Done Since 2019-06-16

A good week. Actually, a very good week. It started with Colleen coming home from the hospital, with no rehab required, and continued with Father's Day messages from the kids (call from the YD, who told me that Chaos had left a message on FB.

Much of the rest of Sunday through Tuesday was spent packing. Well, mostly debating how to pack. I could have easily done it carry-on if I hadn't had Plink along -- the small (22") Travelpro fits easily overhead, and would have been big enough, but Plink doesn't go under the seat and neither does the suitcase. My backpack (whose name I can't remember -- Red? May have been used for a previous bag.)... Anyway, my red backpack isn't quite big enough for everything, even with the CPAP in a separate bag. (Travelpro)Rolly is a little too big to fit under a seat, as is Chami (the Antler rolling suitcase/backpack). And Rolly opens on the long side, so it's wider and much less convenient. *sigh*

Much of the rest of Sunday through Tuesday was spent worrying about C's care and condition. But between N and L in the daytime and V offering to stay at night, that worked out well and I was able to head out only slightly worried.

Tuesday evening we interview three candidates for housekeeper. Two were worth pursuing; we're going to offer at least one of them a trial run.

Wednesday was travel. I had a 4-hour layover in Denver, which I ended up needing because two hours got used up in a diversion to Boise to drop off a sick passenger. I also ended up waiting nearly two hours for a shuttle to the hotel. :P

Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning was my 50th reunion at Carleton. I had a blast talking to people -- we all have stories. It didn't matter whether we'd known one another as undergraduates; looking back from half a century we all clicked instantly. I'm normally shy (as everyone reading this knows); it didn't matter.

There were two high points. The first was at the start of the buffet welcome dinner Thursday. I was spotted by Candace, who rushed up to me and apologized for ghosting me after I'd asked her out half a century ago(!) (Given what she looked like at the time, with beautiful long blonde hair, it's no surprise that she needed a break from dating.) And I apologized for overreacting, we hugged, and spent most of the rest of the meal talking. Because stories. She's currently a cosmogeochemist in San Diego; she had been lured there by the prospect of studying the first moon rocks (which hadn't even arrived yet), and has an asteroid named after her.

They called our names, afterward, and asked us to stand up -- that's how I tracked down Joe, my senior year roommate and the person who introduced me to folk dancing. Which, in turn, introduced me to a couple of interesting women, who unfortunately were in later classes so weren't there. There had been a multi-year folk dance reunion at one of the earlier ones. (I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out whether I'd been to our 30th or our 35th; I eventually searched back in my LJ/DW archive and found a reference to skipping the 35th. I know I went to the 10th because Colleen was with me and we didn't have kids at the time.)

The other high point was Sunday morning (notes for Sunday will come out next week as usual, but I have time in the airport and it makes a better story if it's all together). I sang "Bells of Norwich" toward the end of the class's memorial service. I nailed the performance, and several people came up to me afterward and thanked me. I hated to have to leave, but it was time -- I noticed that I was beginning to get peopled out. I'm not surprised. Apparently my comfort zone is wider than I thought, but I'm still an introvert and still get overloaded when there are too many conversations going on around me.

( Notes & links, as usual )