The Army of Mary

 Today, six nuns were excommunicated for belonging to the Army of Mary.

What is the Army of Mary? Glad you asked.   It seems that in 1965, God started talking to a woman in Quebec named Marie-Paule.   He told her that she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary and that the people should follow her.  You can read all about the Army of Mary here:

 http://www.communaute-dame.qc.ca/oeuvres/OE_armee_AN.htm

 The Army of Mary was founded in 1971.  I started my Catholic High School experience in 1980.  Did you think they could have told me about this?   I might have found my calling.  I might have sold all my worldly possessions save for a pair of stout shoes.   I might have traveled to Quebec.   I might have been able to meet Marie-Paule for myself!

Apparently,  the Virgin Mary makes appearances all over the place. You just have to know where to look.  And Marie-Paule is now 86,  so is Mary looking for a replacement when it is time for her to go?    Maybe Baltimore would be the perfect setting for an epiphany.

You can read all about the tragedy of nuns in Arkansas here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/nuns.excommunicated.ap/index.html

So I ask of you my fellow bloggers,  mainly those of you here in Baltimore – care to join me for a trip to Little Rock?  Those nuns own their own convent and they aren’t going anywhere.  We could be there in a few days.

And I have a nasty paper cut that needs healing.

The road to Heaven is just a breath away!

Happy

 Just something from I can has Cheezburger that I found.

Hilarious.

I am quite happy today.

Not sure why, just am.

So there!

Adagio

First, a video.

Here is Gareth Gates and Angel on my Shoulder.  It is from his new album. I just got it in the mail today and only listened to it once, but it is quite good.  Mellow.   Nice.

I ordered some tea from Adagio (adagio.com) and it came really quickly and is really good.   They sell mainly loose tea but they do have some tea in bags.   I ordered a couple of tins of black tea for the morning.    I have this little pot I bought from them awhile back, that you can add loose tea and then hot water.  It brews two cups.   You can set it on a mug once it has steeped and when the mug rim hits the bottom of the pot, the water releases into the cup.  Great for a few cups on the go.  I have one at work and I ordered one for home.  It is making my tea drinking a success!

I also ordered some herbal teas for afternoons and evenings.  I ordered  blood orange, peppermint, and apple.  I wanted chamomile, but they were out.   Imagine! A tea company out of chamomile!

I am able to take some FMLA next week to visit my sister.  She is doing well, worried about her hair but she seems in good spirits. But I can go up and take some stress from my mother by helping out with the housework and cooking and taking my sister to appointments.

Sorry I have been such a bad blogger. I will try to do better.  

Over the Hump Day

Here is a song from Anthony Callea.   He won the Australian Idol a few years ago and I can see why.  This song is called “Live for Love”. I am definately becoming a fan.

It’s Wednesday.   So, I have to get to therapy in about an hour.   I think therapy is working but it is hard.  Sometimes I am quite worn out by the end of it.   Emotionally.   I guess it happens.   And I probably need it, but still it sucks. 

Then the rest of the day is going to be very busy.  I have a meeting in the afternoon for a committee I am on.  I am reading the children’s fiction that have come out this year?  I have to get on the ball because I am starting to fall a bit behind.   I have not been able to read like I want to.   Maybe this weekend I can get a little more caught up.   But I have been reading some great stuff.   Some junk, too, but mostly good stuff.   I like children’s books because they have a limited amout of pages to really get the point across.  And children’s books can be so wonderful.  More adults should read them.  Children’s authors rock!

Then, I have to travel the dreaded beltway to get to work and work the night shift until nine.   I don’t usually mind working the night shift but it is hard when you have an afternoon meeting not at your branch.  My meeting is in another county.  

I am listening to a good mystery in the car,  Still Life by Penny.   Penny is the last name. I think it is Louise but I am too tired to look it up right now!  It is set in Canada and is a quaint little cozy.  And elderly woman is found murdered in the woods.  I am not very far along but am enjoying it.   The detective is from Quebec.  The narrator is quite good.

I am doing really well on my cutting back on coffee and have really gone down to one medium dunkin’ donuts coffee a day.  Then I drink tea.  The tea still has caffeine, but I only drink about two cups of tea and not a whole pot of coffee.   Also the coffee has been really rough on my stomach so it is good that I am limiting it.    When I go out for dinner I drink water or ginger ale.    I think less caffeine is helping.   I am really working on this and I will let you know of my progress.

 Wow. what an update today!  Maybe the fall weather is making me chatty again!  

Happy Ending

Here is the new video from Mika – Happy Ending.  I just love this song.

It is morning in Baltimore and the weather is nice.   It is finally cool.   And I can wear my fall colors.   Fabulous.

I talked to my sister this weekend.   She was upset because her hair is really thinning.  She has two wigs and is shopping for some scarves but I am sure it is really hard for her.

I don’t want her to have to go through this, but she is determined to get better.   I applaud her for that.  She has a great attitude.   If anyone can get better, she can.

Other than that, the week is moving along.   Chris and I went out for pizza last night.  I had an individual shrimp pizza.  It was awesome. Then we went to Borders for a maple white latte.  Yum.

Have a wonderful day!

Good Weekend

And  a bit of a lazy one.

We went to our favorite breakfast place on Saturday morning.  It seems that many of the staff have left to go to college.  There is a whole new “fall” staff, but the waitress that managed to serve us is not going to last very long.  She lacked any sort of emotion.    Chris asked her what kind of muffin they had today and she said “plain”.   and that was it.  She was also quite slow.   I don’t mind if you are a little bit slow, but her speed was ridiculous.   After all, I work in public service in a busy branch library, and I have to hustle all day.

Yesterday we went to the Corn  Maze in Shrewsbury PA and it was great fun.  It was a wonderful day for it, too. The temperature was 62, perfect for me.    And the maze was huge!  This year the theme was space travel so it was shaped like an astronaut and a planet.    You have to wander through the maze and find several stations, some that answer questions on your sheet, and some where you can do rubbings of the nine planets.     I had great fun yelling that I was looking for Uranus!    We did get a bit lost towards the end and struggled to find our way out of the maze.  It is so easy to get turned around and headed back where you came from.  We were in the maze for nearly 2 and a half hours.   Great fun.

The maze complex has loads of other smaller mazes you can do, like the bamboo maze and the fence maze, but we were so tired we left after the corn maze.  They are open through November so we might go back another weekend.   We never did find Venus!

Now it is Monday and I am not looking foward to another week of work.    I wish I could take six months off.   But I probably would be bored.   And I love my coworkers and I would miss them.   And I really do like my job, so I guess it will be all right.   Just Monday mornings you don’t wanna leave the house.   

Have a great day!

Dewey becomes “R” rated

I know, this one is a little racy for me,  but it is really funny!

And we all need some humor now and then, don’t we! 

We will  be back to the “G” rated Dewey after this brief foray into the unknown.

“It’s Every Cuss Word We Know”

Just Funny

This is just HILARIOUS!

especially if you were a “Britney Hater”

And no, Britney, I WILL NOT leave you alone!

Mountains out of Molehills

Today I thought I was having a heart attack.

My chest has a sore spot.  It has been sore for about a week.   I started to get into panic mode, as I often do.  I think things are much worse than they really are.   By the time I got to work I was planning on entering full cardiac arrest.   So, it was decided that I should go to the doctor.

And I did.  They did an EKG.  Fine.  They did a chest x-ray.  Fine.   Blood pressure a bit high, but that is understandable with my anxiety levels.    Anyway, the bottom line is that I have something called Pleuracy (?)  and that it involves pain when I breathe in deeply, and an antibiotic should cure it.

I hate that I get so excited over nothing.  But I live in a chaotic family.  We thrive on chaos.   When something goes wrong, it only goes from bad to worse.  We expect things to always go downhill.

And  I had therapy this morning.  I am not sure if it is working.   We end up talking about things that I don’t really want to think about.   And I start crying.   And it seems my dad’s suicide, my sister’s drug use, my sister’s cancer, my aunt’s death, my cousin’s death and everything else are all tied up in this huge bundle of emotion that I somehow have got to get untangled. 

And I get upset.  And my chest hurts.  And maybe it is just anxiety and maybe I am having a panic attack.  Maybe it is all hypochondria  but I have to check to make sure. 

Then I come home to call my mother and she of course is out. 

Anyway.  Chris will be home soon and I think I am going to lie down for a bit.   I have had too long and too exciting a day.  I hope the rest of the week is calmer.

Untitled

Tuesday.

 

I am taking a half day today.  I did not sleep well last night. In fact, I hardly slept at all.  I have been having trouble sleeping as of late.  I really don’t want to start taking something to help me sleep, but I might have to.  It was particularly bad last night. I got up and played   on the internet for a few hours until I finally got sleepy.  By then it was almost time to get up.

 

I talked to my mom this weekend and my sister is taking everything like a trooper.  She doesn’t seem to have any adverse reactions to the chemo.   She gets a little tired but that is understandable.  She is not getting naseous.   I spend a lot of time trying not to think about this.   I guess it would be avoidance therapy.    I did send my mom some paperwork for family medical leave.  If I can get that in place, I can use my sick leave to go up and try and help my mom for a bit.  Maybe go up for a week just to give my mom a break, help with making dinners and taking my sister to appointments.   And be able to see how things are going.

 

I keep thinking I need to go to the doctor.  I have been avoiding it.   I sometimes feel a tightness in my chest.  I think it is just from sleeping rather strangely, and maybe stress.  But I am afraid to go to the doctor in case he tells me I have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.   More things that I just can’t deal with right now.   So, I just figure that not knowing is better than worrying about it.    Because I can be really good at worry when I want to be.

 

I know I have been posting a lot of fluff on the blog.   I really want to get back to posting more things about me and my life, but I tend to not want to dwell on it, so I push it onto the back burner.     My life, at least here in Baltimore, is fine.   I have Chris, I have my pets.  What more could I want?

 

I am glad that some of you out there are sharing your life through your blog with me.  Don’t stop.  I enjoy reading about your lives and checking in on how you are doing. Many of you I don’t really know, but am getting to know as you share.  I think it is important that we share our lives.  We have little voices and the internet makes them bigger, somehow.    Maybe it brings us closer together.  Maybe it makes us see how similar we really are.

 

Anyway, I am hanging in there this week.   Hope you are doing the same.  Stay cool.  Summer is almost over.