Doing Heaven

For those of us growing up in faith traditions believing in Heaven, it was always fun to talk about how/what we imagined Heaven to be. HA, no harp-playing for me, though that might be a good Gemini challenge I'd want to notch my belt.

Hands down, heaven was always Doing well what I enjoy, Being around the people I love, Talking and Eating. All at the same time, if possible!

So it occurred to me that I've been Doing Heaven a lot lately:

• Enjoying a double-header movie date with Donica while eating parmesan cheese-flavored popcorn.
• Spending a 3-hour lunch catching up with a friend at Smokey Bones.
• Rendezvousing with Donica's mom and Lee at the Spaghetti Factory for a quiet evening during Donica's too-crazy schedule.
• Celebrating Amy's and Mark's birthdays at the Atlanta Fish Market, with special emphasis on drooling over Mark's king crab legs. The stuffed flounder, blackened grouper and "Hong Kong"-style sea bass were great droolers as well. We all love Atlanta's fresh seafood.

Playing follow-the-robot and avoiding as much rain as possible at Nicholas's 4th Cumming Fair in a row (and he's only 5!). He and I always share a smoked turkey leg, which Donica laments not getting a shot of. But he also enjoyed his corn dog and the chocolate ice-cream custard to top off the evening. (Next time he'll get the spiced-pumpkin flavor that G'ma got, he says!) When you're at the Fair and with the grandmas, you get to do all kinds of fun things you don't normally get to do, right Amy?

• Smiling widely while Donica and Nicholas pick out the jukebox songs and pay the Waffle House bill.

• Watching good football with Amy and Mark (yay GA!) and then Braves baseball (boo-hoo) with Mark while eating Mardi Gras wings and veggie/fruit munchies.

It doesn't get much better than this, which is why we call it "just like heaven." We oughta do it more often!