7 Quick Takes Friday #20

This week has been little more than a blur of planes and hotels and meetings. I would not say that it has been an easy week -- and I ended it with a broken Lenten pledge, as you will see from this week's contribution to the Quick Takes Friday meme hosted by Jennifer Futwiler at Conversion Diary.

1. The week started out with our Saturday retreat for the kids from my catechism class. I always find it interesting that Jennifer’s choice of Friday as the quick takes day throws me into treating Saturday as the first day of the week. It is, actually, in Bahrain, where I have spent considerable time, so Jennifer has me working a Middle Eastern schedule again. I discussed the retreat a little in yesterday’s blog about Bart, an atheist in our catechism class. To summarize beyond Bart, I would say that the retreat, for the most part, was both bonding and spiritually fulfilling for teens and teachers alike. (in photo, teens from first-year confirmation class and others walking through the mission garden behind the church enroute to Mass)

2. Sunday was a stuffed day in more than one sense because I broke my diet – twice – and simply stuffed myself with good food, gaining three pounds in the process! (Yowie, how can one bad day undo a week of good days? It’s not fair!) It may not be fair, but it was worth it. We started Sunday at Mission Café in San Ignatio, following early morning Mass. A place that hearkens back to the 1950s/1960s, Mission Café charmed our guest, a Jordanian colleague currently living and working in Egypt who had come to my organization in mid-January to organize a new project for us. When he is in town, he comes to Mass with me, and upon occasion he, I, and Fr. Ed (and once, Donnie) have gone to dinner together. In Jordan, he lives at the foot of Mt. Nebo, and all of us enjoy his stories of growing up in the Holy Land. On the wall at Mission Café hangs a world map, and people put pins in the locations from which they have traveled to San Ignatio. No pins were in Jordan or Egypt, so we added both.

3. In the afternoon, a friend from our Old Mission Monday night prayer group and I drove to San Jose, where we attended Fr. Kevin’s monthly contemplative prayer session. I finally found someone to whom I could give my last vial of water from the baptismal site in Jordan: Fr. Kevin. It turns out that he does not have access to the Jordan River, and so I was pleased to carry (carefully) a vial of water to him for his congregation. Sometimes my friend and I stay for the 6:00 Mass there, but not this time since between Saturday night and Sunday morning, we had been adequately Massed. Two interesting topics came up at the meeting that I am still thinking about: the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous applied to “soft” addictions (perfectionism, workaholism, and the like). I had not thought of those things as addictions, but, of course, they are, especially when they interfere with time that could be spent in prayer but is put aside for some worldly goal that, in the long run, does not really matter. Second, Fr. Kevin, who is an assistant exorcist for the diocese (mostly involved with delivering people from demonic oppression, not possession), has made a CD on angels, demons, and exorcisms that is absolutely fascinating. The topic interests me because of the angels that I (and Lizzie) have run into and the negative beings that have upon occasionally appeared in my car, on my path, or in nightmares (the latter ceasing to be a problem once I started asking God every night to guard me in my dreams and let them focus on only Him and positive beings). I know that I am fortunate (or, more likely, protected) because I have been attacked far less often than many others.

4. Sunday ended with my picking up hamburgers at JJ’s Burgers for Donnie and me for dinner. JJ is a fixture in town. When we serve community dinners at the Old Mission, JJ donates the hamburgers, hot dogs, and cooking oil and even comes to flip the burgers himself. JJ’s mother-in-law is the formation director for our religious education classes. It’s a small town! The burgers are delicious, but I am sure they added to that extra three pounds!

5. Monday morning in San Jose I boarded a plane bound for Maryland, where I had a three-day summit to attend for directors of our branch offices who report to me. I flew through Los Angeles, and then had a wonderfully direct (read that: non-stop) flight to Baltimore. To get that direct flight meant spending a two-hour wait at the LA airport, not a bad “sentence” since I am a member of the Red Carpet Club (United Airlines), where I can unwind or work, depending upon the mood. On Monday, I did both. Seated beside me on the flight to LA and flying out with me, just one row apart on the LA-Baltimore leg, was a young lady who, like I, slept most of the way to LA. We first started talking as we got off the plane, and when I learned that she would be on my next flight, I invited her to the Red Carpet Club with me since I am allowed to bring in a guest. As we talked, I learned that she was a tax auditor for the IRS. Ah, hah! That’s my kind of luck – bring in a tax auditor with me. Regardless of her profession, she was a nice enough person and very grateful for the comfortable chairs and ability to hook up electronically. On many occasions, the Red Carpet Club has salvaged business dilemmas for me since I can get and send emails from there, as well as take care of any business-related requirement and re-charge my equipment. It is not a major expense since I have the option to get membership for frequent flier miles, and I have plenty of those. The last thing I want to do is get on another plane, so I give those away in the form of tickets to family and friends. A couple of days ago, Lizzie got online, using my ID information, to get a ticket for herself to attend the wedding of a friend in Indiana. She sent me my balance, with a comment. “I used 25,000 miles of your 175,000 miles. That’s an insane number of miles, Mom!” Yeah, tell me about it!

6. Thursday was a day of Doah, Donnie, and I heading for Los Angeles, but from different starting points. I flew in from Baltimore in time to be picked up by Doah and Donnie, who drove down from San Ignatio. It is about a six hour drive, so they had some time together, including stopping at the California state poppy reserve. That stop was a bit disappointing for them since none of the poppies were out yet. Even though it seems like California is eternal spring, apparently the poppies do not agree: they have their own season.

7. The reason we all headed to Los Angeles is that I am attending a religious education conference here for catechists. I had totally forgotten about that when I booked a retreat for our anniversary, and I had forgotten about our anniversary when I arranged to give the students in Lithuania a review class and their final exam on Friday and Saturday evenings (my time). In short, I quadrupled-booked myself, a first even for multi-tasking me. So we had to give up the retreat and donate the deposit as a scholarship to someone else. (Well, I did not have to do that, but it seemed only fair since the center counts on certain numbers of participants.)I should have known that all of this mis-scheduling was bound to lead to trouble, and it did. The first hotel, the one near the convention center, had poor Internet access, and I cannot give an exam to students in Lithuania while sitting in California if I cannot have good Internet access and the simultaneous ability to ship files back and forth and answer questions via Skype. In any event, Doah will be my proxy for much of our anniversary. Donnie reminded me that Doah was also my proxy for our Valentine's dinner this year. Oops! Probably not the best habit to cultivate although Doah does not mind!

I hope that your evening and weekend will be smoother than what I have encountered so far in Los Angeles. I admit it: I did get frustrated. Now I have to start the Lenten pledge anew!

7 Quick Takes Friday #18

My second week in a row at home! What pleasure! And now it is time for this week's contribution to the Quick Takes meme hosted by Jennifer Futwiler at Conversion Diary.

1. The saga of the friend that I had to "fire" on Friday continued this week. Last week I promised the ending, and here it is, but first, a recap from last week: "I have to fire a friend, currently working as a junior manager, for poor performance. (I did not hire her; my boss forced her on me against my better judgment. Now, he has some embarrassment, too.) Ugh! Unfortunately, this relatively new junior manager, in three months of training, was unable to learn even the basics of management. I had a team of six people mentoring her on various aspects of her job. All of them came to the conclusion in recent days that not only is she untrainable but also her pride and lack of self-awareness preclude anyone's ability to train her. So, the decision was made to fire." On Friday, she was supposed to see the senior manager, her supervisor, at 1:00. At that time, he would have given her the bad news. Well, instead, she sent him an enote, saying that she was ill and going home. Later in the day, she popped up in my boss's office on another matter, and he ended up being the one to tell her that she was being reassigned as a rank-and-file employee, that she did not have the skills at this time for being a manager. His involvement seemed like poetic justice. On Monday, she met with the senior manager and got the bad news -- again. (None of us knew what had transpired on Friday.) He said she was stoic, but it turns out that she was prepared. A little later, she wrote a note to all her employees, saying that she had decided to leave her position and had asked to be reassigned for reasons of health. Wow, she seemed to have taken it all very well, and if she wanted to save face by announcing that it was her decision and health-related, we were all willing to look the other way. I did not get a chance to talk to her on Monday, but Tuesday, before going home, I dropped by to say good-bye and was walking with her to go out the door when she started sobbing -- and sobbing and sobbing. So, I led her into my office and talked to her for more than two hours. She exhibited a complete inability to look at herself objectively, but I was able to bring her to peace with the decision to replace her. I don't know how I was able to do that, but it really helped that while talking to her I was very aware that God was with us and in her -- after all, a little piece of God is within all of us, that is what binds us as a body of believers, right? Clearly, guidance I had asked for was given, and I am very grateful to God for my sake and for hers.

2. I learned this week that my beloved Fr. Terry, whom I can consult for just about anything, is leaving the area. He will be working as a chaplain at a retirement colony for friars. I suppose it is an appropriate assignment since he is 82 years old, but he acts -- and clearly feels -- much younger and has been very active in our community, at Old Mission, and as director of the local retreat center. Everyone loves him; I cannot think of anyone who does not or who has not benefited from his years and years of experience in walking with God and advising God's people. When I called to say goodbye to him, he told me that I had been "a light" to him in the past three years he has been here." He certainly knows how to make someone feel happy. If these were more than kind words and this were really true, then I am infinitely grateful to God for allowing me to play this role!

3. A sad event took place on Sunday. The mother of Fr. E., our parish priest, died from breast cancer. Fortunately, Fr. E. was able to get home to Ireland before she died and be with her during her last hours. Today the funeral took place in Ireland, and concurrently we held a rosary for Fr. E's mother at Old Mission. People turned out in force, and various parishioners led the service. At the end, Fr. M, the Latin Mass priest, gave a final benediction. Sula, our parish feral cat, came in before the service, came up to me for some petting, then found herself a seat on the pew across from me between two men. Except for nestling on someone's coat during communion, she sat up proudly between the two of them during the entire service, just as if she fully understood what was going on and was participating. Fr. M went over at the end of the service to greet her. I love this parish! (Photo is of the statue of St. John the Baptist on the Old Mission grounds.)

4. I had very good news from my cardiologist today. I was down another two pounds, and he is happy with my rate of weight loss. I am down 13 pounds since mid-January. My blood pressure is also down, and he reneged on this threat to replace my very mild medication with a stronger one. He is also allowing me six weeks before my next visit. He is still concerned about my heart although I am certain all is fine. Anyway, I have never seen him quite so relaxed about it. Yes!

5. I also had a good Arabic lesson today. Since we have a visiting manager from Egypt, who is originally from Jordan and speaks the dialect of Arabic that I knew, I asked him to talk to me in Arabic for a half-hour each morning since I am losing my proficiency in it for lack of use. Often, it feels like pulling teeth to be able to communicate well. Today, however, I surprised him -- and myself -- by spending nearly the whole time, talking about the theology of St. Paul, in particular in regard to his propensity toward dialectic thinking (i.e. thesis, antithesis, synthesis). I was so pleased that I could actually handle a rather complex topic with my limited Arabic, which might become less limited if I had more opportunity to use it.

6. Shane, Lemony, and kids spent the weekend in San Francisco at the Chinese parade and other activities. They go there every year for this celebration and decided it might be okay this year, too. Things are looking up for them, and I will indeed soon get around to writing the Clan Rising post I promised for the Clan of Mahlou blog. It looks like Shane will have a job perhaps as soon as April. A former employer wants him back but cannot offer a job until he passes a security clearance. They have put the clearance process on the fast track and assume that it will be completed by some time in April. (Here is a good example of why it is never a good idea to burn bridges when leaving a job. Shane left under pleasant conditions, and so coming back was a possibility -- and, thank God, they just "happened" to have an opening.)

7. Well, I am going to have to wrap this up pretty quickly and get to bed before the midnight hour fully approaches. Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 5 a.m. in order to travel to north with a team of people from work to an all-day meeting in Los Altos Hills. Oh, joy! A bus ride! (I am packing dramamine!) I have no idea where Los Altos Hills is located other than in somewhat north of us, so I assumed that it must be somewhere around San Francisco (or perhaps closer, near San Jose). Since I am not driving, I suppose I don't need to know. That is good; I already have too much extraneous information in my little head!

Hoping that you have a great weekend and will get some more sleep than it seems that I am in for!

7 Quick Takes Friday #16

I write to you from balmy Anchorage. Yes, I made it here although not without a what is common for me now incident. The plane did not fly to San Francisco (45 minutes north), so I had to head to LA (90 minutes south) to catch an Alaskan Airlines flight. It did not make much sense to fly south in order to go to Alaska, but many things don't make sense nowadays. Upon arrival it also did not make sense not to need my winter coat; it is 35 degrees Fahrenheit here with only a couple of feet of snow. I guess winter this year moved to Washington DC. That does not make sense, either. Well, perhaps this week's contribution to the Quick Takes meme hosted by Jennifer Futwiler at Conversion Diary will make a little more sense than my flight plan and the flight of the snow to DC.

1. On Saturday, Donnie and I attended the wedding of Roger (and his now-wife Cass). Roger co-leads our prayer group, which turned out in full force and became the rowdy table at the reception. Fun stuff! Roger works at the local Franciscan retreat center and friary, and the friars turned out in full force. A former elderly resident, Fr. Gavin, drove all the way down from San Francisco to be there for Roger, and a musician from the center provided the music at the wedding. It was like a large family event. Really fun stuff!

2. On Sunday, Valentine's Day, a friend and I attended the monthly Contemplation for Busy People seminar that Fr. Kevin Joyce leads in Campbell. It's a bit of a drive but is very much worth it. I have learned much from Fr. Kevin, and I recommend this seminar (and any other one he does) to anyone who lives within driving distance of San Jose, California. Since Doah lives in nearby Santa Clara, Donnie drove us, and while Silvia and I were at the seminar, he and Doah went out for a Valentine's dinner. Hm... Does anyone see anything odd about this picture?

3. Monday was a holiday! Yay! I was able to catch up on a number of things at home -- except taxes, which was what I had planned to do, but, as we all know, thanks to Robert Browning, "the best-laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay." I did go to noon Mass, after which a friend, Marie (who helps out with RCIA and did so when I was in RCIA), and I stopped by the local bakery for a drink. She had coffee; I had milk. Our usual! (My milk-drinking addiction is a source of quite some amusement on business trips. Others drink martinis; I drink milk. We all have our little quirks and addictions, don't we?)

4. Monday evening, mu husband Donnie, a friend from Jordan, Fr. Ed, and I had dinner at Petra, a restaurant in a nearby town on the eve of my birthday. We were going to talk about how to drag Fr. Ed to Jordan with us in April. As for my birthday, I had planned to give up aging for Lent, i.e. wait to celebrate it until after Lent. Fr. Ed had other ideas. He showed up with a gift and had talked the restaurant owners, who are friends of his (from Jordan, ironically), into putting a candle into my dessert baklava. So much for giving up aging for Lent!

5. Tuesday, off I went to work. It was going to be my only day in the office this week because of coming here to Alaska, but I also ended up going in on Wednesday, a rough day that I posted about yesterday. I was surprised by two of my employees dragging me out for a birthday lunch at a Texan BBQ. Sheesh! Two days in a row! While I enjoyed it, my diet suffered by a positive three pounds (i.e. gain). I am supposed to be working on negative numbers. Fortunately, it was only a blip; two of the pounds disappeared as of this morning. Yes!

6. On Tuesday, my birthday, Lizzie posted on her face book page a list of "Lessons from Mom." It was a surprise and a wonderful birthday present. Hearing what one's children really think about you is always quite interesting. I copied Lizzie's post onto the Clan of Mahlou blog. If you would like to read Lizzie's lessons from Mom, some of which are serious and others of which are humorous, click here.

7. The season of Lent arrived this week (image from St. Boniface Church). I guess that is not news to anyone. Given my strict diet, which I have followed scrupulously except for the two birthday exceptions, there is nothing I can give up of food items for Lent. I am eating only required and healthy food and fewer than 1000 calories a day. Nope, nothing there to give up. However, I did find something I would like to give up: frustration. After the difficulties earlier this week at work, accompanied by mounting frustration, I realize that I need to eliminate the frustration, just like I eliminated worry a long time ago (with rare exception do I ever worry about anything once it is in God's hands). I am truly serious about this. I have told fellow Catholics at work so that they can help by pointing out when it seems that I am becoming frustrated, and I will pray about it until the non-frustration habit is established as strongly as the non-worry habit. Indeed, since I cannot give up aging, I think giving up frustration is the next best thing for a Lenten commitment this year.

And now the week is about to end. If you live in the South, keep warm. If you live in the North, pray for snow. (Ma tells me that there is too little snow in Maine; this is a problem because snow protects the roots of berry bushes and trees, which can be killed off by the cold without insulation.) And to all everywhere, my best wishes for a great weekend!