We have arrived and unpacked much in the beautiful city of Buffalo where it is a mere 33 degrees today but sunny. Living amongst boxes is no fun and the office awaits me today where a bunch of strong engineering students hoisted my boxes up to the 2nd floor outside of my office. I’m grateful, but being engineers shouldn’t they have designed the most efficient way to arrange my office as well?

I guess engineers are not what I need…interior decorators, now one of those, I could use.

Regardless, I went to the student mass last night and it was great with pizza that followed. The folks here have been so hospitable to us, feeding us, driving us around, and generally just making us feel welcome. We arrived in our new apartment to a fully stocked fridge courtesy of Sr Jeremy the pastoral associate on staff and Fr. Jack, the pastor and my new boss.

Besides all this…three great things happened before we left NYC.

1) The going-away party: BustedHalo® and the Paulists gave me a huge send off. Fr Dave Dwyer, CSP, Bill McGarvey, Jarrad Venegas and Brittany Janis are four people who made it very hard to leave with the outpouring of love that they showed me not only with the party but with lots of personal support as well. They made it very hard to turn the keys in at the end of the day. When you add all the friends and colleagues who were there it was quite overwhelming. Fr Brett Hoover, CSP, who co-founded BustedHalo® with me came all the way from sunny California for the big event (and on his birthday, no less!). Marc D. Adams who used to co-host our podcast also came up from Washington DC–which was a nice surprise as well.

2) The lost wallet: Yes, you guessed it. I dropped my wallet on Metro North the following day while headed up to Fordham to preach at their vespers service for the Graduate School of Religion. I was frantic. The Metro North Police had a conductor sweep through the train. Nothing.

Sigh. Driver’s License. Credit Cards. Money (only $40). Gone?

Perhaps not. I got a phone call from Rodney who not only found it but brought it over to Fordham for me. Amazing! All the cards and a license found! Thank you, St Anthony!

3) Fordham: I spoke at the Sapientia et Doctrina dinner and it was a blast as always. The team of organizers even gave me a nice send off blessing at the end.

Anyway…I’m off to the office for my first day and first staff meeting.