shopping for a church

I am a practicing Catholic and went to Catholic school for a really long time - an entire decade, in fact. I lovingly and jokingly call my wonderful husband a heathen because he doesn't exactly share my beliefs. He's super supportive and has been going to Mass with me regularly since we got engaged, had to deal with 3 separate priests just to marry me (including a nitwit, a distant relative who married us and another for premarital counseling), and offers up helpful opinions as we "shop" for a church.

I grew up in the South where Church is a little be more relaxed, friendly and not nearly so conservative as this lovely Arlington diocese that we happen to live in. The conservative nature of the diocese actually played a role in our decision to get married in NJ. I, with and without Will, have been trying to find a church that I like in the area for quite some time. Here's a run down of the ones we've tried.

• St. Mary's in Old Town - they get a plus for being the closest church with the most masses and it's just pretty. However, the priests there tend to make you feel bad about being human, particularly being a modern human being. I have never heard so many homilies about abortion in the nearly 30 years I've been going to church as I have going there. The congregation is also just very homogeneous and snobby, in my opinion. I used to go with a group to volunteer at the DC Central Kitchen but I don't think they go anymore. They also have a priest there that we simply can't understand a word he says.
• St. Agnes in Cherrydale - great church that I used to go to all the time because it was around the corner from where Will used to live. It's even where we did our pre-cana with the priest. But it's just too far and they don't have an evening mass.
• St. Charles Borromeo - also far because it's in Arlington and I've only ever gone to the Sunday 6:30 mass which is the mass for all the 20-30s in the area but it's packed every week. While I've liked the priests, it's way far out there on what I like to call the "hippy-dippy" scale with the music and whatnot that I can't take it.
• Blessed Sacrament - the priests and music are decent. Father Jaffy is great (he led our day long pre-Cana) but you never know if you'll get him and we never have. The problem here is an architectural design flaw in which the floor is sloped to the point where you feel like you're going to tip over.
• St. Louis - this church should also win due to proximity but, oh my gosh, what a joyless bunch of priests they have over there. Even when preaching about joy - he was joyless. There's also an architectural design flaw to this one too wherein you can't hear the poor girls singing at all.
• Good Shepherd - I actually heard about this one from my boss. It's a little further away down at Mount Vernon but it's not too far. The congregation seems very happy, diverse and giving, they have 4 priests in residence and even a deacon, so far so good on homilies. We've only managed to make it to the Sunday evening mass which is rather hippy-dippy but not terrible. There are signs that choosing a different mass could make this one a winner. finally.