Books Read September + October 2026

I’ve decided that Fridays will be “Finish that post Friday” because I realize I have 78 posts in my drafts folder and I should really move some of them along. Although a few are incredibly dated and from 2020, so those might not see the light of day, except maybe as a curiosity…. Anyhow, I’m really late in my Books Read recaps, so that’s the first “Finish that post” that I’m going to write:

In mind-blowing book0sh discoveries I’ve made lately – Did you know you can export some of your information on Libby to a spreadsheet?

I am so excited about this! You can export your tags (so have a list of the books you want to read!), you can export reading data for a book, including all the highlights that you made (and then not have to copy them out again!) I love the idea of being able to see all that information instead of having to click around in the app to find it.

How to export tags:

  1. Tap Tags. or the little tag icon
  2. Select a tag.
  3. Tap Actions, then Export Tag.
  4. Choose an export format. You can select Spreadsheet to save it as an Excel sheet for offline access. It will generate a list of all the books in that tag.

How to export your highlights:

  1. Select the book you want.
  2. Tap on Actions
  3. Tap Export Reading Data
  4. Then choose export format. As with tags, I like to pick Spreadsheet, but you can also pick Table for a web based format. You will also get information about your reading journey, your highlights and bookmarks, etc.

I am so excited to learn about these Libby features!

Anyhow, on to books I read in September and October. I thought September was a good, but not great reading month. So many books that I enjoyed, but nothing that went to the top of my 2026 List. If I gave stars, I would say it was a solid 4 star month – a lot of books I would recommend, but none that I would re-read myself. I was surprised at how many books I finished in October given that I was back at work, but I think many of the books were on the shorter side.

September Books:

These Summer Storms by Sarah McLean– I’m a big fan of MacLean’s historical romances, so I was intrigued by her contemporary novel. I wouldn’t call it a romance, per se. While the romance is a major plot point, the novel is mostly about the Summer family and the aftermath of the death of their patriarch. As the details of the father’s will and the ensuing inheritance game unfolds, each member of the family has to come to terms with their past mistakes and current flaws. I thought this was a enjoyable read.

10 Rules for Raising a Kid in a High Tech World by Jean M. Twenge- The title pretty much says it all. I thought this book was a little alarmist. Yes, there is an infinite number of ways the internet/ social media is scary and dangerous and bad for people (not just teens), but also I do think the internet is a resource and can be used judiciously. There was one passage where Twenge says if your kid is the last of their friends to have a phone than you’ve won, and that kind of competitive mindset didn’t sit well with me. I think a phone is a tool and there are many reasons a kid at any age might need the tool. I have to say the “Wait until Eighth” campaign infuriates me a little because you can’t know why a family makes the decision to give a kid a phone. I think of my neighbor who gave their 2nd grader a phone because there were custody issues and he always wanted his kid to be able to reach him if needed. The last thing my neighbor needs is pressure from the other parents on the school listserv to doubt the choices he’s making.
All that said, though, I think there are interesting things to think about in this book and what is more important than the rules that Twenge sets out, are the conversations that she encourages parents to have with their kids.

Hello, Molly by Molly Shannon with Sean Wilsey, read by Molly Shannon – I’m not a big Saturday Night Live watcher, but I’ve always enjoyed watching Molly Shannon on screen- I always find her daffy and full of energy yet also down to earth. I thought this memoir would be funny. It’s not. She’s actually had some pretty sad things happen to her. Also, for a book published in 2022, she’s incredibly blasé about the sexual harassment and abuse that goes on in the entertainment industry, including things that she endured herself. That all just made me uncomfortable. I did find the inside look at how Saturday Night Live comes together fascinating, though.

Well Played by Jen de Luca – This is the second in a series of romance novels set against the backdrop of a Renaissance Festival. I love me a Renaissance Festival and I thought the first book (Well Met) in this series was pretty good. I didn’t like this one as well as the first book. While I liked the two main characters individually – I mean I always have a soft spot for a tech roadie – I didn’t feel much chemistry between the two of them. Also there’s some behavior on the main guy’s part that was seriously questionable.

Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long – Latest in the Palace of Rogues series. I liked this one, but My Season of Scandal is still my favorite. This novel’s heroine is annoyingly naive in the beginning, but I grew to like her by the end of the book. As always, Long’s male main characters are sardonic, witty, and have hearts of gold hidden under layers of questionable choices.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay, read by Adam Kay – Memoir of Adam Kay’s time as a junior doctor, an OBGYN in England’s National Health Service. This book was grisly, graphic, hilarious, and also oh so human. Also I’m glad I’ve already had my kids because of Kay’s stories about the process of giving birth are alternatingly blasé and horrifying. I love niche occupational memoirs and this one was very entertaining.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Greene and David Levethan – This is a YA novel featuring two Chicago area high schoolers with the same name. They live very different lives and meet by chance, but then their lives are brought together by the larger than life Tiny Cooper, who is friends with one Will Grayson and is writing a musical. The chapters alternate between the two Will Graysons (technically Will Grayson and will grayson), with Greene writing one teen and Levethan writing the other. I’m a sucker for a book about high school musicals so this has been on my radar for a while. I don’t always have a lot of patience for coming of age/YA novels because a lot of them aren’t well written to me -they have good plots, but the prose is a little pedestrian. I thought this book was well written, hilarious, and teenage characters that made me cringe in a sympathtic way.

14 Talks by Age Fourteen: The Essential Conversations You Need to Have with Your Kids Before They Start High School by Michelle Icard – What I found the most useful about this book is the framework for talking to tweens/teens. Icard gives a five step approach to being curious but not judgmental when exploring topics such as screentime, healthy habits, friends, sex, money, fairness. The acronym is BRIEF – B(egin peacefully), R(elate – give empathy and understanding), I(nterview, ask neutrally for facts), E(cho – repeat to show you are listening), F(eedback – actionable steps). While she does give actual scripts for conversations, some of them I read and thought, “I can’t ever imagine myself saying that to my kid.” A good book to have in one’s parenting toolkit, I thought.

Trash! A Garbage Man’s Story by Simon Pare-Poupart, read by Jean Brassart – This was a short, spunky memoir written by Pare-Poupart, a Montreal sanitation worker. He recounts his back breaking experiences with irreverent and colourful anecdotes. I really enjoyed hearing about the citizens and colleagues he meets along the way – I think his words and Brassart’s narration really brought these people to life.

OCTOBER BOOKS – I hit 80 books for the year this month! I know that number of books isn’t a super important metric – I’d rather count the amount of time I spend reading – but it does feel rather fun that I got to 80.

Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang – This is a coming of age story of a Chinese- American college student who goes to Taipei for a summer language program. So much of this book felt very familiar – not just the sights and sounds of Taiwan, but also the feeling of knowing but not knowing a place, of feeling that a place is connected to you, but that you aren’t fully of that place, of connecting to parents but also not really knowing their past. As a reading experience that I could relate to, I really liked this book. As a novel itself – there isn’t much of a plot and people make a lot of dumb young people choices, and I just found a lot of the characters annoying. I thought that my 14 year old should read this book as she is interested in going to Taiwan to study Mandarin, but see above re: dumb young people choices.
I did make a lot of highlights in this book. This was my favorite, an exchange between the protagonist Lily and her Mandarin teacher:
“It is an extremely difficult grammatical structure! I have American students who can never get over this. I have students doing advanced research in Classical Chinese who still do not have an intuitive grasp of the resultative ending. But you don’t struggle with it at all. Do you know what that means?”
“That I will learn faster?”
“No!” Her voice shot up in pitch. “It means you are lazy. I know your type! Some things come easy to you, so you think everything will. But in fact you are more prone to making mistakes because you trust an inner ear that only works some of the time.”

The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester – I picked this one up because it was billed as inspired by Jane Eyre and I’m a sucker for a Jane Eyre spin. This book tells the story of orphan Aria Jones who goes to live in the Chateau Marmont, a hotel populated by Hollywood stars past present and future. This is a book that is told in dual, converging timelines, which I found a little bit confusing because it was hard to tell what had happened in which story. All that said, I thought Aria was a great character and I did want to find out what happens to her throughout the book. It isn’t an exact parallel to Jane Eyre, but I think it has a lot of the spirit of resilience and re-invention that I love about Bronte’s novel. This was also a hard book to read because the shit at Cornell was going down when I read this book, and, like any book set in Hollywood, sexual assault and the casting couch is a big plot point. The cover is gorgeous, though.

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan – continuing my Annabel Monaghan binge – I’m trying to read her books in the order written. One thing I really love about Monaghan is that she is very good at writing 1st person narrative that doesn’t seem one sided, I always feel like I get a sense of what the other person is going through emotionally even when the specifics are vague. This one is about Sam who goes back home for a few weeks during the summer with her fiance and meet Jack, her childhood sweetheart/ boy next door. The novel deals with why they grew apart and how they deal with the tension of living next door to each other all summer. This one seems to be the least liked of her books, and I can see why. I feel like the plot doesn’t hold together as well as the other Monaghan books I’ve read – Jack is almost too perfect and Sam is just kind of a mess and tramples over people. I guess this book was fine, but I didn’t love it.

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib, read by the author – This book was part poetry, part memoir, part tribute to the sport of Basketball and a musing on how communities come together. I picked up this book because we are a big basketball family and I was interested in stories of community and basketball. I have to be honest, a lot of this book went over my head. Abdurraqib’s musings about being a basketball fan in Columbus, OH are far ranging and rambling; his language is beautiful and poetic. He talks about LeBron James a lot. I found myself sinking into the gorgeous rhythms of the words and not really grasping the meanings. Sometimes I felt like I wanted to read the print version of this book just so I could better piece his ideas together. The parts that stick with me is this idea of home and how basketball can feel like a home-coming and a place of comfort and familiarity and also of hope and possibility. One of my favorite quotes:
“There is a shortcut to glory that doesn’t run through northeast Ohio, but no one will love you like we love you. “

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs, Edited by John Bowe, Marissa Bowe, and Sabine Streeter – I had read this book when it first came out twenty years ago and I was inspired to read it again by Engie’s book reviews of some very niche job memoirs. I think this book is modelled after Studs Turkel’s book Working, where people talk about their very ordinary jobs. It’s funny there are some chapters I remember from twenty years ago – the one about the roadie really made an impact as did the one about the sales rep for the Adhesives company – and there were some that I loved reading this time that I didn’t remember at all from last time, like there was one by an Orthopedic surgeon that I just found fascinating. One thing that struck me is how people would often at the beginning of the interview say that they liked their job, but by the end, they would bring up all the negative stuff and say they didn’t want to stay forever. I loved all the every day wisdom to be found in this book, like this gem from a train engineer:
“You’ve got to be thinking in your mind where the rear of the train is at, and what’s going on in between. You know, gravity works one hundred percent of the time. It never fails.” So true, but also could be a metaphor for so many things in life.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayak Murata – read for Engie’s Cool Bloggers’ Book Club. What a quirky yet clear-eyed book. I still don’t think I love Japanese literature; I find it a little bloodless. But I did enjoy reading this book and seeing where it went and all the details about convenience stores.

Winter Stories by Ingvild H. Rishøi, translated by Diane Oatley – This is a collection of three short stories. I had read Rishøi’s Christmas story Brightly Shining and thought it was unsentimental but touching. I decided to ready this one too as we are nearing winter and I thought it would be nice to have a winter read. Spoiler alert – these stories are not cozy and heart-warming. They are sad and desperate, with crumbs of kindness thrown in just enough to make the stories even sadder. Recommended if you want something to make you truly feel the cold bleakness of winter.

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino – I tore through this book in four days. This novel tells the story of Margo Miyake, a 37 year old PR professional with a very agreeable husband in Washington, DC who is obsessed with buying her dream house. Well, any house, given the market. She becomes obsessed with a specific house and then will stop at nothing to get it. I’m a sucker for books set in DC, and reading about places that are familiar to me. But I’m not really a thriller fan, and I thought Margo was bonkers and made some really poor life choices. So this was a page turner for sure, but ultimately I felt like I needed a shower and a cozy romance once I was done.

On my Proverbial bedside table:

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl – I need to finish this book because it is waaaay overdue at the library. This is my current non-fiction read.

A Widow’s Charm by Caitlin Paxton – just started this book, historical fantasy about a Lady who’s husband inconveniently dies. The book blurb says, “Witty, whimsical, and deeply kind” I kind of want all those things in my life right now.

The Wake-up Call by Beth O’Leary – another fun fluffy read.

Trashed by Derf Backderf – a graphic novel about garbage collection. Clearly I’m on a binge.

The moment I decided to be a stage manager- Part Two

Today another micro blog post as I ride the train to work:

Okay, so last I left the story of deciding to be a stage manager (Part one here), I was working as an intern in Company Management at a theatre in the town where I had gone to college. Because I was still around, I still sang with the Glee Club and saw my professors often.

One day, one of my Professors said, “We’re doing an opera, and I need a stage manager.”

I said, “I don’t know what that is, but sure!”

They were doing a production of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea. It’s one of the first operas ever written and rarely done, but there was this hot shot freshman countertenor and the opera has a great role for a countertenor (a countertenor is someone who is male but sings in a female vocal range). The guy actually has become quite opera famous since then, so I get to say he was in the first show I ever stage managed.

Anyhow, since I didn’t know anything about stage managing and since at my Company Management job I shared an office with the stage managers, I asked the head stage manager of the theatre where I worked- “What am I supposed to do?”

She was so excited to talk to me about it and showed me all her production books and showed me how to mark my score up with “standby” and “go” for the cues and how to page people to stage. The biggest thing, she said, is to tape down your Post Its because there is nothing worse than dropping your book and all your Post Its falling out. (I do not do this because I now mostly use stickers instead of Post its when I mark my score.)

Now to be clear, when my professor asked me to stage manage his show, he was actually looking for a show caller- someone to come in and call all the light and tech cues and page people to stage. There is a whole other part of stage managing which is about running rehearsals and facilitating that part of the process. Essentially, I was doing a three or four day project for my professor when I agreed to stage manage his show.

Well I really enjoyed the experience. I remember there was a moment where a singer had to change his costume right next to me, but I was calling the show so I didn’t have the hands to help him. I paged another singer up to help with the costume change and it all worked our really well. Being able to solve problems on my feet like that was really gratifying; it was one of those moments where I really felt like I could figure things out and be useful.

So after this I went back to my Company Management job and started sending out resumes for stage management internships. Of course I had no experience so I didnt get a lot of responses. But one place that did respond was a little Shakespeare company in Marin County, California. One of the founders had gone to the same school as me (albeit twenty years before) and I really played that alumni angle. And maybe it was the alumni connection… maybe not… but she offered me an assistant stage manager job for the coming summer. So off to California I went!

I had a great time. We did Hamlet, As You Like It, and The Servant of Two Masters. All the actors were super nice. We performed outside in the sunshine. The stage manager also worked at Portland Opera, and told me all about stage managing an opera. Being part of the rehearsal and creative process was just so amazing for me.

Now at the same time, I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I had applied to a huge fellowship in Opera administration. Opera America had a program where if you got accepted, you would work with three different companies over the course of the year and learn how differently sized companies works. The application process involved wiritng lots of easays and several rounds of interviews.

I got to the last round of interviews which happened to take place in Washington DC. I asked for the weekend off from my job at the Shakespeare Festival and off I went. Opera America flew me out, put me up in a hotel, and give me a nice meal stipend. I think there were maybe eight or 10 of us in this final round. I don’t remember much about what we did, but I remember going out to the Georgetown waterfront with my fellow applicants and spending our meal stipend on a fancy dinner. At least it felt fancy to us.

The final interview round was the next day, before a panel of seven or eight people all of whom were major administrators and directors at opera companies around the country. It was quite daunting for me.

And I was sitting in front of that interview panel, feeling quite out of my depths. And one of the first questions one of those leaders of the arts asked was, “Why do you want to work an opera arts administration?”

And I remember a thought clear as a bell went through my head. A voice – was it my own?- said, “But I don’t want to work in arts administration. I want to be a stage manager.”

I guess when a little voice tells you something while you are sitting in front of a row of opera big wigs, it really helps to focus you.

I BSed my way through the rest of that interview, went back to my ASM job at the small Shakespeare festival, and the rest, as they say, is employment history. From then on out, I knew what I wanted to do.

And that’s the story of how I decided to become a Stage Manager.

Weekly Recap + what we ate: Hallowe’en 2026

I started to write this on the metro on my commute to the theatre. Parking there is challenging, so I’m taking the metro, which is actually quite nice as I can read and chill and write a micro blog post, and then on the other end is a 15-20 minute walk that takes me by two lovely cafes where I can get a chai- one warmly spiced and one spicily spiced. The money I am saving my taking the metro is perhaps offset by my chai and salted oat cookie habit. (spoiler alert – I did not finish this on my commute that day.)

This is a lengthier post – I feel like no one wants to read lengthy posts during National Blog Posting Month, but this is my usual weekly brain dump and it would feel very weird not to do it just because I’m trying to post every day.

Saturday night was Hallowe’en. It was my day off, but the day was packed. I still had a bunch of sewing to do for the kids’ costumes, but before then there was our Saturday morning family meeting, then I took the oldest to her voice lesson and went for a run while she was in her lesson. When we got home, I had lunch and then collapsed on the couch and took a nap. I think it was the combination of the late tech week nights and then staying up the night before to finish a book. (Best Offer Wins- bonkers but I kept turning the pages.). I vaguely remember the 7 year old tapping on my shoulder and saying, “Mom, when are you going to wake up and finish our costumes?”

Around 3:00p, she came back again. I sat up, still quite groggy. “Bring me a fizzy water and a Coke,” I said.

I hydrated and caffeinated and got to work, finishing the last stitch at 4:55pm.

We all bundled into the car and headed to our friend’s house. We live on a cul de sac that sees very little activity on Hallowe’en so we always go over to our friends’ house to trick or treat, and then sit around their fire pit and hand out candy.

Overall I was pretty happy with how the kids’ Avatar Last Air Bender costumes turned out. I wish the 7 year old’s Katara costume had a few more details- if she weren’t standing with the other two kids she’d pretty much just be a girl in a blue wrap dress. I had a piece of tulle she was supposed to use for her water bending skills, but then lost the tulle in the chaos of the house. I don’t know how well known Avatar is; the 9 year old as Aang was recognized the most and even then not a lot. In the end, thought, it was the kind of group costume where the people who recognized the kids were super excited to see them, and that felt gratifying in it’s own way. Someone did ask me why I wasn’t dressed up as Appa….

This is probably the most ambitious I’ve ever been about sewing. I’ve had to make good use of my seam ripper several times. My biggest lesson is that when making something out of fabric that has no right or wrong side, to always mark one side “right” and one side “wrong”, or else you’ll end up with two left pant legs. But all in all, I’m realizing that the hardest part of sewing is not the actual sewing, it’s the cutting of the fabric and then piecing it together correctly. I’ve also realized that seams can hide a lot of flaws in the cutting, but only to a certain extent.

We trick or treated from 6:30p until about 8:15pm. Their neighborhood has a neighborhood Hallowe’en decoration contest so it’s always fun to see all the houses.

Audrey!
These were freaky – we thought they were real people at first. Also this house didn’t have any candy left.
Number Blocks!!

When the kids ran out of steam and the houses started running out of candey, we went back to our friend’s house to hang out and eat Chinese take out and finger foods. The kids went through their candy stash, the two younger ones pulling out all the gummy candy since they aren’t allowed to have gummy candy, per their dentist. Works out in my favor since I love gummy candy.

At one point I had to tell them that Tootsie rolls are just as bad for their teeth and they should give those up, whereupon the 9 year old said, “What if I just lick it slowly and don’t chew it.”

I mean technically I guess that’s okay….

The current plan for the candy is to let the kids binge all they want for a week, then limit them to two pieces a day and then throw out any remaining candy that is lefty by Christmas time. The thought of throwing candy (really anything) out makes me cringe, but I have to remind myself that it’s just candy and there will always be more. Do you have a Hallowe’en candy policy?

It was a lovely Hallowe’en, but having October 31st be my one day off was not restorative. Although on the flip side, I’ve also had to work on Hallowe’en before, which is always a bummer. There’s no perfect solution when one works six days a week. I think this was particularly exhausting since it was tech week. Moving into the theatre is always exciting and even more so for this show. Everything is so huge and unlike anything I’ve done before. But in the end, for what I do, a lot is the same – get people on stage, call the light cues at the right time, end rehearsal on time so that the evening doesn’t get expensive. Actually in a lot of ways, things are easier because the space is so huge there aren’t a lot of scene changes for me to call, and often in tech that is what eats time, getting the scenery to move in the right time in the right place and without mowing anyone over.

The other thing I’m enjoying about the new venue is the location. When we were at the Kennedy Center, I felt like we were… well, at the KENNEDY CENTER. But now we’re at a different venue, and to get there from the Metro, I walk by the White House and the Renwick and all sorts of other iconic DC buildings. And it really feels like we’re doing opera IN WASHINGTON, DC, like we’re creating art not just defined by our parent venue. And I’ve been enjoying that on my dinner breaks I can take a run or walk down on the Mall and I can see the Washington Monument on one side and the Lincoln Memorial on the other. All in all, it’s been a good tech week – everyone is working their butts off but I feel like we are all excited and happy to still be doing what we do. I’m exhausted, bur really pleased with how things are going on my end.

Grateful For Last Week:
-My work BFF for driving me home every night. She lives two miles from me and drives me home. I feel like I have the best of both worlds – I get my morning commute with my book and my chai and sometimes my micro blog posts, and then at the end of the night, I get to chat with my friend and she takes me straight to my door.

-A Successful Soup Party. At work, we had our annual soup party and people brought so many tasty kinds of soup. I think my favorite was a apple butternut squash curry soup. It was so good. Note to self: get the recipe.

-No piano lessons last week. I might have mentioned in a previous post that the kids’ piano teacher was on vacation the past two weeks so there were no piano lessons (The kids take lessons at 7:45am on Wednesdays and 6:30am on Thursdays). I didn’t realize how fortuitous the timing was because her vacation week fell during tech week. I was so grateful that I didn’t have to shuttle kids to piano lessons after being at the theatre til 11pm the night before.

-My hand me down sewing machine.

-A New Month – Hello, November! Though it now means that January 2027 has appeared on our three month calendar.

–Elisabeth for hosting Cool Blogger’s Walking Club and Engie for hosting Cool Blogger’s Book Club. I haven’t been able to keep up with posting, but I did walk every day in October and I did read Convenience Store Woman. It was so nice to have non-work goals on my calendar this month.

-Finding my green pants. I got these lovely green pants from Taiwan last winter and then I haven’t been able to find them for the past six months and I was sad. Well, I found them! Turns out I had folded them over and hung them on a hanger and then put a sweater on the same hanger. Yay – I love finding lost things.

Looking Forward To:
-being home in the evenings. I feel like I haven’t seen my family in ages. The 14 year old leaves for school before I’m awake and then I get home around 11pm when everyone is asleep. I do always go to the room the 7 and 9 year old share and give them kisses and re-tuck them when I get home, but it feels weird to do that for the 14 year old. Anyhow, all told – I’ll be glad to get my evenings back.

-Thanksgiving! There was a request for duck for Thanksgiving. Challenge accepted. I think. I’ll have to figure out where to get a duck and what to do with it.

-Parent Teacher Conferences. Are coming up. I feel like school is such a black hole for finding out how my kids are doing, so I’m glad we’ll get a chance to sort of find out.

-This stack of books from the Library. (I also got Best Offer Wins in this trip, but I tore through it in four days and then returned it before I could take a picture of my library stack.)

What We Ate:

Monday: The Husband made an eggplant stir fry, which we ate with noodles.

Taco Tuesday: The family had black bean tacos. At work I had had soup as part of the soup party. I made Marry Me Gnocchi Soup from Nora cooks. It was tasty (and vegan).

Wednesday: Box Dinner. We realized that Wednesdays were bonkers for eating dinner and what we were doing was just not working. The 9 year old has Dungeons and Dragon Club after school until 5:15pm and then fencing at 6pm. The 7 year old is not old enough to stay home by herself so when I’m working, she needs to ride along since the 14 year old (who would usually stay home with her to keep things legal) has basketball at 7pm. Version A was:
-4:30: Pick up 6 year old from bus
-5:15: pick up 9 year old from school D&D club
-5:30p: arrive home, everyone shovels dinner in mouth
-6:00p: 9 year old to fencing, 6 year old rides along
-6:45p: 14 year old walks self to basketball
-7:15p: Husband, 7 and 9 year old arrive home
-8pm (or 9pm): Husband picks up 14 year old from bball.

It was bonkers. I mean for the Husband. I’m at work and just chilling and doing my job thing. Anyhow…. It wasn’t working for the 9 year old because he was just exhausted and that’s always a great thing to be when one is engaging in an activity with epees.

All to say, the new plan, Version B, now is to pack the 7 and 9 year old a box dinner and they eat in the car, driving directly from school pick up to fencing, which hopefully allows a bit of downtime before suiting up.

Writing it all out, it feels like a lot and maybe the kids are overscheduled. They probably are. BUT these are all activities that the 9 year old wants to do, so we try to make it work. And I think for one child it’s fine, but with three, the logistics are complicated exponentially.

Thursday: Marry Me Gnocchi Soup – I had made a double batch on Monday so the family could have some for dinner.

Friday: Pizza takeout and The Matchbox Movie. I had leftovers at work. I think I had soup.

Saturday: Hallowe’en! Chinese take out = I had hot and sour soup – and finger food (crudites, cheese, chips, and a really yummy buffalo dip.)

Sunday: I was at work and ate leftovers. No clue what the rest of the family ate, but I hope it was leftovers too.

NaBloPoMo post #3 (even though it’s day 4…).

The moment I decided to be a stage manager – Part One

Where I’ve been spending my week.

Happy Election Day, USA!

I voted early last week since I knew today would be a long work day. I’m on the Metro on the way to work again, and let’s see if I can again finish this post before I get to my stop.

I often get asked how I came to be a stage manager, since it is such a specific profession. Well, here’s the story.

Like many good Asian kids, I went to university telling my parents I wanted to go to med school. I don’t really think I wanted to go to med school. In my heart I wanted to be an opera singer, but I realized that I lacked the talent and personality to do that.

I did, however end up studying music- not performance, but rather composition and history. I also sang in the Glee Club, took performances classes and did a few recitals. In addition, part of my financial aid package was a work study job in the scene shop of the theatre department. There I helped build sets and labelled tools and sorted buckets of screws.

At one point, I was talking to a theatre student and she said, “Have you thought of being a stage manager? The student groups are always looking for stage managers.”

I kind of dismissed that because I wasn’t really a theatre kid, I was a music kid. The scene shop job was just to get me through and earn some spending money.

So I went through school very involved in the music department and not being very interested in technical theatre. And then I graduated and decided I wanted to work in arts administration because I wasn’t going to be a performer, but I liked being part of the process of bringing shows to life. So I applied to basically every theatre internship program I could find. Opera companies didn’t have internships in arts admin, so I figured I’d start in theatre. This was back when the internet was a new thing for me, so I while I found some of these internship programs online many I read about in trade publications liek ArtSearch. Everyone still sent paper resumes and cover letters. I sent out so many resumes.

I ended up getting an internship in Company Management at a theatre in the same town where I went to school. Company Management is the department that deals with travel and housing for actors, directors, designers. I cleaned a lot of apartments and did a lot of driving to the airport.

The Company Managers and the Stage Managers shared an office, so I often got to see the stage managers coming in and out, arms fill of binders and papers and tape measures. During tech week, company management was always on call, so I would hang out in the office or in the theatre watching tech. I remember thinking, “Boy, the stage managers always look so busy. If I have to be at the theatre til midnight, I’d rather be busy than sitting around waiting to drive people home…”

… and now I’m at my stop. So I’ll leave you on that cliff hanger and write part 2. of Diane’s career epiphany another day.

NaBloPoMo- introduction to my blog

I missed the first day of National Blog Post Month because I worked yesterday from 9:45am to 11:30pm. In fact, I started drafting a post yesterday while on the metro to work, and never finished it.

So here I am, on the metro in to work again and let’s see if I can write a post before I get to my stop. I’m not a fast writer.

Since this is my first NaBloPoMo post, I thought I’d write an introduction.

Hi! I’m Diane. I’m a 40 something Taiwanese- Canadian- American who now lives in the Washington DC area with my Husband and three kids.

I work seasonally as a stage manager, primarily for opera productions, but really whatever anyone hires me for. I also do surtitle work – you know like subtitles for a movie, but for operas and concerts, and projected above the stage.

This blog was my COVID baby. Well one of them- I did have a literal baby (my now 7 year old) during COVID. I had contemplated starting a blog for a few years and COVID time at home was the kick I needed to start a blog, a project just for myself where I could word vomit and no one cried.

So here I am.

Eleven Things I can talk endlessly about:

-Dumplings and noodles and where to get the best dumplings and noodles in the area

-cloth diapers. Even though my youngest is now seven.

-stationary

-Dinner and meal planning hacks for when I’m never home in the evenings.

-the silly, funny, infuriating things that my kids do and say.

-how terrible my commute to my summer job is.

-How important representation in media is.

-Fun things to do on DC and how much I like living here.

-Foods to eat in Taiwan.

-bookstores and chai tea.

-opera

-The endless mental calculus that goes on in my head whenever I have to make a choice.

Welp that’s all you gets

Thanks for popping by.

Let me know if there is anything you can talk about endlessly!

Weekly Recap + What we ate: Cool Blogger’s Walking Club, Week 3- Fall Foliage

I thought I’d again combine my post with my Week 3 Cool Blogger’s run down since clearly writing two posts in one week is too much for me right now between work, sleep, and sewing Hallowe’en costumes like a fiend.

First off the Hallowe’en Costume update – the kids are all dressing up as characters from Avatar The Last Airbender. (I always have to specify because otherwise people ask me if I’ve invested in blue body paint.)
Kid #1, going as Katara – Dress is finished, just need to hem it. Still needs a belt, but I have the materials for that.
Kid #2, going as Aang – Purchased yellow shirt and joggers, brown legwarmers. Today I made a capelet out of orange fleece (no sewing, just cutting a circle with a hole in the middle). I still need to sew the blue arrow to the pink hat I bought him.
Kid #3, going as Toph – top is done, just need to hem the collar (this is a bit of dilemma because I lost the pattern for the collar. I might just stick some white bias tape on it and be done.). pants are done, need hemming. Headband made. Belt ordered (if I have time, I’ll add the gold accents). Still need to make a tabard, but I have the material, so should be quick.
All of that seems doable on Hallowe’en morning, since that will be my next day off. And this coming week is tech.

Also – added to the mix was that last week, the 9 year old said to me, “I need a costume for the Fall Festival.” The Fall Festival was maybe ten days away. It’s an event at school where kids dress up and there’s a parade and then a party in the classroom.

“Well good,” I said, “you can go as Aang.”

“No. I need to go as a book character.”

“Oh.”

Because it would be too easy for parents to allow kids to just wear their Hallowe’en costumes to school. To be fair, in all previous grades, the students made their costumes in class. This was the first year my kid had to make one at home.

There was much angst because he didn’t know what book character he wanted to be and he was afraid that none of his favorite book characters were recognizable. And then he said, “I’ll go as Harry Potter.”

And I said, “Honey, you haven’t even read Harry Potter. I don’t think that is the spirit of the exercise. Why don’t you go as Dog Man.”

“Oh that’s good idea.”

So this morning I also helped him make a Dog Man costume. So that’s four costumes I had to make this year.

Anyhow, on to Cool Bloggers’ Walking Club.

Welcome to my week three Cool Blogger’s Walking Club recap. Thanks again to Elisabeth for leading the charge.

Week Three’s theme was Fall Foliage. It actually was a little early to be in peak fall foliage, so this theme was a little bit more of a scavenger hunt than I had thought it would be – a lot of trees were still fully green and leafy here. I think that’s good, though, because the walks became an exercise in noticing.

Thursday 10/15:

10 minute morning yoga

Walked kids to bus then took the long way home. Fall foliage is starting to peek out. (“peek”, not peak – that comes later…)

Friday 10/16:

20 mins yoga in the morning.

The kids were off school since it was a grading day for the teachers. Everyone was antsy by 8am so we went on a 30 minute walk down to the trail.

At work, I biked to take my bike to the bike shop for tune up and then walked back to work.

Saturday 10/17:

10 minute. Yoga in the morning

30 minute run walk along the trail while the 14 year old was at her voice lesson. It was a little grey and chilly, so the fall colours were rather muted, like this res vine:

Sunday 10/18:

20 minute yoga in the morning

10 minute walk during half time of the 9 year old’a flag football game. I walked the track around the field and then a loop of the parking lot where I saw this gorgeous tree.

Monday 10/19:

14 minute yoga.

Walked the long way home after the bus drop off. I was very amused by the pruning of this tree:

Then I took a loop through the park before heading home:

Tuesday 10/20:

15 minute yoga

30 minute walk taking the kids to the bus stop and then choosing the long way home. There was some beautiful yellows:

Wednesday 10/21:
10 minutes of yoga in the morning.

I had to be downtown for a site visit this day. Parking around the venue is not easy and I ended up parking about 10 minutes away. Which was a little annoying, but then I realized that this was a good way to get my CBWC steps in. No foliage picture from this urban stroll because I didn’t pass any foliage in the city.

Then on my dinner break I walked to pick up my bike from the shop and then biked back to work. There was fall colour on my bike, but I haven’t mastered the art of biking and taking photos :).

That’s Week #3! Next week’s theme is Hallowe’en, and I think it will take me to the end of the month since next week is also tech so I don’t know that I’ll post before Sunday. Which is November.

Speaking of November- would it be bonkers for me to participate in National Blog Post Month? I’ve started it a few times, but never manage to pull it off. But this year, I should be done the hardest part of tech by November 1st so I think it might be doable….

Grateful For:
-The other parents at our bus stop. One day last week, the bus was super late, so one mom put my kids in her car to take them to school. The bus actually pulled up as they were leaving, but it was so nice of her to be willing to do that. And then on Wednesday, when I had to be downtown by 10am, I was able to drop the kids with another parent at the bus stop. I mean, I guess the kids are old enough that they could just wait on their own, but it was nice to know there was another parent looking out for them.

-Clear blue skies and crisp autumn air for the last flag football game of the season. Also grateful for the 9 year old’s coach. The team lost every single game this fall, but they were playing against teams that had been together for two or three years, while the 9 year old’s team was new this season. Anyhow, I’m grateful the 9 year old had a chance to try things out – he came away with some nice NFL swag and has decided that he’s going to go back to playing soccer.

-Spare laptop at work. One day, I forgot my laptop at home and when I got to work, I had that sinking feeling. Luckily we had a spare lap top at work, so I didn’t have to go home to get my own lap top.

-Our Technical Director at work who is such a bad ass and is doing some amazing work transforming the venue space into an opera stage. She is responsible for so much planning and coordinating and balancing to make things happen safely and smoothly. What she is leading is a huge undertaking and I’m sure she is fielding demands left and right. So much respect for her. Also so grateful that she is at the helm..

-Dogs who stick their heads out the windows of cars. They look like they are living their best live and it makes me so happy to see. Last week I passed a car with a dog in the back seat, head out the window, tongue out. It just made my day.

-TMI, but I’m grateful I got my period this week because next week is tech and of course I can still do my job while on my period, but it is always easier to not be on my period during the most intense week of a show.

-An afternoon contra dance. We went dancing today and it’s nice that the dance is in the afternoon because we can take the whole family and not worry about the kids staying up way past their bedtimes. I’m also really grateful that everyone was super kind the the kids while they were dancing – the 7 and 9 year olds still don’t quite get how to do a hey for four, but no one got annoyed at them, instead they just gently pushed them along. We were on the fence about going, but I’m grateful that we did go to the dance, and I got to dance with the Husband.

-Also – grateful for a bounty of apples. One of my favorite parts of fall is the abundance and variety of apples.

Looking Forward To:
-Tech. I mean I’m not looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to being on the other side of it. I really am trying to be excited about tech and the show – we are in a new venue in a huge new way and it is, honestly, a little intimidating. I’m trying to not be toxically positive about the situation (“I’m so excited for this challenge!!”) but also trying not to be just toxic and catty, which is sometimes a defensive mechanism.

-Okay, one thing I am looking forward to is our new venue is by the Mall, so I’m looking forward to running on my dinner breaks near some iconic DC architecture.

-Thanksgiving… At our family meeting yesterday, we discussed what folks wanted to eat for Thanksgiving. The 14 year old would like to make the pie this year. And I guess the 9 year old is going to take on the mantle of rainbow Jell-O.

-Kabocha squash. On a whim I asked the Husband to pick me up two kabocha squash from the Farmer’s market. This was one of my grandmother’s favorite foods. Not sure what I’ll do with them yet – my Ama liked to just steam them and eat them plain. I love their sweet nutty flavor – and the texture isn’t as stringy as other winter squash.

-Voting. Early voting started last week in Maryland. Most of it is fairly predictable given where, but still, I like going and I like going early.

-Soup Party! Our annual departmental soup party is this coming week. I was debating between cream of mushroom, hot and sour soup, or chickpea gnocchi soup. I think I’m going with the chickpea gnocchi soup because I can make a double batch and the kids will eat it. I’m not sure if they will go for cream of mushroom or hot and sour soup.

-Gilded Age – Season Four is coming November 1st!! The trailers show some very fun scenery chewing. Can’t wait.

-Fluffy happy reads (or I hope…) to get me through tech week. Just borrowed this on Libby:

What We Ate:
Monday: Gumbo’s Daddy from NY Times Cooking. This is a sort of simpler version of gumbo that I made because we had five lbs of chicken wings to use up. I also added okra to this because I like okra. I did the cooking step in the InstantPot so I could make it the night before, after I got home from work. Next time I would add the okra later because it kind of melted into the soup. Tasty. We ate it with rice and I had it for dinner later the week and froze two containers of it for leftovers. I was at work and had the leftover quinoa salad from the week before.

Taco Tuesday: We pulled some smoked pork out of the freezer and the Husband ate that with the kids as nachos. I had the leftover quinoa salad from the week before.

Wednesday: Sweet potato and black bean soup from the freezer. “From the freezer” is a theme of our dinners this month. Still more quinoa salad for me.

Thursday: The kids had mac and cheese out of a box – the 14 year old cooked because the Husband was out with a friend and I was at work. I had some leftover take-out Thai for dinner.

Friday: The family had take out pizza and watched K-Pop Demon Hunters for Family movie night. I had the faux gumbo from Monday night for dinner.

Saturday: The family went out for dumplings and noodles. I had their leftovers when I got home.

Sunday: We’re trying a new thing for Sunday dinners. We used to have pasta and red sauce on Sundays because it was fast and easy. Well, now we’re going to try “fend for yourself” – aka Leftovers or cereal. The leftover situation in the fridge and freezer was getting out of hand. And also, I don’t want to have to cook on Sundays. Maybe it’s just this slew of Sundays when I’ve already worked all Saturday…? Anyhow – the 7 and 9 year old made themselves eggs. I think they each ate five eggs a piece. They’re obsessed with frying eggs and eating them. They’ve practically made it a competitive sport, seeing who can make the prettiest, unblemished egg with a fully in tact yolk.

That’s the week. I’m girding my loins for this upcoming week of tech, and reminding myself of the important things – sleep, food, and kindness. I have to remember to pack good snacks and healthy meals (thank goodness for the freezer full of soup), go to sleep at a decent hour, and hug the family when I can. I do think tech week is harder for the Husband because he has to essentially single parent while doing his paying job and I mostly just concentrate on my job and come home late at night.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Are there any Hallowe’en costumes in your future? Any bad-asses at work? In a good way :).

Weekly recap + what we ate: a week of outfits!

The weather has been so bonkers lately! One day it is 80 degrees and then the next it is 55 degrees and spitting rain. It was a busy week last week. Often when I have a busy week, I do a “Week of Outfits” post because it’s something I can do a little at a time. Of course, I really should have saved “Week of Outfits” for next week when I’m in tech, but I think the first week of rehearsal is more interesting sartorially.

Monday – First Day of Rehearsal!

I like to get a little bit dressed up for the first day of rehearsal. I went with an all red theme because red is one of my favorite colours and I feel good in red. (Afterwards the executive director of the company said that red was the official company colour…) The hat was purchased this summer from the hat shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The red sweater is from Uniqlo. The Dress is from Wool& and the shoes are Geisswein.

Tuesday – Forgot to take a picture til 11pm after I got home from work:

Theme of the day was Orange! It was also 80 degrees this day. Hat another NOTL purchase. The button down used to belong to the Husband, but it no longer fits him so it’s mine now. Duluth tank (with built in bra). Cotton gauze pants from Old Navy (a last minute purchase two summers ago, grabbed as I headed to check out. They are one of my favorite summer pants). Black Allbirds – my father saw them on sale at REI, purchased them for the oldest kid, but they aren’t her thing, so they are now mine.

Wednesday:

Same hat and shoes as Monday. The dress is from a Japanese brand, a hand me down from my cousin. You’ve probably seen it on past “what I wore” recaps because I love this dress; it is so easy to wear because it is stretchy cotton, and also has interesting details so it feels like an effortless way to look like I tried.

Thursday:

Yet another hat from NOTL (I bought four!). Wool& dress with floral Uniqlo top worn over it. (I’m sure I’ve worn this a lot too.) Shoes are also Geisswein. I need to replace my Geisswein shoes; they are two years old and the treads are all worn out on this pair and the red pair. But it’s nearly winter, so I think I might wait until spring.

Friday:

No hat this day because I took my bike in for maintenance so I had to wear my helmet. I actually came to work in shorts and a t-shirt, rode the bike to the shop then came back to work and changed into this outfit. The top is Uniqlo, the skirt is from JC Penny, off the discount rack.

Saturday: My day off. I have no picture from this day – I put on my running clothes in the morning to go for a run while the oldest was at her voice lesson and then just never changed out of them.

Sunday: Flag football and rehearsals.

Photo taken by the 14 year old…

It was cool but sunny this day, which was a relief after having terrible weather so far for flag football season. After flag football, I went to work and was there til 10:30pm. The red knit cap is from (you guess it) that shop in Niagara on the Lake. I wore my fox overalls. I like to wear my fox overalls when work on the weekends. It’s a bit of dopamine dressing for having to be at work. The quarter zip is another hand me down that the Husband out grew. I think it’s from Joseph A. Banks.

That’s a week of outfits!

What other “Week of…” posts can I do…?

Grateful For:
-Boone. My friend L’s dog passed away last week. I only met him once and he was such a sweet presence. I’m so glad L shared Boone with all of us.

-A smooth first day of rehearsal. Shhh … here’s a secret… I don’t actually like being the stage manager. It really stresses me out to be in charge. I much rather be the assistant stage manager. The first day of rehearsal stresses me out because there are so many new elements descending on me at once. But last week’s first day was very smooth and mostly routine and I felt like I knew what I was doing.

-on that note – I’m grateful for people of a higher pay grade than me to whom I can kick problems up the chain.

-My bed. I’m so grateful for my bed and being able to slide in between the sheets after a long day at work.

-Sally’s sewing machine. I am sewing Hallowe’en costumes on a sewing machine that was gifted to me by my late mother in law. It is a Spartan Singer sewing machine from the 1950s and only does straight stiches, and I’m so grateful to have it.

-Sewing tutorials on the internet. I don’t have a serger, but the patterns I’m looking at has all these serging instructions. The internet suggested I do a French seam instead. I’m so glad that there are a plethora of videos online that will tell me how to do that.

-Clear blue skies after days of rain.

Looking Forward to:
-contra Dancing! Next Sunday, one of the Husband’s favorite callers is calling an afternoon contra dance and it’s on our calendar to go. Sometimes we loose steam and don’t end up going, but I’m putting this into the world and saying that we are going.

-Seeing a friend from my mom’s group. Her kid got cast in my show, which means that she’ll be bringing him to rehearsals. I’m excited because her kid is pretty awesome and is so excited to be in the show.

-The Hallowe’en costumes are coming together…. I can’t wait until they are finished! Both because I’m excited for how they turn out and also because I’ll be glad to be finished.

-Listening to more of this book:

I was really into this mystery(ish) series years ago, around when the oldest was born. It’s about an ex-Army helicopter pilot turned Episcopal Priest and a Police Chief of a small town in upstate New York who team up to solve crimes. (I call it mystery-ish because it’s not typical clues and red herrings, but then it’s also not twisty enough to be considered a thriller.) A few years back, the the author had a lull and the series fell off my radar. I just discovered that in the past few years she has published more books in this series, so I’m excited to catch up. I started listening to this one and realized that I did actually read it when it first came out, but it will be a nice way back into the series.

What We Ate:
Monday: Mexican rice. The Husband cooked. We had a lot of rice leftover from take-out Chinese the night before so we are trying to think of ways to use it up. I went to tap class after work so I got home late and had snack dinner.

Tuesday: Chili black beans and corn burritos. The black beans and corn were from the freezer. I had leftovers for dinner at work.

Wednesday: Broccoli Quinoa Salad – a variation of this recipe from the NY Times cooking. I added mango and red peppers and didn’t add cheese or pecans. The cheese really does elevate the salad, but I was aiming for a plant based meal. Though the dressing does have honey. So…. vegan-ish. This was a great way to eat lots of vegetables.
I had leftovers at work again.

Thursday: Any ground meat Bolognese. This is the meat sauce I made two weeks ago, pulled from the freezer. The Husband was going out so all the 14 year old had to do was warm the sauce and make pastas.
I had the Broccoli Quinoa Salad at work for dinner, adding a few handfuls of arugula to it.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made) and the kids watched Asterix and the Secret of the Magic Potion. The 9 year old is really into Asterix – which is nice because it’s one of the things I can get in French that was originally written in French as opposed to other books her reads that are French translations of English books. They did watch the movies in English, though.

Saturday: Waffles and green beans. We made both Savory cornmeal waffles from the King Arthur’s Baking Cookbook as well as the Cinnamon Sugar Waffles that I had read about on Nicole’s Blog. Be warned! The Cinnamon Sugar Waffles says that it makes 5 waffles so I doubled the recipe. This recipe makes a butt ton of waffles. We had so many waffles left over. I guess breakfast for the week is taken care of.

These are the leftovers.

Sunday: I was at work and ordered out a tempeh panini because a friend was meeting me on my lunch break. At home the family went to play D&D at a friend’s house and they ordered pizza.

Well that’s the week here.

Tell me what’s your favorite accessory? Have you ever used a serger? They kind of scare me.

Cool Bloggers Walking Club October 2026 – Week #2

Shout out to Elisabeth for organizing a global effort to encourage intentional movement every day this month!

I’ve been pairing my walks with themes, just so I can practice the art of noticing. My theme this week was Little Free Libraries. There are so many Little Free Libraries both in my neighborhood and also where I work, so this week, I was on the look out for Little Free Libraries… and if I found a few books along the way, so much the better!

Thursday 10/8
Walked the kids to school and took the long way home, passing these two Little Free Libraries (LFL) along the way. They are on the same street about a block apart.

Friday 10/9 :
-15 minutes yoga in the morning.
– I biked with the kids to school and then biked to work. This LFL is on the way to work, on a uphill climb so I was walking my bike at this point:

Then at work we went for a site visit of the theatre. We took the metro, but the theatre was still about a mile from the Metro stop, so that was another 20 mins of walking to the theatre and then back. Along the way, we saw lions…

Saturday 10/10
-20 minutes of yoga in the morning.
Then I was at work all day and didn’t manage anything else.

Sunday 10/11
=15 minute yoga in the morning.
-2 hours at the pool with the kids. I thought I wasn’t going to get out for a walk today because it was a wet rainy day, so I’m glad our friends called and invited us to go to the pool with them and I got a lot of movement in that way.

Monday 10/12
-20 minutes yoga in the morning.
-Walked the kids to school bus and then took the long way back home. Passed this LFL, chock full of books on the way home:

-Took a 15 minute walk on my lunch break. Saw this rainbow LFL:

-Evening tap dance class. I’m not very good at tap and I’m really uncomfortable seeing myself in the mirrors, but I’m really enjoying the mental and physical challenge of this tap class. I’m sad that this will be my last tap class for a while; I’ll be working evenings until the middle of November. Luckily the tap studio is pretty flexible and will let me make up the classesnext session.

Tuesday 10/13
-10 minute yoga in the morning.
-Walked the kids to school bus and then again took the long way home. Passed three LFL, including this one that is specifically for children’s books. It is set lower to the ground so kids can browse easily. There also used to be some kid sized benches next to this one, but those are gone now:

And this one, which is half a block away is one of my favorites because there is usually something I want to pick up there:

I came home from that morning stroll with a stack of books and a science magazine for the kids:

Dungeon Crawler Carl wasn’t on my TBR list, but when I see a book that is hugely popular in a LFL, I’ll usually pick it up as a low stress way to check out what the buzz is about.

Wednesday 10/14
-10 minute yoga in the morning.
-10 minute walk with the 9 year old while his sister was at piano lessons. There is a LFL at the nearby park – we like stopping at this one because it has a good mix of kids and grown up books.

-Then swap! I took a 15 minute walk with the 7 year old while her brother took his lesson. There is actually a LFL right in front of his piano teacher’s. There was a copy of The Husbands, which I grabbed. I’d read and loved the book and had given my copy away, so I figured it would be nice to have another copy. This one had a different cover than the first one I had.

That’s week two. Week 3 theme is Fall Colour!

Are there Little Free Libraries around you? Do you have a favorite?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Cool Blogger’s Walking Club – week #1

Do you ever end the weekend more exhausted than you were on Friday? That’s where I am right now on a Sunday night. I’m just exhausted. Okay, this is not totally unexpected. Friday night I stayed up past 2am cutting the fabric for the kids’ Hallowe’en costumes. That was my own bad judgement, but I was in a flow state and didn’t want to stop.

Late night craft project. Those are my late mother in law’s straight pins and orange handle scissors.

Saturday, I did work from 10:30a to 6:30pm and ended up falling asleep on the couch at 9:30pm after dinner. Today’s flag football game was cancelled, but then we got invited to join some friends at the pool. The pool was fun and the perfect activity for a rainy rainy day, but it was not relaxing.

After the pool there was no small amount of mental and emotional energy expended to get the kids to take showers and then pick up around the house. Then dinner and then the entire day’s worth of dishes to do. And also laundry and prep for the week. And then the rainy rainy weather – so grey and somber. I think all that has contributed to a very low energy feeling. NOT how I want to go into the first week of rehearsal, but… oh well.

But let’s talk about energizing things! Like Elisabeth’s Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. Much as I find that the “Cool” in CBWC giving me imposter syndrome and bad high school flashbacks what with me never having been cool in my life, I do think it’s a lovely movement (pun!), and I’m here for it. I had a whole plan to have “themes” for each week, but October 1st snuck up on me. So I guess the theme for Week 1 is… just life. This is the movement I do without trying too hard, that usually would have happened anyway. Spoiler Alert – there isn’t a lot of walking. Here is my summary of the first week of Cool Blogger’s Walking Club:

Thursday 10/1 –
15 minute yoga
15 minutes of …. something??? All it says in my journal is “15 minutes” That was some bad habit tracking going on there. Wait, maybe this is walking the kids to the bus stop then back?

Friday 10/2:
15 minutes yoga in the morning.
20 min bike to school with the kids in the morning.
45 minute walk with my friend A mid afternoon. It was great to walk and chat and catch up.
45 mins Bike to pick up kids after school, stopping at a park on the way home.

Saturday 10/3:
15 minute yoga.
It was a rainy rainy day, so I didn’t get outside. Though the 14 year old and I did go clothes shopping – so I’m sure there were many steps taken then.

Sunday 10/4:
15 minute yoga.
Otherwise, not a lot of intentional movement today because I worked two job back to back starting at 10am, and I didn’t get home until 7pm. But I did take the Metro to both jobs, so I think all told that was 30 minutes of walking. Maybe it counts as intentional because I took the Metro instead of driving?

Monday 10/5:
15 minute yoga.
Walk to take the kids to the bus – this was probably 20 minutes total.
15 minute walk at lunch around the neighborhood.

Tuesday 10/6:
15 minute yoga in the morning.
20 minute walk – after dropping the 6 year old at school following a Doctor’s appointment, I took the long way back to the car.
15 minute walk at lunch

Wednesday 10/7:
10 minute yoga.
Then I literally wrote, “Lots of little walks” What does that even mean? Oh I remember, I met my friend A at a parking lot that was a little farther from school and we walked up together to pick up our kids from Dungeons and Dragon club. Now that I’m back at work full time, I don’t have much time to see friends, so I texted her an hour before pick up and asked if she wanted to go on a micro walking date with me to pick up our kids. It worked out well.

So that was the first week of Walking Club. I have got to take better notes for the rest of the month….

Grateful For:

-The kids’ bus driver. Okay, I might have a little inappropriate yet innocuous crush on the school bus driver. He’s young, kind of cute, and always patiently waits for the kids. He can pull of a three point turn in the bus! More than once we’ve been at least two blocks from the bus stop when he pulls up, and he always waits because he sees us. And the other day, when we were biking, and the bus drove past us, he gave the kids a little encouraging honk. All to say, I’m grateful that he gets the kids to school and back safely, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s cute.

-A UPS store near work, so I can return packages easily without having to drive somewhere else and park.

-Free Food! So bizarrely, I got free food twice this week. (Well, three times if you count when my boss bought the team lunch.) On Wednesday, I was sitting around waiting for rehearsal to start and a chorister came up to me and said she had ordered the three mushroom soup from the Thai place down the street, but they had misunderstood and gave her three (3) mushroom soups and would I like to have one. I do love mushrooms, so I happily took one off her hands. It was very tasty.
Then on Friday, someone Door Dashed a Subway Tuna fish sandwich to our office for Wanda. Only there is no one in our office called Wanda. The folks at work called around the building to find Wanda, but couldn’t find Wanda. I felt really bad for Wanda. Anyhow, I put the sandwich in the fridge in case Wanda showed up. The next day, the sandwich was still in there and the guy in charge of facilities at work said I should either eat it or throw it out. Well, I wasn’t about to let a perfectly good tuna fish sandwich (with honey mustard sauce and jalapenos) go to waste, so I took option b and brought the sandwich home for dinner. Wanda, if you are reading this – thank you, and let me know your venmo handle.
I love free food.

-Autumn skies in the morning, all pink and orange in the morning as I take my kids to their piano lessons before school.

-The county pool. I had never been to open swim at the county pool before and it was a really good time. The pool is nice and new with a couple different areas for kids to play in. And it was only $17 for me and the kids to go swimming. I mean how many ways can a family have fun for less than $20 these days?

-An inadvertent 45 mins at home. The day I was supposed to pick the 9 year old up from D&D club, I somehow did the time math wrong in my head. D&D pick up was at 5:15pm, which meant I should leave work at 4:45pm. But somehow, I left at 3:50pm, thinking that I was late for D&D pick up. oops. when I discovered I was early for pick up, I went home and had a nice 45 minutes with the 14 year old. Nothing elaborate, we just sat side by side and read/ scrolled. And then the Husband came home with the 7 year old and we all just sat in the living room and chatted until it was time to pick up the 9 year old. It was just so nice to be able to sit and chat during daylight hours. Sure I could have gotten some good work done if I had stayed until 4:45p, but this way, I got to see my family and have a relaxing late afternoon interlude before going back to work.

– My cousin J who was in Baltimore for work and came to visit even though it isn’t terribly convenient. I love that she always has such enthusiasm for the kids’ lives. She even went to Agility class to watch the 7 year old bounce on a trampoline.

-People who put art and beauty into the world. I was taking a walk around the neighborhood and I saw these painted rocks piled around the base of at tree and it really made my day.

Looking Forward To:

-Rehearsals starting, and seeing the director. I first met this director twenty three years ago when I was the intern and she was the Assistant Director at an opera company in San Diego. Now look at us all grown up.

-Speaking of which – I saw the rehearsal schedule and it looks like we are mostly rehearsing afternoons and evenings. So I am looking forward to some mornings free from paid work.

-Hallowe’en Costumes. I’m plugging away. Hopefully they will be done eventually. I suspect this is what I’ll be doing with a lot of those mornings off. I am super excited about how they are going to turn out!

-The Renwick Gallery. The Renwick is maybe my favorite museum in town. Their specialty is the art of craft – you know the kind of stuff people use to make as a hobby but which no one thought to pay them for? Anyhow, there museum is temporarily closed while they put up a new exhibit. The new exhibit, opening in November is called Handwork: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery.

-The last two weeks in October without piano lessons. Look, I’m very determined that my kids learn piano, but those early morning lessons are HARD. (The two younger kids go at 7:15am on Wednesday, and the 14 year old goes at 6:30am on Thursday.) Their teacher is going away the last two weeks of October and I’m really looking forward to a little reprieve from early morning piano lessons.

-Christmas…? Maybe? At least the kids are looking forward to it. The Amazon toy catalogue came in the mail last week, and the 7 and 9 year old immediately began to pore over it. The 7 year old started making her list. I didn’t know that she could write so much:

I’m actually impressed that a kid who can barely read can write such an extensive Christmas list.

-Reading this book for Engie’s Cool Blogger’s Book Club:

Not sure why the cover is cut off in Libby…?

What We Ate:

Monday: Some kind of noodle stir fry with eggplant and pork. The 14 year old made it and it was really tasty.

Tuesday: My cousin was in town so we took her to Thai for dinner.

Wednesday: Breakfast sandwiches. Wednesday is always our busiest day activities wise, so we need fast and filling for dinner.

Thursday: Oven baked Chicken drumsticks and broccoli. I prepped the drumsticks ahead of time and the Husband popped them into the oven at the end of his work day.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and The Great British Baking Show, a show that is new to us because we are new to Netflix. (I just discovered that the show is originally titled the Great British Bake Off but we can’t call it that in the United States because Pillsbury has the term “Bake Off” trademarked. What a silly thing!) It was a great show to watch with the family.
Also – after the little kids went to bed, we watched an episode of Worth It, a show produced by Buzzfeed where the hosts compare very cheap versions of food to very expensive versions of food – this episode was the $0.50 dumpling vs. the $29 dumpling. And it was SET IN TAIWAN!!! AND the dumpling that won was from a dumpling place that my father took us to in Taipei. AND the $29 dumpling was from Din Tai Fung, which is this global phenomenon of a dumpling place where there is always a huge line (like sometimes over an hour), but where I feel the food just isn’t so good. So I felt very vindicated that the hosts did not pick the $29 dumpling as “worth it”.

Saturday: Take out Chinese. We had some friends over to hang out. I’m honestly not a huge fan of take out Chinese from most places, but the food was waiting for me when I got home after a long day at work, so I think that counts for something there.

Sunday: Acorn Squash with Black Bean Sauce, and Skillet Gnocchi with Miso Butter from NY Times Cooking. We had some Acorn Squash to use up and I had seen this recipe years a go in one of Hetty Lui McKinnon’s cookbooks, I can’t remember which one. McKinnon does wonderful things with vegetables. Basically the recipe calls for roasting and mashing the squash and then making a sauce from garlic and fermented black beans and soy sauce. It was really delicious. The original recipe calls for kabocha squash, which I think would have been even better. For the squash averse, I made the gnocchi. I added mushrooms and used broccoli instead of asparagus. Some members of the family thought the miso taste was too pronounced, but the other folks liked it. We’ve now filed this recipe under “Make when the oldest goes to college.”

Well that’s it for last week. This week I will be plunging into rehearsals so it will be an adjustment for sure.

Are you participating in Cool Blogger’s Walking Club? How do you track your activity? Do you still get innocuous crushes? Weekends – energy replenisher or energy suck? Any free food in your life lately? have you ever seen a restaurant you’ve been to on TV?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Good-bye September, Hello October!

I started this post on a rainy rainy Saturday, while the oldest was at her voice lesson….

. The teacher is teaching out of a church and there is a little church library with comfy chairs and warm wood paneling and muted colours and wifi and it all feels very cozy. I have my tea with me, but there are no coasters here and I’m afraid of putting my mug down on a surface here without a coaster. All to say, I have 45 minutes, so let’s see if I can write a post.

Here is October! We flipped our 3 month calendar and December is in sight! (Note to self: Order a new 3 month calendar. Actually order planners in general.) October came in blazing hot with temperatures in the 80s, but now we are looking at another drizzly week ahead. The leaves are starting to be tinged red and brown. The season is moving forward for sure.

a leafy green giant tree, with the leaves on some branches starting to turn orange.
The leaves are changing colour!

So Hello, October. Good-bye September. Here was how September was:

September Highlights:

-The last week of our pool being open and swimming laps. Seeing the kids make leaps and bounds in swimming this year.

-Our Annual Trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival – there was music, food, juggling, jousting, acrobatics, and the purchase of a giant wooden axe.

-The 14 year old got a part in the high school play!

-Some nice social time for me – Happy Hour with my bus stop mom friends. Walks with a friend I met at a new mom’s group 7 years ago. Ethiopian food lunch with another friend. It always fills my cup to connect with friends.

-Long weekend trip to Monticello and Shenandoah for hiking.

-My parents visiting. We didn’t do a whole lot special (aside from the Monticello/Shenandoah trip)- just life with them around.

-Celebrating the birthday of the youngest. She is now Seven! We had strawberry shortcake the day of and the following weekend a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. AND she got all her Thank You cards out! I got to send snail mail for her – it feels really nice to send snail mail.
(On that note – we watched a Kathleen Madigan comedy special and she has this line about how amazing the Postal Service is, “Here’s 45 cents. Please take this to Alaska.” I mean she’s right – that’s an amazingly cheap service. Although now it’s $0.82, which still seems like a good deal to bring a bit of joy to someone far away.)

-Biking to school with the kids.

-Starting Tap Dance Class. It’s been a challenge, but fun. I’m working on flapping with my left foot without accidentally scuffing my heel on the ground.

-Date night with the Husband – we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant and then went to a performance of Bernstein’s MASS.

=My cousins came to visit (Actually my cousin and her grown daughter, but I call them both my cousin). We went to Glenstone Museum and took a walk at the Botanical Gardens and just hung out.

-Summer: The Donna Summer Musical at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Our first dinner theatre experience and it was a lot of fun.

-Favorite Dinner Cooked: Crispy Tofu Tacos (so good we had it twice last month), Thai Quinoa Salad.

-Favorite thing watched: I finished Starstruck and found it such a sweet and funny show. We also started to watch Schitt’s Creek, Better Things, and Gilmore Girls.

Goals and Habits:
-Painting: only 1 painting this month. I thought I would paint during our long weekend away in Monticello, but I didn’t. I think painting is taking a backseat in October since I have to finish the Hallowe’en costumes.
-Crossword puzzle completed: 1
-Live Performances: 3 – Bernstein’s MASS and also lots of live performances at the Renn Faire, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
-Museums: 2 – Glenstone Museum and Monticello
-Hike: 1 – Shenandoah hike on Turk Mountain Trail
-Yoga: 18/30, but I think this was actually higher because I wasn’t good at logging and habit tracking last month.
-Run: 6x (+2 bike rides and 2 laps swims)
-Strength: 2 (My goal is 8x a month, but I’m finding it really hard to motivate myself for this one…i just need to find a consistent way to work it in)
-Vegan Dinners: 4 (Goal is 4x a month, so yay)

September Lowlights:
-The situation at the Kennedy Center being shut down. I’m not directly affected because I no longer work there, but the trickledown effect is huge throughout the arts community in DC.

-Our fridge not working, us buying a new fridge, then the old fridge working again and us regretting getting a new fridge so soon. Oh well. I guess the fridge was over 12 years old so it was getting unpredictable.

-Stressing about kids’ activity sign ups. I still feel like the kids are doing too much but also missing out on things. There’s no perfect solution here.

-Saying good-bye to a beloved work colleague who has gone on to a bigger job.

-Some non-bloggable stressors in life – I guess I’ll just say sometimes it’s hard to have patience with the world and those around me, for sure the fault is mine.

Quote of September:
Don’t try to convince the other person during the argument.
-Ron Friedman on the Radical Candor Podcast. This quote really landed when I was in the midst of the aforementioned non-bloggable things. Friedman’s point is that sometimes it is best to make your case and walk away and let the other person ponder, rather than pushing to change someone’s mind in the midst of the argument. People need time to come to conclusions themselves.

Looking Forward to in October:
-Hallowe’en! I’m a little stressed about having to make the costumes, but I’m excited. I don’t have a serger, so I’ve been watching lots of YouTube videos on how to make a French seam. (Is this even necessary???)
-Starting rehearsals for a new show. To be honest, I’m dreading this show a little – I don’t do well with change, and there will be a lot of new things to deal with since we will be in a new (to me) venue. I mean even the fact that I’m calling it a venue and not a theatre is kind of telling. Also not looking forward to the schedule – there is rehearsal almost every night for the next month. The Husband looked at everyone at our family meeting today and said, “Take a good look at mom so you remember what she looks like when you see her again in November.”
BUT despite that- I AM looking forward to the stage manager colleagues coming in and to working with them.
-My cousin is coming for a quick visit.
-Theatre trip to see Come From Away (we just did this and it was FANTASTIC!)

A smiling woman in a striped dress leaning against a sign that says, "Welcome to Gander". In the background is a photo backdrop that says "Come From Away at the Ford's Theater"
lobby sign

-Supertitle gig. It looks like it’s a lot of songs from the Great American Songbook, which is always a great joy to listen to. And we don’t run titles for the popular song selections, so I just get to listen.
-Elisabeth’s Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. I was going to have a theme for every week’s walk, but this first week snuck up on me, so no themes this week.

-reading some fun books. In the busy season at work, books need to be gripping and fun. Currently reading:

I’m on an Annabel Monaghan kick ever since I read Dolly all the time.

-also, I started watching Bridgerton Season 4 and it’s been so wonderfully swoony so far. Looking forward to watching more of it. (i’ve skipped season 2 and 3 because I didn’t like those books as much as Sophie and Benedict’s story. Theirs is probably my favorite of the series. That and While He Was Wicked. The rest of the book series is very meh for me.)

Grateful for this past week:
-The Library close to my mechanics. I had to take my car in for an oil change and was able to go to the library three blocks away while I waited. How amazing that there is this place with desks and wifi and I can park there for three hours – for free.

-Flowers even though it is autumn. There are some autumn dahlias in our garden that bring a cheerful burst of colour to our front yard.

-Sandwiches. What a perfect invention for when one is hungry! Bread, meat, cheese, mustard. All able to be slapped together quickly for a satisfying mouthful. These days, I’ll take whatever is in the fridge, but it’s been brown mustard, turkey, and cheddar cheese. If I have more time, and I have it on hand, I’ll add avocado or arugula.

-The rain letting up just in time for my walk to the Metro and then from the Metro to work.

-Naps and an unscheduled Saturday afternoon in order to take one. I had been feeling a little run down all week and ended up taking a 3 hour nap and felt much better when I woke up at the tale end of the afternoon. Also grateful to the Husband for taking care of dinner while I was napping. Naps are such glorious restorative things.

-a fun hair cut. So two nights before my appointment to have my hair cut, I had a dream that I was getting my hair cut. And in that dream, the stylist – who, incidentally wasn’t my stylist and I spent a good portion of my dream asking, “But where’s Alexei???” – the stylist gave me a super sleek 1920s bob with blunt bangs. So I go to get my hair cut and when I sit down, Alexei asks, “What are you thinking today?”
And I tell him all about my dream. And he says, “Okay.”
He starts snipping away.
“I’m digging your dream,” Alexei said. “This is so much better than those people who come in and tell me, ‘AI told me I should do this.’ And the AI image has nothing to do with what their hair texture is like, or what what their face is like or anything.”
And twenty minutes later – my hair was short and I had my blunt bangs. (Alexei works fast and charges by the hour…).

Sometimes I think I should try to cover the grey, but then I realize I don’t want to spend the time on the maintenance.

I’ve since washed the hair and it still looks cute. This has been my favorite hair cut in ages.

What We Ate:
Monday: Salmon Pasta – the 14 year old made dinner. I don’t have the recipe for what she made, but it involved salmon, spinach, and pasta.

Taco Tuesday: Crispy Tofu Tacos from NY Times Cooking. We made these last month and everyone loves them. I served with cabbage and avocado. Vegan, though the kids put sour cream and cheese on theirs.

Wednesday: Ground anything Bolognese sauce and pasta w/ bagged salad. This was a “clean out the freezer” meal. I had three containers half full of crushed or pureed tomatoes, and a variety of ground meat in the freezer – sausage, beef, lamb, and pork. Though the pork smelled a little off, so I ended up throwing that out. Anyhow, it all went in a pot with carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and the left over tofu from Tuesday’s crispy tofu tacos. Hearty and oh so satisfying.

Very happy to get these out of my freezer.

Thursday: Thai Inspired Coconut Curry Soup from NY Times Cooking. We still had sweet potatoes and a cauliflower left from the CSA box our friend gave us while he was out of town, and this soup was a delicious way to use it up along with the rest of a jar of red curry paste in the fridge. This was really tasty. The recipe itself is vegan, but I added chicken broth to get it out of my fridge and a dash of fish sauce.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made – sausage and mushroom; pickle; red pepper; fig and balsamic. All very tasty) and Funny Girl. Funny story here – it was the 14 year old’s turn to pick a move and she wanted to watch a movie musical, so she picked Funny Girl, having seen the stage show this summer when we were in Niagara-on-the-Lake. So we rented the movie from Amazon and put it on. And we’re watching it and I’m reading the credits and it says, “Songs by John Kander and Frank Ebb.” And I thought, “Oh I didn’t realize that!” And then we’re watching the movie and Barbra Streisand is frolicking onstage in a huge musical number and the plot unfolds, and I keep asking the 14 year old, “Was that part in the stage play?” And she kept saying, “No, I don’t think so.”

Then truth be told I might have fallen asleep for a little bit because the movie is going on and on, and I’m like, “When is Barbara Streisand going to sing Don’t Rain on My Parade???” And then I make some comment about how the movie version of Funny Girl seems very different from the stage show. And then the 9 year old pipes up from his corner of the couch:

“We aren’t watching Funny Girl. We’re watching Funny Lady.”

Wait what???

Did you know there was a sequel to Funny Girl, called Funny Lady?

We had accidentally rented Funny Lady instead of Funny Girl. I guess the 9 year old noticed, but he hadn’t seen the stage show, so he didn’t clock that we were watching the wrong movie. By then we were half way through Funny Lady, but we stopped the movie, rented Funny GIRL, and pizza and movie night lasted an epically long time.

Saturday: Bahn mi sandwiches, take out. This was the evening I wasn’t feeling well, so we wanted something fast and easy.

Sunday: Sausage, tortellini, and red sauce – typical Sunday dinner.

That’s the dispatch from here. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a great week ahead!