Seven Quick Takes

I didn't feel like sticking to the topics of the regular journal entries, so we'll wing Seven Quick Takes today...

1. My weekend was a whole slew of awkwardness and emotional mess. The icing on this not so nice cake was playing a Litany of the Saints with my youth group and bombing it. Like, cringingly, awfully, full on blew it to bits. I was embarrassed for myself at how bad it went. That is going to be one of those things that seven years from now I'll be lying in bed some evening and not be able to go to sleep reliving that vividly painful memory over in my head. Now I have to figure out how to salvage the high school youth group in the future and be able to face the kids without wondering whether their first thought is, "Oh, that awkward youth minister who *thinks* she can play piano. Youth group so lame."

2. I have one reason to be excited for election day. The United Methodist church in the town where I work will be having a big luncheon that our church office staff will be attending.

3. Guilty pleasures these days: lemon tea, Jimmy Fallon clips, starting The Crown this afternoon after a youth ministry meeting, new lip gloss, and a clipboard for working on genealogy away from my desk.

4. This year we had no trick or treaters at all. I had 2-3 in the years past. This year I made sure to have some actually good candy on hand so we would actually eat it. Two years ago I got smarties and we STILL have a handful.

5. I maybe overestimated whether I actually have 7 updates in my life...

6. I spent a few hours at an adoration chapel at Cure of Ars on the Kansas side of Kansas City this past week. Compared to Wichita, perpetual adoration chapels are few and far between here. Many of the ones I like are on the Kansas side. Since college, the two that I used to frequent most often have changed their passwords and tightened security after a robbery at one of the parishes, so I haven't been able to get into them. I decided to try this one for a change. After wondering around lost in the foyer for a little while, a couple of kind young ladies pointed me in the right direction of the chapel and shared the passcode with me. It reminded me slightly of the SFA chapel in Wichita with a stone wall backdrop. They had a nice sized spiritual reading section. I wish KCMO would step up their game.

7.  This next weekend I will be taking my Confirmation kids on a group service project on Saturday and First Penance is on Sunday. The following weekend I will be taking a small group of kids to the Kansas City Youth Conference. I hope it is as good as Wichita's similar Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference. And then it's Thanksgiving. Which I am so looking forward to. We haven't been back to Wichita since all of my family's health crises this summer. It will be nice to be there to relax and celebrate instead of worrying.