Sunday, April 17
Apr. 25th, 2005 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynJohn and I woke uo early this day, probably around 8:30 or so, planning to go to his and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
prester_scott's church. John was pretty sure there was a 10:00 service and we were aiming for that. We made it there at 9:50 and the service, it turned out, was 10:15, so we had plenty of time. We went to a meeting hall near the church where they had juice and donuts to chat for a bit and see if Scott was there.
The people were very friendly. At least a dozen different people, including the bishop and one priest, approached to say hi to John and be introduced to me. And I can't really remember any names now. I think the priest was Father Mark, maybe, and one of the others was Tim, whose name remains with me because John had been talking about his bachelor party earlier, and Scott's mentioned him before.
I've never been to a catholic service before; the closest I've come was a Roman Catholic wedding that included mass. But this service felt very different, because the wedding had a lot of people who weren't catholic. Being among all these people who knew the ritual and what to expect made me feel like an awkward tourist. It gave me a clearer perspective on why evangelists worry about how to reach the unchurched. Because it is rather alienating, when you're not sure how to find the right hymn, or when to kneel or stand or sit or say amen or cross yourself or even -- in my case -- how to cross yourself. I'm sure if I went to a catholic service every week I'd eventually pick it up. But at the time, even with all the very friendly people I still felt out of place and stupid and inadvertantly disrespectful.
Strangely, while I can still remember the sermon (which was about the value and dangers of theology) and that the music of the choir was very beautiful, most of the rest of the service is a blur for me. Except I remember the baptism: a little baby girl in a lacy white dress, whose parents brought her in late with what the bishop described as "the army of godparents". She must have had at least eight godparents. I found that endearing. The bishop cooed over the baby as he performed the baptism, which was very cute. ("Christ claims you for his own -- yes" *big smile, wiggling fingers* )
On the way out, the bishop and the priest said goodbye to everyone individually. They both gave me hugs, which was nice. We went back to the meeting hall to try to catch Scott again. After a little while, we ran into Tim and he told us Scott wasn't there, which surprised both of us. So I drove us back to John's place, where I took a nap. I can't remember if John napped too or not. Probably not; he does live in Orlando, after all.
Around 3PM or so, I woke up and John and I lazed about talking for an hour or so, still wondering what had happened to Scott. Finally, John got a message from Gen explaining he'd had food poisoning and she was taking care of him. Ouch. :(
At 4PM or so, John gavegwendelkitty and jordangreywolf a call to see if they wanted to play Robo Rally. They agreed and we persuaded them to let us come there, since they're much better set up for gaming.
I'd meant to set up a simple board, but completely goofed by using a mapboard that's fairly innocuous ... as long as it's bordered on at least two sides. And I'd placed it at one end of an L shape. Ooops. So that one game took most of an evening. It also had some other unusual aspects: Jordan actually blew apart one of Gwendel's robots with his laser. I've never seen one robot pour that much laser fire into another bot before in Robo Rally. But everyone had a good time of it, and John wound up winning that game. I was pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastic Gwendel was about playing the game, and about board games in general. I'm too used to being the one who always has to cajole people into playing games. :)
Jordan also cooked dinner for us during the game -- yay! :9 I am soooo glad I didn't have to eat at restaurants all the time on this trip.
As Jordan said, one of the best parts of the game was cracking jokes over it. At one point, after Gwendel had been knocked out, she was eating fried chicken while the rest of us played. Or rather, she was trying to eat fried chicken. We kept saying stuff that would make her laugh so hard that she couldn't eat. She threatened to retreat to the kitchen so she could finish her meal without choking on it. :D
We didn't stay too long after finishing the game, since John and Jordan both had to work the next day. Of course, John and I stayed up until two or three AM anyway because, you know ... that Orlando thing.
prester_scott's church. John was pretty sure there was a 10:00 service and we were aiming for that. We made it there at 9:50 and the service, it turned out, was 10:15, so we had plenty of time. We went to a meeting hall near the church where they had juice and donuts to chat for a bit and see if Scott was there. The people were very friendly. At least a dozen different people, including the bishop and one priest, approached to say hi to John and be introduced to me. And I can't really remember any names now. I think the priest was Father Mark, maybe, and one of the others was Tim, whose name remains with me because John had been talking about his bachelor party earlier, and Scott's mentioned him before.
I've never been to a catholic service before; the closest I've come was a Roman Catholic wedding that included mass. But this service felt very different, because the wedding had a lot of people who weren't catholic. Being among all these people who knew the ritual and what to expect made me feel like an awkward tourist. It gave me a clearer perspective on why evangelists worry about how to reach the unchurched. Because it is rather alienating, when you're not sure how to find the right hymn, or when to kneel or stand or sit or say amen or cross yourself or even -- in my case -- how to cross yourself. I'm sure if I went to a catholic service every week I'd eventually pick it up. But at the time, even with all the very friendly people I still felt out of place and stupid and inadvertantly disrespectful.
Strangely, while I can still remember the sermon (which was about the value and dangers of theology) and that the music of the choir was very beautiful, most of the rest of the service is a blur for me. Except I remember the baptism: a little baby girl in a lacy white dress, whose parents brought her in late with what the bishop described as "the army of godparents". She must have had at least eight godparents. I found that endearing. The bishop cooed over the baby as he performed the baptism, which was very cute. ("Christ claims you for his own -- yes" *big smile, wiggling fingers* )
On the way out, the bishop and the priest said goodbye to everyone individually. They both gave me hugs, which was nice. We went back to the meeting hall to try to catch Scott again. After a little while, we ran into Tim and he told us Scott wasn't there, which surprised both of us. So I drove us back to John's place, where I took a nap. I can't remember if John napped too or not. Probably not; he does live in Orlando, after all.
Around 3PM or so, I woke up and John and I lazed about talking for an hour or so, still wondering what had happened to Scott. Finally, John got a message from Gen explaining he'd had food poisoning and she was taking care of him. Ouch. :(
At 4PM or so, John gave
gwendelkitty and jordangreywolf a call to see if they wanted to play Robo Rally. They agreed and we persuaded them to let us come there, since they're much better set up for gaming.I'd meant to set up a simple board, but completely goofed by using a mapboard that's fairly innocuous ... as long as it's bordered on at least two sides. And I'd placed it at one end of an L shape. Ooops. So that one game took most of an evening. It also had some other unusual aspects: Jordan actually blew apart one of Gwendel's robots with his laser. I've never seen one robot pour that much laser fire into another bot before in Robo Rally. But everyone had a good time of it, and John wound up winning that game. I was pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastic Gwendel was about playing the game, and about board games in general. I'm too used to being the one who always has to cajole people into playing games. :)
Jordan also cooked dinner for us during the game -- yay! :9 I am soooo glad I didn't have to eat at restaurants all the time on this trip.
As Jordan said, one of the best parts of the game was cracking jokes over it. At one point, after Gwendel had been knocked out, she was eating fried chicken while the rest of us played. Or rather, she was trying to eat fried chicken. We kept saying stuff that would make her laugh so hard that she couldn't eat. She threatened to retreat to the kitchen so she could finish her meal without choking on it. :D
We didn't stay too long after finishing the game, since John and Jordan both had to work the next day. Of course, John and I stayed up until two or three AM anyway because, you know ... that Orlando thing.
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no subject
But that is a very good way to describe it.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 04:17 pm (UTC)Robo Rally!
Date: 2005-04-26 12:08 pm (UTC)Re: Robo Rally!
Date: 2005-04-26 04:16 pm (UTC)Re: Robo Rally!
Date: 2005-04-26 04:46 pm (UTC)All the same, hey, can't hurt. ;)
Re: Robo Rally!
Date: 2005-04-27 10:19 pm (UTC)"Take this action; I'll be distracted for a while, but I'll check later to see the results."
Now you have a sense for what managing foreign policy is like. ];-)
The game is being re-released? Excellent. I've been very closing to hunting one down on eBay or whatever.
===|==============/ Level Head
Re: Robo Rally!
Date: 2005-04-28 02:09 am (UTC)Thoughthammer is taking pre-orders on the game for $35 (30% off what I guess will be a list of $50 or thereabouts) - and my intended plan is to wait until Robo Rally is out, and then make a big order from Thoughthammer so I can get free shipping. (I'll probably also get "Gloom", "Doom: The Boardgame", and "Betrayal on House on the Hill" ... though it would have been funnier if my third choice had been something else that would rhyme with "oom".)
Re: Robo Rally!
Date: 2005-04-28 05:13 am (UTC)Will suit your rhyming purpose, I assume.
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 01:59 pm (UTC)I did think it was rather cute, and I got a few hours of WoW in while you were sleeping. I really shouldn't have loaded the game on Thursday with only a 10 day guest pass, because it added the impetus to play while you were over as it would expire on the Sunday you left. The time would have been better spent scanning and editing.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-28 01:15 pm (UTC)Heh, I know I'm one of those you have to cajole into playing anything! Though to be frank, the reason you have to do this is because I really, really hate games. Well, most games anyway - the ones where each player is out for himself. It's that whole "me vs. them" thing that drives me nuts. Now, games where all the players work together - City of Heroes being a prime example - I like those just fine!
So I suppose that the next time you visit, the solution is this: we all hang at Grym and Motsy's house for an afternoon, invite Mots' brother over, and break out the poker chips so you can get your game on. Then Grym and I can go watch DVDs for a while or something. ;-)
I am soooo glad I didn't have to eat at restaurants all the time on this trip.
This is good to know! Next time you come, there is one fantastic restaurant we must take you to (a Brazilian steakhouse, but they have quite the extensive salad 'n veggie bar, too), but then we should cook in the rest of the time. Fine by me - Kage likes to cook and so do I. :-)
Glad that you had a great trip, although a somewhat sleep-deprived one. Orlando is a fun place to visit! :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-30 02:31 pm (UTC)People eat at "Red Lobster" in Florida? Wouldn't that be like eating at "Don Pablo's" in Mexico? Or "Olive Garden" in Italy?
(Of course, if you don't have those restaurants by you, then never mind.)