The Family You Choose

For Paul today was mostly a regular work day.  I puttered around, did some chores and read.

The night before we'd watched The Muppets (painfully sweet - and which I liked a lot) and an episode of the British The Office (painfully depressing? - growing on me).  I'd thought we'd have a similar evening with videos and was kind of sad for it.  Here it was Family Day, but it was kind of lacking in family (and strangely too quiet).  Celina and Kevin hadn't made any moves to spend the day with me, and I hadn't suggested anything (like in previous years) considering my limited mobility. 

Maybe Paul felt it too - once his work day ended, he suggested we go out.  What?!  No planning?  Just go out?  And a couple of hours later, we were out dropping-in on Steph and Rem with only a call as coordination / warning (it helped to have the car). 

Hm... somehow I'd become very rusty at this (dropping-in and socialising). 

We were welcomed with tea and shortbread cookies.  It had felt like too long and I wanted to know and catch up on everything.  And after that, it was just being us. 

Steph revealed her multi-layered indoor footwear (the top blue one a synthetic slipper, the next one down a colourful wool, and then I'm pretty sure there was another layer below) while Rem showed off his lovely barefeet. 

Rem had subjected himself to something (reading) that was horribly sad.  Steph shook her head.  Which lead to sharing Rem's theory of "Practicing Empathy", which I took to be: For some (like Steph) reading / watching sad things are too miserable of an experience for they already have empathy and feel it so much more.  For others, we need to seek out the sadness to learn / to practice to feel it.  It's certainly a piece of the puzzle I can identify with.  But there's also catharsis... and I'm sure there are those who like self punishment. 

We left perhaps a little later than was wise for a work night, but I certainly felt better for it.  This is probably a sign.  So many people in one weekend, and I feel good, I might just need more. 

Spreading the News at Good Friday Feast

Malcolm was sporting was he called his "thesis mullet" and completely confused me with his talk about transparency ("Not transparent enough to tell if it was transparent."), which I guess proved his point exactly.

Good Friday Feast was fully underway with lamb in the oven, Guiness in wine glasses, and Steph's sewing box fully open for me to snoop. 

Some sock truths were revealed.  

And then we ate dinner. 

When dessert came, Rem pronounced the cake a special cake and handed the floor over to Paul.
 

Hardly a minute later (Beth clued-in midway), there were cheers and hugs.

Those with the technology spread the news further: Texting / messaging other friends who were not there that night. Further enforcing that I really don't need to update my facebook status. 

Rem: Good job. 
Me: I didn't do anything - he did.
Rem: It's a joint effort.
Paul: Yeah, yo ucould have said no.
Me: That was an option?
Paul: Um... no, of course not.  

Over delicious cake, we received some suggestions for the wedding (there certainly are a lot of possible themes).

"Are you going to as me or what?" ~ Rebecca reveals how she popped the question to Johnwill.

And there was talk about bridal showers (well, amongst the girls).  Which also seemed to have many themes (from bible readings to sex toys and lingerie, to wooden spoons...)


One suggestion from Malcolm was about logistics. He figured if we had a large wedding we could (should) go with the Infinite Hotel. Oh, those Mathies.

 

Music and Words (and then some dancing)

"Scaramouche."

Rem: A lazy coward.

Steph: Someone who does the fandango!

Rem's super private recital (a small showing before the real recital) was a bit of shock.  He really is a tenor!  My mental picture of his voice was still that of bass, but he proved that these higher notes were where he was at.  (Must be excused for my fit of giggles between the shock and the song lyrics.)

The dictionary came out soon after as Steph pulled out the deck of old, out of use English words to play a game of "guess what it means".  

 

A tonsure, a tensor, and tenser...  

 

Sometimes similar sounding words could lead you on the right path... other times no. 

 

Ambercrombie and flitch? 

Applecrumble and fish? 

 

 

I was completely terrible at this.  But I did find it amusing... So, would anyone Feasters admit to being a fancymonger or smell-feaste? 

 

And maybe you someone would be happy to know that they are not frigorific...

(Left: Socks for the right day!)

Eventually, our short stay had to end.  So time to break the news:

"Oh, and by the way... "

They were very happy for us and immediately performed a happy dance. 

 

I suspect Jackie was also this happy, maybe even more :)  But my family wasn't quite so light of spirit.  It felt great to have such positive response to the news. 

In Which Stephanie's Birthday is Feasted

Erik: You're a year behind.
Me: I have FIVE days!

Though I should have probably been hard at work at the computer to get my blog up to date, I decided that Steph's birthday Feast would be more fun.  I was right. 

Rem made lentils and salad collide, and helped define "unimaginably large" (where the number and it's square give the same emotional impact). 

 

 

 

Then he made his handmade perogies go splash!

Steph played with her birthday present from Rem. 

And we all talked. 

About socks:

Paul: Friday... Freida, who's a red-head... carrot-top... orange.
Steph: What is Tuesday then?













About French relatives:

Paul: I had an auntie, but she's now British.
Steph: How horrible!

Erik, as usual, didn't like being photographed, but seemed to have a small smile for me while posing with Ralph (the duck).

Steph opened presents. 

We found out "How's your father" is a noun.  So, how's a little "how's your father" ?

Steph proved and the packaging is sometimes more fun that thing inside. 

 

And I found out reasons why running is like smoking:

 

1. It's addictive

2. It's expensive

3. It makes you smell

4. It makes you go outside in the cold for no particular good reason

5. It makes you look dangerous

6. You start (and continue) because of peer pressure.

Clothing Option(s/al) Feast

Malcolm described for me his two body problem.  I know little about the mechanics issue, but I could understand and sympathise with the one about two independent people with academic careers. 

Attention was quickly turned to the no-longer-quite-a-baby Arilyn. 


 













She eventually recovered from the terrorising, and did some scaring of her own: Getting much too close to Steph and the fridge magnets. 

Meanwhile, Paul modeled items from Steph's bag of clothing to get rid of, making quite the fashion statements.















Erik arrived with his father and sister. 
We had some tea. 

Arilyn showed that clothing for Feast is indeed optional.

Even so, Rebecca decided to stick with with the shirt and hat she'd made herself.  (And the rest of us, to what we originally arrived in.)
 

(Left: "Genius is rarely recognised in its time. What can you do?")