So...

I was home from China for a day. It was supposed to be two days, but as I said earlier, we had to spend the night in Chicago because United Airlines would not hold our flight for 10 minutes (!) - and there were 21 of us! Unbelievable. Far be it from me to try to understand the workings of the UA think tank. I will say that the customer service folks at United were very pleasant and helpful. A silver lining on a rather gloomy cloud.

After that one day, I was off to Atlantic City, to serve as Music Supervisor for a fourth production of "Movin' Out", at Harrah's casino at the Marina. The work was hard but very enjoyable. I think the company is very good. This production will be in AC for 10 weeks, and then tour the country and Canada, playing a lot of the smaller venues that the First National tour could not play. The band sounds great, our two piano men, Matthew Friedman (who did it on the first tour) and Kyle Martin (who is new to the show) are both excellent, and it was lots of fun collaborating with David Rosenthal again on the music and of course with Twyla Tharp.

The thing that struck me most about the two weeks or so in AC was the joylessness of the place. You walk through the casino and see hundreds of people at slot machines, and no one is smiling! Very strange.

Great outlet shopping, though.

After my AC adventure, I returned home for "Daddy Camp". My wife Marty is the Director of the Massage Therapy program at Harrisburg Area Community College. She was heading into the last week of her program's first session, so it made sense (especially after my virtual absence for the previous month) that I take the kids on a week of adventures. We had a great time. Monday, we drove to New York City to see an open dress rehearsal of the American Ballet Theater's production of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" with our friend Marilynn Kanenson. I don't know if there is any prettier music out there. And the dancing was beautiful. Tuesday, we went to Baltimore's Port Discovery Children's Museum, a marvelous educational playground for kids. We were met there by my sister-in-law Nancy and her two children, and spent the next two nights with them in Northern Virginia, while during the day we did the Washington, DC thing, visiting several Smithsonian museums and the main monuments. Friday we capped off the week with a visit to Hershey Park. We had an absolutely perfect day, and had a blast.

I love my family, if you haven't guessed yet.

So now it's back to work. In the next few weeks I have three programs - two with orchestra and one chamber music (see Upcoming Events...). Then I get some real vacation with the family at my parents' Cape Cod house. It should be just in time.

Be back soon.