I have returned!

... Actually, I've been back since yesterday at approximately four in the afternoon, but I didn't feel like blogging then.

Overall it was an okay weekend (encompassing Thursday and Friday) ... We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast next to a lake, which was a really cool place – there was forest all around the lake, and we had a pier and boat we could use. We didn't use the latter much; the only people who did were Sonya and Josh when they went out to play cards in the middle of the lake. Of the bed and breakfast, I only liked the breakfast. The room we had was damp, the beds creaked more than I thought was possible, and they weren't comfortable anyway. The breakfast was great, though. I had muffins of both English and normal variety with strawberries and milk. Yum.

So, the itinerary as promised.

:: Thursday ::

We got there somewhere late in the afternoon to find my mom's friends Pam and Adam, their daughter Sonya, and her friend Josh already there. Sonya says that she remembers me and that she and Pam visited us when she was eight or something, which would have made me three. Which would be why I don't remember her.

Aside from my dad, the seven of us have exactly the same sense of humor, which meant that there was more or less a laugh per minute. We discovered that the boat included an old coffee can for bailing out when we went down to it, which was useful because the bottom was full of rainwater.

The evening's entertainment was different for each half of us – Sonya, Josh, and Adam saw The Night of the Iguana; Pam, my mom, and I went to Jacob's Pillow Dance to watch two pieces by the Shen Wei Dance Arts group. They were awesome. But hard to describe. The first one was a series of "Maps", as they were called, each of which centered on a different movement, like rotation or bouncing. It's something you have to actually watch to understand properly ... The second had only four dancers on a mandala made of flecks of paper, which they danced across to the singing of a Tibetan nun. It was also great, though very different ...

:: Friday ::

A great day, despite the fact that I barely got any sleep the previous night. (The fault of those dreadful beds.) We went to a crafts fair in the morning, which was interesting but not riveting. I got a pair of tall blue candles that piqued my interest.

After a late picnic lunch, we went to see Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was hilarious. With a Shakespeare comedy, you can only get so much humor out of reading the script, if you can find any. Text-wise, Shakespeare's comedies (that I've read, at least) differ from tragedies mostly in that nobody dies and there's a happy ending. I haven't actually read The Merry Wives of Windsor, but this production was utterly hilarious. And my mom's watched videos of performances of it (she taught a course on music in Shakespeare last year), but none of them compared to this one.

Mistress Page and Mistress Ford kept pulling scripts out of their boddesses and dresses and reading loudly off of them as Falstaff hid in the closet; the two of them communicated by wild hand signs behind his back; Mistress Ford looked appropriately hysterical and distressed (and screamed loudly) throughout the play; Mistress Ford rammed the laundry basket handle into Falstaff's stomach and then scampered to the other side of the stage saying "Oopsie!"; Ford (disguised as Brook) twitched as Falstaff ranted about him; Ford and his companions frequently appeared all over the set while chasing Falstaff ... And then when Ford emptied the laundry basket the second time, he tossed the laundry into the audience. And when Falstaff was hiding from Ford and company (disguised as the old woman), he took the place of a woman in the front row and had her sit in his lap.

I know I'm repeating myself, but it — was — hilarious. The acting company was brilliant.

That evening, we went to Tanglewood (and dined on the lawn ... meaning that we sat on it, not ate it), where we heard Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D and his Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, three arias from Handel's Ariodante, and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks. It was really cold by the time it was done, though ...

After which there were fireworks. Awesome fireworks. Probably the best I've seen, but also probably the first I've really seen up close, which may have something to do with it. Pam, Josh, and Sonya were in the car because they were cold, and they said that the noise set off a lot of car alarms ... They were really loud.

:: Saturday ::

We spent most of the day at the Hancock Shaker Village, which wasn't that interesting for me ... So you'll pardon me if I don't go into details. Later, however, we went to a French restaurant (aptly named Rouge), which was excellent. Actually, we were at an outdoor table in the back, but in the front street (and nearby streets), they were having a Zucchini Festival. Why is beyond me. You would have to ask them. This included band performances (though I heard no references to zucchini in the lyrics), which disrupted our dinner until the explosion. Maybe bang is a better word for it. Either way, none of us (nor the waitress whom we asked) had the faintest idea what it was, but it did stop the music for a little. But, as there was only one scream, no sirens, and a general lack of people fleeing in the opposite direction, we assumed it was nothing significant.

The dinner itself was excellent. A lot of our party had duck, which tasted great but was very rich (I had some, of course), though I had chicken myself. Which was excellent. I had something labelled Gateau Chocolat for dessert, which didn't resemble a gateau au chocolat in the slightest beyond taste. But it was chocolate and also great (which is sort of redundant), so who cares?

That evening we went to see a new play, a political satire ... which I didn't like. I'm not really one for political stuff, so it wasn't exactly something I was clamoring to see, and it would have made the BZP rules faint anyway ...

:: Sunday ::

... was mostly spent returning here. Very little to be said, really. I was so happy to be back in a nice, non-damp house. And my own bed. I slept very well last night. *hugs his pillow*

In other news, expect a new chapter of The Roodaka Affair soon. I've finally finished Chapter 4, but I want to revise the ending somewhat. Whee!

– ToM