Book & Confessions

Well, I just purchased the majority of my books for the next semester. I can't help but be a little grumpy at having dish out $200+ on top of tuition expenses. And the sad thing is that I only about half of my books. I didn't buy any for my history class, since I know that I'll either get the books from the library or I simply won't read them at all. Or, if worst comes to worst, I'll purchase them as I go. [I know that makes me sound like a horrible student... but I really don't care about this class at all-- I'm taking it because it's required for graduation, that's all.]

Luckily some of my philosophy texts are ones that I own already, so I didn't have to reorder those. I generally always buy my philosophy books. What can I say? Although this semester there were some pretty outrageous prices. Dear Professors: When you pick obscure titles for reading lists, it makes our prices go sky-high. Just so you know.

The books I did purchase look to be very interesting, however:

Right and Reason by Austin Fagothey, SJ
Beyond the New Morality: The Responsibilities of Freedom by Germain Grisez
Drama of Atheist Humanism by Henri de Lubac
A Catholic Modernity? by Charles Taylor
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of Great Thinkers by Mark Skousen
The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Descartes
Utilitarianism by Mill
Passions of Soul by Descartes
Origin of Species by Darwin

In other news, my hands are absolutely freezing. As is my nose and feet. I think my mom forgot to turn the heat on again this morning.

I went into Portland this morning for Mass, hoping to go to confession beforehand [this parish is the only one I know of in the area that has confessions any day besides Saturday]. But when I arrived, I realized that Fr. D. was hearing confessions, so I decided not to go.

Now, I'm not usually one for caring which priest hears my confession. I'm really not. But... I've had some bad experiences with this particular priest. He's an older man, and God bless him, a very holy man. I've just had three separate experiences confessing with him that keeps me from going back. The first was only my second confession ever. He must've misheard what I confessed or something... but he yelled at me for not respecting the sacrament and hounded me until I felt guilt for something I hadn't done. I was crying something awful and he gave me a full rosary as my penance. Second time wasn't nearly as bad, but he only let me confess one sin before giving me absolution-- I couldn't even say that I wasn't finished yet! Third time the same thing happened and, to top it off, he forgot to give me absolution altogether!

So, needless to say, I just decided not to go. I really would like to go sometime before I head back to school, but it's so hard to find confession times. My parish and the surrounding parishes only offer confessions on Saturdays, which just don't work out for me very well. It's been over a month now since my last confession and I'm used to going every two weeks or so. If I wait until I get back to school, it'll be even longer.

I would ask my parish priest after/before daily Mass if he could hear my confession, but he doesn't seem to be a fan of such spontaneity. And, well maybe I'm just weird, but I'd really like to go before flying across country. :-/

Hm. I should probably continue to work on my honors thesis. I've seemed to have lost all motivation for getting any work done whatsoever. Or I could procrastinate with something. Hm. I could do laundry. Or create playlists on my iTunes...