Interactions with People

 We recently returned from a trip to New Mexico. My husband's friend (since 5th grade, they are now in their 70s) and his wife had been asking us to visit ever since their new house was finished. It was a lovely trip - they have a beautiful house and there's a lot to see in the Las Cruces area. Beautiful scenery, so different from Chicago, of course. 

The two of them had planned quite a few activities for us, which was wonderful. Besides beautiful scenery, good food, and interesting places (like White Sands National Park!) what struck me was how many friends they have made in their time so far in New Mexico. And even more than that, how easily they both interact with everyone. 

They picked us up from the El Paso airport and then we stopped at a grocery store there before driving to Las Cruces. In the parking lot of the grocery, Lura started a conversation with the people parked next to us. It started with "would you like this cart?" and ended with us being invited to go on a historical tour of the old section of La Mesilla with the woman's extended family later in the week. Yes, Lura and I went on the tour and had to keep explaining to the very friendly family members that we weren't part of their family, alas.

Meanwhile, the guys were at a men's breakfast. John put together a men's group after moving to Las Cruces that meets every week. 

Another day they took us to the lovely mountain town of Cloudcroft. It's a little touristy, but charming and with beautiful scenery. In a cute shop that sells wine, fancy vinegar and oil, we again made new friends while tasting various items. 

Yet another day we visited White Sands National Park, which was amazing. And there Lura started a conversation with a group of exchange students from Germany.

I'm an introvert. I like people, but I have a hard time beginning interactions with strangers. My super power is listening attentively to others. Is it possible for me to learn to initiate conversations? I think I would like that. I'll need to practice, I think. And have some sort of strategy to get started.

Here's to trying new things!

New Mexico adventure coming up!

 This has turned into our month for traveling! We had a great trip to Boston, which I wrote about last week. Tomorrow we fly to New Mexico to visit one of my husband's oldest friends. They have been friends since elementary school. We are all now retired and John and his wife have moved to Las Cruces. 

I have been to New Mexico only once before; that was to attend a conference of the National Association for Gifted Children. I think it was in Albuquerque. It was my first teacher conference. It was wonderful except for the hotel overbooking. They obviously didn't understand that teachers will show up! I ended up in a conference room on one of those fold up beds. It was bad. I ended up with back pain that sent me to my orthopedic doctor once I was back in Illinois. But the conference was great, eye-opening for for a first year teacher of gifted students.

John and his wife have planned a whole itinerary for our visit. They also inquired about our food preferences and sensitivities. And they are picking us up at the airport in El Paso and stopping at a grocery store on the way back to Las Cruces so we can get food that we like and can eat. It's clear they are great hosts. 

So my mind right now is on what I need to do before leaving tomorrow. Packing, laundry, watering plants, leaving notes for our son who is coming over to check on things, ordering an Uber to airport...

I'm always relieved when we make it to the airport, through security, and finally onto the plane. 

Onward!

Boston! A brief travelogue

 We just got back from 4 days in Boston yesterday. I had only been to Boston once, when I was 17. My parents and I went to look at Boston University. I don't remember seeing much of the city. I don't even remember much about BU. (I did get accepted, but didn't go there.)

This trip was with my husband. We are engaged in a quest to see and hear as many major orchestras in their home hall (that is, not on tour), with their music director (not a guest conductor). And so, we saw and heard Gustav Mahler's Symphony #8, which calls for a large orchestra, a large chorus, plus a children's choir, and 8 vocal soloists, conducted by music director Andris Nelsons. It is nicknamed the "Symphony of a Thousand." The concert hall, Symphony Hall, was built in 1900, though it has been modernized since then. It was a lovely evening.

But there's way more in Boston than the Symphony! We ate really well - I'm not going to weigh myself for awhile! Wonderful seafood, not surprising. If you go to Boston and want a wonderful meal, I recommend the Atlantic Fish Company. We also ate a superb Italian restaurant, recommended by an Uber driver, Limoncello, in the North End. 

The best part of the trip, though, turned out to be our walking tour of historic sites. We had a wonderful guide and saw so many historic sites, including the cemeteries where many of the founding fathers are buried. After teaching Colonial history and the Revolutionary War for years to 4th graders, it was so cool to see the buildings, the Boston Common, the harbor, etc. It was a long walk, but a beautiful day to be outside. My husband, who is not as invested in Colonial history as I am, also loved the tour. 

Now we have about a week at home before traveling to New Mexico for something completely different!

Afternoon at the opera: Fidelio

 Beethoven wrote a single opera, Fidelio. When I took a class in music of the Classical Era (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and other less known composers) the professor told us that he hoped we would be able to see Fidelio sometime and he hoped it would be in a language we didn't understand. We all chuckled. I took that to mean that it wasn't a good opera and assumed also from his statement that there were very few stagings of it. 

I might have been wrong, or he might just have been opinionated. He was a wonderful teacher with a good sense of humor who sadly died way too young, though.

Anyway, Fidelio is being performed at Lyric Opera of Chicago right now and we went to see it on Sunday. 

The main idea in the story is that Leonora's husband, Florestan, is being held as a political prisoner; Leonora disguises herself as a young man, Fidelio, and takes a job at the prison where she believes he is being held. He is indeed at the prison, held alone in the deepest dungeon, not treated at all well.  Fidelio/Leonora talks the head jailer, who is a decent person, into taking him/her down to that level to help with some tasks. She finds Florestan there, not in good shape, but has no way to free him. Pizarro is the villain in this story, the governor of the prison. He suddenly appears and wants to shoot Florestan. Leonora aims a pistol at Pizarro. Just then trumpets sound, announcing the arrival of the minister of prisons, who frees all the political prisoners, including Florestan.

Beethoven was a brilliant composer of orchestral and chamber music. He had already lost a lot of his hearing when he wrote Fidelio, which took him 11 years. The orchestral parts are amazing -- there are several extended duets for the two (French) horn players that are wonderful, in addition to the rest of the instrumental writing. (Full disclosure: I am a horn player.) The vocal writing is not bad, but not brilliant. And there isn't much action. I looked up articles on what various people think is wrong with Fidelio and basically found that most think it just doesn't work very well as a story, and also that Beethoven didn't write that well for the singers. Some also blame the combination of never having worked in opera and his hearing loss. 

Lyric Opera put on a wonderful production. They set it in the present and had a very cool revolving set showing different parts of the prison. A highlight for my husband and me was the orchestra, which was superb. And the theme of political prisoners is as relevant today as it was at its premiere in 1805 in Vienna.

Fidelio has challenging aspects, but the music is worth it. 

The Black Hole: Refrigerator Cleaning Time

My husband is a retired high school band director. Successful school band directors need to be organized. Think about the scheduling of events, the music library, grading, field trips, fundraising, etc. 

I am not disorganized, but I would call myself more organically organized. It's in my head for the most part, though I have started making more lists and calendars as I've gotten older. 

Anyway, it was definitely time to clean out the fridge. He also loves cleaning. I know, I'm lucky! 

So cleaning and organization came together yesterday when he decided he would create a database of everything in our refrigerator. So I continued with the triage, throwing the expired items and things we're never going to use, while he started the list of everything that is staying in the fridge, with its assigned shelf or drawer. (I'm guessing other people also buy an ingredient for a particular recipe and then that thing stays in the fridge, getting pushed more and more to the back.) I'm not sure how that database is going to work considering how often things move in and out of the refrigerator, but I'm game to try.

He did this with the freezer last week, but we just have the freezer that's connected to the fridge, so there's not a lot in there compared to the refrigerator. The list of items in the freezer is posted on the door and we cross things off as we use them up, and write them in as I add things. That's working so far. I do love looking in the freezer and not seeing a packed and frosty ice cave. I'm hoping for a similar result in the fridge section. 

Then it's the challenge of keeping it that way!

Reviewing Novels

 I signed up to review books on The Niche Reader. It sounded like an interesting thing to do. I like to read, and I would get to read new books. I get regular emails from The Niche Reader with descriptions of the novels that are ready to be reviewed, and can choose which and whether I would like to apply to read and review. When you apply you have to say why you want to review this particular book and you may or may not get chosen to read and review.

One of my reviews is up on Amazon, the other two are not yet posted. So far I have read two historical fiction novels, one set during the American Revolution and the other during WWII. The third book is a fantasy novel. 

When I read, knowing that I have to write something about the book, I sort of use two trains of thought. One is the usual, getting engrossed in the story. The other is critical, thinking about the writing, does the plot make sense, are the characters and setting realistic, who would this book appeal to? In reading the historical fiction novel, I also compared what I know about the American Revolution, which I taught for 17 years, to the events in the novel. I make notes as I read, but also think about my overall reaction to the book.

Then writing the review -- The first two books were easy because I really liked them. For the third book, I thought carefully about what I wanted to say and how to say it because I didn't like it. I actually had a hard time finishing it. And it was long. It's not that I don't like fantasy -- I do. I loved the Tolkien novels, Harry Potter, Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, etc. etc. I wanted to be even-handed in my review. Since this book was part of a series, I went to Amazon and read the reviews of the other books in the series. I saw comments that reflected what I thought, so I came away with a better idea of how to express myself in a thoughtful way.

One of my former teaching partners had a way of recognizing growth and achievement in her classroom. She had a marble jar, but it was for "growth marbles." When anyone, including her, had a moment -- a realization, a breakthrough, an "ah-ha!," that person put a marble in the jar. I don't remember what happened when the jar was full, but I'm sure it was something fun - maybe extra recess? I feel like I earned a marble with this book.

When you give a mouse...

 There is a children's picture book titled When You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It's very cute. If you give the mouse a cookie, then he wants a glass of milk, then more and more things. There are quite a few examples of adorable mice in children's literature.

We have more than one actual mouse in our house. One of them zoomed out of our pantry when I went to get something, causing me to scream. And I'm not a screamer. 

I had been trying to catch them with the humane traps, but they are obviously too smart to fall for that. Somehow they even get the peanut butter without getting trapped. 

I have also been securing all sources of food that a mouse might like and be able to chew his way through the packaging.

We used to have cats. They caught mice. One of our cats would bring his catches to our son in the middle of the night, meowing with his mouth full to wake our son up and get congratulated.

My husband is Mr. Research, no matter the issue. So we now know much more about mice than we did previously. There are two distinct varieties of common mice - ones that live outside in fields and such, and ones that live in people's houses. If you trap them in a humane trap, you need to release them at least 2 miles, or maybe 5 miles (sources vary), away from your house or they will find their way back to you.

Anyway, we tried the snap traps and caught and killed two mice the first night. We'll be setting them again tonight.