Our past two weekends in photos and words

 Last weekend Emma and I went to see the musical Wicked in Providence.  This was Santa's gift to Emma (and to me too!)  I thought it would be good, but didn't realize that it would be fantastic.  I loved the clever  story line and identified with Elphaba perhaps more than I wanted to.  I do seem to have had several good friends all of whom were/are blonde, popular, and mostly perky (okay you know who you are: Cathy, Wendy R., Lynne and Maria). One of the best moments in the muscial is when Elphaba and Glinda are complaining about having the other as a roomate.  Glinda has this long list of things she doesn't like and is talking really fast and Elphaba pauses at the end and then says very seriously "she's so ......  BLONDE!"  I was definitely the serious, brainy, broody, brunette and I am eternally grateful to all of my perky blonde friends for pulling me out of the muck of too much self examination and introversion.  Also the singing -- terrific -- loved that the two main characters are women and do almost all the singing -- some in close harmony.  On top of all that the sets and costumes and dancing -- was -- well spectacular. I am still on a high from having seen this.

We (well mostly me with some help from Emma) finally took the Christmas decorations down the day after our Wicked afternoon.  It was several days past Epiphany, but I don't think God will mind that much.  Here's what our couch looked like while we were undoing the tree.  I also took some photos of favorite ornaments.  I had the idea that I might do a mini book of my favorites: why I love them, where they came from, etc...

Here's one of this year's new ornaments.  It was Chloe's first Christmas and my sister managed to find a black pug ornament that she could personalize.  Thank you Katey!

I had to add this photo as well.  My godson Gavin gave me this absolutely beautiful reindeer ornament.  I tried it on the tree, but liked it much much better on our mantel piece.  Thanks Gavin (and Wendy too).

Here's Chloe, "banished" to her bed while we are taking down the decorations and loading the boxes to put away.  She was VERY curious about the whole process and just generally getting in the way. She doesn't look to happy does she.

And of course we made time to play some Wii.  Thank you Mom and Dad for this great Christmas gift.  My parents are divorced so this was truly and act of coordination and love for their grandaughter. Thank you!!

Our Sunday concluded with ordering take out from the nearby Thai restaurant. Here are Emma and Jim studying the menu.

While we waited for dinner to arrive we all played a couple of games of UNO.  We even kept score on the neat white board that is part of the UNO DELUXE game Mom gave Emma for Christmas. Thank you Mom.  Even Jim played with us and he hates board games -- I think it was because he thought the adding up of points at the end of each hand was good arithmetic practice for Emma!

Now on to this past weekend:

Friday was Open House/ Family Night at The Ballet Center where Emma is a ballet, pointe and jazz student.  Here she is doing a short routine with other members of the ballet 3 & 4 class. It's always crowded, but it's a fun event with a potluck after and I always enjoy watching the kids dance and hanging out with the Mom's.  The dancers all get certificates (kind of like report cards as they get a score of 1-5 in various categories such as musicality, technique, follow instructions)  Emma's was terrific this year. She got her first 5 in following instructions/listening and all 4s in the other categories.  She's had mostly 3 and 4 in the past.  It's also the most beautiful piece of paper/cardstock I've ever seen with a lovely color photo of  dancers on it.  Thank you Miss Garance.

On Saturday I drove up to Boston to attend Lawberry Camp at Harvard Law School.  This is an "unconference" organized by a few younger and very energetic law librarians.  I went to a shorter version at AALL this Summer.  As a solo librarian with no librarian colleagues at work I found a day of exchanging ideas and learning about new technology invaluable. I am re-energized.  Plus there was an interesting mix of people from different places and library types and position.  Even one director and two law firm librarians.  There were about 20 of us and the group just seemed to gell well together.  We started the day with a "unkeynote" mini speech (about 20 mins plus questions).  This was given by David Weinberger of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Starting with a short talk and question session was a great idea as it gave us all some time to wake up and get ready for more active participation later.

The photo above is not of the Lawberry Camp, but of lunch at the Ethiopian Restaurant Addis Red Sea on Mass. Ave just up the street from the Law School.  I'd never eated Ethiopian before and we did actually eat with our hands and the bread.  They brought us warm towels to wash our hands before and after the meal!  Cool, but not very practical -- though I swear I ate less because it was so difficult to get the food to my mouth!.

 

My day ended with a trip into the city (Boston) to meet some law catalogers for dinner.  They were in town at the ALA Midwinter Conference.  We had a delicious and relaxing meal at Papa Razzi near Copley Square.  It was good to spend time with some "older" law librarians and after my energizing day with mostly (but not all) younger law librarians.  I also thoroughly enjoyed my brisk walk from the Park T station through the Common and Boston Garden and down Newbury street to the restaurant.  It was fun reliving my Boston city girl days.

Sunday was a day of recovery. I went no where, not even to church.  I can't start my day at 6 am and get home at 10 pm and not go to bed until 1 am very often these days.  Now it's time to wrap this up and commence on the quarterly tidy-up and cleaning in Emma's room.