Month: September 2008

I was born in November of 1980, 3 weeks after the Phillies won their only World Series. Due to my dad and extended family, I’ve been a die-hard Phillies fan all my life, on both sides of the world. I bleed white and blue with red pinstripes.

I became a Brewers fan in April 2007 on the first day of the season. I sat down by my radio and turned it on as the Brew Crew kicked off their year. I missed baseball and the Phillies were far away and Milwaukee was convenient, so I literally decided on Opening Day to root for the Brewers, come what may.  And I’ve kept up the cheering over the past 2 seasons, with one small caveat. I’d be a Brewers backer unless they interfere with Philadelphia. The arrangement has worked out well on both sides. I got a new team, they suddenly got good (not that I’m claiming any credit). This year, they made the playoffs for the 1st time since ’82.

And who do the Brewers play in the first postseason series? Yup. The Fightin’ Phils.

I didn’t even blink. Let’s go Phillies!

One of the nice things I’ve discovered about getting up at 5:17 is that at 5:29, the radio station I wake up to plays the national anthem – a different version every day. I love The Star Spangled Banner. It never fails to give me goosebumps, even before I can see anything “by the dawn’s early light”.

Wow, what I have missed by sleeping in ’til 7 all those years in grad school!

That’s my mom. It’s her birthday today . . . or it was. She lives in Africa where it’s already the 20th. But for the sake of my time zone, we’ll call it today.

Slight issue: I’m 27, too. But that’s ok, ’cause every year since I was little Mom turned 27 again (amazingly enough).

I’m thinking of carrying on that particular family traditon.

Happy Birthday Mom – I love you!

That’s what’s written on a post-it note by my desk at work to remind me that before I can have right relationships and interactions with those around me (x = the horizontal axis), I need to be in right relationship with my heavenly Father (y = the vertical axis).

It’s a good thing to have brought back to mind as a sinner dealing with sinner – first things first!

When I was last home, my sister Emily and I were listening (in the presence of our brother Daniel) to Ingrid Michaelson’s song “Far Away” which starts out like this:

I will live my life as a lobsterman’s wife on an island in the blue bay.
He will take care of me, he will smell like the sea,
And close to my heart he’ll always stay.

Being a girl, my first thought was “that’s really sweet”.

Daniel’s first thought (or at least what popped out of his mouth): “Yeah, he’ll smell like dead fish.”

Oh, brother.

If you haven’t noticed, I generally stay away from the political arena on this blog. I have my opinions and I do enjoy politics to an extent, but I know they are devisive, and there are far more important things that I’d like to use my confrontative/persuasve blog post quota for (i.e. the Gospel).

But a new development in the political world has caught my eye . . . or ear. As a wannabe linguist and someone who does speech/language stuff (I’m having word-finding issues) for a living, I have a certain fascination with accents. I can’t “do” accents like some, but I enjoy a little analysis and/or playful mockery (at least when it comes to my mid-Western friends).

That’s why, when I first heard Governor Sarah Palin speak, I could hardly listen to what she was saying – I was focused on how she was saying it. Her accent isn’t typical in that it’s not exactly Standard American English or Southern English or anything that’s easy to place (there apparently is not a true, identifiable Alaskan dialect).

On the Mr. Verb blog, there’s been a discussion going on about the Mrs. Palin’s accent – it appears to be a benign non-poiltical conversation, which I appreciate. I particularly liked the following analysis by poster “Wishydig” (warning: you are entering the land of linguist-speak – reader beware):

. . . some of the features I’ve noticed are the chicago onglide of æ: a slight tensing and perhaps raising of the ‘bit’ vowel. I thought I heard some pen/pin merging too so maybe just a general raising of front vowels. slightly simplified /o/ but not quite as simplified as the Minne-Kota /o/. Also what sounds like (occasional) Canadian raising on the /aI/ diphthong even before a 0-coda or before voiced consonants in a word like “supplies”. And the easiest feature for SNL to mock: dark rhoticity and shorter pre-R vowels in words like “here”. . . not that SNL should mock it of course . . .

Next on Political Accents with Katie: The Influence of  the Mid-Atlantic dialect on Senator Biden’s Production of Plosives (um, kidding)

See how fun politics can be?

Job 23:8-10 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

I’ve started carrying around Bible verses in my pocket on an index card as I have found that in new (read: scary) situations, it helps to have the Word at the ready to get my focus back on the Lord. The above passage was one of my verses from last week, and was particularly encouraging as I recognized that it’s not important for me to know all the ins-and-outs of God’s workings. He doesn’t have to answer to me, after all. What is crucial (and oh, so comforting), is that he knows my path . . . and he controls it.