Our Lady of Lebanon's 37th annual Lebanese Heritage festival was this past weekend. It's a two-day block party, with some of the best food you'll ever eat. I was supposed to go with Sharon and Ron Angle Saturday night. He loves kibbi, while my favorites are hummus and falafel. I was also looking forward to seeing Father Alex, who is home for the festival .
But after seeing Tricia Mezzacappa in Nazareth during Martin on Main Street on Saturday, I postponed my plans. I delayed my visit until Sunday, and spent Saturday night making sure my moat was filled with sharks who can shoot laser beams from their heads. Also, my servants were forced to run through battle exercises. Watching them made me tired.
Late that night, I got a call from Angle. He had just left the Lebanese Heritage Festival, and told me Shakira was there. She had just finished performing her famous belly dance, and was asking about me again. Fortunately, the festival continued on Sunday. I was supposed to call blogger Michael Molovinsky, who wanted to meet Father Alex. But I blew him off for Shakira. I expected to see this:
Instead, I saw this:
No Shakira.
The food is great! Cheap, too. You can get by with just $5 if you want.
Half the courthouse was there, including Roseann, my fiancee. She works in the Prothonotary. When I saw her, I told her we could get married because Father Alex is here, and she ran out screaming.
She's playing hard to get.
I stayed there a little over two hours. No Shakira. No Father Alex.
Hmmmm.
After a few cups of Turkish coffee, I decided to go home. I had parked in the Easton Parking Garage, and forgot to turn my lights off. My battery was dead. Once I got it going, I got hit up with a frickin' $6 parking fee on a Sunday afternoon, which is almost as much as the food cost.
But I was luckier than a lot of the people parked on Ferry Street, who had tickets on their windshields. Bethlehem, Allentown and most municipalities allow free meter parking on Sunday. Not Easton. Their parking enforcers, all of them reputedly former members of the Gambino crime family, were out in force.
I felt sorry for the folks in the tents, making shish-ka-bobs. But they seemed to really enjoy it. It's for a good cause - the church. Lebanese families from as far away as Rhode Island come to visit their relatives in Easton.
