Last weekend was pretty much about celebrating graduations with our seniors. Friday we went to two graduation parties (a midwest tradition of lots of food and cornhole and students). The first graduation party was at a park pavilion, which was nice since it was a pretty day. They had four (yes, four) cakes, so Mer and I ate too much and then actually managed to win two cornhole games, which is very unusual since we normally stink at the game. For those of you who don’t get to grad parties, cornhole is the game of throwing beanbags through a hole in a board. It actually is pretty fun, in a bocce or croquet sort of way.
The second grad party was at the student’s house, and was full of CVCA people. The father is on the CVCA board, and the mom substitute teaches at CVCA, so they know everyone at the school, and most of the school seemed to be there. The food was plentiful and excellent. The student (a very nice young lady) had spent a good amount of time carving out a cool path through the woods on their property; she then had the path lit by tiki torches and a bonfire. It was much fun.
As an aside, Friday was the first day of ten (yes, ten) straight days of going out for me and Mer, and most of the events involved food. It is amazing that we both don’t weigh 250 pounds.
Saturday I went running with Jason and Nate, and then (after I showered) Mer and I went to the Crooked River Grill to meet up with several fellow CVCA English teachers for breakfast. We were celebrating a former English teacher being back in town. Beverly, the teacher in question, was only at CVCA for one year, but she was (and is) an excellent teacher, and we were all very fond of her. She moved back to her home in Kentucky after her husband died from cancer, so we lost her. But, she was back in town to see “her kids” graduate; that is how much she loved her students – to come back four years later to see them graduate. Amazing. Anyway, we had a great time catching up (and eating an excellent breakfast), and Beverly expects me and Mer to come and visit her this summer.
After breakfast and a nap at home, we went to two grad parties. The first one was at a very cool house where most of the rooms had doors that opened right into the back yard, which overlooked a river and woods. There again was lots of good food, including a sundae bar (yum!). The house was full of students whom Mer and I knew, so we had a good time.
The second grad party was lower key for me – I did not really know the girl being celebrated; she was a student of Mer’s. The food was more of the snack type, which was good since it could have otherwise been the third big meal of the day. I did have a piece of cake.
Not to be worn out by three social outings, we went from the grad party back to the music club Musica. We have had some poor experiences at Musica, but we were giving it one last try since our friends’ (Eric and Shanna’s) band, Bethesda, was playing there that night. Happily, for us, Musica got it right this night. There were two bands we saw besides Bethesda, and we enjoyed them both. The sound was mixed pretty well, and one band was mostly electric but had a good sound, and the second band (on after Bethesda) was just acoustic guitar and banjo. They sang a lot of older folk songs and original songs in the folk tradition. It was a nice surprise from a venue that is usually much more hard core. Bethesda put on a great show, about 30 minutes long, and they sounded pretty good. The only mixing issue was that I could not hear the pedal steel guitar, but given that the rest of the band was blending well, I was happy to take that. We stuck around for one song of the headline act, a woman indie country singer who is well known nationally, but whose name I forget. I was tired (it was after 10:00), and her sound did not excite me too much, so we left. It had been a busy little day.
Sunday was church and then a nap – pretty typical occurrences for me on a Sunday. That evening was the formal ceremony of graduation for CVCA’s seniors. Faculty (like Mer) are required to go, and I go along since I usually know some of the kids and I can sit next to Meredith. Besides, the reception before the ceremony has really good desserts, including chocolate mint brownies that are quite tasty. Graduation was pretty typical – awards and speeches and the calling of names and giving of diplomas; it went by pretty quickly, and we were leaving just after 8:00. We ate a quick supper and watched a Quantum Leap episode on DVD, and then went off to bed.