Feliciem Diem Sancti Valentini!

Yes, that's right folks, it's that time of year again. The paradoxical holiday that simultaneously evokes lovesick sentiment and cynical distain in American society is upon us once more and it's time to celebrate! I for one have been having a pretty good one. God saw fit to grace us with beautiful weather here in DC today and it's been a blast.

 

Ah yes, plentiful sunshine and almost 50 degrees... gorgeous. Enough to keep even the most bitter of CUA's singles scene content.

Don't get me wrong, Cupid didn't miss Catholic U on his radar. There's been plenty of Valentine's spirit here on campus. The picture below is the entrance to my dorm a few nights ago. No one I've talked to knows who it was from or who it was for, but it certainly did serve as a reminder to us all that Valentines was just around the corner. 

Of course, I suppose it's worth mentioning that, shortly after I took this picture, someone pelted it with rotten apples from the cafeteria. I'm not sure if it was the young lady/man refusing or just some bitter third party, but it certainly was amusing... right up until maintenance power-washed the whole mess off our entranceway.

As for me, I have an absolutely beautiful valentine and we plan to celebrate our third Valentine's day with some Spanish tapas and swing-dancing this Saturday. It's going to be a blast, I can't wait. 

Enjoy your Valentines Day everyone. I wish you all the happiness you can stomach after eating so much heart-shaped candy.  

utter. blog. failure.

So, as you may have gathered from the title of the post, I feel like I haven't done a very good job with this blog in the few months I've had it. I was feeling pretty confident in my blogging ability earlier last month when I found a nifty layout, posted some pictures, and even inserted a nifty music playlist (the black-ish thing on the right in case you hadn't noticed: hit the triangle and it plays awesome music!); but recently, I feel like a sub-par blogger. 

I mean, honestly, can you blame me for feeling this way? Other blogs are so awesome. People who take artsy photos, write certain words of particular emphasis in different colors, and like... post regularly make me look... sub-par. I am vowing now that I will make a sincere effort to become a par-blogger, but I wouldn't put much stock in that resolution if I were you. The truth is, I'm too busy to be a good blogger. I'm a college student, and... I sleep a lot. I can't be expected to update this thing regularly, can I? Even if deep down I really want to. 

That sounded a bit more pathetic than I intended it to. Eh... pathetic is actually proving to be a good mood for this post... I might run with it. 

I mean... commmeeee onnnnnn. 

Ok, nevermind, thats just whiney; and no one likes a whiner. 

Seriously though, I will search the depths of my soul to find something in my relatively uninteresting life to fuel this blog. Also, I'll mess around with html a bit more and try to get some nifty color text and stuff. I might end up turning this ship around after all.

Does anyone even read this thing? I don't blame you if you don't, I wouldn't. It's terrible. But once I fix it, you all better read. Grrrrr.

The End 

March For Life 2008

"Each according to his or her possibilities, profession and responsibilities, should feel in themselves an obligation to love and serve life, from its beginning to its natural end."
- Benedict XVI: 3 February 2008, Noon Angelus, Italian "Day of Life," Italy

*This post for some reason never made it out of my drafts folder. Given that I now know where that is, I may now post this long lost gem for all to see*

First off, let me apologize for how late this post is. A bunch of work and a rather nasty flu have kept me off this thing lately.

Almost two weeks ago, tens of thousands showed up on the streets of Washington DC to protest what is perhaps the greatest and most urgent moral issue of our age: what has been called the genocide of the unborn. If you happened to be on the streets of DC on Jan 22, then you caught a rather impressive sight. Unfortunately, if you weren't in our nation's capitol on the 22, you probably knew nothing about it. The event wasn't so much as mentioned on any major news network; not even a blurb on the scrolling marquee. Actually, MSNBC and their crack team of journalists saw fit to mention it under the "health" section of their website complete with pictures of the maybe five pro-abortion advocates brave enough to attend.

I want you all to take note: this is proof that what you see on the news is not by any means a complete depiction of whats happening at any given time; even within your own country. Sadly, no matter what CNN (or Fox News even) tells you, there is no substitute for being socially aware.

Don't I sound worldly?

There was a beautiful air of collaboration at the march that transcended Catholic (and even Christian) affiliation. Everyone there was praying, singing, discussing; a comforting atmosphere which gave us all hope that change is on the way.

I, however, am reminded of the words of a close friend who was an adult leader on a confirmation retreat I led a while ago. He recalled the first March for Life in 1974, which had a relatively favorable turnout (by my understanding, consistent with today's numbers); "we all looked around and thought, 'oh man, this is definitely going to get someone's attention.'" Thirty four years later, he's still marching.

But at least he's not alone. Catholic U sent nearly 400 to the march this year; a personal record for the university.

Although we all know I could certainly fill this post with volumes of philosophically and logically sound reasons why you should agree that abortion is a great injustice and demand its immediate abolition, I will give credit to the 20,000 men and women I marched with and allow their photos to tell the story.

Laura Visits DC... and... Me!

As you may or may not know, my darling girlfriend came and spent this past weekend with me. For your viewing pleasure, a short compilation of photos have been provided.

Laura arrived with cupcakes. They were as delicious as they were adorable. I got pandas, she had penguins. I think they were some kind of moist chocolate cupcakes with mocha frosting? Either way... yummmm.

Here we are in front of the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool. Unfortunately, the Reflecting Pool has been drained for the winter weather. You can still see a bit of the monument though in a few reflecting puddles left over from last week's rain. Hooray!

My grey speck of a girlfriend before the giant marble Lincoln.

The two of us in the WWII Memorial. If We look cold it's because it was about 11 degrees outside. Burrrrr.

A really cool shot of Lincoln taken by Laura who (unlike me) knows how to use her camera. I like the lighting. 

A shot from the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial. You should be able to see the Capitol and Washington Monument in the background, but unfortunately I'm not a very good photographer. They are both right behind my head if you want to use your imagination. 

On Inventions

My roommate is presently spending hours manually deleting text messages from his phone. When I asked him why he didn't just go to "delete all" and be done with it, he explained that there are certain text messages which hold a sentimental value; messages that he would like to hold on to. I can definitely relate. 

Sometimes it's nice to go back and re-read old messages and remember what you were doing, who you made plans with on what day, or just simple random messages that made you laugh or smile while you were having an otherwise regular day. I suppose I have the upper hand on him in the text message department as his phone can only hold 50 messages at a given time. I'm not sure how many mine can hold. I'm almost positive it isn't an infinite amount, but I'm at almost a thousand messages and nothing has come up asking me to delete any as of yet.

This whole matter of text messages really made me wish I was an inventor. Well, I suppose in the new-agey philosophical sense, we're all inventors; but I wish I was a fully capable inventor, complete with necessary materials and advanced knowledge of physics, calculus, and electronic engineering. If I were, I would definitely invent a text message printer. It could print out text messages on little fortune cookie sheets or something. Wouldn't that be awesome? I think so. I really wish I knew someone who invented stuff. I'd totally throw this idea their way. They could have the royalties from it and everything... so long as I get my own free fortune cookie paper text message printer.

I'm not really sure what the practical applications of such a machine would be. Having a bunch of little sheets of paper would be difficult to manage and much easier to lose than your cell phone. Perhaps this is why it hasn't caught on. But it would still be neat. Especially for scrapbooks, keepsake boxes, etc.

I need to work on my grammar skills. That last paragraph was laden with sentence fragments. Sweet mercy! I'm not looking forward to this semester's first batch of papers. That's gonna be ugly.

In other news, laura came to visit the city... and... me. Well, ok... mostly me, but we spent a considerable amount of time in the city as well. Theres some pictures that will make you go "awww," I may put them up here.

Enjoy your evening everyone.  

Back To Life, Back To Reality

I haven't written here in a while. Things kindof went to absolute crap after my last post and consequently put me out of commission for a few weeks. What are ya gonna do? Thats life I suppose. 

So, I'm back on CUA campus and tomorrow classes begin. The longer I'm here the fuzzier the memories of the past month become and more and more it feels like I never left. My Dad and Holly were in the city this weekend, that was good times. I may post some pictures of all that fun stuff on here when I get them. All the entertaining and visiting with them aside, most of my time here has been spent getting unpacked, putting my room in order, and asking "how was your break?" countless times. All in all, the hours since the folks left and all the stuff got unpacked have been pretty boring.

In my wealth of time here in my dorm room, I've managed to watch a DVD and a half of scrubs episodes. That show is fantastic. I always feel a special connection with Zach Braff when I watch it. He thinks the way I think. Also, watching scrubs has made me miss Adam like crazy. He is the Turk to my JD. I've been through absolute hell this past week, and he has been the key reason why I made it through intact. I really wish we went to school together. I shudder to think of how much fun we would have.

I found myself dreading returning to campus towards the end of break, but now that I'm here, I'm pretty sure I'll be alright. Just gotta get through this first week and thing will be smooooth sailing. 

Hope ya'll havin a nice evening... YEAH! 

Project Boredom

I really wanna see Juno. Anyone down to go? Eh? Eh? Come on... teen pregnancy... fun stuff.  

Anyways, I have become a hopeless fan of Project Runway. I would be completely ashamed of myself, but I think I will instead blame it on the models... oh... and Heidi Klum. I mean Sweet mercy! "Auf wiedersehen" has never sounded so completely... sexy. 

I can already tell I'm getting waaayyyy too into this show. Right now I'm rooting for Jillian, I think she designed for Polo or something. She's classy and wholesome and I love her! *excited pseudo-homosexual voice inflection* 

I want the really annoying gay Christian guy to loose ASAP. He needs to chill the fuck out and stop making a mockery of my name.

Oh sweet mercy... I need to get my car fixed and get back into the real world.

Man... I really meant to type something profound on this thing but now I'm utterly distracted by this damn show. Theres something about a skirt made entirely out of twizzlers... oh man. 

Happy New Year everyone. Have a great 08!