420 Praise It or A Do Nothing Easter

11 years ago, one of Jess' friends posted on Facebook for Easter, "420 Praise It." Which I thought was hilarious. Here we are, back on the calendar again with Easter falling on "the pot day." 

So my message unto one and all is ... Praise it. whether or not you do the pot part of things, just praise it. 

We did not plan anything for Easter. Last year I went to see Guster, and Doug didn't plan anything then either. He and Geoff realized they didn't have anything for dinner so he went to Target and found them closed. He thought that was weird, but our County has some weird rules. 

Giant was open, so he got them some dinner there. 

And here we are, a year later, in the same boat. We all came to an agreement - Doug is mowing the lawn (and then shopping online to see if he can get a Worx weed whacker), Geoff went to the market for dinner makings, I was the chef. 

We decided on a lasagna to buck tradition, and because the boys thought it sounded good. Alrighty then! 

I was thinking about previous Easters and the amount of effort we put into it. We, maybe meaning I because. Church, dressing the children, egg dying, nice dinner. 

I'm not sure that I am happy to eschew all sorts of family traditions, but I am happy to not do things. Truly. I know I've written about Slacker Christmas, as it does not have to be crazy over the top do all the things (and they usually fall on me) preparations and jump flaming red hoops. I'm not a go to brunch for Easter kind of person, or go to a restaurant kind of person, I feel badly for people who have to work on holidays, but also some people may want to work on holidays, and if they usually work on a Sunday why lose that day's pay. 

It just feels weird though, to do absolutely nothing at all to commemorate the holiday. I kind of want to write about big thoughts and ponderings, but I will just say this. 

My friend S called me last night. She has been struggling with Easter and she always has. She's a christian, but Easter always feels to her like a problem and a mess, going back to her childhood but especially lately as an adult and a mom. Because of family, and trauma. Old and new.

She is basically forced to go to brunch with her in-laws every year, and she hates it. She does not get along with her father in law (there's a lot there) and a big part of it is because he essentially does not care for her son, his grandson. 

They do not spend time with him, they aren't interested in his activities (like his recitals/music), and she feels that his neurospicy personality bothers him. H is on the spectrum, but he is a delightful person, a lot of fun, and really, any grandpa should love this kid. But ... he very much does not. Or if he does, he doesn't express it.

She wanted to tell me that H said "do you remember last Easter, when we were in Boston and we went to Guster, and then on Easter Sunday we did the easter egg hunt in the hotel? That was the best Easter of my life! I wish we were doing that again."

And she wanted me to know that a lot of how he feels about last year sits in my lap. The fun, the time together, the everything, I helped orchestrate it. And I did it with him in mind because when we bought the tickets (months before) we didn't realize that was Easter weekend. She knew she was going to catch all kinds of shit for missing the Family Brunch. She felt intense guilt, like, maybe they'd think she did this on purpose (but no, she didn't, she didn't plan the tour and the closing night date and location). And on top of everything, H would miss out on an egg hunt or Easter Kid Fun here at home. She was spiraling about it. She almost canceled their trip and I told her not to - we'd make some fun. And we did.

She also said it was her favorite Easter ever. She said that family is fine and all but the friends that go out of their way to do stuff for each other, this is what makes life good. And we do that for each other. We become Framily. Someone's birthday while Guster is touring - there's cake and singing. People get married during On The Ocean, we all celebrate with them. Ryan wrote about this in The Atlantic (gift article, read it while it is still available), about the Guster Fam (shortened by most of us to GusFam) and how they owe it to us to deliver. And we owe it to each other. 

This is a different kind of family, and she said to me "H is his [her father in law's] own grandson, and he's not anything to you, but you love him so much, so very much and you don't have to."

But I do, because on one night in 2019 or something, they came to a meet and greet before a show and I said to her "did we just become best friends?" 

She survived brunch and has stories. I look forward to spending some time with her soon. 

As for the rest of our day, after Doug mowed the lawn he took a nap. I went to the gym. I had done an indoor walk while he was mowing and I watered the plants. But I wanted a good treadmill event. No dog pulling my shoulder out of joint, and maybe some jogging to some bad 70s song. I got that. Dahlia needed to go out after I got back, so we walked up the street to see if she'd poop and she did. 

I think I've broken her code. No poop in yard! Yes poop on neighbor's lawn 3/4 of a mile from our house! Jerk.  Digits below my bad selfie from the gym. 

I hope whatever kind of Sunday you had, whether Eastery, or not Eastery, with or without family or friends, that you found a joy in the 24 hours.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  2 walks. One indoors for 20 min/.69 miles. Gym, treadmill. 30 min/1.56 miles (and another one with Dahlia that the fitbit measured, 11 min/.48 miles). 12k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 122
4:30pm: 115
10:30pm: 105

food:
coffee/water
9:30am: Phentermine
11:45am: met+glip
2:30pm: 2 good yogurt
6pm: met+glip
7pm: plate of lasagna (with very little pasta, but a lot of meat) 2 small pieces of bread
9:30pm: jardiance
white wine