Quel convenient!

I find myself at least partially consoled for the long lonely week, early this month, when my husband was on the other side of the country. You see, today he brought home a picture of himself near the Liberty Bell.

Only, the Liberty Bell didn't quite make it into the picture.

The photo shows my husband and the school principal, grinning like tourists, inside a museum-like structure...

...directly under a sign reading "Irreparably Cracked."

Being organised

Have you ever had one of those times where you need to call friends, but don't have their phone number?

So... you call a mutual friend, who doesn't have their phone number either, but directs you to another mutual friend.

But this other mutual friend isn't home, so you go searching on whitepages.com.

And you find one possible entry in the right city, but it only has first initials.

So you decide to call anyway, because the worst thing that could happen is a wrong number.

And it's the right number, and you get ahold of your friends, and then you think... "I'd better write down this number, so I don't have to go looking for it again."

So you flip through your address book, and find the same number already neatly written down in the correct place.

Now tell me truly, hasn't that ever happened to you?

You know you've been tutoring Algebra II too long when...

... you sit at a stoplight, watching a truck make a left turn across the intersection, and think, "Wow, he's describing an exponential function. And the yellow line is the asymptote."

Distinguished guests

I finally read our wedding guest book.

I thought I had read it just after July 22. I apparently hadn't-- at least not thoroughly.

Some entries were standard guest-book entries. These were definitely heartfelt, and made us happy.

many blessings
Congrats!!
We're so happy for you!

Some were creative. These were also heartfelt, and made us laugh.

I'm here (though you knew that)
come work with us in S----!
dude! about time!

There was even one written in Hausa, which I still need to get translated.

Then I got to the end. We appear to have had an incognito wedding guest, though he is not usually the unobtrusive type. The last entry in our guest book reads:

Paul Biya
Congratulations!

Last year and this year: an Easter meditation

I sit where the choir sits, on wooden benches, and sing for the uncontainable joy. Palm fronds wave green and fresh. People around me are dressed in their newest and best in honour of the great feast day. And flowers are everywhere, because flowers are all about hope, and beauty, and... life.

Never mind that last year we sat on rough backless benches, and this year on cushioned pews.
Never mind that last year we sang a rough translation of an English hymn, and this year we sang the Hallelujah chorus.
Never mind that last year, the windows were filled with breeze, insects, and palm fronds, and this year, they were stained glass.

Because He is risen.
And He is risen, indeed.

Let the whole world sing,
Alleluia!