Who?

I got up this morning around 6:30 a.m.; my back pain did not allow me to lie about longer. I fired off one e-mail in pursuit of a job, then read chapter 5 on Dominican spirituality. I have chapters 5 and 6 saved to my computer. It's been so long since I read the other chapters that I don't remember what they covered. Chapter 5 is "Dominican Life is Liturgical" which basically emphasizes that prayer is central to daily Dominican life. Unless we have spent time in prayer and pondering, we might miss the Lord's promptings: "Sometimes the Holy Spirit sends his illuminations long after the period of formal prayer has passed. It may be in the thick of the apostolate that the priest hears his whisperings. He will not hear these soft-spoken promptings if he does not live in the atmosphere of prayer, if he has not made a cell in his own heart."(1)

Then I went in search of the book online, searching the Dominican links I have, and was unsuccessful. Well, I still have chapter 6 to read and I'm quite certain I'll find it eventually.

Then I had a can of soup for breakfast. Then reviewed the first chapter of my CCNA book. That made me groggy - a full belly and a dry book. So I proceeded to pick up my attempt to memorize Psalm 27. I was working on the third "stanza" (Hear my voice, LORD, when I call...) Going over and over it in my groggy mind. Then out of nowhere pops "Did you tell me who I am?"

My immediate reaction was "Who is this idiot that needs me to tell him who he is?" Which was very quickly followed by "uh oh" then ...

Lord, You are my God and my Saviour.
Just as the beginning of the Psalm said, You are my light and my salvation.
You are the source of all good.
You are the source of my being.
You are my Lord and my God.

1. DOMINICAN SPIRITUALITY: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE by William A. Hinnebusch, O.P.

out

Last day on the job. I tried to leave quietly but one rowdy fella pretty much announced it to all with a loud "BYE ___!" as I was walking out. I spread the news to some yesterday evening. Then the news got around this morning. So by the time I left this afternoon, I would think that most if not all knew about it.

I am very happy to be leaving the job that just didn't fit me. I did no better and no worse than anyone else, though I did have one or two commendations. It just wasn't good for my psyche for me to be stationary to a cubicle 12-14 hours straight daily (except for for a restroom break, butt break, or a vist to the vending machine) and constantly on edge to keep on top of things. Exhausted when I get home at night, dragging when I get up in the morning.

So now I'm happily liberated, though unemployed. I stopped by a church on the way home. I was hoping to do an impromptu visit to an OP afterwards, but there was no answer when I called and I didn't leave a message. So I just went home. Then washed my car. Finally. I hadn't seen daylight on a weekday in such a long time. It was strange. But very nice.

Jasper test results

OK, I threw out a *few* resumes. Hopefully some company is desperate enough to hire me. Did I already say that dial-up on my dinosaur computer is *slow* ? Then for fun I took the Jasper test. Results follow. I think I'd make a terrific Dominican novice. I just need corporate sponsorship to make my debts disappear.

Type 1 (Thinker)
What you want out of work:To quietly do your work in a thoughtful way without rocking the boat too much.
Your colleagues think of you as:Introspective, somewhat reserved but easy to get along with.
What you have to offer:A steady worker who thinks things through before acting.

Diplomatic. Your leadership style can be characterized as Diplomatic. You are patient and poised and exude a sense of calm. When you're in a leadership role, you are tactful in your interactions and your relaxed disposition makes others feel assured in your presence.
Agreeable. You are more Agreeable than Rousing when it comes to your work personality. As someone who goes with the flow, you have the ability to adapt to almost any change that is thrown your way. You tend to be quite accommodating to your colleagues and easy to be around.
Multi-tasking skills. With multi-tasking as your strongest universal skill, you are likely effective in managing multiple things at once and are talented in producing work quickly. You are sharp, tend to be a quick learner, and don't get daunted in the face of stress.
Collaborative. You show strength in your ability to be a Collaborative worker. While you're not at a loss when working by yourself, you feel much more productive when you can work with a team and bounce ideas off of other people. You also likely enjoy the camaraderie of group work.

The Jasper Test is Monster’s free online Job Assets & Strengths Profile Test career tool designed to help you find the ideal work environment. I didn't post the link previously partly because I'm lazy and partly because you might have to have a Monster account to access it.

rite

What is Seeking_Something up to? Seeking has had enough with the job from hell. I intend to end my hell very soon. Do I have another job lined up? No. Well, that's crazy. Uh huh, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
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We had the rite of acceptance at mass this morning. Four catechumens and two candidates will now move forth into RCIA Sundays - "to know God and to love your neighbor", then hopefully to join at Easter.

a snippet from the rite:
Priest: What do you ask of God's Church?
Catechumens: Faith.
Priest: What does faith offer you?
Catechumens: Eternal Life.

My friends, these few words are very big questions. WHAT DO YOU ASK OF GOD'S CHURCH? This is so mind-boggling I don't even know where to begin. In this rite, God's Church promises you FAITH.

The next time that "Church" disappoints you, I'd like to ask you, "What is Church?" and "What do YOU ask of God's Church?"

HELP!

Howdy all. If you could help out efforts in Kenya, it would be much appreciated.

I have met this tenacious, resourceful and energetic Sister and I assure you that no donation will be wasted. It is a very challenging political environment there in Africa. Your assistance in monetary or material goods or spiritual support and moral encouragement will help them overcome their challenges. Even an e-mail would be uplifting. Snail mail, I was told, is much appreciated. Any teachers out there? You could have your young'uns overwhelm these missionaries with a postcard from each of your students.

US Postage rates to Kenya are $0.75 for post cards not exceeding 6" x 4 1/4" and $0.84 for envelopes not exceeding 1 ounce. (For reference: the domestic $0.39 rate is for an evelope not exceeding 1 ounce.)

Thanks all.

just a little OP time

My job from hell kept me from getting to the Dominican event on time. In fact, I was an hour late. Even at that, I was violationg some job rules, leaving before the job was done (almost 3 hours past my shift end). I was very angry when I left work; the workload is downright unreasonable. But in the 15 minutes that took me to get to the Dominicans, I had calmed down.

I enjoyed the time I had with the OP's. We had a nice turn-out of seven women, myself included, discerning. I slept fine Friday night and woke up Saturday around 6:15 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. Then my bladder eventually made get out of bed. Still a little groggy, I bumped the wall in the bathroom and probably woke up the person adjoined to the bathroom. Oops. Uh, a little taste of community life for that person maybe. Anyhow, had I been at home I would probably have slept until 9 or 10 a.m.

I'm back home now, back to my reality. I like my goodbyes short and simple, so as soon as I got the good bye hugs, I was out the door. Mainly because I know that my hosts will have post-event work to do and I didn't want to delay them. I'm up for my volunteer gig at my parish tomorrow. I'll be back to my usual Sunday get-ready-for-the-week activities. I'll need to shoot off a thank-you card as soon as possible, and perhaps send snail mail to one of the OP's overseas. She was here for the event but was leaving to return to her mission. It'd be nice for her to get mail.

love the blog

Ask Sister Mary Martha is just a blast. I can't remember what alerted me to this blog. I love it.

weekend in review

On the topic of confession, I wonder what the priests do afterwards. They can't talk about it. Do they just emerge from the confessional and say something like, "Well, that hour is over. Hey, you wanna go grab some cold beer? I wonder what's for dinner?"

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Slept late yesterday. Got up and chilled out for the morning. Forgot all about the shuttle launch. I was doing dishes around noon when Tonto got up. I ran some errands. Came back and ate a little something then my stomach got upset. Tonto agreed that I shouldn't worry about the other errands. So I took a nap until ...
"Hey, have you gone to bed for the night?"
"No, it was supposed to be a nap. What time is it?"
"Eleven"
Wow. That's a 4-hour nap.
So I got up and reheated some dinner for Tonto. I ate a slice of watermelon then spent some time on the computer. After several rounds of Sudoku, I finally got my butt up around 2 a.m. to take care of some of the things I meant to take care of that day: vacuumed half the house, cleaned out the cat house (man, they made a mess), refilled the water cooler, and ironed five t-shirts. I think I went to bed around 4:30. Sunday morning I was up at 9 a.m. ready to go. I changed out the porch light bulb before heading of to mass.

My Pastor ... I do love my pastor ... most masses, he manages to bungle up something. But he's so handsome and rather senior so it's kinda cute. (Well, he's also pretty darn smart, gives great homilies and is absolutely awesome with the sacraments.)
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Ran into two sisters at a restaurant check-out counter this afternoon. "Hello, Sister, are you with the CCVI's?" I inquired. "No, IWBS" she said. "Oh, Incarnate Word. Say hello to Sr. __ " I admit I was pretty smug about knowing those initials. Actually, IWBS is the English version, they are actually CVI's. There are so many out there, it could easily have been one that I'm not familiar with. Oh, and I knew they were Sisters only because they wore the nun's headpiece and I guessed at the congregation by the colors they wore. Many of the CVI's do wear the habit.
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I'm looking forward to next weekend, when I get to spend some time with the OP's.

finally

...made it to confession
My confessor said to me, "Sit back, this is not a test."

hee hee

Please

If you name your dog "Please" then I suppose it would go like this:

Please, sit!
Please, down!
Please, stay!
Please, no!

and so on...

no sir

I am 99.99% of the time stony faced and dead serious, except for the occasional obligatory smile to go with "hello!" and "I'm just fine!" And in truth, I am at this moment stony faced and dead serious, but at least I can be more expressive in writing:

**giggle**
I received a vocational mailing today ... from a men's order.
**giggle**

Yes, I get gender mix-ups quite often. It happens quite understandably when it's not face to face, due to my name being what it is (which y'all don't know). It sometimes happens even in person, but only rarely. Gender neutral jeans an t-shirts kinda confuses some, I guess.

honey do

Happy Labor Day to all.

Went to work today. Left work half an hour before my shift ended. Came home and ate a little something. Ran a little errand for Tonto. Then bought a kitchen faucet on sale. Then spent the rest of the evening uninstalling the old faucet and installing the new faucet. The last time I did this, it was a $20 faucet (so it was the $20 faucet that I was removing). We went more upscale this time with the faucet. The last time I did this, it was also my first time it it confirmed that yes indeed, I do NOT have a basin/faucet wrench. I remember that fact but still refused to buy one, since replacement of a faucet hasn't happened all that often. The new faucet looks good a works good.

That's the thing about having a house: you are forever fixing this or fixing that. There is a very long list of what this house needs. A few weeks ago I put up a towel rack. It took a whole month before I ever got around to it.

Maybe if Tonto's friend, the one that helped us with the washer and introduced me to agitator dogs, would get in touch then he'd help super tighten the faucet down. Tonto is really concerned about this friend as we've not heard from him in a while. "I hope he's not dead," Tonto says. Some people are plagued with stuff that happens to them -- he's one of those.

whipped

I'm exhausted. I know, you hear that from me ALL the time. I can't even begin to tell you about my past week. It would take up the entire internet space ... yes, really. I crawled to bed around 4a.m. last night. The plan was to shower in the morning. Well, I woke up barely in time to just wash up and make it to mass. (Thank you God for waking me up in time.) I was up for my volunteer stint; I had to be there. I was a little late getting there and normally I'd jog up to the church doors if I was running late. But this morning, I could only think about how I'm too tired to jog. My volunteer thing does not require me to interact. So I did my thing and left. I didn't say anything to anybody - coming or going. I didn't even greet my pastors. No hug, no "good morning" - just in and out. And either everything went just fine with the volunteer thing (thank you, Holy Spirit), or I was just too out-of-it to recognize that there were problems.

I'm popping some pills for my sinus and I'm going to take a nap.