Home!

Hey there!

Well, we're back from Omena. I've spent the last two weeks doing things like swimming (haven't done that in years), using the jet ski and boat, tubing, water skiing, wine tasting at several wineries, visiting Mackinac Island, and watching movies. This may not sound overly interesting, but it sure was fun and I feel relaxed and refreshed...although, I must admit, I am a bit tired!

This is vow weekend, meaning that our current second-year novices are preparing to make their First Vows. We're all very excited to see our secundi make vows and move on to the next stage of formation, though we certainly will miss them (all of them, that is, except GILDAY). Our house will not remain empty for too long as next Saturday the new first-year men move in and we'll have four new residents of Loyola House.

The SMMSJ (Society of Mothers of Members of the Society of Jesus) is making an official visitation tomorrow. Nancy will bring cookies, Loretta will bring the brownies, and my mother will bring the booze. Explain this to me: my mother is coming to see Jesuits to whom SHE IS NOT RELATED make first vows. She's driving from Cleveland to see men who are not her sons. Now, she'll take a whole weekend to do this. So why is it that while I was DYING in Wyoming, she didn't come to tend to her dying baby? I, the child-of-delight, was abandoned to the catterwalling peacocks (and peahens, to be inclusive) in swollen agony and my "mother" just sat at home and made dresses...probably chuckling to her self about my languishing state the whole while.

Motherly love, eh?

Actually, before she calls me ranting that I am teasing her too terribly, I will say that she did offer to come to my aide in Wyoming. At least she made the offer...my father just realized that I left home the other day when he spilled his iced tea on the couch and realized that it had landed on an over-stuffed pillow rather than me; I reckon he figured I'd been sitting there silently for the last year - for all he'd notice, I could have had a stroke and, unless I blocked his view of the tv, he'd never have noticed.

Fatherly love? Yep.

I'll try to write more after vows this weekend!

Abba Ryan said to Abba Enyak: I wrote a book about that...That too....yeah, and that too....oh, by the way, did I ever tell you that I wrote a book about that?