Lupper

I took 17 kids and one priest for lupper this afternoon to a Greek restaurant. The boss suggested we educate the kids in Christianity and culture, and since 14 of them had never had Greek food before, that's where we chose to start this mission.

Despite being a rather hectic day to use public transit in such a large group, we all made it there and back in one piece. The boss ordered way too much food, but the kids seemed to really enjoy all of it, even calamari, souvlaki, hummus and a variety of other things I cannot spell or pronounce.

At one point, after drinking four pitchers of cola between them, 14 of the kids got up simultaneously and went to the bathroom. Demonstrating his less mature side, the boss said, "Let's run and hide!" and we took off to the kitchen and had the waitress tell the returning kids, "They left." A couple of the boys got very upset thinking we had actually stuck them with the bill.

On the way back, after paying $510 (!) for our lunch, I whispered to the kids we would all turn around and shout, "Thank you, Father!" Much to my amusement, the kids all turned around and did as commanded, but Father, not quite understanding what was happening, looked me in the face and yelled, "Thank you, [Workister]!" I bust a gut -- the best laid plans and all that.

It was a fun day and I'm glad we went, except that we blew pretty much the whole youth budget for the year.