Friday Five- First Friday

It seems almost irreverent to post a Friday Five on Good Friday, so I will try to treat it with some respect. I am still mulling over the darkness of last nights Tenebrae Service, the silence as we left was profound, and although I travelled home with others we did not speak, there was a holiness about it.....and yet we know that holiness was born of horror!

So as we enter into this darkest of days I offer you this Friday Five:

1. Of all the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, which one stands out for you, and why?

Unfortunately, like you RevGals. I don't know the gospels well enough to compare them. So, no

2.Do you identify with any people in this account, how does that challenge you?

I've always identified with Mary Magdalene as she-as I see it-was the only female apostle.

3. Hymns or silence?

I grew up singing in the choir through all three hours of the vigil, so hymns.

4. Post a poem or a quote that sums up Good Friday for you?


5.Is there a tradition you could not be without, a tradition that makes Good Friday, Good Friday?

Honoring it in some way, these days. I took off today. Usually I participate in the stations of the cross across 42nd St, People pause at places that do something to harm people, recruiting station, Dow, etc. Kind of a social comment combined with Good Friday.

Dog and Deer- cheered me up

Friday Five- Movies

Jan posted this nice and early Friday Five about Movies:

Whenever daughter MJ comes home on breaks from college, I get to go to movies, which has me thinking about motion pictures. Plus, it is fun to watch rented dvd's at home, which my husband prefers.

Share your preferences, opinions, and recommendations about movies!

Choose 5 types of movies to discuss:

I love movies, but rarely see them. It seems like our life is so busy, or should I say disorganized, that we most often watch TV. We probably go to more plays, or the ballet than the movies. I'd like to change this so I intend to buy the discount tickets that my union offers as an incentive.

• drama- I guess my second favorite- I loved up in the Air.
• comedy- Ok, I like Comedies, Romantic Comedies, but why don't they make girl and girl?
• foreign- sometimes
• children's- When I was a kid, my mother would take me and this is a nice memory.
• Lesbian Gay theme- Once a year in June we have the New Festival a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in New York and I buy a membership because I finally can see films that mirror my life! I love it.
  

Bonus: Tell about the first movie you ever saw and/or the last one!

Ladies of Olivia

Which is how we are addressed by Tisha the Cruise Director. We are sailig the Western Carribean with Olivia Cruises, originally Olivia Recording Studios, the ones who recorded and distributed Chris Williamson, Meg Christian, Holly Near and wonderful women of the early feminist movement starting in 1975. I remember buying my first Meg Christian album at the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore about 1975 and having a whole world of music addressed to me! It was amazing. Love songs, songs of my fight and struggle. What a time and Olivia recorded it. Last night Meg Christing made a rare appearance to sing again and her voice was pure and true. She is recording again and she sang songs old and new. She brought back memories and she is addressing our lives again. Wow what a feeling to be in an theatre at sea, in a room full of wonderful women listening to this icon speaking to our lives.

Friday Five- Staving off the Gloom

Sally posted this timely FF:

"Candlemass is past, and Christmas is well and truly over, here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day...."

1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp?
What a novel idea? And speaking of novels, I climb back into bed if i don't have to go to work-which is exercise in itself- and read a book!

2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer?
I tried Jenny Craig to prepare for an upcoming vacation but found that their food caused a very difficult stomach problem which had me in the bathroom frequently. So it's back to the Lean Cuisine and of course...chocolate.

3. Brainpower; do you like me need to stave off depression, if so how do you do it?
Therapy and drugs. Yes, I'm should exercise, but...

4. How about a story that lifts your spirits, is there a book or film that you return to to stave off the gloom?
I tuned in to Mama Mia on Sunday night, by accident, and that did the trick!

5. Looking forward, do you have a favourite spring flower/ is there something that says spring is here more than anything else?
I love to see all the spring flowers as they arrives. The pussy willows are showing up. I saw Forsythias at the market the other day. Daffodils. And for the grand finale, Peonys!

Friday Five New Communication

Kathrynzj posted this really interesting FF:

I had the joy of spending time with Songbird last weekend, someone I would have never met had it not been for the blogosphere. Now we keep in touch using a large variety of methods: blog (hers a lot, mine not so much lately), facebook, twitter, text messaging, chat and email. So far there has been no skype:

It got me to thinking of the pros and cons of these relatively new means of communication and interconnecting and so I ask you the following:

1) What have been the benefits for you of social networking (blog, twitter, facebook, etc...)

I've gotten in touch with old friends from my early years in NY who have moved away and befriended someone from HS who was never really a friend then. I also enjoy these FF's with you all! And learning about you.

2) Which medium do you use the most? Or if you use them all, for what do you use each of them?

I use e-mail intensely at work and on my iphone. No text messaging, chat for me. I did chat in the early days of AOL 1.01 but then it was a novelty. Now with my MacBook Pro I can video chat,like skype and I could skype now! but I have to find someone with video... I tried twitter, but my last name is the same as the name as the diagnosis for the milder form of Autism, so people interested in that kept following me... And the content was too short, so I stopped

3) If you could invent a networking site (with no limits on your imagination), what would it provide? What would it not provide?

I would provide a cloud where we could transport ourselves-our real selves- there to chat, play, dine instantly. An alter-world, but with our real bodies.

4) Who have you met that you would not have met if it were not for the 'miracle' of social networking?

All of you.

5) Who do you secretly pray does not one day try to 'friend/follow' you?

Hmmm. Pat Robertson is dead. Sarah Palin? W? (I can't give a real answer because, this is a public forum, you know...)

BONUS: What was the most random/weird/unsettling/wonderful connection you made that would not have happened if it were not for the ease of which we can find each other in the computer realm?

Friday Five Traveling

Songbird posted this Friday Five: Trains, Planes and Automobiles

By the time you're reading this, I'll be en route to a Great Big City to see my son in a play. I'll go by car and bus and train and no doubt cab and maybe even subway. Thus, our Friday Five:

1) What was the mode of transit for your last trip?
My last vacation was for my birthday and involved an automobile and a ferry. It was a good combination as the ferry-Cape Mays, came near the end of the journey as we got weary of driving and was scenic and had snacks and a bathroom!

2) Have you ever traveled by train?
Oh yes we did and overnight and in one of those scenic ones with a glass top-in the Canadian Rockies. Liked the glass top. Not fond of the overnight as the train always seems to rock the wrong way-foot to head, not side to side.

3) Do you live in a place with public transit, and if so, do you use it?
Every day, subway and often cabs.

4) What's the most unusual vehicle in which you've ever traveled?
Hmmm, I fly without vehicle in my dreams.

5) What's the next trip you're planning to take?
We'll be taking a cruise with 16,000 of our closest (lesbian) friends on Olivia Cruises to Mexico and Belize at the end of February. Can't wait!

Friday Five Metaphors

Jan posted this metaphorical Friday Five: "In EFM this week, our question was, "If you were a color, what would you be?" So that's where this Friday Five comes from, at least its jumping off place."

1. If you were a color, what would you be?

I'd be a bright changeable-like the sky- blue. Imagine me your mood ring with all blues and none of those nasty greens.

2. If you were a flower (or plant), what would you be?

I'd be a Peony in the early summer. Bright and showy with a short season. alas.

3. If you were an animal, what kind would you be?

Call me your big floppy dog. A really doggy dog, loyal to a fault with long soft ears. A dog that sighs.

4. If you were a shoe, what type would you be?

A nice flat ambiguous boot. Maybe with a Hunt Top.

5. If you were a typeface, which font would you be?

Why, Times New Roman, Of Course !

The Project: Update- the Co-Op board likes us

Some of the antique equipment that is coming with the co-op

We got our mortgage extension, but just until next Friday. Getting a mortgage these days is really an exercise in frustration! They still want updated financials-which are already in their hot little hands, but they haven't apparently looked at them, yet.
Thursday night, after having been at work from 7:30am, I took the 5:28 from across the street from work to my new (weekend) home fir a 7pm meeting with the co-op board grilling...I mean interview. They were very nice and after a review of the house rules-NO DOGS, sob- they seemed to be happy with up and they accepted our application-as they told us on the phone the next day.
So the next step is to get that mortgage extended for the THIRD time and schedule a closing~I never thought we would get here.
I thank KK for her help and BL and I discussed how we would have never be this far without her help.
Well, that's the latest. Time to start picking out paint colors, appliances, furniture etc.

Fresh starts and covenants- Friday Five

Sally wrote, "As I prepare this post I am aware that it will be posted on New Years Day. We stand at the beginning of 2010 looking not only at a New Year, but at a new decade full of promise and possibilities. For some of us this will be exciting, but others will approach it with trepidation and probably most of us stand on this threshold with a mix of emotions and reactions.

It is at this time of year that many (British) Methodist Churches celebrate their Annual Covenant Service, a service that will include this prayer:

I am no longer my own but yours,
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now glorious and blessed God,
Father , Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
May it be so forever.
Let this covenant now made on earth
be fulfilled in heaven. AMEN

This prayer is said every year, and offers every member an opportunity to renew their covenant with God. This is no soft or easy prayer, it states in the company of others our willingness to worship God come what may, not that we should become doormats, but that we place God above all else. ( And every year if we are honest we have to acknowledge that we fail).

With this prayer in mind I bring you this Friday Five:"


1. What will you gladly leave behind in 2009?

-I leave behind looking for a place to live, another place to live as that place is found. I also leave behind the work of couple counseling, not that we have finished, but the 'heavy lifting' is done and that made buying a place possible after years of looking. It also helped the Beloved and me to communicate better on a number of subjects, the largest of which was buying a place to live!

2. What is the biggest challenge of 2010 for you?

I guess that would be: 1. Making that house a home. and 2. reconciling work with less stress. I have to remember it's just a job and my counselors are not my children, although they feel like what children might feel like!

3. Is there anything that you simply need to hand to God and say "all will be well, for you are with me"?

Finding my place of worship. I have my SFX girls, so they fulfill me for the moment.

4. If you could only achieve one thing in 2010 what would it be?

See part 1. of # 2. Making a house a home.

5. Post a picture, poem or song that sums up your prayer for the year ahead....

5. Friday Five