Rise Up!

Happy Easter, believers-in-the-rising-of-Jesus crowd. (Good day to the rest of you. I embrace the diversity of all my readers. Passover greetings. Happy Spring Solstice. You get the idea. Besides, where do you think the idea of the symbol of the egg on Easter came from? The Pagans. Does this mean the Easter Bunny is a big Wiccan Wabbit?)

Here is a drawing I made for my grandparents to wish them a Happy Easter in 1970. When I looked at the drawing last night, I thought these were Easter Lilies, which would make total sense when considering the holiday, but Wild Mama thinks otherwise: she thinks are Lilies of the Valley because those were my grandmother's favorite flower. Either way, it's a Lily of sort and it's an Easter drawing.I tried to think of some really fun Easter memories, but Easter's one of those holidays that is awesome but not usually really memorable. No offense to Jesus or the Easter Bunny.) For the record, I would like to state that the Easter Bunny was always VERY good at hiding eggs and was always generous in the basket-giving department. Thankfully, the Easter Bunny at our house was smart enough to use plastic eggs as we got older; after all, when doing such a good job hiding eggs, one or two is bound to get left behind and that could be interesting after a few months if real hard-boiled eggs had been used.

My favorite Easter as an adult was the one we spent on Catalina Island with Dos Marias. I had mailed a package of Easter candy to them before we flew out to San Diego--it's much easier to mail candy than to transport it on a plane (um, I sent a lot of candy in that box) and it made it easier to surprise the wife (who was on a mystery trip and didn't know we were going to San Diego or Catalina Island). It was a very fun trip, complete with the Dos Marias rendition of "Rise Up! Rise Up!" A musical delight not to be forgotten. (It was much funnier in person. It sounds lame here. Sorry about that. Picture four queers standing on the shores of Catalina Island singing "Rise Up!" early in the morning. Maybe I need to find the actual photo of the event....that would help humor the story up a bit.)

Speaking of Easter photos, I am 100% sure I've used the photo before in the Addiverse, but it makes me laugh and I have immediate access to it, so I'm re-using it here. These are my two nieces meeting the Easter Bunny (aka Wiccan Wabbit). I think the one on the left is terrified and clinging to my sister; I think the niece of the right is too little to even contemplate the meaning of the Wiccan Wabbit (I like the way my sister has her propped up). As for the rabbit, I guess he's pretty good looking. I've seen some mighty scare rabbits over the years. (In fact, I WAS the Easter Bunny one year at an Egg Hunt for a local park district. I am here to tell you that it is very hard to see small children and/or eggs when dressed as the Easter Bunny. It's not good when you step on either one of those things.) Easter marks the end of Lent, which for most Christian people means they can go back to eating candy, drinking pop/alcohol or swearing (seems like those were the top picks of "what-to-give-up for Lent" sacrifices). I personally would give up chocolate for those 40 long days and I didn't believe in that wimpy "oh, you can eat it on Sunday" crap. I went the whole time mortifying my flesh--and, if you know how much chocolate I eat in a day, you know I was indeed mortified. Many a time I received forty--yes, 40--Cadbury chocolate eggs as "congratulations you made it" recognition. I am here to tell you: You haven't lived until you've eaten 40 of those cream-filled-looks-like-a real-egg-inside chocolate eggs. By the 39th one, you become suicidal.

Speaking of Easter-related Candy: Although I would most prefer a solid chocolate bunny, those cheap, hollow, waxy-tasting bunnies are rather intriguing. As for Peeps, forget it. They scare me. I do not like Peeps one bit. I don't like the traditional yellow ones, I don't like the new multi-colored rabbit ones, I do not like them at all. I suppose you haven't lived until you've eaten 40 Cadbury eggs and a boxful of Peeps. I probably will never eat a Peep again unless paid a lot of money. Jelly beans are all good except the black ones. I am not a fan of licorice. I'm not real fond of jelly beans in general but I don't mind eating them this time of year. You know what you should do? Take a jelly bean, put it in your mouth, do NOT chew it....see how long you can make that sucker last. I'm telling you, you can go for hours if you really work at it. How do I know this? I used to do this when I worked as an orthodontic assistant. I don't know how we came up with the idea, but that's what we did. Maybe only I did it. Who knows--that was over 20 years ago. I'm lucky I still remember being an orthodontic assistant. Anyways, try it.

Easter is the day most Christian people go to church; it's one of those "I-go-to-church-twice-a-year days" (the other being Christmas), so the place is always packed. Sugar filled kids in cute new dresses and clean shoes, all packed in the pews. I am sad to say I do not have many specific memories of Easter bonnets or particular dresses purchased for the occasion. I think it was because I was in a sugar-induced coma and thus am unable to remember much of anything from Easter holidays gone by.

Decorating eggs was always a fun thing to do. Sometimes we would "blow" out the "inner egg" by poking a small hole in each side of the egg and then blowing like there was no tomorrow. While this was very fun, it left you with a very fragile object of which to color and thus was probably not the recommended way to color eggs. Other times, we would color raw eggs and often we would dye hard-boiled eggs. As an adult, I haven't colored many eggs but there is still time to bring back this tradition and I'm thinking it would be really fun to try and empty out an egg through a tiny hole. Hell, who needs to color eggs--let's just make omelets that way!

This year we will be with my family of origin for Easter. I haven't seen any decorated eggs, I haven't purchased an Easter Bonnet, I certainly will not be wearing a new dress and I don't think any of us will be going to church. I am all good with that. Thankfully, I have not spied any Cadbury eggs on the premises--I'm a little sick of them and will gladly stick with things like M&Ms in a bag instead of giant chocolate yolk-filled eggs in tin foil. The wife and I have already sung our rendition of "Rise Up!" so we are good to go. The traditional ham is waiting to be cooked (I'll be having a traditional Easter Boca Burger), the dogs are waiting to be walked, Dunkin' Donuts is waiting to be drunk. (Drank?) I think I'll go hide some eggs. I'm sure the three teen-aged nieces will enjoy finding them (not!). Maybe if I tell them there is a $20 bill in one of the eggs, they'll be a bit more motivated to take part in an Easter Egg Hunt. As long as I don't have to wear a dress, a bonnet or a Wiccan Wabbit outfit, it's all good.

Happy Easter! Rise Up!