Vacation! SUUSI!
May. 2nd, 2006 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI just got permission from Lydia to schedule vacation for the week of July 16-22. So we're going to SUUSI - the Southeast Unitarian-Universalist Summer Institute - this summer. I am so excited.
I think this will be a stretch experience. Neither of us has ever done anything quite like this before - like a con, but with workshops and trips instead of panels and room parties; like the church family retreats or youth group trips I went on as a teenager, but with 1000 strangers instead of just our own church; and, hopefully, nothing at all like the church camp Michael attended as a child. I know that it will be a stretch for me to push past my own shyness and really participate in the intentional community aspects of SUUSI.
But it should also be so much fun. It's being held in a beautiful, beautiful part of the country - Blacksburg, VA, in the Appalachian mountains. I've signed up for two "nature trips" - a canoe trip down the New River as evening turns to night, and a all-ages hike to Poverty Creek for which I plan to wear Alex in a backpack. Michael's planning a trip to a mountaintop winery, and possibly a kayaking trip. And there are workshops: I'm going to take a sushi-making class and a workshop about using Christian myths in Unitarian churches. There's dancing every night! Two beer tastings! A coffeehouse for discussion and games! Concerts by nationally-touring artists every night, plus a cabaret! Worship services every evening! ...Okay, maybe that part doesn't sound fun to you guys.
There's children's programming too, but I expect we'll be treating it as a drop-in playgroup rather than leaving Alex there. More critically, there's a childcare co-op for the post-bedtime hours. In exchange for being on duty for one 2.5-hour shift each, we'll be free to spend the rest of our late evenings going to programming or taking long, romantic walks.
(I am glossing over the part where we'll be sleeping in college dorms and eating in the dining hall. But I still think it will be great.)
I think this will be a stretch experience. Neither of us has ever done anything quite like this before - like a con, but with workshops and trips instead of panels and room parties; like the church family retreats or youth group trips I went on as a teenager, but with 1000 strangers instead of just our own church; and, hopefully, nothing at all like the church camp Michael attended as a child. I know that it will be a stretch for me to push past my own shyness and really participate in the intentional community aspects of SUUSI.
But it should also be so much fun. It's being held in a beautiful, beautiful part of the country - Blacksburg, VA, in the Appalachian mountains. I've signed up for two "nature trips" - a canoe trip down the New River as evening turns to night, and a all-ages hike to Poverty Creek for which I plan to wear Alex in a backpack. Michael's planning a trip to a mountaintop winery, and possibly a kayaking trip. And there are workshops: I'm going to take a sushi-making class and a workshop about using Christian myths in Unitarian churches. There's dancing every night! Two beer tastings! A coffeehouse for discussion and games! Concerts by nationally-touring artists every night, plus a cabaret! Worship services every evening! ...Okay, maybe that part doesn't sound fun to you guys.
There's children's programming too, but I expect we'll be treating it as a drop-in playgroup rather than leaving Alex there. More critically, there's a childcare co-op for the post-bedtime hours. In exchange for being on duty for one 2.5-hour shift each, we'll be free to spend the rest of our late evenings going to programming or taking long, romantic walks.
(I am glossing over the part where we'll be sleeping in college dorms and eating in the dining hall. But I still think it will be great.)
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 05:51 pm (UTC)Enjoy!
backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 05:57 pm (UTC)Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 05:59 pm (UTC)Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 06:01 pm (UTC)Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 06:10 pm (UTC)He still wants "up" all the time, so I got an older one off the Trading Post to try. We've used it almost every day since it came. Shopping trips are easier, cooking is easier. He never fusses in the Ergo, unlike when he's in a shopping cart (about 25% of the time he wants out). I don't know if I'd like it for an extended hike, but then, I think pretty much any baby carrier would get uncomfortable. A lot of people use the Ergo for hiking and like it.
http://thebabywearer.com has a FSOT board that doesn't have any membership requirements to view.
Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 06:06 pm (UTC)She's adopting a baby, who will probably be 6-8mos old when she comes home. I did some poking around in the MDC babywearing forum and found that people with older/bigger babies really seemed to love the Ergo, and then I got to see one in real life at story hour.
I try not to be a babywearing zealot - I don't think there's anything at all wrong with strollers. But my sister is going to be a single mother, and she lives in a place that gets a lot of snow, so I think that for her a good carrier will really be essential. She bought an Ergo this weekend.
Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 06:14 pm (UTC)One caveat: the back carry is simple for me because E can walk around to my back and I can hoist him up. I think it might be a little tougher to do if the baby cannot stand independently.
Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 08:28 pm (UTC)We have a back-carrier like a rucksack where the baby sits up high and can see over the parent's head; it has plenty of rucksack space, too. Absolutely not suitable for young babies though. For that we have a hug-a-bub.
Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 08:50 pm (UTC)Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 08:54 pm (UTC)Re: backpacks
Date: 2006-05-02 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 06:04 pm (UTC)Pictures, please, when you go? I grew up just barely outside of Blacksburg and went to undergrad at Virginia Tech, and I miss it muchly.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 08:01 pm (UTC)[1] Many of whom are, in fact, related to me in some way. I have uneasy relationships with my blood relatives.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 08:27 pm (UTC)But, yeah, my wife's experiences of people's attitudes are quite different and rather like yours, even though she only grew up an hour away from where I did, because her community wasn't part of the college influence.
It's a very complicated thing. I'd very much like to move back because of the beauty of the countryside and being close to family and being able to live somewhere with more space than a little suburban apartment, but ... the culture is certainly not silicon valley!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 08:40 pm (UTC)So presumably, Blacksburg is very different.
from another b-burg resident . . .
Date: 2006-05-02 06:27 pm (UTC)(lengthy paean to the wonders of Appalachian landscape snipped) So, um, yeah. If you don't mind the constant cow smell around the university, it's wonderful.
Re: from another b-burg resident . . .
Date: 2006-05-02 08:40 pm (UTC)But, then, I grew up there, so I suppose maybe it's something I wouldn't have noticed even if it were there. And also I like the Hokie Stone. (It's not on quite all of the buildings, though. Can you guess my undergrad department there if I tell you that I was in the one that doesn't have any?)
Re: from another b-burg resident . . .
Date: 2006-05-04 01:43 pm (UTC)A department without Hokie Stone? The only place that comes to mind is Upper Quad, and I didn't think there were any actual departments up there, other than the Corps. (And let me say that I definitely prefer Hokie Stone to red brick.)
. . . ah, right. Your userinfo reminds me of Randolph, the building that looks like a junior high school. :)
Re: from another b-burg resident . . .
Date: 2006-05-04 09:19 pm (UTC)I actually sort of like how Randolph looks, but I've got a soft spot for that 1950s industrial aesthetic if it's taken in moderation.
And, yeah, I was always coming into campus from the north end, so that might have affected the odors as well. How much of the cost of this manure gun was chipped in by clandestine contributions from University of Virginia fraternities, I wonder?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 12:15 pm (UTC)I've heard that working there is an incredible, intense experience.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 10:05 pm (UTC)It is--or was--really intense in that particular way a bunch of college kids under stress can create intensity. I think the people who had been going to conferences all their lives generally had much more positive experiences than people like me who'd never been.
On the other hand, I met my husband there, which was ample compensation for a rough summer.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 10:51 pm (UTC)Harumph. Sez who nightly UU worship doesn't sound fun? The whole program sounds wonderful, and I'm glad you're going.
(Note to self: need a flaming chalice upserpic ...)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 01:30 am (UTC)The hands-down best place to eat in town is Zeppoli's. Very nice little Italian place that no one seems to know about. It hides behind the Blockbuster on Tom's Creek Road. I haven't found anything up here in Maryland to rival it but then I haven't really been up here (Rockville) long enough to get all the good places scoped out.
Having said that, the dining halls have been winning all sorts of food awards the last few years and depending on which dorm you end up in you might even have air conditioning. Fair warning that if you don't like the current weather, wait half an hour and it'll change on you.
I'll go back to lurking now.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 09:24 pm (UTC)Also, agreed on the stars -- if you get a chance, find a spot away from the town lights one night and spend 15 minutes or so getting acclimated to the dark. They're breathtaking.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-08 02:15 am (UTC)I've signed up for a nighttime canoe trip, so that should do the trick. I'm looking forward to it!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 04:16 am (UTC)Maybe I should try a UU service sometime.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 04:21 pm (UTC)Worth checking out, for sure!
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Date: 2006-05-03 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 04:47 pm (UTC)