Things have been crazy

As usual, I'm behind.

Let's see...the last notable news was of our vacation so there's a month or so of new news to report.

We went to St. Louis to witness the marriage of our good friends Tom and Amy J. on June 17. It was a fun wedding - nice and small, good friends, good food, and pretty casual despite the traditional-ness of it all. The ceremony was very short, which was nice because it was really hot, and the reception consisted of lunch under a lovely white awning on the patio behind an historic mansion. Lovely. The highlight was seeing some friends we haven't seen since 1998 (I think) and hanging out in the hotel room with them all afternoon after the wedding. What a great way to spend a weekend!

On June 22, we flew to NY for the Festival. Highlights included Llan de Cubel (when the flute and pipes are playing together, they become one - amazing), Wild Band of Snee (my mom fell in love with them at the Folk Alliance or something...highly entertaining in a unique sort of way, incredible musicians all), Beppe Gambetta (who is not only an amazing musician but also an amazingly nice man) and many more! Neil got to play in an improvisation workshop with the Wild Band of Snee and Groovemama where they improvised music on the theme "Snakes on a Plane" (what an interesting concept for a movie).... There were three sections to the piece. First, the snake was at home, in the grass, happy and calm, the music was in a major key and the words were "snakes, snakes, snakes in the grass." The second section turned to minor, and it was chaotic with lots of terrified screaming and chanting of "Snakes, snakes, snakes on a plane! Biting people's heads off, causing lots of pain!" And the third section was a return to the first. Neil got to use his airplane sound and everything.

On Saturday a man came through the gate with two white ferrets. The man was dressed in black and was wearing a cowboy hat and shirt with fringe on it. The ferrets also sported little black cowboy hats. He claimed that they were his horses and that if anyone needed a ride, they could just hitch up. Needless to say, my mom escorted him out of the gate by following him slowly with her golf cart...he was able to call her a communist before he left though. The ferrets were able to bite someone before they left.

On Sunday a girl came down to the main stage area on a VERY large horse. When told that dogs aren't even allowed at the festival, and asked why she was there on a horse, she replied, "I just wanted to see what he'd do in a crowd." Smrt.

The week before the Festival was sort of traumatic for Neil and the troupes. John, their new artistic director, dropped the bomb that he is leaving for a different job...leaving them with no solid plans for the new show. He told Zadie this news the day she went up to Chicago for the last part of her 8th Blackbird audition...good timing, eh? Everyone was on vacation and nobody could get together to talk about the situation so everyone was freaking out. Things are better now, but it's still insane...and camp starts next week...and then Troupe 2 leaves after camp...big changes.

Unfortunately for Zadie, she didn't get the gig (boo! hiss!)...but fortunately for T&S, now they don't have to find a new flute player on top of all this other stuff.

We went to see the fireworks at the riverfront on July 4, the day after seeing An Inconvenient Truth (which EVERYONE should see, by the way). Needless to say, it was heartbreaking to see the mess left by the people at the fireworks. Bottles, cans, fast food wrappers, firework leavings, and other trash (including a used diaper (open face)) were strewn all over the riverfront. The residue of some of our most patriotic Americans. I hate to think how much of that refuse made it into the Ohio River before it was picked up...if it was picked up. God, people are so stupid. What is wrong with them!? No sense of responsibility. Of course, there were no trash/recycling bins put out by the event organizers...so no encouragement there. Dummies.

So, things have been a little nutso, but the weather the last few days has been brilliant and I've been enjoying walking to work in low temperatures and low humidity. It's supposed to get hot again today, but for July, I'll take what I can get.