Tuesday morning things

* CWF party last night was pretty good. It was small, it didn't last that late (it was our normal meeting, except we didn't really have a meeting - little business to conduct).

One thing that was really nice? The woman preparing the main dish made that hot chicken salad (Americans of a certain age probably know what I mean: chicken, mayonnaise with lemon juice, onions, celery, and then almonds on top). I had mentioned to her in passing at the reception for the choir concert on the Sunday after Thanksgiving that celery brought me out in hives (I was asking if one of the appetizers had celery). Well, she REMEMBERED that and made a separate serving of the salad for me with no celery in it. I was really touched by that because outside my family, few people seem to think about my family members' food sensitivities. I mean, I could have made do with side dishes if I had to (one of the other ladies made cheese grits, which could work as a main dish on their own), but I didn't have to.

The lady who did the devotional talked about something I'd never heard of (and apparently is very rarely done) but is an extremely nice idea. You have to understand that in our tradition (Disciples of Christ), the tendency is to baptize people as either young adults (I was baptized at 13) or adults. We recognize infant baptism and don't require rebaptizing - but I also know a few people who have joined a Disciples church who asked to be rebaptized because they wanted to *remember* their baptism, and obviously, you wouldn't remember it if you had been an infant, and generally ministers are happy to do that.

Well, the woman had been baptized as an adult. And the other women of the church threw a "baby shower" for her (the whole idea of "rebirth" through baptism). They made her a baby book with notes from them, little devotional passages, favorite Bible verses....it was clear she really treasured it and it made me think, what a good idea. And if we had anything like an active teen youth group any more, I'd immediately start doing something like that for any teens who did the baptism process.

* My first Christmas present came. My parents decided to have it drop-shipped to me because it's large and heavy. I had asked for one of those wool-filled mattress toppers - I thought when my hip bursitis was flaring up, especially, that might help me sleep better. It came yesterday, in a huge box. (I knew what it was, it had a big "Cuddle Ewe" sticker on the box). I opened it up and it's "relaxing" on the sofa (also if the fabric outgasses at all, I want that to happen before I put it on my bed). I might put it on tonight, I don't know.

They also sent a free wool-filled pillow as part of the deal. This pleases me mightily as down pillows do set off my allergies a little, but wool-filled things are just fine. I might even replace the beginning-to-get-lumpy "anti allergen" pillow I bought a few years back (that I use for my head) with the wooly one.

I don't KNOW that there are any sort of mystical properties to wool, but I know I sleep more soundly when I use one of my quilts (well, in the winter) with wool batting in it. I don't know if it's just the breathability - where you get warmth without being smothered like with some synthetic fills - or if there's some subtle scent to wool that I find relaxing. But I'm hoping this will help when I have aches and pains. (I may take the mattress top off in the summer if it seems too warm. My parents use theirs year-round, but of course it's hotter here than there)

* Wow, exam-week follies:

- one of my intro-majors students who signed up for the non-majors lab and therefore won't get credit for it
- a student, not mine, showing up to take the exam. Turns out they are a non-majors student. When the secretary looked up their "real" exam time, they got belligerent because (a) "That time CAN'T be right" and (b) "But I have to be at work during that time." Conclusion: I graded the exam (it was machine graded so no extra work for me) and passed it off to the person's prof, it's up to the prof whether or not the grade counts.

Again, as I said: I was such a compulsive student that these kinds of things are like nightmare scenarios to me. (And: the exam week schedule here was published in the summer. In fact, I put the final-exam times on my syllabi....)

I don't mind people making mistakes but I do mind them yelling at my secretary when she's trying to help them.

I'm almost afraid to see what comes next.

* Tonight is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and I am going to watch it (again).

There was a meme making the rounds, a still of Hermy and Rudolph, and it said something like "It's good we don't fit in. That means we're not [rude word for an unpleasant person]" (The rude word is why I am not reproducing it here).

And it made me laugh a bit ruefully,  and think, "Well, now they tell me" (I have felt much of my life as if I did not quite fit in, at least in many social situations - one of the reasons I am so active in church is that is a place where I DO feel like I fit in, or even if I don't quite, people don't CARE that I don't.)

But again, it does make me wonder, if popularity in school was largely a myth, and while everyone KNEW someone who was "popular," no one ever thought THEY were the popular person - if everyone felt a bit like a misfit.

I don't know. On good days I feel like the things that make me "not fit in" in some ways are the things that make me interesting. Or that make me a good person (my fairly inflexible moral code about certain things). On bad days I just feel weird....

I will say I always liked the "Well, we can 'not fit in' together" line from Rudolph; that's how many of my close friendships have been through the years.