Answer Me This: Happy-Clappy Edition

Linking up with Kendra over at Catholic All Year for her Answer Me This Q&A type link-up. Which is fun and much easier than coming up with my own original blog content.

1. Do you hate happy clappy church music?

Not really. Because I'm a Confirmation catechist, I'm expected to go to the Life-Teen mass, which is mostly happy-clappy. I find the words and melodies are more familiar and easier to remember and sing along with, and I find that even the meditative songs carry with them a deep sense of reverence. I have some favorite traditional hymns, and there is a lot of classical liturgical music that I find particularly inspiring (not to mention Gregorian Chant - have you ever heard anything so very lovely?) but at the end of the day, I do love a happy clappy mass.

This is one of my favorite songs of the moment. It's not very "happy clappy" but it's not a classic hymn, either, but it gives me chills and sends my heart soaring when we sing it.  (It's long but it's worth it.)

Video is not mine, but it needs to be shared with the universe.

2. What is your priority: eating or sleeping?

Sleeping wins every time. Since I left college I've become someone who needs 8-10 hours of sleep. I can survive on less but I need a lot of coffee to make up the deficit. Honestly, I'd rather sleep than eat any day, and sometimes go to bed without a proper dinner because I'm just worn out. I'm getting better at getting up early but it's still a slow process because mornings are hard.

3. What type of milk do you drink in your house?

I drink lowfat milk. My housemate drinks reduced fat milk. I haven't had whole milk in years - it's just too heavy feeling. Plus, I cook with milk and like the occasional half glass of milk before bed and honestly don't need the extra calories. (Kendra says food is *for* calories, and I see her point, honest, but I don't have children and have different dietary needs.) I used to only ever buy fat free milk, but it doesn't work as well for cooking and after a while it just tasted watery so I switched to 2%.

I've seen this on the internet all over.
No idea who it belonged to originally. Sorry.

4. What is a book that changed your perspective on something?

I mostly (as in, almost exclusively) read novels, and novels usually impact me in powerful ways but don't necessarily change my perspective, so this is a bit tricky.

 

Secret Historian is not for the faint of heart or homophobic, but it really changed my perspective on how people who live differently than I do - whether that involves their sexual identity or political views. 

Perks changed how I think about myself. It made me feel less alone at a really lonely, tumultuous time in my life, and it's stuck with me ever since. It's one of those books that you have to read at the right time: too young and it will go over your head, too old and it won't be impactful. For me, that time was the summer I turned 17. It's my favorite book.

5. Who is your favorite saint?

I have a few, so I'll start at the beginning.

When I was a little girl, sitting in CCD classes after school, I was the only kid in my class who didn't have a saint's name.  So when we got to a unit on learning about "our saint," in 4th grade, some of my classmates could choose between their first name or their middle name, but I didn't get to choose at all. The teacher gave me a picture book of saints and I got to pick one, so I chose Joan of Arc. She was brave, she was clever, and she was a young girl who didn't let anyone tell her she couldn't do something just because she was a girl.

Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII - WikiMedia Commons
Painting by Jean Auguste Dominique (1854)
Musee du Louvre, Paris

So Joan was my saint for years, until I was preparing to be confirmed. Thinking about a saint's name to take, Joan was, of course, near the top of my list.  But I stumbled upon Margaret of Cortona instead, and as the years pass, our compatibility continues to surprise me.

Ecstasy of St. Margaret of Cortona by Giovanni Lanfranco, 1622
Public Domain

St. Margaret is just so lovely and so dear to me. Her faith and sorrow for her sins and how she was ridiculed for her piety really stuck with me.  One of the things on my bucket list is to visit her incorrupt body at the Franciscan church in Cortona. I've visited St. Lucy (the patron of my high school, who is also so special to me) in Venice, and it was one of those experiences that rocks you back on your heels and think about how miraculous our faith is.

And of course I have a special devotion to St. John Paul II. He was such an incredible pope, so loved and so dedicated to Our Lady and Our Lord's Divine Mercy. What a blessing it is to have him continuing to pray for our Church at the throne of Heaven.

6. Introvert or Extrovert?

I used to be the very definition of an extrovert. In the last 3 years though, I've become much more introverted (thank you, social anxiety). I'm kind of in the middle right now, not really sure where I fall anymore.  I spend so much time alone these days that becoming an introvert became almost necessary for my sanity. Really, though, it doesn't bother me as much as it may have several years ago.




And that's it! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.


love,

Willow


*Author's Note: None of the images or videos in this post are my property. They are from around the web and I've given credit as best I could. Book cover images are taken from their respective Amazon pages.*

In Which I Don't Really Understand Blogging Awards

But answering questions and linking-up with other oh-so-hip bloggers? That I can totally get with.

Kendra over at Catholic All Year tagged all of us (even lowly little bloggers like me with only 3 readers) to answer her 11 questions and link with all the other lovelies. So yay!

1. Where do you live? And why do you live there?

     I live in a suburb of the coolest city in the world - my beloved Los Angeles -  snuggled up against the Foothills between the San Gabriel Valley and the border of the Inland Empire. It's a tiny little town no one's really heard of but we do have a university affectionately called the Teacher Factory.
      I live here for many reasons. Partly because I like being close to my parents, because it's close to both my jobs (my day-time office job and my weekend nanny gig in LA), because it's so familiar and comfortable, but mostly because I live with my disabled uncle and can't afford to move out.
      *My favorite thing about living here, though, is this time of year. The jacaranda trees are just about to burst with lavender blooms and I cannot wait! It means spring is in full swing and summer is on the way!

2. What are you currently watching and/or reading?

     I just finished catching up on Supernatural (I fell off the wagon about 3 1/2 seasons ago) but CW doesn't have the first episodes of Season 9 up online and I can't get it on-demand because we're not subscribed to the CW. *frustration!!!*  But I am instead getting caught up on Top Gear U.K. while waiting until August for Doctor Who to return.

From Pinterest here

     I am currently listening to The Book Thief and The Thirteenth Tale via Audible and so far I'm really loving Book Thief. It's such a mark of Mark Zusak's genius that he has written two very different novels that are both so very exquisite.  I am also reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park on weekends and in the bathtub. Because I can't just read one book at a time.

image from this article. I really love this cover!

3. What kind of Catholic are you? cradle, or convert?

     I'm actually a converted cradle Catholic in the sense that I was born and raised (mostly) Catholic, but had a conversion experience in my early teens prior to being Confirmed in which I chose to remain Catholic.

4. Can you point to one moment or experience that made you a practicing Catholic?

     Halfway through my first year of Confirmation preparation, I had a long, intense discussion with my teacher. He knew how much I was struggling with sola scriptura and anti-confession arguments from my Protestant school, friends, and family members, as well as a lot of personal drama and he talked me through all of it. Every time, I tell people that this man saved my soul and is the reason I'm a Catholic today.

5. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

    Far too many.

6. Are you a good dancer?

     I used to be.

When I was in high school I went to dance class a couple times a week and was actually a pretty decent swing dancer. I stuck with it through college, taught my then-boyfriend a bunch of combinations and various other ballroom dances and we danced all the time: in the grocery store, at work, in living rooms before dinner, etc.  But nowadays my dancing involves small people and a lot of twirling.  And I really don't mind.

7. Who usually drives, you or your husband?

     Not being married, it's always me. But when I was in a relationship, I drove the vast majority of the time. I expect that when I do get married, I'll still do a lot of the driving, because I'm a paranoid control freak.  I also just genuinely really love to drive.

8. What's your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate it?

     My favorite popular holiday is Christmas because in my family it's a huge deal. We spend the entire week before Christmas preparing: cleaning the house, decorating, and cooking ALL the things. My Oma and my girl-cousins and I bake pies and make candy and cookies and spend two or three days making tamales. The time bonding with my cousins and aunts and other maternal figures (including my own mother and sisters) is really fun and the source of some of my most cherished childhood memories. Christmas is a big deal in my family.
     My favorite lesser known holiday is Michaelmas. It was one of the first holidays I observed when I started paying a lot of attention to the liturgical year, and I had a tea party with a dear friend to mark the occasion. I made glazed carrots and blackberry cobbler and had Michaelmas daisies all over the place. I really love St. Michael so it was a wonderful day.


9. Which is correct? Left or right?

 

LEFT. Left left left left!!! The only excuse to do it wrong is if you have a cat the likes to unroll your toilet paper. Since my cat is not interested in this, it always goes on the way depicted on the left, aka the correct way.

10. Do you have any scars?

    I have three on my abdomen from getting my appendix removed, many on my hands and arms from a mean cat and falling out of trees and eczema, and the majority of my right knee is scarred from crashing my motorcycle into a concrete wall (it was really bad and really scary but thankfully I didn't break my leg). I have scarring on my right arm and right wrist from that same accident.  I used to have a perfectly round scar on the back of my left shoulder from when a fence fell on me and a protruding nail went into my shoulder when I was about 6 or 7, but as I grew and my shoulders broadened, it's flattened and is now all but invisible and I forget it most of the time.  When I was younger, though, every time I wore a tank top people asked about it.

11. What's the most famous thing you've ever done?

     When I was in college, I was a small-time campus celebrity, known as The Free Hugs Girl.

 I had a twitter and a Facebook fan page and was in the school newspaper three times and on the school news channel once or twice.  In high school and shortly after I left college I was still a small public figure in Claremont, where I first started Free Hugging, but never as popular as I was at LMU.

And that's it! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.


love,

Willow


*Author's Note: Two of these pictures are my property - the ones that feature a curly-haired blonde. The others are from around the web and I've given credit as best I could.*