I'm A Cuckoo

What a weekend. The Sox win, the Lantern Parade (thanks to Margaret), babysitting, opera, and church. May not sound like a lot to some, but for me it was definitely an event-packed weekend.

Of course, since the Sox won last night, I was unable to really fall asleep until about 3am. People were screaming and shouting and honking their horns until around 2:20am. I even tried putting my noise-canceling headphones on and listening to my "sleeptime" mix but the sounds of drunken celebration could be heard even above that. Surprisingly I didn't feel like a zombie this morning, but I'm just dreading the 2pm hour when my usual urge to take a nap turns into an involuntary coma.

The Lantern Parade was a wholesome good time. As Mags said, it was quite a big night for me because of the hundreds of adorable children and babies in Halloween costumes and all the puppies dutifully marching around the pond with their owners. I only wish it was possible to capture on camera how beautiful the sight of hundreds of lanterns glowing and bobbing around the edge of this huge dark pond was. Anthony and I agreed that it definitely had the feel and look of a Japanese festival to it; then we mused on what it would be like to be a newly emigrated Japanese person and see this parade taking place and wondering how the hell America has taken over sushi as well as lantern festivals. Mags, Terrell, Anton, and I then proceeded to the pizza place of Mags's childhood and gorged ourselves on comically large slices of cheese pizza (except Terrell, who had yummy looking chili).

Dylan was awake for a whole 20 minutes before I had to put him to bed. I got to feed him his bottle, though, which I love doing. He makes hilarious faces and gestures whilst sucking down his formula. I'm sad I won't see him again until November 17th as the family is going back to NYC for a bit (they split their time between the two places). :o(

I went to church on Sunday by myself for the first time in about 4 years. I just never felt comfortable and connected with Harcourt Parish during my time at Kenyon; I went to Ash Wednesday services, but that was it. It just felt so stilted and forced compared to the kind of community and eucharist I was used to from my church in Cincinnati. It also didn't help that I'd had a bit of a falling out with organized religion during college, specifically with the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. All the beauracracy made it very hard for me to enjoy any kind of worship and even harder for me to believe that God had anything to do with these services. I'm not sure what I was looking for when I went to church yesterday, but what I found was a few hours of peace, a feeling of centering, and open faces. Being me, I was a little nervous about going to a completely unfamiliar place and even more nervous about going to the coffee hour after the service, but I'm so glad I did both. I met a handful of genuinely nice, very open people and shared a few laughs and some great pumpkin spike bread and coffee. I'm going back next Sunday when it will be a more traditional Rite II eucharist service instead of a Morning Prayer service (the former of which includes Communion while the latter substitutes Healing Prayer for Communion).

My faith has by no means been miraculously restored to the same strength and vigor it was in high school, but I think this is a good starting place. Being a creature of habit and routine, it was very comforting to take part once again in all the prayers and rituals I grew up with. Church was a big part of my life for most of junior high and high school--mostly because I was so attached to the other kids in my youth group and Sunday was the only time we saw each other--and it was unexplicably warming to have a piece of that back for a few hours.

Don't worry, this doesn't mean I'm going to start trying to Evangelize any of you. I was always uncomfortable with that, anyway. ;o)

P.S. I hate breaking in new high heels. My feet have healing blisters on them and they hurt. Price of beauty and fashion and all that, though. I need them for work, and I most certainly don't have enough money to buy the pumps made out of softest calfskin. Not that I would anyway, seeing as how they'd have to kill baby cows to get me those shoes. But you know what I mean.

Seen
The Scarlet Empress (finished)
Queen Margot

Read
A House Like A Lotus by Madeleine L'Engle (almost done)