin N, same age as me, married with 4 kids. For a while I thought maybe he'd end up running for his electorate instead of our Former PM, but I guess he's happy to stay in the background of the conservative party.

Ironically, this came a day after I put a post up on a 'hosting' group on FB (women only, curated) and it got knocked back by the admins at first, then allowed through after I edited it. And...nobody saw it. Nobody looked at it. Nobody responded. Granted, it was the first 24 hours, but still...

I ended up taking it down.

There were other offers I made about hosting something, but *crickets* on all of those.

So Xmas Day will be with cousins.

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I was feeling a bit blue yesterday morning. I went to two parties yesterday, permaculture group's "local group" Christmas gathering making kokedamas, and an annual Christmas Party with church people.

Regarding church people, (as many of you know), I'm kind of delighted to be included, but a little bit 'odd person out' because these people have known each other for twenty years and I...have not.

IDK. I'm just feeling a bit awkward lately. A bit down, a bit out of it. I think it's something a lot of people are feeling right now with...*makes gestures at the universe*, while others are "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" or "there's nothing wrong and there never was!" while battling all the injustices of the system.

I had a couple of conversations at church though, that cheered me right up. With one friend who's my age, in the same line of work, and we mostly talk shop, but we haven't spoken for a while and it was nice to hear "I'm just going to go say hi to [T]" like it was a priority. And with another friend who is always good with the compliments - but not the "appearance and attitude" compliments but the "you've really thought this through and I appreciate your perspective" complients. So that's always good.

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Monday morning, got in to work and discovered the aircon wasn't working. Temps are moderately crazy lately - in the late-30s, early 40s range easy. After a few calls, it turns out the entire building is having issues. and by 9am it was up and running. PHEW. This is not a week in Sydney that you want to be having a/c issues! Guess we're in for a crazy hot summer.

This afternoon, I'm helping mum with making gingerbread (she needs to say 'no' more often, but she's learning), and then going to my entire-permaculture-group AGM/Christmas Party.

Tis the season to go crazy, falalalalalalalalalala.

That was a busy weekend.

Saturday morning was quiet, Saturday lunch with some girlfriends from hockey. Saturday afternoon was the cousin's wedding. Saturday night was the church Trivia Night.

Sunday morning - again, quiet. Early Sunday afternoon was the church meeting about a proposed new building. Sunday late afternoon was hockey.

Less than 15 minutes into the game, I scored a goal. And then one of the opposite team players tripped me up with a stick between the legs, then tripped over me and fell on me.

I fell forward, but rolled over as I did, landing on my left shoulder some. Then the woman fell on top of me and I had my arms up as she hit me and that was when my head bounced against the ground - back of the head, shaken not stirred. I had blurry edges to my vision for a few seconds and decided to go off.

I ended up off the field for the rest of the game. *sigh*

Yesterday, most noticeably my neck and shoulder was sore, but I was also a bit vague at work and not terribly functional. I should have called a sick day, or even a sick half-day but 'powered through' and what usually would take me a couple of hours took a full eight to slowly plod my way through. Stupid.

Got a physio looking at the shoulder and neck, he agrees with me that it's just muscular and requires rest (and some loosening through massage), so that's a relief. Just a slightly achey one.

*grumbles*

That woman on the other team was responsible for several collisions: she has no spatial awareness (backed into me a few times) and a fairly solid body - add velocity which creates momentum and OUCH. Also, the stick-between-the-legs is a very illegal move, and I don't think she really got pulled up for it. I shall be EXCEEDINGLY wary of her in future. And if she does it next game, I'm going to get the captain to have a word with the umpires. Because that's fucking dangerous.

--

Four other women from hockey met for brunch

One is playing in the team above, another isn't playing at all this year (has some medical stuff going on) - and had some lunch and some drinks.

The brunch was nice, but I couldn't stay because I had to head out for the wedding. I also couldn't drink because I go pink when drinking alcohol and it's very inelegant. Anyway, had some food, some chats, but then had to run off to the wedding.

I hope they invite me back - I think I mostly got invited this time because I'm a reasonably close friend with the organiser of this time (although I'm still friends with the others, I don't know that I'd say we're close). I'm not objecting!

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Cousin's wedding, family stuff.

The bible reading went off fine (I could do bible readings with a concussion, I reckon, I've done it so often) and while G and I have never been close per se, I've always tried to talk to her at family events, because she doesn't always attend them and she can sometimes be a bit awkward. I guess that counts! Also, her fiance (now husband) is a little bit quirky and a bit awkward, too, and kind of delightful.

I think the thing about G's wedding was that it felt very tense to me, mostly because she wanted everything to go right - kind of a 'big day should go perfectly' mentality, but with the 'if anything goes wrong I'll blame myself'. But it all went of without a hitch, she and M sang their vows to each other (in boring pentatones, like a Gregorian chant; I can't say it was my preferred choice of song for wedding vows) which I knew about because I saw it at the rehearsal on Thursday night.

Anyway, G's mother came along (Aunty C, I've written about her before), but her father wasn't invited and neither mum nor the uncles told him when it was! But we did send him photos. I hope he's okay. He kind of missed chunks of both his daughters' weddings - he and Aunty C were together when Cousin E married (G's older sister) and they were angry that E had married someone Aunty C didn't approve of, so they attended the wedding but they weren't involved and they didn't go to th reception after.

Anyway, he missed G's wedding entirely. Not that Aunty C was involved. At this point of life (G is about four years older than me) there is no 'family giving the bride away', so none of that stuff.

*sigh*

Family.

G&M had a reception with M's side of the family that night (they're from out of town) and rather than try to drag us all together at once, our side of the family has a reception in two weeks' time. Which is good - we can all be our wild and woolly selves!

As I told M before the ceremony: "welcome to the madhouse!"

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trivia

Saturday night was the church mission Trivia Night. Our table had four people, and then we co-opted the senior minister, and he was going to be our 'Bible round' guru.

We weren't even placing at the end of Round 2 out of 3, but we managed 3rd place in the end! Not bad for only 5 people!

And we'd have done even better if they'd taken the two questions that I was pretty sure of the answers and gone with my answer instead of the senior minister! *smugs*

1. Which is the longest book in the bible?
A: Jeremiah. (everyone went for Psalms or Isaiah)

2. Who wrote most of the New Testament?
A: Luke. Paul wrote more letters, sure, but fewer words. Luke was a doctor/philosopher. The man wrote like words were going out of style.

Anyway, I think we would have come second if we'd gotten those ones correct.

Also the Noah question: how many of each animal did Noah take into the ark? Everyone knows that it was 'two' of some, but there were 'sevens' of others. Apparently the answer is 'two of every unclean animal, and seven of every clean animal'.

I wasn't with my usual Thursday Trivia team (because the friend who asked me to join her team asked five minutes before my usual Thursday team), and they won. *sadface* And I won't be able to go to the next Trivia thing they're going to - it's at a different club, the night after I've had my Mirena put in to try to control my fibroids. I don't think I'll be up to it.

Hm, I have a suggestion for one of next year's "wildcard fill-in sheets" when the Trivia Night comes up next year... *evil grin*

--

And then Sunday afternoon was the church meeting about an expansion program.

the meeting was not fruitful; he resigned on the spot

(No, he didn't. That's a quote from one story in a children's book series about a pack of mice and the cat who hangs around with them: The Church Mice. This one was a favourite of my sisters and I: "The Church Mice At Bay" - about the vicar going away on a holiday for some months, and the replacement being...rather less to Sampson and the mice's style than they would like.)

We only just finished paying off the debt on the building that we have, which was renovated, I think, ten to fifteen years ago? And now they want to go bigger.

There was a meeting. Things were said. I'm going to write up my thoughts on it somewhere else because y'all don't want me to be lecturing you on my understanding of church history. :)

The scary part? They don't have a cost estimate. Not yet. But there's already a sunk cost - they started putting this together in 2022, and hired some architects to come and look and work out a project ending, involving a bigger and dedicated worship space, more rooms for conferences and meetings, an education centre that would hopefully remain an education centre (instead of being co-opted for church services as happened to the education centre from the previous church building project), and an actual kitchen. (Hey, don't knock the kitchen; churches should be excellent places for group cooking things - lunches and dinners and potlucks and youth group pizzas, etc.)

Anyway. It was...interesting. But they haven't sold me on it yet. And I'm among the class of people they have to sell it on: have money, another 20 years earning potential, don't have kids relying on me, have a vision for the faith and the church. It'll be interesting to talk about that tonight at my weekly bible study group. If we do.

--

And then hockey. Where I got tripped, and then fell on, and then concussed. Lightly.

I did manage to score a goal before the other player concussed me. So yay.

--

Finally work.

long and extra hours

I have worked at least one extra days' worth - probably two at this stage - doing work out-of-hours for this project. I was on at 10pm last night (after dinner) to finish a few things off.

I ended up having to take all of yesterday's work out and write a couple of new things. And Monday was worked through the fuzz of my post-concussion brain which felt functional but a bit slow. *sigh*

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Anyway, that was the weekend. It was a lot.

Finally, I could use your advice:

quilt border?

This is my entry for the quilt show this year. Does it need a border of some kind?

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

( body thoughts )

It never ceases to amaze me how many grown men are quite incapable of operating a dishwasher in an office setting*.

* and possibly also in a home setting.

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( notes on a Tuesday )

Overpopulation is a convenient scapegoat so we can continue to consuem
The issue is not the headcount, but what that headcount consumes: 1 billion westerners consume far more than 1 billion third-worlders.

Unlearning The Myth Of American Innocence
An American unlearns her history.

The White People backlash against Black Lives Matter

An aromantic perspective on love songs

A 'No Brilliant Jerks' policy has never been more necessary
Haven't read this article yet, but: have you ever considered that maybe Rodney McKay, Tony Stark, and Cumberbatch's Sherlock are actually weapons on behalf of toxic jerkoid masculinity?

Jews and abortion

Christianity, and the moral tragedy of vaccines
Wrestling with the realisation that our modern vaccines are made from products originally gained through abortion.

Catholics, abortion, and the vote against Trump
A comedian went on a rant the night of the Republican National Convention, and his wife says her piece about why she's Catholic and not voting for Trump.

Frozen 2 deliberately chose to include Sami consultation
I may have posted this before, but it's not like it isn't worth reading again.

I was only going to give up alcohol for a month, but I wasn’t prepared for the impact it had
I drank to pretend my life was more interesting. Feeling slow or a little sad in the mornings was so normal I barely noticed it.

Frankly, I don’t think I could handle if my life got any more interesting. I do like a drink every now and then – a glass of wine or a cocktail with dinner.

--

The Guardian : Jail if by sea, through the gaps in the system if by air.

When Trump says ‘infested’ we know he’s talking about people of colour: And again the burden of explanation falls disproportionately on non-whites.

--

I Kissed Christianity Goodbye.

( more links and thinks )

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Male directors don’t really capture the intimacy of female friendships.

( they're not the only ones )

--

Chinese Australian History predates the First Fleet

( erasure from Australian history )