Too Many Copies; Novel Progress; Statue Vandalism.

Oy vey! I spent 4 non-stop hours making who knows how many copies for my dad this morning. If there is one thing I'm incapable of, it's saying "No" to my parents (and friends) when they ask me for favors. So, I spent valuable novel writing hours making so many copies, it's officially killed any hidden aspirations I might've had of becoming a secretary or working in an office. lol. At the end I was asking for a massage, which I might get soon because I need to get the (writing) knots out of my shoulders and back.

And speaking of the novel, I wrote more than I intended to last night. It was great! It started off one way but as I wrote it, it turned into something else and I am VERY happy with how these particular scenes/parts are coming out. Since it's one of the more emotionally draining parts of the novel, I was having issues trying to figure out how to play it all out. :D Just to give you an idea of how intense the scenes are... I am listening to somber music to get myself in that particular mood. I am listening to "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem but it's nowhere as dramatic, I promise. I'm way too upbeat for these particular scenes so I need music to help me. I have one of the most daunting pivotal scenes to write tonight but I need to work on it because I won't ever finish the novel. I am going to try to keep it as close to real life events as I can because it's very easy to dramatize it. If that makes no sense it will once you read the entire thing. I have approximately 23 days to finish as much as I can of the novel before I have to head back to school. Oh, no pressure whatsoever! lol. It's definitely a challenge I look forward to tackling. I am woman, hear me roar! lol.

There was something on the Catholic News Agency website that made me sad and angry at the same time. It was the first time I'd read about statue vandalism but it still affected me. Some punks decided to decapitate a statue of the Sacred Heart in Madrid, Spain. A few weeks ago I read about how a statue of St. Anthony of Padua was destroyed; also in Spain. Ugh. That sickens me. How people are capable of doing such things, I'll never know. I'm always trying to save statues from even chipping (see Earthquake Edition: Heading Straight for St. Jude to see/read what I mean), the opposite of what these punks are doing. It's like that Professor at the University of Minnesota (you, sir, disgust me!) who desecrated the Eucharist and then said that all of who are enraged are nothing but... well, let's just say that man is obviously in need of prayers (and possibly a nice straight jacket) because what he did and said are purely evil. I won't write more about THAT because I don't think I'll be able to hold back and we don't want that. lol. I hope that whoever destroyed the statues get caught, and seriously repent their actions, because it's just awful! I hope that, as WYD 2011 in Madrid approaches, we don't have more repeat offenses. All the secularization in Spain could be a huge contributing factor. Ugh. Just, ugh. I'll pray that all of that ends, and soon.

Alright, well, that's it for today. Hopefully I will have happier topics tomorrow. lol. Thanks for reading and God Bless.
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Earthquake Edition: Heading Straight for St. Jude Thaddeus.

We just had an earthquake in the Los Angeles area (5.8 on the Richter scale; edit: They are now saying 5.4) and, let me tell you, almost all of our neighbors ran out of their homes. We (dad and I) were one of the few people who stayed inside. At first I wasn't sure if the kids were running outside and thus making everything shake (I live upstairs). When I realized that EVERYTHING was shaking and that things were falling, I hurried (as calmly as I could) to the door frame in my room. The first thing I did was look to see if the statues of St. Jude had fallen. When the shaking got more intense and saw the oldest statue (the one we've had from before the last major earthquake) was ready to fall I let out a "Oh, St. Jude, don't you fall on me!" and grabbed it. One of the little St. Jude things I had in my room did fall but, thank goodness, it was plastic and tiny so nothing broke. If you read one of my first blogs (Puppy, Clean-a-thon and Miracles) you know of the story of this particular St. Jude statue and how it didn't fall until we were all safely under the doorway, during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. If you'd like to read the story, please click on the link; pictures are included.

They say that during the moments of crisis, you are drawn to and think of things that you consider most important to you. My initial reaction during earthquakes and aftershocks are always go to my bedroom's door frame (which is in the sturdiest part of the house) and reach for the statue of St. Jude. The first that popped into my mind was that I hoped my mother and the patients (she works at a hospital) were okay, followed by where my father was (in the kitchen) and then asking him to grab the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe (in his room) so that it wouldn't break. Really, I wanted to go around the house and grab all the statues and crucifixes we had so that they wouldn't break if they fell. When the shaking stopped, I reached for my cell phone and sent a message to all my friends in the L.A. area and made sure they were alright. (Cell phones were down for about an hour for all of us; Mom was worried because it took her an hour to get a hold of us.) The last reaction I had was "Oh, I'm wearing these itty bitty shorts, I should probably put on some pants in case we need to evacuate." lol. If that thought process is any indication of what I consider most important to me: my faith, my parents, my friends, others' safety, etc. I think I'm pretty good with my priorities. :D

Oh, and a little side notes from some of our neighbors: the local mall was promptly evacuated (people BOLTED out of the stores) and, closer to the epicenter, broken jars at markets were reported (from friend's text messages).

Anyway, I thought I'd give a little update. I wasn't going to, initially, because I try to write when I have something related to Catholicism and I didn't... up until the earthquake. In a way, thank goodness for it. lol. Yeah. Alright, well, I have to go put things that fell back in their place and then I have to go work on my novel and read so, busy time for the rest of the day.

As always, thank you for reading and God Bless. :D
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