Truly an Inspiration

It was a cold day outside on Saturday, February 6, 2021, as we in the Chicagoland area were in the throes of an intense winter cold blast.

But inside Ascension Parish in Oak Park, we were warm and on fire in the midst of the working of the Holy Spirit on Confirmation Day.

Well over a year ago, the decision was made to move Confirmation day from its customary October date to February, and the contrast in weather was certainly marked.  But as with all other Confirmation Masses I had attended in the past, I eagerly got myself suited up and excitedly headed to Church as the day drew toward noon.

I was there as part of fulfilling one of my roles to accompany my Religious Education students in preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation.  Like so much else in the midst of this pandemic, it took place through different means.  Following a gathering in Church back in October, our class sessions for this year have met on a regular weekly basis through Zoom.

February 6 provided a great chance to have face time with the students, as did Tuesday, February 2, when they came to Church for reconciliation, as a way to get their souls ready for the sacrament.

To make Confirmation more workable with all the limitations in place, instead of Confirmation Masses with a bishop present, the format was changed to four shorter prayer liturgies staggered throughout the day.  The liturgies at 9:00 and 10:30 were for the Ascension School students in the confirmation group.  I watched part of the 9:00 liturgy since I knew a few of the students in attendance then.

Then, I headed over to Chuch and got there shortly before 11:30.  I got myself oriented with my role in the liturgies.  Normally, when the bishop is present, the pastor announces the names of the confirmands.  This time, I was handed the role of announcing the names.  There was a total of 30 RE students being confirmed, and they were split into two groups at 12:00 and 1:30 liturgies.

A few minutes after I arrived, the confirmands and their families started arriving.  I greeted people at the entrance and helped escort them to their designated pews.  One advantage of the modified format was that the families could sit with their confirmand, rather than confirmand and sponsor together in the nave seating with the rest of the family and guests off elsewhere in the church, wherever they could find room.  I was so pleased to see some former students who are older siblings of students I currently teach.

Shortly after noon, we were underway with a very exuberant opening hymn.  Following the opening prayer, I went to the ambo and proclaimed the passage of Isaiah 11:1-4ab, which speaks of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  It's a passage that's often associated with Advent, yet in this context speaks richly about Christ present among us.

We had the customary the responsorial Psalm 104, which speaks wonderfully about God's work in the world, bringing all creation, and us, alive.  I was pleased that the Gospel reading was from John 14:23-26, as it's one of my favorites, embedded in the profound Last Supper Discourse of Jesus.  In the passage proclaimed for the Confirmation liturgies, Jesus speaks about how the Holy Spirit will continue to guide the disciples, teaching them and reminding them of Jesus's teachings.

Upon hearing the statement, "The Gospel of the Lord", I followed the choreography laid out for me and walked to the cantor stand to announce the names of the Confirmands present one by one.

After a round of applause, Father Rex gave the homily.  He shared a well-known story about a man who encounters someone on a beach seeking to make a difference by tossing stranded starfish back into the water one by one.  We have received the light of Christ and we can live the hope we have been given in response to God's call for Who we are to be.

Then came the rite of Confirmation, where the confirmands renewed their baptismal promises, and then approached the altar one-by-one with their sponsors for being marked with the sacred chrism.  There was a deliberate decision made to keep that aspect of the Confirmation rite, that they would come to the altar, rather than have the priest come to each of them in their pews.

Following the individual Confirmations, we offered up the prayers of the faithful, which I led the assembly in proclaiming.  And following the concluding prayer, the liturgy ended with an organ recessional.  As people started exiting, I was impressed when I noticed that one of my students received a bouquet of red flowers from her family.  I had never seen that happen before at a confirmation ceremony.

Once the church cleared, we got ready for the 1:30 liturgy, and then started the proceedings over once more with the next group.  I eagerly positioned myself near the door to offer welcome the confirmands and their families, and then helped escort them to their pews, and provide some instructions for the confirmands.  I made the rounds to greet all the students who I hadn't met at the door.  And then I followed the rest of the choreography, proclaiming the reading from Isaiah, announcing the names, and proclaiming the prayers of the faithful.  

In all the liturgies, Father Rex and Father Carl followed an alternation of roles with offering the various prayers, including the opening and closing prayer, the laying on of hands, and actually bestowing the sacrament on each confirmand.  For the 1:30 liturgy, they switched the alternation of the roles as they had done them at noon.  Father Carl offered the homily at 1:30, and he spoke about how we receive the power of the Holy Spirit in baptism, Who helps us grow in virtue and to do good works.  He even quoted Amanda Gorman's poem from the recent inauguration, "The Hill We Climb", when she said, "For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it.  If only we're brave enough to be it." He encouraged the confirmands to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance so we can be a light of hope.  And then the rite of Confirmation unfolded again in the same sacred manner.

I keep mulling over this day in my mind, for it was so inspiring, touching, beautiful, and sacred in so many ways.  Everyone was so splendidly attired.  I even wore the same suit I wore for the first time at my college graduation on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2013, as well as my master's graduation, and have worn at every Confirmation liturgy I've attended in my RE role.  

The liturgies were so well-done, and even with the different format, they still contained the elements that emphasized the power of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation.  There were 7 candles on the altar to represent each of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were lit one by one at the beginning.  As the individual Confirmations began, the Litany of the Saints was chanted, using the saint names chosen by the confirmands.  And once that ended, we sang the chant "Take, O Take Me as I am," which has been customary at Confirmation at Ascension for years, and for good reason.  I positioned myself in the transept so I got a clear view to watch as each confirmand stood at the altar for the bestowing of the sacrament.

It was so inspirational to see my students, who I'm blessed to teach this year, take this important step in their lives of professing faith and being sealed with the Holy Spirit and His 7 Gifts.

Confirmation is certainly reason for our whole community to celebrate as we welcome a new group of young people into their lives as confirmed Roman Catholics.  But we had even more reason to celebrate as a community this time, because we had come together, everyone contributing their part, to help prepare these young people for this sacrament.  We then held these awesome liturgies when they had this sacrament bestowed on them.  And it all happened in the midst of a pandemic.  It was a day of grace and triumph, because what matters most in life shined forth so brightly that day and trumped the heartache of this virus which has devastated our world and limited our lives in so many ways.  Even as we hope for an end to this pandemic, we already experience hope in these kinds of powerful encounters with God.

When I contracted a mild case of the virus a month prior to Confirmation day, I was determined to recover and be healthy enough to be in attendance.  It was motivation that kept me going during the days I stayed at home, even as I remained confident all along my mild case would subside in time.  (Someone even brought by a get well note with an encouraging message, remarking "your students need you", in a way that fed my motivation.)  God is truly faithful, and I recovered with plenty of time to spare so I could be present for my students this day.  I recall words from Dr. Kent Brantly's first public remarks at his discharge from the hospital upon recovering from a case of the ebola virus: "I serve a faithful God Who answers prayers."

It was also heartening to see a few of my former students, who are older siblings of some among this year's confirmation class.  There were two older siblings present who I had in class during the RE year prior to this current year.  Probably the greatest heartache I felt during 2020 was the inability to physically be present in class with my students for the final weeks of the 2019-2020 RE year.  Seeing even just those two older siblings brought a sense of healing and grace to that wound from 2020, adding to the sense of triumph in the liturgies that afternoon.

I also marvel at how I've had the blessed opportunity to get to know families in the parish as I teach one child after another.  I always relish the chance to connect with families, especially at occasions like Confirmation liturgies.  I especially find it meaningful to talk with the parents who have entrusted their daughters and sons to me in class, even if this year they are attending class through the internet in their own homes.

As I reflect on it, there was something so humbling about standing at the cantor stand and announcing the names of my students.  I think about how these are the precious names the parents gave their children when they were born, a sign of how deep their love and care is for their children as they gave them their name.  And there I was, speaking those names aloud as they reached this critical moment in their lives.

It's humbling just in the same way when I think how these parents are handing over what is most precious to them to the charge of this 20-something-year-old for the role of helping form them in faith and care for their souls.

I am glad that in so many cases, I have earned the trust and respect of the parents, who commend me for my stellar work in teaching, which happened even when I was making the rounds on this Confirmation Day.  One mom told me I serve as a good role model and mentor to the students, which is my aim in class, and that was particularly affirming, especially since I've connected well with this particular mom and her daughter in class this year.

We are blessed at Ascension to have a parishioner, Brian Kinyon, offer his services as a professional photographer to livestream liturgies.  He was there on February 6 to livestream all four services and also take professional photographs.

As I looked over the photograph galleries later, I noticed that in the photos of when the confirmands were receiving the sacrament, some had their eyes closed when the priest touched their foreheads with the q-tip to apply the sacred chrism, and others bowed their heads slightly.  It may have been a sort of reflex action, or just a coincidence that the camera shutter snapped at that second, but seeing their eyes closed and heads bowed made it look like they had entered into a deep state of prayer.  And as I stood near the entrance of church as the gathered assembly streamed out following the 1:30 liturgy, it was a sight to behold as I saw the gleam of the light coming through the doorway reflected on the oily foreheads of the newly confirmed, a sign of the power of God's presence upon them, and all of us in the Church.  Also from my spot near the doorway, I sensed such a spirited atmosphere as the assembly mingled out in front of church and took photographs.

My Confirmation was undoubtedly an important time in my life.  Each Confirmation I've attended in the 15 years since brings me back to Saturday, October 15, 2005.

As I escorted students to their pews, I indicated to two of them that they were sitting in the same spot where I sat at my Confirmation Mass, almost directly underneath the St. Teresa of Avila window, whose feast day is October 15.  (At our first class in church back in October, I mentioned the upcoming 15th anniversary of my confirmation as I gave my opening spiel, and walked over to that pew to show the spot.)  Indeed, I marvel that not only has God blessed me with the Gift of the Holy Spirit, but that He has blessed me with the incredible opportunity to put that gift into action by investing in the lives of my RE students, which motivates me to be a better person and keeps me fresh in why faith is important.  I look forward to how we'll encounter God in the coming weeks during our class time as we build upon what happened on February 6.

Indeed, I marvel from the depths of my soul at how I encounter God anew as I see Him at work in this Kairos instance of Confirmation in the lives of my wonderful students.  February 6 was truly an inspiration, truly a picture of Heaven on Earth.

Here are some photos from the Confirmation liturgies, by Brian Kinyon.

I proclaim from Isaiah at the noon liturgy.

I announce the names of the candidates at the 1:30 liturgy.

I offer the prayers of the faithful at the 1:30 liturgy.

January 20 and Who We Are

There's always something special about the ritual of Inauguration Day on January 20 every four years that rises above attendant circumstances, even partisan politics.

That sentiment rang true again this year as I watched the Presidential Inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2021.

It has been widely mentioned that the day's proceedings brought a much-needed healing touch in the wake of recent angst.  

President Biden used words to offer such a touch throughout his inaugural address.  He spoke about the "better angels" of our nature ultimately prevailing, and calling for renewed respect and unity, even speaking to those who didn't support his campaign and election as president.

I saw it as a dignified ceremony that demonstrated once again a special aspect of the American experience, that power transfers smoothly from one leader to the next, even between individuals of different political ideologies.

It was especially momentous to see this transfer of power occur two weeks after a mob stormed the US Capitol building, when it seemed like concerns over election integrity put the strength of the republic to the test.  And that strength was proven through the festivities of the inauguration that unfolded without too much of a hitch.  President Biden captured that sentiment well in his inaugural address when he said the USA had been tested in a crucible, and that democracy is "fragile", is "precious", and "has prevailed".  It embodies a sense of "resilience" so that we look ahead "in our uniquely American way--restless, bold, optimistic".

This day gives us renewed energy for the work ahead, as was spoken of in Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb".  The words constantly spoke of striving forward to a better day, which we can attain "if we're brave enough to see it...to be it."  And certainly that speaks to how US history has unfolded, in the spirit of the words "in order to form a more perfect union" in the US Constitution Preamble.

Later in the day, I caught glimpse of the inaugural parade.  It was incredible to see groups from all over the country perform, and how in their introductions, they said how honored they were to be part of this event.  There was an amazing variety of performances, which speaks to the great diversity of this country, in keeping with the history made that day as Kamala Harris became the first vice president who is a woman, and of South Asian and African-American heritage.

I also thought Katy Perry's performance of "Firework" in the evening inaugural event was pretty epic with scenic views of the fireworks over the National Mall.

We've got a lot going for us in the USA, and how wonderful we have the chance to celebrate that on an occasion like Inauguration Day, so that we go forth with the strength we need to continue the democratic process of our republic.

Guardian of Weather

It's times like these that make the weather come into greater focus.

We can be grateful for the important work the National Weather Service does to help us make sense of the weather.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the US government in the Department of Commerce, which I find a bit odd, even on the basis of the name, and its parent organization is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  It started 151 years ago this month, as the US Weather Bureau on February 9, 1870.

The Director of the NWS is Dr. Louis Uccellini, who is also NOAA Assistant Administrator for Weather Services.  I've had the opportunity to meet him twice, first at the 2013 AMS Annual Meeting in Austin, when he was AMS President and Director of NCEP.  He then came to the Chicago area to participate in the 2014 Annual WGNTV/Fermilab Severe Weather Seminar, right before he became NWS director.  He is good friends with WGN Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling.

The NWS headquarters are just past the northern boundary of the District of Columbia in Silver Spring, MD.  There are also numerous facilities for other umbrella organizations in the NWS, including the National Center for Environmental Prediction facility in nearby College Park, MD; the National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL; and the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK.

And there are nearly 120 local weather forecast offices (WFOs) scattered throughout the country.  Each office oversees a collection of counties, and is responsible for weather information products for that area, including forecasts, and issuing warnings for any severe weather situations.  Each office has administrative staff that oversees certain areas of work and forecasters.

If you go to www.weather.gov and type in a location, you'll get a 7-day forecast.  The page will also display what WFO serves that location.  Scrolling down on the page, you can see a wealth of other weather information resources for that location from that office.

One resource I use constantly is the area forecast discussion (AFD).  A forecaster at the local office offers a scientific explanation for the current weather forecast, based on observations, weather model output, and other resources.  In more active weather situations, the AFD can be lengthy.  In calm weather conditions, it might be just a few short paragraphs.  It's interesting to sometimes see some of the forecaster's personality come through in the writing.  I generally read the AFD for the Chicago area each morning, or for wherever I am when I'm traveling out of the Chicago area.  I also listen to information from the NWS on my special weather radio.  I take a portable radio with me when I travel so I can hear from the NWS about current conditions and the latest forecast.

Notably, the AFD is one of many products that used to be printed in all capital letters.  A few years ago, the NWS made the decision to change the display to the usual form of typed print.  I never thought of the AFD type as "yelling" at me, and the NWS statement on the change acknowledged that it was characteristic of earlier forms of products that were typed out in all caps based on the way the computer handled it.

Technological advances have certainly enhanced the ability of the NWS to disseminate weather information.  There are lots of great graphical displays on the website that allow users to see different aspects of the atmosphere.  Weather modeling has also advanced over the years to give us a better sense of what the weather might be like.  And devices like satellites help give a better picture of current conditions so as to improve forecasts, too.

It's interesting to hop around the country and see what local WFO oversees what locations, and to think of the variations in weather that they typically handle from place to place.  There are also differences in criteria for issuing warnings, like for a winter storm warning.  Indeed, it's all as varied as the United States is as a country.

And everywhere has the guardianship of the NWS to keep an eye on the weather round the clock.  We certainly have plenty of reason to be grateful for their work.

First Impressions of the Grand Canyon State

While February 14 is readily noted as Valentine's Day, it is also Arizona's statehood day.

This year, I think fondly of Arizona as I reminisce about the first visit I made to the Grand Canyon State a few months while traveling to southern California, which all began ar 11:10 PM MDT as I entered Arizona near Lupton.  It was a moment I marked by dashing off a quick e-mail to my aunt who lives in Tucson.

I included a short visit to Arizona on my way to California to get the chance to soak in the state at what is truly a national and natural treasure, the Grand Canyon.  Notably, February 26 is the anniversary of the day the Grand Canyon was established as a national park.

Most of my time traveling onboard the Southwest Chief through Arizona was in nighttime hours.  But I did get glimpses of two different cities, Winslow in the east and Kingman in the west.

The station at Winslow is located in a historic Harvey House Hotel, La Posada Inn, that was refurbished to serve guests.  It's truly an example of Southwest architecture.

The one natural aspect that stands out about Arizona is its dry environment.  For months in the summer and its flanks, that means intense dry heat in the central and southern portions of the state.  The northern parts are cooler because of the higher elevations, including Flagstaff.

Based on the few hours I was out and about in Flagstaff itself, I could see that it is a bustling city and caters to its position as a gateway to the great stretches of nature in northern Arizona, with Coconino National Forest surrounding the city.  Flagstaff has a great variety of wonderful local businesses, and a historic flair, too, in its downtown area by the Amtrak station.  Its main railroad corridor is busy, with lots of freight trains rumbling along constantly.  The railroad tracks parallel Historic US Route 66, which adds another delightful dimension to the city's vibrant sense of culture.

Recognizing the journey is as much a part of the experience as the destination, I enjoyed the ride with my tour group to the Grand Canyon along US Route 180.  Our wonderful guide, Sheldon, had plenty of commentary about the landscape we passed through.  He noted how the vegetation changed with elevation, as we passed through swaths of forest, and then changed elevation and entered treelessness with more shrub-like vegetation.  We stopped at one point to view Humphrey's Peak, the highest point of elevation in Arizona, nestled in the San Francisco Peaks.

All of that scenic landscape got us primed for visiting the Grand Canyon.  My reaction to beholding this vast wonder was truly felt inside of me.  It's so indescribably awesome, it just is.  That's why I feel words can't do it justice in attempting to describe a landscape that has so much in it, with varieties of rock and climate zones.  It's incredible to think of the natural forces that shaped such a place.  It has rightly been a heavily-visited site for years.  But even before that, indigenous peoples called it home, and their presence is marked by a specially created space near the Mather Point Overlook.  

Visiting the Grand Canyon was a chance to see the Colorado River at one of its famed spots, which makes me think back to when I visited it in another national park, Rocky Mountain, near its headwaters, where I had the chance to wade across its width.  And I would see the Colorado River again in the dark of the midnight hour when I crossed in and out of that "golden gate" just south of Needles, CA.

Sheldon really knows the canyon well, and put his knowledge to good use so that we could take in so many different views and appreciate it at an in-depth level, with plenty of commentary as we made our way around.

His commentary even continued on the way back to Flagstaff, heading straight south on Arizona Route 64 to Williams and then east, speaking about the I-40 corridor and Historic US Route 66.

On my way back to Chicgoland days later, the train traveled through Arizona in mostly nighttime hours.  But east of Winslow, I had the opportunity to watch the sunrise over the eastern Arizona desert.  The train even traveled through part of Petrified Forest National Park, with its varied landscape of large rock formations and dry ground filled with scrub-like vegetation.  That landscape kept rolling along as we entered New Mexico just east of Lupton.

The arid environment of Arizona has profound beauty that only a desert landscape can bring forth.  Out in the wide open stretches of desert, there is so much to behold.  I certainly had a lot to appreciate passing through Arizona and during my stay there, and I look forward to visiting more in the future.

10 Years Since a Superlative Snow

Throughout my time studying meteorology at Valparaiso University, I was constantly keeping an eye on the weather.  It was interesting when a major weather event occurred that had a higher than usual effect on common life, and everybody got talking about something in which I was gaining expertise, which gave me an interesting perspective at such time.

This week marks 10 years since a great example of such a weather event, the big Chicagoland snowfall of February 1-2, 2011.

At the end of that week, in my customary weekly e-mail I sent to family and friends back home, I wrote the following reflection, which I include here upon marking the 10th anniversary of that snow event:

So I do declare that we seem to have experienced a bit of history this past week here in Chicagoland.

With these words, I started giving an account of this event from the perspective of a ValpU student: "A saying goes, 'Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.' That statement took on an especially amplified meaning this week as a massive winter snow system swept across a huge swath of the United States, bringing the Chicagoland area one of its biggest blizzards of all time, with copious amounts of snow, and fearsome wind gusts.  For the Valparaiso University community, the storm brought the delights of a snow day, free of classes on Wednesday."  [Side note on what I wrote here: These words opened an article I wrote in The Torch, the Valparaiso University student newspaper.]

This was a pretty significant event, a time when everybody starts talking about the weather, beyond the people in the field of meteorology--and for us, it provided a great opportunity to observe the excitement of a significant weather system.  (You know, it amazes me how events like these bring attention to the field of meteorology, in which we keep busy observing the weather and talking about it among ourselves.)

Chicago-O'Hare Airport recorded 20.2 inches of snow in the snowstorm event that swept through a large swath of the nation.  That means this storm ranks up there among Chicago's all-time greatest snowfalls ever.  And the storm's gravity can also be measured by the fact that my old high school, OPRF[HS] closed for the first time due to weather in 32 years, and only the fifth weather-related closure in its 130+ year history.

That all is pretty striking.  In fact, taking that in almost caught me off guard--to think that we actually experienced a historic weather event.  I almost felt a little disappointed that I didn't take in the event fully with the realization that it was something historic, only happening once every generation.  (Maybe, though, my disappointment more stemmed out of the fact that I only casually noted the talk in the weather forecasts about a system coming over a week ago.  Or maybe it is also due to my having started to underestimate the storm's gravity when Professor Wolf showed us weather models on Tuesday morning that showed we might only get 5-10 inches, and that heavier snow bands would go northwest--which they did, which furthermore may have made me a tad bit disappointed that I couldn't have been around in Oak Park, closer to Chicago, to see what happened there, where I have the impression that the storm was more fierce.)

I feel there are some profound philosophical implications here.  I remember one particular episode of The Cosby Show, in which Theo is in the process of writing an essay about the March on Washington in 1963.  In the episode, he shares the essay with his relatives, who, in helping him improve his essay, share their experiences of that momentous day.  After hearing personal stories from that day, Theo says, "Wow.  It must have been great for you guys to have actually lived through history."  In response, one of his relatives says, "Theo, we weren't living through history.  We were just living our life at the time." (By the way, the quotations are paraphrases.)

Perhaps that is how we all approach these "historic" events.  We don't see them as "history" while in the midst of them, because we're simply living through the events as part of what just happens as we move along in life.  Only later do we come to realize how important these events are in the impact they had on the course of events in our lives.  

Reflecting back on the tragic events of September 11, 2001, I realize that at the time, I had no sense that what had happened that day would soon be regarded as having the same kind of profound impact upon the course of American history as the Pearl Harbor attack.

It makes me wonder what I'll think about this snowstorm event, or any other event that happens in my life, years after it happens.  How significant will I regard it, and what will I think about the degree to which it impacted the course of events in my life?  And what will the generations to come think of these events?  It's so profound to realize that we are a part of history in the making, and what happens in our lives will be part of what will we soon regard as history.

Being one who appreciates the significance of history, I think that's pretty exciting:  History isn't just something that happened long ago--it's also something that I'm living through now.  I can be part of exciting things, just like people were years back, in the midst of the American Revolution, the launching of the new Constitutional government, the American Civil War, the Roaring 20's, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.

And it all happens under the auspices of what is so aptly put in the words of Valparaiso University's unofficial school hymn, which I sing in my head every time I take in a great view of the Chapel of the Resurrection as I walk towards it heading toward the next thing in my life on campus: "O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our Eternal Home."

Thanks be to God!

Now back to my present-day writing:

This event certainly stands out memorably in my mind 10 years later, saying so because it was memorable in a good way.

I know the same can't be said for those who felt more acutely the sense of disruption, like the numerous commuters stranded on Lake Shore Drive who had to be evacuated.  A special news program I watched weeks later featured a woman who commuted regularly from the North Side of Chicago to a job in Oak Lawn, normally a 1-hour commute.  That day, it took her 13 hours to get home.

Among the notable meteorological aspects of this snow event closer to Chicago itself were strong winds clocked at nearly 70 mph and thundersnow, a rather rare phenomenon.  Later on, a conference call among meteorologists in Chicago decided to increase the total snowfall amount of the event to include snow from January 31.

I definitely sensed the storm was more intense by Chicago, and Northwest Indiana didn't get as much of its brunt.  At the time, I did feel a tad bit disappointed.  But I recognize that the event was still memorable even if the specific meteorological aspects weren't as powerful.  I also sense this experience was like when I'm asked to pose for a photo and someone snaps the shutter before I'm ready.  I wasn't in the mental frame of mind to realize how historic this storm would be, and take it in as such, only that it would be big.  As an aside, I recall watching the NBC Nightly News broadcast that day, and the Chicagoland snowfall was one of the major stories, with a reporter standing somewhere along the Magnificant Mile as I remember, along with unrest in Cairo of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution that would lead to the end of Hosni Mubarak's reign as Egyptian president--talk about events of historic magnitude.

At least I got to experience it.  My Dad, on the other hand, got stranded by it, in a sense, in, of all places, Orlando, where he had gone in days prior for a business trip.  My understanding is that he and his coworkers stayed there a little longer because they couldn't get a flight back.  So at least they got to work while many business operations were suspended in Chicagoland.

Another anecdote I remember is about butterfly wind chimes my Mom bought near Niagara Falls over ten years prior were hanging outside on the porch of our home.  So far as I can remember my Mom realized they were still outside as she went to bed, and decided to let them stay, and they were still there in the morning the next day.

It was nice to have the chance for classes to be suspended from that Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday, which was an opportunity to take it easy, get some extra rest, and have some fun.  My friends and I were especially glad that our very laborious physics lab class was suspended that Tuesday, which was right around the time the snow was forecast to get intense.

There was much talk about the behemoth nature of this weather system days prior.  Notably, the forecast models were spot on days in advance noting the system as it came onshore in California and predicting it would cross the country and be a major snow producer by the time it reached Chicagoland. A year later, NBC5 meteorologist Brant Miller remarked about how spot on the weather models were.

The snow started falling in the early afternoon on Tuesday, February 1, and got intense by 3-4 PM, with steady snowfall rates and strong winds whipping it around.  It was a scene of excitement in the weather center of Kallay-Christopher Hall as can only happen with a group of meteorology students in a major event like this.  At one point, a group of students launched a weather balloon to collect data on the atmospheric conditions.

While classes and other campus activities were suspended, St. Teresa's threw open its doors to welcome students into its student lounge space, part of the Ministry Life Center that had just been completed earlier that school year.  I went to St. Teresa's and spent time playing games like Scattegories, and enjoying pancakes.  I was there for a while, but was back in my accommodations and asleep by midnight.  As I heard later, the normal closing time for the student center was suspended on account of the snow and students were hanging out there late into the night.  I heard someone say that Father Kevin was delighted this big snow was a great opportunity for the student center to be used just as he envisioned, a place where students from all over campus could hang out and have fun.

The snow lingered into the next morning, and was mostly done by afternoon, as the lake-effect snow never really amounted to much, which was a primary factor in the decision to suspend classes and other campus operations.  I saw some colors in the sky to the west at the time of sunset.  There were piles of snow everywhere.

Since February 2 was Candlemas, and the usual Chapel service was suspended, I went to St. Teresa's for Mass.  A senior citizen couple came, having decided it was okay to venture out.  So it was those two, myself, and Father Kevin at Mass, the smallest crowd I've ever been apart of at Mass in a Church.

Once the snow wound down, I got to work on another report for the Torch.  The snow event had disrupted some intended plans for that week.  I ended up with the assignment to write a story on this snow's impact on campus, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing.  I mentioned how students had gone to St. Teresa's to have fun during that night.

Certainly, a big snow like this event caused some disruption to life as usual, which problematic for some.  Yet these types of events don't pose the same level of disruption as something like a flood or tornado, like the devastating tornadoes that would occur later that year in a southeastern outbreak and then the Joplin tornado in May.  Usually a big snow just means getting a break from work or school as usual, and just staying inside for some fun, and maybe outside to an extent within familiar environs.  That's how I ultimately remember this event a decade later, as a little break from the usual proceedings of my life at college and an opportunity to have some fun and take in the wonder of a big snowstorm.