What I Learned Wednesday #25: Not a Valentine's Grinch Edition

First What I Learned Wednesday post of the year. Let's go!

1.) I'd like to clear something up regarding my Valentine's Day tweet last night: I am not a Valentine's Day Grinch. I am not bitter that I'm currently single. I'm actually enjoying my singlehood whilst future fella arrives. I love love. I am all for falling in love. I even helped organized a card exchange between single girl friends so that no one would feel bad last year. I don't like it being called "Singles Awareness Day." At the same time, I am not a fan of how commercialized the day is. I've been saying this since 2008 when I actually had a fella. That blog post was written by a 22 year-old me (yes, I'm that old, lol)... and my thoughts have not changed since. Things seem to cost more than usual for this day. Both guys and gals (but, let's be honest, more so guys than gals) get pressured into making a huge romantic gesture on the day. That doesn't sound romantic to me; it sounds like it's rather forced. Sure, I like receiving flowers as much as the next girl but I'd personally prefer a guy send/give them to me because they felt like it and not because it was expected of them. I have other thoughts on the day which I've written about it as recent as last year.

And I can tie this to Catholicism easily: Valentine's Day reminds me of the efforts. St. Valentine did -- risking death -- to marry couples when it was illegal to do so. St. Valentine reminds me of love... which reminds me of the constant love I feel from both God and Mama Mary. So the day is spent (regardless of whether I have a significant other or not) focused on the love I receive from them as well as my friends and family. See? No Grinch-ing from me; I just look at things differently. You have all learned something new (instead of the other way around). Now that that's been settled, can y'all start being nice to me again? I'd appreciate it. lol.

2.) This may get a huge eye-roll for those of you who are more savvy about all things Catholic but I'm still learning so this made me really excited a couple of weeks ago. As I was praying the Luminous Mysteries in front of the tabernacle, I realized that they (the mysteries) represented the Sacraments we Catholics receive. First mystery: Baptism. Second: Marriage. Third: Reconciliation. Fourth: Confirmation. Fifth: Communion. I know; there's 7 Sacraments so I'm missing Holy Orders and Anointing of the Sick. I was so excited at this revelation (which I figured out on my own, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I'm sure) that I came home and Googled it just to make sure. Sure enough, I had been right. And now every Thursday I can pray the Rosary and focus on the significance of each other mysteries in a whole new way. For the record, I could be wrong about what each mystery represents; it's what I figured out. Someone correct me if one or more is wrong.

3.) As a future speech therapist (who will also be learning a bit of audiology), I loved hearing the news that a priest invented a confessional tool for the deaf! I've been saving this article as well, because it was something that I learned since the last WILW post and I thought it was pretty darn important. I've seen a sign language interpreter in Mass at only one parish in L.A. and it's always made me wonder if other deaf Catholics have the same assistance elsewhere around the world. Mass is such a beautiful thing that it would be a shame for others to miss it because of disabilities and/or conditions. This is coming from someone who would, once upon a time, go months without attending a single Mass due to her anxiety order.

And that's all. Short(-ish) and sweet. I have a ton of things to do so... I should probably go do them now. lol.

I hope you all have a great rest of week. And someone please poke me if I take more than 2-3 days to publish a new blog post. I definitely have the time to do so these days. :)

Best Valentine's Day Ever!; Prayers for Baby John Paul.

I had the BEST Valentine's Day EVER yesterday. No, it was the BEST DAY I've had in a looong time. :D It started with me submitting my dream university application and ended up with the song "Falling in Love At a Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg summing up my evening.

I bit the bullet and finally sent it (and paid for) the applications to my dream university. I thought it was entirely appropriate that I did on Valentine's Day, as a gift to myself. Now I just have to submit some transcripts, along with other paperwork, and hope and pray for the best. :D I am really, very excited about the whole thing. It definitely set the tone for the rest of the day, as well. :D

Originally, I was supposed to go to the Catholic Underground RED dance but had to cancel those plans on Friday because of some little problems I came across. I was also supposed to go apartment hunting with a good friend, but her roommate got in a car accident so the plans were scratched last minute. This is actually how my day started. I decided to do my applications while all of this happened, which is when things looked up for me. After my mom got out from work, we did some shopping (I really needed some things from Target).

I won't say much about the evening because I am determined to keep that as private as I can, but I will say that I truly believe the Lord had a hand in what happened. Me missing the dance, staying home, seeing someone and feeling the way I felt -- it all makes sense. And it makes me incredibly happy because not only did I fall in love BUT all of this is going to bring me closer to the Lord! :D Seriously, BEST DAY EVER! And all of this is still making me happy -- despite feeling physically crummy.

So, while I am still talking about love, let me just say that I still view Valentine's Day the same way I did prior to yesterday's events. I will share with you exactly what I wrote for my Speech class:

"It's funny that people often think it's a holiday made up by the card and chocolate industry when in fact it's originally a Christian feast day honoring the life of Saint Valentine. I won't go into a whole story on him, because as both a Catholic and Religious Studies major I could, but the gist is that when he was alive, St. Valentine would marry Christian couples... when it was against the law to do so. Ironically, it's St. Raphael Archangel, not St. Valentine, who is the patron saint of finding love. St. Valentine is the patron saint of those already married and/or have found their soul mates.

Personally, I don't buy into the whole cards-candy-flowers-hearts aspect of the day. I definitely do think the day's been exploited and used for profit, which is sad. If you truly love someone, you should be able to show it every day. If a guy, or girl, wants to show their significant other their affection in a special way, then all the power to them. I think it's sweet that they do that... especially if they're otherwise less affectionate throughout the year. If I were to choose to celebrate the day like most people (with cards and sweets), I'd probably include my family and friends as well. Who said that Valentine's Day is exclusively for lovers? Can't there be any familial and platonic love as well?"

I forgot to add that we should also thank God for bringing love in our lives. Think about it... even if you're single, you still have His love, along with your parents' and friends' love. And I would to add that I'm not as cynical as I sounded in what I wrote. Trust, I am a hopeless romantic. There was something that the professor wrote that triggered how I responded to his questions.

Oh, and here's a cute video about love and marriage... from a child's perspective.



Haha, ah, kids. :D And speaking of children...

I recently read an article about the parents of baby John Paul Hauser asking for prayers and the intercession of his namesake, the late Pope John Paul II. Baby JP was born with a rare disorder and the doctors aren't giving him a good prognostic. I urge you all to pray for this baby. I don't personally know the Hausers but I can't bear to think of a baby's life being taken from him without doing something about it. Prayer might not seem like much, but it's something we can all do for him. Please, Pope John Paul II, help baby JP beat the odds! For the prayer, please go to the article. It's located at the bottom.

Alright, that's all I have energy for at the moment. I am missing Mass (again...) because of how crummy I feel. I think I'm gonna go lie down a little and see if it doesn't help. :)

As always, thanks for reading and God Bless. :D
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Another Update: Great News; Things to Come.

Another quick update because I want to get through my Speech coursework before the end of the day. It's due tomorrow but I want to turn it in tonight. :D

Great news in regards to my thyroid ultrasound reports: I am in the clear! I said a little prayer to St. Blaise while I was on the phone, hoping someone had made a cancellation, and they found an appointment the next day (yesterday). I was happy because I wouldn't have to wait longer to get my results. So, the gist of the situation is this: Apparently, the technician, or whoever decided to ask them to call me to go in sooner than later, made a big mistake. They didn't know (or just didn't bother to check my charts) that I already knew I had a slightly enlarged lymph node. For a newly diagnosed person, it usually means that they need to go in for a biopsy to make sure it isn't cancerous. I already knew this, and had had a biopsy done in November 2007. Anyway, they stressed me out over nothing. My doctor apologized for the mix-up. She said I was perfectly healthy (I had all the tests done last month) and that I didn't need to go back to see her for another 6 months to a year. WHOO! A sincere thank you to all of you who prayed for me. I'm positive that it was the prayers that kept me optimistic, sane, and (most importantly) anxiety free until I got the good news. :D

As I said, I won't be able to write a full post yet (so much homework the first week of school!), but I will soon. Some things I want to eventually get to are:
- Real Meaning of St. Valentine's Day vs Secular celebrations
- Baby in need of prayers/intercession of the late Pope John Paul II
- Christian discrimination case in England
- Twilight book saga/series review (this will probably be an entire post itself)
- Review of the biographies of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, written by his sister.
- etc.

I promise I won't overwhelm you all with all of that in a single post. These things are accumulating because of my busy week. Hopefully I'll be able to write quite a bit this weekend. The Twilight thing will have to wait until the first book is returned to me -- my bro is borrowing it. Oops, I just outed you. lol. Hey, I didn't say which of my brothers. :-P

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great week! As always, thanks for reading and God Bless. :D
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