Easter.
Not ever really my favorite holliday. It's always yukky out--the trees still bare, the sky gray, the grass brown. And ham. I hate ham. I opted out of family festivities today since I couldn't see going out to Rockford for one day. And the family get togethers are always a riot of fun. Today, I plan to spend the day writing and collaging, and just relaxing.
My mom is so funny. Every year, no matter how old we are, we get some sort of Easter basket with some candy and a small gift--usually a cool candle, or some scrumptious bath gel. This year, my parents aren't coming in a for a couple of weeks, so she didn't have a chance to give me anything. She insisted I make sure I bought myself some candy over the weekend and fashioned my own little easter basket, so last night I went to Walgreens and procured a big chocolate bunny, some pastel foiled hershey kisses, and some taffy. Also two books from Borders--Neruda and Lorca, both of whom I'm not all that aquainted with. So I shall spend the day hopped up on sugar and translated poetry.
I remember the holliday being fun when I was younger though. My favorite Easter candy was always those little wax bottles with the fruity liquid in them, the ones you had to bit the top off of and and then drink what was inside. I always felt a little like Alice in Wonderland.
Every Easter when I was kid we would get up in the morning and go for a ride--always stopping at McDonalds to get breakfast, which we rarely did any other time back then, so it was like a big treat for a 10 year old (oddly I STILL associate EggMcMuffins with easter). Then we'd drive north and always ended up in Rockton, near`the Wisconsin border, driving around my dad's favorite golf course,--another place I associate with the holliday.
There were years when the Easter baskets sported a more exotic present, depending on what the family finances were like. One year, I got a silvery, blue ten-speed. One year, some white roller skates with red, white, and blue stripes on the side. Another year, a sticker book. Always some little things like kites, or bubble stuff, or even last year, just for fun, one of those foil pinwheels. There were at least two Easters I remember being too sick to go to my aunts house, unable to eat any candy, or take advantage of my new stuff. One year, my giant chocolate bunny melted in the car when placed too close to the heater, and became this mass of chocolate stuck with green easter grass. One year, when I was fifteen or so, my little gift was a Cheap Trick Lap of Luxury cassete I spent days in my room listening to.
