The Busy Weekend -- part two

Please excuse the brief tangent on birds -- back to Friday night and the retirement party. Well, there was a full program to honor my colleague, and it was very much keeping in tune with her personality. There was singing, dancing, and sea shanties. Yes, you read that correctly, sea shanties by an amateur sea shanty singing group. I've jumped ahead -- here are the highlights:

A waltz by the ballroom dancing club. Many of these were former students of mine! They were lovely.

A tribute by a former student who told Faye that she was a model and an inspiration for all "us nerds."

A tribute by Department Head and friend who gave away the Department gifts -- the best of which was an award to be given in her name, yearly, to the best Freshman writer. (Okay, I really teared up at this one).

A speech by the Admiral, who doesn't know her very well but spent two hours reading her Live Journal and freakin' QUOTED it at the ceremony. Let that be a lesson to you all. But the Admiral is very funny and has an extremely dry delivery. Though self-described as "boring," Kate leaned over to me and said "he's pretty funny." Hey, power and a sense of humor -- not a bad combination.

Faye said a few words as well, in which she quoted poetry and sang. She also made a reference to Bilbo's birthday party. All of this was very much in keeping with her personality. Very sweet.

I kinda wished I had begged to be on the program now.

Then she joined the Sea Shanty group which got the entire crowd to chime in on the chorus (including the Glee club which were having a great time). One member even improvised a verse for Faye on the spot.

I'm sure I've left out some other high points to which Kate and Gene can add. These were my favorite moments. We then left to go out into the cold and to the reception. Surprisingly, given the state of chaos in the afternoon, it was a wonderful reception. The noodle kugel was sublime (that should be the title of a novel) and I was so hungry, I ate a lot.

Our fears that the cake was not going to big enough were way off. A lot of people declined, even though I helped in serving and cajoled many attendees to have a piece. Boy, was it sweet!

At the reception, there were a few more presents and speeches, but all in all, it was pretty informal. I never even got to talk to Faye much since she had so many friends -- some of whom were from out of town-- that I could only hug her as we were leaving.

Kate and Gene stayed over. we had a few drinks, watched some crazy anime as I am wont to thrust upon them. Then it was up for lox and bagels and to Elena and Rod's for lunch. Unfortunately, since I'm such a wuss in the snow, once I saw any accumulation on the roads, I was out of there. Some of the hardy souls I left behind went sledding down the golf course behind their house (in the summertime, when attending bbqs there, the course lends a sense of danger that one will be beaned by a golfball). Okay, I fulfilled my promise and told the rest of the story.

Goodness, I'm Beat!

It's been a very, very long week. What with the first day of teaching and meetings and ice and parties, and visitors. Most of it has been great (parties and visitors and a little teaching), but I'm kinda glad to be snowed in tonight so I can rest up.

Let me review Friday since that was the highlight. I woke early -- for me -- 8 am, so I could pick up an extra cake for Faye's retirement. We were concerned that the other cake (that feeds 120) would not be enough. I bought it from Motta's on Route 6. I love to buy from them because I want to keep them in business. I carefully brought it to the car on the ice-slicked parking lot. The container must have opened slightly because the entire car smelled of sugar as I drove down to New London.

Then I taught at 1050 which was my Lit class. It went well although I was in a classroom with a computer I couldn't log into. Whoops! So, while they were working on poetry madlibs, I dashed to my office, dashed to the copier, and fired off the poems with the correct words in them. Then we talked about poetry in class. I have a few familiar faces this semester which is nice. After that, I went with a colleague to pick up the mega-cake. Kate took pics which I hope she will post. I'll link to them when she does. After bringing it to the reception hall, I decided to stick around and help set up. This meant I missed lunch and the speech from a big speaker at 1:00 (hence my 1:00 class was cancelled). I begged some food off of a neighbor across the hall from me (who mocked me when I yelled if she had any food -- she's many months pregnant. Of course she has food). Then I taught my 2:25 class. I only kept them for an hour but I already assigned the first paper.

I met up with Kate and Gene at the auditorium (also ran into my friend, Susan, and her daughter, Leah). We rushed inside because it was freakin' cold.

I would take the time now to talk about the fantastic ceremony but I'm just too pooped to create anything that would come near to capturing the event. I'll save that for next time. And I promise I will!

(spoiler: I did finally get to eat).

Bali Hai! Tiki-ness

I guess I should have been quicker on the draw because she who blogs first often blogs best. Both Cranky and the Queen have outscooped me just because I wanted to write about birds!

Actually speaking of birds, Sandy has two little birdies that were very cute at the party. The girl was in a cranky mood and since it was past her bedtime and she didn't have HER swing to sleep on, she knocked the boy off his. It wasn't even like she wanted the swing -- she didn't even get on it -- she just didn't want him to have a good time.

No, I wasn't such a dork that I stood by while watching everybody tiki drink and tiki drunk. I had my fair share at the awesome spread our host and hostess laid out for us. I drank some blue stuff with fruit and some red stuff with fruit then I turned to juice. Not literally, of course, although I felt very healthy with all this citrus. I just wanted to make it home without making a tiki spectacle of myself.

It was so good to talk to Perilous Cheryl and the Joey Zone (and Cheryl! Was I such a jerk to you? No! I was trying to cheer you up! I must be getting bad at this cheering-up business. Did I ever tell you that there is an anime where all the characters have names based on American rock stars? The bad guy's name is DIO! I would imagine that he would like that?).

So, I mingled and talked to people I knew and people I didn't know. It was a fantastic party -- kudos to Sandy and Mike!

The Heat is On

I have succumbed to the cooler weather. I shouldn't really complain since the last weeks have been warm, and Saturday was downright balmy. But now I have turned on the heat and so comes the stuffy air and the high electric bill.

This past weekend, I had a great time at Joey and Cheryl's fabulous Halloween party! I even won two prizes!!! The chocolate skull is just too cool looking to eat. My pals, Kate and Gene, stayed with me and it was fun to catch up with them. I miss them even if they are much, much closer than where they were before. I also greatly appreciate their help with my costume -- as the surviving member of the Donner Party (Donner Party of One). Gene won first place for his costume -- Raggedy Andy Warhol. I told a colleague of mine about his costume and she laughed her ass off. She said she could immediately visualize it.

Well, the semester is heating up (to keep with the theme of this post). I am taking over another class for the rest of the semester, and I have a lot of stuff to do between now and the end.

(Image courtesy of www.cuteoverload.com)
yeah it's cute until you need to clean the juicy pumpkin innards from kitten fur
Happy Halloween you ghoulies and ghosties.