Back in DC

This past weekend Spouse & I were back in DC again.  I say 'again' because we were there a month ago for Easter, and 2 weeks ago for his mom's viewings and funeral.  But we went back again for 2 important reasons.

The 1st was a 35th high school reunion cocktail party.  This was not an official reunion planned by the class.  This was a cocktail party reunion held at our dear friends Kerry & Hugh's home.  Kerry sent out an Evite and I created a Facebook event to get the word out.  Probably 25 or so classmates came and everyone had a ball!

I had an idea of taking selfies with my classmates AND my cosmo, so you'll see several of those, plus some other photos.

Donna looking incredublously at something Gary is saying, with Susan

Me and Patty

Me and Corky

Jeff, Kelly, Wayne, Corky

Me and my sister from another Mister Lisa

Me and Ginny

Scott and Allison

Lisa and Kerry

Me and Jeff

Carl and Kerry

Me and Kelly

Me, Kerry, Kelly, Jonathan

Me and Gary

Me and Carl

Me and Susan

Apparently only Carl could hear the amazingly funny joke...

Me an Allison

Me and Scott

The next day was Mother's Day, and only 1 month after Evelyn's passing.  This was another reason for coming back to DC; to spend Mother's Day with Spouse's sister Mary and her family.  We figured it would make the loss of our mother easier to endure on Mother's Day if we were together.  We had a very leisurely morning, talking and laughing a lot, and then ordered a bunch of Chinese food and ate lunch out on the deck.  Anna made this cake for her mother:  chocolate with mini M&Ms - her favorite.

We left at 3pm and after some traffic congestion finally arrived home at 6pm.

Weekend highlights

Spouse & I took off work last Fri and headed back to DC.  We had lunch and visited with his mom and sister for awhile.  Then it was time for me to get ready.

One of the reasons for the visit was so that I could attend my 30th high school class reunion.  That's right, despite how young I look and behave, I really have been out of high school for 30 years now.  Spouse went with me to my 20 year reunion but decided to pass on this one.

It was held at a hotel and I must give lots of props to my 4 classmates who organized the reunion.  A lot of time, work, and energy went into it, I'm sure.

At check-in everyone received a badge with our senior photo and name on them, which was very helpful.  You can imagine how much some people's appearance has changed in 30 years.  Then each person was photographed during cocktail hour.  Then we moved into the banquet room and eventually sat down in preparation for the meal.  

Toward the end of the meal there were a few presentations, and after the meal the DJ cranked up the volume of the music for dancing, which made it rather difficult to have comfortable conversations.  But I saw several old friends I'd known since elementary school, and met some new friends I didn't know when we graduated (due to my large class). 

I had a very nice time and was really glad I went.

On Sat Spouse, his mom & I picked up my aunt Mary and we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  I had a Mac-n-Cheese burger which was as outrageous as it sounds.  They took a patty of macaroni & cheese, coated it in bread crumbs and fried it, then placed it on top of a burger and poured cheese sauce on top.  OMG!!  After lunch the 4 of us went to see our condo that is undergoing renovation.  The demo was complete:  the carpet and flooring was torn out, the complete kitchen was torn out, and the priming and painting of the ceilings and walls was started.  We spoke with the contractor about a few things and tried to picture how the finished project would look.  Afterward we hung out at Spouse's mom's house for a while and talked.  My aunt Mary had a good time getting to know Marvin Parker who was named after her father.  She loves dogs and Marvin loves attention so they had fun together.  That evening Spouse's mom went to an Octoberfest (ticket purchased prior to our visit) so Spouse, his sister, Aunt Mary, and I went out for Chinese food.

Sun morning Spouse, his mom and I had breakfast at Kerry & Hugh's.  After dropping off his mom and picking up Marvin and our bags we hit the road for home on Sun afternoon.