Good Times and Free Grog!

Bear with me as I indulge in a bit of nostalgia, Gentle Readers, and take a short walk down Memory Lane….

Three years ago this very day, my family drove down to California to visit our few remaining relatives there. I’d rather not go into the family stuff, as it wasn’t exactly thrilling (plus it was rather sad, as my late grandmother was suffering from dementia at the time).

I will mention, however, the Cuteness Overload moment we had while watching Singin’ in the Rain with Grandma: I looked over at her, and she was singing along with “You Were Meant For Me.” D’aaaaawwww….

(Much of what you’re about to read was excerpted from an email to a friend shortly after the event in question, and lightly edited to be relevant to the present.)

The highlight of the trip, though, happened on Saturday night (the 29th). I had secretly contacted Peter’s three best friends (the other members of the old barbershop quartet) earlier that year, thinking that, since MY BABY BROTHER WAS TURNING THIRTY (!!!), it’d be cool to do something really special to celebrate. I was going to see if “the boys” (Caleb, Shawn, and Matthew) could come visit us for Peter’s birthday weekend, but when we found out we’d be visiting Grandma in Nevada City/Grass Valley in late July/early August of that year, we agreed it’d be more practical for the boys (who all still lived in California at the time) to meet us at Shawn’s parents’ home. A sort of “Un-Birthday” Party.

Plus it worked out better for their busy schedules.

Shawn found PDFs of all the songs they used to sing together and sent them to everyone, plus a barbershop arrangement of Happy Birthday…which they sang as Peter walked in the door (with Shawn's dad singing lead). Peter was pretty much oblivious to our sneaky plans until we drove up to the house and saw all the extra cars, hehehe. Although he must have thought it odd that Shawn’s mom would call us up the night before we left to “invite” us to dinner…and that we were bringing everything….

L-R: Peter, Caleb, Mom, Shawn, Bonnie, Guy, Matthew, me

(Please excuse the lack of photos. It appears I only took two still-shots that evening, and one of them was absolute rubbish due to backlighting. This one is horribly yellowed, but at least y’all can see everyone!)

On the whole, the evening was a great success, in spite of a bit of awkwardness on my part, and the music Caleb tried to print off the Internet getting saved goofy and printing messed up. It was so good to see them all again, and hear them sing (except when they sightread a new song—that was pretty awful, LOL), and catch up on their lives and just hang out…enjoying pizza and Root Beer, of course! (It was kind of a tradition.) As we used to say back in The Day: “Good Times and Free Grog!”

Normally, social interaction drains my emotional energy. I get to a point where I’m thinking, “OK, I’ve had enough of you. Go away/Let’s go home now.”

Peter’s party had the opposite effect. I could have stayed up all night talking with them (or even just Shawn and his folks)…but of course that wasn’t an option.

I felt a real spirit-kinship with our old friends that night…which we haven’t felt with anyone we’ve met since we left California, really. It was refreshing. It was wonderful!

And it left me so charged that I wasn’t a bit sleepy when we finally crawled back to Grandma's house after 10 p.m. I honestly don’t think I actually went to sleep until well into the Wee Hours, LOL.

Some highlights and quotes from the evening:

* Yours truly deciding to fist-bump “the boys,” not being sure hugs would be appropriate….
SHAWN: *Confused look* Well, that’s the hypo-allergenic way to greet someone.
ME: *Fist-bumps Caleb during this speech*
*Feels stupid*
*Sees Matthew with arms open*
*Hugs Matthew*
*Turns back to Shawn* Friendly hug?
SHAWN: Hugs….
*Hug*

Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid to hug people you’ve known since grade-school. It just makes things awkward.

* Shawn making a little speech about how it’s become a tradition to celebrate our gatherings with Root Beer, but that “we don’t have any root beer,” and someone suggesting a trip to the store to fetch some….
ME: *Opens cooler*
*Pulls out the pack of Root Beer we smuggled down for the occasion* Ta-da!
BOYS: *Sounds of appreciation and happiness*

* Matthew discussing the car he was trying to sell: “It makes vroom-vroom noises, Caleb….”

* Caleb’s diagnosis of why the music wouldn’t print properly: “Yeah, someone set us up the bomb.”
ME: *Dies laughing*
(Virtual cookies to anyone who gets the joke!)

* Caleb finding a GORGEOUS old hymn called “Deck Thyself, My Soul,With Gladness,” and all of us singing it together (even though we weren’t sure of our parts).

* Sharing prayer requests before the party broke up, and praying together. The sense that everyone cared about each other and the things we were dealing with in life.

* Myself deciding not to be afraid take the empty chair beside one of the boys. Twice. Telling myself these fellows are my brothers in Christ, so it’s perfectly fine to sit next to them. (I’ve been shy and nervous around boys since I was nine, and terrified of giving them the wrong impression, so this was huge for me.)

* Shawn asking me if I’ve ever heard of NaNoWriMo, and suggesting I try it. Something about the act of “just getting it out there”—just writing on something, even if it’s not great—can unblock ideas that are clogged up. It was interesting that he’d even heard of NaNo,† and kinda cool that he even remembered I write.

† Re-reading this account, I remembered that several of our fellow message board members (circa early 2000’s) were involved in NaNo, so that’s probably where he heard about it. But it was still cool that he remembered after all those years.

* Peter, Shawn, and me discussing Star Trek after the party (Shawn had been going through the series for the first time). Peter and me advising him to “skip the first two seasons” of Next Generation, explaining the story behind the term “growing the beard,” and watching a Star Trek version of “Let It Snow” on Shawn's phone. LOL.
PETER: (as we were leaving) It took fifteen years, but we finally turned him into a Trekkie.

* Peter remarking on the drive back to Grandma's, “I’d actually been thinking about the guys today, and thinking we’ll probably never see them again....”

So it was extra special that they were able to come!

To this day, I’m still just tickled that it all worked out—that these grown men, with their own lives and careers and what-not, dropped everything and carved out some time in their busy schedules to throw a surprise party for a guy they hadn’t seen in years. Sole Deo Gloria!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,

~ℛ~

The Busy (Real) Life of TWR

Hi, all! It's been a busy week at Prairie Cottage of late. Between celebrating my "baby" brother's Silver Birthday, Mom's having cataract surgery (which, God be praised, went down without a hitch!), preparing for my grandparents' visit this week, my performing major surgery on Lucy Bear, and trying to get the house clean, menus planned and the grandparents' matching Patriotic Shirts made before they come...erm, yeah. We've been busy. 

QUOTE: "I have the country's five hundredth anniversary to organize, my wedding to plan, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it--I'm swamped!" (Name that line!)

( ...and excuse my imperfect recollection; it's been a while since we saw that one....)

But once all the busyness of preparation is over, I daresay there'll be some fun days ahead. Days that, unfortunately, won't include blogging, but afterwards I hope to be able to get a specific time for blogging chiseled into my schedule...starting with Part Two of Peter's birthdayness. :-)

Until then, Gentle Readers, have a wonderful week,

God bless,

and all that good stuff. ;-)

~"Tom"~

Peter's Silver Birthday!

Today my baby brother turned twenty-five (25)! *Confetti*

While Mom and I had a few rather elaborate plans in mind at first (such as renting a cabin at Farragut or having a potluck and swimming party there), we eventually decided to let the Birthday Boy choose his activities. Bro isn't exactly into big whooptidoos, even for milestone birthdays.

Who needs cake, anyway?

So it happened that Mom and I made the traditional Birthday Cheesecake (Peter's favorite dessert EVER), and a peach pie for ourselves. Because of Mom's egg and wheat/gluten allergies, cheesecake is kind of a no-no for her, and it's a bit too rich for me, having the same egg allergies (although I usually have a sliver when it's aged a week). So we made peach pie from some fresh peaches purchased at a local farm stand. We bought some canned peaches, too, to fill out our deep-dish pie pan, and so we wouldn't have to sacrifice any of the fresh peaches to make the glaze.

From this...

...to this!

Note to self: Don't make pie again unless there are other people to share it. Especially glazed fruit pie. At the end of a week we ended up pouring the filling over pudding and tossing the very soggy crust. Ick! But I digress....

Since Peter's birthday was on a Sunday, he chose to go out to lunch at a Chinese buffet in CdA called Top of China. While it wasn't as big as I'd expected, and I must confess I think Panda Express has better food, it was still a fun experience to choose from all the tempting entrées. This giant fish and miniature mountain sculpture added interest to the place, and Bro and I got a good chuckle out of the closed-captioning on the TV (they kept using V in place of W).

Miniature Mountain

Mr Fishy

Birthday Boy dishing up

Mom indulges her shutterbug daughter

Here's a pic I snapped in the mirrored back of one of the serving counter thingies. I had to squat to get my face in the picture!

What I'm Wearing:

Dress: “Breath of the Sea” thrifted

Necklace: “Wild Irish Rose” Wild Rose Designs & Laurie Sarah Designs

Earrings: Pearl Earstuds gift from Jordan R.

Hairstyle: “Swedish” Braids

I wanted to dress up in honor of the occasion, and my newest dress, christened “Breath of the Sea” because of its color, seemed fitting. I'll try to get a better picture of it later (unless the weather decides to get too cold) and do a proper fashion post on it.

A nice lady at the table next to us took this picture of all three of us:

After lunch had settled a bit, we changed into swimsuits and street clothes and headed over to Kiwanis Park to explore a bit.

View through the trees

CU of the House on the Hill

While most of the flora had died down for the year, there were still a few wildflowers to greet visitors to this very nice park. 

Wild Aster (?)

Purple "Aster"

Alfalfa in bloom!

Not only was the natural beauty of the area well-preserved, there were also proper facilities, with an inviting green lawn around the well-cared-for main building. Something in which other parks we've visited were sadly lacking.

As an added perk, Kiwanis Park is right by the Spokane River, and there are well-marked and easy-to-walk paths leading to it (now you know why we wore swimsuits). Of course we took a dip, although Mom only waded so's she wouldn't get anything in her eye before her surgery the following Tuesday.

(Across the River) Love that meadow!

 My bathing suit—a pair of purple/blue poly-taffeta swim trunks and an aqua and blue Spandex “surfer shirt.” 

More convenient than a modern one-piece, with a lot more coverage! (Although I'd feel better if the shorts covered my knees....)

Walking through the Wild Roses (sadly done for the year)

In a way I wish we could have done a little more to celebrate Peter's reaching the quarter-century mark, but on the whole, I think he had a nice day, and that's the main thing.

Love you, Bro!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~“Tom”~