Journal of a Sabbatical

April 29, 1999

frustration

OK, so who on earth designs cards for First Communion? I spent a good hour searching for a card for Andrea's First Communion. Portraits of a gaunt frightening Jesus. An orange kitten in a white dress and veil clutching a bible. For that special godson - no goddaughters only godsons. Many had bible verses that had nothing at all to do with the sacrament and were a little beyond a 7 year old's comprehension. At last one without a silly or frightening picture and with comprehensible sentiments:

A niece is a blessing to be proud of ...
a treasured gift of love.

As you make your First Communion, may you remember how precious you are to our Lord and how much you are loved by all your family.

Congratulations.

That even says basically what I wanted to communicate, and after all that this one was only 95 cents!

All my errands went like that today. I went to Petsmart for cat food because it's a little closer than Petco. Petsmart was out of the dry Feline Maintenance Light so I had to go to Petco anyway. Much traffic between Petsmart and Petco. And Petco is all in shambles with construction and unhappy cashiers who don't know what they're doing. I wait in line a long time, hence totally space out. Finally the kid asks me for my Petco card, which is on my key ring. I hand over the key ring. She's busy talking to some other kid who works there, complaining that he went to McDonald's and didn't bring her anything, while she's ringing me up. I get my change and walk off with my cat food - but not the keys. Another cashier yells after me "Ma'am, your keys!" and the woman behind me in the line gasps loudly and looks shocked. Have I just publicly manifested my complete mental breakdown or what? I would've noticed in a second when I put the change in my pocket, wouldn't I?

Much traffic between Petco and home.

All week I've had it in my head that I have a rosary that I was given as an award a zillion years ago in school stashed somewhere among my memorabilia and gee wouldn't it be nice if I gave to it to Andrea on Saturday. So I commenced the search of the keepsake boxes on the unreachable shelf in the closet (with the help of my reacher and my step ladder). Much dust. Many old letters and programs from concerts I don't remember going to. Strange ceramic donkey figures I can't imagine ever having liked, let alone kept all these years - they were given to me by a friend and I guess I thought it impolite to dislike them. No rosary. Ah, getting closer - this box lists three miniature bibles among its contents. Maybe I could give her one. Umm, nope. These are those pocket bibles they used to hand out on the street in Kenmore Square in the 1970's. They only have the New Testament and the Psalms - none of the Hebrew bible. How did I end up with three of them?

Y'know, I think I may have given the rosary I was thinking of to Lizzy for her First Communion. I don't remember. Must be with the keys at Petco.