You Know it is Hurricane Season When...

...daddy drags out the MREs.

pictured: survival

Thus, there is the Prayer for Renewal which was recently passed out by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

God our Father, Creator of all life,

and new life in Christ Jesus,

we stand before you, strengthened by faith,

with gratitude for the many blessings

you have bestowed upon our Archdiocese.

Embraced by love

in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ,

we offer deep appreciation for all that nurtures and strengthens us

in our individual and parish journeys of faith.

Give us an openness

that will enable us to undertake

the mission and ministry that you want for us

in your Church.

Through the intercession of Mary, our Mother,

send forth your Holy Spirit

to heal hearts that are broken.

Give us the courage to become all

that you have called us to be.

Make us a vibrant and evangelizing Church,

grounded in the Eucharist

and in service to one another.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Our Lady of Prompt Succor

St. Louis King of France

St. Martin de Porres

St. Vincent de Paul

St. Katherine Drexel

St. Juan Diego

Vietnamese Martyrs

Blessed Frances Xavier Seelos

Pray for us.

woot woot.

Little Happiness at Work

The past two weeks at the law firm have been very stressful. Considering the social justice aspect of the class action law suit I am working on, I have been feeling extra spiritual pressure to help our 80,000 clients. 3, 082 of them could not be located to be sent incredibly important affidavits or they returned the affidavit incorrectly (making them useless). 

My boss put me in charge of getting those affidavits back to those 3,082 people that have been mistreated by insurance companies during Hurricane Katrina. Keep in mind, these people are elderly, poor, uneducated, disabled, or illiterate too. It was a big responsibility.

Alas, it has been accomplished! With a little extra grace and patience, all 3,082 have been located and have had affidavits mailed to them. 

And my brother and I stuffed and processed every single one of them.

WHEW!

Now that that phase of the class action is over, I can relax and start enjoying my job and summer. (Hopefully this will include more blog posts)

During my Dorito break last Friday, I wandered into the kitchen and opened a bag of the cheesy treat - which, by the way, comes in spicy flavors now. Sitting at the floral-topped table, I glanced over the the stove,

 where many meals are cooked by the sole female attorney in the office, and saw this:

Isn't that a nice reminder?

And later on in the day, while opening the mail I came across this stamp:

So the week ended well at the firm and hopefully we will be receiving those 3,082 affidavits back in the mail in the upcoming weeks. 

Maybe they will have nice stamps.

I am a disgusting consumer...

..of the T-Mobile G1 phone.

I just got the new phone over the weekend and I am absolutely freaking out over having the internet (*gasp*) on my phone. (I can be on facebook while carefully concealing my phone under my work desk!!)

With the hundreds and hundreds of applications, I can play solitaire and scan barcodes to find cheaper versions of what I am buying...

...and I can be on facebook!

But there is one tiny thing that bugs me about the G1:

The lack of Jesus-y applications I can play with!!

Searching the market for applications, I found 0 hits with key words like:

"catholic"

"pope"

"vatican"

"USCCB" (ok, that one isn't that shocking...)

And I only found 9 hits with the key word: "Jesus" - 5 out of the 9 were Mormon Jesus things. The only Bibles I could find were from the Latter Day Saints and the King James Version.

It is very sad to see such a nifty phone so Jesus-unfriendly. I did find one cool application called "Pray," but the disclaimer clearly states as you install the app "these prayers are not sent anywhere." Excuse me? Then, exactly, what is the point now? *sigh* It could at least read, "these prayers are not sent to any electronic or mobile device, but are instead hurled upward into the heavenly realm to God or your saint of choice - for intercession purposes only."

Yes, that would be much better. 

At least I can download pictures of Jesus from the internet to set as my background...

...and upload them to facebook, too!

Franciscan University of Steubenville

After spending a year in muggy Mobile, surrounded by Jesuits, beaches, and way to many people with alcohol problems, I am finally transferring to breezy Steubenville, Ohio.

This past week (June 4-6) I spent traveling and meeting my new university face-to-face.

And I am happy to report that I think we will get along splendidly.

The trip up was less than amazing, however. I was scheduled to arrive on the campus of Franciscan University by 4:30 PM but did not see my new home until after 9:30. Why the five hour delay? Oh, that's because I flew with an airline with less than helpful workers. However, on the first plane to D.C. (to catch a connection to Pittsburgh), I did get the opportunity to meet the First Lady of Louisiana.

She is very pretty.

And polite when dealing with weird people that won't stop talking to her on her airplane.

Bill Jefferson was there too.

I can now die happy that I have achieved the most New Orleans moment in the world.

Anyway, my thoughts on the campus:

1. It has a lot of hills. It puts Spring HILL College to shame in that department.

2. My dorm room looks very small. :[

3. The Campus Center and Cafeteria are large and awesome.

4. I miss the Gothic chapel at SHC and will try my best to go to Mass at a very modern church.

5. The walking Stations of the Cross was very nice.

6. My fellow students were very welcoming, more so than I have experienced at my previous college.

7. Ohio does not have good seafood.

8. I will have to walk uphill in the snow to go to class. Yikes.

9. I am happy that I learned that rain-boots are not sufficient for snow.

10. I am going to have very interesting classes (Geology!)

My future home: Marian Hall

These 40 Hour Work Days...

...are really getting to me.

I have been deprived of internet for weeks! And therefore, my poor blog is suffering from neglect - one thing I was really hoping to avoid when I started working.

Well, I promised to blog about the New Orleans Tea Party Memorial Day Picnic. It went very well, even though every time I set my pro-life booth out it started raining. Once I would pack it up in a frenzy and dash under the pavilion, the heavens would clear and the sun would come out. And that's how it went about 4 different times. 

But, even though I was secluded in the corner of a pavilion far-off from the actual festivities like an after-thought, I still had a good number of visitors. I talked to a few war veterans (including a woman from the Iraq War), an Indian couple who spoke very little English, and I met a family that recently adopted a crack baby. The child was about tow years old and her mother had recently been incarcerated. Luckily, the child's recently pro-life grandmother and aunt took her in. Her name is "Journey," which was very fitting for the poor child. I had included a basket of 10 week old fetuses on my table and she immediately recognized them as "babies!!" Of course, she had to have one. It was adorable.

Her family also let me use there tent for shelter the third time I was rained out on.

Ben and I with some new Patriot friends

My mother is creating a video highlighting the days events, especially the salute to veterans that we did. (I got to read the prayer! Hopefully, there are no pictures as my eyes were wide with terror of the impending storm coming, seeing as my table -which as at least 500 ft away from where I was standing - was completely uncovered. It loves to rain when my booth is out in the open. )

I will post that video when I can.

Which may be a month from now, the way things are going at work.