A storm blows through; food is eaten

It is beyond Pat's powers to blog about Janet's wedding, at least at this early juncture, so he is hoping someone else will jot a few lines to mark the occasion. But the next-day drop-in at 6743, that's an easy one.

With the college kids coming and going over the last few years, we coined a phrase about their visits: "they come in like a storm and blow out just as suddenly." Today's storm, with the whole family coming through for the post-wedding brunch, this one was more like a hurricane.

Mike and Lori had arrived first, maybe 11:30 a.m., prompting me to take some action on the bagels plan. I packed up Kevin's and my tuxedos and drove down to the tux place to drop them off, then stopped at Einstein's for two dozen bagels (26 actually), four tubs of cream cheese and two packets of lox. Got home, feeling great, and set them out on the counter as someone reported that the others were on the way. Good.

They came through the front door and for some reason headed right to the kitchen, surveyed the bagels and started putting them together and eating them, standing up. Brian's family; John, Nanette and Sean; Anne and Dave; Mom; Tom and Paula and Jeremy Prendergast; oh, and Carolyn and Brett appeared from the basement and Kevin and Li-Yi from upstairs, plus Mike and Lori and Pam and me. WOW!

"Do you have coffee?" asks Nanette, the empty pot in her hand. "Tea?" Sheila asks. Yes. Yes. Let's make that happen. And let's get those big trays of Maggiano's food out of the fridge because this crowd looks hungry, so we put those on the stove and Adam made up the first plate, popped it in the microwave and attracted more eaters as the smells of shells and asparagus filled the rooms. After it was realized that we had little to drink in the house, Carolyn and Brett went over to 7-11 to pick up root beer and juice.

And so it went. I was happy to take an appreciative audience (Tom Prendergast and Anne) on a tour of the new and old woodwork while others ate and talked and discovered that some of the wedding cake was also in the fridge and ate some of that too, with Erin "enabling" Granny by bringing her a slice of cake with plenty of frosting and then getting her a second plate of frosting without any cake at all!

Then the storm escalated as the Prendergasts headed for Cleveland; John and Nanette went for the train to visit the Art Institute; Kevin, Li-yi, Mike and Lori headed for Detroit; Carolyn and Brett packed up the hedgehog and headed to Urbana; Brian's family rushed out to deliver Erin to the Megabus back to Bloomington; and Anne and Dave took Mom back to Alden. There were hugs and more hugs, exclamations of congratulations about the fine wedding (and it was fine), bursts of fresh wind as people loitered near the door, telling one more story.

And then it was over. By three o'clock everyone was gone, along with 21 bagels, three pots of coffee and numerous plates of food. The biggest, fastest-moving storm I can remember, and on a very big weekend. And now it is quiet and we are feeling very happy and that is very sweet.