Christmas Season

Wed, Dec 5 was BRTC's first Christmas performance. We performed at the Dulles Town Center Mall.

The weather that day was snowy. All commutes that morning were MUCH worse than normal. It took everyone at least twice as long to go where they were headed. My normal 20 minute commute was more than 40 minutes. Mary's commute to Tyson's Corner--less than an hour under good traffic conditions--took her more than four hours. And that was before there was any serious accumulation! By the time the our performance was finished, there was an accumulation of slush on the roads with the temperature dropping. Schools were delayed the next morning and by the weekend, the temperature was in the 50's.

JM and I enjoyed our weekend. Friday night, we took the time to watch a movie--Spaceballs. I had seen it before, but JM hadn't. It is entirely parody of sci fi (with a few others thrown in). Largely, it parodies Star Wars--with a Princess character that tends to wear bun-like ear coverings, her rescuing hero with his "mog" (man/dog) sidekick, and even a dessert scene with rescuing little people. Don't forget "Yogurt"--master of the "Schwartz". It's either stupidly funny or stupidly dumb!

Saturday, we slept in, but did a bit around the house before I went to work at noon. JM picked me up at work and we visited the Round Hill tree lighting. They had fires burning, marshmallows to roast, hot chocolate to drink, crafty ornaments to make, and carollers singing. We saw Santa arrive and visited with friends, but took off before the tree was actually lit. For the evening, we picked up a student from PHC and went to Loudoun Ballet's performance of Nutcracker. It was the first time JM or I had seen it performed and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The student had been involved with productions of the Nutcracker for several years back at her home in CA, so was able to share stories with us and comment on the difficulty of some of the choreography.

Sunday was breakfast service--always delicious! And we had a guest speaker who was very good. After church, Stephen and Sam came over and we headed into DC (taking the Metro from Falls Church). We made it into DC around 3:00. Until the Smithsonian closed at 5:30, we visited the Air & Space Museum (and still didn't see very much of it). At 6:00, we were on the eclipse in front of the White House meeting the rest of the clogging group for our 7:00 performance.

Performing was cold, but it went all right. We had a good audience--mostly filled the viewing area and they were responsive. Afterwards, we went with part of the group to Hard Rock Cafe for some food, conversation, and some time to warm-up.

When we got back to the Metro station, the main entrance was closed. It took us a bit to find the elevator entrance and figure out that was what we wanted to use. We caught one of the last trains of the night--getting back to the Falls Church station a few minutes before midnight.

It was after 1:00 before we made it to bed.

Monday, I went into work early to follow-up on a library survey that had ended on Friday. I stayed to work late, especially as the schedule was changed from normal and wanted to make sure everyone showed up for their shifts. Around 9:00, JM brought me some supper which we ate in the Dining Hall. At 9:45, we met some other faculty and staff to serve a pancake break at 10:30 for the PHC students in the midst of final exams. In about 50 minutes, we had 183 students served. We had a solid line for at least the first 35-40 minutes. We went home and did a couple of loads of laundry.

It was after 1:00 before we made it to bed.

Tuesday, Work again and then clogging in the evening. After clogging, we went Christmas shopping until about 11:30. Then we had some laundry and ironing to do to get our performance costumes ready for another Christmas performance the next day.

It was after 1:00 before we made it to bed.

Wednesday was work. Our second performance at the mall was at 5:00 sharp. At 4:45, I was still sitting in my office and suddenly realized I'd forgotten to leave for the performance. I called JM to have him let them know I wouldn't be there and went back to work, intending to make it to youth group at 7:00. At 7:00, I finally reached a stopping point in my project. But wrapping up a few odds and ends meant I didn't get away until almost 7:30. So instead of going to youth group, I picked up the mail, dropped a couple of books off at the public library, and headed home. Got home about 8:00 and decided to clean out my car. I carried practically everything from my car into the house and then went through the bags of stuff. Ended up filling up the kitchen trash can with all the old cups, bottles, and boxes that had been floating around in my car, not to mention all the random pieces of paper. I also ran a couple more loads of laundry while I sorted and listened to an audiobook. It was after 10:00 when JM made it home--he'd spent extra time visiting with church friends.

As we fell asleep, we were grateful that it was almsot a whole hour before 1:00.

Upcoming schedule:
Thursday night (tonight): PHC Christmas Party
Friday night-Sunday: Jer visits
Friday night: BRTC Christmas Party
Saturday night: WLCC Christmas Party -- postponed until 12/22 due to predicted icy weather
Saturday night: Bluemont Contra Dance
Sunday: church and Awana, JM's final is due/Strayer end of semester
Monday: work (no evening shift!)
Tuesday: work, clogging
Wednesday: 6:00AM flight to Kansas