Easter Weekend

On Easter Day the veil between time and eternity thins to gossamer There are very few reasons I would drive all the way home just for the weekend. Easter is one of them. So yeah, 6-hour drive down after work on Friday. 6-hour drive back in time for work on Monday. Less than fun, but worth it. I got home Friday night at about 10:00, and I watched “Enchanted” with my parents. Good wholesome family times. Plus they have a flatscreen. (And, of course, Idina) I also got my birthday presents. First off, the coolest Salvador-Dali-like clock on the planet. Some much-needed pants for work, and a new pair of Skechers, God’s perfect shoe. Most of Saturday was spent at my aunt’s house where it appears the family is growing exponentially. There were at least 10 boys under the age of 9 running around that house. Most of my cousins are married off and breeding, while the rest were knocked up. But everybody’s having boys. So, of course, I’m expected to participate in the festivities. Sorry, people. I don’t make enough money, and I still don’t like kids. Oh, and I don’t plan on getting married any time soon. We had the egg hunt, far-traveling relatives, occasional gossip, and an assortment of casseroles. All good things. Towards the evening I got a text from the beloved Leathermanzullos saying that they were passing through my home state and were thinking about me. After an inapt exclamation of, “Dude, I’M in my home state!!!” and some really poor direction-giving, we met for dinner and they ended up staying the night before completing their ridiculously long drive back to school from North Carolina. I heart them. Mom got me an Easter basket, a tradition that lives as long as I spend Saturday night at my parents’ house. And it’s always filled with very childlike things. A Peeps Play-doh set. A spring activities coloring book (with some new colored pencils). And, of course, enough sugar to get anyone excited. Church was good. I really like Mom and Dad’s church. It’s a little smaller with the “big church” feel. They’re meeting in a highschool gym, which is cool because they’re undergoing a huge building project across the street. The new music minister is very good. And I’ve always liked the pastor. I expect people in teaching positions to have gone further in their education than I have, and he holds 3 PhD’s or something ridiculous. I helped Mom in the nursery during Sunday School after running to Dixie Cream to get donuts for Dad’s class. There was one baby for each of us. And they both slept. Awesome. For lunch we went to Columbia’s Steakhouse. It took me weeks to think of somewhere to go that was strictly Kentucky, and once my brain landed here I wondered how it could have wandered anywhere else. (Seriously, I was going to go with Red Lobster…) I put up the restaurant’s link which I’m sure has a menu, but in my opinion Columbia’s has 2 items: fried banana peppers and the NightHawk Special. The appetizer is simple: batter-fried banana peppers with cocktail sauce. The NightHawk is something special: choice cut fillet, marinated and served practically floating in garlic butter, smothered in sautéed onions (or mushrooms, if you’re a freak) and served with the largest baked potato you’ve ever seen. I was home. The rest of the day saw me toted around to as many family members and friends as I could see in one day. I didn’t get to leave until almost 8:00 that night. The drive back is always longer when you know you’re just going to work, but I had a couple good friends to talk to, an iPod full of musicals to sing along with, and some junk food to keep me otherwise occupied. Before I got home, though, I dropped by Lori’s before she went to Florida to pick up a new computer!!! Well, new to me. She got a brand new one, and is ever-so-kind as to let me use her old one that’s still much better than my GCC electric paperweight. I’m very excited about it, though I’ve had very little time to use it. What with rehearsals and work and general running around. Yay Easter.