Birthday Present

This is the apron I wanted so badly that my darling husband secretly bought for me for my birthday with the money he earned working so hard for our little family.

Isn't it the sweetest, funniest thing? This is the picture from the Etsy shop that I was saving, even though it was sold out, because I liked it so much. I'll try to put a picture of me wearing it up sometime. I wore it around the house all day and now it's hanging on the coat rack until I'm brave enough to wear it into the kitchen.

I love this apron because it's evidence that Tom's listening and caring even at times I'm not confident he's fully attune; that money means very little compared to my happiness; and that he does like the idea of me as a homemaker... even though he wants me to stay in school.

But I guess I can't complain about a husband who wants to support me while I go to school either (and one who doesn't complain about state the apartment).
He also got me a seam-ripper which I couldn't believe he had remembered I wanted. I'm gonna be rippin' seams all the live-long day in my new apron with my sweet husband at my side - 23 is going to be a good year.

"O person like me"

I heard this read on NPR yesterday; it's so great. Aside from those in the book of Hafiz poetry Tommy gave me for Christmas (I Heard God Laughing) it's the best poem I've heard in a long time.

Bridal Shower by George Bilgere

Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people

who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.

And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.

And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.

I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.

You didn’t want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter’s bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.

O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,

after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.




I used to work in a coffee shop in downtown Portland, all yuppies and homeless people, and I'd joke about the fact that everyone was talking to themselves - I had a customer that spoke to angels.
Even when leaving that out, this poem read my mind, as good poetry should.

"I love thee, I love thee... tis all that I can say..."

In the life of this married women nothing could be greater than a day spent with Tom basking in the joy, love and wonder of my marriage. Waking up late is great, eating leftover Cornucopia with our coffee is wonderful, lying on the couch watching The West Wing under a big down blanket, going to St. Vinny's and buying the things we really wanted, ordering pizza and fixing G&Ts and ending the night off with a cigar, a walk around the block, and some more couch-time is sublime. Lest you think we live like two merry bachelors I'll inform you that last night I put on a pink satin skirt (and my dirty old red sneakers) and went out to a movie and a late dinner with my Valentine AND co-purchased a heart-shaped box of chocolates (that we ate with our breakfast this morning)... ok that didn't sound that impressive either.
Tom wants to know if I'm giving away all our secrets. I told him even if I did you wouldn't believe them. So I leave you with but the bare facts of our life, but try to imagine how they are transformed when you dress them in all the love and beauty you could dream of on Earth - and that's what it's like with us.
I return to my life and love - Happy Valentine's Day.

(slightly profane) Oh, living with a boy! ...is great.

Tom and I sitting cross-legged on the coach doing homework and reading.

Tom: "Um, we need to talk about what just happened."

Dinah: ..."what?"

Tom: "I said [something] and you pretended to punch me in the ****s"

Dinah: "No! I was just punching in general!"

Tom: "In genital?! That's what I'm saying!"

Baby...

"some good news and some irrelevant news"

The bad news is that I broke our kettle.
The good news is that I have more cute Tommy quotes from last night!

Tommy: "I love how the internet has its own cuncher."

Me: ... "... what?"

Tommy: "I love how the internet has its own cunche...(thinking)... culture."

World without end, Amen. Amen.

"Then wolves will live in peace with lambs, and leopards will lie down to rest with goats." Isaiah 11:6

People wonder why, if there is a loving God, the world can be so miserable. It is amazing to think of the way that God would have the world to be - so peaceful and harmonious. Tom and I cried watching clips from Planet Earth last night - it's just so incredible, so beautiful, so unbelievably amazing. God made such a perfect world for us and graciously helps us to bear the effects of our own sin. And ultimately takes our sin on his own shoulders that our eternal home will be the paradise we were made for.