An Evening with Moses

I like to think I have good judgment. I'm a born rule-follower with a Catholic conscience. So imagine how much fun I must be having at a university where I'm pretty sure if there were a club for people who don't associate themselves with under-age drinking, I would be the president and one of the few members with high-functioning social skills. We would eat pizza and talk about our favorite sitcoms every Friday night.
...okay wait. That sounds way too much like what I actually DID do last Friday night...

Society thinks I'm lame. But that's not the point of this post because who cares what "society" thinks? I think I'm awesome.

Anyway, sometimes its kind of a bummer not having that many exciting, "you'll never believe what I did in college" stories. These are supposed to be our "glory days" and the "best years of our lives" right? So on Sunday, I took in a stray Dog thinking, "This will be so hilarious and crazy. Imagine the stories!" And how could I refuse this precious baby's face?

Let me give you a timeline of events:

9:00pm: My brain: "I'll take him home with me tonight and take him to the shelter first thing in the morning! It will be so fun! I know my apartment doesn't allow pets but....*this is where I decided to stop thinking*
9:15pm: Catherine and I took him INSIDE Wal-Mart on a leash--okay it was actually a piece of rope someone found. Maybe those people who make the "People of wal-mart" videos saw us.

9:30: Me to Elizabeth, my roommate, when I walked in the apartment with a puppy: "You know how sometimes you have those moments where you're like 'I'm in college and want to do something stupid for once?'"
Yall, her face when I brought a puppy into our apartment unannounced. Let me take a second and talk about Liz. She's freaking awesome. We met when we lived together last year in a dorm and I think God had such a good laugh watching us together last year that He wanted us to live together again. And round two has been even better than round one. So anyway, a few seconds after the initial shock, Liz fell in love with Moses.

9:35: Moses pees on the carpet
9:36: What the heck was I thinking? Ugh but he's so cute.
9:37: Suddenly this apartment feels a lot smaller than I remember. You think the animal shelter is still open? (they closed at like 5...)
9:38: Oh yes, this is why I don't do this type of thing.
9:40: Calling the non-emergency animal control people...they weren't there.
9:41: Giving up on that and giving Moses a bath! I know he looks like he's trying to run away in this picture, but he was so good! And so dirty!

10:00: discovering he had fleas...yay!
10:15: Falling more in love with his preciousness. He was actually a very good dog--super sweet and cuddly. But he did whine when he was left alone...I was planning on staying up all night and being with him so he wouldn't whine. While I turned off my judgment, I thought it would be fun to stay up all night because college is supposed to be about crazy late nights right? Here's what I think about that--why can't we do crazy stuff during the day and then sleep at night? Its a win-win situation. Whatever college social standards. You do you and I'll do me and sleep at night.
He was so sleepy after his bath.

 



11:00: I had an intramural soccer game and I didn't want to just ditch Liz with the stray dog I had brought home an hour ago, so Moses came along and in typical Moses fashion, made some new friends.

Shout out to Jake and Emily for keeping Moses warm and happy while I rocked left forward.
11:20: Halftime. Frantically texting a friend I ran into at Wal-Mart who was thinking about making Moses her dog!
11:45: Game over (Bears win!) and Moses goes to his new family. Shout out to Ashton for taking him in!

And just like that, he was gone. I think 3 hours of college craziness was enough for me. But Liz and I miss Moses already! Ashton's roommate is in one of my classes and reported to me today that Moses (who they renamed "Boone" after T. Boone Pickens) is doing fab.

So there it is, the non-biblical story of Moses. I guess college isn't about having terrible judgment, but making memories while still getting a healthy amount of sleep so you can get up in the morning and eat a good breakfast before your test that you studied for over the weekend. These are our glory days! ;)

Bye Moses!

 





 

When I made an unplanned pilgrimage to Prague

I did something super Catholic today. It was awesome.
I had to drive out to the little Oklahoma town of Shawnee this morning for a school project, and on the way there, I saw a billboard for the National Shrine of Infant Jesus of Prague. My first thought was, "that sounds Catholic!" My original plan, since I was already over an hour from Stillwater, a town where there is no Target, mind you, was to make a day out of being out of town and go shopping (AKA find a Target), but I felt so drawn to this shrine that I totally forgot about shopping. So when I finished my work for school, the shrine hunt began. I arrived at about 11:50--just in time for noon mass! Thank you Jesus for Your perfect timing! The chapel was beautiful. It wasn't super big or even overly-elaborate, but had such a feeling of reverence and holiness  Mass was beautiful. The priest gave a great homily. He talked about St. Francis, who's feast we celebrate today, which led him to talk about Pope Francis. And how can anyone not love that guy?



So anyway, mass was beautiful. Very simple and traditional. For the first time, I received communion kneeling at a communion rail. It was awesome. Fun fact, I also helped some people help this lady back into her wheelchair. #kakidoesthings. So after mass and a little bit of adoration, the exploring began. There was this little side area with lots of prayer candles where some religious sisters were looking around and praying, and one of them handed me a lighter and gestured for me to light one of the candles, so I did. When a little lady in a religious habit hands you a lighter and tells you to light a candle, you don't ask questions.

I lit a yellow one because its my favorite color :)
I stopped in the gift shop (oh, looks like I did get some shopping in today) and bought a little something for my parents (coming to you in the mail soon mom and dad!), did a little bit more looking around and reflecting and praying in the chapel, and eventually, I came to this statue of the holy family, who I love.

 

I've never seen an image like this one before, and for some reason it just captivated me. It is so precious. Joseph holding Mary holding Jesus. I've been wondering about Mary and Joseph's marriage lately. St. Joseph is so often forgotten about, and so rarely mentioned in the Bible, but I imagine that he loved Jesus and Mary so much and did his best to take care of them. He probably taught Jesus how to do carpenter things. The young Jesus probably looked up to him just as most little boys look up to their fathers. The three of them were a family. They ate meals together and said goodnight each night and good morning every morning. They celebrated holidays together--like Christmas...





I love this statue.

 

So I went on an unplanned pilgrimage today. Well, to me it was unplanned...

If you're ever near Prague, Oklahoma, you should totally stop at the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague. You'll be captivated by and drawn to the infant King. I definitely was.

Side note, the infant Jesus of Prague is named after the capital of the Czech Republic, not after the small town in Oklahoma. Read about it HERE. I love the universal church. Catholicism rocks.