I went to church

I am Joram and I went to church. I work up early this morning so that I could attend my nephew’s baptismal in Port Orchard. Sounds simple enough, but I am still in the middle of moving, so I had to do my morning routine through two different apartments.

I slept in the new apt, but that was the only thing I could do at my new apt. My breakfast was some leftovers, but the microwave was at the old apt. I could have taken a shower at my new apt, but my roommate and I have yet to purchase shower curtains. So when I woke up this morning, I grabbed the clothes and shoes I was going to wear at church and the leftovers in the fridge and headed to my old apt. There, things went well and I left around 8am and I the baptismal started at 10am – plenty of time. Since it was early in the morning on a Sunday, there was very few traffic. I was heading to my aunt’s in Port Orchard instead of my mom’s in Shelton, so on the way down, I had to keep reminding myself that I have to exit to a different highway. Thankfully, this part of the story has no mishaps – I take the right exit at Tacoma towards Port Orchard. I see the new Tacoma Bridge, nice, and I get to Port Orchard around 9am. There was still an hour to go until the ceremony.

I call my mom to see how close she was to my aunts. She tells me that she has barely started getting ready, and that my younger brother was still in bed. It’s been a while since I’ve commuted from Shelton to Port Orchard, but I knew she would be cutting it close if she wanted to be there by 10am. I question my mom about getting there on time and she tells me the ceremony isn’t until 11am. I was an hour off. Thankfully, my aunt was already up and had some extra breakfast food for me. I try to decline, but that does no good in the Filipino family. I sit down and join my cousin, John (Jaypete) for breakfast.

Jaypete is from Virginia, but he flew over to be the godfather of my nephew. His friend Ryan had joined him on the trip and from the stories he told me, he had a good time up in the Northwest. They went to Vancouver, BC, my other cousin, Neil (the one who was having his son baptized), showed them around Seattle and I guess even took them down to Rick’s in Lake City.

Tita and Tito, or any family members, if you are reading this, yeah, that’s what he told me, but leave him alone, he is 21. Sorry to snitch on you Jaypete.

Anyway, we finished breakfast and got ready for church, except me, I tried to get a few more minutes of sleep on the breakfast table. When it was time, we left for church. I joined my cousin in his rental, so we could take one less car. His friend, Ryan, gave me the front seat, ahh, I love Philippine traditions (respect your elders, even if they are just a few years older). We follow my aunt and get to church. My cousin, his wife, the baby (Tio), and the in-laws joins us in the parking lot. We head in, my cousins, with the baby, have to talk to the priest so they could be briefed on the ceremony. Meanwhile, I try looking for a place to seat and my aunt just shoves me towards the front – Ohh, reserved seating! Wow, I’ve never been this close to the alter during a ceremony. After getting seated, I quickly notice there’s no crucified Jesus in front. I check the ceremony sheet with songs and hymns I got at front and sure enough, it says Catholic Church. I let it go, and start thinking of all the little things I have to do at certain parts, like saying “amen”, or “and also with you”. I reminded my cousin that the last time I was at church was probably Christmas of 2005, while he was a regular attendee. I guess I’m just a bad Catholic.

Things get going, the priest does a little introduction to the two babies who are being baptized and walks to the altar. In the middle of the mass, the two babies are baptized, those babies had the most surprised look on their faces. I guess being tipped over and then having water poured over your forehead would make anyone get a, “what just happened” face. Everything so far is similar to other church ceremonies I go to, including the little saying that I don’t know about. YES, I don’t know Church. I don’t know the all the cues for the “amen” and whatnot. My ignorance really came about when the collections came around and a girl stood right next to me with a basket. I leaned over to my aunt to tell her I have absolutely zero cash. A good 10 seconds go by and the girl with the basket is still there standing next to me. I think, “OMG, they are getting pushy about getting some money”, then I realized, maybe I’m suppose to pass it down. I ask the girl if I’m suppose to pass it down and she nods. “Oh!” I grab the basket and pass it down the pew. My aunt shakes her head and says, “Someone hasn’t been to church”. It’s true, but I tell her that at the church I go to, the baskets have handles and the person in the aisle sticks that through the people, there’s no basket passing. Fortunately I managed to wing the rest of the ceremony including going up to the priest to eat the body of Christ. Oh yeah, I at Christ. I skip out on his blood (wine) and go back to my seat. Now normally, there would be some kneeling for some praying, but this church or our seats, didn’t have the little pads on the ground to kneel on. I stay standing, like the rest of the crowd, but I get tired and sit down. Me and Ryan and maybe three others are the only ones seating (2 were disabled!). Towards the end of the Christ eating, there has to be a term for this, I stand back up and that was the time everyone sat down. I really don’t know Church. The mass ends and we head out to regroup with everyone.

Throughout the morning, except at church, I was keeping my eye on the clock. I wanted to get back up in Seattle and continue moving and probably help Bri move also. As I was pacing at the front of church as we were waiting for all the family members, Bri calls me.

“Dude, where are you at?”
“Umm, in Port Orchard”
“What?!”

Bri continued and asked me if I had moved in and that her dad was going to help for a bit to move in.
“Your dad?”
If memory serves me correctly, she and her dad weren’t in the best relationship. Anyway, I told her that I had moved the big items already and I just have a bunch of boxes and little things to move over. She hears the commotion in the background and I tell her that I was heading to lunch with my family, but I planned on heading back up to Seattle afterwards. She tells me to just give her a call when I got back into town.


I had originally planned on being back up in Seattle to move the rest of my stuff and help Bri move some of her larger items, but my cousin Neil got to me. After lunch, he comes to me and asked me what I’m doing and why aren’t I hanging out with the family more. He used the “family” card. With that I decided, we hardly see each other. I saw my cousin Neil about 18 months ago, maybe more and my cousin Jaypete, hmmm, Nov 20, 2004 – ahh, yes, Grand Master Flash Night.
Agreeing that we never see each other, I decide to join them for the rest of the afternoon. I say afternoon, thinking I would still get back in Seattle probably around 6pm. We went bowling and had some laughs. Bowling lasted until ~630, and then we went back to my aunts and had dinner. That was some more fun times. I finally left Port Orchard ~745 and I went straight to the new apt. I was sweaty and disgusting from the long day, but once again, there was still no shower curtain, so that would have to wait.