Weekends with Toumey...
Like Tuesdays with Morrie, only with the most awesome red-headed stepchild EVER!
Okay I promised him it would start that way. And time with Alex was indeed a big part of the weekend, but there was other stuff that was sad and awesome, too.
The short version:
Funerals suck. I'll miss Zack.
I loved seeing my girls at home even under such sad circumstances. People are married and having babies, and I'm not even dating anyone right now...feels so weird.
Silly movies with awesome friends makes my heart happy. As does cuddling with gay boys. Hey, it's as close as I'm getting these days, give me a break.
I'm intolerant when it comes to intolerance...
Toumey and Em and boxed wine = awesome!
Taco Bell with Zach and Amanda and Chris = rocked my world.
Relay raised money for cancer, yay! People were disappointing though.
Some people are just idiots!
I miss Indiana. I think I could be very happy back in Indianapolis. But I'm back in Boston now. ;)
Stephen Colbert and the Bush impersonator at the white house press core dinner....HILARIOUS!!!!!! I'll find the link later.
I am bad at funerals. I cry lots. It hurts to see Jill so hurt and feeling so alone. It broke my heart to see Misty and Dan, Joel and Brytni grieving and in so much pain. But seeing so many people show up to remember Zack was amazing. The showing was supposed to go from 2-8. People were there before and some even stood 5-6 hours in line some waiting as late as 12:30 (the end of the line) just to say good-bye. He was such a special man. It is when I reflect on a life and a person like Zack that my faith is completely restored. I want it all to be true. I want to feel like I used to when it was all so simple. And then at the same time, spending the weekend trying to grieve over a friend I have my mother hounding me about not going to church and friends of the family coming up to me and telling me they are praying for me while I'm in Boston, the belly of the devil apparently, a immoral liberal breeding ground for anti-christianity according to these people. And then the disillusionment of intolerance and hypocrisy sets back in. What makes these people think they are any better? Why does following a dogma that upholds as much truth as it includes contradictions of those very teachings somehow give people the right to judge and decide their way is best. I have so much respect for the traditions and the history and the ideals, but I become increasingly disappointment with the public representation of a faith I've always held so dear. Do I believe in God? Yes, but not the same way other people do. I don't think that God is some mysterious omniscient entity that magically decide to create everything. That just doesn't make sense. I don't think there is some person sitting outside of the universe that just watches us and plays dice with our lives. Rather I think God is more of an understanding. Finally getting it! Like Nirvana, a sort of trascendance. When we finally come to terms with the fact that the world is here, and we are here, and that we weren't created here for some divine plan, but rather that as long as we are here, we might as well be trying to make the world better for the people that are coming after us. And then you get into the politics question that all these people keep throwing at me. Why does liberal mean anti-moral? Morality is relative. Accept it. There are so many things I could say about all the talking points, abortion, gay marriage, welfare, social security, activist judges, but I'll save those for another day. The point is that there are no OBVIOUS answers, disagreement in government is healthy. Not everyone in the country is christian, don't make them follow beliefs they don't hold as long as they aren't safety and health concerns for everyone else. Just because you don't like something isn't a reason to persecute it.
That rant was long coming, and there is plenty more where that comes from. But the conversation was continued with guess who? TOUMEY! and Em over the weekend. Trying to decide where we think modern dogma has gone wrong. What we've gotten right and where we've gone hypocritical. This was also illustrated so well in the movie selection of the weekend. Between Saved (Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin) reminding us all about how to go about doing the christian thing, to jesus coming to hunt the vampires (Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter) and save the lesbians...they aren't just deviants, Mary says God loves them too, why doesn't everyone else? Oh yeah..."The Body of CHRIST"). Such horribly funny movies with such real social commentary. I love it!
More weekend fun also included my being drunk on boxed wine and capt and coke...by drunk I mean I passed out in the bathroom...not sick, never got sick, just lost track of time...came out and passed out. It was good. There was also sweet music and catch phrase, and endless loop of Futurama goodness, Spinal Tap (These go to eleven), and late night Taco bell and boredom with Ben. Though maybe driving home at 2 am wasn't the best idea, I did make it home without falling asleep on the road and still got up to leave for my flight. I got to cuddle with Chris *yay* and the weekend was general good except some disappointment in Relay. Lots of money was raised, but short of last year's total and definitely short of the goal. It was rainy and gloomy, so there weren't many people at the track, that was understandable, teams still had their people out there walking. But the lack of enthusiasm from some people, especially some of my sorority house was pretty upsetting. There was no reason why the Alumni team should have been raising more money than the class teams. They have family and friends and means for fund raising. That the house couldn't spare some of it's own budget to sponsor relay an event that touches so many, including a number of our own sisters is disappointing. That people couldn't even spare money themselves. Take a break from the drinking one weekend and take the money you'd have spent on beer and drinks ONE NIGHT and donate that to fund research. Why is that so hard for people to do? Think about how much money we waste on stupid stuff all the time. Just one sober weekend night and sooo much money would end up being used for such a great cause. Next year, there is talk that we (the alumnae) may try to challenge the active classes. Maybe competition will help motivate them.
People still upset me sometimes. It's hard to equate that people are your "friends" and "miss you" etc when they seem to be perfectly content not even trying to see you or say hi the few days that you are in town. It's hard to know that if I didn't put forth the effort myself, they wouldn't care. If I knew you were in Boston, I'd at least try to see you. I wouldn't make you hunt me down. It was great to get random voicemails from people who found out that I was in town and just wanted to say though. Even people that I rarely talk to, they were more excited to see me than some friends. Really makes you wonder sometimes...
Okay I promised him it would start that way. And time with Alex was indeed a big part of the weekend, but there was other stuff that was sad and awesome, too.
The short version:
Funerals suck. I'll miss Zack.
I loved seeing my girls at home even under such sad circumstances. People are married and having babies, and I'm not even dating anyone right now...feels so weird.
Silly movies with awesome friends makes my heart happy. As does cuddling with gay boys. Hey, it's as close as I'm getting these days, give me a break.
I'm intolerant when it comes to intolerance...
Toumey and Em and boxed wine = awesome!
Taco Bell with Zach and Amanda and Chris = rocked my world.
Relay raised money for cancer, yay! People were disappointing though.
Some people are just idiots!
I miss Indiana. I think I could be very happy back in Indianapolis. But I'm back in Boston now. ;)
Stephen Colbert and the Bush impersonator at the white house press core dinner....HILARIOUS!!!!!! I'll find the link later.
I am bad at funerals. I cry lots. It hurts to see Jill so hurt and feeling so alone. It broke my heart to see Misty and Dan, Joel and Brytni grieving and in so much pain. But seeing so many people show up to remember Zack was amazing. The showing was supposed to go from 2-8. People were there before and some even stood 5-6 hours in line some waiting as late as 12:30 (the end of the line) just to say good-bye. He was such a special man. It is when I reflect on a life and a person like Zack that my faith is completely restored. I want it all to be true. I want to feel like I used to when it was all so simple. And then at the same time, spending the weekend trying to grieve over a friend I have my mother hounding me about not going to church and friends of the family coming up to me and telling me they are praying for me while I'm in Boston, the belly of the devil apparently, a immoral liberal breeding ground for anti-christianity according to these people. And then the disillusionment of intolerance and hypocrisy sets back in. What makes these people think they are any better? Why does following a dogma that upholds as much truth as it includes contradictions of those very teachings somehow give people the right to judge and decide their way is best. I have so much respect for the traditions and the history and the ideals, but I become increasingly disappointment with the public representation of a faith I've always held so dear. Do I believe in God? Yes, but not the same way other people do. I don't think that God is some mysterious omniscient entity that magically decide to create everything. That just doesn't make sense. I don't think there is some person sitting outside of the universe that just watches us and plays dice with our lives. Rather I think God is more of an understanding. Finally getting it! Like Nirvana, a sort of trascendance. When we finally come to terms with the fact that the world is here, and we are here, and that we weren't created here for some divine plan, but rather that as long as we are here, we might as well be trying to make the world better for the people that are coming after us. And then you get into the politics question that all these people keep throwing at me. Why does liberal mean anti-moral? Morality is relative. Accept it. There are so many things I could say about all the talking points, abortion, gay marriage, welfare, social security, activist judges, but I'll save those for another day. The point is that there are no OBVIOUS answers, disagreement in government is healthy. Not everyone in the country is christian, don't make them follow beliefs they don't hold as long as they aren't safety and health concerns for everyone else. Just because you don't like something isn't a reason to persecute it.
That rant was long coming, and there is plenty more where that comes from. But the conversation was continued with guess who? TOUMEY! and Em over the weekend. Trying to decide where we think modern dogma has gone wrong. What we've gotten right and where we've gone hypocritical. This was also illustrated so well in the movie selection of the weekend. Between Saved (Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin) reminding us all about how to go about doing the christian thing, to jesus coming to hunt the vampires (Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter) and save the lesbians...they aren't just deviants, Mary says God loves them too, why doesn't everyone else? Oh yeah..."The Body of CHRIST"). Such horribly funny movies with such real social commentary. I love it!
More weekend fun also included my being drunk on boxed wine and capt and coke...by drunk I mean I passed out in the bathroom...not sick, never got sick, just lost track of time...came out and passed out. It was good. There was also sweet music and catch phrase, and endless loop of Futurama goodness, Spinal Tap (These go to eleven), and late night Taco bell and boredom with Ben. Though maybe driving home at 2 am wasn't the best idea, I did make it home without falling asleep on the road and still got up to leave for my flight. I got to cuddle with Chris *yay* and the weekend was general good except some disappointment in Relay. Lots of money was raised, but short of last year's total and definitely short of the goal. It was rainy and gloomy, so there weren't many people at the track, that was understandable, teams still had their people out there walking. But the lack of enthusiasm from some people, especially some of my sorority house was pretty upsetting. There was no reason why the Alumni team should have been raising more money than the class teams. They have family and friends and means for fund raising. That the house couldn't spare some of it's own budget to sponsor relay an event that touches so many, including a number of our own sisters is disappointing. That people couldn't even spare money themselves. Take a break from the drinking one weekend and take the money you'd have spent on beer and drinks ONE NIGHT and donate that to fund research. Why is that so hard for people to do? Think about how much money we waste on stupid stuff all the time. Just one sober weekend night and sooo much money would end up being used for such a great cause. Next year, there is talk that we (the alumnae) may try to challenge the active classes. Maybe competition will help motivate them.
People still upset me sometimes. It's hard to equate that people are your "friends" and "miss you" etc when they seem to be perfectly content not even trying to see you or say hi the few days that you are in town. It's hard to know that if I didn't put forth the effort myself, they wouldn't care. If I knew you were in Boston, I'd at least try to see you. I wouldn't make you hunt me down. It was great to get random voicemails from people who found out that I was in town and just wanted to say though. Even people that I rarely talk to, they were more excited to see me than some friends. Really makes you wonder sometimes...