Category Archives: Exciting Adventures of the Everyday

If the Church Hadn’t Been Locked…

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday

Irony. Sometimes it smacks you in the face. At least it does to me. Just after leaving Gallup Park, I texted a friend and asked (to her and to myself) what other adventure I might run into on my way home.

Well, ask and ye shall receive, right?

So, apparently the virus that I caught wasn’t some simple cold virus, but Ebola or some other hemorrhagic, because as I was driving on the expressway, I started bleeding everywhere. Of course, I didn’t have any Kleenex or napkins in the car. Of course not. Soon all of me is covered in blood and I look like Carrie after the prom.

I figure that I will stop by OLGC and clean up there. I’m not certain that they are open, though, because it’s Easter Week, and they usually take this week off. When I get there, tons of cars are in the parking lot and a lacrosse game is being played on the field. Surely, the church building would be open, right?

I get out of the car and, taking only my keys, walk to the door. I’m trying to be inconspicuous, because all these kids are here and my face, hand, arm — all covered in blood. They don’t need to see that. But the church is locked. Great. Now what?

I try to think of some place on the property that is relatively secluded, so that I can clean up without drawing notice. As I was driving back to the front of the property, I choose behind the garden of Gethsemane, where there’s a bunch of trees and brush on this big island in the parking lot.

Luckily, I had brought my water bottle with me from work and it was nearly full. I had anticipated walking around Gallup Park for a while and being thirsty.

Which brings me to kneeling behind the garden of Gethsemane, using water from my water bottle to try and frantically scrub all the blood off me. So I can look normal again and not like someone from either Rescue-911 or America’s Most Wanted. [Okay, what is it with me and all the pop culture references today?]

And then, I noticed something.

If the church hadn’t been locked, and I hadn’t been kneeling behind the garden of Gethsemane, I might have missed these:

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Cute purple spring crocuses! How pretty!

April and Jack Night!

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, , , ,

Ok, so I was too busy enjoying the company of my friends to take any photos. Sorry! You’ll just have to use your imagination here. 🙂

Last night, April and Jack came over with a surprise dinner. All I had to do was pre-heat the oven as they were leaving their house. We had a delightful lasagna, which was stuffed with all kinds of veggies. It was quite possibly the best veggie lasagna that I’ve had! 🙂 And a simple salad with yummy bread.

I regaled them with some of the many, many stories that I have, but some of the best times were between dinner and dessert, where we ventured into the backyard…

… and they discovered the trampoline!

We all took turns bouncing the others and as a grand finale, April jumped off the trampoline into Jack’s waiting arms! 🙂 Because we have the mad skillz and are wicked awesome like that.

Even though Spring has not yet fully arrived (or so it seems), we already are dreaming of Summer, where we can have sleepovers on the trampoline, play in the sprinkler and have bonfires in the backyard! It will be lovely!

We finished the night with April’s dessert: chocolate pudding, graham cracker and marshmallow-y goodness!

Jack was getting tired by the end of the night and ended up sprawled out on the futon at one point. Which just shows me that we are going to be excellent friends. 🙂

Alas, it was a work night and we had to say goodbye far, far too soon!

Come back, come back! As soon as you can! 🙂 Many more adventures to be had! 🙂

Cutest Little Pies Ever!

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Food, ,

Forgive me. I am eating as I type this. YUMMM!

A friend of mine posted on Facebook the March Menu for Sister Pie, which is run by Lisa. She makes breads, cookies and pies. I’ll show you what I saw:

Sister Pie

The honey buttermilk lemon pie and the leafy greens and goat cheese pies sounded great, so I ordered a 6-inch of each. We set a day and she even delivered them right to my work! How awesome is that! 🙂 She even gave me a hot cross bun to try! 🙂

Hot Cross Bun
I’m giving you big pictures so it will seem like it is closer to your tummy! 🙂

Next, the pies! They arrived in cute, little boxes:
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese PieHoney Buttermilk Lemon Pie

And were even cuter on the inside!
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese Pie
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese

Honey Buttermilk Lemon Pie
Honey Buttermilk Lemon

[Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures, I have been leaving my camera at home lately!]

These little pies are quite substantial! I had the bun and about 1/4 of the leafy green pie for lunch and am stuffed! 🙂

If you want to get some deliciousness for yourself, contact:
Lisa Ludwinski
lisa.ludwinski at the Gmail
646-469-7539

And I’ll leave you with an image of the inside of my pie!
Leafy Greens and Goat Cheese Pie

They Always Make Me Cry

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Sacraments, , ,

I love going to Confession at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit. But, they always make me cry. I guess I tend to feel God’s love and mercy a little more when I am there, for some odd reason. I don’t go there very often, but save it, so that when I do go, it feels “special”.

That and I usually buy something from their gift shop. LOL! 🙂

Today, they had something new in the gift shop, a candle that burns in a spiral, filling the bottom portion with wax as it burns. Once the spiral burns out, the “new” candle burns for hours. 🙂 Here’s a little video showing it:

I also picked up some honey that they make, to make my honey dijon chicken for dinner, and a couple other small things.

It was bright and sunny as I exited, and I feel truly blessed. 🙂

The Embarrassing Truth

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday

Here is the embarrassing truth:

Master Bedroom: Original State

My master bedroom is a disaster.

My myopathy means that I get tired super quick. Okay, not “tired”, but exhausted to the point that I can only lay supine on some flat surface. I also get short of breath a lot. And have cardiac arrhythmias. And build up lactic acid like a fiend.

So simple household chores are really difficult for me to stay on top of. Especially considering that I still work full-time and have other obligations that take me outside of the house. The general rule is that I don’t get home until about 9:30 pm or so. And then, I’m lucky if I have enough energy left to make dinner.

Forget about doing the dishes.

And laundry? It’s exhausting just to bring the hamper to the laundry room and then move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Usually the dryer is running while I sleep. Then, in the morning, I grab the clothes onto the bed and find whatever I need to wear for work that day. I don’t have time then to put them away or fold them. When I get home, I’m too tired to deal with them. So, I shove them to one side of the bed and sleep on the other side. Eventually, they fall off onto the far side of the bed and lay there in a heap of clean laundry.

I also don’t have a good organization system for things. And I’m terrible with flat surfaces. It’s just so easy to plop something down on the nearest available surface and forget about it. Things pile up with alarming frequency. I need real help in this area.

I recently took a Project Management course where we had to come up with a project charter and plan. I did mine on a bedroom make-over.

See, for about a year now, I have wanted to replace my dressers (which I don’t really use for clothes) with a shelving system from IKEA that I can use to organize books and pictures and things.

And I also wanted to repaint my bedroom a more exciting color. Like aquamarine. It’ll be like a beach theme.

Eventually, I also want to buy a chair for the one corner so I can read by the window, replace the light with a light/ceiling fan combo, and finish upgrading the outlet to 3-prong receptacles.

My goal is to get all of this done by this fall. (Hopefully, much sooner, but I’m giving myself time.)

I’ll be creating a new tag for this project, so that you can follow along as I go (and find the thread of post among all the other stuff I put up here).

Thanks for your support! 🙂

Waking Up

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Health & Medicine
Sick Jennie

Wake up. Arrhythmia. Hard to breathe.

Exhausted.

Check phone which is lying next to me. Read text; pray for friend.

Thirsty, but exhausted. Don’t want to get out of bed, but there’s no one else to grab me something to drink.

Lay there for a few minutes… Finally, get out of bed and get some juice. Starting to think in longer phrases.

Then.

Dizziness. Nausea.

Drink 3 ounces. Go back to bed. Flop down.

Get back up.

After all, this is my life. Usually, I have to go in to work or have something else planned for my day. This morning, I don’t have anything pressing. So, I’ll blog about it. Not to get sympathy, but because this is my experience right now. I don’t feel sorry for myself; it’s true that I have difficult times, but everyone has difficulties, right? It’s important to remember other people, particularly when you are not doing well yourself.

This is usually the time when I pray for others the most. Frequently, I’ll ask my priest for names of people who are in particular need of prayer, whom I’ve never met and probably never will. They say that offering your suffering for others is redemptive for them in some way, and I cling to that. Also, just the fact of focusing on someone else, instead of myself, distracts me from what I’m going through and helps my to learn to love others better.

Later today, I’m going to surprise a friend with a gift. Because she’s not feeling well. 🙂 It involves a bit of shopping, so hopefully I’ll feel just a little bit better and be able to drag myself out of the house.

Until then, do you think it’s okay to wish for minions who can run errands for you? 🙂

[My mom says this photo is the only one she’s ever seen of me in which I don’t look good. And that’s why she kept it. Thanks, Mom!]

Someone Has a Sense of Humor

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday

Okay. First, my phone sent me this notification this morning:
Time to Leave for Christ
(Which makes me wonder…. Did I miss it?)

Alrighty. Then, I am reading in the Catechism. What is the next section/paragraph that I am to read?

Paragraph 1006. Starting the section on Death.

Very funny. 🙂

I guess I’m extra glad that I went to Confession last night?!?

Stunning Sunrise

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Photography

This morning, I’m struggling to compensate for how much pain I’m in, so I have cute clothes on, hair arranged, make-up on, got an iced chai at Starbucks and blasted happy music all the way in to work. God apparently went along with this plan, because He gave me an amazing sunrise to watch. I mean, just LOOK at these colors!

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The photo is grainy and stuff, but when you are merging from one highway to another and working with a point-n-shoot…. 🙂

Here’s another “lovely” shot…

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And here’s an “action shot,” taken over my shoulder out the window. 🙂

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Finally, I pulled into the parking lot of a nearby hotel and walked as close as I could to the highway to get a clear shot.
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I’ll give you some more shots, so you can enjoy it, too. This is straight out of the camera — no edits.

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This is also straight out of the camera, but I started playing with some of the color settings. 🙂

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Hope you have a blessed day!

Apparently, I’m One of Those Annoying People

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, , , ,

Because all “morning people” are annoying, right? 🙂 I can’t help it. I wake up happy. Sometimes giggling. Sometimes I jump out of bed. It doesn’t typically take me long to get going in the morning. While I like coffee, I don’t need it to function like a human. Etc, etc.

Consequently, I tend to be loud and boisterous in the morning. So, it’s a blessing that I live alone. That way I don’t bother other people. Take this morning for example.

I woke up about 5 am and decided that I wanted to listen to some music. While showering. Which meant that I had to blast the music on the stereo in the living room, so that I’d be able to hear it in the shower. You can’t do this if you live in a condo or apartment. At least if you don’t want to be killed in a slow and torturous manner. 🙂

This is the song that I was blasting, a throwback to my Navy days:

It played once through the shower, once for dressing, and then as a final measure, I played it a third time while dancing around the living room brushing my teeth. Because I do that. 🙂

I don’t think my stereo noise goes too much beyond the confines of my house, but I left the doors open to my car with the radio on (loud — I like to feel my music) while wiping the condensation off the windows, and thought that it might be disturbing to my neighbor, Dominic. Fortunately for me, Dominic was getting into his truck to go to work, so I wasn’t waking him up. 🙂 Plus, it’s cool enough outside lately that it’s not likely that he would have his bedroom window open, which is right next to my driveway.

Calm, peaceful, lazy, relaxing, grumpy… These are not adjectives for me! 🙂

So, yeah, I’m one of those annoying morning people! And happy for it! 🙂

Thursday Yums!

Adventures in Cooking, Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Food, , ,

Thursdays are when my biweekly shipment of organic fruits and veggies come in! This week, I was particularly excited, because they just started offering home delivery of milk and dairy products! I love milk and I hate the grocery store, so this is a little piece of heaven just for me! 🙂

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This week, I also got a head of lettuce and some tomatoes. Which pretty much means “salad” to me. I don’t get too fancy usually with my salads. Doesn’t it look great, though?!

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And there you have it! My Thursday dinner! 🙂