The Clam Rampant

Kasia December 31st, 2008

Well, that’s not true, actually. I have plenty that I could do.

But my beloved is in the shower, and I am in my fleecy robe and jammies, sipping a Coke and wondering how I should spend the rest of the morning. I have to admit, “very little” sounds very good; it’s rare that I have a not-too-busy day to sit around and daydream.

Canuck, TBS and I all went to IKEA together last night. It felt like we’d bought out the store! We got a new TV stand that will better accommodate all the electronic gadgets he brought; we got him one of those funky Poang chairs that he’s wanted for years, which is a Christmas gift from me; we got him a desk chair, which is his Christmas gift from his mother; and he splurged a little and got me a drying rack that I’d wanted for ages but had never found anywhere until IKEA came to town.

You are officially old when a drying rack seems like a fantastic gift.

We’ve also gone ahead and purchased a new stove, which should be delivered Friday. I will, unfortunately, be back at work by then; but assuming they deliver it before about 4 p.m., he can have a nice dinner waiting for me when I get home.    I have already begun the “Honey-Do list” of things he can be working on during the days while I’m working; and with his help, I am thinking I will go back to riding the bus in the mornings. I’m terrible about getting out of bed, which means I drive nine days out of ten. (I will still have to drive one, maybe two days out of five, but if I can reduce the wear and tear on that poor old car, doggonnit, I will.)

Tonight we have plans to go to a New Year’s party in Rochester, unless of course the weather turns nasty – it’s a long drive on what my mother calls “Amateur Night,” and if bad roads get thrown into the mix, I might chicken out. I hope not, though; I’m quite looking forward to it!

Funny story before I sign off for the moment: yesterday we went to go meet with the priest who’s celebrating our nuptial Mass, and he was telling us (in his Slovak accent) how he, his associate pastor, and his former associate pastor were all riding together out to Toronto for a fellow priest’s birthday party. They get to Canadian Customs and are being asked the usual questions: where do you live, where are you going, whose car is this, what do you do for a living.

Three Slovak citizens in a car together. Illinois plates on the car (the former associate pastor is now at a parish in Chicago). Two say they live in the Detroit area, one in Chicago. Going to Toronto for a birthday party.

“What’s your job?”

“Saving souls.”

Customs agent looks at them – I’m surmising they weren’t wearing their Roman collars, but he didn’t say one way or the other whether they were. Customs agent writes “Saving souls” down on the yellow referral form and sends them straight to Secondary for further questioning.

These are the times that try Customs agents’ souls…kind of like when I told the U.S. border agent I’d bought a “missal”. I recommend saying “book”, if you are ever faced with that situation…  :-p

• Autobiographical ramblings , Busy-ness , Cars - they eat at the table with you , Catholicism , Funny things priests say , My Beloved , Silliness , Stuff I do
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Kasia October 28th, 2008

Governor Granholm can support Prop 2 if she wants to, but representing support of it as being consonant with Catholic teaching is a lie. I’m glad His Excellency called her out on it. Supporting stem cell research is, indeed, pro-life. Supporting embryonic stem cell research, and cloning, is not. There is a difference.

Incidentally, I have had the pleasure of a few dealings with Bp. Boyea in the course of my work. I have nothing but respect and admiration for him – he is a very good man.

• Catholicism , Kudos , Politics , Pro-Life
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Kasia October 21st, 2008

…upon receiving a prompt and reasonably courteous negative response to a question you e-mailed only the day before, but had originally e-mailed two months before and had never heard back on, your gut reaction is not “Oh, that’s a bummer,” but rather “And you couldn’t have told me this two months ago??!? YOU STINK!!!!! WHY ARE YOU SO FREAKIN’ BAD ABOUT ANSWERING YOUR E-MAILS?!?? AND THIS ISN’T THE ONLY E-MAIL OF MINE YOU’VE NOT RESPONDED TO, EITHER – I KNOW I’M NOT THE ONLY PERSON E-MAILING YOU, BUT HAVE YOU HEARD OF COMMON FREAKIN’ COURTESY?!??!? GAH!!!!! AND HEY, WHAT’S WITH YOUR ATTITUDE, HUH? HUH?!??!”

Ahem. At least Bridezilla has not taken over to the extent that any of that made it into my reply…thank heaven for small favors…

** UPDATE ** Please note that this post is not about anybody that has ever, to my knowledge, read this blog. It is about a wedding vendor, not a friend, family member, or anyone like that. (I feel compelled to mention that because I suddenly realized that I have friends who have been behind in their e-mail correspondence too, but I promise that nothing anyone on here has said or done has elicited that response.)

• "Sin makes you stupid" - Mark Shea , Autobiographical ramblings , Catholicism , Stuff I do , Wedding
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Kasia October 20th, 2008

Both for my beloved Canuck’s interview Wednesday (his train leaves for Montreal before dawn tomorrow), and a belated prayer for the Siekierskis. Yes, even nearly a month after the fact.

Continue Reading »

• Catholicism , Immigration , My Beloved , Parish life , Prayer requests
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Kasia July 12th, 2008

Canuck and I met with the parish music minister today. She’s really quite a lovely young woman; and while I definitely don’t agree with the amount of Haugen and Haas she plays…well, for one thing, between the two of them they wrote half the Gather hymnal (which, sadly, is what we use at our parish). For another thing, she is quite versatile and does some really lovely classical and choral pieces as well, especially for special occasions.

After an initial rocky start, it was quite a good and productive meeting. It was rocky because…well, Canuck and I had decided we wanted to do what the GIRM suggests, and walk up the aisle together instead of him waiting at the altar for me while my dad or parents walk me up. I saw a post quite a while ago at Fr. Martin Fox’s blog that talked about how that’s what’s actually recommended; and I mentioned it to the Canuck, who thought it was a nice idea.

We both wanted to get away from the “bride as princess” idea, as the Sacrament really involves both of us, and the groom tends to end up a bit like an accessory at a lot of weddings. (And frankly, I was quite glad at the prospect of having someone else share the spotlight during that nervewracking walk up the aisle! With your dad, it’s not quite the same…) And my dad is very glad that we’re not having him walk me up the aisle; I’m sure he would do it if I asked, but he’s more or less of the opinion that it’s an outdated custom. Funny aside: I mentioned that to the priest who’s the main celebrant of our wedding. He said, in his Slovak accent “I think your family thinks, perhaps, too much about politics.” ROFL! Talk about your understatements…

Anyway. So we tell the music minister what we’re planning to do, and it turns out she’s never heard of this. So at first she says, “This is how we do it here…” and lays out the traditional bride-comes-last-with-Dad. When I explain that I was pretty sure it was what the GIRM recommends (blinking back tears because, well, I overreact to things sometimes), she says I’ll have to take it up with the pastor of the parish. And guess who walked into the music room not a minute later? Yup, Father himself, who says “Oh yeah, that’s allowed. In fact, we’re going to be having a meeting in August sometime with all the people who work on weddings – I’d like to bring the liturgy completely in line with what’s correct – so we’ll be working on moving to that as the norm.” Her response? “Oh! Okay, then!”

So – we got down to talking music. I confessed my dislike of Haugen/Haas, so apart from the Mass setting (there’s not much to be done to avoid them for actual Mass settings, I’m afraid, but I think it’s one of the better ones from what I’ve seen) and the Psalm (same thing with respect to not being able to avoid H/H, but it’s really not an overly Haugen-esque melody) , we are Haugen/Haas-free! Hooray!!!

I will post on the actual selections tomorrow, as the list is in the living room and my next stop is B-E-D. But I was just so excited that we’ve got this settled!

Well, almost settled. We still need to pick a piece for the “Flowers for Mary” portion. Ave Maria is so overplayed, especially the Schubert version; and my idea of some sort of solo or response of the Canticle of Mary elicited only the Gather hymnal’s option, which was…um, very Haugen/Haas. You know: the lyrics are changed to neatly fit rhyme and meter, and the tune is bouncy and a little trite. It reminded me of what a professor had said to me in a creative writing course in college, about a short story I wrote: “It wraps up too neatly – you can see too much of the ‘hand of the author’ in it.”

So – we’ll see. How many of you have been to a wedding where the recessional was the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition?

• Catholicism , Friends and fellow bloggers , Funny things priests say , Music , My Beloved , Wedding
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Kasia July 9th, 2008

Mmm, where to begin…

I never told you how the sangria turned out. It was actually pretty good, and for a first effort I think it was outstanding – we used a recipe we found on the ‘net and modified it slightly to suit our tastes and what was on sale.

We used white wine – I didn’t even know you could use white wine for sangria, but there you have it – a big bottle, with a shot or two of Bombay Sapphire (Canuck’s gin of choice), some sugar, and a whole mess of fruit: strawberries, raspberries, lemons and limes. We’d bought oranges, but there wasn’t room in the pitcher for anything more. We let that marinate overnight, and by the next day, it was a yummy fruity treat!

One note – I strongly do NOT recommend adding club soda or tonic to the sangria for fizz. It was revolting. By the way, what IS the difference between the two? If I want fizzy sangria, I’ll add ginger ale or Seven-Up, thanks.

We went to see Wall-E, and it lived up admirably to all the positive reviews I’d heard about it. I highly recommend it.

The parishes in Chatham just had a massive personnel turnover – the Diocese of London is clustering, merging and closing parishes just like Detroit has had to do, and this July was the big change-over. The small Czech/Slovak parish we’d visited so many times, St. Anthony, is finally being closed; and of the five remaining parishes in town, there are now two clusters of two plus an ethnic (Polish) not-quite-a-parish.

Much as I’m sad to see restructuring, because of what it means more broadly, so far I’m pretty happy with the changes. We’ve only visited one parish so far since the changeover (obviously), but the priest seemed OK – didn’t set off any warning flags – which is especially nice because he’s the pastor of the closer cluster to Chez Mère de Canuque. I was dismayed to see that the parish was using GLASSWARE (ok, maybe it was crystal, but it’s still NOT acceptable as far as I know!) to distribute the Precious Blood, so I only received the Host and walked past the Blood. However, it was this pastor’s first week, so I can understand even if he sees the issue he probably hasn’t had a chance to take care of it yet; I am hoping that he will address it on his own. If it’s still going on by the end of the summer, I will write him a letter asking about it. The other cluster is now being pastored by a priest who worked with Mother Teresa at some point, so I do want to check them out…

In other news, my car turned over 260,000 miles today. Forty thousand more before my pride will allow me to replace the car. Hopefully both the car and my budget cooperate. 

• Cars - they eat at the table with you , Catholicism , Chatham , Domesticity , Stuff I do , Welcome rain in the spiritual desert that is Chatham
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Kasia July 7th, 2008

As my beloved mentioned in his blog post, we went to check out Chatham’s first effort at a “Taste Fest” on Saturday.

Now, when you call something a “Taste Fest”, call me crazy, but I expect there to be, you know, food for sale.

Chatham’s no Detroit (for better and for worse), but they do have, you know, restaurants. They also have at least a small variety of ethnic groups that could have been tapped to serve food. I’m thinking of the Italians, the Portuguese, the Poles, and the Slovaks, at the very least, plus of course your garden-variety Scotch-Irish and French-Canadian folk. I mean, I know poutine is gross, but I’m quite sure the French legacy has left more to French-Canadian culinary palette than that…

Anyway, it wasn’t so much of a “taste fest” as a combination block party and sidewalk sale along the main drag of town, King Street. They’d rented some of those inflatable kids’ romper rooms (think Moon Walk) and had those set up in the street, as well as some musicians stuck at various intervals playing Nirvana, some light jazz, and what sounded like a so-so Janis Joplin cover. Some of the restaurants had extended their tables out into the sidewalk/street area, and a lot of the shops had either put out tables of wares or were inviting people in to check things out.

Canuck and I did, however, see a sign advertising Breyer’s ice cream, which is my absolute favorite brand; and it was quite hot, so we went in to buy me a cone.

Well. That shop is owned by an earnest Pentecostal man, who was dead set on trying to save us from the Big Bad Catholic Church.

I should mention he was raised Catholic.

A lengthy discussion ensued, which included his following us out to the sidewalk as the shop got busier and we tried to let him get back to, you know, his livelihood.

Next time I have some money, I’m picking up a copy of Deacon Alex Jones’ No Price Too High and an extra copy of the Common Ground DVD Father John made with Kensington Community Church and dropping them off as gifts for him. Canuck joked that the Pentecostal churches probably all have “Wanted” posters in the back with Deacon Alex’s picture on them, warning people against talking to him or reading anything he writes. I hope not – it would be a shame to completely waste my money…

What drove me the most bonkers about the whole encounter…well, two things. First was how he clearly misunderstood Catholic doctrine in several areas, including that pesky little question of salvation. He obviously thought it was “works salvation”, no matter how many times and different ways I tried to tell him it wasn’t.

Second, he was all over the map with his apologetics. I’m a very linear thinker, and I tend to proceed from A to B to C with bridges in between. Throw me six different trains of thought in as many minutes, and I’m apt to get dizzy and not be able to respond effectively. It wasn’t quite the “buckshot” approach that the Jehovah’s Witnesses use, but it wasn’t entirely dissimilar from that either. Drives me up a wall…give me a point and let me counter it, then counter my point. Don’t go skipping from one topic to another to another and another!

You know. Kind of like this somewhat scattered post. Don’t do that. 

• Apologetics , Autobiographical ramblings , Catholicism , Chatham , My Beloved , Stuff I do
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Kasia July 6th, 2008

Warning: after reading this post, you may have a couple of frequently-played hymns ruined for you. Proceed at your own risk. 

With a bit of help, I’m noticing that some of the liturgical music of the last fifty years or so bears a striking resemblance to some of its contemporaneous secular music. I don’t suppose that should be especially surprising, but it did surprise me. There you have it.

I  was talking to a friend a few months ago and we got onto the subject of Haugen/Haas. (Neither of us is a fan.) He was explaining how H/H in some ways get a bad rap because what they replaced was actually worse, and gave me a chronology: the St. Louis Jesuits were better than what preceded them because they actually incorporated Scripture into their lyrics. H/H were better than the St. Louis Jesuits because some of their music actually could be played with conventional church instruments like organs. Et cetera.

I commented that while I don’t like most of H/H, there are a few songs that I don’t mind and even sort of like – not love, but like in small doses. Unfortunately, they get played so much that I still want to rip out my eyeballs and stuff them into my ears.

He asked which, and I named “Here I Am, Lord” as an example. He laughed, said “Do you want me to ruin it for you?” and when I agreed, began to sing, to the tune of the chorus:

“It’s THE sto-ry…of a love-ly LA-dy…”

And thus was “Here I Am, Lord” forever ruined for me, as once it was pointed out to me I could never un-hear how similar it was to the theme from The Brady Bunch. Kind of like once you’ve seen the guy hanging himself in the background of The Wizard of Oz – someone had to literally go point at the television screen to make me notice it – but almost twenty years later I still can’t see the scene without noticing it.

Well. The last two weeks of Mass were in different dioceses (Detroit and then London), and yet two different music ministers saw fit, two consecutive weeks, to play “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness”, which if I’d heard before I didn’t remember. It’s a bouncy, jazzy tune, a little tricky to sing both melodically and rhythmically, and it makes me want to shake my tushie right there in front of the Blessed Sacrament, which just can’t be a good thing.    I know that David leapt for joy when the Ark was returned, but Scripture doesn’t say that he got down and boogied in front of the Holy of Holies…time and place, guys…

Anyway. If you are prepared to have another hymn ruined for you, start by going here and listening to the music (no lyrics) of “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness”. Then go here and listen to Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”.

They’re not the same, but they’re similar enough that I now have an inkling of why I find myself wanting to bop and boogie in church…

• Catholicism , Music , My Beloved
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Kasia June 25th, 2008

Well, not as badly as in, say, Iowa. In fact, all things considered, we’re doing quite well here in southeastern Michigan. You know, apart from the near-collapse of the domestic automotive sector and the resultant economic chaos that’s wreaked.

No, natural-disaster-wise we do pretty doggone well. We get tornadoes from time to time, but nothing like they get on the prairies. We get an occasional tiny tremor, but if you even notice it, you usually think that a big truck just went by. We did have some flooding out in Clinton Township what, last year? But all in all, pretty good.

I’m really just taking a bit of a dig at myself. I live quite close to Lake St. Clair (hel-LO, fish flies!), and for some reason, presumably having to do with the waste-water treatment infrastructure, my condo association asks us not to do laundry when it’s raining.

Except that I am about out of work-appropriate clothes that I can bring myself to wear. And I stayed home from our parish novena tonight to do laundry, so that I can dress appropriately when I go tomorrow (and read the Scripture reflection, eek!).

Speaking of reading the Scripture reflection, the verses I’ve been asked to read are from one of the Gospels (specifically Luke 11:9-13). I know that within the context of the Mass only a priest or deacon with faculties should proclaim the Gospel. Does anyone have any particular knowledge of whether it’s appropriate for me, as a laywoman, to read from the Gospel from the ambo at a parish devotion like that? (Friendly neighborhood canon lawyer, I would surely appreciate it if you were to pipe up on this…)

• Catholicism , Domesticity , Perspective , Stuff I do
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Kasia February 29th, 2008

That was the BBC’s take. Here’s a more in-depth article, from Yahoo.

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