this 'n that...

Happy Saturday. Went to the allergist this morning, since my symptoms just aren't getting any better and my (already vast) quantities of medication don't seem to be helping. She prescribed me an 8-day course of steroids. 'Roid rage, here I come. She did say if I had any side effects I could stop after the first dose. I took my first dose and my stomach is bothering me (TMI? I'll be done in a minute). I have to take 8 pills today. Oye. But here's the thing - I almost don't care what they do, as long as they help me feel better. I didn't know allergies could cause all the crap they are causing for me.Okay, anyway. Done with that now.

If anyone is in DC on October 2, go to the National Cathedral to see Ann Patchett talk about her new book. I went to see Renée Fleming there a few years ago. She was talking about her book, The Inner Voice. And so now the National Cathedral loves me and sends me many things. (At least, I think this is why they send me many things, but I am not totally sure, because the brochure came addressed to "Kristen Runge" which as you may have noticed, is not actually my name. Not even close. How they came up with that, I will never know.) For the most part, they have things I would never go to in a million years even if I did live in DC - the "Pray for Peace concert with Graham Nash and Friends" or Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the "religious beacon of hope" sharing "his prophetic vision of radical equality" or someone named Rodger Kamenetz who will, apparently, share his ideas of "the possibility of our dreams being divine revelations." Clearly, he's never heard one of my dreams. Or the one my dad had with Jimmy Smits in it, dressed up like the guy in his new show Cane, who came to our house and kept telling people "Sugar is the new oil" or whatever the hell he says. What kind of divine revelation is that??

So there are a lot of things like that from the National Cathedral, but definitely go and see Ann Patchett if you are there and have the chance. Her session is called "Creativity: Confidence of the Heart" and it says:

Is the source of fiction imagination or the disguised life and character of the writer? Or is it both, the creative process inviting the heart to show itself? In Ann Patchett's view "art is a valid way to change the world." Her concern for social justice threads provacatively through the award winning novel Bel Canto and her other works of fiction and non-fiction. "I recognize," she says, "the concerns of my own heart showing up in the writing."

I heard her speak a few years ago at the Chicago Humanities Festival, as she accepted the Heartland Award for her book Truth and Beauty. Oh, and if you haven't read that or Bel Canto, or one of my other favorite books of hers, The Magician's Assistant, go and read them.