Monday, March 21, 2011

The End Draws Near, Lenten Tea, and TV Shows from Childhood


Here's the email I received today:


Dear David: I have reserved a room for you, arriving on May 23 and departing on May 27. If you have any other questions about your stay, please let me know. Blessings!


Father Bob Pierson OSB

Guestmaster

St. John's Abbey


Needless to say, I'm pretty excited at that turn of events. Now I just have to decide what an acceptable per night donation is. Here's a nice photo from the outside:


And from the inside:


In more good news, I turned in my fourth chapter, introduction, and conclusion to my thesis! Now, I will have a few more final edits, some bibliographic work, and then the thesis is officially done! It's definitely a good feeling to have completed the writing, but I'm worried that I'll lose some of the impetus required for editing well. The next step is defending it before a faculty panel. In celebration, I took myself out to the Chicago Diner.


So, for the last three years I have given up alcohol during Lent, and one of the things I've noticed is that my Lenten tea consumption goes through the roof. There's just something about getting home after a long day and relaxing with a nice beverage that seems innate to my daily routine. In fact, I'm going to heat up some water right now.


I don't know if this is still necessary or what happens to the plastic rings that holds together a six pack (in this case, a six pack of Trader Joe's pop), but I still compulsively cut them apart before throwing it away. If I don't cut it, it's the same to my conscience as if I found a woodland creature myself and jammed its head into one of the holes until it was stuck. I think I saw an episode of Rescue 911 when I was little where they saved a duck that was slowly being throttled by these plastic rings. Well, I wasn't making it up; here's the episode:



Speaking of childhood TV shows featuring law enforcement, was anyone scarred for life by episodes of Unsolved Mysteries? Just the voice of Robert Stack will make me uneasy. Here's an opening clip if you've forgotten his voice.



The worst were the ones about kidnappings or ghosts/supernatural events. My parents wisely banned my viewing of this show. I mean, they probably wanted to sleep through the night without me crawling into their bedroom and sleeping next to their bed (that happened enough times as it was!). Well, I'm going to try and enjoy a night of relaxation. Later!

4 comments:

  1. i loved BOTH of those shows!!! i always went to bed terrified after watching unsolved mysteries. especially when there was like a murderer on the loose or something and they showed a picture of the guy. also, robert stack's voice is haunting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...Rescue 911 must have been pretty desperate for stories if they devoted a show to a duck.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I LOVED Unsolved Mysteries! My brother hated it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. While your parents banned Unsolved Mysteries, my mom forced me to watch it, ESPECIALLY the kidnapping episodes. To terrify me.

    ReplyDelete