Playing Church

With all the calling hours, and funeral services, and burial in the last few days - I have been thinking about my grandma a lot which, in turn, has caused me to think about my childhood a lot.

This story needs to start with a little background on my family. My grandma is definitely the most faithful person I have ever met. She completely trusted in God for all matters and relied on prayer to get her through much of her life. She faithfully went to church every week until her death and sang in the church choir her entire life also. She instilled the same faithfullness in all around her.

So, when we were little kids we used to also play "make-believe" in the hay mow. A lot of times we would be olden days which was probably due to watching too many episodes of Little House on the Prairie , most other times we would just dare each other to jump giant distances between hay stacks (this second one resulted in a few close calls including one particular instance where my brother, Mitchell was holding on for dear life between two stacks, praying he would not fall the remaining 25 feet to the ground). Finally, we often times played church . Which is sort of an exagerration of what we would do, because we never really took the time to do the entire mass, but instead would do communion. over and over again. We would set up bales as pews and an altar and get communion from my grandma. (either cookies or crackers or whatever she would let us eat that day) and I had the entire eucharistic ceremony memorized word for word so I would be the priest. And when it got to the part where the priest holds up the eucharist and says a chant, I would sing the lion king song.....you know, a-simbetina- namaneishama- kubaya.Or something like that.

So, one day we are playing church in our house and we're scouring the house looking for something to use for communion when we stumble across a pack of big red gum. Which would be an absolutely delicious choice for communion. So we're getting all exciting about having gum, especially spicy, firey gum like big red, when my brother Alex exclaims, We can't use that gum. Red is the color of the devil!

That Crazy Pregnant Lady

The plane ride to Nashville was....interesting.

First, I showed up at the Ithaca airport to learn that my flight, which was supposed to arrive in Newark at 4:30 was delayed until 5:30 - due to weather conditions in Newark. This wasn't really a problem, because I was scheduled for a massively long layover and my next flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:00 pm.

Then we somehow arrived in Newark at 5:30, the time we were supposedly going to take off. So I guess they were ahead of schedule. Or still behind, but ahead of the behind. Or something.

Anyway

I headed to my gate, pulled out my Kindle and started reading. I had two and a half hours until my flight took off, so I wasn't particularly concerned with the goings on over the loudspeaker. Then suddenly, I look up and realize that my flight is no longer on the board by my gate.

Hmm, weird, maybe I got moved to another gate.

Me: Is the flight to Nashville at 8:00 still leaving from this gate.
Attendent: Yes, but its been delayed to 9:55 PM.  But there is another flight for Nashville boarding right now at the gate down there.

So I run to the gate and get bumped to an earlier flight. I love it when a day comes together.

On the plane, I am sitting next to a boy? man? that has just taken his bar exams, is flying back down to Nashville to pack up his things and move to NY to be a lawyer.

Me: Oh, that is awesome. What kind of lawyer are you going to be?
Him: A corporate lawyer. I want to stay as far away from the courtroom as possible!
Me: Isn't that all paperwork then?
Him: Yeah, but I just really don't want to be in the courtroom.
Me: Oh, that is the part that I think I would like. Paperwork is my least favorite part of my job. I would hate it if it was my entire job.

It was about this time he decided he didn't really want to talk to me anymore.

...some minutes later...

Flight Attendent: Do you want a ham or a turkey sandwich
Me: Do you have vegetarian?
Flight Attendent: No, sorry ma'am. Just ham or turkey tonight?
Me: I'll take turkey then.
flight attendent moves on
Me: I'm technically not supposed to eat lunch meat because I'm pregnant. But I'm really hungry and there's no other choices - so I'm still going to eat this.
Lawyer: Oh yeah. (not really interested or listening to me)

...some minutes later...
The lawyer sitting next to me is listening to Ray Charles, renaming music files, and reading the economist. I am reading my Kindle and suddenly feel like there is a lot of pressure in my head. I start trying to swallow. Then, I feel like my nose is running. So I reach my right hand up to wipe it. I look down at my hand and see that it is covered in blood. I then reach my left hand up and wipe. blood. At this point I am alternating hands, and trying to tip my head back to control the mass amount of blood that is running from my nose.
Me: Ummm. Do you have a napkin or a tissue to something
Lawyer: hands me a napkin.
I try to salvage my face and hands together as the bleeding finally ceases.

That marks of the end of all conversation between myself and the lawyer.

At least he probably had a good story about the crazy, annoying pregnant lady sitting next to him on the plane.

Oregon Trail

After crossing a bridge over the great Mississippi River

It was a lot easier crossing the Mississippi than I ever remember it being in Oregon Trail