Contrariwise

I should be reading Henry James right now. The CSC’s third annual Eucharistic Congress is tomorrow. Archibishop Pietro Sambi (the papal nuncio to the U.S. from the Vatican!) and Archbishop Wuerl will both be there. The only downside is that I won’t get to do any homework during the afternoon, so I had to make up for it today. I chose to start by finishing the reading I didn’t do for American Lit this week, so really, I’ve done nothing.

So what am I doing now? Blogging.

First, a joke from the CatholiCity Message:

A young man confessed to his priest that he was guilty of the sin of pride. “When I look in the mirror, I think I’m handsome.” The priest gently consoled him, “My son, you are in no spiritual danger. That is not a sin. That is a mistake.”

Then, the Friday Five (via LJ) : Senses Working Overtime
1. If you had to choose being blind or deaf, what would you choose and why? Deaf. I think American Sign Language is really cool, actually; I was in Sign Language Club during my freshman year. I feel like writing or watching could make up for not being able to hear the world around you, but sight is so precious and impossible to recreate any other way. Even if you describe something, your goal is to create a mental picture. If you’ve never seen the thing being described, though, creating that picture is impossible.
2. What is the best smell? I really like the smell of coffee. I don’t drink it, and I don’t really want to, but my roommates’ coffee smells so good as I blitz out the door in the morning.
3. Would you rather be hot or cold? I prefer being cold. I really hate sweating. Cold keeps me alert, which is why I study cold when I’m afraid of dozing off. I’ve thought about it before, and given the choice, I’d rather freeze to death than burn. Freezing would just be like the overwhelming desire to fall asleep. Burning would be agony.
4. What’s the worst feeling in the world? Loneliness. I like being alone, but not lonely. And it’s especially hard during those times when I feel like even God has left me. I know he doesn’t, though; God will not abandon.
5. Would you rather have something hurt or something be itchy? Definitely pain. I can offer up pain for souls in purgatory, or shift my mind away to something that doesn’t hurt, or just grit my teeth and sit it out. Ever since I learned in PSYC 100 freshman year that you can disrupt pain receptors by rubbing hard on a hurt spot, I’ve been doing it. It works every time. Itching is much worse, especially when you’re in public and it’s somewhere awkward to scratch. It is hard to take my mind off itchiness.

Happy Memorial of St. Patrick (to anyone who actually still reads this thing…)!

1. What’s your favorite shade of green? I prefer the darker shades. I have olive undertones, so anything with too much yellow makes me look washed-out.
2. Do you wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, and if not, do you ever get pinched? Most of the time, I wear green. Today I’m wearing red, because I didn’t bring anything green home for break. I think my mom pinched me once for not wearing green.
3. Do you do anything else to celebrate the holiday? I used the St. Patrick options for Lauds this morning, and I’ll add a petition to him at the end of my rosary today. I won’t get to use the St. Patrick Vespers, though, since it’s Saturday. Sunday evening trumps everything.
4. Have you ever consumed a green beer (or any other alcoholic beverage dyed green)? I don’t drink, so no. Five more months, haha.
5. Do you have a good luck charm, and if so, what is it? God? The Holy Spirit is about as close to a good luck charm as I ever get.

via The Friday Five @ LJ

Via F5 at LJ. And mine’s coming up, yay.

1. Do you really make wishes when you blow out the candles on your cake? Yes, but I don’t remember if I did last year. They’re usually general good luck wishes anyway.
2. Have any of the wishes ever come true, if yes? Sort of. Life comes with sucky days, too, unfortunately.
3. How do you feel about birthdays? (e.g., love the attention, just another day, don’t want anyone to know my real age, etc.) I really don’t like it when all eyes are on me, but I do like the chance to gather together my favorite people to, well, celebrate me. And my family always makes a scene. I groan about it, but I really do like that we have enough fun together to make a scene.
4. Tell us a favorite gift you’ve received, or something you’d really like for your next birthday. I got a keyboard for my tenth birthday (I think), which was awesome. I practiced on it for seven years straight. I kind of want an RSV Bible this year, but it’d be kind of awkward if any of my friends got me one. That’s the person I’ve become, though. … And I just went out and told my mom that I want the DVD of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so I’m good.
5. What flavor cake? Marble (yellow with swirls of chocolate) with chocolate frosting.

Via F5 at LJ. This is actually the set from last week, but I don’t have answers for this week’s, so there you go.

1. How much time do you spend on the Internet daily? Ha. Too much. At least three or four hours. I am such a mouse potato.
2. What are your favorite 3 websites? The Leaky Cauldron, FictionAlley, and … it’s hard to pick a site that’s not also a blog, so I’ll go with Nothing Less, which has the best design and organization I’ve ever seen.
3. Do you eat at your computer? Not really. I snack, sometimes I’ll drink water. At school, my computer is on my desk, which is the only good place for putting food, so I just hope I won’t knock something over.
4. Pick one and why - Reading the news online or in a newspaper? I rarely come across real newspapers, so I get most of my news online by default. I’m fond of wrestling big pages of newsprint when I get the chance, though.
5. How many people are on your instant messenger buddy list? 36. I’ve never had a lot, and I have to keep it trimmed down to help with my away message-stalking habit.

Also, according to WordPress, this is my 500th post. If I’d noticed, I would have made it more of a milestone, but I’m not sure having five hundred posts is such a good thing. A lot of the early ones are just online quiz results. :x

Via F5 @ LJ. I think they’ve posted similar questions to these before.

1. Are you named after anyone? If so, explain. I was just telling this to Lucille today. I am named after the actress who played the Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner. My parents also have a Sleep Number bed. This shows a slow but disturbing trend.
2. Do you have your children’s names picked out already? If so, is there any significance? I like the name Alyssa. Names of saints and biblical characters are also usually fine by me.
3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name have been? I had never asked that before I read that question. So I found my mom. Her reply? “You’re talking twenty years ago!” (I’m so old.) I would have been Kyle. I like that name.
4. If you could re-name yourself what name would you pick and why? I love my name. It took a while, but I got attached to it (beyond learning to answer to it, of course). Oh! I went through a phase where I wanted to change my name to something that started with a K. And now I know about Kyle. The subconscious is a scary place.
5. Are there any mispronunciations/typos that people do with your name constantly? My name is pretty much built for “creative” spellings. It’s usually a toss-up with Lindsey, but I’ve also seen Linzi/Lynzi, and Lynsey.