Catherine Estelle Underwood

My grandmother passed away this morning. I'm still numb, really. She was the grand matriarch of the family, mother to 8 children, grandmother to 25, and great-grandmother to 13. Her family was the single most important thing to her and I am glad that she was surrounded by her loved ones today. She's not really gone, yet. I know that's odd to say, but it's true. They're keeping her alive long enough so they can take her liver for organ donation. She would have wanted that. One of her very closest friends was the liver reciepient from my uncle who passed away 15 years ago in a car accident. Since meeting Evelyn, my grandmother has been a champion for organ donation and I think it's only appropriate that her liver be the only organ that she is able to give. For one reason, because she took good care of it. She never had a drop of alcohol in her life. For a second reason, because she had such a bond with my uncle's recipient, it is only fitting. She would have wanted it that way.

It's so strange what the human mind thinks when they hear of a death for the first time. When we got the call from my Mom this morning, my first thought was, "I'm glad it's not my Dad." My second thought was, "I have to call work," because I had a meeting that morning. My last thought was "We don't have any Kleenexes." So I had John go to Food Lion to get me some. Odd.

*Sigh*.

Semantics.

Why is it that the English language does not have a word to describe someone that is more than a friend but not quite your boy/girlfriend? I find it interesting that there is nothing to describe this in-between state. Perhaps it is because society formed roles back in the stone age that said you either had to have a platonic relationship with someone or you had to be 100% committed to them. I wonder if other cultures have a word for this? In French, you are either an aime (friend) or a petite amie (girlfriend)--literally translated, small friend. When we get into the roles of marriage, the words are very clear: fiancé and husband. The world is very black and white. If you are separated from your husband, he’s still your husband until the papers are signed and then he becomes an “ex”. But there is still no word for the pre-boy/girlfriend stage of life that most of us either has or will experience.

Lyrics

Tonight my Mom came over to help me unpack. I must say, she was a huge help. The house is starting to come together. After working most of the day, we decided to watch The Phantom of the Opera. Awesome film. As we were watching, there was one song that I thought was particularly interesting-- "Masquerade". It reminded me of Billy Joel's, "The Stranger." I dug up the lyrics of both for comparison:

Masquerade

Masquerade!
Paper faces on parade . . .
Masquerade!
Hide your face,
so the world will
never find you!
Masquerade!
Every face a different shade . . .
Masquerade!
Look around -
there's another
mask behind you!
Flash of mauve . . .
Splash of puce . . .
Fool and king . . .
Ghoul and goose . . .
Green and black . . .
Queen and priest . . .
Trace of rouge . . .
Face of beast . . .
Faces . . .
Take your turn, take a ride
on the merry-go-round . . .
in an inhuman race . . .
Eye of gold . . .
Thigh of blue . . .
True is false . . .
Who is who . . .?
Curl of lip . . .
Swirl of gown . . .
Ace of hearts . . .
Face of clown . . .
Faces . . .
Drink it in, drink it up,
till you've drowned
in the light . . .
in the sound . . .

The Stranger

Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on

Well we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger
Did you ever let your lover see
The stranger in yourself?

Random Quotes

As I was walking up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.
Hughes Mearns

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy

Do not condemn the man that cannot think or act as fast as you can, because there was a time when you could not do things as well as you can today.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.
Barbra Streisand

Anyone who works is a fool. I don't work - I merely inflict myself upon the public.
Robert Morley

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
Eddie Rickenbacker

You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.
Ray Bradbury

I've been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence.
Gary Trudeau

Death ends a life, not a relationship.
Morrie Schwartz

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
Hans Margolius

I don't believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.
Gloria Naylor

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
Paul Valery

Costly thy habit [dress] as thy purse can buy; But not expressed in fancy - rich, not gaudy. For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
William Shakespeare

Click here for random quotes.

Bye, House.

Tomorrow we will no longer own our first house. Kinda sad.

Kissing Cousins.

I absolutely love having a big extended family. With my mom being the oldest of 8 children, I was lucky enough to grow up with 25 first cousins. Our summers and holidays were always spent with a million of us running around, playing and doing things that cousins do. I was born in the middle, so I have about the same amount of olders cousins as younger cousins. This was always an interesting position to be in because I always had cousins to look up to and cousins to be role models to.

One of my absolute favorite pictures taken was the one below. This was taken in the summer of 1983, when I was 4 years old. I'm the one in the green in the lower left.

Friends.

I can remember a while ago when I was in highschool, I was talking to my brother about friendships. I was telling him that I had a lot of good friends and I guess I was somewhat proud of that. During the course of that conversation he said, "You don't have any good friends unless you can call one of them at 3:00 AM and ask them to get out of bed and drive to help you change a tire." I remember thinking about that long and hard and I remember thinking at the time that not one single one of my "good friends" would have been willing to do that.

Since then, I have thought about that statement a lot and as silly as it seems, I think he really does have a point. His point was, a true friend is willing to completely inconvienance themselves for you because you are in need. I have often wondered not only who would do that for me, but who I would be willing to do that FOR. I've even thought of things such as, "Well, if I had a big meeting the next morning, I probably would only do it for XYZ, but if it was a weekend, then I'd definatly do it for ABC."

My brother probably never remembers saying this to me, but for me, this has been something that has stuck with me for the past 10 years or so. I think perhaps my greatest fear is that one day, I won't have anyone to help me at 3:00 AM-- and I will be devastated not for the lack of help, but for the lack of friends.

I before E except after W

I hate that I can never spell the word weird.

Yes, I'm Crazy.

Ok, so I have exactly 14 days until the big move to the new house. Have we started packing at all? Nooooo! I'm really not sure how I'm going to pack up an entire house in less than two weeks, but I know we will get it done. We always do.

So in order to fill up all my "free time", being the crazy person I am, I agreed to make a birthday cake for a 1 year old's birthday party tomorrow. I've just finished, the kitchen is covered in cake crumbs, frosting, fondant, white chocolate and powdered sugar and here I am writing in my blog instead of cleaning the mess up and/or packing.

Here is the fruit of my labor:

Everything Must Go!

To those of you who don't hang out with me and John often, you should know that we supposedly live in (Mikey voice) the gheeeeetttooooo. There is this running joke with some of our South Riding friends that we live in the ghetto due to the fact we have a 1 car garage townhome, as opposed to a 2 car garage townhome. I never really believed this myth, until this morning. You think people are going to start wondering what's happening on Upper Clubhouse Drive?

I must have this.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/732d/

Thank you, NASA!

Finally, our billions of tax dollars are producing something!

Catholicism.

When I talk to non-Catholics, I get so many questions from them that actually get me to think. I really enjoy when people question my faith, because it allows ME to question it as well. Questioning faith is a fantastic way to grow in faith. Someone just asked me the other day, "What happens if you ask the wrong Saint for the wrong thing?" Like, if you ask the Patron Saint of Tulips for help with your Rose Garden, does that petition get answered? I thought that was a really good question -- I still don't have an answer for that. I'm assuming the Saints have this cool little workflow system where they just pass the wrong requests on to the right person. I dunno.

Anyway, my church priest has a question box in the back of the church and every week, he posts the answers to the questions asked the week before in the bulletin. It's really an awesome thing, especially because he addresses each and every comment in the box -- no matter what.

Here's one that I thought was interesting:

Question 6 - Since the man who invented ... (Another pathetic (and sinful) attempt at humor) ...

Answer - The handwriting suggests that it was a young person. I am caught among a number of options available to me. Do I ridicule you with sarcasm? Do I criticize you for your vulgarity? Do I call into question the quality of your home life? Do I suggest that the parish has failed you by not engaging you and your relationship with God? Do I pray and do penance for you? Do I assume that you are one of bored and indifferent young people that our culture produces and who seem to take far too long to grow up? Do you need therapy? Do you need a hug? Do your parents know how sad you really are? Can I help? What do I say?

Your question does bring to mind this passage from the New Testament: "2: And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3: But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. 4: Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving ... 6: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience ... 11: Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12: For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret." (Eph. 5:2-4,6,11-12)

In any event, I used to be able to say, that of the questions and comments I find in the box, I print all of them (or at least most of their substance). No longer. I am sad. :(

Here's one that is just random (written by a child, I assume):

Q: How many brothers do you have and what does sacrilegious mean?

A: I have three brothers. I am the second oldest. Sacrilegious means treating holy things in an unholy way.

If you're interested in reading more questions and answers, you can look at the archives here.

Semantics.

I was thinking about word usage today and how we tend to latch onto certain words and phrases for a short period of time and then suddenly let go of them. For instance, in the past 2 days, I've used the word "sellout" 3 times. I'm not really sure why that word entered into my vocabulary all of a sudden, but it did. It makes me think of little idioms that my friends and I would have with each other and then one day, they would mysterously die away. It's funny, because you can never quite pinpoint the day you started and the day you stopped using them-- but you definately (in horror) remember doing it. So in tribute to the dead idioms, I will attempt to list some of them:

- Wazzzzzup.
- Word.
- How YOU doin?
- Da Bomb.
- Talk to the hand!
- It's all good.
- My Bad!
- NOT!
- Barf me out to the max.
- Gag me with a spoon.

I'm ashamed to say I actually used these at one point in my life. I wonder how many more will come and go into my vocabulary?

On Dorkiness...

"It is a lot like being cool, being a dork. You don't talk about it much, you just learn how to handle yourself in a given situation."

~Gill

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz...

OH WHAT A RELIEF IT IS! So we sold our house last night! Woo hoo! We got two great contracts -- both from single women. We settled on a contract from a lady who's moving out of Action-dale to settle down in South Riding. She said she loved our house and the paint colors and it was just so "her". So it's good to know that our home is going to a good home (so to speak). She's also letting us rent back for 5 days for free, and isn't requiring a home inspection-- both great things.

Our next adventure will be packing and moving to our new abode. Sooooo... if anyone is willing to help us, we would love you forever and ever! The good news is, we're only moving down the street. The bad news is, we still have to move.

More to come...

For Gill & Dawn.

http://www.foon.co.uk/farcade/hapland2/

Inspector Gadget

So we had our home inspection yesterday. Everything seemed to be running quite smoothly-- foundation, check. Windows, check. Appliances, check. Roofing, check. No water damage, check. HVAC, check. Basement, not so good. Apparently, the basement was built without a building permit. So now we have to get the owners to contact Loudoun County and get an inspector out there to make sure the place is up to code. In order to do that though, he's going to have to cut a bunch of holes in the drywall to inspect the electrical and duct work. So you ever come over and the basement looks like swiss cheese, don't be surprised.

We'll see what happens. Oh the joys of home ownership.

Top 5 Most Stressful Events

I've heard from several sources that moving is the third most stressful life event, behind death of a loved one and going through a nasty divorce. This is wrong. Here's the list:

1. Being tortured
2. Having to kill a man with your bare hands
3. Falling from a great height
4. Being trapped under water
5. Moving

Blogging will be light this week.

Post stolen from Bob.

For Sale.

Fabulous 3BR/2.5.5 Bath townhome in South Riding w/ 3 story extension=2298 sq ft! Designer upgrades to include custom paint, hardware, lighting, wood blinds, plantation shutters & crown molding. Country kitchen with S/S appliances, breakfast area, & sunroom. Finished LL with fireplace, half bath, garage & storage. Large MBR w/ vaulted ceilings, jacuzzi, WIC, & sitting room. Deck backs to common area. New ext & int paint in 2005. If interested, contact Betty Peerenboom 703-281-0969.