Life, and how you live it

Today, I was scheduled to read at Mass. No big deal, it's old hat by now for me. But somehow, in rushing around to get out the door (forgetting to bring my electronic leash), I ended up with some kind of unprovoked anxiety, complete with elevated heart rate and shallow breathing. I was having the worst time centering myself and clearing my mental clutter. I was pleasantly surprised to see our pastor Monsignor H celebrating Mass today, versus our usual, the associate pastor, Father L. Whoever schedules the priests really needs to consider a rotating schedule, and not hogging Msgr H to whatever Mass that person attends. We love Father L, but Msgr H has some awesome homilies that we don't get to hear as often. Seeing Msgr H in the vestibule, I stopped to greet him and share my delight in seeing him in vestments instead of just his collar. He always has a thought provoking question when we encounter each other. I love how his mind works to make me think about things I wouldn't normally.
Today, he asked "Do you think it's a fair question to ask what people's mindsets are walking into the doors of the church, and what they are as they leave?"
I said "Absolutely, it's a fair question. I know for myself I'm usually rushing to get here on time, and be early when I'm reading, and then sometimes fighting with traffic, and inconsiderate drivers en route. Today was not horrible trying to get out the door on time, but I was a bit rushed because I had to be early. I made great time driving here with no issues. But somehow, I ended up with a bad adrenaline rush that I've had the hardest time clearing away so I can be calm. So I imagine that others are fighting with distractions and diversions and struggling to clear their minds before Mass starts." He shared his thoughts, but wasn't able to finish them, as someone else needed to speak to him. Such is the life of a shepherd.
How awesome was that kind of Divine Intervention in hearing what I needed to hear, and articulating what was going on with me at that exact point in time. I somehow managed to get myself squared away so I could do my job. All the readings talked about living. Today's Gospel reading mentioned the word "life" 9 times. Then Msgr H's homily talked about the readings talking about life, and living it appropriately. He moved on to talk about the NASA Rover Curiosity, and how it will explore unknown places. He asked us to imagine a rover exploring our parish, and how it could be determined that the parish was alive. He asked us to imagine a rover exploring our hearts, and determining if we were living our lives appropriately.
I'm certainly guilty of letting the diversions get more of my attention than they deserve. Right now, I'm supposed to be matching up my coupons to the sales this week so I can restock the house with groceries. We're nearing "Mother Hubbard's Cupboards". But I had to get this out of my brain before I got too diverted and lost it, because I really felt like I needed to share it. I am prone to being easily distracted and my focus gets placed somewhere other than where it's most needed. I prefer to blame my ADD brain, which is only partially accurate. I still am responsible for what I do, and what I fail to do, regardless of how my brain is wired. Today's conversation with Msgr H gave me food for thought, and the homily drove home the point. With school starting, I really do need to make wiser use of my time, and allow fewer diversions to detour my day as much as I have allowed them to do up to this point. I could be so much more productive and have fewer "aw, crap" moments in my life.

How about you? What kind of diversions detour you from what you should be doing? What else can you accomplish if you set aside any number of diversions in your day?

Buddah Belleh & Drunken Debauchery

OK, let me preface this by saying I was told I'm overdue for a blog post, and I got the hint that I was about to be fired. Point taken, I'm posting.
Now, where I left off was what has prompted Kristin to call me Betsy-Wetsy - and Persnickety to promise never to let me live down such events.
The next day we went to Clearwater to play for the weekend. On the way down there though, we stopped in Bushnell to visit my mom's gravesite. I haven't ever been and I wanted to go at least once before Dad moves her up to the new VA cemetery being built in North Florida, that is so much closer. I would have liked some alone time for just 2 minutes, but by that point in the day, the kids were cabin-crazy and any unsupervised time was at risk for antics. We took some pictures and got back on the road. It's very quiet there, even when the landscapers were at work. We all know my penchant for quiet and how I crave it. On to our destination. As we got to the bay, all I could think was "wow the water is a beautiful turquoise", unlike the Atlantic Coast.
Someone rented sleeping quarters at a ... "quaint" condo on the inlet side of the beach where it was much quieter and actually really nice. They're an older set of buildings with a nice spankin new and sparkly high rise complex next to it. Red was giving directions to someone and said "you see the nice condos right there? Yea we're in the cheap seats next door." We were at the flamingo pink place. Absolutely respectable with full kitchens, a pool, and the on site managers always asked how we were doing when we passed them. I guess since I have nice things to say, I can tell you it was Coral Resort Condo in Clearwater Beach. It's a couple blocks from the ocean and there are lots of restaurants nearby. The beach has a covered playground and Clone said "I could play here ALL DAY!" She was not happy when we left but the pool made up for it.
I called Kristin and let her know I landed and we made arrangements for her to drive out to see me. I drove 4 hours to her neck of the woods and her aunt bagged on their weekend plans a few days before, so I was all too happy to force her to leave the house and socialize. Plus, she needed to rub my belly because I'm also all too happy to share my "fertility vibes" with anyone who desires to have it. I just look sideways at Devildog and get pregnant. Devildog joked about how he could help her achieve such goals, but it might require some hefty explanations since her husband is not geographically present at the moment.
Now, granted the company I was with wasn't exactly classy either. We have Devildog - self admitted redneck from the hood. Then there's Red, who is from New Hampshire, but apparently has been outside of the northeast enough that a gaggle of rednecks don't mind hanging with him. We've got a Michigan Redneck, plus a single guy who reeks of solo bachelorhood, our two resident lushes. We can trust these two guys to drink more than they should at any given gathering. There's J & K who got married last weekend. There's P. who just needs to know there's a plan of some kind, regardless of its ability to meet success or not. She, Devildog and I get along mostly because we just need to know what is going on and what the plan is. The other yayhoos are just fine flying by the seat of their pants 24/7.
So you get the bunch of us, and Clone, Beast and RW together...and it proves interesting. Having teenagers along was nice for trips to CVS to get things like film and supervising their little sister in the pool so I could rest in the AC. The kids absconded with the cameras (mine and Kristin's) and they got some good pictures. Granted the ones taken with her camera were way better because my camera is pretty low tech, is very much NOT user friendly, and I have been wanting a new one for months now. In the meantime, Red decided to up the ante on things and offered my boys cash money to cut their hair. So we have pictures of that stuff. I'm so glad Kristin was there to keep me company while I avoided the guys and their shenanigans. My boys do look so much better with haircuts, and I think they look a couple years older. Sad that a bunch of drunk guys were able to con my sons out of their hair.
But Kristin came with a mission in mind and that was accomplished. The drunken debauchery was a side perk, full of veritable entertainment that wasn't at my expense for a change.

Independent or Obnoxious?

Today was one of those days that I got to annoy my oldest, who I think I'll call my NonConformist. It may end up getting abbreviated to NonCon to save keystrokes. I'm a slacker like that. Something he's accessed has generated problems with my computer and the machine was running horrendously slow for days. I'm hoping that I've cleaned it up with the series of scans that took all day today. In the meantime I culled a lot of garbage from around my desk. Apparently I've been neglecting the area. Go figure. The boy hasn't been online and he's having computer withdrawals. I'm such an evil mother like that too. How dare I not allow him to get online to do his schoolwork, because now he's behind in his work for the state's Virtual School. I have no sympathy for him. If he truly did his work in the total time he spends online he'd have much more work banked ahead and missing a day wouldn't be the least bit of an issue. I would have allowed him 2 hours to get as much work done as possible except one of the scans literally took ALL day from 9:30 this morning to sometime after 6 PM tonight. So, I didn't let him on the computer while I was gone to take the younger two kids to to class at church. I didn't want the scan to take even longer than it already was. In the process he's been a royal pain today. Meh. I've developed a poker face, so I haven't let his ranting and rambling bother me. I went with a friend to a bookstore, and Clone was scoping out material while I sat in the coffee shop relaxing. Last week the tables were full. Today they were empty. There were four others there, all male. One teenage-looking young guy, kind of punkish reading something, probably fantasy or anime type of stuff. A 20-something with a couple novels, his cellphone, a motorcycle helmet and a backpack that resembled something for camping or military use. Given his gait and carriage, I'm going with the assumption this guy was affiliated with the military somehow. There was a middle aged, overweight, and balding guy with thick glasses, complete with neoprene straps to keep them from falling off his head. I didn't look at what he was reading, but he had a fair size stack of books. Then there was this guy...another 20 something, obviously studying and trying to cram a ton of information into his grey matter. I caught glimpses of him off in thought. Then Clone brought a poetry book over to read aloud. She tired of the book by Mattie Stepanek and ran off to the kids' section to find something else. I got up to toss my cup, and the studying guy said "She reads really well." "Thanks. Not bad for first grade. I suspect it has something to do with my refusal to baby talk to my kids." He asked if Clone was around other kids. I said "she has two teenage brothers and lots of other friends' kids." Then Clone mentioned the one in gestation. I knew she'd never keep that a secret once we told her...geesh. Student said that he didn't have kids, but had 40 nieces and nephews, and that he was one of 10 kids. I think he added the sibling count because my jaw hit the floor at the number of times he's an uncle. I joked that no one was going to harass him to have kids anytime soon. Nope, not Catholic, but a military family that just kept having kids. Because really...after 3, what's one more right? He moved down here from Alaska, to go to Commercial Diving School, learn to weld, get away from the cold, and along with all that get going with a career in deep sea diving work. The welding was additional insurance to keep employment. His course is very accelerated and intense and full of prior service military folks. My daughter then started flirting heavily with this guy, giggling inanely like a school-girl, and saying "Call me". He asked what I was teaching my daughter, which was quickly met with, "She has two teenaged brothers, and attends public school, anything is possible." He talked about traveling with his family as a child between Japan, 10 bases in the lower 48, and finally living in Alaska. I related that my life was rather mundane, high school sweetheart, children, brief stint at Camp Lejune with the husband, back here, interesting but not so much excitement. He said "it is what you make of it" which is very true. Then Clone returned with a 4 inch stack of kid books to read, mindless of the short time we had left to get back to church to retrieve the other kids. She got one book read, which was logged in her reading log for school to count towards her 25 books for the quarter. At which point the guy went back to his studying. We never exchanged names. I can understand why the girl was flirting with the guy. He was easy on the eyes and seemed to have a decent personality. It's nice to find a person with distinct goals and taking action to achieve them. I'd like to think he's a credit to his parents and that they raised him well. I have no idea if he ever behaved like my non-conformist child in his middle teen years. But Student admitted to being too independent minded for the military. It's not entirely a bad thing to be independent, but it's another course of life if you choose to be a disrespectful oaf to everyone around you for the sake of being one. It remains to be seen if my oldest will be an "Independent minded" individual, or if he'll continue to be anti-everything to everyone around him.

I am interesting

At least according to the Devildog. We were bantering back and forth on one of his afternoons off of work. I teased him about something, and in the course of it all, there was commentary about life insurance benefit amounts for each of us. He replied that he probably wouldn't find anyone that was interesting to burn his food for him. Yes, to clarify, he said that I burn his food but I'm interesting.

I think this comment was in retaliation for the day prior. He was losing a game of Madden on PS2. He said something about resetting the game (in essence-cheating) because he wasn't doing well, and was losing players to injuries on every play. I looked at him and said I think it's a PEBCAC issue.

I was met with a "WTF?" face. He apparently hasn't heard this phrase before, and it's an offshoot of PEBKAC (which tech-inclined folks will probably understand).

So I let him sit on it a few seconds while I fought hard to keep my composure. Then I unleashed it. Problem Exists Between Controller And Chair.

He sort of smirked, shook his head and proclaimed me to be "such a geek." Which, I can't possibly be such a geek because I have too much ADD, misfired synapses, and can't wrap my brain around even a percentage of that stuff. I'm just smart enough to be dangerous...or useful. At least I'm interesting.