BUSY WEEKEND

The Carmelite meeting went quite well this morning. Unlike last month, Theresa didn't show up. There's more than a little confusion about exactly how she fits into things. I got my very first ever chance to be our formation director. All went well. The binder's very heavy for me though. Sr. Catherine said the prayers she was supposed to say before we got started. There was no milk around at first so I made sure I drank tea instead of coffee with my pastry. Mary Anne has been doing as well as we can expect so far but she's still too ill to show up at meetings. Anne's cell phone, surprisingly, plays Lennon & McCartney's "Love Me Do". Mary Elizabeth got a chance to see the Pope at Yankee Stadium. I found out at the meeting that Willie Clinton is in Wilkes_Barre today & Hillary is in Scranton. People ended up having problems with traffic congestion but I didn't notice anything wrong. For some odd reason, my odometer wouldn't move the entire time I was on my way to the meeting. It stayed at ...91 throughout the entire trip. On the way home, though, it worked out quite well. It turned out that the problem was entirely temporary. I'm at the Hoyt Library today because Wyoming's is unavailable. I started reading yet another book yesterday. Oddly, I can't remember right now exactly which one it even is. Lately I've been reading so many books these days it's been getting hard to keep track of which is which.

BUSY WEEKEND

Tomorrow I have to be in Wilkes_Barre by 9:00 for my monthly Carmelite meeting. The Wyoming library will not have the internet available because they have to have an open house & Chinese auction all day. They'll have door prized including gift certificates to places like Barnes & Noble. The weekend should be at least fairly busy because Sam & Bridget will be here. Sooner or later I may even end up seeing Robin too. Tuesday I have an interview in the same neighborhood as the Sizzle Pie Pizzeria. I already gave them a resume but unfortunately I still have to fill out an application. Uncle Frankie, as far as I know, hasn't been around lately. He must be really busy these days with Fran, the dog & all sorts of things. I only have a few pages to go on the Jane Austen book & I'm still plowing through the others a little at a time. I have a book of Chekhov's major plays & I've just finished the entire first act of "Ivanov". The weather's still getting nicer as we progress further & further into the spring. It's a bit too cool for me in the morning but the rest of the day is usually warm. There was a visiting priest at 9:00 Mass this morning. For whatever reason, Fr. Walsh wasn't available. I've seen this other one before but I have no idea who he is. The election coverage continues. All the predictable mud_slinging is characteristic of every election anyway. Yesterday I got a notice from the local Red Cross chapter reminding me that as of the end of last month, I am now an official member of the gallon club in Pa. I already gave a few gallons in N.Y. They sent me a very nice little pin.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE BEATLES

Yesterday, as I was wandering around the Barnes & Noble at the Casey Plaza, I stumbled upon a book that I shall most certainly have to get sooner or later. I've always been interested in everything about the Fab Four. In this book, journalist Steve Turner analyzes our four very favorite hippie Evangelists, Sts. John, Paul, George & Ringo & their spiritual impact upon their contemporaries & posterity. It covers their religious upbringing & adult spiritual interests. Over the course of my lifetime I've always gotten seriously weird ideas about how they, & other sixties characters, could be compared & contrasted with New Testament characters. Today Robin will be flying in from Chicago. All my life I used to hear of the airport as the Avoca Airport. As it turns out, it's officially named the Scranton/Wilkes_Barre Airport. It's right over at the very northernmost end of Rte. 315. Alas, she will be only staying until Sunday. That's when the kids will be first showing up for their turn. Mary Anne called this morning to talk more about their big trip. My Carmelite meeting is coming up on Saturday morning. It should be really interesting. I got everything done in advance. The weather continues to get progressively better & better these days. Last night I watched Fr. Mitchell Pacwa on EWTN. His show was about the Nazi Holocaust in WWII during which many millions of Catholics & Jews were murdered. It included a defense of Pope Pius XII against left wing false scholarship.

NICE DAY SO FAR

The weather's still a smidge cooler than I like it but it's getting springier as we go along. Robin, from what I hear, is supposed to be coming to Pa. to visit for a while. So are Sam & Bridget. Unfortunately, Michael's not available. I should assume that things will be really busy around here with all them around. My mother made sure she called Rose last night to find out about how Karen has been coming along. We've all been most certainly praying for her. I just went to Turkey Hill today for gas. It's getting more expensive all over the place these days. Even more bad news is that because of the upcoming election we now have to put up with all sorts of interviews with Hillary, McCain & Obama. It's all as boring & predictable as it is unavoidably necessary. Pope Benedict, whose birthday is today, is now in Washington, D.C. It's the first time a reigning pope has visited the White House since Pope John Paul II visited Jimmy Carter in 1979. Yesterday I ate donuts & oddly, for once, they didn't come from Uncle Frankie. That was most certainly quite a surprise since he's our usual guaranteed source of all things fine & fattening. At my old KofC council, 794 in Lindenhurst, I used to get Dunkin' Donuts every Thursday night at bingo. Here I get to watch my step because nothing like that ever comes up. Brian from Myspace just reminded me that the fact that people spend so much time at computer keyboards these days has really been having quite an entirely negative impact upon our handwriting. I can't write for squat anymore...not that I ever could anyway. At least my penmanship used to be legible.

JOB FAIR

Oddly, they seem to be in the habit around here of advertising for job fairs that turn out to be on other days entirely. Recently I found out on the internet that the Wachovia Arena's fair was next Tuesday. Yesterday, though, I read in the Citizen's Voice that it was today. I think it worked out well. I must have given out at least ten resumes. There were even a couple of familiar faces there. Some people must be officially designated by their employers to show up at things like this. It's a very much more relaxed environment than an official interview ever turns out to be. Surprisingly, there seem to be quite a lot of organizations in this general area that deal with the handicapped. There were a few radio & TV networks, & newspapers. I couldn't resist checking out the media jobs. If nothing else, I've most certainly managed to amass quite a collection of free ball point pens among other things. They even give away candy too. It was crowded & I messed up a smidge coming home. The weather lately has been very nice & springy, even though I should really like it at least a smidge warmer. At least there's been no precipitation though. I've been reading as voraciously as possible lately. Yesterday I read a bit more of that book I have about Catholic converts. I haven't been watching TV lately except for "I Love Lucy", sometimes "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" & EWTN once in a while.

STOPPED RAINING

It's not raining today but I like the weather a bit warmer than this. The library's ice cold. It's frequently very cold in here so it's not all that much of a surprise. I couldn't help noticing, while looking through a pile of my papers this morning, that there will be yet another job fair at the Wachovia Arena next Tuesday. Going to one of those things has always struck me as infinitely easier than any other way of getting applications for jobs. It leads to much more volume. I'll be able to have a much easier time getting to the place for this next one because I've already made the trip once before. Last night was our monthly Holy Name Society meeting. It went well except that one of the guys got really offended by an offhand remark Howard made. He left in the middle of it all. Jerry made chili with beans & rice. Sometimes I miss one of the meetings because they're hard to remember. This month's meeting wasn't printed in the bulletin. There were the usual hooch, soda & cookies. Fr. Walsh didn't show up. The lectoring went well on Saturday. Mary covered for Rocco. It was even Rocco's birthday recently. The cousins are still rambling on back & forth on email about all their current events. Lately we haven't heard too much from anybody except that Larry said he wanted to visit Karen. Yesterday I watched a little of Raymond Arroyo's interview with W. on EWTN.