Confessions of a Barista

Wow. I never saw myself resurrecting this blog but today, we'll give it a shot. Why? Well let's just say I have the time. When we left our heroine, she was about to embark on a teaching career-- she loved the teenage girls she worked with (really) but it was just... hard. On lots of levels. Then she worked at Starbucks, which was very fun for about 3 months, and not so fun once the bank account just kept shrinking and shrinking... But here are 10 things I'd like to share with you about your workers at the coffee shop:

1.  We are people. That means we have good days and bad days, and we don't exist just for you. Say hello. 
2. Don't dump your coffee into the trash can. For heaven's sake, you don't do that at home, so don't do it here. (And you know why you don't do it at home: because the bag will leak all over your pants when you go to take it out) If you want a lot of room in your coffee, just *say so*. Happy to oblige. 
3. Don't leave wrappers on the ground. If you drop it, pick it up. 
4. If you move the furniture significantly, put it back before you leave. 
5. Don't watch the barista like a hawk, but don't get so absorbed in texting that you don't hear your name called. 
6.  Around 12 or 1pm, we are very very tired. We got up at 4:30am to make your coffee. Be nice. 
7. If your (average-sized) eleven-year-old daughter orders a drink, do NOT interrupt her with, "SKIM" and a significant look. That's just wrong. 
8. If you're standing in a long line, that's a really good time to decide what you want to get. If you get to the register and THEN look at the options, not only will I be annoyed, but so will the 10 people who came in after you. I'm mainly annoyed because those 10 people will now be snippy with me even though the delay was your fault. 
9. Yes, brewed coffee and tea come with free refills. That doesn't mean that you should get a coffee and refills and nurse it for 8 hours while you take up a table with your laptop on a Saturday. 
10. Get off the phone. I mean it.

Colleen McCarron's awesome song

Theology of the body, what? Congrats to this gal and her fiance! Hopefully she won't be too busy to make an appearance at my school around Prom time :)

For the non-clickers

Here's an audience view of the awesome kids:

930 Club

Coolest thing:

My housemate Anne Marie works at Brookewood. She was at the music store up the street and someone there asked if she could get a children's choir together to perform with Guster at the 930 club.

So check out this link to see the coolest kids from Brookewood performing with Guster. (It's the 2nd video on the page)
Guster tour

I heart U2

I went to their amazing concert last week, and the priest who drove us introduced me to this version of one of my favorites.....
love them.

Another reason I love DC

You can go to a gallery and see something beautiful like this statue at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

For wretches!

I've just discovered that the talks given by Fr. Kim Schreck at a retreat I went on are posted online: St Paul and the Heart of Christ.

I highly recommend them, especially for young women since it was given for us!

That's just weird

I found a CD with files from 2007- including the wretch database. I went about updating it really simply and discovered something which I think can't be right but might be; there's an even split between states of life: 10 religious and 10 married.

How can we get a real update??? What are the odds of such evenness?? There are 89 women on the list, some of whom I don't even know/ have never met/ don't have their last name. ha. And I totally forgot some of your names.

PS- I included in that count the wretch leaving us in September for the sisters of life... hope y'all got that happy email!

Interesting

The fact that the Pope isn't jumping on the Internet makes me very happy, not unhappy as some react (see Whispers for a somewhat disgruntled take on it)

This is not unrelated to my previous post. I would disagree that the Successor of Peter should be spending time in front of a computer screen or text messaging or whatever. Perhaps instead of seeing this as "yet another Vatican media blunder" we should see it as the Pope saying something. There's no argument from silence, of course, but he has said enough by way of caution that we could read a bit into it. From the World Day of Communications:

"It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation," he stated. "If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."


The irony of my posting this on a blog is not lost on me. I'm heading out to the world again now :)

Put it down...

For a nice explanation of how I feel about cell phones, check out this video pointing out the ways that they are used. (My objection is not centered on that, but it is certainly evidence of a problem.)

We've all been in situations when someone opts out of whatever's going on, especially if there's awkwardness, to make a phone call or text someone. I've certainly done it a few times only to kick myself afterward. But what this guy says about it is right on and definitely how I feel if someone texts or calls another while we're hanging out-- "Anything coming out of this device is more important than you." Often I think it's just out of ignorance or lack of reflection; they don't mean to be rude. But.

Along these same lines, I have a certain amount of respect and love for those people who I know will almost never answer their phone or get to responding to an email right away. These facts seem to be serious affronts to a lot of people who've bought into this availability thing--"You are available to me at any time"-- but because I know that's not true- nor should it be- I see the so-called lack of communication as a sign that they are really being present where they are. (Which incidentally means that when I'm with them, I, too, get their full attention.) Seems a much more human way to be.

"Embryo adoption"

This article by Janet Smith on so-called embryo adoption, reveals serious problems in the argument for this 'compassionate solution' which does not take the body seriously enough.

Smith’s assertion that gestating a child not conceived with one’s spouse does not break the marital bond reduces the bond of marriage to one of will alone. If both spouses agree to “adopt” this embryo, Smith seems to suggest, then there’s nothing wrong with it. But when a man and a woman marry, the marital act that joins the two in one flesh is not simply a means to an end (either babies or unity) but one that expresses the truth of who they are now: given to one another. In this way, the entire process of the conception and gestation of a new life is a continuation of this expression of the love of husband and wife. It is only because her husband loves and has given himself to his wife that she can become a mother. One does not marry motherhood or fatherhood, but a person who may become one or the other, if God wills it.

Certainly if life begins at conception, it continues without interruption in gestation and should be respected and allowed to mature in this context of love. I am shocked that Smith would suggest that “some forms of ‘surrogacy’ be permissible” when the Church has uniformly spoken against it (see Donum Vitae 3 for a very clear explanation of why) and Dignitas Personae is clear about this, saying it is not licit “in any form”(19).

Clearly the process of “embryo adoption” removes not only the man completely but also the woman from the generation of this new life. Regardless of intention, the woman’s body is being used as the means to an (admittedly desirable) end.

I will just echo the words of Dignitas Personae, which deal with this question specifically and Smith never quotes in her article, “All things considered, it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved”(19). Regardless of the technology that is made available, the basic principles outlined again and again by the Church reiterate that sex and procreation may not be separated. Not for any reason, however noble.

Well said

A letter from Fr. Carron (leader of Communion and Liberation) called A Mercy Challenging Us about the Pope's letter to the bishops about all this excommunication business.

Earth and Moon reunited

I was excited to visit with Sr. Beatrice this past weekend. She is doing quite well and she's quite goofy; more herself, I think, than I've ever seen her. Yay! This fun will hopefully be repeated in July for Sr. Anna's final profession of vows.

Pandora email (who am I?)

To whom it may concern:

I have really been enjoying Pandora for the past few months; but lately I have noticed some advertisements on my page which are deeply disturbing to me. I understand the necessity of advertising on this service, but as you (I assume) tailor it to the customer, I assume that you could also make adjustments if necessary. Since I am a young woman, Pandora is currently running an ad about Plan B on my site. Please remove this advertisement from my page.

It must be, at least to some extent, your responsibility to know about your advertisers. I encourage you to look at the Plan B website. It is incredibly manipulative-- under "how plan B works" it says absolutely nothing about what it does to a woman's body, or a pregnancy-- which is precisely what a woman wants to know if she clicks on that link-- it only ambiguously "assures" women that Plan B is not an "abortion pill".

Having just finished a paper on contraception for a conference, I am precisely the last 26-year-old woman who wants to see this advertisement on a website that serves as a radio station.

Poor Clare Kirsten!

Friends-
I interrupt my normal non-blogging-ness to make this short announcement: I just received a card about Kirsten (Sr. Flower... or something like that). She will receive her habit as a novice in the Poor Clares on November 1st. I'll miss her parlor visit day but I'm definitely making it to the mass in Alexandria. Anyone with me?

Saying Goodbye

My friends know how I feel about saying goodbye: I don't like it, not one bit.

This summer has brought many goodbyes. Matt and Lucy (Sr. Sea) and their son, John-Matthew, are moving back to Houston on Friday. Their departure leaves this achy, sad, empty thing in me even though I know it's for the best and that they must go. I want heaven now.

NFP vs. Contraception

My students are so cool. They gave me the tip about these videos on NFP vs. contraception.

(They just took a test on that-- I love my job.)

More friends!

Above: Fr. Scalia directing bishops

Below: You can see Fr. James Cuddy, OP and Fr. David Sharland

Sisterly Sightings

Sister Joan Marie (center) and Sister Maris Stella (lower right) of the Sisters of Life order celebrate after meeting Pope Benedict XVI following an ecumenical prayer service at the Church of St. Joseph in New York on April 18, 2008. The Pope addressed 250 Protestant and Orthodox leaders and 50 Catholics involved in ecumenical efforts. The parish was founded in 1873 to serve German immigrants in the area.
(Photo from Getty Images by AFP/Getty Images)















Look closely at the bottom center and you can see our Rachel who I'm sure is talking to Sr. Mariana as the Sisters of Mary were also present at the Pope's address to youth and seminarians at Dunwoodie Seminary.
(Photo from Ivy Catholic's blog)

Wretched Reunion

March 13-16 was a Come & See weekend for the Sisters of Life and as an added bonus, a mini-reunion for several Wretches in various discernment stages. Pictured clockwise starting from the left is Shamrock, Fire (Rachel, S.V. postulant), Dawn, Light and Sr. Joan Marie (Rain).

Light was gracious enough to play the song she wrote inspired by St. Therese for all of us as it has become a favorite amongst the postulants (my apologies for the bootlegness of this video).

Our dear Rachel passed along an incredible piece of text written by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI on the root of our wretchedness,

"In what does man's wretchedness actually consist? Above all in his insecurity; in the uncertainties with which he is burdened; in the limitations that oppress him; in the lack of freedom that binds him; in the pain that makes his life hateful to him. Ultimately there is, behind all this, the meaninglessness of his existence that offers satisfation neither to himself nor to anyone else for whom it might have been necessary, irreplaceable, consequential. We can say, then, that the root of a man's wretchedness is loneliness, is the absence of love - is the fact that my existence is not embraced by a love that makes it necessary, that is strong enough to justify it despite all the pain and limitations it imposes...What man needs is a communion that goes beyond that of the collective; a unity that reaches deep into the heart of man and endures even in death. The human unity that man requires by nature must know how to answer the problem of death in which it must find its truest confirmation...Man cannot identify himself with God, but God has identified himself with man - that is the content of the communion that is offered us in the Eucharist. A communio that offers less offers too little."