How can you call yourself Catholic?

How can you call yourself Catholic when you're so ready to ignore teachings that you don't agree with? How can you call yourself Catholic when you embrace and participate in activities that destroy the soul or go against Catholic teachings? How can you call yourself Catholic when you're so willing to declare everything you don't agree with wrong, or misguided, or sexist? How can you call yourself Catholic when you don't practice the faith? How can you call yourself Catholic when you don't believe in or listen to the church leaders? How can you call yourself Catholic?

Thanksgiving Weekend

As if I'm the first person to write about this past weekend...Thursday, Thanksgiving Day in case anybody forgot, was pretty good. Dinner with Eric's family went well, of course not as bad as I made it sound like it was going to be. I met his family, nice people, it was kindof weird for me because it was a new experience, but a good one. Then after dinner we came back to my house and saw some relatives which was cool. We drew names for Christmas too, I have no idea what I'm going to get my person...Friday was fun, went shopping and got some people some gifts. Saturday was get the tree day, it was fun. Didn't get a chance to decorate it, but oh well. Came back last night and hung out with Eric, and that's pretty much my weekend. I get to go home to live for awhile in 2 weeks; I'll be home for 3 weeks and then I'll be in Ukraine for a month! I'm a little disappointed because I left a few things at home that I need here at school for the next 2 weeks, but I'll get by. I have a huge paper due tomorrow that I need to revise, but other than that I'm pretty much in the clear until the last day of classes!

Crappy Thanksgiving

That's right, I don't think it's going to be a happy Thanksgiving, I think it's going to be a crappy Thanksgiving. To start with, this is my first time not having a holiday with my family in my entire life, and I have to meet Eric's extended family as well. So I don't get all of my fun traditions that normally come with holidays such as this, and I have to make sure I act normal and nice and make polite conversation and meet a bunch of new people who I'll probably only see once before I even get married. How fun is that going to be-a day of meeting people I don't know and making awkward polite conversation, instead of having a fabulous time hanging out with my family and enjoying the day, joking around and being loud and normal with people that I know and love. Also, I had no idea we were having a ton of people at the Novak house this Thanksgiving, I thought it would be relatively small, but I've heard that we're having anywhere from 40-60 people, although I don't know how accurate that number is. Still, I would like to see some of my relatives that I haven't seen since the last wedding this past July. And to top it all off, Gina thinks that mom might be mad that I'm not going to be home. When is it ok not to be home for the holidays? It's not that I don't want to be home, obviously I would love to be home, I just have responsibilities that come with a long term relationship that include me missing holidays at home. I hate responsibilites. I hate Thanksgiving. I hate that I normally love holidays, but I am not looking forward to any of them anymore. Crappy Thanksgiving to you too.

Ukraine

Yesterday was my j-term orientation for my trip to Ukraine. I got all of my travel information, met my professors and my group, and just basically received answers to all my questions, and some that I wouldn't really have even thought of but that are good to know. I leave at 6pm on January 1st, with only one layover in Amsterdam before flying to Kiev, where I will be staying in a as of yet unpronouncable hotel. Right now my biggest concerns about going are not speaking the language or even being able to decipher half of the letters (something I need to figure out before I leave!), appropriate outfits for my time (jeans are ok for class but nicer clothes are more acceptable for most of the things that we do, too bad I don't have flat, closed-toe black shoes!), and actually taking a class that is only about 3 weeks long! We have to write a 12-20 page paper during that time, and we have a final oral exam on the last day. Luckily, class is only in the mornings and we have most afternoons and evenings free to study or do cultural things. Hopefully I will actually use some of that time to study and not just do other things. I'm getting very excited to go even though I don't leave for a month and a half, but I think it's going to be a great time and I can't wait to go!

Thought-provoking Question

Why would you take the elevator from first floor to second floor, having no physical disabilities preventing you from taking the stairs?

Lost

I have never really gotten into tv shows that often, until this year. My roommate Megan has all of the episodes of Lost from the first season on her computer, and we watched them together in the first couple of weeks of school, making Lost my first television "addiction" so to speak. It is now the first show that I actually watch every week, Wednesday at 8. Now I'm also sortof getting into Grey's Anatomy, but mostly because my roommates watch it every Sunday and I'm always in the room with nothing else to do. I actually sortof make time to watch Lost, whereas I only watch Grey's Anatomy by default. However, I do like both of them, but if I had to choose, Lost would definitely win out. I'm very sad about last week's episode. Matt or Gina, do you still watch it? Does anybody else watch it? If so, what do you think about last week's episode? And don't worry-soon I will post something much more thoughtful and also better written.

It Sucks To Be Poor

I have had a lot of reading lately for intro to Sociology that deals with social classes and poverty. It is somewhat depressing to read the bare facts about poverty and the general group of people that is the poor. Of course, I have known for quite awhile that the poor are getting poorer, and the rich are getting richer, and there is becoming somewhat less of a middle class, but I do not think I realized how bad it was, or at least in how many ways the poor were getting the shaft. What's worse, and what I did not realize, was that they have such a small percentage that vote, while the richest people vote much more, so the poor end up having very little say in the government. Welfare is also being cut more and more, yet it is so hard to find jobs that pay enough to make ends meet. Single-parent families and minorities have it the hardest, which is no surprise.

Many people want to blame the poor themselves for being poor, and tell them to get a job and stop being lazy, when most of the time they have no choice. Do people really think they want to be poor, to struggle to feed their family and keep a roof over their heads? Do they really want to have more of their income go to taxes than rich people have to? It's not that they are lazy, it's that it's so difficult to survive in our society, especially with more well off people scewing them over. It is also very hard for them to get ahead when they do not have the same opportunities as upper-class and even middle-class people do.

This situation is very sad, but even more, it is something that can be changed. Yet there are so few people trying to change it. I really wish I could do something to help, but I don't know how. Giving every street person I see a couple of dollars may be nice, but it won't solve the problem, and that is what we need to work to change. A big problem that I see with that is, I have no idea where to start even. It is such a large problem, and it needs so many people to help with it. I do not even know what I could possibly do to try to help it. Unfortunately, the people who can, the upper-middle class and wealthy people, the politicians and most of those who vote for the politicians, do not want to change the situation. Sure, they may not want the poor to be poor, but they are highly unwilling to pay more taxes, or have a few less advantages, because they like things the way they are. They like being rich, well off, and powerful. Unfortunately, it results in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, something that I think is one of the main problems in America.