March for Life 2009 ...

... was good. It's always bittersweet because of the whole reason for marching, but I have always experienced really good things when I travel to DC for the event.

I have some pictures from the March (and its surrounding events) on my Flickr page.

1. The ride down was fun. It went quickly with surprisingly little traffic. This would prove to be exactly the opposite of our return journey.
2. I love going to the Vigil Mass at the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. This year, I found a good spot to stand with some other guys where we had a wall to lean on and could see most of the church (as opposed to last year). The Mass was beautiful.
3. I stayed in the Basilica again this year, getting about two and a half hours of sleep somewhere in between reading Christology, going to St. Vincent's 2 to 3 AM holy hour, and trying to block out the snoring. For some reason, almost everyone in the crypt woke up at 5 AM. When I sat up, some guy was pointing a TV camera at me. I pretended to go back to sleep.
4. I also enjoy the Youth Rally & Mass at the Verizon Center. Matt Maher played again, so that was already a plus. This Mass was also beautiful. I'm not a huge fan of liturgy in arena-type settings, but it seemed to flow well. I also got to see my MUC friend Kristina before Mass and a big group from Steubenville (high school students, a couple parents, a priest and our bishop) afterwards.
5. The March itself is always pretty hectic, but everyone made it ok. The seminary has a gigantic banner that I helped carry for a long time. It attracts a lot of comments which is always fun. I love how people are so willing to talk to you at events like this. We also had a big group of St. Vincent College students marching with us who livened things up a bit.
6. Once we got everyone back to our bus and started leaving the city, I promptly fell asleep. This was a good move because it took us a few extra hours to get through the post-March (and probably post-Inaugaration) traffic. We made it home, after the typical late-night, long bus trip hilarity and a pleasant stop at McDonalds.

Right now, I'm just glad it's the weekend. We watched the new BSG episode tonight and now, now I'm going to sleep.