Job, Prayer, JRA, Congressman, Cactus, Traps

Every day I thank God for my temporary job under somewhat comfortable conditions. I got my first paycheck from the agency with deductions and everything. It was so exciting to see a deduction for FICA and all. Call me crazy in love with being employed for now. I am hoping this work assignment lasts for quite a while, but that means a slow and painful recovery for the woman I am filling in for. She is out for rotator cuff surgery. I don't want to be mean, but her being out for surgery is a gift of a job for me.

I continue to pray for both my prayer buddy and my relative X. I pray in what I call "free form," I just make up short prayers in my head as I go along.

Shoved to Them, I tried to leave some comments on your blog, but was stymied by those crazy words I couldn't read and retype. Anyway, this part is for you:
 Your son is quite the snake. I'm glad your daughter was finally able to see the expert of JRA. It's a bummer she has it. But now you can begin to manage it. I sure hope she is feeling relief and no longer is asking for a wheelchair.

Remember how we were urged to write to our representatives about the HHS mandate about contraception? My representative wrote a letter to our parish that started as "Dear Fellow Catholic." The pastor published this letter in our church bulletin. I don't want to see the letters from our politicians in the church bulletin. This politician sounded self-promoting even though he is Catholic and is against the mandate. No one said what to do when the congressional representative writes to us.

There are so many good causes that our Cardinal asks us to contribute to that I am getting dizzy. But then again, I have been dizzy since seeing that cow costume in church.

The Lenten decorations in front of the altar are rocks and cactuses (cacti?), so I was thinking this probably represented our Lenten journey through the desert. I thought of how pretty and freeing the desert is and how New Mexico isn't called the Land of Enchantment for nothing. Having desert plants in the desert can be very freeing (xeriscape) because you aren't struggling to water plants that aren't meant to live there. Also being in the desert, you don't have to worry about a lot of extraneous stuff.

As I was contemplating this, I notice that there were a pair of sandals among the decorations. I guess the decorations really do represent our Lenten journey. I wondered who owns the sandals. It's just a matter of time before they pull out the empty tomb decoration.

This week during the petitions we prayed for the good intentions of social workers. Not a bad thing to pray for. I wonder what profession we will pray for next week. No, we haven't prayed for Davy Jones or Whitney Houston. We have prayed for other dead celebs and notable people in the past.

A mom friend was talking about how her Catholic school is having the young ones make Leprechaun traps out of boxes. Trapping Leprechauns sound kind of mean even if they aren't real. They aren't real, right? Let's learn why Saint Patrick is really a saint and not a cause for drinking. I'm not a mom, but I sure have my opinions. Besides, what are the children suppose to do if they actually caught a leprechaun? Release them into the wild? Release them at the mall where it can be wild with roaming teen-agers? Put them in the dog crate?

Now I am just writing to avoid doing necessary housework.