Busy Week

My busy week continued on Wednesday with a meeting of one of my book clubs.  Although many of the women in it are LDS, it was created as a group of women one of them, Lisa, wanted to know better.  She put the club together a few years ago and invited me to join last fall.  Normally they take turns hosting, but this time we met for dinner at a restaurant in Bel Mar to discuss Jane Eyre before going to see The Hunger Games.  I bowed out of the movie since I had seen it earlier and I had an appointment with my bishop.  The group is eclectic enough that it makes the discussions more entertaining.  There are more than a few women in the group who, like Lisa, are well-traveled, art-enjoying foodies.  I like them.

Thursday night I joined Rachel, Ben, and what seemed like half of Mountain Town at the DCPA to see Wicked.   I've seen the show a few times before, but when I arranged group sales for others I decided I wanted to see them see it.  Plus, I love going to plays with my sister.  The show was as solid and silly as always.  Fiero was a bit pitchy, but this Glinda was one of the better ones I've seen.

Friday was an inservice day for teachers, which turned into a heinous six hour long training session.  We used to have to endure a lot more inservice sessions like this back in Salt Lake than I've experienced here at MTHS.  In an effort to quell (or at least manage) my anger, I spent part of the session identifying just what it is that drives me up the wall with such things.  I narrowed it down to three factors: 1) The waste of my time, 2) Being treated as less than an intelligent, capable, adult professional, and 3) The hypocrisy of the presenters.  The other teachers in attendance were similarly outraged at the insult of the training, and it took John and me most of our car ride home to sufficiently vent that outrage so that we could enjoy our respective weekends.

While MTHS prom sparkled on Friday night, I celebrated my freedom from chaperoning by going to the symphony.  Brian joined me for the evening, and this time the "Inside the Score" series took the idea of shuffling music on an iPod and presented a mix of different artists and genres that the conductor tied together through commentary between each one.  I enjoyed hearing such a range of music all at once, even if the theories connecting them were vague ("certainty overlapped with uncertainty" was the thread teased out through the second act, for example).  Will Chase, of Smash fame, provided the male vocals for the evening.  He has this fantastic Broadway voice that worked beautifully for some songs, but seemed too grand and full for others such as the Philip Glass piece.  While I liked the Eroica "Inside the Score" better than this less-academic evening, Brian and I did enjoy watching the show put on by middle school group that sat in front of us.  The costumes!  The characters!  The drama!  Ah, middle school.

Rachel and I took Jack to a local fleece festival Saturday afternoon.  Neither of us bought anything there, but we did have a lot of fun showing Jack the angora rabbit, the wee sheep and goats, and the rather petite llamas.  Jack seemed a bit startled when the sheep actually said, "Baa," but he quickly caught on to the idea of feeding them grass.  He didn't even protest too much when the sheep ate all of the grass and proceeded to nibble his fingers - his eyes just got wider and wider.

Having struck out at the fleece festival, we headed downtown to Fancy Tiger to check out their roving.  On their advice we also checked out a new store called Ironwood near their old location that was filled with all kinds of interesting things.  Rachel had to keep a tight hand on Jack in this very touch-temping store.

I ran a few errands after we got back to Rachel's place for Jack's nap, then met them and Mavi, Brian, and Angela for dinner at Old Chicago.  Ben took Jack home after dinner while the rest of us headed to the Highlands for a session at Sipping 'n' Painting.

I've done a similar class before, as you may recall, and Mavi and Brian have both taken classes at this location before.  After a week like this I was very much looking forward to throwing myself into some art work.

Signs of a good time

It was fun, especially with a group of friends with a range of art experience.  I really liked the striped blending this painting required, and I could have easily kept going for another four hours (Rachel congratulated me on stopping when I did - she knows both me and the call of perfectionism all too well).  The painting is hanging in my second bathroom right now (I kid you not, group!), but I don't know if I'll keep it there.  It's hardly great art and I might want to play with the canvas for another project this summer.  We'll see.

Mavi's painting, Brian's painting, and Brian

Rachel pulled out her knitting while I kept tweaking the river.

My painting, Rachel's painting

Today, Sunday, is strangely quiet after such a week. Stake Conference this morning, visiting teaching this afternoon, and now just catching up on blogging and laundry. I actually don't have anything aside from work planned this upcoming week until the Humanities field trip Friday (tour of the Denver Art Museum, dinner, and a show at the Arvada Center). Despite running on less-than-optimal sleep, I've enjoyed being busy this week and am more than a little apprehensive about having four empty evenings stretched out in front of me.