Labor day musings

I've been really busy the past few days, but since it's Labor day I want to post about a few things. This gets kind of long, sorry!

I saw a new doctor yesterday and I'm now taking magnesium twice a day to help combat the fatigue I've had for a month or so. I know that if I tell my mom that my doctor prescribed magnesium she'll do B's favorite reaction: Oooohhhhh! I never thought about that! B always hears her on the phone when I describe some classic French experience and he thinks it's hilarious. Anyway, the magnesium. I feel like it's a French thing to recommend taking magnesium. I'm all for it, but I can't imagine an American doctor telling people to take it twice a day to increase their energy.

Last night I went to community band rehearsal without B. Normally rehearsal is Friday night, but with the ponts, this week and next we'll meet on Wednesdays. Due to either the change of day of the week or the fact that people might have left town early, there were a lot of absents. If you've ever played in a community band, you'll know what I mean when I say we got the people-are-absent-too-much speech. It's always the same, no matter which band. The president lamented that with the constant absences we couldn't work on the pieces like we need to (which is true) and she asked what was going on that attendance was so irregular. Some people commented on the choice of music, that maybe people don't make an effort to come every week if they don't really like the pieces. In my opinion (and B's too), the problem is that the rehearsals aren't serious enough and there's no alloted social time afterwards. The band is the most talkative I've ever known and people are cracking jokes left and right while we're playing. We waste a good proportion of rehearsal making jibes at other players and goofing off to a certain degree. Not that I want rehearsals to be like my high school band (my music teacher was super strict), but I am convinced that the lack of time to socialize and visit outside of rehearsal forces people to do it during. I meekly expressed my opinion, saying that when I arrived a little more than a month ago I noticed that the band was very chatty and that perhaps the lack of seriousness was a problem. The conductor disagreed with me and said it's important that everyone get along and has a good time, which means it's great to make jokes during rehearsal. The vice president of the band is one of the worst and he's constantly goofing off. He sends emails every once in a while which are very serious and urge everyone to make a serious commitment and to come to every rehearsal and every performance, but they seem at odds at his behavior during the rehearsals. I don't see how people are going to take the band seriously and come every week if rehearsals are stand-up comedy hour interspersed with some music. In any case, B and I have had a decent experience so far and we can always play in a different band next fall.

Oh! I completely forgot to post about hosting the in-laws last weekend. Overall, it was a good weekend, much better than last summer when they came to visit us in Ariège. My mil did bring left-overs and things she "just couldn't leave in the fridge all weekend", but I survived and ate the mushroom things she brought. When we moved to Toulouse I sorted out sheets and table cloths that we had barely (or never) used and declared they were for Emmaüs. B's dad took them back with him after he came to install our kitchen cabinets and I assumed that they did indeed make their way to the thrift store. Then last Saturday morning my mil says "Oh, look, I found this old table cloth for you!" You guessed it, one of the table cloths we had returned in January, lol. I know she didn't do it on purpose and probably thought it had just been deep in a drawer for the past year instead of with us. B and I got a chuckle out of that. Saturday we walked all over downtown Toulouse and visited with some old family friends of B's grandparents on Sunday that live on the edge of Toulouse. My mil's back has been giving her problems, so B and I slept on the spartan fold-out couch and left our memory foam topped bed to his parents. We didn't sleep that well, but it was only the weekend and my mil would have had a back too stiff to go anywhere if she'd been on the couch. B's parents graciously bought us some ceiling fixtures at Ikea and plants for our balcony so our apartment is that much prettier thanks to them. They also brought the cast-off floor lamp from B's brother. This weekend we're spending at their place so B can pick up his summer clothes.

I think it's about time to sit outside on our lovely new flowered balcony and make flashcards for my tutoring. It may be labor day, but I still need to get things done.