The color purple ... and pink ... and yellow

Jim and the girls and I have attended the same church for many years, so it's the go-to place for Easter and other Christian holidays (as well as most Sundays in between). Easter Sunday usually means lots of pink, yellow and purple outfits will be in display, worn by little girls in frilly finery, moms and grandmas donning Easter bonnets. Even Dads and Grandpas sheepishly sport pastel shirts and ties, succumbing to threats subtle pressure from their wives.

That's what we usually see at Easter service.

At yesterday's Easter service, there was no sea of pastel, no Easter bonnets. It didn't seem that many of the outfits were even new. In fact, lots of folks were wearing worn jeans or khakis -- fairly typical of a regular Sunday, but not Easter, the Sunday of all Sundays.

It was odd. And a little sad. It underscored the fact that new Easter outfits weren't in the cards for anyone this year, not just my family. Despite the optimism sparked by recent unemployment numbers, it seems economic recovery has yet to become reality, at least to the degree that we all felt new outfits were a priority.

I know, I know. New Easter outfits aren't really all that important. We all still sang just as loudly, still exchanged customary Easter greetings, and appreciated the trumpets, Easter lillies and C & E crowd not typical of regular Sunday services.

But like so many other traditions of Easter that have fallen by the wayside, traditions I wrote about here, I missed the pastels, the bonnets, the little girls twirling in their fancy dresses and white patent leather shoes.

Easter just didn't seem as Easter-y as usual.

If nothing else, though, I keep telling myself -- and this is the optimist in me struggling to keep its head above water -- at least I didn't stick out like sore thumb this year. As I worshipped in my dark clothing, I fit right in, I looked much like everyone else. This year it didn't matter that I prefer basic black (dark gray this time, to be exact) to frilly fuschia, Pepto-Bismol pink or buttercup yellow.

Worthy of a hallelujah? Probably not. But the way things have been of late, I'm taking comfort where I can get it.

And I'm thinking that -- if our financial picture gets a little rosier in the next year -- I just might buy a rose-colored outfit to match, for next year's Easter service. In honor of things looking better, I think that maybe, I just might be able to do pastel.

And a bonnet? No bonnet for me, thank you very much. I truly cannot do that. Nope, no matter how sunny things get, you won't catch me in a bonnet -- for Easter or otherwise. Pink I can consider doing. A bonnet? No way!

And to that I can give a hearty "Hallelujah!"

Plus an adamant "Amen!"

Today's question:

If you could wear only one color of clothing for the rest of your days, what color would you choose?

My answer: Black. I'm not a depressed/depressing kind of person; I just prefer black.

If I had a million dollars

When Jim and I were first married, we were pretty darn broke. We stayed home nearly every Friday and Saturday night, playing backgammon and gin rummy and dreaming of better days to come.

"If we had all the money in the world," I'd ask, just to break up the monotony of me him winning all the time, "what would you want to be doing right now?"

His response and our discussion to follow usually went far beyond what we'd be doing that night if we had money, evolving into how we'd spend the entire stash if we won the lottery: fancy dining experiences, fast cars, hip clothes, trips to exciting/interesting/exotic places, attending concerts across the country of our favorite bands.

Fast forward 28 years.

While we no longer stay home every Friday and Saturday night, we do still talk often about what we'd do if we won the lottery. And those conversations are where we really show our age.

Here's the list of things Jim and I are adamant about doing if when we win the lottery, in order of priority:

• Tithe

• Pay off our gargantuan PLUS loan we took out for the girls to get the educations we didn't.

• Pay off our gargantuan house loan.

• Support our moms.

• Pay for lots of things for the girls (cars, homes, etc.).

• Hire a weekly housekeeper -- who, at Jim's request, would do the windows every other week.

• Dole out one-time cash gifts to our siblings plus a few nieces and nephews.

• Buy the house next door and totally raze it, allowing us to have back our view of Pikes Peak and making way for the most awesome play area for the grandkids.

• Put a 10-foot fence around our property.

• Buy a cabin in Flagstaff.

• Visit the Pacific Northwest ... often.

I'm sure we'd do a little clothes shopping, a lot of book shopping, a little dining out and add trips to NYC, DC and Bruges. But on our current list there's nary a mention of fancy cars, fancy clothes, wild and exotic trips.

Nope, the majority of our plans for the load of cash revolves around making life a little more comfortable on the homefront and for our family. We're getting old, it seems, and relaxing at home and knowing our family is safe and financially sound is really all we're looking for at this point.

Although ... those concerts mentioned years ago ... we'd still shell out bucks to catch concerts across the country. We're not that old yet!

Today's question:

If you were to win the lottery (regardless of whether you buy tickets or not), what is the very first thing you would buy once you claimed your prize?

My answer: Dinner at a NON-fancy restaurant after picking up the check at the lottery office. We're not fancy restaurant kind of people; a modest restaurant that serves excellent steaks and even better lemon-drop martinis would be our ideal celebration spot.

Snips and snails

I got a text message from Megan the other night. The subject was "SICKO". My first thought was Michael Moore. My second thought was some pervert in the park.

Wrong on both counts. I opened the message and it was a photo of Bubby -- with his finger jammed up his nose and a grin on his face. The text: "Bubby's new fav game."

I should have seen it coming. Despite his proclivity for trying on shoes of any sort -- including Mommy's or any other female's -- I should have known that Bubby was sure to be all boy!

In fact, his penchant for picking was previously documented; I guess I just chose to ignore it. But in the hundreds of shots I took of Bubby's recent visit was evidence of the nose-picker to come:

I'm pretty sure Bubby's doing it just for the exaggerated "Ewwwww!" and "Grosssssss!!" reactions he gets from Mommy (okay ... and from Grandma, too*) when he does it. I'm certain there's no need to worry that I'll have a perpetually nose-picking SICKO for a grandson who will grow up to be some SICKO pervert-in-the-park kind of grandson.

Any Michael Moore connection, on the other hand, has yet to be debunked.

*You can tell by the hand action in the photo above that I really was trying to stop him!

Today's question:

Okay, most Grandma's Briefs readers are females (sugar and spice, etc.) but what's your most male-like attribute or behavior?

My answer: This is something I probably shouldn't admit, but we're all friends here, so here goes: I've got the pretty good makings of a beard coming on in my advanced age ... and pluck regularly to avoid an all-out circus-freak appearance.