Back from Easter, and headcovering debriefing...

Ah, back at work from a weekend away. I'm happy to report that our travel, and our trip, went very well. On the way up, I smugly held my tongue as Mike squirmed in his seat and suggested that we make a rest stop. *My* bladder was fine, but I thought it best not to mention this fact. He and Hank hurried to the Mens Room while I daintily combed my hair in the ladies "lounge." What is it with highway rest stops? In New York they're actually somewhat decent. They maintain them and keep them pretty clean. But others, *shudder*. How hard is it to squirt toilet bowl cleaner and maybe take a mop to the floor once a week? Not hard, as we all know. But alas. They'd rather us wallow in squallor.

For the remainder of the trip, I felt quite nauseous. I have notoriously bad motion sickness, yet I get amnesia about this fact before every trip, because I never have the over-the-counter dramamine that I need. I munched on my snacks and sipped my iced tea, and this would keep the nausea at bay for periods of time. And, the portable DVD player resulted in Henry being an *outstanding* boy for the trip, both ways. Gosh, it feels good to be right. *coy smile*

I brought my knitting in the car this time, wondering if, despite the fact that I cannot read in the car due to my motion issue, perhaps I could knit. Yeah. No more wondering on that issue. I can't. Immediate doom-feeling nausea after barely 5 stitches.

On the way back yesterday, we stopped off at Rite Aid for some dramamine, which I immediately consumed. It knocked me out a few hours later, and I napped for pretty much the duration of our foray into central New York. It felt good to get home.

So. My Lenten headcovering experiment. I said I would write fully about this after Easter, and here we are. Overall, I really enjoyed my employment of headcoverings at Mass. I felt that I was more focused at Mass this Lent; that preparing myself by covering my head prior to attending Mass forced me to focus on how very important it is. It made me feel that I was making more of an effort to concentrate at, and appreciate Mass, and that I was trying harder to hear God's voice at that time.

And I got zero strange looks or comments. Granted, this may be because I was wearing fairly subtle headcoverings, in the form of larger headbands and scarves. I do not have a traditional mantilla. Also, I live in a region with a lot of cradle Catholics, and even if most women choose not to cover, they're familiar with the phenomenon and don't think it odd if another woman does. As well, there are a small number of women in my parish that do wear hats to Mass. Thus, I really didn't "stick out" the way I always feared, which was the reason I chose not to cover in the past.

So, with that all in mind, I plan to continue to cover my head during Mass from this point forward. At some point, I'll pick up a few more headcoverings so that I have plenty of options depending on what I'm wearing, and I'll definitely get them from Garlands of Grace. I'm very happy with the ones that I bought from there. I enjoyed this experiment and will continue to blog about it as events transpire :)