Goin to the Parish

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Established: 1905

"Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender." -- St. Therese of Lisieux

A General Statement of Thanks to Louise and Clark

I went to the Oregon Coast this past week with the extended family on my mom's side. Gearhart to be exact, about half a mile north of Seaside. In case you've never been to either non-tropical beach location, here's a little rundown. Seaside is like your uncle who dropped out of middle school so he could become a traveling carnival attendant along with his girlfriend at the time, a 19 year old former aspiring musician whose only actual recording was a YouTube video cover of R Kelly's "I Believe I can fly". He spent many years wearing stained tank tops and rocking his slightly askew NRA trucker hat all the while sporting a filthy mustache that the ladies down at the local dive bar couldn't resist. Now he's trying to pull his life together; get a nicer job, move into a better house, eat healthier. The problem is, his old carny friends keep trying to drag him back down. You can hang out with him for a bit, and you have a relatively good time, but when it's all said and done, you wonder, would my life have been better spent had I not partook in an afternoon with Uncle Seaside? Gearhart on the other hand is your successful, good looking uncle who has a beautiful trophy wife, two wise, athletic, and very healthy children and uses copious amounts of extra hold hair product to get that front tuft just right. He made his money while he was young by starting a very prominent accounting firm and investing wisely in alternative energy startup companies. It's always great to see Uncle Gearhart because he lets you play rousing games of croquet and boche ball, eat pizza that a normal family would have to put a down payment on, take a long ride in his 50 miles to the gallon Toyota Prius and sometimes even lets you have a sip of wine, even though you're only 14. Things aren't all great with Uncle Gearhart though. It's not very entertaining to listen to him talk endlessly about the governments refusal to adequately address and combat ocean acidification, the sweaters your mom makes you wear around his family are hot and scratchy, and he won't allow you to bring your dog because he might "mess up" all over the couch. But you genuinely enjoy his company and are very appreciative of the time you get to be around him, even though sometimes you wish he would just give you the $10 bills he wastes using as toilet paper.

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Family Coastal Trip 2010: The weather was bum/marginal. The gathering of Love's was great though. We stay in a large but very old house. It barely holds our family. We make it work. This is the house framed by the grass reeds trail that we walk through to get to the beach.

And this is a common beach sunset

Name Recognition

You know you've made it in life when even though you just met a couple the day of their wedding, you can show up to that wedding and have a name placard made out in your honor. Regardless of the fact that I'm a Petersen (not an "on") and I've never been to Edmonton, Alberta, it's still nice to be recognized.