Friday night was spectacular - we had maybe two dozen people at the ice cream social, which was hosted by the fearless and funny Lib. Our Quing said a few words of welcome and also performed a song with Sue and Ruth (I think - I was hot flashing out on the porch). Swimmer sang acapella in amazing style, and lots of people told stories. One of our most sane and sensible members told a story of (nearly) robbing a bank with the granddaughter of Pretty Boy Floyd. Even Lib's pantyhose story and my Amos got shot story couldn't touch that one. We were in awe. And such storytelling talent. I was amazed. There is an art to telling stories - there is skill involved in the timing and reading the audience and getting the delivery to work, and this crowd had it in spades. The tellers were very good and the audience was appreciative. I was mightily impressed. It could not have worked out any better.
Here are Betsy, Daphne, Sue and Ruth. I treasure them all.
Lib (blonde) and Nanci (yellow shirt) were the evening's hosts:
Ponies like Rusty are easily amused, it seems.
Here are my favorite people and tireless volunteers/draftees: Deborah, Laura, and Mike. I would be lost without them. (Before anyone gets excited and wants a date, Deborah is decidedly straight. Bless her heart for volunteering for this event on her Friday night off!)
Scott, Toby and Shaun enjoyed the program as well.
And when it was done, six or eight of the folks stayed to clean up and put the place right again. How blessed we were to have such wonderful last-minute volunteers. I was so grateful!
There were lots more pictures, but I think I'll save them for the gaynet CD of memories that the Quing is threatening to produce. That and the process to paste them here is tedious as hell.
Saturday morning had me up early and getting ready. I made my sczechuan noodles to bring to the picnic and went early to get things set up. There was some communication lapses between L and me that resulted in some grumpiness, but it all worked out in the end. We had over 30 people at the picnic, and burgers and hot dogs enough for everyone. Someone even brought SPAM, which I dutifully sliced and grilled. It was horrifying, but I did it. What's worse, people ate it. I did not watch.
I have no pictures of the picnic, but gaynet member Pat took these and has graciously allowed me to link to them. And to think I live a mere five miles from this picnic spot! We do truly live in paradise! The views of the water are of a thing called Somes Sound, which some argue is the only fijord on the eastern side of North America. Some say it is not a true fjiord (something to do with the methods used by the glaciers to carve it) but I say what the hell, until someone comes up with a better one, we'll claim it as the only one on this side of the continent. The views are facing west toward Flying Mountain, Acadia Mountain and St. Sauveur Mountain and sort of south-west toward the mouth of the Sound. This is the same picnic area where I had my 40th birthday party. It is one of the nicest places in the world.
Saturday afternoon had a batch of people wandering around Northeast Harbor on a tour of historical lesbian places and then there was a reading of some kind. Not being artistically inclined, I have no idea now exactly what it was about, but it got good reviews.
Saturday evening had a gaggle of us attending the Theater of Marvels show in Otter Creek. Rusty and Mike got to chain up a guy and secure him with bunches of padlocks from which he escaped. I think we must have had close to 20 of our people there, and the tiny little hall was packed. Rusty/Geoff is a marvel with the Chinese linking rings and he did a particularly fun (and campy) series of tricks involving what looked like miles of silk scarves and bunches of parasols. In the humidity, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to get that stuff to behave.
Oh, and there was a belly dancer. That was really cool. It is a little upsetting to see the human body bend in such a manner, but I think more than one set of eyebrows went up in not-terribly-pure consideration of the possibilities such a person could present. Huh. Most interesting indeed.
Sunday morning we all (mostly) met early for breakfast at my favorite place in Bar Harbor, Cafe This Way. We ended up with 15 people from the weekend in attendance, not bad considering that some had to leave for very long drives home.
Here is a link to a slide show of more pictures from Saturday afternoon's picnic and Sunday morning's brunch.
Laura, Mike and I came back to the house where we then had coffee and bagels (we had coffee, they had bagels) with Karen and Deb (who were late and missed breakfast) and after everyone left, I crashed on the sofa and slept for a couple hours while pretending to watch golf. I haven't fallen asleep on the couch in years, but yesterday I was too tired to even sit at the kitchen table.
We had macaroni and cheese from a box for supper. No shit. We were tired.
Today is wet and threatening thunderstorms, so I have opted not to go play with aluminum gutters while standing on scaffolding. I may burrow into my basement workshop and try to get a couple projects finished. I have horseshoes to modify for my favorite pony, and a bridge squisher to finish up for an engineering friend. Pictures may ensue, but don't count on it just yet. I'm still moving pretty slow.
No comments:
Post a Comment