In case you were wondering after my last post about perhaps keeping the sharp object away from me, I have pretty much recovered from end-of-semester self-loathing and we are on to the next class. It's a sprint over four weeks that covers most of the material in a 16-week version of Strategic Writing.
I have made some tiny additions to the course that supplement what the department coordinator for this popular course has created, trying to head off future pitfalls and errors. They may actually help students perform more efficiently and successfully. But whether they help much or not, it will all be over in (now) 25 days.
This post is going up on a Wednesday because we are off to California tomorrow to attend Delaney Kennedy and Jay Chase's wedding in Petaluma. Delaney is the daughter of brother Tim (I like to mention him when I can since he is one of the elite coterie of this blog's readers), and the event promises to be quite the thing. All seven of my siblings will be there, despite our increasing decrepitude, and about half of Delaney's cousins, as well.
I was reminded of how complex these large celebrations can be when Maggie, Tim's bride, sent out a group text checking on interest in her reserving a large space at an Italian restaurant for Friday night (the wedding is Saturday, and people have got to eat). She likely immediately regretted her invitation as she first received dozens of texts confirming interest in such a gathering, and then had to continue the group nuttiness by asking for menu choices (the restaurant naturally limited the breadth of dishes they were prepared to have ready for such a large group).
People might have simply replied directly to Maggie, of course, but many eagerly shared their interest in the Chicken Marinara or the salmon with the entire family. After all, it's so easy to just REPLY.
Convenience is a mixed blessing, as I often find. And many of us are quite willing to pay a premium for saving a bit of time and/or a bit of physical effort. A minor example of this is my booking an Uber to the airport for early tomorrow morning, and not thinking twice about the added $8 charged for a reservation. Hey, one less thing to worry about.
Another example of preferring convenience would be our booking six shows for the Lone Tree Arts Center for the coming year, and not booking any shows at the Buell Theatre downtown. There are some terrific shows that come through Denver each season and we may choose one or two, depending upon our mood, the weather, and scheduling.
But the light rail is experiencing all sorts of problems with maintenance and even more with frequency... plus there are those pesky crackheads who are soothed by the gentle sway of rail carriage. Or we could drive 40 minutes and pay about $20 for parking in the ramp near the theater. Plus the tickets are quite pricey, and we usually opt for the "best seats available" since we don't make the journey down there all that often these days to join 2,000 of our friends at the show.
The Lone Tree Arts Center, on the other hand, is an easy 15-minute drive, with free parking, with shows presented in a modern 280-seat theater. As "season ticket holders" (if you order at least four shows), we get preferential ticket purchasing opportunities (before the riff-raff). So we get center seats at the top of the first section, with no one sitting immediately behind us. And the tix are about half the price of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
We won't be seeing "Wicked" or "Six," but we will enjoy live theater while avoiding the extra investment of time and money required to attend downtown.
So, wait a minute... I guess I DID NOT need to spend more for convenience. I just chose to adjust my show choices and be satisfied with "not Broadway."
That's what I mean by a "mixed blessing," I guess.
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