A Few of My Nerdy Things

One of my favorite bloggers/people, Clare, was kind enough to tag me with this blog award so now it is my turn to do the same. :D

Since I have been chosen to do this (as per the rules) I must now list 7 random facts about myself and then pass this along to 15 other bloggers. Okay, this may be a little hard but... let's do this. ;)

1) I collect Holy/Prayer Cards. Any Mission, Cathedral, or Catholic bookstore I go in -- the rack of prayer cards is typically the first place I go to. And as I typed this out, I decided to take a picture to prove it. Btw, this is just a small fraction of what I actually own. The far right, bottom one I got at an Irish imports shop (it's of Our Lady of Knock). I acquired the prayer card with a prayer in honor of Our Lady Mother of Divine Providence during today's trip to Pauline Media and Books Store.

2) I spend way too much time on tumblr. A lot. And I will probably get disowned by the tumblr folks for mentioning it (apparently it's like Fight Club; I shouldn't even hint that it exists.) If you want to get to know me and my personality better, it's a good place to start. Warning: most of my pictures are either flowers, landscapes, about Vancouver or reading/books.  

3) I love taking long walks and hiking. I'm not big on running (though I hope to get into it before the year ends) but I still love being outdoors. This is one of the big reasons why I want to go to Ireland; I desperately want to attempt the climb up to Croagh Patrick at some point in my life. For now, I'll just have to make do with the local hiking trails (which are still pretty good).

4) I prefer getting up at 4-5 a.m. and getting everything done early than sleeping in. The only downside to that is that I also like the nighttime, especially when there are concerts or other events going on. The hours of 1 p.m. through 7 p.m. bore me. lol.

5) I love listening Perry Como and Jimmy Durante songs. I know people can call them (more so Perry) corny and old fashioned but I really, really love the music. Also, the album As Time Goes By: The Best of Jimmy Durante is a staple on my Spotify account.

6) I can do a lot of voice and singing imitations... but you have better luck at winning the lottery than hearing me do them. lol. Because of this ability, I briefly considered doing voice over work. In the end, I didn't want anything to do with the entertainment business.

7) There is a soundtrack for every major moment in my life as well as for every season (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). I can still tell you what I used to listen to when I started Kindergarten or graduated from Elementary School. Would you expect anything less from this self-proclaimed music nerd... whose Confirmation saint was St. Cecilia? ;)

Okay, that took me at least an hour to do. It wasn't as easy as I thought.

I won't do the 15 bloggers because I don't know 15 bloggers that would do this BUT I invite anyone from the #CathSorority to give it a shot. ;)

And since it's currently 3:35 p.m., I'm going to go pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy and catch up with my prayer requests. ;)

That is it for now. As always, thanks for reading and God Bless. :D

Anxiety Strikes Again; Easiest Way to Get Me Peeved: Insult God.

And the anxiety strikes again. Grr! I had to leave my English Literature class early today -- only making it through less than half the class -- because of my anxiety. One of these days I will say it's no longer an issue but for now, it stinks. After months of being pretty good and not having major anxiety, it's struck in a big way.

The worst anxiety attacks I've had have happened last Saturday (not this past Saturday), last Wednesday, and last night. As I mentioned in the previous post, I thought they would have to take me to the hospital twice but I knew it was anxiety so I tried my hardest to stick it out. Last night was the second worst attack I've had in a long time. It started earlier in the day (it was a complete miracle I made it through the Mass) but got bad at night. It lasted a good 2 hours or so before I was calm enough to even think about sleeping. My poor mom stayed up with me until nearly midnight and then dad woke up to take over until I was alright. I'll tell you, all of this sucks. (Pardon my language!)

One of the good things about the anxiety is that, since I've already lived through enough panic attacks to know when it's anxiety, I don't wig out as much as I used to... thus allowing me to calm down even sooner. I think it got worse last night because I remembered all the work I am behind on (mainly: my History of World Religions class) and that didn't help much.

I had a St. Dymphna prayer/holy card on my desk in English class today, but I think since I was offended a bit during class, that didn't help my anxiety at all.

See, today we sat around in a circle and read John Milton's "Paradise Lost". Now, that alone, with the little anxiety I had before class, made me nervous. We take turns reading and, uh, I am not the best reader when it comes to reading out loud. To myself, I'm a quick reader but I hate public speaking. Anyway, I was okay with it, I can usually handle that... until someone in class called God a... well, let's just say it's one of the worst things someone can call God. I immediately went "WHOA" and said it loud, in the person's direction. He tried to explain himself, and I understood what he was trying to say, but the fact that he called God that specific word really ticked me off. Our professor tried to bring things back into perspective and say things the way they should've been said... but I was peeved, and so was the girl who sat next to me. Even she said it was a bit extreme to call Him that word. I said out loud that I was offended and made it clear that I was upset.

I don't care what your religious beliefs are... you NEVER insult God with that word. EVER! If you disagree with Catholicism or Christianity, that's your prerogative, just be careful how you phrase things because people will be offended if you don't. I'm just saying. I think that's what might've triggered my whole "I can't breathe; anxiety; must leave class 'cause I feel sick" thing. The guy kept glancing at me after that. Hey, if you insult God, I will make it known that it's completely unacceptable. I would've said more to him about how completely disrespectful that was and given him my 2 cents but that would've just opened up a bigger can on worms. I am prepared to back up my feelings on Wednesday (if the Lord gives me enough strength to make it through without anxiety) if the guy wants to clear up what he said.

So, there you go. If you ever want to get me angry, that's the way to do it.
Man, if I wasn't already feeling like I was going to lose it (anxiety-wise) I would've spoken my mind until there was no tomorrow. Okay and... rant over, I promise.

Okay, well, I should probably email my professor as to why I left early so I'm going to do that.

As always, thanks for reading and God Bless. :D

P.S. Check out my new friend Matthew's blog Fallible Blogma. It's awesome!

I'm Alive!!!

Just a quick update to say that: yes, I made it out of my Oceanography midterm alive. Barely, but I did it. I'm pretty positive I didn't pass the exam because it was insane but if I did, it's all St. Joseph of Cupertino and St. Thomas Aquinas who lent me a hand. I was even able to keep a little prayer card of St. Thomas Aquinas on my desk as I did my exam. I flew by the multiple choice questions (which were worth 70% of the grade) but had problems with the 2 essays. Do YOU want to write 2 essays when you can barely remember all the 300 pages worth of data you had to cram in your head all weekend? Yeah, not so much. lol. But, I am ALIVE! Whooo! lol. Okay. This short lived celebration must come to an end. I still have an (online) assignment to turn in to my Oceanography professor and then work on the "Sir Gawain" critical analysis essay I have to turn in tomorrow in English Lit class. *breathes in and out* I will be SO HAPPY when this weekend ends because I'll be able to slow down quite a bit.

And, hey, no anxiety! No panic attacks! Thank you, St. Dymphna! :D

Hopefully I'll be able to write a longer post tomorrow or sometime soon. A BIG THANK YOU to those of you who prayed for me! I greatly appreciate it! :D

As always, thanks for reading and God Bless! :D
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The Rosary, and Holy Cards.

If there's one thing that's always helped me center myself, it's praying the Rosary. I've made it a promise to pray the Rosary twice a day as a Thank You for keeping to Our Lady for keeping my feeling well during the day. It works. You can argue that it's my deep faith that keeps me optimistic but I still owe a big part of my sanity to St. Dymphna and to Our Lady. I'm relieving St. Jude Thaddeus from intercession because I feel like I asked him way too much 2 years ago when I was first sick. He's still one of my patron saints, though. :D

Something else that I can always count on... at least one my friends knowing EXACTLY what I need when I need it the most. I received two Holy Cards (and a little angel pin with my birth month colors) today as a gift from one of my best friends. One card was of Mother Teresa and the other was of Our Lady of Fatima. I LOVE collecting Holy Cards with prayers on them because I think it's important to pray and to also have a little reminder of each saint with you. To paraphrase something on one of the episodes of That Catholic Show, having the little prayer/holy cards is like having a picture of a family member... only they're saints. :D

Okay, well, sorry for SUCH a short entry. I've been lightheaded and just feeling horrible all day. Seriously, I was in my bedroom most of the day. Blah. :( Anyway, thanks for reading and God Bless.

P.S. Happy 28th Birthday to El Capitan -- Steve Gerrard (Gerrard... can kick a ball 40 yards... he's better than Frank Lampard... Steve Gerrard, Gerrard). :D
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