Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Friday night was the black tie optional affair at my dad's annual medical convention. The Gryphon and I got dressed up, and it took us longer to get out the door than I'd anticipated. But this time, instead of using the directions from the Radisson web site, we used Mapquest, and we got there in half the time, so it worked out OK.

I thought we'd have to call Dad from the lobby, but he was already downstairs waiting for us. The first thing we did, of course, was take some pictures. I was wearing the black Michael Kors dress I'd just bought, paired with the shoes I bought for my sister's wedding, a wrap I made myself, and a silver clutch.

The Gryphon wore the brand new Versini suit, which fits him properly. My dad wore the black tuxedo he bought last year for my sister's wedding and which is destined to be brought out to every formal event for the foreseeable future.

This time we stood outside by the fountain for the pictures, since it was such a nice day. They're a tad overexposed but otherwise look great.

First was cocktail hour. I had The Gryphon get me a rum and Diet Coke, and then we chatted with Dad and a few other people we ran into, including the woman from Central PA that we'd spoken to the night before. It turns out she's the administrative assistant for one of the important people in the medical association.

As I do every year, I had fun taking note of the various kinds of dresses that people wore to the event. Most of the women I saw when we first arrived were wearing very formal dresses. A lot of the younger women were wearing dresses with layers of ruffles, which must be the latest trend. It definitely wouldn't have worked with me.

Then, of course, there are more unique choices. Some of the older women wore gaudy dresses with lots of sequins. I also saw one senior who was in a really classy silk pants outfit: black pants paired with a top and matching silk jacket in fuschia.

One of these years, I'm going to have to remember to take pictures of some of the more outrageous dresses, if I can do it without being noticed. There's varying degrees of formality, with some women even coming in flowered cotton dresses that look like they could wear them to church.

My dad's med school buddy and his family arrived. For the sake of clarity, I'll call him the Life of the Party. His wife I'll call the wife and the daughter I'll call the daughter. We also met up with another of Dad's med school friends, a female doctor. Just because she was kind of acting up, urging the Life of the Party to do wacky things, I'll call her the Instigator. She was there with her longtime boyfriend, her mother and another friend, who's involved in the medical association.

I took a picture of the Instigator, the Life of the Party and his family, along with Dad and The Gryphon.

(from left) The daughter, the wife, the Instigator,
Dad, The Life of the Party, The Gryphon

After cocktails, we sat down at our table. This time we were pretty far away from the speaker's podium, which was just the way we liked it. Typically, we end up talking sotto voce during the endless speeches.

This year, there was a patriotic theme for the decorations, which was never fully explained, and they kicked off the evening by having a local Marine color guard march in so that everyone could say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the national anthem. Perhaps the incoming medical association president is a former Marine.

Usually, all the speeches come before dinner, which can be difficult to handle when you're hungry. This year, they had apparently planned to follow a slightly different order, with entertainment by the Polish American String Band and then the invocation. But the string band was held up in traffic, so they proceeded with the installation of the new president, congratulatory speeches, acknowledgments and awards.

Finally, the Polish American String Band arrived, all covered in gold, green, white and red sequined costumes. They cranked up some old favorites, and I got up, along with the Life of the Party and his family, to dance.

As it is every year, a number of older couples stood up to dance, along with small children and some of the past presidents. I danced along, until The Gryphon came to tell me they'd served the first course, which was a consommé. The band played for about 20 to 25 minutes, and a Caesar salad was also served.

I talked a lot to the daughter as we ate, about things like shopping and art and whatever else we could think of. She's one of the few people I know who can outtalk me, which is pretty darned amazing.

After the string band left, we were served a fruit sorbet and then an entree. Dad and I once more requested vegetarian options, since they were serving red meat again. We were served the exact same meals as the night before, which makes me think they keep a certain number of them on hand, heating them up when they have a request. I didn't really mind, though, because it was low in calories and I was planning on having dessert.

After the main entree, the evening's entertainment kicked into gear with the Franklin and Alison Orchestra. They're another staple at this convention, performing every year. They play a range of music, from swing and jazz to pop and rock favorites from the '70s and '80s.

A bunch of us got up to dance, including the Life of the Party and his family, and the Instigator. The Gryphon even danced a slow dance with me. He's not much for fast dancing, so he stayed at the table and talked to Dad and the Instigator's mom.

I knew I could dance in the shoes I was wearing, because I'd danced in them at my sister's wedding. I could have kicked them off if they got uncomfortable, but it never got bad enough that I wanted to. The daughter, however, kicked off her shoes, which made our height difference even more striking. She's a very petite person.

For awhile, the two of us danced with the most recent past president of the medical association. You can always tell the past presidents because they were gold medallions on green ribbons which they receive when they take office. They wear them every year afterwards at the annual convention. He reminded me of this year's Otakon con chair, tall with sandy blonde hair, and he was getting down and having fun, dancing up to all the women.

He was also good at Big Band dancing, as we saw when he strutted with a partner. I, however, am not, and neither is my Dad. He surprised me by barreling onto the floor when a swing number started. Until then, the daughter and I had been improvising solo dances. But Dad grabbed me by the hand and started swinging me around the dance floor. I felt about 5 years old; I had no idea what I was doing. To be honest, I don't think Dad did either. I did the best I could and laughed loudly the entire time, feeling self-conscious.

Dad stayed on the floor when they played the next song, the '70s classic "Voulez Vous Couchez Avec Moi?" I don't know what she was saying to him, but the Instigator kept whispering into Dad's ear and at the end of the song, he sat down. She said she thought she'd frightened him off. Most likely. Dad's a mild-mannered sort of guy.

Dessert was a chocolate layer cake with ice cream. I only ate half. The daughter said she was stuffed and only nibbled a few bites. She explained that she's been going to all the meals at the convention and they really feed you there.

We had missed having coffee poured for us. There were, however, cups. The wife discovered a coffee pot on the wait stand and began to pour it, realizing she'd grabbed the one containing hot water. The Life of the Party grabbed the coffee pot and began filling people's cups. We started harassing him for extra cream and sugar, and our waiter suggested that we call him "garcon" but pronounce it incorrectly as "garkon."

Some of the conversation at the table was entertaining. Dad announced loudly that when I was younger he used to try to intentionally embarrass me. Thinking back to the Big Band number, I asked, "Are you still?" Everybody laughed.

People talked about all sorts of things, including the Philadelphia area and how much the Life of the Party misses it. They all went to med school there, but now, like Dad, he lives in a sleepy rural Pennsylvania town.

The dance floor was a lot of fun. There were some young people there I figured were med students, since they seemed to be there as a group, not with a family. When they saw two older ladies dancing side to side with a sort of slide dance, they joined in, and soon we had a whole group of people doing it. We even had pairs of people dance down the center. It was a lot of fun. The older ladies seemed to love it.

There were a number of older women on the dance floor having fun. If a slow song came up and they wanted to dance, they'd dance with each other. They got down during the fast songs, too. I thought they were awesome.

We returned to our table after the last song, "Brown Sugar." We hadn't even known it was the last song until they started packing up their instruments.

The Life of the Party had been acting up. It all started because at the beginning of the evening, the Instigator looked at our centerpiece and noted that, unlike the other tables, our had no red, white and blue balloons. So at some point during the speeches, the Life of the Party found a set of balloons that were just floating around the room. They may have actually been escaped from our centerpiece. He brought it back to the table.

But he didn't stop there. Every time he saw loose balloons, he'd grab them and bring them to our table.

Sure enough, the insanity had continued while we were dancing. At the Instigator's urging, the Life of the Party had defaced the bottles of wine that had the new president's picture on them, by adding cake icing to give him a beard.

The Instigator decided to get everyone centerpieces to take home, so she went around the room collecting them from empty tables. We started jokingly complaining if our weren't perfect: "Mine doesn't have any flags. Mine has no hat band." So she ran around, finding the missing pieces to patch them up.

By the time she got done, the whole table was filled with centerpieces and balloons. Her boyfriend was joking that he didn't think there would be room in the car for everyone.

The waiter was joining in, making suggestions about how to get the centerpieces home.

Every year we're always the last to leave. We never go until the last song has played, and snarf up the abandoned centerpieces as souvenirs. Sometimes the balloons last a long time, sometimes not so long. Right now, only the metallic balloon is still standing from the one we took.

I can honestly say I had a great time. I love Dad's med school friends. They're fun people, and sweet, too. They really seem to like him, and it's great to see Dad socializing with someone outside the family. I was a little sad to leave, but we bid them our good-byes. "So long. See you again next year."

More from Dad's visit:

May 5, 2006 - Fun with Fred

May 9, 2006 - Dinner with Dad

May 12, 2006 - Mutter Marvels

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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