Beautifully Exhausting, Part 1

What a week.  This past week felt non-stop, but admittedly it was really all good stuff, and was rather photogenic at that!  Work was busy enough as it was, because I knew I only had four days at my desk and I had a lot of data and other projects to get through in that time before I was away from my computer all day on Friday for Meliora Weekend.  I had a ton of meetings, too, which is unusual, so the entire week felt like it had to be planned out practically to the minute--I had notes about what needed to be done on which days and in what order I was doing things on any given day or night.  

My boss' birthday was Tuesday, and since I was the last birthday in our group, it was my responsibility to organize her present.  After agonizing for days, I opted to put together a birthday basket of her favorites.  I had to drag Carter with me to Walmart and Wendy's on Monday night while Jacob was at practice, so I once again bribed him with the promise of a playground.  Carter suggested going to the Parma playground, which we went to for the first time back in April expecting two playgrounds, and there only ended up being one because one had been taken down in preparation for a new accessible one.  I had seen a friend post pictures recently where you could see the new playground was open, so it seemed like a good night to check it out.  It was a really pleasant evening but we had to go to the playground first before our errands because it's getting dark so early now!

The playground was pretty great.  It had two tall towers with slides and lots of climbing stuff.

This connected two sections--it really slowed Carter down in the midst of his tag playing!

The part that Carter is on could be used to climb or slide--there was a slide-friendly groove in between the climbing holes.

The view from the top of the tower in the previous photo.  There were twin twisty slides from both.  I never did figure out how to climb up that yellow twisting ladder on the left.

Endless funky monkey bars and climbing spots

The favorite equipment seemed to be the spinner.  It was constantly full of kids, and both parents and kids were taking turns spinning it.  It was a workout!

Carter loves to play tag.  He usually wants me to play tag with him on playgrounds, but I generally don't like to do that for two reasons: 1) Trying to go fast on playground equipment could be a recipe for disaster--for both of us; and 2) I only want to play with him when playgrounds aren't busy.  If there are a lot of kids I feel like I get in the way.  I also feel like tag is a lose-lose for me--if I catch him, he just turns around and catches me back, and if I don't catch him, he gets frustrated that I'm not playing with him.  It's not really that much fun, but I do what I can to keep him happy.  However, he's gotten pretty good at busy playgrounds finding kids that want to play tag with him.  On this night he played with a kid named Dean, who was a rather small six-year-old (or so he said).  He was so sweet because he always said, "Excuse me" when he needed help with something.  They ran around chasing one another for a solid half hour!  But eventually it was starting to get darker and Dean had to go.  The sky was looking like this...

As we walked to the other playground, Carter said he was tired and asked me if that's what it's like to have a kid, when you have to chase them all over the place.  I confirmed that it was indeed!  We spent maybe 20 minutes at the other playground, at which point it was nearly dark, but he was having a blast with a brother and sister closer to his own age.  At one point the brother very perfectly hid himself in the twisty tunnel slide for so long that the grandma got up to look for him when Carter and the sister were looking for him.  But at just the right time he popped out and freaked them out completely--even when they had an inkling he was in there.  It was hilarious.  

Walking the slightly bouncy balance beam

The sky continued to be beautiful, but it was definitely dark enough for headlights by the time we left!
 

On Wednesday night we had Carter's Back to School Bash.  It was different than an open house--basically just a big party outside.  It was another really nice night (even if it was definitely going to get cool as the night went on), so we walked over to the school.  It was Carter's idea, and a good one since I knew the parking lot would likely be crazy.  The first order of business was meeting his teacher, who he still adores a month in.  She sang his praises for going the extra mile to track down his homework online the previous night after he forgot his paper at school.  He had wanted me to email her to let her know because he was upset about missing recess, and she answered that night with the online suggestion.  He did it, although I think he might have done a wrong page, but she was thrilled with his effort regardless.  I can't tell you how night-and-day different this year is.  It's amazing.

It was almost surreal (but strangely normal) to look out at the school yard and see dozens of kids and lots of families running free around the yard.  The teachers had masks but only a couple kids had them since everything was outside.  It was so nice to see them laughing and playing like normal, on the playgrounds and basketball courts, playing tag and chatting on the playground equipment.  It was a far cry from when I ran through this same area all the time after COVID first hit and marveled at the impossibility of the school having been empty for months.  I also knew at the time that Carter would be there before I knew it, and sure enough--now he's there but at least it waited until the school came back to life!

Carter had a blast hooking up with his buddies.  They chased each other, played on the playground, and eventually Carter was spinning his friends mercilessly on the swings, as he loves to do.  I spent most of the time just watching from a distance.  The sun was setting and the golden hour set in.  The illuminated tops of the trees looked really cool. 

As I sat, a brave squirrel ran past me, having come from the direction of all the activity, and ran up a tree.  It had a giant acorn in its mouth and sat in the tree for a few seconds pondering its next move.

The sky got prettier and prettier, from golden yellow clouds to pink ones.

It got really intense at one point, and this was amazing--notice how the pink and purple clouds are above a second set of strictly white clouds, rather than just clear sky.  I assume it was just the angle of the sunset determining the color, but it was interesting how clearly delineated they were.

The sky was really stunning for a long time, and once again I had to drag Carter off the playground in the dark, even after his friends left. 

Oh, and prior to that event, we actually had family therapy (though we left Carter at school because he gets out later than the appointment) and our therapist was so thrilled to hear how well the school year is going for Carter and how it appeared that his broken tablet had essentially righted a lot of things--both Carter's screen time struggles and Jacob's annoyance with Carter's screen time--and suggested we might want to think about wrapping things up soon if things continue to go well.  We agreed that year-end would be best before insurance deductibles kick back in, so that's the target for now.  As he said, "It shouldn't be a life sentence!"

Thursday night was busy, too, as I had to cram in a Wegmans trip because we needed a bunch of stuff, including Saturday's soccer snack, and that was my last chance to go because the next day and a half would be busy!  I was up bright and early on Friday to drop Jacob off and get into work by 8:30 or so for my first Meliora Weekend shift.  It was a much smaller event this year, but I still ended up with three shifts, one of which was a registration shift at the Eastman School of Music.  Sadly, the doors to the Chihuly were locked, but it's always nice to be in a beautiful building like that and seeing all those talented musicians passing by (and sometimes randomly breaking out into song).

A few years ago they made efforts to give the non-River Campus schools their own "Meliora" icon like the photogenic giant letters on the main campus.  I did this post when I went to see them at the Memorial Art Gallery, but this was my first chance seeing the Eastman chimes!

After a very long shift spent registering walk-ins for the weekend (or more accurately, the Friday lunch food truck rodeo outside) and catching up with a very-long-ago sports colleague who just joined UR and happened to be on the same shift, it was time to head over to the main campus for an "on-call" shift that I took because I felt bad Carter's soccer game (and Jacob's out-of-town basketball tournament) would prevent me from working a shift during the busiest part of the weekend.  I really just hung out waiting for someone to call my cell if anyone couldn't make their shift or an extra hand was needed.  I had cold weather clothes and a nicer top waiting in my car just in case, but it ended up that I just grabbed poutine for a late lunch, wandered around, caught up with colleagues for the first time in 18 months, sat in the break room with my computer to look at a day's worth of emails, and eventually just made myself useful when the evening's big event was getting set up and an extra body/set of legs was needed.  I did have a few minutes to walk to the newest building on campus to check out the cool mural in the lobby.  It features the school's official flower, the dandelion, and is made up of thousands of tiny metal flowers that are colored and bent to create a mosaic effect and shimmer and shine in the sun.

I drove past the building a few weeks ago and its sparkle in the sunlight was so pretty!  I love stuff like this so I was happy to get a chance to see it in person.

By the time I got home around 8pm, I was exhausted!  Not only was it a long day after an earlier-than-usual morning, but my pandemic self is apparently not prepared to deal with people all day long!  After all that, I could barely handle Jacob deciding to talk to me about every moment of his day when I got home.  I was so over stimulated!  I slept pretty well, but once again was up extra early on Saturday to get ready for another morning shift--this time starting at 7:45 to prepare for commencement!

The 2020 graduates never got an in-person commencement because everyone got sent home and it just wasn't safe to do anything in person at that point, just a few months into the pandemic.  It didn't work out to bring them back at the same time as this year's commencement, as that was already stripped down and limited to just graduates (no family) to manage space and distancing constraints.  The goal became to do it this weekend, but even this got stripped down.  First it went to just current students, 2020, 2021, and reunion alums (plus family), rather than invite back all alums, and then the emergence of delta necessitated cutting out the reunion aspect (maybe in June) and focusing just on the first three groups and their families, with the highlight being a real 2020 commencement for all the schools combined.  It was going to be a full house, so it was all hands on deck!

Thankfully, it turned out to be a gorgeous morning and not as cold as the low 50s forecast would have indicated.
 

It was back to the Eastman School of Music (but again, no chance to glance the Chihuly--too much going on!).  I sometimes miss being in the city, and this part is always such a lively, fun area thanks to the students and the cultural influences of the music school and historic theater.

Sculpture in the park across the way

It was a little like herding cats to get all of the Arts & Sciences grads scanned in and corralled for an hour prior.  Another colleague and I handled the largest school group--the undergrads--making sure they'd checked in to get their reader card, were going to the right spot, and were scanned in before lining up.  It was crazy but wonderful to see these grads finally getting their moment--with their friends and in front of their families--even if it was coming after an extra 16 months of waiting (and a year of "real life" experience).  

Half of them already in!

I was released from that at 10:30 once everyone was in (and listening to actress Geena Davis, who gave the commencement speech!), and met Craig and the boys over at the arena to exchange the EZPass for Carter.  Craig and Jacob were off to Syracuse for basketball, and Carter had to stay with me for a soccer game.  We went home, had a little time to change and eat lunch, and then back off we went, never mind how badly I needed a nap!  Luckily it was a gorgeous day--much warmer than most we've had lately--and it was a perfect day to sit in the sun but not bake.  Carter played goal for a half (he let in two) and then scored a goal of his own!  His team made a nice comeback but it fell short when the second half goalie let in a couple late.  But it's always fun to see him play, and there's just two games left so the frustration of this less-than-great team won't last much longer.

That was just the first half of our day--we still had a lot of fun left to have...but that's enough for its own post!