I'm back in Boston and will update about that later, but I want to offer my congrats to the seven newly ordained deacons at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry: Miguel, Michael, Kevin, John, Richard, Derrick, and Miguel.
And a very big congrats to my dear friend, Friar Matt Foley, who was ordained as a priest yesterday!
So, on Saturday, my mom and I went to a pet adoption. We had gone the previous weekend to look at dogs and there was a dog we were interested in looking at. Well, the puppy (who is actually 4) wasn't there, but we walked around and then...we found the kittens. And so my parents and I are now the proud adoptive family for two adorable five month old kittens.
First, meet Guinevere (Gwen for short).
While her adoption photo doesn't do her justice, it does allow you to see her face. She's a sweetie pie. Absolutely beautiful (even my brother, who berated my father for ten minutes for allowing us to get cats, thinks she's gorgeous), super silky fur, and a doll. She's adjusted well and is currently playing with a piece of plastic in the dining room. Here are some other photos of her playing. Our other new arrival requires a little bit of explanation. He is Gwen's litter mate and we adopted him, too, because we figured that she'd be less lonely. My father has maintained for a while now that, if we were to get a male cat, he would name it Schrodinger, and thus, meet Schrodinger:As he is still VERY easily spooked and has yet to really warm up to us (this is the best photo we've gotten of him so far...),the name fits because we both have a cat and don't have a cat. If you don't get the joke, watch this:
All in all, they're great and I'm like a new parent, scared to leave them for the weekend (I'm headed to Boston to celebrate the diaconate ordinations of like seven classmates and the priestly ordination of my friend Matt).
I received a message today from a friend who is studying at the Maryknoll Language Institute (IDEIM) in Cochabamba. We've been in touch a bit since he's been down there and it's been mostly happy stuff. But today, he had sad news to pass along.
Roxana, one of the teachers at IDEIM, passed away last night due to complications from a C-section. Her child did survive. For any of us who have studied at IDEIM in the past and had the chance to either meet or work with or get to know Roxana, this is a very sad day indeed.
I had the chance to have her for all six weeks. She was my lectura professor for the first three weeks and for the second three weeks, after she had deemed my reading level acceptable (aka fluent, for all intents and purposes), our classes became conversation. Roxana had a smile always lit up the room and she was almost always smiling. And she had a great sense of humor, making me laugh even when I was frustrated or crabby or tired.
We shared a lot during those six weeks and kept in touch a bit after I left Bolivia. She sometimes (always outside of class) used me to practice her French. But the one day that stands out in my mind was the day that the "honeymoon" period ended for me in Bolivia. Roxana's class was my final one of the day and when she came in, she found me that Wednesday frayed and broken. I had just had a horrible experience in my conversation section and as soon as Roxana asked me if I was okay, I burst into tears. We spent the next hour talking and, the funny thing was, despite the fact that I had started in English (mostly because I was frustrated with my inability to remember certain words and my lack of progress), by the end of the hour, I was laughing through my tears and speaking in Spanish. She was an incredible teacher and she will be missed.
Please keep her husband and their child in your prayers, as well as the staff and students of IDEIM. Her death is a great loss to so many. Y a mis amig@s en Bolivia, tod@s vos estan en mis oraciones y mis pensamientos.
Here's a random fact about me that you might not know: I share a birthday with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Now if that's not fate, I'm not sure what is! And a very happy to those five Central American countries!
I also share a birthday with Saint Joe's in Philly (the Jesuit university there). That's pretty cool, too. AND the year before I was born, Sandra Day O'Connor was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court. I also share the day with Dave Annable (from Brothers and Sisters), Prince Harry, and Tommy Lee Jones.
Not so good things that have happened on my birthday? Well, in 1935 the Nuremburg Laws were enacted in Germany. I'm not so much for discrimination and hatred. In 1862, the Confederates gained control of Harper's Ferry. In 1963, four children were killed in the bombing of 16th Street Gospel Church in Birmingham, AL. Let's hope that 2009 turns out to be better than 2008 and no major corporations decide to go belly up and that the economy gets better, not worse, and that people show each other some love.
CPE is (finally) over and I'm back in MN. The last week of CPE was LONG and I think we were all ready to be done about a week before we were done. There was some chaos the last two weeks and it was just stressful to be there. So I am very glad that I will no longer have to talk about my feelings in a group of people I did not choose (that's not to say that I didn't like my group...I did, very much, but...seriously...it just gets old!). Despite the uncertainty as to what the future holds (other than about 25 years of repaying student loans), it's very good to be back home. Plus, the weather here is a million times better than Boston and about a thousand times better than Omaha, so I'm enjoying sunshine and warmth but not heat and not humidity.
Saturday, I threw a baby shower for my old roomie, Johanna, and it was great. Seriously, if you want to throw a good party, just make sure that some CSJs come. They make everything better. And the day was capped off with dinner at the Cleveland Wok (if you're ever in St. Paul, and you like all-you-can-eat Chinese food that's super yummy and at a good price, GO THERE!), some Doctor Who, and getting to just sit and talk with J. I was so grateful to come home to a group of amazing and supportive women. And I even got a lead on another job, so that was exciting.
Sunday morning, Johanna and I went out for brunch and despite our over-sharing, EP frat boy of a waiter, it was a great experience (Best. Hashbrowns. Ever.). And it was so good to get to spend some time with J, just the two of us.
All in all, I'm really trying to stay calm about the fact that I've already received my first bill for students loans and trying to trust that I'll find work soon. I know that I'm capable and qualified and so...I'm just going to trust that something will work out. Of course, my little brother had a job basically fall into his lap, which makes it hard to not panic (and feel a little spiteful), but my parents have been great about letting me move back in for the foreseeable future. Not that living with mom and dad in your late 20's is fun, but in this economy, I'm not going to complain about having a roof over my head. Plus, Mom's a great cook, so at least I'll be eating far healthier than I did this summer!
My fellow group members have learned that, when I'm having a bad day, I joke about wanting "sunshine and puppies." Well, today, my fellow intern Rory made that happen.
Exhibit A: Rory holding the Sunshine cake: mandarin orange cake with pineapple frosting. Super yummy and a great compliment to his theory paper on pastoral care on the pediatric unit.
And Example Two:Rory with Tigerlily, one of the therapy dogs at pet therapy.
It was pretty great. There were kids and puppies and sun and cake and yeah. Not a bad way to end an otherwise-stressful week. I'm on call tomorrow from 8am until 2am on Sunday, but then it's only five days left until the end. Thank goodness. I know I'm not the only one who is ready to be done.
I had my first experience of being on-call this weekend. We each take one weekend, from 8:30 on Saturday morning until 7:30 on Sunday night. When my pager went off at 8:10am on Saturday, I knew I was going to be in for a long day.
And it was a long day. Since I have to be careful not to divulge details, let's just say that trauma and chaos and death were the order of the day. We almost had to call in a third chaplain to help us handle it all (but the two of us did a pretty fabulous job, if I do say so myself!).
When I finally headed home at about 6pm, I expected my pager to go off all night. Blessedly, it didn't. At all. I kept waking up, thinking I had heard it, but it was silent. And it was silent all day today (save for the three times I paged myself, just to see if it was working). So I was able to make up for the sleep I lost last night expecting my pager to go off and I was able to give my body some much-needed rest. Yesterday was my first day off of crutches and I was a little sore today, though it was less my knee and more my entire body (which is a good sign). Add to that a little bit of ice cream, a new episode of True Blood, the Yankees game both being on TV and resulting in a win for the Yankees, and the last of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries...and you have a pretty great day.
A little public service announcement: I have now read all but two books available from Charlaine Harris. I've read all the Sookie Stackhouse books (the ones that True Blood are based on), all the Lily Bard books, all the Aurora Teagarden books, and all of the Harper Connelly books. The only books I have left are the two that aren't part of series. If you're looking for good, fun, somewhat suspenseful reading...you should read her stuff. I love her work and I'm very sad I'm running out of books! To give you an idea of how many books that is in total, it adds up to 25 books. Can't say I haven't been productive this summer!
I walked out the sliding door onto the deck at my parents' house on Saturday morning and had to stop and just soak in the amazingness that is Minnesota in the summer. It was in the low 70's, with bright blue skies and low humidity, with some fluffy clouds and lots of sun. And people wonder why I love Minnesota so much.
Things I don't love so much? My knees. Specifically the right one. After spending a few hours on my feet on concrete at the Basilica Block Party, my right knee decided to die (and by die I mean commence with the swelling and the pain). The swelling has gone down somewhat, but it still hurts and it's interfered more than I'd like with my work. Monday, I was wheeled up to the floor in a wheelchair by one of my groupmates (the floor I work on is a couple of buildings over from where our office is). And today, I didn't make it to the floor because of rounds and meetings and then having to come home a bit early in order to medicate. I hate being in pain and I hate having to change things because of it, but...nothing I can do about it other than rest, elevate, and ice. I met someone yesterday, an elderly man about to get a knee replaced, and I was seriously jealous. I want a new knee. One that can't cause me pain.
Should prove to be an interesting rest of the week...
Tonight, as soon as I get off from work (and throw my suitcase in the car, which will first require throwing things into my suitcase), Jill and I are headed up to the Cities for the weekend. Tomorrow night, we have tickets for the Counting Crows at the Basilica Block Party, which is exciting, but mostly, I'm just glad to be headed home for a few days (even if it does add 12 hours of driving to a weekend).
I had my first on-call experience this week. I didn't get paged, so instead I watched some Torchwood while sitting at my desk at the hospital. Despite the fact that I live five minutes away, I decided to just stick around for the extra three hours and it was kind of nice to have the office all quiet and to myself. Next weekend will be my first weekend on-call (36 hours, give or take, from Saturday morning until Sunday evening), so we'll see how that went. Guthrie was the first of us to take a weekend and he, well, let's just say he spent a fair bit of time at the hospital.
As it's time for me to get upstairs on the floor, go here and enjoy the clip that has been the source of much laughter for our group (and yes, we might sometimes teasingly do this to each other).
A friend of mine from my parish in Boston wrote this about our parish a while ago, and it's so beautiful and so perfectly fits what I would want to say about it that I feel the need to post it here, too. I've really been missing the parish recently (not Boston in general, but the parish in particular) and this made me both happy and homesick. So thanks, Santi, for describing it better than I ever could.
The church we attend on Sundays does not look like your typical cathedral. It is a simple building, with a flat roof, uninspiring flat columns save for the light and sometimes palm placed at the top. The alter area is deep covered in red carpet, with a clean, wooden cross under spotlights on the back wall. The altar sits at the front of this space, with a good thirty feet between itself and the back wall. That space holds a large basin for water, and nothing else. There is so much space that the young children sporadically run around the space during the Mass. I like to think the kids are carefree, either because they are filled with God, or because they are just playing. (I am guessing it is the latter, which, after all, is simultaneously inspiring to and created by the former). There are three chairs to the left of the altar as you are in the pews and the choir sings to the right of the altar. Without the community, the church would not necessarily be the prettiest a Catholic or Christian or anyone has seen. But when the people enter, the R's start to roll, the clapping and music begin, the children start to run, the strangers greet each other as the celebration commences, the church erupts with life. It is exciting! And joyous! To the point that all of us who ever doubted that we could enter Mass as a Catholic and ENJOY it, are quickly corrected. I can't help but take part in the beauty that is to share with one another.
I received a phone call from my old roomie yesterday. She's currently working at a legal clinic for immigrants and refugees in Arizona and she needed my help. There was a document they needed translated for a legal proceeding and, being the only Portuguese speaker she knows, she called me to see if I could help out. I should temper this with the fact that I don't really speak Portuguese, but I can read it and I can translate it. And so one of my projects this weekend will be translating about two paragraphs worth of Portuguese and then signing an affidavit that the translation is correct to the best of my abilities. That last part is a little scary, as despite the fact that I am confident in my ability to correctly render the text in English, it's always different when you have to sign a legal document attesting to that fact.
I'm feeling a Doctor Who marathon coming on. I'm not sure what kind of marathon (a season, a theme) I'm in the mood for, but I think I need a healthy dose of the Doctor and I need it soon. I'm super excited for the Torchwood season to start, simply because it's at least quasi-close to Doctor Who.
I'm fighting the wanderlust still. Which is making the whole job application thing even more difficult, because suddenly moving across the country sounds like a fun adventure in a way that isn't really normal for me. Oh well. Gryffindor spirit and all.
And just when you thought that the parking lot concert was great, here are the boys busking on a corner in the Old Market here in Omaha (their car had died and needed help).
Maybe it's because of the Honduran coup, but I'm in a Latin American state of mine lately. I want to hop on a plane and head south. And it's not just wanderlust, which I'll admit kicks in whenever I spend more than two weeks in Nebraska, but it's also the fact that my heart is there. Reading about the coup and the response of the neighboring nations makes me proud of what has been accomplished in places like El Salvador.
But I'm frustrated that I don't know Honduras, don't know which websites and news outlets are trustworthy, the way I do Salvador. And so I'm left reading a lot of information and trying to figure out what is really going on. And while my Spanish is good, it does get exhausting trying to decipher truth out of several different newspapers (especially after a hard day at the hospital).
I've started getting quite a few Spanish referrals and they're always interesting. Ninety percent of the time, the patients and their families seem rather surprised to see a (very) white girl who speaks Spanish with such a strong Bolivian accent (fear not, Cristian, I am doing my best not to let you and the others corrupt my accent any more than you already have!). And speaking like a Bolivian has already posed some interesting grammar and pronunciation challenges. I'm learning that I have to almost anglicize my words in order to be understood by folks from farther North (esp. Mexico). And there aren't a lot of South Americans living in the Omaha area.
But, regardless, I'm going to continue singing Athlete's "El Salvador" as I head off on my rounds.
It's time to tear this place down I've got the last gig on my mind Not seen my friends in ages Have I been left behind? It's time to figure out why I find myself in custody With each and every question Words come so easily Fly to El Salvador I don't know why and I don't know what for
I am VERY grateful that it's the weekend, because I am EXHAUSTED. It was a long week, with some amazing highs (and some serious lows) and it's nice to have time to sleep.
The third week of CPE has come and gone and it included lots of firsts and lots of stress and lots of insanity. I learned a lot, had some great moments, fell on my face occasionally, and am slowly starting to figure out what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Wednesday was probably the most insane day at that hospital I'll see during my ten weeks and the fact that I hadn't slept much the night before left me REALLY tired at the end.
But I got a nap in when I got home, so that helps.
The highlight of the week was having the boys from Fools & Horses here for a couple of nights. They played two open mic nights here in Omaha and proved to be the best house guests ever (they not only did their dishes, they did our dishes AND took out the trash. Our apartment was cleaner when they left than when they arrived!). And they sounded good, too, and were invited back at both bars. So hopefully they'll be headed back out this way soon.
The mom of their merch girl drove seven hours from SD to hear them play three songs on Tuesday night, and so she was treated to a mini-concert from Matt (with a little help from Steve) in the parking lot of the bar.
Last weekend's family reunion in MN was great, complete with lots of laughter and a rather harsh sunburn (which is now itchy). Four generations of my mom's side of the family gathered at my aunt and uncle's place for a day of food and fun and water sports (as well as celebrating my grandparents' 61st anniversary and Fathers' Day).
And last night, I had to say goodbye to Nick, who is moving to Denver in the morning. But he made me dinner and we watched a little of The Daily Show and laughed and I might have cried a little. But it was so great having a chance to spend time with him these last few weeks. He's good people.
And now, dear ones, it's off to bed. And tomorrow, I will sleep in and enjoy EVERY minute of it!
I really wish that the first segment from tonight's Rachel Maddow show were already up, because there is lots of stuff contained in it and it's what prompted this reflection.
I have been a student of peace studies for years. And despite the fact that I truly believe that people are inherently good, while watching the footage from Iran, I still have a fear in the pit of my stomach that the Republican Guard is going to crack down in a scene that will make Tienamen Square look humane. And Rachel pointed out that most of us have the fear. Then she asked a question: what if this is less like Tienamen and more like the Berlin Wall?
I know that it's too soon to speculate as to what will happen, as it seems like tomorrow there will be even more people in the streets and it's getting harder and harder for folks to get the story out, but watching the reaction of the protesters today, who simply sat down when confronted by the militia, gives me hope that we're seeing the start of a non-violent revolution.
And I know that some of you are reading this and thinking that I'm crazy, that I think that the power of non-violence can really work, but it has. It worked in Chile and in the Civil Rights movement here in the US and it overthrew Milosevic in Bosnia. It does work. And I sure hope that Iran is going to be added to that list!
So, really, few things are better than curling up with a good book and a snuggly dog. Only my love of Cait kept me from trying to smuggle Luna (who is not a small dog) back to Omaha with me in my suitcase. But seriously, as much as I wish I had been up for being social, I needed the night in. And it was great.
Cy's Mass this morning was beautiful. Truthfully (and a certain Jesuit friend of mine may come after me for this...), I have never seen a rookie priest do as well the first time out. Granted, he's a perfectionist, but he really did a beautiful job. And the Gesu is a beautiful church. So it was really a lovely time. It was funny to think, too, that several of our other classmates were celebrating Mass at the same time in different cities. Truly, it's one of the cool things about the Catholic Church: there is a heck of a lot of intimacy and interconnectedness in something that is huge and beyond comprehension. A good example? Went with a friend while she got tattooed yesterday and her friend joined us. Turns out that she's good friends with Andrew, who is Cait and Megan's current roomie. Small world, right? It's really amazing all of the different connections that exist out there. I had two people come up to me at the reception yesterday because they recognized me from SOA, which is cool (and a little bit scary!).
I skipped out on the reception this morning and headed to the airport, because I hadn't printed off my itinerary and I can only access the last 20 emails on my phone, so I figured I'd better be safe than sorry. And i missed getting out on an earlier flight by like 2 minutes. And I mean a literal two minutes. That, combined with the delay in Chicago, meant that I missed the season premiere of one of my TV addictions. Luckily, I caught it on the repeat an hour later. Can't get behind already!
So basically, I'm back in Omaha, exhausted, and both looking forward to and dreading work tomorrow. But only 45 more days at the hospital until we're done! And having already made two patient visits, I'm a bit (only a bit) less nervous. But now, I'm going to pass out, because I am EXHAUSTED. At least tonight, there won't be a Luna wanting to snuggle at 2am!
While her adoption photo doesn't do her justice, it does allow you to see her face. She's a sweetie pie. Absolutely beautiful (even my brother, who berated my father for ten minutes for allowing us to get cats, thinks she's gorgeous), super silky fur, and a doll. She's adjusted well and is currently playing with a piece of plastic in the dining room. Here are some other photos of her playing.
Our other new arrival requires a little bit of explanation. He is Gwen's litter mate and we adopted him, too, because we figured that she'd be less lonely. My father has maintained for a while now that, if we were to get a male cat, he would name it Schrodinger, and thus, meet Schrodinger:
As he is still VERY easily spooked and has yet to really warm up to us (this is the best photo we've gotten of him so far...),
the name fits because we both have a cat and don't have a cat. If you don't get the joke, watch this:
Rory holding the Sunshine cake: mandarin orange cake with pineapple frosting. Super yummy and a great compliment to his theory paper on pastoral care on the pediatric unit.
Rory with Tigerlily, one of the therapy dogs at pet therapy.
