Friday Five: Word Association Game

It’s Monday already, but I just couldn’t give up on the RevGalBlogPals Friday Five Word Association game.

The challenge? To respond to the five words below my own first response word association, and then tell a story about one of the pairs.

1) Airport- adventure

So many associations with the airport, most work related but the best one to share here would have to be my second wedding anniversary. Back in the days before children and mortgages, 9/11 and job losses, my husband and I took a few fabulous trips to celebrate the fact that we’d decided to marry each other and did.

In 2001, my husband and his best man planned a surprise anniversary trip for their brides (Both couples share the same wedding date, but not the same year). We were told some basic things to pack, but since it was only a weekend, there wasn’t a lot to bring anyway. Our anniversaries are on March 6th, so my husband had to get special permission from the rector I worked under to take a vacation during Lent.

I tried hard to not figure out where we were going; I honestly love surprises. The surprise was revealed however, when we had to change plans in Philadelphia. It was then I learned we were going to the pink sandy beaches of Bermuda! (Did you know that the sand is actually ground bits of coral and that’s why it is pink?)

It was a most excellent holiday, complete with complimentary room upgrade to a suite with an ocean view and a stocked minibar. It was the most decadent vacation I have ever had. I can’t imagine we would ever be able to blow money like we did on that trip, and it was worth every penny to feel like jet-setters just once. (Imagine, jet-setting ministers? Ok, with all the larger than life TV ministers I guess it’s not that hard!)
2) Baseball- player

3) Art- museum

4) Chocolate- cake

5) Grill-marks

Thanks RevGalBlogPals for giving me a fun break!

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Royal Wedding Friday Five

With the RevGalsBlogPals:

1) Will you be watching? YES!

If so, is this your first royal wedding?

No. My first was Charles & Diana, then Andrew & Fergie.

2) The bride has chosen as her wedding cake a fruitcake. Where do you stand on this pastry?

Squarely in the middle, where the nuts are concentrated, it’s a firmer spot. Just kidding! I actually like fruitcake, but I must say it’s because I am related to people who know what good fruitcake is and how to make it. And, nodding to my family heritage, the top tier of my wedding cake was a traditional fruitcake baked by my mother and reserved for eating on our first anniversary.

3) The dress code for royal weddings has not seen the same sad decline as that for most other weddings. If you could design your own royal wedding hat, what color would it be and what special decoration would it feature?

I think I’d like a Robin’s Egg Blue with some lovely white tule and bits of lace.

4)  Any chance the Archbishop of Canterbury is using a Sustainable Sermon (tip of the mitre to the Vicar of Hogsmeade)? What would you tell the couple were you offering the homily?

Actually, it was the Bishop of London who preached, and I thought he nailed it! But I’d have been tempted to say something about the legacy that Diana left for them to continue. I think he got it without having to say so directly. Watching the couple, I might also have been tempted to do something to keep their attention. They looked like they could have fallen asleep (understandably so since they likely had a short sleep the night before!).

5) Believe it or not, kathrynzj is getting up early mostly to see the wedding dress. By the time this post is up, the world will have seen it. Did you like it?

I loved it! I thought it was so elegant, appropriate, classic, beautifully fitted, and gorgeous. I loved the act that it was so modest and covered her without looking dowdy. Most of today’s brides show WAY too much skin in the church. I do hope the designers will make this demure style a trend!

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The Thing About Birthdays-RevGalBlogPals

This week’s Friday Five from RevGalBlogPals has to do with birthdays,and there are, as promised, 5 questions about the topic to inspire.

How about you? What do you think of birthdays?

1. What are your feelings about celebrating birthdays, especially your own?

Birthdays were always a big deal growing up in my family, so I tend to look forward to them with childlike expectation that is often disappointed because my husband grew up in a house that didn’t make a big deal of birthdays. I have faced several monumental birthdays with discouragement though too. We have moved to a new state a few months before I turned 30 so what I would have enjoyed wasn’t possible (a big party with all my friends). Turning 35, really 36, was a big let down too, because it meant the passing of “young adulthood” and the idea that I was leaving behind a very special demographic that offered such great opportunity, especially in the church world.

Forty was hard also, because I had great dreams of making a big trip to Ireland with my best friend. It just wasn’t possible financially and my job in the church was rapidly slipping away (I lost it 10 days later).

All that aside, I usually do look forward to my birthday and try to enjoy it. I found last year that birthday greetings from my Facebook friends really meant a lot to me, especially those from folks who put apparent effort into the wish.

2. Do you have any family traditions about birthdays?

My parents always call, usually first thing in the morning, and sing to me. I love it. We also tend to let the birthday person choose the meal for the night, whether I cook or we go out. And partied for my kids are important. My younger son was really put out because we didn’t have a party this year. But my older son (who turned 9), really pushed to make sure we did.

A fun tradition I picked up from a childhood friend involves screaming when cutting the cake. She told me she learned it in Hong Kong. The birthday girl/boy makes the first cut in the cake and screams when the knife hits the bottom of the cake to wake up the birthday spirits so they will know it’s time to grant your wish. What kid doesn’t like to scream on their birthday?

3. Is it easy to remember friends’ and family members’ birthdays? If so, how do you do it?

For the most part I do remember birthdays of those closest to me. Those usually get a phone call or a gift or both. Definitely the spouse and kids get gifts.

4. What was one of your favorite birthdays? (or your unhappiest?)

I think my most memorable birthdays were in high school and involved kidnapping me in my pajamas and going to IHOP for breakfast.

5. Post anything else you want to share about birthdays, including favorite foods, songs, and/or pictures.

I love the new American Cancer Society ad campaign about making more birthdays. Though the tumor I’m being treated for is considered benign, my goal is still the same: to be healthy enough to enjoy many, many more birthdays. I’d like to make it to 90! (Please God?)

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Friday Five: Ex Tenebrae Lux

Here’s my first time to play on Friday with the chicks at RevGalBlogPals. The assignment is to list five ways in which I’m anticipating or moving forward, towards resurrection, new life, hope, joy.

While Lent only lasts a few weeks, I feel as if I have been on this journey for several years.

1. Anticipating a new job. Later this year I’ll be released for work again and I know God is already preparing that me-shaped space for me. I don’t know what I’ll be doing, but I’ve already had a dream about it and I’m going to love it!

2. Healing body and spirit. I continue to pray for my miracle, to live tumor-free and reconciled. I feel the progress that I have made and celebrate little victories like exercising each day and allowing grace if I miss a day.

3. Making new friends. A clergyfriend yesterday told me that, as an adult, she has found it takes (at least) four years to make new friends after a move. I’ve been here just under four years and find that I’ve got lots of acquaintances, but not yet the dear bosom friend I long for who seeks me out to chat and catch up even when things are crazy.

4. I started a new blog to keep up my writing skills. Not only does it challenge me to keep thinking, it’s also creating connections with other bloggers.

5. I’ve revived my devotional practice with the help of Rachel Hackenberg’s Writing to God: 40 Days of Praying With My Pen. What was lost, or interrupted, by a round of steroids is slowly coming back to me as my connection with the presence of God is renewed, restored.

That’s it. Five for Friday. Check out the other gals by clicking the button

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