A Long Narrative on a Bad but Uneventful Day

So for a few weeks our church has been advertising this event, and I reminded the family, more than once over that span, that I wanted us to go. 

YaYa and her boyfriend begged out citing a prior engagement but said they'd try and go another time. To me it sounded like polite fiction but fair enough. That left me with three other kids and (alas) Junie's friend Bella. 

 Lulu didn't want to go because she doesn't like chicken, so ok. She decided to go somewhere else instead, and took Junie and her friend along with her - this, Junie said she was too tired from homecoming to go out to dinner. 

Well, that still left Smiley, but he was working until 6 which meant we'd get there pretty late - oh! He walks in early, at 4. Great, let's go I say. 

No, he'd already agreed to meet up with LuLu. 

Ugh. 

Whatever. So I sulked in my bedroom. It didn't help that I had woken up sick with a bad cold, that the rain and the cold weather had been nonstop since Lisa left on her trip, and that I was just generally bummed. 

Then an hour later I heard footsteps in the empty house. 

No burglar folks. It was Smiley.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be out with Lu." I said. 

"Naw, she had already left so I just went up to my room."

"Annnnnd you didn't think of then going with me like I've asked for weeks?" 

Boy was I angry at the lot of them. 

 I went alone, pretty miserable in body and spirit, paid my money, waited a good 20 minutes in this line . . . 

Got to the front and the woman in front of me was firmly declaring to the kitchen staff that if they were out of white meat, they didn't have to bother making her a plate. 

Trivia: I can't stand dark meat

So the kitchen guy looks past her to me and says "What are you looking for?"  (which sounds combative in print. It was not)

"White meat, but you're out eh?"

"Yeah, what you see is what we got left."

What I saw wasn't much. 

Now I should mention that about 10 times as I waited in line I thought about just leaving and considering the $15 I'd paid a donation to the church. So I was not in a place of indignation when this happened. 

"What about those chicken tenders I saw that kid have? Can I have some of those?" I asked. 

You know that scene during the run on the saving and loan in It's a Wonderful Life, when the one bank customer asks for only the smallest amount she can, and George is so happy he kisses her? I was half expecting a kiss from this dude, such was his delight that no further ruckus was made. 

So for my $15 I had three kid sized chicken tenders, a handful of fries that were obviously the end of the bag scraps, the very last dinner roll they had, and a spoonful of cranberry sauce. 

Shrug Whatever. They obviously had far more people than they expected and they'll do better next time I'm sure, and besides, it gave the kids some unwarranted validation for not going. 

It was not - at least prior to 7 pm - a good day for me at all. 

Mike and Nolan

Homecoming 2023

This is Homecoming weekend for Junie, and it began with her wearing her homecoming 2023 t-shirt to school. 

(I mean, it began long before, with ordering the corsages and getting the nails, but you know what I mean). 

She and her friend Bella got ready at the house

I drove them to Hue, a Vietnamese restaurant where they met up with and dined with Kevin, another of the Core Four. 

Rebecca, one of our exchange student from last year, joined in over the phone. 

 

Then I drove all 3 of them to the dance at their school - during a chilly rainstorm, all the while while nursing a horrible cold I might add (I'm a hero!)

When I picked them up hours later they reported they'd had a great time, and it sure looked like it from the photos!

The Face of the Era

“see yourself on the big screen” II

Some loves never die

The 2023 NKOTB Cruise - arrival day

Wednesday, after months of planning and stress, Lisa and her friend JJ departed to Miami to embark on the 2023 NKOTB Cruise. This was to be the second such trip for Lisa and the first for JJ. 

As we learned from our own cruises together, it is always best to travel to the port city the day before embarkation, not only to avoid any travel delays that make you miss the ship, but just to de-stress and unwind. 

(Update: the next day a bomb scare in Baltimore delayed/canceled many flights and yes, some fans missed the ship and lost out on their vacation)

I dropped them off at O'Hare for an 11am flight and they were on the way!

Once I got to Miami they went to a merchandise pop up for the cruise where they were excited to see and take a photo with Danny Wood!

And they met Danny's Dad!

They eventually met up with Carina, Lisa's European friend and her roommate last year on the cruise.

Officially the vacation I hadn't even begun yet so there was a lot more to come . . .

An Evening with Smiley

After work, at his request, I went with Smiley to the library to keep him company as he wrote a paper.  We were there 3 full hours, right until they closed at 8.  On the way home we stopped at Pita Palace and shared a great sampler plate while we traded Pokemon and discussed WWI.

The Nun II

Yesterday YaYa and I went to a 9:50pm showing of The Nun II at South Shore. She selected seats in the back row, which is deeply unsettling to my sensibilities. Back row in church, as close as possible to the front for a game, mid-range for movies. That's the accustomed way to chose your seating in a civilized society, but whatever, just more evidence Gen Z is gonna ruin it all in the end.

'Twas a Tuesday, so at least the hot dogs were $2.50 and the soda 20% off. 

The Nun II takes up four years after the events of the first movie. As a string of Catholic clergy are killed/forced into suicide across Europe, the Church suspects the demon Valak has returned and orders Sister Irene (the future Lorraine Warren) to once again investigate.  She tracks it to a boarding school in France, where her old friend Maurice has taken a job as a handyman, and confronts the evil once again. 

I saw The Nun  with Lisa but forgot most of the plot until I reviewed its Wikipedia page before the movie yesterday. I think you can easily follow along without that knowledge, as little of it relies on the past installment besides Taissa Farmiga's portrayal of Sister Irene. They even dispose of a main character from number one off screen, giving him only a curt "He died of cholera" as an obituary -an odd and flippant dismissal of an ally and friend. 

As for scares, I can remember only one moment that made me jump, not that the rest of the film was completely absent of tension and fear. But much like the plot, I simply found the scares too predictable to not see coming. 

I  want to give  praise to the movie - the 8th installment of the Conjuring franchise  - for consistently portraying Catholicism and practitioners in a positive and respectful light. That said, I wouldn't write a new catechism based on what you learn on screen, as a lot of it seems like Catholicism visa-vis good-meaning Protestant writers. An upside down cross is NOT a sign of the devil (it's St. Peter's cross), only an ordained Priest can consecrate the bread and wine, and as I whispered to YaYa when the scene was playing, the Novus Ordo (modern Mass, post Vatican II) was most certainly not what you'd see in a quaint 1956 French parish. 

All in all, I grade this a B, and a C+ if you're going into it just for the frights. 

 

Selfie

Sept 29th

War In Israel

 

It has already been described as Israel's 9/11. 

In a coordinated terror attack by land, air, and sea - Hamas has killed more than 700 Israelis, and wounded north of 2000 more. This was not a military action, unless your definition of such includes going house to house, hacking and killing civilians, dragging bodies through the street, kidnapping civilians as hostages, targeting a music festival in the desert for attack where at least 260 were murdered,  raping, and posing for selfies next to destroyed vehicles. Hamas itself acknowledges launching 5000 rockets into Israel yesterday. 

President Biden condemned an “appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists” and said that “Israel has a right to defend itself and its people, adding “My Administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”

Right answer Mr. President.

Today, as causality counts mount and Israel declared formal war for the first time since 1973, Hamas acknowledged that Iran backed the attacks - no doubt to derail the treaty talks with Saudi Arabia. The US has responded by dispatching an aircraft carrier, six ships, and fighter craft to the region. 

[I will, for the moment, practice intentional blindness and ignore the fact that the White House handed Iran $6 billion dollars this summer in a hostage deal, money Iran blatantly said they'd spend on whatever they wished]

Meanwhile, spontaneous anti-Semitic celebrations popped up all over the world, cheering on actions like this: 

The naked body of a  [Israeli] woman was paraded through the streets in the back of a pick-up truck on Saturday as Hamas fighters sat on her unmoving form.

A celebrating crowd surrounded the armed men in combat fatigues, who shouted “Allah Akbar” from the open back of the truck.

Some in the crowd, which included youngsters, spat on the woman’s body before the truck sped away on a day of unprecedented massacres of Israeli civilians.

The woman was later named as Shani Louk. Miss Louk’s family confirmed they had seen the video but said they “still have some kind of hope” that she had survived.

-https://news.yahoo.com/naked-israeli-woman-paraded-jeering-191753028.html 

What does US Congresswoman (D) Rashida Tlalib, of the so-called "Squad" have to say? 

“I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day.” Tlaib said, equating murderer and victim in her "grief" before calling the situation in Israel "apartheid" and urging a "cease fire" - aka no retribution and no justice against Hamas. 

Thankfully, even those in her party have reacted with disgust to her hate, and I hope - vainly, I'm sure - that she is formally rebuked. 

I pray for Israel and the safety of its citizens, and for the quick and total destruction of Hamas and its adherents. 

 

The Cat Tree!

After a study session at Collectivo, Smiley and I came across this colorful cat tree abandoned in our alley. A brisk vacuuming later, courtesy of Smiley,  Ralph (and to a lesser extent Kahuna) love it!!