Let Me Tell You About My Weekend

The holiest weekend of the Christian world.

I took a 3-day weekend. Every year, except last, I take Good Friday off. Last year was the exception as I put in my vacay request late. I didn't realize that there were others in my office that also needed a day of meditation :) And only a certain number of employees can be out at the same time and when my request came to the desk, the number has been reached so I didn't take the Friday off last year.

FRIDAY:
As was my tradition with mom since we came here in the US, we went to our version of Visita Iglesia. Near where we live there are 5 Catholic churches that we visit. Three were open all day, the other two were open after 2 pm, but we went to all five anyway and said our prayers.

My husband also took the day off. His situtation is different. He has some days off that needed to be used.

When my Visita Iglesia was over, my husband and I drove to Berkeley to attend the Good Friday service (1.5 hours to 2 hours). The church is next door to UC Berkeley campus so I was suprised to see many students around. Apparently, Cal (the uni's nickname) takes Spring break after Easter.

The service was solemn, this church knows how to do this Good Friday service properly. The singing was fabulous, they have the best choir. It was spiritually enriching to be attending a service like that.

When the service was over, I couldn't belive how famish I was. Then I remembered that I had a little pandesal and coffee so I could take the medicine. I remembered that I wasn't hungry at breakfast but had to take something to go with my meds.

We decided to run a little errand - a grocery store trip - to get the items we need for our little dish for the Easter potluck at church on Sunday. Since we were in Berkeley, we thought it best to go to Berkeley Bowl a little mom and pop grocery store that has the best produce around. Veggies you don't normally see elsewhere you see here. I particularly like their bulk items section.

We went to their second branch, the newest, that is near the freeway and found that there is a little cafeteria inside the parking lot. We went to see what it was all about and saw many people eating. Since we were hungry we decided to grab a little pack of sushi and keep our hunger pangs quiet.

This branch of Berkeley Bowl seems bigger. I enjoyed the salad and antipasti section. We bought a pound of mixed antipasti. Then we grabbed the veggies we needed for our dish and off to home we went.

I was too tuckered out after the service and the trip to the grocery store that I wanted to take a little nap before the 7 pm Taize Service at our church. But when we lay down to nap, the cats jumped on the bed and we got distracted, then Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones was on tv and we watched a bit until it was time to go to church.

A Taize Service is when worship is conducted in singing of hymns mostly from psalm verses. Very solemn and meditative with just votive candles around the cross. Very very nice.

SATURDAY:
Our friends' friends were camping in nearby Sta. Cruz mountains for the weekend. They invited our mutual friends for a day of hiking. They in turn invited us to drive out to the mountains with them. I wanted to go after learning where they camped. It is the very same park that I wanted to visit for the longest time.

The 9 am meet time became 9:30 and off we went soon after that. The husbands were up front and we were in the back. I made sandwiches for the drive. The drive would take about 2 hours, although it seemed so much faster than the 2 hours that took us to get there. Maybe because I am into drives especially if we are passing tall redwood trees, who cares about time right?

But my lady friend sitting next to me wasn't exactly enjoying the twist and turn of the ascent to the mountain as she hurled a few times. I'm not quesy about people barfing, even though the smell bothers me a bit. But this isn't her first time to get sick when we drive on curvy road. She did the same thing on our trip to Yosemite (and we want them to join us on a cruise). We stopped when we see the turnout and she managed to clean her side of the back seat and clean herself a bit. She usually bring another set of clothing for instances such as this. Not this time, but she didn't need it.

Anyway, we managed to find the friends, and their other friends. We went on short hike to different trails - easy one as our friend has a little disability that limits his mobility. We joined them for a very late lunch and found that these friends brought with them their birds (parrot and macau) with them to camping. I thought that was funny. Apparently they never leave these pets behind no matter where they go.

The funny thing is it was a drizzyly cold Saturday both in the mountains and in the valley so I wonder how they managed to sleep under the thin tent. I was assured that they brought enough blankets to cover them, etc.

I did like this park so I told the hubby that I am willing to sleep on tent again especially on this campsite since there is flush toilet and shower a few steps away and one is sleeping under these giant redwoods, what a spot.

We managed to visit one waterfall (the big one is about 13 miles away) and took some photos.

The drive home took us to Half Moon Bay where we visited our usual snack place and gotten some salmon and fish tacos and deep fried oyster - enough to keep us nourished for the drive home.

SUNDAY:
Another 6 am waking time so I could take Mom to her church service at 7 am. The service lasted longer than usual since it's Easter.

Then it was the 9:30 Easter Service at my church. It lasted much longer since aside from the Easter celebration there also was a baptism. Then there was the potluck and the Easter Egg Hunt. I did not participate in both after service activities, since I helped out in clearing the altar. Plus, I had some serious headache attack.

Hubby was on clean up duty so I had to sit in the car nursing a headache. When we got home past noon, we took Mom out to a Chinese lunch. It is in this no frills Chinese restaurant that only Chinese people know about. It is in the new location, still small and all the tables were taken so we were ushered in the back - we even past the kitchen. They have a small set up in the back that my hubby jokingly called the mafia room.

We ordered 6 dishes and paid $40 dollars. That's cheap and food is good, not the American style Chinese food.

My headache persisted all day. I hang dried the laundry then went straight to my computer to work on my project for the church.

My church is holding a big fundraiser this summer. I am the graphics person. I had completed the flyer and the donation letter. My assignment next was to come up with tickets for the event. With hubby's help, we managed to finish this project yesterday and sent it out to the vicar and the one in charge for approval.

And because my headache wasn't going anywhere and not getting any better at all and no amount of acetamenophen or ibuprofen could cure, I went all out and sought the cure that I knew would work:


Well the headache didn't go away completely, but I was happier after taking a full dosage of above meds.