OH REDEMPTIVE SUFFERING AND TOOTH ACHES

I am really puzzled about what to do. I have a sore tooth. It calms down for awhile and then it starts up again. The idea of having to go to the dentist on an emergency type visit in the morning is not something I am looking forward to doing but I have a feeling that is exactly what I am going to have to do.

My NW Sissy has a friend who is supposed to call me to get some insight into Alcoholism and the Fun World it can create but she did not call. One of my sponsees - a fairly new Catholic. Only came into the Church about 3 years ago - is going through a death of a friend who is in the hospital, brain dead and about to be taken off a respirator. I am supposed to call MY sponsor tomorrow at 9:15am in the morning.

When it rains, it pours.

Part of my hesitation over just calling and leaving a message for my dentist is that I know that sometimes a tooth ache can part and parcel of stuffed up sinus pressure. I have been fighting that dang cold that everyone else has had for about a week now and I hate to waste the insurance cost of a dental visit if it is simply something inflamed that may calm down once my cold goes away.

V reviewed the evaluations I did and had suggestions on only two of them - not bad, I say, not bad at all.

Tonight we had our RCIA meeting at St Joe's and found out that two members - two, uh, difficult members - have graciously decided to withdraw from the team. It's a good idea. There are some personality clashes developing and it is difficult enough to teach large classes with some people being on board with a specific catechical program and others resisting it because it is too hard to do. It is hard to do. Using the ACM developed at Franciscan University means having to study, prepare, double check, practice...it is not a simple thing to do. You cannot just stand up there and wing it. We all have to be evaluated on a regular basis, I have to write two papers before the next Bosco Conference and this whole 'come Home to Rome' thing is a heckuva lot harder than 'say a prayer and you're done'. We want people to KNOW what they are going to be asked to profess as their belief!

Heidi had her new baby. This is the woman chosen by the Vatican to be baptized at the next Easter Vigil by Pope Benedict XVI as the representative for our continent. Every year the Pontiff invites a representative from each continent to enter into the Holy Mother Church by receiving the graces of Baptism from the Holy Father himself. It is a great honor and I wish I was going to Rome to witness it. Heidi is pretty excited, as is her entire family. I love Rome. It is really The Eternal City and I could live there, running around for months at a time from museum to museum, Church to Church, catacomb to catacomb happy as a 'leetle girrrl' (as Mike Myers used to say on SNL). However, I would leave in August. August weather in Rome is not fun. Hot. Humid. Yuck. I am lousy at humid. It is why I cannot live in the South, as much as I love the culture. I cannot take the weather and I hate the giant bugs.

I remember being in Texas one time and this huge prehistoric thing landed on my back. It felt like I had a bird on my shoulder. I said to my cousin, "Get it off of me" and he says, in a Texas drawl, "Oh don't worry...that's just a devil bug".

"I do not care what the name of it is", I screamed (politely) at him. "GET IT OFF ME."

For gosh sakes, I am pretty sure it had a small dog in its mouth.

Anyway, It is quarter to 3. At the risk of breaking into a blue's song, I am really going to try and at least stay until 5am. Then, if I go home, I can be there by 7am. Maybe, I will leave a message for my dentist now.

Whoever the patron saint of teeth is, pray for me.