4th of July Weekend

I know you'll all be surprised...but I planned a busy weekend again. :-D I have been telling Brad Husak (my wonderful accordion teacher) that we want to know whenever he plays so I can try to bring a group out to hear him play and try to get a younger group out and about to the different polka dances etc around. We went to Abie's Place in Abie, NE to hear him play on the 3rd. It was the 1 year anniversary of Abie's place so they had him come play. I ended up getting my parents, my aunt and her fiancee, and Laura to join me. We had some good food then I found an awesome little dance partner (after getting denied twice first) and then another soon after. A request for the Blue Skirt Waltz was brought up for a 90th Birthday and of course mom convinced Brad to have me come up and sing. Well since we didn't plan for it he was playing it way higher than I normally sing it and with my allergies...it was definitely a strain. I sang it in Czech and English. Then we really started plotting...dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn. I can't remember if I wrote this in here before so I'm gonna explain it again. A few months back I asked Brad if he knew how to polka and he doesn't. Needless to say....I've been on a mission ever since then. :) I tried quitting the accordion, refusing to play the left hand till he learns, etc. etc. etc. Yes...I tried it all. Mom had an idea that if we got his accordion off of him I had a better chance. Well we did (but I had to play one song in return) and he finally agreed. Everyone who knows him couldn't believe he did it. It pretty much made my night. :) He did say that he's never going to dance again but I don't buy it. You have to start somewhere! (Now I have to start working on that left hand dang it! HEHE!) We handed out some info about the Wilber festival and met the lady they requested the Blue Skirt Waltz for (it was her 90th Birthday.) One of the guys had even bought me a beer and sent it to my table after I sang and didn't tell me it was him till they left. I told them all if they saw me anywhere to remind me that they met me in Abie. I chatted a bit with Brad's parents and had an awesome meal. We hung around and helped Brad get everything loaded so he wouldn't be there too late and headed home. It was an awesome night but I needed some rest so I could make it through the next day.

Saturday morning I woke up at 8am (again...I HATE mornings...) to get ready for the first parade in Friend so I could go see the wonderful Miller family. Shayla sent me a text to be sure I would be out there for the parade and I thought it was at 10:30 so I planned on getting there at 10am. GOOD THING SHE SENT A TEXT! The parade started at 10am so I would have been really late. Blair was looking forward to riding through with me so they played a few pranks on her telling her that she couldn't ride with me etc. She saw me pull up and started running towards me. :) We got loaded into the car and took a few pictures. I even made her a sign that says "Substitute Princess Blair Miller" for whenever she rides with me. She was super excited (plus I think she was excited be in the car with me in front of all of her friends and family.) She got the Little Sister for the Wisconsin queen in the national pageant and I'm a bit disappointed because that means she probably won't get to be little sister for me next year but we both agreed that we'll be special to each other no matter what. We didn't do very well handing out fliers in the parade so after we were done and stopped at the Miller's house we went walking back from the end to hand them out. We only made it about 5 blocks and we ran out. We went back and played with the lambs and I even got to feed them. We were crackin up because there I was...in full kroj...feeding lambs...with beer bottles! :) They showed us the rest of the animals and then we had to head to Seward.

Seward's 4th of July parade is awesome because it is HUGE! One of my favorite things that they do is find a random family who is traveling through the state on vacation and happens to stop in Seward. They ask them to be the tourist family and they become the guests of honor. They get to ride through the parade etc...just for being in the right place at the right time. There are always lots of people and lots of queens of all sorts there. We walked around downtown a bit and then headed back to meet with all of the other royalty that was there. They had several speakers and then we took group photos. Off to the parade we went! I saw several people there and as usual missed even more as I found out afterward. I saw Chris, Harley, one of the guys from Abie, John, Stephanie, Grandma/pa, Lavern, and the list goes on. We grabbed our free meals on the way out of town and had to rush back to Milford to drop off the car and back home as quickly as possible. We were going to see Larry the Cable Guy that night.

It was a great day and I had an awesome time at Larry the Cable Guy and saw the Oak Lake Fireworks last nigh. Fortunately Brad doesn't hate me too much for making him dance because he hung out with me on Saturday and Sunday (his Birthday) after that. :) Phew...I was a bit nervous!

Na Shledanou,
Stefanie Vocasek
2009-10 Nebraska Czech-Slovak Queen