Easter came and went amid sun and snow squalls, indicative of the transitory nature of mid-April. We spent a lovely early dinner with the family, then a quiet afternoon in which I managed to fill a few more lawn bags as I rounded the far corner of the yard. It’s about half-way done now, though the weather looks iffy for the next week, meaning I’ll be taking it slow, which bodes well for this 46-year-old body. On with the Holy Week recap…

It began with a bout of the Tuesday blues. 

A preview of the new seasonal mocktail: the calamansi cooler.

This wretched train took us all the way to Florida. 

Sharing is a bonus part of meditation.

Vacation or bust.

Not playing around with the possum. 

The first blooms of the season are blue. 

Floral fireworks from Faddegon’s.

A Pink Moon brings beauty and havoc. 

Bright and sunny ambivalence. 

A funny resurrection, and that annual Easter fright shot. 

Easter lily happiness. 

A Ramos gin fizz, minus the gin and the egg white. 

Dazzlers of the Day included Ketanji Brown Jackson, Tess Collins, and Matt Baumgartner. 

Easter shouldn’t be entirely traumatic, so here’s a fun and happy Easter post that shows off the original trailer for that sweet musical ‘Easter Parade’ starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. It’s not my favorite musical – not by a long shot – but the costumes and theme are resurrected every year at this time because I’m not a fan of the other Easter movies out there. Such a difficult theme to do well… 

Along with this glimpse at the musical, I offer you a few Easter lilies, whose fragrance always brings me back to another traumatic event: serving mass during Holy Week. But that’s a nightmare for another holiday. For today, let’s rest and revel in a spring revival. 

Yes, I remember the day this picture was taken. 

It is probably one of my very first memories, and it is ingrained wherever memories are made and stored. I remember standing in the line at the Mohawk Mall, a small part of me wanting to see the Easter Bunny, and the much larger rest of me freaking entirely out, shuffling ever closer with increasing terror and fright. That likely didn’t start my social anxiety, but it was the very first remembered brush with it, so traumatizing was the event. 

And even though nothing bad happened, even though I made it through and survived without major incident, it left a mark, and my social anxiety didn’t abate or lessen. If anything, it was emboldened to terrorize me for the next forty years, because it wreaked that much havoc with my head. 

It didn’t help that the bunny was such a fright in and of itself. I mean, how cruel was it to introduce that glorious purple tulle ruff to a gay boy, and pair it with a face as diabolical as that? No wonder my taste eventually ran to what it became. 

Since that fateful Easter encounter, I’ve had to work through all the rabbit trauma, which ended up being easier than working through the social anxiety, and in a strange way, I’m grateful for that memory. Without the challenges it presented then, now, and probably for a few tomorrows, I wouldn’t challenge myself as much. 

Happy Easter everybody! 

An anything-but-good Friday began with Betsy spilling her coffee on her shirt, and from there the workday went swiftly downhill. Halfway into the afternoon I wondered briefly if there was a full moon in effect, but then more things piled up and I forgot to check. As messes and mistakes grew in scope and size, and the day turned even crazier, Andy picked me up and went into detail about the lunatics he had just encountered on the road. 

I took out my phone and googled ‘full moon April 2022’ and sure enough, here we are. Today marks the full Pink Moon – named not for its pretty color, but for the fact that the moss pink (Phlox subulata) is in bloom now. Not in these parts, of course, but somewhere a bit warmer. The Phlox subulata in our area won’t come into its glory for another month or so, but I love the idea of the moon reflecting what blooms are showing up somewhere else in the world. 

I don’t love the effects of the full moon as a rule, however, so I will be staying quiet and doing my best to steer clear of lunacy for the next day or so. 

Despite what some consider a somewhat ferocious appearance, the opossum is an animal that greatly aids our backyard ecosystem. As seen in the helpful reminder below, this creature gets rid of hundreds of pesky problems, while offering no threat or harm to us. Earlier this year, I witnessed two of them lumbering through our yard early in the morning, a reminder of this visitor from two years ago. It was good to see them making their patrol, and I’m glad they are working their neighborhood magic.