they're here!!!!

my flip flops have arrived!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! they are a replacement for a pair i bought when we went to alaska and then i was so sad to finally have to throw away last year. and when i took them out of the package, they are exactly the same as my old ones. YESSSS! ... can you feel my joy through the screen? i hope so.

and you can bet 100% that i'm wearing them right now. busting out the flip flops in the spring is a big event for me because while i love wearing high heels, wearing shoes is not really my thing. and wearing socks? forget about it. other than at the gym i can probably count the number of times a year i wear socks on one hand. i don't like to have hot, trapped feet. i've been known to wear flip flops out into the snow before (though after i got uggs, which don't require socks, i actually wear those in the winter instead.)

here's to you friday nice weather flip flop time.

and just to make up for Benny Lava...

on a more serious note, i read a really interesting article on slate about a guy who chronicled reading every word of the bible in his new book. at the risk of polarizing people, i'm going to discuss it here. though if you survived this and are still hanging around, it's probably going to be cool with you.

last year i enjoyed reading A Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs. Jacobs spent the year learning about and trying to adhere to every minute ridiculous letter of the law in the bible, and even though i'm not religious, it was fascinating (if not slightly shallow). now i'm interested in this guy, David Plotz, who dedicated his book to reading every word of the bible. now just to be clear i've read the entire bible, just not recently. it's been a few years and i don't really remember much that matters.

slate interviewed him and i thought he had a few really interesting thoughts, including that all high schoolers should be required to read the bible- NOT as religious text, but as part of a literature class. we require students to read the classic writers (Shakespeare or the Constitution or Mark Twain) because they influence us today and plotz makes some great points about how even a non-religious person's life is influenced every day by the writings and sayings that have originated in the bible and we aren't even aware of it. it might be better than reading beowulf for a 5th time. i'm just sayin.

but, what was even more interesting to me was the conclusion he came to:

You notice that I haven't said anything about belief. I began (reading) the Bible as a hopeful, but indifferent, agnostic. I wished for a God, but I didn't really care. I leave the Bible as a hopeless and angry agnostic. I'm brokenhearted about God.

After reading about the genocides, the plagues, the murders, the mass enslavements, the ruthless vengeance for minor sins (or none at all), and all that smiting—every bit of it directly performed, authorized, or approved by God—I can only conclude that the God of the Hebrew Bible, if He existed, was awful, cruel, and capricious. He gives us moments of beauty—such sublime beauty and grace!—but taken as a whole, He is no God I want to obey and no God I can love.

and just in case this wasn't serious or polarizing enough, in boston this week Gill v. Office of Personnel Management was filed. the gist of the case is that gay couples, legally recognized as married in massachusetts, are not recognized as married by the federal government. the state recognizes their union but they can't file join tax returns, receive social security benefits. etc etc. everyone has been so focused on california's proposition 8 that it's kind of been put on the back burner that these people are already legally married. many of them for years. what obligation does the federal government have to recognize these individual state laws? people who voted for ron paul (barf) wanted each state to make it's own laws about these controversial type of subjects. and they've gotten their wish so far. but now how does that pan out in the larger scheme of things? is a marriage recognized by the state but not recognized by the feds really as good and equal as mine?

Benny Lava

i know these video posts kind of seem like a cop-out, and i had a serious and dramatic topic all lined up to write about today, and then this happened....

miss pudge

this last weekend sucked. hard.

moving on, i'm at the really weird point now where some days i look maaaaaybe pregnant and other days i look mostly normal. not quite showing, not fitting into my pants anymore. thursday and friday last week i looked like a cute little pregnant balloon but since then things seem to have gone back to normal. you'd think that a huge plate of delicious biscuits and gravy would pop things out but apparently not. i'm definitely most looking forward to the showing part.

the only particularly interesting development over the weekend was on saturday in the shower. when i looked down... my stomach was clearly jutting out more to the left than the right. come on little guy, stay in the middle! it's freaky looking when you jam all over to one side. i swear it wasn't just my imagination either.

oh yeah, and i almost died. we were putting up these IKEA lamps in the baby room (which look awesome) and when i went to put in the lightbulbs they were the wrong size. we bought them at IKEA where they were displayed directly next to the lamps in a huge display of BUY THESE LAMPS. well it exploded, because thanks IKEA, but those aren't the right ones. we're probably lucky i didn't get electrocuted because then we would have had to go to the hospital. but here i am, live and well with only a weird burn on my index finger.

is the winter ever going to end?? ever? 15° this morning? is that necessary? i might start boycotting going out of the house at all if this doesn't end soon. plus i bought flip flops online this morning and they will arrive in 5-7 days. i will be wearing them in 5-7 days. so hurry up warmerish weather. or else.