What can I say? Watching the Cathedral of Notre Dame burn yesterday was tough. But the shock and sadness isn’t the only reason why my tongue is tied. The disaster was covered extensively on all the major networks and countless people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, described so eloquently and emotionally how important this magnificent house of worship is to them.

Seeing this yesterday was rough.

Although nothing I can say will come close to matching what has already been said, I can share the perspective that I related to when I was watching the flames billow out of Notre Dame.

Watching the flames shoot out of the cathedral was alarming to me.

For yesterday’s fire to really hit home, I thought about St. Andrew in Myrtle Beach, my home parish. It is a beautiful church with an impressive altar, unique stained glass windows, a large choir loft, and an interesting seating configuration. The brick structure stands out like a sore thumb on Kings Highway, serving as a magnet that attracts the faithful.

St. Andrew in Myrtle Beach is very special to me.

St. Andrew to me is my spiritual refuge – my “happy place,” if you will. When I moved to Myrtle Beach, I attended mass at the church my first weekend here. A couple years later, I would marry Sidney inside of it. Sloan’s baptism would soon follow. When I approach the doors of St. Andrew, I am immediately at peace.

I couldn’t imagine if this sacred space was engulfed in flames.

Last night, I thought about how I would feel if the fire raging in Paris was instead terrorizing a certain Myrtle Beach church located at 3501 North Kings Highway. To see the the structure I treasure the most engulfed in an inferno would be gut-wrenching.

Sloan was baptized at St. Andrew.

But here is where the perspective shifted to a different level. St. Andrew was built in the 1960s. The Cathedral of Notre Dame was built in the 11th century. Although it took some time to build St. Andrew, it surely didn’t take almost 200 years. My parish doesn’t dominate the skyline of the city. Some of the best architects in the history of the world didn’t build it, nor have any Popes said mass in it. Lastly, while we very well might welcome 150,000 different people through the doors of the church each year (complete guess on my part), we definitely don’t welcome 15 million.

I am not downplaying the significance of my home church. Both the Cathedral of Notre Dame and St. Andrew are sacred places that house the Blessed Sacrament – a distinction that in a way makes them both equals. But there is no way you can discount the history, tradition, and appeal that the Cathedral holds over 99% of all other churches in the world.

When I compare what my feelings would be like if St. Andrew was ablaze to the heartache that millions of people are feeling right now, I can understand some of their pain. But I would be remiss if I said that I could identify fully with the loss that countless French Catholics are dealing with at the present time.

Thankfully, the fire was eventually extinguished with the cathedral still structurally sound.

Of course there is a great silver lining. The church is salvageable and unreplaceable artifacts and relics were not harmed. As one clergy member said, the prayers offered up from around the world gave the firefighters the stamina and precision they needed to extinguish the flames before catastrophic damage set in. As we are in the midst of Holy Week, we can draw on the glorious theme of the Resurrection. From the ashes, the Cathedral of Notre Dame will rise. Don’t Blink.

At work, I am known for responding to emails and Twitter mentions immediately.

At home and beyond, I am known for responding to text messages at a much more leisurely pace.

Some people might be surprised to know that I keep text message audio notifications on silent. Because I elect to do this, I take it upon myself to manually check my phone every 10 minutes or so for new messages. However, it is quite easy for me to become sidetracked. Lately, I have found myself feeling bad for leaving people hanging for an hour or more.

Why do I insist on silencing my text messages? Well, there are a couple reasons. First, I am involved in various group text message threads, including a thread for my family and a thread for Sid’s family. As you can imagine, these are pretty active. If I had audio notifications on, my phone would ding all day (and all night) long.

There are also a few Twitter feeds that I get sent directly to my phone via text message for work purposes. It is unnecessary and annoying to have a chime, chirp, or jangle to let me know that one came through.

I like to think that I don’t silence my text messages just for my own sanity. I feel like I am being respectful of others as well. But I know this notion might not resonate with those finding themselves waiting an hour or more for me to respond to a text (“those” meaning basically just my wife and family members…I don’t have many friends). Please know that it is never my intention to “ice” someone and that I am trying to do a better job at making sure I don’t go long periods of not checking my text messages.

When out of the office, unless I am at church (in which case I don’t even have my phone on me) or at a movie, I always have audio notifications on for calls and emails. Those who know me well have figured this out–if you want to be 100% sure you get a hold of me, call me. In my experience, phone calls and emails always carry more urgency and importance than a casual text message.

Well, it has taken me a little over 10 minutes to write this, so please excuse me while I sign off and check my phone for text messages. Don’t Blink.

Sloan’s age can be puzzling. She will insist on doing things or not doing things that most human beings find weird or irrational. But should I be surprised? She is a 2-year-old after all. In tonight’s blog post, I am listing 10 aspects of Sloan’s daily behavior that might go against the norm.

– I never knew so much pointless, strange content existed on YouTube until Sloan started jumping from video to video. Although she watches quality channels such as Blippi and Wendy’s Pretend Play, she will also watch much sketchier content as well. I am talking stuff like a middle aged man simply dropping random toys into a bath tub or terrible homemade animations that combine Mickey Mouse characters with Marvel superheroes. Simply bizarre.

Sloan watches some wacky stuff on YouTube!

– Have no idea how she thinks fruit snacks left under the couch for weeks still taste good.

– Apparently having a runny nose that drips into her mouth is a pleasant experience because she will do whatever it takes to fight us off when we try to swoop in with a tissue.

– While most people like to keep their hair, or at least let a professional cut it if they don’t, Sloan takes the liberty to yank her curls out herself (serious note: this was actually a real issue for Sloan that we had to bring up with her pediatrician…all is good now!).

Sloan’s hair can be tough to manage!

– Speaking of hair, who doesn’t like going to daycare looking like Bozo the Clown? Before we leave in the morning, I practically chase Sloan around the house so I can spray down her wild mane (Sloan’s hair is CRAZY) and style it the best way a daddy can.

– Apparently, strutting around in soaking wet clothes is the cool thing to do for 2-year-olds these days. Sloan loves to grab our bottled water bottles we leave on our bedside table and open them up. Although I think she tries to make an honest effort to actually drink from it, the water always ends up on her shirt (and on the floor).

If that solo cup had water in it instead of Goldfish crackers, she would pour it all over herself and be as happy as a lark.

– Our daughter might be superhuman because she doesn’t feel pain. Just this past weekend at Savannah’s Playground she ran full speed at a structure with an opening. She thought she was short enough to run in unobstructed but she must have grown a couple inches the night before because she got clotheslined. No matter, she stood right back up and continued to play.

Sloan played hard at Savannah’s Playground and felt no pain when she got clotheslined.

– I am past the age of making myself dizzy until the point of sickness. Sloan, on the other hand, loves to run around in circles until she is delirious on the ground.

– Nothing better than remaining sick, right? The message is quite clear when medicine to treat a certain little girl’s cold is swatted out of our hands.

– I understand that sleeping with a stuffed animal can be comforting – but sleeping with 10 of them? Some nights, Sloan insists on bringing a whole zoo of stuffed animals to spend the night with her in the crib. This is in addition to the books, extra blankets, and water cup she also requires. Needless to say, it gets a little crowded.

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You know what is kind of crazy ¬–perhaps even crazier than the idiosyncrasies themselves? It is that we love Sloan for them (well, except for the medicine one)! We better enjoy them now because by the time she turns 3, I expect her to be acting like a normal, mature adult. Don’t Blink.

Good evening. I want to start off by adding a few more reasons for why I do and don’t like April…

Just kidding! Since I have beat that to a pulp, I am sure everyone is ready for a Thursday Rundown. Let’s get started…

Our Artist – Sloan recently brought home another one of her masterpieces. She (or is it her teacher?) is definitely expressing the best version of her artistic self. The 2-year-old grind is pleasant so far. Sloan keeps learning and talking. Her favorite thing to do currently is sing “Johnny, Johnny,” a song that requires another person to participate. As you can imagine, mommy and daddy take turns performing the duet with our little diva.

On the left is a photo of Sloan I took today and on the right is her elephant artwork.

Settling In – A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how I changed office buildings. Our social media and photography departments moved to Hampton Hall to be with video production, ensuring that our media-based content creators are all under one roof. So far, so good. However, I have still not unpacked all my boxes nor put a thing on the walls so I can’t give you a photo that looks much different from the one I shared in the March 21 Thursday Rundown. What I can share, however, is an article written about our move. It comes complete with quotes from our director of photography and myself.

Because I haven’t made much progress with my new office, you instead get a selfie with a mostly empty bookshelf.

Season 3 of This Is Us – This past Tuesday night, the season finale of “This Is Us” aired. I thought it was one of the better episodes of the season and a fitting way to conclude things until the fall. I believe the series is still very healthy. Throughout this past season, everything seemed fresh and I never thought wow, these writers are really searching for ideas. My favorite episode of the third season was the one that took place in the hospital waiting room for practically the whole show. You could really feel the tension and conflict. Of course we are all now on the edges of our seats for the next several months after Tuesday’s ending, but I guess it gives us something to look forward to.

I enjoyed the third season of “This Is Us.”

BURRITOS – In terms of food, I would say it was definitely an upgrade when I moved to the South. From the pancake houses to the fast food chicken restaurants to regional dishes such as chicken bog, I love eating in South Carolina! However, the West has one thing on my current home: burritos! Both in Washington and Montana, you will find numerous mom and pop burrito shops that specialize in creating large, delicious mission-style burritos. The eatery I miss the absolute most in Missoula is Taco Del Sol. I have never enjoyed a better burrito than the ones served there. When Sidney and I paid a visit to Montana a couple years ago, you better believe we ate at Taco Del Sol for our first meal. Happy National Burrito Day!

This is Sid at Taco Del Sol in Missoula in July 2017.

The Power of FaceTime – Two years ago, during Sloan’s first month of life, I wrote about how comforting it was to FaceTime her after my paternity leave ended. During my lunch break at work, I would Facetime my two favorite girls and get a glimpse of what mommy and baby were doing. Exactly two years since I wrote that post, I am still a big proponent of FaceTime, especially when it comes to letting your daughter see her out-of-town grandparents! Kind of surprisingly, FaceTime hasn’t evolved much over the past 24 months; wonder if anything will be in store over the next 24?

During Sloan’s first month of life, it was especially nice to be able to FaceTime with her.

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I want to wish everyone a great weekend. Since Gonzaga was eliminated on Saturday, I don’t have too much of an interest in the Final Four. However, if you have a dog (obviously not a bulldog) in the fight, I wish your team good luck. Don’t Blink.

Last night, I listed the 10 reasons why I like April. However, in the post, I subtly mentioned that April is not my favorite month. So, tonight, I am not subtly going to explain why. I will use the same format as last night, listing 10 reasons in no particular order.

But before we get to that, I want to list an 11th reason for liking April…my Aunt Nancy and my brother’s girlfriend, Carrie, were both born this month. Happy birthday to both!

In April, I get allergies. Although you might not be able to tell in this photo, I was MISERABLE (it was taken in April).

Not off to a good start – As I have mentioned before, I am not a fan of April Fools’ Day.

Memories of snow – Even though I now enjoy nice April weather in Myrtle Beach, I am still bitter about all the “spring” days that were ruined by snow living in Washington and Montana.

Hitler was born in April – Enough said.

Allergies – I didn’t discover that I am susceptible to allergies until I moved to South Carolina and April is one of the most difficult months for me.

TV seasons end – Season finales for television shows are abundant in April. In fact, “This is Us” aired its season finale last night.

MLB Baseball Season Letdown – By the time April is over, my favorite Major League Baseball team, the Seattle Mariners, are already out of playoff contention.

Long month – Even though April is only 30 days, it can be a long month. Working in higher education, it is the last full month before the academic year ends and people become anxious. Also, in general, it is the final month before you can really start to feel summer vibes.

Scrabble – If you were to play the word “April” in Scrabble, with all tiles just being face value, it would give you the least amount of points out of any other month.

Titanic Sunk – I wasn’t just fascinated by the United States Presidents as a kid – I was a Titanic nut too! Although the ship set sail in April, it also sunk in April. Tough to think about the over 1,500 people who lost their lives.

Unfairness – Sid gets spring break and I don’t.

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Sorry for listing negative aspects of April. To be honest, it isn’t my least favorite month, it just happens to have some qualities I don’t particularly enjoy. Don’t Blink.

No frills in tonight’s blog post, just the 10 things (in no particular order) that I like about the month of April.

I love Easter and it often falls during the month of April.

It is in the middle of two months I really enjoy – Sorry April, I would take March or May over you.

Many years, Easter is in April – Not my favorite month, but many times my favorite holiday takes place during it.

Half Birthday – I make it halfway around the sun on April 8! Even though I have never celebrated a half birthday in my life, perhaps I change that this year?

A tradition unlike any other – There is no better sporting event in April than The Master’s.

Sloan was cured – When this month rolls around, I think about the courage of Sloan and the talented doctor who performed a life-saving surgery on her.

The weather is really nice! – I wouldn’t have included this five years ago because April is just another month of winter in Montana.

April O’Neil – As a major Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan as a boy, I correlated the month with the pretty news reporter.

Start of the 2nd quarter – Once March is done, the honeymoon of the new year is over. April is the start of the next 25% of the year (April-May-June). Will you build on what you did the first three months or reevaluate? #GreatBenchmark

Things looking bright – Each day during April, the days get longer and longer. The extended daylight becomes very noticeable and my mood improves.

Looooooow key – For me, April is chill. No annual appointments, no family birthdays, no big events. Although I like activity, it is nice to have one month without a lot on the calendar.

I admit it, I overlook April. However, sometimes you need to take a step back and give it a little bit of credit. I hope to make the most out of the remaining 27 days. Don’t Blink.

Sloan woke up especially early this morning. We put her in our bed to watch Mickey Mouse while we got ready for the day. Sidney went outside to put a few items in her car. Several seconds after she walked out, I dashed after her. With great alarm in my voice, I exclaimed, SIDNEY! Sloan just threw up all over herself and the bed!

With us running on such a tight schedule, a soiled bed and a sick child was the last thing we needed. Sidney let out a big groan. However, I wasn’t going to keep her in misery for long.

APRIL FOOLS’, Sid! April Fools’.

Relief and a little bit of anger set in. I offered an apology and we went on with our morning.

I felt a little bad pulling that prank because, to be honest, I don’t like April Fools’ Day myself. I especially despise how it plays out on social media, something I made perfectly clear four years ago. But my desire to subtly celebrate today got the best of me this morning.

Here is my philosophy on April Fools’ jokes: First, stay away from social media pranks. Nothing asks for shameless attention more than a sad attempt at announcing you are moving to a different country or that you are pregnant when really you are not.

The second half of my philosophy is to startle, not excite. Wait, what does that even mean?…

What I mean is this – play a joke that delivers bad news (will cause a startle), not a joke that delivers good news (will excite the person). Does this confuse you even more? I believe a joke is more cruel that gives someone hope that something really good happened to them (won the lottery, received a promotion, etc.) than a joke that gives someone a negative jolt (accident happened, made a big mistake, etc.).

I feel like if you must play a joke on someone, leave the person with a positive emotion rather than a negative emotion. Pulling someone’s leg in a way that they are happy a bad event never happened is better than making someone sad that a good event never did. To lift up someone’s hopes only to crush them is not very funny…it is mean.

Still have a gag up your sleeve for the remaining hours of April Fools’ Day? If so, I hope your execution is seamless and the joke itself funny for all involved. Don’t Blink.