In Town for the 4th

Every once in a while, the clouds of busy-ness part, leaving a window of time, and the opportunity presents itself to pack your bags and take a last-minute vacation. That's exactly what happened around June 20th of this year, when my colleagues and I were given five additional days off, an opportunity to fly out west presented itself, and I took it, just in time to attend...

Aerin's baptism! I told Dad that I was coming, but told him not to tell anyone else, so that it would be a surprise for Ellen when I showed up at their family function unannounced. Of course he didn't tell anyone ... except his other half, who didn't tell anyone ... except for Gilbert, who only knew that Grandpa had gone to Salt Lake to pick up a surprise visitor. Of course, Gilbert didn't tell anyone either, except his mom. Regardless of the leak, the surprise was still pleasant, Aerin's baptism was terrific, and we had a great barbeque lunch afterward. Good times.

There were leaks outside the family as well, mostly of my own make. When I emailed an old flame that I would be in Provo for the week of the 4th, I didn't think that the first thing she was going to do was go straight to my older brother's house and tell him. 'Next thing you know, Kirk called me and said, "I hear you're coming into town!" Anyway, kind of a humorous situation.

Of course the 4th of July also means the Provo Freedom Festival. My Dad, Bros, bro-in-law and several grandkids went on a hike to the Y to watch the balloon launch. That was an ingenious idea, by the way. It was a great morning and the mountain afforded a terrific view of the launch. Naturally, and in observance of family tradition, a hike to the Y meant that I had to announce to the world that "I'm at the tip of the arrow!" Unfortunately, the only people that would really understand what in the heck I was talking about weren't with us on the hike. The solution? Cell phones. A couple of quick calls, and before you know it, my announcement had reached all the way from Provo, Utah to Kensington, Maryland ... probably the farthest such an announcement has ever gone. It's a good thing that Ems and her family are two hours ahead of everyone in Utah, since the hike was pretty early, and I didn't want anyone to have to get out of bed for such an "important" announcement. I think Ellen was less fortunate than Emily in that regard. 'Sorry, Ellen.

While at the Freedom Festival, I attended the patriotic fireside and heard the Freedom Festival Wind Ensemble led by none other than Dr. David Blackinton, my trumpet teacher of 10+ years. It was good to see him. I told him what I was doing with my life, to which he of course chuckled and said, "Well, I'm glad you're successful!" He has a very colorful personality - 'highly recommend getting to know him.

Thanks to everyone who hosted Careen and me while I was in town. It was good to see everyone. 'Till our Christmas revels!

The Blackfriars Playhouse - Staunton, Virginia

I'll bet you didn't know that the little town of Staunton, VA is the home of the Blackfriars Playhouse, the world's only recreation of an indoor Elizabethan theatre (notice the English spelling of theatre - 'just comes out when I'm in a Shakespearean mood). I took a date there last Thursday. We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream. Before the production began, the players asked if anyone would like to sit not in the audience, but on the stage. A few people volunteered. Then they asked if anyone would want to occupy the balcony on the stage, the place where Royalty would have sat. My date and I volunteered. It was AMAZING!!!

Watching the play from up there gave me a new perspective on Shakespeare (I know, I know - Beylster, cut it out with the cruel and unusual PUNishment). After the play was over, we attended the "Talk Back" session, where we got to interact with some of the players. One of them asked how our experience was watching the play from the balcony, since they are the touring company and rarely get to have the audience sit on such a balcony. My response included the sentiments that sitting on the balcony really did make you feel like royalty. It made the production even more intimate. During the play, the players would look at and address us. During the curtain call, the players would turn around and bow to just us. It was a lot of fun.

Keeping Busy at Work

Projects at work have kept me and my colleagues pretty busy lately. In a way, I think it's helped some of us come together as a team. Everyone realizes that everyone else is in a crunch and that people can only do so much. It makes you chill out when things are uptight and realize that people are doing their best.

My friend Naysan has been particularly helpful in crunch time. He's our instructional technology specialist that ensures that the computers can keep up with the language content. I am personally very grateful to him for making many an evening/weekend phone call to my editor to help her figure out technical problems with her computer. You could say that I would not enjoy as much success at work as I do if Naysan weren't there to help.

So, I rewarded him by letting him beat me in an arm wrestling match. 'Gotta build him up somehow!

Shenandoah National Park

I-81 runs in a nearly north-east-to-south-west direction, roughly parallel to the Shenandoah River, which in turn runs roughly parallel to the Shenandoah National Park. The park sits on a mountain ridge, adorned by a road called "Skyline Drive." Be sure to exercise extreme caution when driving on Skyline Drive. You're likely to be tempted to pay little attention to the winding road in front of you in favor of looking out at the valley. Before I moved hear, I heard that the Shenandoah Valley was one of the most beautiful places in the United States. I had seen some photographs of how green the valley is, but I was not prepared for what this place would look like in the fall.

I've been to Skyline Drive several times with different groups of friends. There's a chance that I went on the same (or a portion of the same) hike every time. It doesn't really matter, especially if you go in different seasons, as the same hike is likely to be an entirely different experience a few months later.

I think one of my favorite hiking experiences in the Shenandoah was with my friends Richard and Heather. Some friends of theirs also joined us. After the first few stops, we realized that we weren't going to be able to get out of the car at every look-out point. We had initially planned on hiking a six-miler, but because it was already late morning, we changed our plans in favor of a mile and a half. It was a good thing we didn't get there any later than we did, as it was a Saturday and everyone else in the valley also showed up for a quick trip to the mountains that day. Who could blame them on a day like that?

Richard and I thought we'd try our hands at sawing logs the old fashioned way. We tried not to pay attention to the flack we got from the women-folk in our party.

There's plenty to do in the Shenandoah National Park. You can find a hike of just about any length to suit your hiking abilities. Heck, my nephews Peter and Adam have even hiked in the Shenandoah! Be careful if you bring kids along with you, though. You may end up looking like the Ricks.

Olympic-style Weightlifting

My most recent and most exciting athletic pursuits are in the sport of weightlifting. No, this is not the same as bodybuilding or powerlifting. Here's the brief run-down.

Olympic-style weightlifting is a sport with two events in it: the Snatch and the Clean-and-Jerk. The snatch is when the athlete lifts a barbell from the ground directly into a stabilized position over his/her head in one movement. The clean-and-jerk is when the athlete raises or cleans the bar from the ground to the collar bone level. (S)he then jerks the bar from there into the air and again stabilizes the bar over his/her head.

These two events might seem ... well, ... they might seem to be any number of things. 'Painful' and 'brainless' are two words that you might be thinking. For the record, it's a very precise sport, with a lot of fine-tuned motion. Usually that involves capitalizing on gravity, inertia, and natural movement. In other words, Newton does most of the work, so competing isn't that painful (training is a different story).

As far as the word 'brainless' is concerned, the sport actually requires a tremendous amount of concentration and mental discipline. This is one of the reasons this sport is so compelling to me -- it makes the athlete control his/her thoughts. I'm beginning to see that there is great purpose in athletics.

I just returned from competing in the Virginia Weightlifting Cardinal Open. Somehow, I managed to win first place in the Senior Men's division. I'm not exactly sure how that happened, since I've only been training regularly for a few months. I think it has something to do with the fact that all the guys that were lifting more weight than me happened to be in either younger or older age divisions.