More about that title in a sec. Fear not.
Time for a little update. Three weekends ago, I rode with Theresa down to party with her family near Cincinatti. In the spirit of experiencing new things, I am very proud to add that to the list. Very fun! :) They all have very curious relationships with one another. (I mean, they made me very curious, not that they were curious about each other. They know each other entirely too well.) As so many people find nourishment in their families, at the end of the weekend it was apparent how very much she receives (and gives) from her own, in a pretty unique way. On the drive down, I actually got a bit of sleep, which I rarely get in cars. You should consider it a compliment if I can fall asleep in your presence. Not a sign that you're boring. :)
Two weekends ago, I rode with JoeJohn and Sean to go out to Crooked Lake for the weekend. Halfway there, I managed to single-handedly destroy JoeJohn's engine, without hitting a single thing. So Don put a few more miles on his ginormous daily mileage quota, and picked us up for the remainder of the trip. We met up with Theresa, Sarah, Susan, Jackie, Jen, Chuck, and Kelli. A good time was had by all, methinks, including an interesting variety of both bad and good movies and cooking, as well as ice skating, hockey, harassments with snow, tobogganing, euchre, and gin rummy. The weekend was concluded with a ride on the illustrious South Shore train line into Chicago from South Bend.
One weekend ago, my favorite brother Greg drove into the big city from Dayton. He spent a day exploring by himself while I was at work, and then the weekend was spent working on finishing up assembling a computer for him, and doing a bit of touristy stuff like some of the Shedd Aquarium, Planetarium, Sears Tower, and Giordano's. Friday night was also a visit to a St. Benedict's young adult event w/ Kevin, turned out to be not quite our bag of tricks.
This weekend ago, or something like that, was the first taste of spring! Friday after work, Kevin & I went to a fish fry at Holy Name, prefaced by an arranged meetup with other parish young adults, which allowed for us all to sit together. That was nice.. and a convo w/ Marlin (spelling?) sparked my interest in the chances of being a "Minister of Care" for the parish and bringing the Holy Eucharist to the bed-ridden. Afterwards, I joined Leigh, Joanne, Rob, Nick, and Lisa for a couple of drinks at Pippin's. Pretty fun, and good to be getting a little more social. Saturday I joined the Holy Name group for my second time of going to the Greater Chicago Food Despository. We spent about 3 hours putting together 700+ boxes of food that would each feed a family of four for a week. The afternoon consisted of a quick lunch with a few from the morning, then meeting up with Sean & JoeJohn, Sean taking pics on my roof, and JoeJohn and I geeking for a bit... w/out overtime pay of course!
This morning I went to a monthly young adult mass at Old St. Pat's... it was a huge mass, I had never been before. What's the easiest way to tell the average age bracket of the attending congregation? The saying of the Our Father was a lot more synchronized. :) I've grown accustomed to hearing nearly 5 seconds of delay among people at Holy Name... if you can be forgiving of it, it can be quite entertaining! Later as I was biking around picking up some stuff, I stopped in the Anti Cruelty Society to visit with the young and old cats and dogs, which brings me to my post title. I love cats and dogs, and really wish I had the time for one or more, whenever I see any. When I went with Dave a few months ago while he was deciding to get a cat, I was struck by the near hopelessness of some of the cases. What happens when they get an influx of unwanted pets, and a dry spell of interested adopters? You can guess. What happens if that Rottweiller puppy looks just a little too scrawny to be wanted? It's pretty depressing. But it makes me think even more of mankind, and how so many of us are in our very own cages. Visiting the Anti Cruelty Society reminds me of the suffering of so many "healthy" members of society today, and to me serves as an urgent reminder that all is not well. There is much work to be done.
Time for a little update. Three weekends ago, I rode with Theresa down to party with her family near Cincinatti. In the spirit of experiencing new things, I am very proud to add that to the list. Very fun! :) They all have very curious relationships with one another. (I mean, they made me very curious, not that they were curious about each other. They know each other entirely too well.) As so many people find nourishment in their families, at the end of the weekend it was apparent how very much she receives (and gives) from her own, in a pretty unique way. On the drive down, I actually got a bit of sleep, which I rarely get in cars. You should consider it a compliment if I can fall asleep in your presence. Not a sign that you're boring. :)
Two weekends ago, I rode with JoeJohn and Sean to go out to Crooked Lake for the weekend. Halfway there, I managed to single-handedly destroy JoeJohn's engine, without hitting a single thing. So Don put a few more miles on his ginormous daily mileage quota, and picked us up for the remainder of the trip. We met up with Theresa, Sarah, Susan, Jackie, Jen, Chuck, and Kelli. A good time was had by all, methinks, including an interesting variety of both bad and good movies and cooking, as well as ice skating, hockey, harassments with snow, tobogganing, euchre, and gin rummy. The weekend was concluded with a ride on the illustrious South Shore train line into Chicago from South Bend.
One weekend ago, my favorite brother Greg drove into the big city from Dayton. He spent a day exploring by himself while I was at work, and then the weekend was spent working on finishing up assembling a computer for him, and doing a bit of touristy stuff like some of the Shedd Aquarium, Planetarium, Sears Tower, and Giordano's. Friday night was also a visit to a St. Benedict's young adult event w/ Kevin, turned out to be not quite our bag of tricks.
This weekend ago, or something like that, was the first taste of spring! Friday after work, Kevin & I went to a fish fry at Holy Name, prefaced by an arranged meetup with other parish young adults, which allowed for us all to sit together. That was nice.. and a convo w/ Marlin (spelling?) sparked my interest in the chances of being a "Minister of Care" for the parish and bringing the Holy Eucharist to the bed-ridden. Afterwards, I joined Leigh, Joanne, Rob, Nick, and Lisa for a couple of drinks at Pippin's. Pretty fun, and good to be getting a little more social. Saturday I joined the Holy Name group for my second time of going to the Greater Chicago Food Despository. We spent about 3 hours putting together 700+ boxes of food that would each feed a family of four for a week. The afternoon consisted of a quick lunch with a few from the morning, then meeting up with Sean & JoeJohn, Sean taking pics on my roof, and JoeJohn and I geeking for a bit... w/out overtime pay of course!
This morning I went to a monthly young adult mass at Old St. Pat's... it was a huge mass, I had never been before. What's the easiest way to tell the average age bracket of the attending congregation? The saying of the Our Father was a lot more synchronized. :) I've grown accustomed to hearing nearly 5 seconds of delay among people at Holy Name... if you can be forgiving of it, it can be quite entertaining! Later as I was biking around picking up some stuff, I stopped in the Anti Cruelty Society to visit with the young and old cats and dogs, which brings me to my post title. I love cats and dogs, and really wish I had the time for one or more, whenever I see any. When I went with Dave a few months ago while he was deciding to get a cat, I was struck by the near hopelessness of some of the cases. What happens when they get an influx of unwanted pets, and a dry spell of interested adopters? You can guess. What happens if that Rottweiller puppy looks just a little too scrawny to be wanted? It's pretty depressing. But it makes me think even more of mankind, and how so many of us are in our very own cages. Visiting the Anti Cruelty Society reminds me of the suffering of so many "healthy" members of society today, and to me serves as an urgent reminder that all is not well. There is much work to be done.