Preparations and Thoughts on the Witness Hand

I have about a million and ten things to get done before I leave for New Hampshire tomorrow afternoon.

I have done two of them. Eek!

Clay on Wednesday was great. Ginny wasn’t able to get to the seats we’d bought so they exchanged the tickets for disabled section tickets, and they sat her at the very back of the arena, but right before the show started I spied two disabled seats in front of our section and ran and batted my eyes and sweetly asked the ushers if Mom and Ginny could move to those empty seats, and they said yes. So they actually got to sit closer than Sam and Jay and I did, and could see all the stuff going on behind the stage. He’s a good singer, and the show was mostly wonderful, but I could have done without the YayJesus song with the accompanying Son of God backlighting and the video clips of Bibles and church steeples. He sang it well, and it was a pretty song, but still – for a few minutes there the Civic Center turned into a tent revival, complete with witness hands from the audience and everything.

In complete ignorant honesty, I don’t know what the witness hand thing is really called, and I don’t know why people do it, but it annoys me. Because I see some people at religious events doing the witness hand when a singer is singing, and I don’t believe for one moment that they’re all feeling the spirit. I think there is always a handful of people who are doing it so that other people can see them doing it, and they tend to be the same people who tell people like me that we’re all going to hell. So, you know, it bugs me. I’m sure some people are just really into the music or the spirit, and that’s fine. It’s those other ones that bug me.

Man, when I’m having a bad sinus day, it really affects everything. Today is one of those days, and I’ve felt vaguely queasy and specifically fatigued all day long. Ew.

I bought a big-ass box of Dramamine for my flights. I hope it helps with the inner ear stuff. I honestly don’t give a rat’s ass if it makes me groggy. I won’t have to drive anywhere, and besides, I’d rather be groggy than nauseated and dizzy.

I’m really starting to hate this design and have been fiddling around with ideas for changing it, but I have nothing good so far.

Tonight I need to do laundry and pack, and I’m sure I’m going to have another bout of packing issues like I did the last time I took a trip. Already I’m stressing about whether my Old Navy booty shorts are appropriate pajama bottoms, since I NEVER sleep in pajama bottoms at home but am sharing a hotel room for part of this trip, and I tend to get too warm in hotel rooms and fling the covers off of me in my sleep, and the last thing my colleague wants to see is my ass in pink and orange polka-dot boyshorts, so I need bottoms but pants won’t do because of the heat issue. And about which flip-flops I want to take for the dorm shower and which ones I want to take just to wear, and if “casual” means flip-flops are okay anyway. And do I need a bathing suit? And do I need jeans? A jacket? How am I going to fit a study lamp and a fan in my suitcase? Why did I buy a laptop that weighs ten pounds? Does that brown shirt really look okay with the jean skirt? Will I look too college-kid in a jean skirt? Even if it’s a normal jean skirt, not one of those trendy flippy ones?

What the hell’s the weather like in New Hampshire, anyway? Okay. Weather Underground says it’ll be in the mid to upper 70s this week. So maybe I do need jeans. But do I need a regular pair of shoes? Because I was just going to take sandals and sneakers. Dammit. I’m terrible at packing.

Wow. I haven’t gone anywhere since January. And although I’ll be out of the office next week, I’ll be at a conference, so that’s not so much a vacation. And then the week after that is band camp, which is also not so much a vacation. I really need a week where I don’t have to do ANYTHING, but I don’t see that happening before Christmas at the earliest.

We get free internet access at Dartmouth, so unless I’m out drinking every night, I’ll be writing from New England. Hey, I might even take pictures.

Y’all have a great week.

6 Replies to “Preparations and Thoughts on the Witness Hand”

  1. I live in Boston, so I can give you a hint about what to wear… It's been fairly chilly at night so a long sleeve shirt or two (or a light sweater) is a good idea. A pair of jeans wouldn't hurt. No need for closed-toe shoes though…

  2. Different folks call the hand thing different things. For example, my Episcopalian friends call it “vulgar.”

    When I go on retreats with kids, I wear boxers — but BIG boxers — trying to maximize comfort and modesty simultaneously.

  3. testifying? c'mon.
    I think you might be stuck on what to call the “hand raising thing” because it's not a dance. It's not a move. It's just what some people do. I mean, not in any Catholic church I've been to but I wanna believe that some may not raise because they're “feeling it” but because they are asking to feel it or to “let it come”.
    I know some get up about anything that's showy – but I also know that many folks in faith are really just on different sides of the religious meter, but both comment on the other – secretly.

  4. gum – water – food – dip – these things don't work for you on flights? You just have to keep moving your jaw; try to fake a yawn now and again. Or, do you have some serious inner-ear drama?

    Again, your superiors need … get it together.

    blah

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