on sunday i went to church at st. paul's in grand forks, where i hadn't been since i attended page's memorial in september. it's always funny to go without my family---more so this time, since something about that place feels materially different without page. it felt good to be back in any case, even if the white-haired lady sitting next to me frowned a little bit when she caught me "God"-ing all the male pronouns in the liturgy. i arrived late owing to a change in the service time [change?!?! we're episcopalians! we don't do that!] but was there for the nicene creed and everything following, including about nine thousand hugs from a variety of parent and grandparent figures, whose questions divided pretty evenly between "have you found a man yet"-type inquiries and "so what are you going to do with the rest of your life?" seriously, it's always gratifying that so many people i didn't really know remember me so well.

the highlight of the day came when the supply priest's wife approached me to admire my "dissent is patriotic" pin (which is about 1 1/2" in diameter--she must have eyes like a hawk) and chat me up about politics. at the end of our conversation, which included a moment of mistiness as i described laurel on a lamppost on october 26th, she invited me into her husband's office and gave me a "united we stand in peace" bumper sticker. apparently there's hope for the episcopal church yet.