Little Things

So, I'll admit it. I'm LOUSY at updating. But, heck, I gave up trying to be consistent with this. Update time.

1. I managed to pull off one of two baby showers. Baby shower 1, for my co-worker Ro', was cancelled when baby Emmanuel decided to make his appearance early. Baby shower 2, for my good friend Sarah, was just in time as little Alexandra came a week later. Both babies were three weeks early!

2. I had a LOVELY time in Illinois/Iowa, despite flooding disrupting the wedding. The wedding was held at an alternate location. It's incredibly awesome to be with my college friends, again. We had a GREAT time. Before that, I had an equally great time with my BFF Laurel and her daughter. I even got to see her bro and sil and their girls. It was a great joy to see so many people who fill such a big place in my life.

3. Then, this passed weekend, I drove to Jersey to see my good friends Jeanna and Jeff from grad school, and their son (my godson, Gabriel). He's just so amazing, and I love hearing his little excited voice shout "Lo!" when he sees me (that "Lo" for Auntie Lola). I think I caught a "Tie Lo!" once. He gives great hugs, too.

4. Work is CRAZY. Nuff said.

In other news--I've seen three newborns in the past month, locally, visited friends with children, watched those online pregnancy tickers move on, and found out that I'll be the god-mother of another god-daughter this fall. I've also read as spiritual sisters of mine have endured heart-breaking miscarriages and of another family who lost a newborn. So much joy and so much sorrow, wrapped around little people. I'm not really going anywhere with this in particular, except that in all that joy and all that sorrow, there is such tremendous love and faith. Love for children, living on earth and living in eternity, and faith in God, who gives and takes a way. It's so rare to see such love or to see Love reflected back at us. Pray for these women, all mothers--mothers of new babies, mothers of growing families, mothers of babies-on-the-inside, and mothers of children that rejoice in Heaven. They need your prayers, all in their own way.

I also had an opportunity to witness love like that at Mass this Sunday. In visit St. Alphonsius in Hopewell, NJ, there was an older priest who clearly had a neurological disorder (pray for him, and all priests). Despite shaking hands, he lovingly cleaned the chalice, paten, and the altar. It was clearly difficult to lift the chalice with his shaking hands, and I'm sure he must have noticed the shifting crowd, but he painstakingly drank from the chalice and wiped it clean. That's an amazing act of love in service of Love.

That's all for today, just a quick snapshot of my life! Pax!

Aloha!

So, I'm a bad blogger. My summer goal is to be a good blogger. At least a weekly blogger. So, apart from sheer craziness at work (including my inability to find any new employees!), the summer is looking up. But, spring was pretty good too! I was on Oahu (Hawaii) for work and then spent a long weekend snorkeling in Maui. It was AMAZING. And just what the doctor ordered. Here are some Hawaiian highlights.

Sunrise at Haleakala in Maui. The drive to the top at 3AM was crazy, but the sunrise was worth it!

One of the things that I really wanted to do on Oahu was visit Pearl Harbor. There is a visitor center with a short film and some exhibits. Then, you take a short ride to the Arizona Memorial in the harbor. It was amazing how quiet everyone can be if asked; it was an incredibly moving experience.

I also wanted to drive around the famous North Shore of Oahu. Winter is the best time to see the forty foot waves and the surfers, but it was still a beautiful drive. This is one of my favorite photographs. It reminds me of the TV show Lost!


I love sea turtles! This one swam up right next to me during a snorkel session off Makena Beach (Maui).

Finally photographic evidence I was there! This is me along the Road to Hana, the absolutely scariest drive, ever! It was ridculously fun in my little convertible, though!

Harlow?

Starting off with, this one is random. Except, not so much because I'm (blushing) watching Access Hollywood. In my defense, it's in between the nightly news (something that I always watch) and American Idol.

Okay, let's start with Harlow. That would be Nicole Richie's baby, for those of you who are wondering why I brought that up. I don't actually object to the name "Harlow" as being horribly egregious, like some names (Apple, Lasagna, Calamari) or intentionally alternatively spelled. But, if your name is Harlow, your left with a name that means "From the Mound of the People" OR the actress Jean Harlow. As a fan of classic film, I'm familiar with Jean Harlow and appreciate her cinematic contributions as the original "Blonde Bombshell." But, really, she died tragically young of kidney disease after combating rumors that she murdered her husband (Paul Bern). Not to mention that whole alienation of affection suit and sham marriage to deflect those allegations. To me, not necessarily a "win-win" name selection.

Next, American Idol. BEST TOP 24 EVAH!!!!!!! Not. I fast-forwarded through everyone, except Jason Castro (kid with dreads) and David Archuleta. And they are making it impossible for me to like Archuleta because of the constant "HE'S 17!!!!!" (TM Randy), "I want to put him in my pocket and carry him around (TM Paula), and "The other 19 contestants are putting on sackcloth" (TM Simon). I'm also bitter that Melinda Doolittle didn't win last year. Who, by the way, just released My Funny Valentine as digital single. It's pretty good. Hopefully the girls are better tonight, and I might be able to finally figure out which blonde is which.

President's Day

So, today was a holiday for all those government and government-related workers--that meant me. I love these bonus holidays. They are great! I had extra time to run errands so I:

• Finished my taxes. Ouch.
• Crocheted another four inches on a baby blanket! The sucker is 41 inches wide X 22 inches long and growing. Baby is due in two weeks. I need to start moving!
• Went to the eye doctor and order new glasses.
• Picked up a friend and had lunch.
• Went with said friend to look at new furniture for my living room (got a new brown leather couch and recliner! Bye-bye 70's jungle print!)
• Came home and watched a bunch of Star Trek Voyager episodes.

Which leads me to why I wanted to blog. I'm on a number of e-dating sites. Okay 2. But that's a number, right? Anyway, site 1 is religion specific, and I've gone out with a couple of guys from those sites. One for like six months. And it didn't work. I've done long distance and across town. Site 2 is secular, and I haven't really gone out with anyone. But, now, I'm emailing with this EXTREMELY patient guy, who lives a bit a way (four hours), who is a religion professor (but not my religious background, who does however have a background in sacramental theology and knows the entire Ordinary of the Mass in Latin--randomly awesome). Anyway, it turns out that this same guy got his PhD where I did my undergrad. We missed each other at the UofI by three months. How crazy is that? Small world. Anyway, as e-dating goes, this guy gets points because he uses paragraphs, proper grammar, and punctuation. And asked me about my job. Brave man. So, we'll see. This leads me back to what I wanted to say orginially.

I went to a talk last week given by Sr. Timothy Prokes, FSE, who gave quite the interesting lecture on Theology and Virtual Reality. She detailed how virtual living (everything from online pay/electronic pay to SecondLife) impacts Christian living. Her basic premise was that by living in a world of electrons, we divorce ourselves from the physicality of Christ and embraced by the Church. Clearly, the Real Presence cannot exist virtually. Which leads me to the wisdom of e-dating? Is it wise to approach dating through cyber space? But, at the same time, isn't cyber space better than a local bar?

So, I'm befuddled. All while keeping nice religion professor guy waiting for an e-mail. Which I should send. So, off to that cyber dating site, while I continue to be befuddled by Sister's talk.

So, I've been tagged. Probably in an attempt by my friend lifeasamama to get me to resurrect my blog. (She's probably right, maybe I should take up her New Year's resolution to blog-a-day.)

Anyway, here are the tagging rules.

• Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
• Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm going to violate 3 and 4 as I'm new to the blog-o-sphere and feel horrible about tagging folks I don't know. But, hey, if anyone reads this, by all means, considered yourself tagged.

1. When I was very small (3 or 4), our house caught on fire. I was in the bath tub at the time, and my big brother came to rescue me. Instead of making me put on clothes, he gave me a towel and helped me rescue all the Strawberry Shortcake toys I got for Christmas. What a great big brother!
2. I'm a compulsive list maker. I make lists for everything. What to do at work, what to do when I get home, where I'm going on the weekend. I'm also compulsive about organization--my insanely large DVD collection is alphabetized. My books are organized by topic. Everything has a place in my house, and if it's out of order, I get a little bit stressed.
3. As I mentioned in 2, I love DVDs. Especially science fiction DVDs. I'm what you would call a sci-fi freak. When I was growing up, I had the X-Files "I want to believe" poster in my room, next to my "Everything I needed to know from life I learned from Star Trek the Next Generation" poster. I firmly believe that some of the most valuable lessons I've learned have come from sci-fi. What's incredible to me is that a lot of sci-fi is heavily Chirsto-centric. I mean, it doesn't mean to be (if you think about it, some sci-fi shows TRY to be atheistic), but it often is. Star Wars is obvious, but when you think about it Star Trek has elements of it. The mission of the Enterprise to seek out life and new civilizations? Really, they are living out St. Augustine's truism--"Our hearts are restless until the rest in you, O God." Every time the crew tries to "seek out new life," they end up learning more about the condition of the human person than anything, and the human condition leads back to God. Which leads me to...
4. Someday, I want to write books. I want to quit my job and write. I could totally write a book about the connection between science fiction and St. Augustine. My novel is floating around in my head--I actually am thinking of writing the character bible soon. Of course, unless I can start blogging and practicing the writing, my novel is a long time coming.
5. Clowns scare me. A lot. Seriously, what are they trying to hide with all that make up? However, I'm not alone.
6. I like to cook, but as a singleton, I usually just order pizza or Chinese food.
7. I have no idea who to vote for in Tuesday's primary.

Okay, so there you have it. I'm back to bloggity-ville. Have a great Sunday!

Wine Tasting...

On Labor Day, I went wine tasting with a group of friends! What fun to explore the subtle bouquets of the local wineries. But, I learned a few things about wines in general:

1. White wines made in steel barrels don't taste the same as white wine made in oak barrels or with oak chips in the barrels. I hadn't realized that there was such a divergence in the wine community about the choice. Apparently the implementation of steel barrels proves to be more economical for smaller vineyards. The tradeoff is that the white wines have a less "woody" taste.
2. The Bordeaux region of France doesn't like others calling wines made out of grapes from Brodeaux, "Bordeaux wines." Thus, "Bordeaux" wines from other locales are blended and called "Meritage" wines.
3. Vineyards go to a lot of trouble to make the wine tasting room and wine tasting experience so pleasant that you can't leave without buying some of there wine.
4. Tasting with cheese or chocolate can dramatically change your impression of the wine.

As it was, I ended up picking up four new bottles of wine. One is an exceptional dessert wine that I'm going to save for a special event (called Rosso Dolce). It tastes a lot like chocolate. I think I'll have to make a chocolate souffle to go with it. I also found a great red called an Alouette. It's a sweeter red wine. I also found a Vidal Blanc and a Seyval Blanc. Both are great end of summer white wines.

Return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte

Recently, I've pondered the difference between those living the single life and those living the family life. One of the things I've realized is that once you are married with a family, you mark time differently.

For example, my incredibily beautiful godson just turned 1. 1! What a great milestone! But for the last year, his mom and dad have measured time in rolling, teething, sitting up, the addition of foods, standing, and walking. Similarly, my newly married friends have marked all things from the date of their wedding. "Six months before we got married, it was Christmas!" Neither of these things are bad, though, I will admit to feeling a touch of envy at this alternative calendar.

Therefore, I am determined to make my own calendar for the next six months. This next three months will revolve around the joyous return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. I was so excited that I splurged and had a triple venti fully-fattening Pumpkin Spice Latte this week. It was heavenly. Ahh...time is good. And, at this point, it's only three more months until the Maple Machiatto, and after that, it's Peppermint Mocha time. Life can pass quickly when one measures the calendar with Starbucks!

So, for all those who have no milestones to measure the passing of days, I invite you to tick of the months by embracing your favorite blend.