An Independence Day Getaway

Finally I have an evening home, and I spend it cleaning. But I couldn't handle one more night of going to bed, not knowing if there were spiders lurking in the corners. In short, it was time for a good top to bottom vacuuming, a hardcore tub scrubbing, and now my basement lair sparkles clean and spiderweb free.

Why so busy? In addition to days filled with my day law office job, my on-call weekend jewelry sales job, and Sundays and two weeknights filled with hot, sticky oboe playing in the two outdoor municipal bands, I spent a couple days last week in Lincoln, Nebraska, playing first oboe in their symphony's 4th of July outdoor fireworks concert.

Lincoln was a fun getaway. Never having been there before, I found it to be similar in atmosphere to Iowa City - a true college town, only bigger, and with a bigger city vibe. After the first rehearsal Tuesday night, I hungrily waded through the skimpily-dressed young college broads and their goof-off fraternity boy companions downtown out to celebrate the impending holiday, to find some eats. I was in the mood for anything I couldn't get at home and so when I stumbled across a "gyro" place (or more appropriately a Döner Kebab) named Ali Baba, I happily ducked in.

Feeling as though I'd struck gold, I ordered a falafel sandwich and started chatting with the Afghani kebab owner. The falafel was great, albeit very messy since gyro pita bread is much smaller than Döner flat bread which mostly stays together when you eat it. I really enjoyed talking to the owner. He even lived in Germany as a refugee in the early 80s for a short time so he offered me a couple German phrases. Now in America for over 25 years, he has never looked back or traveled back to his troubled life in Afghanistan and happily shaves lamb meat off a skewer in a country he calls home.

I made my home for two nights in a Marriott hotel paid for by the orchestra (and yes, it made me feel like an important little oboe diva for a couple days...just kidding). The concert was amazing - even coordinated with fireworks; it was exciting and impressive. Only bad part was it was scorching hot and the orchestra, thanks to stage lights and stand lamps, was getting eaten alive by swarms of bugs. When we weren't swatting or hitting bugs off ourselves, we were sweating or close to fainting from the loud, intense patriotic concert selection.

It was quite thrilling, though, and afterwards an old youth symphony friend of mine, Ryann, who now lives in the area there and had also played in the concert, joined me for a drink downtown among the (gulp) young twenty-somethings. Afterwards she took me up on my offer to use the spare bed in my nice hotel and stay in Lincoln for the night instead of driving all the way home. We had a nice little reunion, the last time we saw each other being at her wedding four (!) years ago.

Back at work the day after the 4th of July, it felt like an anti-climatic finale, as I was back to punching holes in legal documents and organizing file folders. But I certainly appreciated the little trip and the chance to play with the orchestra there. Plus, I had some very friendly work colleagues to come back to and they were eager to hear about the concert.

In other news, my mom had to fly to Bellingham, Washington (near the Canadian border) over the weekend to visit my grandpa, in the intensive care unit of a hospital after much internal bleeding due to a stomach ulcer and suffering a subsequent heart attack. We're awaiting word on possible brain damage due to the long period of resuscitation, but it seems he is doing steadily better and even able to somewhat communicate and understood her presence. My parents just got home from the Omaha airport, so she will share the news of the trip tomorrow. My mom and I are actually going to try to get up for a 6 A.M. Pilate's class... And me, the non-morning person...

In conclusion, one of my good high school friends, Kari (pictured middle), and her husband have just made the move back to our hometown. She is pregnant, and both being teachers, they were hoping he would find a job here so she could have the baby close to her parents. He did find a job, and so they just moved into their new house here last week. With another dear friend Katy (pictured left) back home for a wedding over the weekend, too, the three of us enjoyed a girls night out Saturday night. As I have been pretty reliant on friends coming home to visit, or the occasional trip to visit them, it is always refreshingly nice to have friends (my age) home to spend time with. And of course, all the better when they stay for good!