A fantabulous weekend.

Well, we got our first snow on Friday. There was no accumulation, but rest assured it was snow that was falling down. It’s unseasonably cold for this time of the year so who knows what this coming winter will be like. I think it’s supposed to get to more normal weather by the end of the week. There was a staff meeting on Thursday which did not go as late as I thought so that was a nice surprise. We now have a psychiatrist who comes to the meetings and it’s been very helpful to hear his take on some of the mental illnesses the residents are dealing with.

We had new documentation to work with on Friday so it made for a longer night at the facility. I thought I had needed to work until midnight but that was not to be the case. Anna and I had plans to listen to this performer at one of the local bars, but by the time I got off work, I was pretty darn tired. She graciously said it was OK and that we would just not do anything that night.

On Saturday, I accompanied her grocery shopping which was pretty fun actually. It was more fun because I got to drive her sports car with a stick shift. I’m so proud that I can still shift gears and drive a stick shift without a problem. I told Anna that she’s probably seen the last time she drove a car and she has no problems with that. I just love driving her car. Before we went for lunch, I met up with some of her friends from a scrapbooking group. They are all very nice people. At the same time, I can’t for the life of me understand how people can scrapbook for hours on end. We watched the movie “Secret Life of Bees” which was a very good movie. The movie is based on the bestseller by Sue Monk Kid and I’ve been told it’s an amazing read. I may just have to grab a copy to read myself. Saturday evening was the annual St. Kate’s fundraiser/auction for the students to go to El Salvador. Both Anna and I donated stuff so it was only right that we were there. She had donated a package of Mary Kay products and I donated my Malaysian dinner. A number of the “power players” were not there which meant that the fundraiser was not going to raise that much money. I ended up donating two Malaysian meals for $500 each which was not a bad deal. I know both couples that won the bid so it’ll be a good evening for sure. After the auction we were both pretty much pooped so we just watched a movie at her place. It was a captivating drama entitled, “Fracture” starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosseling.

On Sunday, we both got to sleep in since we went to Mass the evening before. I made it to church in time to lead the RCIA group. It’s hard to believe that there’s just a couple of weeks left before they move on to the next stage in the process. I must say that it’s been a good group overall. I got to leave the facility earlier because I was headed up to Ames for a concert by the Jerusalem Symphony. Talk about a powerful concert. The first two pieces they played were by Jewish composers and after the intermission, they played Aaron Copeland’s Symphony #3 which has the infamous piece, “Fanfare for the Common Man”. Talk about getting the chills listening to that piece live! It was such a wonderful evening and we all gave them a standing ovation. They more than deserved it in my books.

That’s how the week and weekend went. This coming weekend, Anna, John and I will be listening to the DM Symphony play tunes from Bugs Bunny while on the screen they will be showing a number of Bugs Bunny cartoon. I’m sure it’ll be a fun evening for all in attendance.