Friday, August 23, 2008

Had to get to orientation meetings at UVU by 8:00. They lasted until 3:00. Actually they were supposed to last until 3:00, but the last speaker was still going and I had to duck out to get home for Jack, who beat me there on the school bus by a couple of minutes. Most of the meetings were very worthwhile, especially in terms of understanding why the faculty over the writing program designed the sequence of assignments the way they did. I also saw several old friends, some of whom I had no idea were teaching at UVU! Later at the post office in Springville, I was telling Roger about some of the people I saw at the meetings, and the woman in line ahead of us turned around and introduced herself as a member of the UVU English faculty. How random was that?! We spent the evening at our niece Megan's wedding reception at the Fort Douglas bandstand at the U of U. We were plunk in the middle of what had been the athlete's Olympic village during the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was a beautiful reception, perfect temperature, good food, nice visits with family and friends. The highlight for Jack was getting to shoot a musket--some of their pioneer reenactment buddies showed up in full Mormon Battalion military regalia and gave a musket salute to the bride and groom! And all through the day, I was trying to coordinate a counteroffer on my brother's house, trying to communicate with him in Kenya and our agent on the east coast. Keep fingers crossed!