The Nature of a Sunday

As long as I can remember, Sundays have always been low key days. Growing up we went to Mass, had a nice family brunch, took some time to read or maybe play games. In college, Sundays were reserved for Mass and intensive homework. Strangely, here I find my Sundays to be rather busy. Today is a great example. We had a brief house meeting in the morning, went to Mass, and had brunch with Jesuits (always a treat :) Then I biked to the Plaza Art Fair and hung out there for about a half hour. I don’t usually find that much joy in art. I can appreciate good art, but it’s not something I can spend more than a minute or two with. The Plaza Art Fair was great because it included live music, which I absolutely love. I lucked out and caught the beginning of a local band that just did a couple covers, but really had a great sound. Biked back to the house, grabbed a quick shower and headed over to Rockhurst to Skype with the family (my house doesn’t have internet, so we head over the University when the Web calls). A quick chat with them and it was back to the house to leave for the KC Care Clinic fundraiser. There was a silent auction and food at this gorgeous house in the historic district of KC. We, naturally, were volunteering. In the 4.5 hours we were there I drove a Mercedes-Benz and a golf cart. The whole story is sort of long (maybe I’ll come back later and write it out), but basically the driveway was incredibly steep and there also was a limited amount of convenient parking, therefore I was tasked with picking people up and bringing them to the house. The golf cart didn’t work at first, which is why I drove the Benz. All in all, it was SO FUN. I really enjoyed it. After that, a brief stop at the grocery store for our week’s rations and back to the house to prepare for the work week. Super fun, but so busy. 

The PTCs

Today was a pretty big day. After 5 weeks of class, we held parent-teacher conferences. I really haven’t been nervous about them in the past month. I think I was actually dreading the 12 hour day more than the actual conferences. However, as 12:30pm approached, I grew increasingly anxious. I’ve always been a pretty good orator. I am able to express myself well verbally and can usually think quickly on the spot. The part that made me anxious was parent impressions. I look quite young, and I wasn’t sure how I would be received by parents (imagine- What is this kid doing teaching my children?! I pay a lot of money for this education!). Luckily, I had no need to fear. I met with about 6 sets of parents throughout the night and they were all very pleasant. Some of the conversations were very short and consisted only of praise and compliments for a student. Some were more lengthy and involved talking about what a student struggles with and how we could work together to help support the student. By the end of the night I was exhausted, but I also felt affirmed in my capabilities as an educator. The parents clearly treated me as a competent authority and did not show any sign of misgivings regarding their children’s education. 

Fun little inconveniences

Today I learned that even super little things can affect an entire day. Aimee and I work across the street from each other in KCK. It would be atrocious to get there via public transport, so Donnelly College (Aimee’s placement) is kind enough to provide us with a ’98 Jeep Cherokee to carry us to and from work. The Jeep is functional, but apparently only barely so. They’ve had significant problems with it in past years that, while never dangerous, were incredibly inconvenient. I love driving and Aimee isn’t stellar with directions, so we mutually agreed that I would be the driver in our daily treks. This worked fine until today. I needed to be at a meeting for work and because my only source of transportation is the Jeep, I planned to use that. Well, apparently that wasn’t so kosher with Donnelly. Aimee called me several hours before my meeting, and her supervisor informed me that Aimee was the only one who was supposed to be driving the Jeep because she is the only one insured. Donnelly acknowledged my need for transportation for work related purposes, and since Bishop Ward is paying for half our gas, they kindly offered to insure me on the Jeep as well. I say this very sarcastically now, but really they were very kind about it. I was just irritated that there was not foresight enough to anticipate this need. Fortunately, I was able to reschedule my meeting and act as navigator for Aimee, so everything worked out. It just really ticked me off in a really quite unjustifiable way. 

Fun fact

Today I learned that a 70 year old priest once walked from Kansas City to Chile. How’s that for a fun fact?

Update: Fr. Bob Hentzen passed away on Oct. 8, 2013 at age 77. 

Celebration, on celebration, on celebration

We had quite the weekend. Not only did we have our potluck celebration, but two religious communities close to us also had sesquicentennial (150th year) celebrations! The Jesuit community that we know and love celebrated their anniversary with a Mass Saturday evening and a brief reception afterward. It was lovely, though we couldn’t stay for very long due to our own pending celebration. There is also a Benedictine community in KCK that Aimee and I have the pleasure of working with! (And I totally love Benedictines, as stated above) They celebrated with a Mass this afternoon and a reception afterward. It was so nice to be there and meet many of the sisters. We plan to visit their monastery sometime soon. 

Potlucks- a Midwestern tradition

Today we had a potluck. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but there were two factors that placed much more pressure on the event than normal. One, our house is small and not luxuriously outfitted for entertaining. Two, our guest list totaled over 100 people. Apparently, a fall “get to know the JVs” potluck is a JVC tradition. In fact, JVC sends us an invite list that includes people from all throughout the Kansas City area- JVC benefactors, former JVs, and parents of JVs. We are also encouraged to invite our friends and coworkers. So you can see how the guest list got so long. As an introvert, this sort of ordeal can be more than a little distressing. I love being with people, but I do not like large crowds (except in particular circumstances such as concerts) and I prefer to meet people in smaller groups. Leading up to the potluck I had been mostly excited, but there were moments when I seriously considered just taking a walk for the evening to avoid the whole commotion. Luckily, I had no reason to worry. The night was super fun! Loads of people came, but they were sort of in and out. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we were able to utilize our back porch, which was lovely (and absolutely necessary- in my opinion). I got to meet a bunch of FJVs, as well as my housemates’ coworkers. I was able to spend the night floating from group to group and just having a pleasant evening. Probably the best part of the event was the feeling of support. We knew that we had so many people who desperately wanted us to feel welcome and at home and would go to great lengths to achieve that. We couldn’t have asked for a better KC community. 

Privilege

Privilege is such an interesting topic. I had the opportunity today to chaperone a retreat for high school students called Community 360. The retreat is basically a cultural competency crash course- focusing on prejudice, discrimination and leadership. It was unique in that the retreat is designed to be peer led. There was really only one adult who spoke to the high school retreatants, the rest of the teachers and staff passively watched and learned. I had an interesting discussion after leaving Friday night (the retreat was 2 days, but due to prior commitments we could only stay 1 night).