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SUUSI report, Day 2.
Jul. 22nd, 2007 03:55 pmAlex woke us up a little after seven on Monday morning, and after our showers we headed out to breakfast with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bosssio and her boys. Meals with the kids were really the hardest part of SUUSI. We'd haul the kids through the crowded cafeteria - not just SUUSI participants, but incoming freshmen and their parents at VT for orientation, plus undersupervised kids attending various sports camps - to our usual seating area, a large glass-walled room at one end of the dining room where families with small children tended to congregate because the enclosure made supervision easier. One of us would sit with the kids while the others fought the lines for food, and then we'd switch places. Meals were not particularly restful.
( Read more... )
bosssio and her boys. Meals with the kids were really the hardest part of SUUSI. We'd haul the kids through the crowded cafeteria - not just SUUSI participants, but incoming freshmen and their parents at VT for orientation, plus undersupervised kids attending various sports camps - to our usual seating area, a large glass-walled room at one end of the dining room where families with small children tended to congregate because the enclosure made supervision easier. One of us would sit with the kids while the others fought the lines for food, and then we'd switch places. Meals were not particularly restful.( Read more... )
SUUSI report: Day 1
Jul. 22nd, 2007 10:15 amThe only good thing about having a child who gets carsick is that you can use Dramamine for long car trips without feeling like a child abuser. It certainly made the drive to SUUSI easy - Alex only slept for about an hour, but she spent the rest of the trip in a drug-induced mellow, staring out the window and listening to music. The trip was absolutely uneventful - just what you want a five-hour drive to be, and certainly a nice change from last year.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
I've signed up for a four-mile hike at SUUSI which is described in the catalog as "invigorating" and "strenuous." At the time that I sent in my registration, I was so very much not physically prepared for anything of the kind... but I wanted to be, and I figured that being registered for a group hike on a particular date would be good motivation to regain some hiking skills.
What with one thing, and another, and a whole lot of others, I haven't prepared much beyond walking to work a couple of times a week, which is about a mile and a half over mostly-level sidewalks, or pushing Alex's stroller about 3/4 of a mile (I think) to nursery school. When we visited my parents over Memorial Day weekend, I did a three-mile trail walk with my father and his dog; again, over mostly flat ground. That one had me fairly tired by the end of it. With three weeks left until SUUSI, I decided that this weekend I had to get some strenuous hill hiking in.
Patapsco valley State Park is my closest hiking option - a twenty-minute drive from my house downtown. None of its trails are very long, but they interconnect in such a way that you can piece together a satisfying loop. I decided to combine the hiking-only portion of the Buzzard's Rock trail with the Sawmill Branch trail, which makes about a two-mile loop - very steep, but very scenic. This used to be one of my favorite hikes. I used to access it from a remote parking lot off a rural residential area, which always felt a little creepy - this time, I realized that I could get there from a more well-traveled part of the park if I added an extra 0.4 miles each way on a paved trail.
That way, I also got to start and end my trip by crossing a swinging suspension bridge high above the Patapsco River.
( read more illustrated travelogue )
What with one thing, and another, and a whole lot of others, I haven't prepared much beyond walking to work a couple of times a week, which is about a mile and a half over mostly-level sidewalks, or pushing Alex's stroller about 3/4 of a mile (I think) to nursery school. When we visited my parents over Memorial Day weekend, I did a three-mile trail walk with my father and his dog; again, over mostly flat ground. That one had me fairly tired by the end of it. With three weeks left until SUUSI, I decided that this weekend I had to get some strenuous hill hiking in.
Patapsco valley State Park is my closest hiking option - a twenty-minute drive from my house downtown. None of its trails are very long, but they interconnect in such a way that you can piece together a satisfying loop. I decided to combine the hiking-only portion of the Buzzard's Rock trail with the Sawmill Branch trail, which makes about a two-mile loop - very steep, but very scenic. This used to be one of my favorite hikes. I used to access it from a remote parking lot off a rural residential area, which always felt a little creepy - this time, I realized that I could get there from a more well-traveled part of the park if I added an extra 0.4 miles each way on a paved trail.
That way, I also got to start and end my trip by crossing a swinging suspension bridge high above the Patapsco River.
( read more illustrated travelogue )
We registered for SUUSI this weekend, and this morning I mailed out the required waivers and permission forms and the deposit. Now we're really going. (We've set aside our tax refund to pay for it, so we'll be able to afford it regardless of Michael's work situation.)
We'll be sharing a suite withbosssio and her boys, currently aged 18mos and 3 1/2. The kids play together really well - they came up to visit on Saturday, and it was sweet to watch Alex and Ant walking around holding hands. I think they'll be able to entertain each other a lot of the time, giving us adults more time to relax.
I am so excited. I need a vacation badly, and I haven't had a real one since... well, I guess since last year's SUUSI. (Spending Christmas with my in-laws? Not a vacation.) I've got a great schedule planned out for myself, a mix of family and independent activities with plenty of unscheduled time - including, most notably, a whole morning when Alex will be in the children's program and I won't be signed up for anything.
( our schedule, for posterity )
We'll be sharing a suite with
bosssio and her boys, currently aged 18mos and 3 1/2. The kids play together really well - they came up to visit on Saturday, and it was sweet to watch Alex and Ant walking around holding hands. I think they'll be able to entertain each other a lot of the time, giving us adults more time to relax.I am so excited. I need a vacation badly, and I haven't had a real one since... well, I guess since last year's SUUSI. (Spending Christmas with my in-laws? Not a vacation.) I've got a great schedule planned out for myself, a mix of family and independent activities with plenty of unscheduled time - including, most notably, a whole morning when Alex will be in the children's program and I won't be signed up for anything.
( our schedule, for posterity )
Ludicrously comprehensive omnibus update.
Mar. 30th, 2007 11:31 pmMy recent sparse, spasmodic posting style has left a ridiculous number of narrative threads dangling, hasn't it? My apologies to those of you who are reading for anything other than the cute Alex stories... such as, say, a sense of how my life is going.
Attempting to tie up loose ends in one big unmanageable knot:
( My research assistants, Alex, Michael's job hunt, my work, SUUSI, forthcoming LJ posts, the adorable YouTube video with otters swimming around holding hands, me being Brenchley. )
Well, that was fun! If nothing else, it gave me a chance to use this icon, which I like but rarely have occasion to use.
Attempting to tie up loose ends in one big unmanageable knot:
( My research assistants, Alex, Michael's job hunt, my work, SUUSI, forthcoming LJ posts, the adorable YouTube video with otters swimming around holding hands, me being Brenchley. )
Well, that was fun! If nothing else, it gave me a chance to use this icon, which I like but rarely have occasion to use.
Tags:
They posted the SUUSI catalog!!
I am excited. I am so much in need of some happy escapist vacation-dreaming right now, so this couldn't have come at a better time. I spent my lunch break poring over the electronic catalog, making long lists of all the things I might like to do.
They've got a UU parenting workshop this year, which initially had me excited. But it's five whole morning sessions, and registration is "required," meaning that they won't let you cross-register for anything else. I don't want to be locked into it to that extent. Besides, I think I should use the opportunity of SUUSI to feed other aspects of myself. I'm not sure I really want to put Alex in children's programming just to spend the entire morning thinking about her, you know?
So instead I'm thinking about taking a crafting workshop. Or a storytelling class. I know I want to take chocolate-making 101. (Filled chocolates and modeling chocolate. There's a separate truffle-making class, but I'm not all that crazy about truffles.) I think I'll probably skip the canoeing this year, and go on a moderately challenging hike instead. I want to do the Poverty Creek mini-hike/wading adventure with Alex again - that was a real highlight of SUUSI last year. I'd love to do a sunset hike, but the two sunset hikes are cross-scheduled against the beer tasting and the poker tournament, so that might be difficult to schedule.
Of course I can't nail anything down until Michael's had a chance to go through the schedule too, which won't be until after tomorrow night's church board meeting. This year we're planning to use the youth program during the mornings. The one thing I regretted most last year was only making it to one of the Theme Talks, which are from 9-10am. If we bring Alex to the youth program for the 9-noon session, we can go to theme talks and also each take a morning workshop without worrying about the other one's schedule. But nature trips and winery tours and so forth usually start before the youth program opens, and one of us will also always have to be on duty in the afternoon and evening. We could take her back to the youth program from 2-4 in the afternoon, but I feel like that's too much childcare for a family vacation. Once she's asleep at night, we'll be able to go out together - the childcare co-op kicks in at 9:30, and the person on duty will call us if she wakes up. So we can go out in the evening and do whatever.
Amusingly, right on the main page at suusi.org is a big notice: "Click here to pre-order a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the SUUSI store." They've got a small but functional bookstore, completely separate from the Virginia Tech bookstore. It usually sells SUUSI T-shirts and other memorabilia, CDs by musicians performing at SUUSI, books recommended by workshop leaders, and a range of titles published by Beacon Press and Skinner House (the Unitarian-Universalist Association's publishing houses), but this year they'll also be offering the seventh Harry Potter book at 12:01am on July 21st. I predict that they will be posting the largest profits in SUUSI bookstore history... probably several times over.
SUUSI! Yay!
I am not even entertaining the notion that SUUSI might go the same way as the Farthing Party and Minicon. I refuse to consider the possibility. In fact, what possibility? So there.
I am excited. I am so much in need of some happy escapist vacation-dreaming right now, so this couldn't have come at a better time. I spent my lunch break poring over the electronic catalog, making long lists of all the things I might like to do.
They've got a UU parenting workshop this year, which initially had me excited. But it's five whole morning sessions, and registration is "required," meaning that they won't let you cross-register for anything else. I don't want to be locked into it to that extent. Besides, I think I should use the opportunity of SUUSI to feed other aspects of myself. I'm not sure I really want to put Alex in children's programming just to spend the entire morning thinking about her, you know?
So instead I'm thinking about taking a crafting workshop. Or a storytelling class. I know I want to take chocolate-making 101. (Filled chocolates and modeling chocolate. There's a separate truffle-making class, but I'm not all that crazy about truffles.) I think I'll probably skip the canoeing this year, and go on a moderately challenging hike instead. I want to do the Poverty Creek mini-hike/wading adventure with Alex again - that was a real highlight of SUUSI last year. I'd love to do a sunset hike, but the two sunset hikes are cross-scheduled against the beer tasting and the poker tournament, so that might be difficult to schedule.
Of course I can't nail anything down until Michael's had a chance to go through the schedule too, which won't be until after tomorrow night's church board meeting. This year we're planning to use the youth program during the mornings. The one thing I regretted most last year was only making it to one of the Theme Talks, which are from 9-10am. If we bring Alex to the youth program for the 9-noon session, we can go to theme talks and also each take a morning workshop without worrying about the other one's schedule. But nature trips and winery tours and so forth usually start before the youth program opens, and one of us will also always have to be on duty in the afternoon and evening. We could take her back to the youth program from 2-4 in the afternoon, but I feel like that's too much childcare for a family vacation. Once she's asleep at night, we'll be able to go out together - the childcare co-op kicks in at 9:30, and the person on duty will call us if she wakes up. So we can go out in the evening and do whatever.
Amusingly, right on the main page at suusi.org is a big notice: "Click here to pre-order a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the SUUSI store." They've got a small but functional bookstore, completely separate from the Virginia Tech bookstore. It usually sells SUUSI T-shirts and other memorabilia, CDs by musicians performing at SUUSI, books recommended by workshop leaders, and a range of titles published by Beacon Press and Skinner House (the Unitarian-Universalist Association's publishing houses), but this year they'll also be offering the seventh Harry Potter book at 12:01am on July 21st. I predict that they will be posting the largest profits in SUUSI bookstore history... probably several times over.
SUUSI! Yay!
I am not even entertaining the notion that SUUSI might go the same way as the Farthing Party and Minicon. I refuse to consider the possibility. In fact, what possibility? So there.
Misc misc misc.
Feb. 25th, 2007 07:30 pmOne of my underlying sources of background stress for the last few months has been our landlords' intention to sell the house this summer. With Michael out of work, we're in no position to think about buying, so it would've meant a move to another rental - which, given the local market, would have meant either a move to another neighborhood or a move to a much smaller place, probably an apartment. (And just after we'd enrolled Alex in a nursery school within walking distance of this house.) Just the idea of packing and moving was enough to give me hives... and that was before adding in the added stress of expecting to move to a less desirable location.
Today one of our landlords called. They would really, really like to put the sale off for a year, but they don't want the hassle of finding new tenants. Would we be willing to stay for another year? Why, YES. Yes, we would.
The catch: one of the reasons they want to put off the sale is that the house needs a new roof. So sometime this spring our lives will be turned upside down for at least a week while the old roof comes off and the new one goes on. We suggested the week we go to SUUSI, and they laughed the hollow laugh of people who don't think there's any way in hell the old roof will make it to July.
So it's not an unmixed blessing. But still, what a relief that we won't be having to pack up and move in a few months, into another set of temporary quarters. If Michael gets a job soon and we make a concentrated effort to save money, we should be able to afford a down payment after another year in this house.
Speaking of SUUSI, they've got a lovely promotional slide show set to music here. It really does a great job of conveying the good feelings of the week. The short version is probably as much as most non-attendees will be able to stand, but I also feel compelled to rec the second half of the long version, because they've included a nice shot of our family at 1:07.
I have never in my life seen a weather report change so much so quickly. Before church this morning, we were expecting an inch or so of "wintry mix" followed by freezing rain. By the afternoon, several inches of snow had fallen, and they were predicting a total of 5-10 inches of accumulation. Then the snow tapered off, but they were still predicting another inch or two overnight. Now, just "a few rain showers" overnight.
I can't decide if I should cancel my clinics tomorrow or not. If it doesn't snow any more than this, I would feel awful silly staying home. If there's more snow and ice, patients just aren't going to show up.
Incidentally, my RA Steve just left for a week's vacation, which he had booked and paid for long before the other RA got sick. For this whole upcoming week, it's just going to be me and a very-part-time grad student. And Lydia, who doesn't really help with the day-to-day stuff. Is it any wonder that I'm having snow day fantasies?
I hate shopping. But for some reason I really love buying big mixed packages of clothes for Alex on eBay. I would hate actually cruising the stores for this stuff, so the opportunity to get a whole season's wardrobe at once is worth having to discard a few ugly things from the mix.
Today one of our landlords called. They would really, really like to put the sale off for a year, but they don't want the hassle of finding new tenants. Would we be willing to stay for another year? Why, YES. Yes, we would.
The catch: one of the reasons they want to put off the sale is that the house needs a new roof. So sometime this spring our lives will be turned upside down for at least a week while the old roof comes off and the new one goes on. We suggested the week we go to SUUSI, and they laughed the hollow laugh of people who don't think there's any way in hell the old roof will make it to July.
So it's not an unmixed blessing. But still, what a relief that we won't be having to pack up and move in a few months, into another set of temporary quarters. If Michael gets a job soon and we make a concentrated effort to save money, we should be able to afford a down payment after another year in this house.
Speaking of SUUSI, they've got a lovely promotional slide show set to music here. It really does a great job of conveying the good feelings of the week. The short version is probably as much as most non-attendees will be able to stand, but I also feel compelled to rec the second half of the long version, because they've included a nice shot of our family at 1:07.
I have never in my life seen a weather report change so much so quickly. Before church this morning, we were expecting an inch or so of "wintry mix" followed by freezing rain. By the afternoon, several inches of snow had fallen, and they were predicting a total of 5-10 inches of accumulation. Then the snow tapered off, but they were still predicting another inch or two overnight. Now, just "a few rain showers" overnight.
I can't decide if I should cancel my clinics tomorrow or not. If it doesn't snow any more than this, I would feel awful silly staying home. If there's more snow and ice, patients just aren't going to show up.
Incidentally, my RA Steve just left for a week's vacation, which he had booked and paid for long before the other RA got sick. For this whole upcoming week, it's just going to be me and a very-part-time grad student. And Lydia, who doesn't really help with the day-to-day stuff. Is it any wonder that I'm having snow day fantasies?
I hate shopping. But for some reason I really love buying big mixed packages of clothes for Alex on eBay. I would hate actually cruising the stores for this stuff, so the opportunity to get a whole season's wardrobe at once is worth having to discard a few ugly things from the mix.
SUUSI report, days 6 and 7.
Jul. 27th, 2006 12:40 pm(Finishing up my SUUSI report without my poor, deceased home computer.) ( warning: more religious content than the previous reports. )
SUUSI report, day 4.
Jul. 20th, 2006 01:29 pmTuesday was a peaceful day; Wednesday was anything but. ( in a good way, however. )
SUUSI report, Day 1.
Jul. 18th, 2006 02:10 pmHaving a wonderful time. Wish you were here. ( Read more. A lot more. )
(no subject)
Jul. 15th, 2006 11:35 pmIt appears that - in contrast to work, where I've been announcing my upcoming vacation approximately every five minutes - I have been remiss in warning my social circle of my upcoming trip. (therealjae: "Did I know about this vacation?" Closest local friend Emily: "Have to cancel for today, but I'll look forward to seeing you on Wednesday." wcg: "See you Thursday." Et cetera.)
So: we're leaving in the morning for SUUSI, the Southeast Unitarian-Universalist Summer Institute. We'll be back Saturday in the late afternoon or evening. I am, in equal parts, incredibly excited and terrified that no one will talk to me.
I will have net access, and given that I'll be spending at least some time hanging out in the dorm while Alex naps, I shouldn't disappear completely. Y'all play nice, though, while I'm away.
therealjae: "Did I know about this vacation?" Closest local friend Emily: "Have to cancel for today, but I'll look forward to seeing you on Wednesday." wcg: "See you Thursday." Et cetera.)So: we're leaving in the morning for SUUSI, the Southeast Unitarian-Universalist Summer Institute. We'll be back Saturday in the late afternoon or evening. I am, in equal parts, incredibly excited and terrified that no one will talk to me.
I will have net access, and given that I'll be spending at least some time hanging out in the dorm while Alex naps, I shouldn't disappear completely. Y'all play nice, though, while I'm away.
Vacation! SUUSI!
May. 2nd, 2006 01:45 pmI 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.)
