It was a barbecue, not a roast.

They held a barbecue party tonight at the U to celebrate the retirement of faculty and staff. That meant that there were speeches, lots of them, some quite entertaining, others not, and we were given two free glasses of an absolutely execrable ros�, presumably to make a toast with, but no toast was offered. I ended up drinking less than half my glass, giving the rest to a colleague because it was truly terrible.

Dinner was a green salad with a choice of dressing, potato salad, pasta salad with chunks of cheese and ham (I avoided the ham) and chicken brochettes. For the vegetarians there were skewers in foil with over-roasted vegetables on them. Some marinated tofu would not have been remiss, but unfortunately food services doesn�t do tofu, so we had a more-or-less protein-free meal.

When the sun began to set the temperature dropped noticeably and we all started shivering. Luckily the coffee appeared at this point, although people had already scarfed down their desserts (chocolate brownies, peanut butter squares, doughy cookies and rice krispie squares). I ended up warming myself over the grill, much to the amusement of the young men who had been doing the barbecuing. I wasn�t alone, soon being joined by other shivering customers.

Bushop�s is not a big place, and yet I really know very few of the people who work there. Secretaries, librarians, a janitor and the former head of security were all retiring, as well as a couple of faculty members, and the laudatory speeches were really my first introduction to most of them. The janitor had worked for quite a while in the fine arts building, and I would chat with him frequently when I was in the sculpture studio. Even though I struck up a lively conversation with him and his spouse, he obviously didn�t remember me because just as Hubby and I were leaving, his wife ran over and said, �What�s your name? David keeps asking me, �Who is that woman?�� I guess you had to be there.

|

<~~~ * ~~~>