VEGAS-baby!

Oh yes - we are here.

Our flight was a little shaky ... Literally. It started pretty much right after they served the drinks. It did stop without incident, but then the captain came on the speaker and said that they were turning the fasten seatbelt sign back on as they were expecting some turbulence up ahead. (Kate and I looked at each other across the aisle like - uh oh... why are they telling us about the one coming up but mentioned nothing about the other turbulence) Then the co-pilot came out of the cockpit and walked back into the plane down to the rows just in front of us ... the emergency exit rows ... and was checking out one of the doors. Again Kate and I exchanged concerned looks. Jim slept through it all. We never did hit that expected turbulence. But we did hit more later ... after the second set of drinks were served, of course.

We arrived and got our luggage and headed for the taxis. Apparently EVERYBODY leaving the Vegas airport takes a taxi from the airport. The line was huge. Then the taxi coordinator man said watch this - true vegas style - as he pointed to people in line ahead of us ... Eanie, Meanie, Mynie, Moe - and landed on the guy in front of us - and he put him right into a taxi. Why couldn't WE have been moe! Oh well 30 minutes later we were on our way to the hotel... The Riviera ... one of the original hotels in vegas ... and not-so-pretty. But functional. Jim and I got a deluxe room - so we have electricity (j/k) We have a mini fridge ... but I did read the fine print on the thing I signed when we checked in that said that there was a $500 fine PER DAY for having food/drink items in room. I will be very careful when I get my 12-pack of Diet Coke later for that fridge to keep cold for me.

We me up with Jen C when we arrived. She has been here for the last week with her sister checking out the sites. We went to lunch at a place next door to the Riviera ... cant remember the name - but we were starving and the taxi driver told us the portions are good there. We wanted to fill our tummies and then nap for the afternoon. Portions were good ... food was okay. Won't be going back there by choice, but it is close so that could play a factor in our lunch plans during the week as we only have 90 minutes between sessions for lunch.

On our way back from lunch we found a half price ticket place and scored tickets for David Copperfield and a half price dinner voucher for this Brazilian steakhouse. So that is what we did after our naps! Dinner rocked. Meat galore. They just keep bringing it to the table until you are stuffed. We got a pitcher of Margharitas and Jen and I were a bit tipsy when we left.

David Copperfield was good (not great) and a bit cheesy - but a vegas thing to do so we are glad we did it. He is a bit full of himself and pulls up by "randomly selecting" the little hottie Brazilian girls up on stage for help with his illusions. Really he should be called David Coppafeel, if you know what I mean.

Today we have a retreat from 2:30 - 9pm. We can get our registration materials starting at 1:00 and I had planned to sleep in until then ... no such luck. At 6:20 my eyes popped open as my body's internal clock (which I can't seem to find the snooze button for) told me that it was 9:20 and a reasonable time for me to awake. Why can't the internal clock check with the brain before it does the wakey wakey thing?

Well now that you are all updated, I am going to try to go back to sleep. Wish me luck.

My first visitor!

Today, a wonderful thing happened. I got my first visitor to my partially remodeled office / youth room. It was so great to sit and chat for an hour with one of the youth that I was hired to minsiter. Oh how I missed that in my old parish. Ministering to 900 teens means that you are cranking out programs but never really getting to know anybody one on one. Now that I have 84 in religious ed and another 40 who have already been confirmed I have time to hang out with them more.

This young lady came by just to hang out and chat. Yay! She is a great young lady who is really beautiful - not just physically though. She is beautiful through and through. I have spent quite a bit of time with her in various ways since I arrived here. She helped me run a retreat where the 6th graders just migrated to her. She was what we call "on fire" that day. She had them eating out of her hands (not literally ... unless you count raw spaghetti and gum drops) She is a natural in leading kids into prayer and leading games and just sitting and chatting with them too. Amazing really. She was a participant on another retreat where we had amazing small group discussions - great parish bonding time - super fun late night chats in the cabin with everyone. But today we had a great chat that really got me thinking. She spilled her heart (which I won't spill to you) but I realized that you can look at someone and think you know someone but until you stop along the journey and speak with your heart - you never know someone.

Basically I know what I am saying is don't judge a book by it's cover - but it is more than that. You can read a book and not know what it is saying - really saying.

Ponder that.

Then say a prayer for all young ladies out there who long to know who they really are - and for youth ministers everywhere that they all have time to sit and chat with the teens whom God has entrusted to their care. Amen.

Hmmm... I wasn't heading in that direction when I began my post ... must be the Holy Spirit at work.

Peace friends.

Post, they say.

and then they ridicule ...

nice, just nice

IT?
Web-footed?

interesting, very interesting...

Go Wayland!

So last Friday was the big Wayland vs Acton-Boxborough football game. It is always fun when Jim's town plays my town in football! I knew I would be spending some time on his side of the field so I had to make it perfectly clear which side I was on. Did I make it clear?
Oh ya - by the way - Wayland crushed AB 48 to 6... I think the hair did it for them.