Journal of a Sabbatical

September 19, 1999

the great reunion

Hosts: Donald & Michael, Salisbury

Guests of honor:
Auntie Ruthie from California
Bobby of Bosnia

Guests:
Kevin with Andrea, Lizzy, Mary, Stephanie, and Chris - of Groton

Billy of Woburn
Thomas of Boston
La Madre of Newton

Aunt Helen and Uncle John - of Walpole
Kathy
Barbara
Michael & Mary with Elizabeth, Caitlin, and Jennifer

Aunt Elva - of Maynard
Cheryl & Phil with Matt -of Boxboro
Richard & Tracy with Jonathan and David and Ryan and Heather - of Andover

Uncle Paul and Aunt Marie - of Falmouth

Nancy Next Door and her family

Me (without Nancy - she has an old roommate from grad school visiting from Florida)

Today's Starting Pitcher: Tim Wakefield

Today's Reading: none

I can't think of much to say about this gigantic family gathering. Auntie Ruthie hasn't been out here in the wicked east for about 11 or 12 years. So it was really a big reunion for my mother and her siblings - that would be Ruthie, Helen, and Paul (her brother Robert is in California and her brother Billy is deceased). But why just have Nolan's? Let's have Egan's too! And invite the neighbors!

It was a good beach day despite cool temperatures and the wind coming in off the water. The wind was great for kite flying. The food was good - Thomas is a chef, and my cousin Kathy has a bakery business in addition to being some kind of dean of something or other at some college or other.

I passed around my pictures of Hungary: pretty windows, great architecture, boxes of botanical specimens... Bobby passed around his pictures of Kosovo and Macedonia: smiling Albanian kids, "welcome NATO" signs, tanks, burning Serb houses, refugee camps, long lines at the borders, the McDonald's in Skopje... Lizzy passed around the genealogy project she did for school last year with the kinship charts Kevin did listing how each person is related to Lizzy.

Dialog of the day:

Me: What are you going to do while you're here?
BiB: I don't know yet.
Me: The blues are running in Narragansett Bay.
BiB: I was thinking of cleaning the garage.

Gee, I'd always heard that a bad day fishing is better than a good day cleaning the garage... :-) :-):-)