August 2025 – Life Off Headset

Weekly recap + what we ate: Last week of summer!

This past week, we bought school supplies, squeezed in more pool time, one kid had a cavity filled, met the Husband for lunch (fried chicken and Boba!) . I also had some work meetings. We went to the Kindergarten Open House for the 5 year old. I was really proud of the 8 year old for introducing his little sister to the teachers. They are both in a French Immersion program, so the teachers aren’t allowed to speak English in front of the students. Some teacher even pretend that they don’t understand English. I could have introduced the 5 year old to the teacher myself, but I figured the 8 year old hadn’t spoken French all summer, so he could stand to start up again.

On Saturday, we took the kids to the K-Pop Demon Hunters sing1a-long in the movie theatres. Since we don’t have Netflix, I hadn’t actually seen the movie, even though we listen to the soundtrack all. the. time. – in the car, during breakfast, at clean up time… just whenever. It first came into our lives because the 8 year old had watched it at Taiwan Camp, and asked to listen to the music non stop. Then when the family was in Indiana the friend they stayed with put it on for them to watch. The kids know all the words, they make up dance numbers. They even took my phone last week while I was on a call and filmed music videos. Afterwards I found all the black clothing in the house strewn across the living room. Their dedication to the project was admirable. The videos involved costumes, props, choreography and dizzying film work. I was actually quite impressed. (Also happy that they were able to amuse themselves while I was on a two hour call.) Obsessed. They are all obsessed.

We didn’t tell the kids that we were going to the Sing-a-long, just that we had a “surprise outing”. They kept asking questions about the activity, as if we were playing a never ending round of twenty questions – “Does it involve food?” “Is it outside?” “Do I have to get dressed up?” “Does it involve food?” “Do I need to bring money?” “Does it involve food?” . Eventually we said that we weren’t answering any more questions.

As we were riding the escalator to the movie theatre, a couple was coming down on the opposite side; he was wearing a top hat and cloak, and she was wearing a shiny white mini-skirt and halter top. As soon as the 13 year old saw that, her eyes got really big and she got this huge grin on her face. “Are we going to the sing-a-long?” she whispered to us. I don’t think I’ll ever be the parent that surprised their kids with a trip to Disney, but I have to admit, seeing the joy and realization creep across the kids face when they realize they’re going somewhere fun is priceless.

For those who haven’t experienced it yet, K-Pop Demon Hunters is a Netflix movie about a K-Pop band that fights Demons, saving the world through their music. There is angst and intrigue, romance and fight sequences. I found the movie incredibly entertaining and satisfying to watch. After listening to the music on repeat for the past six weeks, seeing them in context made me realize that they are not just songs, but cleverly propel the story. This movie is as much a movie musical as any of the Disney classics. It’s sentimental and big hearted and not-subtle.

But also – there is something about taking my kids to see a movie where the protagonists are all Asian, and the whole movie is very much steeped in Korean culture. For one, the food scenes were so amazingly familiar – granted Korean food is very different from Taiwanese food, but seeing people eat noodles with chopsticks and then all the snacks… these things are part of the food culture I grew up with. I’ve written here before about representation in media and I’m always struck that my children are growing up in a world where they see the non-White part of their heritage reflected in mainstream media. I didn’t have that growing up, and I’m so glad they do.

Everyone had a great time, singing along and bopping. There was one funny thing that happened, though – before the movie started, this group of ten or so kids and grown ups came in, and many of them had balloons. Well during the last third of the movie, someone let go of their balloon, and it floated into the light of the projector. The shadow of the balloon string ended up dangling in the picture of the rest of the movie. It looked like the characters all had the same hair curl in every frame and was mildly distracting. I was alternately annoyed and amused. It didn’t ruin the fun, though.

Sunday, we went to the Farmer’s market for lunch and produce. The two older kids and the Husband biked the 5 miles there while the 5 year old and I took the metro to meet them. The plan was for all of us to metro back after having a special drink at one of our favorite coffee shops. (The 13 year old loves their house made chai lattes, and having one was on her summer bucket list.) At the farmer’s market, I picked up some beautiful Japanese eggplants, spinach, nectarines, and peaches. At one point I was checking out at one stand and noticed that there was a sign that said “Box of peaches $25”. Well that’s irresistible to me. Never mind that we had metro-ed to the Farmer’s market. I debated – can I get that home? I just canned a whole crate of peaches, do I need more? (the answer is always YES) – Then the Husband said, “You know you want to. We’ll get it home.” The thirteen year old helped me carry a little of the way, but she was also walking her bike, so I ended up carrying the box most of the way home. It was worth it. I don’t think I’m up for more canning, so I froze some and I think I’ll do some baking. That is if there are any left come this weekend. The kids go through peaches like termites.

The rest of the day was taken up by a pool party birthday for the 5 year old, and then I met up with some friends in DC for dinner. It was eerily quiet at the restaurant. But perhaps it was because it was 6pm on a Sunday night? Perhaps it’s because the National Guard is here. I mean they weren’t in the neighborhood we were in, but there is a general sense of tense gloom. It’s been really disheartening these days. I don’t have to go into DC very often, so the added military presence is not something I’m faced with every day – I’m sure it’s a little alarming for people for whom it’s a daily sight.

Other things I’m pondering lately:

-Trees – I’ve been painting trees lately, watching tutorials and then trying to copy them. I’ve noticed that after watching tutorials and hearing what the painters say about what they are trying to capture in a tree, I look at trees differently. Like I’ll see how the light comes through the leaves or something and think, “Oh! That’s why the painter uses yellow there!” It seems a little backwards to notice the light after learning how to paint it, though. Sometimes when the kids and I have just a half hour or so to kill, I’ll get the paints out and it’s a very soothing way to pass the time. (until the kids start mixing the colours too much and I have to bite my tongue and just let them….)

-Minor victory – The kids and I cleaned up the toy room that was kind of a disastrous explosion of toys. I basically pushed everything into the center of the room, put the empty bins beside the pile and told them to sort things back into their bins. We managed to clean it all up in two twenty five minute sessions, interspersed with ten minute popsicle breaks. I guess phrasing it as “sorting” rather than “cleaning” might have kept the whining down? I don’t know. But I’ve never been that successful at getting them to clean the toy room.

-there was rambutan and lychee and dragon fruit at Hmart last week! I’m always excited when the uncommon (to America) fruit is at HMart.

-answering the question of “What to do with that half can of condensed milk?” I had made peach popsicles the other day (Peaches, yogurt, condensed milk in the blender and freeze), and had half a can of condensed milk left. The Husband found this recipe – Cornflake Caramel Squares. It’s kind of a twist on Millionaire Shortbread. The Cornflakes are incorporated into a shortbread crust along with some shredded coconut. Then the half tin of condensed milk is used to make a caramel that is spread over top. Then top it with a layer of chocolate. It was tasty. (I’m also really intrigued by the idea of the website: Traybakes & More. I’d never heard of the concept of a tray bake – I guess a savory one would be a casserole and a sweet one would be like a bar cookie/ brownie type thing? But the recipes look less fussy – more like mix and dump and bake. Anyhow, I would like there to be more traybakes in my life. The sweet kind. I’m not a huge fan of casseroles.)

-Family Task Management- any suggestions? One struggle I’m having right now is keeping track of all the family to do items. The Husband and I tend to text or email each other when something comes up that we need the other to take care of – change the credit card on an account, fill out paperwork, pick up toilet paper and even bigger stuff like finalize the tenant’s lease, look into plane tickets for something, FSA receipts- but sometimes I lose track of the text or email before I complete the item. So I’m trying to figure out a system that these things don’t get lost in the shuffle. I really want to set up a system that we can have in place once I start back in rehearsal because there are long stretches when we are like ships in the night since I work so late and he goes to work so early in the morning. I guess what we need is:
– ability for both of us to add tasks (he’s Android, I’m iPhone)
– Simple to use.
– ability to check off tasks when complete, not just delete
– if there’s a way to get a notification when a task is added? Otherwise we’d be texting “I added something to the list” back and forth. Trying to streamline the process
-Some day will want to share with the kids, so might want to be able to make different lists.
-not a calendar. We already use Google Calendar for events.
-not really interested in a paid system (yet)
I feel like this is into Parents as CEO territory, but if anyone wants to share how they manage and share tasks with another person, I’m all ears!

Grateful For:

-Cooler weather. The weather has dipped into something practically fall-like last week. It was almost too cold to go to the pool, but we did manage a few “last hurrah of summer” swims.

-That the 13 year old made lunch for her siblings while I was in a Zoom meeting. AND they even cleaned up.

-College Friendships that still are strong. Last week, I got to meet up with a college friend, E, who was nearby to visit family. The kids and I drove up to meet her and we had Indian food and then went to a park where my friend and I walked while the little kids played. Then on Sunday E and my friend K met up for dinner (see above) – the three of us had met in college and all were heavily involved in music. E actually played the piano for my senior year recital. There is something so great about having friends who have shared formative years with me, and being able to reflect on that together, but also being able to talk about today and the future and who we are and want to be.

-That I don’t have to work on the weekends for the next six weeks or so. October through December will be very busy for me work-wise, so I’m glad I have weekends free for the next little bit.

-Butterflies for adding a flash of color and beauty to the world.

-Our Realtor who offered us some advice about a tricky tenant situation. He’s super pragmatic and chill and has been managing properties for a long time, and he gave us some good perspective on a situation we were having with the house we rent out. I’m always grateful for his advice and expertise and that he still takes our call even though we last bought a house from him five years ago.

-Collective bargaining. Unions are important. The right to form and join a union is also important.

Looking Forward To:
-Soccer season has started. The 8 year old is just playing in the rec league, so he has just one practice a week + 1 game.

-A return to routines once school starts. At one of our family meetings we talked about “expectations” for the school year and one of them was a regular pick up time and chores for the kids. We’ll see if pick up time can be come a routine, but I’m ready for the house to look less like a den of wild animals live here. (I mean – everyone was home all the time last week, so yeah, in a way, it was like a pack of wolves had taken over.)

-Having just ONE pick up to deal with. And ONE school calendar. The thirteen year old walks to and from school, so with the 5 year old entering kindergarten, she now rides the bus home with her brother, so we have one pick up to do. Also – because they are in an language immersion program, there are special bus routes and I just realized that this year there is one bus route that drops off walking distance from our house. So we are going to try that new bus route and see how it goes. (The old bus, which we’ll still take in the morning, picks up about 1.5 miles from us, so not a terrible distance, but still requires a car ride.)

-Lunch with mom friends. The mom’s group I joined when the 3rd kid was born kind of got a new breath of energy this month as almost all our babies all all going to kindergarten this fall. So we’re having a Friday lunch date.

-this book just came off my holds. It seems quirky and fun:

What We Ate:

Monday: Kale and Tomato Saag from Meera Sodha’s East. I didn’t have paneer (or the energy to make it) so we had it with tofu. Served with paratha, which I found in the frozen section of HMart. Vegan

Tuesday: Shrimp Tacos

Wednesday: Teriyaki Tofu w/ rice and steamed broccoli from America’s Test Kitchen’s Vegan for Everyone. A reliable hit. Vegan.

Thursday: Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce and Garlic Bread. I had some tomatoes our friend had given us from their CSA – so I roasted them with lots of garlic and Basil and mashed into a sauce. We ate it with angel hair pasta and I made garlic bread. I had forgotten what a great thing angel hair pasta is – it cooks in seconds!

Friday: Pizza and Ever After. It was my turn to pick the movie and I wanted something beautiful, romantic, and warm. Ever After is one of my all time favorite movies. It’s my comfort watch – Drew Barrymore being plucky, Dougary Scott giving the prince brooding self discovery, Angelica Huston. Melanie Lensky, before she took the world by storm. Love it so much.

Saturday: Movie theatre popcorn and peanut butter sandwiches when we got home.

Sunday: I went to Happy Hour with my friends (I had oysters, truffle fries, ceviche, and balsamic Brussels sprouts.) The family had dumplings and edamame at home.

Hope you are having a sunshine filled week! The kids have started school (will give a report next week) and already we have a long weekend coming up. We’ll go to the Renaissance Faire! Also hopefully tackle some decluttering and also relax and maybe one last trip to the pool before it closes.

How do you manage family tasks? Give me all the tips! Have you jumped on the KPop Demon Hunters bandwagon yet? Golden is definitely our song of summer here. What would you do with half a can of condensed milk? What are you up to this Labor Day weekend?

Splashy Places

The other day I was at the pool with the two younger kids. It was adult swim so we were in the baby pool.

The baby pool wasn’t too crowded, maybe just two or three other families. I try not to let my kids be too wild in the baby pool because of all the toddlers around, but water does move around and it sometimes goes into kids’ faces. And when it does I often feel annoyed at the kid doing the splashing. How dare they get water on my precious child?!?! And then I want to pull my kids away from the splashing kids.

But this day, my kids were the ones doing the splashing and they happened to splash a little kid, she appeared to be maybe four years old. She gave a little cry of anger and ran to her mom. Immediately I turned to my kids to tell them to stop splashing in the pool, even though they didn’t mean to splash the four year old.

And then I heard the mom of the four year old say to her kid, “I’m sorry you got water in your face; pools are splashy places.”

And it made me stop and realize the deep wisdom of her words. It seems so obvious but sometimes I forget: Pools are splashy.

Often, I want to do everything to prevent my kids from splashing or getting splashed in the pool; I want to move them far away so they won’t get water in their face and experience any discomfort. I want them to have an unblemished pool experience. But I just loved how that mom at the pool didn’t take her kid out of the pool or try to tell her that she shouldn’t have been splashed. She didn’t pretend that the pool was a place where no one would get splashed.

Pools are splashy places. But I’ll be right here with goggles or a towel or hugs or whatever you need to get back out there and play. Pools are splashy places, but they are also places of fun, joy, and bravery.

Pools are splashy. Life is messy. Love can hurt. It’s all just part of coming to the pool, living life, loving someone.

Weekly recap + what we ate: Tech/opening/closing; Motivation and Discipline

I’ve made it to the other side of the show. Last week we teched and then had our one and only performance. It’s been an intense week for sure, working until 1:30am two of the nights. The process has been fast and furious – only two days of rehearsal in the theatre before opening. Usually we have four days in the theatre, at least.

Lighting session. The view from Stage Right.

The thing that’s particularly intense about this schedule is that the first rehearsal onstage for the full cast was with orchestra and full costume, wigs, and make-up. Usually the first onstage tech rehearsal is just piano and no costumes, so we can get used to the set, figure out the staging, slowly work through tricky traffic. To have to throw set, costumes, orchestra, light cues at the process the first time most of the cast stepped onstage was a lot. But big shout out to our stage manger, who came up with a plan to keep things moving while stopping and allowing everyone time to work on elements that needed work – firing weapons, fights, offstage singing moments, balance notes, costume changes etc. The one costume change I was really worried about involved the entire 36 person chorus changing from a winter look to a spring look in 1 minute 30 seconds. It’s not a complicated change – mostly just taking off overcoats and scarves, and adding summer hats, but when 36 people have to do it all at once, it’s a bit of a madhouse.

But we did it, and by all accounts the opera was beautiful. Everything went smoothly, no noticeable hiccups. People backstage, cast and crew, seemed to not be too confused, so that always makes me feel as if I’ve done my job well. There is something gratifying about being a stage manager in that people always appreciate you. At least the people backstage and onstage.

Now I have a little break before I plunge back into rehearsals again. I took the weekend to relax. It was truly a plan-free weekend. We actually spent all of Saturday morning playing “My bed is my island” as all five of us cuddled and napped and read in the 13 year old’s bed. It felt so indulgent. Then we did a few chores around the house and went to the pool for a couple hours. Highlight of our pool time was that the 13 year old taught me how to dive! I’ve never really been able to dive – just kind of teetered at the edge of the water then belly flopped in. The 13 year old gave me lots of tips and coached me through it. Yay! I’ve always wanted to figure this out.

After the pool, we came home and had pizza and watched Glee. Then after the kids went to bed, the Husband, 13 year old, and I watched Jaws. I had never seen Jaws before, and as the movie is 50 years old this year, the Husband thought it a good time to watch it. There was definitely some screaming and clutching going on while we watched. What a nerve-wracking and entertaining movie. I don’t know that I need to watch it again, but glad I checked that off my list. All in all, it was such a perfect, lazy Saturday. This is what summers are made for, I think.

The thirteen year old teaching the 5 year old how to dive.

Every time I have a gap between shows, I like to think about routines I want to set up (or return to) so that when I am back into working nights and weekends I have some good practices in place. Along those lines, something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately was this article by Leon Ho on Life Hack: Motivation vs. Discipline: Why One always Beats the Other (And It’s Not What You Think). The article made me think about how there were some things I was very disciplined about at while working (daily yoga, eating fruits and vegetables, finding time to get outside, making the bed.). And there were some things that just didn’t happen because I didn’t feel the motivation (journaling, running, check ins with the Husband, putting away my lunch box). It’s not like the former is more important than the latter – I just never felt like doing it. Reading Ho’s article really made me think about how waiting to be inspired to do something wasn’t going to work.

And because I’m a Questioner (per Gretchen Rubin), the article stuck with me because it broke down the brain chemistry of motivation vs. discipline to explain why discipline gets more consistent results. In a nut shell, motivation releases dopamine, which makes you feel awesome and powerful. Motivation lights up your brain and encourages action. However, these dopamine flows cab be fleeting and unpredictable. And this is why relying on feeling motivated to do something doesn’t work. Discipline, however, Ho writes, is about creating systems that will work even when motivation isn’t there – it’s the adulting pre-frontal cortex. It is really hard for the pre-frontal cortex to win out over dopamine, but you can build routines and habits that make it less of a struggle. This is the quote that really made me sit up:

“Picture Michael Phelps at 5:30 AM, staring at a chlorinated pool in Baltimore. It’s 2003, years before his first Olympic gold. The water’s cold. His muscles ache from yesterday’s 12,000-meter swim. Does he feel motivated? Hell no. But he dives in anyway. Every. Single. Day. Even Christmas.”

This was an eye-opening re-frame for me: Michael Phelps doesn’t swim every day because he wants to swim in a dopamine flood of motivation. He swims every day because that’s what he has to do to achieve his goals. So when people say you have to want things to get it, they aren’t talking about “wanting” to win a game or play your best in that moment, they’re talking about using that “want” to set up disciplined habits. So that your dopamine lacking brain will still do the thing even when it isn’t feeling warm dopamine fuzzies. It’s all about showing up, right? And towards that, thinking about how to show up. Or what can one do to make showing up a habit. Because you can’t rely on dopamine to get you there.

None of this is particularly groundbreaking or new, but sometimes a different framing can cause a lightbulb moment. So I started thinking of all the things I want to show up for, even when I don’t feel motivated. And here’s some of the list, and thoughts on how I can develop the discipline to do them.

Showing up for my physical self:
-Daily yoga. (Check – I do this by knowing that it’s the first thing I do in the morning)
-Sleep, specifically going to bed early. (I’m terrible at this – I need to be more disciplined about having a set bedtime. Maybe if it can be a time to be in bed, even if it’s with a book when I don’t want to go to sleep?)
-Eating fruits and vegetables with every meal. (Check – I stock the fridge with fruits and veggies and cut some up for myself every day when I’m prepping food for the kids. I can’t make them eat veggies, if I don’t do it myself.)
-Running or strength training every day. (working on this. Motivation is very weak on this one. I think I need a set time. I’ve been running in the morning with the kids following me on their bikes, but not sure if this will still work once school starts.)

Showing up for my mental self:
– journal
-paint/play piano
-write
-read
All these, I think, are about finding consistent time to do it. But there are only certain hours in the day. Some could fit into a weekly practice, though.

Showing up for my financial self:
– Monthly financial admin days to pay bills and review payments and any other financial housekeeping.
-monthly financial check ins with the Husband.
-Double check my pay stubs.

-not buying things impulsively and mindlessly
Again, I think a lot of these are all about scheduling and sticking to it. I think it’s hard for me to stay on track with some of these things because it’s very computer based and I tend to get distracted on the computer. Also finding time to meet with the Husband when we both feel like we have the mental capacity to talk finances is hard. But maybe we just have to schedule the time, and set the bar low – like 15 mins to look at the bank account together to start and then scale up from there? Or maybe we meet for lunch once a month and go over everything?

Showing up for my Work Self:
-Focused times to get ahead with paperwork so it’s not last minute.
A lot of ink has been spilled about productivity and focus at work. For me, I need to embrace the mantra “create before consume” and eliminate distractions for even just 45-60 mins of concentrated work first thing when I get in. (I need to get up and stretch after that anyway.)

Showing up for my social circle and far away family:
-spending time with friends – in a group and one on one.
-responding to texts and phone calls.
-sending texts and phone calls when I haven’t heard from then in while.
-offering support when they need it

– sending my parents pictures and updates of the kids regularly
I think the way to be disciplined about this might be to make scheduled efforts to reach out. Maybe every morning I send a text to one person to say, “Thinking of you.” Once a month see if anyone wants to grab lunch.

Showing up for My Family (Okay – some of these are a little more abstract, but I do think that for me it’s easy to neglect my family when I’m tired or busy or stressed. I think, “Oh, I’ll give them my attention once tech week is over”, as I rush out the door. And then when I do get home, it’s hard for me to remember to be loving. I want to figure out ways to show up for them when I’m not home on evenings and weekends and when my brain is full of work things. I don’t want to get prescriptive about these things, but along the lines of motivation vs. discipline – just because gestures of affection and connection and automatic and pre=planned, it doesn’t make them any less sincere. )
-Calling home on my dinner break. (I used to have an alarm at 6pm that was labelled “call home” so that I would remember to do this on long days at work. I should re-instate this. Sometimes at work I get caught up with what is in front of me – if it’s a work thing or a great chat with a colleague about potato chips, what not – and I forget to call home.)
-Weekly family meetings. (We currently do these at 7:30am on Saturday mornings. They are a little painful, but it’s a good way of checking in about the week ahead and making sure everyone gets the bigger picture of what is going on.)
-Being kind even when I’m tired.
-Tell them they are doing great. Sincerely.
-Giving them hugs and kisses every day when I leave for work, even though I’m in a rush. Along those lines, getting up before the Husband leaves for work so that we can have even one moment of connection. He leaves for work at 7am, and some days it’s hard. But this is where I think discipline can help me.
-Sneaking into their bedroom to give them hugs and kisses every night when I get home, even if I’m bone tired and they’re asleep.
-family rituals: Rose/Buds/Thorns, movie night, family clean up time

Whoa that was a lot of brain dump on that topic. Thanks for coming along on the ride (if you’re still here…) I think my big take away from that exercise is to wake up earlier, scroll less, and schedule my life more. For someone who love to have the ability to be flexible and capriciousness (for myself – let’s be honest, I can’t stand it in others.), discipline is met with resistance. But I guess that’s the point. Discipline allows me to fight against that inertia of not wanting to do something when I’m not feeling motivated. I think the trick is to balance a disciplined life with one where I can also have a sense of spontaneity and flexibility.

Grateful For – this week’s gratitudes, many tech week related:

-Tech week hero- The Husband, for recovering my files. The night before our first onstage rehearsal, my computer died at 9:30pm. I was only half way finished the wardrobe running paperwork and hadn’t saved the document into the cloud. (The wardrobe running is the document that tells the wardrobe and wig/make-up crew when people change clothes, what they are changing into and out of, where they will do this change, and how much time they have to do the change. For this show, because there are so many people and so many different costumes, the wardrobe running is a 10 page document.) Cue despair. For me, this was the ultimate version of the worst possible time for one’s computer to die. I mean it was such a horrific thing to happen, I couldn’t even have a meltdown because I just needed to finish the paperwork so I could give it to the crew for the next day. The Husband, calmly let me use his laptop and took my laptop to see if he could get it to turn back on. Meanwhile I started re-creating my paperwork from scratch. Eventually the Husband was able to pull my files from the computer and put it on a separate hard drive, even though the computer motherboard was dead. Thank goodness I didn’t have to re-create the entire wardrobe running from scratch!

-Duluth Trading Company tank tops with built in wireless bras. It was a hot and humid week to be doing outdoor opera last week. I usually don’t wear tank tops to work, but I made an exception for 80 degree humid weather. These tank tops from Duluth were my wardrobe MVP last week. They have built in bra cups so that I don’t have to worry about finding an appropriate bra to wear with them, and they are thick enough cotton that it doesn’t feel too skimpy to wear at work. I only have two, but I think I will order more next time they go on sale.

-I got a free t-shirt from our Fight Choreographer! I had asked him where I could buy swag from his business, and he showed up one day with this shirt for me!

He does fight and intimacy work for the stage.

-The crew, cast, creative team, and my co-workers for the show I worked on. Making opera magic happen! Having the opportunity to be part of making opera magic happen.

-my water bottle. And the coolers of ice and Gatorade that the theatre keeps backstage. Staying hydrated while I sweated buckets. Also the Coke that got me through the late nights.

– No more long awful commute. Friends, this will be the last time I complain about the commute to my summer job. At least until next summer. I’m glad I won’t have to drive those 18 miles again for a while. Though now I’ll have to find other times to listen to my audio book.

-This tomato sandwich because it represents friendship and summer:

The bread was from my co-worker at the opera. She is from out of town, and before she left for her next gig, she gave me two big bags of food that she hadn’t finished.
The tomatoes are from our friend who doesn’t like tomatoes so all the tomatoes in his CSA he gives to us.
The sandwich features basil mayonnaise, the basil plucked fresh from the Husband’s garden.
And eating it all outside on out back patio.
All these things made lunch just that much more poignant and full of love.

Looking Forward to:
-School starts in a week. Eeeep! I’m excited to start the new school year. I still have to get school supplies (note: this is done), and assess the clothing situation for the kids. They do all still have backpacks from last year so I don’t have to worry about getting new backpacks since that is often where the pickings are slim in mid to late August.

-Renaissance Faire!!!! Opens this weekend. We’re going to go Labor Day Monday, I think, for our annual Ren Faire Trip. Looking forward to shows and feats and turkey legs and people watching.

-Peaches in January. I spent Sunday canning peaches I had bought when there was a sale at the Farmer’s market. I kind of messed up and didn’t temper the first batch of jars and two of them cracked when I put them in the water bath. It was slightly alarming as I’d never experienced that before. I had to empty the canning pot, removing the broken glass and peaches floating the the water bath, and reheat the water again. So I have only 6.5 jars of peaches for this winter and lessons learned for next time. The kids wanted to eat the canned peaches immediately, but I said they couldn’t eat them until January at the latest.

-Lenten book club. Well, it’s not Lent anymore, and it’s not really a book club, but the group of ladies that started a Lenten book club has decided to continue to meet through the year to read and discuss life and spiritual things. This month’s reading is the parable of the Good Samaritan coupled with the story of Mary and Martha. I’m looking forward to a night of community and discussion.

What We Ate:
Sunday: Falafel sandwich and oysters. The stage management team went out to dinner together between rehearsals. The stage manager paid for my dinner, which was very nice of her.

Monday: Tofu and eggplant stir fry with Udon noodles. The Husband cooked, using some of the tenderest sweetest eggplants of the season that I had picked up from the Farmer’s Market.

Tuesday: Chicken Mole tacos leftover from the week before. I worked this evening and brought a salad from home – marinated beans, spinach, and arugula.

Wednesday: I had the same salad at work. Not quite sure what the rest of the family had.

Thursday: I went to a happy hour farewell gathering for a co-worker and had a BLT slider and fries. The family had mac n cheese, I think.

Friday: I had the same marinated beans, spinach, and arugula salad at work. The family had pizza and watched Star Wars: New Hope.

Saturday: dumplings and green beans and Glee.

Sunday: Tortellini and red sauce with roasted zucchini on the side. I sliced the zucchini into rounds, tossed them with salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, oregano, and olive oil. Roasted for 15 minutes. Stuck parmesan cheese and basil in the food processor and then sprinkled it on the zucchini for the last five minutes or so of roasting. It was delicious. The kids ate the whole pan. I should have made more.

Hope you’re week is going well as the seasons change. I guess the season of life, if not the actual season. Here the weather has been distinctly on the cool side, that is tricking me into fall feelings, but I bet there are still warmer days in store.

Have you ever seen Jaws? Backpacks – Did you (or your kids) get new backpacks every school year? What are you disciplined about? What do you feel motivated about? Any tips for finding discipline for the things on my list?

Books Read, June and July 2025

I’m fitting two months in this reading recap, since I didn’t get around to writing June’s run down. I managed to read a lot in June, mostly because I wanted to finish the Mandela autobiography before I went to South Africa, so I was very disciplined about it, reading 15 pages a day for two month. July has been mostly audiobooks because of having a long commute.

Stillborn by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Roslind Harvey – This novel tells about two friends, Alina and Laura – they are independent career driven women whose have to learn to navigate their friendship when Alina decides to have a baby and her pregnancy develops complications. This is very much a character driven book – it’s one about life just happening and explores issues of friendship, motherhood, aging, and what we owe the young people in the world. Its a quiet book – just life being lived, but also profoundly touching as well. The lack of propulsive plot made the book feel a little slow at times, but I thought it was such a thoughtful, meditative book as well. I highlighted so many passages in this book, but two of my favorite:

“Dogs are low-intensity children: they give you love, joy and loyalty. They are affectionate creatures which need to be taken care of, but which in no way stop you from living your life. If you go on a trip or if they annoy you you can just send them away to boarding school. It makes me angry to think that some people even beat them without the risk of being sent to prison. Dogs do not ask questions. If they take offence, they show it timidly and it doesn’t last long. In any case, they can’t sue you, nor demand that you pay for their therapy. Instead of needing a babysitter, it’s enough to have someone take them out for a walk for a few hours. It’s true they never become independent, but it’s also true that they live for only a short time, eighteen years or so if you’re lucky. When they get ill or grow old, many owners opt for euthanasia they prefer to say they have them ‘put to sleep’ without facing legal problems or anyone questioning them about it. I know that there are also many people who treat them well and care for them as if they were a member of the family, but this does not diminish how sad their lives make me feel.”
-I’m not really a dog person, but I completely see how dogs can worm their way into one’s heart.

She doesn’t seem ill,’ I said.
The doctor assures me that this little girl, as well as being healthy, is determined to live.
‘That’s because she doesn’t read the newspapers yet. As soon as she sees the state the world’s in, she’ll change her mind.’
Alina looked up at me and said: ‘It’s so strange, don’t you think? Why would someone who has never lived want to do so?’ I recalled something I had read years ago, in the Buddhist books I had bought on my last trip to Nepal. According to those writers, who had been born many centuries before Inés and us, the emotion that most characterizes our species is desire, and it is desire, too, that makes us reincarnate as human beings.
-I often think about this instinct to live that children have. I mean I want to live because I know about music and love and chocolate. But babies? They know nothing about these things. And then, also, our instinct to nurture children, even those that we know will not survive.

Forever Your Rogue by Erin Langston, read by Justine Eyre and Will M. Watt – I tried to read this book last year, but couldn’t really get into it, but then I saw that the audiobook featured Will Watt, one of my favorite narrators, so I decided to give it another try. This is a sweet and funny fake engagement romance novel about Cora a widowed Countess who bribes her childhood friend and current wastrel Nathaniel to pose as her fiancé so that she can win custody of her children from her evil sister in law. There were some cute touches – each chapter opens with a letter, and I do love epistolatory novels – and Nathaniel’s arc of turning his life around is quite lovely to watch. But I will say the children in the story felt utterly unrealistic to me. All in all, not earth shattering in the genre, but a perfectly pleasant historical romance novel. I wasn’t crazy about Justine Eyre’s narration – it just sounded forced and strangled. Will Watt, though was perfection.

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, read by the author – I picked this book up after reading about it in an interview with Jose Andres where he cited this book as one that he thinks the President should read. Villavicencio is herself an undocumented immigrant and her book is part journalism part personal essay, as she travels across the U.S. to tell the stories of the undocumented immigrants who are embedded in the very fabric of our lives here in America. Undocumented immigrants live in a permanently liminal space – here and working, but with no access to safety nets – and Villavicencio details a lot of those lack of safety nets, from those in New York who responded to 9/11, to immigrants in Flint Michigan who were unaware of the water crisis there. Intertwined with the stories of others is her own journey and feelings about being a immigrant in America. This is a hard book in a lot of ways, and it made me realize how lucky I am because my immigration story, and that of my parents’ is very different from what it could have been. I will say, I listened to this on audio because it was the only version I could find; I might have preferred reading this to listening to it – Villavicencio’s narration is a little dry.

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela – I read Mandela’s autobiography in anticipation of my trip to South Africa. Mandela is a legendary leader, a prominent figure in modern South African history despite being in jail for almost thirty years. I found reading Mandela’s words riveting; his childhood and schooling, the injustices he suffered as a Black man in South Africa, his daring and illegal political work, the dehumanizing conditions of prison, his capacity for forgiveness and peace-making – I found all of it inspiring. Even though this is a very large book (clocks in at almost 600 pages), it is very readable, and moves quite quickly. I was very determined to finish this book before we left for South Africa so I imposed a very disciplined reading schedule for myself – 15 pages a day. I know it’s just one man’s story, but what a story he had to tell. I highlighted the heck out of this book too.

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann, translated by Anthea Bell – This is a mystery novel featuring crime solving sheep. It was hilarious – I laughed out loud many times. The sheep casually eavesdrop on conversations in search of clues, sneak into churches and pubs and other mundane village fixtures. They are delightful. Seeing the world of humans though their eyes was a lot of fun – humans are quite incomprehensible to them. I will say, the actual mystery itself wasn’t very interesting to me, but I would read the sequel just to see what the sheep get up to next.

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso – I picked up this book because it was on a list of books set in South Africa, and I like reading books set in my destination when I travel. This novel tells the story about two eighty year old widows, neighbors in Cape Town, one White and one Black, who do NOT get along. Then things happen and they are forced to put up with each other. This book also deals with the legacy of Apartheid in today’s South Africa as Hortensia and Marion are both touched by events in the past. Read this if you want a book about crochety 80 year old women with razor sharp tongues and complicated histories.

Bombshell by Sarah McClean – The first book in McLean’s Hells Belle’s historical romance series (I’d read the second one already, and decided to start with the start of the series.) The main characters Sesily Talbot and Caleb Calhoun were side characters in another McLean novel/series, so this book felt a little bit like being dropped off in the middle of a series, even though it was the firs book of this current series. Sesily and Caleb have long been attracted to each other, and this book is a lot about them fighting that attracting while Sesily tries to covertly bring about the downfall of a dastardly Duke. (I think it was a duke?) To be honest, Sesily and Caleb were the least interesting part of the novel – they fought, made out (and then some), had misunderstanding and secrets and a little bit of martyr syndrome. Pretty standard romance stuff. The best part of the book was the friendship between Sesily and her fellow female vigilantes – their honest, loyal, bantering friendship made this book sparkle. I’m sticking to this series to read more about the female friendships.

The Red Notebook by Anton Laurain, translated by Jane Aitkin and Emily Boyce read by Alex Wyndham – (Interesting… this is my third novel in translation in this post…) I got this book because I needed a new audiobook for the car and a bunch of people on Reddit recommend Alex Wyndham as an audiobook narrator. This novel tells the story of Laurent, a bookseller, who finds a purse in the street and searches for the owner. The owner, Laure, had been mugged and is in the hospital. The books kind of feels like a Hallmark movie – predictable, warm, and a full cast of family and friends to meet and meddle along the way. There are lots of fun literary references and there is also a grumpy cat that I enjoyed. All in all, a sweet, pleasant read/listen, though not terribly memorable.

Drop Dead by Lily Chiu read by Philippa Soo and John Cho – Two rival journalists compete for the chance to write a tell all about a famed reclusive author. This enemies to lovers novel is a little different in tone from Chiu’s other books I’ve read; first of all it’s in third person alternating narratives when her past novels have been in first person. I miss a little of the quirky first person voice, to be honest, and the book also felt a little unresolved in terms of the BIG SECRET that the reclusive author was hiding. I would read this book for Chiu’s witty insights and banter, the cats, and the glimpses into the newsroom, particularly obituary writing.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, an Audible Original – Not strictly an audiobook, rather this is a dramatized audio version of Christie’s first Poirot novel. I thought this was really really well done. The voice acting was spot on (Peter Dinklage was Poirot, Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie Tartt on Ted Lasso was another character, Rob Delany from Catastrophe played the American husband), and the writer/adaptor punched up some of the WWI aspects to create more atmosphere and tension. There was an original score that was by turns creepy and nostalgic. I don’t remember if I’ve ever read this mystery, but I was for sure as invested in finding the murderer as I was in the lives of everyone in the story.

On my Proverbial nightstand:

Nelson and Willie: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg – This dual biography details the relationship of Nelson and Winnie Mandela. There is a lot in this book that didn’t make it into Mandela’s autobiography. Understandably so. It’s all quite scandalous.

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good – Novel about five teenagers who struggle to adapt to life in Vancouver after leaving the church-run residential school they were forced into as children. So far it’s been grim but engrossing.

Tru Biz by Sara Novic – I started reading this book a while back, but then it went on the back burner while I finished some books that were actually due back at the library. I’m really loving this book about a high school for Deaf teens trying to live their teenage lives, and the headmistress trying to keep everything together.

The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long – the next book in the Palace of Rogue series. It’s pretty swoony so far.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, read by Ray Porter – This book is a lot of fun and Porter is a great narrator.

(bi)Weekly recap + what we ate: Things I would replace immediately

Hello from a quiet empty house! The Husband has taken the children on the annual trip to Indiana and since I have to work, I have stayed behind. I won’t lie, it’s really nice. You know how they talk about secret single behavior in Sex and the City? The thing that people who live with other people do when they don’t have to be with or live with other people? My secret single behavior is:
-Sleeping with the blinds up so that the sunlight wakes me up in the morning.
-listening to NPR.
-Not emptying the dishwasher until there are so many dirty dishes on the counter and I need the space back.
-Eating snack dinner.
-Going to bed early. When the kids are home, I tend to go to bed late because after I put them to bed, I just want to stay up and scroll. But without kids, I can scroll during the day! and then go to bed early. (Though, TBH, there isn’t a lot of this going on because I’ve been working til 10:30pm every night.)

I feel like there are other things I do that would qualify as secret single behavior – wearing the same clothes for three days in a row (I do change my underwear), eating food from the back of the fridge that might be a little too old, making bodily function noises… But you know what? I do this when the family is home anyway, so it’s not really secret. And the family puts up with it and this might be one reason I love them.

The house is quiet. Almost too quiet. I was dog sitting for a couple days, but even the dog has now gone home, so it’s just me. I had all sorts of plan of things to do with my empty house, but between work and walking the dog and sleep, I find I don’t have as much time leftover as I would like.

You know that saying by Groucho Marx: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.”

Some sort of goals for this child-free weekend (or what remains of it.)
-Finish my book (I’m less than 100 pages from the end!)
-prep food for next week, since it is tech week. Boiled eggs, marinated beans. Maybe bake something (Japanese milk bread?). Chai concentrate. Lemonade concentrate?
-Blog post. Maybe prep a few more.
-Declutter the area by my desk in the bedroom.
-Consider if we can fit a camping trip in this summer.
-journal and reflect on July and plan August/ School year things.
-Farmer’s market?
-watercolor time

One thing on my list I did do was hang out with my friend K. We went kayaking along the Potomac – something I’d never done before and which I had always wanted to do. We went down to Fletcher’s Boat house, rented a tandem kayak for an hour and went upstream a little bit, then back down, all at a meandering pace, enjoying the wildlife, sunshine, and occasional breeze. I can’t believe I’ve never done this before – Fletcher’s Cove is easy to get to, there’s plenty of parking, and here the Potomac is gentle. It’s not so isolated that you can’t hear the airplanes flying into National, or see the traffic on the GW Parkway, but these are all very distant and being on the water feels like it’s own special place.

Afterwards, my friend K and I went to grab lunch at a nearby sandwich place. We split a salad and a tomato sandwich. The sandwich was made from the tastiest summer tomatoes and topped with with basil mayo, all tasting of sunshine and leisure. And afterwards we split a cup of strawberry ice cream. We were there for two hours, just chatting and catching up – it was just a perfect summer friend date. How wonderful it is to have friends (or spouses, or kids) who like splitting food so you never have to choose just one option, or you never have to finish that ice cream on your own.

It was a nice way to spend the day away from the opera and work, recharging my emotional battery for what will be a long week ahead.

The past few weeks have been lots of kid time and lots of work and lots of driving. Here are some moments:

The rehearsal hall strewn with flowers. There is a scene in our show where the chorus throws flowers all over the stage. The effect is quite stunning. It’s the kind of thing you only do once or twice during room rehearsals because it’s such a pain to have to clean up. Much to my surprise and delight, at the end of rehearsal, most of the cast stayed to help us pick up all the flowers and petals. What kindness.

Best commute of the week: driving from the 13 year olds’ theatre showcase to work. There is a farm stand on the way and I got to stop an pick up vegetables and peaches and plums.

Worst commute of the week: Friday evening after rehearsal. Which, you would think, it’s 10:30pm on a Friday night, why would traffic be bad???? Well it was, due to construction. I guess it makes sense to do construction when the traffic is lighter. Though it makes the traffic less light. It took me an hour to drive the 18 miles home. The Husband reminded me of a saying from when he lived in Minneapolis: In Minneapolis there are two seasons- Winter and construction.

Conversation with my the five year old:
5 year old: [Big brother] said I wasn’t smart.
Me: Is it true?
5 year old: No. It hurt my feelings.
Me: I would just ignore him, if I were you.
5 year old: Well, I’m not you.

Speaking of the 5 year old, we are all determined to get her to ride a bike by the end of the summer. Even the 13 year old is part of the efforts. I’m a little surprised because the 5 year old is quite fearless – she is already diving, even before she can really swim a full length of the pool – so her reluctance in bike riding has been giving me pause.

Swimming laps. While the kids have been away, I’ve gone to the pool to swim laps. I have to say at first it felt weird to go to the pool without the kids, but told myself I was being silly – we are all members of the pool, I get to use it too! Our pool is never crowded, and showing up at 11am, I practically have the whole place to myself, except for the biddies who sit under the cabana and gossip together. It’s been such a soothing thing to be able to swim back and forth and back and forth, just thinking about air and breath and movement. I’ve been feeling a little overstimulated lately – too much light and sound and constant singing in my ears. The pool has become the place I go when I want quiet. I’m coming to appreciate places I can go for just 30-60 mins for a quick recharge. Ducking into a museum, dropping by the pool, a quick library visit… Sometimes I don’t go places because I think I need to spend a few hours there, but really for places that are free (or to which I have a membership), going for a quick trip a couple times a week is just as much of a value as going for a half day once a month.

I checked something off the 5 year old’s summer fun list and we made popsicles. These are watermelon-lime-strawberry popsicles:

Sweet and sour snacks: Two snacks making my mouth happy these days are Haribo Twin Snakes and Taiwanese salty dried plums. The latter I brought back from Taiwan in January, and only now just opened because they are actually quite difficult to find the the U.S. and I knew once I finished the package, that would be it for a while. When I was growing up, my grandmother would bring these sweet/sour/salty treats from Taiwan when she visited us, and I would nibble the flesh off the seed, savoring all the different tastes swirling around, then I would pop the seed in my mouth and suck on it until all the flavor was gone. This brand of salted plum I got from Taiwan is seedless, so I can’t suck on the seed, but I’m savoring them all the same.

As for Twin Snakes, the 13 year old turned me on to these. They are like two gummy worms stuck together where one is sweet and one is sour. I love the sweet/sour combination.

But speaking of Twin Snakes. We might have had an incident where the two little kids ate the 13 year old’s Twin Snakes while she was out of the house. As a punishment, I had them write a card of apology to their big sister. Well, the 8 year old wrote it:

In case you can’t read 8 year old scrawl, it says, “Dear Lulu Sorry for eating your twin snak[e]s. Yell at me all you want. Don’t yell at dad. Sincerely A”

On replacing things….Towards the end of the previous week, my watch stopped working. In the middle of rehearsal. As someone who’s job it is to keep track of time, this was kind of a panic inducing thing. I ended up having to use my phone for the rest of rehearsal, which isn’t ideal because I find it distracting and annoying to have to keep pulling it out. I didn’t get around to replacing my watch for three or four days. In the past when my watch stopped working, I just went to Target to get a new one. It’s a pretty basic Timex digital watch. EXCEPT – the Target near me didn’t have them. Indeed, the sales associate looked at me strangely when I first asked where they were, since the watches weren’t in accessories where I was used to finding them. She sent me down to electronics. Of course, all they had down there were smart watches. The associate in electronics seemed somewhat confused that I would want a non-smart watch. Anyhow, after that bust of a Target run, I did end up ordering the exact same watch from Amazon, and the next day, my wrist felt not as empty any more.

Anyhow, it got me thinking of what other things in my life I would replace immediately if I lost or broke it. Of course there are the obvious things like wallet, ID, keys, phone, laptop – things that could be counted as “essential.” What, though, are the non-essential things that I would replace immediately? I feel like sometimes when things break or I lose them, I go a while before replacing them – I’ll try to make do with a replacement I already have at home, or just decided that I don’t need to replace them at all. There are, however, little luxuries that I have gotten used to, which feel almost essential to me now, that I would replace immediately if something happened.

-Gelrup slippers. I almost always wear slippers around the house and I love my Gelrups because they are made of wool so aren’t too hot in the summer, yet still cozy in the winter. If my slippers went missing, I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but there is something about walking on bare floors/carpet that makes me cringe a little bit and I would want my slippers back as soon as possible. (Probably large part due to the fact that we don’t sweep enough….)

-Yeti mug. I love everything about my Yeti Rambler with the Hot Shot lid. I love that it keeps my drinks cold or hot for hours. I love that it is dishwasher safe. I love that it doesn’t leak (unless I forget to close the lid properly) so that I can toss it into my bag and not worry about tea getting everywhere. I love the colour. I leave the house with this in my hand 95% of the time. I actually did lose this one time – I had left it behind in the lobby of the building where I had been taking art classes. I immediately went out and got a new one even though I have a few back up travel mugs. They just don’t do all the things I need them to do. I should probably throw the spare ones out, but I think, “What would I do if I lost my Yeti?” Apparently, the answer is run out an immediately buy another one.

-Airpods. Maybe this should fall under “essential” now that my phone no longer has a jack for earphones? Being able to listen to books, music, podcasts, etc, and take phone calls hands free – I would be sad if I had to go back to wired earphones. The 13 year old recently lost/broke her Bluetooth headphones and now wanders around the house using crappy old wired earbuds, the kind that you get for free on airplanes. We have DRAWERS of these crappy airline earbuds. Anyhow, there is something delightfully old school about seeing her with wires dangling. But me, I don’t think I could ever go back.

-Flip Belt. Look, I try not to let sad excuses stop me from running, but I will admit there have been days when I decided not to go running because I couldn’t find my Flip Belt. Running while trying to hold my phone and without my water bottle is just so…. inconvenient. I have thought about getting a second one as back up, but I do feel like I’m the kind of person who keeps better track of things when I only have one.

-pen holder. This clips to my binder and helps me not lose my pens and pencils. It’s from Muji and one of the best $3 I’ve ever spent. The sad thing, though, is even though I would run out and replace this if I were to lose it, I actually can’t because Muji doesn’t sell them anymore. In fact I can’t find them anywhere on the internet. So I better not lose this.

-Little alarm clock – This clock sits with me in rehearsal, so I can keep an eye on the time. Sure there’s a clock on the wall. Sure I also can look at my phone. But there is something more immediate about having the time at a glance, without have to pick up my phone. Once and a while I forget to bring it to rehearsal and I feel lost. I do actually have more than one of these.

-Travel Bluetooth keyboard. My keyboard is paired with my phone, my iPad and my computer, and it’s only a little bigger and thicker than an envelope so I can just slip it into my laptop bag. I love using it when I have to fill out registration forms on my phone – typing on the phone is not something I excel at. Half the time, I hit the wrong key and have to start over again – it’s very frustrating. Similarly, typing on the iPad is just not … convenient. This keyboard was a game-changer for blogging on my tablet – so much faster than typing on the screen. This keyboard has made my life so much better that when I lost it recently on our South Africa trip, I replaced it as soon as I got home.

I’m sure there are more things, but off the top of my head those are a few things that are panic-inducing if lost. I sometimes feel so materialistic when I panic over lost things and immediately replace them, but there are some non-essentials that do indeed make my life so much better.

Grateful For:
-Nature oases in the city. As my friend and I were floating along the Potomac, I was just so grateful that even though we live in an urban area, there are lots of ways to get to nature. Being among green things is so good for my soul.

-Lifeguards.

-Cooler weather. We’ve had a few weeks of unbearably hot weather. So glad it is cooling off a little bit.

-The 13 year old’s theatre instructors. We went to her theatre camp showcase and it was so much fun to see her singing and dancing.

-A perfectly ripe, juicy mango.

-Sleeping in. I don’t know if 7:00am counts as sleeping in, but it does for me, without kids to wake me up. Though the dog did wake me up once at 6:30am. I took him out for a walk and then went back to bed and slept for another hour.

-People who plant gardens so I have beautiful flowers to see on my walks.

Looking Forward To:

-Tech week. I don’t love tech week – it’s stressful, and moves quickly, and I have to be so very prepared to go into it because a lot of people rely on me to get them where they need to be so that the show can happen. And I’m always terrified of making a wrong decision or telling someone the wrong thing. YET when it goes well, it feels really good. But truth, I am looking forward to this particular tech week because it is in an outdoor venue, which means that we can’t have lighting sessions until it is dark. (Lighting sessions are tech sessions where we tweak the lighting without the cast onstage waiting for us to fix the light cues – this is particular to opera. In theatre, they usually set lighting cues with the artists onstage.) Which means that we usually have lighting sessions after rehearsals. So we will rehearse from 8-11:30p with the singers, then we will let the singers go and light until 2am. This sounds intense, right? I will admit, though, there’s a special air of bonding in the air when you are standing onstage at 1:30am setting lighting cues. Like only the strong get to stay behind and do it. But really, my favorite part of over night lighting sessions, and what I’m looking forward to is that the company feeds us between the rehearsal and the lighting session. Free food makes a lot of things better in my book. Maybe I’m cheap, maybe I’m a sell out. But free food, man, is irresistible to me. I’m really looking forward to that 11:30pm burger, fries, and Coke.

-The family coming home. I don’t think I necessarily miss having the kids around, but I am very excited that they will be home soon.

-Tap dancing lessons! The Husband and I had a session where we looked at activities for the kids for the upcoming year – trying to figure out where they will fall and what we have the budget and logistical capacity for. I’m not in rehearsals until the end of October, so we can be a little activity heavy the first few months of school. So I signed the 5 year old and myself up for parent/tot tap dancing lessons. I’ve always wanted to learn to tap dance, and the 5 year old wanted to take dance classes. I’m so excited. The 8 year old also wants to take tap classes, but I need to see what the soccer schedule is like first.

-Basil. The Husband planted a whole bunch of basil and it’s going gangbusters. I can’t wait to use it. There will be pesto. I also am thinking of making some kind of basil simple syrup to have with fizzy water. Any other suggestions?

-Next up on my audiobook cue – it’s come highly recommended by so many people – it’s not my usual fare, so I’m excited to see if I like it.

Whoa – I just saw that this is 16 hours long… not sure if I’ll finish it before the end of this gig. I hope traffic is not so bad that I do finish it….

What We Ate: Two weeks worth of dinners to record, but really the last few days here don’t really count because … well secret single behavior.

Monday: Caprese Pasta Salad. Tortellini, Buffalo mozzarella, diced tomatoes, basil, drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Tuesday: Shrimp tacos. I prepped the shrimp and the mango slaw before I went to work, and when the Husband came home he just had to heat the tortillas and sautée the shrimp and dinner was fast and easy. (I had leftover pasta salad at work.) I think the Husband also make a tofu filling for the tacos too.

Wednesday: I had more pasta salad at work. The Husband picked up Bahn mi sandwiches for the kids. He himself went out for dinner with his friend.

Thursday: The kids and Husband had steamed green beans and leftovers at home. I was done rehearsal by 5pm, but it would have taken an hour to get home at that point, so I went to Yard House with the other stage managers. I had a really tasty Ahi Tuna sandwich.

Friday: Pizza and the Minecraft movie for the family. I had some kind of leftovers at work. I hear the movie was surprisingly good.

Saturday: The family had dumplings and steamed green beans. Leftovers again for me.

Sunday: We had spaghetti with red sauce, Caesar salad, and garlic bread. There is something so comforting and delicious to me about spaghetti with jarred red sauce. So simple yet often just what I’m in the mood for.

Monday: Eggplant and pork stir fry with udon noodles. I had the leftover spaghetti at work

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday – chicken mole tacos. This is the mole sauce that I had made three months ago. Thank you past me for freezing three batches of the mole sauce for easy dinners later on.

Wednesday: This is the day the family departed so I’m not sure what they had for dinner. I had the leftover eggplant and pork stir fry.

Thursday: Family still gone. To be honest, I didn’t really eat dinner this day because I went to work late and worked straight through to the end of rehearsal. It’s not an abusive system, I swear. I just wasn’t hungry when I had time to sit down and eat, so I didn’t. I did have snacks througout rehearsal and then I did eat half an avocado and sesame rice crackers when I got home.

Friday: Family still gone. Another day without having to cook. And actually another day where I wasn’t hungry becasue we started teh day so late. I had yogurt and blueberries when I got home from work.

Saturday: Family still gone. I had snack dinner – brie, goat cheese, and Triscuits.

I hope you have a wonderful week as we round the corner of summer. We’ve flipped out three month at a time Calendar and eep! I can see October.

Do you have any secret single behaviors? Is there anything yo’ve always wanted to learnt o do? Do you remember who taught you to ride a bike? What should I do with all that basil? What things would you replace immediately replace? Tell me everything!