themouseissqueakingwhyisitsqueaking

i just imagined it walking toward me.

i'm not going to make it through the night.

city mouse

there are few things i thought to blog about this week, but ended up being too lazy to, like:

1. my thoughts on me possibly doing karaoke with rainster
namely, that my voice is such that i could not try and sing normally, because people would be embarrassed for me. i would have to try and be ironic, like the guy this past week who did britney spears a la robert goulet (on a side note, although i do enjoy covers done in completely different styles, like the acoustic guitar guy who did "real love" by mary j. blige at a dido concert torgo and i went to once long ago, ironically singing britney spears is overdone). but i'm not confident enough to be ironic without practicing exhaustively. i could also try and be funny, but i'm more the witty-story-writer type funny, not the sing-and-dance-goofily-get-the-crowd-going-along-with-you type funny.



2. a random question i had:
namely, where are those trucks that are driving along pulling one long log behind them going? why don't they have a bunch of logs? is this for some log throwing contest for giants? an enormous log cabin being built really inefficiently?
but then, that same day, i figured it out -- ELECTRIC POLES. duh.




but what is it that made me come on here and post? the fact that right now there is a MOUSE in my HOUSE. and by house i mean ONE ROOM APARTMENT.

my parent's house has mice. mostly in the kitchen. so i felt a little better sleeping there because i could convince myself that the mouse was going to stay put in the kitchen, and wouldn't possibly get close to my bed. however, in this apartment, my bed is about four (human) steps from my kitchen. moreover, i have seen the mouse running round under my bed.

it's not a rat or anything. it's just a little mouse. but i am FREAKED OUT. like, right now, i don't know where it is. it could be right under me as i sit on the futon. i know tomorrow i can call my landlord and hope she can do something (i don't want to set a trap), but for tonight, we might have to co-exist. where will the mouse go once i shut all the light off? will the mouse crawl on me in my sleep? on my FACE? oh. oh my.

tuesdays are for discoveries

DISCOVERY #1: my taxes

duh, xtina, shouldn't you KNOW about your taxes by now? well, yes, i should, if my taxes were still regular taxes. but ACTUALLY my taxes are now unusual. clergy, you see, are considered self-employed, so don't get any taxes taken out. instead, i have to pay estimates on a quarterly basis.

but wait! there's more!
salary for clergy is actually divided into a salary and a housing allowance. why? who knows? and income tax is just taken out of the salary, and social security is taken out of both...plus i need to keep track of all my deductions.

i used to be able to do the 1040EZ. no more! but happily, clergy also get standing room only access to all red sox home games...that kind of makes up for the tax confusion. that and the whole living into my calling thing.

DISCOVERY #2: Party Mix, March 2007

so the other day i was in my mom's car and she hands to me a CD with the words "Party Mix, March 2007" written on it. i don't recognize it, i don't remember any parties in march, and it doesn't look like the handwriting of anyone i know. whatever, i take it anyway. i play it. it doesn't sound like anything my friends would listen to, kind of a mixture of funk, oldies, really fun music...i recognized only a few of the songs (TOTALLY rocked out to Stevie's "signed, sealed, delivered"), but i liked them all. it was like an early Christmas present.

my destiny calls and i go!

so last night i went to see Man of La Mancha at a theater that I didn't even know existed in downtown Boston. A tiny little venue, but worked perfectly well for the stage set up, which is supposed to look like a prison. the main character, Miguel Cervantes, is a playwright who uses the props in the prison and his fellow prisoners to act out the story of Don Quixote.

i think you'd have to work pretty hard to wreck MoLM because it's such a fun, energetic show with really catchy songs, but this group did a fabulous job, and i liked the multicultural-ness of their company. Don Quixote had the perfect mix of earnestness and dottering age. the Padre was hot (can i think that?) the only thing that was weird to a person who is used to going to musicals (i do love a good musical) in big venues was the pre-recorded music (as opposed to, obviously, an orchestra)...a little distracting. (ed. note: apparently, i am in a parenthetical mood today)

if you haven't seen this show, and are in Boston, go see it where i did. if you haven't seen the show and are not in Boston, find someplace that is playing it, and go see it. at the very least, watch this, which is what turned me on to this musical in the first place.

*for those who don't know, this is the fabulous Scott Bakula in the fabulous Quantum Leap. He sings with a little too much macho gusto for this particular role, but i love him anyway. also, yes, i know it's in spanish. it's the only one i could find.

**also, I just put a video in my blog! praise me.

why i don't speak french

The Chair-Caner

Whatever it cost to make the old peasant give in
who had refused to yield his ancestors' land,
cost to have the swamp sanded over, and the bridge built
and the reception for state dignitaries, he knows nothing of it
the Sunday painter devoted to flowers
to cats' eyes, to young girls' blossoming
on an imaginary dune, just as such things are not noticed
by the gods of this palace who smoke and talk of art
with the gestures of Greek statues. He only
knows that for painting, a sparrow in the sky
suffices, or a sun-ray on the straw of his chair
if in the depth of silence for an instant that shadow
loosens the grip that makes him drop his eyes.

(Text of the poem in the original French)

Guy Goffette

..because translating poems like this, which i really like, would be really hard. don't you think?

so the most recent thing i'm procrastinating on is this licensing paper i have to write to get started on the ordination process.

once i do that, i will be on my way to really, really being a pastor, and that's amazing and kind of knee-knockingly scary. early in the summer i went to talk to the grandmother of one of my kids who was going through a hard time. she answered the phone once during the middle of our meeting and said, "let me call you back, i'm talking to a pastor right now" and she meant me...

crazy.

it made me do it.

i am dumbfounded enough by this to finally come back to the blogging world.