And the Winner Is. . . Me!

The Oscars were held last night. I'm usually not much of an Oscar watcher, but for some reason this year I felt drawn to watch.

The show was enjoyable for the most part, if a bit long. I liked the amount of attention Precious garnered at the awards. As I expected, it didn't win many, but it did provide one winner that helped me win a contest at work.

The contest was a combo of luck and a little knowledge. First, you had to pick the winner in the category. Then your name was thrown in with all the others who picked correctly for that category, and the contest winner was chosen randomly from all those who picked correctly. Because I chose Mo'Nique in Precious for Best Supporting Actress and was lucky enough to have my name drawn I won!

Of course, since it was the Oscars I won a little statuette (made of only the finest plastic of course) that says "Movie Buff" on the base and a gift card to a local movie theater. The statuette will sit in a place of honor on a shelf in my cubicle. The gift card will be used up within a couple of weeks when I take Noah to see Alice in Wonderland.

Insecurities of All Sorts

About to let my insecurities shine here just an itty bit.

I am so excited, yet a little nervous, about becoming more involved in leadership at my church. It is a wonderful, vibrant congregation. It is one of the best churches I've ever been involved in. Perhaps it is because of how wonderful it is that I worry sometimes that I will mess things up and participate in the decline of its wonderfulness. Yes, that is much more about my insecurities than my abilities.

Be that as it may, I have volunteered to head up the Adult Education team at church this year. I have some ideas and hope that I can work with others to revitalize this area of our church, one of the few areas that I truly see lacking in our church.

The other thing I did was went out on a limb when our pastor asked for a substitute to fill in for her at an LGBTQA community meeting this weekend. I volunteered to attend in her place, and as always made my offer conditional on if nobody else wanted to do it. Oh that Jan, always being so careful not to step on toes! Anyway, nobody else stepped up so I get to do it. I am so excited about it. I really am. I guess I'm looking forward to this weekend's meeting as it will bring me new contacts within a community from whom I feel somewhat distant yet somewhat close.

Um, that last sentence up there may need some clarification. You see, there aren't a lot of people who realize I'm bisexual. It's not something I wear on my sleeve, although it's also not something that I hide. If it comes up in conversation in a relevant way it comes up. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Therefore, many people have no idea of my orientation. Truth be told I wish it didn't matter what my orientation is, but to some people it does. For some, it is the kind of thing that changes their attitude once they find out. For some, they feel betrayed when they find out (though I'm not exactly sure the proper way for me to introduce myself to people to avoid this; I'm pretty sure "Hi I'm Jan and I'm bisexual" upon first meeting is sharing a bit too much). Anyway, I'm not closeted, but I'm not obviously out either. I'm an anomoly. Fortunately there's a little core group of us bisexual women in Central IL who have found each other and formed a kind of support group for one another where we share our feelings and experiences and understand each other.

Witnessing, Church, and Blogs

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (just so happens to be written by a UCC youth pastor in southern CA) and the most recent entry was titled Imagine Church. It is a wonderful entry and one that I want to share with anyone who happens by this way and also to keep this link here so I can refer back to it myself.

The writer starts with these questions:

What if church was less about a gathering on Sunday morning and more about what happens during the week? What if it was about a daily, week-long, life-long commitment to fellowship and worship in the truest form?

This is something I've thought about myself and would like to explore further. This week's Lenten devotional invites us to look at ourselves as witnesses for Jesus. "Witness." What a loaded term since the fundies and evangelicals have used it in more of a proselytizing way than in a setting an example way.

My prayer today is that I can be more about being a 24/7 witness for Jesus by following His example and sharing that example with others.

And Now. . . The Weather

Just in case you are dying to know, it is approximately 3/4 miles from Carle on University to Lincoln Square.

Also in case you wanted to know, it is not necessarily a fun walk from Carle to Lincoln Square when it is 32 degrees outside, snowing, and windy.

Just sayin'.

I Had No Idea How Boring I Am

Until I started to try to think of things to write here I thought I might have something to say. So far. . . not so much.

Go figure.

I'm going to keep coming back here every week or so though and see if I can't stir something up from the recesses of my mind.

Coming Soon. . . I Hope!

For Christmas I received a new camera -- a Kodak EasyShare. It is exactly what I wanted, an inexpensive digital camera that will allow me to transfer pictures to my computer relatively easily. I didn't want expensive, fancy, or all the bells and whistles, just a nice basic point and click camera, and that's exactly what I received.

I hope that soon I will actually take more than "test pictures" with it and share some on here. Noah has basketball games coming up soon so maybe that will be my chance to try out my mad photography skills.

Welcome

Welcome to this new adventure with me. This is a blog where I will chronicle my life as I navigate mothering my son's tween and teen years, figuring out what I want to do when I grow up, and all the other stuff that comes with being me.