Easter and Yankees

 Part of moving to a new place is trying to find a new church.  I’ve got about 3 that are fairly close to me, and I plan on going to each of them.  The first one I chose to go to on Easter was St. Thomas Beckett.  The reason I chose this one is that they were offering confession before Mass on Sunday and while I had been to a general absolution service, I didn’t 100% understand it, and wanted to make sure I was good to take communion (it being Easter and all).  This church is unique to me in that the parish priest is a convert from Anglicanism, so he’s married.  Apparently, the church is part of the Personal Ordinate of the Chair of Saint Peter, which according to Wikipedia is “a personal ordinate in the Latin church for priests and laypeople from an Anglican background, that enables them to retain elements of their Anglican patrimony after entering the Catholic Church.”

I had been to an Anglican service before at my friend JT’s wedding, so I wasn’t totally surprised by the communion rail.  However, some of the prayers had a different translation than I was used to and the Mass seemed to be much more traditional.  For example, some responses were sung in Latin, and there was a high alter which meant that during the Eucharistic prayers the priest did not face the congregation, but rather faced the alter.  The thing that really struck me about the Mass was the reverence for the Host.  With one or two exceptions, everyone in the congregation knelt at the communion rail and received the Host on their tongue.  Because the priest had his back to us, my attention was drawn to the host being held up during the transubstantiation (when it changes from bread to the body of Christ) and from there, to the cross hanging above the alter.  I think that really drives home the whole beautiful sacrifice of the Mass (for me, anyway), and made the service somehow more special.  Some day I would love to go to a high Latin Mass – singing the responses in Latin used to be one of my favorite parts of Christmas Mass (as that was usually the only time of year it happened).

The parish seemed to be made up of mostly families with small children, a few older folks, and one or two young couples.  Maybe it’s just because it was Easter, but there seemed to be quite a lot of young children there.  They did have food and drinks available after Mass, but I didn’t stick around.  Didn’t want to be a creeper.  The rest of my day was gloriously lazy and uneventful.  I mostly watched Netflix, reactivated my dating account, and ended up chatting with someone in TX.  As promised, I won’t go into details on the dating (so many highs and lows), but suffice to say I’m cautiously hopeful.

On Tuesday I got to see my CT Yankees (as I will forever refer to them from now on, as they are PROPER yanks), and I must say, their 2-year-old is TOO STINKIN’ CUTE!  Ah, pictures do not do that kid justice.  It was so nice to catch up with them since the last time I saw them was 5 years ago at their wedding!  We met up in Lampasas, TX which is a cute little town that I always pass thru on the way down to San Antonio to see J&D.  Turns out they have a sculpture park there, so that’s where our adventure started.  We then went on to Fiesta Winery, which is one of my favorites.  It’s out in the boondocks, but SUCH a beautiful place.  We got hungry and the extrovert in our group decided to ask where the best place to eat would be.  The lady there directed us about 5 miles further down the road into Bend, TX.  At the Bend General Store, we found they also had a bar and grill.  Sir Extrovert was AMAZED at the place.  He’d never been to TX before and certainly had never been to somewhere like the general store / bar and grill.  It was impressive.  I mean, I didn’t expect bungalows and a pool!  Good food, snarky signs, decent(ish) weather, random chickens, and great company made for a lovely dinner.  After that we parted ways and when I got home I spend about 2 hours on the couch before going to bed.  With fighting the wind on the road all day, I was pretty much BEAT. 

Fun sculptures

G and D playing with the tractor.

Have a HUGE catfish!

Fiesta Winery.

Such beautiful grounds.

I want this.

Such cute family - look at the look on the little one's face... he's up to something!

Food - Mom, you been here???

Told you there was a pool!

Friends for LONG time!

Every bar should have chickens.

Fun signs.

We tried all day to get good pix of all of us... 

I didn't know where to look... lol

I got hugs!

We finally got a decent one.

I just realized that it’s been one month since I started working at GMRC and I do think I made the right choice, but with evals coming up I’m reminded of how much work we still have to do.  Things haven’t changed a lot around here, but it’s nice to hear things like “at least you have Mandi” and “Thank God Mandi’s here, she can do that.”  I told my old boss I was going to get an ego if I stayed, and she said she didn’t think there was much danger of that.  Once we get things figured out, it’ll be easier to change/update them as time passes.  One thing that strikes me is how much of my work from before is still here – signs that I made, boards that I updated, processes I started – something of a legacy, I suppose. 

I did celebrate getting health insurance by making an appointment with a doctor in our clinic.  I’ve been wondering about the thyroid medication that I’d ran out of back in October.  Well, we checked my levels and she says she doesn’t think that I need to be on it anymore (and I agree.  I wonder if I was originally put on it because I was fat(er, this was 50 lbs ago) and the original doc didn’t want to mention anything so she figured the thyroid pill would ‘fix’ it.  She also never mentioned that I was prediabetic, tho my fasting blood sugar always came in at over 100… so many questions, never to have answers.  Ah well, sigh.).  Therefore, to address the exhaustion I’ve been struggling with, I decided to get some supplements.  I’m taking magnesium and a b-complex with vitamin c.  Hopefully that will help my energy levels.  The thing is, I need to take them with food.  So, in order to take them every day, I can’t do the extended fasts that I’m used to doing.  I’m instead doing an adjusted one where on my ‘fasting’ days I eat somewhere around 500 calories.  That way I can take my supplements and still feel like I’m getting the benefits of a longer fast.  I’m going to try this for 60 days to see how I feel/what I’ve lost and go from there.  Everything else was also good, so no need for me to follow up until next year (unless something changes, I guess).  I did get the “if you want kids, it’s time to seriously start thinking about that” talk and the “birth control could help with cramps, here are your options” convo.  The 2^nd one was a LOVELY (sarcasm) convo in which my doc said “If you choose X birth control, that might get you all the way until menopause” … which was a sentence I could have gone my whole life without hearing.  I know it’s a thing, and I know it’s coming, but to think that I could get an IUD and then when I take it out not have to worry about fertility anymore because I’m going thru THE CHANGE is a weird thought.  Oy vey.  She did prescribe me a strong version of Aleve for my cramps… she didn’t quite like how much ibuprofen I told her I take for them, and frankly neither did I, which is why I brought it up.  Hopefully it helps. 

I can officially say that I’m healthy, I am content with the changes I’ve made, and while I can’t say that I’m totally happy or stress-free, I am on my way to that.  I’ve found that I’m most content when I’m secure in my job, have a handle on my finances, and can look forward to seeing friends/having shenanigans planned.  It’s going to take some time for me to feel secure in my job and know my expenses/income situation.  As for seeing friends/shenanigans… oh honey, we have those!  HEHEHE!!  I get to spend some time with my Mexican family to celebrate the patriarch’s 80^th birthday, my friend T is coming down from OKC next month for BFD (hmmm… so many acronyms), and I am sensing a San An trip is in my future.  There is stress, but it’s good stress.  I do feel loved and appreciated, and that is a wonderful thing.