Saturday I had The General's son, Mason's, baptism. The General's wife, Diane, was raised in an Armenian church. The baptism was back at the same church that the two of them got married at. For them, this is a church with happy memories. For me, this is a torture chamber. Let me roll back the calender 5 years to their wedding. I was the best man (or better man) in their wedding. In the Armenian church for some reason during the service, the best man has to stand behind the couple with a cross in his right arm and raise it over there heads for what seemed like the whole ceremony. In a tux, under those lights with my arm up in the air for 10 minutes, not to mention I was in a church which always makes me nervous, I was dripping with sweat. The General told me after the service that the back of his neck was sweating from the heat coming off my body. If you ever get a chance to see the pictures from the service, in every picture I am glistening with sweat. Now back to the baptism. When I arrive at the church, The General, gives me two sheets of paper and says, "Tell the priest that I gave these to you a week ago. Read it over. Good Luck." Thanks. I get into the church and the priest gives me something of an interview. When asked if I attend church regularly, I said "Of course." After I pass the interview, the priest pulls me aside and tells me to follow him. We go back into the office and he gives me a robe to put on. I asked "Why I am the only one who has to wear a rob?" He said "Because your the godfather." Then I said, "Well if I have to wear a rob, can I wear one of those hats?" He said no.
So the service starts out with "The Door of the Church" there are a couple readings that must be done. Then I grab Mason and carry him into the the "Baptism Font". This is where the baptism takes place. The priest wasn't feeling good. Apparently he threw up a couple times before the service. He actually had to stop the service and sit down for a couple minutes. I told him "Don't worry about it, I feel that way every time I step into a church. You will get used to it." Then I started thinking, what if he can't finish the ceremony. I am going to have to come back here again next Saturday. I don't think so. We finished the baptism and then headed to the third part of the service "The Holy Altar". I take Mason into the church and give him to the sick priest then he walks around the altar with Mason, he comes back, gives Mason back to his parents and then the priest gives communion. So Mason was baptized and confirmed in the same day. The priest had to again sit down in the middle of that ceremony. He told me that in years past, they used to make the Godfather carry a candle in each hand and the baby when entering the church for "The Holy Altar" ceremony.Here are Mason, Diane and The General.
The two god parents. Again, why am I the only one who has to wear a robe?
Saturday night I went to a benefit that my buddy, Mick (Man Crush), was helping with downtown. U2 Zoo was playing and I wanted to see them. I got down there around 9:30. I was too cheap to pay for parking and I walked 5 blocks from where I parked to the bar. As I was freezing on the walk there, I felt like I was back in my college days when we would walk to parties and freeze on the way there. I almost stopped a cab when I was half way there for a 2.5 block ride. The band was good. Their new singer sounds a lot like Bono. Here is what I thought was a little cheesy. They look nothing like U2. But the lead singer had glasses on that looked like something Bono would wear. And the lead guitarist had on a stocking cap just like The Edge always does. That bothered me quite a bit. Here is the old man in me, the band was a little too loud, and by 11:30 my feet were getting tired from standing, and I decided to leave before the band was over. Sunday I got a little work done on the house, but not as much as I would have liked to. I watched football nearly all day. I know no one likes to hear about fantasy football, but I do have to tell this story. This was the first week of our playoffs and I was playing Preston. 5 or 6 weeks ago I traded with Preston, Ben Roethelisberger for Larry Fitzgerald. And as anyone who watched the Packer game knows, Ben Roethlisberger went off for the game of a lifetime, 503 yards of passing. If he would have even had an average day, I would have won, but as it is I got smoked. You see the irony here right?
No comments:
Post a Comment