High Culture

I've been enjoying the cultural life here in SouthLite.   We have a great little theatre and b and I try to go once a season.  Last week we went to see their rendition of Dial M For Murder.  It was quite fun. We also have a historic film theatre that now shows classics as well as live performances.  It was the place where I discovered Ruthie Foster.  More recently we stopped in for a showing of Singing in the Rain.

Tonight I went with a colleague to the theatre at my university.  I had never been before.  I had heard that our theatre and music departments were excellent so I as looking forward to the evening.  They did a steam punk-inspired version of ThreePenny Opera. I had never seen the show before.  I was impressed with both the show and the performances.  Who knew that was where Mack the Knife came from?

This weekend Angel is coming up for a visit.  We're hoping to take him to a two man play in the local cabaret.  One of the two men is a friend of ours and I've been told he does half the play in drag.  Next month Angel is coming up to see Lewis Black with us and then we have a staged version of A Christmas Carol to look forward to in December.

Ironically I see more theatre and live music here than I ever did in The City of Pizza and Bagels.

Family Festivities

Last weekend we headed north, to the City of Sisterly Love, for my sister C's wedding.  As you may (or may not) remember, C and K (her betrothed) had asked me to officiate.  After only a smidgeon of web-based fanfare, I became the Reverend Doctor Brigindo.

Friday afternoon I headed south to pick up Angel.  Unfortunately I did not fully grasp the particulars of Labor Day Weekend traffic on a Friday afternoon and the trip time doubled in length.  It was well worth the stop-and-go because I got quality time with Angel all weekend long.  We've always been a family that travelled together well and road trips are a particular favorite.

In between all the traveling, Angel was picking out a road bike for The Journey of Hope ride that he wants to complete this summer.  Saturday morning was for test riding the bikes and then we all hopped in the car for the 8-hour drive.  Driving with Angel necessitates more food stops than driving with just b.

We reached our destination, checked into our fabulous hotel, and promptly went out for more food. The next morning I walked through the old section of the city snapping photos.

I am not a wedding person but this one was truly perfect.  It took place late Sunday afternoon in a beautiful historic townhouse.  It was a small, intimate affair with around 50 guests.  The bride was stunning in a champagne dress.  It was mostly a homegrown wedding.  The bride's daughter was her Maid of Honor and also arranged the centerpieces.  Our 10 year old niece was one of the bridesmaids, as was the daughter of my sister's good friend.  Our nephew was the ring bearer and K's niece was the flower girl.  K had both his sons standing beside him as Best Men.  One of his son's read a selection from The Odyssey and the other was taking pictures throughout the day.  Both mothers selected and read poems.  In addition to K's son, both my niece's friend and b served as photographers.

As for my role as officiant, I feel I filled it well.  I dressed all in black (black dress with long coat and I even wore heels for the occasion) and read from my iPad.  C & K had given me general guidelines on what to say but left how to say it to my judgement.  I think I hit the mark.

After the ceremony, there was much chatting and catching up.  I spent the evening with my sisters and my grown niece and nephews.  It is amazing to see them all now as adults: still adorable but a lot more sophisticated in both their humor and their thoughts.  The grown nieces and nephews went out bar-hopping afterwards and the rest of us hung out in a hotel room, gossiping and analyzing as we like to do.

The next morning we picked up C's old car that she was donating to Angel and drove back south with Angel following us.  When we finally reached SouthLite, we headed straight to the store for Angel to get his bike properly "fitted."  He drove his bike home in his new old car and b and I went straight to bed.

We're Back!

Actually we've been back for a few days.  Towards the end of the trip we were in a hurry to get out of some of the excruciatingly hot states and back home to our moderately hot one. We arrived home Wednesday evening and have ended our vacation with a little staycation.  We told very few people we were home and spent the days snuggling our pets and working out at the gym.  Three weeks in a car has done its damage and I'll be spending most of this week there as well.

Tomorrow is b's first day back at work.  He's been out for 7 weeks.  We have spent every minute of the last 3 1/2 weeks together and it has been amazingly wonderful.  He is my perfect companion and I can't imagine ever not wanting to spend all my time with him.  I'm not quite sure what I'll do without him during the days.  Actually I know exactly what I'll do.  In addition to working out, I have to finish prepping classes, get some administrative work done, write a chapter and send out an article.  Luckily that can all be done from home.  Unfortunately the following week is "welcome back meetings from hell" week.

My entire life I've always enjoyed vacations but have been ready to get back to work once they are over.  This year feels very different.  There are a number of reasons but the gloom and doom emails I've been receiving on the state of our budget and the amount of work we are expected to do this year is certainly not helping.

On a brighter note, I'll leave you with a brief video I put together of our road trip.


Road Trip from Brigindo on Vimeo.

National Parks: Land O'Sand

The last in our trilogy of National Parks was probably the coolest.  It has only recently upgraded from National Monument to National Park.  As with the other parks it was quite crowded (July is probably the worst time to go to the parks unless you really like being around other people) but we managed to get a campsite that overlooked the dunes.

It was very hot and we were tired, so we waited until the early evening (photography's "magic hour") to go for a hike.  Do you remember when you were a kid and you were following your parents across the beach to find the perfect spot to lay your blanket down and the sand was so hot you had to wear your shoes but they kept filling with sand and it was hard to walk?  Well it was kind of like that except you never got to the water.

Actually it was a lot more fun than that.

We were hoping for a fantastic sunset but no such luck.

The next morning we were up with the deer to begin the long haul back home.  

National Parks: "Large Teat"

Our plan was to spend two days in Jellystone and 1 day in Large Teat National Park.  We stuck to the plan but really should have reversed it.  The mountain range is breath-takingly beautiful.  There were plenty of trails to choose from, but given our limited time (actually our time wasn't limited at all and we could have stayed another day but I think we were ready to be making progress home at this point) we chose a fairly convenient and therefore busy trail.

The trail was only moderately difficult and it climbed around a large lake.  At first we were passing descending hikers but once we reached some of the trail's highlights we ran smack into what felt like a convention of tourists.  Mostly families, some with very young children.  I couldn't handle the crowds and we started our way back down.

We quickly ran into a couple with two young children asking us if the boat dock was ahead.  Since we were way above the lake at this point the answer was obviously no.  Th woman was wearing the exact pair of five finger shoes that I had changed out of for the hike.  I'm thinking it was a fairly uncomfortable climb for her and the kids looked like they were ready to call it quits.  Unfortunately they kept climbing in hopes of finding the dock (which we found at the bottom of the trail).  I hope they eventually came down.

After leaving the Large Teats, we drove through Wyoming towards Colorado.  Most of it was boring and flat but there were a few exceptional sections.

National Parks: Jellystone

b and I went to several National Parks in the past week.  One of them was the flagstone.  It was the first park and is definitely the most popular.  We camped there for two nights and I have to admit I was happy to be gone by the second day.  I had read a review that called the park "the Disneyland of the outdoors" and, while the reviewer meant it as a compliment, I was sorry to find it so.  I am far from hardcore (unlike b) but that doesn't mean I want my outdoors served on a platter.

The park was crowded, with buses dropping sightseers off even in the early hours of the morning. There are many trails but the moderate and difficult ones do not appear to be well maintained and we had a hard time finding trailheads.

We did get up extra early one day to catch the good sun and I managed to take a few shots.

The Perfect First Date*

The City of Glass gave us a perfect first date.  We arrived on Saturday afternoon and spent all day Sunday wandering its many funky neighborhoods.  We managed to find real bagels for breakfast and a lovely independent used bookstore (where I picked up 3 gems).  We strolled on two beaches, enjoyed an amazingly beautiful day, and ended it with sushi for dinner.  The next morning the city was gentle with us as we made our way out of town.  We stopped to try a Waffle and Milk Bar first, where we had amazing egg and cheese sandwiches on waffles for breakfast.  I may have found my home.


*This is my 500th post!

Farmer's Market

During our journey south, b and I traveled on long, curvy, mountain roads.  We finally reached the home city of b's paddling partner.  We met up with her there and wandered around the farmer's market.

On The Road

b and I are on the road, heading down to The City of Glass. We've been driving through some truly beautiful but rural areas.