A Quiet Week in Michigan

Last week was a quiet one for us here in Michigan.  No trips, no parties, just lovely ordinary events.  I cooked dinner for the family on three nights.  I took the girls to their piano lessons.  I went shopping for gifts for their Advent calendars, which they told me they hoped I’d do for them again this year.  That was easier than I thought it would be.  I only had to go to three stores:  Target, Schuler’s Books and Hobby Lobby.  We had a lovely walk at the Harris Nature Center in Meridian Township with our friends, Connie and Jin Detjen.  It was a perfect fall day, crispy cold in the morning with sunshine warming up the air by 11.  Then we went to their house and had a big bowl of a perfect Gypsy soup.  Friday morning, Bob and I walked to the Broad Museum to see an exhibit Erik recommended to us on Zaha Hadid, the famous architect that designed the Broad Museum.  She was a bright creative person throughout her life, designing not only many buildings, but furniture, jewelry, shoes (including some for Adidas), clothing and even a car!  Coming out of the Museum, I spotted a bench, that looked like a shoe to me.  Clearly, she had designed that too!  Friday night, Paula’s sister and her husband arrived for a weekend visit.  We all went to a local Korean Restaurant in honor of Paula and Liz’s long ago trip to Korea.  Sitting in the restaurant, we watched an endless stream on MSU students walk by in Halloween costumes.  We agreed the best costume was a cute squirrel costume!  Saturday afternoon Bob and I took a stroll downtown and ended up walking back through the campus to Tasty Twist, where we each got a delicious soft-serve cone.  It’s one of the things I always like to do when we’re here in E. Lansing. Saturday night, everyone but Bob and me, went to a Haunted House in Jackson (about 45 minutes away).  It was advertised as the scariest Haunted House in all of Michigan.  Upon their return, they told us it was.  Sonja said she and her two friends held hands and screamed the whole way through the house.   I was very glad I didn’t have to go!  Bob and I stayed home and watched the MSU-UM football game on TV.  Last night Bob joined the family to carve pumpkins. This coming week looks to be a quiet one too.  I will take walks, go to the gym and rely upon what inner resources I can gather up. Life is made up of quiet little events that add up to a rich tapestry of love and delight.  

  

A Busy Weekend in Michigan

 It was a super busy weekend in Michigan for us!  Friday night, we went to the E. Lansing High School football game, not because we are particularly interested in high school football, but to watch Erika play her clarinet in the marching band.  They were spectacular!  Decked out in new uniforms complete with tall hats with a white plumes, their music and their precision marching was wonderful.  It’s gotta be a Midwest thing, precision marching bands, probably feeding right into the Big-10 schools’ marching bands. At 130 members, it is ten percent of the student body. 

Saturday morning, everyone but me went to the MAC, the great big gym in town, for pickleball, work outs and tennis classes.  I stayed back and practiced my sermon, honing it for Sunday’s delivery.  Then at 2:30, we left in two cars to go to Greenfield Village. We all dressed in costumes.  Sonja made made up her face with a horribly real looking scar as her costume.  Paula invited her friend Kristin and Kristin’s two children to come along.  They had fanciful costumes they had made themselves—-Kristin was a forest spirit, Laura a sci-fi princess and Grant took two days to make his costume, Adeptus Mechanicus, a cybernetically enhanced warrior.  The light was perfect for a photo when we first arrived.  Then we made our way to the train for our ride around the park.  We enjoyed the  fabulous decorations of the old-timey village.  The Wright Brothers house (the actual house) was particularly beautiful with the brightest red tree I’ve seen in front of it. We had reservations for dinner at the Eagle Tavern, a dimly lit actual old tavern with waitstaff all dressed in 19th century costumes.  All the paths throughout the park were lined with pumpkins. I learned from the ghoulish keeper of the cemetery that each week they hollowed a thousand new pumpkins and carved them.  Then the freshly carved pumpkins were placed all over the park.  Each night the pumpkins are lit by hand for the four nights for the four weeks the festival goes on.  Each time we go, there are new and different things to enjoy as well as long time favorites like “The Headless Horseman” chasing Icabod Crane, the pirates, the old timey show at the Top Hat and the scarecrows hanging on poles that come alive.  We all were nicely tired out by 9:30 pm.

Sunday morning Bob and I got to church early.  My sermon was well received which made me very happy.  I was especially touched by the kind words the minister said about me to the congregation.   Sunday afternoon, Bob and I were invited to a Jackalope party at one of the church member’s estate.  Set in a large clearing in thick woods is their lovely white house and red barn with a stage where the trio performed three long sets of easy listening music.  We sat in lawn chairs listening to the music watching falling leaves dance around in warm breezy air.  It was a magical time.  So much happened over the weekend, I am especially grateful.  

Autumn in E. Lansing

 Bob and I travelled to E. Lansing on Wednesday for our traditional visit in the Autumn.  Everything went very smoothly and our worries turned out to be for naught.  Nevertheless, it took us an entire day to get here.  With the three hour time change, we arrived about 10:30 pm and first thing rushed over to Paul and Paula’s house to see whomever was still up.  Erika was and how great it was to see her.  I think she’s a bit taller and now that she has short hair, like Paula, the resemblance to her mom is striking.  It was fun to see her recently redecorated room with a cozy corner for crocheting.  She’s making squares for an afghan.  Best was the long hug!  Bob presented Paula with the bright orange metal pumpkin he made for her from a recycled refrigerant can.  She loved it!  We didn’t stay long because it was so late.  Back at 420, the green house, there were flowers and all manner of gourmet food for our breakfasts and lunches.  It was midnight before we went to bed, but I was wired and was lucky to get any sleep at all.  The next day was cold, with a whisper of snow flurries when I drove to the library.  I love the E. Lansing library!  I found the book club read I was hoping I’d find there.  

Paul came over to chat before dinner, always a pleasure here.  Paula made a wonderful gourmet dinner for us.  Sonja was off at tennis class, so we hadn’t yet seen her.

Today dawned with beautiful a bright orange and pink sunrise, harking a warm front and warmer weather for the next three or four days.  Bob and I went to MAC (the gym) where he was just in time to be a fourth in open play pickle ball (level 3.5!).  I walked 3+ miles on the track.  Returning, I made pumpkin bread so the house would smell good.  Our neighbor called to welcome us back and told us about a new lovely Garden he’d discovered on the MSU campus.  So after a leisurely lunch (still using Paula’s wonderful food supply), we found our way to it.  It is beside the Radiology building.  It is called a Healing Garden and it has a curved walk with a pond full of bright red goldfish, with a brighter red maple tree beside it and a babbling brook alongside the walkway.  There were benches and beds of plants, all labeled.  It was a very peaceful place.  Tonight we’re going to the E.Lansing High School football to see Erika playing clarinet in the Marching Band.  I hope Sonja will come along because I still haven’t seen her.  We have a very busy fun weekend ahead of us and I’m so happy the weather will be good for all the activities.  It is very beautiful here with the yellow and orange trees in the forests and all the red maples planted in the neighborhood.  Houses, especially ours, are decorated for Halloween.  It’s such an exciting time here.

Simple Things

It’s Indigenous People’s Day here in Berkeley.  In San Francisco, it’s the Columbus Day holiday to celebrate all the big Italian population of the City..  For us, it was celebrated by Arne bringing Elsa to spend a good part of her day with us, her grandparents.  She met Bob at a Pickleball courts where she played with him.  It was the first time, she’d ever played and the two of them jumped right into the play and had a good time.  I spent the morning at the Botanical Garden.  They picked me up on their way home.  Elsa enjoyed the blueberry muffins I’d made for her.  After lunch, Elsa wanted to hit the volleyball.  I pitch the ball to her and she hits it back to me.  Thank goodness for reflexes, because the ball comes fast.  She wanted to go to a park so we did.  We drove to the Brazilian Room park not far from here and hit the ball back and forth for a good half hour.  Then we walked into the nearby Tilden Park Botanical Garden to check out their new alpine rock garden.  It is beautiful!!! 

Then Elsa plopped down on the grassy noll nearby and lay down on her back looking up to the sky.  I got down next to her and did the same thing on the cool damp grass.  We lay there side by side just enjoying the coolness, the peace and the quiet.  I remembered how used to love doing this when I was her age and it brings tears to my eyes to imagine having my grandmother getting down beside me.  She never did. We lay there a long time just dreaming and talking softly, moving into the shade as the sun hit us.  As the time approached to go back, we got up and walked through the cool shady forest area running through a big sprinkler.  It was beautiful to be there with my granddaughter sharing things that I love with her.  

Going to the Opera

 Sunday afternoon, Bob and I went to the San Francisco Opera performance of “Antony and Cleopatra’.  Our attendance was underwritten by our son Arne who gifted us with a big credit at the Opera.  Without this, we never would have gone.  Thank you, Arne!   I went on to the Opera’s website and picked out a couple of operas.  I chose Antony and Cleopatra because I thought it would be dramatic, but not knowing it was a World Premier by John Adams written in honor of the Centennial season at the Opera. Had I known, I would not have chosen this opera because I haven’t liked the John Adams works I’ve heard at the Symphony.  In fact, the only concert I’ve ever left at Intermission was one that featured compositions by John Adams.   

    I only learned the opera was by John Adams when I read the reviews.  Oh, the reviews were mostly grand.  Joshua Kosman, music critic at the SF Chronicle,  fell all over himself praising the performance.  He couldn’t say enough good things about it. I’d never seen him write such a positive review.  The NYTimes was more measured.  Nevertheless, the NYTimes gave a full page to an article about John Adams and his new opera.  It all seemed very exciting.

    So off we went to the Opera.  We rode into the City on BART.  I packed lunches for us to eat at the City Hall Park near the Opera House.  As we sat there in perfect weather looking at the beautiful City Hall and clear blue sky, munching our turkey sandwiches, we thought life is pretty darn good.  After taking appropriate selfies (for Arne), we arrived at the Opera House and were wowed by it’s elegance.  Gold leaf, thick red carpets, marble and the biggest chandelier I can remember seeing.  In the pre-opera talk, we learned the plot and a few interesting factoids whetting our appetite.  The libretto was taken from Shakespeare’s play of Antony and Cleopatra with a few additions from Plutarch.  

    In our Grand Tier seats, Bob sat wedged in, like in a vise.  The seats made tourist class on an airplane look positively spacious.  From the first notes, we knew we were in for something grand.  We loved the orchestration.  It was so evocative of the action and the emotions intensifying the drama on stage.  The 72 piece orchestra was outstanding, crisp, clear, playing wonderfully complex rhythmic music.  When Caesar was plotting his war, the music was militaristic.  When Antony and Cleopatra were together, the music approached melodic.  Very clearly, the music created the drama.  All the voices of the singers were first rate.  It wasn’t melodic or anything I’d want to just listen to.  What surprised and delighted us was the staging.  It was set in the 1930’s, no togas or elaborate queenly Egyptian gowns.  Rather suits and sleek 1930’s ball gowns.  The use of film clips shown on a black background (how did they do that?) was amazing.  There were film clips of Mussolini’s time with masses of people marching and old cars.  It was done in a most tasteful way, adding to the drama, not in any way detracting.  But my favorite of the staging was the multi-faceted black “curtains” of many sizes that opened and closed showing different windows of actions.  It was like one of those puzzles with numbers that you slide around trying to get the numbers in order.  In the end, Bob and I were riveted!  Breathless!  We loved it!!!  We were both rather surprised by our response to the opera.  Every part of it added to the whole making it much more than the sum of its parts.  Perhaps the most dramatic opera we’ve ever seen.  And by John Adams, who knew?  

A Visit from Arne and Elsa

 Whenever Elsa comes for a visit, I feel there are sparkles around.  They came this morning.  I was so happy she wanted to come visit us.  It’s a long car ride for her (and Arne).  We soon brought out the art table to the shade under Arne’s apple tree and began to do our art projects.  She had a small canvas and decided to do a sunflower.  I was impressed how she looked on line for images, then found one and copied lit with a pencil onto her canvas.  Then before I knew it, she’d painted the background and a ring of yellow petals.  In the meantime, I brought out cards for us to make.  So we began to create cards.  We cut out shapes from various papers I’d collected.  After her third one, which she spread glitter glue on, she decided it was time to spread glitter glue all over her hand to see if she could peel it off.  That girl is creative.  I kept busy making cards.  When that played out, we made lunch together and had a picnic outside on the patio.  Then we went for a walk in Tilden Park, to the swing on the big oak tree.  They left just when they needed to and I was so very grateful for a day with Arne and Elsa.