Like Nothing We’d Ever Done

Dearest Rachel –

Believe it or not, I was half-expecting to spend all of yesterday cooped up at home. Think about that; I never spend any Sunday like this, and here I was, planning to stay home for the whole of Easter, of all Sundays?

But with the plans for the family to get together scuttled by the fact that… something, whether the flu or a cold… had been passing through my sister’s family, and therefore couldn’t join the folks for the holiday as a consequence, there wasn’t anything on our calendar for the day. Granted, Daniel and I weren’t to be quarantined – while I had run into Jenn, Bill and the kids during the passing period on Good Friday, it wasn’t long enough for me to have caught much (and most of them had either recovered or were on the mend; although since then, Will’s… fiancée? Am I getting ahead of myself here? came down with a case of whatever it’s been), and Daniel hadn’t even done that much, having shown up at a different service – but without them to host, or even attend, due to the folks’ (mostly Dad’s) fragile immune systems, it seemed like there really wasn’t going to be anything happening this weekend. There was some talk about delaying things until next week, which would be all well and good, but it didn’t change anything regarding yesterday.

So yeah… it was looking like the ultimate quiet Sunday at home for us. I even took the time to prepare myself a cup of coffee, which I rarely bother to do, since it takes more time and makes more mess than I usually want to deal with – although it turns out that I’ve overestimated both the time and mess involved. You wouldn’t like this, personally, but I may do this more often in the future. Hey, it’s not as if I’ve taking up smoking or some such…

But I have to admit, I can’t imagine how other people deal with this; a day with absolutely nothing planned to do. It may well be because I don’t need that kind of relief from a horrific week at the office anymore, but even back then, there was always something going on every single day. Granted, I didn’t have the Bible study commitment on Saturdays like I do now, but there was a certain habit that got us out of the house (not that I objected in the slightest). I can’t imagine a whole day of doing nothing and going nowhere, even as I’m accustomed to doing that for hours at a time.

Well, as it turned out, I didn’t have to. Despite having possibly been asleep Saturday night when it was originally sent (and causing them concern about how they could get in touch with me in a real emergency), when I checked my phone in the morning, I realized I’d getting a text from the folks to call them. The fact that Daniel and I weren’t a health hazard meant that we could still come over – I’d pick something up from one of the local places we used to go to as a family (it’s more in our neighborhood than theirs, anyway) – and have a somewhat low-key Easter dinner together with them after all. And while I’d originally decided to finish off some leftovers from the get-together at Erin’s (despite there only being enough for myself – although you should know that Daniel doesn’t do leftovers), I was more than happy to do so.

Of course, it’s hard for me to come over to the folks’ these days without a stop at the ‘office’ downstairs. Last Thursday had me dragging Daniel down there to sign his tax returns (yes, he files separately, but I take care of getting everything to the preparers. All he has to do is to sign off on the finished return. I know I should put more of it in his hands, but I’d worry about whether it would get done in such a case), this time, I was looking into my own, and, failing that, processing a bunch of transactions for camp. Meanwhile, Daniel was being kept busy, getting a bird’s nest out of their gutter with a yardstick; he may not like being tall, but he likes the fact that he can be useful to his grandparents from time to time.

So there you go; on a day that looked like it was literally going to be like nothing we’d ever done in a given day, we got out of the house, had ourselves well fed, hung out with the folks, and even got a little bit of work done, on a Sunday, no less. Maybe we will attend Saturday services another time in order to have a completely free Sunday to truly experience, but it wasn’t this week (and it won’t be next week either, as I’m on duty in the booth; moreover, the folks want to get the family together for a cross between what Daniel refers to as “an orthodox” Easter and a belated birthday for myself. If it weren’t for the fact that he was scheduled for a baseball game that day, it would be one for Will, too, but that will have to wait yet)

***

Eventually, we did wrap things up at the folks’ and headed home to catch up on a few days of videos, like Daniel and I will do after a more typical Sunday service. While we were doing that together, Kerstin rang me up. It would seem that she hadn’t managed to go to the cinema the night before to catch the film she’d been talking about in the group chat the other day (and I’d heard about through other sources). So, despite having work this morning, she was planning to head out last night to see it instead, and was just checking in to see if I was interested.

Ironically, if it had been the Sunday I’d anticipated it being, I think I might have considered her offer. For all that I may like to stay at home and do nothing, I really can’t see myself doing that for a full twenty-four hour (let alone longer) period, apart from being sick. But after a reasonably full afternoon (and stomach, come to think of it), we were home and comfortable; I couldn’t bring myself to accept, especially as the ambient light seeping into the room from outside was noticeably beginning to dim.

It was just as well I declined; by nine o’clock, I was already starting to wear out, and I started to go through the motions of getting myself ready for bed. Now, if I was out and about, maybe things would have been different, but as it was, I was having difficulty keeping my head up, and I was starting to develop a mild headache. And so it seemed better to call it a night. I do hope she enjoyed the film on her own – and at the same time, managed to make it to her job this morning on time.

Speaking of which, while I did get a few things taken care of yesterday while at the ‘office,’ I need to check and get on with anything that’s come up overnight, if anything, and take care of it. So I’ll let you go for now, and ask that, as usual, you keep an eye on us, and wish us luck since, as you know, we’re going to need it.