Her Majesty

Obviously I'm very glad to have ten days off, but I've discovered that I get rather restless when I don't have people to see and talk to all the time. Based on what we learned about Jung in sophomore English, I'm pretty extroverted, although most people consider me "shy," because I'm more energetic after spending time with my friends or family than I am after a day spent at home, just reading and watching television.

Spring break has been okay so far, though. Friday was boring and uneventful, but on Saturday I went over to Ellen's for lunch, and then my grandparents came over for coffee and brownies before the Saturday Easter Vigil Mass. I love my grandparents, but it's always funny to watch them in action. They talk a lot, frequently at the same time. Their main topics of conversation: people they used to know in Momence, where my mom grew up, restaurants they've been to, and RVs. A word to the wise: never go camping with my grandparents (not that you'd ever have a chance to, but you get my point). You'll be subjected to the following: "That there's a class C motorhome. We used to have a class B motorhome, but now we have a class A. There's a five-wheeler. We saw one like that when we went to the Winnebago convention in Missouri last summer." Etc. The topic of my family's trip to Italy this summer came up, and my grandpa spent much of the rest of the meal regaling us with his tales of searching for bathrooms all over Europe.

The Easter Vigil Mass is always nice, if a bit long. It involves nine or ten Scripture readings instead of only three, a prolonged ceremony involving candles, and the induction of new members into the Church. I was happy because the music was more traditional. I like the teen Mass that my sister and I usually attend, but they always try to jazz up the music, and I prefer some of the older songs.

Sunday dawned with the news that my dad was being taken to the emergency room for an asthma attack. He's always suffered around this time of year, but it's especially bad this year, and it was scary yesterday. Everything turned out fine, although he now has daily Nebulizer treatments to deal with, and my mom, sister, and I still ended up going to my grandma's (the other one) for Easter dinner. If my mom's side of the family likes to talk about food and RVs, my dad's side is into serial killers and kidnappings. I'm serious; a conversation with them is about as cheerful as a bag of dead babies (to borrow a phrase from Mr. Stokes). I was officially moved up from the kids' table to the adults' table, though, quite an accomplishment in that family. No more Jell-O jigglers or endless games of "School" for me.

Today we're going to get our passport photos taken for the Italy trip. This is something we've talked about for years, so I'm glad it's finally coming together. It's going to look a lot closer, and be a lot harder to wait for, from this side of spring break.