brandon is 30, let the celebrations begin

On February 21st, Brandon turned "the new twenty!" Since, as many of you know, we celebrate his "birthday week" for 13 days, I am a bit late in posting about his festivities.

Since this birthday was a milestone, I wanted to throw him some big brandon bashes (note: those are parties where we celebrate not bash brandon). We basically had three big celebrations, and I will do a post for each.

We began on the banks of the Brazos River, for a picnic and a reciting of T.S. Eliot's, The Four Quartets. Luckily, our friends and fellow party-goers (or party-throwers, I should say) are English grad students and know about poetry (definitely more than the nothing that I know). They are also skilled at beautifully reading aloud, and it was a treat to be read to.

(click to enlarge photos)

We had a picnic consisting of fancy hors d'oeuvres, fried chicken, fresh salads, coleslaw, wine and cocktails. Heather even invented a new cocktail, which we appropriately titled "The Heather." We then sat by the river and read the poem by candle-light as the we watched the sun set (and watched one guy across the way try to get his boat out of the river for approximately one whole hour).









The Four Quartets was almost as beautiful as the company in which we read it. I highly recommend the poem (and I've heard that it is best when read aloud). Happy Birthday to Brandon (part 1)!

“My idea of good company...is the company of clever, well-informed people, 

who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.' 

'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.” 

― Jane Austen, Persuasion