Good Friday

First of all, why is it called Good Friday? I suppose I could Google it and look, but perhaps someone would like to just tell me. I get that what happened brought about good, but it is one of the dreariest, saddest, lowest points in the church calendar/service/history. I feel like we should have a revolution and call this day Black Friday from now on and make retailers call Black Friday Good Friday. Who's with me?

Anyway, my roomie, my boy and I met up with three other friends for our church's Black Friday (I am starting already, OED here I come!!!) service. It is a very somber and long service. It focuses on the last seven phrases Christ said before he died each one is read there is a pause and then a candle is snuffed out. Each year the pastor gives a meditation on one particular verse and then they continue reading the rest of the words of Christ pausing long enough to snuff candles. To give you an idea of timing, one year they used taper candles and snuffed one out after each of verses. That year the meditation was on the first or second verse, however, and by the time the meditation was complete, one of the candles had burned down completely and one had had to be snuffed because it was looking like a fire hazard and the rest didn't look too healthy. I had missed subsequent services and assumed that the meditation had been cut down since then. I realized how wrong I was when we entered the sanctuary and saw a line of pillar candles. While I do love Jesus (contrary to what recent posts might imply), I did have a sort of sinking feeling. . . .

You're not supposed to talk upon entering the sanctuary and this posed a problem for one of my friends. He doesn't go to church often and usually when he does and I am there we'll pass notes/whisper through a majority of the service. This being a special meditative service I refused to talk and didn't really want to write notes (I am sure people wish that were always my rule, but whatever). It didn't look good. He was writing notes furiously. I was smiling and nodding and finally writing some notes back. This slowed down though once the service started.

At one point in the service we were reciting Psalm 22 antiphonally (one side of the congregation said a couple verses then the other side said a couple more). My friend gave up the note writing was practically shouting: "Are we God?" It was a confusing question with which to be startled out of the reading. At first I didn't know what he meant (and I am not sure that those around us knew either). He continued to ask a couple more times and then I grabbed his bulletin and started writing madly. I wrote that neither side was God, that this was written by David but that it was a prophecy about Jesus and that some of these exact phrases were things that he said on the cross. He wrote back, but why is some bold and some not? And the only response I had was so that we could read it responsively. He said "so it's just random?" and I said "as far as I know, yeah." He seemed disgusted after that and was quiet for quite some time. . . .

The service ended and the six of us were starving. We headed to the North End to eat at the Daily Catch (mentioned earlier in this blog). It's a very small and very popular restaurant. Accommodating six people is quite a feat there. So we stood outside waiting. . . and waiting. . . and getting hungrier and hungrier. I broke out a bag of carrots I had bought earlier at haymarket and we crunched on them and continued to talk and wait. The host came out and told us he'd seat us as soon as he could. I said it's fine, we have carrots now and he said he'd bring us out a small calamari on the house. We were thrilled. We put the carrots away and waited eagerly. He brought out the calamari and it was gone in a flash. My note writing friend and I took the box and the used napkins and used one of the shiny new solar powered trash cans (it was exciting). Eventually after much more waiting they seated us (at two different tables with the promise that we could sit together once the couples next to us left--what the hell was taking them so long!!!!!). We worked out a plan for what we wanted and then prepared to order. He came back and said "sorry guys, I have to tell you we're out of bread and we're out of lobster." One of our desired dishes had contained lobster and, oddly enough, some carrots and a small calamari weren't enough to make us very full so no bread was a sad statement. We proceeded to order and limited our glowering to the couples next to us (who were taking up space so we couldn't sit together AND who had the lobster dish we wanted) to a minimum. My note taking friend offered to go across the streets to Mike's and buy some bread. This was an overwhelmingly supported plan. He ran across and when the restaurant saw what we had done they offered to heat/slice the bread for us. It was quite nice (they did give some of our bread to another couple later on but whatever. . . .). We got calamari meatballs, an odd, but lovely treat. It was hearty and meaty but with a hint of squid flavor (as you might suspect). We also got the clams casino which were great (they usually only come with five, but they added an extra one for us -- why would anything come in fives? even if you were just a couple wouldn't you want a four or a six?). For the meal we had Monkfish Marsala (a very meaty/hearty fish) that came with an incredible sauce we eagerly sopped up with the bread; Calamari and Clams in a red sauce; Scallops (I LOVE scallops) in a white olive oil sauce; and, my favorite from last time, Aglio Olio We were so full and happy at the end of the night. All the waiting was worth it.

We started walking back to the train when someone decided we should try the ice cream infused cupcakes that are now found in the North End. So we stopped by Trani and split a five pack of fudgeits. I am not sure I will get that again, but I would definitely try one of their other treats Walnuffs for example -- though my friend and I talked about buddy-b's too (so it's not like I wouldn't try the brownie again I guess :)).

Anyway, it was a good night (notice a trend here, if I have good food it's a good day -- this is why I need to be on weight watchers!!!!!!!).