Mikey

I have been busy the last few days putting the finishing touches on a nine month video project that refuses to die. But I came home today to take a break and found my two nephews swimming in the backyard with my mom. Our pool is freezing so it was just Mikey the 5 year old who was braving the cold all by his lonesome. Mikey's first day of kindergarten was Monday and he announced his presence in the classroom by asking, "hey do you guys have any video games here?
He looked at me and said, "Jewd your my best friend and you won't even come in the pool." Well you can't say no to that, so I jumped in to which I got the response of, "Jewd your my favorite Jewd."

I think I'll keep him.

Munich to Texas in 30 hours

4 am bus to Munich airport for a 7am flight
12 pm flight from Heathrow non stop to LAX
2pm arrive in LAX and leave @ 6pm to San Antonio, Texas
12:45am wondering why I am writing this and not sleeping before I have to talk to human beings tomorrow.
Dusseldorf!

Vigil

I am checking my email at on high speed internet in the middle of farm land in Germany while a million other people sit outside in the mud waiting for the Pope. The difference between me and them?
I have a press pass.
Do I feel guilty?
No I do not.
To see a photo of the Pope that I took you can go to www.Lifeteen.com and scroll down the news box.

Thank God I got that Media Communications degree!

Did I mention there are bugs that bite and not only do they bite you but as they are sucking blood they insult your mother.

Rainy Mass

We went to a church today where the Missionaries of Charity were running a 24 hour adoration and a Display of the Life of Mother Teresa. After we had mass out in the rain and it was pretty darn cool. Tomorrow we take a train to camp out with 1 million other people and the pope. They are calling for rain...what ever does not kill me gives me material.

WOW

Waitied 9 hours in the street to see B16 for 10 seconds and it was totally worth it. As he came around the corner and drove past us I swore his eyes locked with mine. He has very deep eyes that penetrate and it went right to my heart. Wow. After he passed everyone in the line said the same thing, "did you see that, he looked right at me!" Now that's cool.

Köln!

We are in Köln as the natives spell it. Father John and about 20 kids have still notreceivedn their luggage and it's getting pretty sad to watch and smell. Currently we are stationed near the Pope's route to give him a shout out when he drives by in his pimped out Pope-mobile. We had mass this morning on the street and it was so cool. We are sitting outside a dude's restaurant named, Helmut, now that's a cool name. First born son watch out, I'm naming you Helmut, or Lichtenshtien, I can't decide.

Praise God, Clean shorts!

We left Vienna this morning and now am in Prague and wearing new clothes!
Our suitcases finally came in tonight and now I can again feel like a real human being. Who knew that after 5 days of rinsing out your clothes a person would actually kill for new knickers! If you heard about a plane crashing on it's way to Prague, don't worry, I was not on it...I hope you gathered that much when you started reading this, but hey who knows how you silly Americans think.
My German accent is coming along quite nice and I can communicate with the elderly and special kids.

Strikers

Hello from London Heathrow Airport! I did get a window seat and I slept 8 hours out of the 9 hour flight. Because of an airline srike we spent the night here last night at a swanky hotel and now our group of 64 are split into 4 different flights. We have had fun with calling speed bumps, humps and eating bangers and mash. We say, mind you step and cheers too. The one thing I can't understand here is what people have against deoterant. Wow, who needs coffee in the morning to get you going when you can smell that!
On to Vienna!

I am Slow.

So I think I may be a little slow, ok I might be considered functionally retarded in some states. I cannot pack a suitcase! I usually pack way too much and when I get to my destination have nothing that I need. Look at me, I'm in Hawaii and all I packed was sweaters! For the past three days our Family Room has been ground zero for my packing. I start to pack but then find something shiny that distracts me and all of a sudden it's four hours later and I have my Sesame Street Disco 8-tracks and a slinky in my suitcase. See what I was talking about earlier about being slow? Usually what ends up happening is my mom has to talk me though it, "Jewd, do you really think you will need this ski pole while you are in Germany?" She is the voice of reason. But that's my problem, I just might just need a ski pole in Germany and they I'll be up the creek without a pole. I'm pretty sure I can take out my 2 iron out of my suitcase because who am I fooling, I can't hit a 2 iron!

United We Sit

I awoke yesterday at St. Meinards in Indiana around 6am and after saying goodbye to the Benedicts I drove to Kentucky to catch my flight. When I checked in I got my seat assignments and my heart dropped, the flight from Louisville to Chicago was a window seat but the one from Chicago to San Diego I was in the dreaded middle seat. Now most people hate sitting in the middle but I think I hate it more than the average person. I am what you would call a little Closter phobic. I need to either see out the window to see the Glory of God out in the clouds or I need to be in the aisle so I can run to the emergency exit before the plane goes under water. When I asked "Darlene" about the availability of anything other than a middle seat she just stared at me and told me I had to wait till I got to Chicago to change it. Thanks Darlene, you rock my world.
I said a little prayer to God while sitting on that plane, I said "God you can do anything! You made the hippo. Please let me not be stuck in a middle seat for 4 hours, I trust in YOU!"

I sat on the little plane and we taxied out to the tarmac and then we stopped. The captain came over the intercom (why do they always sound like they just woke up from a nap?) and told us that all flights going into Chicago were grounded but it would probably only be for about 10 minutes. One hour later we were still sitting on the ground unless it only took 20 minutes to get to Chicago I was going to miss my flight and that's what happened. Well not exactly missed, you can't go on a flight that was cancelled. Super, I called home and my dad said, "Oh United just called and said they booked you on another flight." "Great! Which one” I asked. "I couldn't hear it was a recording and I was outside and they didn't repeat it,” he said. So I collected my luggage and booked it into O’Hare. I found a kiosk and checked in and found out that I was booked on the flight to San Diego that left in 2 hours and oh look, the middle seat! The line for customer service was at least a hundred angry people long and there was no way I was going to make it through before my flight left. So I went and parked myself at the gate to wait for the helpful agent to arrive. Still my prayer was, God, you can so do this. Minutes before the flight was to board she arrived, obviously mad that she had to be here and not, I don’t know, anywhere else in the world. I went up and said, "Hello, how are you today?" Nothing. "I have a little bit of a problem, see I have a ticket for the middle seat and I have an inner ear thing that tends to make me hurl if I don't sit on the aisle or by a window.’ She stared at me and said, “The flight is full ma’am.” With all my dignity I said to her, “well, I warned you, if I have to sit in the middle I will scream from the time we take off from when we land in San Diego, you have a super day!” I got on and sat in the death seat. I tried to calm myself with happy thoughts, maybe at least a cute grandma will sit next to me or my rich Irish Catholic doctor. No, a large man talking on his phone to his girlfriend about things that would make Howard Stern blush and a tweeker surfer dude that blinked way too much and kept asking me if I surfed in Mexico. “Oh dear God just take me home now!” was my final silent prayer just as the voice came over the intercom. “Ah folks, we are currently waiting for your Captain, seems he has not checked in yet and we need him to fly the plane, and should just be a few more minutes.” Forty minutes later the flight was cancelled. I collected my bags (thank God I did not check them) and ran like a crazy person back to the customer service where I went straight to the red phone to talk to Russia or a customer service person. “All of our flights to San Diego are booked ma’am”. I said nothing and let my silence speak for my disappointment. About 20 seconds went by until she said, “I can route you through Texas and Denver” I think bye now she felt my rage through the phone and she said, “ American Airlines has a flight leaving at 5:05pm I can put you on that.”
Now I started the 10 mile hike to terminal 3, I arrived and showed the man at the ticket booth my hand which I had written the flight information on. He looked down and typed looked up at me with distain before looking down again and typed some more before handing me my boarding pass.
I looked down and saw it, 19A!
A window!

That’s when I knew without a doubt that God is real and He listens.

I am convinced He canceled 2 flights so I could have a window seat. Sure He could have done it in a more timely fashion, but what lesson would that have taught me? Do I really think God thinks that much about little old me to go through all that trouble so I could have a window seat?

I do.