The Daily Show Gets it Right?

Since my mother is leading the New Orleans Tea Party, I hear about ACORN from time to time. to time. to time....

It gets mentioned a lot.

BUT FOR GOOD REASON.

So it's not news that they are a very corrupt organization that uses all our tax money for evil. Just about anyone involved in politics has seen at least one clip from Fox News unravelling all that. Most notably, a few weeks ago, the story broke about ACORN helping a man jump start his underage prostitution ring.

Wait, sorry, sorry, his "performance art" ring. My bad.

What may be news to a lot of Tea Party members, Fox News watchers, and Catholics is Jon Stewart's (the host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central) reaction. I was actually pleased.

Watch the September 15 show here.

In this show, Jon Stewart does nothing to defend ACORN (which I would have expected), but instead does what he does best - makes fun of them. AND he proves that Fox News is the only news network out there reliably showing what ACORN is doing to our community.

A+ to Jon Stewart.

Not a Good Start to the Weekend

News blurb from Culture War:


A recognized pro-life activist was shot and killed outside of a Michigan high school. 


His soul, his family and the soul and family of the murderer are in my prayers - they should be in yours too.

Week in Review

Since the school year is still in its beginning stage, a lot of clubs and organizations on campus have been hosting preliminary and educational meetings to welcome new students (and newly interested students) into their ranks. Of the many, I decided to attend two: Students for Life and College Republicans.

I think it might be the same club.

Ok, so there are some differences but central to each is the culture of life movement. I haven't been on campus very long, but I feel as if these two clubs probably work together a lot (along with Democrats for Life).

So really, the hard part is trying to choose which club I want to be the most active in. As one of four or five active members of the Students for Life club back in Mobile, I feel a special calling to be a leader here as well. The only problem? The ENTIRE CAMPUS is in Students for Life here. How would a transfer sophomore, not belonging to any households, really get any recognition at all? I could join core team, but some of their commitments conflict with my class schedule. So it looks like participation in Students for Life will be limited to prayers outside the abortion clinic in Pittsburgh.

At least it's a little more than what I accomplished in Mobile - although our few members were certainly strong enough to hold that club together and keep it as a recognized voice in Mobile (if not only with the 40 Days for Life people...)

So maybe College Republicans?

They do a lot of pro-life work - usually in conjunction with Students for Life - and they have cake on Ronald Reagan's birthday!

Also, I want to make sure I will go with them to protest the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh! My mother would be proud.

Is there a Tea Party in Ohio?

A Little Laughter

Sunday...

It happens to all of us.

{postsecret}

Our Lady of Prompt Succor

Hasten to Help Us!

Today marks the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall and subsequent destruction New Orleans.

The city is in considerately better shape now, although many places still bare the scar of the storm. However, with time, they have moved from painful reminders to bittersweet memories of a strange and turbulent time in the Crescent City. But even after all of these years, its impossible to forget the images, smells, and feelings from that day. It's still possible to hear the deafening quiet I came back to a few weeks after the storm - when many people were still away in Houston or Atlanta. It's still possible to recall that awful scent from the very depths of Satan's lair that is the refrigerator left alone without power for a month. (Don't open it, I beg you!) And it's still possible to visualize the National Guardsmen and HUVs rolling down the streets of Mid-City.

New Orleans as it was and as it is will always remain a unique place. Even to this day, as I am stowed away in middle-of-nowhere, Ohio, people still come to talk to me about the storm and what its like to live in the most interesting city on Earth.

Oh and GO SAINTS!

Ministry Fair

Last night the Franciscan University of Steubenville hosted their annual ministry fair. The fair consisted of multiple departments of ministry including chapel, evangelization, outreach, and mission trips.

I arrived about 20 minutes early and already the JC Williams Campus Center was packed with students and presentations. I was immediately attracted to the mission trip set up in the Atrium. What really caught my eye was the advertisement for the mission trip to New Orleans, my sweet hometown. We were listed right along with Belize and Jamaica. Nice. Of course I signed up. The trip goes down to New Orleans during Spring Break, so even if I do not go with Franciscan, I am going to be in the area anyway. Maybe I'll just stop by.

I was the first one to sign up for more information about that trip, but hopefully a lot more people were interested. Although the area has seen vast improvement since 2005, there are many neighborhoods and people still looking for a little extra assistance. It never hurts. After witnessing the insurance fiasco at my summer job at the law firm, I can still see the need present.

Apart from the mission trips, the chapel ministries tables were swamped. It was near impossible to get anywhere close to the Eucharistic Minister sign up with fighting a few people off. (Or distracting them with free root beer floats.) Of course, with its popularity comes a series of hoops to weed a few people out - including a mini-reflection paper and such. If I ever get around to filling that out, I can start trying to participate in the very active and popular chapel ministry program here at Steubenville.

Although I haven't seen any of the previous ministry fairs, I would comment that it seemed to be quite a success. By 7:45 it was hard to move throughout the campus center - each floor was packed! I like to like it was because of the eagerness of holy people looking to serve the Lord, but it could have been because of the free root beer floats too.

Back in the Saddle Again

Ok, so I decided to take a summer break from blogging. Even though you would think that summer allowed more time to do unpractical and unimportant things, my summer did not. I finished working at the law firm about two weeks before the vacation would end so that I would have time to see the friends that I had missed all last year and during the summer. I also needed to take some time to start packing so I could go to....

Franciscan University of Steubenville!

I have finally made it into the wilds of Ohio! Although technically I moved in on Thursday, I did not figure out how to work the internet until late last night. This required numerous treks (really, treks, there are so many hills!) back and forth from my room to the campus center and to the RAs office. But alas, I have found the internet and can start blogging again!

Classes haven't started up yet, but that will change come Tuesday. Right now, I am stuck going through yet another Orientation. Orientations - they have their goods and their bads. Some parts seem repetitive and unnecessary, but other aspects I have found are quite helpful. Franciscan has organized small groups within the dorm buildings to meet nightly and go over the day. I am happy to say that these small groups are a great improvement over the most awkward small group of all time I had to endure at SHC. Who's idea was it to put my gay ex-boyfriend in the same group as me? Who? Not cool, Jesuits.

I am living in Marian Hall this year, which is the oldest and hottest dorm on campus. Seriously, there is no air conditioner or coke products in the vending machine. Ohio, what is going on?

The room is small, but sweet. The place is full of possibilities for feminine bonding. Although some of the rules seem a bit strict for me (no boys except during open hours, but only with the door open!) but at the same time, I understand where they are going with them. (Feminine community, once again). That should be interesting - and challenging for when my boyfriend comes to visit me from Mobile in October. Will he even be allowed to do the actual visiting part? I guess that will just take careful planning.

I shall post pictures of my dorm room shortly, to give everyone a feel for what Marian Hall is like. At first I was a little disappointed, but I think the mold is growing on me.

(Just kidding - there is no mold...just moths.)

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.

GAH...

But I don't like universal health care, USCCB.

*sigh*

I Promise

I will blog about the New Orleans Tea Party Memorial Day Picnic as soon as I can. This whole 8:00 - 5:00 job thing needs to be integrated in my college-schedule-oriented mind.

I hate time management!