Season Sweeps = No Blog

I admit I've been glued to my television for the past three nights in order to sniff through series finales and season finales. It's amazing that while I haven't watched The X-Files for about 3 seasons that it all still made sense to me. Ditto for Ally McBeal, although I did watch a good chunk of this season purely for the Jon BonJovi factor. I sniffed quite a bit during that series finale, even though it mostly sucked. I felt it was a very weak ending and the best parts were the flashbacks (of better seasons). And That 70's Show was decent.

Paradox Sunday

This past Sunday was odd. Matt and I went into Buffalo for my cousin Andrew's confirmation. I don't usually go to church related events, but Andrew's dad is my Godfather, so I was kind of expected to attend. When we picked up my Aunt Carol on the way, I found out my Great-Aunt Dorothy had died that morning. She had gotten quite sick a few days before and in the end died from a stroke. I wasn't overly surprised since she hadn't taken very good take of herself over the course of her life (recovering alcoholic/anorexic/smoker). I didn't really feel anything about her death either. Which I felt bad about, but I guess I was expecting her death sooner or later.

After the confirmation ceremony ended, we headed over to my Grandparent's house for some coffee and sandwiches. It was there that we found out my Cousin Ted (AKA Father Ted) had died unexpectedly Saturday night. I was and am very upset about this. I really didn't know Father Ted very well (yes, he was a priest) but he had been very good to me over the years. He was the one that helped make it possible for me to go to England with the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, helped me buy my bow for my violin, buy my violin case, etc. If we ever needed money for music-related things, he came through. And he continued to send nice checks for Christmas over the years. I always wrote thank-you notes and wondered if there was anything else I should do. I can't remember if he ever got to hear me play when I was at my best at the end of high school. I wish I could remember. I think he has a tape of when I used to do radio news. I just feel like I didn't repay him enough for all that he did for me. On top of that, I can't even be at his funeral service (5pm tonight) since it's in Florida (where his church is). These things happen. However, I will be able to be at my Aunt Dorothy's funeral service this Saturday morning.

The confirmation was ok. The church used a PowerPoint presentation to project the words of songs (and pre-service announcements) onto a screen by the altar. That was cool since you didn't have to hunt through a huge songbook for whatever song was going to be sung. A downside was that if you didn't know the melody you were out of luck since there were no music notes to guide you. The singing was quite boisterous at times and I felt like I was in the middle of that Christian Music commercial on tv where this huge congregation is singing "Shine Jesus Shine!" I don't know what was worse: the fact that this song was being sung or that Matt knew all the words and gave me a funny look for not singing. The only song I knew was "Here I Am Lord" for my confirmation/youth group days where we changed the words "His hand will save" to "His hand will wave" and "I will give my life to them" to "I will give my wife to them.."

My cousin's reception was a little bizarre too. He was choosing the music and we were treated to "Highway to Hell" by ACDC and "Big Butts" by Sir Mix-A-Lot throughout the meal. I don't know what was funnier, the fact that ACDC was being played or the look of confusion over my older relatives' faces when the posterior-minded song came on.