On Vacation

On Vacation. Will update next week.

This Week/end

I didn’t manage to get out a “Friday 5″ I began a “Saturday Seven” but never finished that. So here’s an update:

Things have gotten better at the summer job this week and have allowed for my life to calm down just a little bit. I had a lovely Dad and Daughter concerts on the square listening to my favorite bassist (the only one I follow) Katherine Nettleman solo in the “Songs without Words” concert. The night was supposed to be stormy and humid and unpleasant, but instead the storm blew through and it was pleasant and almost chilly!

On Friday I went with a group of seniors to Circus World museum. It wasn’t on my top ten destination list, but I enjoyed the day nevertheless. One of the most interesting things at the “museum” (it’s really a campus) was the live circus. They have several performances a day, including a “classic american circus” and a variety show and a clown show. We saw the first two. They included the same, incredibly versatile, performers. One of the performer sets was a large Argentinan family, another was a russian couple. I wonder what they do in the museum’s off season or if there are different families each year.

The people that I traveled with were very nice and had a zest for life that not all the seniors have. It’s really too bad when that disappears.  I hope that it doesn’t happen to me.

Saturday was a lovely day of errands and “getting things done”. I spent a lot of time with my parents at the grocery store, TJs, a house they were looking at. Just running around.

Today, I was taken out to the Mikado, performed by the Madison Savoyards. They perform Gilbert and Sullivan productions. It was a very nice performance, although a little long. I loved the scenery. And it was fun to recognize some of the cast members from about town.

I’m counting down until our vacation (family) up north. It’s in a week. And I can’t wait to get away and really enjoy the outdoors. I’ve really missed that this year.

It’s still Friday, Let’s try a Friday 5

1. Summer program:The 2nd session is over, which means that I only have 4 weeks left. I can’t wait!

2. Summer program: I did win them over, the seniors that is, for about a day. One of the toughest kissed me on the cheek. The self-proclaimed “mayor” thanked me 4 times for his birthday cake. And the one who “isn’t a complainer, but…” appreciated her very own bathmat, which she won’t share with her sweetheart of a roommate. “I use wipes and bleach and stuff. I keep very clean.”

3. We’re getting humid here now and the the floods have resulted in monster sized mosquitos. I haven’t been to a state park yet! I can’t wait until August, I hope that it’s nice then…

4. Dropping my hours at the ‘bux has been positive because I have more patience, I think. And I don’t dread it so much. It’s been negative because I kind of feel out of the loop. But that may just be because my head is so full of programming stuff and the staff changeovers.

5. When I live with my parents I definitely always have this strange not depressed/not melancholy disconnectedness with the world. Every time. I can’t get around it.

I do have to say that I’ve made some friends with the seniors. I will probably see some in Chicago this fall. And, on Sunday, this awesome pair of program directors will be staffing. Which means that I will have more time to breathe. And I’ve already packed my Wednesday afternoon full, coincidentally, in anticipation.

Good things

The first day of the session (Sunday) is always the worst, in terms of complaints. I need to remember the good things: the sweet old ladies who hold your hand, the woman who strode out of the last lecture of the day on Monday and proclaimed to me “very good! all the lectures today were all very good!”. The invitation to go to a movie. Yesterday, some met my sister, which they loved. “You two look so much alike!”

I sat in the dining room today and listened to them talk during dinner. I loved hearing them plan their evenings, looking forward to their options. They have such interesting choices: a talk on the farmer’s market, a lecture about Irish storytelling, and finally, a recently released DVD showing after the lectures.