My Favorite Sound

One good thing about being a minister’s kid is that you have access to a lot of empty churches.  My absolute favorite sound is the quiet of an empty church.

Many times, I’d have to run over to the church to bring something to my dad, and rather than go around to the back where his office was, I’d go in through the front or through the basement just to spend a moment listening to the big old emptiness. 

It’s not silent.  The heater kicks on and rumbles around and spews out some air and then, with a belch, shuts itself off.  The buzz of the kitchen appliances is always there in the background like insect noise.  The building itself groans and sighs as it stretches out and settles in.  But it’s empty in a way that has always seemed very sacred to me.  It’s empty in a way one lone person cannot fill.

You can stomp loudly down the aisle or whistle or sing to yourself “Amazing Grace” but the noise bounces around a little and then fades back into emptiness.

After a while, you stop trying to fill it.

Which is why it’s so disconcerting to move to the back of the sanctuary, slip out the door, and to hear the noises of other humans typing bulletins and writing sermons and talking on the phone, and to suddenly feel back down to your regular size.

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Email from The Butcher

This is the complete contents of the email the Butcher just sent me:

As long as there’s welfare the phrase "jobs Americans wont do" shouldn’t exist

 

Which raises this question: isn’t he supposed to be at work?

In Which I Boss You Around

I often get called bossy, and yet, I think, if I really were bossy, some folks would have a car, others would get off my back about the whole "why aren’t you married yet?" shit, and I would be rolling in the dough.

Still, I’ve decided that part of why I don’t get what I want is that I don’t really articulate it–not to others, and certainly not to myself.

Which is why I feel pretty indebted to Jon Jackson over at Crap & Drivel.  Here was a blog so outrageous, so ridiculous, that my fear of meeting strangers was not greater than my curiosity about meeting this man.  And he bought me drinks!  Since then I’ve met a lot of other bloggers and, even though I get all nervous and weird about it beforehand*, I really like it.

So, here, in no particular order, are the five bloggers I’m dying to meet at the moment**:

1. Peg–She’s been reading here and commenting almost forever.  I’m almost certain she was my first reader who I didn’t know.  Peg, if you really go to Manchester this summer, you’d better stop by and meet me.

2.  Yankee Transplant–She comes across like the biggest hearted-est person in the world and I find her compassion really moving.

3.  Lindsey–She’s wicked smart and funny and articulately feminist in a way that just does me in.  And, shoot, if I could arrange it just right, I could drive over to Memphis*** and meet her and the Yankee Transplant both at once.

4.  Lucky Buzz–I think we’d either hit it off like crazy or immediately hate each other.  But I’d like to see.

5.  Adam C. Kleinheider–There is no excuse.  You’re going to work with Brittney and you’ve met Katherine.  I’m not as intimidating as either of them.  We can meet like spies.  We’ll agree on a place and a window of time.  I’ll leave a small chalk x on the side of the building when I get there.  You’ll come in and look for the cute, weird girl holding a copy of Leaves of Grass.  You carry a blue umbrella.  Sit two tables away from me and, when the waiter asks what you’ll be having, say "None of your nonsense, sir!" and get up and leave.  That’s all I’m asking for.

 

 

 

*As is my way.

**Not counting Bridgett, since we’ve made tentative plans to meet.

***One one of those days when I have the car, I guess.

The Blogroll

Good god.  You just don’t have any idea how many blogs you link to until you’re entering them one by one into a new space. 

Random Things I Love

1. Staying late at the office, waiting for the Butcher to come and pick me up.  Obviously, not all the time, but on days like today, when everyone else goes home and it’s very quiet and I get work done and don’t feel bad about surfing the internet between tasks.  Plus, we usually have Jack in the Box for dinner.
2. The way the tiny cat will come bursting into the bathroom when I’m trying to shit.  She just rushes in like there’s some big emergency, and now she’s gotten it so Mrs. Wigglebottom will follow her, and so there will be three of us in this tiny bathroom, just hanging out after the urgency dissipates.
3. How bright my bedroom is in the morning, when the sun rises over I-440.
4. Watching the construction workers tear down my old building.  Can I heckle them?  Is that impolite?  It’s all I can do to not shout out "Hey, Baby!"
5. That new Gretchen Wilson song, even though I can’t decide if I’m one of the people from whom she can’t get no respect or if I’m one of the people she’d be for.
6. Judas Priest.  I’m sorry.  They just could not be any greater.  For one, they suck, but in the most fun way ever.  Then their lead singer turned out to be gay.  And, when their songs come on the radio, the Butcher always changes the channel, I always say, "Hey, that’s Judas Priest" to which he replies, "Like I’m old enough to give a shit about Judas Priest," which always cracks me up.
7. Looking at album covers in The Great Escape.
8. The way Nashville smells in the spring.
9. The soft spot right above Mrs. Wigglebottom’s nose.
10. The awesome cheap old plastic red pot I bought to put my Jade plant in.  Ha, I guess I’m just digging red lately.

Blogger, Farewell!

Aw, y’all. I’m a little sad to be leaving Blogger. It’s been a fine place, but the weird outages with no one to bitch to and the lack of categories and just my general wish to have something a tad spiffier that I could change as I liked without having to worry that I was ruining things forever means that I’m hitching up my skirts and tromping over to Squarespace.

Go on over. See what you think.

This stuff is all staying up right here, so we can always come back and visit when I want to prove to you how right I remain about something.

Anyway, as soon as I can, www.tinycatpants.com will point over there. It doesn’t now. Right now, who knows where it points? Probably still here. So, that’s going to be hinky for a whole (sorry, Brittney), but bear with me.

It won’t be better or worse, just different.

Welcome!

So, yes, all the old stuff is still over at Blogger.  I guess it can’t hurt to leave it sitting there.  But here’s where all the new stuff will be. 

I’ve still got some sprucing up to do, like finishing up the blogroll and such.

But, all in all, I like it.

It’s got some drawbacks, like no HTML in the comments, but they promise that they’re working on it.  You’ll just have to find some other way to connote snark.

And, if you want to include a link, just type the website address and it will create a link.

Let me know if things seem funky or if you have any problems.

Oh, and if you like to post anonymously, just type anonymous in as your name.  You know I don’t give a shit.