It's Thursday and I'm smiling

I will not do justice to everything that's on my heart and mind right now in this five-minute pre-going to class power post, but I just wanted to type something.
I'm sitting in the Ballston campus baby cafeteria and im sipping on my wonderful invention of hot chocolate mix, black coffee and a baby wittle splish splash of half and half. Gotta have a little half and half when hot cocoa mix is on the scene. I splurged with flex dollars to get a fruit cup. Those honeydew melon and cantaloup slices were oh-too enticing.
[I'm in class now, but whaddaheck, I'm not gonna stop now that I've started.]

This professor just decided to give us a pop quiz on material that she doesn't teach us. I mean, that's cool.

Mmmm I just wanna be outside. it's sunshiney funshiney. Maybe if the sun holds out, I'll adventure into the district and play on the National Mall.

This womannn agghhh she doesn't even know the answers to her own quiz!! She confuses her own wording and all the answers are messed up. Boo. I'm just yippy-skippy excited for her midterm and final.

I have to go potty.

I should do the rest of my psychology paper. This class is a waste of my life. I should stop griping.

I prayed a decade of the rosary on the shuttle this morning for some people. It was so nice. I think I'll make it a habit.

I'm so excited to be underway in the P.O.P. [People of Praise, yo!] Honestly, it's home to me. Not only do I get to spend an hour and a half on Sundays praising Jesus, singing Jesus songs and hearing awesome sharings, I just gained about 3,000 family members. It's automatic, no questions asked, people you don't even know who are part of the Community come over to you and want to know you. They invite you over for dinner and ask you to babysit their adorable children and pray for you and genuinely love you simply because you're their sister/brother in Christ. This is how relationships should be.

I think Becca Feeks is a pretty wonderful person. Get to know her.

Jaime D'Souza... my sweet little Indian baby. You're sitting right next to me and I just like you so much. We will be the best Honors nurses in the entire world... gird your loins, all you sick people. We will take the medical field by storm. I have yet to determine if this is a good thing or not.

Jaime and I are in disbelief at the racism that goes on in this class. Ironically, my professor is trying to teach us to be culturally competent. When she's talking about healthcare for Latinos, she asks the class for the Spanish word for "stomach." She corrected us when we said "estomago," and insisted that it was "estomache" [esss-toe-maach-ayy]. FAIURE.

OH MY GOSH. I just got the best package in the mail from Emily Robinson GREENWOOD. [It's so weird that she's a Mrs. now..]
She sent me a book called "101 Things to Be Grateful For" and a beautiful little card that made me all teary-eyed. She is the best, I can't believe she moved all the way to smelly, beautiful California. I love you Emily Sue!!!!

I'm off to my Cultural Psych class. Golly all my classes have some reference to "culture" and it's so easy to confuse the course material. What in the world, Marymount? Feh. Oh well, I'm wearing a smile on my heart today. Maybe I'll go on a run later. [prolly won't happen seeing as I have abandoned my regimen altogether, however, I am determined to get back on track because part of me feels lost without smelly running shoes that cramp my toes and make my soul feel air-light :) ]

Happy Thursday!

Cool Stuff

I need to work on this whole being grateful thing.

I need to work on not being self-centered.

I need to turn my will into action.

I need to stop thinking so much.

Today was a victory day. I spent about 20 of the last 24 hours studying for my first Anatomy & Physiology II exam. You wouldn't believe the amount of things I memorized in that short amount of time. Did you know that you have 31 pairs of spinal nerves? And that they have names like "vestibulocochlear?" True. Did you know that your vestibulocochlear nerves control your hearing and balance ability? Hah! Now you do. I can spit out extensive information about how nerve impulses are generated and what part of your brain tells you that you're thirsty. Such nifty stuff, I dig it. In lab today, we dissected sheep brains. SO COOL. God is so nifty, the brain is an unbelievable thing. Mary's mind is blown.

I'm listening to "Elephants" by Warpaint.

I should be reading my philosophy homework but honestlyy... I read the same thing in high school and I know all of it backwards and forwards. Having a three hour seminar on this stuff now is just cruel overkill. I do super well in the class though. Meh. Still obnoxious.

I'm sick. It's dumb.

Oh, by the way, I got a B on that test. Apparently that's phenomenal coming from everyone I've talked to who's taken this course from the professor I have. Win. And I aced a lab quiz today. Win win.

I like random adventures like accompanying my starving friends to chipotle even though I have no reason to go.

Maroon 5's album "Songs About Jane" has to be on my top 5. Every song's a win.

I'm too tired to write anything of substance right now but I'm just happy to be today. Ironically, it's been one of the most demanding days of the year. Cool stuff.

hopelessly devoted

From my dorm room, all by my lonesome, I turned on my TV to watch the Notre Dame game. I heard the music and saw the team running out of the tunnel and then I cried a little bit. I love Notre Dame football and I would give an arm to be tailgating outside that stadium today. However, I am contenting myself with a solo dorm room tailgating party involving... well, just me. However, I am completely okay with it. I get to see my fighting irish.


Side note: I shall marry Dayne Crist.

live.

I am glad. Very, very glad.
Glad, not because absolutely everything is alright with the world [which is not the case], but that I have people and friends and tools to remind me of what is lovely and good.
I read about the tragedy at the Indiana State fair and my heart hurts so deeply for the families of the 5 unsuspecting people who were killed there. It made me think about how absolutely fragile our lives are. Things can happen in a split second and change everything. 5 people were about to watch a Sugarland concert, having the times of their lives on a summer night at the FAIR and a gust of wind blew the stage over and crushed them. It was a freak accident, something they would never have seen coming. That really makes me think, we can't just assume that we have forever to go through the motions and hope that life's little quirks will work out in our favor. Time is moving. It doesn't stop for our pity parties or our moments of self-depreciation. Those, in the long run, are like stubbing your toe or pricking your finger. We can't dwell on dumb stuff. I'm not saying that we should live every day being paranoid that "this is the end as we know it." That would be stupid and completely counterproductive. What I am saying though is that we can't waste time hoping that we get dealt a good hand. We have today, right now, to make choices, however big or small, that will dictate how we live. So wake up, know that today, a smile instead of moping can catch someone's eye and remind them that happiness isn't temporary or imagined. Happiness and real LIVING are conscious choices. The nitty gritty, splintery details that bother us as we go through the motions are hardly significant when we look at the big picture. We can spread hope and love and true joy just by deciding to accept that our lives are not our own to tailor and custom-fit to make us comfortable. We are supposed to challenge ourselves with hard decisions and strive to live and love foolishly, without holding back, without stopping to think about how convenient or comfortable something is. Just do what expresses love and joy and true service to this gift of life that we have. No hesitation, time won't wait for you to make up your mind.

I want to appreciate, I want to love without lacking, I want to hold nothing back and live how God truly intended. God bless and comfort those families who lost loved ones this weekend. Help them know that in You lies comfort and hope, and that only through trust in You, they can accept, appreciate and carry on the beautiful, temporary gift of living.

Me gusta mi vida :)

Hoodie weather starting at 7pm this week

An evening run, however slow it may have been, with Annie

5 mile walks home from work

laughing until I cried because of something I can't even remember

Dwight Schrute

Crossword puzzles

My mother

A conscience

Sore ab muscles

Adorable kids who I get snotty-nosed hugs from every day at work. I love nannying.

The ability to mass-produce grilled cheese for 6 kids in 20 minutes using one griddle.

Becca


These are some major things I am grateful for this week. I'm noticing my tendency to be prone to ungrateful mopiness for no apparent reason, and I don't like that about myself. I get to spend 5 days a week with 6 amazing, beautiful, insane, hilarious kids. I have learned a world of patience and wit. [Kids can out-wit you soooo easily]. I have a country whose definition is freedom and who am I to deserve it? I don't have to worry about debt, being truly hungry, loneliness or despair. I have absolutely everything I need and more, and, sadly, it is incredibly easy to take for granted. I don't want to. I don't want to live wasting my resources and gifts. I have so much to give and countless ways to give it. I just need to decide to start doing it.

I go back to school in less than two weeks. Honestly, the summer totally got away from me. It's felt like a lifetime and 5 minutes at the same time. I feel like I just rolled out of bed to take my last final, pack up my room and leave NOVA for my south bend summer. But school feels like a world away and I can't believe the contrast of my two lives. This coming semester will test me, in a lot of ways. I'm taking 19 credits and working on campus 10 hours a week. I just decided to go underway in the p.o.p. and I'm still mulling over my decision. This semester will test my mind, ethic, and faith. I'll want to give up, I'll want to slack off, but I'm telling myself right now that I can't. I want to charge forward, go energizer-bunny on this situation and let it become a part of me, I don't want to be controlled by my schedule. Im so excited for this change, I can't wait to see what is in store for me.

I'm going to chocago in the morning to hang out with my MU friend, the lovely and wonderful Liz. Liz is so cool. There actually isn't a better word to describe her, because everything she says and does is so unique and awesome. She kinda makes you want to be her. I can't wait to hang out with the ladyy.

I'm sleepy, so I'm going to bed, how about that.

For now, Im grateful to be. Although I am grateful for other things as well, being grateful for existing should always be enough.

Couch Potato

My name is Mary and I look like a chipmunk and I'm drooling like a baby.
Having your wisdom teeth out may mean catchin some extra z's but man oh man, it is NOT glamorous. At the moment, there are mountains of gauze in my cheeks, my bottom lip feels like it's the size of a basketball, im drooling, and there are two tube socks stuffed with baggies of frozen peas that are tied around both sides of my head. Ever seen the old Christmas Carol when Jacob Marley comes in and ties a kerchief around his whole head, closing his jaw? Observe....


























Right?








Anyway, I'm trying not to think and just to enjoy time off work for a few days while my cheeks un-swell.


I haven't written anything on here in a really long time! It's almost time to start packing to go back to school... holy wow, where in the world did the summer go? It's August now, what?? Insane. I'm actually completely excited to go back to school... I miss my friends and DC soooooooo much!!! However, leaving my nannying job will be so ridiculously hard. I got to attached to those kids, I'm going to miss them so much. They're gonna be so big the next time I see them after the summer ends! Ugh. Sad.

I want a frosty, mmmm.

Im getting feeling back in my face slowly. It feels weird. Ooo oo, I asked to see my teeth after they pulled them. It was soooo cool. It;s crazy how deep they go. Go'ds such an architect.



Ohhhhkay, soo I haven't lauded Valerie lately, so now I'm gunna.
Valerie is the busiest person I know. Seriously,no joke, I have NO idea how she maintains even semi-frequent bouts of sanity. If I were she, I would have ABSOLUTELY no social life, much less be able to be a delightful friend/girlfriend/sister/daughter. I'm sure I would be a grumpy terror. Valerie is just so lovely. She belongs in a Jane Austen novel. Not as one of the sitting duck-type girls who spend their days sewing and playing piano, but as the Elizabeth Bennett type-- the dazzling heroine who captures peoples attention not just with her beauty [which is great] but also with her passion and intellect and enthusiasm for life and understanding the dimensions of reality. The heroine who sweeps Mr. Darcy off his feet because he's positive that she's the iron woman of the century. Valerie is totally the iron woman of the century. She photographs thousands of people and has something unique and genuine to say about EACH of them. She has so much room in her heart for people and passions. Work consumes her life sometimes, but she finds so much beauty in it and so much appreciation for the down time. Constantly humbled at a tough price, but she's grateful for everything. She's such a role model for me. I just love her.

Thank goodness it's Shark Week. I'm easy-chair bound for the next 24 hours... Bring on the jaws.

I'm grateful for living in America. The standards of care and cleanliness and living are unbelievable compared to EVERYWHERE else in the world. I did nothing to deserve being born in this country. Thank you baby Jesus.

I'm going to go ice my face. Hey, at least I wasn't bit by a shark! I just saw an episode about this lady whose entire butt got bitten off by a shark. That would be the worst. And way more awkward than chipmunk cheeks.

Run Baby Run

Ever had one of those oh-wow-oh-my-gosh-I-just-realized-what-makes-me-tick moments? Well I just did. Actually it's kind of a rediscovery because once upon a time, this was my life. Running, that is. After I got back from school this spring, I felt like my life had kinda fallen out of rhythm. I got really bad at the whole balancing act between doing the every-day stuff and doing what keeps me sane. I discovered a long time ago that running, with all of its aches and pains and mental focus and endurance, is what makes me feel the most free, the most happy, the Maryest Mary I can be. Whenever I fall out of my running habit I feel like crap all the time. However, I am making a decision. A commitment to myself that this summer, I'm not going to let myself forget the top-of-the-world feeling that never fails when I run. I want to make it a part of me again. Today, I ran home from work. I thought it was like 3 miles, and I'd run from about the same place home before and wasn't really phased by it. But it ended up that it was 4.68 miles. SHAZAM. I feel like I'm back in the game. I'm ready to run alll the time and love it.

The other night, my mom asked me if I wanted to go sit on the roof and solve the world's problems. Did I win the mom jackpot or what??

I miss Jaime and Chelsea.

I don't have very much else to say at the moment. I'm just being content to be.