A Pint With Saint Francis

Today is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi and I just spent the last hour of my day celebrating it in a pub with my daughters. I was in desperate need of a pint. Immediately, after picking my eldest up from school, we hit the pub. Now pub is really just a fancy name for a bar and going for a pint is really the same as going for a brewski. Nonetheless, I went to the pub and had a pint of lovely "olde world red." However, as I said, I was in desperate need for a drink.



We are a Catholic family and my daughter goes to Catholic school. The youngest is still home with me. As it is the feast of St. Francis and he the patron saint of animals, my daughter's school hosts a blessing of the animals. All are invited to bring the family pet(s) and have them blessed with holy water by our priest. I still find this tradition a bit strange and don't really get it. Nonetheless, I brought Katie, our Craig's List mutt, to get some blessings. Lord knows she needs it. After a successful blessing, Katie proceeded to bite four children causing two to cry and one to bleed. Needless to say, I was stressed, tense and needed a drink.

In order to blend in with kids at a pub at 3:30 in the afternoon, you have to order them some kind of food. I couldn't very well go in, order my pint, and then ask for water for the kids. I was tempted to order big and let the kids pick out desserts to make it look like a special occassion or something. Alas, I settled on the fish and chips and we split it three ways.

Saint Francis, pray for us.