Sleep test - more like a quiz.

It is almost 4 in the am and I am wide awake. I don't sleep well, never really have, but since the menopause fairy has begun to visit my body, I found my self losing more and more sleep. I spoke to my doctor about it and he suggested that I may have sleep apnea. After fisiting with a sleep doctor, she suggested the test citing that I have several markers that make me a candidate - my weight and my overbite.

So tonight, armed with my small duffel filled with shorts, tee shirt, toiletry kit and slippers, I made my way to the sleep center. After signing a few forms, I was hooked up to about a million electrodes, a belt around my waist and chest and one of those hospital oxygen thingies was hung around my ears and stuck up my nose. Not painful, but not comfortable either.

Then I was hooked up to the monitoring equipment which was tested with a series of blinks and snores and leg movements and then allowed to go to sleep - easier said than done. So I watched a few minutes of TV and decided to give sleeping a try. It took about 20 minutes, but I finally fell asleep.

During the course of my short sleep there, the nasal canula providing oxygen to me must have dislodged and the technician came into my room to fix it. That was the kiss of death for my sleep. I tried to go back to sleep with no luck. So I made a trip to the bathroom (which required being unhooked from the machinery) and tried to sleep again. Twenty minutes of laying there and not sleeping, I gave up and went home. I was home before 3 am. And I suspect that I was probably not there long enough for the necessary data to decide whether I have sleep apnea.

Eventually I will fall back to sleep, but I will awaken unrested again. Getting older stinks!

I'm OK, you're....going to have to take the quiz

The Mental Pause Chronicles had this great entry on her blog and I just had to try it. I think this describes me quite well.

You Are an "A-OK"

Your life philosophy can be summed up as, "Whatever will be, will be." Your greatest wish is to live each day a little better than the next. You are naturally calm and stable. Some people would call you a rock. You feel one with the world. You are a spiritual person, though no one who knows you would guess it.

What Hand Gesture Are You?

The One Word Meme

I've seen this in so many of my favorite blogs and thought I would join in. Herewith my answers:

1. Where is your cell phone? Kitchen
2. Your significant other? Driving
3. Your hair? Short
4. Your mother? Wonderful
5. Your father? Awesome
6. Your favorite things? Maxie
7. Your dream last night? Vacation
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Heaven
10. The room you’re in? Family
11. Your church? Catholic
12. Your fear? Loss
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Vacation
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you’re not? Democrat
16. Muffins? Corn
17. One of your wish list items? Mac
18. Where you grew up? Pennsylvania
19. The last thing you did? Shower
20. What are you wearing? T-shirt
21. Your TV? On
22. Your pets? Asleep
23. Your computer? Old
24. Your life? Good
25. Your mood? Upset
26. Missing someone? Yes
27. Your car? Highlander
28. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
29. Favorite store? Kohl's
30. Your summer? Busy
31. Like (love) someone? Husband
32. Your favorite color? Pink
33. Last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Today
35. Who will re-post this? ?????

The ice maker

I was sitting folding clothes today and I heard ice drop into the container in the freezer. Later, I noticed that there is now an overabundance of ice there. It seems that when I need ice, I forget to put the arm down to make it and when I don't need ice, it is overflowing - and often spilling out. Is this the "Murphy's Law" of ice makers?

Jersey Girl Blogger Pool Party

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hosting SFO Mom and Christine for a Jersey Girl Blogger Pool Party. And it was fun.

Accompanying Barb were her two younger children and Chris' two children were with her. We had an enjoyable afternoon chatting and cooling off on a very hot day. Middle Sister and Pippi became fast friends and Little Brother exhausted himself keeping up with Harry. My husband stuck his head in on his way back from a meeting to say hello and meet my blogging friends.

Thanks for coming and brightening up my day (see previous post).

Available for hire - one experienced CCD coordinator

I received the phone call that I had almost been expecting from our new pastor - that he had decided that the CCD coordinator from "the other parish" would be the cooridinator for the new parish. But he would like me to "help" her by doing what ever clerical or other jobs she wanted me to do. At first I said I would try this, but after I got off the phone and thought about it, I decided that this wasn't going to work. So I sent him a note and explained that this wouldn't work for me.

At first I wasn't interested in doing CCD this coming school year. But after experiencing Confirmation with the other parish, I decided that I needed to be involved in order to be able to help to blend the traditions of the two parishes into new traditions for the new parish. Clearly this is not going to happen now.

Sour grapes - you bet. After volunteering in my parish for the last 15 of the 18 years we've been here, I am not ashamed to say that I am upset that I will not be in involved. Since when does any parish turn away "live" volunteers?

Why I Didn't Want to Merge with the "Other Parish"

I thought of about twenty other titles that I could have chosen for this post, but I wanted to maintain my "G" rating. But as you can surmise from the title, I am continuing to be unhappy about our merger. And this was only the first weekend as a new parish.

My girlfriend attended the 5:00 PM mass at the other church. She was sitting in her pew and over heard people behind her commenting that "the cabbage eating Pollocks" were in church. She was totally offended and she isn't even Polish. In addition, she attended a meeting for "Ushers and Greeters" (their ministry name as opposed to ours which was "Hospitality Ministers" - of course the name for the ministry had to be theirs) and during the meeting, a woman from the other parish leaned over to her, put her hand on my friend's arm, and told her that our parish members would get used to doing things "their" (parish) way. Apparently, the merger of two equal parishes is turning into the corporate takeover that the people at my parish anticipated it would be.

Another change that people from my parish must adjust to is that now, Lectors and Eucharistic Ministers must now sign in before mass. Apparently at the other parish, these ministers frequently did not show up when scheduled, so they had to sign in. We never had that problem at my parish - when people were scheduled, they showed up or they got a substitute. If they didn't show up, it was because they threw up on the way to church.

In addition, we now have "Communion Police" - at the other church, people didn't know that you need to consume the Body of Christ before walking back to their seats, a problem we never had, so now "Ushers or Greeters" stand at the end of the communion rail to check and make sure that people have consumed the consecrated host. Again, we must do things their way.

I really dislike these two changes. I feel like I am being treated like a child because members of the other parish were not responsible.

As you can tell, I am not happy with this merger. I plan to speak to the new pastor this week, if he ever gets around to letting me know what the status of CCD is. And if he chooses to ignore me, I will have no problem resigning and changing parishes. I dislike being "pushed out of my parish," but I am certainly not going to remain in a place where I don't feel welcome.

And the winner is ....the other parish

I am officially no longer employed outside of the home. Yesterday was my last day working at my parish office. I guess that it is good that I am no longer working there since it no longer feels like my parish.

With change come adjustments. And it seems like the only people making any adjustments will be the people from my parish. There is no one from my parish working in the office, the mass schedule that is now in place is the mass schedule of the other parish in the merger and our church, with more parking, has only two masses one of which is a late mass that will probably be poorly attended, I just got my schedule for lectoring for the next two months and I am only scheduled twice and both times are at the other church which is, in my opinion, a dump. I have been trying to work with the other parishes CCD coordinator and apparently I'm the only one who feels like this can't be put together at the last minute, so I am seriously considering resigning again (I was only going to fill in last year at my parish, but when I saw the craziness with which they approach sacraments, I felt I should stay on.

I have decided to give the newly merged parish one year. If it continues to be dominated by people from the other parish in this merger, I will find another parish to join. I have offered my help to the new pastor and it seems like the only people he chooses to help are from the other parish. I am tired of trying to help, only to have the door slammed in my face. In this day and age, who turns down the offer of volunteers?