Welcome to the Shire

            I am Caty - Beth Gooding. When I was born, my parents intended on calling me Catherine, they did not come up with my nickname. My mom comes from a very small town, and she knew everyone, including the owners of the gas station. The first time I was brought to visit her town, someone told the owners and they changed the marquee so that it said "Welcome Caty - Beth Gooding" because they did not have enough letters to write out my full name. My grandparents then started calling me that, despite what my parents told them, and it caught on.

            Probably one of my favorite things I did this summer was go to CLI - Catholic Leadership Institute. It lasted for a week and none of the participants were allowed to bring cell phones, or "distractions" of any sort. We were chosen to attend this program by people at our churches who saw leadership qualities in us, and decided to help us bring those out. We learned about leading, while we learned about our faith. I grew close to many people I didn’t know before I got there, and I grew even closer with the ones I knew beforehand. I can't say much else about it, because at the end of the week, we were told to keep it a secret, so that attendees in the future would not have the surprise ruined for them.

            There are lots of things that geek me out: Going to the lake. Food. Babysitting. Disney princess movies. Youth Group. Church. But one thing that geeks me out most is books. Some of my favorite books are the Harry Potter series, anything by John Green, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I love watching the movies and reading the books. Sometimes, when we have days off or if I don’t have anything going on during the weekend, I'll have a LOTR movie marathon by myself.

            But something I enjoy even more than LOTR, I think, is live music. There is just something amazing about being in the presence of someone who can make a masterpiece with just their voice, or their fingers. My most common encounter with this is my brother. His band meets in our basement every week, and while that part is pretty annoying, when they play "gigs" I really like them. I also love going to concerts, but who then again, who doesn't?

Two of my favorite websites are thisiswhyimbroke.com and iwastesomuchtime.com, although thisiswhyimbroke.com isn't always completely appropriate.

Love the lake