Thank you, Oprah

I was packing up some of my clothes yesterday to get ready for the big move (today) and decided that such a task deserved at least some background TV so I flipped on Oprah. Watching Oprah has actually become a secret habit of mine when I head home early to "take the dogs out" or lately "pack up some stuff." It's Oprah time and what better to do at 4 p.m.? I didn't know Brooke Shields has such bad postpartum depression after her baby was born! I positioned my boxes right on the bed so that I had a good view of the television and thus the "background TV" was pretty much foreground. In fact, I'd say watching the show, and not the packing, was my primary activity. But Oprah tells it like it is. Yesterday she had on these women who have hoarding disorders. Women whose homes were a wreck because they could not get rid of anything. One had dog poop all over her house and she explained to Oprah, "those are my puppies! I love them!" Jesus, woman. Anyway, I started two piles - clothes I was taking, and clothes that could go to Goodwill. I've been meaning to do some sorting so this was as good a time as any. I picked up this one pair of strechted out, high-waisted, rainbow-colored underwear that I got at Victoria's Secret in about 1992 and thought, "Awwwwwww, I've had these for so long!" before I threw them in the pile I'd take with me to my new home. Then I looked up and watched this woman tell the story of how she had, like, 81 cats, and thought about these women, keeping stuff so just not to have to get rid of it, and I thought about pizza boxes stacked to the ceiling and I put that pair of underwear in it's rightful place, the trash can.

Passages that will not be read at my wedding

I was looking through "Together for Life" this morning, my new favorite book with which J and I will plan the religious portion of our wedding. I was telling him that there are some passages from the Bible that are out as far as I'm concerned when we are choosing what we want read during the ceremony. First of all, the passage that talks about how women need to "be obedient to their husbands," and how you shouldn't "wear gold bracelets" and dress yourself up because that should "be inside," - that's out. The first part for obvious reasons and the second part because I do like to wear, if not gold bracelets, then gold earrings and also cute, sometimes expensive shoes and the like. And you can't put fashion "inside."

I also don't want the passage that talks about how fornication is bad, because first of all, that's untrue, and secondly, I don't think the people at the wedding are mature enough to handle that kind of language without laughing a little. I'm certainly not.

I was listening to the local radio show "The State of Things" on NPR several days ago. The show featured a religious roundtable, during which various leaders of various religious sects talked about issues important to them. One guy, Imam Abdul Waheed, of the Islamic Center of Durham, was talking about how in his religion people didn't stop working or doing anything else on Sunday, because in his religion, the day of the Lord is Friday. He was all into how Friday people should come together and get excited and all, and he read this passage from his religious book of praise that said something like..."And the Lord, and his people, should come together on Friday, and we shall celebrate Friday with our mirth." And I want that read at the wedding.