Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Homily and OLOP

Another thing I miss about College Station, the other being working out at the Rec Center, is attending mass St. Mary's. I haven't felt at home in the many Catholic churches I have been to here and around town. One in particular is the popular OLOP. The feeling that I am merely a visitor as opposed to a parishioner has nothing to do with the two incidents there in which a man unsolicited giving me a pamphlet on dressing Marianly, one in the middle of Mass, one at the parking lot after. It is more about the homily.

To me the homily is one the most anticipated parts of Mass. All these times I haven't been able to get the gist of the homilies on the Masses offered at OLOP with different priest at different times. I'd say this is largely due to the state of the sound system which acoustic is probably affected, to my guess, by the structure of the church building itself. Second, it might be due to do with the way the sermon is presented. Back in St. Mary's, sermons were presented in a way that they were easy to comprehend that they almost certain touched bases every time. Although, at the OLOP cases, I couldn't really certain if each and every sermons were 'too heavy' as I couldn't hear it clearly every time.

This next time, I will try to sit closer to the altar and gather up an extra focus more during the sermon. All those yoga practices should be useful then.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Shutdown Rambles

So, inline with the last post, the company exercised the first of the shutdowns in Q1 2009 effective this Monday. This means yours truly have nine days of Thanksgiving break, except that she couldn't afford to change her plane ticket to go back to dear ol' CS from the original day of Thanksgiving to this weekeend. What a girl to do to cover the five days in between? Well, having fun in her own way, off course.

1. Sleeping in. She forgot how much she loves sleep. She got pretty good at brushing up her old skill as she woke up a minute past noon today.

2. Shopping. She has a couple of shopping list to do since discovering Trader Joe's and Ranch 99 (oh and don't forget the many Goodwill around towns). She's also in search for a good book for the BF's nephew that she adores so much. The boy is cute and well too smart for his seven years of age.

3. Watching free movies on demand. She discovered this Comcast feature a while ago and has been using it effectively almost every weekend. Last night only, she managed to watch two of the agent Double O Seven's in HD, one with Mr. Connery and one with Mr. Moore. Delicious.

4. Exercising. Two times a day, in the morning for the usual aerobics and weight exercises, and at 6:30 PM with the free class at the apartment's work out center.

5. Cleaning up and organizing. The apartment and her work notebook. Where is that damn data cable, anyway. She needs to transfer the pictures from the cellphones in a more affordable way.

What she's not doing:

1. Cooking "elaborate" meals. She just need to use up the stuff in the fridge anyway.

2. Going to a birthday party at some club. First, she didn't feel like dressing up, and there is a dress code in which she doesn't have a thing handy to dress with. Second, she's not sure if the birthday girl is the girl she knows, name confusion that is. She could've picked up the phone and called someone but, third, hmm, she had her share of fun Friday with the free ticket to an MMA event. It was on the corporate suite with free beers, pizza, wings, some cookies. More on this and the "after party" after.

What she's dreaming of:
1. She could afford a camera. A DSLR one, not another Point and Shoot. Maybe next year when the financial situation is a little bit better?

2. This is craziness talking. But yeah, she wanted to be in a nuptial relationship with the BF sometime in the future--and by the future, she means by the end of next year. Again, can she/they afford it? And by afford, she means mentally, logistically and financially.

See, she's still the economical (read: penny-pinching) homebody (read: anti-social) girl she's always been. And so the end of the ramblings.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Bowing Head

Job security is everyone's mind, including yours truly. We can smell it, it's right in front of us. What with the continuously plunging single digit stock, the shut-downs, and the downsizing, all in line with the plan to save those many million dollars in the company's operating cost. So help us, God.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Weekend

It's been a while since I've been involved in any type of volunteering work. The last time was visiting a retirement community back in good ol' CS. This Saturday, I went with a group of church friends to Oakland to work at a kitchen for the needy. We served gumbo with wild rice with a side of salad and bread, and donut or cake for dessert. If nothing else, the experience made me realize that we sometime forgot how grateful we are to be blessed with the ability to provide for ourselves. I like this kind of volunteering and have been considering doing it more frequently, at least once a month.

Serving the gumbo made me crave for a homemade one for dinner. I then called the BF for ingredients list and recipe. He used to work for a seafood place in his hometown during his high school years and might know a thing or to about making a perfect gumbo. In the middle of my cooking preparation, the BF texted me that he too was craving for some. We ended up cooking gumbo at the same time but 1000 miles away. Through out the cooking, we updated each other's tribulation: the roux took too long, mine is not dark enough, etc. I finished first and was planning to wait until he's done with his so we can eat the gumbo at the same time but my hunger took over. When he's done with the cooking he called me and we talked for more than an hour. It was just the cutest date this LDR had so far.

This afternoon, I went to a Mass said in my native language in a Mission church 20 something miles away from my place. The Mass was a celebration of the founding of the bay area Indonesian Catholic community as well as for an early Thanksgiving celebration. There was some kind of a worship dance performed in the middle of Mass. I'm not too sure what my feeling was about the appropriateness of this kind of activity. But at least the dance, the costume and the music were moderate enough to tone the effect down. Another worship activity was presented some time after. This time was in the form of a ballet performance. Needless to say, that for sure should be put into another time and place.

All in all, this weekend has been effective. I am looking forward for Monday. I am wondering how many people can say that they are looking forward for Mondays.

Friday, November 14, 2008

New Beginning?

I thought I should start writing again. I think it is important to continue to chronicle my life now that I have moved to a new place, living on my own, started a new job, and trying to work out a long distance relationship (not just between the two of us but among the extended families). In short, this is still about the juggling of life but with new sets of problems. The ones associated with becoming a responsible adult. Who would have thought I will be experiencing all of these.

I got everything I have dreamed of in life: health, a degree(s), a job, a meaningful relationship. For those I am thankful. I thought those are all I had ever wanted and then I will finally be happy.

Truth is I find it hard to fall a sleep most nights. It has to do with aspirations such as that I want to do more with my life, I want to learn to be grateful, I want to move on to the next step on the relationship, I want to build a solid financial standing, I want to be happy, if not happier.

So I am throwing this to you guys out there. Is it too much to be wanting more? Or are we just... human?