Wednesday, February 7, 2007

50th Birthday Party - Part 2

In Part 1 I told you about the surprise party Gloria planned for me at church. What I failed to mention is that the party was 1 day before she went into the hospital for major surgery. She is slowly recovering from that surgery and so was not able to go with us to FL.

Sarah and I left at 7 on Saturday morning (02/03). I expected that there would be heavy traffic with folks headed to Miami for the Super Bowl. There was not! We arrived at my sister Barbara's house (in Jupiter) shortly after 4pm. On Sunday morning we went with them to church. One of my nieces, Ariel, sang in a ladies ensemble, and another niece, Katie, is a percussionist in the praise band. My other niece, Rachel, (who wants to be cool and groovy like her uncle) tries very hard to speak Jamaican, but my sister refers to it as speaking Ja- fakin!

It rained all day Sunday!

Sunday evening the church had a fellowship time that originally was going to precede the showing of the Super Bowl. But this year the NFL made an issue of churches showing the game, so the church decided not to do what they had planned. There is a TV in the youth room, so we started to watch the game there. When Chicago returned the kickoff for a touchdown I thought the game was about over. We left the church just before Indianapolis scored a field goal, and by the time we got to the house, they had scored another touchdown and were leading. I did not enjoy the game as much as the Colts-Patriots game but was very happy that the Colts won.

Did I mention that it rained all day Sunday?

My parents had been staying with my brother (in Miami) for a few weeks and they drove up Sunday afternoon. There were 13 of us sleeping in the house Sunday night. If you want to go to FL and are too cheap (I mean too poor) to pay for lodging, just email my sister at:

CanIStay@YourHouse.com

and I'm sure she will find room for you.

Monday my brother and I went to a Jamaican bakery for patties. Gloria had instructed me not to return to SC without bringing her some curried-chicken patties. Then we stopped at a Jamaican grocery store and I bought a HTB bun. Originally HTB stood for Hannah Town Bakery, but when folks asked what the initials HTB stood for the reply was always "Hard To Beat." The bun (a loaf of spiced bread with raisins) is now made by Continental Baking Company in Kingston and, in my vast experience, is the best bun in the universe. Two slices of bun with a piece of cheese between is delicious. I also bought a jar of Walkerswood Guava Jelly- they did not have any Orange Marmalade.

Then we stopped at BrandsMart, so that I could walk through the store and see if there was anything that I just had to have. There wasn't, so we left and went to the West Palm Beach airport. Aunt Mary, who is not related, but is my Mother's oldest friend (they have been friends since they were teenagers) flew in from Canada. We went back to Barbara's house for the big party - her graduation (summa cum laude), my 50th, my mother's 85th (which is today), and Barbara's father-in-law's birthday. There were 19 of us for supper!




Barbara and I - don't be fooled by the picture, she is actually 16 months older than me!








My Mother and I - don't be fooled by the picture, she is actually 35 years older than me!




It was overcast with occasional showers on Monday?

Tuesday morning we left FL for SC. The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful (the nice FL weather came when we left). We got home shortly after dark.