A brief update

As a brief explanation for why I have not been quite as active on here as I would like to be(especially in getting the "French girl escapades up here), is that I have started taking classes at one of our local comm. colleges. I will hopefully get around to getting the French girl escapades written up this weekend, but we shall see, as I have a whole list of things that I've neglected all week to catch up on( cleaning room, doing laundry, writing letters, and reading some good books). Oh, and our public library is going to be closed for a week starting Sunday, and so I will have even more slightly limited internet access. So until later, cheers!

Allright...

...I lied! I won't be able to get the chapter concerning the "French girl" escapades up until Friday at the earliest. This is due to the fact that I have to get a lot of studying in between now and this weekend in preparation for a test. I will really try and have it up by then, and if I don't, you all can burn me at the stake! Though I hope that you all will be a little more merciful than that and just patiently bide with me until I can get it up.

In other news, the English speaking pilgrims of Juventutem have started a collaboration blog, which I highly recommend you check out.

Until later, Cheers!

Welt Jugend Tag: Chapter 2

After we had grabbed our luggage, we raced back up to the seminary. We threw our stuff onto the bus we had been assigned and then got on, not knowing where the heck we were going. Did I already mention how disorganized everything was? We ended up in the village of Ottobeuren where we were to attend a Solemn Pontifical High Mass in the cathedral there that day, celebrated by his excellency Bishop Rifan of Brazil. We had a good few hours…four… five… six. I don’t remember exactly how long it was, but we sat out on the lawn in front of the cathedral with our luggage for a lengthy period of time before mass was supposed to start.
We shared the lawn with about anywhere between three to five hundred other people of all nationalities. This proved rather interesting, as there were only about twenty-five English speakers at most, and only about 12 of us from the good ol’ USA. It was like when your at a party or get together and there are so many conversations going on that it just seems like a hum, and you have to try really hard to pick up on just one conversation. Only it was worse, because there hundreds of conversations going on, but they were all in different languages. So no matter how hard you tried, you could never hone in on one conversation.
Finally, we got to go into the cathedral just before mass was supposed to start. I had thought that the cathedral looked beautiful and impressive from the outside, but even that didn’t prepare me for what I was to see inside. This cathedral in this small village in Germany was even more beautiful than the greatest of our basilicas here in America. It was huge, it was beautiful, it was breathtaking. And then add on top of that the fact that we were going to get to hear mass in it; and not just any mass, but mass in one of the highest forms of a rite that has been used in the Catholic Church for over 1000 years, said in a language that enabled people from many different countries to participate to the same degree. It was quite an incompar-able first international liturgical experience, to say the least.
After Mass, we sat around for another “short” long period of time in which we continued to have only an infinitesimal idea of what was supposed to be happening next. As far as we could tell, our next movement in the disorganized orchestra of our first week was to get on a bus that would take us to the St. George walker’s camp for the night. And so we continued to sit there while the various people in charge tried to determine whether it would be better for us to get on one of the busses with the walkers, which were already pretty full, or get on one of the busses heading back to Wigratzbad and get dropped off on the way. They finally decided on the latter option which sent us on our way officially to being on the walk portion of our stay in Germany.
We got dropped off at a park in a little village, the name of which I was never able to determine, and were told that it was to be the camp for the night. We still had no idea of what we were to be doing, so we decided to go up and talk to the only other people there. They were those who were in charge of cooking dinner before the rest of the group arrived, and they were all French. Luckily, one of them spoke enough English to let us know where to place our luggage, and that we all needed to go and take showers before dinner. We gratefully took advantage of the offer of a shower; especially me, as I hadn’t had a shower in about three days. Upon returning to camp after a this five minutes of gloriousness, we found that we Americans were to be the minority in this group, there being 10 French people to each of us yanks.
Actually, we made a lot of surprising discoveries upon our return to camp. The first of which was that the “large tents sleeping forty” which we were told would be our accommodation for the first week, was in fact only existent for those who had stayed in Wigratzbad. All of the French had brought their own tents, which is what we were assumed to have brought as well. Only we hadn’t, and that night they could only scrounge up three extra tents that would sleep a total of six, one we gave to the girls, and the others four of the guys used. I opted to sleep outside, as it was something I was used to and rather enjoyed. And such were our sleeping arrangements for our first night on the walk.
Another startling discovery was the fact that we would not be joining the French at their meals until dinner the next day. Apparently they were not prepared to feed 12 extra mouths, and needed to go out and by extra supplies in order to do so. And so we were left to basically fend for ourselves. Luckily Gregory, the guy in charge of all of the English speakers in Juventutem, knew of our plight and had graciously gone out and bought us some groceries to help us make it to the next evening. These consisted mostly of meats, cheeses, bread, some milk, two liters of Coca-cola, and twelve bottles of beer. Not a bad way to have to spend 24 hrs. in the feedbag department. We made a simple dinner of which we ate heartily, washed it down with some cheap German beer, and retired for the night.
We awoke in the morning very cold and damp, not knowing what the order of the day was going to be. Apparently we were to be going to Mass first, after which we would be breaking fast with the simple repast with which we had been provisioned the night before. Mass was said in a small chapel that was just barely large enough to seat all of us walkers. Despite its size, though, it was by and far more beautiful than any American cathedral and basilica that I have ever seen. I would soon discover that this would be the standard for all of the churches that I would visit in the next two weeks, but most especially during our first week in Bavaria.
We broke fast after Mass with our French compatriots, us on our rations, and they on the typical bread, jam, and coffee or tea. At every meal, the French sat themselves in a big circle to eat, and still not knowing what we were to be doing, we sat in our own circle apart from them. Phillip, an older French gentleman who spoke reasonably good English came over and asked us to join them in their circle. We did this and sat there kind of awkwardly not being able to just start a conversation with someone we didn’t know and break the ice. Phillip happened to be helping with the serving of breakfast that morning, and so came around making sure we all got coffee and also came around passing out pieces of chocolate. Apparently they had already done this for all of the French, so when a couple of the girls saw us getting chocolate, they started saying in reasonably good English, “ We are Americans, we want chocolate too!”, which caused merriment all around and served to break the ice for all of us.
After breakfast, we packed up all of our stuff and lugged our bags down to the bus to be transported to our camp for the night. We then officially started off on the walk. The first thing that I noticed was the pace that the French kept; it was very swift and very much to my liking. We walked that way for two and a half hours, during which we sang without end. Or rather, the French sang, and we just hummed along not knowing the words. At midday we stopped for lunch, which we very quickly learned was not a fast affair as in America. Rather, it consisted of sitting for half an hour waiting for lunch, an hour eating, 45 minutes for taking a nap, and a 45 min.( which always ended up being an hour and a half) lecture. The one thing that I really remember about our lunch stop that first day, was learning how to play Rugby with the French guys while waiting for lunch to be served. It was loads of pure guy fun, as the only rules are get the ball to your goal, and if you get tackled, you have to pass the ball. I love games like that!
After lunch, it was more walking and singing until we reached our destination for the night. Here we would unload our luggage off of the bus and then pack it off to where we would set up camp for the night. We would then set up camp, shower( dependent on there being facilities available), and eat dinner.
Now, all of the complaining and carrying on in this post, and also the previous one, was done merely to give the reader some semblance of what was going through our minds on a daily basis during our first week in Germany. I have also gone into great detail describing our first day, so that the reader will have an idea of what our typical day was like during the first week, and so that I may be free to describe only those events that which altered from our daily rituals.
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Due to my partner in crime not getting back to me, I won't have the infamous "French girl" escapades up until tomorrow. This little piece should satisfy your curiosity until then. God Bless!

Tada!

Our very own Gumby has gone and started herself a

blog

! I recommend that you check it out, if you get the chance!

Some slight changes...

Well, due to some spamming I received, I have changed my settings to make it a little more difficult for that to happen. Just so you all know, so the next time you go to comment you'll be expecting it. Thanks!

Welt Jugend Tag: Chapter 1

How do I even begin to describe the two weeks of my life in which I visited Germany on pilgrimage? I suppose I could begin by talking about Juventutem, the traditional Latin Mass group that I went with. Our goal was to spend the first week on retreat experiencing this way of celebrating the Mass on a daily basis, while also receiving catechetic lectures so that we could stand as a witness in Cologne during the second week. We were also preparing ourselves to act as representatives during the second week of all people who love and attend the Latin Mass, to show our support to our new Holy Father, Benedict.
For Andrew and I, the journey started very early( 2 am to precise) on the morning of Monday the eighth of August, when we both awoke to get ready to head to the airport. We had both done all of our last minute packing the night before, and also gone through our packing lists umpteen million times, so neither of us had gotten much sleep. Which was fine, as we were all hyped and ready to go, and the furthest thing from our mind was making sure we got a healthy amount of sleep. We would regret that fact in the next 24 hours.
The first flight on our itinerary was a short little jaunt from Bellingham International to Seattle- Tacoma International. This was by and far the best flight, as it was at a height which allowed Andrew and I to be able to look down and pick out places we recognized along the way. Also, our flight took off just as the day was beginning to dawn and so we had the opportunity to watch the sun rise up behind a silhouetted mountain range and shed its glorious beams on a land covered in fog out of which you could see little hills and knolls poking up like islands in the middle of an ocean of cloud. It was truly an amazing sight.
The rest of our flights progressed in a very uneventful way, which is the way most people are generally hopeful for. But after about nine hours of this, one starts to crave some variety. Short of blowing up the engines, what can one do? Not much. Also, added to the mundane of everything was the fact that Andrew and I couldn’t get a seat together on the flight from Seattle to Detroit, and there were always people up and moving around which prevented me from going up to talk to him.
The flight from Detroit to Frankfurt was much better, and even started on a slightly comical note. We got into Detroit with just enough time to get off of the airplane and get in line to board our connection. By this point we had given up trying to ask for seats together and planned on just taking some seats together after the flight was most of the way boarded. After boarding , we walked to our respective assigned seats, and I found that I was sharing my group of seats with two young black boys. I was just about to start stowing my bags when the mother of the boys, who was sitting in the row in front of us, asked to switch seats with me so she could be with her kids. I agreed, and we made the switch. I had just taken my seat in the middle, when Andrew came back and joined me as the flight was most of the way boarded and the seat next to me was free. We both got settled in, very pleased with how things had worked out, and started talking. I forget what we were talking about, but something sparked the girl in the seat in front of us to ask us if we were going to WYD. We said yes, and then she asked us if we were going with Juventutem, to which we also replied with an affirmative. It ended up being Elisabeth, a girl that we had planned on meeting up with before we boarded our flight.
Then to our surprise, some people came up and informed Elisabeth that she was in their assigned seats, which prompted her to pull our her boarding pass and reexamine it. It turns out that Andrew had taken her seat, which was right next to the one I had switched the mother for. We were trying to figure whether Andrew would move back up to his seat, or whether Elisabeth would try and find another seat, when the lady to my right in our row of three graciously offered to give her seat to Elisabeth so that we could all sit together. And so we finally got ourselves all settled in our seats and departed on our last and longest flight.
The rest of this leg was spent mostly talking, writing, watching movies, and anything else we could find to keep us busy and help kill time. None of us really slept on the flight, except for maybe little fifteen minute power naps which don’t really count, so we were all pretty well exhausted when we arrived in Frankfurt after nine hours in the air. The entire journey with connections was only seventeen hours long, but it was eight o’clock in the morning one day later when we arrived and so our internal clocks were pretty well screwed up.
After having gone through customs and collection our luggage, we started looking for the representatives who were supposed to be meeting us. We found them relatively quickly, and then they took us to spot in the airport that had been temporarily set up as an information point for all youth arriving for WYD. And that’s when we found out that we were the first flight of Juventutem people to arrive that day, and that we would be waiting for the others to arrive before we headed down to the FSSP( Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter) seminary in Wigratzbad. This wouldn’t have been so bad, except for the fact that the last flight wouldn’t be arriving for another six hours. We walked around the airport a lot in that six hours in an attempt to try and stay awake. It was really hard, but the end of the six hours finally came and we set off by bus to our destination for the night.
Five hours after having left the airport we arrived in Wigratzbad, looking like the living dead, but very happy to be at our destination. We then went and ravenously ate the dinner that had been prepared for us, as it was the first real meal that we had had besides the stuff they tried to pass off as food on the airplane. After dinner we were shown to our accommodations for the night which consisted of long tents for about forty people set up on a field of moderately long grass. Which was damp. And the tents condensated on the inside and dripped on ones forehead at irregular intervals. But we were all so exhausted by this point that we fell right to sleep, which ended our first day in Germany.
The next morning, I awoke and opted not to use the showering facilities that had been erected for us due to the fact that all of the other guys were busily trying to do the same. A hot shower sure would have felt good about then as I had woken to find myself in a very damp sleeping bag, and my clothes were all cold and damp as well. Ah well, such was the start of getting into a pilgrim mindset. I dressed and then we headed back up to the seminary for breakfast, which consisted of bread, jam, and coffee or tea. We soon came to appreciate this simple repast as it was the way we broke fast for the remainder of our two weeks in Germany.
Now despite all of the planning that was done, or rather that I thought was done, we found that most of everyone was running around with only a partial idea of what was going on. Luckily for Andrew and I, we stumbled across some of the other Americans discussing with one of the priests what they were to do if they wanted to go on the St. George’s walk, which is what Andrew and I had been planning on doing. We dropped in on the conversation and made it known that we, too, wished to go on the walk. We were then told that we needed to get our luggage on the bus that was to take us all to Ottobeuren for mass at the cathedral there, and were we would meet up with the group that was doing the walk. The bus was going to be leaving in ten minutes and we had left our luggage down at the camp. Thankfully Gregory, the man who was in charge of all of the English speakers, offered to drive us down there so we could get it and make the bus. This little drive amazed me with how conservative my driving appeared compared to a Europeans. It was loads of fun, and we were back with our luggage in the time it takes to down a stein of beer.
And so we were on our way to our first week of adventures.

I'm officially...

...well, something I won't talk about for a long while yet. At least not in public. But in other news, I'm officially a college kid. I registered and paid for three classes just yesterday, and all I have to say is ***OUCH***! It really puts a damper on the ol' learning spirit the first time you have to pay for classes.

Also, I am still working on the first installment on Germany, and should have it ready in a couple of days. In the meantime, keep me in your prayers as I continue to take steps into realms I have not yet traversed, and which will require all the grace that I can get and more.

I have returned!!

Safe and sound, and pretty much ready to take on the world! I am currently writing up on my trip to Germany and will hopefully have it up soon. I will have to post it in chapters, however, due to the immense amount of stories, anecdotes, and whimsical tales I have to tell. Thank you all so much for all of your prayers, as I know that that was probably the only way I stayed out of trouble while I was there. Until later, Cheers!

The countdown continues!

Just 1 day, 9 hours, and 45 minutes to go! I can hardyly wait!

*Screams meniacally out of sheer excitement*

Ho Hum Diddly Dee

When will I ever get the hang of trying to post on a regular basis?!?! Probably never. But then if I did post more regularly, you guys wouldn’t have the suspense of wondering when the next episode produced by the tips of my fingers would be available for your reading pleasure. And that wouldn’t be any fun, now would it? Of course it wouldn’t! The element of surprise always makes things so much more fun. And were would we be without suprises in life. We’d be leading a boring life, and faith wouldn’t be justified. Because suprises, especially the pleasant ones, are what faith is for. Now that’s a very superficial view of it, but it works.

Anyway, I have been extremely busy of the past few weeks, mostly with preparations for my upcoming trip to Germany ( at the exact moment I’m writing this, its only 4 days, 13 hours, and 19 minutes until I leave)*, of which I am excitedly looking forward to. But now as it draws near, I’m getting really anxious about getting everything ready and starting to wish that I had just a little more time to prepare. And also just to savor the idea of going a little bit longer. But alas I do not, and I must make due with the time that I have left. Admittedly it is my own fault, as I’ve known I was going since day, ever imprinted on my memory and which seems like just last week , when we heard the words “Habemus Papem!”. But its just been at the back of my mind, and I waited until the last minute to really start getting all of the details figured out.

This last weekend, we had the annual Our Lady of Divine Grace Homeschool picnic, which is something that I look forward to every year as a chance to catch up with people I haven’t seen in awhile, and play really hard. This year, both of those were in full force, as I think we had a new record with eighty people in attendance. We played many games, including Ultimate Frisbee and Capture the Flag, both of which happen to be my favorite outdoor games.

One of the most memorable, and for the record the most scarring, event of the day happened whist we were playing capture the flag. A good portion of each team had invaded the others side, and was frantically trying to achieve the goal of the game. I was playing defense, and was attempting to guard Deirdre, Grace, and Rose who had gotten into the safe zone around my teams flag. Much to my chagrin and utter surprise, as Rose grabbed the flag, Deirdre suddenly threw herself on me in the fashion of one who is giving a very passionate, meaningful embrace, of which the other party normally reciprocates in much the same fashion. Only I didn’t reciprocate, and she didn’t let go. In an attempt to try and tag the person who had the flag, I tried running, which didn’t work, and then attempted to pick Deirdre up so that I could. Again I was foiled. But so was the other team, as my team fantastically seized the others flag and made a dash for victory. And so ended that episode, which has forever scarred me. I don’t think I will ever be able to take affectionate attention from a girl in the future without relapsing into the problems that plague me now from this episode. Curse you Deirdre for giving me a complex! *Shakes fist in air*

After the picnic, most of the guys came over to our house for a sleepover. Which is all we did! Nothing but a whole night of doing manly things like burping, cooking and sleeping outdoors, and spending hours just doing stupid guy things. We got to sleep out under the stars, which is something I haven’t done for a whole year. Its amazing how easily it is to take the beauty of the heavens for granted. Everybody should have a chance to go out and gaze at the stars at least once a week, just for their own health. Seriously, I mean it!

I’m afraid I must end this brief summary, so that I may get to the library and get this posted today before I go flying. Please pray for me as I’m over in Germany, and know that I will be praying for all of you. God Bless!

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*Author's note: I actually didn't post this on the day that I had intended, and so therefore the actual time I have left until Germnay from the time I am posting this is 3 days, 13 hours and 30 minutes.

Goings on

The time betwixt my last substantial post and now , though it may have looked like I was a lethargic laconic bum, was quite filled with events which were, to be quite honest, more than a worthy reason for only now taking the time to set them down in the so many words which will comprise this post for your reading pleasure. That does not mean to say that they will be necessarily interesting to the reader, but the fact that you are here reading anything on this site shows that you have a slight curiosity into the goings on in my live. And so for my own posterity, and to propitiate my wide readership who have clamored in my absence for some account of why I have not posted, I will now relate to you the events that have transpired.

The first notable event would have had to occur about two days after that most sacred of purely American holidays, this being the fourth of July, when for the first time since I can remember, the YFL meeting was changed to the first Wed. of the month. This, though a break from tradition, was most welcomed as it allowed us to have as guest speaker Michael Patrick Cassabon, cousin to the German spouting Great Curtis, and a seminarian who is studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. This was not the first time that I had ever had the opportunity to hear him talk, as we had met him about two or three years ago, and him being my brothers confirmation sponsor, we hear get a ring from on the telephone quite frequently. That being said, it is always so refreshing being around him because he is so knowledgeable and solid when it comes to the Catholic faith and so, to quote myself, “ I love listening to, and talking to Michael Patrick. He’s such a brilliant person with a great gift for talking in a eloquent and commonsensical manner that makes you fall even more in love with a faith that’s already very dear to you.”

While he was here, Michael also put on a guy’s retreat, which was held at the wonderful Curtis household. I won’t go into much detail about the actual retreat, as it was meant or guys and due to the fact that I’m still digesting a lot of the things that he talked about. He talked about a lot of things that I really needed to hear, and count myself lucky to have a friend in him. To every guy out there who couldn’t make it, suffice it to say you missed a wonderful experience.

The day after the retreat Alex, Kelby, and I joined up again with Michael, the Russell crew, The Perkins, Cow, and Paul to do some bowling down in the Lynwood area. A great time was had by all as we continued to prove how little we engage in this pastime. Perkins surprised every one by being a natural, and we all marveled at how easy he made it look. After two and a half games, we headed over to the Russell abode for a scrumptious dinner of “rum” French toast, cooked by Senior Vacca and Claire, and a game of Loaded Questions, which proved quite hilarious. We then decided to go to the Novena mass at the Carmelite convent in Shoreline, which was wonderful as it had been forever since I had been there, and because Michael needed to go to Mass as he wasn’t going to have a chance on Sunday.

After mass, we decided that we should head on over to a Starbucks and get some coffee for the drive home, and ended up sitting inside talking until they closed. After they had kicked us out, we proceeded to stand out in the parking lot and talk for another good hour and a half. I immensely enjoyed this as I got to talk not only to Michael, but Hannah too, who I had not had a chance to really talk to since she came back from school.

The next event which deserves some verbage was the Russell family joining my family at the Black hole of Sanity for dinner on the last Sunday eve past. This was rollicking good fun as it was the fist time the Russells had been to our new home, and they are only the second family we have had over for dinner so far. By far the most noted events of that night were when we played Badminton with eight people and three birdies, which turned out to be highly chaotic and immensely fun, and when we broke out some music and started dancing out on the lawn. Those Russells are always good for some highly enjoyable company and some vigorous dancing ;)

After the Russells left that night it was straight to bed for me, as I had an early appointment with the open road the next day. After four hours of gorgeous sleep, my alarm sounded to me the fact that if I was to make the trip ahead of me in the time frame allotted, that now was the time to get up. And so at two a.m., I was on the road to Spokane.
~We’re off on the road to Spokane
That beautiful town in the East
Where the sun it shines so bright
That is hurts your sight
Like me, myself, and I
I’m Spokane bound~
I couldn’t help throwing that in there, as any of you who have seen the Road to series will understand. As for the purpose of this trip, it was to take the assessment test for the college that I plan on attending over there. I won’t go into the specifics, but I will say that I did about as well as I expected. Not much else to report.

In other news, I’ve also been getting more flying in, and have successfully added another three solo flights to my credit. It was a little eerie at first flying and doing my maneuvers and landings all by myself, and I must admit that at first I made a lot of mistakes. But this was the purpose of my instructor sending me out solo, to teach my not to use his as a crutch whenever I’m flying the airplane. Not that I had had much of a problem with that anyway. But its paid off, as each time I’ve gone up I’ve gotten progressively better, until today when I went out and made ten really good landings out of twelve. I was quite please with that fact, and am looking forward to learning some new and exciting things now that I have reached this level of my training.

I continue to grow more excited as my trip to Germany draws closer. It is now only eighteen more days until I and “The Weasel” leave, but it seems like its taking forever for that gap to lessen. Hurry up and get here August 8th!!!!!

And that’s about all the news that is news for now. I will try to be a little more faithful in my postings, but I ask you to be patient, as I have to write my updates at home, and then find time and drive down to our public library to post them on the internet. I will try to get a few more in before I go to Germany, and circumstances permitting, I may even write you a post from there. Until our next cyber- spacial meeting, I will leave you with these profound words

~To experience the bittersweet
To taste defeat
Then brush my teeth

‘Cause I struggle with forward motion
I struggle with forward motion
We all struggle with forward motion

‘Cause forward motion is harder than it sounds
Well, every time I gain some ground I gotta turn myself around again~ From Relient K’s song Forward Motion off of the album Two lefts don’t make a right… but three do

Just a brief hullo

Just a quick post to let you all know that I haven't kicked off yet. I have been terribly busy since my last post and will write about it for you to read tomorrow. Also, check out this blog run by the chum who will be my interpreter in Germany in two and a half weeks! Tata!

Three Cheers for family, friends, and fun

This weekend past(see previous post) went off smashingly! It started with my alarm going off at 3:45 on Sat. morning, signaling that I needed to get up. Begrudgingly I obeyed and managed to make it to the bathroom with out running into any walls. After a glorious fifteen minutes of hot running water, I emerged a man ready to face the next three days of events ahead of me.

After a few last minute items that need packing, and waiting for the coffee pot to finish brewing its elixor of life, I headed out for a five o'clock appointment with my ride to that wonderful land east of the mountains.

All of Sat. was spent at my aunt and uncle's house where we were having a party for two of my cousins. We didn't do anything too terribly exciting, just barbequed. And in a way I'm kinda glad, because I was able to spend a good amount of time catching up with relatives I hadn't been able to see for awhile.

At the end of Sat. we headed over to my grandparents house in Toppenish to spend the night and Sun. with them. Again the highlight of this trip was getting to spend some good unrushed time with them, as I hadn't been able to do that in quite some time. After dinner on Sun., we headed home to celebrate the fourth.

Bright, but not as early as previous mornings, I awoke on Mon. to begin preparations for the event that would take up the greatest portion of my day. I gathered together my bike, and our canoe, and headed down into town to take part in the annual Pedal, Paddle, Puff triathlon. There was about thirty to fifty people taking part in this event, but I was on of only five other guys who was doing the "ironman". All this meant is that we were going to do all of the events on our own.

"On your marks! Get Set! Go!!!" and we were off on the six mile biking leg. This was one of the easier parts, and I was able to get done in about 20 minutes. At the end of the biking we came to the boat lauch, and whereas most people were tagging there teamates who would do the next leg, me and five others ran down to our boats. For me, this was the hardest part, as I had never paddled a canoe on a river, and I had never paddled a canoe solo. Needless to say, this leg was my longest, and wettest, and I made the six miles in about an hour. I reached the next checkpoint, and then it was off on a 3.8 mile run. Again this was on of the easier parts for me, and I did it in about 27 minutes. As I came around the corner and headed down the final stretch, my family was there taking pictures of me and cheering me on across the finish.

After that we went and marched in the parade, and then went home. I was going to stay up and watch fireworks, but alas my body shut down at the early hour of eight. And that was the end of my weekend! Hope you all had a fun fourth!

I'm blowing this joint!

At least for the weekend, that is. Starting at about five am tomorrow, I will be on my way to sunshine, family, food, and good times in that far off and magical land known as eastern Washington.

Sat. will be spent feasting and partying away to celebrate the graduation of one of my cousins, and bidding farewell to her and her older brother who will be going off to the navy in very short order. This twil be wonderful, as it has been awhile since I've seen these particuliar cousins, and we always have a rollicking good time just running around and not worrying about anything.

At the cessation of the festivities on Sat., we will head on over to my Grand-parent's house in Toppenish to spend the night and Sunday with them. Again this will scads of fun, as I haven't really gotten to spend any alot of quality time with them in a long, long while. I guess thats one of the drawbacks of having a job.

And then its back on Sunday evening to my good ol' hometown of Arlington to celebrate the Fourth. We've come and partaken of the festivities in the past, but this is the first year where we're actually living here. I'm really looking forward to it all! First, I'll be starting it off by competing in a short tri- athlon that is held every year, another first for me. The next highlight will be marching in the parade for John Koster, one of the local politicians that we try to do campaigning for. And then we'll wrap it all up with fireworks somewhere that night. I'm not quite sure where though, yet.

What do you all do for the 4th?

In other news, I finished reading The Compleat Gentleman by Brad Miner. I would highly recommend it, but only to guys.I have also taken on reading Lewis' Space trilogy, and am about half way through the first book.

Anyway, thats all I have to write about for now. Hope you all have a safe and fun 4th of July, and remember to think about and pray for our servicemen and women, who are the reason for us being able to celebrate this holiday. God Bless!

Hey There!

Just thought I'd post and say that I'm still alive, and doing well. I've been working the morning and evening shifts at work, so I've been pretty busy with that and trying to maintain a healthy amount of sleep without screwing up my sleep schedule too much.

I've also been trying to get some much procrastinated reading in with some of my new aquired time during the day. The titles I'm trying to get through currently are:

The Compleat Gentleman: Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry by Brad Miner

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I also plan on trying to get some works of C.S. Lewis' in before too long, as well as some P.G. Whodehouse.

In other news, the date for the home-school picnic has been set. It will be held on Sat. July 30th, which is all of the details I have handy at the moment. I will make an entire post about it when I have all of the details in my grubby little hands! Until next time, God Bless!

YEEEEEHHHAAAAAA!!!!!

Much has happened since my previous update, and not the least of which was my quitting my "day" job. Which is my way of explaining why I haven't updated since my last update. You see, this particuliar job had the habit of leaving one with nothing to do in-between helping customers (which could sometimes be up to 45 mins.), which meant being able to surf on the internet, and keep this blog updated. This is the first time I've been on the net since Thursday. Thats four whole days! Wholly Smack!

The first thing that took place was the STMHE graduation, which was followed by a formal dance for those of the youger generation. I regret that I didn't make it to the graduation ceremony, as I had to work. I did however make it to the dance, which required some speed limit "tweaking", and a quick change in the smallish restrooms at the church. It t'was an amazing night full of swing, waltz, polka, and some dancing of which I could not adequately describe with anything but the word odd. The greatest suprise of the night was when Mr. Russell, and Hannah took to the floor at the first swing number and proceeded to tear it up. I seriously had no idea that he could dance like that, but I hope that I can be as good one day! Another mentionable event of the night, was when we all did the chicken dance. And when I say all, I mean like thirty to forty teenagers.I had never actually done the chicken dance, which was quite amusing and very tiring. I would also like to take this time to thank each and every one of the girls that I danced with that night, for being so patient with me as I struggled through trying to remember dance steps, an occasional lack of rythym and the second left foot that showed up every now and then. You made my night extremely enjoyable, and I appreciate that!

Also, the Ride4US bike ride was this Sat., which went well all things considered. Brendan, Nick, Brian, Anreas, John, Joseph, Alex and I had decided about three months ago that we would attempt the longest ride they had, the 100 MILE! Well mistake numero uno on our part was a severe lack of training for it, which being the young headstong guys we were, we brushed off as unnecessary. We all congregated at the Harkins' the night before, and after doing the filming for the next YFL video, we proceede to only get two and a half hours of sleep. Mistake #2! Begrudgingly, we got up as the alarm reminded us that it was 4:30 in the morning. After a hearty breakfast, we made the trip up to Tacoma, got registered, and started out on the ride. The first five miles was a circuit around the park that acted as HQ for the ride, and we enthusiastically pounded that out in ten minutes flat. We stopped at the ferry terminal and got some refreshment whilst we waited for next run which would take us across. It was at this point that the ladies manning the rest stop informed us that as soon as we got off the ferry there was a mild hill. No big deal we thought. We got off of the ferry only to realize that that mild hill stretched on for ten miles! Egads!

After we completed the Vashon Island leg (about 40 mi. total riding at that point) three of our number were having leg cramps that prevented them from being able to pedal their bikes any further. After the ferry ride back across, they headed back to HQ, while the rest of us decided to continue on. We made it through this leg in just enough time to get back to HQ as they were starting to take things down, and so we did not get to complete the entire 100 mi., but we did put in a good 80, which is quite a feat if I do say so myself!

We then proceeded to make our way back to Lynwood, where we pulled into an Alfy's pizza to fill our collective guts. After ordering five pizzas, we called up Marie who came and joined us. After that it was a quick trip back to the Harkins' home to pick up the rest of our junk, and then we headed on home.

All in all it was a very fulfilling weekend and I am very much looking foward to the Angelorum auction coming up this Saturday. Until we mee again in cyberspace, actual reality, or otherwise, God bless!

Here he is once again

Last night, I and about thirty other YFL members attended the 4th annual Pro-life Washington banquet. We had been graciously invited by Matt and Georgine Ulrich to attend, and someone even paid for our tables. How cool is that! It started with a standard dinner after which Msgr. Reilly, the founder of The Helpers of God's Precious Infants, got up and gave a talk to everyone. It was beautifully moving and motivational, and I think just the thing that we needed to get us all fired up for a summer full of prolife activities.

In other news, I will also be quitting one of my jobs, so as to be able to focus more time on my flying. And pro-life activities, and hanging out with friends, and...everything in general.

Also, I would like to ask for prayers as pursue going to yet another school this fall. As some of you may know, the last school I tried to go to didn't quite work out, which is alright, for I know it was God's will. So far, though, I'm feeling really good about this new school, as I found out about it less than 24 hrs. after learning I wouldn't be going to this other school. But, anyway, prayers would be much appreciated.

I had better sign this out now, as I am at the library and my time limit is slowly making its way to saying that I need to get off. I will leave you with yet another quote from a Relient K song:

When the burden seems too much to bear,
Remember,
The end will justify
The pain it took to get us there!

"I'm pressing on! All my distress..

...Is going, going, gone! Pressing on! Pressing on!" ~ From Relient K's song entitled, Ironically enough, "Pressing On!"

This weekend past was indeed wonderful with its various going-ons. It was indeed so full of fantastic things, that it is hard to believe that all of it could have happened in one weekend. The highland games in Ferndale went pretty much as expected, with the weather being pleasantly warm and overcast. It was the first time that I had ever been to these particuliar games, but I must say that I like the location alot better than the ones that are held in Mount Vernon. Much of the time was spent walking around with my good friend John, who so graciously let me catch a ride with his family, which I would have otherwise had to make alone, which is no fun at all. Epsecially if you happen to come from a large family, where there is always someone to talk to. We watched some of the young girls do their step dancing, but found that the Scottish country dancers were more fun. All of the usual booths were there, and so we spent a good amount of time perusing all of the various wares, but especially those of the cutlery persuasion and the like. Despite tradition, though, I did not purchase a sword, dagger, dirk, knife, scimitar, or anything that remotely resembled on of the aforemetioned. Instead I bought a T-shirt with the Guinness label on it, written in Irish Gaelic, and a small metal flask.

After returning from our adventures in Ferndale, John and I decided to go and see "Cinderella Man". It was a great movie, and one I would highly suggest that anyone and everyone I know go and see. Seriously.

Cow also came and visited us this weekend in the great metropolis of Arlington. A good rollicking time was had by all, as we watched "The Village", went for a walk and got the jibblies, went to church, moved pianos, went and saw "Cinderella Man"(my second time that weekend), and did the filming for the YFL news video with Perkins on Mon.! All in that order too! We also managed to squeeze in an interview with the gregarious Hanka via phone with Alex being her voice, and Cow impersonating Stiny, while we were driving in my truck. Much to suprise and delight we also stopped for a brief respite at the Russell's house where we sang "America the Beautiful" in our(Cow, Alex, and I) strong masculine voices while sitting in their driveway!

And...



...I think that that about covers everything that I did over the weekend! Until the next post, God Bless!!!

And now we go to...

Me, for brief update as to my going-ons and so forth, because one of my many faithful commenters suggested that I do so.

This weekend I will be joining the Kennedy clan for an excursion into the northernmost territories known as Ferndale. The first Highland Games and Scottish Faire of the year will be held there on Sat., chock full of stuff to fascinate, astound, and just generally promote a rollicking good time. There will be the Scottish step dancers, all of the booths touting their various wares such as jewelry, assorted items of cutlery, and various other items pertaining to Scottish heritage. And this all the while the air is being permeated with the sound of bagpipes droning and drummers beating out military tatoos on their snare drums.

I would also like to ask for prayers right now, as I look into going to another school. Please pray that if it is God's will, everything will fall in line fairly quickly!

And now, I should get back to looking busy! More updates as events warrant:)

A much needed update!

Well, I suppose its time that I gave an account of what I have been up to for the last couple of weeks. Even though there has been an apparent lack of me in cyberspace, I been quite substantially present in the world of actual reality. Not that I have done anything significant, or magnigicent, but substantial in the sense that I have been terribly caught up in the mundane of working two jobs, trying to cram book work for my flight training, as well as getting actual flying in. I don't mean to insinuate that this has been miserable. On the contrary, it has been rather exhilirating, albeit a little bit tiring.

The most exciting thing to happen was of course my first solo of which I have already written a narrative. Since that I have been trying like mad to get the rest of my training completed. I even took a week off from one of my jobs in the hopes that I would be able to get so serious flying in. Mother nature decided, however that I needed to spend more time studying and helping my parents around our property. As it stands right now I need to finish studying so that I can take my written test and get that out of the way, and then I need to finish getting the rest of my hours in. The only difficult part about doing that will be the coordination of work and weather, which will take some serious planning on the former, and some serious prayer on both matters.

I have also been trying to figure out how to go about the rest of my flight training, which is a matter that is quite vexing right now. My goal is to try and get my training done in a timely manner, but follow the will of God in the way I go about it. I actually have a school that I would love to go to, but it would require some serious financing. I'm praying a novena right now at the end of which I'm going to try and apply for the financing. If I get approved, then I will probably be going down there in September. If I don't, then its a pretty good guess that I'm not supposed to be going down there, or at least not at this time.

We also celebrated one our dear friends sweet sixteen with a suprise party at his house. We all had an awesome time, and played such games as "Duck, duck, tackle", and capture the flag. The best part, however came when we sang Happy Birthday. The lights were out, and the candle atop the cake illuminated the face of the celebratee with a slight glow. As the the final reverberations of many masculine voices singing the all familiar birthday song died away there was a momentary pause, and then with a slight whoosh the room went dark. Six of us guys then proceeded to grab the instigator of the darkness, hoist him over our heads and run outside! With extreme gusto we preceeded to toss him up and down while singing "For he's a jolly good fellow!" for all we were worth!

Summer is shortly creeping up on me, and with it all the activities that I have planned to fill up my free time. And this summer, I can say safely say, is one that I am extremely looking forward to. For starters, there are a whole bunch of prolife activities, such as the Angelorum and Birthright auctions, and a prolife banquet. Also the 100 mi. fundraising bike ride that I will be doing with seven other guys is coming up in the middle of June. But the highlight of my summer this year(As if I don't already have enough cool things going on) will be going to WYD in Germany in August! I'm so excited about it because I will get to see Benedict XVI, and the more I think about it, the more impatient I get for it to come.

Anyway, I must sign this off and get back to work! Hopefully I will be a little bit more consistent with my posting.