mizChartreuse || redefiningSuccess

I must be PMSing because watching video footage of the White House Easter Egg Roll 2009 made me a little teary-eyed. The event just seemed like some all-around fun that I’m sure the attendees loved. The First Family is just so darn precious, and watching Barack read aloud to and run around with all the kids was so cute. 

how precious is that?

Reading of "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

Further evidence that I’m nearing that time: I’ve eaten FIFTEEN to TWENTY chocolate Nestle Crunch Nest Eggs today, and I don’t even really like chocolate. 

bad bad bad. but so good. you just keep unwrapping and unwrapping forever and ever

The Easter holiday is interesting to me. I can’t recall a time in my adult life where I’ve seen Easter as a big deal, really.

This was my Easter 2009: I slept in until the last possible moment (because I got home after 11 the previous night for the Bulls game), called a cab, and worked for the Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings game. While I enjoy working (note: I did not say anything about liking the actual sport) hockey games, Sunday afternoon ones just tend to drag. People obviously don’t drink as much, and it throws me off going to work at 9 a.m. as opposed to my usual zombie shift from 4-11 p.m. After work I got groceries, went home and took a bath, and went to sleep. 

Pretty uneventful.

The Jewel was closing at 5, so I just barely was able to scoop a few essentials like MORE hummus, yogurt (mmm, BACTERI-YUM), and fruit, before they kept giving the ominous announcements of the store being closed.

I managed to be the last person standing in a girl’s checkout line when she flipped the light off indicating that she was closed. A man came behind me and ignored her when she mumbled about being done, so I repeated the sentiment in case he didn’t hear.

“Well, I’m here,” he said, as the cashier just shook her head in annoyance and half-smiled.

“Yeah, and I won’t ring up your items,” she responded.

“Isn’t it Easter? Shouldn’t you be in the giving spirit?”

“It ain’t a holiday unless I get anything,” she said. The whole exchange was more friendly than hostile, but I thought about it.

I didn’t particularly care that it was Easter, but not because I didn’t get a basket adorned with pastel-colored grass and filled with candy. I’ve never really gotten anything for the holiday; I don’t think African parents really buy into that tenet of the commercialized holiday. Even though I’m a girl who was raised in a Christian background, we never did the Lent thing either. I thought that was primarily a Catholic thing, but it seems to me that a lot of non-practising non-Catholics I know participated. Why? Because it’s tradition? I don’t really get it.

My fashion designer mother did make us really cute coordinating Easter dresses though, which I always loved. But the only time I can remember my younger sister and I getting Easter baskets was from a white elderly grandparently couple from our church that sort of “adopted” my family back in the day when I was about seven years old.

And perhaps watching Bill Maher’s Religulous documentary two nights prior wasn’t really helping in my perception of the whole thing. But I must say, that movie was hilarious and does honestly reflect my feelings about the religious aspects of everything.

Saturday morning my boyfriend and I had a nice breakfast at his sister’s family’s house; their dad was there and it was sweet to just hang out and spend some time with the fam and his nephew and nieces.

On Easter Sunday while I was at work, I’d gotten a few texts to my phone by the way of Twitter that day. One was from my girl Ange who asked if it was weird that she enjoyed Easter with her boyfriend’s family but didn’t believe in God. She also acknowledged feeling strange when they said grace at dinner. I told her, “You don’t have to be religulous to enjoy Easter. Just like Christmas!”

It’s a nice cultural holiday, and a wonderful reason to spend time with loved ones, but beyond that, it’s overall just not a big deal, in my opinion.

Our friend Sanjay responded: “@AngeliqueK @mizChartreuse What’s there to enjoy about Easter? You can get together with family and dress up at any time of year.” 

Touche, and I feel those are my sentiments exactly.