I like Easter as a holiday. I like hunting for eggs and Peeps and other Easter activities. I also like going to church. Easter is fun!
But Easter is a largely social holiday. On any typical Easter day (at least in my family)we go church in a big gang. We always go to the sunrise service, which involves waking up way before the sun comes up, sleepily eating scrambled eggs and toast in a kitchen crowded with aunts and uncles and cousins, fighting for use of the bathroom, having some sort of crisis over what to wear to the super special Easter service, piling into several vehicles and arriving at church in a massive convoy, and then standing outside in the chilly pre-dawn weather for the sermon. It's good times.
After church the convoy moves back home and the Easter dinner preparations begin. The adult females crowd into the kitchen, the adult males pack into the living room for some kind of sports television, and the social outcasts from both of these adult groups take the children outside and conduct a massive Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Prizes are awarded, candy is eaten, and at least one child will cry over finding hardly any eggs.
After the children have been exercised enough to allow them back in the house (and after dinner is ready) everyone crowds around the massive dining room table and eats a fantastic dinner of ham, rolls, salads, asparagus, mashed potatoes and other delicacies. After dinner everyone collapses into various positions of fatigue and reminisces over slides of old photos projected onto a sheet hung on a wall in the living room.
You'll notice that throughout this description of a typical Easter in my family, I frequently used adjectives such as "packed," "massive" and "crowded," which were chosen for their ability to describe large groups of people.
This Easter, however, I was alone.
I did not go back home for Easter, and as such I spent it in a very different manner than that to which I am accustomed.
I woke up at approximately nine thirty and decided to sleep until ten. At ten I got out of bed, showered, and took a multivitamin for breakfast. I then sorted my laundry and started it through the long cycle of washing. I even decided to wash my sheets and bedding. After everything was in the washer I took my rug outside and shook the dirt out of it. It was hard to lift my desk up so that I could pull the rug out from under it. I swept my floor, but because I couldn't find the usual broom that is in our floor closet I had to use a small hand held sweep. It was awkward. I put my rug back in place. I transferred my laundry to the dryer, washed my dishes, and cleaned off my desk. I disinfected the doorknobs and cleaned our microfridge. I brought the laundry up from the basement, remade my bed, and put away my clothes. I ate lunch. I took a nap. I awoke from my nap groggy, confused, and hungry again.
As you can see, this Easter has not been particularly noteworthy for its feelings of community and family bliss. In fact, it's been a bit lonesome. I haven't even eaten any peeps.
I am, however, going home on Wednesday. I expect this to be very exciting and will report on its results soon, as in Thursday, when I get back.
