Friday, November 30, 2007

Our Four (More or Less) Hours of Fame

Not sure if this is appearing on national news, and I guess I won't find out for another hour or so, but if you have seen http://www.wmur.com/news/14737868/detail.html?treets=man&tml=man_break&ts=T&tmi=man_break_1_12260411302007 -- yes, Rochester, NH, is where we live. I found out about this when attempting to run a couple of errands downtown -- pick up a finished cross stitch, and drop some sheets off at a local laundromat (we don't have a dryer, and it's below freezing outside).

All the local stations have been running this story, and the inaccuracies I've heard -- our fanciest restaurant described as a "bar," a 72-hour drinking bout on the part of the hostage-taker described as a 48-hour drinking bout, his "being Known to police" (as in, "Oh, yeah, this guy has a major criminal record") being the result of having grown up with half the cops on the force -- well, it's been an Education, in terms of just how accurate the media is. But you already knew that, right? ;-) I mean, look what they do to Orthodoxy....

I should add that no one seems to know quite why he picked on Hillary's campaign headquarters, but it seems perfectly clear to me that surely, he is of the opinion that the fewer Hillary supporters there are in the world, the better. Not that I would advocate this particular method of reducing their numbers, but I have been truly astonished by the number of brainless idiots -- I mean, Hillary supporters there are in these here parts. My secret hope is that this will convince the Democratic Party that this woman is way too controversial to be electable, and they will hand the nomination to someone with at least marginal brains. (Naming no names here...) But I'm not too convinced that that will actually occur.

Meanwhile, I sure hope I can get my sheets taken care of tomorrow. Sigh.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Commitment to Loveliness. Or Something Like It, Anyway.

First, thanks to all who commented on my last blog posting, for affirming what I believe to be the correct course of action. Philippa, you are right, I shouldn't read her blog, but at this stage, it's the only way I have of keeping up to date with my grandsons. :-(

Now, on to better stuff. I recently became acquainted with a blog called Charming the Birds from the Trees. The nicest thing about it is that it's another Orthodox lady -- can't know too many of those, there are so few of us! This young lady seems to be committed to a standard of gracious living that I thought was lost forever; good for her! Once a week, she posts a "Commitment to Loveliness," which she describes as:

a fun way to increase femininity and beauty in our lives each week without even trying! All you have to do is choose five things that you would like to work on or do during the week that will increase the loveliness in your life!

I'm all for that! We can't have enough beauty in life! So here are my five:

1. Listen to more good music. We've gotten into a rut lately of watching television, and although we don't watch too many of the network offerings, we do have a rather large library of tapes and DVDs. Time to put them on hold, for this week, at least.

2. Make a point of tidying up the house. With all that goes on around here, it's too easy to give the featherbeds a fluff and say, "I'll make the bed properly later." Or to stash the plethora of catalogues out of sight and say, "I'll get to that later." Not this week.

3. Make an appointment to get my hair and nails done. I started having my nails done a few months back, after literally years of neglect, and ya know? It feels pretty darn good to look civilized.

4. Sing Matins and Vespers regularly. With Jim home so much lately, it's been too easy just to read the prayers, or not to say them at all. But this time of year has some of the loveliest music in all Orthodoxy.

5. See if I can actually go a week without using slang. This will be a tough one. New Yorkers speak better slang than they do English.

Once you have chosen five simple things, post them on your blog and link to this post in your post, and then post the direct link to your Commitment to Loveliness post in the comments section. This looks like it could be fun!