So what do you do during the day? Days in the life of jazz fans in Rochester

 

Margaret Almon and myself at the Metropolitan Art Gallery

Margaret Almon and myself at the Metropolitan Art Gallery

Our favorite vacation spot seems to be Rochester NY in June when the XRIJF is happening. This year I made it to seven straight nights of jazz but before I do some celebrating of the jazz blogging, ...

We generally refuse to spend time standing in long lines, but we do stand waiting to get into jazz venues. From time to time we even break out of our introverted selves and talk to the people next to us. I think we are hoping to find another out of towner. It hasn't happen. We have met locals who take the week off so they can stay out late every night listening to jazz. But no others who are on vacation.

"So what do you do during the day?" The locals ask us.

Generally we ~> lounge at our friends house, find an interesting lunch, visit stained glass stores and yarn shops for souvenirs, and go to museums. Margaret has already blogged a bit about this reflective statue on her blog when she celebrated her July Fifth, yes Fifth, Independence Day, so if interested, check it out.

 

The 12 Days of Christmas Shout Outs: The Resolved for day eight

I am a social introvert. Thus I will go out of my way to have conversations. I will roam about my school's campus visiting people. I will meet people for coffee. I will invite people over for pizza. I will vacation where friends live. I will drive halfway to see you and watch a river flow as we talk. I will linger in a town after a conference to see you. I will let you know if I will be driving by your area and meet you for lunch. If you come to my area and have the time to see me, I will do my best to see you. And I already gave a shout out for those who do this.

I am an introvert, so if you want to see me, don't invite me to a big party. I shy away from large gatherings, but I will be delighted to have a simple dinner at your house.

So I can make a resolution to have plenty of these conversations, but I can only imagine them happening, if you resolve to have a conversation with me.

 

back to Umai with lavender brownies

I have two days left of my 13 day break from teaching, and I could list some things I had hoped to do...

But I want to talk about doing something. Friday morning as I wrote my post Obama speech post, I was baking lavender brownies to follow up on what I wrote of two weeks ago.

I hit Umai Japanese restaurant in Lansdale with a small Tupperware of brownies and sat down at the sushi bar, another exposure for the introvert.... I could have left them on the doorstep with a note ;') But then I would have missed out on getting to know those two guys who shout out the greetings as folk walk in the door.

I was remembered, which helped, as I handed over the brownies. They smiled. I was handed a menu and saw they had lunch boxes. I smiled. I ordered the shrimp teriyaki box. They ate the brownies. The waitress ate a brownie. The waitress forced my waiter to try a bite of the brownies. My Tupperware was handed back to me. Cleaned and filled with Japanese Fish Balls. I ate one, then another, before I put the lid back on.

I chatted and watched as they made sushi. Turns out his cucumber plants also performed terribly this year. common ground. I asked where he had learned his skill. Wondering about such a thing as sushi school, but was pleased to hear his answer. "That guy (pointing to his right) and that is why he is there (in front of the seafood) and I am here."

Yes, that old fashioned way of learning a trade, apprenticeship is alive and well. I have thought about how much better teacher education would be if we were assigned to master teachers for a few years instead of sitting in classrooms more than practicing teaching. I consumed the miso soup.

The box came with the teriyaki, a green salad, some California roll, two dumplings, and a salad which I would have had to asked, "what am I consuming?" to tell you now. When the meal was over I was given an unasked for piece of deep fried banana. Have I ever told you I love bananas...

I had one last question and as a shy introvert it was eventually asked. What does Umai mean? I was told, "great." Good answer.

a web translator tells me..." delicious, appetizing, skillful, clever, expert"

an hour later rain stopped my harvest of green beans at the school, so I did another thing on my list of things needed to be done. I went through some piles of papers in my classroom, as I snacked on fish balls.

the introverted bird watcher leaves his comfort zone

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Originally uploaded by NatureShutterbug

a few posts back while reflecting on my 45th birthday, I said that I had made a birthday resolution. with 350 plus days to go... I accomplished it, well kind of.

I never understood why folk would bird watch in a group. I have had some birding buddies over the years, but I would hazard that 90% of my birding time has been solitary. I have known of a birding group for ten years. My resolution.... be brave... join a group.

Sunday I heard thunder for what seemed to be 8 straight hours so it was a grand thing that the group met on Saturday, which was the coolest morn we have seen in a long time. One wrong turn and a need to fuel up the car got me to the Peace Valley Nature Center over by Doylestown, just on time--- I didn't need to do small talk!

OK advantages---

1. these folk know their birds by sight and call.
2. these folk are friendly

The list of birds seen while not huge, was decent, but let me say that it was the blue-gray gnatcatcher (photo found at flickr) that made my day. My general lack of birding means it has been years since I have seen some common birds and this would be an example. They are a bit bluer, but are kind of like a miniature mockingbird.

but this is what lingers for the day...

1. a group of children showed up with their moms and the leader of the walk adapted. He lowered the legs on his spotting scope and called the children to see amazing closeups of kingbirds , herons, ducks.... The man was truly sad that the local bald eagles were missing for the day. His willingness to welcome the children come along will create love of birds. We need more of this kind of action, and I am also glad that none got between his kind actions and the children.... I am sure this is ringing bells out there.

2. I chickened out of the coffee hour after the walk... OK, so the birthday resolution may not yet be fulfilled for the goal was to meet people and who knows maybe make a friend or two. I did chat a bit as we walked, but maybe next time I will get there a moment early and stay for some conversation afterwards since birding is not really a talking event in my eyes, even if you are part of a group.