A post in which graduation festivities continue*

I woke up this morning feeling like I had plenty of time.  That is usually a sure sign that I'm going to be rushing later.

I played around online and eventually had a buddy come by.  That was fun.  But by the time he left, I had to get going.  Gary was supposed to come tonight, the house was a wreck, and I had a graduation barbeque to go to.  But first, I was going to cook.

I had found out that Cody's favorite dessert was cheesecake.  Since I figured that Kimbley and Laura had the food well covered for the party today, I decided to make him a cheesecake.  To further tip the balace, Eve had given me several lemons and a container of ricotta cheese last night.  That was more than a nudge from serendipitious fate. 

But I haven't made a cheesecake in probably twenty years.  And to complicate things, Cody likes his cheesecake plain.  Now to the uninitiated that would seem easier. It isn't.  You can make up for defects in texture, etc, with a flavored cake.  Plus if you crack the top (and mine always crack on top), no one will ever know if you cover the top of the cake with a delicious (and opaque) glaze.  But today, my goal was plain.  I went to the internet.  Between me, Giada de Laurentiis, Alton Brown, and the excellent Food Network website, after about four hours, a trip to the store, and lots of cussing, I had a cheesecake.  It was the prettiest one I have ever made. 

The problem was that it was two hours until I had to leave for the party, and this cake required a minimum six hour chill time.  I had a load of towels in the washer, and decided to do everything else, let the towels cycle through, and put them in the dryer before I left.  I did all that (despite my washer acting like it was broken, which gave me a small heart attack - thankfully I re-set it and it seems to have straightened out on it's own), and then checked the cake.  I had already taken the ring off, and it held up through that, but did I dare un-mold it??  I decided that I did, and very, very carefully, I ran my filet knife around the bottom, then used a large spatula to transfer it to a serving plate.  It held together.  I had gotten a small thumb-print in the top (which I was going to have to pass off as a 'bubble' that popped), and I had gotten a small crack in the side taking the ring of the springform pan off, but overall it was a lovely cheesecake, and I was quite proud of it.

I set off for the party, terrified that I would get there with a puddle, having only three hours in on the madatory chill time, but it held together.  I walked in, showed it to Cody, and stuck it in the fridge with great relief.

The party was nice.  There were a bunch of people.  I found Nicole (there with her escort Sam) and talked to them for a bit.  I spoke to a lot of folks.  There were a bunch of people I knew.  We were all hungry.  The party had started at 3pm.  I hadn't gotten there until 4:30, and there was still no food on offer.  But eventually they served.  The meat.  You could tell it was a barbeque.  I know I live in the south.  And I know it was a barbeque.  But everything there had meat in it.  There was bacon in the beans and the potato salad.  There were no deviiiiiled eggs on offer.  There was salami in the pasta salad.  And I had just eaten wings yesterday.  I did get a little of the pasta salad.  I had some Watergate salad that was thankfully un-enhanced.  People had already eaten all the bacon off the top of the baked beans, so I just pretended it hadn't been there.  There was an excellent artichoke heart dip there, and I had some of that.  Donnie and Mark came in once we started eating, with two enormous pans of macaroni and cheese.  It wasn't the greatest, but it was meat-free.  I made out.

There was seating on the deck, but not enough for everyone.  There were tables dotted hither and yon across the yard, and groups gathered around them.  I talked to Donnie and Mark for a while.  I spent some time with Karen and Billy.  But Kimbley and Laura had the entire party to look after, and I was worn out from the last two days.  I stayed for a while and visited with everyone.  I watched the big cake be cut.  I wished Cody congratulations.  I am genuinely happy for him, and I do wish him the very best.  But by 8pm or so, I was pretty much all in.  I left.

I got home and took a good shower.  I was all sweaty from being outside.  I had changed the sheets this morning, so I had nice clean sheets.  I'd had a text from Gary that he wasn't coming tonight.  He'd had a rough day, and was going to wait to come in the morning.  At this point, that was fine.

I just lay in the bed, watched TV, and revelled in being cool, comfortable, and blessedly, blessedly alone for a little bit.  I love people, and there are times when I am lonely, but the last two days have frazzled me half to death.  I was glad for some down time.

I was greatly gratified to receive a text from Jody, telling me the cheesecake turned out well (they didn't cut it before I left) before I went to sleep.