Last Tuesday, we were able to go to a gathering hosted by our friend and former colleague Art. Art used to work at CVCA, but he has been working at a school in Haiti for several years now, and so when he is home, we are always excited to catch up with him  to see how things are going. This time around, Art and his family hosted a drop-in at a park so that it would be easier for everyone to come and see him.

We got there, and were pleased at the number of people we knew. Art was there, of course, and, exciting to us, so was his fiancee – he had proposed just two days before. His fiancee is a lovely Haitian woman who has spearheaded an effort to provide school tuition to Haitian children, as well as getting a school built after the earthquake from two years ago. She is a remarkable woman, and we are very happy for Art. We did get to chat with both of them for several minutes at the party, and we saw and chatted with several CVCA folks as well.

On Wednesday,w e headed over to Porthouse Theater to see the play Sunshine Boys. Our friend Brandon designed lights for the production, and he recommended it. The play focuses on two old men who used to have a vaudeville act together; they had split up years before and had not spoken since. Now, CBS wants to feature them on a show about the history of comedy, and the play follows their attempt to put their differences behind them and put on the act one more time.

We liked the play – it was smile-worthy throughout, and laugh-inducing in several places. The humor was subdued a bit by the well-acted anger the two men felt toward each other, but that was key to the plot, so I cannot take anything away from that. There were two main sets – the living room of one of the old men, and the TV studio – and both were well done and detailed, including water stains in the living room.

One unexpected thing not in the play was that it was really hot that evening (and all week, actually). There were several points in the play where the actors commented on being cold, and put on sweaters or extra blankets. You could hear murmurs of sympathy go through the audience.

On Thursday, we headed up to Aladdin’s restaurant for supper. One of Mer’s favorite former students was again waitressing there, so we wanted to say hi. The former student is about to head to Case Western to work on her master’s degree, so this may well be the last summer she needs to waitress at Aladdin’s. She is a great person, so we both hope she does extraordinarily well. She will actually be teaching a freshman English class at Case, so Mer was pretty pleased by that.

On Friday, we made it to one last graduation party, as well as heading off to Maine for vacation. The grad party was one hosted by two students, both of whom were in Royal Fools, my improv group, so I was pleased we could make it. Dubbs was there, and a bunch of students from Mer’s English classes, so we had a great time. That also acted as supper for us so we did not have to stop for supper on the road. We made it as far as Rochester on Friday, which left about nine hours to drive on Saturday.

Last Sunday, we had our second summer Hopkins study with Matt and Liz. Hopkins was a late nineteenth century poet and Jesuit priest. His poetry is highly regarded, even by secular scholars, and it is in many cases very difficult. Hopkins had a wide command of language (he knew Latin, Greek, and Welsh in addition to English), and he often uses obscure words, uses secondary meanings, or uses words in unexpected ways. His poems generally tend to be about God, with a smaller number of poems that romanticize and celebrate nature. Since his poetry is so difficult, Mer and I decided to hook up with Mat and Liz so the four of us would be encouraged to read the works – plus, Matt and Liz are seriously smart people.

We had a good lunch of pizza, which we ate out on Matt and Liz’s back deck. It was really hot out, but we had some shade provided by an umbrella. After lunch, we moved out to the back yard and sat under a huge shade tree and ate brownies. We also did our poetry study there. We covered four or five poems, but left off before we covered Hopkins’ most famous work, “The Wreck of the Deutschland.” It is a long and difficult poem, so we decided to not try to cram it into a few minutes. Mer had to leave to go to the anniversary party of some family friends, but I stayed behind and chatted with Matt and Liz, which is always a good time. Liz is a lawyer and Matt has his PhD in English, so they are very interesting people, and they have a very cute toddler who is fun to watch.

After Mer and I met back up at home, we ran out to our only grad party of the weekend. This was in yet another new-to-us park. I think we are determined to see every park in northeast Ohio, but it may take us our entire career to get to them all. This was a good-sized park with a fishing pond and a fountain, and the party was set up in one of the picnic shelters. We got there on the late side of the party, so by then it was a small gathering of mostly family. The mother had put together a photo album for her daughter, so we flipped though that and chatted with the mom, and then with Jasmine, Mer’s student. We ate some cake (we were still full from our late lunch), and enjoyed the evening. We headed back home a little after 7:00.

Last week was quiet again, but on Friday we did manage to go out to Ruby Tuesday’s in Canton. It was a good dinner, but expensive – I have reconciled myself to forty-dollar meals at Cheesecake Factory, but I am not used to it at other restaurants.

On Saturday, we had a happy day. We spent the early afternoon at Ray and Sara’s house as part of the celebration of their fiftieth anniversary. It was an informal affair, with kids running around everywhere and people dropping in and out – just how a George celebration should be. Aunt Mary was there, and we were able to see Ken and Janet as well as the George children and grandchildren. Fifty years of marriage should be celebrated, and it was a fine gathering. Somehow, the kids even tracked down all of the attendants from the wedding, so the entire wedding party was together again – that was neat.

We had to leave the party a bit early to go to a wedding celebration. Mer had her first former-student marriage. Two of her former students who’d graduated in 2007 got married a few weeks ago in South Carolina, and they were having a local celebration, to which they invited Meredith. It seemed a fitting follow-up to the fiftieth anniversary party.

The party was held at the bride’s parents’ home, which is lovely and large enough to accommodate the fifty or so people who were in attendance. I made myself comfortable on the back porch, where we could chat in smaller groups. We were both happy to see Mer’s former student Cara show up – she is quirky and fun. Also, the family of one of my Ceili Club students came, although Robyn herself could not make it. Again, it is rather nice being part of a community like CVCA – it surprises me how many places we bump into people we know.

The dinner was fabulous – it was catered, and I ate way too much. One of the caterers was one of Mer’s classmates back at CVCA, and it was the first time they had seen each other since graduation twenty years ago. Actually, that was the second such occurrence that day – the salon where Mer had gotten her hair done that morning is the workplace of another one of her classmates whom she had not seen in twenty years.

Although I will probably not be around to see it, I wish Calvin and Allison their own fiftieth anniversary party.

Later that evening, we hooked up with Dubbs and drove over to Blossom. Blossom is an outdoor concert venue, and is also the summer home of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. On Saturday, the Blossom Festival Orchestra (and men’s chorus) was being employed in providing the soundtrack to the movie The Pirates of the Caribbean. I am fond of the movie, and I liked the idea of hearing the soundtrack played live while the movie was playing, so it was an appealing evening. I had never been to the music part of Blossom before (Porthouse Theater is on the same grounds); it is massive. We had lawn seats where you sit any way you like on the grass slope of a large bowl that looks down on to the stage. We got there late enough that we were on the upper edge of the bowl, but we could still see one of the three movie screens, and we could hear just fine. It was a bit hard to see the orchestra because they were so far away, but the sound quality was excellent.

We sat in camping chairs, and we had a fun time. The orchestra did take one intermission, but otherwise played much of the two-hour movie. It was fun to see the film with the live music, and it was great to share the experience with two-thousand-plus people (it was packed) while still being able to visit with our own party. The people in front of us had some knowledge of Dubbs, and so offered us chocolate cake. I was stuffed from the wedding, but Mer and Dubbs both had some and said it was excellent. It was a happily social day.

Last week was a short week, and we did not have too much going on. On Wednesday, we got together with our former student Dan, who is now in graduate school and is engaged to be married. We ate dinner at P.F. Chang’s, and got caught up on Dan’s life. We opted for dessert at Handel’s, where we were able to talk some more. It was good to catch up with Dan.

Saturday was Mer’s day, and fairly busy. Mer took me out to a modest but good breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, where we both got breakfast sandwiches (no donuts). After a brief trip back home, Mer took me to see Midnight in Paris, which is a wonderful film. The film combines Paris, literature, and a touch of science fiction, so what is there not to like? We both really enjoyed the film.

We had two graduation parties later in the day. The first one was held in a shelter in a park, which is normal enough. It just happened to be the same shelter where we went to a party last year where a storm blew in and rained as hard and horizontally as I have ever seen. Happily, this party was rain-free, and we got to spend a good amount of time visiting with CVCA’s art teacher, who was also at the party.

The second party was given by a family from India, and so they had authentic Indian food, driven in by an Indian caterer from Detroit. Before supper, Mer and I took a walk on the nearby hike-and-bike trail while the family was setting up the food. Then, we had a very good time visiting with colleagues and students – there were a lot of people at the party. The food was really excellent.

After the party, I got a sweet tooth, so we went and found Zach and Londa and went out to Friday’s for dessert. The service was a bit slow, but it gave us more time to chat. We had not seen Zach and Londa in awhile, so it was good to catch up with them, especially to hear about Londa’s work as a copy editor. I know what Zach and Mer do since I am at CVCA, but I lose track of what is going on in Londa’s world.

So, after a fashion, China, Paris, India, and the good ol’ USA. Not too bad for a short week.

On Monday, the actual Fourth of July, we slept in again, and then proceeded to play tourist. On Saturday, we had gone to Bear Cave Campground to see the actual cave they have there. Sadly, they close the cave at 4:30 because the bats get active. That was enough to discourage Mer for the evening. So, we went back the next day. The cave was open, and we paid our $3 each and were let in to the cave.

While certainly not Mammoth Cave, it was interesting. The cave was a narrow corridor that looped around onto itself. There is a room in the cave where runaway slaves used to hide, but the entrance to that section was mostly underwater. I thought hard about it, but decided against wading/swimming in water that was probably forty degrees. It was a fun little tour, and after it was over the owners showed us where two bats hang out (literally). They were just inside the door to the cave, and they were about the size of mice, but with wings. While I would not want one buzzing around my head, they were cute enough.

The owners of the camp then told us there was a waterfall over the back of the cave and encouraged us to walk over and see it. The waterfall was small, but pretty, and the path led us to the banks of the St. Joseph River, which was very lovely to see. It was a nice little campground.

After seeing the cave and camp, we moved on to Mer’s next planned stop, the pick-your-own fruit farm, Tree-Mendus. The farm currently only had sour cherries, but I was still game to pick some, if only for the experience. However, we gave up on that idea when we found out that we would need to pick a minimum of ten pounds. That is a lot of cherries.

So, we comforted ourselves with getting cherry waffle boats. These are little boats made of waffle batter and topped with cherries. They were okay – I’m only so-so on cherries. But, while I was waiting for Mer to get the food, I was able to people watch, and somehow western rural Michigan seemed to be a destination for Mexicans and Eastern Europeans. It made for a festive atmosphere.

Tree-Mendus boasts being the home of the cherry pit spitting championships. The current record is about ninety-eight feet. Mer bit into a pit in her cherry boat, so she decided to give it a try. She got up to the runway (you can take a running start), and she trotted to the spit line, spit, and the pit dribbled out off her lower lip and fell at her feet. It was most amusing. She was a game sport and laughed.

We went back to Mom and Marc’s, where they had prepared a wonderful supper. We actually sat at the table (a nonexistent concept in our house) and had a good conversation. Oh – Mom had also made chocolate chip cookies that morning before we even got up, so we did not get ignored on the dessert front.

We made it down to the beach in time to see the sunset. There is a tradition at the beach in Bridgman where two (and on rare occasions, three) trumpet players play “Taps” as the sun sets. It is a great tradition, and brings out lots of people when the weather is fine. The sunset on the fourth was excellent.

Mom and Marc had both recommended the St. Joseph’s fireworks display as being excellent. So, we headed toward St. Joe’s again. We started seeing groups of people about two or more miles outside of town, and it quickly became obvious we were not going to get into downtown. So, we tried several side streets, and we finally found a parking spot across the street from a cemetery. Since the cemetery is on the bluff, we figured that would be a good vantage point. There were several other people already there.

The fireworks started pretty promptly. They were low on the horizon, and really small – you could not even hear them. I was unimpressed, but held my tongue so that I would not rain on Mer’s parade. She said she could still feel my disapproval rolling off of me. Ah well – I tried. During the show, some other people showed up and joined us. They were of the opinion that the show we were watching was a different town north of St. Joe’s. I was skeptical, since the fireworks we were watching were down near the beach and had started at 10:00, the advertised start time.

At about 10:40, a huge firework went off right over our heads. The other people had been right – the St. Joe’s fireworks were huge, close by, and had started really late. The show lasted about twenty minutes, and was really impressive. I’m glad we stayed for it.

So, that was our mini-vacation. We drove home Tuesday with no problems. It was good to get away, and really good to see Mom and Marc again.

After an uneventful five-hour trip, we got to Mom and Marc’s house. Aunt Linda and Uncle Kenny were there, and so we had a good visit together that was quite fun. Mer and I finally got to give Mom and Marc a couple of small art presents we got them last time we were in Amish country, back in January. Mom had lots of good food kicking around, most notably strawberry shortcake, made Maine-style (building it on a biscuit instead of shortcake). It was quite tasty.

Kenny and Linda left before we were up and around on Sunday. Mer had brought along a tourism book about Michigan with the plan of seeing sights, so that is what we planned on doing. We took it easy and visited with Mom and Marc some, and so we did not get out the door until about 12:00. Our first stop was Fernwood Botanical Gardens, which is about fifteen miles south of Bridgman, where Mom and Marc live.

Mer and I had a great time at the Chicago Botanical Gardens last summer, and so we were looking forward to Fernwood. Happily, Fernwood did not disappoint. It was much much smaller than Chicago’s, but that was okay, as we were able to do the entire garden in about three hours. It was especially fun in that it was the opening weekend for ten sculptures that were set up around the grounds. I am very fond of sculpture, and so that was a fun addition to the grounds. Jumping ahead of myself, we did see all ten, and I liked two of the sculptures very much, and the rest were okay.

The gardens were pretty, and we got to see the reception of a very cultural wedding of people from Africa (I’m not sure where). They had ethnic robes that were very pretty, and not much English was spoken. The gardens did make for a great wedding site.

As for the gardens themselves, they were very pleasant. Most of the flowers were past blooming, but everything was very green and well cared-for. There was a model train garden that had replicas of famous buildings from around the U.S. and the rest of the world, with three working model trains. There was a Japanese garden with raked stone and “islands” of plants in the middle. There was a very cool water wheel near some falls of a small stream. There was an herb garden that was very fragrant. It was well done.

The botanical gardens also included larger grounds that had paths through them. So, we walked around the perimeter trails of the woods. That included walking down to the very pretty St. Joseph River, and the long climb back up again to a reproduction five-acre prairie. The only slight marring of the day was that the gardens are near a motor-cross track, and the dirt bike engines could be heard most of the time, especially down by the river.

After we got back to the car, we had a pretty drive over to Tabor Hill Winery. While neither of us drinks wine, it is pretty country, and they give free tours of the winery. It was interesting to see all that goes into making wine, including a small room with historical wine-making tools. We skipped the wine tasting, but were a bit tempted by the ridiculously overpriced chocolate.

We then headed back to Mom and Marc’s, where we ate supper (Marc’s burgers are excellent). Mom and Marc had previous dinner plans, so we ate supper while they got ready. I then had a bit of a rest (and more dessert), such that I overcame my original tired stodginess and agreed to go to see a concert band perform up in St. Joseph – a town about twenth-five minutes north of Mom and Marc’s.

The day was very pretty, and we actually found parking. I had been afraid of a hot sun beating down on me, but it was almost 7:30 by the time we found the concert (after some wandering around), so the edge of the heat of the day was done. We missed about half the concert, but the half we did catch was enjoyable. It was probably a fifty-piece band, and they did show tunes, and songs, and a few pieces specifically written for concert band.

After the concert, we wandered down to the beach (which at St. Joe’s really is down – there is a steep bluff you take stairs down). We waded in the water, and then watched people play in the nearby enormous fountain that includes shooting off water canons every fifteen minutes or so. Next to the fountain is a carousel. That seemed festive, so we rode that twice, the second time both getting to ride giant cats (a leopard and a tiger). It seemed all-American.

Once we got out of the indoor carousel, we were able to see that the day was ending with a great sunset. We sat on the beach and watched the sun go down, and then we headed back to Mom’s, getting home about 10:30 or so. It was a good tourist day – a good mixture of seeing sights while not getting all worn out.

For most of last week, Mer’s parents were in town. They arrived late Saturday, and they stayed through Friday morning, when they headed off to Maine with Aunt Mary. Mer saw them every day during the week. I had to work, so I was not so available.

On Tuesday, Mer and I went over to the house of CVCA’s librarian, Cindy. Cindy and her husband, Tom, had opened up their house to a number of CVCA staff and administrators, and they provided burgers and hot dogs and some really good desserts. The house had numerous rooms where people could gather in smaller groups, so even though there were twenty or more people at the party, it felt small. I ate well and had a good time, although we left the party early, at about 8:00, because I had to work the next day.

On Wednesday, Mer and I got to go with Dale and Carlene and Aunt Mary to a Chinese buffet in Cuyahoga Falls called The Royal Buffet. Aunt Mary was treating, which was nice. The food was great, and I ate way too much, especially since I had just come off of six grad parties the weekend before. We had a good visit.

On Thursday, Mer and I stayed home in the evening, and we watched a very good production of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, which is a book neither of us has read yet. Hollywood sexed it up a little in places, but it was not over the top; it has made me curious to see how Austen handled the scandals in her story. I’ll have to read it.

On Friday, Mer and I again stayed in and watched a movie. This time, it was a movie she bought at the CVCA Auction last spring, called No Greater Love. It is a Christian movie about a man whose wife leaves him in their early marriage, and she turns up again ten years later. The story is well done, and the lead actors were very good, but some of the supporting actors were spotty. It can be hard to take things seriously when serious things are being discussed and one character can’t stop smiling. I’m still glad to have seen it, though, especially when it formed a date night for me and Mer.

On Saturday, we went to just one grad party, in the afternoon. We knew several people there, so we had a good time catching up. We also used the party as our main evening meal, since we left from the party and came home, loaded up the car, and headed to Michigan to see Mom and Marc for the first time since last Thanksgiving. I was really looking forward to a few days away from work.

On Wednesday, our friend and former colleague Julie swung by with her very cute daughter. Julie was one of our closest friends until she had the nerve to move to California about six years ago. There, she met her husband, and they currently have one child. Jeff, Julie’s husband, could not make the trip because of work reasons, but we were excited to see Julie and her baby.

We headed over to Rockne’s, a local restaurant chain, where Mer and I ate, and Julie tried to eat, but spent much of the meal feeding Riley. I think most moms can relate to that. Julie may be a mom now, but she is still lively and funny, and we still miss her. It was good to get to see Julie, even if only for two or three hours.

After Julie left, Mer and I headed over to Porthouse Theater, which is an outdoor theater that is associated with Kent State. They do three shows every summer, and a friend had given us two tickets to go see their production of Chicago. I know Chicago is an awful play about adultery and murder, but the music is great and the stage production is always well done. I was even impressed that the costumer for the show managed to have slinky outfits for all the dancers without their being wildly scandalous. The play was very well done, and we had a great time. When I compared it to the professional version of Chicago Mer took me to last year, it held up well, although I did notice the differences. Basically, in the professional version, everyone was sculpted and super buff, they could all sing, and they could all dance. In the Kent production, everyone was in good shape, but more or less what you can expect from twenty-something actors, and they were either excellent singers and okay dancers, or excellent dancers and okay singers. That is being picky – it was still a fun production, especially since we got to see it for free. Oh – the orchestra was great – they held their own against the professional show, with the slight exception that some of the instruments were hard to hear from time to time.

On Friday, Mer and I had a quiet evening. We got a small ice cream at a local ice cream stand (Rita’s – we had a coupon), and then we stayed home and watched the Hugh Grant/Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility, which I approved of, even if they did cut some scenes that surprised me.

On Saturday, we had another whopping five grad parties. They were quite fun because I knew all of the graduates at these parties. Some of the highlights, apart from great food and fun people:
– The kids managed to turn a Sno-Cone machine into a snowball fight.
– One party had a very friendly kitty.
– Mer managed to lose in foosball to me when she scored on herself.
– I got in a Nerf sword fight with a couple of students.
– We got to sit around a campfire eating sundaes.

Late Saturday, Mer’s parents got to town for about a week. So, on Sunday, Mer went to church with them, and I went to a local Lutheran church because I hoped to get a half-day of work in at school. Instead, I fell asleep for most of the afternoon. We went to another grad party at a pretty house on a small lake where we got to spend some decent time visiting with Dubbs. After the party, we sung by the DiPaolos’ house, where we dropped off some cookies and visited them for about thirty minutes.

Summer turns out to be a busy little time, but very much in a good way.

Our friend Brandon was bachin’ it last week, so we invited him over on Monday. I made homemade pizza, which I had not done in a couple of months. It turned out quite well. Brandon is a Batman fan, so we watched a couple of episodes from the 90s Batman: The Animated Series cartoon, which was well received. Mer then made a dessert called “pudgy pies,” which are dessert sandwiches that are meant to be made with special campfire irons. We have a grilled sandwich maker, and so Mer used that and it worked well. The pudgy pies she made were cinnamon bread stuffed with marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs and Nutella spread; they tasted like s’mores and were very good. We then chatted with Brandon, mostly about theater, until about 9:00.

On Tuesday, Mer had organized an outing with students to go play laser-tag. Mer had won a coupon to Laser-Sport at the CVCA Auction a few months ago, and she liked the idea of getting together with students to play. We had about ten students show up. Laser-Sport has a smaller arena, so this number of people worked well. Laser-Sport also forces you to “power up” on a regular basis – you have twenty lives or eighty shots on your gun. When either of those expire, you have to go back to base and recharge.

I decided on a different strategy for this venue than my usual one of stealthy wandering. For both games we played, I stayed on the second level of my home base and sniped people. It was less exciting, but since there were snipers on the other team, I felt as if someone had to cover my team on the floor. So, that is what I did. It seemed to work – our team won both games, and I was the number-one player both rounds. It was a lot of fun, although I do prefer the version of the game where you have unlimited shots and a more maze-like arena.

After the games were over, some of the students invited us to Handel’s for ice cream, to which we happily agreed. Handel’s had slow service that night, but that was okay since we got a chance to catch up with some of our students. Mer and I got home around 10:00, just minutes before a major storm rolled though. We were happy to have missed being out in that storm, but we happier still to have been able to be sociable during the start of the week.

Last weekend we continued the graduation party circuit. We had one party each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Friday party was a double party (two students hosting the party), so it was a pretty big party with lots of students and faculty there. The party was catered with make-your-own burritos, so that was very good eating. After supper, Mer was invited to play euchre, a bridge-like card game, so I wandered to the back of the property to watch some of the high school guys play volleyball. It became apparent they were playing by a modified set of rules since they continued to play after the ball hit the ground. They invited me to play, so I joined in. It is called “smashmouth volleyball” and it is very much like volleyball, except you can hit the ball as many times as you like before getting it over the net, and also the ball is allowed to hit the ground one time (if it hits twice, the point is over). It was a hoot to play. We played three games, and we laughed a lot. After the games, I rejoined Mer, who was done with her card game, and we left shortly thereafter.

Saturday’s grad party was fun as well. We ate well, as we do at these things, and then Mer and I played our first game of cornhole this season. I was leading by as much as nine points, but she came back and won by two. That was disappointing, but I comforted myself by lounging with Mer in a hammock and watching some of the students play badminton. After the party, that evening we spent a quiet time at home, and we watched the movie Moulin Rouge, which I like quite a bit. Mer finds it entertaining, but does not feel particularly sympathetic toward any of the characters, so she does not get into it so much as I do.

Sunday we finished off the weekend with a grad party in Cuyahoga Falls that took us to a park that we had never been to. The city has a large park, part of which is a water park called Waterworks. Our party was at the back of Waterworks, in a large “normal” park that was a pretty setting (the river runs through the park).

Sunday evening, we headed over to a friend and colleague’s house. Matt teachers English and Latin at CVCA, and he is married to a CVCA alumna, Lis. We like them both very much, and Matt is a very scholarly person (he has a PhD in English). Our friend Ellen (who also has a PhD – I know a ridiculous number of people with advanced degrees) loves a Catholic poet from the late 1800s named Hopkins. Hopkins’ poetry is difficult but worthwhile, and Matt likes his work but has not studied it. So, Mer and I went over to Matt and Lis’s house for dinner, and then we discussed Hopkins’ poems for about an hour and a half. Matt and Lis have a very cute daughter who is learning to talk. At one point, Matt said we should turn to the poem “O, Death, Death.” Matt and Lis’s daughter then wandered the room saying “Death…Death” over and over. It was great. We love nerdy children. The Hopkins study went well, and we covered five or six poems. We hope to meet again to go over more material once in July and once in August. That is assuming that Mer and I can still fit out our front door after grad party season.