salience
July 28, 2009
This past weekend I met el papa and my favorite brother in San Antonio to celebrate the cuatas 20th birthday (albeit belatedly). It was great to see them, I think we finally figured out I hadn't spent their birthday (week) with them in about six years, so this was a real treat. We even went to Seal World San Antonio! (How did we survive the 102 degree, cloudless days? We walked very slowly, that's for sure!)
Some fotos:
Some fotos:
July 13, 2009
This weekend flew by! Ry came up to celebrate our two year anniversary (I can't believe it's been two years already), and also to see me play with Columbia Summer Winds (the only show he'll likely be able to make given his work schedule). Even though I'm used to the leadership shtick by now (I'm Manager/Treasurer for CSW this season), it's great to have a fan section. And the steak dinner Saturday night wasn't too bad either. :) My favorite anniversary gift(!!)? A portrait of Philip Glass in Twelve Parts.
Our concert was great, despite a lot of wind! (It can be rather hard to play when one's music is blowing away in the wind!)
To my surprise, everything from picking up the U-Haul, to loading up at Teachers College, to the drive down to Washington Square Park, to our chair delivery, to loading back up and returning the chairs went really smoothly. Many thanks to all of our volunteers whose helping hands ensured everything went well! Luckily we now have a break in rehearsals for a few weeks; our first ever Columbia Summer Winds Board meeting is tomorrow night, where we'll lay the groundwork for the legal structure of our newly forming nonprofit organization. I cannot wait! It's incredibly exciting to be involved in this process at ground level.
Now for some pictures:
Our concert was great, despite a lot of wind! (It can be rather hard to play when one's music is blowing away in the wind!)
To my surprise, everything from picking up the U-Haul, to loading up at Teachers College, to the drive down to Washington Square Park, to our chair delivery, to loading back up and returning the chairs went really smoothly. Many thanks to all of our volunteers whose helping hands ensured everything went well! Luckily we now have a break in rehearsals for a few weeks; our first ever Columbia Summer Winds Board meeting is tomorrow night, where we'll lay the groundwork for the legal structure of our newly forming nonprofit organization. I cannot wait! It's incredibly exciting to be involved in this process at ground level.
Now for some pictures:
July 5, 2009
Hi everyone. A quick re-cap of my Fourth of July weekend before I call it a night.
I was lucky enough to get last Friday off from work, so Ryan and I planned a camping trip in the Shenandoah National Park down in Virginia.
Before I headed south though, I made a stop in Harlem here in New York City to see (and sign) the tribute to Michael Jackson outside the Apollo Theater. The crowd in Harlem was electric: fans were singing, drawing tributes on the wall, leaving flowers and home-made cards. I met a couple from Australia as well as another from Ireland, all paying their respects. It was a one-of-a-kind experience, the type where you know you're a part of history. I consider myself lucky to have been there. It was a fantastic experience, I still can't believe he is gone. It truly is creepy to have tickets to a dead man's show this coming September. Nevertheless, he is finally resting peacefully at last.
Seeing how as it was a national holiday and we didn't have any formal reservations for a campsite (oops), Ry and I decided to spend the day taking a scenic drive and then spending an afternoon doing some climbing and hiking in the White Oak Canyon Park on Friday. The weather was beautiful and the park itself was peaceful and well maintained. Afterwards we headed down to Charlottesville so Ry could see one of his good friends. We had grand plans of getting a dinner of dumplings and taking in a movie, but time got away from us and we ended up just heading back to NoVa afterwards.
Saturday we spent at Ryan's Uncle's farm in Culpeper. He has quite a bit of land and keeps horses, among other animals. We'd been out to see him a couple years back, but not since. At Ry's graduation party he kept insisting we make it a repeat and we were happy to oblige.
Once again I rode Scarlett and Ry rode Dakota, two horses who are a couple themselves which seemed fitting. :) We had a great time riding the trails and enjoying the views. We also got to spend time with Uncle Jim's many puppies and grandkids and that was a riot. I miss daschies! And beagles! And kids with face paint! Afterwards we were able to catch a showing of "Public Enemies" before heading to a house party Uncle Jim had invited us to. Uncle Jim is famous for his fireworks displays (and being former Army, that is no surprise). He had acquired quite a few multi-blast bombs out-of-state, seeing as how they're frowned upon in VA, and Ry helped him to shoot most of them off. I myself only lit one, but my was it a show! Beautiful fireworks that had everyone gazing up into the night and singing the "Star Spangled Banner."
There was also an incident of Ry saving the day by diving at an errant bomb when a "Place This Side Directly Towards the Audience" sign was taken a bit too literally. Four burns to Ryan's arms and legs (luckily no third degree), and a few screaming-oh-my-lord-everyone-move-now!'s later, all was well.
I haven't laughed that hard in a long time at the aftermath. In recounting the group's panic, our hostess shouted in her raspy drawl, "I could have sworn I almost s(oiled) my pants, and wouldn't you know it, I had to come in here and check!" and then Uncle Jim with his "It was the Serpentine Motions I tell you, that's the only reason I'm alive today! I'm trained to handle these types of situations. It takes quite a hero to dive at flames and I'm perfectly fine not being that hero! I'll leave that up to my nephew with the Ph.D.!" It makes me crack up all over again, just thinking about it. I still maintain the crowd would have moved sooner if we hadn't all been expectantly looking up, before looking down and realizing the lights were headed towards us instead of up to the heavens.
I hope you all had a great Fourth of July! Here are a few pictures:
I was lucky enough to get last Friday off from work, so Ryan and I planned a camping trip in the Shenandoah National Park down in Virginia.
Before I headed south though, I made a stop in Harlem here in New York City to see (and sign) the tribute to Michael Jackson outside the Apollo Theater. The crowd in Harlem was electric: fans were singing, drawing tributes on the wall, leaving flowers and home-made cards. I met a couple from Australia as well as another from Ireland, all paying their respects. It was a one-of-a-kind experience, the type where you know you're a part of history. I consider myself lucky to have been there. It was a fantastic experience, I still can't believe he is gone. It truly is creepy to have tickets to a dead man's show this coming September. Nevertheless, he is finally resting peacefully at last.
Seeing how as it was a national holiday and we didn't have any formal reservations for a campsite (oops), Ry and I decided to spend the day taking a scenic drive and then spending an afternoon doing some climbing and hiking in the White Oak Canyon Park on Friday. The weather was beautiful and the park itself was peaceful and well maintained. Afterwards we headed down to Charlottesville so Ry could see one of his good friends. We had grand plans of getting a dinner of dumplings and taking in a movie, but time got away from us and we ended up just heading back to NoVa afterwards.
Saturday we spent at Ryan's Uncle's farm in Culpeper. He has quite a bit of land and keeps horses, among other animals. We'd been out to see him a couple years back, but not since. At Ry's graduation party he kept insisting we make it a repeat and we were happy to oblige.
Once again I rode Scarlett and Ry rode Dakota, two horses who are a couple themselves which seemed fitting. :) We had a great time riding the trails and enjoying the views. We also got to spend time with Uncle Jim's many puppies and grandkids and that was a riot. I miss daschies! And beagles! And kids with face paint! Afterwards we were able to catch a showing of "Public Enemies" before heading to a house party Uncle Jim had invited us to. Uncle Jim is famous for his fireworks displays (and being former Army, that is no surprise). He had acquired quite a few multi-blast bombs out-of-state, seeing as how they're frowned upon in VA, and Ry helped him to shoot most of them off. I myself only lit one, but my was it a show! Beautiful fireworks that had everyone gazing up into the night and singing the "Star Spangled Banner."
There was also an incident of Ry saving the day by diving at an errant bomb when a "Place This Side Directly Towards the Audience" sign was taken a bit too literally. Four burns to Ryan's arms and legs (luckily no third degree), and a few screaming-oh-my-lord-everyone-move-now!'s later, all was well.
I haven't laughed that hard in a long time at the aftermath. In recounting the group's panic, our hostess shouted in her raspy drawl, "I could have sworn I almost s(oiled) my pants, and wouldn't you know it, I had to come in here and check!" and then Uncle Jim with his "It was the Serpentine Motions I tell you, that's the only reason I'm alive today! I'm trained to handle these types of situations. It takes quite a hero to dive at flames and I'm perfectly fine not being that hero! I'll leave that up to my nephew with the Ph.D.!" It makes me crack up all over again, just thinking about it. I still maintain the crowd would have moved sooner if we hadn't all been expectantly looking up, before looking down and realizing the lights were headed towards us instead of up to the heavens.
I hope you all had a great Fourth of July! Here are a few pictures:
