Bathroom Etiquette (yes, this post is G-rated)

I haven't had many deep, shareable thoughts recently, nor have I made time to cook much in the last few weeks. So I thought a light-hearted post was in order.

Down the hall from my office are two single-person restrooms--one for men, one for women. Over the last several months, I've noticed a few "best practices" related to the entering and exiting of those bathrooms.

1. If you come out of the restroom when someone is walking down the hall close to the bathroom, do not make eye contact or speak to the person. If you come out of the restroom practically on top of the other person, it's okay to acknowledge his or her existence with brief eye contact and a smile, but you should not engage in conversation, even if the two of you are walking the same direction.
2. The same goes for if you are the person walking down the hall and witness someone exiting the restroom.
3. If you are walking down the hall toward the restroom and encounter another person going the opposite direction, try not to make eye contact and definitely don't speak to him/her. If possible, duck into the bathroom only after he/she has passed you and you are, therefore, out of his/her sight.
4. If you are walking down the hall toward the restroom and encounter another person going the same direction, it all depends on whether you're on the long end of the hall or the short end. 
• If you're on the short end--and therefore only have a few steps to the restroom--follow Step 1, and try to duck into the restroom without the other person noticing. If possible, it's best to try to fall into step behind the other person, rather than next to or in front of him/her.
• If you're on the long end--and basically have to walk down the entire length of the hallway with the other person--it gets a little trickier. It would be rude to ignore the other person while you walk down the hall with him or her. But it would be awkward to strike up a conversation, only to end the conversation abruptly by walking into the bathroom and shutting the door in the other person's face. In this situation, use your best judgment based on your relationship with and knowledge of the other person. Do you have a pretty good relationship with her? It's probably okay to strike up a light conversation. Is he the quiet, reserved type? You'll probably be okay with simply smiling and then walking in silence. If in doubt, greet the other person, then make up an excuse to change course: "Oops, I forgot to pick up my original from the copier," or "Oh, I just remembered that I need to stop by ___'s office to ask her about ___."
5. Basically, in your entering and exiting of the bathroom, if you encounter another person, neither of you should do anything to acknowledge that you were using or are about to use to restroom, nor should you even acknowledge the mere existence of the restroom.
6. If you are a woman and the other person is also a woman, you can ignore all of the above. It's perfectly fine to make eye contact, smile, strike up a conversation, and even linger at the door of the restroom to finish your conversation before going in.

Provolone Pear Panini

I experimented the last week and came up with this Panini.

2 slices raisin bread
2 slices provolone cheese
2 very thin slices ham lunchmeat
About 1/2 to 1/3 of a pear
2-3 tsp. finely chopped pecans

Preheat a George Foreman grill. Halve, core, and slice a pear (about 1/4” thick). Once the grill is heated, grill three slices for 2-3 minutes until slightly soft, turning once. Meanwhile, spritz olive oil cooking spray on the bread (on the sides that will be the outside of the sandwich).

Layer one slice cheese, pecans, grilled pears, the other slice of cheese, and the ham between the two slices of bread. Grill for 3 minutes or until the bread is browned and the cheese is melty, flipping once if the grill looks like it’s squeezing the filling out of the sandwich. Cut in half and enjoy!

Mother God

This morning I had a new, very exciting, experience. For the first time I can remember, I had the joy of participating in corporate worship specifically directed to God as our heavenly Mother as well as our heavenly Father. I have often privately prayed or sung to God as a mother, but this morning was my first time to sing to Mother God along with other people. It was exciting, touching, moving, and weird, all at the same time.

In our various types of Christian gatherings, we do an excellent job of celebrating and honoring God as our heavenly Father, and most of us could probably rattle off at least a dozen passages (even if we can't quote them exactly) that depict God as a Father. But we're not as good at celebrating the less common and less accepted metaphor of God as Mother. Yet there are a handful of biblical passages that do depict God that way. For example:

"For a long time I have kept silent,
   I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
   I cry out, I gasp and pant."
--Yahweh speaking in Isaiah 42:14

"As a mother comforts her child,
   so will I comfort you;
   and you will be comforted over Jerusalem."
--Yahweh speaking in Isaiah 66:13

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing."
--Jesus speaking in Matthew 23:37

I appreciate the metaphor of God as our Mother, and I hope we will become more comfortable with using maternal language to describe God. There's certainly nothing wrong with the Father metaphor, but, as with all metaphors we use to try to understand and talk about God, it's incomplete and should not be used as the exclusive metaphor to describe God. Because when we limit God to just one image, we miss out on the vast array of other qualities that don't fit that particular image. For two excellent discussions on the language we use to describe God, check out this Metaphor, Idolatry, and Theology blog post by Jamey Walters and this Why Language for God Matters article by Naomi Walters.

Also, as a woman, it's sometimes easier to relate to a female image rather than a masculine image like King or Father, or an inanimate one like Rock or Shield. I will never be a dad, and I can't necessarily identify with how Fathers (or men) think and act. But I might someday be a mom, and I do know what it's like to think and feel and act as a woman. And speaking to and about God with female language helps me feel just a bit more like I actually am fully created in God's image.

So, this morning's experience was an exciting one, to first sing to God as Father, and to then sing to God as Mother. Hopefully my first time to do that corporately will not also be my last.

I'm Thankful I'm Not a Duck

Today on snow day number 4, I ventured out to campus to take some pictures. It was my version of playing in the snow (since I can't exactly play in the snow by myself), plus it was a good excuse to get out of the house!

Snow Day

Since taking pictures is the proper thing to do when it snows and they cancel school/work, here are a few I took yesterday.

What Do You Get When You Combine Pumpkin, Mushrooms, Quinoa, and Yogurt?

Several months ago I came across this recipe for pumpkin French toast (and corresponding recipe for pumpkin bread) and desperately wanted to make it. I’m a sucker for basically anything with pumpkin, and I love treating myself to special breakfasts on the weekends when breakfast won’t interfere with sleep (since sleep wins every time). This weekend, two of my girl friends came to town, and I finally got to make the pumpkin French toast! It was pretty much amazing, and I’m kind of excited to try turning any (every?) kind of quick bread into French toast. The pumpkin bread recipe gave us a nice, dense loaf of bread, so we had no problems with it falling apart while dunking each slice in milky-eggy-cinnamony goodness.

Then, for lunch, we tried Real Simple’s Yogurt-Marinated Chicken with Mushrooms and Sweet Potatoes recipe. Also a win! It was my first time to make quinoa and the girls’ first time to ever hear of quinoa. Surprisingly, it was very easy to cook! The trickiest part (once we found it, which was an adventure in and of itself) was rinsing it since all my strainers’ holes were too big. But we solved that by putting the quinoa in a coffee filter and running the water through that. Then it went into a small saucepan and cooked just like rice.

Marinating the chicken in the yogurt made it super moist with a lovely flavor, and my favorite part of the meal was the roasted sweet potatoes and mushrooms. Wal-Mart didn’t have shiitake mushrooms and they were out of creminis, so I substituted regular mushrooms and baby bellas, and they tasted great! The only thing I will do differently with this meal next time is make more sweet potatoes and mushrooms.

Up next week: Butternut squash, which is already on my counter so I cannot change my mind.

Sweet potatoes and mushrooms, fresh out of the oven!

Quinoa

Ready to eat! (Too bad chicken doesn't photograph well. Or too bad my plates are white.)

Singing the Women's Part

I had a new experience today in chapel. We sang one of those songs where the guys and girls split, singing completely different lyrics and melodies, for much of the song. Neither part is really the lead--we just take turns with who sings what. I have always sung that song either led by no one, or led by a man who naturally sings the guys' part, leaving the women in the congregation to band together from our seats and hope we come in at the right time and can hear each other well enough to carry the tune correctly. This morning, however, the worship leader was a woman. And for the first time in my life on a song that split like that, I sang with the worship leader the entire time and sang the girls' part the entire time.

There are other songs where the women's part leads and the men echo, and I've usually seen the male song leader sing the female part along with the women. Which kind of makes sense but also sounds a little weird.

Now, I have nothing against men or male worship leaders. But my experience this morning in chapel was refreshing--and kind of validating! This once, I wasn't just singing the extra part that wasn't important enough to have a worship leader, and I wasn't singing the women's part that still had to be led by a man so the song wouldn't fall apart.