As I sit here waiting for a call saying that the car loan paperwork has been faxed over, I guess I’ll let people know what’s up.

Wednesday was Jon’s birthday. I got him a Celtic cross (mostly so he’d stop stealing mine!) and I made a donation to a Northern Ireland peace charity for kids in his name. That night, we had the first of three discussions on the massive waste of time and money that the ELCA voted on doing in 2001 and that went fairly well. (The $500K could honestly be better spent on evangelism since the overwhelming majority of people have indicated their desire to keep the status quo.) I had baked a cake for Jon and some of my WELCA ladies (who deserve much accolades and fruit snacks) baked a couple more so that we’d have enough and we sang to him. 🙂

Yesterday night, I watched Carly Patterson kick some Olympic gymnastics butt. I went for my walk earlier in the evening so I could watch it and I ended up running into a parishioner and getting a tour of the local Catholic church where he is the janitor. It was cool to hang out and talk even if it did mean that I was late getting home and showering.

OK… now if my credit union would please fax me the loan application…

One Monday, we had a memorial prayer service for L (our parishioner who died on Friday). It was an incredibly uplifting service. We sang lots of hymns (basically hymn-sing style with people naming requests), several people (including myself) shared memories, and there was much prayer. It was totally what L would have wanted and it replaced the morbid visiting hours at the funeral home. The first hymn was “Let All Things Now Living” (one of my favorites) and the closing one was “Silent Night”. (Yes… “Silent Night”. Apparently, L and her husband had frequently sung this as a duet at Christmas and the kids requested it.)

Yesterday, the funeral was at 2 and went very well. It was a joyful occasion with some tears and finished with “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”. The sermon was wonderful (props to Jon who was an excellent preacher and worship leader) and the sharing time was also just wonderful. There was a lunch afterward with sandwiches, fruit, and chocolate angel food cake (something that L was known for baking for people — there was a pyramid of her cake pans on display) and then we went to the church for the interrment. The family released balloons in the air and we sang “Amazing Grace”.

When we got home, I decided to go for a walk and discovered after a block or so that I was having to push myself to keep moving. I made it through all 3 miles and collapsed into bed after I showered. I fell asleep watching women’s gymnastics and saw Romania get the gold medal. (I wish the US had won but Romania deserved it.) I slept until 10:30 this morning with a small interlude to let the mewing cats into the bedroom at 6:30. Edda chewed me out for a good 90 seconds. (She chirps and it was like she was saying “WHY didn’t you let me sleep with you last night?!?!?!?! I am a beautiful black cat and I purr better than anyone else here!!!!”) She then went to sleep on the end of the bed before rising a few hours later to be pantherish.

Happy 27th birthday to my beloved.

I got through the memorial prayer service on Monday night and the funeral today. (I will blog about those tomorrow. I promise.) When I went for my walk tonight, I was having to force myself to keep moving — my body is so drained from having to extrovert myself for two days straight. Dealing with 400+ people is not my forte, especially when all of them are introducing themselves to me and expecting me to remember their names. In addition, I have a wicked sinus headache (a lovely time to have bad reactions with decongestants) and I didn’t get a nap this morning.

I’m going to curl up in a cave under the covers. Night night.

Could someone please explain to me why so many people are going crazy about the Atkins diet? I mean, what kind of diet lets you eat a huge freaking steak with no guilt but won’t let you have an apple because the apple has carbs?

My black satin princess was snuggly this morning so I slept in until 8 (usually I’m up at 6:30) and then got up to do my devotional reading. I took my walk this morning and grabbed breakfast before finding out that the bills hadn’t been put in the mail and I needed to take them down to the post office. The walk (1.5 miles total) was so easy after all the walking I’ve been doing. I came home, changed into my pajamas, and curled up on the bed to watch Olympic sports. I ended up falling asleep and dreaming about the laundry I was supposed to be doing. I just got up and I’m trying to get said laundry done tonight though it should be an adventure.

Jon met with the family at the funeral home today and it looks like the prayer service will be on Monday night with the funeral on Tuesday afternoon. Jon’s dad thinks he has a lead on a car for us. The title for the car that was just totalled arrived yesterday. These are all chaotic elements running through my mind. Somehow, we’ll get through this. Somehow, all this will resolve itself. I just wish it would resolve soon for the sake of my sanity.