"living for something I can't even define"
Why do I seem insistent on not actually doing my job (or anything productive, for that matter)? Like, am I actually self-destructive?
I was looking at St. Anthony medals and thereby looking at chaplets, and it reminded me of a conversation I'd had last night where a friend was saying it seemed really excessive to him when people go to Mass every single morning, and I had said that some people feel connected to God at church so maybe that's why they want to go. We quickly got sidetracked onto other topics of religion and faith, and I don't know how well I would have been able to maintain a sustained defense of the practice, since it comes under my umbrella of "weird Catholic stuff," but skimming the chaplets I was thinking about how it's valuable to have a structure to keep your mind on God and goodness and etc. (see also Jewish purity laws, forcing you to be aware of God in all the mundane moments of your daily life) and how wow, if people/I went to church every morning... starting each day with a reminder of God's grace (and justice), that could be incredibly powerful.
"God is good, all the time." / "All the time, God is good."
***
ASL class tonight.
The sign for "dorm" is the sign for "home" except with a "d." I thought of how Smith calls its student domiciles "houses" and so the ASL sign for "dorm" would almost be more accurate than the sign for "house," but then how would you differentiate from actual dorms like at UMass? I was telling all this to Will, and I said maybe it would be in the facial expressions, demonstrating signing with a pleased look on my face and saying "Dorms at Smith" and then repeating but with kind of an unimpressed look, "Dorms at UMass." He kind of laughed at me and said, "You always smile when you talk about Smith."
We learned more family and direction/location words, and I got to be smart 'cause I knew how to say "Massachusetts." I still really don't like spatial stuff, though. Alberto drew a picture of a neighborhood on the board (well, he said it was a town, but "neighborhood" was my first thought; I didn't actually think to ask the sign for that), including a bus, which he sketched graffiti on :)
I think it is lame that "apartment" is "APT" -- also, awkward, though you can actually move from the P to the T in one fluid motion.
We learned "Boston" and "P-town" (of course!) and "Cape Cod" and "Cambridge."
The sign for "roommate" is much like first sign in "vending machine," so Will was joking about "roommate machine."
The sign for girlfriend/boyfriend is "girl" or "boy" plus "friend," or instead of "friend" you can put your fists together with thumbs out, wiggling toward each other, which totally makes me think of video game controllers, even though I assume it's supposed to be a kissy thing. This lends itself nicely to "personfriend," but "wife" and "husband" less so, so I asked the sign for "spouse."
Interesting, the signs for "niece"/"nephew" and "cousin" are neutral -- you can do them anywhere near your face and it's not expected that you're indicating gender.
I like the signs for "sleep" and "wake" a lot. Have I mentioned before that I like that one of the signs for "ask" is like prayer hands ("pray/er" is a different motion)? The sign for "life" is two L's moving up your torso, which made me wonder about the sign for "resurrection." aslpro has two signs, the second of which I prefer; I'll have to ask Kirk at some point.
I was looking at St. Anthony medals and thereby looking at chaplets, and it reminded me of a conversation I'd had last night where a friend was saying it seemed really excessive to him when people go to Mass every single morning, and I had said that some people feel connected to God at church so maybe that's why they want to go. We quickly got sidetracked onto other topics of religion and faith, and I don't know how well I would have been able to maintain a sustained defense of the practice, since it comes under my umbrella of "weird Catholic stuff," but skimming the chaplets I was thinking about how it's valuable to have a structure to keep your mind on God and goodness and etc. (see also Jewish purity laws, forcing you to be aware of God in all the mundane moments of your daily life) and how wow, if people/I went to church every morning... starting each day with a reminder of God's grace (and justice), that could be incredibly powerful.
"God is good, all the time." / "All the time, God is good."
***
ASL class tonight.
The sign for "dorm" is the sign for "home" except with a "d." I thought of how Smith calls its student domiciles "houses" and so the ASL sign for "dorm" would almost be more accurate than the sign for "house," but then how would you differentiate from actual dorms like at UMass? I was telling all this to Will, and I said maybe it would be in the facial expressions, demonstrating signing with a pleased look on my face and saying "Dorms at Smith" and then repeating but with kind of an unimpressed look, "Dorms at UMass." He kind of laughed at me and said, "You always smile when you talk about Smith."
We learned more family and direction/location words, and I got to be smart 'cause I knew how to say "Massachusetts." I still really don't like spatial stuff, though. Alberto drew a picture of a neighborhood on the board (well, he said it was a town, but "neighborhood" was my first thought; I didn't actually think to ask the sign for that), including a bus, which he sketched graffiti on :)
I think it is lame that "apartment" is "APT" -- also, awkward, though you can actually move from the P to the T in one fluid motion.
We learned "Boston" and "P-town" (of course!) and "Cape Cod" and "Cambridge."
The sign for "roommate" is much like first sign in "vending machine," so Will was joking about "roommate machine."
The sign for girlfriend/boyfriend is "girl" or "boy" plus "friend," or instead of "friend" you can put your fists together with thumbs out, wiggling toward each other, which totally makes me think of video game controllers, even though I assume it's supposed to be a kissy thing. This lends itself nicely to "personfriend," but "wife" and "husband" less so, so I asked the sign for "spouse."
Interesting, the signs for "niece"/"nephew" and "cousin" are neutral -- you can do them anywhere near your face and it's not expected that you're indicating gender.
I like the signs for "sleep" and "wake" a lot. Have I mentioned before that I like that one of the signs for "ask" is like prayer hands ("pray/er" is a different motion)? The sign for "life" is two L's moving up your torso, which made me wonder about the sign for "resurrection." aslpro has two signs, the second of which I prefer; I'll have to ask Kirk at some point.