I’m "Tire"d (Part 1 of this weekend’s saga)

Before starting this post, I would just like to say that Orin and I are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to do what we do. If it weren’t for the growth of our ministry, none of the following would be possible:

So…Thursday morning, Orin and I led music for the all-school Mass at Althoff Catholic High School in Belleville. Thanks again to John Bouc, Althoff Campus Minister, for the invitation. After Mass had finished, we packed up and headed out to our cars. It was then that we discovered that my front driver-side tire was flat. Those of you who are aware of my procrastinative nature will not be surprised that, up until that point, I had been putting off fixing my flat spare tire. This meant that I owned a total of three (for now) fully aired-up tires.

Luckily, we have a lot of really great friends. Among them is the aformentioned John Bouc, who took care of my children while I went into Belleville and got my tire fixed. When the repair was finished, I gathered up my children, got some lunch and headed back home to Fulton.

Later that evening, I dropped my kids off at my wife’s parent’s house and headed to Helias Catholic High School to help with the Sophomore Retreat. When it was over and we had cleaned up, I offered to walk Kate, a fellow youth minister, to her car. She then offered to drive me to my car on the other side of the school. These details are important because, as we drove up to my car, we discovered ANOTHER flat tire. This one was rear driver-side tire. This was a problem. A BIG problem. It was now 11pm and there was no way of getting a tire fixed. There was also no spare tire because of my troubles earlier in the day.

I then spent the next 30 minutes or so on my cell phone, sitting in Kate’s car, trying in vain to get someone to fix or replace my tire. The reason for the urgency was because Orin and I had a 6 o’clock flight to Chicago the next morning and I had no way of getting there. I hadn’t packed yet and I had no idea if I would even make my flight. Luckily for me, Kate is a really nice person. She ended up taking me to my house so I could pack and then took me half-way to Orin’s house in St. Louis (about an hour from Fulton). Orin then picked me up (at 2am) and brought me the rest of the way to his house. THANKS KATE AND ORIN!

After getting about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, Orin and I woke up, drove to the airport, and flew to Chicago. Why Chicago, you ask? That’s where the practice was being held for our concert at NCYC sponsored by GIA. Actually the practice was in Barrington, a suburb of Chicago, and included Gary Daigle and Chris DeSilva. A lot of work got done and all of us had a pretty good time.

On one of our breaks, Orin, Chris, and I went down the street to get some sodas. On our way there, we saw a promotion for an upcoming Barrington festival:

What a start to our weekend!

-Shannon