Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Valley Forge National Park

This Memorial Day Weekend, The Gryphon and I took it easy. We spent much of Saturday preparing for Sunday's picnic with friends. I made my famous hummus, and The Gryphon made a delicious roasted vegetable salad with eggplant, asparagus, tomato, peppers, onions and white corn.

I acted as his sous chef. We've been watching Top Chef on Bravo, and he asked me if I was just going to be like Dave and get drunk when I was supposed to be helping him.

I said, "There's an idea, but we don't have any alcohol."

He pointed out that we still had some Kamora coffee liqueur left, so I mixed some of that with diet soda and started drinking and quoting Dave lines like, "I'm not your bitch, bitch."

Saturday night, we went to The Bridge and saw Over the Hedge, which had a lot of fun moments but wasn't a great film overall.

Sunday was the picnic, and I had taken a morning assignment which I figured I could get done in time to meet the group at 1, as planned. That started to look unlikely, so we called The Paper and let her know they didn't need to wait for us. We told The Paper, who was organizing the picnic, that we'd contact her on her cell phone once we arrived.

When we finally arrived, they were just getting set up, having waited for some other people. They had spread several blankets on the grass. I was a little surprised, because I expected picnic tables. It wouldn't be easy to serve my hummus the way I'd planned. I'd brought a lot of pita bread which I'd intended to cut into sections so people could dip into it, since I knew more people would eat it that way than would spread it on a sandwich. But since I had to set the container on the grass, it had to stay closed. I didn't even bother to cut up the pita bread; there didn't seem a point.

So I ended up bringing home a lot more hummus than I intended. Those who did try it, though, said it was good.

The Gryphon's vegetable salad met a similar fate, since it was difficult for everyone to tell at a glance what was available. Most of the food remained inside plastic bags or coolers. I've been eating vegetable salad every lunch and dinner since then and packing some up for The Gryphon's lunch every day, too.

In addition to our offerings, there were sandwich makings, such as meat and cheese, and condiments. There were various types of chips, and I was very happy to see some baked tortilla chips, courtesy of The White Rabbit. I thanked him copiously for the healthy snack. There was fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, packaged cookies, water, soda and punch.

And the piece de resistance, a homemade yellow cake, brought by The Cousin. Fortunately, she had it covered in plastic, so she set it aside on one of the blankets until we were ready to serve it. I kept anticipating a disaster, but the cake managed to avoid being sat on or stepped on. Perhaps it had a special cake force field.

Attending the get together were The Paper and her husband, The Cheshire Cat, me and The Gryphon, The Dormouse, The White Rabbit, Batman, The Court Wizard, My College Roommate and her husband and baby; The Cousin and her husband, The Photographer, and their two daughters; and another friend who doesn't yet have a nickname. I know him primarily from having worked with him during Otakon, but he's run with this group for a very long time. Another friend of ours, the Paralegal, showed up later and stayed for a short while.

I was really hungry, and I tend to get a little bitchy when my blood sugar gets low, so I didn't say much until I had some food in me. A couple people must have noticed, and both Batman and The White Rabbit asked if something was wrong. I gave them a terse reply that everything was fine and busied myself putting together a plate. Sure enough, after I'd had a pita filled with hummus and tomato slices, some fresh pineapple, a serving of baked tortilla chips and a glass or two of water, I was feeling much cheerier.

It was good to talk to some people I don't get to see all the time, such as The Photographer. I joined him and his two daughters throwing the Frisbee around, and we ended up talking about wedding photography. I told him about the wedding we'd attended a couple weekends ago, and how strange that particular photographer was, doing things like attempting to take a massive group shot in the dark tent at the reception. The Photographer shared wedding photography stories with me, both things that had happened to him and things that had happened to friends.

Every once in awhile, The White Rabbit would join in. It definitely occurs to me that his family must value exercise. The Cousin is, after all, The White Rabbit's cousin, which is how she got that nickname.

I'm not terribly good at throwing around spheroid objects, or disc-shaped objects, for that matter, but aside from the Frisbee ending up in the ditch a few times, we had no incident.

When we returned to the blanket, we saw that they had served the cake, so I had a slice. It was yellow layer cake with pink frosting and raspberry jelly in between the layers. The blend of tastes reminded me a lot of a jelly Krimpet made by Tasty-Kake. I love those, and I praised The Cousin for making a cake worth eating.

Our picnic was at the Valley Forge National Park, and our particular spot was right off a hiking trail. There were open fields filled with tall grass, but at the picnic area across the road were more stretched of mowed grass. I walked over there to use the restrooms and saw a few empty tables. I also saw a sign that said "Fluck Family reunion," which might have been why our group had decided not to sit there.

"Those Flucks," I muttered under my breath.

When I returned, My College Roommate and her family were getting ready to leave, because the baby was starting to get fussy. The Court Wizard bonded with the baby over the subject of noses. Apparently, they both have one.

Then, some people announced they were going on a hike, so I joined them. It was The Court Wizard, The White Rabbit, The Cousin, The Photographer and the two daughters.

We opted for the pedestrian walkway, rather than the paved one that gets more traffic, particularly bicycles. On either side of us we were surrounded by green grassy fields. Before long, we can upon some of the shelters built by Washington's men during the Revolutionary War. We could walk up to them and see how big they were, and they weren't terribly big.

I had The White Rabbit get a picture of me coming out of the doorway of one of them. Just as I did, somebody said that Batman had said earlier he'd spotted a rat in one of the shelters! So I had him take a second picture, this one outside.

The most amazing thing was all the deer. They were just hanging out, chewing grass leisurely while we passed by. I guess they've never had any reason to be afraid of humans. I took several pictures, but even though they were pretty close, it wasn't close enough for a great photo.

I probably could have kept going with the walk, but we turned around just after crossing a road. On the other side, we saw a few more buildings, including a school house that dated to just after the Revolutionary War.

The girls amused themselves by climbing up on a fence across the path. The younger one hammed it up with a stick she'd been using, alternately, as a walking stick and something with which to torment her older sister.

"Hey, stop poking me," was frequently heard during our walk.

When we came back, people were still hanging out.

I caught up with the Court Wizard a little bit. I'd brought with me an article that a Columbia University journalism student did about him. She's a fan of A Miracle of Science and had contacted me to interview me about him. She also interviewed The Cheshire Cat. Then she sent me a copy of the completed article. I passed the article and the interview around, in case anyone was interested.

As people were sitting around, chatting, The White Rabbit suggested that we go see X-Men 3: The Last Stand. We thought that was a good idea, but we wanted to stop at home and let Una out first. They agreed to call us with details of where and when.

So we dashed home, let Una out, gave her a little food and petted her. Then we met up with the group for a 7:30 showing at a theater we've been to before. They were showing the movie on five screens, but our theater was fairly full anyway.

Some have said this is the best movie in the X-Men series, but I still think that the second film is better. Still, it's worth watching and managed to blend a message into a popcorn movie. If you go to see it, make sure to stay to the very end of the credits.

Afterwards, people were a bit peckish so we walked across the parking lot to Wendy's. But it was just before 10, and they'd closed. So we settled for Plan B, a diner near where The Cheshire Cat and The Paper live.

I was happy to see they had some lighter fare on the menu. Even though I was careful to watch what I ate (something I often forget to do during group events and regret later), I didn't have too many extra calories to spare. I ordered a vegetable pita with cheese. It was tasty, although it was baked to the point of hardness, which I found strange.

We had a great time, talking about the movie and various other things, including politics and pop culture. A typical conversation for this group. Afterwards, we said good-bye and wished the Court Wizard a safe flight home, then headed back home ourselves.

More from Memorial Day Weekend:

May 31, 2006 - Photo Preview

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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