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Jun. 5th, 2011 12:04 amSomeone remind me why I thought it was a good idea to go to an outdoor festival in 90 degree weather?
Oh yeah, because I was going with a friend, and because it was a lot of fun. Even if we did go through it quickly, and then retreat into cooler temperatures for the rest of the day. Malls are your friend on hot days, you can walk around and someone else is paying for the air conditioning.
It was the Strawberry festival up in Troy, and I did actually buy a few strawberries. As well as taste the strawberry salsa one booth was handing out as free samples. I also bought a few soy candles at about the cheapest I've seen them (One smells like Antique Lace, a discontinued BPAL perfume that I love and only have an imp of!), and a wooden rose that the man scented for my mother. Since I left it in my friend's car while we mall-wandered afterward, said scented rose also scented her entire car as a fringe benefit.
I do love hanging out with this particular friend. She's the friend who has known me longest, as we've been close friends since we were both in third grade and started attending Procter church camp together. Yeah, she's my fellow religious geek, and actually the one of us to know first that she wanted to go into the ministry some day. Of course, since that meant she got embroiled in diocesan politics from the time she hit her teens onwards, I think I'm kind of glad that I only figured out that I'm eventually going to go on to priesthood/vocational deaconate much later.
That being said, even though we both know each other so well, sometimes we can still really surprise each other. Like this afternoon, she mentioned that when her parents first found out that my sister was profoundly disabled, they were a little worried about letting my friend come visit me. They do a lot of work with families with disabled children, and they were worried because apparently there tends to be a lot of bitterness and tension in those families. (Understandable, of course, as strong disabilities can cause a lot of stress, and stress either pulls people together or tears them apart.) Apparently my family kind of stunned them with how little bitterness there was.
And I'm sitting there listening and going, "Well, okay, I guess intellectually I can understand a bit of why people would be bitter or have a lot of strife," but at a gut level, I just don't get it. My sister is my sister, I love her, and though her disabilities take a lot of physical work, she's such a beautiful person on the inside that I can't see how anyone that meets her could help but love her. And most of the work with her is physical. As my mother is swift to point out, emotionally and mentally, Sara is her easiest child. All she needs is to be loved. And it's so easy to show her love on the levels that she can understand.
Oh yeah, because I was going with a friend, and because it was a lot of fun. Even if we did go through it quickly, and then retreat into cooler temperatures for the rest of the day. Malls are your friend on hot days, you can walk around and someone else is paying for the air conditioning.
It was the Strawberry festival up in Troy, and I did actually buy a few strawberries. As well as taste the strawberry salsa one booth was handing out as free samples. I also bought a few soy candles at about the cheapest I've seen them (One smells like Antique Lace, a discontinued BPAL perfume that I love and only have an imp of!), and a wooden rose that the man scented for my mother. Since I left it in my friend's car while we mall-wandered afterward, said scented rose also scented her entire car as a fringe benefit.
I do love hanging out with this particular friend. She's the friend who has known me longest, as we've been close friends since we were both in third grade and started attending Procter church camp together. Yeah, she's my fellow religious geek, and actually the one of us to know first that she wanted to go into the ministry some day. Of course, since that meant she got embroiled in diocesan politics from the time she hit her teens onwards, I think I'm kind of glad that I only figured out that I'm eventually going to go on to priesthood/vocational deaconate much later.
That being said, even though we both know each other so well, sometimes we can still really surprise each other. Like this afternoon, she mentioned that when her parents first found out that my sister was profoundly disabled, they were a little worried about letting my friend come visit me. They do a lot of work with families with disabled children, and they were worried because apparently there tends to be a lot of bitterness and tension in those families. (Understandable, of course, as strong disabilities can cause a lot of stress, and stress either pulls people together or tears them apart.) Apparently my family kind of stunned them with how little bitterness there was.
And I'm sitting there listening and going, "Well, okay, I guess intellectually I can understand a bit of why people would be bitter or have a lot of strife," but at a gut level, I just don't get it. My sister is my sister, I love her, and though her disabilities take a lot of physical work, she's such a beautiful person on the inside that I can't see how anyone that meets her could help but love her. And most of the work with her is physical. As my mother is swift to point out, emotionally and mentally, Sara is her easiest child. All she needs is to be loved. And it's so easy to show her love on the levels that she can understand.