I actually didn't care much for this movie in the beginning, especially because people kept taking down about "one-man women" and loyalty in marriage. It seemed as though the movie would be emphasizing divorce as a good thing. I was very happy with the movie by the end, even though the ending itself it was predictable.
If you click on the title of this post, it'll take you directly to the part of the article that references this particular movie. However, if you scroll around in it, it'll show you other versions of the film, which I never knew existed. That's no surprise, considering this was my first time to see this movie...
I'd recommend it. It's a great classic. Especially when you see baby Kim. Looks just like Lizzie. {insert evil laugh here}
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Anger Management
This movie was funny in parts. I kinda saw the ending coming, but there was a lot of doubt in my mind. It's not one of the cleanest movies ever, but it's amusing. The acting, the direction, etc. all helped make this the great movie that it is. I can't complain much about it. It's fun.
Monday, March 05, 2007
The weekend
This weekend, Dr. P. recorded a few tracks for a new choir CD. This was also the beginning of spring break for the students.
On Friday, after work, I drove down to Front Royal for choir practice. It seemed to go really smoothly -- there were a couple intonation problems, but overall, it was nice. After this, Paul E., Michael C., Emma and Sarah F., and Lizzie B. went to Sarah H.'s house, where we watched Star Wars, Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi. I fell asleep about 30 minutes into it, but it wasn't any big deal for me -- I've only seen it more times than I can count. Plus, I really needed a nap anyway. After that, I drove Michael back to Christendom, and crashed on the couch in his room.
The next morning, I went to Mass on campus, and then assisted Dr. P. by moving the music from the crypt to the choir loft. Practice lasted from about 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, and then we had a break.
During this break, I played poker with Paul, Michael, Jonathan D. and Draper W. I lost all of my money in one game of Three-Five-Seven, but Texas hold 'em also helped clean me out...
After break and lunch, we went back upstairs to record. The sessions seemed to go well. I had a problem with Meditabor by Franz Xaver Witt in that I kept pulling flat on the introduction. I think I got it once, but for some reason, I kept pulling flat. It could have been that my voice was just getting tired, but I think I'll just say that it's because I'm getting sloppy, and I need to work on keeping in tune. Why? Because the latter gives me a reason to work harder.
Of course, in retrospect, I should have backed off a little bit. Jonathan was nailing it every time.
As for the rest of the pieces, I don't remember anything horrible in the rest of them, but it could be because I was concentrating too hard on my own part to notice anything wrong anyplace else.
After the choir recording, the schola had its turn. By this point, all of our voices were getting rather tired, so we all had to work to get everything to sound good. My voice cracked several times, and I felt myself pulling flat. I tried my hardest to stay on key -- easier said than done, but I think we managed to pull it off well. When the schola finished up, Emma and Lizzie had a recording session, and then we all went out to dinner at Dean's Steak House.
Dinner was fun. Ken and I got to talking technology-in-work (SQL, salesforce, and all that stuff), but it didn't last all that long, and we got back to normal conversations with everyone else at the table. We discussed books, took a couple pictures and even sang a couple songs at the request of one of the waitresses.
Following that, I drove Michael, Sylvia S., and Lizzie out to JoS. A. Bank in Winchester, because they were having a sale. It turned out that it was an internet only sale, but we got Michael sized up for a suit, and that's what counts...
After spending the night on Michael's couch again, I got up early on Sunday morning, and drove Jen P. to Dulles airport. After that, Paul and I went to Old St. Mary's for Mass, then I drove him to his house in PA. I visited with his family for the day -- I even got some exercise. John, Paul and I went out for a bike ride, biking down some relatively easy trails which were made harder by the presence of mud and ice.
After we got back, I played Texas hold 'em and Anaconda -- I didn't do as badly this time -- I didn't lose all my money.
After this, we had dinner, and I left the house about 9:00 PM, and drove back to the apartment. On the way back, I called Mommy, and after getting cut off about four times, we had basically gotten caught up on life again. :)
On Friday, after work, I drove down to Front Royal for choir practice. It seemed to go really smoothly -- there were a couple intonation problems, but overall, it was nice. After this, Paul E., Michael C., Emma and Sarah F., and Lizzie B. went to Sarah H.'s house, where we watched Star Wars, Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi. I fell asleep about 30 minutes into it, but it wasn't any big deal for me -- I've only seen it more times than I can count. Plus, I really needed a nap anyway. After that, I drove Michael back to Christendom, and crashed on the couch in his room.
The next morning, I went to Mass on campus, and then assisted Dr. P. by moving the music from the crypt to the choir loft. Practice lasted from about 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, and then we had a break.
During this break, I played poker with Paul, Michael, Jonathan D. and Draper W. I lost all of my money in one game of Three-Five-Seven, but Texas hold 'em also helped clean me out...
After break and lunch, we went back upstairs to record. The sessions seemed to go well. I had a problem with Meditabor by Franz Xaver Witt in that I kept pulling flat on the introduction. I think I got it once, but for some reason, I kept pulling flat. It could have been that my voice was just getting tired, but I think I'll just say that it's because I'm getting sloppy, and I need to work on keeping in tune. Why? Because the latter gives me a reason to work harder.
Of course, in retrospect, I should have backed off a little bit. Jonathan was nailing it every time.
As for the rest of the pieces, I don't remember anything horrible in the rest of them, but it could be because I was concentrating too hard on my own part to notice anything wrong anyplace else.
After the choir recording, the schola had its turn. By this point, all of our voices were getting rather tired, so we all had to work to get everything to sound good. My voice cracked several times, and I felt myself pulling flat. I tried my hardest to stay on key -- easier said than done, but I think we managed to pull it off well. When the schola finished up, Emma and Lizzie had a recording session, and then we all went out to dinner at Dean's Steak House.
Dinner was fun. Ken and I got to talking technology-in-work (SQL, salesforce, and all that stuff), but it didn't last all that long, and we got back to normal conversations with everyone else at the table. We discussed books, took a couple pictures and even sang a couple songs at the request of one of the waitresses.
Following that, I drove Michael, Sylvia S., and Lizzie out to JoS. A. Bank in Winchester, because they were having a sale. It turned out that it was an internet only sale, but we got Michael sized up for a suit, and that's what counts...
After spending the night on Michael's couch again, I got up early on Sunday morning, and drove Jen P. to Dulles airport. After that, Paul and I went to Old St. Mary's for Mass, then I drove him to his house in PA. I visited with his family for the day -- I even got some exercise. John, Paul and I went out for a bike ride, biking down some relatively easy trails which were made harder by the presence of mud and ice.
After we got back, I played Texas hold 'em and Anaconda -- I didn't do as badly this time -- I didn't lose all my money.
After this, we had dinner, and I left the house about 9:00 PM, and drove back to the apartment. On the way back, I called Mommy, and after getting cut off about four times, we had basically gotten caught up on life again. :)
Friday, March 02, 2007
Amadeus
Oh. My. Gosh. I don't know what to say about this movie except that it is excellent. Watch this movie. It was positively moving. The way that this movie takes Mozart's life and presents it is astounding. Whether all the bits are fact, fiction, or a combination of fact and artistic interpretation (which I'm sure it is, to an extent), it doesn't really matter. It was incredible.
I found the actress who played his wife to be mildly annoying. There was nothing wrong with the way that she acted -- at least I hope. I chalk it up to her doing a fine job of acting, and the script being written that way.
I actually watched the director's cut, and there was nothing too terribly wrong with it. There is one scene, where the protagonist of the film, Salieri, has made his demands as to how Mozart can get a particularly high-falootin' position in the emperor's court, as musical trainer to the emperor's niece. Mozart is in desperate need of the money, but he won't show his work, because he is too proud to have his work critiqued. He is of the attitude that he knows it's the best (and he is quite accurate in thinking so), and everyone else does, too -- what is the need to show his work? This pride causes him to not get the job. His wife comes, unbeknownst by Mozart, to the court, to show his work to get him the job. Salieri is reduced almost to tears simply by looking at the original work, and is so moved that he is inclined to give Mozart the position, but his jealousy gets in the way, and he tells Mrs. Mozart that her husband cannot have the position without "service" from her. We all know what is implied, and she is told to come back alone that night. Of course she protests, but when she sees that there is no other way, she does so. She shows up that night, and, without being told to, begins to remove her clothing. All the while, I was internally shouting at Salieri, "Make her stop!" He didn't, sadly.
Aside from that, there is a lot of language, which I found quite surprising, and 95% of it is from Mozart himself.
In any case, don't watch it with kids -- they'll be terrified of the opening -- and that reminds me, there are fully naked men in the opening. The opening is in an asylum. It's excusable in context, considering that there is nothing sexual about it. These men are completely insane.
So, aside from that, there is nothing too terribly wrong with it. But still, don't let the kids see it. They won't understand most of it, and what they see might actually scare them. I mean, I'll have nightmares... ;)
I found the actress who played his wife to be mildly annoying. There was nothing wrong with the way that she acted -- at least I hope. I chalk it up to her doing a fine job of acting, and the script being written that way.
I actually watched the director's cut, and there was nothing too terribly wrong with it. There is one scene, where the protagonist of the film, Salieri, has made his demands as to how Mozart can get a particularly high-falootin' position in the emperor's court, as musical trainer to the emperor's niece. Mozart is in desperate need of the money, but he won't show his work, because he is too proud to have his work critiqued. He is of the attitude that he knows it's the best (and he is quite accurate in thinking so), and everyone else does, too -- what is the need to show his work? This pride causes him to not get the job. His wife comes, unbeknownst by Mozart, to the court, to show his work to get him the job. Salieri is reduced almost to tears simply by looking at the original work, and is so moved that he is inclined to give Mozart the position, but his jealousy gets in the way, and he tells Mrs. Mozart that her husband cannot have the position without "service" from her. We all know what is implied, and she is told to come back alone that night. Of course she protests, but when she sees that there is no other way, she does so. She shows up that night, and, without being told to, begins to remove her clothing. All the while, I was internally shouting at Salieri, "Make her stop!" He didn't, sadly.
Aside from that, there is a lot of language, which I found quite surprising, and 95% of it is from Mozart himself.
In any case, don't watch it with kids -- they'll be terrified of the opening -- and that reminds me, there are fully naked men in the opening. The opening is in an asylum. It's excusable in context, considering that there is nothing sexual about it. These men are completely insane.
So, aside from that, there is nothing too terribly wrong with it. But still, don't let the kids see it. They won't understand most of it, and what they see might actually scare them. I mean, I'll have nightmares... ;)
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Conan: the Destroyer
This movie was just fun. The plot wasn't great, and the acting was only slightly better than the first one, but it was a very entertaining movie. This movie also had one other thing going for it: it was a lot cleaner than the first one.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Conan: the Barbarian
This was one of the first if not the first that established Arnold Schwarzenegger as the actor that he is. It's not a thinking movie, and I definitely can't recommend it as a clean, wholesome, family movie. However, if you can watch it while keeping the title in mind (especially the part about "Barbarian"), and consider that there are no rules or morals and that they are all pagan, it is a pretty fun movie. If you can't keep that in mind, and you can't just watch it for the fun of it, don't watch it. You'll come out of it wondering why the 1960's and 1970's had to happen. The early 80's was cheesy enough without the awful hippie influence...
Come to think of it, I do wonder why the 60's and 70's had to happen...
Come to think of it, I do wonder why the 60's and 70's had to happen...
The Godfather, Part III
This movie is definitely entering the modern era of movies. Some of the camera work was a bit lot more stylized...
This movie went along at a better pace than Godfather II. I enjoyed it more, although, it was still rather confusing. I had to read the synopsis to put it all together.
This was yet another 3 hour movie. I've spent 9 hours (with 2 hours of breaks) watching the Godfather Trilogy... Crazy...
I'll have to watch them each again. :)
This movie went along at a better pace than Godfather II. I enjoyed it more, although, it was still rather confusing. I had to read the synopsis to put it all together.
This was yet another 3 hour movie. I've spent 9 hours (with 2 hours of breaks) watching the Godfather Trilogy... Crazy...
I'll have to watch them each again. :)
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Godfather, Part II
Wow. I heard that it wasn't as good as the original Godfather. I liked it more after I read the Wikipedia synopsis, but until then, it really didn't make much sense. Once again, it was an excellent movie, but it didn't really appeal to me. Perhaps I need to watch it again...
Plus, it was a second three-hour movie in a row...
Plus, it was a second three-hour movie in a row...
The Godfather
This was a good movie, even an excellent movie. I recognize the quality of the story, the filming, the actors, etc. I personally didn't really enjoy it all that much, because it was really slow through a lot of it. However, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see it.
There are two very short clips of sex -- one during the first half-hour of the movie, and the second one doesn't show any sex, but you see it coming, and you know when to either look away, turn off the TV, or otherwise get distracted for about five seconds.
I will say that it was the original gangster movie. It laid out the premise for every single Italian stereotype. "I made him a deal he couldn't refuse." Great quote...
There are two very short clips of sex -- one during the first half-hour of the movie, and the second one doesn't show any sex, but you see it coming, and you know when to either look away, turn off the TV, or otherwise get distracted for about five seconds.
I will say that it was the original gangster movie. It laid out the premise for every single Italian stereotype. "I made him a deal he couldn't refuse." Great quote...
Vocation Discernment Weekend
The weekend started with my first vocal lesson. I went to Kathy C.'s house (she was recommended by Sarah H.) from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM. She figured out my comfort range, and she gave me a few pointed on things to do. I'll try to have a lesson once a week, but with my schedule being what it is, we'll see if that actually works...
After my lesson, I went to Front Royal, chatted with Lizzie, chatted with Sarah, and then went to St. Kevin's were I spent the night.
Saturday morning, bright and early (8:30 AM) I woke up after getting about five hours of sleep. The first talk I went to was Fr. Frank Pavone's talk, entitled "Master, Where Do You Stay?" Dealing with Uncertainty in Choosing a Vocation. This was a great speech. It got me all fired up about my vocation -- whatever it is...
At 10:00 began Exposition, Adoration, and Confessions in the chapel until 11:15 Mass. After Mass, then lunch, the first talk I went to was Diocesan Priesthood/Permanent Deacon with Fr. Brian Bashista and Fr. Matthew Zuberbueler. This was a good presentation. I got some information regarding a vocation retreat for the Arlington Diocese.
Following this, a large group of people piled into the smallest classroom for Gerard A.'s talk, Discerning Your Vocation While Still Single (Gerard graduated from Christendom, class of '05). We moved out of that classroom into a larger one, but even that was packed -- standing room only. Gerard gave an incredible speech, presenting some ideas for discerning your vocation. His main point was just live life. Do what you need to do, do what you see needs to be done.
The third and final talk was Marriage as a Vocation. You can guess what it was about. It was a good talk -- it was given by the parents of a current junior, whom I first met as a freshman: Micah W. After the talk, I spoke to Mr. W. for a moment.
After all this was a social/happy hour. I stopped in for only a moment to speak to Fr. Bashista about what it would take to get bi-ritual faculties if I were to become a priest. He said that for something like that, I would have to be selected -- it's not something that I could ask for, nor is it something that he or anyone could guarantee. Satisfied with that answer, I left to go to Vespers at Holy Transfiguration.
After Vespers, I went to see Ghost Rider with Eric. I got back to the apartment about midnight, checked my e-mail and went right to bed.
This morning, I got up at 7:00, and was at Holy Transfiguration at 9:00 in spite of the snow/ice mix that was raining from the sky. Divine Liturgy was loads of fun, especially with the anathemas. I wish that the Roman Rite had something like that. It's not often that I get to hear heresies and then repeat the anathemas that proclaimed them heretical.
I drove back to the apartment -- it took me over half-an-hour to actually get back to the apartment, using the tollway -- about twice the time that it normally takes. On the way back, I called Francis F. who relayed to Dr. P. that I would not be at practice.
When I got back to the apartment, fired up the Godfather Trilogy. {shrugs} Eh...
After my lesson, I went to Front Royal, chatted with Lizzie, chatted with Sarah, and then went to St. Kevin's were I spent the night.
Saturday morning, bright and early (8:30 AM) I woke up after getting about five hours of sleep. The first talk I went to was Fr. Frank Pavone's talk, entitled "Master, Where Do You Stay?" Dealing with Uncertainty in Choosing a Vocation. This was a great speech. It got me all fired up about my vocation -- whatever it is...
At 10:00 began Exposition, Adoration, and Confessions in the chapel until 11:15 Mass. After Mass, then lunch, the first talk I went to was Diocesan Priesthood/Permanent Deacon with Fr. Brian Bashista and Fr. Matthew Zuberbueler. This was a good presentation. I got some information regarding a vocation retreat for the Arlington Diocese.
Following this, a large group of people piled into the smallest classroom for Gerard A.'s talk, Discerning Your Vocation While Still Single (Gerard graduated from Christendom, class of '05). We moved out of that classroom into a larger one, but even that was packed -- standing room only. Gerard gave an incredible speech, presenting some ideas for discerning your vocation. His main point was just live life. Do what you need to do, do what you see needs to be done.
The third and final talk was Marriage as a Vocation. You can guess what it was about. It was a good talk -- it was given by the parents of a current junior, whom I first met as a freshman: Micah W. After the talk, I spoke to Mr. W. for a moment.
After all this was a social/happy hour. I stopped in for only a moment to speak to Fr. Bashista about what it would take to get bi-ritual faculties if I were to become a priest. He said that for something like that, I would have to be selected -- it's not something that I could ask for, nor is it something that he or anyone could guarantee. Satisfied with that answer, I left to go to Vespers at Holy Transfiguration.
After Vespers, I went to see Ghost Rider with Eric. I got back to the apartment about midnight, checked my e-mail and went right to bed.
This morning, I got up at 7:00, and was at Holy Transfiguration at 9:00 in spite of the snow/ice mix that was raining from the sky. Divine Liturgy was loads of fun, especially with the anathemas. I wish that the Roman Rite had something like that. It's not often that I get to hear heresies and then repeat the anathemas that proclaimed them heretical.
I drove back to the apartment -- it took me over half-an-hour to actually get back to the apartment, using the tollway -- about twice the time that it normally takes. On the way back, I called Francis F. who relayed to Dr. P. that I would not be at practice.
When I got back to the apartment, fired up the Godfather Trilogy. {shrugs} Eh...
Friday, February 23, 2007
Inside Man
I don't really know what to think of this. This was definitely a movie that kept me thinking. I watched it, and I was always wondering what was going to happen next. There were several places where I knew what was going to happen -- there were several places where it was even predictable. Early on, when the bank robbers made everyone strip down to their underwear, I wondered what would come of this. Then, when they gave everyone clothes, I saw how that would be used. It was pretty crazy, albeit somewhat predictable. I would recommend this movie as a fun movie. The ending was very much not expected...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Lady in the Water
This was an excellent movie! I say this in complete disagreement with everyone who I've ever heard bash it. If you look at it from the mindset of hearing a story, and also keeping in mind that this story is set in today's world, then your suspension of disbelief will kick in, and you will be able to enjoy it. However, if you critique it, you won't be able to enjoy it. It is, after all, based on a children's fairy tale...
Disagree with me however you will. If you enjoy the movie, great. If you hate the movie, fine. If you are completely neutral about it, OK. This was just my opinion of the movie...
Disagree with me however you will. If you enjoy the movie, great. If you hate the movie, fine. If you are completely neutral about it, OK. This was just my opinion of the movie...
The Da Vinci Code
I have only one thing to say: what is the hype about? The movie was, quite honestly ridiculous. I can suspend a lot of disbelief, but not when my Faith is mocked.
Going into the film, I had heard rumors of blasphemy, especially on the part of Jesus and Mary Magdalene being married. But the film was simply ludicrous. Sadly, it was not a funny kind of movie. There were a couple moving scenes where I felt badly for a character, or relieved by a narrow escape, but that's all that I felt. I tried to enjoy the movie as a story, but I just couldn't.
All I could think of being in Tom Hank's (or any of the other actors or actresses) shoes and having to say such cheesy lines in front of a camera. I think that I would have read the script once and said, "I think not." Seriously. Tom Hanks is a brilliant actor -- why did he do this movie?
Going into the film, I had heard rumors of blasphemy, especially on the part of Jesus and Mary Magdalene being married. But the film was simply ludicrous. Sadly, it was not a funny kind of movie. There were a couple moving scenes where I felt badly for a character, or relieved by a narrow escape, but that's all that I felt. I tried to enjoy the movie as a story, but I just couldn't.
All I could think of being in Tom Hank's (or any of the other actors or actresses) shoes and having to say such cheesy lines in front of a camera. I think that I would have read the script once and said, "I think not." Seriously. Tom Hanks is a brilliant actor -- why did he do this movie?
A Beautiful Mind
...and a beautiful movie. It is easily one of my new favorites. I was hooked over a year ago when I first heard one track of the soundtrack. The main theme (A Kaleidoscope Of Mathematics) was so hauntingly beautiful. I listened to the rest of the soundtrack, and I knew that I had to see the movie.
The number of times that I've listened to soundtracks and then decided that I wanted to see a movie (like Star Trek Generations) or play the video game (like Final Fantasy VI) is ridiculously high. I am always able to get into a movie or game much better if I have heard the score or the soundtrack. And this this case, I really got pulled into the movie...
All the acting in this movie was simply fantastic. I'm no critic, but all of the performances were simply incredible! This is a must-see movie, and one that I will highly recommend to everyone. Of course, by "everyone", I mean the more grown-up audiences. Most children would probably be either confused by or terrified of the movie...
The number of times that I've listened to soundtracks and then decided that I wanted to see a movie (like Star Trek Generations) or play the video game (like Final Fantasy VI) is ridiculously high. I am always able to get into a movie or game much better if I have heard the score or the soundtrack. And this this case, I really got pulled into the movie...
All the acting in this movie was simply fantastic. I'm no critic, but all of the performances were simply incredible! This is a must-see movie, and one that I will highly recommend to everyone. Of course, by "everyone", I mean the more grown-up audiences. Most children would probably be either confused by or terrified of the movie...
Isabel
My sister Jane just had her second child, Isabel Christina. Obviously, I've back the time up on this post so that it works. Otherwise, I'd have to say, "She had her baby earlier today," or something to that effect. Oh yeah, and she weighs 5lbs, 7oz and is 18" long.
Weekend activities...
On Saturday, I went to Baltimore to audition for a short film. It was an hour long drive (one-way) for a ten-minute long audition. I drove back to Herndon, and in the process, I exchanged a shirt at the Men's Wearhouse, then stopped at Best Buy to pick up a wire adapter and a mounting kit for my new tape deck. It took about an hour-and-a-half to install, mostly because I had never installed a car radio before, plus I'm not that great at stripping wires. The tape deck seemed too big, but it fit. I also replaced the front right parking light. The left side will require some bending to get it put back into shape. I also need a new bumper cover and grille. Neither one are too expensive -- it's just bending the car back into shape will require skill that I don't think I have...
That evening, I was going to go to Glen Echo, but I decided against it. It was $15 to get in, plus I needed to be up early on Sunday morning for Mass. I was not going to go down to Front Royal that evening, so I had to get up early the next morning. And I did. I actually went to bed at an almost decent hour and got up about 6:45 AM. (Hey, I'm a slow mover in the morning...) I made it to Christendom just before nine, catching almost all of choir practice.
After Mass, I went to brunch, and then to the practice for the Palestrina Choir, which until now I've always called "the select choir" because there wasn't really a name attached to it...
After this, I spent about 2went to the gym and played racquetball, wallyball, and basketball. Then I went to Dane and JD's for a little bit. After that, I went to the chapel and chanted with the guys for a while.
Dr. P. had an art song recital, which was excellent. I had to heckle him a little from the audience, but I tried to keep it down...
At brunch, Sarah Fr. and Beth Fe. had asked me if I knew Monty Python's Lumberjack Song. Sadly, I had forgotten most of the words. They asked me if I could re-learn it, be at birthday singing that night, and sing it. So, I found the lyrics on the internet and re-studied them. At birthday singing, I sang the part of the lumberjack and everyone else sang the part of the mounties. I think that the girls got a kick out of it...
I spent the night at Ken and Alaina's place, and on Monday, Ken and I drove in to work together. That night, TJ helped me learn how to swing dance. It was embarrassing at best for me. I inadvertently insulted my dance partner by indirectly calling her heavy. That was definitely embarrassing. Then there is my general clumsiness, poor balance, and my own remarkable method of getting in my own way. I felt a bit like a fool, needless to say...
Then Eric and Sarah showed up. I felt even more clumsy, because Eric is an exceptionally good dancer (implying by this statement that I was in a room of really good dancers -- if you take this to mean anything else, it's not what I mean).
After that, I hung out with Eric W. and Sarah H. After I left, Eric and I went to Fast Eddie's Billiards, had a drink, and just chatted for a while. The time being late, I went home to bed. Well, I actually tried to do some work, but I fell asleep in front of the computer...
That evening, I was going to go to Glen Echo, but I decided against it. It was $15 to get in, plus I needed to be up early on Sunday morning for Mass. I was not going to go down to Front Royal that evening, so I had to get up early the next morning. And I did. I actually went to bed at an almost decent hour and got up about 6:45 AM. (Hey, I'm a slow mover in the morning...) I made it to Christendom just before nine, catching almost all of choir practice.
After Mass, I went to brunch, and then to the practice for the Palestrina Choir, which until now I've always called "the select choir" because there wasn't really a name attached to it...
After this, I spent about 2went to the gym and played racquetball, wallyball, and basketball. Then I went to Dane and JD's for a little bit. After that, I went to the chapel and chanted with the guys for a while.
Dr. P. had an art song recital, which was excellent. I had to heckle him a little from the audience, but I tried to keep it down...
At brunch, Sarah Fr. and Beth Fe. had asked me if I knew Monty Python's Lumberjack Song. Sadly, I had forgotten most of the words. They asked me if I could re-learn it, be at birthday singing that night, and sing it. So, I found the lyrics on the internet and re-studied them. At birthday singing, I sang the part of the lumberjack and everyone else sang the part of the mounties. I think that the girls got a kick out of it...
I spent the night at Ken and Alaina's place, and on Monday, Ken and I drove in to work together. That night, TJ helped me learn how to swing dance. It was embarrassing at best for me. I inadvertently insulted my dance partner by indirectly calling her heavy. That was definitely embarrassing. Then there is my general clumsiness, poor balance, and my own remarkable method of getting in my own way. I felt a bit like a fool, needless to say...
Then Eric and Sarah showed up. I felt even more clumsy, because Eric is an exceptionally good dancer (implying by this statement that I was in a room of really good dancers -- if you take this to mean anything else, it's not what I mean).
After that, I hung out with Eric W. and Sarah H. After I left, Eric and I went to Fast Eddie's Billiards, had a drink, and just chatted for a while. The time being late, I went home to bed. Well, I actually tried to do some work, but I fell asleep in front of the computer...
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Volume I
I bought this some time ago. I started watching it a while back but it was too painful to keep watching it. The humor is completely whacko and absurdist. A couple of the jokes were actually funny. The rest of it really isn't.
I started watching it a couple days ago, and I just finished it up. I think I watched it all quickly because I was hoping and praying for some redeeming quality about this show. There wasn't much that was redeeming.
I bought it a few years back. The first time I ever heard of Space Ghost was through some sound files that some friends of mine had. Those clips were actually hilarious. This show -- not so much...
I started watching it a couple days ago, and I just finished it up. I think I watched it all quickly because I was hoping and praying for some redeeming quality about this show. There wasn't much that was redeeming.
I bought it a few years back. The first time I ever heard of Space Ghost was through some sound files that some friends of mine had. Those clips were actually hilarious. This show -- not so much...
The Muppets Take Manhattan
This is another fun Muppet movie, but this one is not my favorite out of the ones I've seen. I really dislike Miss Piggy in this one. She's definitely my least favorite Muppet, but I have to admit, it wouldn't be complete without her...
Friday, February 16, 2007
The Great Mupper Caper
Now this was a great movie! The humor was right on par with the Muppet Movie. It was hilarious! There were a lot of puns, just like a great Muppet movie. :) I'm not sure which I liked more, this one, the Muppet Movie, or Muppet Treasure Island, which is probably my favorite Muppet movie, simply because of the plot. I'm hooked on piratey movies... :)
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Young Guns II
This was yet another fun movie, making a legend much larger than life. Young Guns was better, though.
If you liked the first, you should watch the second. It's good. But keep in mind that the first one is better.
Bon Jovi played the music for the movie -- I like Bon Jovi and his music, bu-u-u-u-ut I'm not sure how I feel like it for a western. It definitely enhances the whole legend, and makes the movie that much better. Hmmm... I guess the other option was early 90's country, and I can't see that as making really good music for this movie. OK, Bon Jovi's cool. :)
If you liked the first, you should watch the second. It's good. But keep in mind that the first one is better.
Bon Jovi played the music for the movie -- I like Bon Jovi and his music, bu-u-u-u-ut I'm not sure how I feel like it for a western. It definitely enhances the whole legend, and makes the movie that much better. Hmmm... I guess the other option was early 90's country, and I can't see that as making really good music for this movie. OK, Bon Jovi's cool. :)
Young Guns
This was a pretty good movie. I've seen it before, but I think I fell asleep early on and woke up about half-way through it. I really enjoyed this movie. It's good fun!
I can't say that it's the best western. It was made in 1988, and it had a big 80's influence, especially with the music. As a legend, Billy the Kid was larger than life. This movie was definitely true to that...
I can't say that it's the best western. It was made in 1988, and it had a big 80's influence, especially with the music. As a legend, Billy the Kid was larger than life. This movie was definitely true to that...
Ray
Wow. I finally got around to watching this movie. It's very good. I got really hooked into it.
Personally, I very seriously dislike druggies. Ray Charles was apparently hooked on heroin for a good part of his life. When he first started with the drugs, I saw it going downhill quickly, but I didn't turn off the movie. It showed his battle with drugs, and how he finally overcame them. He believed that he needed them to perform and make people like him. However, after he overcame his addiction, he still continued releasing hits, so that was a good thing for him.
This movie portrayed junkies in a different light. They are people who are addicted to a drug, and believe that they really need it. They cripple themselves with what they do. I still dislike junkies, but this movie showed me yet another instance where I need to hate the sin and not the sinner...
Personally, I very seriously dislike druggies. Ray Charles was apparently hooked on heroin for a good part of his life. When he first started with the drugs, I saw it going downhill quickly, but I didn't turn off the movie. It showed his battle with drugs, and how he finally overcame them. He believed that he needed them to perform and make people like him. However, after he overcame his addiction, he still continued releasing hits, so that was a good thing for him.
This movie portrayed junkies in a different light. They are people who are addicted to a drug, and believe that they really need it. They cripple themselves with what they do. I still dislike junkies, but this movie showed me yet another instance where I need to hate the sin and not the sinner...
Jane Eyre
Sarah H. and I went to see this play at GMU. My car was completely stuck in ice, so she had to come get me. The play wasn't bad, I guess, but it's pulling teeth for me to say it. I found it more disturbing than anything. After the play, we went out to IHOP to grab a bite to eat. I didn't really think I was all that hungry, but I was. I cleaned off my plate in no time flat, and it happened to come with unlimited pancakes, so I had a couple refills of that.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Pretty normal weekend
This weekend, I didn't do a lot. It was nice. I went to Front Royal on Friday evening and watched Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope with Emma, Lizzie and Sarah. On Saturday morning, I went to choir practice, and then headed back to the apartment. Ken had called me to see what was going on, so I invited him and Alaina out that evening. Josh and Leslie were planning on coming over, and with Alex coming back to the apartment, we could all have a fun time.
I actually had to work on Saturday, so most of my day was spent sitting around. Later on in the evening, I got word from Ken, Alaina and Alex that they weren't coming, and shortly after that, Josh and Leslie called as well to say that they couldn't make it. They were flying out the next day on a vacation cruise, and they hadn't finished packing yet.
We had also planned to meet up at Glen Echo and go swing dancing. I arrived there at the very end of the practice, and I stuck around for a little while, but I left at about 10 PM. I was going to go to Front Royal that evening, but I ended up not going. I was pretty tired...
Early on Sunday morning, I drove down to Front Royal, went to Mass, went to all the choir practices and then went to Old St. Mary's for the Solemn High Tridentine Latin Mass. After that, I met up with Maria B., and we went out to grab a bite to eat. We got caught up on life in general, and then I drove back to my apartment.
Pretty plain weekend...
I actually had to work on Saturday, so most of my day was spent sitting around. Later on in the evening, I got word from Ken, Alaina and Alex that they weren't coming, and shortly after that, Josh and Leslie called as well to say that they couldn't make it. They were flying out the next day on a vacation cruise, and they hadn't finished packing yet.
We had also planned to meet up at Glen Echo and go swing dancing. I arrived there at the very end of the practice, and I stuck around for a little while, but I left at about 10 PM. I was going to go to Front Royal that evening, but I ended up not going. I was pretty tired...
Early on Sunday morning, I drove down to Front Royal, went to Mass, went to all the choir practices and then went to Old St. Mary's for the Solemn High Tridentine Latin Mass. After that, I met up with Maria B., and we went out to grab a bite to eat. We got caught up on life in general, and then I drove back to my apartment.
Pretty plain weekend...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Man Who Would Be King
This was an excellent movie. What can I say? It's Sean Connery, the original James Bond, sporting a style of facial hair that I've grown myself and thoroughly enjoyed having. This is one of the great movies of all times, even though it portrays the Masons as a good group in which to be...
How'd you like that? I rearranged that last sentence so that it wouldn't end in a preposition! {insert silly grin here}
How'd you like that? I rearranged that last sentence so that it wouldn't end in a preposition! {insert silly grin here}
Animaniacs, Volume 2
This has taken me a while to get through, but it's loads of fun! I love Animaniacs! They are ridiculously absurd, and the cartoon physics appeal to me...
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Longest Yard
This is the 2005 edition, not the 1974. It was actually a lot of fun. Adam Sandler and Chris Rock played their roles very well, as did all the WWE stars who made appearances. I recommend it very highly -- it's definitely fun, and it has a good ending. It's a happy ending movie, although not everything gets resolved. All the main problems get resolved. There were a couple minor points that don't, such as, what happens when he gets out of prison. Maybe that part doesn't really matter, but I was wondering it at the end of the movie...
Shanghai Knights
This was the sequel. I can't complain much. Back-to-back, they were pretty funny. I thought that the first one was better than this one, but this one was still entertaining. Rush Hour was better than both of them, though. Don't get me wrong, these movies were perfectly enjoyable. I'd recommend them if you want to see something amusing. But don't expect a blockbuster from this one or it's predecessor.
Shangahi Noon
This was a fun movie, rather like most Jackie Chan movies. This one put a different spin on westerns. Owen Wilson plays a great surfer dude cowboy. He's a great fit for this movie, but I can't see him in a real western. Not that I can see Jackie Chan in a real western, but hey...
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Damage to the car...
My poor Sentra. Seriously. It's been broken into, it's been hit -- even Mother Nature likes to pick on it and the driver... I think everyone's got a bead on it...
Singing for Emma's birthday
Emma turns twenty-two today. Here's a shout-out from the blog of mwa to her: "Happy birthday, Emma!"
Last night, after practicing with the Washington Cappella Antiqua in Alexandria, I was faced with the drive from there to Front Royal. I had two hours to get from point A to point FR. It could be done...
...and then I saw the snow. It was very light. I got in the car and started the drive. If the drive turned out to be too bad, I would simply not be able to make it to sing for Emma. I'd have to make that up somehow, but since I'm an unimaginative kind of guy, and I had been working with the guys to get something nice to sing for her birthday, I really wanted to get there.
Ken called me: "Anthony, I wouldn't come out if I were you. The roads are pretty bad."
I saw the snow. I saw people driving slow and scared. I saw emergency vehicles. My conscience (what's left of it) and that little voice of common sense (also, what's left of it) were setting off alerts in my head: "Don't do it." I argued back: "I want to. Emma and the guys are counting on me!" An obvious lie, because it's not like we had a piece that we absolutely needed me for. As if to hammer the point home, the SUV two car-lengths in front of me spun out and ended up in the middle median. An omen? "No, obvious lack of skill for driving in snow." I saw three emergency vehicles, another vehicle on the side of the road, and a lot of people just driving really slowly. The hints were there. I just chose to keep going.
Birthday singing went just fine. They seemed to enjoy it well enough. There was applause, and when we were all done, they gave up hot cider. I wanted to take some, but I knew that if I did, I would start to fall asleep on the road -- which is something I most certainly did not want to do, as you can understand.
There were a couple more birthdays, and when we were all done, we passed Emma and Lizzie and two other girls (I think Elizabeth H. and Sarah F.) sliding down St. Catherine's path. "Ah, to experience the simple joys of youth once again," says this old man...
Well, the drive back was really long. I did about 20 on the back roads leading to 66, and 30 MPH almost the whole way on I-66. I stopped in Haymarket to fill up with gas and to grab a quick bite to eat and drink, since I was getting fairly hungry. It was close to 2:30 AM. I got back on the road, and discovered that the streets were getting better. They had been plowed and that chemical had been put down, so the snow was more slush than slippery. This was good. I picked up speed to 40 MPH, and felt no slippery-ness at all. Impressed, I picked up speed to 50 MPH. Still felt very much in control. I did not want to chance going any faster, so I maintained 50, and made it all the way to Highway 28. I know how to drive in snow, so I wasn't worried.
I turned onto 28, and slowed down. I did about 25 mph all the way up to the apartment. One lane out of the three on Highway 28 was plowed. This meant that you could not see the lines on the road. I was being really good here: both hands on the wheel, not passing anyone, no matter how poorly or slowly they are driving. Well, except that one guy. I passed him in an unplowed lane, and then I got the feeling of false charity: "I should stay in this lane, because that'll help give other people an idea of where the lines are." Remember that I said you couldn't see the lines. How did I know where they were? I didn't.
Which is why, all of a sudden, I felt my car's front left wheel slide down onto the center median. This median is maybe all of an inch lower than the road, and it also has a very slight decline. Because of this, it pulled the rest of my car onto the median. The back end came forward, bringing the car into a left-hand spin. I turned my wheels into the spin, but not soon enough. The car went nose-first towards the concrete barrier. At the last possible second, the car began adjusting itself back to the direction that it should have been going. This saved the entire nose of the car, but not soon enough to prevent the front left corner of the bumper from striking the barrier. I was expecting it to not bounce off, and have the rest of the car slide along the barrier. However, my car acted just like a bumper car, bouncing me away from the barrier and back towards the street. I stopped the car, and checked out the damage. The bumper was beaten up, the front left headlight was loose (and dead), and both turn signals had popped out and were nowhere to be found. They probably shattered.
The rest of the trip home was uneventful. I got back into the plowed lane, the feeling of false charity having been smashed out of existence, and made it the rest of the way back to the apartment.
Tack one more onto my list of things that happen the moment I stop paying attention. This can be added to the wreck of the Acura, the cutting off of my finger-tip in the meat slicer, and the burning of my leg on the exhaust pipe of Dad's motorcycle.
Last night, after practicing with the Washington Cappella Antiqua in Alexandria, I was faced with the drive from there to Front Royal. I had two hours to get from point A to point FR. It could be done...
...and then I saw the snow. It was very light. I got in the car and started the drive. If the drive turned out to be too bad, I would simply not be able to make it to sing for Emma. I'd have to make that up somehow, but since I'm an unimaginative kind of guy, and I had been working with the guys to get something nice to sing for her birthday, I really wanted to get there.
Ken called me: "Anthony, I wouldn't come out if I were you. The roads are pretty bad."
I saw the snow. I saw people driving slow and scared. I saw emergency vehicles. My conscience (what's left of it) and that little voice of common sense (also, what's left of it) were setting off alerts in my head: "Don't do it." I argued back: "I want to. Emma and the guys are counting on me!" An obvious lie, because it's not like we had a piece that we absolutely needed me for. As if to hammer the point home, the SUV two car-lengths in front of me spun out and ended up in the middle median. An omen? "No, obvious lack of skill for driving in snow." I saw three emergency vehicles, another vehicle on the side of the road, and a lot of people just driving really slowly. The hints were there. I just chose to keep going.
Birthday singing went just fine. They seemed to enjoy it well enough. There was applause, and when we were all done, they gave up hot cider. I wanted to take some, but I knew that if I did, I would start to fall asleep on the road -- which is something I most certainly did not want to do, as you can understand.
There were a couple more birthdays, and when we were all done, we passed Emma and Lizzie and two other girls (I think Elizabeth H. and Sarah F.) sliding down St. Catherine's path. "Ah, to experience the simple joys of youth once again," says this old man...
Well, the drive back was really long. I did about 20 on the back roads leading to 66, and 30 MPH almost the whole way on I-66. I stopped in Haymarket to fill up with gas and to grab a quick bite to eat and drink, since I was getting fairly hungry. It was close to 2:30 AM. I got back on the road, and discovered that the streets were getting better. They had been plowed and that chemical had been put down, so the snow was more slush than slippery. This was good. I picked up speed to 40 MPH, and felt no slippery-ness at all. Impressed, I picked up speed to 50 MPH. Still felt very much in control. I did not want to chance going any faster, so I maintained 50, and made it all the way to Highway 28. I know how to drive in snow, so I wasn't worried.
I turned onto 28, and slowed down. I did about 25 mph all the way up to the apartment. One lane out of the three on Highway 28 was plowed. This meant that you could not see the lines on the road. I was being really good here: both hands on the wheel, not passing anyone, no matter how poorly or slowly they are driving. Well, except that one guy. I passed him in an unplowed lane, and then I got the feeling of false charity: "I should stay in this lane, because that'll help give other people an idea of where the lines are." Remember that I said you couldn't see the lines. How did I know where they were? I didn't.
Which is why, all of a sudden, I felt my car's front left wheel slide down onto the center median. This median is maybe all of an inch lower than the road, and it also has a very slight decline. Because of this, it pulled the rest of my car onto the median. The back end came forward, bringing the car into a left-hand spin. I turned my wheels into the spin, but not soon enough. The car went nose-first towards the concrete barrier. At the last possible second, the car began adjusting itself back to the direction that it should have been going. This saved the entire nose of the car, but not soon enough to prevent the front left corner of the bumper from striking the barrier. I was expecting it to not bounce off, and have the rest of the car slide along the barrier. However, my car acted just like a bumper car, bouncing me away from the barrier and back towards the street. I stopped the car, and checked out the damage. The bumper was beaten up, the front left headlight was loose (and dead), and both turn signals had popped out and were nowhere to be found. They probably shattered.
The rest of the trip home was uneventful. I got back into the plowed lane, the feeling of false charity having been smashed out of existence, and made it the rest of the way back to the apartment.
Tack one more onto my list of things that happen the moment I stop paying attention. This can be added to the wreck of the Acura, the cutting off of my finger-tip in the meat slicer, and the burning of my leg on the exhaust pipe of Dad's motorcycle.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Katie's wedding
I flew out of Baltimore/Washington International Airport at 5:30 AM, landed in Charlotte NC, 1 hour layover, landed in Kansas City International Airport. When I landed, I met Dorothy and Wesley who took me to Katie's house, where I met Katie's parents, siblings, fiancee, Sarah A., and Beth E. It felt like a lot of them were sizing me up. I hope that it's not the case, but it felt like I received an extra dose of suspicion from the groom. I can understand why, if it was the case: he had heard about this "Anthony" character who Katie had spoken about, but had never met him. Was I there to steal her from him? Was I going to mess things up? Was I just a normal guy who was only there to see them wed? I guess it's a fairly reasonable thing to wonder. Hopefully, I'm just being overly-suspicious about our introduction...
In any case, everyone continued going about their business. Beth and Sarah took off, the rest of the family went about their business, and soon it was Katie, Wesley, Dorothy, and myself. I felt a little more comfortable, since I was with fewer people whom I didn't know. I asked how I could help out, and I began assisting with wrapping the presents for the bridal party. There wasn't much else I could do. The rest of it involved dresses for the wedding, and if these dresses were going to live to see the next day, I couldn't touch them. Iron burns and other forms total ruin awaited them if I were to even look at them...
That evening, we went to the church. It was at the Basilica of St. John in Des Moines, IA -- a very nice church, nice and large. I walked around and found where Our Lord was kept, although it took a while...
The rehearsal went well, at least from my perspective. Everything went smoothly, and Matt and Katie learned how to get married. It's usually a good idea when two people are faced with the fact of marrying each other on the next day.
Beth and I discussed the music for the wedding. Katie had sent us both Charles Gounod's Ave Maria and César Franck's Panis Angelicus. I had reviewed and practiced both of them, but I did not have a high enough voice to do that Ave Maria well. Essentially, I would only be singing the Panis Angelicus. I offered to get a harmony for it, so I went online that night and found one.
The rehearsal dinner was good, and when we left it was about -2 degrees. When I left BWI at 5:30 that morning, it was about 40 degrees. This was ridiculous.
Late that evening, Katie and Beth were discussing music for her wedding. I sat in and listened, but didn't really contribute much. I was more of a backup singer than anything, so I didn't really need to say anything.
The next morning, I got up, had breakfast, and went to the church with the family. While at the church, I said some prayers, and I was then summoned up to practice with Beth and the pianist. The Mass that Katie wanted was Mass XII, Pater Cuncta. I've never actually heard it, but it was very simple, and quite nice.
Mass went very well, or at least I thought it did. If Katie and/or Beth read this, I'm sure that they'll have their own things to say. Beth was freaking out about not sounding good, but I assure you, she sounded quite good. Katie looked like she was freaking out on the altar. During the readings, it looked like she was bracing herself to jump up and take care of any problems. I tried not to laugh, and I mostly succeeded. I couldn't help but grin at Katie and mouth the words, "Calm down." I think that I would have had to try to cover up a laugh if I hadn't.
After Mass came the reception. We drove a few miles to the reception location, and I found my table. I was half-worried that I wouldn't find it, but it always happens when I go to a reception. In any case, I found my table, and I found that I was the only Christendom person at the table -- in the entire room -- heck, the entire weekend.
The reception and the dinner was very nice. The food was great, and the music was loads of fun. The music opened with Frank Sinatra, continued with Kenny G, and the evening kept picking up to all sorts of dance numbers, ranging everywhere from Michael Jackson, to Glenn Miller, to Vanilla Ice. It was pretty wild.
When Katie and Matt came into the room, everyone began dinging glasses. Shortly after this, the DJ announced that the bride and groom would not kiss just for glass clinking. If you wanted to see them kiss, you had to get up and sing a song. I was extremely nervous about doing it, and I certainly did not want to be the first person up. However, after about half-an-hour to forty-five minutes, no one has sung anything, which meant that there had been practically no kissing. Considering this, it made for a somewhat disappointing wedding reception, from my humble opinion. I had to rectify the situation. So, I made up my mind to sing Shipoopi from the Music Man, convinced myself that it was a good idea, and then got up and did it. Well, only one verse and the refrain, but hey, it was good enough. Besides that, I was nervous as all heck. I did get to see a good kiss, though, so I was happy...
Following that, I went up and chatted with the bride and groom for a few seconds. The rest of the evening was spent listening to fun music, doing a little bit of dancing (the dollar dance, the train, and the chicken dance) and other such stuff. I didn't do any freestyling, or swing, or anything else. This was part of the beginning of my resolution to learn how to dance.
On the other hand, I got through a few questions of the Summa Theologica. Why would I be reading the Summa at a wedding reception? I don't know. Call me a reclusive jerk if you will, but it was entertaining for me. When I wasn't reading, I got to see some fun dancing. it only furthered my resolve to learn how to do it.
The next morning, I went to Mass with Katie's mother and siblings. After Mass, I had a rather large breakfast, said my goodbyes, and Dorothy and Wesley picked me up and drove me back to the airport. In the airport, I read more of the Summa, and even called Ken to ask him some questions about it.
I landed at BWI and was back at my apartment by about midnight. Am I ready to go to back to work? Not really...
In any case, everyone continued going about their business. Beth and Sarah took off, the rest of the family went about their business, and soon it was Katie, Wesley, Dorothy, and myself. I felt a little more comfortable, since I was with fewer people whom I didn't know. I asked how I could help out, and I began assisting with wrapping the presents for the bridal party. There wasn't much else I could do. The rest of it involved dresses for the wedding, and if these dresses were going to live to see the next day, I couldn't touch them. Iron burns and other forms total ruin awaited them if I were to even look at them...
That evening, we went to the church. It was at the Basilica of St. John in Des Moines, IA -- a very nice church, nice and large. I walked around and found where Our Lord was kept, although it took a while...
The rehearsal went well, at least from my perspective. Everything went smoothly, and Matt and Katie learned how to get married. It's usually a good idea when two people are faced with the fact of marrying each other on the next day.
Beth and I discussed the music for the wedding. Katie had sent us both Charles Gounod's Ave Maria and César Franck's Panis Angelicus. I had reviewed and practiced both of them, but I did not have a high enough voice to do that Ave Maria well. Essentially, I would only be singing the Panis Angelicus. I offered to get a harmony for it, so I went online that night and found one.
The rehearsal dinner was good, and when we left it was about -2 degrees. When I left BWI at 5:30 that morning, it was about 40 degrees. This was ridiculous.
Late that evening, Katie and Beth were discussing music for her wedding. I sat in and listened, but didn't really contribute much. I was more of a backup singer than anything, so I didn't really need to say anything.
The next morning, I got up, had breakfast, and went to the church with the family. While at the church, I said some prayers, and I was then summoned up to practice with Beth and the pianist. The Mass that Katie wanted was Mass XII, Pater Cuncta. I've never actually heard it, but it was very simple, and quite nice.
Mass went very well, or at least I thought it did. If Katie and/or Beth read this, I'm sure that they'll have their own things to say. Beth was freaking out about not sounding good, but I assure you, she sounded quite good. Katie looked like she was freaking out on the altar. During the readings, it looked like she was bracing herself to jump up and take care of any problems. I tried not to laugh, and I mostly succeeded. I couldn't help but grin at Katie and mouth the words, "Calm down." I think that I would have had to try to cover up a laugh if I hadn't.
After Mass came the reception. We drove a few miles to the reception location, and I found my table. I was half-worried that I wouldn't find it, but it always happens when I go to a reception. In any case, I found my table, and I found that I was the only Christendom person at the table -- in the entire room -- heck, the entire weekend.
The reception and the dinner was very nice. The food was great, and the music was loads of fun. The music opened with Frank Sinatra, continued with Kenny G, and the evening kept picking up to all sorts of dance numbers, ranging everywhere from Michael Jackson, to Glenn Miller, to Vanilla Ice. It was pretty wild.
When Katie and Matt came into the room, everyone began dinging glasses. Shortly after this, the DJ announced that the bride and groom would not kiss just for glass clinking. If you wanted to see them kiss, you had to get up and sing a song. I was extremely nervous about doing it, and I certainly did not want to be the first person up. However, after about half-an-hour to forty-five minutes, no one has sung anything, which meant that there had been practically no kissing. Considering this, it made for a somewhat disappointing wedding reception, from my humble opinion. I had to rectify the situation. So, I made up my mind to sing Shipoopi from the Music Man, convinced myself that it was a good idea, and then got up and did it. Well, only one verse and the refrain, but hey, it was good enough. Besides that, I was nervous as all heck. I did get to see a good kiss, though, so I was happy...
Following that, I went up and chatted with the bride and groom for a few seconds. The rest of the evening was spent listening to fun music, doing a little bit of dancing (the dollar dance, the train, and the chicken dance) and other such stuff. I didn't do any freestyling, or swing, or anything else. This was part of the beginning of my resolution to learn how to dance.
On the other hand, I got through a few questions of the Summa Theologica. Why would I be reading the Summa at a wedding reception? I don't know. Call me a reclusive jerk if you will, but it was entertaining for me. When I wasn't reading, I got to see some fun dancing. it only furthered my resolve to learn how to do it.
The next morning, I went to Mass with Katie's mother and siblings. After Mass, I had a rather large breakfast, said my goodbyes, and Dorothy and Wesley picked me up and drove me back to the airport. In the airport, I read more of the Summa, and even called Ken to ask him some questions about it.
I landed at BWI and was back at my apartment by about midnight. Am I ready to go to back to work? Not really...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Doom (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
This is a very fun movie. It's not the greatest movie, but it stars the Rock as the Sarge and Karl Urban as Reaper. It's a fun shooter. It's rather like the video games, but considering that I only played the Original Doom and Doom II: Hell On Earth, the creatures all looked different -- well, except the zombies. It's hard to make a zombie look like much else...
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The Muppet Movie
This was a very clever movie. I am very impressed with the Muppets every time I see them. The amount of humor that they can pack into a show is simply amazing! I love it! The cool thing is that the jokes are made for all ages. Adults will pick up the subtle jokes, while the kids will be laughing at the surface level or even slapstick comedy.
I still get a kick out of the fork in the road. That was great!
I still get a kick out of the fork in the road. That was great!
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
WOW! This was an awesome movie! I can't say much aside from that it was a great movie! It was very realistic, and to a landlubber such as myself, it was also very technically accurate. Wow!
I highly recommend it. If you didn't like The Patriot because of the violence, then you may not like this one either. A number of people die, you get to see medical procedures as they would have done them on the open sea, with only a gag and a tourniquet as anesthesia. Yes, I was cringing during most of the medical scenes -- very much so. There was even one where I went completely tense, and even cold. {shudders again}
I highly recommend it. If you didn't like The Patriot because of the violence, then you may not like this one either. A number of people die, you get to see medical procedures as they would have done them on the open sea, with only a gag and a tourniquet as anesthesia. Yes, I was cringing during most of the medical scenes -- very much so. There was even one where I went completely tense, and even cold. {shudders again}
Street Fighter, the Movie
Wow. This movie departed so far from the video games. I was hoping to see a lot more of the skillz from the games. I was sadly disappointed. There was one Hadouken, one. I found it a fun movie, but very disappointing because I was a huge fan of the games. The creation of Blanka was a particularly large let down for me. In the games, he was lost in the wild as a very young boy and he learned to fend for himself. He is entirely a beast, not a reprogrammed soldier. Oh well, I'm not a director...
Ernest Goes To Camp
Not a bad movie. It's probably one of the better Ernest movies. It's fun if you're bored. Aside from that, what else can I say?
Birthday singing for Lizzie
That was fun. I sped from the apartment to campus to practice with the guys again, especially considering it was our last time to practice before the main event. With the newest addition of Can't Buy me Love, I had Francis and myself on bass, M.C. on tenor, Draper on alto, and Paul on soprano. In two hours, we went from most of us not knowing it to almost performance perfect. That is some mad skill there! Sadly, we ran through it one more time right beforehand, and we decided that it couldn't be done well enough, so we scrapped it last minute. She requested it anyway, so she got the original Beatles version... :-D
The Longest Time went over really well (from my humble perspective) in practice. Ryan and I took leads, Paul and Draper had the high tenor, AJ and M.C. had the low tenor, Matt and TJ had the baritone, and Michael B. and Francis had the bass. it made for a nice balance and blend -- at least, I thought. I still get all the verses mixed up in my head, so I kept throwing Ryan off. Too all parties involved and otherwise affected and/or offended, my apologies!
The rest of the birthday singing went along pretty well, I guess. I wouldn't be the final judge of that, though...
And now that I'm back in the apartment, it's after 4:00 AM. I've fallen asleep so many times writing this post. I am going to bed.
The Longest Time went over really well (from my humble perspective) in practice. Ryan and I took leads, Paul and Draper had the high tenor, AJ and M.C. had the low tenor, Matt and TJ had the baritone, and Michael B. and Francis had the bass. it made for a nice balance and blend -- at least, I thought. I still get all the verses mixed up in my head, so I kept throwing Ryan off. Too all parties involved and otherwise affected and/or offended, my apologies!
The rest of the birthday singing went along pretty well, I guess. I wouldn't be the final judge of that, though...
And now that I'm back in the apartment, it's after 4:00 AM. I've fallen asleep so many times writing this post. I am going to bed.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The weekend and the Royal Rumble
This Saturday, I went to choir practice on Saturday morning.
After choir practice, I practiced with a few of the guys on Billy Joel's The Longest Time for Lizzie's birthday. We also made a last minute addition: Can't Buy Me Love.
Later in the day, I noticed that I messed a call from Eric and one from Carissa. Eric invited me to come watch the Royal Rumble on Sunday. Also, congratulations are in order to MikeE and Carissa for getting engaged! I haven't heard the story, so I can't relate it.
M.C. and I went back to Herndon, where I got him two French cuff shirts, and some cufflinks. The poor guy owned cufflinks but no French cuffs, and that just won't do...
I picked up Alex from the airport, after he landed. He had just returned from visiting Ashley.
M.C. and I drove back to Front Royal, and we practiced The Longest Time again with more of the guys. It seemed to be coming together pretty well.
On Sunday, I sang with the choir, then Dr. P., Draper, Andy and I went to the Tridentine Mass and chanted there.
The Palestrina choir rehearsal followed that.
After that, I stuck around until about 6PM, and practiced The Longest Time again with almost everyone.
On the way back to the apartment, I called Lizzie, and asked what time she wanted us there. In that conversation, I found out that I can't do math. Her half-birthday is the 30th of January, which I knew, but for some reason, I thought that we would sing on the night of the 30th, thus confusing myself into thinking that her birthday was on the 31st. I tell you what, the things I do to confuse the heck out of myself...
That evening, I went to Eric and MikeE's and watched the WWE Royal Rumble. That was fun. I haven't watched wrestling in years. Carissa was there with MikeE, and she really started getting into it! It was really awesome!
And now it's time to go to bed. I have a long day tomorrow, what with birthday singing for Lizzie and all...
After choir practice, I practiced with a few of the guys on Billy Joel's The Longest Time for Lizzie's birthday. We also made a last minute addition: Can't Buy Me Love.
Later in the day, I noticed that I messed a call from Eric and one from Carissa. Eric invited me to come watch the Royal Rumble on Sunday. Also, congratulations are in order to MikeE and Carissa for getting engaged! I haven't heard the story, so I can't relate it.
M.C. and I went back to Herndon, where I got him two French cuff shirts, and some cufflinks. The poor guy owned cufflinks but no French cuffs, and that just won't do...
I picked up Alex from the airport, after he landed. He had just returned from visiting Ashley.
M.C. and I drove back to Front Royal, and we practiced The Longest Time again with more of the guys. It seemed to be coming together pretty well.
On Sunday, I sang with the choir, then Dr. P., Draper, Andy and I went to the Tridentine Mass and chanted there.
The Palestrina choir rehearsal followed that.
After that, I stuck around until about 6PM, and practiced The Longest Time again with almost everyone.
On the way back to the apartment, I called Lizzie, and asked what time she wanted us there. In that conversation, I found out that I can't do math. Her half-birthday is the 30th of January, which I knew, but for some reason, I thought that we would sing on the night of the 30th, thus confusing myself into thinking that her birthday was on the 31st. I tell you what, the things I do to confuse the heck out of myself...
That evening, I went to Eric and MikeE's and watched the WWE Royal Rumble. That was fun. I haven't watched wrestling in years. Carissa was there with MikeE, and she really started getting into it! It was really awesome!
And now it's time to go to bed. I have a long day tomorrow, what with birthday singing for Lizzie and all...
Friday, January 26, 2007
Ernest Slam Dunk
This got low ratings, but I disagree. I found it to be amusing, although very predictable, and extremely unrealistic. but then again, it's Ernest. What do you expect?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Ocean's Twelve
This was fun! All of the robberies are quite fascinating, not that I ever would or could do any of that. The stylized crime is very cool, though. :)
In a certain sense, I enjoyed this movie more than Ocean's Eleven. There wasn't as much flair, considering the first one was in a casino, but the ending of this one was just as fulfilling. All throughout the movie, I was wondering if they really were just that out of it...
In a certain sense, I enjoyed this movie more than Ocean's Eleven. There wasn't as much flair, considering the first one was in a casino, but the ending of this one was just as fulfilling. All throughout the movie, I was wondering if they really were just that out of it...
Demolition Man
Sylvester Stallone stars in a film as the good guy against Wesley Snipes. It's a fun "beat 'em up" movie. Very weird. I put it on so that I could feel more masculine after Titanic, but when the movie opened, I found myself tearing it apart for realism. A bad thing, because I pride myself on the ability to watch a movie just for its entertainment value. I'm becoming too analytical...
But it was a really cool movie. :-D
But it was a really cool movie. :-D
Titanic
Very interesting movie. I have to admit, it grabbed me. I'm not a huge fan of chick flicks, but this one was well worth seeing once.
You're probably asking, "Why would he even bother?" Simply put, because it was only one of the biggest blockbusters ever, winner of two Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and since I'm behind in watching movies anyway, why not?
I cannot recommend it for mixed company, simply because there are two scenes of nudity, whether implied or not. One is when the Rose (Kate Winslet) asks Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) to draw her, and the other is when they ... uh, well, if you can't figure it out, good for you.
One thing that I really liked about the movie is the fact that it's based on a true story. Yes, it's an artist's conception of one, but that makes a movie so much more likeable, in my opinion. Overall, I'll rate it as a very good movie, and probably one of the best chick flicks out there.
It's up to you if you want to watch it. Like I said before, I can't recommend it for mixed audiences, but if you're going for completeness in your movie library (actual or seen), it can't be complete without it.
You're probably asking, "Why would he even bother?" Simply put, because it was only one of the biggest blockbusters ever, winner of two Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and since I'm behind in watching movies anyway, why not?
I cannot recommend it for mixed company, simply because there are two scenes of nudity, whether implied or not. One is when the Rose (Kate Winslet) asks Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) to draw her, and the other is when they ... uh, well, if you can't figure it out, good for you.
One thing that I really liked about the movie is the fact that it's based on a true story. Yes, it's an artist's conception of one, but that makes a movie so much more likeable, in my opinion. Overall, I'll rate it as a very good movie, and probably one of the best chick flicks out there.
It's up to you if you want to watch it. Like I said before, I can't recommend it for mixed audiences, but if you're going for completeness in your movie library (actual or seen), it can't be complete without it.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Top Gun
This is a fun, fun, fun movie. I love planes and flying! I can see how this would make becoming a pilot that much more attractive... :)
Tom Cruise isn't my favorite, nor was the movie my favorite, but it's a must see. Quite seriously. There is one sex scene, and it also makes no real sense to the movie. Some people could argue that it does make sense, but I think it's pointless.
Tom Cruise isn't my favorite, nor was the movie my favorite, but it's a must see. Quite seriously. There is one sex scene, and it also makes no real sense to the movie. Some people could argue that it does make sense, but I think it's pointless.
The weekend, the proposal, the story, and the March For Life
On Friday evening, Ashley flew into Dulles on a surprise visit for Alex. I drove her out to Paul H.'s house in DC, where Alex was practicing a song for the Coffee House for Life that Paul and his housemates were hosting. He was surprised to see Ashley.
On Saturday, I woke up and went to the gym. After this, I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning. The apartment now looks pretty good.
I drove to Front Royal and delivered Josh's mail to him. After that, I went to Christendom, where Lizzie and I chatted for a while. Then I went to St. Kevin's, and chilled with Matt and TJ for a while. The three of us went to the store and then back to St. Kevin's. Matt and I hung out for a while, and TJ went to the welcome back dance. After that, I fell asleep on the couch.
I woke up the next morning to Francis's saying that choir practice was beginning right then. I changed quickly, and drove us to campus. The bass section was rather small, sadly, but Francis and I helped boost it up. Mass was as normal, and then I showed a few of the guys the music for Billy Joel's The Longest Time. The Palestrina Choir met and looked at/learned a new piece rather quickly. It was an Alleluia, but I can't recall by whom...
It was snowing outside. Lizzie, Emma, Emma's mother, and Sarah F. (Emma's sister), as well as a family friend were in town, and they were going to go into Washington, D.C.: Lizzie for an interview, and the rest for fun. But the weather was so bad that they turned around.
After choir practice, I drove back to the apartment. On the way back, I saw four or five overturned cars, five to ten cars that had slid off the road, a broken guardrail that looked like a car had broken it and slid down the embankment, a few wrecks, and several trucks driving around with their snowplows up. Driving wasn't difficult, but it was slow. It took almost two hours to get back to the apartment.
Ashley and Alex came back from the store. I was busy doing the dishes, and I had my headphones on. I was completely oblivious to the fact that Ashley was wearing Alex's engagement ring. She did everything except shove it in my face to get me to notice, but I was in a different world, doing my own thing. Finally, when I was done with the dishes, and I was just standing there talking to them, they threw me one final hint, and then, laughing at my density, they just flat out told me that they were engaged. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I stood there stunned.
One thing that I try to do is too keep an eye on a girl's finger, especially when I know that she and her boyfriend are getting along well. I knew that Alex was going to propose to Ashley quite soon. I knew he had a plan. He even told me when this plan was going to go into effect. This is why I didn't look, nay, didn't even think to look at Ashley's finger. This also explains my complete surprise.
The story is quite good. I don't know if I should tell it or not. It's not my story to tell to the world. Oh, what the heck...
I shoudl forewarn you that I heard this story from Ashley, Alex, and Paul. I may be getting some details mixed up. If any of the three afore-mentioned people read this, or if anyone reads this who was there, please provide comments and correct any mistakes I will probably make.
At the Coffee House for Life, Alex sang One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer by George Thorogood & The Destroyers. It's a fun song, and he'd been practicing for a couple weeks, making sure that he knew all the words. He'd even gone to Paul's house twice in this past week to practice with the band. So, on Saturday, he was ready to go. Everyone else was performing some sort of life-affirming song. At the end of his song, people asked him what his song had to do with life. Alex began some sort of hammed up explanation of how alcohol in itself affirms life, and how it's a natural good, and all that. At the end of this, he said, "But I can't stick with that, because that's just wierd. The only way that I can make this song life-affirming is if I ask Ashley to marry me."
The house had about 40 people in it, all chit-chatting and socializing, and several listening to the song. After Alex said that, the entire place went quiet, shocked that he had actually just said that, all thinking, "He can't be serious. Is he serious? Really?" This includes Ashley. She had been watching the performance, and was listening to the hammed speech, and then she just froze. Alex pulled the ring from his pocket, dropped down to one knee, and formally asked her to be his bride. Shaking and crying, she went up to the front of the room, unsure what to do. She managed to squeak out a "yes" from her shocked state of mind. She held out her right hand, still shocked, still uncertain about what to do, and still crying and shaking. Alex took her left hand, and placed the ring on her finger.
I'm sure that excitement flows freely through the veins of a newly-engaged girl. After the shock wore off, Ashley and Alex became the most popular couple in the house. Congratulations came from all directions, and when they finally got a break, Ashley went outside and called the important people. While she was outside talking, the guests all wanted to hear the story of how Alex met Ashley. Someone who knew the story, asked him, "Alex, have you ever punched out a girl's tooth?"
"Well, actually..."
It requires little-to-no prompting to get Alex to relate this very unique story. Oddly enough, he had. It was Ashley. And now they were getting married.
This happened our freshman year at Christendom. Ashley, Alex, and I were all classmates. The story, in short, is that there was a small confrontation that went kind of along the lines of this -- paraphrased, of course:
Ashley: "I like kids."
Alex: "I hate kids."
Ashley: "I know Taekwondo."
Alex: "I don't."
Ashley: "I can beat you up. See? I'll kick as high as your head."
What follows next all happened within seconds, and there are differing versions of the story. Ashley proceeded to kick as high as his head. Alex naturally deflected the blow, possibly uncertain as to whether or not she actually would kick him in the head, or possibly just to show her that she did not have the upper hand after all. After the deflect, he punched out with his fist, stopping it in time so that he wouldn't hit her, but close enough to prove that he did, in fact, have the upper hand. Ashley landed forward, bringing her face into contact with his fist. I know, I know, it sounds like a story a five-year-old would say, but I saw it.
An instant later, Ashley was cradling her face, and Alex was apologetically asking her to please open her mouth so that he could see the damage. He saw that he had punched her tooth out and we rushed her out to the hospital. Jimbo, who had been hanging out and studying with us, came as well.
Imagine, if you will, Alex and me. I'm 6'2" -- Alex is taller and broader. We're college men, and it's winter outside. It's cool to wear black trench coats, because they keep us warm. Jimbo is smaller than either of us. Alex and I lead the way into the hospital, with Jimbo and poor bleeding Ashley right behind us. The hospital staff takes one look at three men escorting a bleeding woman into the hospital. It takes them no time at all to assume that we did it, and they removed Ashley from our presence for her protection.
The police walk in shortly afterwards, scouting the place out. They look directly at Alex and me, just sitting there, looking at them. In walks a man bound in chains and in prison attire. They make him sit down across from us, and they remain near him.
In the meantime, Alex calls up the basement of Ben's, shortly before curfew. He tells them the abbreviated story of what happened, and why he will be late for curfew. We also called Ashley's dorm.
That evening, we had invited some people over. Sarah H. and Carissa were the only two to come, though. We chatted for a while, Ashley showed off her ring, told the proposal story,
I wasn't able to make it to the March for Life in DC today -- I had too much to do at work. I did, however, manage to get into DC to meet up with Lizzie, Emma, Laurel, Emily, M.C., Michael P, Francis, Paul E., and several others. Emma's mother and the family friend had also gone to the March.
Alex and I drove in to Union Station. He met up with Ashley, and I met up with Lizzie. She just had an interview from a priest for a job in St. John (right?), MO. I told her the story of Alex's proposal to Ashley, and just as I was finishing, Emma came up. Shortly after that, the rest of the group came up, and we went outside to sing a few minutes later.
Outside, we sang in front of a line of people waiting for taxis. It was loads of fun, especially seeing a few people holding up cell phones to either take pictures or let the person on the other end of the phone hear us. It was very flattering. A few people gave us a few dollars in the hat that we left on the ground. In the middle of our third song, a security guard asked us to move. Sure thing.
We moved, and began singing again. We didn't have that many donaters of monies this time, but the listeners were more around our age, and they seemed to really like us a lot more. One man came up to us and asked if we could sing Amazing Grace. We did. Ah, 'twas fun.
We decided to go back inside. Emily stopped and talked a different security guard about the rules. He said that it was perfectly fine to sing outside, and that he would take care of the misunderstanding. After we started singing, the first security guard came running up to us, yelling that we had disobeyed him, and that singing was against the law. It was all I could do to stop myself from physically dragging him away and making him show me this law. It was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. "Singing is against the law." Really? I think not. I think that he was just on a power-trip...
In any case, we were done anyway, so we went inside. The money went to ordering a pizza, but I was getting kind of tired, so I drove back to the apartment. And now, I'm about to fire up Top Gun. I haven't seen it yet, and it's been recommended to me very highly.
On Saturday, I woke up and went to the gym. After this, I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning. The apartment now looks pretty good.
I drove to Front Royal and delivered Josh's mail to him. After that, I went to Christendom, where Lizzie and I chatted for a while. Then I went to St. Kevin's, and chilled with Matt and TJ for a while. The three of us went to the store and then back to St. Kevin's. Matt and I hung out for a while, and TJ went to the welcome back dance. After that, I fell asleep on the couch.
I woke up the next morning to Francis's saying that choir practice was beginning right then. I changed quickly, and drove us to campus. The bass section was rather small, sadly, but Francis and I helped boost it up. Mass was as normal, and then I showed a few of the guys the music for Billy Joel's The Longest Time. The Palestrina Choir met and looked at/learned a new piece rather quickly. It was an Alleluia, but I can't recall by whom...
It was snowing outside. Lizzie, Emma, Emma's mother, and Sarah F. (Emma's sister), as well as a family friend were in town, and they were going to go into Washington, D.C.: Lizzie for an interview, and the rest for fun. But the weather was so bad that they turned around.
After choir practice, I drove back to the apartment. On the way back, I saw four or five overturned cars, five to ten cars that had slid off the road, a broken guardrail that looked like a car had broken it and slid down the embankment, a few wrecks, and several trucks driving around with their snowplows up. Driving wasn't difficult, but it was slow. It took almost two hours to get back to the apartment.
Ashley and Alex came back from the store. I was busy doing the dishes, and I had my headphones on. I was completely oblivious to the fact that Ashley was wearing Alex's engagement ring. She did everything except shove it in my face to get me to notice, but I was in a different world, doing my own thing. Finally, when I was done with the dishes, and I was just standing there talking to them, they threw me one final hint, and then, laughing at my density, they just flat out told me that they were engaged. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I stood there stunned.
One thing that I try to do is too keep an eye on a girl's finger, especially when I know that she and her boyfriend are getting along well. I knew that Alex was going to propose to Ashley quite soon. I knew he had a plan. He even told me when this plan was going to go into effect. This is why I didn't look, nay, didn't even think to look at Ashley's finger. This also explains my complete surprise.
The story is quite good. I don't know if I should tell it or not. It's not my story to tell to the world. Oh, what the heck...
I shoudl forewarn you that I heard this story from Ashley, Alex, and Paul. I may be getting some details mixed up. If any of the three afore-mentioned people read this, or if anyone reads this who was there, please provide comments and correct any mistakes I will probably make.
At the Coffee House for Life, Alex sang One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer by George Thorogood & The Destroyers. It's a fun song, and he'd been practicing for a couple weeks, making sure that he knew all the words. He'd even gone to Paul's house twice in this past week to practice with the band. So, on Saturday, he was ready to go. Everyone else was performing some sort of life-affirming song. At the end of his song, people asked him what his song had to do with life. Alex began some sort of hammed up explanation of how alcohol in itself affirms life, and how it's a natural good, and all that. At the end of this, he said, "But I can't stick with that, because that's just wierd. The only way that I can make this song life-affirming is if I ask Ashley to marry me."
The house had about 40 people in it, all chit-chatting and socializing, and several listening to the song. After Alex said that, the entire place went quiet, shocked that he had actually just said that, all thinking, "He can't be serious. Is he serious? Really?" This includes Ashley. She had been watching the performance, and was listening to the hammed speech, and then she just froze. Alex pulled the ring from his pocket, dropped down to one knee, and formally asked her to be his bride. Shaking and crying, she went up to the front of the room, unsure what to do. She managed to squeak out a "yes" from her shocked state of mind. She held out her right hand, still shocked, still uncertain about what to do, and still crying and shaking. Alex took her left hand, and placed the ring on her finger.
I'm sure that excitement flows freely through the veins of a newly-engaged girl. After the shock wore off, Ashley and Alex became the most popular couple in the house. Congratulations came from all directions, and when they finally got a break, Ashley went outside and called the important people. While she was outside talking, the guests all wanted to hear the story of how Alex met Ashley. Someone who knew the story, asked him, "Alex, have you ever punched out a girl's tooth?"
"Well, actually..."
It requires little-to-no prompting to get Alex to relate this very unique story. Oddly enough, he had. It was Ashley. And now they were getting married.
This happened our freshman year at Christendom. Ashley, Alex, and I were all classmates. The story, in short, is that there was a small confrontation that went kind of along the lines of this -- paraphrased, of course:
Ashley: "I like kids."
Alex: "I hate kids."
Ashley: "I know Taekwondo."
Alex: "I don't."
Ashley: "I can beat you up. See? I'll kick as high as your head."
What follows next all happened within seconds, and there are differing versions of the story. Ashley proceeded to kick as high as his head. Alex naturally deflected the blow, possibly uncertain as to whether or not she actually would kick him in the head, or possibly just to show her that she did not have the upper hand after all. After the deflect, he punched out with his fist, stopping it in time so that he wouldn't hit her, but close enough to prove that he did, in fact, have the upper hand. Ashley landed forward, bringing her face into contact with his fist. I know, I know, it sounds like a story a five-year-old would say, but I saw it.
An instant later, Ashley was cradling her face, and Alex was apologetically asking her to please open her mouth so that he could see the damage. He saw that he had punched her tooth out and we rushed her out to the hospital. Jimbo, who had been hanging out and studying with us, came as well.
Imagine, if you will, Alex and me. I'm 6'2" -- Alex is taller and broader. We're college men, and it's winter outside. It's cool to wear black trench coats, because they keep us warm. Jimbo is smaller than either of us. Alex and I lead the way into the hospital, with Jimbo and poor bleeding Ashley right behind us. The hospital staff takes one look at three men escorting a bleeding woman into the hospital. It takes them no time at all to assume that we did it, and they removed Ashley from our presence for her protection.
The police walk in shortly afterwards, scouting the place out. They look directly at Alex and me, just sitting there, looking at them. In walks a man bound in chains and in prison attire. They make him sit down across from us, and they remain near him.
In the meantime, Alex calls up the basement of Ben's, shortly before curfew. He tells them the abbreviated story of what happened, and why he will be late for curfew. We also called Ashley's dorm.
That evening, we had invited some people over. Sarah H. and Carissa were the only two to come, though. We chatted for a while, Ashley showed off her ring, told the proposal story,
I wasn't able to make it to the March for Life in DC today -- I had too much to do at work. I did, however, manage to get into DC to meet up with Lizzie, Emma, Laurel, Emily, M.C., Michael P, Francis, Paul E., and several others. Emma's mother and the family friend had also gone to the March.
Alex and I drove in to Union Station. He met up with Ashley, and I met up with Lizzie. She just had an interview from a priest for a job in St. John (right?), MO. I told her the story of Alex's proposal to Ashley, and just as I was finishing, Emma came up. Shortly after that, the rest of the group came up, and we went outside to sing a few minutes later.
Outside, we sang in front of a line of people waiting for taxis. It was loads of fun, especially seeing a few people holding up cell phones to either take pictures or let the person on the other end of the phone hear us. It was very flattering. A few people gave us a few dollars in the hat that we left on the ground. In the middle of our third song, a security guard asked us to move. Sure thing.
We moved, and began singing again. We didn't have that many donaters of monies this time, but the listeners were more around our age, and they seemed to really like us a lot more. One man came up to us and asked if we could sing Amazing Grace. We did. Ah, 'twas fun.
We decided to go back inside. Emily stopped and talked a different security guard about the rules. He said that it was perfectly fine to sing outside, and that he would take care of the misunderstanding. After we started singing, the first security guard came running up to us, yelling that we had disobeyed him, and that singing was against the law. It was all I could do to stop myself from physically dragging him away and making him show me this law. It was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. "Singing is against the law." Really? I think not. I think that he was just on a power-trip...
In any case, we were done anyway, so we went inside. The money went to ordering a pizza, but I was getting kind of tired, so I drove back to the apartment. And now, I'm about to fire up Top Gun. I haven't seen it yet, and it's been recommended to me very highly.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
My video hard drive!
Noooo! It went the way of the dinosaurs...
This makes the fifth (if not sixth) hard drive I've lost since freshman year at college.
(BLATANT HINT)
Oh, I would love a Terastation! (For all of you people who didn't get me anything for Christmas, that's what I want. And you know who you are.)
(END HINT)
This makes the fifth (if not sixth) hard drive I've lost since freshman year at college.
(BLATANT HINT)
Oh, I would love a Terastation! (For all of you people who didn't get me anything for Christmas, that's what I want. And you know who you are.)
(END HINT)
Monday, January 15, 2007
Colin & Sarah's wedding and the rest of the weekend
This has the potential to be a massive post, just so you know. I'll try to keep it entertaining...
Colin and Sarah got married this weekend. I drove to Front Royal straight from work, getting stuck in traffic as I was leaving Manassas, of course. I made it to the church to catch the last few minutes of the rehearsal. From there, I drove to St. John's in town and joined everyone for the rehearsal dinner.
The food was prepared mostly by Mrs. M. (Colin's mother), but she did have some help. At this point, I would normally go on a rampage about how wonderful the food was and how much of it I ate, and how when I was done I was happy, and how I need to get her to teach me how to cook, because I'd be a world-class chef, and all of that. However, in the interest of time, let's not and say I did. Why not? Words can't do it justice. In short, the food was excellent, and thank you to Mrs. M. and Helpers for making my tummy happy.
After the rehearsal dinner, we had a choir practice. Lizzie was conducting the wedding choir, which consisted of her, Emma, Sylvia, Anna, Draper, Paul E. and me. Francis ended up joining us as well, but he had already made a commitment to work as a waiter at the reception, so he could only sing through about half of the wedding.
On the day of the wedding, we had choir practice, and the wedding then began at 1:00 PM. Not quite on the dot, but within 15 minutes. Colin wanted to hear Dr. P.'s self-composed Mass in Honor of St. Anthony, or, commonly known as Missa Smitha, considering the mad cool bass line. Emma soloed the Ave Maria while Lizzie played it on the organ. It was very beautiful, if I may say without making either of them blush. And if either of them is blushing, well, I'm sorry for causing the blush, but I have to stand by my statement.
From my end, the reception was a bit stressful. I got there and found that the system did not like my laptop. I didn't know why, but it didn't. It was particularly frustrating, as I'm sure you can imagine. Whenever I plugged my system into their receiver, it would buzz. This was most certainly not the intended effect. However, there was a gentleman there who helped me get it all fixed. We discovered the problem was the microphone. While the microphone was turned on, the sound would not work properly. This would be a problem, and was going to be annoying, but at least I knew what the problem was and how to deal with it.
I began playing general music: soft Celtic, Irish, a couple ballads, just something to keep the sound going. When the bridal party came, Ryan loaned me his laptop, and I began the task of switching machines, going from my slower computer to his faster one. The bridal party's official entrance came about 15 minutes later. Most of the bridal party entered to Battle Without Honor Or Humanity, by Tomoyasu Hotei, from the Kill Bill: Volume 1 soundtrack. Colin and Sarah entered to Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti, on the Original Rocky Soundtrack.
During dinner, I played a lot of classical (Mozart and Chopin), as well as a couple other random pieces, two of which were from video games. One was an orchestrated version of the Super Mario themes, and the other was a Final Fantasy mix.
Come What May, sung by Ewan MacGregor & Nicole Kidman, from Moulin Rouge was the first dance of the bride and groom. It was very fitting. Your Song, sung by Ewan MacGregor from the same movie, was Sarah's dance with her father. Colin danced to Swinging on a Star by Bing Crosby with his mother.
The rest dances consisted of a lot of swing, some ballroom, and a lot of otherwise freestyle dances. The wedding ended on a remarkable note, with Switchfoot's This Is Your Life. During this dance, Colin and Sarah were surrounded by all the guys carrying the lights from the tables. They started to walk in time to the music, counter-clockwise around them. All the girls joined hands outside of them and walked around them in the opposite direction of the guys. It looked both odd and really cool at the same time.
The pictures from the wedding are also up. Check them out on Snapfish.
After the reception, Lizzie, Emma, Laurel, Krystle, Claire, Sylvia, M.C., Mike P., Draper and I went to a local Exxon station to grab some ice cream. I was, for some oddball reason, rather tired. I didn't get any ice cream because I was afraid that it would put me on a very short-lived sugar high, and then drop me lower than I was then. In any case, just sitting down and relaxing was enough. I drove Draper to his house, and then I drove back to Herndon.
On Sunday, I went to Old St. Mary's for the Solemn High Tridentine Latin Mass in the evening, and sang with the schola out there. Thus began a new-yet-same-old week for me.
Colin and Sarah, on the other hand, began a whole new life with each other. Congrats to them both, and I expect to still see them on at least a semi-regular basis? Hopefully they won't become hermits?
Colin and Sarah got married this weekend. I drove to Front Royal straight from work, getting stuck in traffic as I was leaving Manassas, of course. I made it to the church to catch the last few minutes of the rehearsal. From there, I drove to St. John's in town and joined everyone for the rehearsal dinner.
The food was prepared mostly by Mrs. M. (Colin's mother), but she did have some help. At this point, I would normally go on a rampage about how wonderful the food was and how much of it I ate, and how when I was done I was happy, and how I need to get her to teach me how to cook, because I'd be a world-class chef, and all of that. However, in the interest of time, let's not and say I did. Why not? Words can't do it justice. In short, the food was excellent, and thank you to Mrs. M. and Helpers for making my tummy happy.
After the rehearsal dinner, we had a choir practice. Lizzie was conducting the wedding choir, which consisted of her, Emma, Sylvia, Anna, Draper, Paul E. and me. Francis ended up joining us as well, but he had already made a commitment to work as a waiter at the reception, so he could only sing through about half of the wedding.
On the day of the wedding, we had choir practice, and the wedding then began at 1:00 PM. Not quite on the dot, but within 15 minutes. Colin wanted to hear Dr. P.'s self-composed Mass in Honor of St. Anthony, or, commonly known as Missa Smitha, considering the mad cool bass line. Emma soloed the Ave Maria while Lizzie played it on the organ. It was very beautiful, if I may say without making either of them blush. And if either of them is blushing, well, I'm sorry for causing the blush, but I have to stand by my statement.
From my end, the reception was a bit stressful. I got there and found that the system did not like my laptop. I didn't know why, but it didn't. It was particularly frustrating, as I'm sure you can imagine. Whenever I plugged my system into their receiver, it would buzz. This was most certainly not the intended effect. However, there was a gentleman there who helped me get it all fixed. We discovered the problem was the microphone. While the microphone was turned on, the sound would not work properly. This would be a problem, and was going to be annoying, but at least I knew what the problem was and how to deal with it.
I began playing general music: soft Celtic, Irish, a couple ballads, just something to keep the sound going. When the bridal party came, Ryan loaned me his laptop, and I began the task of switching machines, going from my slower computer to his faster one. The bridal party's official entrance came about 15 minutes later. Most of the bridal party entered to Battle Without Honor Or Humanity, by Tomoyasu Hotei, from the Kill Bill: Volume 1 soundtrack. Colin and Sarah entered to Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti, on the Original Rocky Soundtrack.
During dinner, I played a lot of classical (Mozart and Chopin), as well as a couple other random pieces, two of which were from video games. One was an orchestrated version of the Super Mario themes, and the other was a Final Fantasy mix.
Come What May, sung by Ewan MacGregor & Nicole Kidman, from Moulin Rouge was the first dance of the bride and groom. It was very fitting. Your Song, sung by Ewan MacGregor from the same movie, was Sarah's dance with her father. Colin danced to Swinging on a Star by Bing Crosby with his mother.
The rest dances consisted of a lot of swing, some ballroom, and a lot of otherwise freestyle dances. The wedding ended on a remarkable note, with Switchfoot's This Is Your Life. During this dance, Colin and Sarah were surrounded by all the guys carrying the lights from the tables. They started to walk in time to the music, counter-clockwise around them. All the girls joined hands outside of them and walked around them in the opposite direction of the guys. It looked both odd and really cool at the same time.
The pictures from the wedding are also up. Check them out on Snapfish.
After the reception, Lizzie, Emma, Laurel, Krystle, Claire, Sylvia, M.C., Mike P., Draper and I went to a local Exxon station to grab some ice cream. I was, for some oddball reason, rather tired. I didn't get any ice cream because I was afraid that it would put me on a very short-lived sugar high, and then drop me lower than I was then. In any case, just sitting down and relaxing was enough. I drove Draper to his house, and then I drove back to Herndon.
On Sunday, I went to Old St. Mary's for the Solemn High Tridentine Latin Mass in the evening, and sang with the schola out there. Thus began a new-yet-same-old week for me.
Colin and Sarah, on the other hand, began a whole new life with each other. Congrats to them both, and I expect to still see them on at least a semi-regular basis? Hopefully they won't become hermits?
Monday, January 08, 2007
Chill weekend
On Saturday, Eric and I drove up to NY to donate his old Explorer, "Big Blue", to a monastery of Franciscan monks. We left at about 11 AM, and arrived back in VA at almost 10 PM.
I went to Holy Transfiguration on Sunday, and then to Colin's house to discuss music with him and Sarah for their wedding reception. I stayed and had dinner with them, and then went back to the apartment. Aside from that, it was a nice, slow weekend.
I went to Holy Transfiguration on Sunday, and then to Colin's house to discuss music with him and Sarah for their wedding reception. I stayed and had dinner with them, and then went back to the apartment. Aside from that, it was a nice, slow weekend.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
New Year's weekend
On New Year's Eve, I went to Ken's house with Alex and Chris L. (who was visiting, staying in our apartment) in the evening for a party. Rachel and Peter were both in town visiting. Eric, MikeE, Carissa, and Sarah also came out to celebrate. We set up a laptop to watch the ball drop in NYC.
Around 1:00 AM, a group of us chanted the Veni Creator Spiritus, in order to gain the indulgence associated with singing it in a group.
At 10:00 AM, I sang at Mass at Old St. John's in Maryland with the Canticum Novum Schola, under Richard Rice. After that, I went back to Front Royal and spent some time there for Ken's birthday, and then sang with John E. in the chapel. After that, it was late, so I went back to the apartment...
Around 1:00 AM, a group of us chanted the Veni Creator Spiritus, in order to gain the indulgence associated with singing it in a group.
At 10:00 AM, I sang at Mass at Old St. John's in Maryland with the Canticum Novum Schola, under Richard Rice. After that, I went back to Front Royal and spent some time there for Ken's birthday, and then sang with John E. in the chapel. After that, it was late, so I went back to the apartment...
Friday, December 29, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Weekend and Christmas
On Christmas Eve, Alex and I made breakfast. BTW, nine eggs and about ten ounces of shredded cheddar cheese all scrambled together make an excellent breakfast -- or part of one. :)
I went to Josh and Leslie's new townhouse for Christmas Eve dinner. Josh's mother and Julianna were there, as were Leslie's family. It was fitting that I was there, as Josh's best man -- Jen, her mother, and her sister were also there (Jen was Leslie's maid of honor). They've got a nice new place. We talked for a while, had dinner, said some prayers, and then we went to Midnight Mass. I went to Old St. Mary's and sang with the schola out there, and I was in bed by 2AM.
I was going to go to Sarah H.'s family's house for brunch, but I woke up around noon, and by the time I was up and ready to go, it was almost 1:00 PM. I had to be at Aunt Carmen's for dinner at 4:00 PM, so I called and told them that I wouldn't be able to make it.
Stephenie, Kelly and their baby were there already. Aunt Carmen made an awesome dinner, and her dessert was pecan pie -- needless to say, I enjoyed it very much. We fired up Talledega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby (Uncut). It was pretty dang funny, even a second time.
After that, I had to go back, because I had to work on Tuesday (today).
I went to Josh and Leslie's new townhouse for Christmas Eve dinner. Josh's mother and Julianna were there, as were Leslie's family. It was fitting that I was there, as Josh's best man -- Jen, her mother, and her sister were also there (Jen was Leslie's maid of honor). They've got a nice new place. We talked for a while, had dinner, said some prayers, and then we went to Midnight Mass. I went to Old St. Mary's and sang with the schola out there, and I was in bed by 2AM.
I was going to go to Sarah H.'s family's house for brunch, but I woke up around noon, and by the time I was up and ready to go, it was almost 1:00 PM. I had to be at Aunt Carmen's for dinner at 4:00 PM, so I called and told them that I wouldn't be able to make it.
Stephenie, Kelly and their baby were there already. Aunt Carmen made an awesome dinner, and her dessert was pecan pie -- needless to say, I enjoyed it very much. We fired up Talledega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby (Uncut). It was pretty dang funny, even a second time.
After that, I had to go back, because I had to work on Tuesday (today).
Friday, December 22, 2006
Friday before Christmas
I stayed up until 9:30 AM playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's such an addictive game. Since I didn't have to work today, I had no second thoughts about doing that.
Today I actually purchased Christmas cards, and wrote in them. Tomorrow, I'll mail them. They will probably not reach any of their destinations until the 28th, unless, for some reason, the mail is much faster than I anticipate it is this time of year.
Today is Sarah H. and Adrienne S.'s birthdays, so here's a type-out to both of them: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"
Today I actually purchased Christmas cards, and wrote in them. Tomorrow, I'll mail them. They will probably not reach any of their destinations until the 28th, unless, for some reason, the mail is much faster than I anticipate it is this time of year.
Today is Sarah H. and Adrienne S.'s birthdays, so here's a type-out to both of them: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Fun times!
On Friday night, I drove up to Pennsylvania to visit John E. and his family. I arrived late on Friday night, close to midnight, and then John, Paul and I chatted for about an hour. After that, we turned in.
On Saturday morning, we went to Mass bright and early, came back and had breakfast, and, then I began the long process of meeting the entire family and trying to remember names. Sadly, the names I so dutifully memorized have become a blur, and some aren't even there anymore. If y'all are reading this post, I send my humblest apologies.
After chatting for a while, Mrs. E., John and I went to the farmer's market. It brought back some memories of when I used to do that with Mom and Dad when I was little. Ah, the age of innocence, where everything is taken straight from the ground or the animal, instead of processed in huge centers.
After this, we came back to their house, John and I ran out to get bagels, and we brought them back for lunch. Lunch was, of course, excellent. I wouldn't have thought that bagels for lunch would have been a normal family thing -- I figured that it was just a bachelor thing. {grins}
Following lunch, John, Paul and I went for a drive. We were going to go for a hike, but we never actually found the place. I was asleep for almost an hour of this trip, so when I woke up, I was surrounded by bearded men, bonneted women, and horse-drawn-buggies. I thought that I had gone back in time until I saw a bumper sticker that said, "No, Anthony, you have not gone back in time. You're in Amish country." (OK, so there was no bumper sticker that said that, but it makes for a great story.) We finally found where we were wanted to go hiking, but it was already almost dusk, and the car was almost out of gas, so we just drove back. In order to get some exercise, though, John and I threw the football around outside for a bit.
Dinner was interesting. A word of warning to new visitors: in order to get food for dinner, you have to sing our national anthem. For anyone who is confused, this is the national anthem of the United States of America. I began the Canadian one, and there was a bit of a ruckus. But it's a good thing that there was a ruckus, because I don't know any of the words aside from "O Canada!" Dinner was excellent, by the way...
After dinner, I sat around and chatted with the John and his siblings for a while. Clare (right? The youngest?) kept attaching herself to my leg, so I asked both of the littlest (Mary and Clare?) to sit on my feet and I'd give them a ride. As I walked around, I was told I looked like a transformer, so I grabbed a banana to use as a transformer gun.
I'm not sure how it got started, but John did some pushups with Clare on his back. Not to be outdone, I did the same, but I did a second set with Mary. And finally, for the heck of it, I had both of the youngest on my back. I could barely do one...
We fired up Stealth for the older kids and most of the adults, while the younger ones and Mrs. E. watched The Three Caballeros.
Sunday morning, I drove to Front Royal for Mass, and I sung at St. John's for the Tridentine Mass, Gaudete Sunday. We had a small choir to sing. After Mass, I went out to brunch with Dr. P., Christine, Draper, Ken, and Alaina. After that, Ken, Alaina and I went to Rappahannock winery to hear Danny and visit with Sarah. Danny S. was playing there. He plays and sings very well, so I highly recommend that if you have a chance to hear him in concert, you should go. Alex joined us after a little while, and we had a birthday cake for Sarah. Being tired, I left for home instead of and then played Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for a while, and then went to bed.
On Saturday morning, we went to Mass bright and early, came back and had breakfast, and, then I began the long process of meeting the entire family and trying to remember names. Sadly, the names I so dutifully memorized have become a blur, and some aren't even there anymore. If y'all are reading this post, I send my humblest apologies.
After chatting for a while, Mrs. E., John and I went to the farmer's market. It brought back some memories of when I used to do that with Mom and Dad when I was little. Ah, the age of innocence, where everything is taken straight from the ground or the animal, instead of processed in huge centers.
After this, we came back to their house, John and I ran out to get bagels, and we brought them back for lunch. Lunch was, of course, excellent. I wouldn't have thought that bagels for lunch would have been a normal family thing -- I figured that it was just a bachelor thing. {grins}
Following lunch, John, Paul and I went for a drive. We were going to go for a hike, but we never actually found the place. I was asleep for almost an hour of this trip, so when I woke up, I was surrounded by bearded men, bonneted women, and horse-drawn-buggies. I thought that I had gone back in time until I saw a bumper sticker that said, "No, Anthony, you have not gone back in time. You're in Amish country." (OK, so there was no bumper sticker that said that, but it makes for a great story.) We finally found where we were wanted to go hiking, but it was already almost dusk, and the car was almost out of gas, so we just drove back. In order to get some exercise, though, John and I threw the football around outside for a bit.
Dinner was interesting. A word of warning to new visitors: in order to get food for dinner, you have to sing our national anthem. For anyone who is confused, this is the national anthem of the United States of America. I began the Canadian one, and there was a bit of a ruckus. But it's a good thing that there was a ruckus, because I don't know any of the words aside from "O Canada!" Dinner was excellent, by the way...
After dinner, I sat around and chatted with the John and his siblings for a while. Clare (right? The youngest?) kept attaching herself to my leg, so I asked both of the littlest (Mary and Clare?) to sit on my feet and I'd give them a ride. As I walked around, I was told I looked like a transformer, so I grabbed a banana to use as a transformer gun.
I'm not sure how it got started, but John did some pushups with Clare on his back. Not to be outdone, I did the same, but I did a second set with Mary. And finally, for the heck of it, I had both of the youngest on my back. I could barely do one...
We fired up Stealth for the older kids and most of the adults, while the younger ones and Mrs. E. watched The Three Caballeros.
Sunday morning, I drove to Front Royal for Mass, and I sung at St. John's for the Tridentine Mass, Gaudete Sunday. We had a small choir to sing. After Mass, I went out to brunch with Dr. P., Christine, Draper, Ken, and Alaina. After that, Ken, Alaina and I went to Rappahannock winery to hear Danny and visit with Sarah. Danny S. was playing there. He plays and sings very well, so I highly recommend that if you have a chance to hear him in concert, you should go. Alex joined us after a little while, and we had a birthday cake for Sarah. Being tired, I left for home instead of and then played Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for a while, and then went to bed.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Thursday evening in Front Royal
I went to Front Royal for caroling. Little did I know when I was invited that the girls meant door-to-door. I enjoy caroling, as long as the people I'm singing to know us. Going door-to-door in a neighborhood that I don't know doesn't appeal to me, mostly because, in my case, if I were to get carolers, I'd be a little creeped out, unless I knew them, or I knew their group, or I knew that they were coming. Surprise carolers? I think not... Sorry, girls...
After sitting around and talking/singing for a while with Dr. P, Lizzie, Draper, Christine, Michael and Sylvia, we decided to call it a night and head home. Our first stop was to St. Augustine's to say goodbye to Emma and Laurel. (I should clarify that we were saying goodbye to Sylvia until graduation. She's done for now. However, we were just saying goodbye to Emma and Laurel for the break.) Michael, Draper and I went to the chapel and did some chanting. We got a little experimental with drones and basic harmony, and we were soon joined by Francis. At this point, I really wanted to try two choirs. We all stood facing each other inward: Francis and I faced each other, and I had Michael on my left and Draper on my right, facing each other. In this position, we sang in two choir formation: tenors (M&D) vs. basses (A&F). Michael B. joined us half-way through the Te Deum, the piece we were doing -- surprised the heck out of me: I thought he would be asleep.
At this point, it was getting late, but I really wanted to try something new. Michael B, Francis, and Draper stood on the right side of the choir loft, and Michael C. and I stood on the other side. I was the cantor for choir 1 and Draper was cantor for choir 2. We did the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Angus Dei from Mass IV, with the alternating choirs as appropriate: i.e., I intoned the Kyrie, Michael joined me to finish it; choir 2 did Kyrie #2; choir 1 did Kyrie #3; kept alternating until the final Kyrie, when I intoned, Michael came in on part 2, and everyone came in on the eleison. You couldn't split the Sanctus into choirs too easily, so we just sang it together at opposing sides. The Agnus Dei was similar to the Kyrie: I intoned Agnus Dei 1, Draper intoned Agnus Dei 2, and we all sang Agnus Dei 3.
We closed with the Alma Redemptoris Mater.
I filled up with gas, and I dropped Draper off at his apartment. On the way back home, I had another kind of fun.
I was driving along route 55 when I saw this guy walking down the road. It was about 12:30 AM, far too late for him to be walking. I passed him at first, but I felt pretty bad doing it, so I stopped and reversed. I rolled down the window and asked him if he needed a ride. Without saying a word, he just got inside the car. A but weird, but hey, whatever. I offered my hand and told him my name. He hesitated, but then he shook my hand and said his name was Chris. I started driving, and in an attempt to make small-talk, I commented on how late it was. He didn't say anything. Not expecting that, I asked him where he was headed. He said, "Home."
Now, I have a sense of humor. I can see the humor in this statement, but there's a significant difference between a guy who says something like in a joking manner with a twinkle in his eye to prompt further conversation and/or laughter, and Chris. Chris said it as completely lifeless as he could. I was more disturbed than anything by the complete lack of gratitude/humor/humanity in his voice, and how he didn't really care that I had just picked him and was giving him a lift "home", wherever that was.
Turning to Chris to see if I had missed something (like a look or something to let me know that he was trying to get me to laugh -- there wasn't), I asked him, "Where's home?" He starts looking around my car, feeling things. He then says, "Alexandria." I was shocked. He was sixty miles away from Alexandria. Was he planning on walking there?
Once again, I attempted to make conversation. I reacted notably to his home city, and asked him if he had a plan to get back home. Chris paid no attention to me though, because he was still feeling all over the car. I re-posed the question, to no avail. My car's visor has apparently gotten his attention, and he was eyeing it like a hawk, and feeling it again and again. As he ran his hands all around the visor, he felt the palm leaf, and piped up in a hostile manner: "What the hell is this?" I replied: "It's a palm leaf. It symbolizes the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem one week before He was crucified." It looked as though my guest was about to be rude again and say, "That's stupid." Before he could, I looked straight at him, and said, "I'm Catholic." I then put on my face that says, "Do you have a problem with that?" He shut up pretty quickly -- no surprise there.
I asked him again (with emphasis): "So, Chris, what's your plan for getting home?" He was still being rude, so I guess he thought I didn't deserve an answer.
I changed the subject. "All right, since you don't have a plan for getting back, let me ask you another question: Why are you walking at midnight?" He was quiet for a few seconds, but then he said, "I'm not walking." I'm sorry, Chris, I didn't realize you were so accurate. I was beginning to get visibly annoyed at this point. I was already agitated at how rude he was, but I think that I was holding it all in until this. Truth be told, he was right. He wasn't walking. Once again, I looked at him quickly to see if he had been trying to make a joke, and, once again, he wasn't. He was being blatantly rude. "All, right, I'm sorry. I'll be more precise. Why were you walking, Chris?" He didn't reply. "Chris, why the hell were you walking at midnight down a dark street where I could have hit you and killed you?" Still nothing.
Suddenly, all my doors lock. I turn and look at him. He's got his hand on the door, screwing around with the buttons. I unlock my doors. He locks them again. I unlock them. He re-locks them. I unlock them. This goes on for at least 20 clicks. Finally, I've had it up to my neck with him intentionally being rude to me and now trying to break my car. It took a lot of self-control to not punch him first and ask questions later. But that wouldn't do, so I asked him what he thought he was doing, and why he was trying to break my car. He thought about answering, and then decided that I could know his intentions, so he deigned me with a response: "I'm trying to roll down the window." I explained to him that the switch on that side was broken, so I'll roll down the window for him. I rolled it down half-way. My doors locked again. Once again, taking a decent amount of self-control to keep my anger in check, I re-explained to him that the window switch on that side had not been fixed in the past ten seconds, so if he had heard anything I had told him not even ten seconds ago, he would know that he had to ask me to roll down his window. I then asked him how far down he wanted it. He said, "All the way." It was obvious that he was trying to drown me out, but I rolled it down all the way. My door locked again. I unlocked them and told him to stop doing that.
About ten seconds later, I asked him again, why he was walking down the street at midnight. He gave me the silent treatment again. I was through being nice. I'd done everything he wanted, catering to his whims, and he was still being rude. He still hadn't even thanked me for picking him up. I exploded at him: "Listen, Chris, this silent treatment thing is going to stop right now. Unless you actually use your voice and your mouth to speak English like I know you can, you're getting out. Now, I'm going to ask you one more time: Why were you walking at midnight?" He still didn't say anything. "That's it. Game over. Get out now. Get the hell out of my car. I don't want you in here." As I said this, I pulled over to the median. He seemed to be sizing up his options: a 60-mile walk, or talking. He opted for a 60-mile walk, so as soon as the car came to a stop, he opened the door and got out. I took off, and left him walking along 66.
I then called the police and told them that there was a man acting extremely suspiciously and wearing dark clothes walking along 66. I related in short the above story to them, and they said that they would send out a state trooper to pick him up. I hope that they did, because I'd love to see him spend some time in jail.
Seriously, what else was there I could do? If he had lied to me and made up a story about how his car was broken down, I would never have know, and I would have probably taken him all the way to my exit. We could have had a very pleasant conversation, shooting the breeze, telling jokes, swapping stories (true or not). All he had to do was talk. Since he didn't, I can only assume the worst: that he's a serial killer and he obviously didn't want to talk about much...
In retrospect, I should have started singing some Protestant hymn, "Jesus Loves Me," or something similar. Mr. Crazy Man Chris would probably have started talking at that point...
After sitting around and talking/singing for a while with Dr. P, Lizzie, Draper, Christine, Michael and Sylvia, we decided to call it a night and head home. Our first stop was to St. Augustine's to say goodbye to Emma and Laurel. (I should clarify that we were saying goodbye to Sylvia until graduation. She's done for now. However, we were just saying goodbye to Emma and Laurel for the break.) Michael, Draper and I went to the chapel and did some chanting. We got a little experimental with drones and basic harmony, and we were soon joined by Francis. At this point, I really wanted to try two choirs. We all stood facing each other inward: Francis and I faced each other, and I had Michael on my left and Draper on my right, facing each other. In this position, we sang in two choir formation: tenors (M&D) vs. basses (A&F). Michael B. joined us half-way through the Te Deum, the piece we were doing -- surprised the heck out of me: I thought he would be asleep.
At this point, it was getting late, but I really wanted to try something new. Michael B, Francis, and Draper stood on the right side of the choir loft, and Michael C. and I stood on the other side. I was the cantor for choir 1 and Draper was cantor for choir 2. We did the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Angus Dei from Mass IV, with the alternating choirs as appropriate: i.e., I intoned the Kyrie, Michael joined me to finish it; choir 2 did Kyrie #2; choir 1 did Kyrie #3; kept alternating until the final Kyrie, when I intoned, Michael came in on part 2, and everyone came in on the eleison. You couldn't split the Sanctus into choirs too easily, so we just sang it together at opposing sides. The Agnus Dei was similar to the Kyrie: I intoned Agnus Dei 1, Draper intoned Agnus Dei 2, and we all sang Agnus Dei 3.
We closed with the Alma Redemptoris Mater.
I filled up with gas, and I dropped Draper off at his apartment. On the way back home, I had another kind of fun.
I was driving along route 55 when I saw this guy walking down the road. It was about 12:30 AM, far too late for him to be walking. I passed him at first, but I felt pretty bad doing it, so I stopped and reversed. I rolled down the window and asked him if he needed a ride. Without saying a word, he just got inside the car. A but weird, but hey, whatever. I offered my hand and told him my name. He hesitated, but then he shook my hand and said his name was Chris. I started driving, and in an attempt to make small-talk, I commented on how late it was. He didn't say anything. Not expecting that, I asked him where he was headed. He said, "Home."
Now, I have a sense of humor. I can see the humor in this statement, but there's a significant difference between a guy who says something like in a joking manner with a twinkle in his eye to prompt further conversation and/or laughter, and Chris. Chris said it as completely lifeless as he could. I was more disturbed than anything by the complete lack of gratitude/humor/humanity in his voice, and how he didn't really care that I had just picked him and was giving him a lift "home", wherever that was.
Turning to Chris to see if I had missed something (like a look or something to let me know that he was trying to get me to laugh -- there wasn't), I asked him, "Where's home?" He starts looking around my car, feeling things. He then says, "Alexandria." I was shocked. He was sixty miles away from Alexandria. Was he planning on walking there?
Once again, I attempted to make conversation. I reacted notably to his home city, and asked him if he had a plan to get back home. Chris paid no attention to me though, because he was still feeling all over the car. I re-posed the question, to no avail. My car's visor has apparently gotten his attention, and he was eyeing it like a hawk, and feeling it again and again. As he ran his hands all around the visor, he felt the palm leaf, and piped up in a hostile manner: "What the hell is this?" I replied: "It's a palm leaf. It symbolizes the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem one week before He was crucified." It looked as though my guest was about to be rude again and say, "That's stupid." Before he could, I looked straight at him, and said, "I'm Catholic." I then put on my face that says, "Do you have a problem with that?" He shut up pretty quickly -- no surprise there.
I asked him again (with emphasis): "So, Chris, what's your plan for getting home?" He was still being rude, so I guess he thought I didn't deserve an answer.
I changed the subject. "All right, since you don't have a plan for getting back, let me ask you another question: Why are you walking at midnight?" He was quiet for a few seconds, but then he said, "I'm not walking." I'm sorry, Chris, I didn't realize you were so accurate. I was beginning to get visibly annoyed at this point. I was already agitated at how rude he was, but I think that I was holding it all in until this. Truth be told, he was right. He wasn't walking. Once again, I looked at him quickly to see if he had been trying to make a joke, and, once again, he wasn't. He was being blatantly rude. "All, right, I'm sorry. I'll be more precise. Why were you walking, Chris?" He didn't reply. "Chris, why the hell were you walking at midnight down a dark street where I could have hit you and killed you?" Still nothing.
Suddenly, all my doors lock. I turn and look at him. He's got his hand on the door, screwing around with the buttons. I unlock my doors. He locks them again. I unlock them. He re-locks them. I unlock them. This goes on for at least 20 clicks. Finally, I've had it up to my neck with him intentionally being rude to me and now trying to break my car. It took a lot of self-control to not punch him first and ask questions later. But that wouldn't do, so I asked him what he thought he was doing, and why he was trying to break my car. He thought about answering, and then decided that I could know his intentions, so he deigned me with a response: "I'm trying to roll down the window." I explained to him that the switch on that side was broken, so I'll roll down the window for him. I rolled it down half-way. My doors locked again. Once again, taking a decent amount of self-control to keep my anger in check, I re-explained to him that the window switch on that side had not been fixed in the past ten seconds, so if he had heard anything I had told him not even ten seconds ago, he would know that he had to ask me to roll down his window. I then asked him how far down he wanted it. He said, "All the way." It was obvious that he was trying to drown me out, but I rolled it down all the way. My door locked again. I unlocked them and told him to stop doing that.
About ten seconds later, I asked him again, why he was walking down the street at midnight. He gave me the silent treatment again. I was through being nice. I'd done everything he wanted, catering to his whims, and he was still being rude. He still hadn't even thanked me for picking him up. I exploded at him: "Listen, Chris, this silent treatment thing is going to stop right now. Unless you actually use your voice and your mouth to speak English like I know you can, you're getting out. Now, I'm going to ask you one more time: Why were you walking at midnight?" He still didn't say anything. "That's it. Game over. Get out now. Get the hell out of my car. I don't want you in here." As I said this, I pulled over to the median. He seemed to be sizing up his options: a 60-mile walk, or talking. He opted for a 60-mile walk, so as soon as the car came to a stop, he opened the door and got out. I took off, and left him walking along 66.
I then called the police and told them that there was a man acting extremely suspiciously and wearing dark clothes walking along 66. I related in short the above story to them, and they said that they would send out a state trooper to pick him up. I hope that they did, because I'd love to see him spend some time in jail.
Seriously, what else was there I could do? If he had lied to me and made up a story about how his car was broken down, I would never have know, and I would have probably taken him all the way to my exit. We could have had a very pleasant conversation, shooting the breeze, telling jokes, swapping stories (true or not). All he had to do was talk. Since he didn't, I can only assume the worst: that he's a serial killer and he obviously didn't want to talk about much...
In retrospect, I should have started singing some Protestant hymn, "Jesus Loves Me," or something similar. Mr. Crazy Man Chris would probably have started talking at that point...
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Last Christendom weekend
Well, starting next week, I'll be a free man, of sorts. Although I won't have to sing at Christendom, I'll still be singing elsewhere...
This weekend has been pretty busy. On Friday, Ryan, Eric, Joe, Ken and I drove down to SC for the funeral of Mama (Ginger) E., MikeE's mother. The morning of the funeral (December 8), Eric, Joe, Ken and I went to early Mass before heading out. Ryan wasn't able to make it to the morning Mass, so we had to catch one that evening. All five of us piled into Eric's Explorer, and we made the trip, arriving at the church about five minutes before the ceremony was about to begin.
It was a sad time for all of us who knew her. I had only met her twice, but it was still sad, losing such a great woman. Her family is all in my prayers as they continue to struggle with this loss...
After the ceremony and the reception, we went to a local Catholic Church and caught Mass, just in time for Ryan. The first thing we noticed about the church was that it looked more like a warehouse than anything. Turns out that it was a run by the Franciscans. To those of you who don't know, this usually implies a great deal of liberality... Here we go: ready?
On Saturday, I cleaned up the apartment, because we were having guests over. Ken and Alaina were the first to show up, followed not long after by Alex, Ashley, Elizabeth, and Sarah.
On Sunday, I sang with the Christendom choir, and then out at Old St. Mary's. I took TJ, Ellen, and Jason to Old St. Mary's -- which meant simply that I had to take them back to Christendom...
There was a visiting choir at Old St. Mary's, the Ad Hoc Singers. They sang (among other pieces) Mozart's Missa Brevis in B-flat (KV 275), which is a very beautiful and rather impressive Mass.
On Monday, I rode in to work with Ken, and then back with him. I think this is becoming a weekend tradition...
This weekend has been pretty busy. On Friday, Ryan, Eric, Joe, Ken and I drove down to SC for the funeral of Mama (Ginger) E., MikeE's mother. The morning of the funeral (December 8), Eric, Joe, Ken and I went to early Mass before heading out. Ryan wasn't able to make it to the morning Mass, so we had to catch one that evening. All five of us piled into Eric's Explorer, and we made the trip, arriving at the church about five minutes before the ceremony was about to begin.
It was a sad time for all of us who knew her. I had only met her twice, but it was still sad, losing such a great woman. Her family is all in my prayers as they continue to struggle with this loss...
After the ceremony and the reception, we went to a local Catholic Church and caught Mass, just in time for Ryan. The first thing we noticed about the church was that it looked more like a warehouse than anything. Turns out that it was a run by the Franciscans. To those of you who don't know, this usually implies a great deal of liberality... Here we go: ready?
- The priest was vested in blue vestments. Blue. Does anyone else see a problem with this? Thank you, I knew I wasn't alone.
- There were two altar girls. There was also an altar monk. There were plenty of men and other people of the male gender in the congregation. Problem? Call me old fashioned but, back in my day, if you filled the position of acolyte or lector, it meant that you could be ordained to the priesthood. I don't have a problem with the altar monk or the deacon. However, neither the lectorette/congregation "choir" director nor either of the altar girls could ever be ordained.
- Guess what color the altar girls, the altar monk, and the deacon were wearing? If you named off any color in the spectrum aside from blue, you're wrong... (White isn't a color, but yes, they did have white robes on, too.)
- At the Our Father, everyone joined hands with everyone else in their rows ... across the church. I did not. The altar monk seemed to be glaring at me for not participating. I glared back.
- Extraordinary Eucharistic ministers -- unnecessary because of the presence of a fully capable priest and a deacon.
- Saving the best for last: the Mass was made illicit by the actions of the priest who broke the host before the consecration, because he was acting out the words...
On Saturday, I cleaned up the apartment, because we were having guests over. Ken and Alaina were the first to show up, followed not long after by Alex, Ashley, Elizabeth, and Sarah.
On Sunday, I sang with the Christendom choir, and then out at Old St. Mary's. I took TJ, Ellen, and Jason to Old St. Mary's -- which meant simply that I had to take them back to Christendom...
There was a visiting choir at Old St. Mary's, the Ad Hoc Singers. They sang (among other pieces) Mozart's Missa Brevis in B-flat (KV 275), which is a very beautiful and rather impressive Mass.
On Monday, I rode in to work with Ken, and then back with him. I think this is becoming a weekend tradition...
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Josh and Leslie's wedding, and a busy weekend...
Friday evening, Josh and Leslie had their wedding rehearsal. I was late in arriving, because I didn't leave work as early as I would have liked to, and, on top of that, I still hadn't picked up the tuxes...
Anyway, after I got it all picked up and I arrived at the church, I soon discovered that I was not the last person to arrive -- Josh, Leslie, and her family were also not there. They were about five minutes behind me.
The rehearsal lasted all of about 30 minutes -- it was very quick for two run-through's. After that, we headed over to Old Town Winchester and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. I forget the name of the place, but it was a very nice place. Dinner was good, and the place was crowded -- recipe for fun times. :)
After dinner, Josh and Leslie gave the bridesmaids and the groomsmen their gifts, as well as gave little speeches about them. My gift was a set of virtual fighting gloves. These will come in handy when I get the urge to beat up someone...
On Saturday, I went to confession at St. Veronica's. After that, I went back to the apartment, and found Josh trying to get the printer to print the wedding programs properly. After trying on his computer as well as mine, we eventually gave up and decided to take it to a place and have it done professionally. Josh told me to go to the UPS store near our place.
I got there, and we had a problem: they didn't have the font that Josh used. That turned out to be not such a big problem: we found one that was extremely close to it in style, and I changed the program so that it would all work. Josh had also made a PDF of the program, but we discovered that Adobe was having a problem printing these in booklet format, double-sided. After spending about 30 minutes re-formatting it with the new font, the UPS assistant and I discovered that the printer wasn't going to print double-sided and in booklet format, no matter what setting we used. With only 45 minutes to spare before I had to put on my tux and get to Josh's wedding, I got directions to the place and booked it over to Kinko's...
At Kinko's, I had 30 minutes to explain to them what needed it get done, as well as do it. Explaining took a while, but the printing began rather quickly and everything was OK. In that time, Josh had gotten ready for the wedding, and he was on his way to the store. When he got there, I went back to the apartment, got cleaned up, put on my tux, and called him to see if he needed help. Turns out he was finished and on his way out. He took 50, because he was already on it -- I took the tollway, because he had a head start on me and we were already late. The wedding was supposed to start at 1:45 PM with the Litany of the Saints. It was 1:30 and I had about an hour's drive ahead of me. I got to the church in about 45 minutes. No, I wasn't speeding! (...much...) Josh was about 20 minutes behind me. The tollway saved me a lot of time.
Did I get flak? Of course. I will gladly take the blame for it, because on the wedding day, the blame rests solely upon the shoulders of the best man (he's the best man for the job!), and the praise rests upon the newly married couple. Not that I subscribe to that policy myself, but in this case, it's for Josh...
Anyway, the wedding was fairly normal. Aside from the groom and his best man being one-and-a-half hours late (because we should have been there at about 1 PM), everything else went fine.
The reception went over pretty well. I hadn't written the speech, but I'd been thinking a whole lot about it, so when it was time to give the speech, I felt semi-ready, but it seemed to be received rather well. There were a lot of other speeches after mine, so any flubs that I made were graciously covered up by the Maid of Honor, the parents of the bride, the brother of the bride, and two of her bridesmaids. At least I felt better about it, anyway.
The dancing was fun. I proved to myself, once again, that I´m not good at it. I hadn't practiced swing in so long that it wasn't even funny. I felt like a lump of clay trying to be graceful and not succeeding...
After the reception, I helped Ken, Alaina, and the family of the bride take all the wedding presents to Josh and Leslie's new townhouse. After that, there was a small party at Sarah's house.
The rest of the weekend was fairly standard: singing at Christendom on Sunday, practicing with the Palestrina choir, and then heading back -- that about sums it up...
Anyway, after I got it all picked up and I arrived at the church, I soon discovered that I was not the last person to arrive -- Josh, Leslie, and her family were also not there. They were about five minutes behind me.
The rehearsal lasted all of about 30 minutes -- it was very quick for two run-through's. After that, we headed over to Old Town Winchester and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. I forget the name of the place, but it was a very nice place. Dinner was good, and the place was crowded -- recipe for fun times. :)
After dinner, Josh and Leslie gave the bridesmaids and the groomsmen their gifts, as well as gave little speeches about them. My gift was a set of virtual fighting gloves. These will come in handy when I get the urge to beat up someone...
On Saturday, I went to confession at St. Veronica's. After that, I went back to the apartment, and found Josh trying to get the printer to print the wedding programs properly. After trying on his computer as well as mine, we eventually gave up and decided to take it to a place and have it done professionally. Josh told me to go to the UPS store near our place.
I got there, and we had a problem: they didn't have the font that Josh used. That turned out to be not such a big problem: we found one that was extremely close to it in style, and I changed the program so that it would all work. Josh had also made a PDF of the program, but we discovered that Adobe was having a problem printing these in booklet format, double-sided. After spending about 30 minutes re-formatting it with the new font, the UPS assistant and I discovered that the printer wasn't going to print double-sided and in booklet format, no matter what setting we used. With only 45 minutes to spare before I had to put on my tux and get to Josh's wedding, I got directions to the place and booked it over to Kinko's...
At Kinko's, I had 30 minutes to explain to them what needed it get done, as well as do it. Explaining took a while, but the printing began rather quickly and everything was OK. In that time, Josh had gotten ready for the wedding, and he was on his way to the store. When he got there, I went back to the apartment, got cleaned up, put on my tux, and called him to see if he needed help. Turns out he was finished and on his way out. He took 50, because he was already on it -- I took the tollway, because he had a head start on me and we were already late. The wedding was supposed to start at 1:45 PM with the Litany of the Saints. It was 1:30 and I had about an hour's drive ahead of me. I got to the church in about 45 minutes. No, I wasn't speeding! (...much...) Josh was about 20 minutes behind me. The tollway saved me a lot of time.
Did I get flak? Of course. I will gladly take the blame for it, because on the wedding day, the blame rests solely upon the shoulders of the best man (he's the best man for the job!), and the praise rests upon the newly married couple. Not that I subscribe to that policy myself, but in this case, it's for Josh...
Anyway, the wedding was fairly normal. Aside from the groom and his best man being one-and-a-half hours late (because we should have been there at about 1 PM), everything else went fine.
The reception went over pretty well. I hadn't written the speech, but I'd been thinking a whole lot about it, so when it was time to give the speech, I felt semi-ready, but it seemed to be received rather well. There were a lot of other speeches after mine, so any flubs that I made were graciously covered up by the Maid of Honor, the parents of the bride, the brother of the bride, and two of her bridesmaids. At least I felt better about it, anyway.
The dancing was fun. I proved to myself, once again, that I´m not good at it. I hadn't practiced swing in so long that it wasn't even funny. I felt like a lump of clay trying to be graceful and not succeeding...
After the reception, I helped Ken, Alaina, and the family of the bride take all the wedding presents to Josh and Leslie's new townhouse. After that, there was a small party at Sarah's house.
The rest of the weekend was fairly standard: singing at Christendom on Sunday, practicing with the Palestrina choir, and then heading back -- that about sums it up...
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Mom's gone... :(
Mom flew out this morning. Two full weeks spent here. I took her to Skyline Drive yesterday with John E., and we all had a good time. Mom got tired walking through the woods, and that evening, I took both Mom and John to the Giffin Tavern. It's a great little place.
I just got back from choir practice with the Washington Cappella Antiqua. I'm on reserve membership now.
But I'm tired now and it's bed time...
I just got back from choir practice with the Washington Cappella Antiqua. I'm on reserve membership now.
But I'm tired now and it's bed time...
Monday, November 27, 2006
Thanksgiving, and the weekend with Mom
On Thanksgiving Day, Mom and I went to the M.'s house and spent the day with them. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, and green bean casserole, and dessert was pumpkin pie, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream. If Emily, my personal trainer, is reading this, then it's no secret that I ate all of them, and that they were yummy. :)
Sorry, for that. I had to say that. {big grin}
Anyway, after dinner, we chatted for a while, then walked around Frederick with part of the family, and we left about 8:00 PM.
Friday, I worked practically all day. That evening, we went to St. Augustine's and joined Michael, Sylvia, Emily, and a host of other Christendom students, alumni, and Bracy for a day-after-Thanksgiving dinner.
On Saturday, Mom and I went to Alex's house in Davidsonville and visited with the family. We stayed around until about 5:00 PM, and then made the two hour drive back. (It was at a leisurely pace.)
On Sunday, I took Mom to Mass in town. After that, I took her to Spelunker's (because you can't come to Front Royal and not go there), and from there we went to see Carmen and Barry, and Mary Jane and Hoppy, Dad's sisters and their husbands. We had a good visit with them, and dinner was, once again, excellent. We had chicken and dumplings, which was so far superior to Christendom's version that it was not even remotely funny.
Mom and I headed back to Front Royal about 8:00 PM, and we sat around with a good puzzle for a while. A while after all this, I called it a night...
Sorry, for that. I had to say that. {big grin}
Anyway, after dinner, we chatted for a while, then walked around Frederick with part of the family, and we left about 8:00 PM.
Friday, I worked practically all day. That evening, we went to St. Augustine's and joined Michael, Sylvia, Emily, and a host of other Christendom students, alumni, and Bracy for a day-after-Thanksgiving dinner.
On Saturday, Mom and I went to Alex's house in Davidsonville and visited with the family. We stayed around until about 5:00 PM, and then made the two hour drive back. (It was at a leisurely pace.)
On Sunday, I took Mom to Mass in town. After that, I took her to Spelunker's (because you can't come to Front Royal and not go there), and from there we went to see Carmen and Barry, and Mary Jane and Hoppy, Dad's sisters and their husbands. We had a good visit with them, and dinner was, once again, excellent. We had chicken and dumplings, which was so far superior to Christendom's version that it was not even remotely funny.
Mom and I headed back to Front Royal about 8:00 PM, and we sat around with a good puzzle for a while. A while after all this, I called it a night...
Monday, November 20, 2006
Sunday
On Sunday, I took Mom into town for the Tridentine Latin Mass at 12:30, and after that, to Villa Giuseppe's. That evening, she, Lizzie and I went to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers again. I was very glad to see the final performance. It is always a lot of fun. The actors at Christendom are all very talented, and I really get a kick out of watching them...
My kudos to all the director, producer, actors and assistants in the show. Without all of you, the show would have been significantly less fun!
My kudos to all the director, producer, actors and assistants in the show. Without all of you, the show would have been significantly less fun!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Friday
Mom, Sarah and I went to see this play. Aside from the relatively poor sound quality that the Front Royal High School offers, the production itself was really good. The actors were quiet animated, and they made the show really fun. I laughed so hard during some of the scenes.
My intention is to go back on Sunday for the final performance. I hope that I can...
My intention is to go back on Sunday for the final performance. I hope that I can...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Dinner
Mom and I went to dinner this evening at the C.'s house, parent's of the J. family in TX. We had a good time discussing life, politics and religion -- two of which every etiquette book in the world says should not be discussed. I don't see why not. It's very enlightening, and it's honestly fun...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Mom's here!
Mom flew in today to visit me! She flew in from TX on American Airlines, courtesy of Soma. She'll be here for two weeks!
She went with me back to work and then to choir practice. Following this, I drove her to Front Royal, where she will be staying through her visit. I hope that it is well for her!
She went with me back to work and then to choir practice. Following this, I drove her to Front Royal, where she will be staying through her visit. I hope that it is well for her!
Monday, November 13, 2006
Sick weekend
This weekend was busy as all heck. First and foremost, I had a meeting on Saturday morning. Marc from Oklahoma flew in for it. The meeting was basically all about where the team and the company was going. I felt horrible doing this, and I didn't just give up, but I was so tired that I kept falling asleep in the meeting -- even though I overslept that morning and was late for it anyway!
That evening was the Tepeyac Family Center's gala dinner, to which Christine and I went. It wasn't a bad dinner, nor was it a bad cause. I'm just not used to spending that much money for a small meal, an auction, and listening to people tell me what a wonderful gift life is and how there is always another choice instead of abortion. Admittedly, though, the stories were getting though my icy heart...
Sunday was the second Sunday of the month, so I had triple choir duty. Josh drove me in to Christendom that morning, so I rode in with him. After Christendom's 10:00 AM Mass, I stuck around for the Select Choir practice, and then rode in to Old St. Mary's, where the Select Chorus was singing at the 5:00 PM Solemn High Mass. I sang both with the Select Chorus as well as the Schola. Following this, the choir went to Amphora's for the choir dinner.
The next morning, I rode in to work with Ken, and that was the end of the weekend...
That evening was the Tepeyac Family Center's gala dinner, to which Christine and I went. It wasn't a bad dinner, nor was it a bad cause. I'm just not used to spending that much money for a small meal, an auction, and listening to people tell me what a wonderful gift life is and how there is always another choice instead of abortion. Admittedly, though, the stories were getting though my icy heart...
Sunday was the second Sunday of the month, so I had triple choir duty. Josh drove me in to Christendom that morning, so I rode in with him. After Christendom's 10:00 AM Mass, I stuck around for the Select Choir practice, and then rode in to Old St. Mary's, where the Select Chorus was singing at the 5:00 PM Solemn High Mass. I sang both with the Select Chorus as well as the Schola. Following this, the choir went to Amphora's for the choir dinner.
The next morning, I rode in to work with Ken, and that was the end of the weekend...
Monday, November 06, 2006
Weekend stories
This weekend was fun. Saturday morning, I went and practiced with the Washington Capella Antiqua. I think I'm beginning to get these pieces. They are very difficult, but I think that the increased difficulty is only helping tone my music sense...
After that, I went to the gym for a while and did my body weight workout. I was surprised that I was able to do it all, because last weekend, I certainly didn't feel like it.
I went to Holy Transfiguration for Vespers and sang there again. I'm beginning to get the hang of Eastern Chant. It's fun, and it's not that hard, but I'm still learning it.
I then went to work for a couple hours. I promised Michael C. that I would be come to Christendom for Sylvia's birthday singing, so I left work at about 10:40 PM, making it there just after the "Happy Birthday" was sung. Fortunately, that means that it had just started.
Sunday morning, Mass was quite easy. There was a new piece by Dr. P., and it wasn't too hard, all things considered, but I'd never seen it before, and I needed to make sure that it sounded good, so I didn't sing that loud for it.
The Tridentine Latin Mass at St. John's was fine. It was a standard Mass for the schola: Missa de Angelis (Mass VIII), the Propers, and a couple hymns. Following this, the Select Chorus (Palestrina Choir?) had its practice, and then I went to go help Josh.
Josh was on the outskirts of town, providing rides for the ladies going to Leslie's bridal shower. The bridal shower was being held at Jen's house (the maid of honor), and she lives near the top of a mountain. Great view, but heck on brakes. Anyway, I arrived there shortly before the party let out, so Josh and I chatted for a while. We discussed some details regarding his bachelor party and the wedding, and then it was time to ascend the mountain. I followed him in the Sentra up the hill, and we ferried the first group down. We went back up for the second group, but they weren't quite ready to go, so Josh and I went inside for a few minutes.
The house, although small, was very nice and cozy. It was pretty sweet. :) I think the house style is called an A-Frame? I'm not sure...
Anyway, after that, I took Lizzie B. to dinner, and we just talked for a while. 'Twas fun. We went to the Griffin Tavern, and I realized that I had a new favorite place to eat. :)
After dropping her off, I went and chatted with Sarah H. and Jonathan D. for a while. I drove home, and got there about 10:30 PM.
After that, I went to the gym for a while and did my body weight workout. I was surprised that I was able to do it all, because last weekend, I certainly didn't feel like it.
I went to Holy Transfiguration for Vespers and sang there again. I'm beginning to get the hang of Eastern Chant. It's fun, and it's not that hard, but I'm still learning it.
I then went to work for a couple hours. I promised Michael C. that I would be come to Christendom for Sylvia's birthday singing, so I left work at about 10:40 PM, making it there just after the "Happy Birthday" was sung. Fortunately, that means that it had just started.
Sunday morning, Mass was quite easy. There was a new piece by Dr. P., and it wasn't too hard, all things considered, but I'd never seen it before, and I needed to make sure that it sounded good, so I didn't sing that loud for it.
The Tridentine Latin Mass at St. John's was fine. It was a standard Mass for the schola: Missa de Angelis (Mass VIII), the Propers, and a couple hymns. Following this, the Select Chorus (Palestrina Choir?) had its practice, and then I went to go help Josh.
Josh was on the outskirts of town, providing rides for the ladies going to Leslie's bridal shower. The bridal shower was being held at Jen's house (the maid of honor), and she lives near the top of a mountain. Great view, but heck on brakes. Anyway, I arrived there shortly before the party let out, so Josh and I chatted for a while. We discussed some details regarding his bachelor party and the wedding, and then it was time to ascend the mountain. I followed him in the Sentra up the hill, and we ferried the first group down. We went back up for the second group, but they weren't quite ready to go, so Josh and I went inside for a few minutes.
The house, although small, was very nice and cozy. It was pretty sweet. :) I think the house style is called an A-Frame? I'm not sure...
Anyway, after that, I took Lizzie B. to dinner, and we just talked for a while. 'Twas fun. We went to the Griffin Tavern, and I realized that I had a new favorite place to eat. :)
After dropping her off, I went and chatted with Sarah H. and Jonathan D. for a while. I drove home, and got there about 10:30 PM.
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