Saturday was quiet; spent most of the day sleeping in and then playing PlayStation into the night. Still trying to beat Grand Theft Auto 3...
Sunday I woke up at 8:30 to head to the Chirstning in north New Jersey. The trip went well - the Turnpike was empty, and I amazed myself by remembering how to navigate through NE Philadelphia to get to the PA Turnpike. Made it to my grandmother's at 10:30, had a bagel, met my aunt Lynne's boyfriend (who has done a lot of theater over the years, which was interesting...) and just kind of hung out until we left at 11:45.
We got to the church, St. Stanislaus (a little Polish church on the corner in an ethnic neighborhood, where my uncle and aunt had gotten married) during 12noon mass; the Christening was scheduled for one. My mother, and great aunts stood in the cold vestibule listening to the Mass...their cantor's voice was indescribable: not in a good way, but in this funny, nasal way that I just couldn't place and almost laughed at.
The baptism was beautifully done. A priest who has been close to my grandmother for a long time, Fr. Ed, did the service. Matthew (my cousin and now Godson) put on a couple of pounds since I had last seen him, and, amazingly, got a lot cuter. He did well, cooing and smiling through it all.
The reception went a lot better than I had hoped. I don't know my Aunt Laura's family very well, but was introduced all around. My Uncle's family, the side I'm related to, camped out on the porch in the back to watch the Eagles game. I left about 4:30 and got back to campus about 6:30.
I expected fires and riots when I made it back to campus; at the very least, I expected the dorms to be in disarray. However, Philadelphia handled the loss really well...sigh, it was so close before that 92-yard interception...
King's Dream was the best of the three years that I've been to. It started, of course, when I got word that the lights in the theater weren't working. I was up in the catwalks ten minutes before the keynote. The speaker was excellent and held our attention. The breakout sessions were good, but needed more time to get into more depth. I attended a really thought-provoking one presented by Dr. Oppliger about race relations in the media...we really needed more time for that one, we barely were able to discuss three brief sitcom clips. Dinner was fantastic, one of the best meals that La Salle could whip up.
I spent tonight reading for tomorrow, and getting psyched for the rest of the week. I'm trying to make it a goal to get to bed earlier than I did last semester, so thats where I'm heading now. Last night I made it until 11PM - tonight, I wasn't as lucky.
Posted by Matthew at January 21, 2003 01:03 AM