A friend of mine told me about a seminar on Chocolate by a chemist that was going to take place last night. They were also going to raffle 10 pounds of chocolate afterwards. I asked my daughters if they were interested in attending, and they were. After work last night, I described the event to my husband (history of chocolate, how it is made, samples, etc.) and he said he wanted to go too. I reminded him that it was from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and asked him if he thought he could stay awake and he said yes, so he went with us. It started with a buffet of fresh fruit and cheese, and was in a very casual setting at the Territorial Capital Museum. When we went into the auditorium, the speaker was introduced, and his talk, including his power point presentation, was very well done and with humor all the way through. AND free samples of the various types of chocolate! While there were five prizes including the 10 pound package, we didn't win any of them. Oh, well. Maybe next time!
I am telling all of you about this event because it was SOMETHING DIFFERENT that we had not done before, my DH wanted to go, we all enjoyed ourselves and feel lighter of heart today. So, if you see a brochure, or hear about something that might sound interesting, give it a try! It might just lift your spirits a little too!
A while back, I noticed that our natural history museum was hosting a traveling exhibit, "The Last Days of Pompei". I've always been quite fascinated by Pompei, so I casually mentioned it to my husband. He promptly said he wanted to go. (Well, knock me down with a feather.)
It was very crowded, and my husband HATES crowds, always has but now it's much worse. And he had some trouble with the device used for the audio tour. But, still, he paid attention to the displays, and reacted appropriately (that is, he knew what he was seeing, and commented on what he found interesting), and he compared it with the exhibit he says he saw in London years ago. (That could be confabulation, Val...) Afterwards, I thought he might want to look at the permanent displays (dinosaurs and such), but he was so tired that instead, we sat for an hour in the lobby, people-watching (his favorite pass-time) and sipping iced mochas. By that point, he had recuperated enough that he insisted he wanted to see the half-hour movie on Pompei, despite the standing-room-only crowd. He liked that so much, he talked about it for the rest of the day.
A couple of days ago, he came running in to my "home office" to tell me there was an ad on TV that Star Trek was coming to the museum, and he wanted to go. Star Trek did not sound like museum material to me, but I dutifully googled, and found out that the Aerospace museum is indeed planning a Star Trek exhibit. Spock himself will be there opening day. (Nope, not going to risk taking my husband into THAT kind of crowd! Spock will have to survive without us.)
I'm sure he never would have mentioned it if I hadn't suggested the Pompei exhibit.
Just in case it's the chocolate that's making our excursions so enjoyable, though (we did have iced mochas), I'll make sure our Star Trek trek includes something sinful to eat!
Just to give the other side: A few weeks ago there was a program on Celtic travels by a local college professor. My wife, being almost pure Celtic, wanted to go. It was quite crowded, but that was OK. Then they had major trouble with the digital projector not recognizing the lap top. This made his talk very disjointed. They finally got the projector to show thumb nails of ALL his pictures, so he tried talking from that. At that point my wife said she had had enough and we left. I'm sure she would have enjoyed it if the projector had worked.
Marsh, I'm sorry your outing didn't turn out better.
Sunshyne, every member of my family are Trekkies, and have been since the first season! My husband (who hates crowds and lines) would stand in line for Spock! LOL
Too bad we aren't near where we could attend that one!
marsh, I have always gotten season tickets to the theater. Sometimes I like a play and my husband doesn't, sometimes it's the other way around ... and sometimes we both agree that the play is for the birds. We simply have an agreement that if either one of us really wants to go, we'll leave at intermission. (The only problem we've had is that both of us try so hard to be considerate of the other, we are hesitant to say we're bored silly, for fear the other will promptly say they want to go even though actually enjoying it.)
You would think in this day and age, they could figure out how to get the projector to work, though, wouldn't you??? I've resisted going to a laptop and still try to use overheads whenever possible, just because there are so often problems with the fancy new equipment. (I'm a dinosaur, I'll admit it.)
Mary, I didn't get hooked on Star Trek until they were into reruns. But there sure is a strange fascination with that program, isn't there? I didn't have a clue my husband was a fan, though.
Spock was definitely the very best character. Too many people like us, though -- I'm betting it will be a MAJOR mob scene.
I don't like overheads, or "supporting" people using overheads, but I've gotten pretty good at being able to get the projectors to work. The trick is to turn everything off and start over, and to get there early enough to try it out first. Lecturers seem to NEVER want to do either of those!!
I envy you guys and your outings! But my day is coming soon. A week from today I'll be on my Maine island for a week!!