A Day at Hive
One of the best ways to understand what a Hive Community feels like is to take a peek into the future at an average day in the life of Hive River North. Below you'll find nine perspectives on the day.
"Charlotte"
78-Year-Old Homemaker
Charlotte moved to Hive from an assisted living center. Instead of having breakfast by herself in her flat, she decided to help cook breakfast in the Hive Union kitchen for a large group of adult and child members of the Hive. She and her husband, who passed away some years ago, used to love to cook together. Among her passions at Hive is acting as surrogate grandmother for several Hive children who don't have grandparents living in Colorado. This evening she took two of them, Ellie and Laurel, to an orchestral percussion concert at Fall, the music venue just across the green from Hive.
"Ellie"
Six-Year-Old Child
Ellie is unschooled, a child-directed method of home schooling. Her mother, Anna, and father, Vernon, both work. This morning, after eating with the morning breakfasters in the Union, she headed off to the Union craft room to work on a project with our artist in residence this semester, Graham. He works in mixed media and has been teaching Ellie and several other children how to take spring leaves that they gathered and preserve them in glycerin. Tonight she and five other kids took over two Hive guest suites for a birthday sleep-over, chaperoned round-robin style by their parents.
"Graham"
59-Year-Old Artist In-Residence
Graham teaches mixed media at a liberal arts college in Ohio. The Hive Community In-Residence Guest Selection Committee invited him and his sixteen-year-old son, Calder, to stay at Hive River North for the school year during Graham's teaching sabbatical. Early this evening, he joined the Hive art book club to talk about a biography they've been reading, Andy Goldsworthy: Touching Nature, by William Malpas. Afterwards, he joined most of the Hive in the Union for dinner, which was prepared by a student chef from Johnson and Wales University and eight of his Hive cooking students. Graham talked with several other Hivers at the dinner table late into the night.
"Flo"
10-Month-Old Newfoundland Puppy
Every day is filled with friends, both canine and human. After a morning "freshening up" in Hive's composting dog yard, Flo and several of the other dogs frolicked out near the Hive cooking garden. After lunch with two members of her family, Anna and Ellie, Flo took a three hour nap in one of the Hive music practice rooms while Anna's husband, Vernon, a jazz musician, transcribed piano solos. Afterwards, Vernon gave her the weekly scrub in the Hive dog wash behind the art yard. Then it was off to the Hive roof garden to dry out while Vernon read the newspaper and Ellie read a copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell, from the Hive rooftop library.
"Anna"
44-Year-Old Attorney & Mom
Anna is a patent attorney. She works half-time in her firm's office downtown and the other half in the Hive Top cafe next to the roof garden. Her husband, Vernon, is a jazz musician and plays gigs about 4 nights per week. This morning she met with several clients in the Hive conference room upstairs. Then around 11:45, she and daughter Ellie took their Newfoundland puppy, Flo, on a walk along the Platte River path. After lunch at the grocery in the Denargo Market, she and Ellie headed back to the Hive. Anna then took the elevator to the Hive roof cafe to work while Ellie decided to skip up to the Hive Union playground where several other Hiver kids of various ages were already mid-play.
"Evie"
17-Year Old High School Student
Evie lives at Hive with her 12-year-old sister, Josie, and parents, Marina and Mitchell. After the group breakfast in the Union, another Hive parent drove her to school. After school, she did her English homework – reading Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow, on the balcony of her family's flat overlooking the city. Her cat, Della, curled up on her lap. After dinner she joined her friend, Calder, and about 40 other Hivers in the Hive Union screening room for a showing of Michael Palin's Full Circle. It's part of a Tuesday night Michael Palin travel film festival that several Hivers put together and which has been playing out over the last month.
"Boz"
32-Year-Old Elementary School Teacher
Boz got up this morning for a six o'clock Yoga class that Jan, a Hive member, leads. After class, he bicycled across town to his school to teach. Upon returning from school, he went up to the Hive Top library for several hours of paper grading. At tonight's Hive dinner, he talked mostly with Gijs, our writer in residence this semester, from our sister community in Amsterdam, Holland. Afterwards it was up to his flat to do some meditation, call his parents in Philadelphia, and get to sleep early.
"Jan"
51-Year-Old Sculptor
Jan is a sculptor, husband, and father of three. He is also on the board of an organization that provides financial assistance to differently-abled artists. After teaching his weekly yoga class, he got an early start on some welding, as working on his new piece in the Hive art yard is easier before the heat of midday. In the early afternoon, he cheered on eight Hive kids in their unscheduled game of ultimate frisbee. Afterward, he helped several other hivers unload a delivery of food for the Hive Food Co-Op. The food is ordered weekly from the same wholesaler who supplies some of the nicer grocery store chains in town. He spent the evening after the Hive dinner talking and playing cribbage with his fourteen-year-old son, Watt, in the Hive roof garden.