Very misterioso

This evening after work, the volunteers and staff gathered for a celebration. I am still not sure what exactly was being celebrated. One version of the story was that a couple of the volunteers were celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. They had renewed their vows and had a lot of food left over from the reception. We were supposed to help consume the leftovers.

The other version is that they had been married, got a divorce and had just remarried. The food bit was the same, and we were supposed to help eat the leftovers.

Supposedly they were arriving about 3:00 and we would all eat around 5:30 after the last train had returned from its run and been put away. We closed up shop, the last train returned. There had been no sign yet of the folks with the food, although there was a lot of peripheral activity focused on drinks. Actually, the happy couple arrived around 6:00 and began to reheat the food. We had all been sitting around the picnic tables for a while, wondering what was going on.

Beverages appeared.

Followed by a lull.

Bread, honeydew melon slices, some sort of relish and green pepper strips appeared. Some people were getting restless and sneaking anxious glances towards where the food was being heated.

This went on during yet another lull.

It was getting on towards seven, and having had only a meal bar for lunch, I finally stood up and got a roll to sustain me. A bunch of others followed suit. A box of wine was broached but only one person wanted any. Two bottles of champagne appeared and were set next to the boxes of plastic forks and bags of paper plates. Also four bottles of salad dressing. A sheet cake was put out.

We had another lull during which time people munched on bread and wondered what the relishes might be.

A pan of pasta appeared, accompanied by ambrosia salad, tossed salad and some sort of whipped strawberry gelatin. People delicately dug in, unsure if other options were coming and whether this would possibly stretch to feed the crowd that was pretty hungry by now.

During the next lull people nibbled and began to look hungrily at the sheet cake.

A bucket (literally) of margaritas appeared. Neither Tom nor I drink, but it seems not many of the others were drinking liquor either.

Another lull.

About 7:15 the bulk of the food appeared -- mashed potatoes, a half dozen Italian sausages, a pan of fried chicken, some Italian beef, chunks of cantaloupe and a bag of chocolate-covered strawberries. Also a large fragment of an elaborate marble cake to supplement the sheet cake. The bride (?) likes chocolate, but the Wal-Mart bakery did not have a chocolate sheet cake and had been unwilling to frost one at the last minute. The sheet cake said, "Happy Anniversary" but whether it was an anniversary was still not clear. An ambiguously worded toast to twenty-five years of marriage also left me uncertain. Were those twenty-five years behind or ahead?

At least three trains drove by during this time and honked at us as we all waved to them. Some guy slowly rode his bicycle along County N and looked over curiously. I have no idea what he thought was going on, and I am not sure I knew any more. And I was at the party.

Anyway, Buddy the Dog was there and got to eat some of the leftovers, and he was happy as a lark. He didn't seem to worry about what the celebration was for. He just really liked the Italian sauce in the pans he got to lick.

When I got home about 8:00, I realized that I had stripped everything off my bed when I left this morning, intending to do the laundry when I got home. Now the evening was advancing and I had four loads of laundry to do.

Oh joy!