Contrariwise

—1—
I do not make New Year’s resolutions. I make resolutions whenever I feel like it. The last thing I resolved to do was start praying Night Prayer again, and I haven’t been doing badly at it.

—2—
I had a lovely time ringing in 2010. Becca and I went down to Nick and Mary’s house. We watched some classic Cosby Show (but then, they’re all classic!), played Mario Party on Becca’s new Wii, tried out Uno Spin, and toasted along with Dick Clark. When I was in my MTV phase, I enjoyed the nontraditional midnight cover song, but after Clark’s stroke, I converted back. You have to admire that tenacity.

—3—
Just as I did last year, I managed to drive my mom’s Equinox back home without incident; let myself in; shower; go to Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God; come back; and eat breakfast before I ran into my mom at all. Dad was lounging in the same recliner during that entire period, but he was enjoying a day off, so I can’t blame him. It was nice to feel productive and accomplished for once.

—4—
I cannot believe that the last full day of my break is tomorrow. They always go too fast, and I never manage to work or read enough. I did make up for an entire semester’s worth of TV watching with a two-week Degrassi: The Next Generation marathon, though.

—5—
Continuing my teen TV-fest, I watched Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging on Nickelodeon tonight. I read the first few Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books, but her writing style was very kitschy and unnervingly British, so I got tired early on.

—6—
I think I might have a legitimate problem with my work. I have lost my ability to focus, especially on school/work. I wasn’t always like this, and it’s true even for things I enjoy (prayer, pleasure reading, sometimes even TV). The question is, where am I going to find the time to sort this out?

—7—
I am trying to blog more. It’s the same mini-resolution I make every time I’m on a long break from school. Writing makes me happy, though, and it helps me empathize with the work I assign to my students. Let’s see how long I can persist this go-round.

Tags: 7 Quick Takes Friday

I realized as I was posting yesterday that I don’t really blog anymore. I do bloggable things, but I don’t love this space like I used to. The reason I began journaling in the first place was to have a record of my life. This year in ACE has been unbelievable. I’m already going to forget so much of it, and that’s a tragedy in itself. I want to take a step towards changing that.

As I caught up on Catholic Carnivals today (I’m so far behind that it completely changed formats on me!), I stumbled across what may be the gateway to my revitalized blogging: 7 Quick Takes Friday. It’s hosted by Catholic blogger Jennifer at Conversion Diary. Unlike the Friday Five, it’s not purposely secular, but unlike the Catholic Carnival, it’s not explicitly religious, either. It might be the happy medium I’ve been searching for.

1. I have three weeks of school left. This is exactly nine days of instruction (including review days), three half-days of final exams, and two staff development days. Depending on when I leave to go back to ND, I have between twenty and twenty-one days left here. Where did the time go? It’s exciting, though, because I won’t be a first-year teacher once I finish this one, and I never have to do it again. Not like this. Never ever. Praise God!
2. In ACE, we have two supervisors for our communities: a site supervisor, who watches our teaching, and a pastoral administrator, who watches our community. Our pastoral administrator, Sarah, told me on her last visit that my Carpool Buddy and I relate like siblings. This week, some things went down at school that made me feel more like his little sister than I have in a very long time. I love that he wants to protect me, but I worry that he’s taking on too much responsibility for watching out for me. My situation will be changing dramatically very soon, so I’m taking the recent issues considerably better than I’ve handled anything this year. He’s away this weekend, and I absolutely supported his last-minute decision to go because he needed a break: from me and from this place. I’m not sure if I’m handling this the right way, though. How does a little sister take care of her big brother?
3. My car is under recall for a shift lever problem. It turns out that, when I put it in park, it might not actually shift into park, and it could roll away. Wonderful. I’m taking her to the dealer for a check-up on Monday before work.
4. Becca wrote me a letter back! Predictably, I haven’t been able to write back to her since I got her letter last week, but the point is that someone wrote back. Maybe this whole task of rekindling authentic relationships with my long-distance family and friends will work after all.
5. I read about the heresy of monophystism for the first time in Catholicism for Dummies this morning. It taught that Jesus’ divine and human natures were totally separate, leading to the definition of the hypostatic union. I must say, “hypostatic union” is one of my favorite technical terms. It just sounds so rock and roll, you know?
6. I observed (can’t say “had” because I wasn’t really that involved) a great conversation about the nature of the priesthood last night. McShane brought up an interesting point about priestly celibacy: if married priests are an allowable exception, why hasn’t it been validated further (say, in an order of married priests) rather than a continued exception? Thoughts for a full post later, perhaps.
7. I watched the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy with Sarah last night. Holy cow. I have not yelled and cried (and accidentally fallen asleep because I was very tired) that much in a long time. At least since the end of last season.

Tags: 7 Quick Takes Friday