Let the festivities begin

Well, It's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, and things have been moving quickly as ever hurling towards the June 10th departure day. I have so much to do! Most notably over the last couple weeks plans have come together for a series of events and goodbye parties. I set a date for my farewell soiree in NYC, May 1st (due to every other weekend between now and June being booked). A little bit early, but should be fun just the same. Things have come together nicely and I have had a terrific show of support from friends both in NYC and out of town. Friends will travel to New York for the party from Philly, Olean, even North Carolina! To keep things simple, I am throwing a house party out in Brooklyn, that way we don't have to worry about high priced drinks, and crowded bars. People can come and go when they please, and it will be a nice chilled out environment. Trying to find a bar that could offer this was impossible!
There is also a goodbye party being thrown by the Peace Corps for all volunteers with upcoming departure dates. It's times like this when living in the city makes things so easy! Since Shannon (my sister) will be in town for the Grateful Dead Reunion show at MSG, she agreed to be my date. I've already facebook messaged with a couple Moldovan volunteers in the NYC area who will also attend the party. Can't wait to meet them!
Lastly, when I was down in Florida a couple of weeks ago and visited with my Aunt Mary, we came up with a plan for her to come up to Olean for my final weekend in the states. She convinced my Aunt Peggy to make the drive down from Boston, and voila - we have a regular Flynn family reunion! My mom is looking into renting out the Hibernian Hall (it's an Irish thing) and getting some food and beer to make it a party! On top of that my mom told our small town priest about my upcoming service and he has asked if he could conduct a "blessing" of some sort at the church for all my family and friends. I'm not really sure what that means, but I told my mom that this might be the only event in my life that will be blessed in the Catholic church, so why not! I feel like a regular celebrity!