Planet of the Cats

“Planet of the Cats”
Last night, Bluebell stepped in front of the TV at THE perfect moment!
LOLOLOLOL!
😂

My Summer 2017 - CPE and NYC

HA!...of course I forgot to share this so......my last few days in NYC were FANTABULOUS, especially my last day. I'm back in Sewanee now, have taken a personal retreat in two parts, and classes have begun - TODAY! More info on classes I'm taking at the very bottom of this post. 
Howdy y'all! :-)
Having only three days left here in NYC, I decided to put some of my thoughts of CPE and living in NYC mixed into a generic update on my summer. I've been way from home since the end of the spring semester in April and it's been pretty nonstop busy, but I do love that.

Back in the spring, I received two grants (Seminary Consultation on Mission and Episcopal Church Global Missions) to travel to the Philippines. With faculty support, I scheduled my exams early to make the trip. I'm in the process of writing about my journey and the work I did there so stay tuned to this blog (you can sign up via email on the right-hand side of the screen). I spent three weeks there and was able to visit and work with small remote villages, attend the national synod and write an ENS article about it, and learn about The Episcopal Church in The Philippines. It was FANTASTIC and I do hope to return!

Two weeks before I left though, my mother had a stroke in Charleston, SC. She was in and out of the ER for four days and it was an extremely stressful time. My brother and I worked hard to make sure she was receiving the care she needed for stroke recovery and other issues. After a month of waiting on certain documents, we finally received necessary paperwork and my brother was able to get things rolling with placing her in an assisted living facility. During my CPE (explained below) unit, I flew down from New York to clear out some of the house and move Mom’s things into storage while my brother dealt with other things on Mom’s behalf. In July, he was able to help her get to a facility in NC. She is doing extremely well in her new place and seems happy. I am also happy and grateful that she is receiving the care that she needs, has friends, and is enjoying activities there!!
In light of my Mom's health, I did discern much about whether or not I should go to the Philippines, but I had some help and advice and in the end, I decided to go. After returning, I immediately began my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) program in New York on May 22. All Episcopal seminarians must complete a unit of CPE and it’s usually done the summer after the first year in the MDiv program. My CPE placement has been in New York at NYU Langone-Brooklyn Medical Center and I have been living in a room in East Williamsburg in Brooklyn. NYUL is a Level I trauma center and is widely known and respected for its stroke response and medical teams. Working here, I've been able to be part of rapid response teams and witness the efficient, caring, and holistic care the hospital provides. I've gotten to know patients and their families, some staff, and some docs. I've listened, prayed with and for, distributed communion, sat in silence, cried with, laughed with, been at bedsides where last breaths were taken, been at cribs where new babies cooed, and been there as fiances screamed at the sudden loss of their beloved. My CPE program consisted of 300 hours of volunteer chaplaincy work and 100 hours of class – not to mention the books, presentations, and papers! I was placed in the stroke/neurological wing and that was very interesting, but tough. The summer has been challenging, emotional, intense, filled with holy moments, and I have learned so so sooooo much. Many say that CPE is transformative and indeed it has been. Knowing that most of us had similar experiences is also an amazing part of the communal nature of the journey to priesthood in The Episcopal Church (and other denominations). I'm grateful that we can share threads of these deep experiences, similar challenges, and mutual growth in self-awareness and pastoral identity with each other and with our future congregations.

I finished both the class and volunteer hours as of August 1st, but stayed a little on as an NYUL chaplain for a bit. I love the work and I love living up here so I was excited to stay on! 

Some of the things I have loved while working at NYUL:
- Meeting patients from around the world and being a chaplain to them
- Feeling more affirmed in my pastoral identity
- Learning tools for interacting with people when they are in distress and/or grieving
- Establishing personal learning goals for working with people in ministry
- Learning more about interreligious chaplaincy as it pertains to healing
- Developing better self-awareness on many, MANY levels

- Being ok with silence in togetherness with patients
- Being part of the RRT - (rapid response team) and what helps make NYUL known for a center that provides holistic healing
- Learning from my CPE colleagues, my supervisors, patients, and hospital staff
- Being on-call in evening shifts...I found that I liked this very much.

Some of the things I have loved about living in New York are:
- Not having a car

- Iced coffee. I always disliked iced coffee until, quite suddenly, this summer, I began to love it and have become rather used to having it often!
- Student tickets to museums and some Broadway shows
- Cafes and shops on almost every corner
- Attending St. Mary the Virgin Church. It became apparent that many people didn't understand why I attended the same church each Sunday. I've been coming to NYC fairly often since 1989 so have attended many of the ones they recommended and after a whole year of attending a different church almost every Sunday, I REALLY felt like attending the same church all summer long and it was worth it. Lovely church, excellent rector (Stephen Gerth) and music (David Hurd, director). "Smokey Mary's" www.stmvirgin.org
- Many parks and quiet spots can be found...one simply has to look
- Seeing friends I know from New Orleans and New York
- The pizza (of course!)
- Having work here and feeling like I'm part of things and have a non-touristy purpose
- The diversity and hearing different languages all around me
- The many flowers I've found on my walks
- People don't look down upon you for using social media here
- People DO NOT care what you look like
- Free lunches for volunteers at the hospital. These have enabled me to save money all summer long and see shows and go to museums!
- There are beaches here...I had forgotten that!

Some things I don't like:
- It's ridiculously expensive
- Summer is HOT and I say that having lived in NOLA, Columbia, SC, and Atlanta, GA

It's MISERABLE though, b/c it seems as if few places have adequate air conditioning. While most subway trains are cool inside, the standing platforms where you wait are like OVENS. I am not exaggerating one bit
- Crazy people on the subway who ruin perfectly good rides
- Those times when well-meaning people have lists of things they think you should do in NYC, but you either can't or have differing tastes and motives
- Climbing all the steps....there are so many....tooooooo many

- Daily motion sickness riding the trains. Mine has always been pretty bad. I can handle most short train rides, though I sometimes feel a bit nauseous and exit with a really bad headache. I was glad for the 10-12 minute walk from the subway station to the hospital so that I could feel better each day before starting work
                     
I am very grateful to my host, an experienced staff NYUL chaplain. She let me afford living in her place this summer AND she let me bring my dear sweet Bluebell kitty up with me! She has two sweet kitties and everyone gets along :-)

When I return to Sewanee, I will do some much-needed apartment cleaning, finish getting books for the semester, have a couple of meetings, hopefully view the solar eclipse (it had better not be cloudy!), and more. One thing I am especially grateful for is that I have planned a personal retreat during the week before classes begin. YIPPEE! I’ll get to have an actual peaceful much-needed break, thanks to some very caring friends. 
We have a Quiet Day on Monday, August 28 and classes begin on Tuesday, August 29.
I'm taking the following classes:
- Pastoral Theology I
- Systematic Theology I
- A course on C.S. Lewis
- A ministry course called Transforming Congregations
- Foundations in Preaching and the preaching lab that goes with it
- I am attempting to take Arabic lessons this year, but not for credit
I'm very excited and have happy butterflies about returning and this second year!
                     
               

A Sweet Bluebell Kitty

Bluebell loves to play, but here she is pretending to be asleep... Soon, her curiosity gets the better of her and she looks up at me with one eye, still not 100% sure that she wants to commit to being awake...

                                       

THEN.... SHE SEES THE STRING!!! HAHAHAHA! She looooooooooooves to play with string or ribbons etc. I am s grateful to have her here with me at seminary. It's tough sometimes, knowing most of your friends are far away. Sure, there is a vast array of ways to keep in touch, but it's not the same as seeing folks and hanging out in person. I am very happy here, but I'm still glad to have this soft, silly, ball of fur with me. Bluebell will also accompany me to Brooklyn this summer where my C.P.E. (Clinical Pastoral Education) assignment is located. There are already two cats in the apartment where I'll be staying, but we hope that this will all work out. 

                 

Check our her cute and furry paws, awwwwww!

Bluebell CUTENESS

Oh my kitteh is so silly! Here she is watching a documentary about the sun, LOL!

Annnnd here she is being lazy and so super sweet! She's quite a loud purrer too!
Video of Blubell cuteness!

Bluebell Kitty is "Helping" Me Grade Tests...

Really? I love this cat :-) She is so silly and of course, wants my attention most of the time. This was her answer a while ago when I was grading.
   

My Sweet Bluebell Kitty :-)

Ok, I have to overshare a bit this morning! I went to take a selfie with my kitteh Bluebell and her morning snuggles and she gave me a kitty kiss, AWWWWW! She is such a sweetie!
                     

A Bluebell Snoozefest

It's a veritable Snoozefest over here right now and I'm not unhappy about it! This super sweet little kitten is completely sacked out. We played for an hour after I got home from choir rehearsal. Today, she destroyed a Christmas tree ornament. HA! I sort of knew it would happen eventually because the same ornament has been "falling down" daily. I should have moved it a bit higher. She's quite rambunctious, yet I'm truly enjoying having a kitty again :-)

               

To sleep or not to sleep.....hmmm

I was getting ready to go to sleep, albeit a wee bit early, and I wondered where my kitten Bluebell was. It appears safer to stay awake for the moment, MWAH-HA-HA-HAAAA!

Creepy Kitten :-)

This picture of my kitten Bluebell made me laugh SO MUCH!
It reminded me of the second picture, below! :-)


                                     

Bluebell Kitteh says HAPPY FRIDAY :-)

Bluebell says "Meowrr moew" which translates to "Happy Friday y'all!"
smile em
                        

Introducing: BLUEBELL

Ok, so it took me two years after the death of my dear Sasha kitty to finally get another sweet kitteh, but I finally did it when I came home from my summer travels. I'd actually been wanting to have a dog all year AND another cat, but do realize that I can't do that just yet because of apartment life and not having enough time to devote to a dog's needs. I will, at some point, get another dog. Over the summer, I began to realize that I pet every animal that I passed. I started looking at pictures from the LA-SPCA and various adoption places, hoping to find just the right pet for me. As it turned out, I found a couple of kitty cats and drove out to see them, but when I called halfway there on each trip and someone had JUST adopted them! Alas. Finally, on a Tuesday afternoon, I found Metairie Kitten Adoption and a few pretty cats that I wanted to go see. They said that they were currently being looked at, but that the person was going to decide which one to adopt the next day. I asked if I could come and see them that evening and so I did! I chose the lovely kitty who is now my sweet Bluebell kitteh :-)

                               

She is a Russian Blue breed and the name Bluebell, which I had chosen for a future dog name, was now going to be hers! It's also actually NOT about the ice cream either, though I do love Bluebell ice cream! Her eyes are STUNNING! They are yellow with a green ring around each pupil and her shade of grey is so pretty!

So, she came home with me, so super tiny and now after a month and a half, she has grown a bit. She's super playful and just a bundle of joy! Bluebell loves to snuggle and purr. Her purring is loud too! She is also very smart and I understand that this, as well as being very loving, is a characteristic of her breed.

                

So, welcome Bluebell and her silly antics which will probably be posted here pretty often!