Month: November 2014

Family Holiday in KC: the next First

2014-11-29 15.01.07 HDRAnd we continue along our list of “firsts” in the new homestead.  For the first time, the college kids were coming “home” to a place they have never lived.  Jesse arrived early on Saturday before Thanksgiving – Vermont has a week break as they don’t do a mid-semester break.  We hadn’t seen her since the day the moving truck pulled out of the driveway in Burke. She quickly acclimated to the new place, staying up late watching Netflix on her laptop and sleeping until midday; it was as if we had never moved.  🙂 She did manage to help run some errands and even took her dad out to lunch one day.  And most importantly to me:  she cooked dinner several nights in a row saving me from having to do so.

On Wednesday, we headed up to the airport to pick up Duncan.  It was touching to see them together as they hadn’t seen each other since around 2014-11-26 19.16.42Duncan’s birthday in June.  I am incredibly thankful that they are as close as they are. We tried to give them some sibling time during the brief sojourn in the midwest but we were really most interested in having time together as a family.  I have already mentioned Thanksgiving day itself and I can’t say I am any less thankful for the rest of the time we had together.

That said, they were typical college students: craving their privacy and sleeping more than I can ever remember doing.  We had a few “discussions” about what it means to be good houseguests and there were some of the typical family “issues” that cropped up (read: Jesse and Frank were butting heads again!) but in all it was a great visit.  Of course, we are still in full blown tour guide mode:  we are doing our best to show off our new home to it’s best advantage because we want them to *want* to come visit us here.  At some point, that will end and it will revert to “going to see mom and dad” and that will be okay too. At some point they might get bored with the thrift stores in Waldo, the record and vintage clothes stores in Westport, and the BBQ.  But not yet.

Although Duncan is now a vegetarian so the BBQ doesn’t have quite the appeal.  Really? What on earth do you do with a vegetarian at Thanksgiving?  (Tofurkey is out of the question!)  So I made lots of veggie sides. But the bigger question is: what does one do with a vegetarian in KC?  Visit Cafe Gratitude of course!  It is always entertaining to take dedicated meat eaters to a vegan restaurant but this one is very good and was an excellent way for the rest of us to get over the turkey overdose on the day after Thanksgiving.  Then we wandered all over the city looking at the Christmas lights: Union Station, Crown Center, the Plaza.  When the fountains aren’t running, KC replaces them with light bulbs.

2014-11-28 20.12.28And speaking of Christmas, that will be another interesting test.  We’ll barely have time to miss the kids before they are back again.  And this time, it will be nearly for nearly 3 weeks.  I hope we are still happy to see each other after that! This will be not just a first but a last:  the last really long holiday break we’ll get together.   Duncan graduates in the spring so there will be no more month long breaks over the holidays.  Jesse will be moving of campus soon so there will be no getting kicked out of the dorms for 4 weeks.  It may be that we only have to worry about enjoying each other’s company for 4 or 5 days at a time. I’ll take it.  🙂

On being thankful

On this Thanksgiving day, it’s easy (normal? customary?) to consider what you are thankful for. I could spend pages waxing philosophical on then many aspects of my life for which I should give thanks. I shall instead state that I have always held that God has graced us with more blessings than we likely deserve.  This is most often the motivation behind our charitable giving and otherwise generous approach to life.

We have recently had the opportunity to have new start in life: new location, new jobs, new acquaintances.  We are working to make new friends in a new place.  It hasn’t always been easy and there have been road bumps and other challenges along with the many joys.  Today we had a Thanksgiving for the scrapbooks.  Nothing Facebook or reality TV worthy but a memorable day nonetheless.

The adult children “came home” to a place they have never lived yet have done all they can to enjoy the place and the atmosphere the holidays engender.  We spent the day cooking, watching football, drinking (a benefit of having older kids!) and then enjoyed a lovely afternoon/evening having dinner with the neighbors.  It was fabulous to have our new neighborhood family meet our existing family.  There were no fireworks, nothing that merited exceptional mention.  Yet a fabulous meal and many entertaining stories were enjoyed by all.

And for that, friends and family, we are most profoundly thankful.

The perils of a repeat performance

Subtitle:  San and Frank go back to Austin

We did something last weekend that we very rarely do:  we went back to somewhere we had been and did something again.  Now I know that there are lots of people for whom the familiarity of the known is a great comfort but we have never been in that group. Our bucket list is long and time is short so we rarely visit the same place twice.  Last year, however, we had such a good time at the US Grand Prix in Austin, we decided to do it again this year.

And were reminded why we rarely repeat a performance. It’s not that we didn’t have a good time; we most certainly did.  But it wasn’t *quite* as good as it should have been given our experience last year.  The hotel was in a more convenient location and the air conditioner worked – both pluses relative to last year.  But the crowd was smaller, the atmosphere less festive, and everything had an slight tinge of disappointment.

We did make a conscious effort to try new things:  all new restaurants, some of which were fabulous; new wineries (yes Texas too has wineries and some were very good – we had to check a bag to accommodate unenjoyed purchases!) and new routes through the city to explore.  And yet, there was something missing.

Example:  last year, we hit Sixth Street on Sunday night after the race and in one bar stumbled onto a fabulous trio (The Red Lady Band).  They were playing to a packed crowd in the Chugging Monkey (love that name – bought some Tshirts!) and the atmosphere was alive.  So we thought we’d try to find them again this year.  I scouted the website but couldn’t see where they might be playing that we could get tphotoo.  So we wandered along to Darwin’s pub where we could sit and have a drink and watch the world go by.  There we met a few street artists, one of whom sketched us on cardboard with a sharpie and captured us in a way that no photograph could.  We were feeling pretty high on life and wandered out of that pub to head back toward the hotel when we heard the riff of some serious blues guitar from a bar across the street and sure enough, it was the band we had been seeking.  Playing from 4-6:30… to a fairly empty bar… we should have been elated:  we were sitting up close, joking with the band, getting all our requests played, drinking cheap kamikazes.  And while the music was still fabulous, it just wasn’t “as good as we remembered”.

Even the race had that quality.  We ordered tickets for the exact same seats as last year because they were along the railing that overlooked an entranceway to the handicapped seating.  It was perfect because no one could sit in front of us.  We got to those seats this year and there was no railing but there were lots of bleachers.  They had changed the configuration of the stands. [Aside:  apparently no one told the sales staff because when race day came, the seats in front of us were still empty.  I suspect that the computer didn’t know they had put seats there!] Even on the track, things were off: the top two podium spots were predictable – but we did get to see Hamilton pass Rosberg to take the lead – and all the action was in the battle for 9th and 10th place.

And halfway through the weekend, the clocks went back.  photoTheoretically this should have been great because it meant we got an extra hour in Austin but what it really meant was we had an extra hour of darkness during which we got to stand in a much longer line for the more expensive bus back into town.

I certainly don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining – okay maybe just a little.  But it’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with Austin or the F1 race; more that it was hard to be presented with evidence of the oft quoted but not always understood adage that “you can’t go back again”.

On the plus side, we ate some fabulous food; walked about 40 miles (really!  we did about 23K steps a day); managed to catch four different bands (two local, plus Joan Jett and Kid Rock!) and bought our first real cowboy boots (Frank’s are hand made ostrich leg!) But although we had originally thought to make this an annual pilgrimage, we have had a change of heart. It’s time to move on or at least take a break.

So next year, it the British Grand Prix for us – anybody want to meet us at Silverstone on 5 July 2015?  We’ve never been there….