Catholic Sensibility

In between, catching up with family. But it's not a weekend I'd care to repeat very soon. I need to walk a few miles today and stretchout my back; I did all the driving this trip. After the 9AM Thanksgiving Mass, I made a point of thanking each choir member and the lady who was in charge of the Thanksgiving planning group. Then I sped home, car-loaded the luggage of the ladies of the house, and off we were by 10:31. Not bad, I thought, just sixty seconds behind schedule. Brittany soon asked, "How long till we get there?" "2:53PM," I said. And we drove, listening to the entire Joseph soundtrack. Even after it was done, "Jacob and Sons" was still driving through my head. Anita has had the casette tape for years, but recently audio-taped from her dvd. (Mostly because Maria Friedman is a superlative singer and makes the PBS version a head above the early 90's recording.) The dvd is what has gotten Brit into the music; she has most of this musical memorized already, thanks to Mom's castaway tape which now resides in her bedroom tape player. We were four minutes early to Webster City, Iowa. Diners had just settled into their chairs when we arrived: my older brother, his in-laws (hosting), and their family. Yesterday, we caught up with Brittany's godparents, an old friend in Fort Dodge, and made it to Omaha for this game. Arrived home just seven minutes after the scheduled arrival of 12:45AM, but I was in bed by 1. The game was fairly fun. We got to the arena in time to see the pre-game warm-ups. Brittany and I went down to ice level behind the goalies to watch the shooting drills. As for the game, there was good goaltending on both sides, and especially ... interesting was the Stars' Smith, who was badly out of position four or five times from playing the puck, but the Knights never capitalized on it. Both teams had somewhat challenged offenses: lots of players struggling with the puck. I saw some decent playmaking here and there, but the set-up guy never seemed to be able to pull the trigger. There was some bonehead play here and there. It was a bit below what I'm used to seeing in an AHL game. Announced attendance was 3656 (it seemed about half that to me) and people seemed really calm, as if everyone was still doped on tryptophan ... which is better, I guess, for the family atmosphere than a hockey mob on a ritalin fast. Brittany was rooting for the visting Iowa Stars, and was crestfallen with Cam Severson's seeing-eye slapshot that won the game for the Knights midway through the third period. The walk back to the car was a pouty, silent one and no consolation offered proved adequate. And so, our Forty-Hours' Vacation is history. Off to the parish to check on our 12:30 funeral coming on the heels of an 11AM wedding. I still have some Advent stuff to incorporate into the liturgy outlines. I also thought I'd finished the alleluia verse arrangements for the cantors, but I didn't find any at practice Tuesday night. In a word, vacation's over.