Can I get a little R&R?

Jess on November 6, 2008

I added a new blog to my RSS feed which is pretty significant for several reasons. For one, it was recommended to me by Joe who is in law school and I have a theory that the reason he largely recommends boring things to me is because much of his life is spent reading things unimaginably boring so he can trudge through things i won’t touch. For two, I very rarely add foreign blogs to my rss feeds. My feed list, as you know, is all culture/art/exhibit things and the blogs of my friends. Therefore, it is quite significant to add something new written by someone I don’t know that was recommended to me by a law student. Without further ado, I’ll recommend it to everyone else too.

Conversion Diary

It’s good, it’s Catholic. It’s written by a former atheist and it is not boring.

In other news, I am in significant need of the break I am taking tonight. I feel like every night this week I’ve been running-running-running and that I haven’t had much time to just relax. Kyle is gone this weekend with debate (in California!) and I am here. But Sunday we had people over for our HBO true blood/entourage rotation and some dinner. And then Monday we went out after his class and that was somewhat of a disaster as I didn’t really want to go but sucked it up in an attempt to be life-giving and he drank too much and didn’t pay attention to my needs to go home and get a good night of sleep before going to class at 8:15 and then Tuesday was the election and Mary’s election party so we were out late. Last night we spent watching West Wing after going to dinner but around dinner we had to deal with his cell phone being broken which took far longer than it should have and then dinner made me sorta sick to my stomach so it was not as relaxing as it should have been.

The date was really nice though. We’ve been pretty nitpicky lately. Partially from spending most of our time together and I think we’re just pretty stressed about things. I’m not sure that our primary mode of relaxation is terribly compatible either. He’s more of a go-out-have-fun relaxer and I’m more of a stay-in-and-relax kind of girl. But that’s okay. I think that we’ll reach a good middle point, and I think I’ll reach a good point in which I’m fine letting him be out when I’m in. We just enjoy each other’s company so much right now that I want to spend all of my time with him. I’m sure this weekend will be good at reminding each other of that.

And I should be plenty busy too. I have thank you after thank you to finish and I have three group assignments to do some writing about. I’ll be happy when the semester is over. I’ve realized that when I sit down to blog about it, I’m a lot harder on the program than I should be. Really, I like it. Most of my professors are great and next semester we get into much more interesting topics, a lot of things that are more interpretive and less collections-oriented. I’ll feel better when that happens.

I’ve also thought about doing one of those stupid grad-student cliché blogs where i extrapolate on the questions which arise in my head during graduate classes in blog form. I’m not sure that I’m quite ready to be that girl yet. I would like to start doing a more topical approach to blogging and not always have it be just a steady journal. A little politics. Some religion. Some museums. Just a bit more activity on my part. We’ll see though.

Wedding bells ring so loudly

Jess on July 15, 2007

Mass today was pretty awesome.  It was officiated by the Archbishop because they were installing a new priest, Fr. Brian Schreiber.  I liked him a lot. I’ll prolly keep going to Most Pure Heart because they have an 11:30 service, I like the priest, and it’s convenient.  Of course, Christ the King is more convenient and their preist is nice too… but i just kind of like the service and the people better at Most Pure Heart.  You can tell that they still really care.  I would go to assumption still but I kind of want to start doing any earlier mass.  I want to pretend to be a grown-up.

Anyway, the point of this entry is that the Archbishop explained the role of the priest and the importance of celibacy during the homily which is when he installs the new priest to show the importance of the priest to the eucharist ritual and the importance of the eucharist to the church.  So… install he did.  And he talked about how priests stay celibate because the role of the husband/father means that the husband must consult the wife before any changes which would affect the entire family.  I really pictured the husband and wife as one coherent unit when he said that and I think it really helped my love of the Catholic church.  Obviously, it’s not that the primary concern of the husband should not be Christ as well… it’s just that being a priest frees you from the obligation of marriage.  I think that the Catholic view on this really reflects the importance of the marital bond moreso than perhaps other churches.  And I’d never really thought of celibacy in the priesthood as being something which reaffirms the strength and power of the marriage but it turns out it does.

I think I’ll really like the new priest a lot… and it was fun to meet the archbishop as well.  They had priest cookies at the reception after mass!!! haha.  they were like little gingerbread shaped sugar cookies with priest suits drawn on.  I’d have eaten them but the suits looked markered in and I didn’t trust them… esp cos they were laying on the table not on plates.  Still.  Adorable. I think every Catholic function from now on should have priest cookies.