If there is some magic condition that makes it so that I post here, I have yet to find what it might be. I'm here posting, but I don't think "I'm not quite ready for bed, not doing homework, and don't have enough time for Stargate" applies to every other situation. Maybe I should break my other leg? Just a thought...
Anyways...
I seem to have undergone something of a sea change in terms of energy since the Easter weekend, probably because the four-day weekend and a visit home meant a much-needed recharge of batteries, never mind the usual energy boost of the Easter season, which is bouncy, hopeful, uplifting, and all that good stuff. Nothing pumps me up for a week or two like an awesome Easter Vigil service. Of course, there's also the fact that now that Easter has passed, the end of the school year feels very near--even though the extra-early Easter means it's actually quite a bit farther away than I instinctively want to think. Even with a whole week of school over since Easter, I still have two weeks of classes, and then two weeks of "finals" before I'm free of this semester.
Of course, the fact that all my papers are coming due could be making me panic a little, and nothing gives you energy like adrenaline... but I'm not quite at that point yet. Still haven't pulled an academic all-nighter, for anything.
Spring weather doesn't hurt one's energy levels either. The weather has been consistently nice the last couple weeks, and the continual melting of snow, together with sunny, breezy spring days, has been beautiful.
Life's not a complete bag of roses, of course. My memory has reached the point in the school year where my classes have fused. Going in to school this morning I could barely have told you which class was when, with which prof, and on what subject. I knew I had a paper to hand in, but although I had the right paper, my mind kept thinking it was for my OTHER English class. I've also got alarm-clock setting issues, and I have absolutely no idea what day of the month it is... life is a big blur.
It's hard to believe that April is already upon us tomorrow, and at the same time really amazing that it has been March for so long. I mean... Easter Sunday was eight days ago!
Yes, I'm a little confused these days... but at least I'm not drained-feeling anymore!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Most Blessed of all Weekends
With the celebration of the Holy Thursday Mass, I've now entered into the Easter Triduum, the most solemn three days of the Church year, and the setting of my absolute favourite liturgies. As it stands, I'm unfortunately very ticked off at myself. I suffered through Mass with a hint of a buzz from too much wine at supper (we had a Seder supper, re-enacting a Jewish Passover meal, and it requires have four glasses of wine). The buzz wasn't the real problem so much as the fact that I forgot to take my insulin at supper, and thus by the time Mass came around all my supper had ended up in my bloodstream, which inevitably makes me really uncomfortable--and less than able to sing as the high blood sugar meant a syphoning of water into the bladder, and thus drying out other places like the mouth.
The unfortunate result of this is a general crankiness that has only now started to alleviate as I've taken insulin and have had a drink of water. I'm still in a rather pensive mood, though, and this has a lot to do with the fact that I'm feeling quite disconnected from the seminary of late--because I'm never able to be here.
This has been a bad semester for that in general, and while I'm at school I don't begrudge being at school, but I really, really felt kind of "doing nothing/useless" at Mass tonight. This is a false sense of how things should be, I know, since a Mass is SUPPOSED to have ordinary church-goers, but I've been spoilt this week. I served for the Archbishop on Saturday, on Sunday, and on Monday I was on the Chrism Mass serving team, all of which serves to bring out my very normal tendency toward wanting to be at the centre of the liturgical action. I'm quite certain that this has peaked nearly every year yet around Easter, since quite a while before I entered seminary.
On the plus side, as far as that goes, the rest of the weekend should make up for that amply. I'm heading back to Olds tomorrow, and I'll be serving at the Good Friday liturgy, the Easter Vigil, and the Easter morning Mass, a Triduum tour-de-force that I've never had the chance to serve before.
Every year, the Triduum sneaks up on me and I find myself at or just after the Holy Thursday Mass, wishing I'd been just a little bit better prepared, and regretting that the weekend always has to disappear so quickly. I always want to savour this part of the year for so much longer... all year would be nice. But before I know it, Thursday has passed into Friday, suddenly Friday is gone, and then the Easter Vigil (which seemed forever-long and boring as a little kid) has flashed before my eyes and it's Easter morning... and once that Mass has vanished, the high spiritual weekend is over, and it's back to real life.
Basically, it's the same sort of hunger you get after you've just eaten a chocolate bar. One never seems to be enough. The chocolate was just savoury enough that you want a second one... but you never get one. However, as I learnt today, when you plan ahead and actually do have two, the second one always ends up tasting too sweet, and you can hardly get it down without nausea. Maybe that's how it is with the Triduum... it's ever so much better to having that lingering desire for more than to ever actually have more.
The unfortunate result of this is a general crankiness that has only now started to alleviate as I've taken insulin and have had a drink of water. I'm still in a rather pensive mood, though, and this has a lot to do with the fact that I'm feeling quite disconnected from the seminary of late--because I'm never able to be here.
This has been a bad semester for that in general, and while I'm at school I don't begrudge being at school, but I really, really felt kind of "doing nothing/useless" at Mass tonight. This is a false sense of how things should be, I know, since a Mass is SUPPOSED to have ordinary church-goers, but I've been spoilt this week. I served for the Archbishop on Saturday, on Sunday, and on Monday I was on the Chrism Mass serving team, all of which serves to bring out my very normal tendency toward wanting to be at the centre of the liturgical action. I'm quite certain that this has peaked nearly every year yet around Easter, since quite a while before I entered seminary.
On the plus side, as far as that goes, the rest of the weekend should make up for that amply. I'm heading back to Olds tomorrow, and I'll be serving at the Good Friday liturgy, the Easter Vigil, and the Easter morning Mass, a Triduum tour-de-force that I've never had the chance to serve before.
Every year, the Triduum sneaks up on me and I find myself at or just after the Holy Thursday Mass, wishing I'd been just a little bit better prepared, and regretting that the weekend always has to disappear so quickly. I always want to savour this part of the year for so much longer... all year would be nice. But before I know it, Thursday has passed into Friday, suddenly Friday is gone, and then the Easter Vigil (which seemed forever-long and boring as a little kid) has flashed before my eyes and it's Easter morning... and once that Mass has vanished, the high spiritual weekend is over, and it's back to real life.
Basically, it's the same sort of hunger you get after you've just eaten a chocolate bar. One never seems to be enough. The chocolate was just savoury enough that you want a second one... but you never get one. However, as I learnt today, when you plan ahead and actually do have two, the second one always ends up tasting too sweet, and you can hardly get it down without nausea. Maybe that's how it is with the Triduum... it's ever so much better to having that lingering desire for more than to ever actually have more.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Not Quite a Third World Country
We had a very interesting day yesterday. At some point around Lauds (so 8:50 until 9:20ish), Epcor (Edmonton's public/private utility company), while digging out behind the seminary, hit our water main, and for the rest of the day we did not have running water.
The huge irony here is that Epcor spent the last few days doing survey work to find those water lines and power lines and the like. I guess they succeeded.
Now, this didn't really make much of a difference at first. It actually took until lunch before most of us realised it had happened. Then, as we sat down to eat, we were eating off of styrofoam, paper, and plastic because we wouldn't be able to run the dishwasher. As the day went on, we learned more and more that this wasn't going to be fixed quickly, and come supper we still didn't have running water.
Supper was order-in pizza and bottled water, pop, etc. Supper was also after half an hour of most of us ambling out to the water trailor that Epcor had provided to haul water into our rooms to flush our toilets, brush our teeth, etc. It was really quite amusing to watch us slowly make our way out there a couple at time, usually carrying our blue, plastic paper recycling bins (emptied of all paper, of course).
The inability to shower meant that soccer did not happen after supper as had been planned, but instead a number of us went out to a movie (Juno). By the time we got back (10:30 pm, or later), the water main still hadn't been fixed, but Epcor had managed to hook up a larger water truck to our water system, thus restoring running water. Though not fixed when last I checked, today's water situation is basically back to normal as far as the turning on of taps goes.
For the most part, the water problem did not inconvenience us beyond the change of meal and sport plans--and toilet flushing. Most of us had showered before Lauds (though the few who didn't were QUITE cranky all day). The most amusing part of the whole situation was the fact that it happened when it did. For the first part, it seems that all the problems that have come upon the building this year (we've had two major water leaks in the library) have happened on the weekend--when the college end of the building is empty and we don't have staff working on maintenance or anything. The second amusing note is the fact that this weekend was the "Come and See" weekend, meaning that we had six seminary prospects who managed to, well, come and see what life at the seminary is like. Well, they got a really good look at what happens when the schedule gets mashed up. On whole, though, I think the *cough* "disaster" may have been beneficial in that regard, since the community tended to spend more time together, and there was a much greater feeling of cameraderie at supper and in the evening than usual.
Oh, and yes, I am avoiding homework by writing right now...
The huge irony here is that Epcor spent the last few days doing survey work to find those water lines and power lines and the like. I guess they succeeded.
Now, this didn't really make much of a difference at first. It actually took until lunch before most of us realised it had happened. Then, as we sat down to eat, we were eating off of styrofoam, paper, and plastic because we wouldn't be able to run the dishwasher. As the day went on, we learned more and more that this wasn't going to be fixed quickly, and come supper we still didn't have running water.
Supper was order-in pizza and bottled water, pop, etc. Supper was also after half an hour of most of us ambling out to the water trailor that Epcor had provided to haul water into our rooms to flush our toilets, brush our teeth, etc. It was really quite amusing to watch us slowly make our way out there a couple at time, usually carrying our blue, plastic paper recycling bins (emptied of all paper, of course).
The inability to shower meant that soccer did not happen after supper as had been planned, but instead a number of us went out to a movie (Juno). By the time we got back (10:30 pm, or later), the water main still hadn't been fixed, but Epcor had managed to hook up a larger water truck to our water system, thus restoring running water. Though not fixed when last I checked, today's water situation is basically back to normal as far as the turning on of taps goes.
For the most part, the water problem did not inconvenience us beyond the change of meal and sport plans--and toilet flushing. Most of us had showered before Lauds (though the few who didn't were QUITE cranky all day). The most amusing part of the whole situation was the fact that it happened when it did. For the first part, it seems that all the problems that have come upon the building this year (we've had two major water leaks in the library) have happened on the weekend--when the college end of the building is empty and we don't have staff working on maintenance or anything. The second amusing note is the fact that this weekend was the "Come and See" weekend, meaning that we had six seminary prospects who managed to, well, come and see what life at the seminary is like. Well, they got a really good look at what happens when the schedule gets mashed up. On whole, though, I think the *cough* "disaster" may have been beneficial in that regard, since the community tended to spend more time together, and there was a much greater feeling of cameraderie at supper and in the evening than usual.
Oh, and yes, I am avoiding homework by writing right now...
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