Melissa's Place

Weekend at the Oldridge Estate

Loaded into a caravan of vehicles, several friends (both old and new) set off this past weekend for the great Muskoka countryside, despite the less-than-tropical temperatures. All the more excuse to nestle into a near-hiberational state under Oldridge-made quilts and curl up with Sudokus by the woodstove.

We, the Peron family, nearly couldn’t make it this time. Utter blasphemy since the Oldridge Cottage weekend has been a bi-annual event (does that mean twice every year…anyway that’s what I mean) and the Perons always go. This time, however, we were in the midst of closing a deal on the purchase of our first home. Yes, this is important stuff. Yes, we needed to be approved for a mortgage and get a home inspection. Are these things more important than a weekend away with friends…..probably? I know this should be an easy question, but for an ultra tightly-wound teacher and all-round control freak, a weekend away with nothing but the sound of leaves falling off trees and cedar being devoured in a fire, wine to be sipped and board games from dusk til dawn is ESSENTIAL. It is what keeps me going until the spring Oldridge weekend.

Lately, we as a group, have been examining our own geek-ish qualities in as critical and objective a way as possible. See mao blog entitled “Nerd Love” at www.thousandsofmonkeys.blogspot.com. I will be the first to admit that we truly geeked out this weekend, but that’s what made it so fun. A few beverages into the first evening and we fell quickly into our favourite topic If The Teachers at Hillcrest were Wrestlers Who Would Win in a Match? We set out peanuts for Bobby Bork, the friendly neighbourhood chipmunk. We tested the effectiveness of a polar dip in tackling a hangover. We got quite loud about our feelings about faith-based schools, the government, and how our school’s dynamic is similar to The Sopranos. Then we played Settlers of Catan, Crazy 8’s, Master Mind, Abalone, Monopoly (the FULL game), Risk and a Candyland round-robin tournament (thanks for organizing that, Butler).

How do you know when you’re surrounded by the charm and wit of a gang of geeks?

You’ll be mentioning your anemia and someone will say, “Don’t you wish you were copper-based like Spock?”