Tag: Easter

What’s Making Me Happy (First of April 2013!)

1st April 2013, Easter Monday, April Fool's Da...
1st April 2013, Easter Monday, April Fool’s Day P1710412 (Photo credit: tomylees)

Happy April!  Happy April Fool’s Day!

 

 

 

I’ve always loved the 1st of a new month and I feel great affinity with April 1st, as it’s my half birthday!
(Really, who celebrates such a thing? I guess I do! )  
April is kind of the yin to my yang or something.  

 

 

April is also National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month, among other wacky holidays (National Welding Month? International Guitar Month?). I’m always looking for a reason to celebrate, so websites like Holiday Insights  are great places to find inspiration.  (e.g. 3rd Thursday in April (4/18) = National High Five Day, April 23 = Take a Chance Day, April 30 = Hairstyle Appreciation Day.)

 

 

It’s been a great start to April, so I’ll start the month with a list of what’s been making me happy lately!

 

 

Movies States
The United States of Movies
  • This is a fun new poster I have added to my walls.  I haven’t seen all the films (haven’t even heard of some of them!  SLC Punks?  Who knew?) but maybe that will be a goal sometime!  If not, it’s fun to look at and think about and a conversation piece.  
vodka stroganoff beets vodka
Anna Karenina celebratory meal
  • Had a few Walkie Talkies over for dinner and a movie!  The movie was the new Anna Karenina and before the movie we had vodka, beef stroganoff, yummy bread and brie, and pickled beets.  After the meal we had vodka and white Russian cupcakes.  The movie was engrossing and fast-moving and fun to watch!  Very cleverly done!  I can’t wait to watch it again!  
Keep Calm Chivery
Keep Calm and…
  • I saw this as I was browsing in B&N and thought it was pretty hilarious!  Love the Keep Calm stuff.  Love this even more.  
Pedis with the girls pedicure pampering spa
Pedis with the girls
  • Any day off is a good day off.  A day off spent with friends and family is the best day off ever!  Lots of times other people have to work on my days off (and vice versa) so I’m happy that it’s spring break this week!  
  • Today I also went to Macy’s because I won a door prize that I signed up for last week!  So I have two full-sized bottles of some perfumes I’ve never heard of before!  Good times!
  • And also today my mom decided we would celebrate opening day of baseball season with hotdogs, potato salad and ice cream while watching the Twins on TV!  Good stuff.  Mom loves a theme, too!
Easter Chicks
Easter Chicks (Photo credit: Flying Pig Party Productions)
  • I worked on Easter weekend but enjoyed the time spent with my fellow “Easter chicks,” as we dubbed ourselves.  We had some cookies, which looked like these above, and lots of jelly beans.
  • I am over HALF WAY DONE with Gone with the Wind!  Yay me!  I am more than 500 pages into this book of about 960 pages.  Ah.  Still enjoying it and can’t wait to have another dinner and a movie night!
  • I’m looking forward to book club tomorrow night – gonna make Mississippi Mud cake to celebrate!  Also bringing little Cokes in glass bottles and someone else is bringing the rum (relevant to the book!).  Always a good time.
  • I’m looking forward to a WEEKEND OFF!  Friday, Saturday AND Sunday!  Woot!  No big plans and a 4 hour meeting for work on Saturday, but excited, nonethless!
  • I’m looking forward to making my list of 44 Things:Q3!  I haven’t started yet, but will work on it this week.

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is my favorite poem about April.  I’ve shared it on my blog in another April post (2011, I believe).  I memorized it in high school and it still comes to mind when I think of springtime and April.  I would LOVE to know your favorite poems!  Send them my way!  

 

 

APRIL by Marcia Masters
It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s daisy.
It’s a roller-skating, scissor-grinding day;
It’s gingham-waisted, chocolate flavored, lazy,
With the children flower-scattered at their play.

 

It’s the sun like watermelon,
And the sidewalks overlaid
With a glaze of yellow yellow
Like a jar of marmalade.

 

It’s the mower gently mowing,
And the stars like startled glass,
While the mower keeps on going
Through a waterfall of grass.

 

Then the rich magenta evening
Like a sauce upon the walk,
And the porches softly swinging
With a hammockful of talk.

 

It’s the hobo at the corner
With his lilac-sniffing gait,
And the shy departing thunder
Of the fast departing skate.

 

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s April!
A water sprinkler, puddle winking time,
When a boy who peddles slowly, with a smile remote and holy,
Sells you April chocolate flavored for a dime.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunday Snapshot 3/24/13

A weird work schedule (really? it’s always weird!) has me feeling very Saturday-ish today, so I have to get in the Sunday mode!  Especially since I have to work early Monday morning!  Then a few days off before I work my very first holiday – Easter weekend.  I hope to make it to the interfaith service at the beautiful Chapel at St. Mary’s, at least for part of it.  Sunday morning can’t be that busy in the Emergency Department, right?

Anyway, not much to fill you in on except that I watched the movie The Sessions last night – and it was just so good!

The Sessions
The Sessions (Photo credit: Librari Kameleon)

It’s based on a true story about a man who is a journalist and a poet and lives most of his day in an iron lung.  He interviews people with disabilities about their sex lives and then wishes to lose his virginity.  It’s a nice story about this humorous and intelligent man, his relationship with his priest, his caregivers and the sex surrogate he hires after seeing a sex therapist.    It’s about love and life and poetry.  Good stuff!

Here’s a link to the article written by Mark O’Brien after his sex surrogate experience.  I haven’t read it all, but will!

Next in my DVD player is The Intouchables – a story about a person who becomes a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident.   He’s very wealthy and hires a man from the projects to be his caregiver, and boy do they have fun!  Living life to the fullest.  Good stuff!

Triple these movies with the book I just finished for book club – We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg – and there’s a theme!  I love Elizabeth Berg books and this was no exception.  This book is about a woman who contracts polio late in her pregnancy and delivers a healthy baby while in an iron lung.  She remains paralyzed with full feeling in her body (like Mark O’Brien in The Sessions) and raises her daughter to be a strong independent woman.  It’s a fictional account of an actual person’s life (ala The Sessions, as well!).  Good stuff!

Good stuff that is coming up:

Hard boiled traditional Russian Easter eggs
Hard boiled traditional Russian Easter eggs (Photo credit: Steve White2008)
  • Planning an Anna Karenina viewing party with a few people (most of my fellow-walkietalkie peeps!) who love classical literature and may have started the book or intend to read the book sometime!  I’m the only one to have finished it.  🙂  We’re having beef stroganoff, pickled beets, white Russian cupcakes, and vodka (of course!)!  Love a good theme and in this early spring, Russian literature is a good one!
  • Some fun Aunt-related activities coming up this week, including a Seder dinner and a RockTown tour! And it’s a niece’s birthday today so my gift is a shopping trip, hopefully this week!
  • It will be weird to work on Easter weekend, but I try to remember that no one wants to be hospitalized on Easter, either, so I will do my best to be a blessing to those I see!
  • Book club on April 2 for We Are All Welcome Here – with a 60s feel!  Pizza burgers, potato chips, a classic dessert, Coke in bottles… good stuff!
  • Marissa got accepted into graduate school, so we will be exploring housing options in the Cities soon!  That is something fun to look forward to!
  • And I’ve gotta work on my list for 44 Things: Q3 as it is right around the corner!

But first, today I’m getting together with friend Beth to celebrate her birthday, which was on the first day of Spring!  Yay for friend time!

How about you?  What does your Sunday look like?  What are you looking forward to?

Happy Sunday, all!