March Madness

It has been over a month since I've posted anything here. On Wednesday, I'm heading back to France for a few days. I had intended to post an entry last month when I came back from France on the 26th. Life has a way of getting away. I'm getting old.

Yes, I spent a week in southern France last month. And there I was at the airport in Marseille on Sunday the 26th, looking for the Aer Lingus counter for my return flight to Dublin. I was there in plenty of time, the crowds weren't long, it was going to be a quick trip back. Sunday the 26th.... of March! I bought my return ticket for the wrong MONTH. After running between terminals, I found the cheapest ticket I could - on Lufthansa airlines - with a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt. So, this week, I'm going back to Marseille to use up the back end of two round trip tickets. Lufthansa to Marseille and then Aer Lingus back to Dublin on the 26th... of March.

It did me a lot of good to be in France for that week. Working half in English and half in French gets taxing after a while. I had never been to Montpellier before. When I was at la Faculté d'Avignon in 1987, I was a poor college student who could only visit those parts of Provence I could reach by bicycle on weekends. Montpellier has a very interesting history. Marseille is just weird. But as soon as I arrived in Dublin, it felt like home. The bus ride from the airport sealed it. At one stop, two old men got on and had the funniest conversations with complete strangers for a few stops and then got off, wishing everyone around the the best. When we stopped in Dun Laoghaire, the driver leaned out of his booth and cheerfully yelled, "Last Stop! Twice as fast as a taxi and a fraction of the price!" The Irish are so cool.

Sierra made the cover of the March 9 edition of The Irish Catholic. There was a ceremony at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin for candidates for baptism. Sierra was the youngest one there by a long shot. We asked our neighbors to serve as godparents. Little did we know that Otto was once the managing director of that very newpaper.

In the Pro-Cathedral Dublin a ceremoney called the Rite of Election took place last Sunday when 17 Catechumens were presented by sever parishes to go forward to receive the Sacraments of Initiaon at this year's Easter vigil. On the night in their respective parishes, they will be Baptised, Confirmed and will receive the Eucharist for the first time. The ceremony which was presided over by Bishop Ray Field took palce on the firs Sunday o fLent. Pic shows Otto and Marie Herschan with Sierra Mangum (9) enrolling herself as a candidate for christian initation.

When I was 9, I made the front page of the Abilene Reporter News for breaking my arm when I fell out of a tree.