Topic: This and That
(I realized after I posted Friday's entry, that I might need to explain what a "Covert runner" is. :) Mark Covert was Larry's and my cross country and track coach at Antelope Valley Community College. He fostered in us an intense work ethic, and an insane competitiveness. Both of which in one form or another have stuck with me.)
I mentioned Friday that each time I've run with the HH's, the light has been different. Around the beginning of autumn here, the transition from long daylight hours to short ones is quite rapid. It's weird to me how quickly the change comes, because once the transition is made, it seems like it's dark forever until spring. Then in the spring, it quickly becomes light again and seems to stay that way until autumn. It's not at all a gradual thing, which I would think it would be.
Saturday the 16th was the Air Force Ball. Sarah was hired to do portraits at the ball, and asked me to be her assistant. The ball took place at the same venue the Army ball did. This time, we didn't have to dress up quite so much, as we wouldn't be eating with everyone else. We also didn't have to cover any of the ceremony. (The area where the ball took place was separated by a hallway from the area where we did the photos.) Business was brisk, which was nice. It kept us very busy and made the night fly by.
As the night progressed, we started to get very hungry. It's in Sarah's contract that she and her assistant get fed, which is a good thing because it seemed that we'd been overlooked. After Sarah had a word with the lady in charge, we found ourselves at a lovely private table in a quiet section of the hall. It was very nice! It was set just the same as the ones in the main ballroom. We were surprised, because we would have been more than happy to have just been handed a plate and a fork and found a place to sit near the photo backdrop. Sarah and I laughed because our private table and service (three people together brought us our meal!) would have made for a great date! We enjoyed our little bit of poshness. :)
The food was good. It was a sit-down dinner, as opposed to the buffet offered at the Army ball. For starters we could choose from fruit, or Yorkshire pudding. I was pretty hungry (and not too into melon), so I chose the pudding. It was really good. It had a savory gravy with lots of onions that reminded me of a thick French onion soup. Rolls and butter were included. We also got a salad - bacon salad! I thought of Larry (bacon is one of his very favorite foods). It was actually not bad, if a bit salty (their bacon here is more like ham). There was a sweet tomato dressing that set off the salty/savory bacon nicely.
The main entrée was beef and vegetables. Sarah and I were just starting on it when people started coming in for photos. Apparently there was a miscommunication, and people thought they had to get their photos taken between dinner and dessert (they were supposed to wait until after all the food was served, then come back for photos, if they hadn't gotten them done beforehand). Oh well. We asked some of the wait staff to make sure no one took our food.
Unfortunately after the rush, we returned to find out plates cleared. We were able to get fresh entrées (minus the veggies, which they were out of by then), as well as some dessert (which was served buffet style, and Sarah very kindly brought me back some so I didn't have to wait in line). The dessert was cute - everything was miniature! There was a little éclair type pastry, strawberries and chocolate, a truffle sort of chocolate, and sticky toffee pudding. Yum!
After everyone had dessert, there was another mad rush of photos. There was a crazy group photo at the end that had to have had a least a couple dozen people in it. I don't know how Sarah kept her cool!
It was pretty late by the time we were done. I'm so glad Sarah asked me to assist her. Even though we weren't participants in the ball, but rather were working at it, it was still a lot of fun.
(I am going to close for now. I still have odds and ends and things about Ryan to write. However, I wanted to at least start to catch up, and post something!)