A Week In the La Vida Loca
First of all, I apologize. No one deserves to have that song in their head. No one. But now it is probably in yours, and so I apologize.
Friday November 23
Our family having come through the stomach bug/mild flu-like symptoms, Kevin and I got packed for our whirlwind anniversary weekend. After waking and pretty much immediately sitting down at my sewing machine to quilt while the three boys played, I was content to give up the trip and stay home and bask in the domestic bliss. Kevin--shockingly!--insisted that we go. At 10, we walked the kids across the driveway to the grandparents and took off down the back roads to Hannibal.
We arrived at the Quality Inn on the edge of town and, after a brief surf through the cable, headed into Hannibal to see what we could see. We took a few pictures of Mark Twain's house and their charming downtown and the mighty Mississippi. Kevin got hungry and just couldn't wait until our reservation time at the best restaurant in town and wouldn't settle for a Snickers. So we ended up eating our anniversary dinner at a sub-par sports bar with a fake Irish name that was so memorable that I've forgotten it. I had a cheeseburger, fries, and--the big splurge--potato skins and spent the rest of the evening regretting it. Disappointed, but slightly heartened at the prospect of LSU getting beat.
We headed back to the hotel and proceeded to watch the electrifying final minutes of the LSU game and cheered heartily when they lost in triple OT. Kevin drank the champagne--my belly was just a little too full and, perhaps, there were a few hearty viruses still kicking around in there--and we watched football. And then other stuff. All the while, a wedding reception was happening in the lobby right outside and below our door. The music stopped at midnight, but the idiots partied as if there were no one trying to sleep in the hotel until I went to talk with a manager at 2:20 a.m. Even after that, I heard a refrain of "Going to the Chapel" out in the hallway. Why did the Comfort Inn fail to tell us that they rent out their lobby to wedding receptions and place people who have nothing to do with it in the room most likely to be bothered by it? We got a free stay out of it, but I doubt we'll head back to Hannibal any time soon.
Saturday, November 24
After four hours of sleep (for me) and little more for Kevin, we headed down one of the few scenic byways in Missouri along the Mississippi River and the "Fifty Miles of Art". Our next stop was Louisiana, MO, which--despite its claims--was pretty lame and even behind Hometown in the whole fix-up-your-downtown game. In fact, after this trip, I felt a whole lot better about Hometown's tourism outlook. The one cool place in town was a large store featuring pewter made on the premises. It was quite the class act, and had prices to match.
Our last stop was Clarksville. What a cool place. It's one of the last towns on the Mississippi with both a downtown that faces the river and with no hideous levees to block the view. Bald eagles have chosen the islands in this segment of the Mississippi to build nests and local residents celebrate this fact. Instead of bulldozing their old buildings, a group got together, bought them, and invited artists to come in and set up studios and shops on the cheap. Now they have a unified studio district--small, but cool--where local artists sell pottery, glass, sculptures, lotions and balms made from bee leavings, etc. We bought some pottery and some ham and bean soup and took off for home.
Once home, I got back to my quilt and my boys and we watched Mizzou kick ass in a great football game and all was right with our little world.
Sunday, November 25
Lounged around, did a little cleaning, a little quilting, baked four loaves of banana bread, fed the animals. Good day.
Monday, November 26
Ugh. Back to work and not feeling very enthused. Uncharacteristic of me lately. I love not having to work at the Hill anymore, and I especially love not driving 50 miles per day to do it. Still, I just wasn't into working and didn't get a whole lot accomplished.
Tuesday, November 27
Sick again! Marky caught a cold right after the whole stomach bug thing, and I got it. I stayed home and felt anxious about it all day. I needn't have--nothing went on in the tourism office or at the shop.
Wednesday, November 28
Although I dreaded going because I often view meetings as a jolt from my routine at best and an annoying waste of time at worst, I went to the VISTA Intern training in nearby Rock Port. What a great meeting it turned out to be. In the Hometown tourism office, we have an intern at our disposal for the entire year. It is my job to make sure he has jobs to do. He's a pretty annoying guy and I wasn't enthused about working with him, but he was already here and had been working with economic development and, if nothing else, presented us with a hell of a human makeover prospect. How is he annoying? He's a 27-year old healthy white American male from a middle-class family. He had THREE children with a drug-addled idiot who, not surprisingly, is barely in the pictures but only when she kinda wants to be. He has an intern's salary but also an intern's free health care and day care. This single dad with three children--which is the first thing he'll tell you about himself--lives with his folks. He is often sick and places those really annoying, shaky, stuffing "I'm sick and won't be in today" phone calls. He called the two women he works with "hon". (Once.) He occasionally makes reference to his Bible and then says something like "Hermann (a very successful tourist town with lots of wineries) caters to Germans, gays, and alcoholics. Do we really want that in Hometown?" So he's a Bible-thumping whiner who, none-the-less, found something holy in the pants of an idiot and had three children out-of-wedlock. Annoying.
I guess I needed to vent a little. Back to the meeting! An organization called Missouri River Communities Network wants to use a small team of interns to catalog the cultural heritage of the towns along the Missouri and develop a regional marketing plan to increase tourism along the corridor which will, hopefully, lead to increased opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs who want to preserve the environment of the area. Whew. The cause is just, it's part of my job, and the speakers were inspirational.
Because Mr. Heifer lives very near Rock Port, I headed out to his farm afterwards, hoping to find him and share this positive project with him. And see Daisy, too. He was home, I shared, he was glad, and he also told me about a colleague of his who was working to establish a mid-MO cuisine based on wine and, hopefully, signature crops (think Vidalia onions). And, since the trailer was already hooked onto his truck and since I needed to get a ram to my place if I wanted spring lambs, he loaded up a ram and, since there's a lot of room in the trailer, a ewe who wasn't gaining weight like she should (who "may or may not ever come back to my farm") and a baby ram, one of May's little guys, that I could just keep, what the heck.
I drove the sheep into Hometown, picked up a very pleased Stevie, and together we unloaded the new sheep and put up a string of polyrope near the ground to keep the wee ones from running around the yard. Did I mention that I bought the pretty brown fence and rigged it up so that my animals have the run of the east pasture? I still need to sink corner posts and put up proper gates, but it's an operable fence and the animals have been frolicking around, loving the space and the still-green and plentiful grass. The animals got on great, the ram immediately tried to mount everybody, and Stevie and I gave them some hay and sweet feed to welcome them.
I took the truck and trailer back out to Mr. Heifers and Stevie and I went into College Town to buy something for him to wear to his Christmas program at school the following evening. While we were at it, we picked up a Christmas-y (and complementary to Stevie's) vest with a choo-choo on it for Mark. He balked at his Nordic-inspired sweater vest that I got at the Gap for a DOLLAR--perhaps he would be a little more charitable to one with trains on it (he was).
Thursday, November 29
God this is a long post! On Thursday, it was back to the Mo River meeting and guess who the first speaker was? Mr. Heifer's colleague, the one trying to develop an alternative economic model for rural food producers. How totally, totally, cool is that? It was such a positive vibe. I never dreamed that I would meet all of these fabulous people. All of a sudden, I find myself in a position to DO all of the things I've dreamed of doing since I was a hippie on the 1990s version of Walden Pond. I have the animals, the space, the time (mostly), the support, the vision (mostly), and the ability. For the first time I'm feeling my age and wishing that I had found all of this 20 years ago. Of course, the real sign of maturity is realizing that there's no way in hell a 17-year old knows what I know now. Just have to make the best of it!
I left that meeting feeling great. I got the mail and found out that Stevie has been accepted into the gifted program at his school--the well-developed, true gifted program--and that his strengths are in "math and science thinking". Cool. I really hope that he finds a way of learning that really interests him and meets The Friend that he's been really needing.
Then we all got gussied up and went to the 2nd grade Christmas Program. Mark was great the whole time...up until Stevie's classmates came on stage. Then he started crying and Kevin and I tag-teamed holding him at the back of the gym. I tell ya, it takes a special person to be an elementary school music teacher. She stood in front of a gym-full of parents and made all the exaggerated motions necessary to direct 70 second-graders to jingle bell rock and roll around the Christmas tree. It was cute but, frankly, I could live without those little photo-ops.
Friday, November 30
So here I am, getting ready for next week's big tourism funding meeting and thinking that I need to make a list of all I need and want to do this weekend: put up Christmas decorations at the shop, go grocery shopping, get the Christmas cards mailed, put up the corner posts and take down the temporary fencing, watch the Big 12 championship game (despite the benefit for OSU if they lost, I'd like to see Mizzou win), quilt, learn how to make soap, clean out the boy's toys in preparation for the Christmas bounty, get ready for my mom's visit next week, etc.
I'd better get to it. So long, patient reader (so long, indeed!). Have a great weekend.
Friday November 23
Our family having come through the stomach bug/mild flu-like symptoms, Kevin and I got packed for our whirlwind anniversary weekend. After waking and pretty much immediately sitting down at my sewing machine to quilt while the three boys played, I was content to give up the trip and stay home and bask in the domestic bliss. Kevin--shockingly!--insisted that we go. At 10, we walked the kids across the driveway to the grandparents and took off down the back roads to Hannibal.
We arrived at the Quality Inn on the edge of town and, after a brief surf through the cable, headed into Hannibal to see what we could see. We took a few pictures of Mark Twain's house and their charming downtown and the mighty Mississippi. Kevin got hungry and just couldn't wait until our reservation time at the best restaurant in town and wouldn't settle for a Snickers. So we ended up eating our anniversary dinner at a sub-par sports bar with a fake Irish name that was so memorable that I've forgotten it. I had a cheeseburger, fries, and--the big splurge--potato skins and spent the rest of the evening regretting it. Disappointed, but slightly heartened at the prospect of LSU getting beat.
We headed back to the hotel and proceeded to watch the electrifying final minutes of the LSU game and cheered heartily when they lost in triple OT. Kevin drank the champagne--my belly was just a little too full and, perhaps, there were a few hearty viruses still kicking around in there--and we watched football. And then other stuff. All the while, a wedding reception was happening in the lobby right outside and below our door. The music stopped at midnight, but the idiots partied as if there were no one trying to sleep in the hotel until I went to talk with a manager at 2:20 a.m. Even after that, I heard a refrain of "Going to the Chapel" out in the hallway. Why did the Comfort Inn fail to tell us that they rent out their lobby to wedding receptions and place people who have nothing to do with it in the room most likely to be bothered by it? We got a free stay out of it, but I doubt we'll head back to Hannibal any time soon.
Saturday, November 24
After four hours of sleep (for me) and little more for Kevin, we headed down one of the few scenic byways in Missouri along the Mississippi River and the "Fifty Miles of Art". Our next stop was Louisiana, MO, which--despite its claims--was pretty lame and even behind Hometown in the whole fix-up-your-downtown game. In fact, after this trip, I felt a whole lot better about Hometown's tourism outlook. The one cool place in town was a large store featuring pewter made on the premises. It was quite the class act, and had prices to match.
Our last stop was Clarksville. What a cool place. It's one of the last towns on the Mississippi with both a downtown that faces the river and with no hideous levees to block the view. Bald eagles have chosen the islands in this segment of the Mississippi to build nests and local residents celebrate this fact. Instead of bulldozing their old buildings, a group got together, bought them, and invited artists to come in and set up studios and shops on the cheap. Now they have a unified studio district--small, but cool--where local artists sell pottery, glass, sculptures, lotions and balms made from bee leavings, etc. We bought some pottery and some ham and bean soup and took off for home.
Once home, I got back to my quilt and my boys and we watched Mizzou kick ass in a great football game and all was right with our little world.
Sunday, November 25
Lounged around, did a little cleaning, a little quilting, baked four loaves of banana bread, fed the animals. Good day.
Monday, November 26
Ugh. Back to work and not feeling very enthused. Uncharacteristic of me lately. I love not having to work at the Hill anymore, and I especially love not driving 50 miles per day to do it. Still, I just wasn't into working and didn't get a whole lot accomplished.
Tuesday, November 27
Sick again! Marky caught a cold right after the whole stomach bug thing, and I got it. I stayed home and felt anxious about it all day. I needn't have--nothing went on in the tourism office or at the shop.
Wednesday, November 28
Although I dreaded going because I often view meetings as a jolt from my routine at best and an annoying waste of time at worst, I went to the VISTA Intern training in nearby Rock Port. What a great meeting it turned out to be. In the Hometown tourism office, we have an intern at our disposal for the entire year. It is my job to make sure he has jobs to do. He's a pretty annoying guy and I wasn't enthused about working with him, but he was already here and had been working with economic development and, if nothing else, presented us with a hell of a human makeover prospect. How is he annoying? He's a 27-year old healthy white American male from a middle-class family. He had THREE children with a drug-addled idiot who, not surprisingly, is barely in the pictures but only when she kinda wants to be. He has an intern's salary but also an intern's free health care and day care. This single dad with three children--which is the first thing he'll tell you about himself--lives with his folks. He is often sick and places those really annoying, shaky, stuffing "I'm sick and won't be in today" phone calls. He called the two women he works with "hon". (Once.) He occasionally makes reference to his Bible and then says something like "Hermann (a very successful tourist town with lots of wineries) caters to Germans, gays, and alcoholics. Do we really want that in Hometown?" So he's a Bible-thumping whiner who, none-the-less, found something holy in the pants of an idiot and had three children out-of-wedlock. Annoying.
I guess I needed to vent a little. Back to the meeting! An organization called Missouri River Communities Network wants to use a small team of interns to catalog the cultural heritage of the towns along the Missouri and develop a regional marketing plan to increase tourism along the corridor which will, hopefully, lead to increased opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs who want to preserve the environment of the area. Whew. The cause is just, it's part of my job, and the speakers were inspirational.
Because Mr. Heifer lives very near Rock Port, I headed out to his farm afterwards, hoping to find him and share this positive project with him. And see Daisy, too. He was home, I shared, he was glad, and he also told me about a colleague of his who was working to establish a mid-MO cuisine based on wine and, hopefully, signature crops (think Vidalia onions). And, since the trailer was already hooked onto his truck and since I needed to get a ram to my place if I wanted spring lambs, he loaded up a ram and, since there's a lot of room in the trailer, a ewe who wasn't gaining weight like she should (who "may or may not ever come back to my farm") and a baby ram, one of May's little guys, that I could just keep, what the heck.
I drove the sheep into Hometown, picked up a very pleased Stevie, and together we unloaded the new sheep and put up a string of polyrope near the ground to keep the wee ones from running around the yard. Did I mention that I bought the pretty brown fence and rigged it up so that my animals have the run of the east pasture? I still need to sink corner posts and put up proper gates, but it's an operable fence and the animals have been frolicking around, loving the space and the still-green and plentiful grass. The animals got on great, the ram immediately tried to mount everybody, and Stevie and I gave them some hay and sweet feed to welcome them.
I took the truck and trailer back out to Mr. Heifers and Stevie and I went into College Town to buy something for him to wear to his Christmas program at school the following evening. While we were at it, we picked up a Christmas-y (and complementary to Stevie's) vest with a choo-choo on it for Mark. He balked at his Nordic-inspired sweater vest that I got at the Gap for a DOLLAR--perhaps he would be a little more charitable to one with trains on it (he was).
Thursday, November 29
God this is a long post! On Thursday, it was back to the Mo River meeting and guess who the first speaker was? Mr. Heifer's colleague, the one trying to develop an alternative economic model for rural food producers. How totally, totally, cool is that? It was such a positive vibe. I never dreamed that I would meet all of these fabulous people. All of a sudden, I find myself in a position to DO all of the things I've dreamed of doing since I was a hippie on the 1990s version of Walden Pond. I have the animals, the space, the time (mostly), the support, the vision (mostly), and the ability. For the first time I'm feeling my age and wishing that I had found all of this 20 years ago. Of course, the real sign of maturity is realizing that there's no way in hell a 17-year old knows what I know now. Just have to make the best of it!
I left that meeting feeling great. I got the mail and found out that Stevie has been accepted into the gifted program at his school--the well-developed, true gifted program--and that his strengths are in "math and science thinking". Cool. I really hope that he finds a way of learning that really interests him and meets The Friend that he's been really needing.
Then we all got gussied up and went to the 2nd grade Christmas Program. Mark was great the whole time...up until Stevie's classmates came on stage. Then he started crying and Kevin and I tag-teamed holding him at the back of the gym. I tell ya, it takes a special person to be an elementary school music teacher. She stood in front of a gym-full of parents and made all the exaggerated motions necessary to direct 70 second-graders to jingle bell rock and roll around the Christmas tree. It was cute but, frankly, I could live without those little photo-ops.
Friday, November 30
So here I am, getting ready for next week's big tourism funding meeting and thinking that I need to make a list of all I need and want to do this weekend: put up Christmas decorations at the shop, go grocery shopping, get the Christmas cards mailed, put up the corner posts and take down the temporary fencing, watch the Big 12 championship game (despite the benefit for OSU if they lost, I'd like to see Mizzou win), quilt, learn how to make soap, clean out the boy's toys in preparation for the Christmas bounty, get ready for my mom's visit next week, etc.
I'd better get to it. So long, patient reader (so long, indeed!). Have a great weekend.
posted by lulu | 8:14 AM
1 Comments:
What a week! You ramble extremely well, beating James Joyce at his own game in the avant garde 'scream of consciousness' genre. Great game against Kansas, but they couldn't seem to get it together against Oklahoma, then Pitt beats West Virginia, can you believe this crazy season? How about not having a Number 1 team? Except maybe App State or Mount Union. Clarksville sounds great. Mr. Heifer is some kind of holy man, yes?
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