"Vacationing" in Small City

As most of you know, from time to time, when painting or carpeting or whatever is being done in an apartment near mine, I have to go elsewhere for a while because of my allergies. I'm in one of those times at the moment, a rather drawn out time due to the unpredictability of when each phase of the work could be done.

A long time spent in a hotel in one's home city could get rather tedious... or not. When I realized that there were two lovely big beds in my hotel room (and, as it turns out, I had to switch hotels, and now have a two-room suite!) I contacted my friend J in Minnesota, with whom I traveled to England in the summer, and she's come up to spend a week with me. We are having a wonderful time together, and it's made the staid staycation into a delightful vacation.

We haven't been indulging in too much wild or riotous living, I promise! Due to J's MS, she is limited in the amount she can do in a day, and due to my rather low energy-level, that works well for me. We have been having a good time anyway.

Her plane was late getting in last Wednesday, due to very foggy conditions here, and she was in definite need of food when she finally arrived after 2 p.m. -- so we went straight to a delightful little restaurant that serves British food, and in particular, serves a wonderful cream tea. While she had a cranberry-cream cheese and cucumber sandwich and a pot of PG Tips tea, I enjoyed scones with clotted cream. Mmmmm...

We've done a bit of shopping (naturally) and a bit of sightseeing (naturally). Friday we went to an historic hotel for afternoon tea with another of my friends, and had a wonderful time (and wonderful tiny sandwiches, scones, and delectable goodies). Saturday we drove to the next city (about an hour's drive) to a lovely restaurant for prime rib and Yorkshire pudding. It was well worth the trip. Oh my, that dinner was good! J had Saskatoon berry crumble with vanilla ice cream to top off the meal (and I admit I had a spoonful of the crumble, despite my hypoglycemia. It was so very good!) It was a nice drive out of town, as well. It certainly showed J just how flat the prairie can be!

Today was a very different day, as we spent much of the day preparing J's costume for the Singalong Sound of Music we'll be attending in St. Paul, Minnesota on Saturday the 22nd. (Yes, at the end of this week, I'll be in Minnesota again!) My costume has been ready for a couple of weeks, since mine just involved finding the right thing and buying it... J's involved us finding the right fabric, and putting it together.

Remember the scene in The Sound of Music, after the children's fears of the storm have been calmed by Maria singing "My Favorite Things" and the Captain has sent them scurrying back to their bedrooms? Maria ponders the children's lack of playclothes and the fact that there will be new drapes for her bedroom, and has the brainwave that the drapes would make perfect playclothes. Well, we are going to illustrate that scene.

I have found just the right nightgown and robe to allow me to portray Maria as she ponders the problem (and last time I had my hair cut, I got it cut the way Julie had hers in the 1970s -- I just couldn't bring myself to get the full Sound of Music cut. The 1970s style is close enough.) So... that's half the scene. What about J? J decided on her costume first, actually. She is going as the drapes. Yes, the drapes. We found just the right fabric on Thursday, and today we cut the fabric and hemmed it (we will not discuss our method of hemming, thank you very much) and I will fashion rod pockets of some sort so that she can wear the drapes over her shoulders. (If you've ever seen the episode of the Carol Burnett Show in which she did a parody of Gone With the Wind, with Scarlett's famous drapery dress being actual drapes on a rod across her shoulders, J's will be a smaller version of that.) I will post pictures on Saturday of the two of us in our finery.

Tomorrow we hope to go out to my hometown so that I can show J around my home area. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

Having J join me for part of my staycation has to be one of the best ideas I've had in a long time! Thank you, J!!!