on your journey, i will bless you...

Today is the last Friday before Mardi Gras, but while driving down the main street this afternoon en route to the bank, I still wondered why all the stores and businesses were putting barriers up in their parking lots. It didn't click until I was sitting in temple, and the lay leader announced that we would have an abbreviated service (Yeah right. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve were supposed to be abbreviated services, too. I'm beginning to suspect there is no such thing at that temple.) so we could get out before the parade started. As Enzo says in The Art of Racing in the Rain -- a book I just finished, told from the point-of-view of a dog about as old and decrepit as Sable -- "The light switch! It's either on or it's off."

I was a little late to services this evening. We usually start when we hear the cathedral bells tolling six, and I arrived after the bells rang. We happened to be working off programs instead of the siddur, and this was the exchange when I walked in:

Karen: Sees me walking in. "Michael, we have a guest. Give her a program."
Michael: Looks around, sees me, is confused. "What guest?"
Someone: "Rebecca."
Michael: "Rebecca is not a guest."
Me: Crushed :(
Michael: "She is family. Paul!"
Paul: Jumps a little.
Michael: "Scoot over so Rebecca can sit down!"
Me: Well, aww :)


The temple gates. I walk through these every Friday to put my bike in the back. I'm still working on getting that background blurry.

We kept the pilot light in our heater on all winter (my uncle had to show me how to light it three times before I finally got the hang of it), and a few days ago, I blew it out, thinking the cold weather was over for good. Of course that very night, the temperature suddenly dropped, and the next morning our apartment was chilly and I had to turn the pilot light back on. Anyway...

Shit That Went Well Today:

I was the employee of the month for February, which means I got a bonus of $75 in my paycheck today! I'm working on a list of things to spend it on, so I won't end up blowing it on boring stuff. I've also gotten very good at getting sign-ups. On Tuesday I set a new personal best with eleven, and today I got seven -- both are a lot, since we're supposed to make an overall daily total of ten. It only slightly bust my bubble when my manager told me that yesterday I'd made a big (but honest) mistake that cost us a lot of time and money. She was nice about it, and nobody made a big deal over it, but it still made me feel pretty crappy.

Grandma made spaghetti today, so I went to her house on my lunch break. She also had a devil's food cake hot out of the oven, but it wasn't until I got home from work tonight that I found out why she had made it (Sara asked her later). Grandma: "It's your dad's birthday today." I still don't know whether to find that funny or crazy or sad. It's certainly a very Grandma thing to do. She's the only one who would bake a birthday cake for a man who's been dead +4 years. And then just for overkill, she gave me a candy bar, just like she's done every year on Dad's birthday and death day (or, as the people at Find-a-Grave ridiculously call it, "angel day"). Which is nice, I guess, but how long is she going to keep that up? Until she dies? Until old-age senility sinks in and she forgets who Dad was? We'll see.

A big Mardi Gras parade rolled right by where I work this evening. It was noisy, but at least we didn't get any drunk people wandering in and acting crazy, which is what my manager said happened last year. It was a geeky, comforting feeling to be inside working and straightening things, while the revelry carried on right outside. It's weird that when I was a kid, I looked forward to Mardi Gras, but now, it's lost most of its appeal to me. They don't throw nearly as much candy at parades now, and after years of keeping a basketful of Mardi Gras beads in my closet, I realize what pointless, worthless things they really are.

And HOORAY for me being OFF all this weekend! Tomorrow I'm attending a program at the geneology library that I've been looking forward to, and Sunday is the Oscars!