Rose: Once again, we headed to our favorite place on earth. I do believe that the sky is bluer, and the sunshine sunnier at Interlochen. Lakes everywhere, beautiful trees lining every road. I love it there.
Thorn: Once again, we left John at home, taking care of the house and animals (along with the regular job and church calling). I missed him terribly this year.
Rose: The weather was the best we've ever had. Really. 60's and 70's during the day, high 40's/low 50's at night. For having to work in a non-airconditioned infirmary each day, and for the girls rehearsing all day in outdoor spaces, it was absolutely perfect. No frozen washcloths up the backs of our shirts this summer!
Thorn: The mosquitoes were atrocious! In fact, when we stepped out of our car for the first time, we had swarms of them on us. I think Hannah ended up with six bites in that short of time, and was on Benedryl for the next few days. We didn't go a day afterwards without covering ourselves in bug spray.
Rose: Cherries!
Thorn: The runs!
Rose: We stayed in a really nice home for the first four weeks. It had central air, all appliances, a great TV/DVR/DVD entertainment system, and all new construction. Thankfully, it was only a five minute bike ride from camp too. It really was such a comfortable place to stay.
Thorn: Because the three-bedroom/two-bathroom house that we normally rent was rented already, we downsized to this two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. And we aren't small people. It felt very teeny tiny.
Thorn #2: The landlord was going to charge me an arm and a leg to rent for two days over the month that I was already renting, so I decided we'd find somewhere else to live for those two days. I would describe the place as the main locale from the film, Misery--an appropriate name for how we felt living there. However, we grasped the bull by the horns and spent the two evenings there watching episodes from "The Walking Dead". Glo slept with me each night.
Rose: I escaped working with the "crazy lady" from last year by being assigned to a new infirmary. Seriously, if I would have spent another day with her, I would have shot myself in the head. It was actually an honor to be reassigned, because Boys Infirmary had a reputation of being the "red-headed stepchild". I knew that I was needed there to get Boys running just as smoothly as JIG, and believe me, by the end of the summer, it was running better.
Thorn: Boys is way off the beaten path. In fact, it's so off the beaten path that it's off main camp. And since one of the main reasons I go to Interlochen is to hear music 24/7, I really, REALLY missed out. There was no casual stroll through the practice cabins as I run an errand. No slipping away to catch a few minutes of a performance. Ugh--this was a major big thorn.
Rose: Interlochen discontinued the secretary job I'd held for the previous three summers--a job that paid pittance. I was "promoted" to a health assistant which meant almost three times the salary. This is a great thing, considering the rent and tuition we pay each summer. Too, I got to know the campers really well--so well, that I knew most of their names, and the boys knew that. It turned into a game of theirs to ask me their names when I was cutting through the lunch line at the cafeteria, or when they saw me on main camp. It became the funnest part of my job--playing camp mom to the orphan boys :-)
Thorn: Again, going back to the main reason I personally love Interlochen, the secretary job had given me two days off a week to do whatever I wanted on camp. Listen to a rehearsal of WYSO, catch my girls during a chamber rehearsal, stop for an ice cream cone in the middle of a hot afternoon. Being a health assistant, I didn't get but one weekend off every two weeks. And those 8-4 secretary hours? Gone. I showed up at 6:45 a.m. to help dispense meds (meaning I woke up at 5:55 a.m.....when it was still DARK outside), and left at 3:30 p.m. I've never been so tired at Interlochen! Not exactly how I want to spend my summer.
Rose: John arrived for the last two weeks of camp (as he usually does). We got to live on campus for free, and all of our meals were included. He brought a TV from home and the X-Box, so we got to watch some fun TV shows at night. Too, he would stop by the infirmary on his way home from a run, and everyone was happy to see him. He would make us all laugh about something (how can we forget "Stone Mountain"?)
Thorn: This is John's last year as a camp doctor. With a new boss of the health service came a new policy--only ER docs, family practitioners and pediatricians as doctors now. No thought about the fact that he's been doing an excellent job for the last five summers; no thought about the fact that our family needs the tuition break his job brings; no thought about loyalty. He is out. However, because he had signed a contract to work before the policy was put into place, he was still paid as a doctor (and received the nice benefits), but he wasn't allowed to work at all. And no work makes John an unhappy camper...literally.
Rose: Mark came home from his mission to Russia! This was the undeniable best part of the summer. Actually, it was like two roses for the price of one as Ethan came to Michigan too.
Thorn (at least for us in Michigan): Mark left us for a week to visit Ethan and Rebecca in Utah, and to attend the Clarks' homecoming. Believe me, I almost didn't let him go!
Rose: Glo got to be a "boarding camper" for the first time this year. She had been begging us for a couple of years now, because she misses the social aspect of camp living with us. She wanted to have cabin mates, and she wanted to know people before she walked into her first rehearsal. No joke, I was trying to convince her to stay home with us up until the night before she left us, but she held firm. And how lucky she was--she got the primo boarding camper experience. Two fabulous counselors, 12 super friendly, super fun cabin mates, and .... wait for it ..... no drama! She had such a wonderful experience--just what camp should be--and she made tons of friends (which comes as no surprise, knowing Glo).
Thorn: It's only a thorn to me. I missed Glo those first three weeks. I missed her BAD. Every chance I got, I was looking for her, and throwing my arms around her in a big, embarrassing, mama bear hug. Or making her pose with Hannah as a sign of continued family unity. And those three weeks just couldn't go fast enough.
(Starting with the THORN this time): We eat at the cafeterias on camp each summer. It saves us tons of money--we buy no groceries--and there's a pretty good variety of food. However, being at Boys, we ended up eating at the worst cafeteria on camp most of the time. And when we did eat at the "good" one (Stone), Hannah and I would have crazy gastric upset for the next few hours. Usually this hits us a few weeks into camp, but it started Day One this year.
Rose: We ended up eating out at some of our favorite restaurants....over, and over, and over again. I mean, believe me, there was no complaining when we ran to Sleder's for yet another buffalo burger!
Rose: For the past two summers, I have been stalking a certain someone, hoping to spend some quality time with him. You might think it's a world famous conductor? A renowned teacher? Joshua Bell. Nope, it's a very special person who makes an appearance in the Scholarshop only on rare occasions. Just goes to show: perseverance pays off. Not only did I meet him and bring him home with me, but I brought home his twin brother!
Thorn: The DOMO brothers went for a joy ride around the Interlochen campus and wrecked the left front fender of Rubix, our Honda Element. It was a mighty big pain, getting into Rubix through the passenger door for two weeks.
Follow-Up Rose: John wasn't at Interlochen for more than three hours before he had the fender fixed. Once again, we all agree: he's the MAN!
Rose: So, you might have heard that Mark came home from his mission? Yep, he did. And another rose? He came home SAFE. With the escalating tensions between Russia and the US, the missionaries there (as well as the families at home) were hit with all kinds of security measures. Don't think it didn't worry me a bit. So when Mark stepped off that final plane into Traverse City, I felt overwhelming gratitude that he was back, safe and sound.
Thorn: Mark injured himself just days before he came home. He sprained his ankle something bad. In fact, one month later, it's still pretty dysfunctional.
Rose: Glo decided to take a new elective this year: Animation. It's a new offering at Interlochen, only started last summer. It fit into her schedule, and she was pretty pumped. She had class for 50 minutes a day, for five days a week, for three weeks.
The kids began by making a flip book. You know, those books that you flip with your thumb, and the pictures "move" from page to page. For Glo, this was incredibly simple, and she loved it. After several days of that, it was on to creating video animation using hand-drawn pictures. From what Glo tells me, it takes 24 hand-drawn frames to create one second of animation. Think about that. So after three weeks of this class, she had 120 frames drawn to create five seconds of animation. To put this in perspective, I was talking to a high school camper who was taking only Animation for the three weeks (5-6 hours of class a day). In the end, he was pushing to create four seconds. Yep, Glo is amazing.
She was given the assignment of connecting animals, using animation. Just watch, and you'll see what I mean. Remember: 120 frames in five second (repeated as a loop).
Thorn: Glo has taken Photography as her elective for the past few years, and I have a collection of her best pictures on the wall (all black and white, and all hand-developed from film). No pictures this year. However, she was out for a walk one morning, and stumbled across a wild orchid. She used her iPhone to take this picture. Yep, it's going on the wall.
Rose: We had some great moments. Miniature golfing at Pirate's Cove, shopping at a really great mall, walking downtown. One of John's favorite moments was running the half-marathon in the Meijer Festival of Races. It's part of the Cherry Festival, held annually in Traverse City. Again, the weather was just perfect, and it's a relatively small race so the traffic isn't bad. Ethan and I ran the 5K. John finished super fast (he's having a really great running summer this year), Ethan booked it through our tiny race, and in one of the best accomplishments of my year, I ran the whole thing. And I didn't feel like I was going to DIE! In fact, I do believe that I am more proud of that t-shirt than any other t-shirt I've earned running--the race length was easy, and I just ran.
Thorn: We were sick as DOGS this summer. All the events we had planned? Climbing the dunes, canoeing, driving to Petoskey? We did absolutely none of them. In fact, the night Mark came home, I could feel something coming on. The next day, I felt like c-r-a-p, but I didn't tell anyone, and that night, I could hardly breathe. The next morning, I ran the 5K and thought I was feeling better, but by that night, I had the full-on flu. It lasted almost two weeks, and I took a day off work. When I showed up the next day, my boss heard me answer the phone and ordered me home (not out of concern for me, but concern for the other workers). Too, Glo spent two days at home with us (while a boarding camper), because she was running a high fever. We spent more money and made more trips to the Meijer pharmacy than I care to admit.
Rose: This was Hannah's fifth and final summer at Interlochen. It's hard to think that her first year (as an Intermediate) was so long ago (and that I couldn't take her because I'd just broken my ankle).
Thorn: Probably the biggest thorn of the summer was the fact that the viola program director is a nepotistic pig. He and Hannie aren't the best of friends, and he lets that affect seat assignments for the different orchestras. Despite our best efforts to suck up and play the game, he took her down. It was a disappointing end to a terrific Interlochen career.
Follow-Up Rose: No joke, Hannah is a woman who creates her own destiny. We have always called her our most motivated child. She wasn't letting that hateful man get the best of her.
At the end of every Interlochen performance (there were close to 300 this summer), the Interlochen theme is played. It is almost always conducted by a student. In the case of every orchestra, the concertmaster/mistress conducts it (that's the first violinist for those who don't know). It is an honor that only a few kids ever experience. Mark actually conducted the theme back in 2011 for WYHC, the top choir at Interlochen--he won the chance through audition. Glo was THE concert mistress for all three orchestra sessions in 2010, and therefore conducted it three times that summer (totally AWESOME). So, the chances for Hannah....as a violist....were nil. However, she wasn't accepting that.
Turns out, one of the two violinists in her chamber group was the concertmaster of the orchestra, and he had already conducted the theme in a previous concert. She simply asked him if he would mind if she asked to conduct it. Kudos to him for being super mature and saying "yes". She then went to Octavio Mas-Arocas, the conductor of IP, and asked him, telling him that she had already gotten the approval of the concertmaster. He, of course, asked the concertmaster if this was true, and they all said "yes". She met with Mas-Arocas for five minutes after rehearsal so that he could ensure that she could actually do it, during which he told her that she should consider becoming a conductor. Not surprising, considering the orchestra was already gone (and she couldn't rehearse with them), and seeing as she didn't need any music because she had the whole thing memorized and could sing it while pretending to conduct the orchestra.
That's right, stupid hateful man-pig, you seem to be the ONLY person in the world who doesn't recognize my daughter's talent.
Of course, Hannah told us NONE of this. So, after the final piece on the program, she stood with the rest of the orchestra to take her bow, and I noticed that she was totally pale. I figured she was just emotional because it was her last performance. Then, when the orchestra sat back down to play the theme, she remained standing and set her viola and bow on her chair.
I. Could. Have. Died.
None of us could believe it. She walked proudly up from the back of the viola section, stepped up to the conductor's podium, raised her arms, and began. It was one of those moments that I will never forget. It reminded me of the moment in The Hunger Games when Katniss offers the poisonous berries to Peeta and herself. She would be victorious over evil, and Hannah was.
More than that though, I was even more proud of the fact that she had worked this all out herself, and done it to perfection. No sneaking behind the concertmaster, no arrogance. In the end, she was told by other campers that she was the best student conductor they had ever had, and you better believe all the violists came up afterwards, asking her how she had been able to do it :-)
She is amazing, and I can hardly wait to see what she accomplishes in the future.
Rose: For the first time in four years, we are together again as a family. We may not be in the same state at the moment, but at least we are in the same country. No thorn there.
Thorn: Once again, we left John at home, taking care of the house and animals (along with the regular job and church calling). I missed him terribly this year.
Rose: The weather was the best we've ever had. Really. 60's and 70's during the day, high 40's/low 50's at night. For having to work in a non-airconditioned infirmary each day, and for the girls rehearsing all day in outdoor spaces, it was absolutely perfect. No frozen washcloths up the backs of our shirts this summer!
Thorn: The mosquitoes were atrocious! In fact, when we stepped out of our car for the first time, we had swarms of them on us. I think Hannah ended up with six bites in that short of time, and was on Benedryl for the next few days. We didn't go a day afterwards without covering ourselves in bug spray.
Rose: Cherries!
Thorn: The runs!
Rose: We stayed in a really nice home for the first four weeks. It had central air, all appliances, a great TV/DVR/DVD entertainment system, and all new construction. Thankfully, it was only a five minute bike ride from camp too. It really was such a comfortable place to stay.Thorn: Because the three-bedroom/two-bathroom house that we normally rent was rented already, we downsized to this two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. And we aren't small people. It felt very teeny tiny.
Thorn #2: The landlord was going to charge me an arm and a leg to rent for two days over the month that I was already renting, so I decided we'd find somewhere else to live for those two days. I would describe the place as the main locale from the film, Misery--an appropriate name for how we felt living there. However, we grasped the bull by the horns and spent the two evenings there watching episodes from "The Walking Dead". Glo slept with me each night.
 |
| We distracted ourselves well. What else was there to do on our plastic indoor patio furniture? |
Rose: I escaped working with the "crazy lady" from last year by being assigned to a new infirmary. Seriously, if I would have spent another day with her, I would have shot myself in the head. It was actually an honor to be reassigned, because Boys Infirmary had a reputation of being the "red-headed stepchild". I knew that I was needed there to get Boys running just as smoothly as JIG, and believe me, by the end of the summer, it was running better.
Thorn: Boys is way off the beaten path. In fact, it's so off the beaten path that it's off main camp. And since one of the main reasons I go to Interlochen is to hear music 24/7, I really, REALLY missed out. There was no casual stroll through the practice cabins as I run an errand. No slipping away to catch a few minutes of a performance. Ugh--this was a major big thorn.
Rose: Interlochen discontinued the secretary job I'd held for the previous three summers--a job that paid pittance. I was "promoted" to a health assistant which meant almost three times the salary. This is a great thing, considering the rent and tuition we pay each summer. Too, I got to know the campers really well--so well, that I knew most of their names, and the boys knew that. It turned into a game of theirs to ask me their names when I was cutting through the lunch line at the cafeteria, or when they saw me on main camp. It became the funnest part of my job--playing camp mom to the orphan boys :-)
Thorn: Again, going back to the main reason I personally love Interlochen, the secretary job had given me two days off a week to do whatever I wanted on camp. Listen to a rehearsal of WYSO, catch my girls during a chamber rehearsal, stop for an ice cream cone in the middle of a hot afternoon. Being a health assistant, I didn't get but one weekend off every two weeks. And those 8-4 secretary hours? Gone. I showed up at 6:45 a.m. to help dispense meds (meaning I woke up at 5:55 a.m.....when it was still DARK outside), and left at 3:30 p.m. I've never been so tired at Interlochen! Not exactly how I want to spend my summer.
Rose: John arrived for the last two weeks of camp (as he usually does). We got to live on campus for free, and all of our meals were included. He brought a TV from home and the X-Box, so we got to watch some fun TV shows at night. Too, he would stop by the infirmary on his way home from a run, and everyone was happy to see him. He would make us all laugh about something (how can we forget "Stone Mountain"?)
 |
| John found this bark "heart" the first day he was at camp. Yes, he brought it home <3 |
Thorn: This is John's last year as a camp doctor. With a new boss of the health service came a new policy--only ER docs, family practitioners and pediatricians as doctors now. No thought about the fact that he's been doing an excellent job for the last five summers; no thought about the fact that our family needs the tuition break his job brings; no thought about loyalty. He is out. However, because he had signed a contract to work before the policy was put into place, he was still paid as a doctor (and received the nice benefits), but he wasn't allowed to work at all. And no work makes John an unhappy camper...literally.
Rose: Mark came home from his mission to Russia! This was the undeniable best part of the summer. Actually, it was like two roses for the price of one as Ethan came to Michigan too.
 |
| At the airport. |
Thorn (at least for us in Michigan): Mark left us for a week to visit Ethan and Rebecca in Utah, and to attend the Clarks' homecoming. Believe me, I almost didn't let him go!
 |
| President and Sister Clark, and Mark |
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| What good boys. Going to the temple together, doing family names. There are moments where I couldn't be prouder, and this is one of those! |
Rose: Glo got to be a "boarding camper" for the first time this year. She had been begging us for a couple of years now, because she misses the social aspect of camp living with us. She wanted to have cabin mates, and she wanted to know people before she walked into her first rehearsal. No joke, I was trying to convince her to stay home with us up until the night before she left us, but she held firm. And how lucky she was--she got the primo boarding camper experience. Two fabulous counselors, 12 super friendly, super fun cabin mates, and .... wait for it ..... no drama! She had such a wonderful experience--just what camp should be--and she made tons of friends (which comes as no surprise, knowing Glo).
 |
| See Glo? |
Thorn: It's only a thorn to me. I missed Glo those first three weeks. I missed her BAD. Every chance I got, I was looking for her, and throwing my arms around her in a big, embarrassing, mama bear hug. Or making her pose with Hannah as a sign of continued family unity. And those three weeks just couldn't go fast enough.
 |
| We walked her back to division. It was almost the end of her three-week stint, so she was willing to "hang" with us :-) |
(Starting with the THORN this time): We eat at the cafeterias on camp each summer. It saves us tons of money--we buy no groceries--and there's a pretty good variety of food. However, being at Boys, we ended up eating at the worst cafeteria on camp most of the time. And when we did eat at the "good" one (Stone), Hannah and I would have crazy gastric upset for the next few hours. Usually this hits us a few weeks into camp, but it started Day One this year.
Rose: We ended up eating out at some of our favorite restaurants....over, and over, and over again. I mean, believe me, there was no complaining when we ran to Sleder's for yet another buffalo burger! |
| Shhhh....don't tell Rebecca :-) |
Rose: For the past two summers, I have been stalking a certain someone, hoping to spend some quality time with him. You might think it's a world famous conductor? A renowned teacher? Joshua Bell. Nope, it's a very special person who makes an appearance in the Scholarshop only on rare occasions. Just goes to show: perseverance pays off. Not only did I meet him and bring him home with me, but I brought home his twin brother!
Thorn: The DOMO brothers went for a joy ride around the Interlochen campus and wrecked the left front fender of Rubix, our Honda Element. It was a mighty big pain, getting into Rubix through the passenger door for two weeks.
Follow-Up Rose: John wasn't at Interlochen for more than three hours before he had the fender fixed. Once again, we all agree: he's the MAN!
Rose: So, you might have heard that Mark came home from his mission? Yep, he did. And another rose? He came home SAFE. With the escalating tensions between Russia and the US, the missionaries there (as well as the families at home) were hit with all kinds of security measures. Don't think it didn't worry me a bit. So when Mark stepped off that final plane into Traverse City, I felt overwhelming gratitude that he was back, safe and sound.
Thorn: Mark injured himself just days before he came home. He sprained his ankle something bad. In fact, one month later, it's still pretty dysfunctional.
Rose: Glo decided to take a new elective this year: Animation. It's a new offering at Interlochen, only started last summer. It fit into her schedule, and she was pretty pumped. She had class for 50 minutes a day, for five days a week, for three weeks.
The kids began by making a flip book. You know, those books that you flip with your thumb, and the pictures "move" from page to page. For Glo, this was incredibly simple, and she loved it. After several days of that, it was on to creating video animation using hand-drawn pictures. From what Glo tells me, it takes 24 hand-drawn frames to create one second of animation. Think about that. So after three weeks of this class, she had 120 frames drawn to create five seconds of animation. To put this in perspective, I was talking to a high school camper who was taking only Animation for the three weeks (5-6 hours of class a day). In the end, he was pushing to create four seconds. Yep, Glo is amazing.
She was given the assignment of connecting animals, using animation. Just watch, and you'll see what I mean. Remember: 120 frames in five second (repeated as a loop).
Thorn: Glo has taken Photography as her elective for the past few years, and I have a collection of her best pictures on the wall (all black and white, and all hand-developed from film). No pictures this year. However, she was out for a walk one morning, and stumbled across a wild orchid. She used her iPhone to take this picture. Yep, it's going on the wall.
Rose: We had some great moments. Miniature golfing at Pirate's Cove, shopping at a really great mall, walking downtown. One of John's favorite moments was running the half-marathon in the Meijer Festival of Races. It's part of the Cherry Festival, held annually in Traverse City. Again, the weather was just perfect, and it's a relatively small race so the traffic isn't bad. Ethan and I ran the 5K. John finished super fast (he's having a really great running summer this year), Ethan booked it through our tiny race, and in one of the best accomplishments of my year, I ran the whole thing. And I didn't feel like I was going to DIE! In fact, I do believe that I am more proud of that t-shirt than any other t-shirt I've earned running--the race length was easy, and I just ran.Thorn: We were sick as DOGS this summer. All the events we had planned? Climbing the dunes, canoeing, driving to Petoskey? We did absolutely none of them. In fact, the night Mark came home, I could feel something coming on. The next day, I felt like c-r-a-p, but I didn't tell anyone, and that night, I could hardly breathe. The next morning, I ran the 5K and thought I was feeling better, but by that night, I had the full-on flu. It lasted almost two weeks, and I took a day off work. When I showed up the next day, my boss heard me answer the phone and ordered me home (not out of concern for me, but concern for the other workers). Too, Glo spent two days at home with us (while a boarding camper), because she was running a high fever. We spent more money and made more trips to the Meijer pharmacy than I care to admit.
Rose: This was Hannah's fifth and final summer at Interlochen. It's hard to think that her first year (as an Intermediate) was so long ago (and that I couldn't take her because I'd just broken my ankle).
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| Her last official "Gathering" |
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| Believe me, if I could add horns, I WOULD! I hate this man. |
Follow-Up Rose: No joke, Hannah is a woman who creates her own destiny. We have always called her our most motivated child. She wasn't letting that hateful man get the best of her.
At the end of every Interlochen performance (there were close to 300 this summer), the Interlochen theme is played. It is almost always conducted by a student. In the case of every orchestra, the concertmaster/mistress conducts it (that's the first violinist for those who don't know). It is an honor that only a few kids ever experience. Mark actually conducted the theme back in 2011 for WYHC, the top choir at Interlochen--he won the chance through audition. Glo was THE concert mistress for all three orchestra sessions in 2010, and therefore conducted it three times that summer (totally AWESOME). So, the chances for Hannah....as a violist....were nil. However, she wasn't accepting that.
Turns out, one of the two violinists in her chamber group was the concertmaster of the orchestra, and he had already conducted the theme in a previous concert. She simply asked him if he would mind if she asked to conduct it. Kudos to him for being super mature and saying "yes". She then went to Octavio Mas-Arocas, the conductor of IP, and asked him, telling him that she had already gotten the approval of the concertmaster. He, of course, asked the concertmaster if this was true, and they all said "yes". She met with Mas-Arocas for five minutes after rehearsal so that he could ensure that she could actually do it, during which he told her that she should consider becoming a conductor. Not surprising, considering the orchestra was already gone (and she couldn't rehearse with them), and seeing as she didn't need any music because she had the whole thing memorized and could sing it while pretending to conduct the orchestra.
That's right, stupid hateful man-pig, you seem to be the ONLY person in the world who doesn't recognize my daughter's talent.
Of course, Hannah told us NONE of this. So, after the final piece on the program, she stood with the rest of the orchestra to take her bow, and I noticed that she was totally pale. I figured she was just emotional because it was her last performance. Then, when the orchestra sat back down to play the theme, she remained standing and set her viola and bow on her chair.
I. Could. Have. Died.
None of us could believe it. She walked proudly up from the back of the viola section, stepped up to the conductor's podium, raised her arms, and began. It was one of those moments that I will never forget. It reminded me of the moment in The Hunger Games when Katniss offers the poisonous berries to Peeta and herself. She would be victorious over evil, and Hannah was.
More than that though, I was even more proud of the fact that she had worked this all out herself, and done it to perfection. No sneaking behind the concertmaster, no arrogance. In the end, she was told by other campers that she was the best student conductor they had ever had, and you better believe all the violists came up afterwards, asking her how she had been able to do it :-)
She is amazing, and I can hardly wait to see what she accomplishes in the future.
Rose: For the first time in four years, we are together again as a family. We may not be in the same state at the moment, but at least we are in the same country. No thorn there.
Such a fun - entertaining Sunday read. So sorry for your thorns, but without thorns you don't appreciate the roses! :)
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