Saturday’s visit

lunchtime 2001-03-26 010326_59.html
Saturday’s visit

4

days until I return home

I was so annoyed yesterday that my dial-up connection was still down (and it still is), that I didn’t mention what a good time I had Saturday, visiting the Phelpses en famille. It was fortunate I had planned the Great Northern Expedition that day, too, as the alternative would probably have involved a lot more swearing at the ISP.

In fact, though, the drive north wasn’t an expedition but a pleasure -- everything is just hovering on the brink of spring, poised to explode into green. The trees are just coming into bud, and there are no green shoots yet, but the earth is wet and black (and mostly uncovered by snow, finally) and it smells like it’s ready to grow things.

The rest of the day was a pleasure, too. We started by having very good sandwiches in the local Barnes and Noble, then promptly lost each other among the stacks for longer than planned. Big surprise there.

For a woman "without a shopping gene" Phelps was remarkably tolerant of being dragged to stores we’d already hot on my last visit. YMP was even more remarkably tolerant, as a 10-year old in a glass store being repeatedly cautioned about touching anything. (For Phelps, I think it helped that the stores sold some beautiful and unusual things, in glass and other media instead of, say, clthing; for YMP, it helped that the second store had some sturdier items to play with.) I tried to keep it brief, and the person behind the counter of the first store was able to direct us to the second one we wanted, so we didn’t have to wander in search.

In the first place, I bought a pair of earrings identical to the ones I bought last time, and of which I had managed to lose one. So now I have three; either I’m prepared for next time I lose one or I should get a second hole in one ear. In the second store, I purchased the item I had come for (on which more below), but also picked up more earrings and a few gifts while the shop owner chattered to a previous customer. Not coincidentally, both pair of earrings are made of dichroic glass.

The real aim of the shopping was something I had seen earlier and had regretted not buying ever since: a menorah shaped like an airplane, with a woman pilot (well, ok, the gender’s not entirely obvious, but I think she’s a woman). It’s metal, in yellow and other bright colors, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Phelps fell in love with a Noah’s Ark menorah by the same artist, but it was larger, more complicated, and, unfortunately, cost 4 times as much.

Afterwards, I was given a guided tour of a "true small New England town", with some great houses. In fact, between those and the houses I saw Sunday in Westborough and Southboro, I’d be ready to move if I thought I could afford one. And of course, we talked, and then returned chez Phelps and talked more, and had dinner and talked still more. I’m still not quite sure if Mr. Phelps is just quiet, or if he had trouble getting in a word edgewise, among the three of us, but he’s an interesting guy. I always enjoy seeing parents (both of them) who clearly enjoy their children too, especially after the woman scolding her kids in B&N -- I hope they don’t associate scoldings with books later on.

YMP and I compared flexibility and discussed codes and languages -- she’s now combining codes and other alphabets, to write "stories no one else can read". She’s also got an interest in languages that seems to me unusual for a 10-year-old, and a radiant smile. Seems like that would be a useful combination for getting on in life.

Posted by dichroic at March 26, 2001 11:31 AM