Just shoot me

Whoever decided that little girls were supposed to dream about the perfect wedding from the time they were five should be shot. Here I am, most wedding plans going smoothly, then suddenly...

I had this perfect plan. We wanted the reception to be close to his mother who can't travel (yet) out of the house. We hope that by having the reception close to her house she'll be able to get used to driving short distances and be able to share a portion of her son's special day. I told James this when we started dating that I wanted to have the wedding near her (when we thought we'd be in the southern half of the country) for this reason. I can't imagine not be able to go to my son's wedding, and I wanted to lighten that as much as possible. Our great idea was that there is this hotel down the street from her that has a beautiful design. She could be transported there and spend the night there the night before, hopefully taking care of her transportation problems, and then she could stay for as much of the reception as she could handle. Well... it turns  out that there is a convention going on the weekend of the wedding. I'm very disappointed because I really thought it would be perfect there, in that guests could stay at that hotel (the church is 40 min away, but in a rough neighborhood) and it would be uber convenient for everyone.

The upside: There is a reception hall even closer to his mom's house that has availability for our date. They seem to be affordable (though we're going to have to pay through the nose to have it for more than 4 hours). I just am not sure. I need to look inside of it to really know what I think about it. The pictures online don't show anything about how nice it looks inside. I don't even know if it's anything better than a shack, really. The floor plan indicates potential, but I just don't know. It also fails for the uber convenience of being able to transport her over a day or two early to make sure she's able to enjoy what she can. *insert sadface* Also, there's only two small hotels nearby and I don't know if the convention is going to take up any of their rooms, too. Well, at least it looks like we'll be able to work something out. I don't know why this bums me out so incredibly much, but as soon as I found out I couldn't get the hotel, I felt like the whole infrastructure of the wedding just collapsed.

In other news, for some reason I've been really moody lately. I'm constantly offended by anything James says (admittedly he has foot-in-mouth syndrome, but I'm taking it worse than usual). I have been sleeping at least 10 hours a night this weekend, after sleeping 7 hours a night during the week, took a 2 hour nap today, and still feel dead exhausted. I don't know if it's just the fact that I need to get used to 9 hour days with 1 hour (one way) commutes, or what. Ugh, I'm seriously thinking about moving and offering my current apartment to my friend who is getting married next month. I kinda hope I get around to telling her this before she reads it on my blog... I just want more time to... live. James has been around more and tensions have been high the past few weeks. We're both going through a lot right now.

In even other news, my medicine seems to be working! I'm off of my old medicine completely now and I have no pain in my side! I'm a little shy about putting the name of the med online because people all seem to have very strong opinions about it, and I don't care to get into a debate. There are one or two side effects that are concerning me a little and I'll talk to the doc about them in a month or two (sooner if they get worse). James is concerned about the potential of birth defects on children (oh, the internet...) so he's gonna come with me and talk to the doc about the medicine details. I don't think my recent grumpiness is a direct result of the meds, I have my ups and downs, but we'll see how long it lasts. I've found I struggle to adapt well to change. And as great as my job is, it's a HUGE change on my life and the amount of time I have. Combine that with wedding planning, low finances (due to lag, I don't get my first check till December 1st), and general womanness and you have a life worthy of a reality TV show.

At some point when I get a free moment that I'm not sleeping then I'll post about St Joseph. I'm actually really excited about it. I've learned so much already! Hagiography (the lives of the saints)  is one of my favorite subjects!

7 Quick takes... Thursday

As is obvious, now that I'm working a full time job with a 40  minute commute... I have a lot less time on my hands.

A few quick points:

1. I LOVE MY JOB! The people have such great personalities, and one of the ladies I work with is even Catholic! I told her that the wedding was going to be the TLM and she was like, "woooow..." They have a really sweet benefits package, and James will even be able to be added to my vision and dental (he only has health). St Therese, you are sooo good to me!!!

2. The people at my job seem to like me! I shouldn't be surprised... this happens in many places I've worked... I just... like to hear it.

3. Please pray for James. He's trying to find a new place to stay and things are a bit complicated. There is the possibility that I may move in temporarily with someone and he takes my apartment but... we're looking.

4. People in my city don't know what traffic is. I have a 40 minute commute (35 on a no-traffic day... I work 8-5 so that never happens) and it's kinda annoying, but it's not all that bad. I'm from DC where 40 min is basically the typical. However, something happened that made me laugh yesterday. People in the midwest (the closest I'll tell you to where I live) seem to always be unable to drive in the rain (see #5). There are always wrecks when it rains. Instead of clearing the wreck off to the side of the road (like normal cities...), they close the lane, process the information, and THEN clear it off. It's dumb really. Anyway, this one road I drove on yesterday was literally stop and go. The others were heavily congested, but I think that if you're able to go 45 mph or more, it's not traffic. I was pleasantly surprised that in all this mess it only took me an hour to get home. I love smaller cities than DC!

5. So this idiot car pulls in front of me then slows down a lot. I was wondering if they were a new driver because they were basically failing (and this is coming from a kid who's only had her license for 3 years now). Then, they changed lanes WITH LESS THAN A CAR LENGTH BETWEEN HIM AND A HUGE TRUCK BEHIND HIM!! I literally screamed, "DON'T DO IT!!!!" as he drove. Gosh, people are idiots! Keep in mind that I was in the right lane, so he only did this in order to go faster, not to get to his exit (which would still have been dumb!)

6. I'm bringing a list of vendors to call during my lunch break tomorrow... let's see how that goes.

7. I don't think that I'm going to have time to work on my research for St Joseph this week. Let's go for having a Saint of the month!

Coming Soon: Saint of the Week: St Joseph

Seeing as I start my first day of work at my new job tomorrow, I thought looking at St Joseph in a bit of depth is a good idea.

When I started writing this, I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought I was going to write a few things about saints that liked him, a little bit about what we know about him, ect. I decided that I wanted to research a little before I did this. I'm completely blown away. The Great Patriarch has a high place in heaven. In a vision by St Gertrude the Great, she notes how every time his name is mentioned in heaven, "all the saints made a profound inclination toward him, showing by the serenity and sweetness of their looks that they rejoiced with him on account of his exalted dignity." (this quote was found online with no source but I have no reason to doubt its authenticity)

There are many issues I will be researching in this next week and addressing in my next (saint) blog post. Included in this will be:
-Joseph's lineage
-Discussion of the Great Patriarch's susceptibility to sin
-How Joseph was a "just" man
-Devotion to St Joseph

Greetings!

Welcome to Liza Jane's new blog, dedicated to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. 

The reason this blog is named after her: I have been basically unemployed for about 10 months now and I made a novena to St Therese ending on her traditional feast day, October 3rd (a Monday). I told her that if I got this job that looked promising or any job in the near future I would dedicate my blog to her and rename it. I also told her that if she REALLY wanted to impress me, that I would be offered the job within a week of completion of the novena. 

Well... 

Wednesday (day 4) of the novena: I mention that I am looking for a job to a person I've just met, and he mentions that they are looking for someone at his office. 

Thursday (day 5): He emails information to me and I call the company requesting more information 

Monday (day 9, her feast day): I send in my resume to the company

Tuesday (day 1 after): Company requests interview.

Thursday (day 3 after): Interview

Friday (DAY 4 AFTER): Company offers me the position

When I said a week and she'd impress me, I didn't think she'd follow through within a business week! Needless to say, I'm impressed, and I love her. 

I've decided that this blog is going to be about my life, as well as the saints that inspire it. I don't know about you, but I've always found great strength in the saints. No matter what I'm going through, it's so wonderful to know that someone else has gone through something similar, and become holier for it. 

I make no promises about regularity of this, but I hope to have a "saint of the week" thing going. It will not correspond to the calendar (either of them), but more likely to my life and how I'm trying to follow their example. I'll also through in random stuff about any and everything going on in my life. 

That is all for now. God bless, y'all!