Five Days at Home

Day 1: After nine weeks in beautiful Colorado, where it snowed in June a week before she arrived, and snowed in August the day before she left, Libby arrives home for 5 days. After taking the red-eye from Denver, she lands at 6-something am. We pick her sleepy self up, but there is no time for rest. An 11 am doctor's appointment, a shopping spree and lunch with Granny, and a choral reading session in Manhattan keep her up until after 11 pm.

Day 2: I'm going to the beach, but she makes plans to visit friends, who are also going away to college. She and her two friends have fun visiting an elementary school playground and taking photos like this one. I am glad to have a digital camera...no film means no waste, right?


Day 3: She needs to go into a friend's house in Brooklyn to listen to some music that he wrote. Yes, they will be going to college together in a few days, but they need to listen to music now. Today, even. She underestimates the time it takes to get to and from Brooklyn via train and subway, so a half day adventure for her turns into a stressful driving session for me. I have to pick up the boys who are biking around Long Island, then wait for her pick-me-up call...which never comes...at least not when it is supposed to come. Meanwhile, Don acquires tickets to Fame: The Musical for this evening. Libby finally calls, and she and her friend laugh when they hear about the tickets, as he just graduated from the "Fame" high school. I rush to pick her up at the train in Queens, on the way to the play; despite the rush and stress, we make all our connections smoothly, arriving for the 8pm curtain just in time. And the play is horrible. The actors were great, the dancing was great, the singing was great...the play itself is dreadful and vulgar. Ah well, the tickets were free.

Day 4: Stay home and pack. Laundry. More laundry. Finding favorite pants. Finding favorite shirt. Deciding what stays. Unpacking, repacking, stuffing, labeling, rediscovering. Pile of books she wants to take must be smaller. We finally decide on one milk crate worth of books. Later, we watch two episodes, back-to-back, of Maestro, a British "reality" show where 8 celebrities try to win the opportunity to conduct the BBC orchestra for the last night of the Proms. Funny--yeah, especially since one celebrity contestant is the "news reader" Katie Derham, who is not related (that we know of), but has our last name, unusual spelling and all. And it is way best to watch a show like this with a musician who can tell you all the details of conducting technique that the celebrities are lacking (if you see the show Maestro, be warned that the language is occasionaly rough).

Day 5: The Scottish Games. Libby took this amazing photo of Annika in a fencing match. There are many other photos, too, of fencing and caber tossing and pipers and falconry and all that fine Scottish playing around sort of thing. You can see more here, though they are a bit repetitive (more thanks for the digital age). But best of all, the games are crowded with our friends, who enjoy the gorgeous day with us. Plus, Libby gets to see many more of her friends before she leaves for...