I'm not literally at the office, although I was for much of the day. The main server for one of my systems crashed and I needed to be certain everything was back up before 100 or so users started complaining tomorrow.
I am, however, completing a small amount of work from home as I write.
I know this is likely quite boring information to most of you. It helps me, though, to write it down. It also gives me a record of my life.
On to other, more pleasant things.
I've been asked to play the pipe organ twice in June, at my home congregation. I may have mentioned this before.
What I have not 'noted'
is what I am considering playing. Today was Pentecost Sunday, the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and the end of the Easter season.
Next Sunday will be my first June engagement as organist, the first Sunday after Pentecost. Still an appropriate time to play Pentecost music. I will likely play a rather wild piece called "Come, Holy Ghost". The title isn't a big surprise but the people will sit up and listen when I play this. It is very modern, quite fast and borders on atonality towards the end. It's also a bit of a challenge to play but I've done it before.
Then I'm considering "Caricature of 'Jesus Loves Me'" for the offertory music (the time when they collect the money - I was going to write loot instead of money, I'm just in a strange mood tonight
). This was written by a respected composer of church music but it does sound a bit strange. I'm sure they'll love it.
Now I need to come up with something equally unusual for the postlude. I'm sure I'll think of something.
The co-pastors are aware that, although I consider myself very spiritual, my religious beliefs tend to stray quite a bit off the well-trod path of the Christian soldiers. That is, the traditional church. Then again, so do theirs. I am not criticizing anyone's beliefs here but merely stating where I am at. And there are aspects of traditional Christianity that I love. Then there are parts of Zen Buddhism that I value, and... well, you get the point.
Part of my own particular spiritual outlook is for self-preservation. While my church certainly identifies itself as Christian, it tends to follow a more radical path than some others. It openly welcomes GLBT people and all minorities without reservation. At times, it has facilitated this welcome by means that have gone against the wishes of the national church body. It was the first church of this denomination in the USA to openly declare a welcome for GLBT people and continues to lead in this area.
I will play again the last Sunday of June, which is Pride Sunday here. Perhaps I will wear my fire engine red dress with the black stripes, with black nylons and 4" inch heels for that service. No one will mind. This will certainly make me stand out, since the organ is at the front of the congregation and I will be in full view of everyone. I will have to replace my heels with my organ shoes to play.
None will doubt that I am proud to be who I am.
Last September, when I submitted the application at court to legally change my name, I exited the court house whistling. After a few bars, I stopped, wondering if it were appropriate for a woman to whistle. In a few seconds, I decided it didn't matter, I enjoyed whistling so be it. Only later did I learn from a poster here (Jesus) that whistling women have had bad reputations, at least in 'years gone by.' I am a modern woman, though, so I did not fear any hex or curse.
Last week, I found myself loudly snapping my fingers because I was feeling confident and happy. The idea that this was not feminine briefly crossed my mind, but I gave it no heed. If I want to snap my fingers, I will. I do not know if there are any hexes that I need fear for this, but I am not afraid.
The point is, there is a lot of freedom in being transgender. Even as a transsexual woman, I do not need to allow myself to be defined by stereotypes of how women behave. At the same time, I enjoy behaving like the woman I am. But I define what this means to me.
That brings up my next subject. I've mentioned before that I no longer enjoy watching science fiction movies. There is one exception: "Star Trek."
I was tense when I finally left the office today and I thought I'd go to the Arboretum. There were dark thunder clouds in that direction, so I decided to stop by the Mall of Disaster, Dastardly Deeds, Doom, Downfall and Death instead. At least I'd be out of the rain. Then I remembered "Star Trek."
I haven't been to a movie theater in months and the last time I used a free pass. I made an exception this evening and shelled out the outrageous ticket price of $9.50 for the film.
I went even further. I bought popcorn, raisinettes and something called 'Sierra Mist', which probably is not produced in the Golden State. I have not bought refreshments at a theater in at least a year. This does not mean I am abandoning my tight budget, just that I really needed a break.
So, I entered the nearly empty theater, found a seat and waited for the show. I don't know if advertisers are saving money or what, but there were no advertisements before the previews. This was curiously refreshing!
Instead, they projected a solid bright red onto the screen. Quite an appropriate color for this mall, as some would see it.
I was thrilled to catch a preview of the new Harry Potter movie that arrives in July. Although I am no longer a big fan of (most) science fiction, I still love fantasy.
One of the reasons I went to see Star Trek was the handsome young leads playing Spock and Captain Kirk. This was depicting a time before the beginning of the TV series of long ago.
I loved this movie. I agree with a friend here that there was an awful lot of violence. But I figure, "Hey, there are bad guys and gals in outer space" so violence is bound to happen. There are also, as portrayed in Star Trek, good non-human types in the far reaches of the galaxy.
This violence just happened to involve some things I found quite interesting, like artificial singularities or near singularities (small black holes). By their nature, these do some very nasty things.
I found it a little disconcerting that when the Enterprise engaged its warp drive, someone soon announced that they were only minutes from reaching their destination. I do not remember things being quite that fast before. Of course, times change. But wait, this was supposed to show events that occurred before the episodes of the original series.
I've done some computer graphics of my own, and I can enjoy seeing the special effects and imagining how the graphics people got all that to work.
The young Spock and Kirk did not disappoint.
There were other parts of the movie that resonated with me. Like love, seeking peace among remote and very alien cultures, advancing the frontiers of science and the prime directive (although that's probably more of an Isaac Asimov robot thing!).
What really got to me was these handsome men (and women - I was looking at the men) defending their shipmates, sometimes giving up their own lives so others would live. More particularly, I wanted a handsome man of my own to defend me from something mundane: certain coworkers!
I can do that quite well on my own, but the thought of having a strong man by my side really gets me going. He should be an excellent kisser, too, just as a certain unlikely character was in Star Trek.
What started out as a weekend free of work, wound up with my putting out fires most of the time. The movie got me out of myself and I relaxed.
The job I had running at the office has finished. Now I can relax before bed.
Come to think of it, though, there have been women in their 60s who have given birth.