Sunday Travels

The Dining Room Table

Yesterday I woke up in New Hampshire despite the assault on my central nervous system the previous day.  Buddy demanded and received his obligatory walk around Keene from my friend before we loaded the car and headed home for church and then the supermarket.  We were scheduled to drive down to Rhode Island for the annual St Mary’s Feast.  My sister married into an Italian family and this is one of the biggest celebrations of the year for them.  My wife and I were not exactly “chipper” following Saturday’s adventures but there was no way I was not going to make the trip after repeatedly pillorying my sister’s sister in law, AKA “The Genius” for her consistent failures to travel to our house.  I never fail to have a good time with my sister’s in-laws who make me feel like family.  The party was at my sister’s mother in law’s house and was as much fun as expected.  We were just starting out for Rhode Island when I received a call from my sister who said her husband was very concerned because we were not there yet.  My sister and her in laws are somewhat infamous for their lack of “timeliness” when arriving at a party or anywhere else for that matter.  We have agreed that if we arrive late that we are on “M****-Time”, using their last name as reason enough to explain tardiness.  This obviously has come up against my own predilection to arrive exactly at the appointed hour.  Due to our New Hampshire adventures we were running about an hour behind schedule and this was enough to raise serious concerns for my brother in law who expected me to walk through the door exactly at the appointed hour.  I told him since this was a gathering of his family I anticipated that being fashionably late was expected.  The party was a fabulous time although I was challenged to resist the urge to indulge in the “hair of the dog” but I had to work on Monday so that was not an option.  The house was full of people ranging in age from the 80’s down to toddlers.  The older generation was firmly seated around the dining room table and it was cool that I didn’t qualify for seating there for this party.  As usual there was enough food to feed several small armies, all of it decidedly delicious; I was once again amazed at my sister’s mother in law, who cooked most of it.  We had a great time.  “The Genius” had recovered from her epic journey of the previous weekend to the furthest reaches of the known world – our house.  For some reason everybody was out in the back yard smoking cigars – still don’t understand the attraction of that but it was a lot of fun to observe.  The 22 year old son of “The Genius” was operating on two hours of sleep and a lot of beer which led to some truly comic moments.  We reluctantly made our way home, glad we had made the trip because of the wonderful people we got to spend the afternoon with.  Woke up in New Hampshire, went to church in Massachusetts, and partied in Rhode Island – great way to end a truly memorable weekend. 

Cigars!  Why?
L-R: Husband of Genius, The Genius, Favorite Child, My Bro in Law



Great People!