January 26, 2013

Once Upon a Time

There was a girl who was waiting up for her parents to return home to the castle, having sallied forth into the night to retrieve two younger sisters as they returned home from a weekend of adventure.  As she waited, she contemplated writing a post on her blog.  The idea of a story struck her fancy, and as she realized it was the week of the five year "anniversary" of having met her Knight, she did think of writing down that tale.

Her mind was weary from a late night the previous day, and a long day prior, and as her creative story telling was a in a lull - also, she did not know that she would finish before her sisters returned home to the castle - she opted to save that story for another time.

Instead, the girl thought, why not write a story about writing a story and deciding not to?  For surely the readers would find that much more interesting than anything else.  She smiled a bit to herself in satisfaction at this idea.  Surely, thousands would be hanging upon her every word.

Her story complete, and her sisters still not yet returned from their grand adventures without her, the girl sighed and hit "publish", and bravely moved on into a new occupation of her time.

The End.

January 22, 2013

Thoughts on the Fight for Life

This is a re-post of something I wrote on my old blog, back in 2009 after my first time attending the March for Life in Washington D.C.


The evening of the March for Life, after the crowds had all dispersed, the sun had set and we had all eaten our dinner, the "Awesome Group" went on a tour of some of the many monuments of Washington D.C. The first one we stopped at was the Lincoln Memorial. I was awestruck at it's size, which you would never guess from looking at photographs of it. It is huge, almost as grand and imposing as the words inscribed inside. I raced up the stairs and attempted to take photos of the statue, but alas, in dim lighting, that doesn't work so well. All blurry. Naturally, on the bus driving away from the Lincoln Memorial I discovered a setting on the camera that said "Use for taking pictures in especially dim lighting". Of course.

After I attempted to take some photos, I strolled over to the side of the monument where the immortal Gettysburg Address is engraved in the wall. Leaning up against one of the towering columns, I read the words written so many years ago, soaking it in. I read it as I always have, thinking of the Civil War, when I came to the last paragraph. I gasped slightly and read the words in a way I have never read them before. New meaning lept out at me and I re-read them again.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
I read them again, and felt my eyes well up with tears. That was why we were there, why everyone there that day was in Washington D.C. Why there is a March for Life.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

President Lincoln was speaking about the soldiers, but in a way, he could have been speaking about the unborn. Those children gave their lives, maybe without a choice, but they gave them anyhow. 

I read somewhere once that everyone was created for a purpose, and that you will not die until that purpose, that mission is fulfilled. It is my belief that the mission of the aborted unborn children is to bring about the conversion of their mothers, to serve as an example to all those contemplating abortion and bring about their conversion, so that our nation, and the world, might someday realize and repent of the evil it has been allowing for far too long. During their short lives, they were part of the Church Militant, they were soldiers too. Now that they are in heaven, they are part of the Church Triumphant, but they are still fighting with their prayers, so that not another child will have to die in the war against The Enemy.

In the words of President Lincoln, 
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain!
We must continue the fight, those of us who were given the chance to be born, to grow up, to live our lives for the honor and glory of God.

When I read those words, my throat tight with tears, they gave me such comfort. I admit that I was struggling with disappointment at not having been able to meet up with some friends I'd dearly wanted to meet, and I was brought back to the remembrance of why I went to D.C. I was so thankful to God for not only healing my disappointment, but for reminding me of the reason I was there. Not to have fun and experience history - though I did do both as well - but to save lives. HE gave me renewed dedication to fighting for the cause.

It is my hope that all you who read this blog post, will read that last paragraph of the Gettysburg Address, and then read it again and again. Then resolve in your heart to fight for the pro-life cause

So that these dead children shall not have died in vain.

January 15, 2013

The best thing about a new laptop is...

I got my first laptop the summer I graduated high school, so about... oh gosh, two and a half years ago already.  It wasn't seven months before I accidentally pulled it off the desk in my dorm and cracked the side, but it wasn't that bad.  The following year at school, I set it too close to the edge of my raised bed and it slid down to crack open still more on the tile floor.  Since then it's been slowly falling apart more and more to the point where the broken side (it broke by one of the hinges for the lid) is sort of dangling there and held up by duct tape.  You can't close the lid without it sort of popping out, so for over a year I have only shut the lid when absolutely necessary for transportation.

It's the side with the fan that broke, so that hasn't worked well and for over a year the (also broken) laptop fan pad has been my constant companion to protect my legs from being burned twenty minutes after I turn on my computer.  Also, it is so loud it sounds like a hyperventilating dragon. The battery is shot to the point where it tells me to go buy a new one every time I turn it on, therefore I can't go anywhere without having it plugged in and moving around the house requires being near an outlet.  For all that though, it has served me well and has continued to function well and faithfully.  Part of me will miss this crippled old creature.

Thus I made the decision several months ago that I really needed to save up for a new laptop.  I did so tonight, having come into possession of sufficient funds sooner than I thought I would.  It's a very nice laptop.  HP Envy... 6GB... AMD processor... Beats audio... Windows 8...  I've become very careful with my laptop since my current one broke, so here's hoping for several years of use in good condition.  The one thing about this new laptop that I am super excited about and can hardly wait for?

I'll be able to shut the lid.

January 9, 2013

Some Catching Up to Do

Life has been a whirlwind of adventures these last few weeks, which has accounted for my absence from the blogging world.  Now that life is back to the normal everyday, I will do my best to get back into the swing of posting more regularly again.  But enough about that!

I hope that you all had beautiful and wonderful Christmases with your families and loved ones.  Mine was wonderful... Christmas Eve was spent with my mom's side of the family and I had the privilege of singing with our parish choir for the Midnight Mass.  In my humble opinion - we sounded absolutely fantastic.  Christmas morning saw the younger ones patiently waiting in the hallway until everyone else had woken up.  It is a long standing tradition in our family that no one is allowed to so much look at the Christmas tree until everyone else is awake... and you aren't allowed to wake anyone up early in the morning either!  We manage. ;-)  The rest of Christmas Day was spent with my dad's side of the family... and what a fun, (and rather... lively) gathering that was!  It's always so much fun when all of the aunts and uncles and cousins are all there.

Scarcely more than twenty-four hours after Christmas ended, I was off to the East Coast to spend an amazing ten days with my Knight.  We saw The Hobbit (the second time for both of us!), went on a beautiful New Years Eve date to see Les Mis, dinner, adoration and the lovely surprise of a Vigil Mass at the parish where we stopped for adoration.  A trip down to The Big Apple (!!!) came to be as well, and we had a blast.  It was such a blessing to get to spend time together, to reconnect, to be close after another painful separation.  He is so very worth the distance we have to endure though <3

One of my awesome Christmas gifts!  "Though I'm not actually sure it is a sword... more of a letter opener really"

On the metro to NYC!

Isn't he so handsome in that hat?

NINE INCHES OF SNOW!  It was wonderful.

I'll let the skyline speak for itself ;-)

And so yes that, my dear readers, is what I have been up to.  Now I must adjust to the normal pace of life and enjoy the small adventures which may be found here.  As soon as one comes up, I shall be sure to share it with you.