Friday thru Sunday, May 25-27, 2007
The Man picked me up at the East Brunswick Hilton at noonish on Friday, and we headed for the Maryland/Metropolitan Washington Mensa regional gathering. Friday was The Man's 47th birthday.
He hadn't been too happy with the social aspects of the NJ gathering in March (the first such he had attended), but I convinced him that the Washington bunch were rip-snortin' fun, so this one would be different.
Boy, was I wrong! It was pretty sad. I was a member of the Washington group 25 years ago. Looks like all the fun folks moved since then.
The "executive suite" in the hotel ($20 more per night than the standard rooms, even at the gathering group rate) was small and ratty. The "banquet room" was IN the heated indoor pool area, which made for muggy eating. And the cast of characters was the usual set of misfits.
Friday evening we ate dinner in a restaurant next door to the hotel, visited the hospitality room, attended a "play reading", where a row of people just sat and read the parts, and the pool party. The Man took one look at the pool and decided to lounge and watch. I went into the pool, wearing my bathing suit top and yoga pants. The "party" consisted of four groups of three or four people standing in the pool talking about past gatherings.
Saturday morning we didn't get moving until almost noon, so we missed the one presentation either of us was interested in, on sociopathy. There was pizza in the hospitality room, so that did for brunch. The Man and I were sitting at a table looking at the schedule of programs, and he said "Wanna go for a ride?" That sounded like more fun than anything on the schedule, so we headed for DC. Put the top down and wandered around Washington, stopped at a racetrack and placed two bets, and returned to the gathering in time for the banquet (banquet? Typical "what is this stuff" buffet) and keynote speaker (topic, Benedict Arnold, there's a lot to his story that's not well known), and then the pool party again. More standing around in the pool until someone threw a beach ball in, then it got fun. This time, The Man got in. (Oomph! He's got a great body!)
Sunday morning we wandered around the Mensa stuff a bit, and then met an old friend of mine and his wife for lunch, and then headed back to NJ. The Man dropped me off at the Hilton again, and headed for Connecticut to visit a cousin. I was half thinking about heading home, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Daughter and Hercules joined me for dinner, and then I fell asleep at the computer and didn't wake up until 6 am, when I crawled into the bed for another three hours.
And that was the weekend. I very much enjoyed my time with The Man, but I doubt that I'll ever be able to talk him into another Mensa gathering.
All that road time in a convertible has earned me some mild sunburn, but a lot less than I expected.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment