Life Transplanet

We have had a very low-key quiet and SNOWY Christmas in Greeley this year. We got about 8-10 inches of snow in the last couple of days. The white Christmas is pretty in its own way, but so cold! We finally put the heat lamp in the chicken coop last night because as I mentioned earlier, two of the girls are molting and must be pretty cold. Unfortunately, when Britton put it in at about 10pm last night (with negative 10 degree weather), he put it directly into the coop and this woke them up. They could not sleep with the light glaring in their faces and ended up sleeping on the shelves of the greenhouse. Today we moved it out of the coop itself and just into the greenhouse. Hopefully that will keep it warm enough without keeping them awake.

Omelette with the heat lamp

Yesterday we also went over to Britton’s parent’s house for Christmas. We opened a few gifts and decorated some sugar cookies. It was pretty fun.

Our cookie creations

Decorating some cookies with our niece and nephew and Britton’s sis

Then today we went over to my parent’s house and opened gifts and had a nice meal. We spent time with my Grandma, brother, his girlfriend and my parents. The best gift of all was hearing that my dad’s PET scan came back with very good results! We also got some goofy presents including some fake crowns that made for a good picture.

My crazy family

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Britton and Cassie

My Mom and the Bishop who looks like Santa Claus

Both of my parents have recently retired and it has left them with a bit more time to do the things they always wanted to do. My dad who is fighting/healing from cancer enjoys playing online poker, fixing up the back area of their house, watching TV and movies and has recently started to write a really interesting sci-fi story! My mom spends time with her dogs, gardens, and this past year has taken an interest in going to church. Actually, I think she started thinking about going back to church around the time we first went to Puerto Rico and stayed with Awilda. I think she still has the Bible Awilda gave her.

My family has never been overtly religious, but I think like all people, we are seekers of some sort. My mom, having grown up in the Catholic church as a child has taken a while but has returned to her roots even if in a sort of non-traditional way. She attends a Liberal Catholic church. I did not know what that was until she invited me to attend. I am always up for attending religious events, at least once, if even only for the anthropologist in me.  Apparently, the Liberal Catholic church has nothing to do with the political liberal, as in liberal and conservatives, except in that the definition of “liberal” means:

a.  Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded

Liberal Catholism was separated from the Roman Catholic Church and has a wide range of views including reincarnation. It is somewhat similar to the Episcopal church in its reasoning for breaking from the larger church and in its allowances (like the fact that priests can marry). What is interesting is that they still retain a lot of the regalia of the old Catholic Church and use traditional  clothing, incense, candles and face the alter. Some of the hymns were from the 1800s! Not as old as the ones we sang at the synagogue, but old none-the-less.

Anyway, this is the church that my mom has been attending with my grandma and her neighbor Cletus, who she spends a lot of time with and so she decided to get confirmed. She invited Britton and me to come (along with my brother, his girlfriend and my dad). There was a lot of up and down sit, stand, kneeling, and of course the part that I find the strangest: communion. It is still hard for me to “swallow” (pun intended) the whole eating of a human God, but I know it is a meaningful part of many Christian religions.

It was a special day for her and so she wanted me to put a few pictures up on this blog.  It was fun hanging out with everyone, getting dressed up and taking pictures, wedding style.

The whole gang

It was a busy four day weekend. First we had our party on Wednesday evening, then we had to clean and recover on January 1st. Then that evening we went out salsa dancing at Suite 152 in Fort Collins. We got there early to go to the lessons, but they weren’t open so we went to Lucky Joes (I think that’s the name of the bar) and had appetizers and peanuts that we got to throw on the floors.

Eating Peanuts at Lucky Joes with Shana and Lorena

Salsa dancing at Suite 152

We got a merengue lesson that could be a Larry David moment, I swear. Eets so seemple! There was reggaeton, salsa, hip-hop, techno and merengue played there. We were some of the oldest people there since it was 18+ night. But it was fun. I love to dance, Britton, not so much. We are also planning to take salsa lessons here at the Greeley FunPlex starting tomorrow night to prepare for our trip to Puerto Rico. 

Then, Friday night, Shana invited me to temple and then to Island Grill to watch a co-worker’s husband play in a band.

Shana and Me at Island Grill in Fort Collins

Some of the girls: Lauren, Mary, Shana and me

A magician was even there to levitate some paper

Turn down your speakers because the sound quality on this is horrible…

This was like a marathon Christmas weekend. Wednesday evening, Christmas Eve, Britton and I  went over to my parent’s house for dinner and we played poker and other card games. Then, Christmas morning we went to Johnson’s Corner, which is probably one of the most famous truck stops in the US for breakfast and it is just off of I-25 in Colorado! Britton thought this was hilarious…a greasy spoon for Christmas. It was actually quite busy! Johnson’s Corner was in the movie “Larger Than Life” with Bill Murray and Matthew McConahey (sp). We met our long-time family friends, the Fitzgeralds, there.

With my family

My Brother Justin and Dad

Playing Poker, Britton and Mom with a Neck massager

World Famous Cinnamon Roll -WAY TOO SWEET!

Sue, Mory, Dad and Mom at Johnson’s Corner

Magic Rings we won playing at the arcades in Johnson’s Corner

Later that afternoon we went over to Britton’s parent’s house and had Christmas dinner with everyone there. Our gift to our niece and nephew was an afternoon with us on Saturday. We took them out to lunch, to Target to pick out a present, went to a music shop down by the University of Northern Colorado, took a walk around UNC, went to the library, then hung out playing video games at our house.  Then, last night we went over to Matt and Jamie’s and hung out, played cards, used their new juicer and played Rockband. Fun and busy weekend!

Nikki, a Schnauzer and Schnoodle at Britton’s Parents for Christmas

Helping give a boost to my nephew up into a tree in front of UNC

So apparently while I was at Yom Kippur services with Shana, Britton was jamming out last night. I kept asking Shana different questions about Judaism, so she finally decided to just take me to temple. I have never been to a synagogue before, so I didn’t really know what to expect, and I told Shana to correct me if I did anything that was obviously offensive, but I think I did ok. I took Anthropology of Religion in college and have learned a lot about and I am interested different religions, but I haven’t experienced very many of them first-hand.

The services start with lighting of memorial candles and a lot of singing in Hebrew which was difficult for me to follow along because, I can’t read Hebrew. And the book is read from right to left. They had a few parts where I could try to sing along in Anglicized Hebrew. We said “avinu malkeinu” over and over again which means, (now that I can look it up on Wikipedia) Our Father, Our King. We also said “Adonai” a lot which also means Lord our God. And of course, Amen…but it was more like AH ah AH ah AH ah May aaaeeen (imagine singing it for about 30 seconds). We stood whenever the “Ark” was open. The ark is like the alter but it is where the Torah is kept. I kept thinking of that scene in Pulp Fiction when he opens the case and it glows gold on his face…

Then when it was closed we usually could sit. The closed ark had a beautiful golden picture of a tree- the Tree of Life. They had five heavy wooden things that were covered in pretty cloth that they rotated having different men hold. These, Shana explained, are the 5 books- the first 5 chapters of the Bible- and they store them in the Ark.

Since Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, we also talked/read along about all the things that we may have done willfully or unwillfully wrong to people and to God. It is kind of like confession except that everyone would do it together and no one was singled out.

The rabbi, who was female (that’s cool!), also gave a sermon called “Why Be Jewish?” I thought it was pretty interesting. She also talked about divine pleasure as the main reason for being “one” with God: all other pleasures are fleeting. The men and boys -and some women- all wore yamikahs (sp?) and a shawl (I can’t remember the correct term for it). And most of them had little knots on them that Shana said are supposed to remind you to do good deeds or mizfuts (sp?). I thought she said “misfits” but probably not. I think the yamikah is to remind you that God is always above you.

Shana said that everyone is supposed to fast and go to temple all day today until sundown when they will Break-The-Fast. After the sermon (is that the right word?) we went and said “hi” or “Good Yentuv” to people. It was kind of funny because I knew more people there than Shana did!

Overall, it was a very neat night and I learned a lot. I definitely should have worn better shoes for all the standing though! And, we were also invited to go to a sweat lodge with an American Indian soon, so that will be cool as well.