Sing in me O Muse,
a theme of hospitality and celebration
Let joy and fraternal affection be my song
and the travels to the city of Brothers' Love
Guide my memories and my words
that no details of this Fall Break fall from my mind
and the history of Philie not fail from my verse
May my meter not be too long
but short; that it not exceed the stature of the heavenly messanger
Fall Break, a usually unassuming academic holiday, fell upon an unassuming weekend in the middle of October. But, by a series of fortuistic events, it became a vacation exceeding its normal humble status. A quick flight from Houston landed me in Philidelphia and the cool of an autumn weekend and the warmth of the Roth home. Angelie-chan was a magnanamous host, taking me to several of the highlights of the Philidelphia and nearby country-side: the Liberty Bell, Vally Forge, Penn's Landing, and walking through the city's uptown singing "Fortuosity." We also joined the Philidelphia Swing Dance Club for an evening of dancing and live music.
But, I still think my favorite part was hanging out at the Roth household. It was there that we jammed with Nick and John, sppent some wonderful time cooking, watched some movies (Full Metal Alchemist and a couple of Miyasaki films), and just stayed up late chatting over tea or fresh coffee. The Roth's seemed to accept me as another son, and I couldn't have felt more at home. My birthday happened to fall on that Sunday, and they made a cake for me and everything. I shall especially remember Angel's youngest sister Kitty--a beguiling little girl who Angel and I both decided has great things ahead of her. ;-)
On my final day with Angel, she confided to me that the only way that the weekend could get better was if she could finally receive word back concerning her application to the Univ of Dallas.
Well, in a Comedy of colliding events worthy of Shakespearean composition, we got stuck in traffic, I missed my flight, Angel received her letter from Dallas, I got re-routed to fly the next morning, and we all went back to the house and had a chance to properly celebrate Angel's good news with hot chocolate and Baliey's. There is an old proverb: when you get the acceptance letter from the University and your friend's flight is postponed til the next morning--that's fortuosity.
Many thanks again to Angel and her family, and I look foorward to returning the hospitality here in Texas!
--MJK
8 comments:
Well Matt, maybe one day it will become a shakesperian composition. (Although, you'll have to name it after yourself as I don't think Shakespeare is planning on comming back from the dead anytime soon...:))
Have a nice week!
Matteo...you say such nice things! And would you believe my family was just as eager to have him? Oni-chan!! The pics don't half tell the story, but they are pretty good. Kitty very much approves(and I quote- 'I want to go to Texas and play with Matt cause he's funny.')
Ahh Matt! As was once said about a slightly less famous halfling, "You are cursed to fall into every mudd puddle and find a gold coin!" But as you say, that's not luck. Shocking that you couldn't work in "Let's have a drink on it" too!
Kitty's cute enough to make up for the fact that you didn't put in enough leaf pictures (but, crazy man, where are they! After telling me about them and everything I'm missing and all, too).
Dude, I didn't know you liked Full Metal Alchemist and Miyazaki. Next time you're in town we'll have to have a anime marathon.
If you can find it around, you might enjoy Samurai Champloo.
Mrs. Darwin,
Anime is a fairly new fasination of mine--mostly thanks to Angel, actually. Which Myazaki films do you have?
I've seen some Samuria Champloo. Innovative premise, beautiful drawings. I bit violent for my taste (and yet I like Full Metal... anyway.)
Yes, we will have to talk when I get back.
We have Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle (that one needs to be watched on the computer 'cause the burn was a bit dicey) and we've been working our way through the oeuvre in our Netflix queue. The girls love Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro, and the current favorite is The Cat Returns -- short, cute, and lots of fun.
We have all of Full Metal in Japanese on the computer, and about half of it in English. And we recently watched the movie SO NOW IT'S OVER (sob)...
We saw Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. Good taste! I think my favorite Miyazaki films are Howl's Moving Castle and Nausicaa. Nausicaa got butchered when it first came out by the american editors- but they've restored the cut scenes and cast some great american voices. It's probably the most involving and visually exotic- close study of political struggles and the responsibilities of authority.
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