Tag Archives: blog

Seven Quick Takes Sunday

The other Jennie does it on Friday. So I’m a little late. What else is new? πŸ™‚

1. Broken McSickyPants
This is my new name. My medical issues have only gotten worse. I still have the continual chest pain (which has now become more pronounced) and dyspnea on exertion. Lately, we have added to the mix dizziness, incredible fatigue, nausea and that awful feeling like you are about to pass out. My doctors still don’t have a good idea of what is wrong with me, since I have been passing all of my medical tests (I guess I’ve always tested pretty well). At least the infected poison ivy spots are finally clearing up a little and healing! πŸ™‚ I do not feel like myself, and I hate that I can’t really do anything. Praise God, He gave me a good sense of humor and a sunny disposition. I am actually pretty happy overall.

2. On Being a Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist
Today, we had the pleasure of having Fr. Stanley celebrate Mass with us. Since I go to daily Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel, where he currently is at, I have been able to see him upon occasion (although he doesn’t really do the 6:30 a.m. Mass that I typically attend). Having him here at St. Anastasia for Sunday Mass was a real treat. He was my first confessor and he has a very comforting way about him. He joked about the length of his homilies as he began his homily today. I was sitting next to the girl I sponsored into the Church this year, and at one point she commented that the wooden pew was hurting her butt for some reason this week. I laughed, “You probably aren’t used to sitting in one spot for so long!” Again, picking on poor Fr. Stanley’s homily. πŸ™‚ In my defense, he started it! πŸ™‚ God gave me a wonderful gift of joy today, particularly during the Mass. I was happy that Fr. Stanley was there, but this went beyond him. As I went up to the altar and received my paten of consecrated hosts, I remember cradling the paten in my hands. I must have had some big idiotic grin on my face, but I wasn’t really worried about that. I just gazed lovingly at Jesus in my hands and thought to Him, “I love You!” I know, it sounds pretty sappy, right? But that’s okay. I don’t mind being sappy. πŸ™‚ I love Him. πŸ™‚ Sometimes I wonder what people think when they get me in line for Communion. Here I am with a huge smile on my face, handing them our Lord, and nearly petting Him into place in their hands — to make sure He gets there safely. Hopefully, they share in my joy at the presence of our Lord, and aren’t standing there thinking that I’m a little odd or something.

3. The World is Now a Safer Place!
Why? Because I finally got new tires on my car! After 1 year, 7 months, 23 days and nearly 47,000 miles of driving, it was finally time to discard the old and buy some new. Of course, the “red” tire health report card, “Change your tires IMMEDIATELY” postcard, squeaking around off-ramps in dry conditions and, finally, hydroplaning in the rain while driving straight all contributed to this decision. Perhaps that fact that I had racing slicks on my car is the reason why I got that speeding ticket a while back, earning me the name Zoomie Vroom McLawBreaker. I really liked that name, by the way. But I have been good, and have been using my cruise control until I can re-train myself to enjoy lower velocities.

4. iPhone vs. BlackBerry Tour
Ah, just when I thought that I would finally change service providers in order to get the fancy-pants new iPhone (since bundling my home internet, land line, and TV service would save me about $60 a month), I have been given pause to reconsider. On Saturday, after getting my tires changed, I walked into the Sprint store, help up my current BlackBerry and challenged, “Why should I not want to trade this in for an iPhone? Convince me!” Now, mostly, I like the iPhone for all the apps and stuff that you can get with it, and for the larger screen. The touch screen keyboard would be a hindrance to typing as you drive (just for example, not that I do this necessarily . . . . ), but it is fun for scrolling. Being able to sync to my Podcasts and iTunes is also a definite plus. I know that iPhone is compatible with my work e-mail system, so that’s not an issue either. And it can go international, which was the main reason why I picked my BlackBerry 8830 in the first place.

Now, nice things about the BlackBerry Tour include the fact that I can increase the memory by adding a micro SD card, and that they give me a 1 GB out the door. That’s pretty sweet. Then, I found out that the new BlackBerry will also have a similar capacity for apps. As an upgrade to my current phone, this one has all the same capability, but adds on a camera and video feature, which I had been missing. The screen resolution is also pretty sweet. They say it supports AAC encoding, so I shouldn’t have to convert my iTunes library, and that it might soon or already does have an app to help with syncing.

Soo…. What can the iPhone do that the Tour cannot also do? And I can still save my $60 a month, by getting rid of my second cell phone. Please discuss benefits of one over the other in the comment box.

5. This Crazy Bipolar Weather
Today it has been alternating between being sunny with puffy white clouds and torrential downpours. Seriously. We left Mass, went to CostCo, came back and it started raining like crazy, just made it in the church before we got completely soaked. Then, we had our 1.5 hour Faith CafΓ© meeting, and by the time we got out, everything had dried up! I even managed to mow the lawn when I got home! It wasn’t wet anymore! Then, just now, the rains came again. I raced out, snapped a couple pics, then . . . it was over. Sun’s peeking out again. πŸ™‚ Gotta love Michigan!
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6. Reading Material
I am SO excited, because I have finally finished reading the entire Bible! Okay, okay, so I did this a couple weeks back, but I am still excited! I have bought myself a new Ignatius Bible, RSV translation, the leather one. Yay! Isn’t it gorgeous?! (Humor me)
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My next project is to read the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church! πŸ™‚

7. Blogging and Facebook
Have you guys noticed this phenomenon in your personal life? I have noticed that the more I am on Facebook, the less I blog. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. I tend to get more feedback from Facebook (I think my “feeds” are more read there), yet I can’t usually go into depth on any topic. I just found out how to link my blog posts to my Notes on Facebook. Let’s see if this helps any, or just confuses the matter. πŸ™‚

Follow our Archbishop as he goes on pilgrimage to Rome!

Archbishop Vigneron has established a blog so that the faithful may share in his pilgrimage to Rome. Below is an explanation of the purpose of the blog, taken from the site:

As he travels to the Vatican to receive the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron invites the faithful from the Archdiocese of Detroit to share in his journey. His Excellency, and a few fellow pilgrims who are travelling with him, hope this blog can be a way for you, too, to share in this experience. It will culminate with a Mass on June 29, the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, at which the archbishop will celebrate the Eucharist with Pope Benedict and fellow bishops from around the world, and at which he will receive his pallium.

The pallium itself is a thin, woolen scarf or band that an archbishop wears during liturgies. It is given only to metropolitan archbishops to represent their sharing in the pope’s ministry of shepherding God’s people on earth. As Archbishop of Detroit, Archbishop Vigneron is the metropolitan archbishop for the six other dioceses of Michigan. Four other archbishops from the United States, and several more from around the world, also are receiving their pallia on June 29.

For more detailed information about the pallium, please visit the Archdiocese of Detroit Web site at www.aodonline.org/pallium. And, of course, follow along on this blog as you pray with and for Detroit’s chief shepherd on his pilgrimage.

Graduate Record Exam

I would love to say that the reason why I have been so incommunicado recently has been because I have been studying furiously for my GREs.

Alas.

I have put in maybe, oh, 5 hours *total* to studying, despite all my plans to work diligently on my study guide. Add that to the fact that I have never in my life taken a vocabulary class, have issues with language in general, haven’t seen simple algebra in years and can’t do geometry to save my life, and you have a picture of why my grades are suboptimal. I did, however, take an IQ test last night (yes, instead of studying….) and got a 155, which is in my normal range of 147-179. These things are important to know, when you are about to take a test that will kick the pants off you.

Right after taking the test, the computer gives you your verbal and quantitative scores. You have to wait a few weeks to get your analytical writing scores, which are graded by an actual person. The first thing I did after taking my GRE was (of course) go to Starbucks and get a venti peppermint white mocha. (Yums!) Then, I sat in my car in their parking lot and looked up my scores in their book, to see what my percentiles were.

On the quantitative/math section, I scored in the low 60s. Okay, so 40% of the population can do this stuff better than me. I’m fine with that. I said I can’t to geometry to save my life, and I’m sticking to it! I also don’t have any spatial reasoning skills, but they don’t test on that. πŸ™‚

On the verbal section, I scored in the 96th percentile. Yippee! I’ll take it! πŸ™‚ Hopefully, it will be good enough to get into grad school, because I am *really* excited about beginning my studies. πŸ™‚

Oh, and what does one do after taking the GREs?
1. Starbucks
2. Find percentiles
3. Go home and dance
4. Jump on the trampoline
5. Write on your blog