Getting old

I am falling apart before my time. I am only twenty-four years old - I shouldn't be to that point yet!

This twenty-fourth year of my life, I have had sinus infections, developed asthma, and now I just found out I am anemic and something is wrong with my cardiovascular system. I had taken a blood test last week at work and today the nurse alerted me that I need to speak to my doctor immediately about the results. Fortunately, I had already scheduled an appointment for this afternoon, so she is going to fax my blood results so that I can discuss them with my doctor.

I have now been coughing for ten months and it is getting a little old. What is wrong with me?! The doctor seriously needs to figure it out. I annoy everyone around me with my constant hacking and of course, they assume I am germ-ridden and inch their chairs further and further from me as I continue to cough up a lung.

I guess this means I need to eat spinach every day now because I don't like raisins and beets and other such "iron-rich food."

Hopefully when I go today, the doctor will have a sudden epiphany with the help of my blood test results and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Not that I know what is going on with my rapidly deteriorating physique.

Enough about my health - how depressing!

I am very sad that I am reading the last book in the Narnia series. I want it to go on and on! I missed out on these books as a child, but I have thoroughly enjoyed them as an adult. And I like picking out the allegories which I may not have been able to do in my youth. Although, this particular one is making me angry with the false Aslan giving orders to kill the sacred trees and enslave the talking animals. (It's only fiction, Rebecca).

But in a way. . . it's not. People are daily lead astray by the seduction of false gods and leaders that present the way off the narrow path. I guess that's what makes it so sad and frustrating. The truth is presented so obviously, but Satan twists things just a little to lead us astray, as it happened in the garden.

The zoo was so much fun. Katie, the educator, read every little snippet of information, so we came out well-informed. We were engaged to go to an Indian Nite at five o'clock, so at about four-fifteen, we started power-walking to the extreme through the rest of the zoo. We went the absolute wrong way to the primate house, but it was all right because we saw the whole rest of the zoo that we hadn't been to yet that day.

After India Nite, we drove down to the arch and the Mississippi riverfront to walk around a little bit. It was so cold! And poor Brandon wasn't feeling very well, so the three of us didn't last very long. We ended up watching the Johnny Cash movie huddled on the couch.

Yesterday, after morning service, Katie and I head to the Science Center where we spent two hours playing with all the learning toys and science experiments. I must say, we had a good time. Once again, we were engaged to be at evening service at five-thirty (I had to play my flute), so at about five-oh-five, we began power-walking to and subsequently power-driving to our destination. (I am serious about the power-driving. I realized I was not supposed to go as fast as I could anymore, so I had to slow down.)

I am having so much fun with my sis. I can't wait until Wednesday and Thursday when I get off early. . .

My sister is here!

She arrived last night, finally, at about nine forty-five. I am so excited to be able to spend time with her, since I haven't seen her since Thanksgiving. And then we will drive her back to Maryland next week. . .

Today we are going to the zoo! I love the zoo. . .and the "Fragile Forest" just opened with all the gorilas and monkeys and other primates. Plus there are kangaroos and elephants and, sigh, the penguins.

Good times.

MTW & RUF

Since so many people have been asking what we will be doing in four years. . .

. . .we don't know!

But we do have some idea. Let's say that while Brandon's goal for the eventual future is to pastor a church somewhere, it is not his probable plan for right after seminary.

As I can testify, Europe is a pretty spiritually dead place. If you can imagine, there are churches in Europe that are over two thousand years old, but the ones that are still places of worship are not frequently attended and the others have been made into shopping malls and historical tour sites. This is where the Reformation of God's church began over five hundred years ago.

There is a new program starting now with MTW (Mission to the World) and RUF (Reformed University Fellowship). These two have teamed up to "take on" Europe. To a particular country, they would send a couple to plant a church and a couple to begin a campus fellowship. I guess that with at least two couples, there is mutual support and a team rather than flying solo.

I must say that this particular program is of great interest to Brandon and I. We had thought about doing college ministry because it was such a big part of our lives at University of Maryland. We had also thought about missions for my love of languages and Brandon's interest in going overseas. This could be perfect.

As we know, four years is a long time and we could end up doing something completely different from this particular ministry. Who knows what God may have in store for us as a couple?

In other news, my lovely sister Katie is coming to visit on Friday! I cannot wait. We are throwing a St. Patrick's Day party on Friday night (Mrs. O'Knauigan's blood runs in my veins) and since we literally live within walking distance of the airport, I can leave the party for ten minutes to pick her up and come back with the party in full swing. I have even arranged to get off work at two a couple days next week so that we can spend some time together. Yay! I have not seen anyone in my immediate family since Thanksgiving - it has been much too long.

Rebecca and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today, a funny thing happened. Let me start at the beginning.

We had just been talking about renewing our AAA membership since we are both constantly using it - me, usually running out of gas or locking the keys in the car and Brandon, since he now drives Liberty and something is constantly going wrong with her. Well, yesterday, before we had a chance to renew it, something else went wrong with Liberty: the tire went flat on one side and the lug nut (?) was missing on the other side. So I called AAA yesterday for my dear husband and after being transferred about three times, a frazzled salesman answered, unhappy that I was calling his office since my old number was from a Maryland office. I explained that I had married, moved, and that I was transferring and renewing my membership here to St. Louis. He put the order through and I asked if I could use the service today. He said yes and I explained Brandon's situation. The sales guy grunted and said, "He's a new member, he can't receive service today." Slightly frustrated, I explained that he was not a new member, in fact, he was the primary member on our old account. He gave a wordy answer that was quite unintelligible which left Brandon deciding to risk the trip home without a tow.

All this to say that last night we dropped off the car at the tire place and, with only one car at our disposal, I was supposed to drive Brandon to school this morning on my way to work.

Back up a moment so I can explain more.

During the Lenten season at our company, Liguori has a bowling league. I am not much of a bowler (except for granny-bowling), but I was convinced by my coworkers that this was my future. So I signed up a couple weeks ago to bowl the six Tuesdays during Lent, which means on those days I work an hour earlier.

Suffice it to say that this morning I woke up an hour and a half earlier than I usually do because it is Tuesday and I had to leave a little extra to drive Brandon to seminary. I was sure that it was a cruel joke when the alarm went off and somehow, during the night, my spine had rearranged into a painful tangled mess. This morning, being the un-morning person that I am sometimes, I was not in the mood to be trifled with.

I stumbled through my morning routine, glowering at the mirror, grunting at Brandon and receiving grunts in return. I was outside the house, at the car door, dressed (amazingly enough since it took me about three tries to get dressed this morning) and ready to get in the car. I slid into the car with my purse and coat and lunch bag and my full glass of orange juice exploded down the front of my sweater. I almost started crying.

Brandon told me to just go in and change and when I finally found my house keys, I ran in and changed my shirt and ran back to the car. As I was sitting down again, I realized the orange juice had also reached my pants. Crying out in frustration, I ran back in the house and changed my shoes, pants, belt, and jacket (since nothing matched at that point) and finally made it out of the house and into the car.

Poor Brandon - I was not in a good mood. It's a good thing that he loves me unconditionally. . .

Homeward Bound

I have booked tickets. I am going home!

I have started traveling with work. The weekend before last I was in Chicago for five days at the Catholic Festival of Faith trying to sell our books. Since it was hugely unattended, I spent a lot of time doing nothing at the convention. Conventions are rather tiring because you work ten to twelve hour days and spend most of it on your feet. You are also repsonsible for setting up the booth (which looks like a mini-bookstore) and tearing it down when the convention is over and packing up all the books and racks to send to the next convention. It was nice that my company paid for my stay and food in a really nice hotel and in my free time I got to see my Auntie Bea, my Uncle Vince and his family, and Father Joe, my mom's priest-friend.

In a few short weeks, I will be traveling again, to LA this time for the LA Religious Education Congress. Apparently we do about $18,000 in sales compared to the $500 we did in Chicago, which means busy, busy, busy. Unfortunately, these six days are during Brandon's spring break. He had decided that he was going to go home during the time I was in LA to visit partially and partially because it is a really rough time with his family right now, especially with his sister who decided to run away in November, the day after her eighteenth birthday. It has been hard for him to be away while all of this is going on with his family. I have to admit, I was a little jealous. Jealous that he was on break when I was going to be gone and jealous that he was going home.

This past weekend, Brandon suggested that we both go to Maryland. We could leave the Friday that classes end and I could take a one-way flight back here on Tuesday in time to leave Wednesday morning for LA. My boss had already given me the go ahead to take some time off before the convention since I would be working right through the weekend, so, given that all lights were green and I found a good ticket price, I decided, YES! I will go home!!

I am way excited. We will be leaving in twenty-three days. Not quite in enough time to celebrate Rachael's second birthday or to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Mrs. O'Knauigan's pub (my mom. . .), but definitely in enough time to catch up and visit since we haven't been home since Thanksgiving. I have already set up my count-down calendar and have begun marking it with big red X's like they do on the expedia.com commercial.

Yesterday I talked to Rachael on the phone, (she must be growing up so much!) and she of course said, "Hi Uncle Baca, where's Brannon at?" I told her he was at school and asked her if she'd like us to come visit her. I guess she thought right that moment because she shouted, "HE'S AT 'COOL!" I let her know it would be a couple weeks and she replied with an emphatic, "Yes!" (This is a rare occurrence because it wasn't until recently that she knew the word yes. Everything was either no - the majority - or repeated, which meant yes.)

I can't wait to see everyone!