what? snow?
They didn't let me go to work again today, and after all that vacation it seemed like a bit much. It wasn't even snowing that hard! More importantly, the ground is warm enough now that the plows were easily able to keep ahead of the accumulation, and the streets were practically dry. And now I have to go in another day in June. Which makes me wonder, if I get paid for the extra days. I assumed I wouldn't, because I'm not actually going to work any extra time; but on the other hand, working three more days of June will mean I can't get another job for those days (if, er, assuming I was so motivated as to want to). And obviously I couldn't do anything renumerative today. As it was, I mostly sat in front of the computer. I also visited Leah for a good long while.
We want to move into our new house now. What's the hold up?! If the inspection doesn't go well we will... I can't even bear to contemplate.
inspect the uninspected
Our house inspection is tomorrow. We've already invested ourselves fully in this house--told people about it, talked about what kind of furniture we want, everything--so it'd really better go well. We trust that it will. I won't get to go to this one since I'll be working, but Leah is going to see if she can leave the store to her brand-new assistant/co-worker (yes! she's not by herself anymore!) for a little bit to at least go to part of the inspection. I confess that I drove by the house yesterday, just to see it. Did I mention that I really hope we get to live there?
If all goes well we'll formally own the place on April 15th, which (besides being tax day, I'm told) is the Friday before Patriots' Day. That means I'll have all April vacation to get started on moving in. We can't wait. Also if all goes well, I might stop obsessing so heavily about this house-buying process, and this blog can go back to being mildly amusing. And if we find more termites... well, I don't think you'll see another update here for a few days.
baseball for (almost) real
As I type this I'm watching the first Red Sox preseason game of the year (and, of course, listening the call on the radio), and isn't it exciting! Actually, since the game obviously doesn't mean anything at all the best part was hearing the new updated intro, with all the historic Sox highlights, for the first time: no matter how many times I hear them it's still something to hear the call of the last outs in the ALCS and World Series. Sure beats the old top highlight, the division series comeback win against Cleveland. The Red Sox experience will never be the same again. So much the better!
There are all kinds of new folks playing for the team now, but I won't bother trying to learn who's who until we know's who's going to be sticking around.
The house inspection went well enough: no termites munching on the foundation, at least. All is now in readiness for us to start moving in the middle of April. Yay!
shhhhh, it's a surprise
Dan's birthday is tomorrow, and i got him a very nice present which will remain a secret until this evening. We are going out to dinner at the very fancy Hartwell House in Waltham; Dan's parents are taking us there to check out the gormet food and also to see if we want to book the space for our rehearsal dinner (yikes! wedding planning finds me wherever i try to hide!)
I asked Dan whether he wanted his present tonight for the party or tomorrow for the actual birthday, and he said tonight because presents go better with cake. Judy is making him a chease cake, his favorite type, which i made last year and mucked up miserably. I asked Dan wouldn't he be sad not getting a present tomorrow on his actual birthday, and he said, "But i get to wake up next to you, and waking up next to you is the best present i could ever get."
Yeah he really said it, and don't you laugh! What a little sweet talker he is! I'll take it!
Reason number 784836 that i love dan: He makes lines like this sound genuine.
Happy un-birthday, Dan!
almost my birthday
There's fifty-two minutes until my birthday as I type this, but really I've done all the good birthday stuff already, a little early. My parents took us out to eat at Hartwell House so we could try it out (we're considering having the rehearsal dinner there) and then we went home for presents and cheesecake pie. That pie is something of a tradition, on my birthday. Leah gave me the best present of the lot: a iPod!! Now I'm really one of the cool kids. I'll have to go outside now, to take advantage of the ability to listen to my music away from my computer. I really haven't been doing alot of that lately, going outside, so it'll be a welcome change. I stayed up this late to get all the music on my computer downloaded to the player, and then to listen to it a little bit. Great stuff. But now I really need to go to bed. I'll get to sleep late in the morning, because it'll be my birthday.
Heehee, I didn't see until after I wrote the above paragraph that Leah had written something today. Let me say, she didn't ruin last year's cheese pie at all. It was deeee-licious!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!!!!!
Dear Dan,
I am very happy that you were born 28 years ago today, and that i was born four years and 55 days after that. It's was simply a wonderful idea of mine that i gave you a head start on maturity so that we could be roughly equal when we met 15 years later. Other than the fact that our biological clocks now alarm at different junctures, i'm very happy that you're older and wiser while i'm still younger and cuter... and you're still pretty cute yourself so i don't mind it if you keep pestering me to start making babies for the next five or ten years or so.
All in all, Dan, i love you soooooooooooooooooooooo much, and i look forward to celebrating all our birthdays together, forever and ever, for as long as God gives us to have birthdays. It's only 55 days until mine, and then only 309 more days until yours, and from today March 5, can you belive it, it's only 548 more days until our first wedding anniversary!!!
I love you 364 unbirthdays, plus 1.
xoxo,
leah
drive slow
Friday and today, driving to and from work, I tried out something new: driving slowly. Well, more slowly anyways. I commute on the highway (we call them highways here for some reason, not freeways), and the traditional manner of highway driving, during the commuting hours at least, is to move as quickly as possible, changing lanes whenever necessary to obtain for yourself some momentary advantage and move up minutely in the flow of traffic. Traffic is rarely stopped, and in fact usually moves quite quickly--between 45 and 65 mph most of the time--but the heavy volume of cars means that, on the one hand you want to pass people because there are so many of them clogging up the road, and on the other anyone changing lanes usually slows down about 97 other cars further back.
Now, of course you know that I'm a good automotive citizen and all that, and I obviously do my best not to do anything that would cause anyone else to have to break. Maintaining a good flow of traffic benefits everyone! But I am also not, I'm afraid, the most patient person, and I want to get places quickly as much as anyone else does. But lately, see, I've been mellowing out a little bit, though through no plan of my own. Friday I inadvertantly left kind of early, in the morning, so I forced myself to dawdle some on the way to work; better, after all, to be in the car with the radio to listen to and driving to occupy myself with than sitting at school waiting for the day to start. But besides keeping me only a little early, the slow(er) pace also had the effect of making me feel considerably more relaxed. So I tried in on the way home too, with the same result. Similar effects were observed today.
Now, I don't want to jump to any conclusions just yet; further evidence is clearly needed in this matter before I'm willing to recommend slowing down to the wider population. After all, if you drive slower you don't get where you're going as quickly! That's a major trade-off, and needs to be considered carefully. But further study certainly appears to be worthwhile.
More driving to work news: I saw (for the second time, actually) a Suburu Baja with a bumper sticker on it that read, 'It's not as bad as an Aztec', refering, of course, to Pontiac's lovely Aztec model of SUV-car-truck-hybrid thing. I chuckled. As far as I'm concerned, they're both ugly. Still, the driver of the Baja shows a very refreshing post-modern ironical sense in his self-deprecating endorsement of his own vehical; or at least I think that's what's happening.
psyche!
Before I get to the real point of this entry (such as it is), I have to say that today was the most sucessful day of my life in at least one key aspect: I managed to eat cheesecake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Along with some other things, of course, things more usual at those various meals, but still: a major accomplishment, I believe. Only problem is it finished off the cheesecake very effectively. I guess that means my birthday is all over now.
Anyways, on to the real post!
This morning the air was moist and balmy, the birds were chirping charmingly in the trees and bushes, and, while I can't say that the sun was shining brightly, all was generally well with the world, weather-wise. Something happened over the course of the day, though, and now there's a couple inches of snow on the ground and a vicious cold wind is whipping at our house, as hard as I can remember a wind whipping since we've lived here (I notice it all the more now that we've been told our chimney is ready to basically fall off at any moment). The wintery blast didn't come up all of a sudden--precipitation moved from rain through sleet and ice pellets to proper snow, and the wind picked up gradually over the course of the day--but it was still a pretty impressive fake to all of us who thought spring was just about here. Still, you can't really mind snow now, even if you're sick of it, because we can be sure it won't stick around much longer.
I had an idea this morning that I should make a weather blog, and remove any pretension of talking about anything else. You know, I don't think that I'm talking about the weather all the time....
Mia Culpa
Yes, it's true. As dan put it in his last post, i did say in the public setting of his parent's kitchen that he only talks about the weather in the blog. I didn't mean it to be offensive, but like most things i say in public, i didn't actually think about it before i opened my mouth. I didn't mean to say that talking about the weather is bad per-say; i just meant that our lives are so uber booring and lacking of real and exciting events... oh, no, wait, i'm doing it again.
What i meant to say was that Dan loves the weather, and talking about it and thinking about it makes him happy, whereas i love the weather when it's warm and sunny, and resent it when it's snowey and wet and in my shoes. In the winter i think of the weather as targeting me personally. Like, i'll start out stressed and upset because i have to go to work and work never gives me enough time to be at the gym for as long as i like which is like five hours, so i'll be leaving the house carrying my gym clothes and my work clothes and a bag with my hair brush and face products and anouther bag with my lunch and also my sneakers and also my purse which is the size of Asia, and i already feel burdened by my worldly responsiblities, and then i step outside and instantly my feet are all wet and my hands are frozen. I suspect that it's NewEngland weather purposefully trying to push me over the edge.
Contributing to the problem is the fact that I don't have any good boots nor mittens, and i refuse to buy them myself because winter boots and thick mittens are pieces of clothing that are not cute looking yet manage to still cost money. I think that's unfair.
So Dan, i officially appologize for saying that you only talk about the weather. I only talk about being stressed out. Stressed out about my eyes and about our house and about the wedding and about my job, but always it's stressed out. And that can't make for very interesting posts on my part. So we're even.
my patience is stretched thin
I know I went on about driving slow and all, but there comes a point where enough is enough. I reached that point this morning. School was delayed two hours because of the suprise blizzard that froze Leah's feet and hands in such an unpleasant fashion, so when I left the house at 9:15 I a) thought I was leaving on the early side and b) expected there not to be any traffic. Everybody else had to do their commute at the regular time, right? Apparently not.
Instead, everyone in the greater Boston area was trying to get from Rt. 2 west on to 128 south, and doing so in the most selfish and inconsiderate ways imaginable. For a mile and a quarter before the interchange the right lane, which I got in as soon as I saw the backup, was stop and go--mostly stop, in fact. The reason for the delay was simple: hundreds of people, seeing the stopped cars, decided that they were the most important individuals on the planet and tried to get round the traffic jam, driving in the breakdown lane and cutting at the front of the line, or driving in the left lanes and cutting in the front of the lane. I was grinding my teeth with impotent rage. The worst part of it was, there wasn't even any backup on 128. The sole cause of the traffic problems were people being complete, pathetic jerks. Grr. It took me almost 20 minutes to go that mile and a quarter. I should have walked.
And then, when I got to school there was a phone company truck or something doing line work right where I wanted to drive my car, so just when I thought I had finally made it (and just barely on time, too) I had to make a considerable detour on streets I wasn't exactly sure would get me where I was going. What a wreck. The kids were a positive joy after all that.
C'est quoi ce bordel?
This morning while driving to and from Yoga i managed to hear the same article twice on NPR. Something in the article was Very Very Very confusing and disturbing to me. and i haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. If you know anything about Lebanon, PLEASE HELP! Here is what the story was about, as quoted from NPR's website:
"Lebanon reappoints pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami. But residents of the town of Hammana on Mt. Lebanon say the Syrian soldiers and intelligence agents based there have overstayed their welcome. Citizens say the foreign military presence has hurt the town's tourist industry and it's time for their Syrian "guests" to leave."
What this blerb does not mention is that the residents of Hammana on Mt. Lebanon interviewed for this article spoke to the interviewers in PERFECT PARISIAN FRENCH. The three "Lebonese" people who gave comment for this story sounded exactly as if they had been airlifted directly from the French Capital. No accent, no slight change of inflection, pure unadulterated native french. They were French people, speaking very passionately about how Syrians needed to get out of their country..... Lebanon.
I was so troubled, that i called Dan right away to ask him if they spoke French in Lebanon. (You can see now why i might appear, in some situations, to be an air-head. You too would wonder about the intelligence level of the future mother of your children if she called you out of the blue and without saying hello said, "Do they speak French in Lebanon?") Dan said he had never heard of any part of Lebanon where French was the native language. Curiouser and Curiouser! And NPR didn't mention anything about why our normal man-on-the-street Lebanese person was speaking French as a native language.
I can imagine only 4 Possibilities:
1) NPR didn't have enough money to hire a Lebanese translator to come out into the country with them, because all the translators are busy in Beirut where the big demonstrations are going on, so NPR had to find the one family in Hammana who spoke a European language.
2) Everyone in Hammana speaks French, and WTF?
3) French is the official language in some parts of Lebanon way out there in the country, and WTF?
4) NPR completely made this story up and thinks we can't tell between different foreign languages. To us Americains, they're all jes talkin' funny talk.
If anyone can shed any light on the curious linguistics in this story, Please Help! Call me right away! I am dying to know what's going on.
the mystery solved
So, it turns out that Leah's mystery has a simple, logical explanation: folks sometimes speak French in Lebanon. In fact, as a site about francophone countries tells us, Lebanon is a 'member state of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)'. 'Although French is not an official language in... Lebanon, it is widely used in literature and films.' Who knew?!
Along with Lebanon, the site I read lists Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt as the Arabic members of the Francophony; the first three are less suprising, but I wouldn't have guessed Egypt. Although, now that I think about it, I recall that Napoleon did spend spend a little bit of time there. So maybe there's some sense to it all in the end. In any case, it's nice to know that NPR isn't scamming us and that Leah isn't going crazy and hearing things.
peanut m&ms will be the death of me
Once, I happened to mention within earshot of Leah's mother that peanut M&Ms are my favorite food; she corrected me to say that they aren't a food. Nevertheless--and regardless of their precise nutritional status--I continue to be very fond of them, but that fondness can occasionally lead to problems. As, in fact, it did today. My mother gave me a bag of the delicious treats for my birthday, and I ate a significant number of them this afternoon. Subsequently, my stomach was a bit rumbly and unhappy. On the other hand my mouth was entirely delighted, so I suppose it was an even trade-off.
100.4 degrees of ick
Those M&Ms hit me harder than I had though!!
I ran a fever all weekend, as was sick in bed all day Saturday and Sunday, so if you were wondering why I hadn't been writing--it wasn't because I was off on some sort of wonderful weekend getaway. Today I was recovered enough to work (loosely defined) for thirteen hours; in any case, I was out of the house from 7:30 AM to 8:30 PM, inclusive. I'm still a wreck, though, at least when I stand still for a second. Leah employed many of those hours in sleeping; it's her day off and she stayed in bed (well, on the couch, where she's exiled to avoid the germies) until one in the afternoon, a feat unparalleled in this modern, post-highschool era. Perhaps the exile didn't entirely work. Or maybe the rest will set her up wonderfully, and she'll be fresh as a daisy tomorrow; I hope so, because I sure feel responsible otherwise. She did a wonderful job taking care of me, I have to say. Hopefully I won't be called upon to return the favor (which I'd do gladly) too soon.
not just for bulk shopping!
Pi Day has come and gone, without any mention in these pages! Ah well, my excuse is that I do kindergarten now, so my math work is somewhat more limited that formerly. Also, I was distracted by all this ridiculous hooferaw about steroids and baseball and congress and all.*
Today I stopped by Costco for a couple minutes to get some potables, and man is that place a circus. I will enumerate its attractions:
1) Rides. Those big carts have considerably more stability that the ordinary grocery-store model, enough so that I am able to stand on the back of even an empty cart and use it as a conveyance. This was especially pleasant when it came time to return the cart; the parking lot is downhill toward the store.
2) Food. There is a veritable cornucopia of free samples available for your gustatory pleasure. I sampled a Mystic Pizza and some Annies mac & cheese (the latter was considerably more tasty than the former), eschewing countless other delicacies such as the shrimp scampi, sauteed in front of you while you wait!
3) Animal Antics. I and a young girl were amused to spot a small brown mouse dash across the floor; considerably more amused than was, when we mentioned it to her, the free-food-cart operator under whose apparatus the creature was observed to take shelter. I didn't stay to see the ultimate outcome.
All of these attractions are clearly very popular: the place was packed. It's on my way home from work; I'm thinking about stopping there even when I don't need groceries, to check out the show!
*In case you're curious about my opinion, I think Congress is lookin the worst so far. There's a Grand Jury investigation going on into the issue, guys: stop grandstanding.
not quite sick, but not quite well either
The title here describes my current circumstances, and Leah's too. She thinks we might be getting poisoned by some sort of gas, so we opened all the windows for a couple hours this evening. Strangely, it didn't get that cold in here; it must be that alot of heat comes up from downstairs, or that our air circulation isn't so good in here. Now that I think about it, though, I believe it may be the former: I recall in the fall we didn't have to turn our heat on nearly as much as I had expected. That's happy news, if we're able to take advantage of the effect now that it's getting on towards spring, because they've been killing us with the oil prices this year! Our new house has gas. I wonder how that's going lately?
I know why the caged bird gets free at Spring time and then immedietly flies into a window.
Over the past two days the air has been warmer and the snow has started to melt, like spring is poking its little head out of its hole, if skittishly at first. Feeling a bit of warm sun on my face is starting to remind me that i actually do have a soul; For the past three months i have been a dark shell of a human being responding only to immediate impulses of cold and hunger and getting-pissed-off-at-people-in-my-yoga-class-who-freakin-moan-during-every-posture.
Now i feel like i'm awakening from my deadness to experience more of a range of human emotions.
And i don't think that's a good thing.
Last night i picked a fight with Dan and slammed open every window in the house. ("We are going to die from gas poisening and you aren't doing a Damn thing about it!!!") The reason i got so mad? That jerk managed to stay sick for five days! Can you believe the nerve of some people? Being Sick?? When i need attention and cuddles and someone to make me lunch in the morning?!!???
So yeah, it was a wicked stupid fight. But i still managed to get so pissed off that i couldn't sleep, and i had to stay awake looking at bridesmaid dresses on the internet and watching the Ashlee Simpson show. When i finally came to bed at midnight, i made Dan wake up and talk to me for 20 minutes, because mostly i was upset that since he's been sick near-dying all week, i've been super stressed out and with no one to talk to. And the poor thing, my sick dying fast asleep baby, actually woke up and talked to me at zero o'clock in the morning: Congratulations you got a raise... Don't worry, moving won't be that stressfull... that sort of thing.
So, i guess i won in the end. Ha Ha. If you don't talk to me during the week, you're going to have to talk to me at midnight on wednesday when we have to wake up at 6am. [editors note: this is sarcasm. You have to read it with a wicked sarcastic and immature voice.]
Amazingly enough, upon waking up this morning Dan said that he doesn't hate me, he still loves me, and he doesn't want to call off the wedding. Which is a relief, in some ways.
And then in some ways it's not.
welcome spring!
The first day of spring snuck up on us yesterday, but at least it really showed up: we could tell that it was spring now, at least in the morning. It was nice for the Palm Sunday procession, but then it clouded up some by the Passion reading. Which is fine, I guess. There was some rumor that it was supposed to snow last night, but there's no signs of any such precipitation, thank goodness.
I apologize for not writing in these pages in, um, some time; I still didn't recover from that killer illness of last weekend. I was fine in the morning every day last week, but by the evenings I was definitely lagging. And when it came to just before bedtime, when I'm wont to write here... no chance! That's when I could barely hold my head up. Last night I think I was hallucinating or something, I was so ready to be sleeping like, immediately. I feel fine now; long may it last!
I can get paid for this?
For the first time in a great while, I'm getting paid for design work. It still amazes me: some of the time I think I'm pretty good at it, but there are still great swathes of time when I'm amazed that someone will give me money for, in this case, making websites, which is what I do all the time anyways. Well, actually I've been doing alot less of it lately than I would like, so I'm glad to have a good excuse to get back in front of the computer. And I'm looking to get into the web-design business a little more seriously again, so if you know anyone who wants a website point em to squibix design, and I'll thank you for it.
Truly fat people, get ready to be offended
Privately to friends, and also publically and in the media, i have long criticized the Atkins diet. I have always held the belief that a low-carb diet is 1) dangerous for dieters, 2) irritating to hear about on TV, and 3) irritating to hear people talk about. I mean how much can you really listen to people say: "Wah, wah, low carb is so much agony! All i want is a bagel!" My mental response is two-fold: 1) whiners have no self-control, and that's why you're fat, and 2) Go freakin' eat a bagel, alright? You're not fat because of one bagels; you're fat because of the three million pounds of crap you put in your body all day while you watch TV. Stop fad dieting, get off your ass, and go to the gym, already! Geez!
Anyway, this was all before i became a ridiculous fitness addict and started running every day and lifting weights four times a week and doing yoga iat 6 in the morning and jumping jacks in my sleep and God knows what else. You'd think that running 6 miles in under 50 minutes, and squatting 300lbs (which i did this morning-- hooray!) and locking out in standing split and all this BS would make me a pretty trim and slim person, right? Well, the truth is that my huge rippling muscles, so meticulously stretched and strengthened, persisted in being hidden (caged if you will) under a layer of cute, puffy, juggly fat. What gives? i ask, after my million-and-one-th sit up of the day. I know i'm way fit and strong, but my body looks like Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. WTF?
Well, two weeks ago i crunched some numbers, some very embarassing numbers. It turned out that my daily caloric intake, although proportionate to my level of activiny, was made up of about 10 percent protein, 5 percent fat, and 85 percent CARBS!!!!! Despite my protein shake in the morning, there they were rearing their ugly heads at me: carbs carbs carbs carbs, flooding my blood stream with sugar, turning into fat as soon as i ever sit down. Yup, it was painfully obvious: miss America does not live on bread alone, and neither can i if i ever want to breath in my corset come September.
So i embarked upon a quest: eat a target of 125grams of protein a day, 125g of carbs, and 28g of fat. This isn't even a low-carb diet! it's like a normal, healthy person, why should this be so hard, diet! Not calorie restrictive, not fun restrictive, should be easy to stay full and happy and normal!
Well, i have a message for everyone who i made fun of in the past: i am soooo sorry. You were way not kidding. Eatting fewer carbs is freakin agony. I could kill now for a freakin bagel. Oh my goodness, all i think about now is noodles. Noodles in peanut sauce. Noodles in sweet and sour sauce. Noodles plain with just a little bit of margerine. Noodles raw straight out of the packet...
Only one week and a half on a lowered carb diet and i think i just might kill myself before i can ever flex a bicep to my satisfaction.
NBC = Now Back to Cable...
I was running at the gym this morning (running on the treadmill that is, as opposed to running circles around the other exercizers, even though i could,) and since my iPod was out of juice i plugged into a TV to try to catch some "news." My attempt was severely thwarted by the fact that there is no actual NEWS on TV...
In my survey of 3 stations which involved constant switching back and forth to find any programming that was not a commercial, i found out what exactly you can watch on NBC, CBS, and ABC from 7:30 to 8:30 in the morning:
- Commercials for alergy medicin
- Five minute segment on how brain-dead woman continues to be brain-dead
- "News anchors" talking about network shows that will appear later in the day
- Interviews with actors on network shows that will appear later in the day
- commercials about network shows that will appear later in the day
- A Demonstration about marrinating and Cooking Steak (WTF? it's 7:30 in the morning! Has Atkins taken over the world already???)
- Commercials for foot fungus medication
- Girls standing outside in the freezing cold weather, jumping and yelling and screaming over... the weather man? (Again, WTF?)
- A billion more commercials.
No really, TV sucks.
But back to content of these morning shows, i have realized this winter as i've been running inside that The Today Show and Good Morning America are painfully politically conservative in their coverage. If they aren't sobbing over the plight of poor Terry Schiavo's parent's, they've got some poor serviceman just back from Iraq who just lost a limb and did something brave and how can you possibly not support the war now, you cold heartless liberal? Terry's brother was interviewed yesterday, with hardball questions such as "how are your parents holding up? How does it feel to know your sister is starving to death?" and "How is your faith in a God who believes in the preservation of a non-conscious American body at all costs but who couldn't really give a flying f--- about anyone Arab helping you through this terrible time of persecution of your family by the left-wing, heartless, Satanic judges that make up the entirety of the legal system?" There was no one to give a counter interview.
They never bother to put on a counter interview. There simply isn't enough time. They have bigger steak to fry.
Vigil-anties
Last night Dan and i went to church to sit vigil from 11pm -12. As per tradition, people hold vigil all night in the church in one hour shifts on this Thursday night because after the passover super everyone was sleepy and Jesus said to his buddies, Dudes, can't you just stay up ONE little hour??? Come on guys, really. You're so lame.
Dan had never gone sit vigil before because i guess it's not the kind of thing that he thinks of volunteering to do. Me, if anyone offers me any kind of a dare, even if it was over two thousand years ago and to some other people, i am so ready to be there. So we went for one hour at 11pm. You might think it would be booring sitting quietly for one hour in the church with nothing but the stripped alter and the rattling of the heating system... but actually it was so nice i wish i could go back tonight and tommorow night and the night after that.... I guess it's easier to talk to God when you're not rushing or running or driving your car simultaniously. It was really nice to be able to pray for a long time and not worry "okay, that's enough, it's time to do something else now." Which, i guess, is how i do everything.
Thankfully, the couple who was relieving us came in right on time. Dan said it would be hard not to get mad if the next people didn't come and you had to stay anouther hour, and even though it's nice to pray, you still want to go home and go to sleep and then what to you do when you're all mad in the church and you just want to sleep and what a hassle you have to work tomorrow and meanwhile Jesus is getting ready to go and die for your sins! You might feel bad.
All in all i had fun. Dan had fun too, i guess, even though he said that Jesus would be mad at him because he winked his eyes into sleep a little bit a couple of times. I guess we just have to do it again next year.
It's nice having a boyfriend who will sit silently with you for an hour in a church at 11pm. leah is lucky.
'other person appointed'
The Easter Vigil service contains instructions for a 'deacon or other person appointed' to say or sing a whole bunch of text to start out the service. Well, the person appointed today was me. I only started practicing the part this morning, so it was not what you'd call a magnificent performance; plus, it's scary being up there, chanting all those lines unaccompanied! Actually, I thought I wrecked it up pretty good, but I guess folks didn't really notice, or at least they were polite enough not to mention it.
But anyways, at some point in the service (after I was done singing) it officially became Easter, so happy Easter everyone! Though actually, I didn't take communion so I'm still in Lent I guess; I figured that since I'm going to two Easter services tomorrow making this one Easter too would be something like overkill.
But it's an interesting thing, I thought as I sat through the service (I'd been warned it was the longest in the liturgical calender, but in the end it was quite manageable at an hour and twenty minutes or so). At Christmas time I always celebrate Christmas with the late service on Christmas eve, and then eschew attending services on Christmas day; how is it any different to do the same thing for Easter? It really isn't, except I like doing things the way I'm used to doing them. Also, with the spring theme an all, the morning light is a pleasant accompaniment. This Vigil service had candles, and a fire in a barbacue thing even, but I associate all that light in the darkness business with winter. We're on spring now, and we need morning sun and flowers!
It was still a nice service though. Now I get a few hours of sleep, and I get to go back and do it all again! Five church services in four days, woohoo! This should see me through to next Advent.
Happy Easter!
The autocomplete on the title box here tells me this is the second time I've wished folks a Happy Easter in these pages; this time I added an exclamation point to shake things up a bit. We had a very pleasant Easter, Leah and I: we sang in two church services, which was nice because it gave us another chance at the things we missed the first time around. I played some trumpet descants, and they were sure better on try number two. They worked us pretty hard, but it was well worth it, as we were rewarded with a breakfast between the services. All in all it was a pleasant change from last year, when we were nothing more than anonymous (and unfed) worshippers. And hey, now that I think about it, Leah didn't even get to have Easter last year, since she was at Landmark! Yes, this year was far superior. Also I didn't have to ride a bike to church. Good thing, since I was sure carrying alot of stuff.
I posted an Easter greeting picture over on the main site, but since I have the feeling some folks reading here don't frequent the main site (it doesn't have an RSS feed, for one thing) I'll stick it in here:
Easter dinner revisited
I didn't mention it yesterday, but after church we went over to my parents' house for Easter dinner, which was delicious (I forced down a considerable amount of food despite still being full of the breakfast I had eaten at church only three hours previously). My mother sent us home with a whole lot of food, and I packed some of it up into my lunch today. I was looking forward to it all morning. Turkey, mached potatoes, stuffing, gravy--a guy could get used to that! One of the student teachers also had her Easter leftovers; we were definitely the cool kids today in the teachers' lounge. She was even cooler than me, actually, because she and her housemates had cooked their own food. Naturally, I didn't let it slip that my mom made my lunch. Hey, at least I packed it myself!
On an unrelated note, and if you'll permit me to make a weather-related observation, it's been raining all day, and really hard at times. Luckily for the folks who worry about basement flooding, we had a bunch of warm days with really no rain so far, except that one that was mixed with snow, so all the snow's been seriously melting for a week or two. Plus, the ground is thawed and even dried out some, so all the water should be able to drain nicely away from foundations. That doesn't help the roads, though: I had some fun and exciting hydroplaning on the way home from work this afternoon. Good times.
back in the band
I went to a town band rehearsal for the first time in ages this evening, and it was good fun. Without those rehearsals once a week I don't play trumpet nearly enough, and I don't get to play interior lines at all. In that band I'm strictly third trumpet (there are some egos there) so it's pretty much all interior lines for me, but I don't mind it a bit: much more fun that way. The only strange thing is, it's been so long since I had to play low notes with any volume, and phew, it was tiring after a while. It's kind of shameful, actually. I should practice more maybe.
So many worthy goals, so little time. Or effort, perhaps. But I'll do better, really!
outside day
Let me just say first, I come up with all kinds of ideas for great blog entries during the day, but do I remember what they were when I come home and have a chance to write? I do not. I need to get me a little notebook or something. And then, write in it.
Anyways, today was notable as the first outside day of the year--at least, the first running-around outside day. We have not yet reached the stage of sitting under trees. Yesterday and the day before were rainy, so the school children were even crazier than usual; today we didn't even let them take their jackets off when they came in in the morning, we just sent them right out to go run around for a while. Then we went outside two other times after that. It helped some, but there were still outbreaks of insanity and wild hooting. Perhaps the spring does that, regardless of the weather. In any case they were pleasantly suprised: walking down the hall on the way out one was expressing his unhapiness with not having his gloves, only to exclaim, when we got out the door, 'oh, I forgot it was warm!'
We also went out after choir, and played soccer. Being able to run on grass makes everyone feel better, I think.
um, dinosaurs were big
We're studying dinosaurs in school. Yesterday we talked about how big they were, and I meant to write about that (it was one of those things I forgot), but no matter: today we did how much they weighed, so I can combine the two into one convenient post.
And the verdict is: they were big. For example, I tend to think of Tricerotops as being about the size of a rhinocerous, but no: they were both twice as long and twice as heavy (30 feet and 6 tons) as a representative of the largest rhino species alive today. We got a graphic representation of the size of these creatures when Mrs. Beaty projected their outlines, life-sized, onto the auditorium wall; it was really something to see the Tyrannasaurus's head up their at the ceiling, some forty or fifty feet up. And as for weight, we have the Supersaurus which, in addition to having like the dumbest name in the dinosaur world, aso weighed maybe 80 tons, which is pretty hefty. In class we compared the weights of various dinosaurs to that of elephants, but doing some research now I find that we may have gotten the weight of a modern elephant completely wrong. Oh well, good thing the kids aren't paying attention.
And then there's little Saltopus, which only weighed 2 pounds (the size of a chicken, were told), and cute little Protoceratops which, at only 6 feet in length, was positively tiny for a herbivorus dinosaur. Goes to show you that even in dinosaurs it takes all kinds, and size isn't everything.