Before I get to the topics I said I would write about, I want to mention that I had a visitor today. My big sis called last night and said she was coming into town, so we got to have brunch together with our brother. Some of you may not know this, but St. Vincent has a system wherein every incoming freshman is assigned an older student who puts a welcome sign on their door, leaves a present in their room, and shows them around the first weekend or similar things. My big sis was Teresa Paskonis. She was going into her senior year here as a theology, history, and education triple major. Somehow, she found time to fill my mailbox with candy periodically, or meet me for a meal. She didn’t have time to finish her student teaching last year, so even though she walked the stage last May, she was still here this past fall. She got two more littles this year also, both of whom I happened to end up friends with. She, John, and I are particularly close. She’s been in Baltimore, Maryland as a history department chair for the past semester and was just promoted to assistant principal. On her way for Baltimore to her hometown Cleveland this morning, she stopped off for a little family reunion. It was a great time.
I talked a little bit about housing and housing selection in yesterday’s blog. After students pay a $100 deposit for registration, a $100 deposit for housing, and register for classes, they can draw a housing lottery ticket. These are drawn by year, so seniors draw yellow tickets, juniors draw green ones, and sophomores draw pink ones. (I think they were pink—I’m not exactly sure.) The first one or two tickets are given away in other lotteries around campus, such as President Towey’s Q&A forum and the rest are held in a can to draw from. By luck and prayer, I drew the 4th ticket for juniors, which was the second highest ticket I could have drawn. Since Wimmer singles cost slightly more than other dorms, not as many guys go for them, so I was the first junior to sign up to get into Wimmer. All the seniors had already chosen rooms, but the one I wanted wasn’t taken. It’s slightly larger than the other rooms (by about a shoebox width), it overlooks Sebastian’s garden, and it’s just inside the entrance to Wimmer. Basically, this means that 1) I don’t have to go outside in the winter for weeks at a time if I don’t want to, 2) my room is about two minutes from not only the Basilica and the cafeteria, but all of my classrooms as well, so 3) I will probably be wearing my bedroom slippers to half my classes next semester.
After housing, I returned to my room to do a little reading and talk to my sister. Without warning, my door flew open and about eight of my friends walked in. They had just finished housing and a group of ten guys had just gotten the five rooms along the hallway that I’m currently in. So a good part of the group came over to check it out. When the group left, John stuck around and we talked for a little while. Pretty soon, it was time for the concert.
I hadn’t been to a St. Vincent Camerata concert yet, though they happen each semester. For some reason, I just never went. I’m slightly disappointed now about that decision. We were delighted with Allegri’s “Miserere mei, Deus,” Bach’s “Christ lag in Totenbanden,” and Vivaldi’s “Gloria.” I had never heard the Bach selection before and had only heard a few movements each of the other selections. I was very much impressed. I attended the concert with Dr. Harrigan, his two lovely daughters, and few other members of the Aurelius Scholar’s program. After the concert, we all drove to Dairy Queen together and enjoyed the evening.
I came back to my room after the concert, planning to get a fantastic night’s sleep, but somehow ended up having a really deep discussion with two of my friends that last long into the night. It was worthwhile though, for we discussed, among other things, the late Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. And I still got the nine hours of sleep that I need to survive. All in all, the perfect evening.
I’ll probably blog again sometime over the next several days. Things are about to really kick into gear for finals week, since this next week is the last week of classes. It’s hard to believe that the semester is almost over and that soon I’ll be at home for the summer. But such is college life—it both drags by much slower and speeds by much faster than normal life.
|
