Adventures at Home and Abroad

There's nothing like starting a visit in a driving downpour, getting soaked unloading the car. Golf clubs, suitcases, and bags of groceries made it to the condo, mostly dry. Overall, we had a great visit, and spending some time with Lauren made it all worthwhile. She made us laugh and her Googling skills uncovered the absolute best lunch place in Williamsburg, off the beaten track. I think I ate the best sandwich of my life there. Our day in Jamestown was gray, but I hadn't been back in years, so the new museum complex was very impressive. I survived golfing with Dad and another man. My guess is he didn't play with women very often... My instincts said he was a Vegas mobster, but maybe I was being overly dramatic.

"Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore."   --C heryl Strayed I should have this quotation tattooed in giant letters on my body.

In a moment of weakness, I told my Dad I'd meet him at his condo in Williamsburg, VA TWO WEEKS after we got home from Ireland. What in the @#$% was I thinking? At least Lauren will be there. Family commitments are interesting. Sometimes we look forward to them, sometimes we dread them, and a lot of the time we make them out of a sense of guilt, or duty. He's flying all the way across the country to play golf for a week. I suppose I can fly half-way for four days. But as a stress management activity, I'm renting golf clubs. I refuse to lug them all the way for one round of golf. At a minimum, I'm going to Yorktown, and I'm going to blast the Hamilton soundtrack. My tiny rebellion.

For the last year, I've taken stained glass classes at Glass Warehouse, on Broadway. When we moved here, I was shocked to discover there weren't many places for true glasswork and instruction. Yes, I could paint my own pottery, but that's not my interest. Apparently, during the last financial crash (2008 or so), almost all of the shops that catered to glasswork enthusiasts closed in the greater Denver metro area. But Glass Warehouse remained, mostly because Connie and her husband live above the shop. I love my class, and the instructor, Becky MacKenzie, is just excellent. She's taught me much more, and more effectively, than anything I learned in Madison. And, the Friday group is pretty cool. The women are interesting and not crazy and several are real artists. We had bad news yesterday. Well, bad for us, not for Connie, the owner. She's retiring and selling the building, and our classes will end, by early December. Sigh.