CARMELITE MEETING

As virtually always, I managed to be the first one to show up at this morning's meeting. It's a nice quiet environment over there. Another typical thing happened. One of the residents, an old woman, didn't recognize me & asked what I was doing there. I usually run into somebody like that once for each visit. Sister Catherine showed up a little while after I got there. Rosemary, Anne & a couple of other ladies also made it. There were the inevitable absentees. We don't have enough people. Unfortunately, Sr. Catherine told us that Mary Anne is extremely ill. She & Anne both left early to visit her in a local hospital. I got elected as formation director. They gave me a huge book to work with from now on. Yesterday the weather was bad with rain & snow but today we got a nice break. After a cold morning, it's been much nicer lately. That's good because I have to lector at 5:00 Mass today. Yesterday, in lieu of meat, I ate all sorts of peanut butter & jelly, cheese & pizza. I passed by Sabatini's Pizzeria in Exeter yesterday & could have sworn that it's been closed down & replaced by a furniture store.

NICE BUT COLD

Today is turning out, so far, to be a nice quiet day. There's no meat but we get to dance. It appears that Uncle Frankie is back in commission. He showed up yesterday & hung around for a few hours. Predictably, he's still more than a little bit on the hoarse side. He just started feeling well enough to get out again on Wednesday. The latest among the cousins is a quiz & trivia, first started by Java & Nunziata, about St. Valentine & all the romance, candy, etc. of the big day. Mary Anne really started it with her picture of the preserved remains of St. Valentine in Italy. Technically yesterday was really the Feast of Sts. Cyril & Methodius. St. Cyril was the one who devised Russia's alphabet. That doesn't strike many people as all that romantic, though, so they chose Valentine. As of Monday, Myspace sites will no longer be available at the library. At a recent board meeting, the top bananas decided that the only way to protect the young uns was to block it completely. Of course if they would have blocked it for only minors, according to the lady I spoke to, there would have been inevitable cries, from all the troublemakers, of discrimination. Thank the liberal influence for that.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

The weather's better than yesterday but still icy. It's a nice quiet Valentine's Day so far. I'm assuming Uncle Frankie's still sick because we haven't seen him in quite a while. Usually he'd be around with bells on because Valentine's Day's always been quite an especially big candy day. Yesterday I read more of "Emma". I made sure I got my virtually inevitable daily dose of "I Love Lucy" too. I usually watch only old shows. Last weekend I even watched the "Three Stooges". Because those days were so much closer to the silent movie era than we are now, they were a lot better at physical comedy. Back then gestures meant a lot. Happy birthday to Anna, my former supervisor, & Benjamin, Michelle's son. Sadie Hawkins' Day is only fifteen days away. That's the day, that only happens on a leap year, when womenfolk get to hit on menfolk for a day. I know all sorts of very colorful stuff.

MISERABLE WEATHER

The snow has stopped. Unfortunately, though, it's turned into an extremely seriously annoying rainstorm. The streets, sidewalks, etc. are all covered with slush from a combination of rain & snow. At least it's nowhere near as bad as last year around this time. The traffic is much more annoying under these circumstances than it usually is. Schools & lots of other places are closed down. The library opened late. They closed at 2:00 yesterday & opened at 11:30 today. I found out from a sign on the front door that as of the eighteenth of the month, they won't let patrons access our Myspace accounts from here anymore. Everybody seems to hate Myspace. Saturday morning, I have to go to another Carmelite meeting. Those meetings always seem to go quite well. Unfortunately, Mary Anne still hasn't come back & the attendance for most of the others isn't usually anything to brag about but other than that things usually work out pretty smoothly. Right now there's a family of trouble makers right next to me. A couple & their junior high school son are talking loud & making fools of themselves. Of course, they come fully equipped with constantly ringing cell phones, like all of today's truly hep ignoramuses.

BLIZZARD EXPECTED

It's snowing & there should be a blizzard starting at noon, with around five inches expected. I'm sick & tired of it all by now. I just hope we can be spared another Valentine's Day like last year. Life these days has been pretty droll so far. I'm still reading "Emma". I've read it a few times before so it's really easy for it all to be able to sink in by now. I went over to O.L.Sorrows' blood drive yesterday for a minute. Since I already gave blood very recently I'm not eligible to give again for a few more weeks. I made sure I asked one of the women over there about how I can become a volunteer. Maybe it will give me access to job openings. She gave me a phone number to call the top bananas over in Wilkes_Barre. I'm always going to blood drives anyway so I might just as well take some kind of advantage of my habit. I have all sorts of anecdotes about my days as a blood donor. By becoming a volunteer, & maybe even working for them, things can only get even weirder. I'd always enjoyed helping at my old KofC council. It should be about the same kind of thing with them.

BITTER COLD

Today's the coldest day of the year so far. At least it's not snowing. Yesterday I went to 2:00 p.m. Mass at St. Rocco's in Pittston. It was my very first time there ever. The Divine Mercy people were there. I messed up on a left turn I should have taken. I know exactly how to get there but one mistake & the trip turned into an absolute nightmare. The area is full of one_way streets so it's not easy to backtrack. There was a big blizzard & winds around thirty m.p.h. on top of that. On top of everything else, this morning I needed more anti_freeze in my car. Nobody from our crowd ended up ended up being able to show up at Benjamin's party either because everybody's entirely too sick. I'm still reading "Emma". Uncle Frankie & Fran came over for a few hours on Saturday night. My cousins' latest adventure is about e mail addresses. There are some new ones on the list. As always with that bunch, confusion reigns supreme. Lately everybody's all abuzz about November's big election. It should be quite an interesting time. The Democrats have gone all controversial on us. This weekend in church, everybody was asked to sign a petition, that will be mailed to our Congressmen, asking that they vote to pass the Pa. Marriage Protection Amendment to protect us from homosexual encroachment upon people's legitimate rights. Of course, I most certainly made sure I signed it. Today's the big blood drive over there but I already gave blood entirely too recently. I got my St. John the Baptist newsletter over the weekend. That's my high school in West Islip, N.Y. They're having a blood drive in April. The last time I gave blood in N.Y. it was there. While there, I ran into my favorite history teacher, Brian Clancy.