Hey! Hey! Drinkin' Monkeys!

Yesterday I went for Monkeys with my 1st year buddy.

::pausing to allow you to re-read that sentence::

Yes, you read it correctly. No, we weren't plotting a kidnapping scheme at the Nashville zoo, but rather enjoying a delicious banana hot chocolate, the signature menu item, at the Frothy Monkey. The Nash is full of coffee shop gems. Ever heard of the Nun Bun of Bongo Java? http://www.bongojava.com/nunbun.php Now you have! I also had my first of 1.5 celebrity close encounters at Fido: Ben Folds. I wasn't even sure it was him (later it was confirmed), and I wouldn't actually ever care to invite him to dinner should the opportunity present itself, but I was finally able to cross an important item off my Nashville bucket list. Oh, and the other .5 (because I know you are burning with curiosity) is almost a double whammy: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. They attend Sunday Mass regularly at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, but I have yet to sit on the correct side of the church to actually site the red carpet couple and their baby girl. I know they are there based others' eye witness accounts. In the spirit of the Mass we share: I believe without seeing!

I have totally digressed from the original intention of this post...

While sipping our monkeys we talked about how overwhelming grad school can be...how we know everything gets done even if it is a painful process. (I mean I'm in 19th grade and have yet to just flat out not turn in an assignment. We'll talk quality later...) We curved toward the subject of planner usage. Now, I do take the time about once a week to write everything down, but I'm not at all faithful to checking it every day. My buddy pointed out that maybe the act of writing it down is enough to help me remember. Now at least I feel a little bit better about wasting $20 on a new At-A-Glance this semester. Don't tell me I could have written it on a napkin to achieve the same end. I don't want to hear it.

Anyway, she said her college boyfriend used to tease her about the "ridiculous" book that she carried everywhere to scribble down each and every potential activity--a feat which on a college campus can lead to a blackened page. (Did you know that eating blackened aka charred anything--even salmon or some other healthy "meat"--is actually bad for you? Carcinogen alert! Learned that in class last week--and I need to get these asides under control...) He didn't understand why she needed it. He went to class, did his work, and went to Church. No need to outline something so straight forward in black and white (or blue as I prefer).

She went on to tell me that one day he presented her with an excel-made schedule detailing 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday-Saturday. In every single slot he had written:

LOVE GOD.

After a grandiose "AWWW! HOW SWEET!" I immediately felt the Holy Spirit's conviction.

When I'm tired of the bore-me-to-tears lectures, the early mornings, the recalcitrant patients and helicopter parents the world knows it and not because I'm uniting my sufferings to Christ's...

Fahj spoke the other day of how Jesus had to do boring, mundane things in his life automatically making any boring, mudane thing we must do AWESOME since God himself took part.

How can I love God more in the boring and the mundane?

Acts of faith. For without fidelity there is no True Love.