Diane

Weekly Recap + What We Ate: Thinking about an Intentional Summer

Last week was my first week without a show to work on, and, as always, there’s a period of readjustment/ re-entry after being gone in the evenings and weekends so much. Things are not where I expect them to be, routines have shifted, some routines haven’t shifted yet I need to figure out how to fit back into them. Expectations have shifted. That’s a big one, I’m learning. When the family doesn’t expect me home, it’s a bit of a shift when I am all of a sudden around.

Some delightful things last week, though…

-Social plans with friends – Happy hour (or rather happy three hours) with my friends from the bus stop who I don’t see anymore because of return to office orders. It was great to catch up and I had a delicious dill pickle brined fried chicken sandwich. Another day, I had lunch with other friends whom I used to work with but now don’t see anymore.

-Randomly running into one of those lunch friends four days later at the skating rink with our kids. Isn’t it so delightful when you randomly run into a friend? And it was so nice to meet her son. I have friends who I meet through our kids and it’s nice to have friends that were friends before kids and you finally meet their kids and it’s like meeting a mini version of your friend.

-Going to Ikea with my parents. Having lunch at the cafe where the light is so soft and makes everything look good. Also – how much do I love wandering through Ikea! All the lives and possibilities it’s trying to sell me? Everything so practical. And finding the exact chair we wanted in their clearance room for $17, marked down from $35.

*It was a very rainy day – felt very Scandanavian.*

-The 5 year old was finally baptized. The Husband is Catholic, so this is something that we had intended to do in 2020, but pandemic and then procrastination. And here we are. I’m not Catholic, but I do love rituals of tradition and gathering.

-It’s also Breakfast Smoothie Season here. The kids have been having berry smoothies (cashews – though I’m temporarily out, frozen berries, kefir, honey, chia seeds, banana, ice.) and I’ve been having green smoothies (kale, ginger, honey, vanilla, kefir, banana). The other day, the 5 year old said to me, “You have an Elphaba smoothie and I have a Galinda smoothie!” Side note, I think we will be watching Wicked for movie night soon.

Summertime….For the first time in a while, I’m not working during the summer. Even though the prospect of nine weeks at home seems to stretch into the void, I know it will fly by quickly and before you know it, we’ll be back in school. I don’t want to arrive at the end of August feeling like I didn’t have an intentional summer. Which is not to say everything needs to be planned – I just want to have a good mix of fun, productive projects, active moments, and relaxing time. And connection. I am fast realizing that our summers as a family of 5 are limited. We only have four or five years left before the oldest one is launched and off to college. I want to set building blocks so that we feel connected as a family.

Things that are already on the calendar:
-Swim Team for the 13 year old, pre-team for the 8 and 5 year olds. This means 5 evenings a week at the pool for most of June and July.
-Trip to South Africa with the 13 year old. (10 Days)
-Weekend in New York City to meet up with the Husband’s sister.
-Summer Camp -for the 8 year old: 2 weeks of theatre camp. For the 13 year old, 2 weeks of basketball camp and 3 weeks of theatre camp
-continuing with piano lessons (13 year old and the 8 year old), and basketball workouts (13 year old), and skating lessons (8 year old and 5 year old) and agility class and/or gymnastics (5 year old)
-five days at a Taiwanese American cultural camp for the 5 and 8 year olds. They are going with my mother. I don’t really know what goes on there, but it’ll be their first time away without me or the Husband and I’m excited/nervous about how they’ll take it.
-the 5 year old’s last day of preschool will be the end of June. (SOB!). I’ve sent the notice. I’m feeling a little sad and wistful and I’m regretting that her last day will be while I’m away, but it didn’t make sense to keep her in longer since she’s going to Taiwanese American kids camp the day before I get back.

Other Summer Things on my Menu of Activities: I’m calling this a “menu” because these are things I’ve brainstormed for this summer – some fun activities, some life tasks. It’s not a “to do” list or any kind of mandate by any means.
-Time at the Pool (aside from swim team time – I would love to swim some laps myself. Maybe even take the kids to the county pool where there are water slides.)
-Getting the two younger kids to learn how to swim confidently and independently.
-Make a family summer play list.
-Family biking time – teaching the 5 year old to ride without training wheels and getting the 8 year old a new bike. (he is currently using a pink and turquoise hand me down bike with broken pedals.)
-Teaching the 8 year old how to tie his shoes.
-Boba taste test. There are a lot of boba shops around here. The 13 year old and I have a plan to try all the places and pick our favorite.
-Camping.
-Hiking.
-Visit the library and read lots of books
-Find a perfect pair of sandals. This is on the summer list every year for the past three years or so, but I love my current El Naturalista Zumaia sandals so much that I always I manage to squeeze one more summer out of them. I would like to get a new pair of sandals before I leave for South Africa.
-make paletas. I borrowed some books from the library with recipes I want to try.
-Mow the lawn regularly. I don’t like yardwork, and the Husband does most of it, so I’m vowing to take on some of it.
-host friends for grilling/dinner
-Lunches and meet ups with friends, particularly mom friends and former federal worker friends.
-Outdoor concerts and music
-eat lots of peaches. (Last year we regularly got peaches from The Peach Truck, but they aren’t delivering nearby this year. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the 30 minute drive for a 25 lb box of amazing peaches.)
-Take the kids to a rock climbing gym or to the adventure park.
-Take the kids to the local water park.
-Closet audit. Get rid of things I no longer wear.
-Watercolor postcard project. Paint and send mail. (Do you want a postcard from me? I feel like if I collect addresses, I’m committing myself to doing this one. Which would be a good thing.)
-Go school supply shopping in early August. Also Maryland’s tax free week is the beginning of August, so if we need any clothes or shoes, that would be a good time to go shopping for those. (Although the kids usually get fresh shoes for summer…)
-Teaching the kids some life skills (cooking, touch typing, how to tell time, maybe cursive – is that too ambitious?)/ making sure they get into the habit of doing their chores.
-Eating outside when possible.
-Have a screen free day or two.
-See some opera. Even though I won’t be working for the opera company I worked for last summer, i do want to see some of their productions.
-movie afternoons, either at home or at a movie theatre.
-Buy produce at a farmer’s market, or a farm stand. Make yummy food from our purchases.
-Going to the County Fair, riding all the rides and seeing the animals.
-Work-wise – we have union negotiations coming up this summer. I want to be an active participant in that.
-I also have a few work meetings scattered here and there that I’ll need to attend.
-Decluttering projects: The sewing corner, my desk corner, the medicine/linen closet in the bathroom, the pile of outgrown clothes/hand me downs in the 13 year old’s bedroom. The toy room. I’m posting a picture to remind myself what a dire situation these places are. Brace yourselves, it’s kind of awful. I hope I’ll have some “after” pictures come August.

Potential Summer Stressors:
-Money. When I’m not working, money is of course a little tighter. I’m going to try to pick up one off gigs when I can, but to be honest, I don’t love event work; it pays really well, but is highly stressful for me.
-Not having enough alone time. I will always have at least one child at home with me this summer, and sometimes I just want to sit and read and not have to fix a snack or read someone a book or referee a fight or what not. I’m lucky that my kids are pretty self sufficient, but even still, it’s not nothing.
-Being hot. Being in the sun. Being in the car when I’m hot. This always just puts me in a bad mood. At least I won’t have a soul sucking commute like I did last summer, though there will be time in the car because of camp drop offs/pick ups.
-mosquitoes.
-house projects with the house we manage.
-Getting the kids to actively participate in chores or family activities/ fighting about screen time. I fully recognize the need for them to have time to chill and decompress, but also want to balance that with a sense of responsibility.
-Eating dinner at the pool all the time and keeping pool time organized in general. It’s a lot of work to pack for the pool. Last year, I got it down to a good routine, but every year is a little different. One of the big shifts this year is I have to reconsider where we dry the swim stuff. We used to dry it in the lower bathroom, but now that is the 13 year old’s bathroom, so it is going to be inconvenient for her to have to always move the stuff.

Now that I’ve written all that down, I can see summer as full of possibilities and also some road blocks. I think what will help with the road blocks:
-Researching low cost activities. We are lucky there are a lot of free things to do in the area.
-Sitting down and making a plan to do those low cost activities. Put them on the calendar.
-Being brave and saying, “Yes” to any gigs that I can work.
-Having a structure to my days – block in rest time and adventure time and chore time. Or acknowledge that some days will only be two of those three categories. Or even just one.
-Have lots of cool treats and beverages in the fridge and freezer.
-Meal plan. I do this a lot anyway.
-Making a screen time plan with the kids.
-Embrace mornings as calm times. Embrace evenings as family time.
-Remember that the goal is we a feel connected and ready for the new school/work year in September.

Grateful For This Week:
-Stories from my parents. I’m going to admit that my parents and I don’t have a super easy relationship. It’s loving and supportive, but the conversation has never really flowed easily between us. I’m sure I need to unpack that a little -I feel like it has something to do with the culture that my parents are from (very patriarchal/valuing filial piety) and the culture I grew up in (less so, and resentful of filial piety) Anyhow, on Mother’s Day, the New York Times published article called “25 Questions to Bring You Closer to Your Mom.” Every so often in the days that followed, I would ask my mom and dad one of the questions, and the answers were surprising and insightful. Some of my favorites:
“What was your nickname growing up?”
“What are some of your favorite memories of the two of us?”
“What’s the worst advice you ever received about motherhood?”
“Who made you feel seen when you were growing up?” I thought this one was particularly interesting because both my parents said when they were growing up, they didn’t want to be seen, because that meant they were in trouble. This made my heart ache a little.

-Dog Man books in the Little Free Library. The 8 year old LOVES Dog Man books. I love not having to pay full price for them.

-Sleep. Trying to catch up and having the time to catch up and having a bed in which to catch up. I’ve been noticing this past year that I get incredibly tired the day or two before I get my period. Like “in bed by 9:30pm” tired. (I’m usually in bed at midnight most nights). I’m grateful I had the time and space to be able to just sleep last week when I was premenstrually tired.

-Cherry Coke and a chocolate chip cookie. An awesome combination.

-The 5 year old getting into the French Immersion program. This means that she will get to go to the same school as the 8 year old. Thank goodness. I mean we would have figured out three kids at three different schools – and we will have to in a few years – but I’m grateful that that is a future me problem.

-The Husband for clearing everyone out of the house when I had a splitting headache. He took the 8 year old to soccer practice and also convinced the other two kids and my parents to ride along. I lay in a dark and quiet room and popped a bunch of Advil and was feeling much more normal when they came home two hours later.

-That the rain let up just in time. We were supposed to meet our friends for a picnic and a show last Friday, and just as I was stepping out the door, the rain came down in unrelenting sheets, making driving pretty scary, and I thought, “Uh oh, so much for a picnic!” But the rain was actually quite isolated and the skies at the park was clear and the picnic tables were relatively dry and we had a lovely picnic lunch and then went to see a student musical theatre showcase and it was quite a fun evening.

-Park benches along a trail and the the perfect not to hot/not too cold weather to sit on one and enjoy the wind in the trees.

Looking forward to:

-June. Maycember is hitting pretty hard. I don’t know that June will be any more restful, but I’m looking forward to flipping the page on the calendar. It’s all good things in May – baptisms, recitals, soccer games, parents visiting, first communions, wrapping up the school year – but it is exhausting to be always out and about.

-Memorial Day Weekend. Is this weekend?!?!?! where did that come from? I understand we have plans to grill with our friends, but I’m a little hazy on the details.

-This audiobook. I don’t usually do romance novels on audio, but this one is narrated by Will Watt, who read Ten Things That Never Happened, and he was so charming and heartfelt in that book that when I saw he had recorded a new audio book, I immediately put it on my holds list. His deep, rumbly voice is like being wrapped up in my favorite feel good movie.

What We Ate:
Monday: Pesto Pasta Salad from NYTimes Cooking. I didn’t have capers, so I used sundried tomatoes instead, and I subbed walnuts for the pine nuts. Everyone really liked this. Vegan

Tuesday: Shrimp Tacos. This was the night I went out with my friends, so i had a very tasty dill pickle brined fried chicken sandwich. Before I left, I prepped the shrimp for the tacos and left the 13 year old with instructions on heating up the taco shells.

Wednesday: Kielbasa on the grill, sweet potatoes, and steamed broccoli. The Husband cooked. The sweet potatoes were this recipe, and were really tasty. The Kielbasa was from the Kielbasa factory, and we cooked them on the grill. I’m so excited for more grilling. Also – in my quest for ways that the kids can help in the kitchen after dinner, I had the 5 year old label the leftover kielbasa:

Thursday: Dumplings and green beans

Friday: Chicken sandwich picnic – I also packed cucumbers, apples, and strawberries.

Saturday: Pizza (carry out) and Chariots of Fire (It was my dad’s turn to pick the movie. I’ve never seen Chariots of Fire before – the two older kids were surprisingly engaged. The 5 year old, not so much.)

Sunday: Mac and Cheese – the 13 year old is made dinner! She did accidentally put in twice the amount of butter than was called for, so it was a very rich mac n cheese.

Hope your week has been lovely!
What would you do with 25lbs of peaches? What corner in your house is most in need of a good declutter? Favorite frozen treat or cold drink for summer? Who made/makes you feel seen? Mosquito solutions? Any plans for the Memorial Day weekend? I have to work on Saturday, but I’m hoping for a hike and some time with friends on Sunday and Monday.

April haikus

Branches of blossoms
Bloom overhead, shelter me
nature’s cathedral.

Trees dressed now in pink,
whimsical and full of youth,
soon don stolid greens.

The gripping drama
Of those last twenty seconds
ends in March sadness.

Thinking it is Spring,
I put away the winter coats.
I am wrong. And cold.

In the midnight hour
Lights shine on the wet pavement
makes the world shiny.

(Ironically – I’m sitting at the 5 year old’s agility class typing this and Like a Virgin has just come on, as I’m typing the above haiku – a kind of beautiful synchronicity.)

The forecast said rain.
But not until 2am.

And now I am soaked.

This music is hard.
Where is the downbeat? Count. Count.
Look away, lose your place.

I fly downhill fast,
Wind whipping hair, heart in throat.
I huff up hill slow.

Again, from the top.
We’ve done this scene many times.
Rehearsal time loop.

Tech is a process –
All the people backstage make
The magic onstage.

So I think this is interesting – at one point last month, one of the crew members took me to the upper bowers of the theatre. I’d never gone up there before, and it was FASCINATING. The first picture below is an image of our show. The second picture is what that set up looks like from above the fly rails.

Have you finally put away your winter coats? Do you have any tales of being behind the scenes somewhere? What’a your favorite Madonna song?

Weekly recap + What We Ate: Closing Night and Mother’s Day

Welp, another show closed and in the books. I meant to post this earlier in the week, but I’ve been so exhausted that I haven’t been at my computer. Plus my parents are visiting, which means that we need my desk chair at the dinner table, which means every time I have a minute to sit down and write, it feels really inconvenient because there is no chair at my desk. Well, I got over that road block and am now sitting at the kitchen table to write this little life update.

It’s a little crazy to think that I don’t have another show to work on until October. I didn’t book any work this summer because I would be travelling at a time that overlaps with a contract I usually take. I’m a little sad that I won’t be in the theatre for such a long time, but I’m going to lean into having a great summer home with the family.

I always make a list after every closing of moments that I want to remember forever on a show, and for this show, some were:
– the opening number with a billion light cues to call, which was kind of scary at first, but once I got into a rhythm, it was almost fun. Calling cues is the part of my job that gets all the glory, but for me it’s actually the easiest part of the job – you just have to know where the cues go and be able to follow the music and read the post its and look up once in a while to make sure things are still on track.

-The tenor and the baritone leads doing a silly dance onstage in the number when they are pretending to be teenagers. Nothing more fun than seeing grown men dance with abandon.

-The part at the end of the show where the lead female character sings, “Be here now. Be here now.” It’s such a beautiful phrase of music and some days, when I was really bone tired, I could hear her voice in my head, grounding me and helping me focus.

-The baritone who sings the father in the opening scene – I’ve known him for four or five years now and he’s still quite a young singer, but I think he has the heart of a dad and was just so perfect for the part.

-The bass’s aria set in the Zen Center, when he tells the main character to “Take one step…”. This was a special reunion for me because I first met this singer when he first came to America as a student – he was shy, barely spoke English, and had a voice and a heart as big as a house. And now he has a flourishing career all over the world. I’m always struck in my business by how strong the bonds are that we forge when we are starting out.

-The way the crew opened the walls at the back of the set. Opera can be pretty low tech – most of the time when you see something move in opera, it’s not computers or motors or what not; it’s a bunch of stage hands pushing or pulling. The first time we ran this scenic move, the wall zoomed open at an alarming rate and the lighting designer said, “It’s too fast! Do we really want it this fast?” But the doors needed to open within three bars of music. So I told the crew, “Open gently, then move off quickly.” And they did. And it was magical.

The rest of the week…

Usually after we open a show, I get some of my time back, especially evenings. But this performance schedule had six performances over six eight days, and one additional rehearsal on the night we didn’t have a show. So it has felt a little unrelenting. On my one night off, I went to see the 13 year old’s middle school musical – she was in the ensemble for Once Upon a Mattress. It was a cute show, clearly a lot of work, and everyone performed with so much enthusiasm. It’s fun to know that she had a tech week on the heels of me having my own tech week. After the show, she took me around an introduced me to all her teachers, which was kind of fun – that she still wants people to know who I am…

The rest of the week was errands and catch up and catching my breath. I had dropped so many things by the wayside that I’m slowly trying to pick up the mess and pieces and try to figure out what life is supposed to look like when I’m around.

Mother’s Day – I’m not a huge Mother’s Day person. These are the three things that I always ask for Mother’s Day:
– Get my picture taken with my kids. Doesn’t have to be fancy – just one photo where no one is picking their nose, or crying, or what not, and where I look half way decent.
-Some time outdoors. Either a hike, or a walk, or an activity.
-Some time alone.

The scorecard was decidedly mixed this year. I did sleep in until 7:30pm. At one point, I felt a little hand on my leg and then another little hand thrust a card under my hand. The card was sweet, even though said child had spelled his name wrong. It made me laugh. the 13 year old had used her own money to buy me a bag of M&Ms and a bag of gummy bears. I was torn between thinking it was such a thoughtful gestures and not wanting her to waste her money on candy at CVS. Parenting is full of conflicted emotions.

We had our usual spate of activities in the morning and afternoon. In the morning I took the 5 year old to Agility Classes, and, the sweetest thing, one of the coaches was handing out roses to moms. “Here,” he said to me, “I see you here every week, and I think you deserve a rose.”

My mother’s Day roses living with the 13 year old’s opening night tulips. She also got two bags of Takis for opening night. That’s what she really wanted…

After lunch, and a nap (perhaps that was my alone time?), more activities, and to be fair, the Husband asked if I wanted him to take the kids to skating lessons, but I said I would do it because I knew he wanted time to be in his garden, and he had been solo parenting for the better part of the time for six weeks while I was in rehearsal, so if anything, I figured that he deserved the alone time. Funny story – when the kids were little, they used to call the Husband “MommyDaddy”, I think this might have been because I was often out in the evenings. So I now joke that Mother’s Day should also be for the MommyDaddy as well.

But I got to skate while the kids were in lessons, so that was like alone time. After skating the kids wanted to play outside so I took the to the nature center. I read my book while they made me food. Here is bark burger and a leaf pie.

We spent about half an hour at the Nature Center before going home, where we turned around three times and then headed to Benihana. Originally it had been suggested that we go to Hot Pot again, but we had just been there, so I suggested Benihana as an “event” type meal. (If you’re unfamiliar, Benihana is a chain of hibachi restaurants where the meal is cooked in front of you with a lot of flash and dash. It’s like dinner and a show.) I hadn’t been since I was a teenager and the kids had never gone, so I figured it would be a fun outing. The food itself isn’t spectacular. Not awful, just very ho hum. But let’s be honest, we’re all there for the flying spatulas and spinning eggs. After dinner the restuarants were handing out Macarons for the mothers (or the assumed mothers), which was another nice treat. I think mother’s day is a little performative sometimes, but you know what, I’ll take a free treat.

After dinner, the family tried to fulfil my wish of spending time outside and getting a picture with the kids by taking us to a trail and going for a walk with the idea of taking a picture together. But for reasons that are a little inexplicable, and in retrospect were probably a little silly, things went quickly south and no good pictures were taken and people stormed back to the car in a fit of anger. To be honest, I’m not sure quite what happened. I think partly, I just wanted a quick photo on my iPhone with everyone looking at the camera, and the family instead brought this huge set up with a tripod and the 13 year old’s fancy camera, which I don’t know that anyone really knows how to get the photos off of it… And then no one would take a nice picture, which was hugely annoying for me. I just want one thing and I got a little snarky at the family’s inability to deliver that one thing. (okay, three) Anyhow, it was kind of an ignominious end to Mother’s Day. Oh well. We’ll all try again next year.

Conversation with my Five Year Old:
Me: Are you wearing underwear?
5 year old: No.
Me: Again?!?! You should be wearing underwear. Why don’t you wear underwear?
5 year old: Sometimes it’s just too much pants.

Grateful For:
-My parent’s health. My parents are both the upper side of 70 and are still so very active. They travel internationally three or four times a year, come visit us, play with the grandchildren. Go on long walks every day, usually four or five miles. Lead community organizations. Advocate for Taiwanese independence. Once in a while I look at them and I realize objectively they are quite old, something I tend to forget because they are so busy. I realize more and more that every year, month, week, day with them is a gift.

-Sunny sunny weather. Open window, fresh air. A comfy chair and a good book. And a messy living room, well inhabited.

-A new Pope! I know that it’s odd to be grateful for something that was probably inevitable, but I’m so glad that for a few days, I could replace doomscrolling with “hope”scrolling as I checked for news from the conclave.

-Getting to commute to work with my work BFF. She lives two miles from me and during busy opera season we don’t really get to hang out, so when we carpool to work, it’s like at 35 minute friend date.

-My Eye Doctor, for fixing my glasses. One night as I was going to bed, I stumbled and dropped my glasses and the lens popped out. I’m sure it was a minor fix, but I took it to My Eye Doctor, where I got the glasses from, and they put everything back together again.

-D, our contractor. He’s been working on renovating the basement of my parent’s rental unit and finished the work last week. But then this week we had sheets of rain and there was some water in the basement. D came over the same day that we called and looked at things, and then realized the sump pump wasn’t plugged in and more than that, the outlet that it was plugged into wasn’t working. He spent an hour at the house fixing everything. He’s so easy going and thoughtful and full of practical solutions, I’m so glad we have him on speed dial.

-Lights backstage. It is dark. Rope lights make everything better.

-Middle school teachers. On the day of the second performance of Once Upon a Mattress, I drove the 13 year old to school, so I could drop off snacks for the cast. OMG. Walking into the middle school was like walking into an alternative universe populated by strange half grown people all looking confused and defiant and disaffected and joyful. Sometimes all at once. And then there were these grown ups who kept saying, “Sit down. Don’t block the hallway. Get to class,” as if they were programmed on some kind of auto-loop. I went to a K-8 school, so this whole middle school thing is alien to me. And then as I was leaving the school, it struck me – this is what it is like every. single. day. The noise and chaos and emotion and physicality. It wasn’t just one crazy morning. it’s is every. day. Every day, my daughter walks these halls of screaming sensory overload. No wonder she comes home and wants to sit in her room and not talk to anyone for the rest of the night. And every day the teachers and school professionals manage the chaos and try to focus it into an environment for learning and growing. I have a hard enough time dealing with one tween/teenager. I am so grateful for the people who deal with hundreds of them every day.

Looking Forward To:
-Happy hour and lunch dates with friends. Now that my schedule is lighter, I’m doing all the social things.

-Season two of Poker Face. The Husband and I watched Season One together last year and it was a lot of fun. I’m excited for more murders and hijinks. Highly entertaining.

-Summer pool season. The weather is already in the 80s and muggy here and I can’t wait until I can be in the pool. Our pool opens in two weeks and soon we’ll be in the thick of summer swim team season. I’m going to have to think about how to prep for nightly dinners at the pool between swim practices.

-Just started this book. I’m determined to finish it before I go to South Africa next month, so I’ve set myself weekly reading goals. It’s proving fascinating and engrossing so far.

It’s a big book (almost 600 pages). But 25 of those years he spent in jail, so I’m really intrigued what that part of the book will be like.

What We Ate:

Monday: Ravioli Bake. The Husband made this and it was tasty – he was looking for easy recipes to make ahead and take along for those days when the 8 year old has to ride along to the 5 year old’s 6pm gymnastics classes and didn’t have time to have dinner beforehand.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday – Ground beef tacos with guac, salsa, sour cream, cheese, and hard shells.

Wednesday: Chicken wings. My mother made them. This is one of her specialty dishes. The kids love it. It involves soy sauce, honey, and garlic.

Thursday: Black Pepper Asparagus and Tofu Stir Fry. I had picked up some asparagus and broccoli from the farmer’s market so I use both in this stir fry. Vegan.

Friday: not sure what the family ate. I was at work and ate leftovers. (Well sort of – I packed leftovers, but then got busy and didn’t eat them.).

Saturday: Pizza (take out) and Frozen.

Sunday: Benihana for Mother’s Day.

Welp, hope you have a lovely weekend. Ours is the usual kid activities and then the 5 year old is finally getting baptized. Hopefully there will be sunshine and fresh air involved, though.
What summer things are you looking forward to? Pools – yay or nay? Favorite pool dinners? Have you ever been to Benihana? Who was your favorite teacher in middle school?

Books Read – April 2025

Only three books finished in April – but that’s par for the course for a month of being in rehearsals and tech.

Clear by Carys Davies, read by Russ Bain – Set in 1843 on a remote Scottish Island, this short novel tells the story of John Ferguson, a minister, who has been sent to the island to evict its last remaining inhabitant, a man named Ivan. Ivan doesn’t speak English and has been living on his own for many many years. This book was written in language so beautifully spare and precise. I loved how the story explored themes of language, communication, and connection, contemplating how we live alone, and with each other. I liked this book so much that as soon as I finished the audiobook, I borrowed the book from Libby so I could read the prose myself. It’s a pretty slender book, but each word or image packs a punch.

Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean – This is the second book in the Hell’s Belles series, and the first one that I have read of that series. It’s basically a road romance as former thief, now society wallflower Adelaide Frampton races the Henry Carrington, Duke of Clayborn on quest to find his brother who has eloped. It’s a little convoluted. I liked a lot about this book – it has MacLean’s signature strong female characters, wit, warm female friendships, well developed side characters, and elegant writing. The chemistry is top notch. I thought the plot was a little meh. There are books where the characters drive the plot, but I thought in the book, the plot drove the characters, and I didn’t see much character development. Still, I always enjoy a Sarah MacLean novel, and this one was a solid one.

Briefly, Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur, read by the author – Arthur is a Death Doula – she helps people as they are nearing the end of their lives handle both the practical and the intangible matters that come with dying. This book is her memoir, starting with her childhood in Ghana and the U.S., how she came to her profession, and lessons she has learned along the way. The memoir part of the book was non-linear and a little scattered, almost cyclical. I have to admit I had problems following it, though maybe it’s because i listened ot it on audio. But the parts of her book where she talks about her different clients and how they each faced death, and the lessons she learned – that was where I felt the book really spoke to me. Arthur talks a lot of the interstitial nature of life – how we are always in some form of transition. I particularly liked this passage:

“To adapt is central to the human experience. Humans are masters at navigating the unknown and adapting to new circumstances, even though we often do not give ourselves the credit. Change is the god that we must bow to.
Each new day that we get to wake up, we greet a reality that wages a war of attrition against our expectations. Life doesn’t go the way we want. Duh. Ideas fail. People change their minds. Governments get overthrown. Babies won’t nap. Psychedelic trips end with a potential for inpatient treatment. Our hearts get broken. We burn dinner. Tires go flat. Yet, we learn to adapt in the moment, even as we struggle and resist. Learning to adapt introduces us to the new self, time and time again. The new self is one we never imagined – someone who has integrated all that has come before.
When we arrive at this new place, we are able to say, “Today, I am here.” Starting sentences and thoughts with the word today grounds us in the present. “Today, my husband can no longer walk.” “Today, I can’t grip my coffee cup.” “Today, my best friend can’t stomach her favorite meal.” “Today, I am separated.” “Today, my father is dead.” Today is not without its grief.”

― Alua Arthur, Briefly Perfectly Human

I love that idea of “Today” – what a great thought to hold on to when things feel hard.

On my Proverbial night stand:

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swan – a mystery featuring crime-solving sheep. It’s quirky and delightful, but I just can’t seem to get into it. I think I just need to spend an hour reading it to get the plot underway.

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel – I’m liking these short chapters – concise but packed. (Also – side note, I tried to google the title without the author’s name to make sure I was spelling it right, and that was a mistake – so trigger warning for anyone sensitive to child loss.)

Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan – non-fiction recommended to me by a co-worker. Listening on audio.

Mad about You by Mhariri McFarlane – rom com type book, recommended to me by the 13 year old. I didn’t read the blurb so I’m not quite sure what the set up is quite yet, but the characters are funny and the writing has a wry humour that I like.

Weekly Recap + what we ate: Opening Night, and April Reflections.

Another show opened! Yay! Now we are open, and I have a week of performances and meetings and cleaning up before I close out opera season. It feels like space has opened up in my life, but it is May which means a lot of life/ family/kid things are happening this month.

This weekend was probably busier than it should have been for me, given that it’s been a little non-stop at work. I should have taken time to gather my forces and refocused on what I need to do on the life admin/home front. On Thursday, my one official day off, I ran errands with a friend, went on a walk with another, took the two older kids to be “Mystery Readers” at the 5 year old’s classroom, took the 8 year old to soccer… it seemed like a lot for a free day when I really just needed to sleep or stare at the wall.

On Saturday, I decided to take the kids to a local street festival. We all biked there, which was really fun. Usually I walk while the two little kids bike and scooter (the 13 year old was on a service project with friends), but this time the kids said I should bike too, and it worked out better than I thought. The 5 year old is a dervish on the scooter and being on a bike, I could finally keep up with her. There’s something really fun about an excursion with the family where all of us are rolling on wheels. My goal is to get the 5 year old off her training wheels this summer.

The street festival has valet bike parking, which was really great. So we biked/scootered to the festival and left our bikes with the bike valet – so convenient. The place was super crowded and at first I remembered why I don’t often go to these festivals – there were so many people; I was supposed to meet up with friends, but I couldn’t find them; the inflatable activities weren’t being monitored and it was open season – chaos and even dangerous as balls and foam arrows flew around. I was actually pretty miserable for the first 30 minutes. But then I managed to pull the kids away from the inflatables/flying objects “fun” zone and we walked down the street and found a children’s musician singing songs about nocturnal animals. We sat in the shade, ate our snacks and listened to music, and I began to decide that I was having fun after all.

We walked on down the road, checking out some displays by various county organizations and found a mountain biking group – they had set up a little course and were letting kids try out mountain bikes. The 8 year old wanted to try and he ended up spending twenty minutes there, riding the same course of two little speed bumps over and over. He’s due for a new bike this spring – he is still using a hand me down purple and turquoise bike with broken pedals, which I think is a testament to how much he loves being on his bike – so afterwards I talked to the people running the mountain biking booth, and they said to get him a mountain bike because he can do whatever he wants on a mountain bike. The group also does youth mountain biking rides with a “no one left behind” philosophy – I’m excited to check it out further for the 8 year old. (And maybe the rest of the family…?)

Afterwards the mountain biking, we stopped at the truck touch, and I did end up running into some friends and having some great catch up time. So in the end, I’m really glad I took the two little kids to the street festival. I think I just have to remind myself to try to find the not so crowded places to be. One thing I thought was cool was they had “sensory friendly” tents where you could sit in a comfy chair with a pair of earmuffs on when things got to be too much. i thought that was such a great idea at an event that could be overwhelming.

That evening, the 13 year old and I got dressed up and went to the Gala Concert at my work. Her favorite opera singer was singing, so I thought it would be fun for her to go. We went with some friends, and it was nice to just go and watch a show without having to work on it at all.

Sunday I took the 5 year old to Agility Class and then came home, turned around twice and then went to work for the Sunday matinee performance. It’s nice that the show is so short because I have time to come home and still have a bit of time to re-set for the week.

I’ve been trying to lean into the idea of a “Sunday reset” to get me ready for the week ahead. So far my Sunday Reset list involves:
-Putting away the floordrobe and all the clothes on the bench in the bedroom.
-taking a shower. For me and the kids.
-planning my clothes for the week.
-boiling eggs for the week so I have easy breakfast. (I can’t find my silicone egg holder for the InstantPot so I’ve been boiling eggs on the stove and they don’t turn out as well. Suggestions welcome.)
-Tidying the living room and my desk. (usually one or the other, but I would love for it to be both.)
-exercise
-Cleaning out the backpack bins by the door
-Bluey with the family. Or Andor.
I would like to also add:
-dealing with the mail bin.
-clipping the kids’ nails. I always forget to do this until their nails are too long. I think if I had a set time to clip nails, it would be better.
-Getting the kids activity bags set so I don’t have to think about it later in the week.
-clean out my purse – it gets so full of receipts over the week.

I’m also wondering where the line is between Sunday routine and Sunday Reset. Maybe one is a flashy internet term and one is just … life. Because I would also like to find time on Sunday to be outside, to write on my blog, to connect with friends. But that doesn’t feel like it’s in the “get ready for the upcoming week.” category. Am I overthinking this? Also where is the line between over thinking and acting mindfully?

April Recap/ Reflections
April was definitely consumed by work work work work. I started prep for a show on March 31st and we had our final dress rehearsal on April 30th.

April highlights:
-finished our taxes on time. Finished the 13 year old’s taxes. (She got paid for the show that she was in last December. It was a 1099 and we claimed her voice lessons as an expense against it, so she ended up operated at a loss last year.)

-rehearsing, teching, and opening a show. It’s been one of the smoothest show processes I’ve ever had. It helps that it’s a remount of an existing production, and the show is short. Even still, everyone was lovely to work with, which is really important.

-“Ask Me Anything” session for the Production Assistants with the Staging Staff at work. So may words of wisdom and practical considerations to pass along to the next generation of people in the arts.

-March Madness. Yes, it says March, but it finished in April. We watched some really exciting games together as a family. I’m not a huge basketball fan, but it’s fun to see the Husband and 13 year old really get into something together.

-My mother and Uncle’s visit. Taking them down to the Mall and walking amongst the monuments.

-The weather – Spring has sprung. Sunshine, warm air. We’ve moved past cherry blossoms into tulips.

-Running – I ran 7 times last month, which is the most I’ve run since November. Getting to run along the Potomac on my dinner break is always great for views. I love that the path I take to run takes me across a bridge over the river, and from that end, I can look back and see my work place all lit up, and it seems so far away – it makes me feel like I accomplished something on my run, even though it’s really only a little more than a mile away.

-Continuing my daily yoga. Some days I squeaked it in with a 10 minutes video before bed, but most days I did 15-20 minutes in the morning.

-Lenten reading group. Such a great group of ladies with whom to contemplate life.

-Take your child to work day. I did not participate – my work hadn’t organized anything, but the Husband took all three kids to work, and they all had a great time. His work place goes all out for TYCW day, with lots of crafts, riding busses, scavenger hunts (one of the items is “Photocopy your hand”)

-figured out the 8 year old’s soccer team. He’s having such a good time being out on the pitch again.

-Easter service with the Bangla musicians.

-we finally got window treatments! It’s a little plain, but better than the mismatched curtains that I had before. I was so delighted by the top down/bottom up mechanism that I spent a good fifteen minutes after they were installed putting the shades up and down. The plainness of the shades do open up the wall on either side, and now I feel like I need art for the wall.

April Lowlights:

The Federal Government blood bath continues and it is very much hitting home. I’m trying not to think about it, but almost every conversation I have with friends starts with a ginger, “How are you doing?” because I just don’t know if people still have their jobs or not.
Not having a lot of time at home, leaving a lot of the burden of parenting with the Husband. Tech is hard on everyone.
Dropping a lot of balls in life admin.
Taking the corner into the parking lot poorly and putting a sizable dent in the car. AGH!
The house desperately needs a declutter, but I haven’t had time or energy to do it. I’m so tired of not being able to find things or constantly stepping on papers and toys and half done projects.
Owing money on taxes. This is to be expected now, but ouf. I’m going yo try to pay quarterly taxes this year, to make April less painful, but it might all be a wash.
The death of the Pope. What a humble, wise, kind, and beautiful person. The passing of public figures don’t usually hit me that hard, but the death of Pope Francis brought a real sense of loss.

April Insights- two insights, one practical and one philosophical:

-Practical- and this is super weedy stage management stuff, just warning you – Getting my cues in my book before we hit tech makes life so much easier during tech week. Okay, this seems obvious, but I struggle with this one. One thing I’m trying to work on with my own personal journey as a stage manager, is working ahead when I can. I often wait to put cues in my book because I think, “What if things change?” But you know what? They can’t change all 150 cues. So I should do what I can and move the Post It as I need to. For this show, I had the stage manager’s book from the last time they did this show, and that even gave me time to type my light cues onto labels for my own book. I’ve always kind of raised my eyebrows at people who type their cue labels, thinking it’s a lot of work for something, and kind of fussy. But OMG! how clean and pretty does it look to have all the cues typed?

This is the opening number – this is the most cues I have on one page, but the first twelve minutes of the show is a wild ride indeed. I basically just keep my head down, keep calling cues, counting measures, and am thankful that the lightboard operator is good at her job and keeps up with me.

I had hemmed and hawed about typing my labels because I like my light cues to be in a diamond shape and I couldn’t figure out how to print the labels in the right orientation to make them diamond shaped. I procrastinate for a week, thinking I would be able to figure it out. But then I decided, if the choice is between hand writing all 150+ light cues on the exact right shape label vs. typing them on not quite the right shape …. well typing them is so much faster. So I said to myself, “Diane, stop being ridiculous. Done is better than perfect. Stop waiting for the perfect solution to hit you on the head. You’ve been staring at this for a week now. Just do it the slightly different way and get it done.”

– The Philosophical – At our AMA with our Production Assistants, one of them asked us what is the best advice we’ve ever been given, and one of my co-workers said something that stuck with me. She said that Gavin Creel, a musical theatre star who passed away last year, said something that really stuck with her – (And forgive me if I’m not saying it correctly or paraphrasing it badly – I can’t find internet transcript of his exact words) He said that life isn’t a ladder to climb; it’s a lily pond. We are all on our own lily pads, and sometimes you jump from one lily pad to a bigger one, and sometimes you jump from a bigger one to a smaller one. And sometimes you jump onto a lily pad that sinks and sometimes you jump on to a lily pad that floats away and takes you somewhere unexpected and wonderful. I think this is such a beautiful metaphor because we live in a world that is obsessed with climbing the corporate (or what ever) ladder, but we have to realize that life is not all about climbing up. It’s about finding the lily pad where you want to be, and also about being willing to jump to a different lily pad when the time is right.

Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. Big thank you to Elisabeth for inspiring and highlighting daily movement. Some walks this week: walk on the trail near the 8 year old’s school, and grateful for a bench in the shade. Run at work on my dinner break, with blue skies and cool sculptures and architecture. Walk around the plaza at work on the day when I didn’t quite have time to go for a run. Walk to the Farmer’s market near work, where I got a pineapple ginger paleta (so refreshing, a bracing blend of sweet and spicy), and admired the front yard sculpture exhibit the neighborhood is sponsoring. A date to Costco with a friend (I’m counting this! We walked, and we got out of the house.). A walk on our nearby trail with a friend, catching up. A walk around the block one evening after work with the family, watching the kids collect leaves and run ahead of us, a perfect post dinner Sunday evening activity for Summer.

I was initially hesitant to declare participation because I knew I was going into a busy month, but you know what? It is more doable than I anticipated. I was motivated to find those ten minute chunks, late at night, on my meal break, etc. And it also gave me an excuse to try to cajole my family along with me. I think there was one day the first week of April where I didn’t get out and walk/run/bike, but I probably could have squeezed in something. Sometimes it takes planning, but also sometimes it’s about realizing when you have a bit of empty space. Not that we have to fill up all the empty space in our lives, but I’ve realized that going for a walk is still a form of having empty space – it gives me time to think, or not think, to breathe, and work out a bit of restlessness. Ultimately, though, there is no failure here. We do what we can do.

Grateful For:

-The above mentioned chance for the 13 and 8 year olds to be Mystery Readers for the 5 year old’s class. Before we went, the 8 year old said that he was nervous, but he did a great job! He read Pigs to the Rescue and The Giving Tree. The 13 year old read Daddy Daughter Day and 100 Dragons Named Broccoli.

-the box of tempation at work:

It is filled with chocolate:

-Everyone at work who does such a great job to make the show look and sound so good.

-Parent coaches. Despite what I wrote last week about the fight between the two coaches at the 8 year old’s soccer game, I really believe parent coaches are doing amazing work. I watched the 8 year old’s practice last Thursday. Herding a bunch of 2nd graders seems like an exercise in frustration, but Coach Greg kept it together and managed everything so well.

-Carpools. The thirteen year old had a full day of activities on Saturday, and I didn’t have to drive her to anything thanks to carpools.

-That I still have a job. It seems like every week, there is a new round of layoffs at work.

-Zhong zi, and my mother for bringing them. When my mother was visiting in mid April she brought a whole bag of zhong zi. These are sticky rice balls, filled with meat and mushrooms and wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are one of my favorite Taiwanese foods. One day when the fridge was pretty bare since we’ve been behind in the shopping, I needed a quick lunch and found the bag of zhong zi. I steamed them up and we had them for lunch and it was the perfect low fuss meal.

-comfortable shoes. That match the carpet at work. A wonderful thing on days when I am on my feet all day.

-Other things that make tech week go well: lunch boxes and ice packs, the Husband, a comfortable bed, water bottles, the ginormous chocolate chip cookies from the canteen at work, monitors and a strong conductor’s down beat.

Looking Forward To:

-The 13 year old’s middle school musical. Opens this week. I’m really excited to see it.

-My parents are coming for a visit. They very rarely come see us together, so this feels kind of special.

-May! What a month. We have lots going on this month – the 5 year old is FINALLY getting baptized. The 8 year old has first communion. The weather is turning the corner from Spring into Summer. Farmer’s markets. Piano recitals. Voice recitals. Happy Hour and lunches with friends.

-Watching Season two of Andor as a family. Well, actually, watching season one of Andor as a family. I haven’t even seen the first season. I hear it’s really really really really really good.

-Reading this book, not sure what it’s about yet, but I find myself nodding along with a lot of its shrewd and cutting observations. And the chapters are short so it flies by.

What We Ate:
Monday: Lamb stew, from the freezer. Thank you again, past me.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. The Husband made chicken tacos

Wednesday: I had empanadas from the Farmer’s market since I was at work. This is the best part of being at work on Wednesday. I think the Husband made some kind of sausage skillet for the rest of the family.

Thursday: Dinner out with friends.

Friday: I had leftovers at work for an early dinner then went out with the stage managers after the show and had a truly decadent dinner – scallops, risotto, kale salad, fancy guava soda made from scratch, peanut butter pie for dessert. The Husband and kids had pizza (take out) and watched Smoky and the Bandit. (Which I have never seen myself.)

Saturday: Kitchen sink chopped cabbage salad with chicken. I was kind of at a loss for what to make, so I took a bunch of sad vegetables from the fridge (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, red onion, avocado), chopped it up, added walnuts, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar. Threw in some shredded chicken and… dinner! It was tastier than it ought to have been given the despair I felt when I first opened the fridge.

Sunday: Egg/ Breakfast sandwiches. The Husband cooked because I was at work. I think I had toast and yogurt when I got home.

Hope you have a lovely week.
Do you have a Sunday reset? How was your April? What does May look like for you? What do you make for dinner when you are looking in despair at the fridge at 5pm? Do you feel like you are on a ladder or a lily pad?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Day in the Life

We are half way through tech week. I’m am exhausted, but it’s been a really smooth and productive tech process so far and everyone is working really well together, so that always feels good.

I was inspired by the Day in the Life post that Stephany (among others), so I thought I’d write one too. The last time I wrote one, it was a year ago, during tech week. This time, I thought I’d write about a typical rehearsal day – this is Monday April 21st. Of course it wasn’t a typical day because the kids were off school – they always get the Monday after Easter off.

7:15am – Wake up. This is a little later than usual, but I had stayed up way too late the night before to finish my book (Heartbreaker by Sarah McLean), and the kids didn’t have school, so there was no huge rush in the morning. The Husband took the day off to stay home with the kids today, so he was around. The kids get up pretty early on their own – usually 6:15a/6:30a. I have a vague early morning memory of one child standing next to the bed saying, “I’m hungry!” I told them to go to the kitchen and find something to eat. I get up, and make the bed. I’m not usually a linger in bed person. Once I’m done sleeping, I like to get out of bed. I pull clean sheets and put them on the bed because the cleaners are coming this morning and they will change the sheets.

7:30am- Family Meeting This s year we’ve started having weekly family meetings on Saturday at 7:30am, but the family was out of town last weekend, so we had our family meeting on Monday morning. Our family meeting format is:
-Shout outs
-Calendar
-Meal Planning
We used to also cover “agenda items” – issues that any family member wants to discuss. This would range from “Can I have X app on my phone?” to “Summer” to “My sister won’t play with me”, and often ended with someone storming off in anger. It was just a frustrating way to spend our Saturday morning, even though going over the calendar was important. Then I listened to this webinar on family meetings last week and picked up some good ideas to try: 1) shorter meetings, 2) shorter agenda, 3) take turning s leading the meeting. So we’ve taken problem solving agenda items off the family meeting plan in the hopes of making the meetings shorter, more efficient, and less emotionally fraught. The webinar said that family meetings are times to connect, and I really want to try to embrace that. (The webinar is from a local group called PEP – they lead all sorts of parenting classes and currently many of them are free to watch the webinar recording. I highly recommend them – I find their approach calming – they very much take a “parent as advisor/coach” approach to things.)

Family meeting tools: The three month calendar. Multi colour pens – each person gets a colour on the calendar. The red notebook is where we write shout outs and rose/buds/thorns. My Hobonichi weeks. And my phone.

9:00 – Family meeting over, move on with morning. I pack lunch for myself. It will be a long day at work, so I pack lots of food. I think I also made toast for the kids here too. Or maybe I made toast for them to eat during the family meeting. The cleaning people have arrived by now and they start in the basement. Usually we’re not home when the cleaners are here, but since the kids are off school, we work around each other.

9:30am – yoga/stretch. I’ve been doing really well at daily yoga. I really like Charlie Follows yoga. Since the cleaners are the basement, I do my yoga in the kids’ room without my yoga mat – it’s the only room that has a clear floor at the moment. At one point the Husband comes in to talk about some life admin details, and the kids come running in and out. It’s not a relaxing 15 minutes of yoga, but I’m not a meditative yoga sort of person. I just really want to move and stretch.

10:00am – life admin – Since I don’t have to be a work until later, I take some time to catch up on some computer errands – registration, paying bills, blog reading and comments, emails. I get dressed.

10:30am – I convince the 13 year old to go on a walk with me. It’s like pulling teeth, but I feel like if I don’t get her out of the house, she might not leave the house all day. We walk down to the trail and around the neighborhood.

Someone has been writing chalk messages on the path.

11:15a – back home and getting ready to go to work. When we get home I find the Husband in the backyard doing some gardening and the two little kids are hanging out with him. I start getting ready to go to work – since I don’t have to drive carpool today, I’ve decided to bike to work. I have to get my lunch box in my backpack, and an change of clothes. My sister in law calls while I’m packing to go to work. We talk two or three times a week – she lives in California and she usually calls as she’s walking to her bus which usually lines up with when I’m going to work if I have an afternoon rehearsal, so the time difference works out.

11:30a bike to work. I love that most of my bike commute is along a parkway, so the traffic is minimal and I can go for long stretches without a stop light. There is a big hill at the end. I don’t always make it up the hill, but this time I do! Yay!

12:00n – arrive at work. change clothes

Then start my work day with some work at my desk – email, paperwork, putting cues in my score. Also checking in with the other stage managers. We have two shows going on right now, and since I’m the head of the department, I like to check in with the SM team on the other show when I can.

2:00pm – 5:00pm – first rehearsal of the day. This is an exciting day because we get to have a guitarist in rehearsal. We don’t usually get this but the guitar part is quite prominent in our show, so the conductor requested a few rehearsals in the room with the guitarist. The show also features a large electronica part- electronic music that is played on a keyboard. I didn’t get a picture, but it’s a very involved set up. At this rehearsal we work through the whole show with Principal singers.

The yellow Post It on the clock has our afternoon break schedule written on it so I don’t forget to break when we need to. Each of those green stickies is a light cue. This one particular section of the show is fiendishly difficult to call.

2:50pm- 15 minute rehearsal break. We typically rehearse 90 minutes then take a 15 minute break. Someone brought Levain cookies from New York and shares them during the break. My coworker and can’t decide which cookie to have so we each take one and split- oatmeal raisin and a chocolate chocolate chip.

Also on our break, we work on our team jigsaw puzzle. We usually have a puzzle going in the stage management office. We actually just started this one today:- it’s beautiful, the pieces are whimsical shapes:

Then we’re back at rehearsal, working through the show.

5:00pm – End of first rehearsal, Production meeting via Teams. Today is load in- when the tech team starts putting the set into the theatre. We have a brief meeting to check in to make sure all departments are on track for the final push to opening night.

5:30pm – Dinner. i eat my packed food, talk a walk, read a little bit of my book and do a ittle bit of the puzzle. Per union regulations, I get one hour for meal breaks which sometimes feels like a lot of time. (And some days not enough time…)

6:30pm – 9:45pm – Second rehearsal. The evening rehearsal is with chorus. We only have 16 people in the chorus so it’s not too hectic. We work through all the chorus scenes.

Evening rehearsal- new Post It with evening break times.

There are a lot of rolling chairs in our show.

8:30p- rehearsal break! Puzzle and snacks. Then back to rehearsal.

9:45pm – 10:30pm – notes. After rehearsal the stage management team gathers to go over any notes that need to be relayed to other departments and then talk over the next day’s schedule. Tomorrow is a really light day- only one rehearsal in the evening.

10:30pm – Take metro home with my bike. I appreciate that I can take my bike on the metro outside of rush hour. I don’t appreciate that the metro elevator smells like pee.

Train was pretty crowded at 11am because the hockey game had just gotten over.

11:00am – home. The metro is only four blocks home. It’s a beautifully warm evening and the road to the house is downhill and I love speeding down fast and coasting around the corner onto our street. So I do it twice. Two laps around the block with the wind in my face and then I pull in home.

I put away my lunch box, kiss the sleeping children, oil the cutting board, and spend a few minutes writing in my journal. Resisting the urge to revenge bedtime procrastinate I’m in bed by midnight.

Cool Bloggers’ Walking Club -I’m going to loosely interpret Elisabeth’s CBWC criteria as “get out of the house and move” because I didn’t do a lot of walking, per se, but I did:

Monday: bike to work + walk with the 13 year old (as detailed above)

Tuesday: bike to work

Wednesday: running

Thursday: dinner break walk the rooftop terrace at work (yet another picture of the Washington Monument)

Friday: Running on my dinner break.

Saturday: walk while the 13 year old was at voice lesson. There’s a meandering wooded trail. But if you look to the left, you’ll see we are right on a busy road.

Sunday: went ice skating while the kids were at lessons:

Grateful for:
-My work BFF brought me dill pickle chips! I might have eaten the whole bag in one sitting.

-The thirteen year old went on a walk with me!

-Beautiful weather.

-Parks and trails where I can enjoy the beautiful weather.

-Getting home safely at the end of a long rehearsal day. I’m going to be honest, driving home at 11:30/midnight is TOUGH.

-All the stage managers at work who gathered for an “Ask Me Anything” session with our two Production Assistants and shared their wisdom. The PAs are basically interns at the beginning of their career, so I like to have an AMA for them with the stage managers during their time with us. It’s voluntary for my staff, and I’m so grateful that all eight of the stage managers/assistant directors who were in town showed up to shared and support the PAs. Also they were all brutally honest about work life balance and the hard parts of being a stage manager, but also talked about why they loved the job too.

-My bike.

-Freezer leftovers for a low mental energy dinner. Thank you to past me.

-School and Teachers. Nothing makes one more grateful for schools and teachers than ten days at home with the kids over spring break. To be fair, I worked for much of those ten days.

-On that note, I’m also really grateful to the Husband for spending 10 days with the kids while trying to work from home and having a truly terrible hotel experience when he tried to take the kids out of town. (What kind of hotel still claims the rooms are unavailable because they are being cleaned at 8PM??!??!?!?) Also – grateful to the Husband who took the 8 year old to his soccer game, finally. And a shouting match broke out between the parent coaches. He says it was wild. I’m glad I wasn’t there, but also part of me wishes I had brought popcorn. The Husband had all the fun things to deal with last week.

Looking Forward To:
-Sleeping. Once tech week is over, I’m going to take a long nap.

-Evenings at home. I get to be home two nights next week. Yay!

-Mystery reader. You can sign up to read to my 5 year old’s preschool class. So we are doing that this week. I’m actually going to have the 8 year old and the 13 year old read. It’s not a big mystery because the 8 year old was so excited he has already told his sister.

-listening to this book on my commute:

What We Ate: I’m going to be honest – I ate mostly leftovers from the fridge because I was at work most nights. This is what I think the family ate, big thanks to the Husband.

Monday: Cabbage Soup from the freezer. Thank you Past Me.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. Carnitas from the freezer. Thank you Past Me.

Wednesday: No idea.

Thursday: Tofu and noodles. I prepped tofu crumbles for the Husband in the morning and he sauteed vegetables to go with it.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Frozen.

Saturday: Nachos with the leftover carnitas from Tuesday.

Sunday: Bahn Mi bowls, using the leftover tofu crumbles. This recipe, but with tofu instead of pork, and noodles instead of cauliflower rice. Love this recipe – it is tasty and comes together super quickly.

Weekly recap + What We Ate: What I wore, the cold spring edition

I’ve been thinking about fashion and appearances lately. First of all last week, I listened to an Edit Your Life episode featuring an interview with personal stylist Dacy Gillespie. Gillespie and Christine Koh had a really deep conversation about body image. “At what point,” Gillespie says, “did we get the idea that our bodies were wrong?” And I think that’s such a powerful thing to contemplate, this idea that “flattering” is a construct and we don’t need to subscribe to that construct. There is nothing “wrong” not “not ideal” about our bodies. Dressing in something flattering, she says, is just “prioritizing someone else’s opinion.”

Another thing she says: “Generally, we don’t have much control over the shape of our body. However, based on our shape, we’re being told to wear certain clothing items.”

Take the idea that “This shirt is flattering because the colours make your skin glow.” I mean that’s all well and good, but what if I like a colour that doesn’t make my skin glow? Am I going to just not wear my favorite colour? It’s all a personal choice, for sure, but the way fashion/style is so tied to societal ideals of what a person should look like, just feels like we might be denying ourselves of a bit of fun and enjoyment in clothes. Or if an item of clothing makes you feel good and confident, what does it matter if it isn’t slimming? It’s a bit chicken and egg, right? A dress makes you feel confident because it is slimming, but where does this idea that slim is better come from? Also, subscribing to what mainstream media is saying what a person should look like seems impossible when bodies are constantly changing. Maybe I had an ideal body in my 20s, but expecting 46 year old me to look like 20 year old me is just unrealistic. I think the Gillespie and Koh have a really empowering discussion and it’s worth a listen.

Soon after I listened to that episode, Nicole had a post, inspired by Cup Of Jo, called Tell Me Something Beautiful About You, where she muses about self-love and confidence and why it is so difficult to say what we love about the way we look. As always, her post is inspiring and beautiful and lifts us all up. And the comments were so wonderfully honest. I suspect if you read my blog, you already read Nicole’s, but if you don’t you need to go read it now, and all the comments, and ponder the question she asks – “What do you like about the way you look?”

I wrote a comment about how two of the things I liked the most about myself were things I got teased about when I was little. I’ve always really liked my mouth because my lips are naturally plump and red. But when I was growing up, kids at school would refer to my lips with a racial slur. And this was okay back then. I mean it’s not okay. It’s never okay. But no one ever called the kids out on it. All it made me do was suck in my lower lip so that it wasn’t so noticeable. The other thing I’ve always liked about myself are my eyes, but again, I feel weird saying that because there’s a lot of baggage that comes with Asian eyes and standards of beauty. This is the stupid part – even though I have big round eyes, the kids at school would still tease me and pull their eyes into little slants when talking about me. What the what??? My mother always said she liked my eyes because they were so big and round. And there is kind of an implication that eyes that aren’t big and round are less appealing. That’s the tricky thing about finding something appealing – I feel like society is set up in some kind of dichotomy where if X is considered attractive, the opposite of X is considered not attractive. When really a) it’s all subjective, and b) shouldn’t what we like about people be “and” not “or”? I love that Nicole gave us space to shout out the things about ourselves that make up feel good about ourselves while acknowledging that everyone is different and beautiful.

And this is what I want to say – I like your face. You can break it down into what features I like about your face, but really I like your face because it belongs to you. It isn’t that you have big eyes or button nose or plump lips. I like your face because through it shines everything you are.

Anyhow, Nicole asked for selfies, and I’m providing selfies, well pictures of myself. I was percolating this post for a while – I like to do a week of outfits once in a while – but the confluence of Nicole’s post and the Edit Your Life episode kind of made it feel like a fitting time to do another in this series.

This is the outfits from the my first week of rehearsals. When I’m in rehearsal and tech, I plan my outfits out on Sunday for the week, so I don’t have to think about it in the morning. This week, I thought the weather would be warm and sunny, and well, even though March went out like a lamb, April came back in like a lion so not everything I wore was something I picked out on Sunday.

Monday, First Day of Rehearsal:

I forgot to take a picture at work because the first day was very busy, so here it is on the hanger in the bathroom. (I take my pictures at work because we don’t have a full length mirror at our house. I would like to change this, but there’s no good place to put/hang a full length mirror.) Wool& tank dress and a Eileen Fisher jacket. I also wore black leggings and tan ankle boots, my checked cap, and a scarf. I know no one wears scarves as accessories anymore, but I still love wearing them. Plus is was really cold that day. I wear this outfit every first day of rehearsal, kind of like a ritual uniform. I think the jacket makes it looks a little more business like – or at least what passes as business like in my world. I love that jacket – it goes with anything. I’ve worn it with sweatpants and managed not to look like I was wearing sweatpants.

Tuesday:

Blue Wool& dress (Sienna), Sweater from Uniqlo, puffer vest from Uniqlo, knit cap (present from a chorister twenty years ago – I didn’t like this hat when it was first given to me, but now I wear it all the time.), black leggings, blue boots. I love those boots.

Wednesday:

This was an outfit that I had picked out when I though it would be warmer, but it ended up being super cold, so I added the sweater and the hat. Cotton gauze Old Navy wide pants (bought last summer and love them so much – would wear them all the time if I could), striped long sleeve t-shirt from Duluth Trading Company, Zip up hoodie sweater from DKNY (I’ve had this sweater for twenty years, bought it at an outlet mall outside of Denver. For many years I didn’t wear it because it is quite short and would always hit me funny. But then I started wearing high waisted pants and suddenly this sweater is perfect!), hat from Duluth (last minute hat addition when I realized it was almost the same colour as the pants). Shoes are wool runners from Giesswein. I had a pair of Allbirds that I wore all the time, but the Allbirds no longer come in fun colours, so in my search for wool shoes, I found these. I find them more supportive than Allbirds, especially for the balls of my feet.

Thursday:

I’m wearing pants! It must be very cold if I’m wearing pants. I think my original outfit was a dress. Same green hat as on Tuesday. Striped shirt from H&M, bought years ago when I was pregnant and trying not to show. It’s not technically a maternity shirt, but it does have a very boxy cut. Uniqlo puffer vest. Pants are from Duluth Trading Company, the cotton version of the NoGa pants. They are very soft and stretchy and, yes, could probably pass for yoga pants. Shoes – red Giesswein runners. I liked the Giesswein shoes so much I ordered them in two colours.

Friday:

This was a rainy rainy day. This was again not the outfit I had planned to wear, but given the rainy weather, I did not want to wear a dress to work.
Black gap maternity long sleeve t-shirt (another maternity item that I still wear), Duluth overalls in a fox print. (These are the grown up version of the overalls that the 5 year old has.) Purple DKNY sweater (same as Wednesday.) Rain boots (I think they’re Bogs?). I’m so glad I work somewhere where I can wear overalls and rain boots to work.

Saturday:

Black and white cap (Also worn on Monday), Mushroom and gnome print shirt from Duluth Trading Company, Uniqlo vest (this is definitely in my “20% of my wardrobe worn 80% of the time” pile.), Red Wool& tank dress (Same as worn on Monday – I love the Wool& dresses because I can wear them several times a week and they can be styled so differently. Also I don’t need to wash them after every wear, so they are very easy.), black leggings, blue boots. I think I wore this same outfit in one of my outfits of the week post last fall.

Sunday: Day off. I don’t have a picture of Sunday – again, no full length mirror at home. I wore my blue tie dye sweat pants, a red tank top and a red plaid flannel. Clearly it was a day at home.

That’s it – What Diane wore in one week, the unexpectedly chilly Spring Edition. One thing I’ll say, as I look back on these photos, is that I genuinely like and feel comfortable in everything that I wore that week, and indeed most of my wardrobe. If I don’t feel comfortable in it, or feel “meh” about it, then it doesn’t belong in my closet. I think last year I wrote about my three style words, and they were Colourful, effortless, and playful. I still feel like that’s how I dress, “flattering” be damned.

Cool Bloggers Walking Club: unofficially The kids were on spring break last week, so I took the metro or rode my bike to work for most of the week. (When they are in school, I tend to drive since I have to drive to the bus stop anyway). So I had lots of walks to and from the Metro Station. I also went down to the Mall again with my Uncle and Mother- this time we walked to the MLK and FDR Memorials.

Snapshots from my commute – 7 walk to metro, 10 minute metro ride, 7 walk to work on the other side. I think this falls into the “every little bit counts” column of CBWC. Here are some very boring images from my commute.

Walk to park with kids on Easter Sunday while they biked/scootered. Cherry blossom season has passed into sakura-fubuki stage. Literally means “Cherry blossom snow storm” – it’s when the wind blows the blossoms off the trees and it makes a delightful snow of petals. The Japanese have many phrases for the various phases of cherry blossom season.

Walks around the block with my co-workers. There are these random swings. I always want to stop and swing, but never do. Some day.

Grateful For:

-A borrowed umbrella and the rain letting up just in time for me to walk home from the Metro.

-My mother’s visit.

-Shorts and t-shirt weather. Warm air in the evening.

-A car free day and the bike and Metro that made it possible.

-Lilac bushes in our backyard. They smell so lovely. Makes me take a pause to inhale. (I realize this is the third week in a row that I’ve written about a lovely smell… there’s something to that, maybe.)

-That I don’t have to wipe my kids’ butts anymore. Usually. We were at a restaurant and one kid had to go #2 and I was really grateful that I could just send her into the stall by herself. I will admit though, the universe laughed at me and that very night I was roused at midnight later that day because a child had a poop explosion in bed. But even still – I can’t remember the last time I had to clean up a poop mess, so I’m still sticking to being grateful for this.

-The Husband taking the kids away. Last week was spring break. The Husband worked from home most of the week and then took the kids away on an overnight with my mother. Our schools are also closed the Monday after Easter, so the Husband had TEN DAYS with the kids while I worked evenings and Saturdays. So grateful that he was holding it down on the home front. I think he deserves a month of hermit time after this.

Looking Forward To:

-Freakonomics Radio is doing a series where it looks at live theatre. The first episode is called “How is Live Theatre still Alive?“. Of course, as someone who works in live theatre/ opera, I am very much interested in this question. Opera is expensive, and sometimes I question my life choices and wonder if I’ll be able to do this until I retire. (Though honestly with everything going on in DC these days I’m wondering if I’ll be doing this next year…) I’m really excited to hear Freakonomics get into the nitty gritty of where the money in theatre comes from and where it goes.

-Tech! It’s tech this week! I’m a little nervous about this show – there are some very difficult sections of light cues to call. But I’m excited to be in the theatre, so see the work we’ve been doing in a rehearsal room on a taped floor with music stands and rehearsal cubes comes to life with sets and costumes and lighting. I’ve planned my clothes for the week. I have lots of leftovers/ meals in the fridge. I’m looking forward to running along the Potomac on my dinner break. I’m telling myself that I’m looking forward to going to bed without revenge bedtime procrastination – because if I tell myself then, maybe I’ll do it.

-I finally got a hold of someone who placed the 8 year old on a soccer team. I’m a little nervous because he’s not going to know anyone because he’ll be playing in a different part of town than his last team, but I’m excited that he’ll get to be out on the pitch again.

-Speaking of tech it also means a longer commute, so I’m looking forward to diving into a new audiobook. I’m almost done my audiobook so I need a new one since my commute to the theatre is longer than my commute to the rehearsal space. I generally like fast moving, gripping fiction for my tech week, something to keep me engaged when my brain is fried. Suggestions welcome!

What We Ate:

Monday: Eggplant and Pork stir fry with Udon noodles – The Husband cooked. I ate some leftovers when I got home and it was really delicious. I made myself a sweet potato and quinoa salad to eat at work and all week. Loosely based on this recipe from Pinch of Yum, but I didn’t have chickpeas so I threw in a can of cannelini beans with the quinoa.

Tuesday: Shrimp tacos. I wasn’t home that night, but I prepped the shrimp so the Husband cooked them and some chicken when he got home.

Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs. The 13 year old made dinner, including making the meatballs from scratch. I’m really proud of her- I pulled out the basic recipe from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, she and the Husband made a shopping list, and then he sent to the store with his credit card. She walked to the store and bought all the ingredients herself (she was really proud that she resisted the temptation to buy chips or candy – I’m proud of her too and I split a bag of Vicky’s Spicy Dill pickle chips with her later that evening as a celebration.). Then she came home and made dinner. I ate some when I got home from work and it wasn’t bad.

Thursday: The Husband took the kids out of town. I had leftover spaghetti and meat sauce when I got home from work.

Friday: Cabbage Soup. I made a big batch of kitchen sink cabbage soup on Thursday night after I got home from work – hopefully enough for a few meals during tech for me and for the family to reheat and eat one night while I’m working. Anyhow, I took a container to work to eat on Friday. Vegan.

Saturday: The rest of the family were camping to celebrate a friends’ birthday party. They had had some Thai food for lunch so I ate that for dinner when I got home from work at 9pm.

Sunday: Easter Dinner! We had a low key Easter. We went to 8:30 Mass, which to my surprise, was half in Bangla. Our church has masses in French, English, and Spanish because there is a large immigrant community in our congregation. On Easter Sunday, the 8:30am Mass was also in Bangla, which I wasn’t expecting, but which was actually a nice surprise. Half the homily and readings were in Bangla. There was also Bangla music a few times throughout the service, which made for a really fun change of pace. I loved seeing all the women coming to church dressed up in their saris on Easter Sunday – all jewel tones with gold trim, silken fabric wafting as they walked.

After Mass, we went out to brunch at Denny’s. We have a family tradition of going to IHOP of Denny’s or some diner for Easter brunch after church. Then we came home, looked for Easter Eggs and cleaned the house a little bit. After that, we went to the park with the two little kids – the 13 year old was in hermit mood and stayed home – the kids biked and scootered. We ended up running into some friends at the park. Then we came home and I cooked Easter dinner. After dinner, everyone cleaned up the kitchen and had showers and we finished out the evening by watching Bluey and eating chocolate pudding. Not too busy, but a good combination of activities, I think.
The Easter Menu: Ham (baked in Guinness with a brown sugar coating), marinated zucchini (this recipe, but I grilled the zucchini rather than fry it), broccoli quinoa salad, pull apart Challah rolls (I chose these over the Hawaiian roles because I like the texture better, even though they taste similar). For dessert, I made Smitten Kitchen’s Best Chocolate Pudding – I love this recipe because it is easy and fast and I almost always have the ingredients on hand so I can make it when I need a last minute family dessert that also feels special.

Hope you all have a great week!
Has Spring arrive yet for you? What is your “20%/ 80%” item in your closet? Do you have anything that you recently rediscovered in your closet? What’s the first meal you remember making and how old were you? What else should the 13 year old make?

Haikus for March 2025

Bitter winds blowing
In like a lion indeed.
Where is last week’s warmth?

Oh Hello, Robin!
You’ve come back, bringing sunshine
As snow melts away.

Cuddles with my kids,
moments of stillness and love.
The eye of the storm.

Robins hop and sing,
Joyfully welcome spring,
Dancing like my heart.

She trails green branches
A silk train? a dragon’s tail?
Wings so she can fly?

March blows cold then hot.
What do I wear for my date
with this fickle friend?

You have arrived home,
Yet you still sit in the car.
Because it’s quiet here.

Despite my short list,
All the pretty shiny things
End up in my cart.

These gnarled tree branches
push forth blossoms each spring –
New growth from the old.

Is the weather fickle where you are?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Back to work and Six Things Sunday

I’m back in rehearsal for a show. I’m lukewarm on the show, but I’m having a really good time with the people I’m working with. I think if I got to choose, I’d rather work with good people than on good opera. It reminds me of something that I once read Nicole Kidman say where she picks projects based on the director rather than the material because she has very little control over what the final film will be like, so she prioritizes having a fulfilling working experience. All to say, I’m glad to be back in the rehearsal room creating opera with people with whom I look forward to seeing every day. At the same time, I’m feeling a little tapped right now. I really don’t know how people managed to work full time and take care of life at the same time. The good news is I’ve signed off on our taxes, so that pressing issue is finished. But all the little life admin stuff – registration, calendar checking, decluttering, organizing – all that has fallen by the wayside.

To be honest, though, when I look at my day, I don’t think my growing life admin list is because I don’t have the time to do these things. There is always time, right? It’s just what does my brain feel up to in those bits of time when I’m not at work or trying to get the kids fed and out the door? It certainly isn’t life admin. Take for example, sleep. I always tell myself that I will just go straight to bed when I come home late at night after a rehearsal, but lately I’ve been coming home, eating all the snacks and scrolling until 1am. I’m not even doing things that fill my bucket like reading or journaling or scrolling. Or really, I should just be sleeping. And then it makes the morning come too soon and I’m dragging. It’s kind of a bummer habit I need to get out of.

Another case in point, this was originally going to be a five thing Friday brain dump, but now it is a Six on a Sunday post because I decided to scroll rather than blog on Friday night. Which, I know I feel better writing than scrolling, but I just find it hard to find the motivation and get back into a rhythm when I have to be at work 8 or 9 hours a day.

Three Bummer Things:
-An awful commute. One day, I forgot my phone at home, so after school drop off, I went home to get it and decided to take the “short” way to work. The “short” way is the Google Maps way. It is usually shorter, but it goes through a busy area, so the route can also be not so short. (My usual way to work takes 17 minutes, and it is down a parkway so it is much more predictable. The “short” way takes 15 minutes, which, now that I’ve typed that out, I find myself thinking, “Do those two minutes really matter?” I guess in my head one is “15 minutes” and one is “almost 20 minutes.”). Anyhow, the “short” was not short that day – there was more traffic than usual, and I ended up being stuck behind a big white truck that moved slowly. I think that can be a metaphor for our times – Stuck behind a big white truck and unable to see what is ahead. Anyhow, I finally got to work, but since, in an effort to get out from behind that big white truck, I came at our parking lot in a different direction than I was used to and I hit an unseen small bit of fencing pole that was poking up from the ground. There is now a huge dent/scratch in the car. UGH! An excellent way to end a hideous commute. I’ve refrained from taking the “faster” route since then.

-Not being able to find Cadbury mini eggs anywhere. C’mon, World! It’s still a week before Easter- why is EVERYWHERE out of these?

-The soccer league I signed the eight year old up for still hasn’t put him on a team, and the season started three weeks ago. I’ve written and called and all I get is that they are still working on it. I would normally just ask for my money back, but the 8 year old really wants to play soccer this spring. The issue is that the team he played on last fall was disbanded because they couldn’t find a coach. I feel a little bit of guilt on this issue because 1) I did sign him up a month after registration opened (but still three weeks before the season), and 2) I didn’t volunteer to coach when they asked me. I work a lot of Saturdays so coaching would have been tough, but I could have coached practices.

Three Delightful things:

– Friday’s swim lessons- two things delightful: 1) the five year old moved up one swim level and I was able to get her in the next class. Registering for county swim class is a little like Hunger Games here, so I was amazed that I could get her into the class. And 2) I ran into a mom friend at the pool who I hadn’t seen in over a year. It was nice to catch up and we’ve made plans to make plans in May after my show closes.

-organizing my pencil pouch and post it box. Getting rid of all the writing implements that I don’t use and having only the things I know and love and find useful in my pencil pouch.

Some day I will write a super geeky post about all my favorite office supplies I use for work.

-The clean smell of laundry coming from the dryer vents. As I was walking up the front walk late one night after work, the air smelled of clean clothes and soap- our dryer vents to the front of the house. I always love the smell of clean laundry coming from a dryer vent. Even when I’m out on a walk, and I smell warm laundry air from a random house, I inhale and feel so peaceful.

– One bonus thing ( which will make it Seven for Sunday, even though it’s now Monday)- the eight year old doing laundry. He has a favorite outfit, and one day we came home to laundry going. In the machine was a single pair of pants and a single shirt. Delight at him doing his own laundry co-existed with annoyance that he did a whole cycle for two items of clothing. It was a teaching moment for sure.

Grateful For:

-Group efforts to move a desk. Last fall, I realized that we had 11 stage managers coming in this spring and only 10 desks. But Fall 2024 Diane said to herself, “I’ll worry about that later” Welp a week and half ago “later” came and I realized that I would have to figure out how to get an 11th desk into the Stage Management Office. I’m really grateful for my work colleagues who helped me find a desk and rearrange the office to make room for the desk (while at the same time doing a major purge and decluttering of our space.). Also – the new desk is kind of small and doesn’t have drawers, so one of my co-workers made a drawer:

-People who plant flowers in their yards, bringing colour and beauty to my walks around the neighborhood. The tulips are coming out in full vibrant force and I love it.

-An evening at home. They will be few and far between in April, so I’m grateful for the few evenings I do get to come home before bedtime.

-The Husband for covering the evenings and the day the kids were off school.

-Past me for freezing soup. That feeling of panic and despair when I realize there is nothing in the fridge to take for lunch. Then the feeling of relief and excitement when I realize there is soup from January frozen in pint sized mason jars, ready to be tossed into my lunchbox and taken to work for lunch.

– My coworker who put air in my bike tires. My bike has been sitting at work for the past six months. I rode it to work one day and then for whatever reason did ‘t ride it home. And then it was winter. But now it is nice enough for me to bike again so 8’m looking forward to getting on the Ike again, only the tires were flat. I could bring my pump fr9m home, but my coworker said she had an electric pump in her car, so she pumped up my tires for me, Yay!

-Cool Blogger’s Walking Club, thanks to Elisabeth. I haven’t really officially declared participation because I don’t like failing at things I vow to do publicly, and this month is kind of optimal month for me to fail at walking every day. But knowing that CBWC is happening is a little bit of extra motivation to walk. Last week, my walks were mostly a quick walk around the block on my dinner break, or a walk to get coffee before rehearsal. A couple times, I embraced the “9pm post kids in bed” walk and walked loops around my block after dark. One time I even convinced the 13 year old to come on one of those late night walks. One day I walked one loop around the running track at school after drop off. Another day I meant to walk after I dropped the kids at the bus, but then I crossed paths with a fellow parent friend who used to work for USAID and I figured catching up with him was more important than a walk. (Though I guess I could have suggested that he walk with me.) And then today my uncle and mother are in town and we went down to the Mall and walked from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Air and Space Museum – DC is such a pretty city to walk in.

Looking Forward To:
-Kielbasa. The oldest and I stopped at The Kielbasa factory on Sunday. It’s a small mom and pop kind of place in a strip mall, just wide enough for one line of people to the deli/kielbasa case and one line of people at the cash register. We brought home three different kinds of Kielbasa. So looking forward to eating it. (Note – we did eat it, and it was delicious. I still have a tub of sauerkraut in the fridge, though. Some nights I come home and just eat that out of the container, it’s so good.)

-Spring Break. This coming up week is Spring Break. I have to work, so I’m not going anywhere, but the Husband is taking the kids away on an overnight. I’ll have the house blissfully quiet to myself for 36 hours or so. Of course I have to work for 20 of those hours, and sleep for 7 of those hours, so it’s not a wide swath of alone time. But it’s something. Certainly more than the Husband is getting.

-Final meeting of my women’s Lenten group – This also already happened, and it was such a wonderful meeting. They are talking about making this into a monthly meet up, which I would love. Would also give me time to actually finish the Lenten readings. I do think they are meaningful all year round, not just at Lent.

-Using my new Boba straw. We went for boba tonight and we got a free gift with our order! A reusable boba straw. I’ve been wanting one for a while now and I’m so excited to get to use it!

What We Ate (I seem to have two weeks of meals to account for…):
Monday: Butter pasta and green beans. I would like for the 13 year old to help with dinner more, so I asked her to make dinner one night this week. Monday seemed like a good choice since there wasn’t any school anyway. She wanted to make butter pasta, which in my mind is very similar to the blue box of mac n cheese she frequently makes. I asked if she had a recipe and she said, “I was going to cook the pasta and add butter until it looked good.” I understand there was also copious amounts of parmesan cheese as well. I didn’t get any because it was all gone by the time I got home from work. So I guess that’s good? The green beans were take out from our favorite dumpling restaurant. (On the plus side, even though there was no butter pasta left for me, the family did save me dumplings and noodles from the dumpling place.)

Tuesday: Middle School Tacos. I found the name of this recipe to be hilarious, and these were legit delicious. This is the classics taco in the hard shell with sour cream, ice berg lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Funny story – I wrote “lettuce” on the grocery list, and the Husband asked, “What kind of lettuce?” and I said, “Taco lettuce” and he came home with a cabbage. Because every other taco Tuesday we’ve had cabbage with our tacos. But middle school tacos demand iceberg lettuce. So the Husband brought home an head of iceberg lettuce which, not to be a snob, but I don’t remember the last time we had ice berg lettuce. But once we tasted the tacos, we all agreed, ice berg lettuce was the right and only choice.

Wednesday: Waffles and eggs. The Husband cooked because I worked late.

Thursday: Tortilla soup from last week, taken from the freezer.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made) and National Treasure. I hadn’t seen all of National Treasure before – what a fun movie. Plot holes galore, but very entertaining nonetheless.

Saturday: The kids had pizza at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. The Husband had take out. Not sure what the 13 year old ate. I ate last week’s salmon and miso rice leftovers from the fridge when I got home from work.

Sunday: Chicken salad and apple slices. Our typical snack/scrounge Sunday dinner. I also had a beet and cucumber salad – diced raw beets, diced cucumber, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper, and dill. It was a tasty salad. We have some beets to use up from our friend’s CSA – I might packed this salad for many lunches this week.

Monday: White Bean Parmesan Soup. From the freezer. I can’t remember when I originally made it. Tasty and hearty.

Tuesday: Turkey Tacos – The Husband cooked since I was at work.

Wednesday: Tortellini and Kielbasa. I had leftovers at work, but when I came home there was a two inch piece of Kielbasa on the counter that the family had left for me.

Thursday: Dinner out with a friend at a local Mexican restaurant. I had ceviche and a horchata.

Friday: Pizza (ordered out) and movie night. They watched one of the Star Wars movies. I had the beet and cucumber salad at work, adding chickpeas for bulk.

Saturday: Kielbasa, green beans, and pan fried gnocchi. The Husband cooked and I think sometimes his strategy is “Put yummy food on the table and get it out of the fridge.” It was still tasty. My mother and uncle arrived later that evening, so I boiled some dumplings for them.

Sunday: Hot Pot. My uncle and mother are visiting so we went to our favorite hot pot place. I tried a new to me spicy broth – it was really tasty, but I don’t think I want all my food to be spicy, so I might not order it again. We really like this hot pot place – it’s our go to restaurant when we have visitors from out of town because it feels kind of special and it can accommodate a variety of diets.

Hope you have a sunny week!
Do you have a go to restaurant where you take guests when they come visit? Are you participating in the Cool Blogger’s Walking Club? If you blog, do you have a rhythm or routine to writing?

Books Read, March 2025

I read more books on audio than in print last month. I guess that meant I did a lot of walking and driving and tedious house chores in March.

The Door to Door Bookstore by Carsten Sebastian Henn, translated by Melody Shaw, read by Raphael Corkhill -Karl Kollhoff works at a bookstore, delivering books to book lovers who can’t make it to the bookstore. Along the way he is befriended by a 9 year old girl. When the owner of the bookstore dies and his daughter takes over, Karl’s job is in danger. This book was such a bookish comfort read. Slight and predictable, but charming nonetheless, it’s one of those books clearly written by someone who loves to read. Karl gives all of his customers literary nick names and spends time choosing just the right book for them to read. I loved all the literary references sprinkled throughout -it always makes me feel smart to get literary references in books.

My Name is Phillipa by Phillipa Ryder, read by Jackie Meloche– Memoir of a trans woman who grew up as a boy in 1960s Ireland, got married, became a father, and then in her 30s discovered a community of LGBTQ+ people who helped her embrace who she really was. Ryder writes of her journey to transition, including how her wife and daughter handled her transition. Remarkably drama free, which I think is the point. At the core, Phillipa Ryder’s story isn’t any different from anyone else’s story of falling in love with someone and then wondering how to make life work when things change. My one big complaint was that the audiobook narrator did not have an Irish accent. I did feel kind of cheated on that score.

The Worst Duke Ever by Lisa Berne – This book tells about penniless Jane Kent, who discovers that she is the long lost illegitimate granddaughter of the high born Penhallow family (the family is the basis of this romance series). She is taken in by the Penhallows and soon meets the neighboring Duke of Radcliffe and his precocious son. I picked up this book because the blurb described the Duke of Radcliffe as just wanting to stay home and tend to his pigs. I was kind of ready for a non-alpha male romantic hero, and a Duke who wanted to stay home and tend to his pigs seemed to fit that bill. But, friends, this book was so dull. The pigs and pugs and kids were cute, but there was no real conflict or romantic tension to the story. Jane and the Duke liked each other from the start – I do like when the main character like each other, but there was no real reason they couldn’t be together. The whole thing was just… pleasant. Which is fine, but I want a bit of angst in my romance novels. Oh well. If you like cute animal antic, though, you might like this book more than I did.

Shakespeare: the Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendon O’Hea, read by Barbara Flynn, Brendon O’Hea and Judi Dench – I loved this book. Love, love, loved it. It’s basically Dench and O’Hea sitting around talking about theatre life and Shakespeare. Listening to them chatter is like being invited over for tea and stories – it’s like a combination of juicy memoir and English seminar. Dench herself doesn’t narrate, but she does read Shakespeare passages that begin each chapter, and Barbara Flynn sounds so much like Judi Dench. As an audiobook bonus, though, there is a recording of a conversation between O’Hea and Dench and they squabble like two crotchety old geese and it’s delightful. Dench has so many fascinating things to say about Shakespeare, about how to say a line, about how she develops characters, about how Shakespeare crafted a story, crafted people onstage, crafted language. There were moments when I gasped at an insight she had about a play that I thought I knew very well. So many good quotes in the book. At one point, she says that she prefers theatre over film because in theatre, you have a chance every night to do better. Oh another of my favorite quotes was about being a professional even when you’re young and nervous. “Everyone’s nervous,” she says, “It’s not your business to make more of it.” Man I wish someone would embroider that on a pillow and hand it to every singer I know. Highly recommend if you like Shakespeare. I listened to this book, but I would also have loved to have a hard copy so I could highlight passages.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers– if you are looking for a 600+ page book by a female person of colour, this might fit the bill. This novel tells the story of Ailey Garfield, growing up in Brooklyn, but spending summers in the small town in Georgia where her ancestors were cheated out of their land and kept as slaves. Concurrently, the story of those ancestors unfold, telling about how Indigenous, White, and Black people were irrevocably intertwined. The generational aspect of the story reminded me a little of Homegoing, with more in depth story lines. I will say two thirds of the book was a well written, but kind of a meandering plot as Ailey tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life. But once she goes to college and decides to study history, I thought the story really took off, with Ailey becoming quite a page turner. Interestingly, I don’t read a lot of long books, but three of the 600+ page reads I’ve read have been set in academia with parallel past and present story lines. – this one, The Weight of Ink, and Possession. They were all very good books – academic research is more exciting that I would have thought.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix read by Bahni Turpin – This novel tells the story of Patricia Campbell, mother of two, husband to a prominent physiatrist, true-crime bookclub member. When a handsome neighbor moves to their small town, eyebrows and questions are raised. I thought this book was quite fun for the first half, gory and frustrating for the second half, and then it went off the rails at the end. But then again, I guess one would be hard put to find a vampire novel that doesn’t go off the rails at some point if you want the vampire dead. Horror novels are not at all my usual fare, so I can’t say if this was a good horror novel. I’m not sure where I got the suggestion from – perhaps it was 85% the fact that I enjoy Bahni Turpin as an audiobook narrator. The blurb calls it: “Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula“. Hmmmm… I guess there’s a lot of truth in that. There is a satirical twist to it, and I laughed out loud a lot. But I also got grossed out a lot, though I’m pretty sensitive to squicky things in books.

Okay, here is where I check my biases, though. Because Bahni Turpin reads this book, I was convinced that the book was about a group of black women. It is not. Also because of the way Hendrix writes about the experience of being a stay at home mom with such weary humour, I assumed Hendrix was a female. He is not. I kind of felt a little cheated that I was reading a book by a White male. Not sure how to unpack that one. Women don’t hold a monopoly at writing astute portraits of suburban moms, of course, but I do feel a little duped. This is why I shouldn’t google author’s until after I’ve read their book.

On my Proverbial Night Stand:
Master, Slave, Husband, Wife by Ilyon Woo – sshhhhh… don’t tell, this book was due back at the library two weeks ago, but I’m need to finish it, so I’m just ignoring those emails from the library.

Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur – the memoirs of a death doula.

The Earl Who Isn’t by Courtney Milan – Wedgeford Trails, book 3. I’m a sucker for historical romances featuring Asian characters. And Milan writes such smart books.

What was your favorite read in March? Have you ever googled an author and been disappointed? Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?