The Ants Crawl In; The Ants Crawl Out...

I think that song goes, "The worms crawl in; the worms crawl out", but I have taken poetic license to suit my purposes. So sue me!

With the warm so-called winter that we've had, I feared an abundant season for bugs--and now, I'm sure of it. Most years, I will get some big black ants in the house for a week or two along about late April or early June. It's not a serious infestation. Just annoying. Well, my friends, I'm afraid they have already found their way in--and it's only mid-March! I have probably killed 10 of them in the house today, most of them in the garage room. One of the little buggers was crawling on the inside of my thigh. I swatted it and thought it went flying, but then I felt something sticking me. It was the ant! In his dying efforts, he chomped down on my leg. I had to PULL him off! (He's dead now, poor thing.) Also, somewhere near the back door on the patio, there has been a hatch of little flying ants. It seems that a find a swarm of them at least once a year around here. Time to find my can of Raid!

Okay...except for the bugs, I'm not complaining about the weather. Really. I'm not. In fact, the wonderfully warm and sunny days we have had have done wonders for my energy and mood. Flowering trees are in bloom. Spring flowers are in bloom. Trees are budding. Lawns need to be mowed. People are out walking their dogs and their kids, running for exercise, and generally soaking up the early springtime weather. To quote McDonald's, "I'm lovin' it!"

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Catholic, but I am part Irish. Catholic, Irish, or not, everyone seems to get into the spirit of the day, and I'm no different. If I have company, I will usually fix a corned beef and cabbage dinner (something I won't do if I'm just here by myself). Thus, I invited my co-grandparents/friends Judy and Phil, and their son Dan who lives with them, to share the occasion with me, and they graciously accepted. I was able to make the table look festive, and the feast turned out well, if I do say so myself. Judy had had a very busy day, so I think it was a relief for her not to have to cook or clean up. After a glorious weather day, it felt great to share my table with such good folks. On a side note, my granddaughter Robin loves corned beef and cabbage. In her younger years, she called it corned "beeth"...so that's what it will always be for me!

I am the Godmother of one of my Catholic friend's sons. When he was baptized, back when my own daughter was very young, I was expected to attend--which I did. My friend told me that if the priest asked me if I were Catholic, I was supposed to say "yes". "Diane, you want me to lie to a priest???" Her response was, "Never mind, since you have the very Irish name Margaret McNary, he won't even ask." And he didn't!

Another related story: my favorite uncle met his second wife at a Post-Cana meeting--a singles group for widowed Catholics--even though Uncle Bud wasn't Catholic. A couple of years after his wife died when their children were in their early teens, one of his friends coaxed him to the Post-Cana meeting where he met Rita Henry, the Secretary to the President of Catholic University in Washington, DC. They fell in love. Rita was from Massachusetts, Catholic, and of Irish descent, and had an outrageous Massachusetts accent. (If you ever listened to President John F. Kennedy, you know what I'm talking about.) When Rita announced to her sister that she was going to marry George Armstrong, the sister replied, "Armstrong doesn't sound Irish. It doesn't even sound Catholic!" Still, they married and had a very loving relationship until the day he died many years ago. It was all good.

After Sunday School today, I went to the Akira Japanese Steakhouse here in Plainfield for a "social" with my SS class. It was entertaining. The cooks prepare the meal in front of you with all of their fancy spatula/knife shenanigans. Our cook spun some eggs on the grill, then picked them up with a spatula, still spinning. One egg, he tossed in the air and caught in his breast pocket...where it broke. He was embarrassed. It totally wasn't in the script! The food was good and quite reasonable. In fact, the whole menu was reasonable, and the companionship was great. Unfortunately, I ate it ALL and suffered for it the entire rest of the afternoon. Couple this huge meal with yesterday's huge meal, and I think you'll probably understand why I'm not losing weight!!

Back up a bit. My SS class has been studying the disciples of Jesus. Last week and this, the focus was on Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss. One of the discussion questions afterward had to do with "Is prayer just our way of controlling God by trying to make him think the way that we do?" I ended up sharing a personal story with the class about when my grandmother was sick and dying. I wanted her to live, just for me, even though she was deathly ill and could be revived with no future. As I was telling the story, the tears came out of nowhere. It startled me! My grandmother died in 1975--many, many years ago--but the circumstances still affect me to this day. I am happy that I can be emotional in church and with my SS friends. God bless her...one of the members of the class also wept with me. I wasn't out of control, but I did so understand that some of what we experience is beyond human understanding.

My daughter and her husband spent the weekend on a cemetery adventure in my hometown in Central IL, taking pictures in an effort to resurrect my deceased brother's website about the place. It was a huge undertaking, considering that it would also include some emotional visits to the family's former farm. I'm not sure that poor Denis knew what hit him or understands the passion that Megan has for genealogy, but there is probably a hope that someday they can travel to Estonia to see where he was born and mostly raised. That's a whole half-hemisphere away! Denis gets the Oscar for patience and caring! They went home to a needy cat. Poor Toffee!

I will most likely leave for northern Illinois at the end of the week for a visit. It will be my daughter's 33rd birthday and my grandchildren's spring break. I would LOVE to have then here, but I guess that is not to be. I hope this fantastic weather continues. It's hard to think that it won't!

God bless.