I was going to hold off on this post until I had the photos ready to accompany it,but my computer still isn’t completely reassembled/reorganized and fun with iPhoto will have to wait a few more days.
Friday
At 4:30pm, I dashed home to shed my workday attire and headed over to Bob’s Your Uncle (eastside) to finish my role as social secretary to Bonaducci, party of 17. Yes, by some random twist of holiday weekend fate, 14 friends and their children had managed to carve out an evening when they could all be in the same place. We’re (mostly) former HMB tenor saxes, and if the tenors had a motto, or six, it would be: HMB Tenors: We don’t do planning. Yet despite the lack of motto and just a dash of “planning,” Andy Tauke, Diane & Andy, Jerry & Sara, Greg & Carly, Joe & Mo, Sarah & Stacey, and I, and three cute tenor kids (who’s names have been omitted to spare them the embarassment in 12 years or so when they start googling themselves), all showed up, generally on time for dinner. Unfortunately, Bob’s Your Uncle didn’t think seating us was a priority despite me showing up half an hour before the group wanted to sit down so we could get a table. I could go on and on about the “service”, but half my reading audience was either there to experience the whole thing or got to hear about it at some point over the weekend. To sum up:
Bob’s Your Uncle’s no-reservation policy + manager’s suggestions for dealing with large group + hungry/tired children + pregnant friends + good food – free drinks – free pizzas + 3 hours in the restaurant = me not recommending you go to Bob’s with more than 6 people. Ever.
Restaurant issues aside, it was a great gathering and fun to see people catch up. Some people hadn’t seen each other in several years. I realized I was lucky in that I had seen everyone within the past year and most people within the last few months. The kids are all growing and its fun/scary to see how they take after their parents. There were a few comments that maybe we could make this an annual thing around Easter weekend since people tend to be in town (if they don’t already live here) to visit family. That would be cool.
After dinner, some headed home, but some of us wanted to hang out more, so J&S, D, Tauke, Sarah & Stacey, and I went back to my place and hung out with my roommate, my cat, and assorted flavors of ice cream. I think we ate a couple heads worth. I threw everyone out around 12:45am.
Saturday
At an all too early hour on Saturday, I got up and headed to Bussey. My cousin Darlene had passed away earlier in the week and the funeral was that morning in Albia. For those of you who don’t know my family and are thinking this must be someone my age cut down in their prime, I wasn’t raised in a family who only considers first cousins (the children of your parents’ siblings) to be cousins. Darlene was 73. She was my mom’s first cousin, making her my first cousin, once removed. And I know this because my family is paradox in that we understand all these relationships and the terminology for it, yet we could really care less who’s a first, second, or how many times removed. Its all family.
The consequence of a very large extended family is that I’ve probably been to a lot more funerals than other people my age. And I know I’ve mentioned before my feelings on funerals. But I must admit, this was a nice service and I wasn’t nearly as anxiety-ridden as I usually am. This was a cremation, so there was no casket. No viewing to contend with and that’s really my problem with it all. It was nice to not have fight the overwhelming urge to flee from the church and be able to focus on the pastor’s words, the music, the poem read bravely by her teenage granddaughter, Jessica, who was more composed than I could’ve ever been at her age, or probably even now.
After the church service, we went to Hiteman Cemetery for the internment. Because I couldn’t belong to my family if I wasn’t a contradiction, I will mention that I just love cemeteries. I hadn’t been to this one since I was very young. Its this great location on top of a hill. It fills the requirements that it is always windy and has at least one evergreen tree. I took some photos of the other family graves that are there. Including one of my ancestors who was born in Llanidloes, Wales. (It is misspelled Lianedloes on the stone, but it seems to be a common misspelling, people at Ellis Island couldn’t figure out that double L.)
After that came the requisite luncheon at the church. No self-respecting Methodist church lady would allow you to get out of town without something to eat. I had marble cake, angel food cake, and for dessert, more marble cake. Hey, I hadn’t had any breakfast.
Those of the family, me included, who had to drive eastward didn’t hang around very long as another round of bad storms were predicted for the afternoon. They never materialized for my drive/area, but I was glad I came back when I did. I did some shopping and then got home and was totally wiped after getting the worse amount of sleep for me (between 4-5 hours is just gross for my system). But I had to press on because the next day was Easter and I was bringing the dessert to Easter dinner at the Fitzgerald home. There was King Cake to be made.
I bought a king cake mix at a store on Jackson Square when I was in New Orleans and had been waiting for a reason to make it. There was mixing and kneading and waiting and rolling and waiting and baking and cooling. I watched the final season of ‘Arrested Development’ while waiting for things to happen. The whole process took about four hours. There was flour and a tape measure. There are photos coming.
Sunday
After a nice amount of sleep, I welcomed Easter Sunday. Frosted and decorated the king cake, then showered and was getting ready when my mom arrived. We met Jerry and Sara at church and my mom grabbed a quick bite of breakfast from their between services meal. Jerry was performing with both the worship band and the choir performance. He really does a great job playing the soprano sax. Glad to know someone’s getting some use out of it! A nice service (despite that new-fangled modern worship music that makes my teeth itch, all sax playing excepted) and the beginning of a series of sermons on the truth about The DaVinci Code.
After church we ran home to get my cake and pick up Rachel, who had gone to an earlier service at another church. Dinner was tasty. In keeping with my eating theme of the weekend, I had ham, ham, and ham. With cake afterwards. Heh. Sara and Jerry served a very tasty ham and I got to see the remote meat thermometer in action. My mom’s superterrific sweet potatoes were a hit with everyone else at the table. I was pleased with my king cake. The flavor was just right, I’d just like it to be a bit lighter and flakier, but I had an issue with getting the yeast properly mixed right at the beginning, so I think next time, better yeast mixing and letting the dough rise longer will fix that. Not bad at all for something from a box.
It was a great weekend where I saw a lot of friends and family. It was great to see everyone.
