Interlochen

This seems like as good a time as any to come back to this blog. Andy and I are in northern Michigan at Interlochen, where he is conducting one of the high school age orchestras for two weeks. I'm not entirely "in der Fremde" this time, because even though northern MI is about as different from El Paso as you can get, I grew up a few hours from here, and went to church camp for many summers about 30 minutes from here. It is as beautiful and as humid as I remember. I see my hair has not forgotten what to do with humidity.

Our cell phones don't work particularly well here, at least in our cabin, and not even great on the main campus. AT&T works, apparently, but that's not what we have. And whenever I'm up on campus I'm corraling Isaac, so it's hard to make calls. Also, virtually no internet in the cabin! I have lots of books to read on my phone and kindle, so that's about it. I can type blog entries on my phone, though, and upload them on campus. So I figured I would start posting to update the people I talk to on a normal basis, but haven't called since I got here.

Our cabin is, as they say, rustic. But actually I think it's very nice. We have a main living area with kitchenette, table, sofa, and our bed. We have most everything we would need: full size refrigerator, gas stove with oven, microwave, good selection of cooking utensils. Isaac had every pot off the shelf in about 30 seconds the first morning. There is a second room with bunk beds (which we aren't using, except to sit on or store things on, so technically we are using them, just not to sleep on), where Isaac is sleeping. The tiny bathroom is off this room. We ended up buying a new playyard for Isaac, since the secondhand option didn't pan out. He is adjusting. He sleeps well at night but is still getting used to the time change, so he is going to sleep and napping later in the day than normal. Long hours of sunlight don't help, plus we are not in any sort of routine yet. Finally, there is a screened porch. We haven't spent much time out there, since I can see holes in the screen and we forgot to buy matches to light the citronella candle.

Andy's first rehearsal is tomorrow morning. He has had various faculty orientation meetings yesterday and today, and has spent the rest of his time studying. He is going to conduct the faculty brass ensemble concert in addition to the two orchestra concerts, so that's a lot of extra music for him.

Isaac loves the outdoors. As I said, he's having a good time with all the pots and pans, which is lucky because his toy stash for this trip is limited. We brought his blanket and teddy, some small things to chew on (he seems to be teething like crazy), and some things made of yarn (which he, oddly enough, loves, but they stand in for the blanket, so easier than carrying that around everywhere we go). I also bought some animal finger puppets, stacking cups, and crayons before we left, and some bubbles and a beach ball here at Meijer (Meijer! How I've missed you!). He loves to carry around really big things right now, so an inflated beach ball is perfect. He loves all the people here, especially the people who brought their dogs with them. There are plenty of dogs around the faculty cabins, plus with many of the families who are here dropping off students yesterday and today.

We are starting to meet other people. Isaac met a little girl this evening who was born a week before him. She kept running away  and saying no but I couldn't tell if she was playing hard to get or just didn't like him. We met another faculty family with two kids, one just younger than Isaac, and they invited us over to play. Another regular year faculty member offered to bring over some toys to borrow. So that is all very nice of them, and I know Isaac will be happy to get out of the cabin to play, or at least to have more variety of toys.

I suppose that's about it for now. I'll try to write something in the evening and post it at lunchtime the next day when we're on the main campus. If anyone has suggestions for fun activities for Isaac, I will happily accept them. I am dreading the inevitable rain shower when we're stuck inside and Teddy has already taken too many rides in his stock pot boat for the day.

Here is one photo. I haven't taken many with my phone. We went into Traverse City on Friday to stock up on a few things. While we waited for a friend to do something at the mall, Isaac had his first carousel ride. He was excited about all the horses until they started to move. He didn't cry but looked more and more ready to get off of it with each revolution. Here he is while he was still smiling.