The mornings hover between spring and summer, just where I like it. The temperatures are low enough that there is a slight chill, the air is dry from having released its humidity in a midnight rainstorm, leaving wet grass and the smell of rain. Yet the earth has tilted so the sunlight is early and direct, warming out faces as I walk the kids to school, and our backs as I walk home after drop off. I know that soon, 8am will be suffocatingly humid and 80 degrees, so I remind myself to savour these favorite mornings.
The other day, I made a to do list for the week. Yes, I’m slowly getting back into the habit, dumping out my brain like the linen closet and putting things back folded and neat, and maybe putting aside those tasks that are no longer useful. The week’s to do list read:
-pay bills – sort bills from [rental property] – figure out summer camp – eat the peaches
One of summer’s greatest gifts is fresh peaches. Bought by the bushel from farmer’s markets, they are so plentiful and sweet, the seconds barely discernable from the firsts. Sometimes I like to go pick them myself, although prime peach season is typically August, when the weather is at its hottest and most humid, so the labor is never as enjoyable as the fruits of said labor. The boxes of peaches pile up in the house and we eat them as fast as we can, then turn to making pies and turnovers and eating them wrapped in ham with a slice of basil and also the peach shortbread recipe from Smitten Kitchen. But inevitably the we can’t eat them fast enough and I end up canning several jars of them and tucking them away in the basement.
Canned summer peaches are a present from my summer self to my future winter self. In the depths of winter, to open a jar of peaches and remember what summer tastes like is like eating nostalgia and warmth wrapped together. Even peaches that I remember being not quite sweet in the heat of summer, taste perfectly sweet when I spoon them into my mouth as I stare at the snow blanketing bare limbs in January.
Of course the kids always want to eat the peaches right away, after they have been put up. But I tell them, no. I want to save the peaches for that moment in winter when it feels like we have been in it for so long that I can’t remember what summer is like. Then, when I feel like summer is so far away, do I bring out a jar, and crack it open, unleashing glistening deep yellow mounds of edible sunshine.
This winter, though… it was unseasonably warm. I thought about my peaches sitting on the filing cabinet in the basement and always said to myself, “Nah. It’s not cold enough yet to bring them out. It surely will get colder and more miserable this winter.” And whether I was having a fit of asceticism, denying myself peaches, or whether the winter truly was a mild one, either way I now found myself mid May and the peaches still had not been eaten.
And so as we turn the corner into May, and I started to make my summer fun list, I realized that the peaches were still sitting in the basement when soon it would be time to bring home more bushels of peaches and can them for next winter. And what would be the point of eating canned peaches in August when the fresh peaches were so abundant?
So I put it on my list – “Eat the peaches”
As if it were a chore. But it’s not a chore. Quite the contrary. It’s just sometimes I need a reminder to do the thing that brings me joy.
Or also, bring the kids joy. The moment I brought the jars up from the basement, their faces lit up. “Peaches!” they exclaimed and crowded around as I popped open the jars, the vacuum sealed lids coming off with a satisfying sucking sound. Thuuuwack!
The baby, in particular, loves to drink the liquid that the peaches were canned in. “Potion!” she calls it, lifting the entire jar to her mouth and chugging greedily. It reminds me of Zero and Stanley in the book Holes, drinking centuries old canned peaches, calling it “Sploosh”.
So we are now down to a couple peach halves floating in “potion” in the fridge, and that is all that remains from last year’s batch. I don’t know what I’m saving those last two peach halves for, why my reluctance to eat them. Perhaps I’m holding on to the memory of last summer, wanting to draw it out as much as possible. Not anything specific at all, even. Just the idea of warm and sun and padding barefoot in my kitchen and the luxury of leisure time. (How strange that canning peaches, once a necessity, is now for me almost a leisure activity.) I have this irrational sense that once I finish those last bits of last year’s peaches, I will have lost last summer, released it into the ether of memory and time.
This is silly, I tell myself. Be practical. I need to clear that jar away to make room for the incoming crop of peaches. Besides I will be so sad if I hold on to those last few peaches so long that they spoil and then I can’t enjoy them at all. Perhaps practicality and planning is the only thing that can overcome my sentimentality over a bit of canned fruit. So I write it on my list:
Now that I’m peering into summer, no better time to finish my Spring Break recap. Hah! It’a little getaway we took back before rehearsals even began…
Immediately after my brother and his family visited for their spring break, was the ten year old’s own spring break. I don’t think I quite appreciated how flexible one could be with vacation before the oldest started school. Now most of our vacations have to be planned around school holidays. I guess they don’t have to be, but too many missed days of school and we get the administrative side eye. We did pull the ten year old from school the Friday before Spring break so that we could pack in a little trip before I started work the next week.
There is a program that gives every fourth grader in America a free National Parks Pass for a year. I had signed the ten year old up for last September, but I’m a little abashed to admit that we have yet to take advantage of it. It expires in August, so I thought we should plan some trips around visiting National Parks. I had managed to get a couple days off work for the first half of the ten year old’s Spring Break, so the Husband found a nice place on Airbnb next to the Smoky Mountains and off we went.
Since my parents were coming with us, we rented a minivan to drive down. I have long resisted a mini van, but seeing as how I’m driving a nineteen year old car, we have started to think as to whether a van might indeed be an option for our next car. The verdict – definitely a more comfortable ride for everyone and the amount of space for luggage is pretty great. But…. the Husband declared we are not getting a mini van until the kids are out of their “must push the buttons” phase, given the arguments and tears that ensued over who got to push the button to close the sliding doors, not to mention the number of times that one of the kids managed to, in their eagerness to push buttons, closed a door on someone trying to get in the van. Plus my parking lot at work is tiny.
At any rate, back to our trip. We left at 7am – the Husband had wanted to leave at 6am, but that didn’t happen. As is our road trip tradition, we stopped at McDonalds for breakfast. We didn’t make many stops – just one for lunch and once for gas, and arrived at our place around 5:30pm. We were greeted by a cozy yet spacious cabin in the mountains with a stunning view of the Smokies as well as a hot tub.
It was actually quite cold when we got to our Airbnb. In fact, there were snow flurries that afternoon. But even the snow couldn’t hide what a great view we had from the back deck of the cabin:
view from the back deck
We settled in that evening – the kids were super excited to explore a new dwelling and there was even a pool table for them to try out. Since it was Friday night, we had our pizza and movie night – picking up pizza from Pizza Hut and streaming Seeing Red – which was a pretty awesome movie. The film is set in Toronto and my parents had lived there when they were newly arrived in Canada, so that was one things that made the movie particularly fun.
The next day promised rain, so we decided to visit the Tuckalechee Caverns, which were just down the road. The caverns were breathtaking and I loved seeing all the different shapes and sizes of rock formations, and hearing the guide explaining what causes rocks to form one way as opposed to another. It was also really amazing how they had set up all these lights in the caverns so people could really see the different formations. At one point, though, the guide turned out the light so we could see how absolutely dark it was in the caverns. Being plunge into darkness made me think of the two boys – one just six years old – who discovered the caverns – back in a time when there weren’t the powerful flashlights that we have today. What an adventure it must have been for those two kids! Scary, too, I bet. One of those boys who discovered the caverns still owns the caverns to this day. When I walked in to buy our tickets, the man behind the counter asked where I was from. I told him and then I asked whether he was from the area.
“Yes I am,” he said. “Born here. In fact, by grandpa was one of the boys who discovered the caverns.” And he pointed with his thumb to an elderly man sitting behind the fudge counter a few feet over. A family business.
This was one of my favorite formations – I love the way the water and sediment flowed to, over millions of years, create a rock that almost looks like a rippling piece of fabric.
There was also a waterfall and what was known as the “beach” where the water was so clean from being filtered through all the rock and sediment from the surface that one could drink it. In fact, the guide told us, locals often come and pay the owner of the caverns so that they can fill their water jugs from the water in the caverns.
Waterfall.
Stalactites and Stalagmites.
After returning from the caverns, the Husband and I went to the next town over to buys some groceries and to just sit for a while in a coffee shop. It was nice to get away for a little while. After dinner that night, we tried enjoyed a stunning sunset and then, while the kids tried to figure out how to play pool, the Husband and I tried out the hot tub… it was nice, but I don’t know that hot tubs are really my things. Something about sitting around in hot water seems so passive. Which, I guess might be the point of the hot tub as a relaxing activity.
Smoky Mountain Sunset.
The next day we all went on a hike. The hike we had wanted to go on proved to have no parking at the trailhead, so we drove on and found another hike. There are many to be had in the Smoky Mountains. Oh also, ironically, even though we were very eager to use our park pass and that was the whole reason we picked Smoky Mountain National Park in the first place… turns out you don’t need to pay to get in to the park. At any rate, the hike that we went on, passed a cemetery, with some very interesting names to be found, also the heartbreak of infant mortality.
Also… nine children!
But after the cemetery, we admittedly trudged on feeling a little uninspired by the trail we picked. It was mostly just trees and shrubs and very little shade or pretty views. I mean trees and shrubs are all fine and well, but the original hike we had wanted to go on promised the opportunity to venture behind a waterfall. So this trail of just trees and shrubs seemed honestly kind of a let down. But presently we ran into someone hiking the opposite direction. He mentioned something about how coming back was easier than getting there.
“How far did you go?” we asked.
“I went all the way to the waterfall,” he said.
A waterfall! Well, that was a bit of motivation to keep going. So we continued on. We stopped at a flat rock next to the stream to eat our packed lunch- sandwiches, fruit, cucumbers, carrots, and cookies. And then after clambering down a rocky path….
We spent the next little while climbing over rocks and traversing logs, and half heartedly trying to not get too wet.
On the way back, the baby got a little fussy.. she had hiked quite a while, so it was to be expected. I had forgotten to bring the baby carrier in my backpack. (This carrier, by the way, which I love because it packs up super small and light yet can still be used for my 30 lb toddler. It’s not the most comfortable for hours and hours, but it’s perfect to throw in the backpack for those moment when she’s walked two miles and is ready to quit.). So, finding myself without a carrier, I decided to improvise. I had the Jane Eyre wrap that my friend had given me, so I tied the ends together and threw the loop over one shoulder to make an sling and it worked better than I had thought.
After that hikes, we came back to our airbnb and there was soup waiting for us in the slow cooker. We had stopped to pick up some garlic bread- the freezer kind. Actually two different freezer kinds so we could have a taste test. After dinner, the Husband and I tried out the hot tub while the kids tried to figure out how to play pool.
The next day we went in the opposite directions toward the “quiet side” of the Smokies to visit Cade’s Cove, which is a valley amidst the Smokies that is full of hiking trails and the remnants of historic European settlements. There is an eleven mile loop that you can drive that takes you to these various buildings and trails. We started to hike the Trail to Abrams Falls, but the entire loop was five miles and, hiking with little kids, one kind of has to go at their pace so we didn’t make it to the Falls. Even though we did not get to see Abrams Falls, we did some really fun rock scrambling and sat by the river, watching the water tumble by.
I swear this child is half mountain goat.
A boy and his hiking vest!
I also loved seeing on this hike signs of spring among the bare trees of winter:
Blossom among bare limbs.
When we got back to the car, we continued driving along the Cade’s Cove loop and stopped at the Visitor’s Center. I had packed sandwiches, fruit, and chips and we tailgated in the parking lot, next to a big open field. The kids took the opportunity to stretch their legs and run across the vast expanse of grass:
Next to the Visitor’s Center was a collection of buildings from the European settlers. I always find this kind of thing fascinating, to wander historic houses and imagine what people’s lives were like and how they came to settle the land, and also about the Native Americans who came before them. I especially liked this water mill that still runs and the trough of water that was built to carry water to it, long before days of plastic and silicone waterproofing.
After the visitor’s center we continued along the Cades Cove loop, stopping to check out various historical buildings. I had bought a slim guidebook at the Visitors Center and read outloud the history of certain buildings.
Dinner that night was barbeque at a charming place called Full Service BBQ. I’m guessing it’s called Full Service because it’s located in a converted gas station. It was a pretty great little place, you can read about it below!
The next morning we piled back into the car, stopped for breakfast, and drove home. All in all it was a nice getaway. A little too short- I would have liked to have had some more time just to ait on the porch swing and breathe in the mountain air and mist, but I’m glad we packed in some good hiking adventures.
Some things that kept us entertained during the ten hour drive:
– audiobooks. We listened to The Golden Compass, Book One of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It was a full cast audiobook, which I sometimes find can make for disjointed listening. I still don’t fully grasp all the theoretical aspects of Pullman’s book, but he manages to wrap it in some thrilling adventures and interesting characters, so I don’t mind not understanding everything.
– I got the kids Boogie Boards as an alternative to handing them screens for the whole trip. They seemed to like them well enough, though they were constantly dropping the pens, which was annoying. When we stopped at a restaurant on the way home, we beoight the boogie boards and played Exquisite Corpse, which was kind of funz
– drawing pictures on my iPad. I haven’t done any drawing since my drawing class last year and I really miss taking the time to think about a drawing assignment and putting it on paper. i got a pen for my iPad with the thought of exploring some digital drawing programs. So on a couple of particularly long lengths of the drive I thought I’d try my hand at drawing on the tablet. I have to say, prefer the tension and resistance that I get when using real paper, and also the imperfection of not being able to instantly erase thing. The colours seem too bold on my digital pictures.
The view from the passenger seat- dashbordRedbuds and blue skies along Highway 81
What We Ate, the Airbnb/ Spring Break
Friday: Pizza Hut and Seeing Red.
Saturday: pasta and meatballs with salad and garlic bread. Because we didn’t want to buy too many ingredients, this meal was entirely from pre-made components. We got meatballs from the meat aisle and a jar of marinara. Also had a bag of salad on the side. I thought it was a pretty easy meal to throw together.
Sunday: Mushroom Farro soup. The Airbnb had a slow cooker, so I made a soup in the morning (loosely based off this recipe) and it was ready for us when we got back from a long day of hiking. We picked up some garlic bread to pop in the oven and eat on the side and it was a pretty great meal.
Monday: Barbeque at Full Service BBQ – a BBQ place that was housed in a converted gas station. The seating was outdoors, and they had bubbles and hula hoops and chalk for the kids to play with while we waited for our food. I had the ribs with a side of braised green beans and they were really tasty. However, the most intriguing item on the menu for me was the “purple drank” which was a combination of grape and peach Kool-Aid. The ten year old ordered it; I had a sip of hers and was immediately transported back to my childhood when my brother and I would mix up large pitchers of Kool-Aid on a hot summer day, the sugary taste of the drink, like candy in a pourable form. It was simultaneously a sugar bomb and nostalgia shot.
It’s half way through tech week, and it’s been a particularly hard one. The show is on the large side – there’s ninety performers onstage, a gazillion props and costumes, and, the realities of doing theatre in a world that is very much still in a pandemic, people are constantly in and out on five day isolations or ten day isolations. Precautions are being taken, but … life, you know. I’m feeling constantly like I’m playing catch up, barely getting people onstage in time with the right prop and often in the wrong costume. It will get better and we will have a great show, but everything feels hard right now. As I keep saying when things don’t go right – everyone needs rehearsal. The singers get three weeks to figure out the show and for some reason everyone expects the crew to get it right the first time. But they need a chance to figure things out too and some shows are easier to figure out than others.
It’s my first time back in this particular theatre in over two years. Strange to think about. The crew is mostly familiar, but everyone has a wary air of tiredness, caution, and welcome.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. And a day off. I think if I’d had time to think about it, what I really wanted for Mother’s Day would have been three hours alone to catch up on bills and other computer tasks. And also to deal with the growing mountain that is my “floordrobe”.
Actually it’s more like a “bench-drobe”. Coming home after midnight, when everyone is asleep means that I don’t want to turn on the lights in the bedroom for fear of waking the Husband. So I fumble around in the dark to get into my pjs, shedding that day’s clothes onto the bench at the foot of the bed, and fall into bed. Inevitably it leads to a mountain of clothes, a week’s worth in a pile on the bench , spilling on to the floor. I could pretend that when I am not working til past midnight I carefully and thoughtfully hang up my clothes, or put them in the hamper, but truth… when I’m not working til midnight the pile is still there, but usually only three days worth.
A lot gets said these days about self care, but for me I think a big part of self care is tackling the looming things so I don’t stress about them. There is a passage in the novel Fleishman is in Trouble where the newly divorced main character’s therapist tells him to buy nice curtains for his new apartment, telling him to think of it as an act of self care. And Fleishman remarks that self care isn’t spending his money on new curtains, it’s saving his money so that he can move into a less crappy apartment. I think of this a lot when the question of “self care” comes up. I find that it’s easy to find twenty minutes for yoga or a run or to sit and read a book, but it’s harder to find the energy to tackle the things that really would make life better. Like figuring out summer camp for the ten year old (still not done yet!), squaring away the bills for the rental house. Buying pants.
This last is a big one. I came out of the pandemic without black pants that fit. Which is problematic when a large chunk of my job requires me to move around in the dark wearing black clothes. The last few shows I just pulled out my old maternity pants. Which was fine because I was stage managing so I pretty much stood i once place and my headset was attached to my console. Now that I’m Assistant Stage Managing, I need pants with a firm waistband so I can clip my flashlight and headset belt pack to a belt. Yoga pants do not serve this purpose. Post pandemic stage manager woes.
Anyhow, back to Mother’s Day…despite my desire for some life admin time, it seemed to me, that shutting myself in my room and leaving the Husband on child duty after he’s been solo parenting in the evening for two weeks was not the nice thing to do, Mother’s Day or not. So I said I would be happy getting some tasty food, going on a walk, and not having to think too hard about dinner.
And we did indeed do all that. Everyone let me sleep in until almost ten and there were pancakes waiting when I woke up. Sleeping til ten sounds positively indulgent but when I figured I didn’t get home from rehearsal until 2am the night before, 2:30am- 10am is actually a regular night’s sleep.
There was a card and a gift bag waiting for me. Inside the bag were a bag of almond flour and a package of lychee gummies. My reaction was a combination of “Huh… ooookay” and “They know me so well!” And then there was this priceless card:
I had originally wanted to give the Husband the day off from kid duty, but he insisted since it was Mother’s Day, we should do some family things. So we took the five year old to Sunday language class, then with the other two kids in the car we went for fun drinks and snacks at a new-to-us Cuban place. Empanadas and plantain chips for the win!
When the five year old was done language class, we went for a walk on the trails surrounding one of the local nature centers. We wandered down by the stream and practiced skipping rocks. I managed to skip one three times! I’d never been really good at it, but the Husband gave me some tips and I think I sort of got the hang of it. Then we ordered Indian food for takeout.
After dinner the Ten year old offered to clean up so the Husband and I were going to take some time to discuss all the life things that we hadn’t had a chance to connect about since we hadn’t really hd any waking hours together. But I fell asleep on the couch and that was the end of things for me. I think it was 7:30pm. But, we did check off all the Mother’s Day wishes on my list, so I think I will call that a win.
Some things that made the week better:
A Haiku for this week:
April turns to May. Spring teeters on summer’s brink. Rain and sun and green.
Some time during the pandemic, our rehearsal rooms had larger windows put it, and the resulting flood of light is quite wonderful. During evening rehearsals, when we have almost ninety people in the room trying to stage a very busy village square type scene, I can look out the window and take a moment to savor the pink and orange sunset. I snapped this picture the other day of the late afternoon transforming my little corner of the rehearsal hall into some kind of of Dutch still life.
The toddler has started saying, “I love you, mom.” That makes me feel pretty good. She also, an independent soul, has developed her own “ism” where whenever she wants to do something, she says, “I want to do it by my own!”. I love it too much to try to correct her.
Also – irritating, but makes me laugh – the toddler getting ahold of my phone and filling my photo roll like this:
View from a toddler.
Scheduled a happy hour with the mom’s from my mom’s group. Something to look forward to.
Been baking some pretty good loaves of sourdough bread, using this no-knead recipe. My starter seems to have gotten back on it’s feet, after being somewhat lackluster for much of the spring. This recipe, is pretty hands off and each step fits easily into the windows of time when I’m home.
Overnight camping with some friends. The time outdoors was nice, and even though sleeping in a tent with a toddler is not restful – six o’clock in the morning she wakes me up with yelling, “It’s too bright!!” – there is something peaceful about being surrounded by dew and bird calls first thing in the morning.
morning view from the tent.
Re-discovering the tv show Pushing Daisies – whimsical, romantic, funny and visually stunning, I remember watching this series about a pie maker who can wake the dead when it first came out. The Husband and I have started watching it again, fifteen years after it originally aired. We watch one episode at a time, knowing that there are only two season and wanting to prolong the delight of watching it.
Discovering another lovely tv show Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. This show out of Australia and based on a series of books is also great fun and super stylish. Some days when I work late, I tell the Husband to leave the kitchen for me to clean up. Partly I’m being nice, but also partly I want an excuse to watch an episode of this show, which I stream while I do the washing up.
Then of course, my co-workers who make me laugh even when we are literally in horse shit.
What We Ate:
Saturday: I was working, but this was the night the Husband took the kids camping with some friends. I showed up at the campground after work and had a couple sandwiches and ‘smores for dinner. I think everyone else had hot dogs and burgers.
Sunday: Leftovers.
Monday: The Husband made a tofu stir fry.
Tuesday: Not quite sure what everyone ate. It might have been Thai take-out.
Wednesday: Black Beans, made in the InstantPot before I went to work. Eaten with tortillas and pickled onions.
Thursday: Chicken tortilla soup. Also made in the InstantPot. Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen
Friday: Pizza and Hercules. I was at work.
Saturday: I think the family got take out. I ate leftovers at work.
My brother’s family was in town the last week of March for their Spring break. It had been almost two and a half years since we saw them in person- last time they were here, the baby was eight weeks old. Of course there have been many video calls since them, but seeing them in person was pretty great.
I feel so lucky that we live somewhere where there is a wealth of things to see and do, and most of it is free. One thing my brother and sister-in-law really wanted to see was the new Yayoi Kasuma exhibit at the Hirshhorn, the contemporary and modern art museum on the Mall. I had missed the last Kasuma exhibit when it was here, so I was eager to go this time, even though it meant lining up at 9:00am for tickets on a Sunday. Fortunately, my brother and his In-laws went down on the early side to get in line and my sister-in-law, my mom, and I followed with the kids at a more reasonable hour.
I will admit the only work of Kasuma I had been familiar with were pictures of her pumpkins. The current exhibit featured two of her Infinity Mirror Rooms, but first up was a pumpkin:
I was unprepared for how the pumpkin took up so much space and how looming it would feel in its dotted room. I also love how the precision of the dots contrast with the more organic curves of the pumpkin.
The Infinity Mirror Rooms were another kind of overwhelming and immersive experience. These are rooms where the walls are made of mirrors so they seem to extend without limits. There was a time limit on how long each museum patron could be in the room – 30 seconds for the first room and 60 for the second. I think there is something ironically claustrophobic about being in a room that seems to stretch for infinity. The first room featured all these stuffed protuberances that came out of the ground like a field of polka dotted cacti. It was kind of whimsical and fun.
The second room featured polka dot lanterns aglow in a dark mirrored room. This room reminded me a little of being out on Hallowe’en, and how disembodied one can feel in the dark, even when surrounded by lighted objects. (I’m sure there’s some kind of metaphor for life in that somewhere…)
After we went through the Kasuma exhibit, we also went to see the Laurie Anderson exhibit. The exhibit was a fascinating blend of sound, film, and visual images. There was one piece that featured projections of people sharpening knives, the sound almost symphonic. There was also several rooms with words and pithy thoughts scrawled, graffiti like, all over the walls and floors. Here were a few of my favorites:
good to remember…
I find the Hirshhorn rather overwhelming to visit, to be honest. In think contemporary art requires a lot of mental bandwidth from me, and a lot of it, while interesting, demands attention unrelentingly. At the Hirshhorn, a lot of the exhibits often have audio as well visual components and sometimes I don’t feel like I have room to process everything. And a lot of the time, I had to admit that I just don’t “get” what I’m seeing, even though I read the little placard next to the work. Sometimes I feel like I’m either overthinking contemporary art, or under thinking it. And honestly sometimes it just makes me giggle. I’m glad I live near and can visit in short bursts and take things in one exhibit at a time.
At the time of my brother’s visit, most of the museums were still open on reduced hours, so we spent one day walking around and visiting monuments since we couldn’t go to any museums. We saw the MLK memorial and the FDR memorial, those being two of the closest to the cherry blossom in the tidal basin. Of course it wasn’t officially peak bloom anymore, but there was still lots of blossoms to be seen. And lots of petals to rain down on our heads like snow.
Among all that, I had one last supertitle gig for this season, and perhaps my favorite of all the vocal recitals I worked this year. The pianist for the recital was also a composer and the second half of the program was entirely songs cycles that he had written. He introduced each song set and there was something wonderfully personal about a hearing a composer talk about the backstory of their own work.
Another fascinating thing that happened that week – I took my mom to the Mall to find an outfit for a meeting she had coming up. As we were walking to Macy’s, we saw a good wandering around the parking lot.
“Strange!” I thought. But I’d seen a lot of geese flying overhead recently so I didn’t really think much of it, though I have to admit that seeing a goose wandering in the Macy’s parking lot has a certain charm, so long as one stays out of the goose’s way. Then, as I was walking up to the door, I saw:
Why yes, that is a goose and two eggs in the planter in front of Macy’s. In my head I have a story (much like when my middle child was born) of a goose couple starting to fly off on a journey when suddenly the mama goose says, “We need to pull over now! The eggs are coming!” And she lays two eggs in the middle of a parking lot. (I, fortunately did make it to the hospital with my middle child…). Anyway, given that there were clearly two geese guarding the precious eggs, we figured it was better if we just went our merry way into Macy’s and let the geese have some family privacy. Or as much as one can have in the middle of a parking lot.
What we ate: we actually ate out more than usual because cooking dinner for twelve people seemed overwhelming.
Saturday: take out thai, picked up on our way home from the airport.
Sunday: We had dinner at a new to us restaurant with lots of outdoor seating and firepits. Though the evening was on the chilly side, the restaurant staff brought us blankets and lots of extra firewood for the firepit. Of course half our blankets were immediately commandeered by the kids to build blanket forts…. The food was pretty good and they had these fun smores kits for dessert. The fun thing about their s’mores is that in addition to the typical Hersheys chocolates they also had York Peppermint Patties and thin Reese Peanut Butter Cups. Such a brilliant idea!
building forts…
Monday: ordered Vietnamese food. We needed something quick because we were having family photos taken.
Tuesday: Terriyaki Tofu and grilled Korean Beef and grilled veggies. With rice and seaweed salad on the side.
Wednesday: I had to work so I got a take out grain bowl from Beefsteak.
Thursday: Japanese take out.
Friday: Pizza and movie night at our Tennessee AirBnB (more on that next post…). Pizza Hut, which was better than I had remembered, though they were out of mushrooms, which I have never encountered before.
