A Famous Hat Easter

Sorry for my silence on Friday, but most of the day I was either in church or sitting by Kettle Pond, listening to the frogs sing. That may not be the most religious activity, but it is certainly meditative and so seems appropriate for Good Friday. After singing with the OTHER choir at the Lutheran church, Kathbert and I stopped by Richard Bonomo’s house, where Catzookz and Twins Fan were hanging out, so we had nerdy conversation – the best kind!

Saturday morning I had an appointment for yet another fitting for my wedding dress. As I may have mentioned, they did find it in a smaller size, but now I’ve gained girth in my shoulders and back – from working out? – so they have to let it out a little bit. Here I thought going to UGGH Club every morning would make me slimmer! Will I ever fit perfectly into this dress?? Then Travalon came up, and we had seafood for lunch since it was sort of still Lent. I’m never sure what category Holy Saturday fits into – it’s kind of like a liturgical No Man’s Land. It was a beautiful day, so we went for a long walk on the Lakeshore Path, and then we had dinner at Mia Za on State Street. We ran out of time for me to go home and change before the Vigil Mass, so I went to it in blue jeans. People really dressed up at St. Patrick’s, and just when I thought nobody else would be that tacky, I saw another woman in blue jeans, so then I didn’t feel so bad. We were at the end of the crowd going into the church after the lighting of the fire out front, so we missed part of the Exultet. Oh well, it is the same every year. The Mass was almost three hours long, including a number of baptisms and confirmations, then afterwards we stopped by the Essen Haus for a quick beer and then joined Rich in our annual tradition of having a gyro to celebrate Easter.

Rich had put in a call with my guardian angel, so yesterday I was yanked out of a deep sleep in time to get to church for choir warm-up, but then I started sneezing like crazy and waited to see if it were allergies and would abate with an antihistamine, or if it were the start of a virus. I did start to feel a little better, so I went to Easter morning Mass but did skip the OTHER church this year. Then I helped Rich with some cleaning chores before he had a bunch of people over for Easter dinner. Travalon came to have lamb for dinner, after having duck for lunch with his mother. Now that’s the way to celebrate the end of Lent! There were fifteen people at Rich’s house, including the usual suspects like Kathbert, Luxuli, and Prairie Man, and a graduate student in music education who told Rich as she was leaving that she liked our crowd because she didn’t have to pretend to be normal around us. We also had four desserts: Lent is officially over! Ma and Pa Hat called and told us about their dinner, including the tablecloth Grandma Hat crocheted just after she had Ma Hat. I said I didn’t remember that tablecloth, and Ma Hat said they rarely use it, only for special occasions. Guess I’ve never been around for a special enough occasion. I left just after nine – had to get enough rest to go to UGGH Club in the morning! Unfortunately, that did not end with Lent.

Famous Hat