The Grand Finale

When you go to a performing arts high school, the assumption is that you're going to perform... a lot. But when you go there during a pandemic, things change. Owen's Duke Ellington experience wasn't quite what he expected, but he did meet some great people and have some cool experiences. And while the number of performance for his senior year were limited, he did have a senior recital where he performed three pieces, including one he wrote himself.

Originally, Owen was supposed to perform before we left for Iowa. But then they changed the performance to the day Allen and Mom Mom were leaving, so we had it moved to the Tuesday after Memorial which meant: 1) we weren't able to record his trio's performance of the piece he wrote in honor of John for the Memorial, and 2) he might not have had the ideal pre-performance routine.

Regardless, it was really awesome seeing him perform after four years at Duke, and seeing him perform a piece he wrote himself with such an emotional resonance was pretty amazing. Thank you to the faculty, to Rosemary and Charlie for performing with Owen, and to Mom Mom, Grandpa Don, Megan and Gabriel and all of Owen's Duke friends that attended his senior recital.

Please enjoy the performance,

• Cello Concerto in A Minor, Movement 1, Camille Saint-Saens
• Arioso, Johann Sebastian Bach
• Memories of a Cold Spring, Owen Fawcett

Celebration of Life – John Thomas Fawcett

When Dad passed last December we knew the knew the way he would want us to celebrate his life would be to gather friends and family at the Pond. December wasn't the ideal time to make that happen, so working with family out in Iowa we decided that Memorial Day weekend was the right time - the weather would hopefully be nice, and it would fit in with the farming schedule. When the week finally arrived, there was a prodigious tornado outbreak in Iowa on Tuesday, and the weather was decidedly unsettled with continued severe thunderstorms on Wednesday and Friday. My flight in with Mom Mom on Thursday went smoothly, and we were able to catch Nancy's talk at the Hoover Library; Elaine and Owen had a bumpy ride with the storms on Friday, but we all made it in to Iowa safely.

Saturday morning dawned to one of the most spectacular spring days in Iowa of recent memory. Owen and I met Ken, Thomas, and Kent at Hickory Grove Cemetery across from Scattergood to dig the grave for Dad's ashes. We located Dad's plot – just behind Floyd & Mary Helen and Alfred & Helen – in the 'party row' where many of Dad's siblings and cousins already have plots reserved. We started to dig and quickly hit a massive root from a nearby tree. Providentially, Kent had left a mini-chainsaw by the tree when he was there earlier in the week, and it somehow had weathered the storms and still had a charge, so we were able to cut through the root and finish digging the hole. It probably wasn't as deep as the corner fence post dad was digging when he first made the switch from farming to Presidential Libraries, but it felt right to do it ourselves. 

Family and close friends gathered at the cemetery at 10 and we laid dad to rest. Tim Walsh gave some lovely remarks, we had a period of silent quaker worship, Katherine played a song that spoke perfectly to the day, and then we all went to the Pond for lunch before the public Celebration of Life.

People began arriving at two and when the time felt right we gathered people together on the screened in porch and I sat head of Meeting for our Quaker Meeting for Worship in Celebration of the Life of John Thomas Fawcett. We had some peaceful silent worship, but mostly people shared their stories about Dad. Stories from his youth, stories from his career, and stories of him as a brother, friend, and father. Owen played the score version of his composition – Memories of a Cold Spring: In Loving Memory of John Thomas Fawcett, and after we broke Meeting Katherine led us all in a Coors Light toast. It really was just the day Dad would have wanted.

(click here for all the pictures)

Trio

One of Owen's best experiences at Duke Ellington has been his senior composition class. He always loved his music theory classes, and composition has taken that to the next level. He's composed all manner of pieces this year, an impossible to play cello 'solo' piece for his friend Charlie, an achingly beautiful (and actually playable) cello piece for himself, a string quartet mourning his late grandfather, and quartet named 'trio' featuring the cello and viola while trolling the first violin with a boring part. The last piece he chose to play with his friends at the composition recital. The talent on display was phenomenal and we only wish they all could have played more!

Mother's Day

After getting back from our little early birthday outing to Field & Main and Sky Meadows, we all went up to Mom Mom's for a little Mother's Day celebration. Noa baked some amazing garlic bread and Allen made some decadent homemade chocolate ice cream. The ice cream turned out to need a little more time, but fortunately we picked up a strawberry rhubarb pie at the Red Truck bakery in Marshall that was perfect for Mother's Day, and the ice cream could wait until Elaine's real birthday on Monday night.  

Sky Meadows

For an early celebration of Elaine's birthday this year we took a little trip to Marshall, VA for a lovely dinner at Field & Main and a stay at the Rosemary Inn. We were hoping for a view of the spectacular aurora from the solar storm, but the solar flares had died down and the clouds were not cooperating. The rain did stop in the morning though and we were able to go for a nice little hike in the Sky Meadows State Park. Not a bad little birthday outing.

Lets Go Nats!

It's been a while since the Nats have been exciting. After the high of the World Series win in 2019 we had the lost pandemic season in 2020 where they struggled playing in empty stadiums, then they couldn't quite pull things together in 2021 and traded away Scherzer, Turner, Soto, Schwarber and more to rebuild the farm system for the future. That led to several years of the Nats being at the bottom of the league. They started to show some promise at the end of last year, and this year they've shown a ton of heart. Kids like C.J. Abrams are showing star potential, they lead the Majors in comeback wins, and after winning the first of a two game series against the AL leading O's, they finally have a winning record again.

Against this backdrop, Owen, Mom Mom, Don and I went to the Nats O's game Wednesday night, and saw the young really show their spirit. Down 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs they battled back to tie the game. The O's scored tow in the top of the 11th but the Nats wouldn't die, scoring two more to tie the game again at 5. The O's continued the pattern in the 12th going up 7-5, but the Nats could only manage one run in the bottom of the inning letting the O's squeak by with the win. The Nats may have lost, but we all had a tremendous time cheering our heads off – though Owen may have lost his voice for a few days – and the team is showing all sorts of promise for the future.

J1 Reunion

Historically, the Women of J1 meet up every few years. But as life has gotten increasingly complicated for us all lately,  we've needed to lean on each other a bit more frequently. Hence why we squeezed in TWO reunions in the past 7 months (though sadly, Tracey couldn't make either).

This time Cecily and Audra flew to DC to give me a little extra NU love. The pair flew in Friday night and after a few hiccups leaving National Airport (exits are hard!) we headed back to our house for dinner, drinks, a concert from Owen, and some quality socializing.

The next morning, I picked up treats at the Pretzel Bakery before we headed to Dupont to catch part of the annual Around the World Embassy Tour where we checked out the Trinidad (FYI, after experiencing the costumes, stilt walker and music, everyone should check out Trinidad), admired the line for Australia (it went on for blocks...) and eventually made it to the African Union Embassies. Afterwards, we braved a gentle rain and walked to Georgetown where we visited the Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Owen's school, before we grabbed some lunch and slowly made our way home (after racking up 19,999 steps). That night, Allen and the kids went to Steve & Megans while we enjoyed some adult beverages and a couple of movies before crashing.

The next working we were moving a bit slower, but Allen made us a lovely breakfast after which we rallied and headed to the Smithsonian Craft Show. Audra was inspired and got some hints on new materials, Cecily discovered the value of fallen trees in Oregon, and I got to catch up with Sharon (and pick up a birthday present for her). After hitting every booth over several hours, we grabbed lunch and then made it to the National Museum of Women in the Arts for their free first Sunday of the month entry an hour before they closed. We had only made it through two galleries before they started closing and we hadn't seen the Alma Thomas paintings Audra was particularly hoping to find. So she stopped by the front desk, where a very helpful curator offered to give us a private tour of two Alma Thomas pieces (one by flashlight since the gallery lights had been turned off), gave us some exhibit cards on the works, directed us to the Portrait Gallery which was having a full Alma Thomas exhibit, confirmed that museum was open until 7 pm, and then gave us directions.

We managed to make it and get in the full Alma Thomas experience, followed by the Presidential Portrait gallery and even saw Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey's portraits for good measure before I called it. We crossed the street and grabbed the metro, and then called Allen so he could pick up at Union to save us the walk home. He even dropped us off at Hiraya where I thought I'd made a reservation (I didn't). We grabbed dinner and then came home, had a drink with Allen and then crashed.

The next morning, Audra & Cec slept in and briefly Facetimed with Tracey while I took Owen to school for his A.P. Government test and then dropped Noa off at the metro. When I got back, we showered, cleaned up, grabbed some bikeshares and then headed to Capitol Hill for a monumental tour. We started at Tracey's old boarding house from our college days, followed by the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and the Capitol (where Cecily spied a taping of RuPaul's Drag Race and ended up in the background of one of its star's instagram). We then parked the bikes at the Botanical Gardens so we could see the corpse flower whose three day bloom happened to coincide with Audra and Cecily's visit.

Afterwards we got new bikes and then started on our epic tour of all the monuments, but around the Sculpture Garden, I realized that Noa's interview for a CHAW counselor in training position this summer was cancelled, which meant they could make their softball playoff game (which was short on players), but they didn't have their uniform or equipment. After some panicked texts from Noa, I sent Audra and Cecily on their way (Audra had visited just a few years ago for her kid's spring break so she knows the tour well) while I ran home, grabbed Noa's stuff, took the metro to Van Ness, handed Noa their stuff (they made the game, but ended up not playing), metroed home and called Audra and Cec to see if they wanted a ride home only to discover they were already biking back (having hit the Lincoln, Vietnam, Jefferson, FDR, MLK, George Mason and Einstein Memorials). I made them a quick snack before we packed up everything and headed to the airport where we said our goodbyes and started planning our next gather in six months or so...

(To see all the pics, click here.)

Burke Softball

Noa joined the Burke softball team for the spring season and they're really enjoying the team. They've improved significantly since taking up the game at Sheridan last year, and enjoy the practices, supporting the team, and getting out of a term of gym class. Owen and I have made it out to see two of their games this season. The first was a home game couple weeks ago where Burke hung on to win a nail biter. The second one was right in our neighborhood against the Model Secondary School for the Deaf at the Gallaudet Softball complex. Elaine had to leave early to pick up Audra and Cecily from the airport, but the Owen and I stuck around to see the Tigers dominating 30-9 win.

 

Senior Skip Day

Owen doesn't really take any pictures when he's out with his friends, but thankfully Reb does and she let's us follow her on instagram! Just reposting some her nice ones of the group here – paddle boating on the Tidal Basin over spring break and hanging out at the Zoo for senior skip day.