Related to nothing, I don't like Larry Summers.

also related to nothing, I just used the phrase "Straight up Belgian Gangsta" and it is still making me laugh.

Who's Larry Summers? I'm guessing he's *not* a straight-up Belgian gansta?

For JZ:

The Franciscans Come To The Nuns' Rescue - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

This is becoming a major revolt against the Vatican's attempt to police and control the nuns who don't adhere to Benedict's diktats. It's strongly worded and its message is clear: the Vatican's intrusion is "excessive". Here's the full text released yesterday morning. It is, as James Martin puts it, "fathers and brothers coming to the defense of their sisters. " It's a nuanced and respectful defense of core Catholicism, asserting that the current Vatican's insistence on total control over all issues, even those where there can and should be "courageous discernment", is actually against Catholic teaching, as expressed in the Second Vatican Council. And it gives me hope:

Is it the Larry Summers who was Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton and an economic adviser for Obama? I'm pretty sure he isn't Belgian, though maybe he likes waffles.

The Franciscans Come To The Nuns' Rescue

God, I love the Franciscans. I interned for them one summer, at their magazine, and they are the most awesome, hippie-dippie, feed-the-people, work-for-justice friars EVER.

That is the Larry Summers and no, not Belgian in any way.

The two items were unrelated.

If anyone's looking at goodstuff right now and wondering "The fuck?"--yeah, I did it. Bite me.

My god, I'm parched this morning. I'm chugging the tea like my life depends on it. Luckily I got 2 of my magic muffins this morning--I've decided I'll just buy all their stock of a morning, and lord it tastes good with the jasmine green tea.

Mnnrrf.

I did look at the actor's FB page where he denies the whole think and calls the model a whore-for-pageviews, and you know what? I don't really care. But I totally would be more likely to be on her side than his, because I've met more actors than models. Uh, no offense, Colin.

They cancelled this morning's 7:30 meeting before I left for work, but I was already pointing this way, so I came in early anyway. Amazing how little work that translated into.

I know Larry Summers as the president of Haaaaaaaaaahvaaahd

I think it just boils down to a pretty simple, but sad, explanation: she loves him and doesn't think she deserves better. So, better to stay his "other woman" rather than be alone.

Man, I know this one really well. I was just talking about this relationship that I had in Bitches the other day. In my case, what was so attractive about me to him is that I would quite willingly believe that I don't deserve any better. Until I somehow got away from him and was able to work out it was bullshit.

Since we broke up and got back together very frequently (we were SUPER HIGH DRAMA) the only way I could let go was to "take a break" for a specific amount of time. The day after Thanksgiving I said I couldn't see him or even talk to him until January 2. I did call him on Christmas. By the time we got to January, I knew what I had to do, which was awful, but it stuck this time, and once it was really over, it was amazing how wonderful I felt so quickly.

I think it was also that I didn't crave the drama anymore, which was something I had to be honest with myself about, not just being a victim, but an active participant in the toxicity.

Oh, and who was there to help me pick up the pieces right after my breakup? OH, JUST MY GOOD FRIEND TOM. So smoove! And 5 months later, he made his move.

Oh! And, she's become friends with his wife. Who, of course, doesn't know she's sleeping with her husband. But whatever. The whole thing is fucked up from start to finish.

Yeah, I know this one too. Holy shit, I brought his GF to the mental emergency room when she was threatening suicide in my apartment.

The only way your sister will get out of this is to get some major self-introspection going, probably with a professional.

My family/friends also stopped being crazy dramatic about banning him from family events and stuff, which, of course, made him increasingly less attractive. (I didn't realize that at the time, of course.) So your strategy of being even-keeled about it is a good one. It was never as hot as it was when I was lying to EVERYONE about being with him. If you can normalize him with your family, that might help lose some luster on him too.

I am living proof that you can get yourself out of a super awful unhealthy toxic relationship and then also be able to be in a super healthy one (or, I assume, be healthy by yourself, though that hypothesis did not end up being tested as I thought it would be), you just gotta face some facts about yourself and work on them.

Aw, thanks, tommyrot!

Every time I talk to someone in my church, we end up shaking our heads and saying, "It's definitely an interesting time to be a Catholic."

ICompletelyON, daily report of possible interest to Jilli:

Yesterday we went to a furniture store to get a new mattress for the guest bedroom (Matilda and I have been up in Reno visiting Nana), and it turned out to be a huge jumble store full of new stuff, books and crazy antiques. The tiny back room was dominated by one enormous, magnificent object: a glossily lacquered early-to-mid Victorian (1840s) hearse on sled runners for winter funerals, in full working condition, all the parts included. The owner admitted that it's really a museum piece, but he can't find a museum that wants it, so there it's sat in all its looming glory the back rooms of all the different stores he's owned for the past 20 years. GORGEOUS.

And on the way there and back we passed numerous cowboy bars, bars with their own distilleries, rundown motels with gorgeous decaying Atomic Age signs out front, and a retail liquidators shop whose front window was crammed with mannequin heads and dress forms. I'm seriously thinking about pitching Reno for the next West Coast F2F.

The only way your sister will get out of this is to get some major self-introspection going, probably with a professional.

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening any time soon if ever. This is just the most recent in a long line of really bad choices and destructive behavior. If I described all the men she had married/dated, your jaws would drop.

If you can normalize him with your family, that might help lose some luster on him too.

That's never going to happen. The rest of my family thinks 1) she dropped him when she found out he was married or 2) they "grew apart" and broke up which is why they never married. I'm the only one who knows she's still seeing him. And I'm the safe, non-judgemental one who just happens to live 600 miles away.