Day 18 at St. Florence: Outdoor Mass

today was the long-awaiteddreaded outdoor Mass and it was as advertised: one big chore. it was hot, crowded and boring. too many people were involved doing little bits of nothing. the sermon... i don't even remember what he talked about because i was trying to concentrate on not rolling off my stool. the audio technician was clearly a last-minute call-up who had never seen a mixer board in his life based on the sound balance throughout the singing and the faith-shaking feedback (all 26 instances). too many people had things to say, and what they said was unremarkable, especially to 500 kids sitting in the middle of a shadeless field on the second hottest day ever. just before the massive recessional singing of "trading my sorrows" (a song that i now loathe), the TCDSB head whatever guy of this school region, Oliver Carroll, spoke about family values and stuff in the wake of yesterday's school shooting, which you can catch some of on City Pulse 24 today and possibly tomorrow morning. at a certain angle, i thought he looked like Richard Gere.

i was laughed down. apparently someone else said the exact same thing last year with the same result. someone mentioned that the cameraman from CP24 looked like Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends). there was a bit more debate about that one. in any case, we all got to talking about Richard Gere over lunch, and a story came up about the time one of the teachers had to explain Richard Gere and gerbils to my teacher. apparently there is an urban legend going around that Richard Gere has dabbled in the questionable practice of gerbilling. i love lunch room conversations and i am so glad this school does not have those stereotypical Catholic school teachers.