Well, she is already family, but now she’s an official member of the blogging family. My sister, Laura, has forayed into the blogging world and created her own little bit of webspace called Catholic Wifey. She’s my little sister (20 years old) who was married a little over a month ago to a fantastic guy, and she just posted an awesome entry about some spiritual reading she’s been doing while her new husband has been working on a project. Hopefully we’ll see more good stuff like that.

And while we’re promoting family members you will also want to check out my littlest sister’s blog, Something Like This. She just posted an entry on her trip to the St. Charles Children’s Home run by the Daughters of Mary Mother of Healing Love. It was her first “nun visit” and she has alot of cool stories to tell about her trip. She wants to do more visits like this, so there’ll be more cool posts about this topic, no doubt.

Oh yeah, and while we’re at it, my boyfriend Nick (Phatcatholic Apologetics) has been working all day long in the computer labs on campus, which gives him possibly way too much quality time with the computer. He’s been posting up to three entries a day, so you need to be visiting daily in order to keep up with them all.

I should create a separate category for shameless plugs just to accomodate this post.

You’ve probably noticed the new addition to the top of the sidebar - The Prayer for the Enlightenment of Saint John. It is to this saint that I have decided to dedicate my blog, for a few reasons, the foremost of which being that he is the patron saint of authors, bookbinders, booksellers, publishers, printers, theologians, typesetters, and writers, among other things. He’s also my favorite Gospel writer.

In the spirit of my boyfriend, Nick Hardesty of Phatcatholic Apologetics, here’s a bunch of information on Mooreeffoc’s new patron saint:

• Goffine’s Devout Instructions
• Catholic Online
• Catholic Information Network
• Lives of the Saints
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• Acts of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

I, Amy Manocchia, through the grace of God and the intercession of Saint John the Evangelist, dedicate this blog and it’s mission to the guidance of the most beloved Apostle, patron of writers and theologians.

Prayer to Saint John the Evangelist
O Glorious Saint John,
you were so loved by Jesus
that you merited to rest your head upon his breast,
and to be left in his place as a son to Mary.
Obtain for us an ardent love for Jesus and Mary.
Let me be united with them now on earth and forever after in heaven.
Amen.

I know this layout is rather bland and boring, but fear not. I can work with this one alot easier than the other one. I will be customizing eventually…

Patience is a virtue.

Well, I think it’s been quite long enough since we’ve had a post here. I can never really think of anything to write about other than my life because anything else takes too long (and time is of the essence). So for now I’ll give a general update on myself, and maybe next time I’ll have a post of substance to give you. How’s that?

In about 17 minutes I’m starting the first shift of my new job in the Development Department of FUS. I’m the new Stewardship/Scholarship Office Assistant, which means I write thank you letters for Fr. Terry to sign, contact donors, and help with donor events. Should be an all around good time, not to mention I have better job security now. I’ll pretty much have this job until I graduate unless I show up drunk and get myself fired (which would totally happen </sarcasm> ) I’m excited about it.

The new room and roommate are working out awesome. We’re doing some awesome things with the Tolkien Society (Sundays from 1pm-2:30pm in the Pugliese Auditorium, Ground Floor Cosmas & Damien…in case you wanted to check it out). This semester we’re discussing Peter Kreeft’s book The Philosophy of Tolkien. Great book, great discussions, come see. The end. I’m also taking Dr. Holmes’s Tolkien class on Wednesday nights. Talk about an overload. We’re saying the prayers before class in…get this…Elvish. Yes, that’s right. And who typed them up and brought them into class? Me. And who is leading prayer every week because noone else can pronounce Elvish? Me. So in closing (since I have to get ready for work) here’s a sample. This is the Hail Mary in Quenyan Elvish:

Aia María quanta Eruanno
i Héru as elye
aistana elye imíca nísi
ar aistana i yáve mónalyo Yésus.

Aire María Eruo ontaril
á hyame rámen úcarindor
sí ar lúmesse ya firuvamme. Násie.

God bless,
Amy

So I should probably check my domain email more often than I do. The reason why I lost all that information was explained in an email sent to that address last month. So yeah, I’m a moron.

There was a backup issue and someone hacked the server so when it was time to back up all the accounts and block the hacker, the backups didn’t cover a whole month of information. So it was lost. The compensation (if I’m not too late to get it) may make up for it though. I might be able to get an extra 500mb of space, which means I can put a whole lot more stuff on here. Let’s hope I’m not too late.

There it is. Chew it. Enjoy it.

Well, it looks like something went wrong with the server, because I not only lost the last few entries here, but I also lost a whole album from my photo gallery. So, whatever *shrug*.

I had my wisdom teeth taken out on Friday. The whole thing has been easy as pie…I haven’t even broken into my painkillers yet. I’ve just been taking 600mg Ibuprofen and 200mg Tylenol and that has taken care of any discomfort. I didn’t even swell up that much…I mean yeah I had a little bit of tenderness, but I didn’t blow up like alot of people I know. So overall, it wasn’t a bad experience.

The countdown has begun. It’s already July (how did that happen?) and my family is starting to realize that I’m not going to be here every day anymore after August 24th. It’s difficult for both them and me, because I’m trying to help them realize that I’m not leaving forever, and that I’m not going to forget them, that I’m not trying to escape them, that I need to do this. And I’m trying to spend time with them, but not so much that it begins to feel like we’re overcompensating. Paradoxically, they’re trying so hard to get me to spend more and more time with them that I’m starting to feel pressured to do so, and I’d rather spend time with them by my own choice. It’s a catch-22 really, because I want to spend time with them but because they’re pushing me so hard to, I almost don’t want to sometimes, even though I really do. I guess every child goes through this when they move out for the first time, so it would be self-centered of me to feel like this is an experience exclusive to me and my situation. But sometimes I feel that way.

This feeling is only further exascerbated by the fact that I’m missing my cousin’s baby shower on the 16th because that’s the weekend that Nick is going to be here. How this happened was completely out of my control. We have had this planned since about a month ago, and originally the baby shower was supposed to be the next weekend, but plans changed and the date was moved up. I mean obviously I’m going to forego the baby shower because plane tickets are expensive and I don’t want to just leave him here when the sole purpose of this visit is to see me. I don’t think I’m being ridiculous in feeling that way. But now there’s an undercurrent of disproval surrounding this decision. I’m being made to feel like I’m choosing Nick over family even though I’m “moving out to be with him” (which is not the whole reason why I’m leaving…I am going to college too). I have put my family first for 21 years, and still do, but the moment I don’t it’s like I’m being guilted into feeling like I should. I’m sad that I can’t go and spend time with everyone, but it just isn’t going to work out. If this had stayed where it was originally scheduled, this wouldn’t be an issue, and I’d be happy to go. It’s not like I don’t want to go. The circumstances just suck.

I shouldn’t feel like I have to choose between Nick and my family.

Well, I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but this part of the site is operating extremely slowly and it seems I have completely lost about two or three entries from the past week or so. There’s no explanation for it, and I’m kinda ticked off.

I’ve been having more problems with this website than it’s worth…