Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 03:02:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Rich Lynch <rw_lynch at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] A Letter from Rome
To: WSFA members <wsfalist at keithlynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Buon Giorno from Italy!  It's a damp Sunday evening here in
the Eternal City, the end of my first full day here.  It's
nice to be here, but getting here was not without problems.
 Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., is not a good
place to be on a Friday afternoon; there was a long line
for check in with the airline and then a ridiculously long
line to get through security.  It took more than two hours
just to get that far, but then there was a four hour delay
while United Airlines dealt with a mechanical problem with
the airplane.  I was supposed to arrive in Italy by about
noon on Saturday, but by the time I finally got to the
hotel it was after dark.  (My one checked bag was even
later arriving and didn\222t get to the hotel until after
midnight.)

I'm happy to say that things were better today.  One of the
others on this trip wanted to go to Sunday Mass at the
Vatican, and I went along.  St. Peter's Cathedral is one of
the most amazing buildings, inside and out, that I have
ever seen, with its ornate architecture and interior
frescoes and inlay artwork.  It goes on forever, just
about, and the eyes just cannot accept it all without
sensory overload rapidly setting in.  The Mass was held in
the largest nave, just beyond the dome.  It was a High Mass
(in Latin) and so there were many Cardinals and other high
ranking clergy present.  I was able to find a seat in the
second pew from the front; the choir was to my left and the
pipe organ to my right, but the acoustics of the cathedral
made the sound appear to be coming from all around me.  It
was truly a special experience; the only thing that would
have made it any better was if the Pope himself had been
present, but we did get to see him even after that.  The
Mass ended not long before noon and right after that, in
the large plaza outside the cathedral, John Paul II
appeared in the window of his residence to provide blessing
and greeting to the thousands of people who had assembled
there to catch a glimpse of him.  And a glimpse was really
all they got, as all you could tell from the plaza was that
there was a person up there.  It was his amplified voice
that filled the plaza, and that's really what most of the
people there were happy to accept -- the presence of the
Pope even if only a hint of his physical presence.

Anyways, it was a working day after that, getting ready for
the conference that begins on Tuesday.  We seem prepared,
after all the work over the past several weeks, and even
the mercurial-tempered boss seems mostly satisfied.  So
far, anyway.  There's still a long way to go before the end
of the week and it's not even Monday yet!

More later\205
(posted Monday morning from the conference center)
(to be reposted in my Livejournal account)

=====
Rich Lynch
==========
MIMOSA web site: http://jophan.org/mimosa/
1960s Fan History Site: http://jophan.org/1960s/
http://www.livejournal.com/~rwl

__________________________________

Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus