Friday seemed in some ways quite a contradiction this year. At least the activities of the day were in opposition. It was Good Friday, a most solemn day. Maundy Thursday services the evening before recall the Lords Supper with the institution of the Holy Eucharist, the washing of the disciples feet, the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and the betrayal by Judas. While we recognize these events on Thursday evening, at the time of their occurrence the time was considered to be the beginning hours of Friday. Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion of Jesus, is one of the most holy days of the Christian year. On my schedule, it is usually a rather quiet day. Not this year.

Many children today have such busy committed school and activity schedules that grandparents have to work a bit to get some one-on-one time. It reminds a little of trying to jump on a moving train. Add in the work schedules of those same grandparents and well...the train seems to be moving really fast. I did, however, score a coup in getting on the calendar Friday with two grandsons out for spring break. What a wonderful day we had starting off at the Museum of Natural Science dinosaur exhibits and the IMAX Dinosaurs film. While there, we also solved crimes in the CSI lab with Gil Grissom and team. We were 'team 2' so all our clues (forensic, toxicological, environmental, etc.) were found in the #2 labs. Very cool stuff. Then out into the beautiful day for a walk to board the Metrorail from the museum district out to the rodeo fairgrounds. Hours of fun rides, bumper cars, pig races, food and midway games rounded out the afternoon. We stopped at a shop on the way home to buy older grandson a photograph album as he wanted to make a 'scrapbook' of his Fun Friday Blast.

Saturday was a clean house day and a long leisurely lunch / shopping with girlfriend day followed by evening movie.

Sunday morning, we picked Mother up to join us for EASTER services. We all enjoyed watching the little ones and their parents at the annual Easter egg hunt. Dressed in their Easter finery, the little ones always take it sooo seriously. It is really sweet to watch the very smallest ones, still learning to walk steadily, when they spot the brightly colored egg that just appeared(!) right in front of their little patent-leathered-shoed feet (thanks to mom or dad). Lunch with Mother at her retirement center followed. She will turn 88 years old in a few weeks so we're thinking we should start planning a celebration of sorts.

Sunday evening was out with more neighbors/friends for dinner at Artista followed by the Rat Pack musical at Hobby Center. Although there were others in the Pack, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin were the stars here. The setting placed us at the Sands Hotel in the early 1960's where we would have likely looked around the glittered audience to see the "likes of Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Judy Garland, Tony Curtis, Sam Giancana and Jack Kennedy." Although I've always thought of this music as belonging more to my parents generation, this was great entertainment and it was cool indeed to hear the Sammy Davis Jr. actor belt out Mr. Bojangles in a version I'd never heard. Sinatra, Martin and Davis are decidedly politically incorrect and some of their between-song patter brings groans (fitting the era of late 50's / early 60's nightclub acts). Here's a North Carolina reviewer's take on the Rat Pack when it toured through Raleigh (same actors)...
Stephen Triffitt and David Hayes are the very image of Sinatra and Davis, respectively, both in looks and mannerisms and the distinctive song stylings that made Frank (a.k.a. Old Blue Eyes) the Chairman of the Board and Sammy the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business. Nigel Casey looks and sounds like Dean, and has Dino’s slurred speech and drunken, rubbery-legged shtick down pat; but he is somehow not quite as convincing as Triffitt and Hayes, who quite simply slip beneath the skin of their two unforgettable characters and sing and dance up a storm and cut the fool just like Frank and Sammy.