I'm back

What a week!

My mom and dad left on Wednesday to pick up my kid brother, Andy, at Parris Island in South Carolina. He is now officially a Marine, with dress blues and everything. Very impressive; he's quite changed!

On Thursday I drove my sister to the airport. She was entering the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word in Birmingham, Alabama later that day. There were lots of tears, but in the end I know the important thing is to do God's will, and not what is just most comfortable for us. She is now Sister Elizabeth, and the whole family is so excited for her! My mother is going down to Alabama for a retreat with them next weekend, and she is so looking forward to it.

On Friday I picked my parents and brother up at the airport. Airtran lost one of his bags, which had has camis in it. He did get his other uniforms, however.

On Saturday I made the four hour trip down to Athens to help my roommate Jenn move our household out of our old flat and into the new house. I had no idea my car could hold so many crates and boxes! Jenn was so sweet and insisted on buying me dinner and ice cream.

The kicker, however, came later that evening when I was taking the trash out. A lovely little tiger-striped cat ran in the open door. She had no collar, but was very clean and kempt, friendly and well-trained; she knew how to use a litter box and would let us pick her up. We walked around and knocked on doors, and called the Lost ads in the Athens News, with no luck; we are going to run a Found ad in the same paper. However, in the meantime, I took her home to Hudson with me. Mama and I have named her Trudy after St. Gertrude, the patron saint of cats. As Papa Benedict is so fond of felines we were going to try to work his name in there (ha ha) but Trudy is such a cute name that we had to stick with it.

While I love her already, I still hope we manage to find her real owner. She is obviously a very special cat.

In the meantime, of course, my parents had gotten Andy into his civies and onto the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he is now a freshman. It's a very fine school, famously known as one of the eight national "Public Ivies" for its high-level academic demands and its elite student body, which draws from some very well-to-do families. In other words, it's sort of out of our league. But I'm sure Andy will do all right; if he can survive Marine boot camp (did he ever have some stories!) he can probably do anything.

Incidentally, their sports teams are OU's arch rivals. Our main point of contention is that our University was founded five years before theirs (true) and is therefore superior. Their main point is that our sports teams usually stink (true) and therefore they are superior. I'm glad to say that as I have never been too invested in the rivalry, I doubt it will lead to much tension in our house. :)

I'm going to try to ease back into my regular routine, starting with daily Mass tomorrow at St. Mary's. However, I loved going to Mass at St. Paul's on Sunday and today. For some reason I am much more open to the Holy Spirit when I am there. I can't wait to go back in a couple weeks.