Happy Easter

When I was a kid we used to hide the eggs around the house. Well my parents did because the Easter Bunny is rather busy you know. We would decorate like 8 hard boiled eggs the night before and leave them out. Anyway, they were terrible hiders. I mean come on; those suckers would be sitting on a self. Then they were sneaky and would hide one or two in impossible spots. They would say things like, “Well I think the Easter Bunny hid alla the eggs in this room.” ~or~ “The Easter Bunny might have been tired last night and wasn’t able to reach anything over eye level.” They would also hide our Easter baskets in odd places. You really never know what you’ll find in the tub or behind the water heater on Easter morning. However, seeing as though these people are related to me, our holiday was not without its share of disaster.

How could I ever forget the time that the dog grabbed the fake grass stuff out of the Easter baskets and drag it around the house. Or what about when my brother and I were finally in charge of the eggs and forgot to boil them? There is nothing harder in this world to get out of a squirming child’s hair than egg. Of course that wouldn’t have been a problem if my brother hadn’t crushed them on my head. I think the worst was when we forgot to find one of the eggs. It took us months to figure out what that mysterious smell was coming from the living room. I think the Easter Bunny was fired that year, but I can’t be sure.

The holiday was always one of my favorites and still is when I look back on it. It’s not about the candy because my brother would steal that anyway; it was that my parents always got so into the whole thing. They didn’t just sit back and let us open presents like on Christmas, but they got their hands dirty and wandered around pretending to look for things they had hidden. For one day they too were a child.

This Easter was good but in a different way. I didn’t go to mass. There is something about me going to church as a lesbian in conservative Arizona that didn’t really appeal to me. I did buy myself a chocolate bunny, but I didn’t hide it. How sad would it be if I hid my own bunny? I did see alla my family in the morning, played with the furry monster that just learned that sleeping under the covers is the cool place to be, chatted with friends, and ordered an Easter pizza. I know it might sound like I didn’t do much but it was nice to have a relaxing day chatting with friends. Of course that was only enhanced by the fact that one was from Ireland, two from the UK, one from Australia, and a few from the states. Now let me tell you, the accents alone that I was hearing over yahoo’s voice conference were enough to make any woman in her right mind swoon. I don’t care if you are in love with someone or in a relationship; you couldn’t have heard these woman talking and not have been loving life. That alone makes for a nice day. Well that and I got to chat with people that always make me smile even if they do call me girly.

I guess the point is that I would have thought I would have missed being a kid today, or being surrounded by family. I didn’t really. I had my chocolate bunny and found myself surrounded with the same feelings that good friends bring. That’s really the point I guess. So I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday and you managed to laugh. And if you could hear a woman with an accent you really were one of the lucky ones!

"A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.” -- Fr. Jerome Cummings