Last weekend we got to spend the weekend with our friend Ellen in Hillsdale, Michigan. The trip was prompted by Ellen inviting me to give my lecture on “Quantum Mechanical Ideas and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” to her senior English class. I had developed the idea for the lecture a few years ago when Mer still taught the play, and Mer used to have me speak on the topic as well. (For those interested, I talk about quantum mechanical ideas that pop up in the play – things about uncertainty, dual states, the importance of location, and so on.)
Anyway, we used the Monday lecture as an excuse to go out for the whole weekend. So, we headed out about 4:15 on Friday. We were a little anxious in that the weather forecast called for some locally heavy snow, but we did not hit any snow until we had about fifteen miles left to go on the highway (about forty minutes from Ellen’s). The main road off of the highway was a bit dicey since Michigan does not really plow roads much anymore (at least as far as I can tell), but the traffic was light and the road was straight. We were at Ellen’s about 7:45 or so, which was pretty good time. Ellen, ever a gracious hostess, was making a mac-n-cheese casserole that turned out mouth-wateringly good. We ate late, about 8:30, but it was worth it. Ellen had even laid in some ice cream supplies for dessert – very nice.
Saturday was mellow. I had intended on going for a run, but when I saw that it was a wind chill of minus-8 outside, I changed my mind. Instead, I made brownies, which did not firm up right away (they actually were not really firm until Sunday after church), but they were still very good in a soupy kind of way. Ellen stocks dark cocoa, so I used some of that, and the brownies were really dark. We used them later that night as part of large sundaes.
After an afternoon in which I blogged and read, Mer graded, and Ellen handcrafted Valentines that would have made Michelangelo mutter in envy, we went to supper at the nearby Saucy Dog barbeque restaurant. It is a good comfort-food place, and we ate well. We followed that at home with the aforementioned sundaes, which we happily munched on while watching the modern Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet. Although Ellen does not teach Hamlet, she wanted a good version to show her students as part of their study of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is a play based on the action in Hamlet. I had forgotten how bloody that version of Hamlet is, but otherwise it is very well done and very creative.
I also spent sporadic time during the movie working on Ellen’s Macintosh laptop, which had crashed during an update that I insisted she needed. It all turned out well, but there were some tense (on my part) moments. I did not get everything fully working again until Sunday afternoon.
Sunday we went to Ellen’s church, where we heard a sermon on a passage in Acts, where an Ethiopian official is instructed in the Scriptures by Philip. The pastor pointed out that God instructed Philip to go way out of his way and risk some danger in order to save one man. It was a good point, and a nice picture of how much God values us.
After church, we ate leftover mac-n-cheese casserole and ice cream and brownies. I napped and puttered on Ellen’s computer and then went for a short walk to get some air. I found a very nice park that I want to investigate when the weather is good. Ellen was very anxious to see a movie called The Tree of Life, so she tried to get it from the library. She succeeded, but it was a BluRay disk, and we could not play it. She ordered the DVD from Amazon, thinking she would get a link for a free download, but she did not. So she finally punted, and we rented it from Amazon and watched it streaming over my computer (hooked to a twenty-four-inch monitor).
The Tree of Life is quite a film. It is very artsy, with a lot of time showing the grandeur of the creation while referring to scriptures from Genesis and Job. The film then shifts largely to following one family, and the troubles that family has. I’m not sure what I thought about the film – it was not easy to follow, and I had a mild headache from my poor diet of the weekend, so I was having a hard time keeping up with it.
Ellen had to pause the movie to make supper. She had invited a friend over from church, and so was making supper for all of us. It was a great meal, and Ellen’s friend Richard is fascinating. He has a PhD in history, and is a WWI buff, so we got to spend a lot of time talking about France. I think the meal lasted over two hours, and I did not notice. Usually, I get restless at a kitchen table after an hour (or even sooner). It was a good time.
Richard had to leave because of work the next day, but we went ahead and finished up the movie before going to bed.
On Monday, Mer and I packed up the car before following Ellen to her school, Hillsdale Academy. Hillsdale Academy is the K-12 school associated with Hillsdale College. The Academy is small, with only about twenty students per grade, so Ellen is the only English teacher for grades ten through twelve. The building is very pretty, all brick and carpeted. They do a nice job there, as far as I can tell.
Ellen gave me two periods to lecture to the same class – I think she co-opted the students’ science class to give me more time. The students impressed me. They listened politely to everything I had to say, and several anticipated points I was going to bring up, so they were tracking with the lecture. The lecture was split – I taught first and third period, but that worked fine. I had a good time.
We got to see Ellen in action – her second period class was studying Dante’s Inferno, and Mer got to read a little in Italian to give the class a sample of what the original sounded like. Ellen’s sixth period class was studying To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was hard for both me and Mer not to shoot our hands up in the air to answer questions. Ellen is an excellent teacher, and she runs a tight classroom.
Ellen has a free period 4th period, followed by lunch, so we went to a local deli for lunch. More good food, more good chatting. This is a happy re-occurrence in our lives.
After sixth period, Ellen was done for the day (as far as English goes – she may have had one more Latin class), so we decided to head out. It was a smooth drive home, and the kitties were all well, so it was a very successful weekend. Although I’m still waiting for my honorarium.