Bittersweet St. Patrick's Day

If you're a Facebook friend or follow me on Twitter you'll know why today has been a bittersweet St. Patrick's Day. My niece's little daughter (my brother's granddaughter and my dad's first great grandchild) passed away at 5:30 this morning. On Monday she nearly drowned and she'd been in the hospital since that night. The oxygen was cut off from her brain and she was unresponsive though her pulse had been steady up until last night. The doctors told us to abandon hope yesterday and I stubbornly refused to. The chances of survival were at 20% but we still hoped and prayed. We were just recovering for the major blow of my dad's death (I was still heavily mourning a year ago) so this was horribly unexpected.

It's a little strange that my favorite day of the year (besides Christmas) will now be the anniversary of my little niece's death. I seriously looked forward to this day more than I do my birthday. This was going to be the first year I would celebrate St. Patrick's Day with confirmation that I'm actually part Irish (it was confirmed while going through my father's things and family tree). I'm sure in the coming years I'll be able to look at today as being the day in which my dad was joined by his first great granddaughter in heaven and will celebrate her life like I would any other member of my life. Today, I will mourn her death.

If y'all could please say a little prayer for my little niece, I would greatly appreciate it. May her mother (my older niece), her grandparents (my brother and sister-in-law), and the rest of the family make it through this time.

I'm sorry for such a downer post. I actually planned on talking about Irish Catholic traditions and more about my discovery of my Irish heritage (which was amazing for this Hibernophile) but maybe I'll wait until next year.

I hope y'all have a great St. Patrick's Day and that those who will go out drinking will be safe and have a designated driver.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This honorary, "adopted" Irish lass wishes you all a happy St. Patrick's Day. I say I'm adopted being I was officially named an honorary Irish lady (hello repetition) by Corey from the awesome podcast and website, Irish Fireside, two Christmas' ago. I have the note with the Shamrock Christmas ornament he sent me to keep that lovely memory. I have been mentioned on the podcast before but I won't say which one because he says my full name and y'all know I'm a bit wary about that (for now, at least).

I'm sure all the other Catholic blogs have been writing similar things about St. Patrick so I'm not going to. All I will say is that I LOVE this holiday and it surpasses many other holidays (including Valentine's Day, *gasp*). I've always loved the Irish culture and people, and I used to lament not being Irish as far back as junior high, so this particular day makes me very happy. Many of my favorite saints are Irish as well: St. Dymphna, St. Fiacre, St. Brigid of Ireland/Kildare, and (of course) St. Patrick. I hope to one day visit the places where they once lived/preached/breathed. I also have a great wish to go visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock at some point in my lifetime. :D

Before I end this post, let me just say a Happy St. Patrick Feast Day to all those named Patrick, including Patrick Madrid and my friend Melissa's infant son whose middle name is Patrick. :D

That's all for today. I'm attempting to get all my homework done early so I can focus on my big Humanities paper which is due on Saturday night. So far, I've finished all the work for my Art class (including the quiz, whoo! :D) and am not too far from finishing my Creative Writing work. :D

Until next time, thanks for reading and God Bless. :D

St. Patrick's Day, St. Teresa of Avila: Her Autobiography and a Dream, St. Benedict.

I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day today (hey, it's technically still Monday here in California.) I know today wasn't exactly celebrated since it did fall during Lent but that didn't stop the t.v. stations from airing different St. Patrick's related things. I watched part of the parade that went on in New York City and the Ireland episodes of the shows "Trip of a Lifetime" and "Passport to Europe" on the Travel Channel. I watched part of the history of the holiday on the National Geographic channel. I watched Celtic Thunder perform on a rerun on station much like PBS. I have to say, I became a fan of Celtic Thunder after watching them performing. All have outstanding voices and the songs were awesome. I also caught them during the beginning of the St. Patrick's Day parade -- that's actually what made me tune into their concert. I am definitely getting their album and DVD of that particular performance. Whoo! :)

While watching all the festivities, I managed to read a good chunk of St. Teresa of Avila's autobiography. I have to admit, I struggled getting through it. Not because it was hard to understand -- I found it very well written and easy to follow. I think it was because I had promised a certain amount of pages to Our Lady of Guadalupe and I encountered A LOT of temptations to quit. The good thing is that, though it took me nearly all day to finish those pages, I did and stuck to my word. I have never felt so sleepy or tired reading a book (that wasn't for a class) before so I looked at it as a test that I had to complete to show that I was strong enough to keep my word. It was hard! I kept feeling like I was going to just fall fast asleep on the bed or go completely insane (seriously, I would get images of myself going nuts) but I stuck it out. I also got these really rude images in my head while reading so I asked St. Michael Archangel to please put those images out of my head. All that struggle was completely worth it, though! What a wonderful book to read. I can see why I was told it would be a great book to read during Lent. It's really changing a number of my habits for the better. And, I keep on finding more and more in common with her.

I actually had a dream that involved me falling to my knees and praying, asking St. Teresa and St. Benedict of Nursia to help me because the devil was trying to take me away with him. It was pretty intense. Maybe, and this is me just thinking/writing out loud here, it was a warning that I was going to struggle with the book today with a lot of temptations. I know we're not supposed to read into dreams (and I know I've said this before) but I can't help but make the connections. I've also been dreaming about asking St. Benedict to save me lately so I am going to actually look more into his life. I know he's the patron against witchcraft and temptations. Ah, temptations... okay... I see the connection more clearly now. :D I definitely want to get a Prayer/Holy Card of him (I have a thing about collecting Holy Cards of saints) to have with me.

Alright, well, sorry for such a short entry but I really am pretty tired. I want to get some sleep and get myself ready for my chat with Fr. Leo. I have a lot I want to talk to him about. I want to prepare because if I don't get my thoughts collected beforehand, I will forget. Boo for my forgetful mind, which I never had before. :D Okay, I am starting to ramble on. I will stop. lol. As always, thanks for reading and God Bless.

MIA from Mass, Lent Surprises, Irish-ness and Awards Shows.

I haven't written in 5 days. Sorry. I've been so caught up with all the medical stuff (tests and news, etc) that I've been either concentrating on that or sleeping. lol. I got sick again for a couple of days (usual fatigue, lightheaded feeling, etc) so I stayed in bed most days last week. I was sick up until yesterday, too. I actually missed Mass which sucked. I was there for less than 5 minutes before I knew I wouldn't make it through the entire mass and I had to leave... of course, teary eyed and all. I HATE that I've been missing mass but it's beyond my control at this point. :( Hopefully I will get strength to make it to mass sometime this week and I will definitely try again next Sunday.

Even though I've started Lent on a bummer, I am getting little surprises here and there that totally make my day. On Ash Wednesday I received the book "The Life of Teresa of Jesus" along with 2 bookmarks with her picture on it and 2 St. Dymphna prayer cards (which I have been wanting for a while now). (ed. And I need to remember to write about my crazy dream involving St. Teresa of Avila, tomorrow.) I actually ordered these things a month ago and they were actually 2 weeks late. It was awesome that I received these things on Ash Wednesday. Totally made me feel better about not getting my ashes, even though it's obviously not the same. Ooh, and I found out a Santo Niño de Atocha website featured one of my first blogs (from December) and I had no clue about it. lol. Seriously, I have no idea people outside my group of friends would read this blog. :D Well, thanks. :D

I received these really good candies from my good friend in Germany. Of course, I don't speak or read much German so I have no idea what's in them, but they sure are good. Haha. These candies took almost 2 months to get here too. They were a Christmas gift (Christmas letter included) that I just received. Good thing the candies didn't expire or get all weird in transit. lol. And, now I have sweets to last me through Lent... and beyond. Whoo! Today was also pretty awesome because my eldest brother came to visit... and because it was a "cool" 82 degrees Fahrenheit in the city which meant that I didn't have to wear a sweater. :D

You know what I just realized? Valentine's Day is coming up in less than 3 days. You know what else? I'm looking forward to St. Patrick's Day more than V-Day. Haha. I'm serious. Though I do consider myself a hopeless romantic and a sucker for romance and mushiness, I don't make a big deal out of this particular holiday. If I do, it's usually because I've planned a Spa Day with my girl friends. Who says it has to be a day only about romantic love and not platonic or familial love? I actually have a guest blogger who will write about that in the coming days. But, for me... give me St. Patrick's Day and I will be happy.

I have always been in love with the Irish culture. I remember how happy I was when I first sang "Carrickfergus." I absolutely loved it, and I actually still do. I also remember a very young me telling my friends how I wished I was Irish to avoid getting pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick's day. lol. I don't know why but I've found the culture fascinating and have also felt connected to it somehow. The music (both folk and contemporary), the customs, the mythology... just everything about Ireland seems beautiful to me. I was recently talking to my friend about how we both love the country so much, we're going to go have a bachelorette trip out there as soon as one of us gets engaged to be married (money's on her to get married before I do). I remember when I found out St. Dymphna (one of my patron saints) was Irish, I almost did a cartwheel. Yes, I'm that much of a dork. :D I wanted to study in Ireland for the semester abroad but, sadly, none of the schools have an agreement with my school so it's been ruled out. Well, that is, until I find a loophole which I bet I can find. :D Anyway, before I move on from this topic I have one more thing to say/post about subject...

You're 65% Irish

You're very Irish, and most likely from Ireland. (And if you're not, you should be!)

How Irish Are You?

There you have it. haha.

Well, yesterday I caught two shows in between sobs (caused by not being able to attend mass properly)... the BAFTAs and the Grammys. This is the second year I've been able to watch the BAFTAs (thank you, BBC America). "Atonement" won, which I was happy about. James McAvoy didn't win (grr!) but, to be fair, the person who did win did a stellar job on his film so I can't be too peeved about it all. lol. The Grammys were MUCH better than they have been in years. I usually just tune it to watch for certain categories but this year, I couldn't stop watching it. I liked most of the performances (including the one of Alicia Keys duetting with Frank Sinatra). A few people I wanted to win, actually won... which was awesome. And, how incredible is it that Herbie Hancock won Album of the Year? Which other jazz artist (not counting Norah Jones) has won Album of the Year in the last 3-4 decades? As a jazz junkie, I was thrilled. I was also SO happy they played "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin during the telecast. If there was ever a song that could describe me (without any lyrics), that would be the one. I cannot think of a more perfect song; totally love it.

Alright, well. I will stop boring people for now. lol. I am still planning on doing a Valentine's Day themed blog on Wednesday. I have no clue what I will write about tomorrow... but that's the fun part in writing a blog. :D Until the next time... thanks for reading and God Bless.