Resurrection

Easter weekend was bittersweet for me. I was away from my family for the first time on the holiday, which wasn't super sad except that I missed seeing my dad sing in the Messiah. However, let's rewind to Good Friday.

Billy, Megan and I made our own Easter dinner Friday night which was lovely. We had a yummy little ham from Aldi, green bean casserole, and crescent rolls! It was simple but wonderful. After that, we headed downtown to 4th Presbyterian Church for a choral service. The service was a little disappointing i my opinion since it was a little opera-y for my tastes, and they didn't sing in English so it was hard to stay in the moment.

Anyway, after that, I headed up to Lincoln Square for a sleepover with cousin Hannah! We arose early the next morning and headed to Grant Park for the Bunny Rock 5k! Although I've been running for a while now, I was still nervous for the 5k since I hadn't worked my way up to running the whole distance on the treadmill. However, I proved myself wrong! I ran the whole distance and finished at a faster pace than what I was shooting for! It felt good to accomplish that. Special thanks to Hannah for running slowly with me- she's quite the runner (did the marathon in October) and probably could have run circles around me, but chose to stick with me :)

Here are some of our photos from the day:

They had a petting zoo :)

 If you're interested in some action shots from the race's photographer, click here.

I decided to go to 4th Pres again on Sunday. I thought it would be neat to experience Easter at that venue, being a big downtown church, and I also just wanted a more traditional worship on a holiday. (Can't have Easter without singing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today"!). I arrived at 9am for the 9:30 service, and boy was I glad I came early! The line was already wrapping around to the sides of the building and when we were seated I was only about 4 rows from the back! That sanctuary, which is beautiful by the way, holds 1,000 people! It was a great service, but I did feel a little sad and awkward to be the only person I noticed that was flying solo that day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Presbyterian_Church_%28Chicago%29

http://my52wow.com/2011/01/28/52-weeks-of-worship-a-contemplative-mellow-way-to-worship-taize/

After the service I sat and people-watched outside for a little bit. I wanted to enjoy the outdoors, and it was fun to look at everyone dressed up for Easter. :)
I headed home and then Billy invited me to lunch with his aunt and uncle at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro, where Billy's cousin (their daughter) is the chef! They had a wonderful buffet with traditional Irish stuff like amazingly tender corned beef and super yummy bread pudding! They also had a build your own omelette station which I LOVED. Omelettes have been my new favorite thing for a few months now thanks to my weekly lunches with Linda. Just ask her, I order breakfast for lunch every chance I get! Anyway, it was nice to hang out with them for a while and eat some great food on Easter!

All in all, it was a pretty good Easter. I still would have liked to have gone home to be with family, but staying in Chicago enabled me to do some pretty unique stuff that I may never get the chance to do again.