hingent

...and it’s half exactly what I’d hoped and half way in excess of hoping. Maybe that’s the same thing, though, I guess. I want to describe my fellow “inquirers,” but won’t. It suffices to say that the people drawn to Catholicism are exactly the people you’d think would avoid it like the plague, but also exactly the people I want to do this thing with. If I were questioning the process for myself (spoiler: I wasn’t), this group of women (all!) would have dashed any doubts I had.

I talked to Sr. Phyllis today and our first meeting is September 15th. Every time I talk to her or talk about RCIA I kind of burst into tears. I have no idea why. Then, because that’s weird, I start laughing, and because she can hear the laughing and not the crying, I know she thinks I’m totally mental. Anyway, I’m pretty excited.

The Raleigh is running like a little champ. The crank squeaks and the gears very, very occasionally skip, but he is such a sturdy, well-made beauty. It almost feels like he’s happy to finally be ridden again.

On Saturday we rode to the farmer’s market and library, trying out riding with Junebug for the very first time ever. Odin’s been riding with us since we adopted him four(!!) years ago, so he’s an old hat and besides, he just rides in Jack’s messenger bag (and when Jack leans forward to get going, Odin rests his head on Jack’s shoulder so he can have the wind in his face and I seriously die every time because of how it’s totally the cutest thing ever) so it’s not like there’s much to train there. Anyway, I attached Junie’s leash to my chest and went really slowly until she seemed to get the idea what “left” and “right” mean. She’s ridiculously clever. It was a smooth ride, if ambitious for her first time with the bike, and we made it without incident. The band at the market had an electric mandolin and no vocalist and played Beatles and Zeppelin covers and were generally delightful. The crepe stand gave June and Odin their own crepe to share and the sun came up long enough for us to shop. It was a perfect day.

This ended up being less about the Raleigh that I had originally intended. But the point is I love him.