Last weekend, I made a “Big Date” for Meredith. I used to plan elaborate and expensive dates for Mer, but with the two-house situation, those dates dried up. I finally snapped. I thought the other house was going to sell over a month ago, and so a month ago I set in motion a Big Date as a way of celebrating the house selling. It still hasn’t sold, but the Big Date went on anyway. If the house does not sell for some reason, it will have been a 12th anniversary celebration instead.

I got Mer out of CVCA fairly efficiently on the Friday of last weekend. I had told her to pack for three days, and we had everything ready to go. We were on the road by about 4:30, and I headed north and then west. Mer kept guessing where we were going, and she did a nice job. She did guess Cedar Point amusement park, but I threw her when I got off the highway and took some other major roads – they were supposed to be faster.

Anyway, Cedar Point was were we were headed. I had booked a cabin for Friday night and Saturday night, with the goal of being in the park all day Saturday. The cabin helped make it feel like a special weekend, but it also allowed us to hit the water rides without fear, knowing we could run back to the cabin to change if we were not getting dry. The cabin also came with early admittance to the park – we could get in an hour before the park opened for the general public. That was very cool, and I thought Mer would like it.

We got to Cedar Point, and Mer was a bit confused as to why were were going to Cedar Point with the park only open for another 5 hours (it closed at 10:00). She was surprised and delighted when we pulled into the cabin areas. I checked us in, and we headed over to our lake-front home for the weekend.

The cabin was small, but really cute. The designer made great use of the space. It was very comfortable, and certainly met our needs for the weekend. I unloaded the car and we settled in on the porch to watch the water and so Mer could plan her tactics for the park. Something we had not known was that the early-park admittance was great, but only four coasters were open – the small(ish) Iron Dragon, and three of the big ones – the Maverick, the Raptor, and the Millennium Force. Mer and I usually start small and get bigger throughout the day, but that was not going to be an option. Mer had some serious planning to do. It was strange to look out at the peaceful lake and hear screams from the park every minute or two. It was still relaxing and nice.

We had been sitting on the porch for about 45 minutes when part two of the surprise showed up – our friend and colleague Eric and his wife Shanna showed up. I had invited them along to make the weekend more festive. Again, Mer was surprised and thrilled. It turned out that Eric was speaking Saturday night at a youth gathering, so they would have to leave the next afternoon rather than spending the entire weekend, but that was okay. We were both just happy they could make it.

Since it was now about 6:30, food was the first thing to attend to. So, we walked 15 minutes or so over to the other side of the park, to Friday’s. Not surprisingly, the menu was about 50% more expensive than a regualr Friday’s, and the menu was smaller as well. Still, Friday’s has good food, and we had a great time listening to Eric and Shanna tell us how Eric proposed (he made a big production of it, involving many of Shanna’s friends and a candle-lit path in the woods, and a homemade bridge that failed and a ton of bugs – romantic, creative, and funny). The only downside to the evening was the service – we had a waitress and a trainee, and both of them seemed to be very uninterested in our table. They were not rude or anything like that – they just seemed to want to be anywhere else and gave off waves of boredom. They kept getting my drink order wrong, and then charged me for a drink they had brought but that I had not ordered. It was a little frustrating, but not enough to take away from the occasion. We headed back to the cabin, which required a 100-yard dash (or fast walk) through a very buggy section – the downside of being right on the water in late spring.

We settled in the cabin and Eric and I took on Mer and Shanna in Dark and Stormy, the game where you identify a book or author by the opening line or lines from the work. Mer and Shanna are both English teachers, so Eric and I went in expecting to lose, which meant that we could only go up. The game lasted a long time – about an hour-and-a-half, which is twice as long as it usually takes. Eric and I did win by two books, but we also got 4 of them on really easy questions, where the title of the book was given in the first sentence. Mer and Shanna gave us the last book, even though we were missing a word (we guessed Horatio Hornblower, when it is Captain Horatio Hornblower). We were all pretty tired at that point. Eric then ran out to get some things from his car. What none of realized is that 80% of the mosquitoes in the state of Ohio were waiting on the porch. A bunch came in when Eric went out, and more came in when he came back in. There were probably close to 200 of them in the cabin now, so Eric and I (mostly Eric) spent about 30 minutes killing bugs. It did take away some of the fun of the evening, but makes for a good story. Sadly, I had brought big peanut butter cups from Hartville, and in the bug killing spree, a couple of dead ones fell on Eric’s open but uneaten peanut butter cup. Eric stoically tried to eat it, but gave up after eating a dead mosquito.

Eric and I had brought our guitars, and so we played them for about 15 minutes before going to bed. Eric and Shanna are founding members of the band Bethesda, and they were good enough to sing a new song they were working on – it was very good. Eric then played a couple of songs I had brought, and played them much better than I do, even though he did not know them and was only reading the chords as we went along. Eric has been playing for 6 years and I have been playing for 12. I think I need to go back to lessons!

We got ready for bed. Mer and I took the main bed; Eric and Shanna passed on the mosquito-laden futon in the main room, and they jumped in the bunk beds instead. As we were falling asleep, Eric asked, “Why do they call it a rainbow, anyway?” At that time of night, it was hysterically funny.

Mer and I woke up a few minutes early the next day – the curse of the late-30s bladders and the excitement of the day. Eric and Shanna managed to stay in bed until the alarm went off, despite my telling them they had to get up to go to school. We got ready pretty efficiently, and headed out to find breakfast. We found it in the form of a breakfast buffet in the Breakers Restaurant. The food was decent and plentiful. I ate the last of the French toast, figuring they would bring more out, but they had run out, so Mer did not get any. I did feel bad about that.

After breakfast, we made our way into the park. The weather had been calling for showers and thunder showers all week long. The only thing I could do was pray, and I don’t know how God works these things out, but there were a few drops of rain as we walked to the park, and then it did not rain again. In fact, by the afternoon, it was beautiful, with lots of sun. The threatening weather kept the crowds away, and we never had more than a 30-minute wait for any ride, and many waits were less than 10 minutes. It was great.

We started the day on the smallest coaster running – the Iron Dragon. It was Cedar Point’s first suspended coaster, and there are not many like it – it is a full car suspended from the track. It is a smallish coaster, but designed really well, and it is my favorite ride in the park. That went well, and then we headed to Cedar Point’s big suspended coaster, the Raptor. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to get the front car, which makes you feel like you are flying. It was a very cool ride. I used to be terrified of the Raptor, but one day Mer told me to pretend I was Batman on patrol, and ever since then I have loved suspended coasters. My wife understands me.

Mer and Shanna were shaken up a bit by the Raptor – it was bigger and rougher than they had remembered it. Since I was Batman, I loved it and had not noticed these things. We headed over to the Millennium Force, the 300-foot megacoaster of the park. The first drop is at 80 degrees and you get up to 90 mph on it. I passed out the first time I rode it, from hunger and the G-forces. This time, Mer and I both got tunnel vision twice, but avoided passing out. Shanna decided to pass on this ride since she was still feeling queasy from the Raptor. She was a game soul and waited for us. Again, it was a fairly short line, and we got on pretty efficiently, although we did not wait for the front car (we did not wait for a front car again for the rest of the day). By this time, the first hour was almost up, so we headed over to the Maverick. None of us had ever ridden the Maverick before – it was built in 2007. The idea behind the ride is that you are trying to tame a bucking bronco, and the coaster holds to that. It is fairly small, at only 135 feet. But, it is something else – the first hill is at a 95 degree drop, which is a very interesting feeling. The coaster then twists and turns like mad, and you go into a long dark tunnel where you get launched again at 70 mph. It is pretty intense. There were a couple of downsides to it – the constant turning strained my neck, and poor Shanna was terrified. She had maintained all morning that she was fine as long as the ride did not go past 90 degrees. Somehow, she missed that information on this ride until she was strapped in the coaster. I felt really bad – I wanted people to have fun, not be scared.

Anyway, we had ridden four coasters in 85 minutes, and so we decided to slow things down by ridding the very calm paddle wheel ride. That was what the doctor ordered – a pleasant ride around the park lagoon while the captain kept making puns about everything on shore.

After the paddlewheel, we rode:

The Corkscrew – a small but kicky coaster that was the first in the park to throw you upside down.

Disaster Transport – a small indoor coaster that takes place mostly in the dark or twilight.

The Space Spiral – a surprisingly fast observation ride that takes you up 285 feet high and lets you see the whole park.

That gave us eight rides, and so we decided to take a lunch break. We headed back over to Friday’s, where we had much better service. We just got lunch there, and then headed over to an ice cream parlor for ice cream. We sat outside and ate and talked and laughed. By then, it was after 3:00, so we walked Eric and Shanna back to the cabin and saw them off. Mer and I then headed back into the park, with Mer firmly in control, with the exception that I would not ride the 400-foot Dragster coaster, and I was not in the mood for the Power Tower, where you blast straight off the ground up to 240 feet in the air.

We headed over and rode:

Magnum – A 200-foot steel coaster that has a terrifyingly long ascent hill. It was a beast in its day (late 1980s) and is still a great ride, with lots of mini hills that give you “air” several times at the end of the track.

Blue Streak – A small wooden coaster, it is the oldest coaster in the park. It is a straight out-and-back ride, but it gives you lots of little bunny hops that are fun.

Wild Cat – this is a classic fairground coaster, where you ride in a car that can hold four people. Because of the limited capacity, this was the longest we waited for a ride, about 30 minutes.

Thunder Canyon – a water ride where you shoot rapids and may get soaked by one of four waterfalls. I got hammered by three of them and was dealt a glancing blow by the first. The two girls opposite of me barely got wet at all. Mer got fairly wet, but had fewer direct hits.

Snake River Falls – a huge log-flume ride, where you drop 80 feet into a small lake, and get soaked. We were in the last seat, and we got hit by four different waves from the drop.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride – the smallest coaster in the park, but a good one.

Gemini – a wooden/steel hybrid coaster that is much fun – it runs two coasters side by side so you can race, and this is one of my favorites in the park.

The Mean Streak – the mammoth 3-or-4-minute-long wooden coaster that tries to vibrate you apart. After experiencing much physical pain to my back and neck on this ride, I told Mer it was off my list for the future.

Since I had had such a rough ride on the Mean Streak, we took a break for supper. We headed over to the main hotel and ate at Perkins. We skipped dessert for the time being and headed back into the park, where we rode the Iron Dragon again. Even this coaster now hurt to ride, so I told Mer that I was probably done with coasters for the evening. Besides, it was almost 10:00, and I thought the laser light show was about to start. It turns out that I was wrong – the show starts up this weekend, but I kept us circling back to the show area to see if it was going on. That prevented us from trying some of the smoother and smaller coasters again. However, we did ride the Cedar Downs Racing Derby, which I thought was a merry-go-round. I was wrong. It is only one of two “racing carousels” where the horses move backwards and forwards while the carousel goes around. The carousel also goes 14 mph, which is enough to make you feel the outward force as you go around. It was fun.

We ended the evening by riding the Sky Ride – a cable gondola that takes you above the midway of the park. Mer loves the magic of an amusement park in the evening, so we watched all the pretty lights, and I managed not to be scared of the height. It was a good way to end the evening in the park, and we added in a quick trip to Friday’s for dessert. We walked back to the cabin, which was mosquito-free because we had left all the lights off (we need to remember that for next time). We got ready for bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. We slept in the next morning (check-out was at 11:00), and we left happy and tired. It was a good weekend. Happy house-sale, Love!

Last week on Thursday, Mer and I had a school-night date, and a double-date at that. We met Jay and Lesa at our house, and then headed over to a close-by and excellent restaurant, Russo’s. Lesa is also an English teacher at CVCA, and she is much fun. Jay is a great guy, and so they are a fun couple with whom to hang out. We ate some excellent food (I got gumbo and a burger) and chatted, mostly about English things at CVCA. Jay is very patient!

After supper, we headed up to Hudson to Actors’ Summit. We got there a bit early, so we walked around looking at the very pretty and New-England-esque houses near the theater. It was a lovely evening, so it was a nice walk. We got back to the theater and settled in to see The Belle of Amherst, a play about the poetry of Emily Dickinson.  Meredith and I are both very fond of Emily Dickinson, and that is saying something for me since I am not a big fan of poetry. But, the evening really was about Lesa – she adores the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and she was delighted to get to see it (we surprised her with the show – she had not known where we were going).

Mer and I (and Lesa) had seen a film version of the play from the 1970s, so we were familiar with the play. It really is a loose framework to get to the poems, but you also learn a fair amount about Emily’s life. The premise is that she has invited you (the audience) over to the house for a visit, and then she starts talking. Emily was played by MaryJo Alexander, one of the founders of Actors’ Summit, and a very strong actor. We had seen her in probably 8-10 productions over the last 7 years.

Thus, it came as quite a surprise when MaryJo forgot a line and had to be prompted. I was stunned – I had never seen that before at Actors’ Summit, in the 50+ plays we have seen there. And then it happened again and again. In an hour show, MaryJo probably had to be prompted about 7 times. In addition, I’m pretty sure she cut the play short – it really did only run about 60 minutes, and I think the film version we saw was at least 80 minutes. MaryJo may have decided to cut material since she was struggling a bit. I’m still at a bit of a loss as to what happened – she really is a very strong actor, and this was way out of character for her. I felt bad for her. Lesa was still enthusiastic about the play – she said she was impressed that MaryJo never broke character, even when she asked for a prompt. Jay did not give an opinion, but he is fairly quiet.

Anyway, we headed home, and Lesa and Jay dropped us off. Mer and I needed to put the car away from where Mer had parked it in the driveway earlier in the day. We both got in the car, looked at each other, and then ended up at Handel’s ice cream. It seemed a sweet way to end a school-night date.

Last Tuesday, Mer and I headed over to our friend Clarice’s apartment for a game night. In addition to the three of us, there was Clarice’s boyfriend Matt, and two former Fools with whom I have stayed in touch – Josh and Kristen. It was a great crowd.

There was pizza, but since Mer and I had eaten before going over, I was good and passed on the food. Mer had a little. After the food was munched on, we decided to play Scattergories. Scattergories can sometime be contentious because people can come up with lame answers to the category, but this group was mellow and mostly laughed at lame answers (and then turned the answer down). For those who have never played, you must fill out a card with 12 categories on it, using a word that matches a random letter; so, you might have a category of “A sport” with the letter “F.” You could use football, and maybe foosball or frisbee. We had a fun time. I made up a “Unit of measure,” the Waynon, claiming it was a physics unit. I fessed up once everyone gave it to me. Clarice had everyone chuckling with “A world record” when she came up with “Womb width” (which we turned down as an answer).We decided that must be what a Waynon measures.

We finished the evening with a quick game of Catch Phrase. It was boys versus girls, and we won because poor Kristen kept getting stuck with the word when the timer would go off, and she had no time to give clues. Matt made us laugh when he was trying to get us to say “do not disturb” and he had to resort to “when you’re in a hotel, with a woman!” Lots of laughter that evening.

Wednesday was social for us as well. CVCA has six people who are retiring this year. Normally, nothing public is done, but these six have over 170 years of service to CVCA, and over 250 years in education. Since this is quite a distinguished group and a huge event, CVCA decided to throw a dinner in honor of the retirees, and opened it up to the entire CVCA community.

It was quite the event. There must have been close to 500 people in attendance. Mer and I got there a little late, and we had trouble finding a seat. Happily, Craig and Dubbs saved us a seat. There were people there who had come in from New England, Canada, Colorado, the Southeast, and more. It was amazing to see a room so full of people, many of whom I actually knew.

The evening started with a meal while some slides of the retirees were shown on a screen. Mer and I both thought the slides would be shown all evening, so we did not pay too much attention to them. We ate the dinner and socialized with our tablemates. The food was excellent – some of the best beef I’ve ever had. Anyway, we were both a little sad that once the dinner was over, the slides were turned off.

After supper, each of the retirees was introduced by a colleague, who shared some stores and praised the person. Each speaker also read one or more letters or e-mails about the person retiring. Then, each retiree got to speak. Many nice things were said, and several things were very funny (especially those said by CVCA’s president, Roger Taylor, who has a great sense of humor).

The entire evening lasted about two-and-a-half hours. At the end, Mer and I did not really try to work our way up to the front of the room to greet the retirees since they were pretty mobbed. It really is great to work somewhere where you like the people with whom you work .

Last weekend, Saturday was Mer’s day. She could have done countless things to show her love and appreciation for me. She decided we should go to the church in New Baltimore and eat breakfast (good) and give blood (ouch). Mer has never given blood because she is afraid of needles. She finally decided she should give this year. The first donation date was snowed out in February, and she had a cold for the second donation date. This was it, though – no snow and Mer felt fine. We got to the church and had a hearty breakfast so as to not pass out when giving blood, and then we filled out the paperwork and had the preliminary stuff taken care of. Turns out that I was fine, but Mer had low iron in her blood, so she could not give that day. She did get to watch me get bled, though, so she could see the process. I have not given in years and years, and it is much the same as I remember it – slightly painful at first, and then uncomfortable, kind of like a pulled muscle. I always start out fast and then slow down, and this was no exception – I went over the suggested time (10 minutes, I think) by a couple of minutes. I then had a couple of glasses of juice, and we headed homeward.

Mer did have more fun, if less noble, plans for the evening. The family of one of Mer’s students has the tradition to throw a dinner for the teachers the sons have at school for that school year. I got to tag along as a spouse (the only one to go, now that I think of it). It is a very nice gesture, done in gratitude and appreciation for the work the various teachers put in. So, we went to the dinner, which turned out to be a pretty great time. The family is very nice, and there were several students (friends) around, so that kept things lively. I like my colleagues, and several were there – Don (Bible), Brittany (math), Dubbs (Latin), and Meredith (English). The family went all out, even up to making dinner from scratch, right down to homemade lasagna noodles. We then spent the rest of the evening chatting and playing a dice game called Farkle that Dubbs brought on her iPad and her iPhone. It was fun to watch people cheering or groaning over dice rolls (and some smack-talking as well). Meredith and I both ate too much (a common problem during the early summer as graduation parties gear up), but we had a great time.

Last Wednesday we had out last Royal Fools show of the year. (For those who are not familiar with the Royal Fools, it is the CVCA improv group that I coach). This last show was the third of the year, and in retrospect, I am pretty pleased with all three shows.

I always have a hard time judging how shows go – I fret over the details of running the show, and I get caught up in the minor mistakes that happen on stage. I was reassured this time around that we had had a good show in that people kept finding me, going out of their way to tell me what a good show we had. Mer even had a few people find her and tell her how much they liked the show. When people go out of their way to tell you things, I generally assume that it is not just being polite.

There were about 90 people or so for the audience. They were a lively, high-energy bunch, and they were very quick with a ton of suggestions to get our various scenes going – in fact, it was very often hard for me to hear individual suggestions because there were so many being shouted out at once. As a wonderful bonus, there were a lot of former Fools in the audience, and some even joined us on stage for the last game we play, where the audience can hop up and play with us.

The show lasted about one hour and fifteen minutes, and the fun on stage included:
– a scene where a man was burning the other Fool’s belongings in a furnace because she made him mad
– an improv “showdown” inspired by the phrase “you made me lose my appetite”
– a scene about a purple kangaroo who was going to get its ears pierced
– a couple getting engaged based on the condition that the man sell everything so he could be rich
– acting out being in prison while making popcorn, and then being killed by ninjas
– a Foolish Idol where the contestant sang about mice
– a scene where a man loses his tongue by licking a frozen pole, and then gets it replaced by silly putty
– a poem and interpretive dance about a rose and its thorns
– a party given for a man with a strange walk, a man sneezing Jello, a pyromaniac, and a neat freak

I graduated four seniors this year. Special congratulations to AJ, John, Kyle, and Samantha!

The weekend of the 8th and 9th was a Cleveland-intensive one. We woke up late Saturday (after the late night of Prom), and it was “my day.” It was also raining lightly with 25 mph winds, so the walk-in-the-park kind of day was not really an appealing one. So, I decided it would be fun to go to Cleveland to go to the Galleria, which is a mall, but a cool one in a skyscraper. I have not been to it since Ohio Round 1, over 10 years ago, so I figured it was time.

Mer was very confused as to why we were headed to Cleveland, especially when we got to downtown proper and I made a few wrong turns. Ha! That sure confused her. It turns out I was confusing the much smaller Tower City mall with the Galleria, so we ended up in the wrong part of town, and actually never made it to the Galleria. We’ll have to save it for another time. Once we parked the car, we took the short but very windy walk to the Chocolate Bar restaurant, for obvious reasons. As an added bonus, the Chocolate Bar is in a very cool building with a huge inside square that reminded me of some of the fancier train stations in Europe. Spiffy. Anyway, we had a large meal of mac-n-cheese, followed by brownie sundaes, and I threw in a hot chocolate for good measure. It was fairly expensive, but I figured we did not get to Cleveland but once a decade anyway, so that was okay.

After lunch, we braved the gale to walk down to Tower City and wandered the two floors of the mall, which were mostly food places. It was fairly tame, but we did get to see a wedding party having their pictures taken next to an impressive fountain. Since Mer and I both love weddings, that was a happy thing to chance upon.

Outside of the mall, I kept looking at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument that stands in Public Square. It is very large and impressive looking, and then I saw doors in the base. You could walk inside the monument! Obviously, we had to go. It turned out to be a Civil War monument that honors all the branches of the armed forces, and lists all the names of all the people from the greater Cleveland area who served in the war. There was a very nice man who was very well informed inside the monument, and he walked us through all the sculptures. He even had Meredith close one of the 1600-pound doors to the monument to show how well balanced it was. It was a great little find.

After touring the monument, we went back to the car and headed back home. We were not home too long before we headed over to our friend Clarice’s apartment. Clarice was away at Miami of Ohio to see her significant other graduate, and we were lending a hand by taking care of Clarice’s four kitties. We decided they could use some human company, so we decided to watch one of Clarice’s numerous movies. She has great taste in movies, and I finally settled on Gattaca, which neither of us had ever seen. It turned out to be an excellent movie, science fiction at its thought-provoking best. A nice, mellow, and furry way to spend the evening.

But wait! Cleveland was not done with us. One of Meredith’s students is an accomplished musician, especially on the concert harp. She is part of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and they were playing at Severance Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra). The student’s family was kind enough to give us tickets to go see the concert, so on Sunday, we went up to Cleveland again for an early afternoon concert.

I had never been to Severance Hall before. It is a magnificent structure, and as an added bonus, we joined the family in a box seat in the second tier of the hall, so it was easy to see and hear. The youth orchestra is huge – it filled the whole stage, and even then, not everyone played in every piece. The orchestra played four pieces, including a world premier of a work by a 19-year-old college student that was very good. They started the concert with a selection from Romeo and Juliet (I forget if it was written as an opera or a symphonic work), moved on to a flute concerto in three parts, had an intermission, played the original piece, and then finished with selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story. It was very difficult to believe these musicians were all 16-18 years old. They played with presence and poise, and since I am no expert in classical music, I was not really able to tell the difference between what I heard and what I have heard other orchestras doing. The level of accomplishment was pretty amazing. The whole concert lasted about two hours, and then we headed home so Mer could tackle her ever-present end-of-year grading.

Last week, Friday (the 7th), Mer and I were chaperons to CVCA’s annual “prom.” “Prom” is in quotation marks because the event is actually the Junior-Senior Banquet, but it is shorter to call it prom, so everyone does.

I really like prom. I like to see the kids all dressed up, and I like to see Mer dressed up, and I like to have a reason to break out the tux every year. Mer and I have been invited for several years running, because she took it upon herself to get parents to write nice letters about the graduating seniors, and then Mer prints them out on good paper and gets them to the students at prom. I get to tag along as her date, but I also am usually invited to aid in tech stuff. A tradition of Junior-Senior is the Senior Video – a video made up of mostly baby shots followed by the senior photo of each member of the senior class. This requires a DVD player or laptop, and a projector, so I am usually expected to be on hand to make sure everything goes okay.

Usually, Mer and I get to prom, I set up the projector, and then Mer and I get to watch the students come in all dressed up and we get to talk about which dresses we like. Yes, it is not football and beer, but I like to see elegant dresses and I have firm opinions on them, and Mer and I like to compare notes. It is one of the small joys of prom. Sadly, that was not in the cards for me this year.

The major entertainment of the evening was based around a fake band called The Flealands – the “band” of teachers Mr. Fleagle and Mr. Newland. It has been a running joke all year long, so they were invited to play prom. As part of the entertainment, they had an elaborate movie documenting the breakup and reunion of The Flealands, just in time for prom. It was excellent and funny and well received, but it was all on a Macintosh computer. That was not mine. So, I had to wait for the Mac to show up. As these things tend to go, it showed up about 30 minutes late. It then turned out we did not have the needed video adapter for the computer, so that necessitated my making a very hasty run to Best Buy, in my tux. I got several nice comments on it.

Anyway, everything turned out just fine, but by the time I had everything working, the formal dinner was about to get started and I had missed the entrance promenade of all the students coming in to register and get pictures taken. That was too bad – the students I saw throughout the evening all looked very good.

Prom took place in a great setting this year – the Cuyahoga Falls Sheraton hotel. It is right on the river, which is pretty, and the banquet room is huge, so it actually held the entire shindig comfortably. The food was buffet-style, and was very good. After supper, I ran The Flealands’ reunion video to much amusement, which included a brief appearance of the rival fake band, “Fir Tree,” which is made up of two Bible teachers and also does not exist. The Flealands did eventually take the stage and did about 20 minutes of funny songs, including a CVCA-prom-themed version of a Miley Cyrus song. It was fun. After the senior video, the formal part of the evening broke up, and most of the kids went on to the nearby after-party, about two miles away at the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium. After-party is held to give the students more to do after prom, and has games and food and music and prizes and so on, and usually goes until about 2:30 or 3:00 am. The biggest downer for the students was the fact that the transition time from prom to after-party happened during a  fierce thunderstorm. By the time Mer and I had helped finish with tear-down and clean-up, the rain had pretty much stopped. I was pretty happy about that.

Mer and I made an appearance at after-party, as we always try to do. We ate some more food, and had much fun  watching the now casually-dressed students run around. There was an inflatable obstacle course, and wallyball, and basketball, and racquetball, and other things going on. We were both very amused by watching one of Mer’s very competitive students trying to shake four ping pong balls out of a kleenex box that was strapped to his butt. He took it very seriously, and it was a hoot to watch.
 
So, Mer and I called it a relatively early evening, and went home to go to sleep around midnight.

Last Tuesday (the 4th), Mer and I went down to Akron to the University of Akron. A former student, Whitney, was part of a senior art show, and we had been invited to see it. In a happy and fun juxtaposition of two worlds, the art show was happening on the top floor of Akron’s new and very spiffy football stadium. You would not think it would make a great space to display art, but it does – the top floor has a huge hallway space with lots of windows for lots of natural light. As an added bonus, the views from the top of the stadium are quite fantastic.

The show was very extensive, with 20 or more artists represented. Wednesday was the first night the exhibit was open, so the only other people we saw were several art professors who were judging the show and one or two other people as well. There was no hurry or pressure to get through the works.

Whitney displayed several abstract paintings, mostly based on circles. One piece that I liked a lot used color to create a tremendous sense of depth. I actually though the painting was painted on glass, with part of the painting on the front of the glass and part of it on the back. I did check, and it was just ordinary canvas – it really messed with the eyes (in a good way).

There were several other exhibits that jumped out at us. Right as you entered, you were greeted by two dozen fantastical drawings and sculptures of woodland fairy creatures – some based on mushrooms, some on leaves and branches, and some just made up from imagination. It was very impressive.

There was another abstract art display in one part that I liked very much, especially a green painting that was swirls of different shades of green paint. If you looked very closely, you could make out a thin line of purple paint peeking through – the purple paint looked like it had sneaked in there, and it made me happy.

There was a very impressive building photographer as well. You would not think that pictures of buildings would be all that impressive, but these photos were. The artist had a great eye for geometry, and the photos were unusual angles of buildings that stressed the geometrical features of the architecture.

It was a beautiful day, and the art show was very well done. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

Ah, another busy week went by with little time to blog! Time to catch up!

Friday the 31st and Saturday the 1st

Friday we headed over to Kent, to the Robin Hood bar. It is a college campus bar, right across the street from Kent State University. Our friends’ band, Bethesda, was playing that night, and they brought along some other bands. We like to support them, so we went.

The Robin Hood is mainly a bar – the performance space is at one end of the building, and the area for the audience is about 20 feet by 20 feet. Still, it was an upgrade from Musica – the actual bar was at the other end of the building, so the drinking crowd did not get in the way of the music crowd.

Mer and I got there in the middle of the first of four sets. The band on stage was a fill-in band that was unknown to our friends. They were very loud. That seemed to be a theme for the evening – the guy running the sound board seemed to prefer very very loud, sometimes at the expense of the actual music. In the case of the first band, I think they were very much into the loud scene.

The second band was a good story – Eric and Shanna’s pastor used to be a heavy metal guitar player for a well-known band. He quit the group when he met Jesus, and had not played in a band since then (about 15 years). This night was the premier of him and his new Christian rock band. Again, they were very loud, but it is a great story and the musicians were quite good.

The third band probably had a good sound, but they were turned up so loud that Mer and I took a walk around the block and then stood outside. Outside was an interesting place – there was some sort of formal party going on in the upstairs of the bar, and a parade of Kent students went walking by. I have to admit that Mer and I were a bit catty watching the people going by. Generally, the young men were dressed to the nines in suits, and the young women were trying very hard not to fall out of both ends of their dresses at the same time. Note to young women: if you have to hitch your dress up on the top and down on the bottom multiple times, it is not overly attractive. Just sayin’. There were a few nice dresses that we both admired, and the young men did look very fine in their suits.

Sometime around 11:00, Bethesda started to set up. They played for about 30 minutes, so we were done around midnight. I really like Bethesda’s sound, but this night they were mixed wrong. The lead vocals were almost okay, but the backing vocals were almost non-existent. At least two of the instruments (keyboard and pedal steel) could not be heard much if at all. It was a little frustrating. Still, I am very happy to support Eric and Shanna – they are fun people, and next time the sound will come together correctly.

Saturday, we headed back to Kent, to Kent State. Mer cashed in on her CVCA Auction-won tickets to a Kent State production of Grapes of Wrath. This is the second time we have seen Grapes – last time was a couple of years ago at the Weathervane Community Theater.

The production was pretty good. The set was simple, with two levels for different heights, a set of stairs, and a couple of washbasins/tubs at the front of the stage. The main prop for the production was a truck that could be wheeled about the stage, and much of the play happens on the truck. In between each of the many scene changes, the extras came on and played and sang period piece music – that was effective.

The acting was very good. I liked the man playing the main character very much – he was tall, very lean, and gave the impression of having seen some hard times. He had a slow and deliberate way of talking, with a slight accent, and that worked very well. The actors around him were also very good, especially Ma Joad, who had a commanding stage presence without overshadowing everyone else on stage.

The story is always good for getting my pro-union side up. Seeing people mistreated as the characters in this story were makes me mad, and that is always worth being reminded of. People deserve some measure of respect, even when poor.

Mer and I both thought the production was done about as well as you can pull off the play. The problem with The Grapes of Wrath is that it is a complex book that was turned into a stage play. This forces many, many scene changes, and that feels long at times. Mer recently expressed an opinion that good plays written as plays will usually be much better than good books turned into plays, and I have to agree.

So, it was an interesting weekend in Kent!

Last Thursday Mer and I met up for a very filling meal at Texas Roadhouse with Dubbs and her husband Nate. We had a very good time – Dubbs and Nate are fun to be around. Mer and I then went to Actors’ Summit to see their latest production, Crimes of the Heart. I knew nothing at all about the play, and Mer knew almost nothing, except it was a Pulitzer-Prize-winning play by the author who also wrote Miss Firecracker.

The play takes place entirely in the kitchen of one of the main characters. It focuses on three sisters – one who is shy and fairly meek, one who was labeled as a loose woman (and feels she can never love anyone), and one who recently shot her husband in the stomach and is out on bail. Add to all of this that the play takes place in the South, and you have a setting that would make Faulkner proud. I’m not sure why plays and literature that focus on screwed-up or odd people become even more screwed up or odd when they take place in the South, but that does seem to be the case. There is a long history of good screwed-up literature coming from the South for the last one hundred years (Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Flannery O’Connor, and more).

Anyway, the play explores the relationships of the sisters to each other and to themselves. As usual, Actors’ Summit staged a good production. The sisters were all very well cast. If there was a slight negative (and it was just slight), the consistency of the southern accents varied from sister to sister. Each woman playing the role was consistent to herself (if she had a strong accent, she kept it up through the play), but one sister had no accent at all, which was a small bit distracting since the other two did have them. Otherwise, they had very strong performances.

The set was excellent – one of the best I have seen at Actors’ Summit. It was an entire kitchen on stage, including full cabinets from the correct period (1970). It turns out that the director had all the cabinets in his basement for storage, and for this play, he just got them out and put them on stage. It was very convincing.

I found the play itself only average. I think I have a hard time relating to plays that focus tightly on women since I am not one. Also, above that, I’ve never shot someone, so that character is hard to relate to. In general, the personality of each woman was exaggerated (which I think is pretty typical of Southern style), so it was excellent at showcasing each personality, but made it very hard to relate to any of the women. There is very little plot development or action in this play, so the play has to be carried by the characters. Since I found it hard to relate to them, the play missed its mark with me. I still had a good time, but I did not leave the theater thinking too hard about the play (except as to try to figure out why I had a bland reaction to it).

On the way home, Mer pointed out some of the cool and more subtle literary things going on (about how each woman slowly faces her inner problems), and that helped some. But I’m pretty sure I would be quite content if I only ever get to see the play just this one time.