Midnight Mass

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Although my blog says this is posted on the 24th of December at 7pm, it's really 11am Christmas Day.

The sun is bright, the birds are...actually, not chirping for once. Sweet. Did I mention that they really do sound like children crying out? No. Seriously. I'm not the first one to think that. It just sounds like a kid screaming. It's really bizarre.

ANYWAY.

Midnight mass. Spending the holidays with the true meaning behind it. My roommate, Melanie and I decided we would attend Midnight Mass. She invited a few blokes we live with and a couple of them were all about it. We were to venture to a Catholic Church up the hill in a town close by to Coogee, called Randwick.

After cooking ourselves dinner, Melanie and I decided we'd splurge on dessert and wine as a celebration for our Christmas away from home. We went to several restaurants here in Coogee looking through all the cases. Cheesecake, Carrot Cake, Chocolate Mousse, Eclairs, Cannola, oh my. It was delectable.

We sat down at a cafe and waited....and waited....and waited for a server. We eventually decided to go into the Bottleshop next door and buy ourselves a whole bottle of wine rather than just a glass for the same price. Then. After much deliberation, we decided to get some carrot cake to go and chillax (haha! I used that word) at the restaurant I work at, Barzura. I knew everybody working, so we wouldn't be charged a corkage fee and could probably get hooked up? Yeah. I didn't get hooked up on food, but that's okay.

I ordered the Bread and Butter pudding with frangelico anglaise sauce and double cream.

Need I say more? It. was. orgasmic.

We had a few glasses there (okay, I did) and discussed ex-boyfriends and how crazy the world really is. Then we went back to our place to put up our wine bottles and possibly venture out somewhere else before Church. Yes. This happened all before church.

Thomas, a Slovakian I work with at Barzura (no, not my stalker), called me up asking me to meet him somewhere in Coogee to go get a drink. Sweet -- more alcohol. We went to the Coogee Bay Hotel and had a glass of wine. The conversation was rather difficult, he doesn't really understand English and, I guess, I talk a little too fast for him to understand.

Anyway, afterward, I bought another bottle because they'd be close Christmas Day and, sure enough, I'd want to drink during our Christmas celebrations!

We ended up going back to Barzura, because the guys working told me they'd be hanging around, drinking a bit before they closed up shop. Sure enough, they were all there -- even the boy I have a slight crush on. Shh. Don't tell him.

Yes. He looks gay, but I promise he's not. Mr. Pedro from Chili.

After yet another glass of wine, it was time to go up to the church to listen to Christmas carols sung by the choir and then...midnight mass.

Melanie, John (the Irish guy we can understand), Michael (a German guy I work with at Barzura) and I took a taxi up to Randwick to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
I was really excited because there was a great turn out and the Christmas songs just flowed from the church out into the streets. It was something.

We sat down and sang along with the projector. John was singing pretty loudly, so was I, but that tipped me off that he must be quite a religious guy.

This is going to sound silly, but whenever I went to church with my mom or with friends or family, I'd always scope out the crowd and see if there were any single, cute guys attending mass. Although I'm not a hardcore religious person, I want to raise a family with religious values and to find someone who has those in place, that's a big plus.

I turned to John, making a joke before mass, and told him a secret my mom and I used to do.

When I was younger, I would come up with any excuse in the world to not go to church. And my mom, being the devoted Catholic that she is, would always want to go on Sunday, regardless of being out of town, other obligations, etc. She would try to convince me to go and actually told me, several times, that whenever you visit a new church you get three wishes. Of course, that made going to mass worth it. I repeat. This was when I was younger....just a funny way of looking at things.

After I told John the story, he looks at my blankly and says, "Nah, I'm good. I don't need that."

I was taken aback by that and actually kind of hurt. I told him it didn't have to be a selfish wish, it could be for peace on Earth and he just repeated himself that they don't need that in Ireland.

Wow. He basically just took a tradition that my mom and I have and took a big ol' crap on it.

Thanks, John! Appreciate it!

I was pretty pissed. I'm not going to lie. So, after much contemplation, I decided it was in my best interest to not let the negativity from the situation ruin my midnight mass. So I moved. I just got up, didn't say a word, and stood in the back of the church.

And, don't tell anyone this, I was really moved by the mass. Mostly because I wasn't with family and it was really hard. Really. Really. Hard.

After a inspirational mass, I walked my happy-ass home to Coogee. Alone. It wasn't a bad thing and, of course, being the overly sensitive creature that I am, was what I needed to do.

And then, I met up with a boy named Tristan, who I had met a couple weekends ago because we were both stranded in Central and shared a cab ride home.

Yeah. That's right. His name is Tristan. How hot is that? Brad Pitt from Legends of the Fall anyone? His name wins.

We were sitting on the beach when all these seagulls started freaking out. I'm posting a video, but it's more for the sound than anything else. It was way crazy.

You can hear Tristan in the background with his awesome Australian accent, "Are you going to take a photo? Oh. A video?"

Then me. Making a weird laughing noise at the end. I guess...I was...flirting? If that's what the kids are calling it nowadays.

My night ended with us making out in a children's park up the road from my place. That made up for John's "lack-of-personality" remarks.

So. It's Christmas. It's gorgeous out and I'm ready to make the day out of the beautiful weather.

See ya on the beach!