Just a Little Less Alien
It’s great having friends who all returned to the USA after our years of living in Qatar (and Kuwait) so we can share our experiences, our frustrations, our challenges. It’s been two years for me since AdventureMan and I made the big decision to retire, and in Pensacola, not Edmonds, WA.
Pensacola is a pretty cool place to be retired. One of the best things, after living in Kuwait especially, is the traffic. People might complain, but the traffic here is laughable. It’s very calm. Traffic might be waiting two lights at a stoplight, but hey – people wait, don’t just drive right through. No one has ever pushed me into a round about, or anywhere else, unlike Qatar, when I got in some young man’s way, and he pushed me out of his way (!)
When you go to the symphony, or to church, or to aqua aerobics, in the worst traffic it might take ten minutes. There are restaurants everywhere, many of them pretty good. The worst restaurants are usually better, cleaner, faster than most of the restaurants in Kuwait and Qatar. The only cuisine we have not been able to find here is Ethiopian, and we can drive to Atlanta or New Orleans and get that.
It’s been two years . . . there is something in me that starts getting a little restless, starts looking at my household goods with an eye to getting rid of, giving away, cutting down on weight. At the very least I might have to paint something, or change the furniture around . . .
My friends are suffering many of the same challenges, the challenge of being an expat back in the USA. What was formerly comfortable is not such a good fit anymore; we have changed, and we are trying to cobble together lives that can accomodate the changes.
I had a minor triumph; I realized that after two years, I am starting to have people I can go sit with when I walk into a crowded venue. It may sound like a small thing, but the fear of having to sit alone in a crowd where everyone is visiting and sharing is a little daunting. Who wants to look pathetic?
But my expat friends and I laugh; in expat world two years makes you an old-timer. When new people come in, you are expected to show them around, show them where (and how) to shop for things, where to get things fixed, altered, where to go to pay your bills and how to pay them. Two years makes you and old hand, often with one foot out the door, getting ready for the next posting or contract.
Three of my friends went back to their home locations, only AdventureMan and I settled in a new place. While I am making some progress, two years in, I still wonder who my friends will be? Will I ever feel at home in Pensacola?
Doha Reunion and Marching Madness
We just finished a five day Doha reunion, a group of us who used to gather frequently in Doha, ironically most of us introverts, but who found gathering together forced us to exercise regularly, helped us to run our errands downtown, and helped us laugh a lot at our own foibles in a strange land. It’s not all that often you can find four women who all get along equally well with one another, but this group was that rarity, and having them in my house was a joy. We were together in worship and in friendship for several years, so having another opportunity to gather was just magical. (We also gathered in May, for a wedding.)
Yes, for those of you who are wondering, AdventureMan was here, and what a blessing he was. He cooked dinner and cleaned up two of the nights, after days when we had been out exploring all day. We could not have had so much fun without his help. I think the other husbands were jealous; they like to be a part of the conversations, too. We always have so much fun together, and such great issues to cover, big topics, small topics, family issues, political issues, fund raising, social and cultural challenges. We share frustrations and experiences, we share resources and brain-storm solutions. For us, it doesn’t get any better, these gatherings feed our souls.
Cat-like women, they all arrived on their own time and schedule, as it would fit, so there was a couple days of total overlap, and some days with fewer. The day the first visitor arrived was also the day of Pensacola’s newest parade, Marching Madness.
“Want to see it?” I asked her? They were going to try to set a new record for the largest number of people in the world doing a line dance.
“Sure!” she said, always a good sport.
This parade was hilarious. First, it was a daytime parade, and most of the parades I have been to in Pensacola have been night parades. There were like fourteen marching bands and many floats, so it was LOUD! The Happy Toddler would have loved it. Lastly, they were generous with the beads, people were loaded with beads, and some of the beads were special!
“I’ve never seen anything like this!” shouted my friend, over the bedlam of trumpets and drums in a compelling jungle rhythm. She was dancing and waving her hands madly at the passing Krewe, hoping for a strand or two to come her way. She ended up with a LOT of beads.
It was so much fun!
This isn’t New Orleans. This was a family parade, lots of babies, lots of children, lots of grandparents, so no one was underdressed, or showing off the wares, if you catch my drift. The people throwing beads were generous across the board, especially to the babies. 🙂
Pensacola is amazing. As we walked back to the car, the street cleaners were standing by, and the street was cleaned and re-opened to traffic within an hour. How amazing is that?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We couldn’t wait. We saw the earlier version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, you know, the one with Alec Guiness, and we couldn’t wait to see this new version, with Gary Oldman playing the Smiley role. He was awesome.
The LeCarre’ books featuring George Smiley are grim and grey, and the opening captures that exactly. The entire movie has a bureaucratic, institutional bleakness, with all the power plays, the petty snobberies, the jockeying for position that these bureaucracies seem to nurture. The only times in the movie when there is color and life is the annual bureau party, once done entirely in Russian, once in French.
The movie is faithful to the book, which I think I need to go back and read once again. It all seems so historical now.
One of the things we noticed was that the theatre was utterly quiet as the movie progressed. A lot of the action is in the mind, figuring things out, and trying not to get caught, so the suspense is of the subtle kind, not the car-crashing and jumping off buildings kind. It was as if the entire theatre were holding its breath; noticeable because of its rarity.
We were oddly jangled as we left the theatre, and over dinner we talked about how we never thought we would be obsolescent, but the Cold War has passed; the soldiers of today weren’t even alive when the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain parted and the cars flowed east. Life goes on.
There were several quotes, one that made us laugh was spies talking about recruiting other nationalities “You can hire an Arab but you can’t buy ’em.”
Check Check and Aaaahh
I’m hard on myself. If I’m not, I don’t get anything done. The baby in me would read or quilt or do Sudoko and the house would go to . . . dust bunnies, at the very least.
So I get things done. I have my lists. The really good thing is that today, I had checked off most of my lists. I still have things to do, but I have a plan to do them. Today, I had several hours in a row to myself.
I knew just what to do with them. It’s a sunny day, great light. Everything has come together. I have a quilt I’ve been thinking about, complicated, even problematic, and while the thoughts germinated, somehow, I solved most of the problems. Today, when I had finished my list for today (that’s the ‘check check’ part, as in ‘checking it off’) I sat down and worked on my project. I can’t show you; it’s not finished. I have a deadline, but if I don’t finish it by the deadline, I don’t care that much. Today was one of those days when I just had fun with the process. I got a significant part done. The light is gone; I have time to think about where I would like to go with it next.
Aaaaaaahhhh. 🙂 It’s a great day.
Lessons and Carols December 18th, 5:00 pm at Christ Church, Pensacola
Here is the write-up from the Christ Church website about the annual Lessons and Carols festival, a tradition in most Anglican and Episcopal churches, and an exhilarating treat during a busy season:
A FESTIVAL OF NINE LESSONS AND CAROLS
December 18, 2011, 5:00 pm, in the Church.
Each year, the Christ Church Parish Choir presents A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a uniquely Anglican Christmas celebration. The Festival at Christ Church is notable because the Choir devotes itself to cultivating the carol literature that is at the heart of the most notable celebration in the world, that of King’s College Cambridge. The fine readers in the choir share scripture readings between the carols, and prayers open and close the service. Several congregational hymns are also included. The service is free and open to the public.
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a format for a service of Christian worship celebrating the birth of Jesus that is traditionally followed at Christmas. The story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus is told in nine short Bible readings from Genesis, the prophetic books and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns and choir music.
The format was based on an Order drawn up by Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury but at that time Bishop of Truro, in Cornwall, for use on Christmas Eve] and that a key purpose of the service was to keep men out of pubs on Christmas Eve. (24 December) 1880. Tradition says that he organized a 10 pm service on Christmas Eve in a temporary wooden shed serving as his cathedral
The original liturgy has since been adapted and used by other churches all over the world. Lessons and Carols most often occur in Anglican churches, but also in some Roman Catholic, Lutheran parishes, and Presbyterian institutions. However numerous Christian churches have adopted this service, or a variation on this service, as part of their Christmas celebrations. In the UK, the service has become the standard format for schools’ Christmas carol services.
The best-known version is broadcast annually from King’s College, Cambridge, on Christmas Eve. It features carols sung by the famous Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Groton School of Groton, Massachusetts, has performed the festival longer than any institution other than King’s, holding its first Lessons and Carols in 1928.
LOL @ for keeping men out of the bars on Christmas Eve! Holy Smokes!
Pensacola Nutcracker
AdventureMan and I had a truly wonderful seasonal adventure tonight, as we attended the opening night of the Ballet Pensacola production of The Nutcracker. All over America, ballet companies pay their bills by putting on this annual favorite, but Pensacola has a knack for making it fresh and new every season.
I am sorry, this is the only photo I have that turned out halfway decent, and AdventureMan was poking me and huffing about my rudeness because my little camera will shoot in low light, but I brought the wrong one, and this one doesn’t have an viewfinder, so it’s ‘making too much light’ to quote AdventureMan.
The sets and costuming are wonderful. The sets were lush and colorful; the costumes fresh and delightful. The snowflakes really sparkled, and had sparkly silver hairpieces that looked light, stayed in place, and captured the sparkly lightness of real snowflakes; it was one of the highlights of the ballet for me. I also loved the coffee costumes – sort of Middle East-y if Middle East dancers wore sparkly pinkish scarves and tinkling belly dancer wraps around their hips. The costumes were delightful, and the dancers seemed to be having a lot of fun.
The tiny angels were hilarious, and oh, my stars, the sheep! You must go, you must see the sheep! This is one sweet production, a treasure of the season, and you might still have a chance to buy a ticket for the Saturday night performance at 7 or the Sunday afternoon performance, both at the Saenger Theatre on Palafox. Children are DRESSED; this is the South, and this is The Nutcracker Ballet!
Hilarious Carlsberg Commercial
Thank you Hayfa – where do you find these???
Denver Airport Thanksgiving Flash Mob
Did you get to see it, Professor Diamond? 🙂
“How Was Your Day?”
We were all standing in line, a very long line, at Pensacola’s Greek Festival at The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church when my son asked how our day was. (AdventureMan and the Happy Baby were off exploring.)
“Oh, it was GREAT!” I enthused. “Time passes so much faster when you’re retired and you spend your time having fun!”
“So what did you do?” he asked.
“Oh! We went to water aerobics, and stopped by the bank to cash a check so we would have money for the weekend. Then your Dad vacuumed so I can mop the floors tomorrow, while I cleaned upstairs, dusted, did the bathrooms, etc. At lunch we went to Chow Time, and drove down here to check out parking, and then I had a quilting meeting this afternoon, and then we met you!”
As I finished, their faces were somewhere between blank and confused . . . and I realized my idea of fun was a relative thing.
Here is what is fun. Fun is getting to CHOOSE when you vacuum or mop the floors, or wipe down the blinds, or clean the bathrooms. Fun is having the time to do it even on a weekday, not having to scramble on Sundays to get it all done, like we used to. Fun is not having gobs of money, but having enough that we can go to the bank and take some out when we need it for the weekend. Fun is meeting up with our son and his wife and our grandson because our schedule isn’t full with business meetings, and working late at the office. Fun is having groups we belong to because we really want to.
The truth is, in many ways, we are busier than we ever have been, but it is busy-ness of our own choosing.
Fun is even babysitting your grandson when he gets sick, just because you can, or helping carry him around a big festival, taking turns, so everyone gets to eat. It’s fun because we can, and because this is what we have chosen.
EnviroGirl and I picked up the dinners while AdventureMan and L&O Man scouted for seats in the tent so we could sit and eat dinner – moussaka, chicken, lamb, all kinds of specialities. There was also a very long dessert line – this festival is all about the food, and the music and dancing. I’ve taken some photos for you, but once we had the food, I didn’t get a chance to get any more photos. We only had to stand in line about thirty minutes; although there is a huge crowd, there is also a system, and they get people in and through the serving lines very efficiently.
Ballet Pensacola Does Dracula
A good friend invited us to the Pensacola Ballet when we were newly arrived, not once, but twice. My friends ask in amazement “Pensacola has a ballet?” “We do, indeed!” I respond, “and they have had a ballet for years!”
The first ballet I saw in Pensacola was The Nutcracker. Who could not love The Nutcracker? I’m never sick of it, every year I see it is a little different. I have my favorites, but I always enjoy The Nutcracker.
The second ballet we went attended was WAY more avant garde. They did a ballet about the African American South, and I totally loved it. It was breathtaking, and innovative, with drums and intense music. I was impressed.
When I saw this years schedule, we bought season tickets. Dracula. Imagine! I can hardly wait to see what they do with this.
DRACULA
Ballet Pensacola’s season will open in dramatic fashion with a gripping performance of Dracula based on the 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Wear your best costume to experience an updated take on the world’s most famous vampire.
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 11 p.m.
Single ticket prices are $18 – $30 (plus applicable fees) and are available now by calling the Pensacola Cultural Center Box Office at 850.432.2042.
Also join us for drinks and hors d’oeuvres at the Transylvanian Throwdown Saturday, October 22 at 9:30 p.m. in the Atrium of the Pensacola Cultural Center. Tickets are $10. For more information, please call 850.432.9546 or visit http://www.balletpensacola.com.
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Update 21 October 2011: We saw Dracula tonight. We were not disappointed. While I enjoy the campy Vamps on True Blood, the vampires imagined by Bram Stoker were creepy, subhuman creatures, degrading with every century. From the opening, the Pensacola Ballet Corps caught it perfectly. The vampires were hungry, and spidery, and tumbled around on stage like the sub-humans they are. The bats streaked and twittered. The ‘brides’ leered at the audience, and Dracula was louche and hypnotically seductive, but in a very creepy way.
As usual, the costuming was brilliant.
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