Denomination Confusion

Sunday morning i woke up early after the absolutely weirdest dream i've remembered in a long, long time.

It was in a store, and while i had never been there before, it was a mishmash of every "Mall-Mart" type store i've ever been in.  Someone had taken my phone, wallet, keys, and money, and i found all of it except the phone, next to a land line employee phone where she had put it for safekeeping.  While looking, i kept meeting people i knew, but they looked so different i hardly recognized them.  But the weird part is that i had to find the phone so i could call my doctor, because while in the store i had learned i was both pregnant and HIV positive.

When i woke up, i had to let that sink in a few minutes.

The thought of the first, at this time in my life when i am very much on the wrong side of 45, is very disturbing.  Actually, it can't happen anyway.  The thought of the second is quite scary.

 Still, i was glad i woke early, as usual.  There was a time in my life, when i was younger, that i always loved the sunset better than the sunrise.  Don't get me wrong, i've always been a morning person.  Even as a teen i didn't do much sleeping in, it's not in my morning lark blood.  But sunset always seems prettier to me, and i was never much for going outside to see the sunrise.  Not as much to it, i thought.


Now, i need sunrises on the beach.  At home, by the time the sun is above the tree line where i can see it, it's too late.  When i'm here, i need the sunrise like i need hot coffee and cold water.  Something in me finds a beauty and pull in it that even the most resplendent and vainglorious beauty of a sunset can't provide.


Later in the morning, we went to church.  We decided that since we went with Methodist last year, we would go with Presbyterian this year.  As a Catholic friend of mine once put it, when you are traveling, any major flavor will do.


We walked in to a small white church building, with a mostly older congregation, and when we sat we could see nothing but trees from the windows, which was a refreshing setting for church.  When we left, we agreed, that was absolutely the most Baptist Presbyterian service we had ever attended.


Then it was time for Everman's, the health food store.  That's when i started having more trouble with my debit card.


By the end of the day, my card wasn't working as debit or credit, no doubt shut down by some computer somewhere that didn't like my recent out of the area transactions.  Good thing both Sweetie's card and Bigger Girl's, on her own account, weren't affected in the least.


Meanwhile, #2 Son has broken his emergency cell phone.  When they were young, they would continually drop the computer mouse.  Every time i went to replace one, i would comment to the clerk, usually a computer store geek guy, how children and small animals like mice don't mix.  They never got it.


Well, this mom gets it, and in the same way that i would buy a cheap replacement mouse all those years ago, knowing it was going to be gone soon, i refuse to buy #2 Son an expensive phone only so he can drop, step on, send into a pool, or otherwise fold, spindle, or mutilate it.


There is not a cheap phone to be had that will work with his SIM card.


The warehouse is out of stock, i was told at all 5 stores i tried.


Great.


Oh, and since it's my family, the funny things that have happened so far:


At the store the day we arrived, i picked up milk and sugar and was going to get coffee when #2 Son, the only one who drinks his coffee with milk and sugar, said, "Don't get coffee, mom, i've got plenty of Red Bull.  But go ahead and get the 5 pounds of sugar, i'll eat it on something."  No, he didn't mean cereal, or cooking with it, he was talking about sprinkling it on his root beer floats.


We didn't get sugar, but we did get a good laugh out of that.


On the way to church, we looked out for eagle's nests, and saw quite a few.  Most had a mama or daddy either in the nest or circling nearby, and Sweetie kept exclaiming over them.  Finally he noted, "I had no idea I'd be so interested in birds in my dotage!"


After lunch, Bigger Girl started to hand wash the dishes as usual, and i said, "You don't have to do that, we have a dishwasher, you know."


Her response was, "That's right!  I'm going to dirty so many dishes this week, just you watch!"


Oh, and Sweetie finding the TV so hard to operate he compares it to doing surgery is amusing, too.  The kids had to teach him how to turn it on.


Today is

Audacity to Hope Day -- to encourage all to have the audacity to keep hope

Emancipation Day -- Tonga

Festival for Hercules Custos -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Hercules the Custodian)

Flag Day -- Estonia

Flag Day -- Finland (Armed Forces observe the birth anniversary of Carl Gustaf Mannerheim)

Full Strawberry Moon / Rose Moon*; related observances
     Nayon Full Moon -- Mayanmar
     Poson Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression -- UN

Jarila's Day -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (Festival of Jarila, god of the sun and fertility)

Lord Buddha's Parinirvana -- Bhutan

National Cheese Day -- not to be confused with Cheese Lover's Day earlier in the year

National Cognac Day

National Frozen Yogurt Day -- not to be confused with the Frozen Yogurt Day celebrated on Feb. 6 in Los Angeles, where the temperatures make such a thing possible

National Unity Day -- Hungary

Old Maid's Day -- supposedly established after WWII, when there were so many eligible young ladies who weren't getting any younger

Rusalka Week begins -- Bulgaria (in Slavic myth, this week after Trinity Sunday is the week the Rusalki arrive; a Rusalka is a female water demon who brings love sickness, so watch out!)

St. Petroc's Day (Patron of Cornwall and Wales)

Visakha Bucha Day -- Thailand (Buddha Day)
 
Western Australia Day -- Western Australia (formerly called Foundation Day)

Whit Monday -- Orthodox Churches following the Julian Calendar
 
*this year, with a partial lunar eclipse visible in parts of Asia, Australia, the Pacific, and the Americas


Birthdays Today:

Russell Brand, 1975
Angelina Jolie, 1975
Noah Wyle, 1971
Sam Harris, 1961
George Noory, 1950
Michelle Phillips, 1944
Joyce Meyer, 1943
Bruce Dern, 1936
John Drew Barrymore, 1932
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 1928
Dennis Weaver, 1924
Robert Merrill, 1919
Rosalind Russell, 1907


Today in History:

Chinese astronomers make the first recording of a solar eclipse, BC781
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina), 1584
Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan, 1615
New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians, 1760
A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history, 1769
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon), 1783
Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1792
The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title, 1878
Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage, 1912
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain, 1973
The Tiananmen Square protests are violently ended in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, 1989
Solidarity's victory in the first (somewhat) free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989
Falcon 9 Flight 1 was the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket,2010