Playing Catch Up
Topic: IPF 2005
Well let me catch you up on what has been happening the last month, besides that I have been too busy with work or play to update this blog. So strap yourselves in and get ready for a quick event filled ride…
June 25 weekendI did get home without having to lay over in St. Louis; however, ironically enough I am writing this blog in my overnight stay on my way to St. Louis…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. My trip home was a marathon of weddings and traveling. I got my friend, Beth, all married off and even saw the parents of a college friend of mine, because Beth’s parish was also their parish and they were the music ministers. The wedding was simply beautiful…using the literal meaning of simple. It was awesome to have a front row seat as I served the wedding with a fellow Victorian seminarian, David, who Beth actually claims as friends. The afternoon and evening went off according to
schedule. After Michael and Beth left the reception (6:20pm according to the schedule), David and I set out for East Bernard to drop me off at my second wedding as he had the end goal: home in Shiner. I got to Riverside Hall just in time for my second reception dinner. This wedding was my sister’s-in-law sister’s wedding, so my family was there, i.e. the prince and princess--my nephew and niece. I had a wonderful time running around after my nephew as he chased the flower girl around…I believe a cousin. When I finally got home I fell on
my bed and passed out.
July 4 weekendThis weekend I went to Minneapolis-St. Paul with two buddies from St. Mary’s seminary. This one trip began a new type of tourism coined,
Drive-by Tourism. It is basically getting proof of presence at land marks, e.g. capital buildings, cathedrals, in just a few snap shots barely stopping the car long enough to get the picture. However, most of our stay in Minneapolis-St. Paul was not in the drive by state of tourism. First things first, we need to get to Mass and I suggested St. Paul Cathedral in St. Paul, which was absolutely beautiful. That was pretty much it for that evening except for dinner and then beers at a pub. The next morning instead of being able to sleep in, the guys decided we all needed to make a Latin Mass so off to Mass again for the weekend. It was interesting to participate in a Latin Mass…I felt like I was stepping back in time. I was happy we went to Mass at this parish because we drove by and stopped for lunch at a Vietnamese place so I could get a fix us Pho--Vietnamese soup. The afternoon we took in a Twins game where I lived the “Take me out to the Ballgame” song because I rooted for the home team and ate peanuts. The home team did win so all was good. With the game over our next point of tourism was The Mall of America, my true reason for wanting to go to Minneapolis. It was not a astronomically huge as I thought it would be, though it was impressive to see a mini-amusement park in the center of four stories of stores.
Our trek home was the bulk of our
drive-by tourism when we spent two hours looking for the cathedral of Minneapolis and when finally finding it, only getting to get pictures of the outside because it was locked up for the 4th…go figure. Out last stop was half way back to Omaha, at the capitol building of Iowa. We basically jumped out took the pictures and then got back in the car and headed back to the freeway. Back in Omaha, things went back on as usual.
Key for below pictures:
A. A waterfall in Minneapolis that took us forever to find. Are you sensin a patern of not finding what we wanted this weekend.
B. Me on a bridge at the base of the waterfall.
C. A chipmunk we saw that didn't mind us getting close. It was amazing how close we got.
D. Rides of the Mall of the America
E. Iowa's State capitol building...a victom of our
drive-by tourism.
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July 9 weekendThis weekend I went to visit relatives in Columbus…Nebraska, that is. On my drive I physically experienced my blood pressure dropping in one quick instant upon seeing nothing but farm land, most of which was corn, but nonetheless reminding me of home. I almost slowed down to 20 mph because I was so relaxed, but knew I needed to set my cruise control if I wanted to get to Columbus this year. These relatives we figure our my 4th & 5th cousins…I will need to ask Uncle Johnny if this is right. These family members were a hoot and we had a good time hang out and talking life experiences and drinking beer until midnight. That’s right midnight. The dinner seemed interesting as all the adults drank coffee for supper. This was something I had never done, but found it to be quite pleasurable; however, I still need my pitcher of water or tea to fill my camel hump. This reminds me, we had a good laugh when they asked me what I wanted to drink. Not wanting to be a bother I said things I figured everyone had in their fridge…”Coke, tea, water, whatever you have.” Teresa, my 4th cousin and hostess, responded, “If you want tea you will have to make it yourself.” I then knew I wasn’t in “Kansas anymore.” I settled for a beer as a substitute. Overall, meeting my Cornhusker relatives wasn’t all that bad and actually quite wonderful. We hit if off quickly and treated each other like we had known each other for my whole life…they even didn’t treat me as a guest at the dinner table where I would have gone hungry had I been bashful, but as all know, that is something that I don’t have to worry about…being bashful.
Posted by Big Mike
at 12:00 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2005 11:03 PM CDT
happy
I made it to the College World Series to the Baylor-t.u. game where the Baylor Bears ran out of time. Overall I had a good time even though the t.u. went away happy and the fact that there were 15 high school girls oogling over these two College age boys and not watching any of the game. Evidently, this is like going to the mall for Omaha teens. Their parents buy these books of general admission tickets and set the kids loose on Rosenblatt Stadium to get them out of the house.
quizzical