ACT 2 - Chautauqua revisited 2010

I'm baaaaaaaack!!

I may be having internet difficulties here like I did last year. So I shall try to get this out for all of you who have been worried sick all day that I was out on the cruel highway. . . . . .Yea, I know.

Big shout out to the Temptations Cafe in Berkeley Springs, West Virgina. I love great routines and today I established a new one because and for the second time this summer, I left home around 6 am and got to the Temptations Cafe around 9 for breakfast. This restaurant has the good sense to offer real food, prepared from scratch, using mostly local products. This is pretty much the only kind of establishment I bother with anymore if possible. I had the most scrumptious Summer Harvest Omlet. . . eggs, tomatoes, basil, mozzarella. Oh my. I eschewed the grits or hash browns and Gary the waiter brought me instead the most delicious wheat toast. . bread made from scratch at the restaurant. And bottomless coffee with a cup to take on the road. That is pretty much what kept me coherent on the drive.

I lost some sleep this week due to the fact that I bought a house. Yes, this is true. A tiny little cottage that will require a complete gut job to turn it into the small residence of my dream. Great lot, right across the street from my gym. Perfect in every way. . . . particularly when the rennovation is done. Of course that cannot start until I sell house #1 - I bit the bullet and listed with realtor Ed who will also be my builder for the next project. Hopefully this makes him highly motivated to get the house sold. Also new this week, yard workers par excellence. . . Fred and Richard. They work like fiends and have already transformed my jungle like existence to a tame, trimmed showcase. I also have Barbara and Christine who are cleaning my house while I'm gone prior to listing. Wow. . . I have PEOPLE! Like. . . I'll have my people call your people. What fun!

I also had a memorable time working at the Wintergreen Music Festival for the last three weeks. I squired around visiting artists: a tv chef from Austria, an Austrian painter/composer/musician named Wolfgang who was terrific. I also helped two other interns hang and art show. . . oil paintings from the Austrian Embassy. Do I know how to do this??? Absolutely not. Did I help do it. Yes!

So coming back up here was a little wild today. My heart felt still back in Nelson. But after the sweaty moving in process and a bit of dinner. . . .I got to go to my choir rehearsal. Heaven. We sing the Faure Requiem next week and we got a head start on it tonight. One of my very favorites. And I saw a wonderful orchestra concert - Beethoven overture, Haydn Cello Concerto, and Schumann's Rhenish Symphony. All viewed by me from the choir loft where I could look right over the orchestra's shoulders into the face of the conductor. Two very heavy rains already, but we've gone from warm and humid to cool and fresh. Ahhhhhhh! Should be a great three weeks!