It's Been a While

Hello everyone!

Yes, it's been a while since I posted. Life is becoming "ordinary". I am slowly finding out how every day life is lived here in Italy. For example...

Once I was finally had what is equivalent to a "green card" here, and had registered myself in the city of Rome, and had gotten my Identity Card, I was able to enroll in the national health care program. With that done, I could now establish a relationship with a doctor. So, I brought my health care record with me, thinking everything would now be nice and smoothe.

Think again! The doctor prescribed two of the prescriptions, no problem. When it came to lancets and stips to measure my blood sugar--"Oh, you have to visit the diabetologist." Well, that's a first--a diabetologist. I couldn't even pronounce it at first. Okay. Go to the diabetologist--who was WONDERFUL. Leave the diabetologist with: 1) an official diagnosis that I have diabetes (thank God I brought all my blood work from the US); 2) a "therapeutic plan" for the oral medication; 3) a "therapeutic plan" for 50 strips to measure my sugar per month. Now I have to go to the health care office so they can update my record--my superior went to do this for me. Once that's done I go back to my regular doctor so he can prescribe the medication and the lancets and strips. Go to the pharmacy and the medication has been cleared by the health care office, but not the lancets and strips. Wait a few days, still no clearance for the lancets and strips. Then it hit me: when my superior went to the office, they must not have noticed that the two identical looking "therapeutic plans" were for two different things. And once I thought everything had been taken care of, I got rid of all my duplicate copies of everything--and I threw out the identical looking "therapeutic plan" for the lancets and strips. Call my doctor because I believe I gave him a copy of that "therapeutic plan". He doesn't keep the paperwork in the office that I see him. It's kept in another office. Please pray that tomorrow when I call his secretary at the other office that I can finish this story.... And this is what Obama wants for the U.S.?

Enough of that. For the first time in my life I witnessed one of this fabulous processions that you read about in novels. Last Sunday our parish celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. After the 6pm Mass, the men who belong to the Third Order of Carmelites carried the HUGE statue of OLMC, which if I understood correctly weighs several tons, through the streets of the neighborhood. It was a two hour procession. We stopped along the way to let the men rest. We prayed the rosary and in between each decade there were periods of silence, intercessions, and a beautiful introduction the mystery. When we stopped in front of the Church of Santa Anna, which is the church just inside of the Vatican gates, we stopped for special prayers for the Pope. But the men also held up the statue of Our Lady so that she could salute her "mamma". It was incredibly precious. Here are some of the pictures that I took with my cell phone.

Here comes the statue out of the Church. As you can see, she just makes it through the doors.

Thanks be to God there was a wonderful turnout!

Our weather here has been hotter than normal too. I am looking forward to getting out to California at the beginning of August for a few weeks of vacation.