Holy Week: It has me

It's begun. Actually, it began on Sunday, but I didn't go to that evening service (fourth mortal sin). I did go tonight, for the second of three "Service of the Bridegroom" services. It was short, as Holy Week services go, and as my friend Andrew says: "They just keep getting longer from here." They're gorgeous, mainly. But I always find myself praying at about the midway point for the creaky old head cantor to just hurry it up a little. He does tend to linger over his words--in Greek because they are so pretty, and in English so he can (a) parse it out, and (b) lose everyone who's trying to sing along with him. He's cranky that way. It starts pissing off the other cantors and then we end up listening to a very subtle struggle going on back there in the balcony. A younger cantor will pipe up and stomp on the end of the head cantor's line as he dwindles it down to a period, and then the second cantor will just take off from there, less in-tune but much more up to speed, which brings relief to all of us down below. We humans are all so weak. I will need to skip tomorrow's service, the last of the "Bridegroom" series. After that it's Holy Wednesday--a really good one because we receive the Sacrament of Holy Oil on our faces and hands. It's a strict-fast week, which is good from a temporal reasons also, as I continue my quest to ditch the ballast. I've lost 15 pounds since I began my training regimen (that was last July). I have 20 and change to go. My quest will get a one-day suspension on Easter Sunday, as THS and I have an invitation to a Greek Easter dinner (!!). I hadn't anticipated an invitation, and we were just going to do a reasonable little Greek meal--some lamb chops and salad, with baklava for dessert. But now I just have to make a Greek appetizer to bring to my godparents' house. Alleluia.