The Restorative Power of Pumpkins and the Symphony

I enjoyed a wonderfully restorative day yesterday.  I had a good writing morning, which I already wrote about here.  And then I went to spin class, which restored me in a different way.  It's good to have a tough workout and come out the other side.

I'm often amazed when I stop to consider how many good ideas come out of a tough work out.  I often come home with a clear idea of how to organize a manuscript, for example.  A few months ago, I had an epiphany about the sections in my memoir.  I came right home and put the section markers in.

Yesterday wasn't as profound an epiphany.  I am tasked with buying the pumpkins for my school for the coming week's festivities (see this post for more).  I decided that it would be easiest to buy them and transport them on Saturday, not Monday.

My spouse was open to the idea, so off we went to my church's pumpkin patch.  What a wonderful interaction.  One of the children helped us choose 10 pumpkins, and I had a bit of a donut, which felt like a treat.  I was happy that our pumpkin purchase helped both my school and my church--a win-win!  And yes, I'm biased.

We got a parking space at school near the building, and my spouse helped me carry them in and figure out where to put them in the office.  And on our way back, we stopped at Doris' Italian Market--now our freezer is restocked--a clear marker of the end of hurricane season.

We had yummy burgers for lunch, and I got some writing done in the afternoon.  I'm changing the introduction to my memoir.  Later I'll wrestle with the harder work of weaving all the Epiphany bits together.

We finished the day by going to the Broward Symphony's concert--what a treat!  And it was in the newly refurbished Bailey Concert Hall, which has transformed a shabby-in-spots space into something much more elegant.  How nice to sit in seats that aren't saggy with decades of use.

We got to hear the American premiere of a work, "Overture No. 3," by a Russian composer, Rashid Kalimullin.  That was my favorite piece of the concert.  It had interesting instruments, for one thing.  But it also sounded fresh with notes put together in new ways that I don't have the language to understand.

I love that the conductor of the symphony is committed to showcasing works by new composers.  I wonder if she simply chooses works that she likes and thinks deserve more attention--or does she think about the strengths of her members?

In any case, it was a wonderful way to end the day--and then we returned home, and the World Series was still on.  So my spouse got an additional treat.  I had a late supper of cheese, crackers, and wine and fell into a happy sleep.