My Bluesky posts

• Mon, 20:06: A bit more of a tearjerker than I expected, but still quite sweet and satisfying. https://t.co/wpxud3r6XU

Easter 2025

Easter Roll Call! 1. Dad
2. Sherri
3. Angel
4. Brandi
5. Nick
6. Jaycee
7. Gianni
8. Enzo
9. Ricky
10. Raiden
11. Ruby
12. Britni
13. Carlos
14. Gina
15. Beth
16. Matthew
17. Shobhit
18. Wendy Compare to last year's 25 people, this is down by 7: Nikki and TJ and their two kids did not make it this year like they did last year; neither did Jennifer and Matthew, oe Brad, or Barbara who I flew out to Seattle for Easter last year, or Angela's friend Lorine who was also here last year. That's actually eight people from last year missing this year who were here last year, so who was here this year that was not here last year? That would be Carlos, Britni's husband—I misspoke about them in yesterday's post, incidentally; they apparently went and got married on Christmas Day last year, Rick (Britni's dad) officiating. So, Britni is now officially in marriage #3 at age 33. But I'm not judging! Carlos is pretty cool actually. Oh, and we wouldn't want to miss the updated Easter Roll Call History: 2025: 18
2024: 25
2023: 16
2022: 30 (combo Easter / Sherri's 70th birthday party)
2021: 21
2020 [virtual]: 12
2019: 19
2018: 13
2017: 20
2016: 19
2015: 22 (22.5 if you count Shobhit on FaceTime for a bit)
2014: 14
2013: 9 / 3 (Dad and Sherri spent with Christopher & family in Spokane; I took day trip to Wallace to spend with Mom & Bill; Shobhit was in L.A.)
2012: 21
2011: 12 (with Dad and Sherri, Christopher & family in Spokane, + Shobhit, + Barbara)
2010: 10 (with Dad and Sherri, Christopher & family in Spokane; Shobhit was in New York)
2009: 20
2008: 12 (with Dad and Sherri, Christopher & family in Spokane, + Shobhit, + Barbara) Easter is one of those holidays where the number of family present really yo-yos in size from year to year. In any case, this year's eighteen was perfectly comfortable for the new house Brandi and Nick have recently moved into—Brandi volunteered to host the family gathering this year. There was no adult Easter Egg hunt this year as traditionally happens, but mostly because Brandi's house has limited space outside, the tiniest yard to speak of, so it was all used just for the kids' Easter Egg hunt—all of which, I believe, Brandi hid, using a lot of random spaces in addition to plants and what limited grass there was. When Brandi created the Facebook Event to send out the invite this year, Gina posted a comment that perhaps we could move the group over to her and Beth's house for dessert and the adult egg hunt. But, apparently Brandi declared they weren't going to move the family out of the house after hosting, which is kind of understandable, but it also made the idea of another place for any part of Easter fizzle out. As such, this was one of the shortest amounts of time Shobhit and I have ever stayed in Olympia for a holiday. We arrived at noon, and we were headed back out at about 3:45. When the gathering is at either Dad and Sherri's or at Gina and Beth's, we usually linger longer than most of the rest of the family, visiting with those who are ultimately the ones I am closest with, at one or the other of their houses. That didn't happen this time, and Dad also said they would probably leaving soon when we indicated we were about to go. This is not usually my preference, being down there less than four hours, but honestly it worked out for me this weekend in particular, with so very much going on: not only did we have the Tulip Festival and staying overnight with Mimi and Steve on Friday; and Tammy and Ein's wedding on Saturday; and Easter on Sunday—but I had to take the time to process the photos of all three events, and write three separate blog posts for each event. In an effort to save some time at work today, I actually wrote the draft of this post for Easter last night, and am just sharing it today. There's nothing else much of note to report on Easter, though: it was a pretty low-key affair, no drama—although Shobhit complained on our way home about how much we tend to talk shit about the extended McQuilkin family, which I guess I'll admit is fair. People in my family have a tendency to make fun of extended family members whose circumstances may very well be beyond their control, and in certain cases they have only been kind to us. I am just as guilty of this as anyone, and trying to excuse it as part of our "family culture" makes for a pretty weak argument. That said, Shobhit also made judgments of what he felt are appropriate behaviors for hosts, or for how polite siblings are supposed to be to each other, and I would still maintain he's slightly overstepping his bounds there. And he hardly has room to judge on that front, considering how deeply rude to me he has been at times, right in front of family members at holiday events. On the other hand, I'm really only bringing that stuff up because I'm feeling defensive about a hard truth in one of Shobhit's observations. This stuff will very likely come up in our next therapy session. As will some other stuff from over the weekend. I don't need to get into it all here. Or maybe not: our next therapy session was going to be today at 1:00, but I got a call this morning that Amy had a conflict, and Shobhit and I could not do any of the other available times this week and so had to cancel. I already canceled next week's session due to it being my Birth Week vacation. So now our next appointment is not until Monday, May 5. A hell of a lot more can happen between now and then. I guess I could move on to the food: as always, it was a potluck, and most of the dishes were either meat based or had meat in it. Even the "cheese dip" Britni made had sausage in it. Wendy, Sherri's sister, brought spaghetti, and when reminded that we're vegetarians she actually apologized and said she should have brought spaghetti without meat—I said it was okay. Not only is it understandable that she would make meat sauce by default when the vast majority are meat eaters, but Wendy in particular is a bit absent-minded by nature and would not likely remember even if she tried to. Ten points for Sherri, though! She made macaroni salad, and that had no meat in it. Shobhit only had a tiny bit because it was really high in Weight Watchers points, but I had two helpings. As for what we brought, Shobhit made a chickpea, potato and vegetable salad, along with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing to drizzle onto it. It was surprisingly tasty, and I had a pretty large helping of it. And those were the two things I had available to eat, aside from the desserts—I also had a chocolate chip cookie, and two (small!) slices of carrot cake, which came from a store but was delicious. Carrot cake can really go either way, be really good or be really bad, but this was one of the really good ones. When Shobhit and I gave hugs as we were leaving, Dad commented on how nice it was to get to see each other two days in a row. Indeed! I almost said I had no idea when we'd see each other again—and then I remembered by Birth Week starts on Friday. Ha! I'll see Dad again on Sunday next weekend. Anyway. This year's photo album has just 34 shots, making it the smallest Easter photo album I've managed since 2019. This is also a holiday that really fluctuates year to year with how photogenic it turns out to be. I sure do like this photo I got of Gina and Shobhit though, both of them smiling big at three of my grandnephews (Gianni, Enzo, and Raiden), all of whom are reaping the spoils of their Easter Egg hunt. It's a nice representative of a lovely holiday, relatively brief as it may have been. [posted 12:32pm]