Weekend Culturale

As many of you no doubt realize, I am an ardent advocate for celebrating the First Friday of the Week, no matter when it falls. Another indication of what a fine country Panama is that they also have a saying about celebrating Fridays. Whenever I am engaged in my celebratory activities my Favorite Panamanian says I am enjoying yet another, “Viernes Culturale”, which literally means a “Cultural Friday”. That now that’s classy. I offer this cogent bit of information to report on another Viernes Cuturale that I was able to extend throughout the weekend, due to some truly outstanding friends and family.

The Friday Ladies on Deckzilla
The Mafioso With a Rare Almost Smile in a Photo

It all started on Friday when my Favorite Panamanian conspired with the Worcester Chapter of the Panamanian Mafia to have a get together. The stated reason was to make a Pesada de Nance. This is a traditional Panamanian dessert made by cooking the nance pulp with sugar and cornstarch. It has a custard-like consistency. Nance is a small yellow fruit native to Panama. I heard about this a month ago and figured I would not be involved and could count on some Man Cave time while the ladies indulged in nationalistic culinary pursuits. I was so wrong. By the time Friday rolled around, it had evolved into a full gathering, including the menfolk.

The Nance Fruit

The Pesada They Created

That meant my wife inflicted one of her weeklong house cleaning extravaganzas that I was inevitably sucked into. The attendance roster had expanded to include some Peruvians and the Czech Friends. Since the Czech Shadow is now a working gal, she could not attend. While we waited for the oppressive daytime humidity to wane, we entertained ourselves inside while the ladies went to work on the arcane nance recipe. The Neighborhood Mafioso was at my side so there was a significant amount of laughing going on. Eventually we all moved out onto Deckzilla for the remainder of our time in a semi-perfect early summer evening in the shade. We broke out the Left-Right-Center dice game where I kept my lifelong losing streak intact. It was a great evening with good friends, and I’m told the pesada de nance was excellent (it’s not as if I would ever try it).

Panamanians at Work

And Offering Their Opinion of the Photographer

Waiting out the Humidity

Deckzilla Time

Left-Right-Center Aftermath

I’ve written before about the great friends we met our trip last year to Portugal, Spain and France. We got together with them a couple times last year during trips to visit my son since they live in his area. My Favorite Panamanian (social director that she is) arranged a get together for last Saturday. I thought this would be my golden ticket to miss out on the granddaughters’ annual dance recital. We made our plans with the friends for an afternoon and dinner in Portsmouth and then I called my son about sleeping accommodation at his place. He said I was coming up anyways because that was the day of the dance recital. I excitedly explained that he had never told us about the date and thought I was home free.

Granddaughters Dance Recital

BR3 Third from R, BRS Second from R

Let me explain; I love watching the granddaughters dance but the past couple of years the recitals, outside of their performance, have been akin to the Bataan Death March. I would rather have root canal work done. To see the 2 minutes the granddaughters are on stage meant sitting through several dozen others, carefully packed into three hours of agony. You get the point. For some reason, the ladies love it, thinking all the acts are “cute”. Me, not so much. My hopes were dashed when my son (efforting a way to get himself out of trouble with the ABFA for not telling us about it) figured out there was a way for us to do both. God save me from raising offspring way too intelligent for my own good.

BR3

BRS 

The dance academy must have heard the grumbling from past year’s crowds because they seriously streamlined the event this year. With the exception of an overlong celebration of themselves, the show moved right along. We had to leave just before the end but had seen the BRS and BR3 dazzle on stage. This is the first year that BR3 seemed actually engaged in the performance while the BRS was her usual star in the making. Our early departure allowed us to beat the traffic and get to Portsmouth quickly. We parked in the huge city garage my son oversaw the construction of a few years ago. I was amazed at how much development had occurred since that time.

Cigar Bar

We linked up with our friends at Dwyer’s Pub, close to the garage. Portsmouth is a great town, with all the entertainment district within easy walking distance. It is a completely different place from when I went to college nearby, in a very good way. I agreed to the get together with the stipulation that I didn’t have to take part in the inevitable shopping. It was agreed that the ladies would shop while the guys amused themselves in the local pub scene. We started out in The Slow Burn Lounge, a cigar bar, which is a first for me. I know it must seem astounding that at my advanced age and lifelong, dedicated investigation of the pub scene, that I can achieve a first. One of the other guys was a member and while I’ve never smoked, I enjoyed the atmosphere and the conversation. It also had the nicest pub bathroom I’ve ever seen, including a table lamp and couch, but I digress.

Very Fun Table at The Library

After my friend finished his cigar, we wandered around central Portsmouth for a while until we landed at a bar much more in my wheelhouse, the Rusty Hammer. We caught the end to the Red Sox game there (a rare win) and eventually the ladies joined us.  We then had a short walk down the street to The Library Restaurant. We had eaten there before and what’s not to like, an upscale restaurant with overstocked bookshelves lining the place. We enjoyed the conversation and laughter as we got to know our friends better. Meeting them was one of the true highlights of that European tour. In what turned out to be a theme for the day I ran into another strange restroom there. There was an antique barber’s chair dominating the room. They would have been better off spending the money on an additional urinal but that’s just an opinion (from the guy dancing in line waiting his turn).

Abuela with her Star  Hojaldra Student

This evening was a lesson I learned early in life and it’s nice to see it validated as I move into a more auspicious accumulation of years. That being that time sitting around a table with friends is always a serious win for the soul. I owe a lot to my social director, the Favorite Panamanian, for putting this together. We ended up back at my son’s home around 10pm, thoroughly gassed, but in a very good way. We ran into one of the couples the next day in church and enjoyed spending some more time with them after mass.

Abuela Showing the BRS and BR3 the FBR's Latest Play

The highlight of any weekend involving granddaughters will be the time we get to spend with them and their parents which we accomplished on Sunday. They were their usual busy selves. The BRS cemented her reputation as an expert maker of hojaldras, when her abuela was late in arising. That abuela was very proud of her best pupil. Their next-door neighbor was having a high school graduation party which the granddaughters excitedly attended. My son, after an allergy inducing lawn mowing session, settled down with my expert assistance (honed endlessly in the Man Cave) for electronic entertainment. My wife (his mother) thought we were entirely too sedentary. We both agreed she was in error as we flipped between World Cup games and other offerings. I fell victim to my granddaughters’ latest pranks. They noticed me working at removing what I thought was a huge hunk of bubble gum from the bottom of my shoe. They gasped and admitted that I had sprung what they called their “glue trap”. They had set it out to catch anyone evil trying to enter their house (they may be watching too much TV). Their parents were not impressed with their ingenuity.

Son and I in Vegetative State

While Granddaughters Enjoy Graduation Pool Party

My son put me onto a new cable series which is hilarious. Widow’s Bay is a horror comedy which, I guess, is a thing. It was so much fun watching it with my son as we share similar senses of humor and we were both bursting out is laughter repeatedly to the consternation of my nearby Favorite Panamanian. She thinks the horror genre is akin to devil worship. The show is about an isolated island in Maine that is seriously haunted despite an unbelieving mayor who is the butt of so many jokes and hauntings. If you get a chance, check this out, I am binge watching it at home now so I can compare notes with my son this coming weekend.

In the much more mundane department, now that I’ve concluded the A-Z watch, I’ve turned my attention to the stack of jigsaw puzzles that have built up during that effort. On Wednesday I started the first 1000-piece puzzle in a while and by Friday had knocked it off, rediscovering how much time consumption it provides. It’s not that I have a lot of that to donate, but with the horrific Red Sox season it’s nice to have something to do other than burn with resentment of what they have become, a punchless shadow of what they used to be. Oh well, at least this is what I was used to growing up, it’ll be good to build up some more callouses on the soul. At least the Tartan Army that descended on Boston to support Scotland in the World Cup has provided some distraction. They are so fun to watch.

The Puzzle

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RECURRING CHARACTERS:

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete – my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Upstairs Neighbors – American couple and great friends who live in condo above us in Panama; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course