For the love of all that is good and Holy....

....someone please put me out of my misery now!

Hallelujah! I have discovered the greatness that is Flannery O'Connor!

I cannot believe that I have survived this long without discovering her work. It's amazing.

I was having a very unproductive library trip last week, so I decided to peruse the classics section because I can always find something there.

Nothing really struck my fancy though so I decided to grab Mansfield Park and an anthology of Flannery O'Connor works.

I am in love with her writing. It's so rich and the imagery is amazing. I can almost visualize the scenes as I'm reading.

Sigh, too bad I'm sitting through the most mind-numbingly dull class that ever existed right now. I thought CivPro was bad, but this is much, must worse.

I'm going to start banging my head against the desk until sweet oblivion arrives.

The Bank of Life

Life, whether social or business, is a bank in which you deposit certain funds of character, intellect and heart; or other funds of egotism, hard-heartedness and unconcern; or deposit--nothing! An the bank honors your deposit, and no more. In other words, you can draw nothing out but what you have put in.

If your community is to give you admiration and honor, it is merely necessary to be admirable and honorable. The more you put in, the more will be paid out to you.

Emily Post (1922) Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home

This Blog is under the patronage of Our Lady of LaSalette

Fifteen year old Melanie and eleven year old Maximin were out tending their cows. They were simple children. When we say "simple" we don't mean like that magazine or the Amish. We mean 'dim bulbs.' They are simple enough to fall asleep and all lose track of the cows. When they awoke they went
looking for the cows but instead found a big ball of light. A beautiful lady stepped out of it. It was the Virgin Mary.

Unlike other Mary sightings, Mary is wearing an odd costume (not her usual blue), never mentions the rosary and she never stops crying. Mary slumps onto a rock and sobs. She tell the children that Jesus has absolutely had it with cart drivers using his name in vain. She tells the children Jesus is very angry and she can’t hold Him back much longer.

Apparently everyone stopped swearing in La Salette after that, as the town still stands.

Thanks Sister Mary Martha!

Visit Sister's Etsy shop.

To The Impatient Driver Behind Me...

Dear Fellow Motorist,

I just wanted to say good morning to you too! I agree that it's a beautiful summer day.

All pleasantries aside, I did notice that you appeared to have some difficulties with the etiquette of what to do when a traffic light is out. I'm trying my hardest to keep with my self imposed goal of becoming a nice person, so I thought I'd help you out.

When a traffic light is out, you're supposed to treat the intersection as a four way stop. I'm going to assume only the best about you and guess that you don't drive in the area a lot, so you perhaps didn't know that the light from the 275 off ramp onto Beechmont Ave goes out every time there's a storm. I'm also going to assume that perhaps you're a very heavy sleeper and that you didn't catch any of the local news this morning so you wouldn't have heard about the bad thunderstorms last night. That's okay. Now you know.

You should also know that when your fellow drivers are treating said intersection as a four way stop, that laying on your horn when I stopped to allow the cars from the exit ramp to take their turn does not exhibit the best manners. But that's okay too, I'll just assume that perhaps you were busy.

Except you turned to go to Lowe's at the next light, so I'm not sure what was so important at 7:45 this morning that you couldn't stop and wait your turn like everyone else was doing. Now I'm still trying to be a good person, so I didn't say anything or make any gestures in your general direction. I didn't even shoot you a dirty look - instead I said a Hail Mary to myself.

However, I've decided that my desire to be a better person doesn't stop me from wishing bad driving karma on you. So the next time you're stuck at the end of that exit ramp and some yahoo doesn't follow the rules for a malfunctioning traffic light, I hope you enjoy the wait.

Yours truly,
The girl in the grey civic.

"Good News For Catholics"

Do any of my astute readers (all three of you) know anything about an organization called Good News For Catholics? I know they're anti-Catholic but other than that I haven't heard much about them.

The reason I ask is because I found one of their tracts at my grandmother's house over the Fourth of July weekend. I didn't get a good chance to look at it though, but from a quick glance it seems to be the usual "Catholics don't read the Bible so if you encourage them to read the Bible then they'll no longer be Catholic, etc..."

Testing

I just added an application called ScribeFire to Firefox. You might see more entries from me if this works.

Exhausted

I did two shifts in the margarita booth at the festival this weekend. Last night was much busier than Friday night was, but also more fun. Dcn. Dave, Roxanne and I had a fun time. I saw Dcn. Dave after mass this morning, but forgot to ask him if he ever managed to make his "dacquitas" look as pretty as mine did. :)


In other news, I've decided I have a knack for making it rain. After holding off for a few days, I finally dragged the hose out and watered my flowers this afternoon, only to be treated to a thunderstorm a few hours later. Sigh.


I suppose I've procrastinated enough. I need to go study for PR.

CoC Funeral

I went to a church of Christ funeral today. It was really kind of sad. It was just a graveside service--the preacher gave a sermon about how we all needed to come to Jesus before we died and we sang two hymns--Amazing Grace and Revive Us Again.

I have a problem with preachers preaching their funeral sermons about how the good majority of the audience is going to go to hell. At least this preacher didn't condemn people to Hell by name like I've seen done before.

It was strange because most of the people there were from my old congregation. I stood in the back with my other apostate cousins and said the rosary during the main part of the service.

There was something lacking with the whole service. I can't pinpoint exactly what, but it all felt very superficial.

O/T but even with someone musically trained leading the acapella hymns, there is still something to be said for instrumental music. There was one couple there neither of whom could carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it :)

Bridesmaid Dresses

The style on the left is what I plan to use for my bridesmaids' dresses. I'm thinking I'll do the underdress in a matte black and the over dress in some kind of organza. Then I'll have the bridesmaids wear black elbow gloves.

iPhone Mania

There was a line of people wrapped around the AT&T store on the corner this morning. It took me a minute to realize what was going on--the new iPhone.

I guess having the latest is important to some people.