For Seven Quick Takes. See if you can figure out which one got the shaft, minutewise. (Hint: all of them.)
1. You guys. We got cookies!
The generous and talented Kate Essenberg sent us dozens of completely gorgeous cookies. I took pictures. Adorable, hilarious pictures of the kids in various stages of astonishment and glee as they discovered what was in the box. Well, after three days of running various diagnostics and patches and rewiring and whatnot, my husband has discerned that everything on our computer expired at the same time. Or something. So I can’t upload any pictures (and they probably kind of sucked anyway, to be honest, because we’ve been losing colors, one by one, on the monitor. Everything is glowing in Radiation Sickness Peach right now). So you will have to imagine these cookies, which are astonishing — full of delicately molded detail, some gilded, some glittery, and all sweet, tender and entirely delectable (which I wasn’t expecting, since they are so beautiful).
The kids paused for a moment in their wolfish devouring and asked why she sent them, and I said, “I guess she likes my writing.” So they howled, “Well, KEEP WRITING, Mama!”
2. I can talk with my mouth! Also, if I have a microphone in one hand and a sheaf of notes in the other, I don’t nervously pick at my face and ears in a way that fills the audience with revulsion. So, I think my first official speaking gig went pretty well. I spoke about forgiveness, and nobody visibly lost consciousness or lit themselves on fire to get out of hearing the whole thing. If anyone who was at Murphy’s on the 25th has a copy of the video or audio recordings, could you let me know how I could get my hands on one? I’m doing the same talk in Keene, NH, sometime in November, and would like to see what I need to work on (more enunciation, less pants-wetting, or what). Many thanks to Fr. Jon Kalisch of St. Denis in Hanover for hosting so graciously!
Oh, ha, and this was funny: before the talk, Fr. Jon asked me what I most liked to write about. I didn’t realized that he also asked my husband what I most liked to write about. So when he introduced me, he said, “Simcha’s husband says that she enjoys writing essays that encourage people to be themselves. And Simcha says she likes to talk about sex.” And thus, I had the full attention of a roomful of college students drinking beer.
3. I had the pleasure of meeting Dartmouth graduate Peter Blair, who is the editor ofFare Forward, A Christian Review of Ideas. I left my copy in my husband’s car and keep remembering to get it only once he’s already left for work, so it’s been traveling around southern New England very busily for almost two weeks now without me. But the bits I got to read were intriguing, and I love the idea of Christians (yes, including Catholics!) working together to produce something thoughtful and beautiful. Check it out!
4. Catechesis of the Good Shepherd! If you have little kids and someone in your area offers Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, GO TO IT. Commit identity theft to get on the waiting list for next year. Do what you have to do. We’ve only been to one session so far (it turns out that all the other parents got all fancy and showed up at the churchwhere it was being held, whereas we very reasonably spent our time hunting around the various buildings at the other church that we assumed it was probably at; and then after a while we went home. So we missed the first one), but it is super duper. It’s a Montessori-based program, and it is lovely.
5. For the month of October, I’ll be posting at the Register only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, mostly so I can get caught up on my ebook (and probably audiobook), which is forthcoming, in the same way that the Parousia is forthcoming, like, okay, yes, eventually we all more or less believe that it will happen, but by no means would we be so presumptuous as to assume that we will see it in our lifetimes. Humph. So anyway, would you or would you not pay good money for an ebook called How’s Your Goop? And Other Burning Questions About Sex, Marriage, and NFP? Or does the title need help? I need help.
6. Will is make you just shrivel up inside if I tell you about a craft that we did and it was fun? Check one YES _____ NO ______
7. We’re trying to think of something nice to do for our fifteenth anniversary. We’ll probably go out to eat on the actual day, but we would like to do some kind of activity or day trip on the weekend, when we’ll “have” more “time.” Bowling? Canoeing? Ping pong? One anniversary, we tried to go to the adoration chapel and renew our vows, only to find that (a) it was closed, and (b) we couldn’t remember our vows. But it was nice anyway.
