Facie’s Ramblings

I sometimes worry my kid will grow up and not care about church or God (or at the very least, never make it through mass without moving around, complaining, or asking me when church is going to be over). I am trying to remember what it was like for me at her age, and I think I believed in God even at 3, though I cannot imagine how that is possible. Around that time, my father's grandmother Sittu died, and ever since , when I think of heaven, I think of Sittu up in the sky (actually, I think she is lying down), looking down at all of us. That image of heaven has served me well all these years. In my heaven, you are able to see everyone you love, but you are not actually with them, and somehow that is okay; you don't need or want to. This view would work nicely for a widow or widower who has since remarried. That person may be wondering whom he or she will end up with in heaven (and years ago someone told me he had this very worry). And the answer is both, at least insofar as you...

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a high school classmate on behalf of the reunion committee, soliciting our feedback to help plan next year's 20-year reunion. How can it be that I graduated 19 years ago? In some ways, I feel as if I am exactly the same person in both personality and looks as I was years ago, yet in many other ways, I am a completely different person. Over the Easter weekend, I happened to run into two classmates while in my mother's town, which is fewer than 15 miles from where I graduated from. In both cases, I had not seen either of these ladies since our last reunion, which I found kind of ironic, at least in an Alannis Morrisette kind of way. When I first noticed Christine, I was not entirely sure it was she. She was sitting behind me in the cry room during the longest Good Friday service I had ever attended, and when our eyes met, she did not seem to recognize me. Finally, after the veneration of the cross, I went up to her, said her name, and she...

Well, PSU lost the Terrelle Pryor bowl. Oh, well. It is probably best for Pryor not to go there. After all, the chances of his getting to play his freshman year under JoePa are pretty slim. But selfishly, I think it would have been great for PSU ; it would have helped their recruiting. And it would have been exciting to watch such a talented athlete play. I guess I will now have to despise OSU more than UofM (or maybe I can just be happy for OSU ). I thought Pryor said a curious thing about PSU , something that most prospects don't say, or at least they did not used to. He said he would have considered PSU more if he knew that Tom Bradley, the defensive coordinator, would have succeeded JoePa when the latter retires. In the early part of this decade/century, PSU lost out on recruits b/c some of them were afraid that JoePa would not be there all of their playing years. I wonder how many people still feel that way. I used to attend the Penn State luncheon that comes to the B...

I guess I can't fool my kid as much as I used to. Christmas of 2006, I was with Jordan at Target, and I asked her which Ariel doll she wanted to Santa to bring her. When she was not looking, I threw it in the cart, hiding it under some other things. I managed to check out without her ever having seen it. And when Christmas came, she was happy that Santa had brought her the doll she wanted. This past Christmas, my mom and I took Jordan shopping and had her pick out some things. One week later, when she saw the presents, her reaction was, "Oh, Santa brought me a princess cash register! Look, Santa brought me a baby Cinderella doll!" I have no idea why she said that, but it worked for me. So yesterday, I was at the toy store buying birthday presents for my nephews. Jordan wanted some Barbie clothes, and I said that maybe the Easter Bunny would bring them, that we were there for her cousins, not her. So, when she was not looking, I grabbed the box and hid it, taking a cue fro...

Thought I would throw out a few (and by a few, I am sure I will end up with well over a dozen) thoughts running around that brain of mine. I have a lot of meaningful people in my life from family, friends, relatives, and casual acquaintances. If you are reading this blog, you are probably one of those people (unless you just happened by), and I thank you for occupying some part of my heart and mind. I think the world is too materialistic. If you have been to my house, you know we are not into nice, expensive things. I just don't care about that stuff. True, I am still debating about that flat-screen TV (leaning more towards no), but mostly what I have is just fine. I think this may be the year I am going to have to retire my almost 15-year old skirt. And I have been wearing the same PSU winter coat for years. Unless I get a job where fashion matters (and clearly it does not at my office), I see no reason to spend a lot of money on clothes or keep up with the latest styles. I think ...

In my next life, I want to be a weather forecaster. I am sure there are a number of science coursed involved if you want to be a meteorologist, but once you get through school, it seems as if you can make mistakes on a regular basis and still get to keep your job. During Thursday night's news, the weather guy said we could expect 2 to 4 inches of snow beginning around 5 p.m. on Friday; in fact, at choir earlier that evening, someone told me she had heard between 2 and 10 inches (talk about precise!). Not wanting a repeat of what happened the previous Friday, when it took me well over an hour and a half to drive the 10 miles home because of much more snow than predicted, I decided to leave before 4:30 on Friday, hoping to beat the impending snow. The snow never came. But it was raining on the way home, so it took me a leisurely 50 minutes to get home instead; Pittsburgher drivers and precipitation do not mix well. When I was out shopping today, I was actually excited to see a rain-s...

When it comes to gifts, is it better to be honest about what you think about a gift you received, should you pretend you like a gift regardless, or does it depend on the situation? Back in December, while at a bath and linen store, I sat in/on this wonderful shiatsu massage chair cushion, the kind with the rolling balls as well as heat. There was no way I would spend $100 for something like that, but then I thought of Brian, whose birthday was just over two months away. He has had back pain for years, and because he uses a heating pad a lot of evenings, I was convinced this would be a great gift (and, yes, one that I would be able to use too). Fast-forward a month or so, and Bri informs me that he wants Play Station 2 for his birthday. I had not bought the massage cushion yet, but I had my heart set on it. Besides, I don't think he had ever before told me exactly what he wanted as a gift, and this kind of bothered me. You see, Brian and I stopped exchanging Christmas gifts a few ye...