Harlow?

Starting off with, this one is random. Except, not so much because I'm (blushing) watching Access Hollywood. In my defense, it's in between the nightly news (something that I always watch) and American Idol.

Okay, let's start with Harlow. That would be Nicole Richie's baby, for those of you who are wondering why I brought that up. I don't actually object to the name "Harlow" as being horribly egregious, like some names (Apple, Lasagna, Calamari) or intentionally alternatively spelled. But, if your name is Harlow, your left with a name that means "From the Mound of the People" OR the actress Jean Harlow. As a fan of classic film, I'm familiar with Jean Harlow and appreciate her cinematic contributions as the original "Blonde Bombshell." But, really, she died tragically young of kidney disease after combating rumors that she murdered her husband (Paul Bern). Not to mention that whole alienation of affection suit and sham marriage to deflect those allegations. To me, not necessarily a "win-win" name selection.

Next, American Idol. BEST TOP 24 EVAH!!!!!!! Not. I fast-forwarded through everyone, except Jason Castro (kid with dreads) and David Archuleta. And they are making it impossible for me to like Archuleta because of the constant "HE'S 17!!!!!" (TM Randy), "I want to put him in my pocket and carry him around (TM Paula), and "The other 19 contestants are putting on sackcloth" (TM Simon). I'm also bitter that Melinda Doolittle didn't win last year. Who, by the way, just released My Funny Valentine as digital single. It's pretty good. Hopefully the girls are better tonight, and I might be able to finally figure out which blonde is which.

President's Day

So, today was a holiday for all those government and government-related workers--that meant me. I love these bonus holidays. They are great! I had extra time to run errands so I:

• Finished my taxes. Ouch.
• Crocheted another four inches on a baby blanket! The sucker is 41 inches wide X 22 inches long and growing. Baby is due in two weeks. I need to start moving!
• Went to the eye doctor and order new glasses.
• Picked up a friend and had lunch.
• Went with said friend to look at new furniture for my living room (got a new brown leather couch and recliner! Bye-bye 70's jungle print!)
• Came home and watched a bunch of Star Trek Voyager episodes.

Which leads me to why I wanted to blog. I'm on a number of e-dating sites. Okay 2. But that's a number, right? Anyway, site 1 is religion specific, and I've gone out with a couple of guys from those sites. One for like six months. And it didn't work. I've done long distance and across town. Site 2 is secular, and I haven't really gone out with anyone. But, now, I'm emailing with this EXTREMELY patient guy, who lives a bit a way (four hours), who is a religion professor (but not my religious background, who does however have a background in sacramental theology and knows the entire Ordinary of the Mass in Latin--randomly awesome). Anyway, it turns out that this same guy got his PhD where I did my undergrad. We missed each other at the UofI by three months. How crazy is that? Small world. Anyway, as e-dating goes, this guy gets points because he uses paragraphs, proper grammar, and punctuation. And asked me about my job. Brave man. So, we'll see. This leads me back to what I wanted to say orginially.

I went to a talk last week given by Sr. Timothy Prokes, FSE, who gave quite the interesting lecture on Theology and Virtual Reality. She detailed how virtual living (everything from online pay/electronic pay to SecondLife) impacts Christian living. Her basic premise was that by living in a world of electrons, we divorce ourselves from the physicality of Christ and embraced by the Church. Clearly, the Real Presence cannot exist virtually. Which leads me to the wisdom of e-dating? Is it wise to approach dating through cyber space? But, at the same time, isn't cyber space better than a local bar?

So, I'm befuddled. All while keeping nice religion professor guy waiting for an e-mail. Which I should send. So, off to that cyber dating site, while I continue to be befuddled by Sister's talk.

So, I've been tagged. Probably in an attempt by my friend lifeasamama to get me to resurrect my blog. (She's probably right, maybe I should take up her New Year's resolution to blog-a-day.)

Anyway, here are the tagging rules.

• Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
• Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm going to violate 3 and 4 as I'm new to the blog-o-sphere and feel horrible about tagging folks I don't know. But, hey, if anyone reads this, by all means, considered yourself tagged.

1. When I was very small (3 or 4), our house caught on fire. I was in the bath tub at the time, and my big brother came to rescue me. Instead of making me put on clothes, he gave me a towel and helped me rescue all the Strawberry Shortcake toys I got for Christmas. What a great big brother!
2. I'm a compulsive list maker. I make lists for everything. What to do at work, what to do when I get home, where I'm going on the weekend. I'm also compulsive about organization--my insanely large DVD collection is alphabetized. My books are organized by topic. Everything has a place in my house, and if it's out of order, I get a little bit stressed.
3. As I mentioned in 2, I love DVDs. Especially science fiction DVDs. I'm what you would call a sci-fi freak. When I was growing up, I had the X-Files "I want to believe" poster in my room, next to my "Everything I needed to know from life I learned from Star Trek the Next Generation" poster. I firmly believe that some of the most valuable lessons I've learned have come from sci-fi. What's incredible to me is that a lot of sci-fi is heavily Chirsto-centric. I mean, it doesn't mean to be (if you think about it, some sci-fi shows TRY to be atheistic), but it often is. Star Wars is obvious, but when you think about it Star Trek has elements of it. The mission of the Enterprise to seek out life and new civilizations? Really, they are living out St. Augustine's truism--"Our hearts are restless until the rest in you, O God." Every time the crew tries to "seek out new life," they end up learning more about the condition of the human person than anything, and the human condition leads back to God. Which leads me to...
4. Someday, I want to write books. I want to quit my job and write. I could totally write a book about the connection between science fiction and St. Augustine. My novel is floating around in my head--I actually am thinking of writing the character bible soon. Of course, unless I can start blogging and practicing the writing, my novel is a long time coming.
5. Clowns scare me. A lot. Seriously, what are they trying to hide with all that make up? However, I'm not alone.
6. I like to cook, but as a singleton, I usually just order pizza or Chinese food.
7. I have no idea who to vote for in Tuesday's primary.

Okay, so there you have it. I'm back to bloggity-ville. Have a great Sunday!