7 Quick Takes Friday #24

This has been the first "slow" week I have had in months. Being sick slowed me down for four days! Yikes! I am not used to staying in one spot for so long. I am better now, thank God! Here are the "takes" on this week, looking back on those events that did occur. After reading them, head on over to Jennifer Futwiler's Conversion Diary, the host site of the 7 Quick Takes meme, for some interesting thoughts and events of this week from some more folks.

1. Saturday we attended Nikolina's first year birthday party. Well, the immediate family minus me attended it since I was sick and Nikolina still needs to avoid germs, especially foreign ones). More pictures from the party can be found on my Clan of Mahlou blog. There was much to celebrate in addition to Nikolina successfully reaching the end of her first year, with a bright little brain and a chipper little attitude, knowing that while she has many more surgeries ahead, her life is as secure as any of our lives are -- nothing life-threatening ahead, just life-enhancing. After the party, Doah went to church with his friend, Bennie, who works in the Old Mission gift shop. Bennie is always kind to Doah, taking him fishing and entertaining him on other ways; with me being sick, it was helpful to have Bennie on Saturday. Doah loves to go to Mass because Fr. Ed is always good to him. He came to Doah's birthday party, involves him, and always has a hug for him. People like Fr. Ed and Bennie are God's little grace (uh, maybe big graces) to us.

2. On Sunday, I was finally able to drag myself out of bed in the early afternoon. Actually, I started to feel almost normal. I attended our SFO (Secular Franciscan Order) monthly meeting feeling a little guilty because I have pretty much made the decision not to profess. In fact, I have been invited to attend the Carmelites. They meet quite a distance away, and SFO is only a five-minute drive up the hill on the edge of town, but there is a considerable story behind this. I told Part I recently on my Modern Mysticism blog. Part II is still coming because I am still trying to discern where I can better serve God and develop in ways that God would like, and that is not yet clear. After the meeting, I took off (at nearly midnight) for Omaha, where I spent a day of work and then, as I explained in my Tuesday post, commuted back to California. One of my friends wrote the following comment, which I found quite funny, on my Facebook: "Using simple math, you are in constant motion, traveling more than 1 city block every minute of the day. I have to take a nap just thinking about this."

3. In addition to the slow days of Saturday and Sunday, life slowed down again on Tuesday and Wednesday when I found myself sick once again. It was the same germ, coming back for another visit. I did have time to enjoy Fr. Ed's homily at Wednesday Mass, followed by the rosary. That was supposed to be followed by a cholesterol test at the hospital, but I forgot about fasting, so, oops, I will have to go at another time.

4. Wednesday night, after attending Bible Study class, I returned home to find a neighbor visiting. She told us that two gang members from Salts where the police are beginning to round up gangs, which are currently out of control, drove into San Ignatio and took a pot shot at a man walking down the street, hitting him in the leg. We have no local police force, but one of our residents is a deputy sheriff for the county and patrols our streets a couple of times a day. He happened (happened?) to be in the right place at the right time to see what happened and chased the gang members at 100 miles an hour all the way back to Salts a half-hour away (well, I guess it became a lot closer at 100 miles an hour). He ultimately forced them to crash, and when they got out of the car, he arrested them! That will teach them to mess with San Ignatio! It is interesting that the deputy was right where he needed to be. It makes me wonder if God was perhaps protecting His prayer-saturated town.

5. Today was a two-course day (lunches, that is). I first had lunch with a friend from UCLA who happened to be passing through town on the way to a professional meeting in Santa Clara. Several other colleagues from local colleges joined us, as did a former Foreign Service Officer who has recently retired here. We met at the Red House Cafe near the ocean. It was great fun!

6. I rushed away from that lunch to join my staff and our administrative assistant to celebrate Administrative Assistants' Day. One more meal! Now, there's a slow day -- one does not have to be home to have a slow day! It was really a pleasure to be able to take our assistant to lunch, buy her flowers and chocolates, and otherwise spoil her on this one special day since she spoils all of us on the other 364 days of the year.

7. One of the advantages to a slow week is that I got the grading done for the students I taught this semester in Lithuania. They did their finals by Skype (an interesting and successful experience for them -- it is not the first time that I have conducted exams over the Internet). I had been trying to find time to read through their projects, papers, and exams, and finally I had it. I think being sick may have made me somewhat generous. I seem to have ended up with a class with higher grades than the students at the same university in the same course last year.

I wish you all a slow week this coming week. It is a marvelous thing. But I hope you will get the slow-down without the accompanying illness!!