Home at Last

[miss_yt]

The last couple of days have been pretty interesting.  On Friday I dragged my suitcase into Philly so I could stay overnight after the Mage game and leave next morning.  I had to take a morning train because Mom had reserved tickets for Cirque du Soleil's Varekai, which was playing in D.C.

Anyone who cares about the Mage game will be reading Pam's chronicle, which is more interesting than anything I could write about it.  I would, however, like to make a couple of general remarks.  First, I was highly amused to hear drakonous exclaiming "Phone!" over and over again in a high-pitched voice.  I'm sure he'll appreciate the compliment.  Second, something to add to the list of reasons why Mage is better than D&D: you can't use D&D spells to cheat at cards.  When Awakened ones play poker it's all about the cheating.  Had I joined in, I would have been able to use my Mind skills to tell whether people were bluffing, but I don't think I could have stood up to Chris' Forces mirror or Justin's precognition.  Although I could have summoned a "helper" to look at their cards.  It's a moot point anyway, because it was way past my character's bedtime and she needed to sleep.

Ben came over to watch the game, and I was able to ask him to help me with my thesis research.  He said I should talk to his sister (whom I've never met, but I hope will talk to me because of our mutual acquaintance) about Orthodox traditions with regards to Torah reading.  She also goes to a Conservative synagogue now and could help me get in there to do research.  Now I have three places I can call after Fall Break, two of which have already welcomed Bryn Mawr students for doing their thesis research.  Not bad.

The train ride home from Philadelphia wasn't bad, since the train was on time (even a little ahead of schedule, which is unusual for Amtrak), and the train was not all that crowded.  The girl sitting next to me had actually meant to get off at 30th street but hadn't made it through the crush of people going in and out, so she had to get off at the next station and catch a train back.  Luckily the conductor gave her a special pass so she could take the train back for free.  She was also worried about getting somewhere on time.  I hope she managed it.

I took the Metro to Grosvenor from Union Station.  Dad picked me up and I stopped at home briefly to drop off my stuff before going with mom and Benji to Varekai.  I'd never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before.  The show had not only really cool acrobatic tricks, but stunning costumes, beautiful lighting effects and a couple of funny skits.  Mom says that some of the acrobats come from circus families and others are gymnasts, like people who didn't get into the Olympics and ran away to join the circus instead.  Benjamin, who does a lot of after-school performance stuff, knows a few things about acrobatics.  He knew the terms for some of the equipment and tricks, including the "Russian Swing" in the last act.

There were some lovely handmade masks in the gift shop there.  They were, of course, mondiferously expensive.  Benjamin wanted to buy a diablo (a sort of double-cup thing that you toss around using two sticks connected by a string), and didn't seem to understand that he could get it a lot cheaper almost anywhere else.  Mom told him she'd get him one that didn't cost so much, maybe by ordering it online.

Some other good news - Benjamin found some old CDs, including Oregon Trail II, which I'd thought lost forever.  OTII is one of my favorite old-school games.  It works fine on my laptop.  The first (complete) game I played after installing it was a bit of an embarassment, since it took my wagon train more than a year to reach their destination.  Oops.

Today I'm going to finish some assigned reading, but mostly I shall goof around.  I also hope to get a little of my fanfic done between playing Heroes of Might and Magic III with Benjamin and playing OTII some more.  I still have to make a wagon train go to Salt Lake.  Yay!