Archive of Marcia's Musings July 29-21, 2002Monday, July 29, 2002
Wonder Will Never Cease?!?!?
Yes, I am alive-- it turns out that, as I already knew, gall bladder disease "runs" in my family. My father had a problem, one of my sisters has had a problem. It turns out that my tendancy is to lean in that area, too or at least, it appears that that is something I need to take care of and pay mind to over the years so that I don't end up having to have a surgery. Anyway, 3.5 hours of missed sleep in the middle of my night was made up by my generously loving husband making sure that I slept in a bit on Sunday morning to make up for it.
Of course, that put me "behind schedule" for the rest of the day-- the schedule being set up (over-achiever, remember?) by me, of course. I packed the small bit that there was for the single bathroom that we have here on Saturday (we are moving to a house with 3.5 bathrooms!) and the kitchen on Sunday but, as I was about to cave in with complete exhaustion, I put the last bowls in a box with Brian's help. Of course, just as I was sitting down, he found the silverware tray that I'd left in a drawer. He either found another box to pitch that into or threw out the silverware and, frankly, I really don't care to know which it was (until we get to Maryland!). I'll worry about it then!!
Brian has been absolutely wonderful!!! The former "Reluctant Packer" has turned into Mr. Herculean Packer. If the box isn't made for the job, he'll make the box that fits the job and pack the contents appropriately inside of it. In addition to doing all of the other packing for this relocation (except my office), he's set up all of the utilities to turn on in Maryland, the utilities to turn off here in Sunnyvale, turned off the renter's insurance and auto insurance here and started renter's insurance and auto insurance there!! He is a seemingly endless font of energy!! He is to be congratulated, indeed!! Thanks, sweetie-- he's always been incredibly reliable and responsible and this is definitely one of those times that I'm grateful for that!!
Whew!! Couldn't (and wouldn't) do it without him!!!
So tonight, my computer is finally being taken down. I kept thinking that I'd get to posting more regularly but, frankly, between work and stuff, I just haven't had the inclination. Thanks for your patience and understanding and the encouraging emails.
On one of my last posts, I mentioned that I would work on the trip report-- well, that's not working but I did receive an email from Jack Smith telling me about a few places to hunt up some Shakespeare in/around Maryland:
Subject: Shakespeare in the EastThanks again, Jack! I'd forgotten about Stratford in Ontario! We'll definitely be looking into that one!
From: "Jack Smith"Had to comment on Shakespeare in the east, since you and Brian will soon be sort-of neighbors. (We live in Fairfax County, VA, about 20 miles west of DC.)
The Folger theatre in DC is well worth visiting. It's tiny, must not seat more than a couple hundred, but is world famous. http://www.folger.edu
For a longer excursion, consider Stratford Ontario. It is a longish drive from the DC area, perhaps 400 miles or so.
http://www.stratford-festival.on.ca/2002/index.cfmThis leaves out many other opportunities, of course.
Jack Smith
Again, thanks for your patience and understanding-- you've been swell and really appreciate the support!
Catch ya on the flip-side (of the country, that is!)!!
Have a great evening, night, day, weekend-- you get the picture!
Thursday, July 25, 2002I really AM!!
I'm trying to find the time and inspiration to "steal" the description of our vacation from Brian's site but that's even turned out to be a lot of work this week!! Many things to do and there doesn't appear to be any relief in site-- I'll try to finish it up over the weekend.
Thanks for your patience and understanding during this transition-- have a great evening!
Sunday, July 21, 2002Temporary Return
Well, it turns out I was a naysayer for naught!! Brian's planning on keeping up my computer until next week so I'll have some time to post here afterall. That's a good thing and a bad thing: A Good Thing because there's always something to tell you about (see below) and a Bad Thing because there isn't going to be much time to tell you anything this week. We have a very busy week ahead of us!!
So, where were we this past week? Well, if you'll recall, I mentioned late last year that we had excellent seats for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year-- that's where we went this past week!! This is our third time there, the first being in 1998 a month or so after we were married so it is kinda like a "Second Honeymoon" for us every time we go there. We have photos from the hotel of our dear Sally (she weathered the trip well, thanks to the Bonine) and pictures from the Green Shows to put up on our travel site.
Because of the eastward move, this'll probably be the last time that we have a chance to go there until we retire. It was bittersweet for us as a result-- we liked the hotel that we stayed at (Bard's Inn Best Western) which is only a few short blocks' walk to the theatres. We like the town of Ashland, Oregon itself because it has such a college-town feel to it but, I'm sure there will be like activities on the east coast to which we will avail ourselves in the future!!
So to tell you of our week, we drove up on Monday-- Sally really did well in the car. It turns out that she hates the starting up and the stopping but doesn't mind the in-betweens so long as there aren't a lot of right turns. If the mountains make her "wind" to the left with the right turns, she sits up but, with left turns (and slippage to the right), she's fine. By the end of the trip yesterday, she was pretty much used to it and, I'm sure by the time we get to Maryland, she'll be an old "Road Dog"!!
When we arrived, it was "Black Monday" with no shows in production but, after settling into the hotel, I sent Brian to the grocery store to pick up a few things. We didn't want to leave Sally alone for the first night so we had sandwiches in the room that night for dinner. There was a fridge in the room at the Bard's Inn (in all of the rooms) and, frankly, six days of meal costs would be outrageously expensive so we buy sandwich stuff and have at least one meal a day of turkey and cheese sandwiches in our room.
Tuesday, we had the back stage tour in the morning; this included information on the "New Theatre" as well as a tour of the other two theatres and some background information on the current productions in them. On Tuesday afternoon, we saw "Julius Caesar" which was a totally amazing production!! Literally brought tears to my eyes as it ended more because it did end than the story itself!! It was exquisitely performed and directed-- truly a tragic delight, if there is such a thing.
That night, we went to the Green Show originally taking Sally with us but, she was terribly interested in meeting all kinds of new people. Considering that we like to watch the show, Brian walked her back to the room so that we could pay attention to the dancers and he could take pictures-- terribly selfish of us but, I don't think she liked the music anyway! We didn't have a play to see on Tuesday evening so we went out for a burger at a local brewing company and then back to the room to spend time with our Sally.
Overall, Sally travels well but it did take her all of Monday evening and night to settle into the hotel room. She didn't understand that concept and was very antsy on Monday night so both Brian and I were tired on Tuesday from listening to her walk around during the night on Monday night/Tuesday morning. We spent the rest of Tuesday talking to her and reassuring her and just relaxing. She slept better that night and, thankfully, so did we!!
Wednesday morning we awoke and after my shower, I took a turn at walking Sally around the block. She, of course, loves her morning/afternoon/evening walks and had lots of fun with all of the new smells in the area. On Wednesday afternoon, we were scheduled for the play "Noises Off". I had seen the movie and immediately fell in love with it the first time through-- I've got a copy of it from an HBO showing (only for personal use) which, to convince Brian we should see it at OSF, I showed him last year. He also wanted to see it after watching the movie and, while Peter Bogdonovich did a marvelous job with the movie, nothing is as good as seeing it live!!! We (the audience) were doubled-over with laughter-- it was fantastically performed and the timing was phenominal!! Truly loved and enjoyed it wayyyy more (despite Carol Burnett's performance in the movie) than the Bogdonovich version!! Highly recommended if you get a chance to see it live-- it is SOOOO much more funny!!!
Wednesday evening was finished out with "The Winter's Tale" which was also well done but grim, nonetheless. I suppose "grim" was their goal which means that they truly succeeded. It was a sad play but had some lighter moments in it as well. That night, however, we had left Sally at the hotel room at 5:30 and now, it was 11:30-- Yikes!! We had to get back to let her out!! We all but literally ran back to the hotel room to find that she was patiently waiting for us-- sitting in "her" chair but waiting for us. Brian walked her for a few minutes but then, it was off to sleep for all of us!
Thursday we had but one show-- a matinee-- at the New Theatre. The seating in the New Theatre is bigger than what they had at the Black Swan but, first, it is easier to get tickets because there are about 150 more seats than in the Black Swan. There are still no more than six rows up so there is no such thing as a "bad seat" (which applies to all of the theatres at OSF-- there just are no bad seats!!) and, in the case of "MacBeth", it was done "in the round" with characters entering and exiting the four corners and even bounding into the dividers in the rows of seats. Well done but even more grim because of the bloodiness of the story-- interestingly done with three main characters and the balance of the characters played but three actors!! Each of them had at least 4 roles to play out-- I'd've gotten sooo confused if it were me doing that!!
Thursday evening, we went out to dinner before the Green Show at Louie's Bar & Grill. Although uniquely served (on a skewer), we had an excellent filet mignon dinner. Then, after the Green Show, we stopped and got frozen yogurt for Sally and me and Brian got some fudge and an ice cream cone. Nummy stuff, even Sally agreed!!
On Friday, we spent a couple of hours in the morning doing some shopping-- there's a quilt store right on the main street!! I found a pattern for a quilt that I liked so I bought that-- I'll have that as a remembrance of our last trip to Ashland (for awhile!). Then, it was on to the Tudor Guild Gift Shop where we purchased our particular share of souveniers and to a used bookstore that Brian had seen and which we were both able to find some books for each of us. Back to the hotel for a lazy Friday afternoon in the room, followed by a long night at the theatre watching "As You Like It" and, yes, thanks-- I did like it!! It was a lot lighter in fare than MacBeth (well, dah!!) and was my personal third favorite show that we'd seen. There were several characters that were hilarious but all were well done!!
On Saturday morning, we started driving by 8:45 again and, once again, Sally did miraculously well-- she actually slept a bit on the way back (once we got into the straight part of California-- she really hates those curves!). We stopped at Brian's folks house and were able to have an enjoyable dinner with them as well as getting to see our niece, Dani! That was a wonderful treat for us and for her since she'd never had a chance to meet her cousin, Sally. We actually rolled into our own driveway about 7:30 or so and, after checking emails, mail, phone messages and faxes, we were dead tired and trying to hold our eyes open without those pesky toothpicks (just cuz they hurt!)!! Finally, we conceded at about 10 and off to sleep we were!!
Today, there's laundry to do and a little more packing or getting things ready for Brian to pack up this week. We have plans for almost every evening this week but his day needs to be devoted to packing and mine to working at my office so the evenings are all that we have to spend with friends. It'll definitely be a busy week for us!!
More as the week progresses, I'm sure-- thanks for stopping by, your patience and your emails!! Have a nice morning, afternoon and evening!
Current Musings
Return to 2002 Archives
Return to 2001 Archives
Return to 2000 Archives
Return to 1999 Archives
All Content Copyright © 1999, 2000 Marcia L. Dykstra. All Rights Reserved.