Pillars of freedom

So this started as a blog on a theme, then I decided to make it a themed blog but one that's also chronological... so (this was originally started 12/20/06 12:17am with just the wtc stuff...)

Recently I've had a few experiences with some friends... I went to the Cfr day in Newark, with Melanie, Terry and Vicki two of whom I really hung out with for the first time, and the last of which this was only really the second time. Ah new friends... life is beginning to look somewhat normal.

Religious freedom (monasteries)

There's something about Religious freedom that makes so much sense that I'm very happy it's chronologically the first that I wanted to remember. It seems a cornerstone of really valuing a person, even though it brings the heart break of knowing that some people may never find Christ, (heck I may never find Him!) it also is seems fundamentally intrinsic to valuing a person. You can never win over a person by violence. Regardless of how that is manifest. And forcing a faith on someone seems completely contrary to what it's supposed to do.


Freedom of Association (aka. Friends)

After volunteering with the CFRs in Newark NJ, we headed over to go watch the live nativity in the Bronx (NYC, NY) a fun little drive, where a seatbelt fight occurred as in a fight with the seat belts. Not with each other.


The live nativity was really cool, with tons and tons and tons of people filling up a blocked off street in the south bronx... the CFRs are known and loved everywhere in this area.

It was a very nice take on the nativity story... a bit funny at times, but the focus was amazing.

Freedom of Speech (rapping friars)

This is Br. Paolo... looking at a video of him playing with his fingers or freestyling, I can't remember which, but he did both ;-) He's a great guy. And so pure of heart.

Freedom of Movement (Ice skating rinks)


After the Live nativity, I went and hung out with Annie. Annie is amazing! I love her so much, she's a coworker/friend/sister from NET and lives in Connecticut (the only person I think). She brought a few of her kids and a parent (she's a youth minister) down to NYC for the holidays. It was nice to spend time with her. We went met up on fifth ave. near the Cathedral (where we went to pick up some of the kids who wanted to go skating at the Rockefeller Center) then trekked uptown to FAO schwartz and finally to central park where the three girls skated, and the Mom and I headed to get starbucks for those of us who didn't want to spend $12 to skate or would rather just chill.

That finished my Saturday... and then Tuesday...

Pillars of freedom?

I finally decided/got the courage to take pictures of the "sculpture" that is part of the twisted remains of part of the WTC. That resides in one of my parishes (I go to several, St. Vincent Ferrer most days for daily 12:10 mass, St. Patrick's Cathedral or St. Francis for 1 or 1:15 mass if class lets out late or I'm a bit slow, St. Malachy's "The actor's chapel" on Times Square for Adoration with the Emmanuel community and my favourite priest so far in this city, Fr. Nicolas who is amazingly loving. And tonight I think I've added another one... Holy Innocents just south of Times Square... it's gorgeous and has adoration until 5pm)


I think it a funny coincidence that the day I decided to take pictures of some steel from the WTC 911 attacks that resides in a church I've been going to for months, was also coincidentally the day they decided to raise two main main columns for the new WTC. (Something I just discovered as I'm about to head to bed.)


The church I go to, St. Francis, is also the church where the first official victim of 911 was a friar at...
Fr. Mychal Judge, the Chaplin of the NYC firefighters. And victim 001 of the wtc attacks.

Now I could go on and on about how I think monuments are important, and how the freedom tower is a monument for many Americans, but I really think the pillars of freedom aren't just monuments. In fact I'd say the Monuments only have meaning because of the pillars of freedom that give them meaning.

Freedom of assembly (another live nativity, this time in Times Square)

Live nativities seem the thing in NYC... this one was in a parking lot in times square (I went to it after adoration on Tuesday night)... just half a block from Broadway... Steven Baldwin apparently talked, and apparently walked right besides me without me batting an eye. (I think I wouldn't recognise any celeb unless they were pointed out... they just aren't any more or less important to me than the next guy.)


And Freedom of Movement #2... Charmin...
Charmin had this great idea to give NYC a Christmas present... and after dinner Tuesday night, I decided to partake much needed public bathrooms in times square... there are 20 of them, on a slightly raised stage... so when you come out the staff cheers and claps... which is actually not as embarrassing as it sounds... because they only do it for people that look like it would be okay with them... which apparently is not me.
Inside the toilet, you get to try out their newest toilet papers... I couldn't tell if there was only one or three types...

And you also get a view... mine was the "top of the Rock" (Rockefeller center) Hetti got disorientated... and almost vomited while I was using the toilet...
There's also a stage where people get to dance... if you want to (the staff is very energetic, and I don't think I could keep it up)... There is also a constant song playing, that though pleasant and actually not as annoying as I would think a repeated song would be, would still get annoying after working for a few hours listening to it, I think.

So there I've blogged... I put photos up, tied it all together with a theme, used headings, and witty commentary... I deserve a big pat on the back!

Hetti's new roost

So Hetti, aka. My rubber chicken/travel companion/loyal friend/constant reminder of worldwide friends has decided to run free... which means I get to carry her lazy featherless butt around.

It's nice to have her around as a reminder that I'm not alone. (Don't tell her that I enjoy being around her, she might demand more of my time and I already give her every waking minute... And I DON'T have any plans of giving her every sleeping one too!)


Oh and that green thing Hetti's using as a nest... yeah that's my scarf... she tries to peck me everytime I come near to grab from her. She's a bit testy these days. (the background is the 3rd floor north bridge tiles... I really love the bridges... Never thought I would, but they're something that gives Hunter some character and makes it a bit more homely... go fig, a bridge!)

Beauty, oddity, and real life rabble-rousing in NYC and DC

So NYC is definately fun, most sundays I get to see several cast members from SNL, Conan, and other TV comedy shows for free doing improv at the Upright citizens brigade (second awning in the picture).Every sunday we arrive circa 7-715 with hopes of getting actual "tickets" but generally resigning ourselves to stand by... both are free, but getting tickets when the line is long is risky, it means that you might get a really bad position in the stand by if you don't get tickets... though almost everyone in the stand by gets in (I don't know of anyone being turned away). The only draw back of standby is that you have to sit inline for 2-3 hours and can't leave (we actually do send out some scouting and foraging parties to grab grub for us all).

This is the stage of the UCB theatre... (it's flush with ground level) I usually end up sitting on the ground right on it... instead of a chair (better view as the chairs left over when standby gets in are not primo.)
This is Rosh and Chantal at central park... for a while when the weather was good we'd go to central park and claim to study between classes... if you were in such beauty would you really study?
I found this funny... it's the ice cream machine in the dorms... "hmm... which ice cream do I want???" "Ice cream sandwich, chocolate eclair, White castle burgers, candy center crunch, creamsicle, reese's bar, klondike?? Definately White castle"
This is Chantal... She asked for it... really really she did... no lie, ask her!
There was a festival in little italy a bit back that we went to... it was cute and had a really impressive opera singer, but was basically food stands... nice lights though!
This is the girls on the bus as we headed down to DC... we missed the first bus at 6pm and ended up taking teh 7pm... but that gave us time to find some chinese food in china town, nyc... as the bus was a china town to china town express. the ride was fun and filled with nutella, gatorade and other fun things like the toilet door behind chantal openning constantly and belching it's hideous stench into our polite conversations.

When we finally arrived in DC, Chantal and Rosh were attacked by a rather large puppy demanding that we adopt a pet.
This was outside Union Station in DC... I really like the bird in midflight.
This was inside. I really liked the light falling in.
This is the Capitol... we couldn't figure out how to go in, and the Brits really didn't want to... they apparently aren't at all interested in American Government... I don't blame them. The majority of Europeans I know really really really dislike Bush. And that also seems to go for New Yorkers.
This is Rosh, Reflecting at the reflecting pool outside the Capitol.
This is chantal getting wacked in the face by the map during a sustained gust of wind.
That's hetti hiding from the Capitol police... chickens are good at camoflage.
We decided while walking through one of the sculpture gardens to walk into a sculpture... and rosh came up with the idea for this fun shot...
We met a squirel during our lunch outside of an art museum that loved chocolate chip cookies from subway... but he couldn't hold his cookie... after eating a little bit he ended up running around and did a 360 spin in the air... too much sugar...
this is me in the Hirshorn... I love this shot... and Hetti had to get in it as well, but she was cooler than I and only is showing a leg.
This was in the Hirshorn and was a bit trippy... I don't know if I like it enough to want it in my house or if it makes me sick at all... but I what was I saying? I was confused by the colours...
Chantal decided to squash the washington monument...
Hetti decided to eat it...
And rosh won the coolnes competition by making it come out of her mouth.
Hetti also learned how to fly on the trip.


And then I went somewhere I hadn't been in over 20 years... the vietnam memorial.

I'm pretty sure I found my grandfather's name... but oddly when I went there I realised I didn't know his whole name... only that I'm Edward the second, Manuel the third, and Alonzo the nth... odd how something so common for most families to know is lost in families that struggled. I'm pretty sure it was Alonzo, Manuel Bustos from San Antonio, TX... If I would have had his death letter with me still I would have been able to corroborate his Unit affiliation also... but I think I have the copy in Iowa still... not sure.



We managed to hit almost all of the major monuments... and got to see the needle at dusk... it was beautiful.
AndI'm a freak.
This was a pretty shot from when we walked around the tidal basin...
(Jefferson memorial)
we also got aquainted with the DC metro system... it's a bit complicated compared to NYC where you pay only one fare for how ever long your ride is. In DC you have to figure out how far you are going, station to station, then where you want to return to, then add it up and put that much money on your card... sounds easy... except when you enter a station, it's really hard to figure out where you are going exactly (being new to the city), and then trying to find the station location on a rather impressively large board of names, do math and then figure out how to pay is a bit taxing... luckily the metro workers were nice and helped out.
the first night (friday night) we went to the Georgetown area after hearing from a DC cop (who was from Russia via a stint in NYC) that there was food to be had in Georgetown... so we caught the subway and hoofed it over... noticing all the college students dressed up to go clubbing. We ended up walking trying to decide what to eat, when we finally decided on this american-mexican restaurant (I don't even want to call the food it served tex mex...) I went online on my Cellphone and found out about a cool rooftop after getting a review about it... so when we entered, we were about to be placed downstairs, when I asked for the roof top (not knowing exactly what that was) and promptly being rewarded with this cute little roof top area in nice cool weather. The food was on the better side of okay, the service was okay, but it was a nice place to chill. Towards the end of our meal, the downstairs was flooded with a sorrority party... and girlish screams could be heard everywhere... sometimes I'm really happy I've never dated a sorrority girl... I think I'd want to kill myself if she behaved like that around me.

my cellphone came in handy again the next day in discovering another cool place... this beautiful park...



we stumbled across it as we were trying to find a place to eat the ice cream we bought (I'm quite notorious for eating at least one or three servings of icecream a day!)... Earlier in the day we had eaten at a rather tastey new orleans cafe and found an incredibly cool area of dc (the name of which escapes me right now). After sitting in the park, eating ice cream and studying abit, we headed out, but decided to head back as my cellphone/pda once again saved the day and directed us to a series of jazz clubs in the area (louie armstrong used to play near this park) where we were directed to a really cool bring your own beer, food, etc. club that had an incredible atmosphere, good music, and a great reason to exist (to propagate jazz and education on Jazz... it was a nonprofit initiative of several groups).... the place had four distinct but continous "zones" the first was when you entered, a few chess tables, the second along the right wall was dinning tables, on the oposing wall was couches facing the stage, then as you went in further, you stepped down a few stairs into the last area which was the club... several small round tables with chairs, dimly lit, as music from sax, piano, bass and drum vibrated the air that surrounded people seemingly suspended in a trance but also seeming so alive that their realness seemed to verify your existence.

Few times in my life felt more like a movie or a dream.

The next day we all slept in again, checked out and headed downtown where we meandered abit, was unimpressed by the minuteness of the white house and then headed back to NYC.