A couple of weekends ago my dad's side of the family got together for a family reunion. He's the oldest of 10 so it's a big family. I have 32 cousins and if my memory is right the official count for the descendents of my grandpa and grandma is now 134. While most of us live in Iowa or Minnesota we are spread from New York City to Seattle to Arizona. So it was pretty good that over 90 of us showed up at Mahoney State Park near Ashland Nebraska.
Besides the super hot weather, there are a few things I'll remember about the weekend. One will be listening to 3 of my younger aunts and uncles talk about the boy/girl friends of some of the older ones. They remembered names and specific events. Oh the stories that come out!
The other highlight of the weekend was some pictures my brother put together. He blended old (i.e. when my aunts and uncles were much younger) and new (i.e. up to 2011). There were many good laughs at things that can only be funny to family members. I enjoyed watching my cousins' kids laugh at the way mom and dad used to look or get a rather puzzled expression when told the man in the picture was Grandpa. Hairstyles, clothes and glasses sure do change over the years. The four cousins who lined up with their boys who were born within 2 months of each other last summer looked totally normal but I'm sure we will get a good laugh when we see that picture in 20 years. There were also some tears as Aunt Suzanne is greatly missed. There were a couple of comments about how our family seems to be crying more. That's a good thing. Even a bunch of stoic Dutch folk can learn to let their heart show.
Over recent months we've been studying Ephesians at church. One of the themes that is being stressed is that church is a family of families. One of our discussions centered on the importance of each of us knowing where we fit in this family. To me it doesn't seem very complicated since I compare it to my big extended family. No matter what the personality or the quirk, everyone in the family fits - because they are family. It seems to me it comes down to showing up and just being who you are. And that's the case whether you're the patriarch (that would be my dad), one of the cousins, the newest in-law or the youngest baby.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
U2 and Shakespeare
Last night TCF Stadium hosted a U2 concert for which Minneapolis had been waiting for a couple of years. The concert was originally scheduled for a year ago but was postponed until now. That meant I had the opportunity to work security. Several people I know would have loved to have been in my shoes (and if you are a man on the bigger side you could have had a spot right in front of the stage - facing the crowd of course.) After hearing an extended sound check I was grateful to be sent off to a gate where I could hear the music without losing my hearing.
Working security amounts to lots of waiting and standing. I was given the job of checking bags which I'm actually not very good at because I have a hard time telling people that their large backpack full of rain gear is too big to be allowed into the stadium. I was more strict on the size of the camera lens which was to be less than 3 inches. I only saw one lens that seemed longer than that and the guy protested rather loudly that it was fine. I was thankful my supervisor was close at that point and got him to deal with it. (The man was let in with his camera.) I saw lots of ponchos and a few women in high heels had a pair of flip flops hidden in their bag. The people were of all ages. My favorite was a grandma, a mother and her two grade school boys. I think the grandmother was more excited than the boys (in part because she was getting to introduce her grandchildren to some great music.) It may be a stereo-type on my part but that isn't what I would expect at a typical rock concert.
I hoped the ponchos wouldn't be needed but about 10:00 (an hour into the U2 part of the concert) it started raining and was soon pouring with strong gusts of winds. A few people headed for the exits but for the most part the party continued. Bono closed his concert with Singing in the Rain with the crowd joining in. As I watched the crowd stream out, cold and soaking wet with water squishing out of their shoes, many of them had smiles on their faces. Rain or no, they had had a wonderful time.
This afternoon I went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. A friend of mine is taking a Shakespeare class and she had to attend and write a paper on it. She rounded up a few other friends and we enjoyed the beautiful summer day with a picnic before the show. It was well done and held the attention of even the youngest ones in the crowd. One child was following the story well enough to be able to answer one of the character's rhetorical.
Personally I was thankful for the summary my friend had given us before so it was easier for me to follow. (If you are in the area, there are 2 more showings next weekend. http://www.thestrangecapers.com/index.htm).
One of the people I was with this afternoon had been at the concert last night and from his description of the way Bono was able to make a stadium filled with 60,000+ people feel like a community it was easy to see why almost everyone had come out smiling.
U2 and Shakespeare: that's lots of culture for me in one weekend.
Working security amounts to lots of waiting and standing. I was given the job of checking bags which I'm actually not very good at because I have a hard time telling people that their large backpack full of rain gear is too big to be allowed into the stadium. I was more strict on the size of the camera lens which was to be less than 3 inches. I only saw one lens that seemed longer than that and the guy protested rather loudly that it was fine. I was thankful my supervisor was close at that point and got him to deal with it. (The man was let in with his camera.) I saw lots of ponchos and a few women in high heels had a pair of flip flops hidden in their bag. The people were of all ages. My favorite was a grandma, a mother and her two grade school boys. I think the grandmother was more excited than the boys (in part because she was getting to introduce her grandchildren to some great music.) It may be a stereo-type on my part but that isn't what I would expect at a typical rock concert.
I hoped the ponchos wouldn't be needed but about 10:00 (an hour into the U2 part of the concert) it started raining and was soon pouring with strong gusts of winds. A few people headed for the exits but for the most part the party continued. Bono closed his concert with Singing in the Rain with the crowd joining in. As I watched the crowd stream out, cold and soaking wet with water squishing out of their shoes, many of them had smiles on their faces. Rain or no, they had had a wonderful time.
This afternoon I went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. A friend of mine is taking a Shakespeare class and she had to attend and write a paper on it. She rounded up a few other friends and we enjoyed the beautiful summer day with a picnic before the show. It was well done and held the attention of even the youngest ones in the crowd. One child was following the story well enough to be able to answer one of the character's rhetorical.
Personally I was thankful for the summary my friend had given us before so it was easier for me to follow. (If you are in the area, there are 2 more showings next weekend. http://www.thestrangecapers.com/index.htm).
One of the people I was with this afternoon had been at the concert last night and from his description of the way Bono was able to make a stadium filled with 60,000+ people feel like a community it was easy to see why almost everyone had come out smiling.
U2 and Shakespeare: that's lots of culture for me in one weekend.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Possible reasons for not writing last week:
- I was too busy studying
- I was having too much fun partying
- I had no stories to tell
- I decided sleep was more important
- There was no internet connection
I did help a couple from church celebrate their marriage last weekend so I did do some partying and came home with a good story to tell. Between the ceremony and the beginning of the reception I was talking with Alex, Brandy, Britney and Elizabeth (names have been changed to protect the innocent) and I asked Anna what she remembered about her wedding day 17 years before. Then her husband, George, came up and he told his side of the story. One of his memories was the cream cheese mints, which no one in the group had heard of besides me. At this point in the conversation, we were ushered into the dining room. I spotted a plate of rose shaped things that looked just like those cream cheese mints that were at just about every wedding I attended growing up. I pointed this out to Britney and Elizabeth who then made sure they sat on the side of the table closest to that plate. Elizabeth picked up one of those roses and popped it in her mouth. Before Britney had the time to get one into her mouth Elizabeth blurted, "Don't eat it! It's butter!" When Alex and Brandy joined us and I picked up the plate and told them this was what those mints looked like. Elizabeth piped up that they should try one. Alex popped one in his mouth and got a very quizzical look on his face. His fiance, Brandy, took a small bite and immediately pronounced it butter at which point Alex was able to put a name to the taste which he knew wasn't cream cheese but couldn't quite place. He swore his revenge on Elizabeth for knowingly encouraging him to eat plain butter. Once I was able to stop laughing and dried the tears from my eyes I wondered if cream cheese mints were an Iowa thing (as George and Anna are also from Iowa) or a generational thing (as the other 4 are at least 15 years younger than I).
I did get some extra sleep last weekend. In fact I was so tired that I had to take a nap at 4 on Sunday and still went to bed before 10 that evening. But the real reason I didn't write last weekend was that our internet connection didn't get hooked up until Wed. It is nice to once again be connected to the electronic world and now that my math class is over (as of Thurs) I actually have time to follow the excitement of the Tour de France and the women's world cup, as well as catch up with friends by email and Skype.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Moving
In some ways I've been moving for more than a year. I started packing up my apartment in France in March 2010. This past Friday those boxes and furniture finally arrived at a location where they could be unpacked and set up. As busy as life has been these past few weeks, I'm really glad that I wasn't having to pack everything up here. Moving is stressful but maybe it's half as stressful when you only have to unpack.
The actual moving went well despite the hot and humid weather that had us all dripping with sweat. One blessing was that the whole block had been marked as "no parking by police order" for the week. Nothing was going on so we parked the trailer right in front of the door. In less than 2 hours we had unloaded the trailer and made a trip to get the things already in Minneapolis and gotten that upstairs as well. Mom, Aunt Barb and one of her German friends did a great job of cleaning the place up and unpacking the dishes. Uncle Wes, Jens, cousin Eric and three of his girls were troupers in getting everything up the 1 1/2 flights of stairs though Eric and Wes were really wishing there was a way to get the drawers out of my dresser.
The question of the day was, "Where are the cooking utensils and the silverware?" I had watched the mover pack it all over a year ago so I knew it had to be there. Long story short, it was hiding under a bunch of paper so it made the return trip to Iowa. Fortunately it wasn't tossed. In the meantime the plastic spoons I bought a couple of weeks ago have sufficed. I also made a trip to the thrift store for a can opener and something to use with stir fry so we will survive until it arrives.
The actual moving went well despite the hot and humid weather that had us all dripping with sweat. One blessing was that the whole block had been marked as "no parking by police order" for the week. Nothing was going on so we parked the trailer right in front of the door. In less than 2 hours we had unloaded the trailer and made a trip to get the things already in Minneapolis and gotten that upstairs as well. Mom, Aunt Barb and one of her German friends did a great job of cleaning the place up and unpacking the dishes. Uncle Wes, Jens, cousin Eric and three of his girls were troupers in getting everything up the 1 1/2 flights of stairs though Eric and Wes were really wishing there was a way to get the drawers out of my dresser.
The question of the day was, "Where are the cooking utensils and the silverware?" I had watched the mover pack it all over a year ago so I knew it had to be there. Long story short, it was hiding under a bunch of paper so it made the return trip to Iowa. Fortunately it wasn't tossed. In the meantime the plastic spoons I bought a couple of weeks ago have sufficed. I also made a trip to the thrift store for a can opener and something to use with stir fry so we will survive until it arrives.
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