Sunday, December 31, 2006

The obbligatory things we do

Certain events and tasks are mandatory whenever we visit Calgary.

1) Go through the many boxes left in parents' basements. Sort: garage sale boxes, take-home-to-Iowa-in-the-suitcase boxes, garbage, bring-down-to-Iowa-at-some-point boxes. I'm not saying that our parents are unsentimental, but some people I know come home to their bedrooms preserved as shrines...our parents have lives...and guest bedrooms!

2) Listen to recordings of self with parents. Newest: Nicole's CD. Older: University of Calgary Wind Ensemble; Dave's BeatNiq recordings and CD from four years ago.

3) Steak dinner with my parents. Tonight, a step up: surf and turf. Sooooo full...

4) Flames hockey games. Dave got to go to two games, one with me (which they lost, as I was there) and one with my dad (which they won, of course). Go, Flames, Go!

5) Stock up on Canadian chocolate bars.

6) Gain 5-10 lbs. (Except Dave. Instead, he got the stomach flu and lost 6 lbs...lucky punk.)

7) Catch up with friends. This is not, of course, "obbligatory", but we have a list of must-sees...we never get through the list. Sorry, guys.

8) Final evening with both sets of parents. We're so lucky that they only live 15 minutes apart.

9) For Dave: sister-brother bonding time with Jen. For Jill: ...hey...I have four brothers and none of them want to bond with me. :(

10) Leave the instruments at home. We're pretty much booked every day, so there's no time to practice! Dave used to bring his sax home for gigs, but he'd rather save the carry-on space and spend more time with family. I agree. The oboe stays home. This of course means that I'll be in pretty rough shape come January 4. Time for some long tones!

We're here for a few more days (see above), so if you want to see us, please don't be offended that we didn't call. Pick up the phone! You know how to find me! :)

Happy New Year, everybody!!! Perhaps some New Year's resolutions are in order...we'll see!

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