What I Learned

Bleach will turn knee highs an interesting yellow/cream color.

I guess I'll only wear that pair with closed-toe shoes now.

What I Learned

When setting your alarm, it is of utmost importance to make sure you don't mess up the actual time otherwise the following conversation will take place.  

Knock on door.

Sr. B (my companion): Sr. Relish?

Me: Yes? (Half awake out of a dead sleep)

Sr. B: Um we were supposed to leave at 5:30.

Me (looking at clock): It's 4:37.

Sr. B: No. It's 5:30.

5 minutes later I was sitting in the van.  And that was after the Sr. in charge said we were leaving not a second after 5:30.... Whoops.  

They Call Me...

Sr. Relish.

Yep, as of last week I am officially called Sr.  It's taking some getting used to, but gradually it's becoming less weird to hear people put Sr. in front of my name.

August 2nd my companions and I entered deeper into our journey on the way to become Salesian Sisters.  We are now novices.  For the next two years we will be more completely living the life of a Sr. as we study the Constitutions of the Institute and the vows.  At the end of the two years, we will then make our first professions.

Oh and now we wear gray.  I've learned very quickly wearing an apron is critical.  Within 24 hours I managed to spill balsamic vinegar on it and then have to wipe it off immediately so it wouldn't stain.

Other fun things I've learned in my two weeks at the novitiate.

- Be careful when walking down hill. The rocks can move and you can almost sprain your ankle.
- I'm not allergic to poison ivy.  At least, I don't think so, but I don't want to test that theory.
- Double check your clock after setting your alarm to make sure it still has the correct time.

It's looking to be a very educational two years.

I Just Laughed

Our theme for camp this week is friendship and enjoying each other.  Father used pets as a model in the morning assembly because Don Bosco had a guardian angel that came in the form a dog.  Father encouraged us to talk about each others' pets during the day.  I sat down to lunch and was asking my table of 10 and 11 year old girls about their pets.  One looks at me and asked if I have any pets. My reply was of course no.  Another girl goes, "No she has 7 brothers and sisters. But that's kind of like having pets."

Never Say Never

People say all the time never say never because never is a long time.  Slowly but surely I'm beginning to see why.  You end up eating some humble pie.

As a child I said, "I'm never moving out." - I now live over 800 miles away from home...
In grade school I said, "I'm never going to be a teacher."  - I went to college as an education major and I entered an order where the primary ministry is teaching...
As an education major I said, "I never want to work with middle school, that'd be way too hard."  - Last year I taught 7th grade CCD and was in charge of the 13 year old boys for camp...
Prior to and after working with middle schoolers, I said, "I never want to work with any group younger than 1st or 2nd grade.  It takes a special type of person to handle those little ones."  - This summer I'm helping with the 4 and 5 year olds at camp...

I think God's just sitting up there waiting for me to say never again so He can laugh and say "Just wait."

Epiphany on the Epiphany

Today in his homily, our pastor was talking about how we are in a new year and we have to enter into it with new enthusiasm and energy, but sometimes we keep going and going and we run out of gas. In those times we have to keep praying even though we want to call it quits and throw in the towel.  Then he started singing a song from camp, "Give gas in my Ford, keep me trucking, trucking, trucking. Give me gas in my Ford I pray...." The song went on to relate to trucking along for God.

My mind however made a whole other connection.  Back in high school, I had a friend(s) who weren't exactly big Ford fans. (Disclaimer: For those of you who are big fans of Ford vehicles I am neither saying I am or am not against Ford here.  Simply using this for reflectional purposes.) They said that Ford actually stood for Fix On Road Daily.  Here's were my epiphany comes in.  In that moment of Father singing about giving gas in my Ford,  I pictured a truck on the side of the road in need of gas. Just like the Ford we all need fixed on the road on a daily basis by God, so in the car brands of life, we're all sort of Fords.

What I've Learned in the Last Few Days

1. Polyester melts.

2. Duct Tape doesn't actually fix everything.

3. Chaperoning 1st grade girls on a field trip to go Christmas caroling and then eat at McDonald's is tiring, but well worth it when they spontaneously lead the whole bus of 1st - 8th grade students in Christmas Carols.

4. Chocolate chips don't always melt like they should.

5. I prefer eating oatmeal raisin cookies to baking them. (Thank goodness Sister is very understanding and she said just try again after the first batch flopped.)

6. Don't forget you're shoes outside because that will be the one day it actually rains. 

I think that's everything.

Convent Skills

Turns out the Movie Moments may not happen every week because my life just doesn't produce that many movie worthy moments.  If I really sat and thought about it, I could probably actually come up with one, but I don't have that time and I haven't watched that many movies.

Instead I'm working on developing other skills here in the convent, like getting up, getting ready and being in church in less than 10 minutes. Thank goodness for Guardian Angels.  (I'm pretty sure mine works overtime all the time.) Sunday I had my alarm set for 5:50.  It went off and I shut it off.  6:26 I rolled over and realized I had 4 minutes until Mass started.  I was up and out the door by 6:31 and made it into the church by the time Father was starting the Kyrie Leison.

Movie Moment

This week's movie moment once again brought to you by my gardening chore.

We have this huge viney plant that has grown over the wall from the lady's yard who lives behind us and it was decided it needed to go because it chokes out other stuff on our trellis and it cracks to wall. So today, since I had some time in the morning to work on it I went out to attack the vine and take back the wall. When I came in to wash up before going to help the kids with lunch, my dear companion took a look at my face and started laughing. "Your face is so dirty! You look like one of those people from the Industrial Revolution or a chimney sweep."  So there you have it. The movie moment of the week is the chimney sweeps from Mary Poppins.

I looked in the mirror and I promise I did not look that dirty, but hey it was her interpretation. 

Movie Moment

This morning during Mass the Windex commercial got real.  A bird had flown into the church and was unsuccessfully trying to get out.  Just as Father was starting the Eucharistic Prayer, the bird flew right into one of the windows and fell down to the ground.  Father looked over and just kept on going, but two of the parishioners got up to check it out and the bird got up and flew away from them.

Sidenote: Due to the bird, we also had a cat in church this morning.  (The priest have a cat, Dora, for mouse catching purposes.)  It saw the bird go in the church and wanted to catch it.  People were not a fan though so I got to catch Dora and take her back outside.

Movie Moments

Inspired by my current living situation, I've decided to have a new series of posts.  I'm going to try to keep them weekly, but with my schedule and the way convent life seems to go, there may be a few weeks that get missed.  Also, it's going to depend on inspiration.  Hopefully I'll get a little Divine Inspiration to help me out.

So I give you Movie Moments. We'll count my last post as the first one of the series since it referenced movie/TV characters that my life was reflecting in the moment.  The second movie moment is Weezer from Steel Magnolias.

I am not an old southern woman, but my current chore for the month is taking care of the gardens around our house and the other day during lunch assistance in order to provide myself with a little shade I borrowed a large, funny hat from the gardening supply/tool closet. 

What I Learned Today

Apparently getting ready to move across the country turns my life into a movie and a sitcom. This morning I went to finish up some packing and turned on the radio in my room, California Gurls by Katy Perry was playing and it was immediately followed up by a Billy Joel song that started out talking about some guy who moved to the west coast south of LA.  I felt like the character in the movies who turns on the radio and every song is something about what's happening in said character's life.  Later today, one of my companions and I were cleaning and she was like "Wow I'm impressed Relish." (I was questioning if she thought I don't normally do a thorough job." Then I realized that I was cleaning extra vigorously as a coping mechanism and 20 seconds later realized at one point I had been told that my mom does something similar. After declaring, "I'm turning into my mom. We clean to cope and like teaching junior high kids," My mind immediately jumped to the Reba episode where Van and Cheyenne decide eventually you turn into your parents.  Stay tuned to see if any more of this moving adventure turns my life into a TV production.

That Awkward Moment...

When your're standing at the pharmacy window picking up your antibiotic and the tech asks you to put in your phone number and you get it wrong twice so he asks if the number sounds familiar and then rattles off the number you were sure wouldn't be correct.

At least he still gave me the antibiotic.

I miss my pharmacist.

Happy Moment of the Day

One of the younger boys came up to me today during the dismissal time and was having a conversation with me. I was doing my best to give him as much of my attention as I could while listening to the walkie talkie so I could call kids whose parents had arrived to pick them up.

Boy: "Do you know what the best part of this camp is?"

Thinking he was going to tell me the pool or one of the games or other activities I said "No, what's the best part?"

His reply: "It's not the fun.  It's how everybody talks about God so much here."

His answer made me pause for a moment and it really touched my heart.  There are many moments throughout my day of herding teenage boys that I question whether or not they are getting the message about God's love we are trying to impart on them, but this young boy reassured me we are making an impact on their faith lives amidst all the games and activities.

My Laugh of the Day

Today while herding my crew of teenage boy campers to our next destination the following conversation took place;

Camper A: Relish do you have any brothers?
Me; Yep three.
Camper B: Do you have any sisters?
Me: Yep three.
Camper A: So you've got three brothers and three sisters?
Me: Yes and one on the way.
Camper C: You have 7 brothers and sisters!??! Eight kids in your family?
Me: Yes.
Camper D: 10 people live in your house??!!
(in my head at this point thinking,  "Well I'm glad they can do that math.")
Back to Camper C who's an only child: That's so many people living in one house!

Then the conversation turned to my age. Those dear children thought I was four years younger than I actually am.  So I guess it makes sense why Liz Taylor and I are confused as twins. I look the same age as her according to my campers.

What I Learned Today

I have an accent. And according to one of my campers, I have a South Jersey accent. I told him that wasn't where I'm from but he didn't seem to care. When he mimicked me the accent was from much further south than South Jersey.

The conversation about my accent took place yesterday. Today as we passed my companion who hails from the dear flatlands as well, he declared we both sound alike.  His shock at hearing multiple people with our accent was quite entertaining.

What I Learned Today

Putting on a habit (or uniform right now for me) makes random people comfortable talking to you about anything.

Yesterday we went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the altar of Mary Help of Christians.  Sitting with some of my companions waiting for Mass to start, an elderly gentleman came up and took the open seat next to me.  He turned to me and began talking about the Basilica.  I asked him if he had been at the dedication of the altar 50 years ago which launched him into telling me about himself.  He lives at the Veteran's home in DC and since he's 94 years old he figured he should go yesterday because he just never knew how much he longer he would be able to go out.  Then he showed me the speaker device he had for his hearing aid because he had lost most of his hearing in combat.  "Take care of your ears.  Stay away from all those loud noses and things or else you end up with bad hearing like me.  They didn't tell us that back then. And make sure you brush your teeth.  They didn't tell us to do that either and I didn't brush mine." At this point he popped his dentures out of place and showed them to me.  "See.  You got to take care because you only get one shot. God only gives you one body.  God bless you." And with that he turned back forward.

It was very sweet of him.  Although it really took a lot to control myself when he popped out his dentures to not get a little bit of the church giggles, but I kept myself composed.

This particular situation is really a mild case of what happens in habit/uniform and honestly it could have just been an older gentleman taking a chance to share some things he had learned in life with a young person.  Either way I take it as preparation for the conversations that could happen when I don the habit, God willing.

What I Learned Today

I'm not valid. Turns out my lovely home state doesn't issue IDs up to federal standards and you can't get on federal grounds at places like West Point.

Today as culmination of our Don Bosco class, Sr. D took us on a field trip to visit West Point and our Marian Shrine where there is a replica of Don Bosco's childhood home.  The first stop of the day was West Point.  On arriving at the security check, point my companion and I were informed we couldn't go in because our licenses' didn't meet federal requirements, and we didn't have any other form of identification on us.  Divine Intervention saved the day as we had just met an officer from West Point when we were getting breakfast and he had graciously arranged to meet us and give us a tour.  Thank goodness he was able to come and get us in so we could join the tour.

Things I'm Not Ready for

Sunday morning we had our final CCD class.  It was my week to be with the 2nd graders as a teacher's aide.  When the teacher walked in I wished her a Happy Mother's Day, without skipping a beat she said Happy Mother's Day to me.  In the moment I said nothing, but at lunch later I was relating the story and how in my mind I was caught off guard by it. Sr. B then pointed out, "Um spiritual motherhood."  Oh yeah. Well, still not ready to be wished Happy Mother's Day by people.

The Alarm Clock Strikes Again

Some of you may or may not remember on my first morning in the convent, I had a bit of a struggle with the alarm clock and slept right through Mass, this morning the alarm clock struggle reappeared. Part of the problem I think may have stemmed from falling asleep while reading last night and walking up a half hour/45 minutes later to shut off the lights and actually go to bed.  This morning I rolled over to look at the clock thinking it was the middle of the night and I could sleep longer, only to realize it was 5:41 and I was officially a minute late to meditation.  Whoops.  As I scurried about my room getting ready I awaited the inevitable knock on the door.  5:46 Sr. TK was knocking on my door to make sure I was awake.  She was concerned I was ill.  I reassured her I'd be in chapel in a moment and she departed.  As Guardian Angel Grandma would say, I must have needed the extra sleep which I think was absolutely true because when I got in chapel I actually stayed awake for meditation.

#1 on to do list before bedtime tonight: Check the alarm clock.