Blessed Feast!

Blessed Feast of the Annunciation! Today is the day we commemorate Gabriel's visit to the Theotokos (The Mother of God) to tell her she would give birth to the Messiah. Think of today's date.
Did you figure it out yet? ... What happens in 9 months? The Nativity of our Lord!...You'll hear me talk about feasts quite a bit. We feast quite a bit in the Orthodox Church, it's nice, considering how we fast quite a bit as well.

We had a beautiful Liturgy this morning. I was informed by Kh. Susan that people wear blue on this day, as with many of the Theotokos' feasts. Blue is the color of the mother of God. This summer at Vacation Church School, one of the sweet children said "Blue was her favorite color."
It was so nice to see our church decorated for the feast. We changed out the somber dark colored tapestries for beautiful blue ones, and our Priest wore blue vestments. As Lent progresses we change the tone of our hymnography (It becomes much more somber), the color of the vestments etc., and the general mood of our worship.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann said: "The Lenten worship is thus a school of repentance. It teaches us what is repentance and how to acquire the spirit of repentance." He's pretty eloquent, I couldn't say it that well.

It's a nice break in the fast to celebrate for a bit. Luckily there is also a break in the fast involving food, which is a welcomed break for all! Tonight the OCF (Orthodox Christian Fellowship) will be enjoying some amazing yumminess at Soul Fish, and I am SUPER excited.

Today has been fab. Following Liturgy my friend Gigi and I worked out together. It was amazing we "girl talked" for an hour and didn't even realize we had worked out for an hour. After I got cleaned up, I came to Cafe' Eclectic, which is where I'm posting from. It's a new coffee shop near our church in Midtown. I highly recommend their BLT&A... minus the bacon and with extra A (avocado) it's delicious! This place has a following.... 6 members of our church are here at the moment, it's great! I know what you're thinking: "Doesn't she work at Starbucks?" Yes: Which is exactly why I love a great indie coffee shop. (I'll post on this sometime. I love my job, I love their coffee, but I love love love indie coffee shops!)

Well, have a Blessed Feast!

your caitlyncosm fix for the week...

I know, I really suck at the blogging, but I'm a student!

Lent began in the Orthodox church. I've been at church almost every night for the past two weeks. Great Lent is a time of preparation for Pascha in the Orthodox Church. In addition to other things we step up the church attendance by having many many more services than usual, I've been a very busy gal.

As many of you know, Orthodox Easter usually falls on a different date than Western Easter (i.e. Catholic/Protestant Easter.) As a result Pascha won't be happening for another month, today was just a regular Sunday for us (a regular Lenten Sunday that is.) I will be chrismated on Holy Saturday, I'll officially be Orthodox, so this time of preparation is especially significant. I really want to write more about Lent right now, but I have to go. I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and the reason why I haven't written lately.

Happy Western Easter to all my Catholic and Protestant friends!

i've got nothing!

Well my week was boring. I spent time working, working out and going to class (but not learning very much.) This was the hardest week of the semester! This was the week before spring break. I AM NOW OFFICIALLY ON SPRING BREAK! (Although I have no exciting plans for the coming week.)



My only excitement for the week was the road trip to Nashville. I went to see Regina Spektor at the Ryman auditorium. In November four of us (Gigi, Sally, Brandon and I) drove all the way to Nashville to find out that Regina was in the Hospital (an inner ear infection) and would not be performing. The show was rescheduled for a few weeks later, sadly Regina was still sick. So the show was FINALLY rescheduled for this Wednesday.



The three of us (Sally had to abandon the concert after the original cancellation) went to the concert. We had such a great time. If you don't know Regina Spektor's music you should look her up. She honestly brought tears to my eyes! It was also fun hanging out with Gigi, she was a wonderful front-seat passenger and kept me awake the whole 3 hour drive.



I did something new and exciting last week... I took a belly dancing class. I felt absolutely ridiculous! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! The best part: it burns about 4oo calories an hour. I trust you to keep this a secret.



My Friday night was pretty uneventful, which is why I'm writing on my blog. Brandon came over, we cooked frozen food and watched TV.... Sorry this was all I had to report, like I said: I've got nothing!

ah... sweet love, and food!

Well, Valentine's day happened... and it was a wonderful second heart day with Brandon. We had dinner at Napa Cafe', it was a very nice restaurant. He gave me the most awesome set of three paintings. Pictures don't do them justice, so you'll just have to come over to see them. It was such a cool and thoughtful gift, once again he's great! (Yes, I'm gushing.)

Food is a hobby of mine. I love to eat and cook. I actually went to the gym tonight and listened to Bon Appetit's podcast while I worked out. (I'm absolutely pathetic.) Ive been trying to eat a bit healthier lately (sort of a mid February resolution) so I've gotten creative in the kitchen. Here's a new recipe I made up Tuesday night, it really isn't too super inventive, but I liked it. (And it was super low in calories and high in protein, which I really need since I'm a vegetarian.)

Black Bean and Corn Soup (the name is really a work in progress.)

• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 medium onion (diced)
• 1 small bell pepper (diced)
• 2 cans black beans
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 1 tsp. cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• lime wedges, sour cream, shredded cheese, all for garnish

Saute the garlic, onions, and pepper in a soup pot (one with a lid) for approximately 5 minutes, or until slightly browned. Add the beans, corn, and Rotel (do not drain the liquid, you may want to rinse the corn etc. but replace the liquid with water.) You may want to add up to one extra can of water if soup looks too dry. (Vegetable stock could be an alternative to water, I just didn't have any, adjust the salt accordingly.) Bring these ingredients to a boil, stirring CONSTANTLY for 4-5 minutes. Reduce to a simmer. Add the cumin, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. I mashed up some of the beans with the spoon, it makes the soup even heartier. Garnish the soup with lime wedges (they add a great flavor without ANY calories) sour cream or cheese. I also thought some tortilla chips would be a nice touch, although this soup doesn't need anything extra!

This is super healthy. I estimated approximately 185 calories per cup of soup, sans the garnishes. Brandon liked it, and so did I. Let me know if you try it.

Don't forget to buy a subway map, and other lessons I learned in New York (almost two months later.)

Even though we returned from our trip on January 3rd, I though I would take this time to share the top 10 lessons I learned on our trip to New York.

10. Sleep before travel. I'm an idiot. I thought it would be OK to have 4 hours of sleep before embarking on one of the busiest trips of my life! As a result B and I were so tired that we ended up eating pizza in my room on our first night in New York.

9. Pigeons are terrifying! They are ridiculous, you give them a bite of your cupcake and they attack! This is me running away scared.

8. It is perfectly OK to steal culinary advice from Sex and the City. Yes I'm a follower. I heard about the Magnolia Bakery from Sex and the City (a show which I don't agree with, but admit I'm a fan.) They were seriously the best cupcakes I've ever eaten! I tried to recreate them at home, not a good idea. Here are the originals, aren't they beautiful?

7. It is perfectly OK to plan a trip based solely on food. We ate some of the best food in the world, and planned the trip around where we would eat. The massive amounts of walking kept me from gaining 800 pounds! We discovered Caffe Reggio, so good!

6. jetBlue is a great airline, and I highly recommend them, just saying.

5. Caitlyn loses any bit of a southern accent when in NY. I guess I just don't want to sound like a tourist.

4. One can have a fun and exciting trip to New York without visiting a single tourist trap! (As long as you don't consider the Met a tourist trap.) Even though this was Brandon's first trip to NY, he didn't want to go see the Statue of Liberty with the other 10 million tourists (another reason why he's great!)

3. I love museums. We spent an entire morning at the Met (the metropolitan museum of art)... We had so much fun!

2. Although Getting lost with your boyfriend can be fun, buy a map. In my effort to avoid the dreaded "tourist" look I said, "oh we don't need a map." Bad bad bad idea! I guess if we can survive getting terribly lost in New York City, and oh did we get lost, we can survive anything!

1. New York is the best city in the world.... and I will live there some day.

That's right I haven't posted since before Christmas...

So I guess I should write a sort of "catch up" post.


December: Christmas was wonderful. It was my first Orthodox Nativity. Christmas eve was a super busy day. It began with a morning Liturgy. The following afternoon was spent making yummy curried devilled eggs for the Nativity feast and getting ready for the Manning Family Christmas Extravaganza.

That evening Brandon and I loaded up the Saturn and drove to my Grandparent's house in NW TN. We had a wonderful time hanging out with my fam. This was my very first Christmas to show up with a significant other, and I think it went pretty well.

We had to leave the gathering early to head back to Memphis. We had to make it to our Nativity Liturgy that night. The liturgy went late into the night and the following feast went even later!

The next day was amazing and fun, I had a great time with my family and with Brandon's family. I got two of the coolest armchairs from Santa, tons of awesome stuff from Brandon's family, including a crepe maker, creme brulee kit, and canvases (for my artistic endeavors.) And from Brandon.......... I got a travel book for New York........

Oh and he also gave me A TRIP TO NEW YORK!!!!! It was pretty much the best Christmas present ever! My travel agent, er boyfriend, had planned a trip for the two of us to my favorite city in the world. No worries everyone, we had separate rooms on different floors.

But on to the rest of the "catch up." The next week after Christmas was a blur.

January: Before I knew it it was New Year's eve. Brandon and I celebrated a very anticlimactic countdown to the new year. We celebrated in the car, and basically missed the countdown. We ended up at his house eating grilled cheese and drinking champagne, pathetic huh?

The next day we had such a great time hanging out at the Chushman New Year's Extravaganza! We had such a great time, and I truly understand why Margaret told me it was "New Year's Heaven."

That night we left my house around 1am to drive to Nashville to catch our 6am flight. Then we flew to NY, it was so much fun! I won't bore you with the details right now, I'm pretty sure Ive bored my readers with enough details for the time being. I'll write a boring trip to NY post later.

on praying in church...

I was taught prayer was identical in church and at home. Prayer in bed,in the car, in church, were all the same, right? There was nothing special about the church building. I knew not to run in church, not much beyond that. This was not necessarily a fault of the protestant tradition, simply my understanding.

The Orthodox view of a church building is different from the view I was used to. We even have a prayer upon entering a church:

"I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear I will worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before me, that with a clear mind I may glorify thee forever, One Divine Power worshipped in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen."

Pretty big deal huh?

I was inspired to write this after viewing a comment from my last post from Khouria Susan (Khouria is the title for the wife of a Priest.) She is the wife of Father Basil, a priest in our parish. In my last post I mentioned how silly it sounded that I liked to pray in church. She wanted to know exactly what I meant.

Here is Kh. Susan's comment from my previous post:

"...And no, it's not silly that you like to pray in church. I can think of many many other things that I like to do that are silly, but praying in church isn't one of them. Oh, maybe you meant it's silly that you LIKE to pray in church... not that praying in church is silly. hmmmmmm. syntax.don't you just love it?"

My response:

"I was raised to believe a church was NO DIFFERENT than our home, therefore,prayer in a church was nothing special. So what I meant by the post was; It might sound silly to my friends, but I actually LIKE to pray IN a church... a concept formerly foreign to me. "

After completing my last final exam for the semester, I planned to go to church. I realized I crave being in church. It is a holy place. Yes I pray at home, but I also pray with other Orthodox believers in church.

I'm still getting used to it, "I like to pray in church." It sounds absurd, because I should have always felt this way. It sounds silly to say it, because isn't that the purpose of a church? The definition of "a church" has changed for me. I love that a church is a holy place, a place for worship and prayer.

Tonight I will attend Vespers, I'm really looking forward to it because I like to pray in church.