I leap over the wall!! (In)

Are you sitting down? Because I have exciting news. Well, probably not so exciting for you as for me, and also it's not news to me, because I've known about this for a while...
I'm going in the convent!!!
Just for one night, I'm totally planning to come back.
Scott and I are heading to Wilton CT with our pastor to cheer on our friend, who is taking her first profession as a School Sister of Notre Dame. I am thrilled for this amazingly beautiful woman, who spent some time with us during her novitiate, but also pretty psyched for myself, who will be staying in an honest-to-goodness frickin' convent. Well, they call it the MOTHERHOUSE, which I think is even cooler, because it sounds like a SPACESHIP, and this particular motherhouse looks like the PENTAGON. That's how cool it is.
So, what does one wear to a Motherhouse? What kind of gift does one bring to a new nun?
I'm thinking the polka-dotted brown with a pashmina to cover my shoulders modestly, and hoping open-toed shoes are okay, and bringing maybe something special from my nun collection.
Have I mentioned my nun collection here? It started innocently, when I announced to my fellow social worker friends that I was leaving that glamorous life for a job in the Church. They, naturally, assumed I was becoming a nun (because what other possible jobs could there be for a woman in the Church?) and started giving me nun-themed gifts. I have silly ones, like nun-shaped salt and pepper shakers, bottle openers, and toys, but also a pretty cool collection of world war I postcards of the Sisters of Mercy at work in the battlefields, and great books and pamphlets about nuns escaping convent horrors... oh and figures of bowling nuns, and nun music boxes (they ALL play dominique-a-nique-a-nique....). Anyway, through it all I've come to learn and appreciate much about the women-religious, as they're often called now, as underground workers for growth and truth and change in the Church. Oh gosh, don't quote me, that may be a secret. Shhhh!
Anyway I will try to take lots of pictures for you of my exciting time on the inside!! WOOOO!!