As we are wont to do, from time to time, we stepped out of our daily routine yesterday for a night away. A few months ago, we purchased tickets to see David Sedaris speak at Tanglewood. This would be our second time seeing Mr. Sedaris, but our first time attending an event at Tanglewood. We packed an overnight bag and headed out, early afternoon, to Lenox, MA, where we had booked a room at the Hampton Inn & Suites. Jeffrey did early on-line check-in, which he prefers to do because we can select our room and check-in at 3:00 instead of the usual 4:00 check-in time. As we arrived in Lenox hours early, we did a little shopping at some local stores to kill time, and arrived at the hotel around 3:15pm – only to be told our room wasn’t ready. After waiting 10 more minutes, they offered us a different room (different floor and location) which we did take a look at, but decided we preferred the room we had requested and chose to wait for it to be ready. Another 15 minutes passed (now 40 minutes past our “guaranteed” check-in time) before we were informed our room was ready. When we arrived at our room, this was waiting for us:

It was a nice gesture, which we appreciated. We rested a bit, then freshened up, changed and headed to dinner at Chez Nous, a great little restaurant in nearby Lee, MA.  As always, dinner and service were fantastic (all but 2 of their menu items are, or can be made, gluten free.) After that great dinner, we had time to do a pit stop in our hotel room before heading to Tanglewood. We were pleasantly surprised to see how close our seats were to the podium where David would be speaking:

As always, he was highly entertaining, and had the whole crowd laughing almost non stop. After an hour and a half of chuckling while listening to excerpts from his new book, we headed back to the hotel room for a nightcap before calling it a night.

This morning, we headed out early for home. We had taken today off from work, and my Mom was at the house watching the dogs for us. Today is Mom’s birthday, so we walked in the door, iPhone playing “Happy Birthday” by Frank Sinatra, with flowers (orange roses), wine (Pink Moscato) & Sangria (her favorites), a gift card, and a birthday cupcake to help start her birthday off, festively.  Then we invited her to stay for a birthday  breakfast (eggs, bacon, english muffins, fruit, coffee, and Mimosas.)

After breakfast, we presented her with a birthday cupcake, with a candle she could make a wish on before blowing out.

We sent Mom home for the day, then worked on Jeffrey’s office door, which had been removed so we could paint it white to match the other two doors upstairs.  We put it back on its hinges, but only after we installed the new door knob, which required some drilling and sawing. Don’t I look naturally butch working with power tools?

Harvey had to supervise, of course, to make sure our work was being done properly and and that no one got hurt.

Then we settled in to relax with the pups and watch TV and nap a little (and did some laundry while we were at it.)  Tonight, we’re taking Mom out to dinner at new place we only recently experienced for the first time and loved (Angelo’s 677 Prime.)

It was a nice diversion from the daily rut, and I’m grateful we can occasionally have experiences like this.