Despite the movie title, I can’t be everywhere all at once. That seems obvious on two April weekends. The Friday before Palm Sunday, my wife and I went down to south central Pennsylvania to attend a wedding. This took much longer than we anticipated. Leaving around 10:30 a.m., we took I-87 to I-287 and ultimately traveled west on the route that was formerly I-78 before reaching the local roads. We didn’t arrive at our hotel until 6:00 p.m.
The wedding of our niece, Markia, and her fiancé, Brandon, on Saturday was lovely, and the reception was equally nice. I will likely write more about this at some point.
The next morning, we traveled from southern Pennsylvania to the Binghamton, New York area. One of my oldest friends, Carol, along with her brother, sister, and other relatives, was having a celebration of life for Carol’s mom, Lillian Bakic, who died a few months ago. It was at a country club outside the city, which I had never been to.
A bunch of us got up and spoke briefly about Lillian, and I was feeling compelled to do so in part because Karen, who Carol and I have known since 1958, couldn’t make it because, bizarrely, there was a snowstorm in western Massachusetts. In April.
So obviously we didn’t make it to church. It was amusing that both my wife and I had people emailing or texting us, asking why they hadn’t seen us at church. We made it to church despite an ice storm and a threat of a snowstorm in February. We don’t come one weekend, and folks pointed it out.
Split screen
Two weeks later, on Friday night, there was an event at Wizard’s Wardrobe, where my wife works, to celebrate the tutors and other volunteers. I attended last year and had a good time.
However, the Underground Railroad Education Center (UREC) held an appreciation tea for those who have supported the program simultaneously. Congressman Paul Tonko was present and spoke briefly about recovering the IMLS and EPA funds that were allocated but DOGE-frozen.
At least three people asked me where my wife was, wanting to talk with her, needed to call her, mentioned they had seen her around, etc..
Later, my wife said that if I had been at the Wizard’s Wardrobe event and been on their team, maybe their team would have won the contest. There was a category about Beatles songs; the host would play 10-second snippets, and they had to pick the title. One was I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, which I realize could be a slightly tricky title. They also couldn’t name The Ballad Of John And Yoko.
There was also a question about the number of states that have a capital starting with the letter F. I didn’t know; the only one I could think of was Frankfort, KY, which turns out to be the only one. Someone else on their team had suggested Frankfort, but said it was the capital of Tennessee (which is Nashville), which didn’t sound right, so they went with the answer of ‘none’.
I have said this before: if people are bored, they are just not trying hard enough.
It sounds like y’all have been enjoying life. I would fail miserably at naming the songs – any songs.