Are You Sad Because You're On Your Own?

Easter  is a holiday that can be celebrated in one's heart.  No need for a mass gathering, this holiday can be personal.  It was always a big food deal in my home growing up and I do have some great memories that revolve around baked hams and pork roasts, potato salad and deviled eggs.  I slightly recall cheap grocery store Easter baskets with that green cellophane and bonnets I had to wear to church but it's the dinner that was memorable.  Only second to the greatest story ever told.

I spent the holiday alone this year and decided to make a Baked Spaghetti Supreme after work.  A throw-back food reminiscent of the Pizza Hut creation of the 1970s.  When I went to the restaurant and ordered this for the first time I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  That was also the introduction to the salad bar and free pop refills. Spaghetti and pizza toppings and the unique taste of baked pasta in sauce was my idea of celebrational food from then on.  Done correctly, this is too delicious, sinfully so.  It's the best of both worlds.  I added sausage and mushrooms, olives, onions and used good Parmesan and Mozzarella. 

 

I'd love to be with family or with my partner but circumstances gave me this fun opportunity to spend it with a giant casserole of my favorite food alone and so I accepted and invited what is, and loved it. 

I wrote silly poems to the spring flowers while riding to and from work in the sun, took pictures and enjoyed observing others on holiday.  I thanked God and mother nature for the new buds and then went home and ate a moderate portion and then another giant plate for dinner.   

I'm Feeling Outshined

Asparagus means spring.  Spring means asparagus, flowers, sun, fun, fresh, bright, new, Easter, opportunity and hopefully great health.  My wishes are for better hair ideas to beat the frizz, not to look so dang tired all the time, and a brighter outlook and the headspace to carry it off.  Does the Easter Bunny take wish lists?  I forget his story.  Come to think of it I'm not sure I ever knew it.  He was just introduced as a connection to the Easter Basket but the details were vague.  I doubt my parents were familiar.  Maybe its not formed in my mind because it was outshined by another. Mainly, Easter was the story of Jesus and his rising up, the hard tough saga leading to his death.  There were lots of events all squashed together.  Ash Wednesday, lent, Palm Sunday, many tragic passages being read in mass and class, the smell of the burnt ashes, death and incense.  Ending in this amazing break out sequence.  I just remember hearing over and over he did it all for us.  He was something that Jesus Christ.  I would be out at the beatings, I thought.  Would I die for anyone?  I was scared to death of being left in the grocery store. During the kissing of the feet ceremony, as I gazed up at the beautiful kind Jesus suffering, literally on the cross I did process that he was selfless.

I thought of my mom as being the only person in the world that was even a close second to Him.  Needless to say the bunny was a much lesser player.  Plus a giant rabbit is a little scary. Did he hide the candy or fill your basket overnight? Even his magic abilities were fuzzy.  I don't remember ever wanting to meet him or if I even believed there was one at any point.  We colored eggs and I do remember the zoning on the cellophane plastic grass and getting a couple of those cheap prefab jobbies from Avery's Supermarket.

Speaking of fresh, here's my coworker spotted shopping after work.  Isn't it funny what people come up with given the opportunity to express their style without restrictions.  Another import.  Love him.  A former postal carrier from Texas.  

If We Took a Holiday, Took Some Time To Celebrate

It was Sunday morning and I rode into work soaking in the sunlight on my face even though it was still very windy and cold.  It was Easter and I wanted to celebrate even though I would be doing it by selling kitchens all day.

 It was Passover, it was 420, it was spring break, Easter and I figured we'd have a semi-calm relaxed retail day.  I mean who would be here today shopping for furniture?   But when I opened those double doors into the store, I saw everyone.  That's who would be here today shopping.... everyone.  Everyone and their two little toddler aged kids.  It's kind of ignorant to want peace in retail.  I know that but a lot of things are so over the top in New York.  It's the mixture of quantity of people and different cultures, languages, ways of shopping, unbelievable impatience - so hard to explain how it's so incredibly different but it is.  There seems to be an unawareness or respect for each other within each's individual realities.  No one is orbiting around the same planet.  And maybe I was kind of upset that on this beautiful holiday this was the thing all these people thought to do was to go out and shop?? I don't want to understand that world.

 I kept my zen for one customer and then some one sent me down the wrong path.  I struggled to keep any holiday joy myself.  The only thing that got me through was that I would be out of there early enough to try to have a little celebration at home.  I left P with the list that morning.  I wasn't attempting anything big at all since I had to work early the next day.

Turkey-Veggie burger patties with roasted asparagus.  For snacks hummus, crudites, and baked veggie chips.

But for dessert, a nice big slice of Red Velvet Cake to share from Touch of Velvet and a huge vat of popcorn.
I'm no better than those schmucks shopping.  I too am living in my own world and struggle with just about every facet of life but I'm giving full permission right now to shoot on site should you ever see me shopping at a big box retailer on Easter Day.