The Adorable Arrival

Columbus, Ohio, September 18, 1986. My Žulė assesses me the day after I brought her home.

Snow Pandas

Cincinnati, Ohio, February 19, 2015. Think about something cute.

Related by Marriage: A Dance Festival, in Three Takes

Thirty years ago this month, the city of Cleveland, Ohio, hosted the Seventh World Lithuanian Dance Festival. Founded by Lithuanian Displaced Persons in 1957, the Dance Festival had convened every four years in Chicago through 1980. The Cleveland event was the first festival hosted outside of Chicago. Cleveland's ties to Lithuanian immigration and its tradition of preserving language and cultural practices paralleled Chicago’s. The city's decision to host the 1984 festival seemed like a natural extension of the Dance Festival tradition.

Mr. Irene was among the 2,000 folk dancers at the 1984 festival. He was the newest member of the Connecticut-based Lithuanian dance group, Vėtra. Mr. Irene had joined the group just three months before its festival debut in Cleveland. 

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Cleveland, Ohio, July, 1984.  Mr. Irene arrives in Cleveland in his rental car, a 1984 Pontiac Fiero. The car Mr. Irene originally had reserved car was not available, so the car-rental agency offered him the sports car at no additional cost.

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Cleveland, Ohio, July, 1984. Vėtra members perform at the Dance Festival.

Tribute

I love marching bands, and I have good memories of Ohio State. Here's a video of the Ohio State Marching Band performing a Michael Jackson tribute during this past Saturday's halftime show.

Be sure to watch until 03:57, when the moonwalk number begins:

My Žulė

Žulė saw me through good times and bad times.

Columbus, Ohio, November 1986. I bought that seafoam-colored, velour couch at an estate sale.

An Introduction to Žulė

When I moved from Urbana, Illinois, to Columbus, Ohio, to start working at my first job, I bought a dog almost as soon as I had finished settling into my new apartment. That dog was named Žulė, and she was an apricot Miniature Poodle. Eventually, her fur turned almost white.

Žulė defied every Poodle stereotype. She rarely barked, she was extraordinarily confident and independent, and she exhibited no nervous or unnerving habits. I trained her to ride calmly in the car, and by the young age of four months, she could sit quietly throughout a seven-hour trip to Chicago. During our many drives to Chicago, Žulė and I often pulled into an Amoco station in West Layfayette, Indiana. While I freshened up, the gas station attendant who had gotten to know us walked Žulė around the property.

After Mr. Irene and I married ("love me, love my dog"), Žulė brought us much joy. She died just short of her eighteenth birthday.

Columbus, Ohio, November 13, 1986. Žulė, at the age of four months, rests after being groomed for the first time.

We pose with our poodles.

After my Dad died, I returned to Ohio and finished up the Spring Semester. I then came back to Suburban Chicago and spent the summer with my Mom.

Suburban Chicago, August 1987. Mom and I sit in the living room with our respective poodles, Žulė and Meškė. Mom and I were on our way to a Sunday dinner party at the home of my Godmother.