Better late than never…
It has been a rather amazing autumn here in central Iowa. It’s been an extended Indian summer. The days have been sunnier, warmer more dry than usual. The blustery, wet chill of an Iowa autumn has been virtually non-existent up to this point.
The past week was fairly routine for Wendy and me with work and fall activities. Taylor has been traveling to see friends and family the past week and a half. She was home briefly on Tuesday night from her weekend in California and flew out early Wednesday to spend some time with Madison in Colorado. So, the house was quiet. Wendy took the opportunity to do some cleaning and arranging late in the week.
The weekend, however, ended up being even more full than we had expected. On Friday night our friends Dan and Anna came over for dinner and the conversation lasted late into the night. During the evening our friend Cyndi texted and mentioned she had two extra tickets to The Illusionists at the Des Moines Civic Center on Saturday afternoon and asked if we’d like to join her, Ben, and Megan for lunch and a show.
The time in the car with Cyndi afforded us an opportunity to run lines for our performance on Saturday night. It was the Silver Anniversary of the Pella Opera House restoration and re-opening. Opera House Executive Director, Kevin McQuade, had planned a huge gala event for the occasion and asked me to pen a short sketch for the occasion. Cyndi, Wendy and I performed the sketch and had precious little time to rehearse, so the time in the car was beneficial.
By the time we returned from Des Moines we had to make a quick change and get to the Opera House for the black-tie event. It was a wonderful evening and we loved visiting with all sorts of people from the community (see featured photo).
As the crowd was ushered upstairs into the Opera House auditorium for the evening’s program. Wendy and I headed back stage to change into our costumes for the sketch. I was standing in the dressing room with Wendy and Cyndi running lines when Laurinda Nikkel arrived. Laurinda is an opera singer who returned home to Pella to perform for the event (it is, after all, an Opera House). When Wendy was a little girl, Laurinda dated Wendy’s uncle and Laurinda sort of adopted Wendy as a niece. They had not seen one another or communicated since Wendy was very young. It was so cute when Wendy approached Laurinda, looked her in the eye and said, “I’m Wendy.” I thought Laurinda was going to lose it right there. It was a wonderful reunion and the we had a great time chatting with her after the program.
Kevin and Linda invited us over for a nightcap after the evening’s festivities. Wendy and I didn’t get to bed until right around 2:00 a.m. We tried but couldn’t remember the last time we were up that late. Taylor’s comment: “you crazy kids.”
Needless to say, Sunday was spent resting and recuperating from all the activity. I spent much of the day on the couch doing a make-over on the Union Street Players website.
Busy week ahead with three days on the road and month-end deadlines looming.
Wayfarer 