searching for grace

i'm sure you all have noticed that the flipflop fed has been quite lax in blogging lately. i have no good excuse other than that the flipflop fed has been flippin' anxious as hell since easter. and for those of you that know me even the tiniest little bit know that i don't do ambiguity - and since anxiety is just a nice medical term for the same (therapists can't code for ambiguity and dr.'s won't dole out happy pills for ambiguity so thank god for anxiety ... i guess?!) you can be sure that i've been struggling. i've been struggling along with wonderful support from family and friends ... and anne lamott.

to be completely honest, i'd never heard of lamott before this weekend. knowing just how to play me, kristin described her as a "spiritual and not so caustic david sedaris." that's all she needed to say for me to dive in. i'm starting with her 2007 book grace (eventually) thoughts on faith. lamott is incredibly thoughtful and so right on. so from time to time i'm going to give you a little piece of what i'm learning. i hope you'll indulge me ...

oh no you didn't, wanda sykes

"don't follow someone else's path ...

... unless you're lost" and other sage advice from ellen degeneres

ellen common cement
by tehdownloads

geeking for glee

you've got to check this out -

glee

they've teased me and now i must wait until the fall to get another fix.

hey joe - how about jimmy hoffa's location too?

in what may be one of the biggest "oops!" in a long time, eleanor clift is reporting that joe biden recently told his dinner partners the EXACT location of the infamous "undisclosed location" occupied by cheney after 9/11. turns out cheney didn't have to go that far because it seems that the bunker is right in the basement of the vice president's residence. (and it might not be too far off the mark because back in 2002 neighbors complained loudly about underground construction at the naval observatory - aka the vice president's residence.)

way to go joe!

she's back with another point

when my cousin's daughter was seven, she offered this explanation of the gender and role dynamics of my relationship with kristin. well, now she's eight and she's back with more -

8 year old: mom, you didn't tell me there was a g-word. adrian told me the g-word and it's in the book that i'm reading now (she was reading a dr. seuss book).

mom: what's the g-word?

8 year old: gay!

mom: well gay isn't a bad word. in your book it means "happy" and cousin becca and kristin are a couple together ... you could say cousin becca was gay. but it's not nice to make fun of people and use it like you are calling names.

8 year old: well, when i grow up i'm definitely going to be gay so that i can live with one of my friends!

put down that crack pipe, mr. barry ...

... looks like YOU'RE going to need both hands for that smoothbore musket. yesterday, the ward 8 democrats voted overwhelmingly to support gay marriage in the district. apparently, those handful of gays have some supporters!

i would have never expected piglet!

**thanks to urban mennonite, who, like always, finds the best things on the internet!

FUNNY

mickey mouse was before the judge testifying as to the grounds for his divorce from minnie. at the conclusion, the judge informed mickey that he could not have a divorce just because his wife was acting crazy. to that mickey replied - "i didn't say she was crazy. i said she was f*cking goofy!"

okay, whose brother owns a franchise

in an effort to combat the spread of h1n1 (never mind that the cdc has already said "open the schools," and the mexican government has said "open the city"), one federal agency today installed at least three industrial hand sanitizer dispensers on each floor of the building. one can only wonder who's getting a kick back on this deal?

giggles could be heard throughout the building, but the best comment by far was -

i hope they're planning on putting up lotion dispensers because this shit dries out your skin!

grab your smoothbore musket! barry's predicting civil war

for me, today's long-awaited announcement (one that many see as the precursor to full marriage rights for all in the district) that the dc city council had voted by a margin of 12 to 1 to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states was completely overshadowed by marion barry's commentary on the vote. barry, the lone dissenting vote (who, ironically, initially voted FOR the measure, but then asked for a revote because he said that he didn't realize for what he was voting), said that he couldn't vote for the bill because he needed to "stand on the moral compass of god." i wonder if he uses that same yard stick when deciding not to pay his taxes or smoke crack?

if that wasn't enough, barry then went on to say that there would be all out "civil war" in the district if the council were to legalize lgbt marriage. and while that statement is nothing but inflammatory and irresponsible, his final assessment is down-right laughable. today, barry also was quoted as saying that "we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents" in ward 8. uh ... okay, marion! although, now it's much more clear to me how you are completely incapable of doing those simple calculations for the irs. how did that song go? when smoke gets in your eyes ...

*i can't believe that i couldn't even make it five posts without gay!

now THAT'S oaktown

for a few years in the mid '90's, the flipflop fed called the streets of oakland, ca home and loved every part about it. from living in rockridge (and then at the top of the most ridiculously steep hill above the morcom rose garden on jean street), to working at elmhurst middle school in the flatlands on 98th between east 14th and bancroft, oakland sucked me in.

oakland had, and continues to have, a questionable reputation. oakland headlines always seem to revolve around the negative - ebonics in ousd (as an aside, as someone who worked there at that time - that's not what they were trying to do! it was just a poorly crafted, unvetted proposal that leaked out), rampant crime, and strained race relations. while, in reality, it's a place like any other - the good, the bad, and lots of areas for improvement.

so how excited was i when the newspaper of record acknowledged what i've known forever - oakland's it!