holidayafter

I'm so glad the Fourth only comes around once a year! We went to two parties yesterday, both hosted by parishioners. The first began before noon, an annual gathering to celebrate two birthdays (grandfather and grandson, both born on the Fourth), with more food than you could put on two plates. I didn't, but I still ate too much! Surprisingly fun for me was that two of the guests were also Pampered Chef hosts of mine! A year ago I didn't know either of these women, so it was fun to see them and get caught up in an atmosphere where my attention wasn't distracted with other things.

The second gathering was held farther out in the county, or to be more precise, just out of the county! Barbecue was featured at both events, but the second boasted the most incredible egg rolls made by one of the guests, who is from Laos. She cooked them right there, and let me tell you that they made a distant memory any other egg roll I have ever had. I think she was the only guest who took home an empty platter or bowl!

The TV was on in the house at the second party, and it was there that we learned about the death of Steve McNair, former Titan QB. Weird, how all these deaths have amassed in the last week, and this one hits close to home. I'm not exactly a sports follower, but it's not hard to know what's happening with local teams. Between newspaper headlines, TV newscasts and seeing the local populace sporting jerseys with players' names on the back, I was more than familiar with who McNair was. The shock of what tends to happen somehwere else has now happened here, and we are affected by it. An illustration of John Donne's all too true claim that "no man is an island."

We were on the way home from the second party when rain hit, and I was glad to be settled comfortably (and cooly!) in the living room to watch fireworks from D.C. and Boston. Would love to have seen the Macy's fireworks, but that programming was interrupted by weather coverage of the storms that were disrupting holiday revelers downtown in Nashville and dousing the midstate. Oh well! We needed the rain.

After church today I hope to continue the work of getting things organized and settled in the office. It is so close to being a functional space again, I am VERY excited! I hope it's been a good holiday weekend for everyone so far. Enjoy what remains!