Revelry

It’s been a splendid weekend. Friday evening we went to a Microwbrew fest in at the Agricultural & Industrial Musem in York, thanks to the generousity of shadowandlight and kamakazetom. We sampled a number of good beers from Pennsylvania breweries, and then wandered around the museum. It’s an awfully nifty place, with lots of cool old machinery, cintage automobiles, and an entire grist mill, all housed in a beautiful old factory building. The standout, beerwise, was definitely “Euphoria” from Legacy Brewing Company. If you ever get a chance to try it it’s definitely worth it.

Saturday I went to The American Music & Arts Festival in Westminster. I got there not long after opening, and got to hear some beautiful scottish music performed by several artists, notably Sharon Knowles on the celtic harp and Heather Heywood’s haunting singing. After that I caught some “Northland Dance Music” before hiking over to the Amphitheatre to watch a songwriter’s circle. You know, dirty hippies they may be, but thank god/dess for singer/songwriters. We need a few gentle souls around to ask “why can’t we all just get along, anyway”. Naive? Probably. But it’s still a damn good question, and it deserves to be asked.

When the last peace ballad had been finished, it was time to head back to the pavilion stage for the always-entertaining Footworks, a percussive dance ensemble. Their show was great as always, although I think I liked their old costumes better. The new red and black ones don’t have the old world charm of last year’s.

After the footworks show I met greymaiden as planned, and we spent a couple of most enjoyable hours chatting on her blanket while listening to hammered dulcimers and fiddles. She has some great stories, and a vast breadth of interests and experiences which I very much look forward to exploring at greater length in future conversations.

I left around 3 in order to have plenty of time to help avivahg with party preparations. Spent the rest of the evening cleaning the basement and doing yardwork and making misc. other preparations, and went to bed quite tired. But not before washing avivahg‘s feet with some rose/lavendar/ylang-ylang and dead-sea-salt foot scrub that I picked up for her at the festival.

Sunday was the day of my first “real” birthday party ever. Birthdays for me were always small, family affairs – I never had a houseful of friends over for my birthday. So this was a first for me. And as far as I’m concerned it went splendidly.

My mom showed up early to help with last-minute preparations. shadowandlight was the first to arrive after her, bearing a yummy cheesecake. He was kind enough to help us put up some decorations and to take me to do some last-minute shopping. While we were waiting for more folks to show up he and I played frisbee until my mom came out back with a super soaker. At which point it was on.

As the guests trickled in they were greeted by a rare sight: me in a (soaking-wet) Hawaiin shirt and white slacks. Treasure it in (or scrub it from, if you prefer) your memories; you won’t be seeing that again anytime soon. The beach-party vibe was enhanced by the “best of the Beach Boys” album that mom brought with her. Strange times at the Grimm household.

It rained for maybe a half-hour at one point, but it didn’t storm, so we just threw some tarps over the food and chatted under the canopy. After it cleared up we grilled and ate shish-kebabs. Eventually we moved inside to cut the cake (red velvet, and delicious), and then lounged around the living room while rebeckahrae serenaded us on the piano and I migrated from lap to lap. From there the remaining guests adjourned to the basement to watch an MST3K (“Pod People”). rebeckahrae, asherhyder, and shadowandlight took their leave during the movie, but chibitig1 kept me company till the end. “Trumpy, NO!!!”

Thank you to all of the people mentioned above, plus greymaiden who had the guts to come to a party of complete strangers, skunque who clued me in to the background of certain TMBG songs, cold_mercy and Jack for making yesterday my best birthday party ever. I’m flattered that you all made the long trek up to PA just for little ‘ole me. I was a teensy bit disapointed that more people didn’t show up, but I had a great time with the people who did. Thanks; you’re all terrific.

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7 Comments

  1. I hope someone took pictures of you in a Hawian shirt.

  2. I’m glad your party went so well, especially if you haven;t really had such an event in your honour before. I’m sure it brought avivahg a lot of joy for her labours – i know i gave batman his first ever surprise party this year (he had always wanted one) and he was just glowing all night.. and for a few days afterwards.

  3. Again, for posterity. . .

    I had a great time, thanks for inviting me 🙂

  4. trumpy no!! it’s stinks! *falls over*

    thanks for accepting me in BDUs and stinky and then letting me borrow ur shower. much fun was had!

    1. thanks for accepting me in BDUs and stinky and then letting me borrow ur shower. much fun was had!

      Do you realize how bad that sounds?

      1. oh well:) be proud, it is VERY fooking rare for me to be seen in my uniform by non-army people.

  5. ummm…

    posted in your other entry first, as i’m working backwards in the lj-friends thingie…

    glad you had such a good time for your specisl celebration! sorry i had to miss it!

    and i’m especially jealous, because my traditional birthday cake is the fabulous red velvet, but the closest i’ve come to replicating my step-grandmother’s recipe is the duncan hines kind… how sucky. (that i can’t seem to make it on my own from scratch, that is!)

    so yeah, yay!

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