Ash Wednesday

I went to The Church of the Good Shepherd tonight with Harmony for Ash Wednesday observance; it was my first experience attending this sacred ritual. I had been to that church before (Chachi's kids all had their first communions there) and my friends often accompany me to services at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. I figured with all that was going on at home, it couldn't hurt to add some outside-my-usual-spirituality to the day.
The house was packed; by the time the priest was ready to anoint parishioners with the ashes, it was standing-room-only.
The service was lovely...the only thing that struck me as strange was when the priest added some comments as to how the parishioners should conduct themselves at prayer; to "not be like the hypocrites at synagogues" by "standing and showing off their praying" and "not be like the hypocrites at synagogues" by " donating alms for personal attention" and "standing in synagogue to pray in front of others" (like we weren't standing at intervals there.) Harm shot me a perplexed, embarrassed look as the priest was saying these things, as she had never heard a priest ever say anything derogatory against any other house of worship. I thought it off-putting (I'd never heard any clergy publicly admonish another religion at a service either) but shrugged it off. I really don't believe that he meant to offend anybody.
She received her ashes, and later, her communion wafer (I received a blessing.) Everyone was so friendly, and the singing was very nice.

After the services, Harm took me to dinner at her favorite sushi restaurant, Hamasaku on Santa Monica Boulevard. I have rarely in my life had anything as close to perfection as the food served here (Mr. Chow's chef's menu & the steak at Dan Tana's are right up there!) They specialize in special sushi rolls served cone-style (reminiscent of Puck, only not crispy)...the "Fox" roll (unbelievable hot crab), "Charlize Theron Tacos" (spicy tuna w/jalapenoooooh) and "Tyler" roll (spicy tuna with diced apple & mango) amazed, and Harm had an Ahi salad that she would of allowed me to photograph had I remembered my camera. The restaurant has little table signs to reserve seats for their highly-celebrated clientele; on any given night one could find Enrique, Lindsay, Mary-Kate or Ashley, Cameron, Drew, Justin, blah blah blah etc...sitting at one of the darkly lit tables. The owner is "Mr. Host-extraordinaire", making everyone feel like an old friend. Of course he was very warm to us, as Harm is a regular there (my first time.)

She then took me to pick up Ben at his youth group meeting (who I had dropped off earlier) and we went to Diddy Riese to pick up a cookie for Allie and him. Gary was sleeping on the big chair (he has since gone to bed.) Ben and I are now watching Top Design on Bravo.
Long day.