After attending Bracebridge Dinner with the marketing group last year, I was so impressed that I resolved to volunteer to be in it this year. The Bracebridge organizers are (justifiably) particular about not allowing cameras during the performance, and I wanted to take pictures!

I didn’t end up taking that many pictures after all, but I did get to participate in a wonderful experience, and met some interesting people. I had corresponded a little with Pedro before in terms of updating the websites. He’s the one who put the wonderful videos that inspired me up on their site last year, and so introduced myself to him early on, and managed to nab this quick picture.

As a member of the serving party, my costume was relatively simple – a belted tunic and tights, with some buckles that went on over my shoes, and a funky floppy hat with a button in it – a far cry from the beautiful dresses that the choir wears, or even the interesting and unique costumes of the Forrest Folk. But I loved being part of this small group. Tom, Maria, Christine, Katie, Cindy, Josh, Ian, and Corey, plus the litter-bearers, Dave (our guide and mentor), Kent, Sean and John. It was funny to watch the boys pull uncomfortably at their tights, or twirl in their tunics like young girls in a brand new dress. Christine taught us some of the moves to Thriller in the lobby as we waited for our cues to go in, and even though I only volunteered for the first 4 performances, I made them promise that if by some miracle Andrea agreed to let us do the Thriller dance down the aisle on Christmas evening, that they would call me up.

As Lani told me at one point, “This is live theater, you never know what is going to happen.” I don’t want to give anything away for people who haven’t been yet, but in a performance like this, where the “stage” encompasses the entire dining hall and all of the people in it, including the audience, the potential for Things To Happen is tremendous, and I thought that the actors and singers were quick on their feet, and managed to absorb even the strangest and most unexpected things into the storyline with grace and style. Lani Spicer took a beautiful series of pictures of the “littlest guest“, a ringtail cat that made it’s way up on to the stage and sometimes stole the show.

The best thing about being in the serving party (other than the people) was that we were allowed to slip into the back of the house during scenes we weren’t involved in, and watch. There are so many things going on that I missed when I attended performance last year, that I was glad to have the chance to take it in again (and again), for example, the looks that the Chef and the Housekeeper exchange, or the reaction of the Squire to the Parson.

Plus, if I haven’t mentioned it before, the music is amazing. I’m not much of an opera fan, but there is something about the power of the human voice and that kind of music that gives me goosebumps. The music buoyed me up even through the long days that started at 8 am with a full day of work before hurrying to the Dinner performance which often lasted past 10pm, and I marched around the office with parts of the refrains running through my head and lending me energy.

Next year I wonder if I can finagle a spot as a hostess. They have the lovely dresses, and get to watch even more of the performance.

There was a lot of adventure in our household the week of 9/9/09. We moved our stuff out of the crawlspace so that our new contractors would have some room to work on finishing out the downstairs unit in our house Saturday and Sunday. Tom climbed the Nose in a Day with Hans on Monday, and then we drove across to the East Side and hiked Mt. Whitney in a day on Wednesday, returning tired but happy to our little place in the Valley Thursday night.
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Today I read a post from an instructor at Where There Be Dragons about 68 reasons that she loves her job. It was a great way to share her love and enjoyment of the places she went, and the people she traveled with. It also made me think of the pictures that I could share about Yosemite and the people here. Someday.

I received an email today from my boss that had the whole office giggling out loud. We had people wandering in from the hallway to tell us that we all seemed to be having too much fun. Really, some funny emails are just worth sharing. If I had a pic of KK crying with laughter, I would put it into my list of reasons why I love my job. It happens pretty often – I’ll get that pic one of these days.

I wish I could figure out who the original author/editor is. The contents of the email is all over the internet, mostly from blogs (like this one) that are posting it up to share, but I have found an attribution. (Interestingly, I usually see it on the internet titled “Random Thoughts” but it has morphed along the way, and by the time we got it, it was “Observations of a modernist on post-modern life”.) Anyway, I hope you enjoy…

Observations of a modernist on post-modern life…

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?
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We took a somewhat abbreviated backpacking trip out past Ostrander Lake June 25-27 to try out some of our new gear. The short version? We love it, and we had a great time. I also learned and re-learned a lot of stuff about backpacking. For a first trip, it was just right.

We left Thursday night around 9pm after getting off work and cooking up a yummy dinner the comfort of our own home, and hiked out to Horizon Ridge before setting up camp. In some ways I like hiking in the dark – it’s usually very quiet and peaceful. Plus, this was an out and back trip, so we got to see the scenery, and the flowers that we walked past in the dark on our way out.

In the morning we finished our somewhat circuitous route to Ostrander Lake, and circled around to walk along Horse Ridge. It was a lazy day, filled with many stops and a bit of napping. We had plenty of water so we camped high with a bit of a breeze and fewer mosquitoes, filling up when we hiked down in the morning.

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“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.”

-Friedrich Froebel, the man who invented the concept of kindergarten with the understanding that activity and play were an essential part of early learning.

Today is Friedrich Forebel’s birthday, and I guess this quote struck me because the benefit and importance of playing has cropped up repeatedly in the last week or so, and has become my new fixation du jour.
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Another great find courtesy of The Writer’s Almanac

I lately lost a preposition:
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair.
And angrily I cried: “Perdition!
Up from out of in under there!”

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor;
And yet I wondered: “What should he come
Up from out of in under for?”

-Morris Bishop (who would have turned 116 years old today)
poem published in 1947 in The New Yorker

This weekend, Sarah Land at Land of Locks helped me donate my hair to Locks of Love. I found out about Locks of Love when a couple of friends mentioned that they were donating their hair to an organization that provides hair prosthetics to children who are suffering from long-term medical hair loss. Since then, have been surprised at how many other people I know have made the same decision at some point.

Locks of Love requires that the hair is at least 10 inches long – so the cut is usually a dramatic one, and since I’ve never done it before I was really looking for someone who knew what they were doing. Fortunately, Sarah was recommended to me by a mutual friend who has excellent taste, so I felt confident that I was going to get a great hair cut, and that the 3.5 hour drive into the Bay Area was worth it for her expertise. Besides, it is always fun to have a chance to visit friends, check out my old stomping grounds, and do ‘city things’.
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Quick notes today.

1. If you haven’t been there already, you should check out MapJack.com. They have a really cool street-view map of Yosemite, and I love their interface. Click on the big picture to pan left or right, and you can move Jack around in the lower map area to explore different things. Very similar to Google Maps street view, but it seems to work a bit more smoothly for me.

At one point there was a group of us standing around the computer together joking “hey, that’s the RV I rented, hey, that’s my car…” when we panned a little left and CA cried out “OMG – that really is my car.” We checked it out from a couple of different angles and verified. Immortalized!

2. On a completely different note: There was a car fire here today that destroyed the vehicle of a Valley local. No one was injured (thankfully), and after they put the fire out, they realized that the fire was started by a stash of pine cones in the engine compartment. They suspected some squirrel had been storing food there over the winter. Many people in Yosemite end up parking their cars for a long time – so many things are within walking distance and there are public transportation options available. Still, it was a bit of a shock. Living in the mountains means that we’re used to thinking about things like loose rock, lightening, and snowstorms but so far “car fire due to rodent cache” has not really made the radar. Amazing stuff happens here.

I am so excited to be packing tonight for a trip to the Bay Area this weekend. I’ve made an appointment to get my hair cut for donation to Locks of Love, and I can’t wait until I’m free of the burden of these long locks. I’ve tried the super short cuts before and they don’t look that great on me, so I’m not shaving my head or anything drastic like that, but cutting 10″ off is going to be dramatic anyway.

Plus, a trip to the Bay Area is a great opportunity to connect with friends, and do some of the city things that we don’t get to do around here, like eating ethnic food, going shopping, or to the movies. I’m really looking forward to a few days ‘away from it all’, but I’m also a little sad to be missing the great things going on in the Park this weekend.
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As long as I’m going to be very particular about what kind of wine I like and don’t like, which I seem to be, it only makes sense to try and get a little educated about it.

We are lucky, in Yosemite, to host fine dining events like Vintners’ Holidays once a year, and the wine tastings associated with that event are incredibly educational, as well as delicious. Plus, some of the wines served are often expensive and quite rare. However, for a novice wine appreciator (connoisseur seems a little high-brow for where I’m at in my wine education), the conversation surrounding those wines is often at a much higher level than I’m prepared to engage in. Fascinating, but over my head.

Introduce the budding wine club that started just last month. Led by people who are studying for their Master Sommelier exams, it makes a great blend of people with a great deal of expertise with those of us who are barely able (or unable) to tell a Cabernet from a Merlot without reading the bottle. I went to my first session tonight, and we tasted Syrahs from around the world.
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