Weekly update: more happenings, some sewing, and wonderful books

 

Saturday was pleasantly event-filled.

We enjoyed the Kiwanis pancake breakfast. I bought raffle tickets and won a $10 Amazon gift card, a $25 Hobby Lobby gift card, and an ice cream sundae basket (all the fixings -- just add ice cream).

The AAUW Fellows Luncheon returned after two years’ absence. It was lovely to join Deerfield Area and Waukegan Area Branch friends. AAUW American Fellowship recipient (and newly-minted PhD) Natasha Ferguson told us about her research in integrated biomedical sciences. (Specifically, HIV Mucosal Immune Response,) She said the fellowship made a world of difference as she conducted research, coauthored papers, and had a baby during the pandemic.

The luncheon is the kickoff for the spring quilt raffle. This is, hmm, the 20th? quilt I've donated to benefit AAUW. Frolic has been waiting patiently since the Covid pandemic cancelled 2020 and 2021 in-person events.

AAUW friends. (Black slacks for all of us. Karen and I and several others chose purple tops, too.)

A long tradition comes to an end this Easter season. The Zion Passion Play has been a part of our community since 1935. (History here.) This is the last year that the Fine Arts Mnistry of Christ Community Church will stage it. (It's difficult for people to commit the time and of course costs increase.) This year the staging, casting, and costuming were the best of the three or four editions we have been privileged to see.

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Hopscotch is under the needle.

I have a labeling session in the near future.

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I'm so pleased that this is the April selection for a book group I'm in because otherwise I would never have checked it out. One elegant black dress made for a New York fashion house by its 90-year-old patternmaker -- now, there's a story. It's first worn by a young runway model for her first big show -- another story. It become The Dress of the season, available at Bloomingdale's --yet another story. And on it goes -- nine women and several men, bringing long-time love and brand-new love, a bit of revenge, and tremendous success. It's a charming story!

Once again Anne Tyler takes us into the lives of a family who may well be the people next door. The Garretts -- father Robin (plumbing supplies distributor), mother Mercy (an aspiring artist), daughters Alice and Lily and much younger son David -- love, despair, and generally cope with one another, putting up with foibles and (sometimes) admiration. In 2020 David looks back over the decades. He recalls the French braids his daughter once had: "When she undid them her hair would still be in ripples...for hours...That's how families work. You think you're free of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever." [Who but a Tyler character would speak with a semicolon?]

The minutiae of one family's life over 60 years might be rendered tedious and boring in the hands of a less-skillful writer. But Anne Tyler carries it out pitch-perfectly to our great satisfaction and (yet again) delight. 

# # # # # Monday Making     Design Wall Monday   Oh Scrap!

P.S.  Palm Sunday origami!