Celebrate good times, come on!

After our longest-ever separation, Nick was home for reading week, and it was wonderful having him back in the house. He had his 3-month follow-up appointment and all looks good. He’s been quite focused and disciplined this school year, waking up early to go to the gym or for a run, preparing healthy meals, and practicing good study habits. He joined the university’s climbing club, and he got good grades on his mid-terms (doubled last year’s computer programming score from 46% to 92%). It’s not all work and no play though. During Queen’s Homecoming, famous for its wild street parties, Nick and his housemates had 19 people crammed into their place for the weekend.

While he was in town, we got together with a group of our friends, to mark the events that we missed celebrating at the time – Ray’s 60th, Nick’s 19th and Ray and I both retiring. The evening started off with speeches and a slideshow, an emotional roller coaster with both tears and laughter as we shared memories and tried to express how much our support network has meant to us in the past 18 months or so – difficult to express in words.

Then it was time for the open mic portion of the evening where our musically-talented friends performed and even wrote a special song for us (to the tune of Neil Young’s Long May You Run). 

And then it was time to start the playlist and hit the dance floor.

As an homage to Maplefest, we also included a jellybean-guessing contest and there was a 4-way tie for first place, meaning a dance-off was required to determine the winner of the jellybeans and a bottle of home-made maple syrup. We had a couple of reluctant contestants, so they were all allowed to select a support team to join them on the dance floor.

Contestant #1, Rachel (accompanied by Ben). Kind of expected them to just bounce up and down as their generation is wont to do, but they had a few smooth moves in their back pocket.

Contestant #2, Anne (accompanied by Tim and Pamela). This team stuck to classics, like the ring-around-the-rosy and the cabaret, but are having far too much fun out there. This is a serious contest folks!

Contestant #3, Rob (accompanied by Sue). Flashy. They’ve obviously watched a dance movie or two in their time. Definitely try-hards.

Contestant #4, Emma (accompanied by yours truly).  Wowed the crowd with the Spin-o-Rama move (not recommended after downing several gin & tonics…which Emma had not done, of course). Although a novice dancer, Emma’s natural talent and adorable smile won over the crowd and the judge. It was no contest. Winner by “a landslide”.

Allegations of corruption and bribing of the judge have been investigated (by his mom) and dismissed as sour grapes.

My only regret of the evening is that I somehow missed whatever this was. I was scrolling through the pics yesterday and came across a whole series of my tribe having fun up there without me. How did this happen? Ray and I never left the party yet we somehow missed this whole thing. 🙁

After the party, the bartender said how impressed he was with the younger crowd. They had fun but were polite and considerate (even offering to help clean up afterwards). It was an open bar but not one of them overdid it. We couldn’t be prouder of this group of friends Nick has surrounded himself with.

It was such a special evening for us and, as several people said afterwards, there was so much love in the room. Love, friendship, community…we are very, very grateful.

Credits:

Photography – most photos taken by Heather, without whom we’d have captured very few of the wonderful memories (and if the colour seems a bit off, try identifying the true colour of the curtains behind the stage).

Speeches – Karen & 60-second Matt

Live music – Sue, Mark, Gary, Rob & Murray

Original song lyrics – Jennifer, Heather & Traci

Queen’s song demo – Nick, Sarah & Eric

Centrepieces – Ray & Nick

Music playlist – Ray & Nick

Indian food – All Seasons Indian Catering – started by two sisters after high school; exceptional service, great reviews, and the food I tasted was very good.

Award-winning chocolate chip cookies – me

Venue – Hungarian Community Centre, with Rudi as bartender and Stefan on lights and AV equipment. Also highly recommended.