Highlights

I'm supposed to be in rural Vermont right now, on retreat with my program, but as I'm not (our trip has been postponed to have us leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow, due to storms in New England), you get another, long overdue blog post! Those of you who follow me on facebook will likely have seen that there is also an album full of long overdue photos, which hopefully at least partly make up for my lack of internet news of late. 

My life continues to progress in as wonderfully random and ridiculous fashion as ever but, as I'm lacking one good, solid story to flesh out in detail, I'm afraid you'll have to settle for a list of highlights of recent events. 

1) Being fed a 3 course Montenegran meal aboard a rather splendid ship this morning - yes, morning - they were sailing at noon, and so fed us lunch at 10:30 am. It actually happens quite frequently; I keep very strange mealtimes here on the East Coast. We thought, after the first course of pesto pasta, that we had already dined well, but the plates of food just kept coming. After we had given our best efforts at finishing our stuffed peppers (by that point, we were rather stuffed ourselves), we asked the crew if they ate like that every day. They looked at us like we were quite mad and said, "But of course! What else do we have to live for when we're aboard ship for 9 months at a time, if not food?" We had to admit, they have a point. 

2) Locking my car key - along with my phone, my wallet, and all my other possessions - in a van, while dropping some seafarers off at the mall. Having a mild panic attack, and finally begging mall security to wedge open the car door with their highly sophisticated tools: a doorstop and a coat hanger. Giving thanks for the good humor and mad skills of Chester the security guard, and feeling exceedingly stupid.

3) Attending the Seamen's Church 175th anniversary gala at - ...drumroll... - the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Apparently, SCI could settle for nothing less than the largest church in the nation to celebrate its birthday. It was pretty spectacular - there were a frightening number of bishops in attendance, and I daresay I've never seen so much alcohol in a church before (and mind you, I lived in a church for much of my college experience). I got paid to eat goat cheese haystacks and get appropriately inebriated, thanks to the very enthusiastic and responsive caterers responsible for the wine distribution, all the while being serenaded (actually, deafened would be a better term) by the state trumpets of the Cathedral organ. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

4) Having Veterans Day off for the first time in my life! Holding a "real job" (if you can call it that...) has its drawbacks, but also its perks: federal holidays among them. I celebrated by going to the Cloisters (the Met extension in Washington Heights, dedicated to medieval art and, as you might have guessed by the name, cloisters) for the afternoon. I was so distracted by the beauty of it all that, when I became thirsty, I quite forgot where I was and asked the security guard where I might find a bubbler. Needless to say, I didn't get an answer to that question. Oh, WI, how I miss you...

The disjointedness of this post gives you a fairly accurate idea of how scattered my life has been for the past week or so. Highly enjoyable, but definitely not organized. For that, I am unspeakably glad that I'm leaving the city for a few days to profit from the seclusion of the New England Countryside - the land the cell phone towers forgot. I'll be back within communications range Monday night, hopefully bearing lots of blog-worthy stories!