Doesn’t that Taylor Swift cutout at Walgreens creep you out?

It does me. Just wanted to check and see if I’m alone in this response. I want to scream like a little girl every time I walk into Walgreens and that thing (Taylor Swift‘s cutout) is at the entrance. She’s a cute kid, nice voice, but the cutout is creepy.

Just saying.

Link to video

Dancing Queens and angst.

I actually have something deep to say here, but before I can spin out out you must induldge me. Everyone from my era will watch this video from ABBA and have an emotional reaction. Perhaps younger people will as well (other than, “Duh, Mom, you all looked like morons.”) Please watch this and then hop below the fold for the deeper ideas.


Link to ABBA Dancing Queen Video
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Stormy update – with video!

I finally tricked her with the camera. Or she let me win. Doesn’t matter, I have video!

Here she is “nibbling” the bed sheets. She pushes her top teeth against some fabric item (my coat is a favorite of hers) and then clicks her teeth together. She doesn’t hurt the fabric, but it must release some extra scent for her to process.

Besides – any video is better than no video.

 

 

Support from the readership is wonderful.

It’s a strange little world when you blog. It’s even stranger when you blog and write novels. It’s completely unhinged when you blog, write novels, are Santa, and do voice over work as well as acting. Your sense of self and accomplishment becomes strangely diminished because you have your feet in so many parts of that Venn diagram that is life. It is a constant blur of footwork trying to avoid falling down or floating off in the breeze.

And you, dear readers, help me with that grounding.  I try to write at least three days a week, often more. But today was one of those days where I really didn’t anticipate posting much, if anything. Yet two emails and a personal word of encouragement from a coworker inspired me to write five pieces. Not that they’ll all appear this weekend, but they are now ideas to go forward with this week.

Add to that a silly chat session on Facebook that has given me the plot for a really frightening novel. It’s part science fiction, part occult, mainly Christian. I think even my A.C.F.W. colleagues will approve of it if I get it done. And given the series of doors God has opened in the 72 hours since I came up with the idea it seems to be pretty much written in stone that I churn this book out. The best part?  I can probably write off a trip to Jerusalem for research. Yeah, baby!

So, please feel at ease in sending me emails and comments on the blog. You don’t have to send it to me for posting, you can send it to me at joseph AT commotioninthepews dot com. (Yeah, I had to do the @ AT thing to avoid the trove of Viagra ads my inbox would otherwise fill up with.) I’d love to hear from you. Even if it’s criticism. Of course I have my filters set to remove all the really nasty stuff before it shows up.

Thanks for reading. It really does mean a lot to me.

 

Change scares people.

My workplace is undergoing a reorganization during the next month. That’s corporate speak for “52 pick up” with jobs.

Some will move here, some will move there, I will be told where to go because I have no seniority. From my vantage point it’s like I’m the mouse in the corner trying not to get crushed while the elephants all trumpet, stomp, and charge around looking for the best place.

I think many of us find our path to salvation a similarly scary one. We certainly dont’ start out with a clear idea of where we will wind up. Our first church, or two, may be a bad fit but it’s a place to be while we grow and learn. After some misadventures along the way we find a comfort zone and then work on our Christian skills in a cozy setting.

But that initial blast of trumpeting and the floor shaking as our world upends is terribly frightening.

Are you at the mouse or the elephant stage in your Christian journey? Can you pick your way through the forest of legs and feet smashing down and find a place to grow on your own? And do you even aspire to be one of the thundering herd, or are you content quietly nibbling on cheese in the corner?