November Wrap-Up (ft. cemeteries, dancing, and cows)

Hello, wonderful peoples of the interwebs! How have you been? Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Did you get a bit of a break from your ordinary life, I hope? It's getting to that time of year when everything is crazy, and a bit of a break for Thanksgiving is especially welcome, in my opinion. (Although I know that my life is going to be horrifically busy from when I get back to campus until I get to go home, which is *checks notes* just over two weeks from now. (Well, that's a bit insane. Good grief. How am I going to get everything done between then and now, I wonder? XD) (Truly, I have no idea. But it will get done!)) November has flown by, as most months have, this semester, and it's high time for me to think back and recap it. 

                

Some of the highlights of the month included:

-I got to skip out of class early on All Soul's Day and go to the All Soul's Day Mass at St. John Cantius in Chicago, which is done in the Tridentine Rite, with Mozart's Requiem. Since I was in high school, I've wanted to hear the Requiem in the context of a Mass, and this was far and away the best possible way I could have heard it--the music was fantastic, Mass was beautiful, Cantius is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen, and I was there with several good friends. Walking to the cemetery on All Saint's Day to pray for the dead was also a major highlight, including lying on the ground testing out what being dead would be like, much to the chagrin of a few of the other people with us.

-We had our Newman Center's barn dance, which was superlatively awesome, including such highlights as no one drinking or smoking, and no overly touchy dancing...jk. Those were highlights (especially after my first barn dance experience was at a frat barn dance), but the real highlights were the amount of time I got to spend swing dancing, including with a whole bunch of my friends, the line dances everyone danced, and sitting by the bonfire. It was exactly what a barn dance should be.

-My cow judging team went to the Livestock Expo in Kentucky in order to--you guessed it!--judge cows. I placed eight in one of the breeds, which is the highest I've placed all semester, and a most satisfactory way to round out the season. I also caught an escaped calf at the campus dairy right before we left (much to the surprise of everyone involved, including the calf), had Panera for the first time, and spent an exorbitant amount of time watching the goat shows (instead of the cow shows. no regrets).

-I fell asleep on a friend's couch with her cat on my chest while watching The Two Towers.

-I finished the pair of fingerless gloves that I had been working on for Father M (whose hands are the same size as mine, lol), much to his absolute glee, which made me very happy. (They are perfect and fit perfectly, apparently.)

-I went to the East Coast for Thanksgiving Break, which was a wonderful time in many different ways. 

    -The first weekend I was there, I got to stay with a long-distance friend who I had never met in person before. I was thrilled to get to meet her, and she is every bit as delightful in person as I expected. We ate lots of good food, had many late-night conversations, watched Over the Garden Wall and Harry Potter, prayed together, walked the downtown, read each other's writing, sang together both in the everyday and at her parish on Sunday, drank lots of tea, and she introduced me to many of her friends there, some of whom hosted us for breakfast, and invited us to see a homeschool production of a play by Fanny Chesterton. The whole thing was unbelievably delightful and joyful, and such a blessing!    

    -On my way from there back to where my extended family live, I stopped by the Elizabeth Ann Seton shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland and saw a couple of friends from school, who are also visiting family on the East Coast. A fun little half-hour see-you-back-at-school reunion, and I really enjoyed seeing all of the shrine exhibits. And I then somehow made myself cry in their cemetery by singing "Old Churchyard", which I really don't understand, because I wasn't sad. But there you are.

    -After that, I stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who live on the East Coast, and have had a wonderful time with them. (I'm still here, actually, as this post goes live.) The company has been wonderful--I don't get to see these particular relatives as often as I'd like, even though I've come for part of break three times in my college career, lol--and the food has been delicious, and it's been such a treat to just be able to relax and read and hang out with family (and work on my ten-page paper, haha). 

    -My aunt and cousin and I got to visit with one of 'our Dominicans' from home, who's on the East Coast doing his Ph.D. We all really enjoyed seeing him, and he was flabbergasted at how big both my cousin and all of my siblings had gotten. (He also tried to convince me to become a nun, but what else is new.)

    -My aunt and I went to go get my "colors done"...aka an analysis of what colors look best on me. The analyst we went to (District Color, who both did a great job and was a really sweet, wonderful person) uses a twelve-tone color analysis system, and in that system, I am a Soft Summer! Which makes a lot of things make a lot of sense, in terms of what looks good on me and what doesn't, even though it was totally not what anyone was expecting. I love "my colors", and it feels really freeing for a lot of reasons: first of all, now I know what I look good in and don't have to guess, second of all, I now have an excuse not to wear things I don't like, lol, and third of all, for a lot of my life I've been told that I look good in blue, which is true, but I hadn't had a lot of confidence in trying out other colors, which isn't helped by the fact that my colors are pretty specific and not necessarily found in all clothes, if that makes sense. So the fact that I can now try out purples and pinks and yellows (well, two yellows, lol) and greens makes me SO happy. I can't wait to find more clothes in my greens. :) 

    - After Thanksgiving dinner (which was SO delicious), we did a sparkling wine tasting, which was super interesting and fun--I now know much more about sparkling wine than I did, and have tried quite a few kinds. Turns out, I like the dry acid kinds (like champaign and prosecco) quite a bit, but I also really enjoy the sweeter kinds, like Moscato d'asti, which smells (and tastes!) like roses. (St. Therese? That you? XD)

Fun Quotes

Tree class TA: "They have serrated teeth on the edge of the leaf...which is where they always are."

Kay: "Sure, if you want to take the easy way out, you can study ecclesiastical Latin, but I prefer to be sanctified by my work."

Father M: "No, I will NOT be Father C's companion!"

Jay: "Meanwhile, prepare to be spiritually coordinated."

*military helicopter flies over our trees class field trip for the fourth time*
Classmate: "They are coming to rescue me out of this class."

Overheard: "He can fit three caprisuns and zero women."

Dan: "Why was Pope St. John Paul II against communism?"
Father M: "Because communism is evil."

Cousin: "You and skin!"

Cousin's godfather: "The Holy Spirit beats wood's a**, takes his lunch money, and STILL says something negative about him!"

Worth Reading If...

(okay, so...I'm writing this post while on the East Coast, and I don't have my usual notebook with me, so I quite honestly haven't the foggiest what I read earlier this month before this week, which means that I wish I could tell you more about what I read, but as it is, I'm going to talk about my favorite book I read this month)

...you need a new devotional book

Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley
This book was shoved in my direction by St. Therese, in response to a prayer about growing closer to the Heart of Jesus, and it has already borne quite a bit of fruit in my life. It's predicated on the idea that our trust--praise and thanksgiving--can help to console Christ's heart, which is so much wounded by those who will not accept His love. 
It asks the question of what our response is to Jesus saying to us "behold this Heart, which loves so much but it so little loved". I find that incredibly beautiful, as well as incredibly impactful. 
Father Michael poses this question, expands on how we can console Christ's heart, and then spends quite a bit of time talking about avoiding obstacles to consoling the heart of Jesus, such as fear of suffering and our own attachments and weaknesses. Turns out, there is nothing that  can or should possibly prevent us from going to Him! (Surprise, surprise. XD) It's heavily based on the revelations of St. Faustina, and also the spirituality of St. Therese--the Little Way of Little Souls. Father Michael also has a section where he talks about Ignatian spirituality and the Examen, and about consolations and desolations in the spiritual life.
I found the whole thing quite beautiful and helpful in my spiritual life and would highly recommend picking it up! 

The Month In Music

Old Churchyard by The Wailing Jennies: friends slumber in there that we want to regard/we will trace out their names in the old churchyard

A Girl in the Valley from The Secret Garden: say you'll have me/safe you will keep me/where you would lead me/there I would go

My Lad Who Swept Away by The Grim Writer: but I live hard even though I'm old/pay no heed to lies Time's told/and my fortune in some better world I hope to make

Stay, I Pray You from Anastasia: coachman, hold the horses/stay, I pray you/let me have a moment/let me say goodbye

All the Love by Brittany Jean: we made a promise early doors/your heart for mine and mine for yours

Shoulders by The Arcadian Wild: I'm standing on your shoulders/you turn my green to golden/it still comes as a surprise/whenever I look in your eyes

Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker: starin' up the road and pray to God I see headlights/rock me mama like a wagon wheel/rock me mama any way way you feel/hey...mama rock me

Letter Song from The Secret Garden: should I say that Colin's well now?/streets of Paris like a maze/should I say that Doctor Craven/sleepless nights and endless days

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot: does anyone know where the love of God goes/when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Corner by The Arcadian Wild: when I look for you, you're standing in my corner/I woke up to the wind and you came running

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Miserables: the very words that they had sung/became their last communion/on this lonely barricade/at dawn

Sweet Bann Water by The Murphy Beds: I must away and no longer tarry/the sweet Bann water I mean to cross/and over the mountain I'll roam with pleasure/to spend one night with my only lass

The Mirror Go Machine by Brittany Jean: I most sinceriously wish to know/where did the light in your smile go?/and that reminds me/I got two tickets for the mirror go machine/and I want to take you, yoo-hoo along with me

No More Faith by Andrew Peterson: hope is hard to hold to/Lord I believe, only help my unbelief/till there's no more faith and no more hope/I'll see your face and Lord I'll know/ that only love remains

Cotton-Eyed Joe by Rednex: where did you come from, where did you go?/where did you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?

Proud Corazon from Coco: ay, mi familia, oiga, mi gente/canten a coro, let it be known/our love for each other will live on forever/in every beat of my proud corazon

What's your favorite devotional book? What did you do for Thanksgiving? Are you ready for December? (I'm not, lol.)