the Liebster

I realize that this post risks being both pedestrian and self-centered after the exciting events of the last few months.  My stats saw quite a spike, probably because I haven’t been talking about where I ate dinner last night.  So just when I was getting into the groove of blogging about things other than myself, here we go.  A post about me.

You can blame Martha, who “nominated” me for this “award.”  And my cousin Theresa, who thought about nominating me but spared the world. : )

How Liebster works:

Thank the person who nominated you and link your post to their blog.
List 11 facts about yourself then answer the 11 questions given to you.
Create 11 more questions for your 9 nominees, all of whom have 200 or less followers.
Comment on their blogs informing them of their Liebster Award nomination.

Thank you, Martha, for nominating me for this award.  :)

Facts about myself:

1. I am shy in large social settings.  Torture for me is walking into a room where I don’t know anyone and everyone is standing around talking.  On the flip side, I can talk your ear off and I have no trouble teaching groups of 200+ adults.  I rarely even get nervous before talking in front of large groups anymore.  But small talk with no wing man?  Scared.to.death

2. Looking back over the first third of my life, one of the things for which I’m most grateful is the incredible people I’ve met.  Despite my fear of social situations, I have had the opportunity to meet and experience some amazing people, mostly in the Catholic world.  Some of them I’ve kept in touch with, some of them I haven’t, but all of them have made a difference in my life somehow.  I think if I could make a resume up of all the people I’ve encountered at some time or another, it’d be a very rich list.  And I know they’ve all been complete gifts.

3. My favorite color is orange.  Pretty much everyone who knows me knows this. What they might not know is that my friend Mary and I felt sorry for orange when we were in junior high because no one ever said orange was their favorite color, so we made it our favorite color.  And pity for it aside, I really do love it.  It’s so… happy.

4. I recently made the National Anthem of Vatican City my ringtone. It was partly because everyone seems to have the same iPhone ring (“old phone”) and so I never knew whether it was my phone or someone else’s.  I’ve yet to be in the grocery store and have someone else’s phone ring with the Pontifical Anthem. I actually got the idea from a story Lino Rulli told – his uncle is a papal nuncio for some country, and it’s his ringtone.  One day when he was meeting with Pope Benedict, his cell phone went off (how embarrassing!) and the Pope noted, “That should be my ringtone.” I don’t know if it’s a true story, but I thought it was hilarious.

5. I love to write and like to say things in eight words that could probably be said in four.  Which is why this Liebster thing is going to take me forever.  Let’s cut to the chase…

6. At various points in my life I’ve taken Spanish, Latin, German, and Italian.  I only know English.

7. That being said, if I could have knowledge of anything instantaneously infused into my brain, it would be languages.

8. My favorite current TV shows are White Collar and Person of Interest.

9. I can quote Win A Date With Tad Hamilton better than I’d like to admit.

10. If I could win a date with any single, straight actor, it would be Richard Armitage.

11. My confirmation saint is Clare.

Questions from Martha:

1. What was the last thing you ate?
A spinach salad.

2. List the three songs you are currently listening to the most.
This one is hard for me, because I’m doing a lot of Pandora listening lately, so it’s been a mix.

1. The Vatican National Anthem… because it plays every time my phone rings (see #4 above)
2. Anything by the Sheytoons (mostly Broken)
3. My sister’s Michael Buble Pandora channel

3. What was your first concert?
I would like to say Tom Petty. Or the Everly Brothers.  Or Herman’s Hermits.  But sadly… I think it was Yanni.  Tom Petty was in high school, the other two were in junior high.  And Yanni was when I was in middle school.  My mother corrupted me early, apparently.  So I went from Yanni to Tom Petty.  What does that say?

4. Who is your favorite spiritual/faith figure?
Pope Benedict- for his writing, the way he celebrated the Mass, and the impact he’s had on my life.

5. Do you have a strange habit that you could divulge to the internet world?
I sleepwalk.  Is that strange enough?

6. Why did you begin blogging?
I originally started blogging under a pen name, thinking that my brilliance and insight would propel me to fame and then I could say, “Hey, it’s been me this whole time!”  That fantasy didn’t last long.  I really fell in love with blogging when I was in Rome, with my JoaninRome blog.  Returning to the States was bittersweet in so many ways, but one of the things I really missed was blogging.

7. Name a pet peeve.
Wow, there are so many.  If I had to just choose one, I’d say those people who fly past a long line of cars just to merge at the very end.  I used to have to deal with this every day on my commute.  We’d all be lined up to get on the interstate, and people would fly past us on the left just to want to merge at the very end.  I never let them in.  And I never felt guilty about it.  Do you think I’m not in a hurry, too?  Don’t you realize you’re making this insane back up even worse?

8. Your first car.
A blue Pontiac Grand Am.  I still miss her.

9. Where would you like to be on vacation right now?
Rome and Assisi

10. What do you do when you can’t fall asleep?
I can’t remember the last time I had trouble falling asleep.  But I usually pray the rosary or read.

11. What luxury do you wish you could indulge in on a regular basis?
Travel.  If I had a more flexible work schedule, I’d travel all the time.  My  to-do list is long.  (Ironically, I travel all over the state for work.)

My Turn

Here are my 11 questions:

1. If you could be a fictional character for a day, who would you be?

2. What is your favorite book of the Bible?

3. What is your favorite thing to cook or bake?

4. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

5. Do you subscribe to any magazines?

6. Mac or PC?

7. What is your favorite city in the United States?

8. What is your go-to meal for Fridays in Lent?

9.  If you could spend the day with someone in history, what date in history would you spend with whom?

10. If you could have a superpower, what would you want and why?

11. Winter or Summer?

My disclaimers before nominating:

1) I’m sorry if any of you have over 200 followers and I’m insulting you by nominating you. It’s not intentional.

2) You don’t have to do this.  Really.  My nominator told me that, so I’m telling you that too.

3) I’m sorry if you’ve already been nominated and posted this and I somehow missed it.

Jill

Trena

Sarah D.

Annie

Laura

Anne

Amy

Liza

Sarah A.

 

Walter Kasper

Everyone loves a good conspiracy.

At first glance, no one would ever say Cardinal Kasper was papabile…

Until they hear this.

Cardinals can vote in a conclave until they reach their 80th birthday, correct?  Well, sort of.  Under John Paul II, the rule was changed that any cardinal who is under 80 at the time the see falls vacant can vote in the conclave.

Cardinal Walter Kasper turns 80 on March 5.  He will enter the conclave and vote, despite being over 80 years old.

Anyone wonder why Pope Benedict decided to abdicate?  And decided to abdicate on February 28, 2013?

Because Cardinal Kasper is supposed to be the next Pope.

Why he won’t… There are oh.so.many reasons.  This theory is ludicrous… but it sure has a potential of getting me in the National Enquirer.  Or maybe on CNN.

Marc Ouellet

Do you know the last time a Canadian was elected Pope?

…There’s a first time for everything, right?

Cardinal Ouellet is another Curia member, formerly archbishop of Quebec.  He is currently Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.  Once again, we have someone who has the advantage of knowing how the Vatican works … with the advantage of being an “outsider.”

(John Allen discussed how the recent Italian elections may cast doubt in some Cardinal’s minds about handing the Papacy over to an Italian.  It’s an interesting read, and swayed me away from assuming the next Pope will be Italian.)

I like Ouellet’s resume — a blend of pastoral, academic, and now Curial posts.  He’s also a member of the Council for Culture and the new Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, and I believe that signals he has strengths in areas vital to the Church today.

He made a bit of a name for himself when he was relator general for the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in 2008, doing such a good job leading the proceedings and synthesizing the content of each day that one priest declared, “What he did today in the Aula, in the presence of the entire assembly and Benedict XVI, was a real ‘tour de force’ that left many people spellbound.”   You can read more here.

He has the knowledge of languages to speak to the universal Church and his Latin is flawless.

Sounds good to me.  I would start practicing how to pronounce his name… except that he may soon be changing it.

Why he won’t: See the opening question above.

Birthday highlights

My birthday was several weeks ago, but with the holiday rush I never got a chance to blog about it.  The week before Christmas was a crazy one – after my last class of teaching, I had a whole Advent-worth of things to do before leaving for home.  Christmas shopping was almost done, but Christmas crafts had to be completed and Christmas cards hadn’t been started.  I think I made, wrote, stuffed, addressed, and stamped all my cards in a day. It was quite a feat and not one I’d like to do again.

Even though it was amidst the rush of teaching, my birthday was a lovely time spent with friends, from beginning to end.  And even class was celebratory — the deacons sang Happy Birthday to me not once, but twice (the day before my birthday and then the next week when they gave me a birthday cake.)

On the actual day I went to breakfast with my friend Mary, got a phone call from my nieces and nephew (who apparently are too old to sing to me like they used to), and then completed my annual birthday novena of Holy Communions by going to Mass with the lovely Dominican priest who has recently joined the ranks of our tight-night community at work.

Father says a private Latin Novus Ordo Mass in the mornings, and I attend when my work load allows me to take a break mid-morning.  I was kneeling in the pew as Father set up, and he stopped by before going to the sacristy to vest.  ”This one’s for you,” he said with a smile, before going on his way.

Can’t beat that.

Before going to Mass, I had unlocked my office to find this:

The work of my office assistant and my Advent Angel.  This picture doesn’t do it justice — my phone and computer were wrapped with paper, there was silver tinsel draped all over my desk, and the balloons dotted the floor.  There were little presents tucked throughout the mess too. : )  Fortuitously, the son of the Dean of Arts & Sciences was visiting his dad for the day… so not only did I have a little shadow for the day, I also had a helper.

“Will, let’s see if we can collect all the streamers in a big pile…”

“Will, do you think we could fill this bag with tinsel!?  Let’s see how much tinsel we [read: you] can pick up!”

The gang at work (I work in the best building on campus, and we have an awesome community) had a little party with muffins and coffee, but then it was back to work.  I didn’t get a whole lot of work done, though — between Will and then my friend Liza bringing her newborn in while she finished some things up, it was a regular party most of the day.  Complete with stray balloons from my office littering the hallways.  At one point Will told his dad, “This is the best day ever.”  We had to break it to him that every day at work wasn’t quite like this one.

Liza had the grand idea to go to the Grilled Cheeserie for lunch (which is what we did last year too!) so we headed downtown to celebrate.  Not only was the Grilled Cheeserie delicious (as usual) and the company grand, the backdrop was pleasant — when you don’t work in a city environment, there’s something special about going downtown and enjoying the atmosphere.  We sat in Public Square Park, which is overlooked by City Hall and various businesses.

I had the Harvest Melt, which was Triple Cream Brie, pulled turkey, roasted butternut squash, and pumpkin seed pesto on multigrain bread.  Deeelish.

After work (Will did petition his dad to work late so he could hang out with us more… but we assured him we were all leaving), three of my friends joined me for dinner and drinks at City House in Germantown.

The restaurant could easily be passed by on the street, looking like just another house in the neighborhood that is slowly seeing a recovery through its adoption by yuppies.  Inside, it was a bustling place despite the relatively early hour.  They have a rotating menu, priding themselves on seasonal and farm-fresh offerings.  I chose the fettuccine with sweet potato, garlic, lemon, and walnut bread crumbs, along with one of their artisan cocktails. Everyone’s selections looked delicious — the pizzas, the fish, the greens… The City House is definitely going on my list of places to return to soon.

We finished our meal with a shared dessert - chocolate peanut pie with orange mascarpone gelato and honey caramel.  It seems an odd combination, perhaps, but I’ve learned to trust restaurants to match up flavors I wouldn’t.  It was awesome.

While the gelato’s consistency was a bit firmer than gelato and more like ice cream, its texture was incredible.

After dinner, Mary and I headed out to see The Hobbit.  While the movie was a bit disappointing (I had my hopes too high), the movie of my life had a cameo appearance by a cast member from a previous season!  My dear friend Megan came to spend the weekend with me!

So birthday celebrations extended throughout the weekend — a laid-back Saturday morning, an Italian lunch, decorating the apartment for Christmas, drinks at the Patterson House, and a lovely brunch after Gaudete Sunday Mass (one of my favorite Sundays of the year).

While Megan can’t top the present of her presence, she also brought me the perfect little espresso cups … exactly like the espresso cups used at Cafffe Camerino in Rome for their cafffe completo!

The only sadness is that I still haven’t figured out how to replicate the cafffe completo, so drinking out of these just makes me want to go back to Rome.

All in all, a perfectly wonderful birthday.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Feast of St. Stephen and 2nd day of Christmas!

Angry Women… Where are you?

 

Supposedly this has gone viral.  But you know what?  It hasn’t gone viral enough.  If it had, women would be upset.

Every woman should be upset about this.  What would Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony say about this?  Heck, what would Betty Freidan say!?  Have you ever read The Feminine Mystique?  I have.  And she would be pretty ticked.

Why aren’t women mad about this?

What is “empowering” about this?  Women, your vote is no longer sought because you’re intelligent. Or because you care about the economy or your family.  You are just your reproductive organs.

Isn’t this what we fought against for the last 150+ years?  How is that for equality, sister?

Can someone bring this up at tonight’s debate?  #pipedream

(And come on, your lady parts depend on Obama winning?  Obama’s the one that wants those parts to stop working properly. Explain how that’s good medicine…)

winning!

Okay, so maybe I’m a big dork to come here and post this… but I was one of the winners on Pioneer Woman’s blog today!  I actually haven’t entered one of her giveaways in a long time — usually there are several thousand comments, and I guess I just gave up.  But the other day I saw that she was doing a little “March Madness”-like contest with Tom Hanks movies, so on a whim I filled out my choices and then commented.  I was the second comment, which was cool enough for me.

But then my sister called me (at work) today to tell me I had actually won!  PW picked three random winners to get $50 gift certificates to Amazon.  So granted, I didn’t win a Kitchen Aid mixer or a Nikon camera… but still, $50 to Amazon?  I’m not complaining.

Happy day!

If you’d like to vote in round 2 of the Tom Hanks movie madness, head over there now!

verbosity

I’m sorry my Rome posts are so long.  I know they’re not easy to get through — that’s why I started dividing them up (it also helps me write them, of course)… but they’re still so long.  Mi dispiace!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,300 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

New Year’s Eve

Does anyone else wonder what the big deal with this day is?  I suppose that sounds bitter, and it’s not supposed to– I had two party invites and another invites for drinks- but I’m just not feeling it tonight. Mom says New Years is depressing because it’s sort of the end of the holiday season, and maybe that’s true. Or maybe it’s just this odd pressure the culture seems to put on this random night to be magical.  Heck, there’s even a movie about it, just like the movie they made to highlight my other favorite holiday, Valentines Day.

Despte the fact that I’m celebrating this holiday in exactly the opposite way than the world tells me I should (I’m at home, single as can be, and hanging out with my parents), I’m okay with it.  Perhaps it’s a sign of maturity.

Now excuse me, Jeopardy is on.