January 7, 1999
Dear Everyone:
Hard to believe that I’ve been doing this for over
10 years, but there’s a box in the corner marked “Letters” and the first
date in it is February, 1988.
Since I started writing weekly letters the September before that
(at first, I failed to keep a File Copy), that makes 10 years.
Wow. What amazes me
the most is that I should exhibit that much self-discipline.
But enough about that.
Many of you haven’t yet heard about our
Christmas Eve
adventures.
On the morning of the 24th, I went to
the church (which is conveniently
not much more than a mile away from me) to find out what time
Mass
would be said. The church
complex is huge (they have their own gymnasium), but I eventually found
the front door to the church proper and there was a typed sign in the
door giving the schedule of Masses.
4:00 – Church, with children’s choir
4:00 – Gymnasium, with adult choir
5:00 – Gymnasium, with Cantor
6:00 – Church, with children’s choir
7:00 – Gymnasium, with adult choir
Etc., etc., etc.
Mass every hour on the hour up until midnight, then more the next
morning. Just select your
location and side dish and go.
I reported back to Mother, “Jeannie” and “Marshall”
and they decided that the 5:00 one would do just fine.
Shortly before 5:00, we bundled into my car for the brief drive
to the church. Naturally,
the parking lot was jammed, but we managed to find a parking place
fairly easily and made our way up to the gymnasium, where Mass was
obviously in progress.
So well in progress that, as we found seats while a
hymn was being sung, the hymn ended and the priest intoned, “The Mass is
ended. Go in peace.”
Huh? No
wonder we found a parking space.
Someone had cut out early just before we’d arrived.
I made my way back up to the actual church front
door where I found an entirely
new sign: 4:00 – 6:00 –
8:00 – 10:00 – Midnight.
They’d changed the schedule some time that afternoon.
So there we were, an hour early for 6:00 Mass.
Not enough time to get the traditional Christmas Eve dinner at a
Chinese restaurant before we’d have to be back, no matter how quick they
are at China Village
(where the bill frequently arrives along with the entrée).
We decided to kill 45 minutes by going to the
mall so Mother
could see
Santa’s Workshop, an impressive, two-story structure that they put
up in the middle of the shopping center every year.
This is where you get your picture taken with
Santa, although
by that time Santa was, of course otherwise occupied.
It was, after all, Christmas Eve.
We got back to the church a good 10 minutes before
Mass would begin, only to discover standing room only and the tail end
of “The Children’s Christmas Pageant” in full swing.
This was another change not mentioned on the schedule.
Furthermore, the 6:00 Mass had evidently been designated “bring
any children under the age of five”.
You never saw so many
toddlers making a
break for it up the aisle, parent in pursuit.
It certainly made for a more entertaining Mass than usual.
Once we got home, “Jeannie” and “Marshall” decreed
that it was too late to go to China Village.
So I called in an order and Mother and I went out and brought it
back. Another wild night at
the Wood household.
Christmas was lovely.
Many thanks to “Frankie” for the framed photo of all seven of us
kids, and to “Alice” for the teapot, etc., and to “Marshall” for the
“hostess gift”, and to Mother for the
Star Trek
blueprints that impressed the heck out of some of my coworkers.
It looks like we’re off to a good year, although 56o
every morning is a little cooler than I prefer.
Especially in the living room.
But, as Mother points out, each day gets longer by three minutes
and Spring will be here before you know it.
Now, movies.
Star Trek:
Insurrection.
Loads of fun. The captain
and crew of the
Enterprise discover nefariousnous and refuse to follow orders,
thus saving the day. What
more would you expect? Great
special effects, naturally.
Holes in the plot that you could fly a space ship through.
So what? It’s
Christmas!
The
Prince of Egypt.
It’s official:
Disney
doesn’t own animated
musicals any more.
Everybody’s getting into the act.
And how else could you afford to get
Val Kilmer,
Ralph Fiennes,
Sandra Bullock,
Jeff Goldblum,
Steve Martin,
Martin Short,
Patrick Stewart
and camels all on one
movie? Not to mention the
fact that Val and Ralph sing a duet.
Imagine that in live action.
This is your basic story of
Moses, from rescue on
the Nile to
stone tablets,
with songs thrown in. The
best song, If You Believe, is
currently being tortured on the radio by
Whitney Houston.
If you want to find out what it’s really like, you’ll have to see
the film, although it wouldn’t hurt to wait for video.
Stepmom.
Ex-wife,
Susan Sarandon, and current girlfriend,
Julia Roberts,
play tug-of-war over Ed
Harris and his kids. Two
hours of backbiting and occasional overtures of friendliness, then
ex-wife discovers that she has contracted Old-Movie-Disease and decides
she should make up with the woman who will soon be raising her children.
This is followed by 15 minutes of total sob-fest.
And you thought
An Affair
to Remember was sentimental.
You’ve
Got Mail. Seriously,
folks, how many times can we watch
Tom Hanks and
Meg Ryan fall in
love before it gets to be just too much?
This is the third time, but they can still make it work.
Electronic pen pals who despise each other in real life, you know
how it’s going to come out in the end.
If you do go to see it, watch the closing credits for the actress
who plays the woman who gets stuck in the elevator with Tom Hanks.
“Jeannie” and I have racked our brains and the best we can come
up with is, “Madeline
Kahn lookalike”.
If you find out, let me know.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |