A Very Busy Month

May has been and will continue to be quite the busy month for me.  Here is a little look at the place I've been and the things I've done.

Let's start at the very beginning.  (A very good place to start.)  Our last day of class was Thursday, May 5, which ended with a final Mass where the Schola sang the Franz Biebl Ave Maria which we had been preparing since at least Spring Break.  After Mass those of us who were completing Pre Theology were given a certificate of completion. 

Two guys I will miss the most, we survived two years together

The next day was cleaning and move out day.  Instead, I went to see Captain America: Civil War with my good friend from UNT.  My brief review: it's the best movie of the MCU.  That night I was given two tickets to the Mariners/Astros game.  I could not pass up free tickets, especially since they were in the Club Level and I had never been there before.  It was a pretty exciting experience.  Outside of a bases loaded triple in the seventh, Fister pitched well to even his record at 3-3.  Correa went 3-3 with a home run, and we got to see Marwin Gonzalez's first non-solo home run.

I was back at the stadium the next day.  I had planned for a while to bring my dad as his birthday present, plus I wanted to get the Dallas Keuchel bobblehead.  Keuchel actually pitched decently, though he gave up solo home runs in the first two innings to Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager (both lefties).  The Astros tied it when Valbuena (finally) hit his first home run of the year in the bottom of the ninth to send it to extra innings.  Cano ended it with his second home run of the game in the tenth.  It was another in a long line of losses the Astros should have won.

Pictured: losing pitcher

The next week was full of packing for the move.  I also got rid of a bunch of stuff, including all of my notes from graduate school and my dissertation.  It was surprising how easy that was.  I able to have dinner with some good friends Monday night.  Then on Friday I went down to Clear Lake to hang out with my friend again and go back to Space Center Houston one last time.  Of course it's different now, especially with that giant (fake) space shuttle on the 747.  It was a cool tour, and it's always great to be reminded of how large/small the shuttle was.  (Large overall, tiny in the living space.)

The early part of the next week included a fair amount of packing again.  Then, my first big adventure.  On Thursday, I headed up to Bryan/College Station to see my brother and family.  After lunch with him, I headed over to Texas A&M for one last look around.  Unforunately it was raining fairly hard, so I pretty much cut it down to the Memorial Student Center, the Academic Building, and Kyle Field.  I even snuck into the 12th Man Foundation part of the Zone of Kyle Field.  I walked around like I knew what was doing, and found a door open to a hallway that looked like it headed somewhere near the field but was too chicken to find out more.

That night, we were able to go to Blue Bell Park to see the #2 Aggies take on the #6 Rebels in the final homestand of the season.  It was my first trip to the recently renovated field, and we all had a good time.  The Ags scored in the bottom of the first and the Rebels tied it in the second, then it was solid pitching and a horrible strike zone by the ump.  But the Aggies prevailed, scoring 5 runs in the 6th inning.  There just might be some young Aggies here yet.

Friday I had a good day beginning with taking my niece and nephew to get donuts before school.  After a little down time with my brother, I drove up to Dallas where I was staying the night at Holy Trinity Seminary.  The power was out when I got there, but that allowed me to spend some time talking with a couple of seminarians from Galveston-Houston, reading, and a little nap.  I grabbed a quick dinner at Smashburger (my first time, it was ok), then back to the seminary to watch the Astros lose to the Rangers in their spacious TV lounge.  Saturday was the big day: going to the Fort Worth Priestly Ordination.  St. Patrick's Cathedral is quite beautiful.  While vesting in the sacristy, I was amazed to look up and see a stained glass window of my favorite saint Maximilian Kolbe.  What a treat!  The ordination was a moving experience (actually my first priest ordination).  I knew I was going to have to drive down to Houston after it, so I was hoping to see my friend and get his first blessing quickly at the reception.  I was worried by the number of people, but I realized they were all waiting in line for food, so I went right up to his table.  I was greatly blessed when he stopped everything to bless me first!  Again, it was a great experience.

I came back on Saturday so that I could go to the Astros game on Sunday with my sister and nephew, probably our last chance to do so together in Houston.  The final score was terrible (9-2 and another sweep), but we had a good time together, even if he got all jacked up on cotton candy.

Now I'm starting off another very busy week, with a trip to Brownsville in store before I move up to Madison for good.  I'll have to give an update as everything progresses.

The Return of Football Season, or Why Football Should Be Replaced By Futbol

Well, football season is upon us again.  Though if you watch ESPN or any other major sports network/website/blog you'd think it never left us.  But for some reason, or many reasons, I do not seem to care that much this year.  It is Aggie game day, and while I plan to watch the game, I am not as pumped as I was in years past.  What is going on?

A big part, I know, is because of how well the Astros are doing. 

For the first time in a long time, they are sitting atop the division into September.  Just last night I attend the game - a thrilling 8-0 spanking of the Twins that included a monstrous home run by Colby Rasmus, a grand slam by Hank Conger, and most importantly the return of George Springer since before the All-Star Game. 

It was exciting, fairly well attended after people made their way through traffic, and, for something different, relatively painless since the Astros took the lead early and never looked to give it up.  But baseball has always been clearly #1 for me, so I would say that is a marginal difference.

Another big part of it is simply being in the seminary.  I do not have as much (or any) free time as I did before to spend on sports.  What free time I do have is much more consumed by baseball and other things.  I can say with a fairly free conscience that I know only a handful of starters for the Aggie football team, have no expectations for them, and am about the same way for the Texans and Packers. 

A final large contributing factor is that soccer is clearly my second favorite sport now.  I started watching with the 2010 World Cup. 

Before then I was the typical American: "every game ends 0-0, how boring!  Nothing happens."  When I actually started watching and learning the game, I realized that mentality could not be further from the truth.  There is a reason it is the world's game!  Unlike football, which over 4 hours has only about 10 minutes of actual action, soccer has roughly 80 minutes of action in a 90 minute match.  You cannot take your eyes off of it or you will miss something.  Football? Call me when they're in the red zone (that's why about four years ago I started watching the red zone network and now that's about the only way I can stomach an NFL Sunday any more).  My love for the beautiful game has not diminished just because I am in the seminary and the Astros are doing well.  So maybe this is the biggest reason?  I no longer am interested in watching huge hulks of men stand around in committee meetings (as George Will says) for endless stretches of time for between 20 seconds of actual game play.

One of the great things about soccer is that it is so easy now to watch it in the States.  For the past few years NBC has owned rights to the English Premier League, and they have assured that every game is televised and easily accessible online.  In fact, Americans can watch more EPL than Englanders!  If the EPL is not your thing (and really it should be) Fox Sports just picked up the Bundesliga, or you can always hunt down La Liga or Serie A. 

I suppose this is as good a time as any to give my soccer testimonial.  So yes, I started watching with the 2010 World Cup.  I still not know much about the game when I went on my dissertation research trip to Europe that fall.  While over there, I started to sense the love of the game and made the decision while in Florence (city of my dreams) to start following Fiorentina. 

Back then it was easier to do so when I returned to the States because ESPN owned the rights and I could usually catch their matches.  I soon realized I need to pick an English team, for language reasons if nothing else.  As a good historian, I started to do my research.  All I knew was I would never pick Manchester United, the Yankees of England. 

I started watching as many matches as possible to see as many different clubs as possible.  I quickly came down to three possibilities.  1. Manchester City: I loved their style of play and they had a lot of exciting young players, but they were kind of the in-thing at that time and it kind of felt like all the Red Sox bandwagon fans in the mid-00s. 

2. Stoke City: they played a completely different style and had a couple of Americans.  Plus, how could you not love the gangly 6'7" Peter Crouch?  

3. Everton: they had the great American hero Tim Howard in goal and were one of those small market clubs that always fought to the end - for baseball fans think Billy Beane's Oakland A's.  Soon, they clinched it by agreeing to loan the great American Landon Donovan.  Howard and Donovan on the same club?  SOLD! 

Since then, I have been a Toffee through-and-through.  Ups and downs, goods signings and bad, the departure of Moyes and the excitement of Martinez followed by his disappointment.  As a mid table club you have the fun of challenging the big clubs with the excruciating reality that they will steal, or try to steal, your best players.  I found that out early on when my favorite non-American Marouane Fellaini was sold to that hated Man U.  But I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd rather live and die with a fun mid level team than get tired of winning all the time with a front runner.  I guess that is the Revolutionary American, or perhaps the Pole, in me.

So, Gig 'em Ags.  BTHO Arizona State.  But mostly, COYB!