On Easter Sunday, Anna decided to allow me to accompany her to church. Finally, a chance to explore someplace new.
Sadly, Anna was too distracted by her other obligations to notice that I was still trapped in my carry bag during the church service. I was able to still hear the beautiful music and bits of the sermon. And afterwards I was able to spend some time exploring at my leisure.
Here I am in the Sanctuary, very spacious indeed. Behind me is the rather grand sized pipe organ. I have heard it is among the largest ones in the state of Arizona. Quite large in size and frankly in volume as well. I had no problems hearing it’s melodies despite being confined in my carry bag.
Still nice to admire from afar. I had an excellent view of it sitting at the balcony. Naturally I was careful not to get too close to the edge, a fall from that height would be disastrous indeed.
I had a wonderful view of all the pews as well as the organ. Yes, plenty of room for a large number of church going humans.
I found the pews to be spacious, possibly a bit too spacious, but that is to be expected for dolls of my size.
I also couldn’t help noticing how dim the lighting was, at least on the balcony. It made it most difficult to properly capture my radiance in photos. Difficult, but thankfully not impossible.
Also thankfully, it wasn’t too dim to read from the hymnal, a must during church services. Although I found it difficult for other reasons as you can see.
In honor of Easter, the sanctuary was nicely decorated with these lovely though unfortunately fake lilies. Anna insisted on getting some photos of me posing with them. They would make a lovely holiday card she insisted, so I relented. You can view it here if you haven’t had a chance to yet.
I decided to explore a little more and discovered the chapel just down the hall from the sanctuary. It is normally used for the smaller later service, but was vacant due to the holiday.
Such a quaint room, a bit more brightly lit, and with a modestly decorated altar. I am quite fond of the beautiful cross set up in the center.
It is only slightly taller than myself and the design is simply rendered but elegant.
Since this church is fairly known for it’s music program, it seemed natural to find a charmingly well used piano in the chapel.
I’m afraid I haven’t had the opportunity to learn to play. Most pianos you see are too wide to be played well by a single ball jointed doll, not even one as graceful and agile as myself. Pity, I would have loved to fill the room with music.
After church, Anna and I attended a small fairly casual celebration with some of Anna’s acquaintances. There was food prepared and various drinks, mostly alcoholic which I can’t say I entirely approve of. Anna was sensible enough to choose water, and she was also considerate enough to remember to bring my tea set.
The time spent was pleasant enough, despite random people touching me or making overly blunt comments. They clearly have not spent nearly enough time around dolls with my charm and splendor so are ignorant of proper behavior. So being a patient and understanding doll, I will overlook it, for now.
The church I attend is First United Methodist Church in Mesa Arizona, check it out when you get the chance.
I originally thought it would have been too much trouble to take Hikaru to church, but decided it would be too much fun not to. Plus there were several people I know who hadn’t seen her yet or at least hadn’t seen her since she finally got a wig (see It's Here at Last! Or a Wig Review). Sadly some of those people weren’t at church this week.
Anyway, it was fun taking pictures and showing her off, both at church and later. Those “blunt comments” Hikaru mentioned are actually just the usual comments one can expect from people seeing a ball jointed doll.
Some people think they are a little creepy or just a tad bizarre, mostly in a good way too as strange as that is to say. I tried to tell Hikaru this because Miss “patient and understanding” was actually a little more steamed than she lets on. People did say nice things about her too which I reminded her.
And technically only one person actually touched her, just out of curiosity about what she was made out of, and this was mostly because I forgot to warn anyone about that or about having clean hands. No harm came from it, and I brought Magic Erasers (see Doll Owner's Corner: Weird Supplies for Dolls) just in case. Overall, nothing to make too much of a fuss about.
Alright, maybe I was the tiniest bit heated by the comments. And I really wish Anna would remember that one of her responsibilities of being the caretaker of ball jointed dolls does involve educating others on proper handling and decorum.
Anyway, I found my visit to church pleasant though rather brief, this time at least. And the after activities were still delightful. I enjoyed myself and look forward to many more adventures later. I am at peace.
