Graduation!

I am now officially a college graduate! Here are some photos my lovely siblings took from the weekend.

 Me receiving my diploma from the dean of the School of Philosophy, Dr. McCarthy.

 Me receiving my University Scholar award from President Garvey.

 Our awesome university mace bearer, Dr. Druart, who was also my academic adviser for two years.

 Me in the procession in.

 My father in the procession in. See the hat? We gave it to him for his birthday.

 Me and J.

 Me and my friend Annie.

 Me and Kevin.

Almost all the soon-to-be graduates of the School of Philosophy, waiting to process in. This picture was taken by the university photographer, not by siblings.

The weather was lovely, and it was a great day. Terrible traffic on the Beltway meant that we didn't get into South Bend until 2:30 in the morning, but we persevered through it all. I will post the pictures from Teresa's graduation in a separate post.

It is finished

(Is that blasphemous? I hope not. I don't mean it that way.)

I just turned in my last paper and my last final exam. I'm finished with college. I graduate a week from Saturday, and get married a month from yesterday.

I guess this makes me an adult?

This is all kind of surreal.

Papers and more

This week, I have three finals, two papers, and a paper presentation. On top of that, I have work and regular life. I got a chance to do some fun things, including go see one of my favorite bands in concert, but now I am paying the price because I have to do all my schoolwork now.

I hope to post some pictures soon, because I have been taking pictures, some of which I am very pleased with.

Moving into break

Hopefully I can get ahead on my papers over this break. I have an ambitious but hopefully doable list of tasks to accomplish over Easter break, which runs from tomorrow until Easter Monday. This list includes writing one paper, outlining another, going to the doctor, and tidying my room. Perhaps I will post before and after shots of my room. Or possibly I will decide the before shot is too humiliating and only post an after shot!

This Easter will be new, as it's the first major Church holiday since we moved. I am hoping that our proximity to the D-house will mean we can go there, but I suspect the others will want to go to a parish church. Oh well.

Medieval Fun

Last weekend was Medieval Day at CUA. We all had a great time. I brought my new-to-me camera and practiced taking pictures. One of them even got published in the school newspaper! Here are a few of my favorite shots of the day.

The whole flickr set is here, deliberately obnoxiously watermarked since many of the pictures involve the faces of children.

Spring is coming

I don't have meteorological proof for that, really, but I have felt so much more cheerful in the past two days. I have way more energy, and was even described as "bubbly" by my mother. The grey of winter tends to leave me feeling sapped and depressed, and the little bit of sun we have been getting lately is a lovely change.

I am busily working away at finding a job. If anyone knows of a company in the DC area that wants to hire someone with a PhB in philosophy, let me know! Or if anyone wants to hire Kevin as a Greek or Latin teacher, that would be great too. Haha. I am remaining optimistic that we will find something--it's way too early to be freaking out.

Nothing is really going on around here that is terribly interesting. I am the only member of my family who has not thrown up in the last three days, and so I am trying very hard to not interact with them much so that I don't get sick.

Hopefully something more interesting will happen soon. Perhaps I will go on a photo walk--the blog has been kind of short of photos lately, I think.

#ThingsThatAren'tHashtags

But totally should be:

#YouKnowIt'sCompsTime when you run out of ink the day after refilling your pen.

7 quick takes, vol 23: impending doom

--- 1 ---

Ok, so impending doom is a little over-dramatic. But Comprehensive exams start Monday and go until Wednesday. I hate taking tests, and tests that cover four years of accumulated knowledge are even worse.

--- 2 ---

Also, I'm sick. Yesterday I threw up at work, and today I am staying home from work and resting. I don't plan to change out of my pajamas or get out of bed more than necessary. I don't feel super bad, but I need to get better quickly. (See comps, above.)

--- 3 ---

To go along with comps, it looks like there is another storm coming. At last check of the Capital Weather Gang, it's still not clear whether we will have rain, sleet, or snow. Of course, I'm worried that it will be snow and that school will shut and comprehensive exams will be delayed.

--- 4 ---

Also, for the less liturgically aware, or who just haven't put two and two together, the last day of tests is on Ash Wednesday. ASH WEDNESDAY! I hate fast and abstinence days enough as it is, and now I have to deal with a test as well?

--- 5 ---

Ok, so things look very bad. Comps, in the snow, while starving and throwing up. Luckily, I have some good things to look forward to after comps are over. Besides the obvious, I mean, namely that comps will be over.

--- 6 ---

I have almost no class next week, because on any day that there is comps, you are excused from all philosophy classes. Also senior seminar is canceled that week. So I have one seminar Monday night, and one humanities class Thursday morning. I intend to spend Thursday afternoon tidying my room and preparing it for Teresa to come home for Spring break.

--- 7 ---

Then, spring break! I will be visiting Kevin's family and helping his mother sew costumes for his little sister's cheerleading team. I am really looking forward to it. So not everything's bad...but I do have to get through comps.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7QT, vol. 22: snow days!

--- 1 ---

Wow. The federal goverment is opening, albeit late, and we are closed. I can't remember the last time anything in DC was open and we were shut. Our people in charge like to keep classes running! And now we have two days off in a row. My theory is that we shut because Metro isn't running the metrobuses on anything close to a normal schedule.

--- 2 ---

I love the four-day weekend. I am going to get so much done, and catch up on everything I fell behind in last week (not sure what happened there). I realize it's not so good for other people, though. The show at CUA which was supposed to run Thursday-Sunday was canceled last night and will probably now be canceled tonight. And missing out of two whole days of work in the costume shop is going to cripple the next show.

--- 3 ---

I have to admit that I haven't ventured out into the snow yet. I realize I am not that old, but I find temperature changes harder and harder to deal with the older I get. At some point today I will probably brave it outdoors, if only to take some pictures.

--- 4 ---

Oh yeah, and Happy Valentine's Day!  It's one of my least favorite holidays, if only because I think it's so stupid and the candy is usually not very good.

--- 5 ---

Kevin came home with me Wednesday night, for the purposes of playing in the snow with my siblings. Now he'll never get back to campus! Haha.

--- 6 ---

Of course, while he like spending time with my family, and they like spending time with him, that meant that he had to miss the Dominican Rite Mass at the D-House because the roads were not looking good and we didn't want to risk it. Had he stayed on campus, he could have just walked.

--- 7 ---

Ok then. I heard rumors of pancakes floating around last night, so I am off to investigate those. Stay safe, everyone who was hit by this storm!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick takes: Lessons in Trust

--- 1 ---

This semester, I am taking three philosophy classes, one honors humanities class, and the capstone honors class, which is basically a seminar about memory. Needless to say, I have a lot of reading to do. This takes up most of my time.

--- 2 ---

When I'm not doing my homework (or, let's face it, playing on the internet) I am doing one of either two things. One is participating in study sessions for comprehensive exams, which are at the beginning of March and can cover anything and everything we've learned.

--- 3 ---

The other is job hunting. Kevin and I are probably both going to get jobs for next year, although he may get an MA in theology first, depending on funding. We are very much hoping to stay in the area, and I have a good solid lead on a job. (Prayers or fingers crossed or well wishes or whatever your expression of choice would be greatly appreciated.)

--- 4 ---

I can't find it in my heart to stress out about any of these things. For a long time now, I've been an untrusting person. When I started to pray for trust, I was handed all these opportunities to develop my trust: about to enter the workaday world without a job, engaged to someone else without a job, preparing for comps without the greatest foundation due to having taken some courses out of order, and so on. In any previous semester, I would be a basket case.

--- 5 ---

A few months ago, though, I was talking to a friend, and I said, "Well, I guess this is God teaching me to trust Him." It was out of my mouth before I even knew I was going to say it. As my friend said, "Wow, that's a good way to look at it," I was thinking Wow, yeah, that is a good way to look at it!

--- 6 ---

So far, this seems to be working. When I am calm, I am better able to study for comps. I have a good lead on a job that works very well with my long-term plans, which basically fell into my lap. (I'm not announcing it publicly in case things fall through last minute.) Many people were concerned that being so trusting would mean nothing got done, but so far this hasn't happened. A priest I know said in his homily on Wednesday that there's a fine line between Pelagianism and quietism, and I think this is equally true here.

--- 7 ---

I have found where I want to be on that continuum. Much as Descartes embarked on a project of radical doubt, I'm embarking on a semester of radical trust. We'll see where the road takes me this year, but I have no doubt that it's in God's hands and that He will provide.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

March for Life

That was a cold day. My goodness.

 This year, I marched with the Dominicans instead of with CUA, as their schedule worked better for me. I traveled to the Mall with the friars and priests, but wound up marching with the Nashville sisters, in order to march alongside my dear friend who joined last year.

 We were closer to the stage than I have ever been before. Knowing OPs has its perks, let me tell you.

 Crowds, crowds, crowds. Apparently the crowd was quite small this year, which is hardly surprising. I honestly don't know if I've ever been as cold as I was today.

 Many buses got canceled because of snowy conditions. The roads around DC were a total mess Tuesday night.

Some people, of course, see in the low turnout a sign that the pro-life movement is waning. I do not think that is the case. The crowd is younger every year, and our spirits were high despite the cold.

 There was singing, dancing, chanting, and praying as we marched along.

 The counter protesters were not willing to brave the weather. My sister said she saw only two. I didn't see any.

 Fulton Sheen in Dutch! There were a lot of groups from other countries, including the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Scotland, and Argentina.

 The crowd coming up the hill.

 His flag says, "Appeal to Heaven!"

A CUA sign! The worst part of not marching with CUA was not getting to carry one of their signs.

This March made me feel more hopeful about our chances of ending abortion than any March yet. We were happy and cheerful despite the cold. We are determined. We will not give up!

As I posted on Twitter this morning: Pain is a constant reminder you're still alive, but 1/3 of my generation isn't. #whywemarch

Just a quick update

We moved. Mostly. We have more stuff than we thought we did, and so some of it has been left in the old house for the time being. We also had some repairs we didn't realize existed, such as no working phone jacks.

We're sort of in control of life again, but school has restarted, so we're also very busy. Posts may be light for a while.

The wedding planning is only sort of progressing, but that's ok. We're trying to keep things low-key and not stress about them.

I have not been feeling well lately. My energy levels have been low, and I haven't been sleeping very restfully. Hopefully it will pass soon, as tackling this (last, and very challenging) semester feeling this way doesn't sound fun. However, I did start out the semester in class rather than in the ER, so that's already a leg up on last semester!

Most Posts of 2013

Amongst Lovely Things is having a link up! There are five categories:

• Post with the most clicks
• Post with the most comments
• Post with the best picture
• Post that was hardest to write
• Post that was your personal favorite (not your readers' favorite- your favorite)

Here are my answers:

• Post with the most clicks

My post of seagull pictures got over 500 views. I am not really sure why or how that happened, but there you go. It all happened in the last week, so either someone is sharing that post like crazy, or it's one of those spammer hacks that jack up your page views in the hopes that you will click on your link.

• Post with the most comments

That would definitely be μετὰ λόγου. Nine whole comments, you guys!

• Post with the best picture

Um, by whose standard? This is probably the best picture on the blog. It's also the tree I got engaged under, although I did not know at the time that it was going to be that special. But the eighth photo in this post, of the seagull eating the dead bird, is my favorite picture.

Hey, I should take a poll. Which photo should be my header? The tree or the bird?

• Post that was hardest to write
• Post that was your personal favorite (not your readers' favorite- your favorite)

These are the same post: my farewell post to Maggie. I struggle to put my thoughts into words if what I am trying to write about can't be put into a syllogism. That post took me a long time to write, but I think it turned out well.

Head over to Amongst Lovely Things to join the link-up!

7 QT, Volume 18

--- 1 ---

Starting today, I am using Jen's template. I am not sure why I never started using it before, but when I realized it included the link back to her blog, which I always forget, I was sold.

--- 2 ---

Classes and finals are all over! I have not received any final grades yet, but I am anxiously awaiting them. At least one is going to be lower than I had hoped, but I don't know what I could have done differently. My classmates and I felt like the grading standards changed from assignment to assignment. Oh well.

--- 3 ---

Coming up is a nice long break. I intend to spend it productively. I have a long list of things I would like to get done, and I am going to pick a few and make serious progress on them. I hope so, anyway. On today's to-do list is clean my room and go to Confession.

--- 4 ---

Speaking of Confession, for my birthday (which is actually tomorrow), Kevin gave me a book about making a good Confession, which I sorely need, and a book called How To Pray the Dominican Way. Those of you who know me in real life may know that I am slightly obsessed with the Dominicans, so I am really looking forward to reading it!

--- 5 ---

I am making decent progress on Christmas presents. I have several ready to go, and several more than need work. If I follow through on my goal of sewing a lot of them, I have some busy days ahead of me. But I think it will work out. After Christmas, I will post pictures of the things I sewed.

--- 6 ---

Can I just say, making a wedding registry is weird? I have an aversion to gift lists, although I usually wind up being asked for them because I am a hard person to shop for. I get that. But the wedding registry seems strange. Not, "we will need some glasses," but "these glasses, right here!" I guess that makes other people's lives easier, and some of the glasses that exist are very ugly, but it still feels weird and greedy.

--- 7 ---

If you are reading this and coming to my wedding, feel free to ignore or be inspired by the registry. Or just not give a present. Also, the invitations haven't gone out, so if you haven't got one, don't stress. Also, the registry is hidden because it's not really done at all. So I don't know why I'm talking about people who haven't been invited yet buying things off a registry which no one can see. I should probably just stop talking.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

I'm engaged!

I got engaged last Wednesday!

Everyone always wants to hear the story, so here it is.

We went to Mass. We left, and on the way to the car, under a beautiful oak tree (which we couldn't see because the sun had set already), Kevin asked, "Will you marry me?" Of course I said yes!

My ring is silver with an amethyst. I'm not really a diamond person, but my favorite color is purple, so Kevin decided to get a purple ring instead. (I don't wear gold.) And no, I'm not sure why my skin looks like an elephant's ankles.

Inside, it says "friendship which has been set on fire" in ancient Greek.

We're hoping to be able to pull off a double wedding with my twin sister next summer.

Ooops

So, it turns out Thanksgiving is next week. I thought it was two weeks away. This has thrown a monkey wrench into my planned paper-writing schedule. I have created a whole new schedule, which is rather hardcore, but it doesn't leave me a lot of free time. So expect things to be light on the blogging front! I may pop in from time to time to post a picture or something trivial, but don't expect anything that takes a lot of work until all my papers are turned in (last one is due the evening of Dec 2).

7QT, Volume 16

Wow, it has been a few months since I participated in this link up! For my seven quick takes, I'll do seven photos.

 Halloween! I am a deviled egg. Kevin is a soul in purgatory.

 Fall is my favorite season. Yesterday I went walking around campus taking pictures.

 Tricolor trees! After taking biology freshman year, I now know how this works.

 I think they have to plant these beautiful bushes across from the school of architecture because it is so ugly.

 These are near the Nursing-Biology building.

 (At CUA, we have a biology building and a nursing building. The building in between them is called Nursing-Bio. Someone was super creative there.)

Here's the one that got away. I only had my phone, and it couldn't focus without any natural light. This could have been such a cool shot, with the Shrine in the background and the green and orange leaves with the CUA banner. I may go back tonight and try to retake this shot.

Nominate your favorite charities

Hi all!

As part of my budgeting kick, I am trying to organize my charitable giving. I would like to organize it by the works of mercy, so I am trying to find a charity for each one. I would like your input! I'm especially looking for your suggestions for charities for places where I have holes, but if you have a really good suggestion for a space I already filled, toss it out anyway! Here's what I've got so far:

Feed the hungry: The local food pantry
Give drink to the thirsty: I have heard of charity:water. Are there other similar organizations?
Clothe the naked: Little Dresses for Africa
Harbor the harborless: Habitat for Humanity
Visit the sick: ?
Ransom the captive: I want this to be some sort of charity that opposes human trafficking. There are a huge amount of them, though, and I am having a hard time evaluating them. Anyone know of a good one?
Bury the dead: The monks who make child coffins for grieving families.

Instruct the ignorant: The Catholic University of America
Counsel the doubtful: The Gabriel Network
Admonish sinners: ?
Bear wrongs patiently: ?
Forgive offences willingly: Retrouvaille
Comfort the afflicted: Project Rachel
Pray for the living and the dead: Nashville Dominicans

Anyone have anything to add or change? It would be greatly appreciated!

(Note: I'm not going to donate money to charities that advocate positions that are contrary to Catholic teaching, even if they do good work in other areas.)

Papers galore

I'm currently in a sea of work. Last week I turned in two papers. This upcoming week, I have one paper, one paper abstract and bibliography, and one midterm. After that, it should settle down until the end of the semester, when it gets even worse.

Tomorrow I get the exciting job of going to see the philosophy librarian. I've never been to see the man in over three years as a philosophy major. Shocking, I know. But now I am making up for this lack by asking him to help me find good secondary sources for my paper in my graduate class.

Somehow I find myself doing schoolwork during nearly all daylight hours. This week, I am going to track what I do when so that I can have an accurate picture of what I spend my time on. I suspect the answer is a little too much SVU. I shall report back (since I'm sure my non-existent readers are all dying to know).

In terms of current events, no comment! It all seems so stupid in every direction and quite frankly I have a hard time caring.

Hopefully I will have a more organized and/or beautiful post up soon. I do have some pictures I could post, once I can get them edited and cropped and such.

The plans, they are a-changin' (7QT, vol 15)

1. Instead of writing blog posts, I have been busy turning my life upside down.

2. How, you ask? I'm not applying to any PhD programs. I was sort of working on my applications, which basically meant watching many episodes of SVU to avoid thinking about them, and then I realized I don't want to spend the next six years of my life writing papers. I hate writing papers. I love reading philosophy, I love reading Greek, and I love talking about philosophy. But I hate writing papers. And grad school involves a lot of writing papers.

3. However, that means that I don't really know what to do with my life. I might apply to some MA programs, but I'm not really sure yet. It's hard to get funded for an MA in philosophy (since you usually go straight to a PhD) and I would still have to write papers.

4. I'm still behaving academically as though I were heading to grad school. I'm taking a graduate class this semester, and I have three hours of week of translating Greek with professors and grad students, which takes at least another three hours to prepare for.

5. Ideally, I think I would teach sewing classes to children. I'm not sure that I can pull that off, but I do think I will try to make money sewing in some way.

6. I've come up with the following ideas: alterations, an Etsy shop, sewing classes, mending/alteration classes for adults, custom made clothing. Depending on my area, some of these may be more or less realistic. I'm not going to do a link-up within a link-up, but if anyone has advice on making money sewing I'd be glad to hear it.

7. And, for no real reason, BIRDS!

Go over to Jen's to see the rest of the quick takes, or to add your own.