Se hace el semestre.

The semester is done!  I took my Spanish final Tuesday night and emailed my final essay on Richard Nixon at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday!  YAY!

I was not pleased at the conclusion of the Spanish final.  Though it was simple, I struggled with direct and indirect objects and reflexive verbs, which was no different than what was happening semester long, despite studying.  Very frustrating.  I am interested to know my grade on the exam.

The essay on Nixon was not as difficult as I had first thought it would be.  We needed to address the question “What are my conclusions regarding Richard Nixon’s place in U. S. History?  Was he the most influential individual in the latter part of the 20th century as Robert Dole thinks?  Was he a character gone bad?  Does the good he did outweigh the bad?  Or visa versa?” As I said to my professor, it’s killing me but I am concluding that he had some admirable qualities and during his administration put into place some very good domestic policies.  However, that did not and does not replace his attitude of “the ends justify the means.”  I am very interested to read the professor’s thoughts when he returns my essay.

The summer semester doesn’t start till the end of May so I have two weeks respite.  First on deck will be a Contemporary Fiction class.  A preliminary reading list for the class is:

• Fay by Larry Brown
• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
• The Pacific & Other Stories by Mark Helprin
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason

Have you read any of these titles?  If so, opinions?

To my utter frustration, I have had to succumb to seeing an orthopedist for my right elbow.  I have a raging case of tendinitis that I have not been able to kick these last 6 weeks.  It has gotten bad enough that to pick up a glass of water and drink it causes some discomfort, enough that a groaning escapes my lips.  I know what the doc is gonna tell me.  Don’t use the arm.  Yeah, right!  And how do I do that since I am right handed and a keyboard is right dominant AND I am a secretary/office manager?!?!  I have visions of physical therapy three times a week, ice packs, and anti-inflammatory treatments.

Speaking of which, the hubster and I went to the fitness center at the college where he works twice this week.  It is available free to employees and students.  We are planning a grand vacation in 2009 for our 25th wedding anniversary and want to be in better physical shape than we are when we embark on it.  So he showed me the ropes.  I walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes and got the heart rate to 130.  Then he showed me some of the weight lifting machines.  I could do stuff for the lower body but stayed away from the upper body stuff for now.  We had fun together!  While it is a major hassle to go, once I am there I am okay.  I like using the treadmill.  It is a good opportunity for prayer.

Happy Mother’s Day to you all!

Another “gas”sy thought

While perusing the news, I found this interesting article.  It appears, compared to many other countries, we’re hardly paying anything for gasoline.  However, I wonder how many of these countries are as dependent as we are on gas?  And what does that have to say about us?

To give or not to give…that is the question

This son used to send money home to his father to help pay for his medication but since the increase in gas prices he can no longer afford to do so.

Perhaps he ought to speak to the oil company executives whose companies are posting profits, asking them to contribute to help the poor.

Exxon Mobil posted the second largest first quarter earnings total ever on record.  Article can be found here.

In February Chevron posted “the annual profit to $18.7 billion in 2007, the fourth consecutive year that the San Ramon company made record amounts of money.”  Article can be found here.

I just can’t wait to see what kind of lovely bonuses the top level executives of the oil companies get this year while I, and many many others, try to figure out how to adjust our budget to accommodate the $3.69/gallon hit.

Can you tell this irritates me?  Don’t answer that!

On target

Today I met with my advisor to request his signature for my Fall 2008 registration.  I secured it, thus I am scheduled to take Drawing II and Irish Literature.  I took Drawing 1 back in the stone age, but the Dean received professorial permission for me to take Round 2.  I’m psyched!  My first foray into the ‘art’ world in over 15 years.

The Irish Lit class looks interesting.  The description is as follows:

An exploration of representative works in Irish Literature, by Catholic and Protestant, nationalist and Ango-Irish and canonical and non-canonical writers.  Topics will include the impact of British colonialism, nationalism and its appropriation of Irish myth, representations of gender and colliding definitions of “Irishness.”

I understand the prof of the class is heavy into discussion which will be good because it is a 3 hour class on a Thursday night!  I’m gonna need a lot of chatter to keep me awake that long!  I have a summer class with the same prof (Contemporary Fiction).  The reading list is interesting and I shall share it once I confirm it.  I am sure some of my readers will have thoughts and opinions on some of the books we will be reading.

My last history class on Richard Nixon was this afternoon.  I really enjoyed this class a lot which was completely unexpected.  Quite often I found myself astonished that the professor was saying, “Well, we’re out of time.” when it felt like we had just gotten started.  The prof is excellent and it will be a sad day when he retires.

It has been difficult to remain objective about Nixon.  When one learns of the many political consequences we are living with, in part due to his shenanigans in Office, one becomes quite cynical.  However, he is a tragic figure; a loner and introvert who was only able to force himself out of that comfort zone when absolutely necessary.  I cannot help but wonder if he had had a compadre, a friend, in whom he could confide whether things would have turned out different.  But his ego, his ambition, his inability to truly be introspective with an eye towards change and his desire to be at the top, blinded him to his weaknesses and prevented him from allowing anyone entry into his interior circle.

The final essay, a 7 page paper, is in outline form.  Now to flesh it out.  The question that we are required to consider is, “What conclusions seem warranted regarding Richard Nixon’s place in U. S. history?  Was he the most influential individual in the 2nd half of the 20th century?  Or is he best seen as the nation’s scoundrel-in-chief?”  Oughta be a doozey to write!

As I said to the professor, I’m okay with presidents being recognized as frail human beings, just like one of us.  However, I do have the expectation that they will rise above some of the frailty and lead by good example.  It’s one thing to lie about whether you snitched a row of staples for your stapler from the office supply closet.  But to lie, scheme and cover-up a crime, not to mention some of the other stuff he did, well ladies and gentleman, that’s a horse of a different color.

Even happier news from my advisor…I am on target to graduate May 2009!  One year to go!  Woot!

Ant update

After a thorough cleaning, the office looks and smells fabulous.  It seems, other than a few stragglers, the ants are gone. 

Susie-Q removed all the ink cartridges from the printer and put them in a zip lock bag.  She reinstalled all new.  The ziplock has a half-dozen ants crawling around.  It appears one of the cartridges was infested during shipping despite being sealed.  Must have been infested during the refill.

Totally gross, very true.

As future reference to readers, should you get ants in the house, a cheap solution given me by an exterminator is to sprinkle a line of baking soda at the entry point.  They won’t crawl over it.  I have also used Avon’s skin-so-soft sprayed around the entry points and that has worked as well.

Thanks for the idea Mother BUT I’ll take a pass on that idea!  I don’t think we want the office smelling like garlic. 

The ants go marching two by two…Hurrah! Hurrah!

What do ants and ink cartridges have in common? One would think nothing, right? Not in our office. Read on to discover the excitement of the day.

At 12:15 I received a call at home from my co-worker Susie-Q. (Today is my usual day off.)

Hey, how’s it going today? Busy? Silence on the other end of the phone. Then a strained voice says…

Philippa?……There are ants in the printer.

What? I’m sure I misheard her. Ants? IN the printer? On occasion I’d see one traipsing up the wall or across the floor and with nary a thought, whack ‘em dead. Fini, right? Apparently not!

Philippa, there ARE ants in the printer.

Uh? Really? Are you sure?

Yes Philippa, I am positive!!! I was printing some documents and the ants were coming out with the paper! I turned the printer upside down and they are ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!

Okay! Okay! This is totally gross Heavy sigh. Get out the vacuum, open the printer up and vacuum the thing out!!

Uh. Oh. Okay.

Do you want me to come to the office and help you do it? We’re both a little squeamish about bugs so company in these things helps!

No, no. That’s okay. It’s a good idea. I’ll do it and I have to go to the office-products-in-a-box store. Why don’t I get those canisters of air and use that too?

Great idea! But take printer outside and spray that sucker clean and leave it out there! In the meantime, I’ll run to the store and get some ant traps. Tomorrow when I come in I’ll do a thorough office cleaning and put out the ant traps.

Oh good! That sounds like a plan Philippa! Ugh! I feel like I need to take a shower! Talk to you later!

About two hours later, the phone rings again.

Philippa? It’s me again. Ya wanna hear the rest of the story?

Lord have mercy…Okay. What happened?

I opened the printer cover and they were ALL OVER the blue ink cartridge! All over it! I took the cartridge out and threw it away. Talk about disgusting. When I leave today, do you think I should put the printer in a trash bag?

Oh that’s an excellent idea! Suffocate them! Then we’ll see if they’re gone for good.

This has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever heard of! Ants attracted to an ink cartridge? Has anyone ever heard of this? Hopefully a thorough dusting, vacuuming and wiping down will get rid of them all together. The last thing I want to do is print out a letter with a squashed ant crossing a ‘t’.

4 things about me

A) FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER:  Church, Work, College, Store(s)

 

B) FOUR PEOPLE WHO ENCOURAGED MY FAITH ALONG THE WAY:  Aunt Bobby, Sister Brigit my first grade teacher at St. Donato’s Roman Catholic Elementary School, the Hubster, Greatschemamonk Seraphim.

 

C) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:  Pasta, Chocolate, Chicken w/Gravy, Good ‘n Plenty candies

 

D) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:  The Beach, Somewhere warm, in the Garden, rocking a baby.

 

E) FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:  Gone With The Wind, Little Women, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Spartacus

 

F) FOUR THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH:  Spiritual paternity, the smell (reminds me of praying & the feel of holiness), The Theotokos, The Prayers.

 

G) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE HOBBIES:  Reading, needlework, fiddling in the garden, crochet

 

“Let Us Love the Church Fervently”

“Let us feel for the Church.  Let us love her fervently.  We should not accept to hear her representatives being criticised and accused.  On the Holy Mountain the spirit in which I was nurtured was orthodox, profound, holy and silent - without conflicts, without disputes and witout censurings.  We should not give credence to those hwo make accusations against the clergy.  Even if with our own eyes we see apriest doing something we judge negatively, we should not blieve it, nor think about it, nor talk about it toothers.  The same is true for the lay members of the Church and for every person.  We are all the Church.  Those who censure the Church for the errors of her representatives with the alleged aim of helping to correct her make a great mistake.  They do not love the church.  Neither, needless to say, do they love Christ.  We love the Church when we embrace with our prayer each of her members and do what Christ did - when we sacrifice ourselves, remain ever vigilant, and do everything in the manner of Him who when he was abused did not return abuse, and when He suffered did not threaten (1 Pet 2:23).”

Wounded by Love:  The Life & the Wisdom of Elder Prophyrios (p91-92)

This note was posted on the discussion forum, Monachos.net, during Pascha 2007.  I repost it here because it is full of excellent thoughts, especially as we approach Pascha 2008.

Dear friends,

Last night I went to Matins to find my priest looking tired and overwhelmed, and even heard him say, “I feel old.” This made me sad and brought me to the realization that if he is pained to see his flock wandering away, how much more does it pain our Heavenly Father when we wander straight into harms way by walking into the lion’s den?

My friends – we have a lot to be accountable for. This Church is OUR church. WE are the next generation – but where is everybody? Last night, not including our priest, the choir made up about 9, and the parishioners made up about 5. If there were no choir, there’d be hardly anyone left in Church. Again, where is everybody?

We spoke to an older lady who tends the lampadas faithfully from day to day, week to week. She mentioned last year during Holy Week, she had no one to help her, so was there until midnight tending and changing the lampadas in order for us to feast.

Some of my fondest memories as a child were when I would help my Aunty in the small Church the family used to attend, to “change everything from black to white” on Good Friday evening. I remember the smiles and the smell of silver spray paint outside, as the boys tended to their candlesticks, shining them and making them look as new as possible for the upcoming feast. The women inside would be cleaning, sweeping the floors, dusting the icons, and arranging big, fragrant white flowers. The men would be behind the iconostasis putting up the XB sign, making sure the light bulbs and electricity worked. Others would be ironing the vestments, but most importantly everything would be changed from the deathly black, to silvery clean white. And every year, my Aunty would faithfully tie the floral embroidered white cloth around Christ’s waist on the Cross, in devotion almost as if she were standing before the real Christ Jesus’ body Himself. All this was done with such love, fervency, and mostly with such sweet anticipation of the coming feast of victory over death, and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My friends, the old ones who do these jobs are not going to be around forever. Plus with people leaving due to the political nature of the Russian Church’s reunification and the discomfort with that (which is entirely another matter all together), I now realize it is time for us young ones to step up and help. If we don’t, do you think the generation coming behind us – our children, and our children’s children – will follow? Unlikely. If we don’t take action now, the Church will become an empty morgue, and the Saints who so faithfully and lovingly stare down at us from the walls above, will shake their heads in shame and sadness at having no one to serve Christ Jesus with them.

Please, please if you can, stay and help tend the Church – yes during Holy Week (and I know we’re always tired after such long services, but …) – and carry this on throughout the rest of the year as well. It may not seem like much, but every little bit helps. And God will greatly bless you for your faithfulness in serving Him.

In many ways I could have authored this letter.  Many a Saturday I, too, spent at church with my aunt.  She and other ladies would dust and clean the altar area (she was Roman Catholic), change the altar linens, and put away all the cleaned linens in the closets and drawers.  I was given a dust rag and the direction to “dust the pews”.  Let me assure you, there were a LOT of them to dust!  And dust I did!

Then we would truck home to Aunty’s house, wash the soiled linens, hang them to dry, starch and iron them, then repair holes or torn hems as needed.  When new ones were needed, Aunty made them and I embroidered the little red crosses in the center.  I have wonderful memories of these days of service.

Now I find myself doing much the same in my own parish.  Just today I cleaned off spots, ironed off wax and pressed the white altar vestments in preparation for their use for Pascha.  The gold altar vestments have been dry cleaned at home (with the awesome Dryel product - try it out!), pressed, hung on hangars and taken to church in preparation for after Pentecost. 

Certain times I find myself on hands and knees wiping up wine droplets from some dear one’s shakey hand when they receive it after Communion or plucking up antidoron crumbs and tucking it in my pocket in order to toss it to the birds outside or even picking out the melted wax from the candle holders. 

Too often the only bodies in the church for Vespers are those 3 or 4 of us in the choir and Father.  Too often I see Father’s eyes filled with sorrow when he opens the Royal Doors for Liturgy and finds the Nave half full.  Perhaps a dozen or less come Friday nights through out Lent for the Akathists.  Where is everyone?  Where is the struggle?  How can one experience the joy and fullness of Pascha without the struggle of Lent?  Without the service?  I don’t know.

As Father said today in his sermon, it is not too late to join those on the road to Pascha.  There are two weeks remaining.  God accepts us at any hour.  Two make the hard journey easier to bear.  Won’t you come along and link arms with me or another pilgrim and journey to Jerusalem together?

 

Sharing new finds

Some new blogs I’ve added to my list of “check frequently!”

Veni Vidi Credidi:  I love this guy, jamesthethickheaded.  He has some very poignant thoughts.

Orthodox Christian Thoughts by Fr. Athanasios Haros:  Elizabeth at “The Garden Window” found this one.  Fr. Athanasaios is at seminary.  Today’s post is excellent and reminiscent of a recent conversation I had with my spiritual father.

The Forest Philosopher:  Bill visited my blog today and left a very nice comment.  He’s been blogging about a month I think he said.  Check him out.