Symphony in the Fall

October 20 was our first visit to Utah Symphony for the season. It was packed. They first performed some of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, which were nice. Then a guest violinist from Russia came and did a violin concerto by Berg. We didn’t really like it. It was like looking at modern art: I could appreciate the musical techniques intellectually, but it wasn’t that fun to listen to. 

The concertmistress kept the applause going and did an encore duet with the guest, who was very sweet to the concertmistress. That was more enjoyable. 

The original plan was a Schoenberg concerto, but the guest asked to switch it because of tendonitis. I don’t know if we would have liked that one anyway; Mom said you couldn’t pay her to listen to Schoenberg. After intermission they played Beethoven’s Fifth, the main attraction. It was fun to hear live.

Our second concert was November 17. They played the Barber of Seville overture, which was fun. I’m sure we weren’t the only ones envisioning Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. 

Next was a guest pianist who joined the orchestra for all twelve Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmoninov. That was fascinating, and the pianist was just amazing. He played a blues piece for an encore. 

Then they played Elgar Symphony #1, which is nearly an hour long. It was interesting to see all the instruments work together, and it had kind of a dreamy tone, but there wasn’t any real melody involved, which makes it hard to remember later.

Seeing Again -- Lasik

I had Lasik eye flap surgery done Saturday afternoon on November 11. I won a thousand dollars off the surgery in a Comic Con drawing. I was debating almost up to the last minute to do it; it was still expensive. But I am tired of getting glasses that don’t let me see properly. The optometrists said it's common practice for eye doctors to weaken your prescription so you keep coming back for glasses. That explains a lot.

The actual procedure was very surreal. I got a stuffed bear to hold, which was good since I ended up squeezing the hell out of it. I lay down in a dark room. They did the right eye first. They had to put a plastic disc in to hold my eye open and then clamp it down. That was pretty uncomfortable. The cornea incision I didn’t feel at all. The laser was activated for 21 seconds on the right eye; 19 for the left. (Most people need less than 10 seconds.) It was just a bunch of flashing lights. I may have the record for the strongest prescription ever corrected there.

There was a burning smell, like when the dentist is drilling a tooth, which was alarming, so I held my breath for those seconds. Near the end of each eye, I felt an owie there. When I stood up, I could already see more clearly. Everything was really hazy, like covered in a white film. The surgeon put a contact lens in the left eye after noticing an abrasion there. That felt nice, but soon the right eye felt pretty sore, like something was poking it.

I was supposed to keep my eyes closed for four hours. I wasn’t tired enough for a nap, so I hung out in my bed, listening to an audiobook and fighting a headache. I decided to listen to a movie after dinner. Glenn chose the second Sherlock Holmes movie, which I’d only seen twice. I probably should have requested something like Star Wars. My right eye was sore when it wasn’t closed anyway.

I had a nice night’s sleep Saturday night. Sunday morning I returned to the vision center for a post-op checkup. The optometrist took out the contact in the left eye, which left it a little sore. He noticed an abrasion in the right eye that the surgeon had missed (explaining its soreness) and put a contact in there. It felt much better with that. 

Then we went to church. We’d missed the sacrament, so we went in to the other ward at 11 to get it. My vision was still pretty fuzzy. I read a little bit in the afternoon and napped. Napping felt good. I got a bad headache. I’d been having headaches several days in a row while avoiding Imitrex because you’re not supposed to have it with eye surgery. So I’d been taking a lot of Excedrin, hydrocodone, and oxycodone. But after throwing up several times, it became unbearable, so I took an injection. I was surprised at how quickly it fixed everything.

Monday Glenn drove all the kids to school, just to make sure I could see okay to drive later. It was just as well since I woke up with another killer migraine. I tried some Imitrex (in a tablet) but threw up, so I used an injection—two in two days, completely against medical advice. But I was developing a dependency on caffeine and narcotics, and the Imitrex worked so much better. For the rest of the week I was mostly fine (one tiny headache), and my sight improves a teeny bit each day. And straight off I got peripheral vision. Everyone should try it.

After taking the boys to school Tuesday morning, I returned to the Lasik center for an eye checkup. The optometrist removed the contact from the right eye. The soreness returned a bit, but I could tell the contact was wearing out. After a couple more days, all the bruising soreness had gone.

I’ve been good at using the prescription eye drops; I need to remember to keep using the artificial tears drops more often.

Fall Birthdays

All three of our fall birthdays were on a Saturday.

Glenn’s Birthday
I had a Lasik consultation in the morning. We had our Halloween party that evening because it was the only day we could fit it in. October was just a super busy month. We didn’t advertise it well, so it was not well attended. I played Clue with the girls and snacked. At 9 we had Glenn’s birthday. He picked apple pie instead of cake, but we hadn’t had time to make one yet. So he just opened presents and talked to his mom on the phone for a long time. Saturday I made apple pies.

My Birthday
In the morning I went to my flute and piano lesson for the first time in over a month. I went to the library on my way home, and it turned into a mini reunion of old friends. Then I cleaned up the house and finished frosting my cake and picked up Glenn from the airport. (He had driven with Dave to Nauvoo; Dave was moving there.) 

In the evening was the ward Halloween carnival, so that was dinner. It was the annual chili cookoff, which frequently falls on my birthday. I  hate chili, but I did find a chicken chili I really liked. The kids collected candy by playing games, and I did a shift at a ring toss game and got full on popcorn. After, we did cake and presents at home. Everyone was pretty full of candy, though my cake was yummy. I talked to Glenn’s mom and my parents on the phone.

We later found out we were supposed to clean the church that morning. Well, nobody told us, and it’s my birthday anyway.

Corin’s Birthday
Glenn takes all the kids out for a “daddy date” for their birthdays. Corin was interested in some of the ideas, but he didn’t want to drive very far in the car. Ultimately, he was happy with just lunch at McDonald’s. I made him a cake—the figure-8 car track. (He turned 8, see?) I put some Hot Wheels and a Rainbow Dash figurine on it. I also got him a plush Rainbow Dash and some Minecraft Legos for his birthday. (He’s a fan of My Little Pony, for some reason.) Grandma Hammer sent money for Corin to pick out his own scriptures to buy, and Grandma Thatcher sent a set of magnetic building blocks.

Music Progress Report

my instruments

Because I have limited time and lots of things I want to do, I have this practicing system in place. I practice the piano every day, unless something urgent has come up. Then I rotate among the other four instruments (flute, clarinet, violin, and trumpet) going in order from most advanced to least advanced. This means Monday and Friday will be the same instrument; every other day has a different instrument. So here’s my report on how well I’ve been doing, in order of proficiency:

Flute
As my primary instrument, I’m not doing much to improve other than learning new repertoire. I stick to classical music because anything else is too easy and therefore boring. To actually improve at the flute, I’d need to practice more than three hours a day, and I don’t have that kind of time right now because I have other responsibilities and hobbies I’m pursuing.

Piano
I have to be careful on piano because I get tendonitis from stretching my hands into octaves after a little while. I had to quit doing octave exercises. I do a little bit of scales and review my repertoire and always have a song I’m learning. My repertoire includes a lot of David Lanz, Broadway, Ray Lynch, movie themes, and some popular classical music. The last piece I learned was Funeral March of a Marionette. It was a challenge, but I’m proud to play it now. It does aggravate my tendonitis, though, because it has lots of octave four-note chords in it. Currently I’m learning “Double Trouble” from Harry Potter as a light, fun break.

Piccolo
I haven’t practiced the piccolo for a long time. It’s partly because I’m not about to perform the piccolo anytime soon, and I also really want a new one with a better tone that’s easier to play. And the piccolo in general is a big pain.

Clarinet
I started the clarinet about three years ago. I caught on quickly, probably because of the flute experience. I’m still working on getting a good tone and proper embouchure. My face muscles get really sore and tired too quickly. It’s a completely different set of face muscles than the flute uses, unfortunately. 

The very high notes still give me trouble. High C (two ledger lines above the treble clef staff) especially is hard to play outside of a scale. My range technically goes up to E Flat, though. I’ve learned a lot of fun songs on clarinet and got a book of classical music so I can play some proper concert pieces. 

The biggest drawback to the clarinet is how long it takes to clean and put away. Nine pieces! And I now have recurring dreams about broken reeds. 

Violin
I started the violin about four years ago. It turns out violin has been a challenge. Ideally, I’d like to devote a whole hour or so a day to it, but, with too many interests, I have to scale that back. I’ve got a nice case and a shoulder rest. I still hit neighboring strings sometimes, partly because I’m still adjusting to the shoulder rest. 

I’m getting better at playing in tune. I may be overly obsessing about that; I keep the tuner sitting on the music stand while I play. I still need tape on the fingerboard, but my muscle memory is slowly coming. I can play a bit in second and third positions but not in sight-reading. My violin sight-reading in general is pretty pathetic. 

I finished all the one-octave scales and am going through the two-octave scales now. I heard there are three-octave scales, which sound like a nightmare. All the exercise my fingers have gotten from the piano has paid off on the violin. I can move my fingers around pretty fast; it’s just weird that only one hand gets to do that. 

The biggest perks of the violin are that I can breathe and eat while playing, and it’s super convenient to get out and put away.

Trumpet
This is my newest instrument. I started in September, and I only get to play once or twice a week because of the rotation I do. My biggest obstacle right now is getting those embouchure muscles in shape. Again, it’s a different set than the clarinet and flute use. I am using James’s trumpet, and I can tell it’s a really nice, quality instrument. 

I am playing long tones and harmonics as my core technique practicing. That seems to be the most helpful. Luckily, I have been playing harmonics on the flute for years, and that has transferred to the trumpet really well. I can play most of the beginning band book on trumpet, too. The very high and very low notes are hard to hit. I’ve noticed that the trumpet in general has a limited range, especially compared to the clarinet. Sometimes I get a really nice tone, and it’s so satisfying.

October Reads

I was hurrying to finish some book challenges by the end of the month, I got quite a few books in this round.

***

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
It was mostly good, but there are some things to nitpick.

In the future, the real world sucks, so most people spend their time in virtual reality. The creator of this world (a year or two older than I) grew up in the 80s, and when he dies, he leaves his fortune to whoever can find the “easter egg” he’s hidden in the world. This results in a big resurgence of 80s culture. There is a lot of 80s nostalgia here, which is fun, but some references are to things after the 80s.

At times, there were major info-dumps—the author went on and on, describing various aspects of the virtual world or how old games work. Sometimes these things were described more than once, and a lot of it was unnecessary to the plot. It felt like the writer felt compelled to include ALL his notes on his world.

The characters were mostly good, and it was nice to see Wade make friends instead of being made to suffer completely alone. (The Japanese characters felt more like stereotypical caricatures, but I don’t think the author meant any offense.) I also couldn’t believe that human beings could innovate and create in the computer industry but couldn’t solve any problems in energy and other technology fields. That broke my suspension of disbelief.

The parts of the story that focused on the actual quest were really suspenseful and well plotted. Wil Wheaton brought a lot of enthusiasm to the narration, and I think that helped the story a lot.

***

A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durvin
This book captures the beauty and simplicity of childhood that can never be recaptured. The writing is lyrical and poetic. If that appeals to you, you’ll love it. If it sounds kind of boring, you’ll probably be bored. The plot here is very simple.

It’s sort of an alternate world, I guess. It feels like World War II. A boy is sent to his grandmother’s in the country for the summer. She lives near a forest with a grove of statues and nonsensical engravings that the boy thinks is a puzzle to solve. An enemy soldier is shot down over the forest, and that’s about it for the plot. The fantasy elements in the book are so sparse, I can’t even call it a fantasy.

All the characters and place names are given only an initial: The main character is G——, the neighbor is Mrs. F——, and so on. I believe this is to avoid giving away any nationalities, but it was annoying, and I made up names for everyone.

***

The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell
I think this is what’s called magical realism — It has fantasy elements but is really a drama. Rachel has the power to grant wishes, usually involuntarily. When she was little, she wished her little brother out of existence and has been burdened by guilt ever since. She takes off in her car and mysteriously runs out of gas in Nowhere, North Carolina, where the fantastic is usually believed. She’s taken in by Catch, an old woman who helps people keep secrets through baking pies. So we have WISHES and SECRETS.

There’s a romance that feels a little forced, like it’s there as an obligation to the genre. The love interest is going through a divorce, so he’s still married when they’re flirting and kissing. Rachel eventually learns to control and accept her wish-granting powers. Meanwhile there’s tons of coincidences going on, because that’s the kind of place this is.

The end left a lot of loose ends. If it had brought everything together in a solid resolution, it would have left a much more powerful impression as a book. At the end, we’re not totally sure where the romance is headed, [SPOILER ALERT] what the deal is with the brother, why the rotting tree is so bad, if the pies have a connection to wishes now, and what if Lola’s cheating was caused by Ashe’s dad’s charm powers? Doesn’t that change the whole cheating dynamic?

There’s very little swearing, some making out and innuendo, and just a few editing errors.

***

To Prevent World Peace (Magical Mayhem Part 1) by Emily Martha Sorensen
This is a cute novelette. Young girls often have magic until they get too old. Chronos is a mage who tries to avoid the rest of the world but keeps seeing visions of the future in which one magic girl is enforcing world peace at all costs, with disastrous consequences. Now Chronos has to convince this girl to take a different path. Let’s see how that works out. This is the first “episode” of the Magical Mayhem story.

The writing is solid with very few errors; the characters work well; pacing is good. I really don’t have anything to nitpick. I received a free copy for review.

***

The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co., #2) by Jonathan Stroud
I’m in awe of how well done this book is. Where to begin? The story is a multi-layered mystery. Reveals come at the right time to keep the story moving. New aspects of the mystery keep tantalizing the reader. The stakes and danger keep increasing, and there are plenty of little twists along the way. The characters’ bickering and the snarky skull sprinkle the story with humor throughout. The writing is superb.

A lot of times I read stuff and think, Hey, I can write at least as well as this. Not in this case.

 

***

Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) by Jim Butcher
I’d say this book is about as good as the first, and you could probably skip the first and not feel lost. It’s a fun story, but I feel like it’s not going to stick in my memory well. This book features werewolves, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight. I’m sure this is mostly because I’m getting senile and can only keep track of, like, three characters. But the writing is solid, and there were some good laughs.

This could have been really good with a few tweaks. Harry’s stoicism has the effect of reducing the reader’s emotional investment. There are tense moments, but if Harry is staying calm, the reader stays calm. Also, Harry doesn’t have a lot of personal stakes in the situation. That’s my theory.

***

To Prevent Chic Costumes (Magical Mayhem Part 2) by Emily Martha Sorensen
In this short “episode,” Chronos is stuck with an unwanted houseguest and in desperation turns to her sister, an evil fashion designer who makes super villain costumes. It’s easy to laugh at the desperate situation, treated with a light tone. The writing is solid with a great voice. Even the editing is good. I received a free copy for review.

***

The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1) by Jane Harper
I feel like I’m missing something when it comes to mysteries. I feel like nothing happens until the very end. If you’re a real mystery fan, you’ll probably enjoy this one.

The story starts off with a murder-suicide, but Falk, our main hero, notices a few things that are just a little off and starts looking deeper into the case. For about three-fourths of the book, he’s following very flimsy clues, grasping at straws, until he finally gets the piece of information he needs to figure everything out. I felt like story was meandering aimlessly because the clues were so non-meaningful. But the last quarter of the book, where they hone in on the true killer, was really good and gripping.

Also on the plus side, the dry, drought-ravished landscape is vividly portrayed. The characters are good. It was nice that Falk was able to partner up with the local cop instead of fighting with him the whole time.

It was supposed to be a small town. For me that means fewer than a thousand people. I don’t think this town was that small; they had lots of businesses that I don’t see in small towns. And someone drove a car that nobody recognized? In a real small town, everyone knows what car belongs to whom.

There’s a secondary mystery involving a death from Falk’s teen years that was never satisfactorily solved. At the end, the reader is told how it all went down, but none of the characters know this information. There were also flashbacks involving dead characters and events that could never be discovered by the heroes. That was really weird, for the reader to just be given information that was impossible for the hero to discover.

***

Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
This is a great, concise book on story structure. Although written for screenwriters, any kind of story writer can benefit. (Mostly the advice on pitching will be a bit different.) He goes over key plot elements every story must have to be interesting. If your story is lacking something, there’s a good chance it’s missing one of these elements. The book also shows you how to focus on making your story marketable to agents/publishers/producers. This is definitely full of useful advice. There are a few grammar and punctuation errors.

***

Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3) by Jim Butcher
So what is this week’s scary creature?
 

 
Ghosts!

and

 
Vampires!

The story is actually a step up from the first two. It’s spooky and mysterious with several things going on. Pacing and suspense are good. Harry feels a lot more relatable. I really liked the new character Michael. As far as urban fantasy goes, this is one of the better ones.

***

Heartstone by Elle Katharine White
This book was described as Pride and Prejudice with dragons. I assume that’s correct, though I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice despite trying several times. It’s a world full of magical creatures but no actual magic itself.

At the beginning, Aliza meets a handsome, rude young man:

A broad-shouldered figure leapt from the dragon’s back.
“You there!”
Blast. He would be handsome.

This scene set off all kinds of warning bells in my mind that I was about to read a cliched romance. 

 
 

Fortunately it ended up not being that bad. In fact, it’s a pretty decent story.

There are three distinct parts (acts). First, a group of dragonriders has arrived to take out a horde of gryphons terrorizing the countryside and responsible for the death of Aliza’s youngest sister. Aliza and her three surviving sisters are great characters and not at all annoying. Then that’s all taken care of, and it’s romance and misunderstandings and people running into each other by chance. Then the end has a big, dangerous creature showdown.

The writing is incredibly smooth but overly flowery; very good. My main complaint is I couldn’t keep all the characters straight. Sometimes they’d be called by their first names and sometimes their last names, even when we weren’t previously told what their other names were.

***

Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple by Deborah Layton
The famous Jonestown mass suicide happened in 1978. This was written around 1998. Nearly 40 years later, this event is still fascinating.

This accounts shows the pyschology of falling into a cult. There’s the flattery: help fight poverty and racism; we can’t do this without you; do something meaninful. Once in the trap, it’s nearly impossible to escape. Family relationships and friendships are torn apart; everybody is told to imform on everyone else for any infraction so there is no trust between members. Then there’s public shaming, beatings, sleep deprivation, other abuse, and the constant harangues of indocrination. It was really fascinating from a psychological standpoint.

Whenever something tragic happens, we blame the victims. (“She shouldn’t have gone there dressed like that; if only they’d passed that law like I told them.”) Sometimes victims are stupid and cause their own deaths. (You tried to shoot a cop? Not sorry they took you out first.) But a lot of times we’re just trying to rationalize how we could not also end up as victims in a similar situation.

The chapters when Debbie is trying to escape were so suspenseful! Just terrifying. Even knowing she was going to get away from the beginning, my palms were sweating through that whole sequence. 

The details of the actual mass suicide are sparse since few survived. A journalist who was shot at by Jonestown soldiers gives his account in the prologue. Debbie’s brother was sentenced to life in prison for shooting (nonfatally) two people. She laments his harsh sentence. For the record, he was released in 2002.

Overall, a great accout of the history and inner workings of the Peoples Temple. I didn’t know much about it before.

***

The Hollow Boy (Lockwood & Co., #3) by Jonathan Stroud
First of all, don’t read the book blurb. It gives away a full two-thirds of the plot. Luckily I was half-way through before peeking at it. And don’t think about the title—it’s a very small part of the plot.

I have to rant a bit about the audiobook. The first two books were brilliantly narrated by Katie Lyons. She was perfect, and I’m sorry I took her for granted, and now she’s gone.



The new narrator is, well, unpleasant.



I feel the same way about Emily Bevan as Lucy feels about Holly. Part of it is that she tries too hard. When she’s just narrating, it’s fine. It’s the dialogue that’s really messed up. All the voices are drastically different and therefore come off as cartoony and unrealistic. Once lovable characters become obnoxious. I swear she’s pinching her nose closed for one character. Also, she uses a Welsh accent. Sometimes it’s so strong I can’t understand the words. But it puzzles me because these characters all live in London. I can buy mass hauntings but I can’t buy Londoners all speaking with Welsh accents. (I bet you thought because I’m American I wouldn’t notice.) I’m not trying to be anti-Welsh; it’s just very out of place.

I enjoyed the actual story. Anyone who likes ghost adventures should like it, and how did you get to book 3 if you haven’t liked the series so far? Lockwood & Co. go through several cases here. They are very busy since everyone else is swamped with an apocalyptic outbreak of hauntings in Chelsea. Eventually our heroes get to help in that case, too. The ending leaves a couple of cliffhangers.

The writing is excellent (assuming you can get past the narrator). It’s creative and suspenseful and grand fun. The skull in the jar is especially funny this time, sort of like Bartimaeus. 

***

Storms (Sharani #2) by Kevin L. Nielsen
This was pretty good as a sequel: The world is expanded quite a bit, and we learn a lot more about the Rahuli people and the world around them, which they know nothing of. It’s a good book, not a great one. It took me a while to read simply because I wasn’t dying to know what happened next.

As the main character, Lhaurel doesn’t do very much. She’s very rarely proactive and not in many scenes. Gavin takes over as the main character, I guess. I like him. While the characters don’t feel quite fully developed, the dialogue is pretty good, along with character conflict.

The writing is adequate—competent, but not excellent. There are quite a few editing errors. My biggest pet peeve is the spelling “alright.” Aaaargh!! It makes me want to carry a protest sign everywhere that says “ALL RIGHT!”

League of Utah Writers Conference & Jennifer A. Nielsen

October 6 and 7 was the League of Utah Writers fall conference at Salt Lake Community College. Glenn and I volunteered, which let us get in free. Glenn went early Friday and came back to get me after I took the boys to school. I left in the middle of the day to go take Deven to work. 

I began getting a headache in the early afternoon, but I hadn’t brought any of my pill boxes with me, so I was totally kicking myself for that. I left and went to Smith’s at Redwood and 39th South and bought some Excedrin and took two. By dinner time I was rather shaky and not feeling tip-top. I took an Imitrex injection and was soon mostly better to do timekeeping for the evening shift. 

I covered three classes: writing courtroom scenes, making your manuscript stand out to agents, and grammar. Meanwhile Glenn did timekeeping for agent pitches and got to hang out with Kevin J. Anderson during dinner. Lucky!

Saturday we had to get up very early again. I had a mild headache but was mostly okay. I attended classes on writing until my brain was full, and I got to meet some writers and agents and editors. Lunch was a big catered event for everyone, and Kevin J. Anderson gave his keynote address there. I got him to sign our copy of The Longest Con (in which he’s a character). 

After lunch I was assigned to the Green Room. I didn’t have much to do there, but it was cool to hang out in the presence of author celebrities. Anderson was there for a while, and I talked to him for a couple minutes about the band Rush and the book Ready Player One, which I’d just finished.

We left before the conference was completely done. The adult session of stake conference was at 7. However, Jennifer A. Nielsen was doing an author event at the Viridian Center at the same time, and I just had to go. I discovered her books earlier this year and absolutely loved them. Jaelyn came with me, so I didn’t look out of place as a weird middle-aged adult stalking children. 

During Jennifer’s introduction, the speaker said Jennifer’s favorite book growing up was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I blurted out, “No way!” I mean, nobody’s heard of that book. I bought the whole Ascendance Trilogy and two more books and got them signed at the end. That was really fun.

Me, Jennifer Nielsen, Jaelyn

Cleaning for General Conference

General Conference Quick Summary: Frequent themes I noticed this time were service and accepting adversity. 

***

At the grocery store Saturday afternoon,we ran into Jen and John L., which reminded me that I’d signed up to clean the Conference Center that night. I hadn’t been given any information about that, so they passed on what they’d been told. 

We were due at the Conference Center just after 9. Our stake was one of five asked to clean. We disinfected the chairs’ arm rests and vacuumed. I did chair cleaning while listening to Ready Player One. (It had some bad language; not ideal for the Conference Center.) I was in the Terrace level group; we all got name badges that said “Terrace.” This was our new identity. 

When we finished with the Terrace, we moved down to the Plaza level to help out there. We were not allowed up on the stand; there was a security guy pacing around up there. On the Plaza level we also wiped down the backs of chairs, which had tons of scuff marks from shoes. At the end I assisted a vacuumer by holding the extension cord out of his way as he vacuumed the “bow tie” area. 

There were a lot of little coincidences I saw. The volunteer coordinator was teasing somebody about being a “Tennessee volunteer” just as a girl walked in who was from Tennessee. Then one person in my group mentioned her former boss has played the organ there, and she was talking about my eye doctor. Then I was assigned to help Jen in cleaning chairs. 

Conference attendees are not total slobs, but there was some garbage and a LOT of scuffed chair backs, and several people found piles of nail clippings. Who clips their nails during conference and leaves the mess there?? We finished around midnight and got a cookie. Since I got to bed pretty late, I was tired for conference the next day and dozed through most of the Sunday afternoon session. 

That was the closest I’ve come to attending conference in person.