They say that all good things must come to an end. Well, after a few days off my summer vacation did exactly that and I am now officially back in Baltimore, at the Seminary. This past week St. Mary's welcomed 21 new men to the seminary from all across the country, including a former student of my Father's good friend from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. It is a small world indeed.
Like most all of us on the East Coast the last week has been a long one with the anticipation, onset and aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Originally I had been planning to return to the Seminary in time to meet some good family friends, and honorary relatives, on Sunday. They were coming down for the Yankees game (boo hiss boo hiss boo boo) and invited me along for dinner. Since all returning men were due back to the Seminary by Monday Night the timing worked out perfectly, that is until Irene entered the picture. Knowing that New England would be a mess and that the storm was going to slam my entire route from NH to MD, I decided it was best to come Friday night instead and from the looks of things I made the right decision.
On Friday night I arrived, unpacked and put my feet up. Saturday morning I ran out for a few things before the big storm and returned in time to watch it roar in. Living in Baltimore and not to far from the Ocean I figured we were due to get hit pretty hard. Saturday night rolled in with a strong winds and rain and a Hurricane Party in the Donnelly Lounge.
Luckily for us minus a few tree limbs we made out pretty well, not even losing power.
On the home front things seem to have been much worse. My parents, who live in the Lakes Region of NH, have been without power since Sunday and still are in the dark. My sisters who live in Vermont seem to be right in the mix of things and from the sounds of things Vermont is a war zone with bridges washing out, towns cut off from the world, and many roads impassible.
Please keep them and all those flooded or stranded in your prayer.
In less than 15 minutes we are due to start a three day silent retreat.
I am looking forward to it for the most part. It is hard to believe I am starting my fourth year as a seminarian.
-Andrew
p.s. More to come when this weekend when I take my good friend and fellow seminarian Francis, who is from Uganda, on his first Rollercoaster. It should be a blast as he has agreed to go on the coasters and has no idea what it is. In fairness I did try and show him a youtube video of one. The last time I went to Hershey Park we invited a Zambian priest to come along. He did. We convinced him to come on the Rollercoaster with us. After he did, he hid from us the rest of the day, until it was time to go home.
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