Hardly a Dull Moment

Aren't weekends supposed to be relaxing? Well, this weekend has been anything but for me.

It all started Friday night when I had to not only attend a retirement party for a few of my colleagues, but I also had to make a "special presentation" to one of the honored retirees. Now, the thing is that this woman is absolutely lovely, and it was a pleasure and a delight to say a bunch of nice things about her in front of a big group of people. However, I really didn't feel like I could just go and relax and numb the slings and arrows of this group retirement function with a few glasses of cheap wine. I had to actually be on my toes enough to get up there and make a meaningful dedication to this woman in front of her entire family and colleagues past and present.

I was really aiming for some kind of speech that would capture the essence of this woman's very special way with kids and to do justice to the many years she dedicated to her students. Apparently I was successful in this endeavor because the woman's daughter was teary-eyed throughout the presentation, and her husband admitted to "having come close to shed a tear myself once or twice."

Anyway, never fear. I retired to the bar to partake of that cheap wine brain-numbing exercise immediately following my speech.

I forgot to mention that since the party started at 7, and since one of my colleagues and I decided we'd go together, we decided to motivate ourselves to stay around school from release time (2:30) until 6:30 in order to do some packing for our move to the new school.

Great idea.

The school has no air conditioning, and a tempermental elevator. I was packing crap books into heavy trash bags and hauling them down to the outside trash dumpster. It must have taken me about 20 trips up and down to get rid of half of the shit I need to dump. We were told that we can't put books directly into the trash dumpster because neighbors might see them and question why they are being thrown away. Best to keep them hidden in trash bags because I'm sure those neighbors would want the kids to continue learning from geography books that continue to list the GDP per capita of the United States as $11,000 and make countless references to "colored Americans" and "The Soviet Union."

Jesus.

Anyway, after all this work, I was disgusting. Luckily I had thought to bring a change of clothes, some facial cleanser, deodorant and some other "Irish Shower" essentials.

The retirement party went on until around midnight, and although it was very nice, I was practically asleep by the end of it.


We got some wedding stuff done this weekend.




We met with our very cool DJ and picked out the "essential dance" songs. I think we have some good ones. The DJ himself (after 28 years in the biz) was even impressed with some of our selections. We're doing the Phil Collins "Groovy Kind of Love" for the first dance. Always loved that one. We'll leave the rest of our selections a surprise. There's gotta be some element of excitement.




And the boys, Stephen, the Maniac, John and Gene, went to take care of the tuxedo business today. I did not accompany them. From their description, everything sounds like its on the up and up.




While the guys were out tux shopping, E and I watched my best girls, Allie and Caroline. They are both gorgeous, as you can clearly see. And that little spit-fire, Caroline, is getting more and more talkative evrey day. She's going to be reciting Shakespeare very soon!!! I love both of these kids so much.

Following the tuxedo adventure, Stephen, Gene and I sat and watched the Red Sox kick some Yankees pinstripied backside.



OK, I've got a baby shower to get through tomorrow. After that and a quick trip to the gym, I'm going to sit on my bum and do nothing for the remainder of Sunday evening.