Last Friday we headed over to Aunt Mary’s spiffy condo. She had invited us over for pizza, along with “Aunt” Zovie (not a real aunt, but a life-long family friend), and the “Hubes” (short for Hubeles, other long-time family friends). I had not seen Aunt Zovie in two years, since Uncle Bob died, and it had been a full year since we had seen Don and Donna and their family. The get-together was a great time. I like getting together with Aunt Mary, and Aunt Zovie is a lead contender in any competition to determine the world’s most gracious person. Don is just drop-dead funny, and Donna and the children are delightful. Don kept us laughing recounting his experience playing the semi-bad guy in The Fantasticks (he said playing a guy who is cynical and likes to mess with youth was a “real stretch”). The pizza hit the spot, and Aunt Mary served up the same light-but-great cake that we got her for her birthday. What a wonderful way to spend a Friday.
Saturday was again dedicated to making the rounds of graduation parties. We had three on Saturday. We started off the day at a grad party by a lake in southern Akron. We sat on the dock, eating Asian food (a rarity for mid-west grad parties) and cake (quite common, but welcome). We saw several of our students, and we saw fellow teachers the Schillings and the ever-expanding McSparran clan.
Grad Party, the Sequel, was held in a back yard in Hudson. It was strange in that we had been to the same place for a grad party last year for the older brother’s graduation celebration. It does drive home how fast the year goes when you repeat visits like that. There was some excellent comfort food (hot dogs and sloppy joes) as well as cake and several kinds of bars. We had a very pleasant visit with the older brother and the father (the graduate at these kinds of parties is usually too in-demand to talk to any one person for too long).
Grad Party III, the Expansion, was at another house in Hudson. This was the first grad party I had ever been to that involved multiple schools. In addition to CVCA, there was a graduate from Walsh Jesuit High School and one from Ursuline High School. This meant the party was huge and crowded, and it meant this was the first CVCA-affiliated party I had ever been to where there was a full bar. But, more importantly, they had the biggest and best dessert buffet table I have ever seen. There were buckeyes, and cookies, and cake, and more. They also had a ton of real food, and I had a barbecue sandwich that was probably the best I have ever had. Happily, since this was the third party of the day, I was fairly full and could not make myself sick at the dessert table.
Sunday, we had one grad party, here in Cuyahoga Falls. This was an interesting one in that the student we were helping to celebrate was not in Mer’s classes and was not in any of my groups. Jimmy is a very friendly young man, and we both met him on a Diakonos spring break trip three years ago, and he kept stopping by to say hi to me and to Meredith. I was very pleased that we were able to celebrate with Jimmy. There were Italian sausages and hot dogs for real food, and cookies and cupcakes and brownies for dessert. I handled myself with a little more dignity than I had on Saturday. We had a long visit with one of my Royal Fools and Ceili Club students and her family, and we got to see the McSparrans as well.
After the grad party, we headed over to the square, down by the river in Cuyahoga Falls. We wanted to check out the last day of the (free!!) three-day Cuyahoga Falls Irish Festival. We started at the back stage (of three stages), and we met up with the woman who leads the Hibernian Club Ceili Band. She was there selling music and whistles and such, and she gave me a dance CD for Ceili Club. We then took a seat in front of the stage and heard a great band. They were very much in the Irish tradition, but played almost all original songs. The had a guitar/banjo player, a guitar/bagpipe player, a pipes/whistles player, a percussionist, and a bouzouki/mandolin player. They had a great sound – probably the best band I have heard at the festival in the three years I have gone. We stopped by to say goodbye to Mary Ann (the band leader), and headed over to the second stage, via the river walk, which is pretty.
The band at the second stage was okay. They were a bit heavy on guitars, but they got on my good side early by singing a song about Portland (Maine, not Oregon). Sadly, they had completely inane banter in between songs that was really irksome, and so after 4 or 5 songs, I asked Mer if we could go. She agreed.
Sunday officially ended the great ten days of eating out. Hopefully, I can do better in the coming weeks at not eating quite so much.