St. Patrick's Day & Sunday

My plan was to go to choir practice on Saturday morning at Christendom, go to the gym (back in Herndon), go to Vespers at Holy Transfiguration, and then go back to Christendom and attend the St. Patrick's Day festivities. That was the plan, anyway...

I got up late on Saturday. I actually got up and out of bed at about 9:30 AM. I debated with myself if I should shower -- no, I decided against it. Why should I? I'm going to the gym. I'm only going to get sweaty again, and then I'd have to come back and take another shower. So I put on my gym clothes and got ready to go to the gym...

(10:00 AM)

...right after I checked my e-mail. "Hey, check it out, someone added me on MySpace." I go look. "Figures. It's just some person trying to bump their friend count up. OK, whatever." (Accept.)

I saw some videos on the MSN homepage about St. Patrick's Day. They've reduced his status to mythological. They don't doubt that he existed, but St. Patrick didn't cast out all the snakes from Ireland. They believe that he couldn't have, and they back it up by saying that there were never any snakes in Ireland. Everything else was pretty cool -- there was a recipe for Guinness cake (which I think I can make), some sort of bacon, cabbage, and mashed potatoes mix -- I can't remember the name of it, but it looks really good.

And after that... "Oh, and I got something on Facebook! I gotta see that!" So, I checked my Facebook account. "Ah, that's cool. Hey, I've been poked!" Pokes poker back. "Ah, much better."

(11:00 AM)

"You know, my profile needs to be updated. I'll do that really quickly. Well, this won't be a quick thing. I'll fire up an episode of Gargoyles." So, I fire up one of the episodes (I think it was The Thrill of the Hunt), and begin editing my profile.

(2:45 PM) "I've now uploaded a lot of pictures, joined a few groups, and I've gotten through Season 1. Time to go the gym." I was cutting it close, because my workout would probably be about an hour-and-a-half, and I still had to shower. Should I even go? Yes, I should. I grabbed my MP3 player, a change of clothes, and headed out.

My workout was actually over two hours long. The bulk of the workout was legs -- that was fairly quick, although not easy. The situps and other core exercises were a lot harder. When I was done, I went to the steam room. It was so warm in there. I almost fell asleep, but I didn't. I was completely drenched in sweat, so I jumped (not literally) into the hot tub. (No, it wasn't too hot in the hot tub.) After that, a shower, a shave, head back to the apartment, grab a change of clothes for the weekend...

(5:45 PM)

...or so I thought. I stood around debating with myself -- do I need a change of clothes? I would, if I was spending the night out there. But I was driving Matt G. (one of the guys at Holy Transfiguration) from Vespers to Christendom to join in the St. Patrick's Day festival, so I would be driving him back that evening. I left my stuff at the apartment and headed out the door...

...after I finished making my protein shake. But it wasn't much of a shake. I put some in the freezer to solidify, so while I was waiting for that, I checked my e-mail again. "Huh, I've got more stuff on Facebook. Let's check that out."

(6:30 PM)

I finally pried myself from the computer, got in the car, and drove to Holy Transfiguration. I had missed Vespers completely by the time that I got there. Of course, it was entirely my fault -- I'm definitely not trying to duck out of it. Anyway, Matt and I got on the road to Front Royal...

(7:15 PM)

...but I had to swing by the office first and check to see if Paul's computer was turned on -- he had tried to get some work done, but he couldn't log into his machine. It was turned on, so I gave Paul and call to let him know that it wasn't his computer's fault, and then headed out. I also discovered that it would be just as easy for Matt to sleep out in Front Royal (easier, actually) than for us to make the drive back that same night. So we also stopped by my apartment and picked up my change of clothes that I had almost packed but had not brought, because I was sooo clever earlier and we finally made it down to Front Royal circa 9:00 PM.

St. Patrick's Feast was celebrated with much Guinness, Irish dancing, Irish songs and high spirits. Seemed to me to be a stereotypical American/Irish festival, and it was a lot of fun. Towards the end, I talked to Father H. and Mrs. O'D, and it just so happens that Mrs. O'D. is looking for a set of bagpipes for her son. I just happen to have a set of bagpipes that I have never opened. I wanted to learn them, but I'm never going to be able to do so in an apartment. I agreed to bring them this coming weekend, so she could take a look at them to see if she was interested.

When the party ended in the St. Lawrence Commons, everything moved over to St. Killian's Cafe, which is part of the John Paul II student center where the old library had been. I had a Guinness earlier, so I had an Irish coffee there. I chatted with Pate Q., Fred F., Peter K., Matt G., Cynthia and several other people who were there. After that, I head over to Sarah H's place, where she and Vivian were visiting. I ended up having two shots of Butterscotch Schnapps and one of Cinnamon Schnapps -- both really good, and really sweet.

Matt G. gave me a call, and I drove back to campus to pick him up. We both went back to Sarah's and chatted until 3:00 AM (quite by accident), and then I dropped him off at St. Pius dorm where he had an invitation to stay, and I went to St. Kevin's and crashed there. The next morning, Matt rode back out to Holy Transfiguration with Katherine M.

I got up about 8:00 AM to light pouring in my eyes. I went to choir practice, schola practice, and Mass. After that, there was a second brief schola practice before the Tridentine Mass in town, and then Dr. Poterack, Draper, Andy C., and I went to that Mass and chanted the schola pieces there as well. After this, there was the Palestrina choir rehearsal, and we were done about 3:30. I stuck around until about 3:45 just talking, and I went to the gym at about 4:00 PM to meet up with TJ for more dancing lessons. When I got there, he was in the middle of a game of wallyball, so I lifted weights for a few minutes until he was done.

After our lesson, I went back and lifted weights for a little bit longer, and then I came to the library to type this up. I really should go now. I told M.C. and Francis that I would join them in the gym. It's 7:00 PM now, this was about half-an-hour ago...