Heart Monitor; Religion in Beowulf and Literature; Novel Playlist.

As I type this out, I am on hour 2 of wearing a 24-hour heart monitor. They want to make sure the palpitations I've been having, as well as the shortness of breath, is due to my stress and anxiety levels and not my heart. I already had an echo-cardiogram done last *thinks* November and my heart is completely healthy but they want to rule everything out. I would've been very nervous a few months ago but, with all the tests they've done for various things, I'm used to it. The only thing is that this little monitor is a pain in the tush. lol. It hangs around my neck and it weighs me down a bit... not to mention all the electric wires taped on me. It's also annoying because I can't sit or do many normal movements. I feel stiff, ick. But it's all for the best (and only a little under 22 more hours, WHOO!) so I'll suck it up. lol.

Of course, the day that I had this thing put on is the day I had problems with an academic counselor and the financial aid office. Hey, it's not my fault they don't know what they're doing. To try to put the blame on me for things they messed up IS messed up. As I said a few entries ago, I knew I would have problems with the financial aid department but I never thought they'd make me shed tears. I'm a sensitive person so the way I got treated (honestly, I felt an inch tall -- and I have NO FAULT in the matter) just opened the water works. Can I start my transfer applications yet? lol. (ed.: I have to wait until next month to begin those.)

I am going to try to finish this blog so I can work on my critical analysis of Beowulf that is due tomorrow morning. I chose to dissect it from a religious prospective (makes sense, as a Religious Studies major, right?). I never noticed how many religious symbols were in Literature. I honestly didn't notice it until my Brit Lit professor pointed it out. Just looking at Beowulf, he (Beowulf) represents all that is good and holy, Grendel symbolizes all that is evil, and the materialism can be seen as avarice (greed) which is a sin. It's all really interesting. If anyone is (or will, in the future) do anything like this for a Lit class, please feel free to ask me questions or compare notes. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to write and which examples I'll be using, I just have to finish Beowulf. Hey, haven't I been saying that for the past couple of blogs? lol. Well, I can't help if I am not a big fan of it thus making it harder for me to finish reading it. lol.

Alright, well, before I conclude this blog (wow, that sounded so formal), I want to give you guys something fun. Well, I think it's fun. lol. I decided to upload some songs (and more to come throughout the day) that have either inspired scenes in my novel/screenplay or are mentioned in it (there's quite a lot of music in it). Since I didn't write it in order, the songs are not in order. Just a few clues: it's a dramedy (dramatic comedy), the story is seen from both the male and female protagonists points of view, and it takes place in 3 different countries (the U.S., a British country, and a Spanish-speaking country). The more alternative/rock songs were mainly used when working on the male protagonist; the jazz/swing/pop were mostly for the female protagonist with a few songs used for both or for certain scenes. That's all I'm saying. :D

Oh, and side note: The Donna's "Fall Behind Me" has a word that some of you might be uncomfortable hearing. You may want to skip over it. It's not a bad, bad word; it's another word for "mess" up and it's also the name of something you need a screwdriver to put into place. You've been warned.

The playlist will be on the right hand side so you can always come back and listen to it or see what I've added.

That's it for now. I have a lot of work to do so... as always, thanks for reading and God Bless. :D
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Class Surprise: Saints; Personal Message from Pope Benedict XVI.

I'd been nervous about my English (British) Literature course since the minute I knew I would be taking it. Honestly, it's the only course I've been really wigging out over. I don't know why. I know the professor well (she's the BEST professor I've ever had). I was nervous in class; not to the point of anxiety or a panic attack but pretty nervous. I was taking down notes to distract myself when I heard her (my prof.) mention St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Canterbury... which just grabbed my attention. See, she was giving us a little bit of a History lesson so we could understand the whole Anglo-Saxon/Norman thing better (trust me, you don't want me to go into that. lol). So she mentioned them and I got very excited... and was even going to correct her about them being Roman Catholic but someone beat me to it. After that, we viewed paintings of the Madonna (the Blessed Virgin Mary... and on her birthday no less!) from the Medieval and Renaissance periods to make one of her points more clear. By that time, the class seemed to go by really fast and I was sad to see it end. I'm now less nervous about the class. Whoo! Who knew that the mention of either saint or of Our Blessed Mother would erase all my nerves in a nanosecond? :D I'm happy now and look forward to class... even if I still haven't finish Beowulf. lol.

I wanted to post a blog about the Blessed Virgin yesterday for her birthday but I was so exhausted. I had such a heavy day that I just got home, jumped on my bed and stayed there until I felted better. In fact, I'm still feeling icky but hopefully it's just the stress. Oy. This is when I'll be asking St. Joseph of Cupertino and St. Dymphna for their intercessions but the stress is big. I am optimistic though. :D *whispers* In any case, please say a little prayer that my anxiety doesn't act up because of the heavy load.

Oh, and before I forget, it was WONDERFUL to wake up yesterday to a personal message from Pope Benedict XVI! All of us who are registered on www.xt3.com (think facebook but Catholic and safe for all ages) received a message from His Holiness in our own inbox. It was awesome, especially for someone like me who was wigging out. lol. If you haven't registered on the site, you can and I believe you can still receive that message that we all got from the Pope. So, what are you waiting for? Go sign up or go check your inbox if you're already a member! :D

Alright, well, I have to go completely my things for Philosophy class because it's due tonight... and then I have to go finish reading Beowulf (have I mentioned that enough times yet? lol) and the intro to Medieval lit in the book before tomorrow morning so... I gotta go. Let the headaches begin! lol.

Hope everyone's having a good start of week. :D Until next time, thanks for reading and God Bless!

P.S. I added some links to the Aquinas and More store in case you ever need something from one of the saints mentioned on this blog. I've always found what I needed at this online store. :D
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Missing Mass; Prayer Updates: St. Timothy, St. Dymphna, & St. Martha.

I feel very childish today. Why? Because I cried when I found out I wasn't going to make it to Mass. Mom comforted me (as she always does) saying that things happen for a reason and that God knew that I wanted to be in Mass but couldn't.

See, I had my Oceanography class today. I'm taking a fast paced 8-week Oceanography course that meets once a week on Sundays. I had already planned on leaving early so I could make it to my usual Mass (last English Mass at my parish). Luckily, the professor let us out an hour early since it was the first meeting. I was excited because it meant we would be able to make it to Mass. We stopped at a Target on the way to kill a little bit of time. BIG mistake. When it came time to leave for the parish the car failed to start. Dad took some time trying to find a gas can and then to walk to the gas station. By this time, it was about 15-20 minutes into the Mass. I still had hope we could rush there and at least make half of it. Dad comes back with the gas and then... the car STILL won't start. He then decided to ask people if they would give a jump start to the car's battery in case that was a problem. Quite a few people said no until a woman took pity on us and brought her truck to help. I'm glad we had the jumper cables or else it might've been even more difficult to find help. We finally left the Target parking lot around the time the Mass would've ended. I ended up in tears on the way home.

So, as you can see, it was a pain and it wasn't like I didn't want to go to Mass, I just couldn't because of the car stalling. This is something I always do -- the tearing up. I always get really sad when I can't make it to Mass. *sigh* I'm even MORE bummed out than usual because I had dedicated the Mass as a thanks to Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Timothy for their intercessions. (Though I will keep why I gave to Our Lady to myself. That's between her and I. :D)

For those of you who have read my blog long enough, you know how I suffered from an intestinal virus (which I got around the time I started traveling) a few months ago. It took about 2 months for it to completely leave my system. It totally threw my digestive system out of whack. I started asking St. Timothy for his intercession (since he is the patron saint of digestive and intestinal problems) and it started getting better. Thankfully, I'm back to normal now and my way of saying "Thank you" to St. Timothy was the Mass. Oh, and while I'm publicly saying thanks to St. Timothy (WHOO!) I want to update some of you on other miracles other saints have done recently.

To further prove how amazing St. Dymphna is (my anxiety is virtually gone now!), I have yet another miracle she's done for someone else. A few months ago, in May, I wrote about the husband of a friend/co-worker of my mother's (Roadtrips, Relationships, Tests, and Prayers Everywhere -- second to last paragraph). Remember how I mentioned he was suicidal? Well, they kept tabs on him and he actually DID read the prayer daily. It seems to have really helped him! He's back to his old self, pre-suicide attempts! It made me SO happy to hear that and I hope that others will see that prayer works! Depression, anxiety, panic disorder, etc; just pray for her intercession and St. Dympnha will help you out. :D

Also, St. Martha has helped my mom out a lot lately at work. Mom said both times she's asked St. Martha for her intercession, it seems like either the time has flown or like there wasn't much heavy labor work to do in the first place.

You can always go straight to Christ and ask him for help or you can find the saint that's the patron of a particular thing and ask them for their intercession. Either way, prayer works... and boy, does it! :D

Alright, well, I have to go read/finish "Beowulf" for my English Lit class tomorrow. Oy, I don't even want to think about how long the day will be. lol. :D I hope everyone had a nice weekend! :D

As always, thanks for reading and God Bless.
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The Rose of St. Jude Thaddeus

Almost two weeks ago dad got 3 roses from the rose bush in front of our home. He put two in front of a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that's in his room and one in front of the statues of St. Jude Thaddeus that are in my room. All three were placed in their own water, in the exact same type of glasses, etc. What's odd, in an amazing way, is that the roses that were placed in front of Our Lady wilted within a few days. The rose that's in front of St. Jude has not wilted that much. Really, almost not at all. We don't know why it's lasted so long but we're amazed that it has. I took a picture of it with my camera phone since my digital camera needs batteries (which I still need to get). Oh, and the rose looks better in person than it does in that picture.

We haven't done anything to the rose. It, like the roses that were placed in front of Our Lady, were kept inside with the air conditioner on (we have a central AC so the air's distributed equally throughout the house). Nothing's been added to the tap water that was used. It's definitely weird, in a good way, though. I still have a few days to go in a novena I'm saying to St. Jude as well. I started a novena before we noticed the rose's staying power, though. I don't know what's up but I just thought I'd share this little story with y'all. Maybe it's St. Jude's way of letting me know he's listening to me? If so, man, what an awesome patron saint! :D He's already done so much for me; never lets a prayer go unanswered. :D

Hmm... I wonder if the pink roses I left in front of the Our Lady statue at our parish, last Sunday, have wilted yet. They probably have. *sad sigh*. I'll find out when I go to Mass on Sunday! :D

Alright, well, I have to go read the "argument" section of my Philosophy textbook and then read "Beowulf" for my English Lit course (trying to get everything done a.s.a.p. so I can enjoy the weekend). That is all for now.

'Til next time, thanks for reading and God Bless.
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