Be Not Afraid

So, as they say out there in average-everyday-land (hmm, the Heidegger reference may be lost on some of you), it's been "like" a month since I've posted anything, and I have no adequate excuse for disappointing you like that. So, I'm going to apologize: "Mom, and the other three people who read this, I'm sorry it's been so long."

My self-effacement aside, finals are over. Hallelujah! (Forgive the non-Latin spelling.) With my second semester of my second year now behind me, it amazes me to consider the possibility that I may actually be half-way done with my four years here at "'De Oblates" in Laflin. More amazing, that means I'm about 22.2222...% finished with my formation for the priesthood as a whole. Wow. I feel pretty good about the past semester, I enjoyed myself, I got closer to some friends at Scranton, and I think I did well. Judging by the grades I received throughout the semester, I think I have to have gotten an A in "C+ Mohr's" class. That man is about as evil as hopscotch. I'm really not sure how he got his bad reputation. Also, since I know you've been wondering, I cannot explain or define phenomenology to you. Not even a little.

In other news, Fr. Buttini has returned to the hospital, though all indications indicate (well, what else would they do, right?) that he will be coming home tomorrow morning. This time, it was cellulitis on his leg, which, from my years as a physician, I know is not nearly as serious as his first episode.

Things here at the seminary are cooking along just nicely. The remodeling of the dining room, which has been going on since February, is almost complete. Rest assured I'll provide you some before and after shots when all of the work is finally done.

I'd like to take a moment (just sit right there....wow, a Fresh Prince of Bel Air allusion for all the other folks out there who grew up in the '90s) to discuss age and aging, if you don't mind. It has occurred to me recently that I am starting to be older than I used to be. I know, that sounds tautological, and, indeed, each of us is always older than he used to be. Nevertheless, I mean "older" in a much more significant way than with reference to objective clock-time since the moment of my birth. Rather, I feel myself moving into a completely different phase of life. What motivates this rumination is my sister's birthday (this past Sunday), on which she turned seventeen. Seventeen! My little sister is seventeen! That's insane. I mean, she's now legally able to purchase copies of Seventeen at the grocery store! In September, my brother will be nineteen, and, in October, I will be twenty-one. Imagine, I'm now moving into that enigmatic epoch of human life in which my age requires a hyphen. It's a crisis, that's for sure. Since nearly all of my readers have already climbed this particular mountain (some of you many, many years ago), I guess I don't need to dwell on it. The essence of my thought here is: wow, in a few short months, I'll be twenty-one and able, at long last, to rent a car on my own. Not what you were expecting, but, then again, that's what I try for.

It may be of interest to you that I have recently updated the OSJ PA Province's website to include my favorite color. Not that there was anything wrong with the old look, just that it didn't particularly float my boat anymore. I also wanted to create a greater contrast between our website and the OSJ CA's website, from which much of our layout had been shamelessly stolen. Feel free to let me know if it was a monumental mistake, and, if so, perhaps I'll consider taking another three weeks to change it all back again. Of course, since most of you come to my blog from the OSJ PA homepage, perhaps you already knew...

Final thought: I'm thinking about starting a vlog, just to make myself that much more of a nerd and, possibly, to spread my "message" to that many more people in this world. Given the success of vloggers like Phil DeFranco and James @ War, both of whose shows I have recently caught on to, it may actually be possible for me to be viewed by several dozens of people of the course of many months. I don't usually think from a marketing perspective, since I have absolutely no formal training, but it seems to me that marketing is more effective when it reaches more people. And you can quote me on that.

Till next time, keep looking up....

(Wait, "keep looking up"? Did he really just use Jack Horkheimer's sign-off from The Star Gazer? Who references Jack Horkheimer on his blog, honestly? Who even watches a weekly show about back-yard astronomy that only runs for five minutes? This dude is weird.)