JULIE!!

If you are REALLY paying attention to my blogs you know that yesterday I put about 5 exclamation points after Billy Collins' name in my title, and today I have only 2 exclamation points after Julie.   While I was interested in seeing and hearing the great Julie Andrews,  I wasn't anticipating her visit nearly as much as Billy Collins.  Having said that, I can say that she and her daughter were very impressive and I'm so glad I got to hear this iconic performer.  My earliest memories of Julie Andrews were in the albums my dad had of the original Broadway casts of My Fair Lady and Camelot.  I actually played a Julie Andrews song at my dad's memorial service.  He loved her voice, and that is how I learned to love her too.  I remember the TV special "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall" and I remember particularly the number about Dallas that they sang.  My dad eventually had that album too.


Of course then there was Mary Poppins where she starred with our favorite hometown hero of Danville, Illinois,  Dick Van Dyke.  Somehow we felt like we knew Julie because DVD was from our home town!


So there she was looking FABULOUS!!!  And her daughter is bright and vivacious and they have quite an impressive body of work in children's literature on which they have collaborated.   Her grandchildren were in the audience as well.


She was lovely, and I'm glad I got to see her.  This is Dame Julie taking her seat this morning!

And while I'm at it. . . . this is Billy.   As you can see, I sit in the same spot every day.  Over on the side.  I can get pretty close to the stage and see the speakers in profile.

I know. . . it's blurry.  But Billy is the one in the light colored suit.  I love me some Billy Collins!

This is a view from the Afterwords Cafe on the Plaza.  From my table I can look diagonally across Bestor Plaza and see my mint green house all the way across.  The red brick building you see is the library, and my house is barely visible to the right of it.  There's a white house that kind of looks like a light house in this picture right in front of my house which is between that one and the library.  This is how close I am to the center of the Chautauqua world!

This is another "house of the day!"    This one is along the brick walk which you can see.  The Brick Walk connects the center of the grounds for the distance of at least a half mile.  One can walk to all the major buildings on the grounds using this path which is restricted to walking traffic only.  This is the path I take to go to the Hall of Philosophy to see the afternoon lectures.

And while we're at it again. . . here's Jared playing the huge Massey Organ. . the largest outdoor organ in the world.  I get to hear this organ play every day!

My Reader's Theater class ended today.  I really enjoyed it again.  I'll probably sign up for this one every year.   I listened to the 2:00 lecture for the first time this week.  Love hearing Bishop John Shelby Spong talk about the Bible.  And I'm not a Bible kind of gal.  But he makes so much sense and I marvel at how much this largely church involved community flocks to hear someone who is known for his challenging the teachings of the Bible while still valuing it as a source of spiritual guidance. 

I cannot believe that we are already up to transition day tomorrow!  Week 1 is officially ended and the big turn over comes tomorrow for those that are leaving.  A former colleague of mine from my Garfield Elementary School days, retired librarian Ruth Thorpe was here for the first time this week and fortunately stayed only a block from my place, so I got to see her in passing several times.  I was too busy to be able to share a meal with her, but it is fun to have my worlds collide like that.

A week and a half into my librarian job I will have to say that even though I'm  not able to do all that I have done in the past in the course of a week here, my life has expanded exponentially with this job.  I love the colleagues I work with, and I'm getting to know many many choir members.  It's all good from where I stand in this situation.

Tomorrow I make the trek to Wegmanns and then to run some errands for the choir.   All is exceedingly good in my Utopian summer home!