wishing for international travel

path outside Pluscarden Abbey, Northern Scotland

It is now officially over a year since the last time I was out of the country.  Sara and I traveled for 8 days to Scotland with a brief stop in Copenhagen in Oct/Nov of 2010.  It was one of the best vacations of my adult life.  I really think I could live in Edinburgh for the rest of my natural life (and I am still trying to figure out how I could swing a PhD there....)  One of the things I love about the British Isles is their commitment to walking holidays.  I grew up in the land of roadtrips and I treasure the hours, days, and occasional weeks the my family spent on the road exploring the glories of these United States.  Walking across the US is something only a very few ever even think of attempting.  But in Scotland or England, it is entirely doable in 2 or 3 weeks.

Which brings me to my current timewaster--researching walking trips in Scotland.  I've mentioned before how much I love walking and hiking.  Often it seems the perfect antidote to my monkey mind.  Today I wandered around cyberland looking at options and found a fun website that outlines some of the best walking trips in that lovely and rugged country.

The plan, currently, is to plan one of these trips, possibly the Coast to Coast route, to celebrate the completion of my MA (estimated May 2013).  That gives us more than enough time to get more fit and to do some shorter hikes here in the US.  This makes me VERY EXCITED!  

Until that day, I am going to have to satisfy my wanderlust with more local travel and look for other opportunities that the Lord may be opening up.  It is a little easier to wait with something like this on the horizon.

Thursday morning fun

Yesterday I had an extravagant experience: sitting in on a rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez. They were doing the final run-through for the evening program featuring, among other things, Stravinsky's ballet with songs--Pulcinella.

It all started when one of Jon's senior associates gave him a pass for 2 to attend a CSO reshearsal. This was a perk given to contributors to the orchestra. Jon and I were very excited and my boss very cheerfully granted me a few hours of vacation when she heard about the opportunity. We had grand plans of breakfast together and then 2.5 hrs of joyous listening in the lovely Symphony Center.

As the plans grew, so did my excitement, until it all came crashing down. Monday morning Jon informed me that he had a conflict on Thursday--a meeting at work that he was convening and directing, and which was taking place at the same time as the second half of the rehearsal. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. Not only could Jon not be with me, I wouldn't even be able to go. He had the pass and we were not going to see each other before the Thursday morning meeting.

Jon, being in need of a computer and an internet connection, decided to come into the city on Wednesday night. Not only would I get a chance to see him, but he was bringing the pass;-) I tried to find someone to take his place, but in the end it was just me.

I showed up at the concert hall after a long morning (that is another post) to be greated by a lobby full of gray heads. Being firmly in the non-ageist category, I don't mind gray heads at all. However, it is a bit unnerving to find yourself the youngest person in a group by several Decades! How could I forget that the primary audience of mid-morning events is the retired crowd? Not to mention that this was an event open to donors only, which also requires you to have some spare change. Not my usual crowd, but an interesting one, nonetheless.

One of the best things about this performance/rehearsal was that it was open seating through out the hall except for a couple of reserved boxes. I was able to listen to the entire event from Box J! That is the box above and slightly to the left of the double doors in the picture above!

Pierre Boulez was French to the core and an entertaining conductor. It was a bit disconcerting to hear such beautiful music coming from men and women dressed in everything from tracksuits, to flannel shirts and jeans, to business casual wear. However, one of the highlights was from the first piece, Janácek's Sinfonietta. It calls for 12 trumpets lined up in the back of the orchestra. In both the first and fifth movements they are supposed to stand up when they play. Boulez was very picky about when and how this would happen: it must be all together, and it must NOT look like jack-in-the-boxes! They went over which measures it was supposed to take place, and how they were to rise. We saw/listened to that several times:-)

The weather was sunny and warming, the music was amazing and it was REALLY hard to go back to work! I can't wait to until summer and all the marvelous free music in Grant Park.

photo compliments of margotat at InstantEncore

More summer fun...Skydiving!

On our 17th date J thought it would be a great idea to sharing in death-defying feats! I did not actually realize that it was our 17th date, but when one is in a relationship with a math nerd, one should expect these sorts of things;-) It occured to me that it might be a little early in the relationship to be taking these sorts of risks! The following are some pics from his friend Tiffany's cell phone... Of course, neither J, Joel or myself, remembered to bring a camera!

This is us crowded into the very small plane that takes you up. I am sitting directly in front of the blond-haired blue shirted man on the left. His name was Jerry and his was my tandem-master. We were hooked together the whole way down. He has been tandem diving since 1987 and it was a bit like going skydiving with my dad *GRIN* I would HIGHLY recommend him for anyone jumping for the first time. He was very professional and encouraging and made the whole experience more fun! Jerry asked me, at about 7,000 ft and gaining, if I was ready to jump. I told him that it was a little late to ask, and that I could handle anything for a little while, so I wasn't worried. He laughed at my answer, but at least I was honest!
J was the last one off the plane. I was one of the first, after a group who were doing a formation dive, and he mentioned later that when he saw me fall out the door is first thoughts were: "There goes my girlfriend! Will I ever see her again!?" He added that he then felt a compulsion to get out of the plane and on to the ground quickly to find out if I was OK. I thought that was very chivalrous of him:-)This is the view from the plane--which is basically what we saw as we were falling out of the sky. The acceleration at the beginning of the freefall almost made me want to throw-up, but as soon as you hit terminal velocity (125 mph?) all you can feel is the wind. We jumped out at about 12,000ft and did a freefall to 5,500ft when you pull the cord on the chute. We jumped at about 7:30pm and it was just becoming dusk and very beautiful. It is hard to tell that from the pics.
I believe this is actually J in the picture. While I was one of the first ones off the plane, I was one of the last ones on the ground because Jerry showed me how to turn the parachute using the brake straps and I had a lot of fun spinning around in circles!
Here are the 3 totally endorphin-high jumpers. Joel is the tall guy on the left, a friend of J's that I dubbed Eyore almost immediately after our meeting. He is a very nice guy, but he does sound just like Eyore both in tone and commentary!

J was so hopped up after the dive that he acted like he was almost going to jump out of his skin he was so excited. To relieve the pressure he let out very loud hoots at random moments. I thought it was hilarious, but Tiffany was a bit weirded out.

One of the funniest parts was when I walked over to meet J after we had jumped. After squeezing me in a very tight hug he whooped and then looked at me and said, "You look totally hot in that jumpsuit!" (He continually surprises me with what he finds attractive, alluring or sexy. Thankfully, it is usually something that I do not have much control over (my vocabulary or the fact that my hair falls in my eyes) but that is a prominent or natural part of who I am. Very convenient!)

SkyDive Chicago had a heavily discounted rate for your second dive if you paid for it within one week of your initial dive. J and I have both purchased ours, so now we just need to plan our next outing to Ottawa IL.