Pajama Parties At Jesus' House

"You must have nice pjs if you wore them to Mass!"

- Sister Marcille

Taking my sleep seriously...of course.

    The older I get, the sleepier I get, and the more I love sleeping and being all snug and warm in my bed. Every chance I get, I am asleep in my bed and I even plan out a nap time for each day. And if I don't get a nap, I sure as the sun shines better get some coffee in my system. I will openly admit that when I don't get enough sleep, I can be a real grouch. Before college, I used to be able to stay up until at least 2, if not later, and still get up early, with only a few hours of sleep in my body and fully function properly. Now, I go to bed before even some of the nuns. That's a true fact. I've been working on really getting enough sleep so my body can work.  These week, however, I'm slackin' really hard. It's been a long trip on the struggle bus.

     This morning, I overslept way past my alarm. My nice little wake up warning goes off at six, then again a six fifteen, then again at six thirty and finally at six forty-five. I have recently realized that in order to maximize my sleep, I can literally shower and get ready in fifteen minutes and make it to prayers on time! Today....I got up at 7:18. Prayers begin at 7:10; Mass at 7:30. I had twelve minutes to get ready for Mass. Not that you really need to know, but I usually fall asleep in what normal college kids wear to class: sweats and t-shits and hoodies. If I didn't have any dignity, I would have strolled right over to Mass in my full set of pjs. However, I couldn't allow myself that embarrassment and put jeans on instead. Everything else I was wearing was what I slept in. I brushed my teeth and ran out the door. I made it to Mass two minutes beforehand.

     The sisters who sit in my pew and the surrounding pews are what I call my pew partners. I share my pew with Sister Cathy and a pole. So, there is really only way into the pew since we are blockaded in. I casually tapped her on the shoulder and she let me slide into our pew without highlighting my shame. However, we did laugh a little. How could you not? It was obvious, I was still on the struggle bus. I could barely keep my eyes open and I took my time standing up and sitting down. I felt like such a sloth or snail or turtle. 

     During the sign of peace, I was shaking my pew partners' hands and finally made it to Sister Elaine. As she shook my head she asked, "So, what time did you go to bed last night?" You see, our school play is this upcoming weekend (if you are close by, feel free to stop in!) and we had play practice last night. She had been there snapping shots for the bulletin board so she knew I was helping out with stage crew. I simply smiled and said, "I'm not telling you," and walked away. She shook her head, knowing that it must have been late. 

      It was later in the day, while I was simply sitting and chatting with my friends at the lunch table when from behind me, I saw a figure dressed in blue and white. Sister Elaine sat down next to me and all she said after she took her first bite of chili (we had the same lunch...twinning!) was "so really, what time?" I laughed and told her what happened. Practice let out about 11:30 and I finally got to bed around 1:30. "So that's why you strolled in really late in your pjs?!" Yep, exactly.

      After practice finished tonight (a little after midnight), I was talking with our theater director, Sister Marcille, about my morning. I simply casually mentioned strolling in wearing pjs and thought nothing of it. Half way through the story, she goes, "Wait. You must have some pretty nice pjs." After laughing, I told her it was actually socially acceptable by most of my pew partners. Ironically, they all just laugh at me. I can imagine them remembering their younger days when they wished they could come to Mass in their pajamas. Essentially, I do that. And here's my philosophy:

      I'm not there to impress anyone by what I'm wearing. Jesus is with me all the time and so He knows what I look like in my pajamas. As long as I am decently covered, I see no issue in having a morning pajama party at Jesus' house. So, I mentioned this to Sister Marcille and she agreed. She actually agreed that on Hurricane or Snow days, when no one is going anywhere, and no one is visiting during Mass (except me and trust me, I've been on enough discernment retreats to know that nuns wear pajamas....SHOCKER, I know), and no one is trying to impress anyone, we should all just wear pajamas. And so, maybe they should all invest in some nice, comfy yoga pants, some plain t-shirts, and bright yellow sweatshirts, and join me at the morning pajama parties at Jesus' house. There's one tomorrow morning....let's just hope I don't sleep past the alarm again!

Fire Drill Perks

"It was a sting operation by the nuns; 

they wanted the whole school to go to daily Mass."

- Mike Gallagher

     A daily morning for me: wake up at 6:15 am, take a shower, get dressed in the outfit I picked out the night before, brush my teeth, brush my hair, grab my Office book and head out the door. Today my morning consisted of waking up, taking a shower, getting dressed, brushing my teeth and running out the door as the fire alarm went off throughout the whole entire building. 

    People were strolling casually out of their rooms in their pajamas, house coats and bedroom slippers. Meanwhile, I was dressed and ready to go and yelling at my roommate to get out of bed. There are six fire exit doors in the building and the entirety of my building decided to go out ONE. Needless to say, while the building was "burning down," we were stuck at a standstill on the second floor staircase landing. Finally, my roommate and I didn't care about how many people just got up. Someone started screaming about the second fire escape door at the bottom of the staircase (which, when opened, signals another alarm which scared the daylights out of the freshmen). Finally, we all made it outside. One of the freshmen, who I just befriended during orientation, came up to me and asked how quickly I got dressed. One of my close friends corrected her by saying, "The right question to ask her is how long she's been up..." We all laughed. Of course, we had to jump on the Twitter hashtag bandwagon and say, "Daily Mass Goer Perks." Then I started to think of all the perks of our early morning fire drill. 

    If you know me, you know that I'm always trying to find the positive points of an event. So, as we were all standing outside (in the rain, mind you), I started listing the perks of this fire drill. One: No one can be late for class today since the alarm went off at 6:45. Two: We all now know that are SIX fire escape doors. Three: We are all comfortable with each other's pajama habits. Four: We all got our "showers" outside in the rain. Five: I got to Mass on time. 

    Ok, so now that we have those listed, I must explain that every time we have a fire drill here, we try to figure out who made a stupid move to set off the alarm. Some of the past stupid moves were not putting water in pasta in the microwave, leaving the hot straightening iron on and having a space heater under the sink. So as all the freshmen were regretting their decision to come to a school that has fire drills at the crack of dawn, the upper classmen like myself were trying to figure out what set the alarm off. Some of the excuses I heard were: oatmeal in the new microfridges, a curling iron, the new alarm clock system for the freshmen, it was Jesus trying to wake me up (thanks to my good friend, Matt) and the best, by far, was stated by my best friend, Mike, "It's a sting operation put on by all the nuns to get the whole school to go to Mass with Becca." Yep, THAT  IS EXACTLY why we had a fire drill this morning. 

     The true life matter is, no one knows what set the alarm off this morning, but it was definitely NOT a drill. There were a few nuns in their pajamas this morning, too, along with the entirety of my building. The true life matter is that we need to constantly find the perks of upsetting situations because if we don't, we'll spend our life miserable. We have to learn how to laugh at the surprises God throws at us. And we have to accept everyone, regardless of their nightgowns, boxer shorts or bathrobes. Yep, there are perks to fire drills and so many other things in life. 

Melt Away

    First off, happy vocations awareness week! Booyah!! VOCATIONS! Pray, pray, pray for ALL vocations! 

    Vocations awareness week for me, wouldn't be the same if I didn't spend AT LEAST one of the days with my AE, also known as the vocation director or better yet, one of my best creative friends. If the two of us are in a room together for more than a single five second block of time, brain neurons start firing in each of our brains to each other during which we come up with CRAZY ideas...like melting crayons. And so, today we decided to just casually melt some crayons into wicked cool art. Below are the results!! I have to admit, the blue one is my favorite. As we melted, I thought of all the therapy this exercise could offer. I thought that for the blues, its the melting away of sadness. For the reds, anger. Or, you could give meaning to every emotion we feel or pain, assign it a color and melt it away making beautiful art instead. Yep, sometime I'll do art and music therapy with my students in the classroom! 

    As the day stretched on, I ran down the stairs (er...rode the elevator) to the community room to dedecorate because tomorrow officially starts ORDINARY TIME!!!! It's been a tradition for about FOUR years now!! Holy Wonder and Awe; I feel old. And yet, it seems like so much longer. All I can say is, thank God I did my laundry over the weekend because, the day didn't end with Decorations. No, I picked up my sisters from school, and headed home to make dinner. My last home-cooked meal before going back to college. And oh was it DELICIOUS! Thank God for cooking talents!

    The night was still young and so, I headed over to my other frequently visited convent to say my "good-byes" to my sisters before I left. Yes, it was a perfect night and a foreshadowing again. As I lounged about with the sisters, talking to one about her classes, another about her student teaching, another about Cake Boss, I felt so perfectly at home. Yes, I worked on Student Teaching things already with one of My Polish nuns and it felt strangely accurate of what convent life will be like for me. Talking to a sister about one thing, talking to another sister about another thing all the while fixing the computer, brainstorming ideas and watching the latest episode of Cake Boss. It's like family; me and all my sisters just hanging out, not a care in the world.  It's my definition of perfection. Actually, no, it's not. If I had my PJ's on and my own room to go to sleep in, that WOULD have been perfection! NUN SLEEPOVER! It makes me so anxious for our CREW Retreat...where it's even more of a perfect glimpse into my future! Me and a house full of nuns! Love it!!