Ten Year Anniversary.

Today was an extremely special day because St. Catherine Of Siena Catholic Student Center celebrated its ten year anniversary. Our group sang and during one of the songs entitled "In This Place", I almost broke down and cried. I started thinking about stuff from ten years ago when I arrived as a transfer student at Drake. So much has happened over the years - many ups and downs yet here I am and I would not be anywhere else. The culmination of my ten years was the approval of my green card. I should just tell myself that I should not let my mind wander off too much when I'm singing because some people in the congregation may wonder what in the world is Anthony up to this time! It was just a very emotional experience.

I had quite a lot going on this past week/weekend. On Friday evening, I headed up to Ames for the MOMIX (www.momix.com) performance. The best way to describe the performance which in so many ways is indescribable would be to say it was modern dancing incorporated with optical illusions. There were a number of acts in the performance where I was downright speechless, in a trance and in awe of what they were doing. If you even get to see it, don't bat an eye and go see it. It's definitely one of the most memorable experiences ever and in so many ways, words can't really describe it. You just have to experience it for yourself.

On Saturday morning, Dan Schutte led a workshop. As part of the ten year anniversary celebration, we invited Dan to present a workshop and have a concert. I could not attend the concert because I was at MOMIX, but I did make it to the workshop and it was a very good workshop. We talked about the different types of people who make up the congregation and how we could best accommodate them. Needless to say, we can't accommodate everyone, but the goal is to be hospitable to as many people as possible. I even spoke to Dan and told him how his most famous song, "Here I Am" was a theme song at a youth conference attended by close to 3500 in Malaysia. One can't fathom 3500 Catholic youth singing "Here I Am" at the top of their lungs! The thought still brings chills to me.

Later that evening, Maria and Susan - a friend from St. Kate's accompanied me to the second On Stage Classical concert. This time they performers were Jacque Thibaud String Trio and they are from Germany. Talk about an accomplished group. The pieces they played were technically difficult and they nailed all of it beautifully. It was such a wonderful evening and all three of us were glad we made it.

I'll be heading to Ann's place for dinner later this evening and am definitely looking forward to it. It's been quite some time since we both touched base with one another. She and Harley spent last weekend with the grandkids up in Minnesota and it sounded like they had a blast. I can't wait to see the photos.

That's pretty much all the news from me for this week. I have a couple of stuff going on this week/weekend so I'll write more next week.