CNN's God's Warriors program

Last week, CNN presented a three part documentary called "God's Warriors." I watched all three nights and I learned a lot. But I was also a bit disappointed with aspects of their coverage. Of course, it is difficult to cover centuries of history in six hours, so they had to narrow their focus, but I still found a bit of a disconnect. I'll explain.

The general idea of the entire documentary was to look at the three major religions of the world, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and specifically to look at the "warriors" of those three religions. The first night was "Jewish Warriors" followed by "Muslim Warriors" and finally the last night was "Christian Warriors." Since watching the whole documentary I've had mixed feelings on commenting about them. But I finally decided that I should; it was an interesting documentary overall even if there was an obvious bias and I like history and it had a lot of that. So I did learn something.

The first night I was mostly just curious to see what this whole documentary was about. The focus, as I said above, was on the "Jewish Warriors." The focus was mostly on the Jews in Israel, well almost entirely. They talked about the wars in that area (around the Gaza strip, the West Bank, etc.) during the 20th century. Plus they commented on various other violence in that area between the Jewish people and other peoples of the region. The focus on how religion and politics intermingle was the most fascinating part for me. I was most interested in that based on the articles I read before I even saw the program. In the U.S. we are always trying to create this separation of church and state. Unfortunately we try to take that position in our international relations as well. But for many areas of the world religion and politics are intermingled much more. During this first program it was interesting to listen to the interviews with many people who said that they didn't care what the UN or their government said about which land they could live on and which they couldn't. God gave the Jews specific land and that's the land they want to live on. The state can't change their minds and won't. They also made sure to discuss terrorists among the Jewish people. Now there is something you never hear about in the news. At least not these days. These days if you hear about terrorists we automatically assume a completely different group.

The second part of the documentary was called the "Muslim Warriors." Again, there was a lot of focus on the Middle East and a lot of discussion of history throughout the 20th century with some look back to previous centuries. The Islamic religion is probably one of the most misunderstood religions for most of us. The focus on "warriors" was not not just on violence. Yes, that was discussed and it was interesting to hear what the influences were on people like Osama bin Ladin and others. But they also talked about the peaceful warriors, about the head coverings for women, and, of course, all the politics of the region. Again, there was a lot of focus on how their religion is intertwined with their politics.

After watching those first two nights I was very interested in seeing what the focus would be with the "Christian Warriors" part. I ended up being disappointed. After two nights of politics in the Middle East and some look at international politics and the role the U.S. has played in that region I was curious to see how the Christian peoples of the Middle East would be discussed. I should also mention that in both of the previous episodes they also did interview people in the U.S. who were either Jewish or Muslim who had connections with the Middle East, either directly or indirectly. But when it came to the Christian Warriors the focus went entirely to the United States. I was okay with this to a point, but this part of the documentary was so completely different with a seemingly very different focus that it totally threw me off. The "warriors" they focused on in the part of the documentary was almost exclusively on the more evangelical protestants. Not a bad take, but it certainly narrowed the focus. They discussed the pro-life work of many Christians, the young people who are fighting against our Western culture by pushing abstinence before marriage, and there was a lot of attention on Liberty University, founded by the late Jerry Fallwell.

My biggest disappointment was that, as a Christian, I saw a lot of stuff completely left out. I also found the shift in focus a little jolting and was disappointed that the history aspect of the documentary went down from looking at the past century to looking at only the past 30 years. And it made the U.S. look like it was full of people who were either very secular and not religious or evangelical. No mention of some of the larger Christian denominations and the work they are doing to try and improve our society. As a Catholic I was surprised that Catholicism wasn't mentioned at all. When you talk about the three major religions of the world, how can you leave out Catholicism? At one moment they were showing a group of people outside the White House or some important building who were protesting, peacefully, for a reversal of Roe v. Wade and I happened to spot a rosary in someone's hand as they panned the crowd. That was the only bit of Catholicism in the entire two hours.

I was also disappointed that there was nothing about Christians in Jerusalem. All three episodes started in Jerusalem and comments about the three major religions of that holy city. Oh well, anyone watching who didn't know would have thought that no Christians lived in Jerusalem anymore. They could have at least mentioned Rome, but maybe that would have brought them down a road they didn't want to travel. As a result, once they got past the introduction of the third episode they really didn't mention the Holy City again.

After watching all three and being disappointed with the third part it makes me wonder how skewed the first two parts were and I just didn't notice because of my own ignorance.

One more thing. There was a very interesting moment in the middle of the documentary. Christiana Amanpour, the host, was in one of the Middle Eastern countries (Iran I think) and she was wearing a loose head covering at various times during her coverage of the Muslim people depending on where she was. So, she was sitting in a car and was explaining where she was about to go to talk to some very conservative Muslims. She needed to change her head covering to one that completely covered her head and hair only leaving her face exposed. So she took off her regular head covering and as she did she glanced over her shoulder out the car window with one of those fearful expressions on her face, like she was afraid of being caught. It was very quick and may not have even been noticed by everyone. She is such a confident and intelligent woman and she's not afraid to ask the tough questions. It was kind of strange to see her in a moment like that. As it turned out she had difficulty trying to figure out how to put this particular head covering on and had to go into a dress shop to get help from an expert. It was also interesting that the group she was going to interview were so conservative that they would not look at her during the interview. So, women in this particular group had to be almost completely covered and yet the men were still not allowed to make eye contact with them.

Overall, it was a good program. Obviously a documentary like this can't cover everything, so what they did cover was good. I think the Christian aspect could have been completely different, but otherwise I did learn a lot and found the whole thing very fascinating.

Fences and Decks

We spent all day Saturday sealing fences and decks. And it did take ALL day!

We started around 9:30AM at Chris' house working on the fence there. After he fed me breakfast, of course. We pretty much worked nonstop until around 1pm. It took us about an hour to clean up and pack everything into the car.

We stopped at Wendy's to get some lunch around 2pm and took it to my house to eat.

It was a little after 3pm when we started working on my fence and back deck. We had a sprayer for the sealer, but we ended up actually painting a major part of the deck. So it was after 6pm when we finished at my house. Chris had everything cleaned and loaded into the car by 7pm. He headed home and I finally got to take a shower.

We were both so exhausted that after getting a shower and relaxing a bit that neither of us had any interest in going anywhere. So we didn't see each other Saturday night, but we certainly saw enough of each other during the day.

Sunday at church one couple told us that doing a big project like that together, and surviving it, is a good test for our future marriage. We did have some arguments at the beginning, but we got past those and worked well together after that.

So after that was all done I suggested that we paint the master bedroom before we move my furniture in. I don't think Chris was very happy about potentially adding something to the pre-wedding to-do list. But I went and picked out colors ... so we'll see how good my power of persuasion is! Haha!!

I am NOT a cook!

I do like to cook sometimes, but overall, I'm not a cook, and I'll readily admit it. For the most part I see it as a chore, necessary of course, but still a chore.

On the other hand, Chris likes cooking! He likes to experiment and he enjoys his time in the kitchen. I sometimes wish I liked cooking more, but I get bored with it after a while. We've talked about this, I get bored real fast with a lot of "domestic" type things.

Monday night Chris came to my house for dinner. Dinner was good, he said he liked it. Later that night he finally admitted that it was bland. I must have blander taste than I thought; I don't use enough spices and seasonings. But I don't miss it.

End result: I may stop trying. We're not even married yet and I am guessing that he may prefer that I not do the cooking. Any comments, Chris?

Last night I read an article in a magazine I get. The article was a guide for newlyweds. It was pretty short, but had some interesting things to say. I thought about my cooking attempts Monday night while I read the article. Thankfully I have no delusions about my cooking abilities. I know that Chris is a better cook and that's okay by me. The article mentions that you should not let little things bother you. Cooking may not seem like a little thing to most people, but it is for me. So this is not bothering me at all. Actually, I'll happily give this chore to Chris.

The only down side to this is what chores will I be responsible for instead if he's doing all the cooking?? I guess time will tell! :)

Rock the Collar

If anyone out there watches MTV you may have heard of "Rock the Vote." I don't watch MTV so I actually don't know what Rock the Vote is, but I think it had something to do with getting younger Americans registered to vote and encouraging them to vote for our nation's leaders. But that's not really what this post is about. This is a take off of that concept: Rock the Collar.

Last week several seminarians who are studying to be priests of the Diocese of Lexington took a tour of the diocese before they all headed back to their studies for the fall semester. This tour was the "Rock the Collar" tour. They mostly went to parishes in the rural parts of the diocese, but on the last day (Sunday) they ended at the Cathedral in Lexington where there was an afternoon reception for them.

The tour sounded pretty amazing. Chris and I went to the reception at the Cathedral on Sunday and they showed off pictures they had taken and a video they created from their trip. They visited about 10 parishes, spent the day with the priest, got a tour of the various areas, visited parishioners, stayed with host families, and had some sort of potluck meal or reception or something at each parish they visited. It sounded like such a great thing for these young men to participate in! They got so much out of it:

1. They got to see more of the parishes then just their home parish and some of the larger parishes in the city of Lexington (as one young man said: he saw the diocese as just Pikeville, where he was from, and Lexington, where the Cathedral is).
   
2. They got to meet priests who will one day be their brother priests AND some of those priests have been in the diocese for a very long time and have lots of wisdom to impart
   
3. They got to know each other better: our seminarians attend 3-4 different seminaries, so this gives them a chance to bond with each other
   
4. They got a chance to talk about their vocations, make themselves more visible, and show parishioners of the diocese that they are regular guys. Hopefully this will help foster more vocations to the priesthood
   

At the Cathedral on Sunday they each introduced themselves, told how old they were, what their home parish was, and what year in seminary they were and which seminary they attended. One of them gave his vocation story and another told us a bit about what his typical schedule was like in seminary. Then the Bishop also spoke. Oh, and the seminarian who was the driving force behind this whole thing told us how supportive our Bishop is: visiting them at seminary and keeping in touch with all of them, attending their convocations, and so much more. Apparently not every Bishop is that available to his seminarians.

The Bishop, as always, had wonderful things to say. He talked specifically about vocations and he made me think about some discussions I have had with protestant friends over the last year or so about the Catholic Priesthood. Bishop Gainer said one thing in particular that surprised someone sitting near me. It didn't totally surprise me, but I think I had heard it before. He said that he would be very hesitant to ordain any man to the priesthood who didn't think he wanted to be a dad or thought fatherhood was not anything he could see himself doing. This seems surprising at first considering that our priests take a vow of celibacy and are not allowed to marry. But his reason for this is because as a priest you are called to be like a father to all those you serve. He said that the priesthood is not the opposite choice from having a family. If you're not called to marriage that doesn't automatically mean that you're called to the priesthood (or religious life, as the case may be). The two are not opposites. If you think about, it does make sense. Everyone has a vocation. Some are called to marriage, some to the priesthood or religious life, and some are called to a single life. I've heard some debate on the single life vocation, but I'm not going to go into that here.

I also liked that the Bishop talked about encouraging our children to consider the priesthood or religious life. It was something that was once worn as a badge of honor if one of your children chose that life but doesn't seem to be the case any longer. But he is encouraged by the growing number of seminarians everywhere. We have 12 this fall and may have 14 by January. We are ordaining 2 next summer and hopefully we'll have more entering seminary next year. Those numbers are great, especially for a diocese that is so young (we'll be 20 years old in 2008). Having our seminarians touring the diocese and making themselves visible will help foster vocations; or at least make more people think about it.

Sunday was a fun event. We met several of the seminarians, talked to plenty of other people, and had a bit of cake and other treats. The movie they put together was cool to see as well, set to a song by U2.

I also encourage everyone to check out THIS WEBSITE. This website was put together by our diocese to be an information center for any vocation in life. It has resources for marriage, priesthood, religious vocations, and more. If anything is posted about the "Rock the Collar" tour, it'll be put on this website. Check it out!!

UPDATE: For a first person account from one of our new seminarians (starting his seminary formation this fall) see Alan's post at his blog which he titles "Wow".

Two Months!!

I'm getting married in 2 MONTHS!! Oh wow!! That's just amazing!!

It's hard to believe that we've been together 18 months now and engaged for 10!! In some ways it seems we've been together a lot longer than that. And in two more months we'll be husband and wife!! Wow!

Catholic Topic of the Week 5: The Assumption

Today is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Church. Today we celebrate the Assumption of Mary. I posted about this last year as well and for those interested in knowing more about what the feast day is you can check out the same website that I referred to last year HERE.

The Catholic Church celebrates Mary in a variety of ways throughout the year. She is the Saint of all saints and a great person from whom to ask for intercessions. Several weeks ago the Bishop of Lexington spoke at the Theology on Tap series about the Second Vatican Council. He mentioned at one point (maybe during the Q&A at the end) that many people thought Mary was downplayed by the Council. He explained very clearly how the Council did not change anything about the Church's teaching on Mary and that she is still very much a big part of our Catholic faith. I wish I could remember everything he said on this topic, but I can't. Suffice it to say, he was very eloquent!

I looked up the readings for mass today and thought I should share them with everyone here. They are available through the USCCB website here: http://www.usccb.org/nab/081507b.shtml

The first reading is from Revelations; a description of the woman giving birth to a child who is the Anointed One. Catholics take the woman in Revelation to be a Marian figure; she comes up several times. The Psalm speaks of a queen at the Lord's right hand. The second reading describes Christ as the ruler of the Kingdom until all enemies have been put down and he can hand it over to His God and Father. This is the reading that many people would look at and say "But what does that have to do with Mary?" That's easy to answer: she was assumed into heaven to sit at Christ's right hand (thus the Psalm passage) AND, most importantly, she leads us to Christ. Pray for Mary's intercession and she takes your prayers directly to Him.

Finally the Gospel is about Mary directly. We see Mary going to visit her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth says what today we say as part of the "Hail Mary." Mary's response is what we call today the Magnificat. The whole Magnificat is there in the reading. Here's the entire Hail Mary prayer:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thine womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

It's a beautiful prayer taken first from the angel's word to Mary, then Elizabeth's, and then an additional sentence at the end.

Anyway, go to Mass today, it's a Holy Day of Obligation! Chris and I will be attending the 5:30 Mass right after work today. Maybe we'll see you there!!

Lasts: Harry Potter and Singlehood

I finished reading the last Harry Potter book on Sunday. It was a great book. Only problem was that I forgot some of the details from book 6. I think when I have time again (maybe after the wedding) I'll have to sit down and read all 7 books in a row.

So Harry is now done and I'm starting to see a lot of things finishing up. Plus I read something the other day about "lasts" and it got me thinking about my many lasts coming up. Read on for the further explanation and bare with me as I ramble a bit:

Several seminarians from our diocese just started a tour of the diocese this week. They are visiting a variety of churches, visiting with the priest, and meeting the parishioners on a tour they are calling "Rock the Collar." One of the seminarians is starting seminary this fall, he's a member of my parish, and I discovered that he has a blog. I read through his blog and found it interesting to read about his many "lasts" as he prepares to leave for seminary. He spoke about the thrill of his vocation and also the sadness of leaving everything he's always known. I can totally relate!

Okay, so yes I finished Harry Potter. Now we know the end of the story. But of course, that's fiction. In the real world, I'm starting to de-clutter my house, get rid of things I don't need, and start packing things to take to Chris' house. I have a student who is interested in taking my stereo, a co-worker wants my DVD player, I have managed to set aside a lot of books to get rid of one way or another, and a former student stopped by to say hi today and she might be interested in my kitchen table and chairs.

What are my "lasts?" Well, I've had my last Christmas as a single person, this was my last summer as a single person, and I'm sure there are many others. I'm packing up my house to move into his house, which will be our house, but it still seems like "his house." It's weird to think of my name as being different. I never thought I would change my name, but I made the decision several months ago that I would, so now I'm realizing just how many things have to change: credit cards, Social security card, all my health and retirement benefits, drivers licence, passport, bank accounts, stocks, the house paperwork, and who knows what else. Its almost too much to comprehend. But at the same time, it's exciting and amazing. We're so excited about the many "firsts" we'll be having together as husband and wife.

There are certainly lots of lasts coming up, but there will be many, many firsts. We have less than 10 weeks left now! It's getting very exciting as my last lasts finish up and our first firsts begin.

Finally ... Harry

I'm finally reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Actually, I'm already half way through the book.

So I'm a bit sleep deprived these days. It's just so hard to put it down at night!!

I've been up until 1 or 2 AM every night this week before I finally make myself put down the book and go to bed.

So far, it's just as suspenseful as all the others and just as good. I just can't wait to see what's going to happen next!!!

Okay, it's 5:00! I'm heading home and maybe I'll read a little over dinner! :)

New Baby Congrats!!

Some friends of mine had a baby in the early hours of the morning this morning. I ran over around 1:30am to be at the house with the two boys (ages 4 and 2) while mom and dad ran to the hospital. Actually, mom had left for the hospital before I got there. Dad ran off the moment I arrived; apparently the baby came right as I got to the house. Amazingly fast!!

I don't know the exact time of birth, but I'm guessing it was around 1:35am or so. They had a baby girl: Kayla Marie, 7 lbs., 11 oz.

All are doing well!! Congrats to the whole family!!

A Full Weekend Once Again

We had a very full weekend and I'm totally exhausted from it now.

Friday after work we met with Fr. Frank for another marriage prep discussion. We always have great talks with him and I keep getting him off topic because I ask questions about something he's said and we go down a whole different path. I feel kind of bad about this, especially since his time is limited, but he said he doesn't mind too much.

The rest of Friday was just dinner and then sitting around watching TV. Nice and relaxing; just wish I had appreciated that more then.

A friend of mine was staying at my place this weekend, so her and I went for an hour-long walk Saturday morning. Chris and I attended a baby shower that afternoon and then went to a movie that night. We saw Ratatouille, which was very cute.

Sunday after Mass we went to Chris' house for breakfast and then left a few hours later to drive to Cincinnati. We went to see the opera Aida by Verdi. I've always wanted to see Aida and it was really good. The sets were amazing!! After the opera we crossed back over the river to Newport and had dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant there. We walked around the Newport area for a few minutes before finally deciding that we needed to head home. I got back to my house around 10:15 and pretty much went straight to bed.

Definitely a full and exhausting weekend! But we had a great time! I leave for Atlanta (again!) in a few days, in the meantime I guess I need to get back to work! Hope everyone out there has a wonderful week!

Catholic Topic of the Week 4

Finally, the Catholic Topic I've been promising (and it's a long one) ...

On July 10, 2007, the Vatican released a document written by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After releasing the document the press started misreporting on it, almost immediately. A friend of mine asked for my opinion on this matter. I have been reading and hearing a lot about it and I want to take this opportunity to reflect on it as well as point out other people’s thoughts or interpretations of the document. By talking about this document I feel that this Catholic Topic of the Week basically is a way of explaining what the Catholic Church believes about itself.

The document itself is actually pretty short. It is entitled “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church.” Once the Vatican released the document it came to the attention of many news agencies which immediately began misinterpreting the purpose of the document. News reports I heard reported that the Catholic Church was making claims that salvation could be found only through the Catholic Church, that the Catholic Church thought only Catholics were Christians, and so forth. This is NOT what the document said and is NOT what the Church teaches.

I have become acutely aware lately of how horrible the media is about reporting on a lot of things. So much so that I now question everything I hear coming from the news. However, the Internet is an amazing thing. You can locate the documents and read the texts yourself, you can do your own research, and there are plenty of bloggers in the blogosphere doing much better research than many reporters these days. In regard to reporting on the Catholic Church, the media has a field day misinterpreting things from the Church and just never bothers to do their research. Two incidents of late: the Pope’s speech at Regensburg many months ago (maybe last summer even) in which one sentence from a very long speech was taken completely out of context and, more recently, the previously mentioned document. Speaking of which, here is what I have to say on that.

The document speaks honestly about what the Catholic Church teaches about what it believes in itself. So think about this: if you went to a church that said to its members, “We can only teach you part of the Truth, but we don’t have the fullness of Truth we’re just here for community building” would you continue going to that church? Regardless of your current faith, would you really want to go to a church (or synagogue or mosque) that didn’t believe that it had the fullness of truth? One of the headlines I saw that I did like after this document was released was: “The Pope is Catholic” or something like that. (He’s Catholic? Who knew!!) Basically, the Church is saying that it believes that it has the fullness of truth. As a Catholic, I’m very glad to hear that my Church thinks this way of itself. Otherwise, why would I bother going? I do like the community and all that, but the important part is the faith itself.

The response to this, though, has been: but what about the other Christian faiths? Well, within this document the Church does not deny that the Protestant communities also contain elements of the Truth within their teachings. The news reports overlooked this detail, or just didn’t bother reporting on it. Salvation is attainable through other faiths, the Church doesn’t deny that. And never has. Much of this was in the Vatican II documents, and even then it was just a reaffirmation of what the Church had always taught. Basically this is nothing new. But the Church would not be the Church if it said that the fullness of Truth is with us and it is with all the other churches that separated from us from the 16th century on through to today. Otherwise we’d all still be one united church like we were over 500 years ago. But we’re not and the Church knows this and continuously prays for unity again one day among all Christians. It comes down to this: the Church would be denying its own teachings to say that all churches are the same as it is.

I’m not sure if that makes a lot of sense. But there are other people talking about this same issue who are much better at writing about it than I am. Here are two of the many I read. The second blog (www.inforumblog.com) is a great blog overall. I highly recommend it. Both of these links are more on this same topic:

http://www.deoomnisgloria.com/archives/2007/07/did_pope_benedict_xvi_really_r.html

http://www.inforumblog.com/?p=1016

On a related note: Monday evening, I went to a session of Theology on Tap. This is a national young adult ministry that began in Chicago over 20-25 years ago. In Lexington it is held twice a year for six weeks each time. Monday was the third of the current series; this series is called Rome to Home: A Catholic History Timeline. Monday Fr. Frank spoke on the Reformation (yes, the priest that’s also doing our wedding in October). At the beginning of his talk he mentioned that there are currently over 33,000 Christian denominations in the United States alone. And that number is growing every day. From the time of Christ and the Apostles until sometime around 1500 there was only one Christian Church in the world (well, there was the split in 1054 when the Eastern Orthodox disagreed with Rome on some issues, but that was a different kind of split than what happened in the Reformation). In 500 years the Church has splintered to tens of thousands of Christian denominations world-wide.

That’s absolutely amazing!! Christ established one church on Earth and for 1500 years (roughly) that was the Catholic Church. But now Christians are divided, into many, many, many segments. For this reason the Church can not in good conscience call Protestant communities “churches” because we see them as divided from the one Church of Christ, the one He established on Earth. Yes, many people have taken offence to this, but I refer you to my earlier statement: Would you be a part of a church that didn’t claim some kind of fullness of truth in its teachings? Then why shouldn’t the Catholic Church think that way of itself?

There is so much more that could be said about this and so many interrelated issues. But it’s too much to go into here. This is why this document was written for theologians and not for the lay person. This is also part of the reason I started doing these Catholic Topics of the Week: to explore the many beliefs of the Catholic faith.

In closing, please pray for the unity of all Christians into the one true Church. Pray that one day the Church may be “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” once again.

Feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne

Today is the Feast day of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary. This reminds me of something Fr. Frank was telling Chris and I on Sunday morning.

After Mass on Sunday we went wondering around the Church grounds to see where some nice picture spots would be. I wanted to find a little side garden that one of my co-workers had mentioned to me. We found it and there was a statue there of what I thought was the Virgin Mary. Only it didn't look like her ... well, it didn't look like a typical portrayal of her. But there were no markings on it either. As we left the garden we ran into Fr. Frank.

We talked with him a bit and then I asked if he knew anything about the statue. He had also assumed it was Mary but had never really taken a good look at it. Chris said she was holding a lily, so we wondered what saints were typically pictured with a lily.

He mentioned St. Therese since she is usually pictured with a flower, but not a lily. Then he said that the lily does figure into the story of Saint Joseph and Mary.

The story is (and it is just a story, there is no way to verify it) that Saint Anne was trying to pick out a husband for her daughter Mary and there were several men there. Saint Joseph was among them and suddenly a lily grew out of the top of his staff. Taking that as a sign from God (honestly, who wouldn't!) she chose Joseph to be Mary's husband.

Even if it is just a story, it's a nice one.

Potter is in the house!

I'm so excited!! My copy of the seventh Harry Potter book arrived in the mail today!! I'm dying to start it but I promised myself I would first finish the library book I currently have out.

Darn my busy life, I want to READ!!

Thankfully I only have about 3-4 more chapters left in the library book and then I'm moving on to the final Harry Potter book.

All the other books waiting to be read will just have to keep waiting. Potter automatically gets moved to the top of the stack.

Robin: you can't borrow it when you come see me this weekend; you'll have to come visit another time to get your hands on it!

Quick Note

I'm in Lexington again, been here since Saturday. The trip to Atlanta was nice, here's a quick update on that:

My brother cooked a wonderful meal the first night I was home which was absolutely spectacular!! Thursday I drove into Atlanta for a one day workshop that was actually very interesting and informative. It made me think about the future of my profession in a way I hadn't considered before and for me it emphasized the importance of what I do (and people like me) and how undervalued our work is not only in the outside world but even within our own library profession.

Friday I went with my sister and niece to have her 18 months pictures made (she's so cute!). The my mom and I ran some errands and I just hung out at home that evening. Nice to relax and have nothing to do for once. Saturday I came back to Lexington.

Since then I've been busy at work and with a few other little [wedding] things. I want to post something for a Catholic Topic of the Week very soon. You might see something tonight or tomorrow night (I hope!!). I haven't forgotten, I just want to make sure I do a good job with this one so I'm taking my time.

Okay, back to work for me!! Until next time ... K

In Lexington ... for now

Good Monday to everyone!!

I got back to Lexington Sunday afternoon around 3pm. I had to travel through a couple pretty bad storms on my way home, but I made it safely and still got back much earlier than Chris expected me.

The trip was good. We had dinner on Friday night at a little Italian place in Columbus and then went and got ice cream. I got two small scoops of two different flavors: Belgian milk chocolate and some kind of vanilla and raspberry thing. It was very good! Saturday we had breakfast at the B&B and then went off to our meeting. We met from 10am until just after 5:30pm, with breaks of course. I think the meeting was shorter this year than last. Several reasons for that: we seemed more prepared, the budget was easier, and there were very few items on the agenda that were controversial. So it went well. That evening we went to a very nice Spanish restaurant. The chef sent out a small dish with just a spoonful of octopus for each of us as a pre-meal item. I also got a baby spinach salad and then my main meal was a grilled beef fillet with potatoes and asparagus. Oh and the dessert!! I shared a serving of the Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake with a colleague. It was really awesome. Several of us also had a glass of some kind of Merlot that was supposed to have a hint of chocolate in it. Can you tell I like chocolate? Not sure that I tasted it in the wine, but it was a nice description.

So that was it. I am in meetings most of today while I'm at work and they are all over at the main library. The first one is over, I went and had lunch, and now I'm doing this before I go to the second meeting. Just one more day of work and then I'm off to Atlanta on Wednesday. This trip is both work and a little vacation.

Hope everyone has a great week!! I promise to post something soon for the Catholic Topic of the Week. I've been promising for a while now and I hope to get to it soon. Maybe while I'm in Atlanta.

Before I leave town ...

Before I leave town for the weekend I wanted to post about a few things.

First, I was hoping to post a Catholic Topic of the Week before I left, but I just haven't had time. My friend Tara made an excellent suggestion and I want to look at the issue she brought up. So when I get back from my next two trips (this weekend and then next week) I hope to post on that. In the meantime, you might have seen something about this in the news on Monday or Tuesday of this week. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican released a document on Monday (dated June 29) that caused a bit of a stir. Basically the document just answers five questions, rather briefly, and is only reaffirming already held Catholic doctrines, not stating anything new. It's actually a very short document that you can find by clicking on this Vatican website. Take a look and when I next get a chance I'll post some comments about the document and I look forward to engaging in some dialogue with all of you.

Second, I had a somewhat busy week. I have had meetings at work almost every day and I finally got all my reports done (end of the year reports, reports for the meeting this Saturday, and others). I've also been busy gathering all the things I needed for my trip this weekend. I hope I have everything!!

Speaking of my trip: I head to Columbus tomorrow. This excursion is for a Board meeting of one of my professional organizations. (See the Music OCLC Users Group link to the left for more info.) There are six of us for this meeting and although it is a lot of work, we are pretty casual and we have a good time. One person lives in Columbus and the other five of us stay at a B&B around the corner from his house. Last year I was the only female on the Board. This year two positions were opened and were both filled by females. I like the guys (four of my closest college friends are guys), but it'll be nice to socialize with some women friends over the weekend too!! Last year I was able to connect online at the B&B, hopefully I'll be able to do that this time as well so I can keep in touch via this blog.

Tonight, I went to meet with the wedding coordinator again. The head of the company emailed me this week to say that her assistant who was supposed to handle my wedding found a different job, but she had hired someone new and she wanted us to meet. So I went down there today to meet her and she's very nice. The cool thing was that she just did a wedding at the Marriott Griffin Gate and she met my photographer at that wedding. I saw pictures of that wedding when I last met with my photographer and it was a gorgeous wedding. Meeting with her and going over everything made me feel better about where we are. I've basically done everything I could have done by now and more. So that was good to hear.

That's about it from the Bluegrass State!! Have a great weekend!!

Old theaters, old movies

The organist at my church emailed me on Monday and asked if Chris and I would be interested in joining him and his wife to go see a movie on Wednesday night. So we agreed and tonight I headed downtown to the Kentucky Theater where I met up with the organist and his wife and Chris. All four of us had to come separately.

I've been to the Kentucky Theater twice before. Both times I saw recent films and both times there was between 15-20 people there. That wouldn't be too bad, only this theater seats about 300 or more. Chris had never been to the theater, so this was a new experience for him.

Brian (the church organist) thought that maybe it was built around 1923 or 24. He wasn't sure exactly. But he did know that the original Wurlitzer organ was put in around 1926. Cathy (his wife, who is also an organist and sang alto with me in the Italy choir several years ago) was telling me how there is a campaign to bring the original Wurlitzer back. They are currently raising money to do that. I think I've seen the original organ over at UK's campus, in the large concert hall. It's not being used, just on display. I think; it could be a reproduction or maybe just a small exhibit about it (I haven't been over there in a long time).

Anyway, when we walked into the theater there was organ music being played. The organ down near the stage is an electronic reproduction of the original and the organist was a doctoral student I recognized from the library. Following the organ recital, he talked a little about the restoration of the organ, asked for donations, then had everyone stand to sing "My Old Kentucky Home." Okay, I've lived in the state for 7 years now, but I still don't know the words. Then someone else got up, talked a bit about the movie and the actors, and some of the filming and then we began.

But first there was a short. The lights went out, the curtain went up and on the screen was a short Three Stooges film. Once that was over it went straight to the movie: Key Largo. This movie has Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall starring in it. It was pretty good and had some very funny moments in it. It's fun to see these old, black and white movies and see how archaic the special effects are and how silly some of the acting is.

I love going to see old movies. And until Brian reminded me of this series, I totally forgot that the Kentucky did this on Wednesday nights throughout the summer. Oh, and the place sells out! I don't know if it sold out tonight, but it was quite packed so it might have. I had a lot of fun!! I picked up the schedule on my way out so I could see what else is planned for the summer. In August they have Harvey with James Stewart, which I definitely want to see!

In Lieu of the Catholic Topic of the Week

Time has gotten away from me this week, so there will not be a Catholic Topic of the Week from me this week. Except for quick updates, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do another Catholic Topic. I'll be going out of town next weekend but might have time one night next week to work on something before I leave (in between packing and gathing all the papers and reports I need to bring on the trip with me). If not, I know I won't have time the following week, I'll be out of town again. More on those trips later.

Anyway, I do have something in mind. A friend was recently asking me about patron saints, so I might do something on saints, patron saints in particular, or just simply "what is the communion of saints?" We'll see. If you have ideas or suggestions, or websites or books you think I might be interested in looking at, please let me know: just leave a comment at the comments link at the end of this post.

In the meantime, I learn a lot from reading the weekly Catholic Carnival. This is a collection of blog entries that one blogger compiles and summarizes for everyone. It's always someone different that hosts the Carnival week after week and I learn a lot about how different people live their faith, plus I discover lots of other cool Catholic blogs. So in lieu of my Catholic Topic of the Week, here is a link to this week's Carnival:
Catholic Carnival 126.

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!!

July 4th Celebrations

The best part of July 4th was having a day off in the middle of the week!! How nice to work two days, have a day off and then work two more days before the weekend. I think we need to revise the work week.

I ended up sleeping in on July 4th, later than planned so I didn't go walking. But I did some errands and one load of laundry. Chris and I also had our first major miscommunication. Well, maybe not major, but I was not very happy at the time. He called me while I was out and we decided that I'd meet him at Lowe's to buy some things for our two houses. Well, I finished my errands and headed over to Lowes and couldn't find him. I was surprised that I beat him there since I was still running errands when we made those plans. So I went outside and sat in one of the swings in front of the store while I waited for him. 20 minutes later I was getting a little perturbed that he hadn't shown up yet and I couldn't call him because he doesn't have a cell phone. (By the way, he's getting one now, I'm buying it for him!) Suddenly I realized that he must have gone to a different Lowe's. When he said he'd meet me at the Lowe's near me I thought okay, not Nicholasville Rd. but Richmond Rd. I forgot that there was a NEW Lowe's on Winchester Rd.!! I hadn't been to the new one yet and I just hadn't thought about it at all, obviously. So partly my fault, but also his. If he had a cell phone I would have known much sooner where he was instead of hanging out in front of the wrong Lowe's for 20 minutes.

He has promised to be more specific the next time.

I also had to go to Georgetown for a concert last night. It started pouring in Lexington right before I left, and we looked up the radar map and saw that Georgetown was also getting storms. It was pretty awful driving there. At 7:30 they decided that yes, we would still play. The rain had stopped and we were in a barn and there were a handful of people there. So we set up, warmed up, and started the concert at 8:05pm. Twice during our performance the skies opened up and I swear the rain and thunder was much louder than the band. I got out of there as soon after the concert was over as I could. But driving home in the rain, the dark, with lightening flashing in the sky (some of it quite scary), and fireworks going off was exhausting.

Last concert is Saturday evening and the weather is supposed to be good. I hope that doesn't change. Hope everyone else had a fun 4th of July!

A New Baby!!

Chris' sister had her baby Monday evening in Louisville. She had a little girl named Abigail Michelle. She came into the world on July 2 at 7:33pm at 7 lbs., 7 oz., and 19 inches long.

Congratulations to the parents and big brother Shawn!!