Good Friday...In More Than One Way

Today I decided to do some things for myself, as the pressure is high towards the end of the week when I have to have my five job contacts for unemployment (not that they've paid me even a dime yet).

I don't know how I feel about that...I've always had a steady job, whether part or full time, since I was old enough to work. Except for two years I took off to be a stay-at-home mom to my young kids (and even then I was part-time volunteer game-mastering on a text-based MUD), I've always worked. I'm a little annoyed that I have to prove I deserve the money I've been putting into the system for twenty five years now. And that I have to prove it by applying for jobs I'm not certain I want five times a week until I get one. The requirements for me to get my own money back are ridiculous, but I suppose if you pressed me I'd admit they have to control fraud and make sure that money is going to the right person for the right reasons.

I do want to work again. But I want the right to be selective and choose a job I'll be happy with, not just one I may have all the requirements for but am uninterested in.

So it was with the aim of kicking all those grumpy thoughts away that I went out into the windy sunny day, a crisp one, and got my hair cut with my favorite stylist. I've been going to her for a couple years, she knows exactly how I like my hair but she'll alter it if I ask, and we both chat away about our families and what's happening in the world without a care for the time. I'm suspecting I may need to move for a new job (again), and I'm dreading losing my favorite stylist. For a woman, losing a stylist who knows exactly what you want and can deliver it consistently month after month is traumatic. Such a stylist is worth her weight in gold. Not to mention if you also happen to connect on other levels and consider her a friend....ugh. I'm starting to believe it's the stylists making me leave my jobs and have to move....every time I find an outstanding one, blammo!

After the haircut, which allowed me to see out from under my hair roof again, I headed for a local world market shop to look over their Easter stuff for the boys. Alright, and also to drool over the foods from the UK, France, Germany and Italy that they stock there. There's something fun about buying and trying one exotic food you've never had from another country. (I haven't quite worked up the spit to try Vegemite quite yet, but I look at it every time I'm in there.)

It's tradition in my family to get a lovely (and large!) solid milk chocolate rabbit from Hebert's Candy Mansion, which alas, is in Massachusetts. The place goes all-out at Easter; I remember thinking it was Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory when I was a kid.

I have to rely on my Mom to ship the bunnies these days, if we've got the extra bit of money. If we don't, as in this year, I shop for look-alikes. I remember taking my Hebert's chocolate rabbit and putting it on an old iron steam radiator that was just barely warm, letting the chocolate soften just that little bit, then biting in....ohhh heaven is a chocolate bunny's rump, slightly warm. No, there was never a chocolate accident on the steam radiator...I value my chocolate much too highly for that ever to happen.

This year I picked up smaller chocolate bunnies for the boys, plus some jellybeans, some cocoa because they just geek over cocoa (chocolate you can drink!), and assorted little non-candy items...kazoos, pencils, egg soaps, and the like. I just love putting all these little things in the baskets and letting them discover them all.

When they were littler and in total belief in The Bunny, I loved watching their eyes get huge and the big smiles spreading across their faces. They still appreciate the little gifts, but some of that cottontail magic has waned in the older one. The younger one I think still holds some belief. I can't tell, he plays his cards close to the chest. If I can get this year out of him I'll be happy.

After basket shopping I went over to Target and picked up some new t-shirts because lately for some reason I've been a total slob and I put stains on the fronts of many of my other serviceable t-shirts. I can't even tell what I was eating to do that. The food didn't land in my lap, I didn't drool while eating, so what the heck? I can't figure it out. I probably need to tuck a napkin in my collar like one of the Three Stooges, or wear a rain poncho.

I also have big plans for the bag of whole wheat flour I bought, but we shall see. Perhaps tomorrow. The smell of bread baking has totally broken my resolve before. If I were a spy that the NSA had to break, all they'd have to do would be to bake some bread and I'd spill it all. Shameful I know, but at least I know my limitations. The thought of guys in black suits and shades baking bread cracks me up too. Little frilly white aprons over the suits, with the guns in the holsters....*snort, giggle*

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. To those who don't...happy weekend, I hope yours is sunny, warm, and fun.