Category: NaBloPoWriMo 2024

NaBloPoMo 2024 thoughts and Bonus time with a kid

I mentioned last post that I was a little hesitant to participate in NaBloPoMo, but now that it’s over, I’m glad I tried to post as much as possible during the month of November. A few thoughts I had about NaBloPoMo 2024, my first attempt at posting every day (though it didn’t turn out to be every day):

-I was really excited by how many people participated this year, and I’m really glad I was introduced to some new blogs and writers. Though I didn’t get to comment as much as a I would have liked, I loved what a wide variety of things that people wrote about. I think my favorite thing about NaBloPoMo as a reader is seeing all the different ways people use blogs as creative outlets.

-I liked the challenge of writing as much as possible, but I don’t know that I liked posting un-polished writing. I’m not a fast writer, and I find my writing needs a lot of editing. I think what I missed the most during NaBloPoMo was being able to take time to craft posts. Posting things that I don’t get to marinate on a for a while felt a little rushed to me. I actually have a couple of ideas that I wanted to write about and drafted, but didn’t publish because I wanted to be able to think about them a bit more. As a result, I think my posts were more pedestrian. Which I think is fine, but I do like to have a mix of “What’s gong on in my life” and “What’s going on in my head” posts, and I think this month it was more the former than the latter, and if I’m honest, I don’t always think “What’s going on in my life” is very interesting for anyone except future me looking back. At any rate, it’s probably a good exercise for me to write quickly and more impulsively because I tend to over think things, but writing quickly doesn’t come easy.

-On the other hand, I now have a bunch of things in my “drafts” folder that I can work on a post next year when I have a break from opera and my schedule opens up a little bit. Also – I never got to the Ask Me Anything posts, and I’m actually really excited to answer the questions that people asked, so definitely look for that in the future.

-There were some posts, namely the “What I wore” and the Friday Haikus, that were easy to put together because I gathered the content all week. I used to post haikus more regularly, but have fallen out of the habit. I think I’d like to try to make that a regular post again.

-Would I do it again? I don’t know – November is always a super busy month for me at work. I didn’t get to read as much, and I didn’t journal at. all. during November. I really miss having the time to do those things. I’ve thought about maybe tackling a NaBloWriMo challenge during a month when I have a lighter work schedule, where I would have time to really write contemplatively. I fully admit there was a bit of FOMO that led me to take up the challenge, and I’m not sure if that is healthy for me. If I’m going to do it, I need to figure out what it does for me.

For those of you who are new to me via NaBloPoMo, I’m so glad you’ve visited my corner of the internet! I hope I can continue to read your words and/or you’ll continue to read mine.

In other news, another calendar page has turned and it’s the last month of 2024. Eeep! When did that happen? And since we have a three month calendar on our wall, I can see February. Which is actually kind of nice because it is pretty empty right now.

I’ve had hopes of doing some productive life admin the past couple of days since yesterday was a free day and today I didn’t start rehearsal until noon, but I’ve been unexpectedly on kid duty; the four year old’s day care is closed because the HVAC system is not working and it is too cold for the center to operate without heat. Part of me is irked by the whole thing, part of me is thankful that it’s finally gotten cold… because global warming, y’all.

Anyhow, the 5 year old not being in school has been unexpected. I mean the kid hasn’t been in school for a week, what with the Thanksgiving holiday and all. The HVAC system at the school has been in need of repair for several weeks now – actually probably several decades, let’s be honest – and there are space heaters, but my guess is that the space heaters aren’t enough to counter the center being empty for the holiday weekend. There is a lot of chatter on the parent’s WhatsApp group – the situation seems long and complicated and responsibility for the HVAC system is not clear cut. I’ve had to silence the notifications on the WhatApp group because it was getting to be too too much for me, all the BIG FEELINGS and ANGER. I get that parents are upset, I really do, but the vitriol is draining. I’m having flashbacks to March of 2020 when we we suddenly had the day care rug pulled out from under us. But I’m feeling a kind of zen settle over me about the current situation – we survived COVID, we can survive a broken HVAC system. Or we’ll pivot and figure something else out. I don’t know… maybe I’m naive. I think that a child care crisis is something that we’re shockingly getting used to. And our family is lucky that we can indeed work things out.

Luckily I was off work yesterday. I had been planning to get some life admin done, but instead I took the five year old and her friend for the day. We went to the nature center, to see the holiday train display at the Botanical Gardens, and also to the library. Then I invited a friend, who’s kid is also in the 5 year old’s class, over for a playdate and chat. There’s a silver lining if there ever was one – I’ve been missing chatting with friends, and I didn’t think we’d get to see any holiday displays what with the intense opera schedule these past few weeks. I was lucky that the daycare closure was merely inconvenient and that it gave me an excuse to do some of the things I hadn’t been finding time to do.

Trains!

Today, was day two of preschool being closed. I had rehearsal, so I just brought the 4 year old along. She was actually pretty excited to come along and packed herself a bag with Magnaformers, colouring books, crayons, and stickers. Of all my kids, she is the most energetic, so I was really surprised she sat quietly through three hours of rehearsal – she just coloured and played by herself and watched the singers work.

Rehearsal buddy.

I feel lucky that I work somewhere where no one bats an eye if I bring a five year old to rehearsal. Everyone was actually really happy to see her. The director offered to put her in the show. But you know, two kids in operas in one fall is enough for us. The whole thing made me think, though – zooming out… I think when I started out in the business, I would never have thought to bring my kid to rehearsal because I had no childcare coverage for that day. And I do get that there are jobs where it wouldn’t be okay to bring your kid. But… maybe not as many as one would think? Looking at the big picture here – what is the real cost of giving working caregivers flexibility when they need it, and welcoming a child into the office in a pinch? Perhaps affording them a bit of leeway to handle caregiving duties allows them to mentally be more present to do their job. I think having to think about who is going to care for your child while you work is a huge mental load to take on. Perhaps it’s better in the long run to give people the time and space they need to function as a caregiver and to cover for them, rather than have people distracted and stressed out about how they are going to do it all. Maybe I would think differently if I had a job that had benefits and PTO, though…

So fingers crossed that the preschool will be warm enough for the 5 year old to go to school tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing before I sign off – I was browsing through books on Libby when I came across this version of Anne of Avonlea….

What the what???? I have no idea who that woman on the cover is, but is sure as shucks is not Anne Shirley. How do people even let things like this happen? It’s as if someone was like, “Oh well, here’s a vaguely period looking damsel looking pouty. That’ll do.” Have they even read the book?

Hope you’re staying cozy wherever you are!

Thanksgiving 2024 + more gratitudes – NaBloPoMo 2024, #21

It was a quiet, low key Thanksgiving – which suited me just fine, as it was the one day off sandwiched between days of rehearsals. Wednesday night I took the 12 year old and her friend to see Wicked. I don’t go to see many movies and we almost didn’t get to go because I didn’t realize that these days you have to buy movie tickets in advance. Where are the days when you just went up to the ticket window and said, “Three please for the 5:30 showing of Wicked.”? Anyhow, there were no good seats left at our first choice movie theatre and time, so we ended up at a different theatre, but it was fine.

I ate lots of popcorn and drank lots of Sprite – probably too much because I ended up having to go pee right before the end of the movie and I missed the last minute of “Defying Gravity.” Wump Wump. The movie was gorgeous and very entertaining, but also quite long. I think there’s something in movies that demands more detail in story-telling. I was wondering how they make a 2.5 hour musical into a five hour movie, and I think it’s all about drawing out the story-telling into minute details and gestures that you don’t need in the theatre. It’s such a different method of story-telling.

Thanksgiving day, the Husband set up a TV in the kitchen so that we could watch the Macy’s Day Parade while making sausage balls. It’s our Thanksgiving Day tradition to watch the Macy’s Day Parade and the Husband noticed that I sometimes missed the Parade because I was in the kitchen cooking, so he set up the TV in the kitchen so we could all be together.

I had already done a lot of prep, but I still had to finish the buns, the turkey, masked potatoes, and steam the broccoli. It was feeling like a lot, so I made a little spreadsheet so that I could map out the rest of the day. At work we call this making a train schedule, and it helps me feel less panicked about the rest of the day when I see it mapped out:

After the Parade, we watched the Westminster Dog Show, as we always do. For the first time, a pug won best in show – how awesome is that? By the end of the dog show, everyone was getting a little stir crazy, so I took the two little kids out for a bike ride. We always need a bit of outdoor time at some point before we eat on Thanksgiving day – sometimes I forget and everyone goes bonkers by the time the food is ready, so we need to remember to plan this outdoor time into the day.

A damp, chilly, perfect fall day.

We got home and I started to carry out the cooking plan. One thing I forgot to figure into the plan was time to carve the turkey, so we didn’t actually sit down until 3:45pm. We had one guest for dinner – a work colleague who was new to town and wasn’t able to go home for Thanksgiving. He was a good sport to come over to the chaos of dinner at our house. Our kids can be super social and ask lots of questions and have a lack of table manners. After dinner we played Castle Panic, a fun cooperative board game which involves protecting your castle from trolls and goblins and orcs. We managed to win with one castle tower standing. I highly recommend Castle Panic as a fun family board game that doesn’t get competitive. After our guest left, the kids got into pjs and we watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving menu 2024:
-Our traditional Thanksgiving morning project – Sausage balls, a tasty combination of sausage, cheddar cheese and Bisquick. We snack on these all day and they become breakfast and lunch on Thanksgiving day.
-Because we were having a guest, I put out some snacky appetizers: cheese and crackers and crudité with homemade blue cheese sauce (Greek yogurt, lemon, grated garlic, and blue cheese crumbles)
The main meal:
-Turkey – spatchocked, buttermilk brined, recipe from the New York Times. I think I will always spatchcock my turkey. The 12 lb turkey cooked in 75 minutes and I don’t need to stuff it.
-Steamed broccoli – a little plain, but this is how the kids like it.
-Cranberry sauce – made from the recipe off the bag, with some orange zest thrown in.
–Sweet Potato Buttermilk Rolls , also from the New York Times – I don’t think I love these/didn’t make them quite right. In an attempt to make them ahead of time, I did two slow rises in the fridge and they tasted a little fermented. I also think I should have left them in the oven a bit longer because they were almost too soft.
-Spring Mix Salad – salad green, apples, pecans, parmesan, cherry tomatoes. Just a basic salad because I didn’t think there was enough green in the meal.
-Mashed Potatoes – basic – potatoes, olive oil, butter, half and half, and sour cream. I wasn’t originally going to make these, but then I made a huge batch of gravy and we had a guest coming over, and I thought, “It doesn’t feel like a proper Thanksgiving dinner without potatoes.” So the Husband went out that afternoon and got some potatoes.
-Gravy – I made this ahead of time. It was a little bland. Need to figure out how to pump up the “meaty” taste.
-Rainbow Jello “Salad” – Recipe from my mother in law’s recipe box – we make it every holiday meal. A layer of Jello mixed with sour cream to make it pastel colour and then a layer of Jello made as normal. It makes for a really pretty dessert. Or a salad, depending on where you’re from.
-Pumpkin Pie- recipe from the Tartine cookbook, with an extra egg yolk for a firmer custard.
–Pecan Slab Pie – (another NYTimes recipe) – This ended up more like a bar cookie than a pie. It was still tasty, just not what I expected. Also – I miss having an apple pie. Now I know – I’ll always want and apple pie.

It was a lovely spread – I didn’t take any photos, though, so you’ll just have to believe me!

I already wrote an entire post about how I’m grateful for the Husband, and I thought I’d write about a few more people for whom I’m so thankful, to round out this month:

-Everyone who participated in NaBloPoMo 2024, by reading, by posting, by commenting here and around the interwebs. Thanks to San for organizing this. NaBloPoMo came at a really busy time for me, and I wasn’t sure if I should participate, but I’m glad I did. Ultimately, I only wrote 21 posts (I’m counting this one because it’s still November somewhere…) , but I think that’s actually pretty good for how full my month was. What I really loved was how people shared their lives in both their posts and in their comments and the sense of connection that comes across the screen.

– My grandparents, for so many things, but I think one of the biggest things is that they worked with my parents to set aside enough money that I graduated debt-free from college. The way they think about the future and the next generations was such a gift.

-My parents, who left home, emigrated to another country and have always been supportive of me.

– All the stage managers who worked with me, taught me, and mentored me through the years. Even though one can go to school to get a degree in stage management, I mostly figured out how to do my job through many internship, and just by watching other people do it, and by doing it myself, making mistakes, and figuring it out. When I first started out, I did a couple of internships and I was lucky to work under some really amazing stage managers – they were precise and detailed and had really high standards. I see now, after twenty years, that they were also wonderfully human people with insecurities and quirks. I think about these mentors every day I’m working.

-My kids. They are maddening and wonderful all at the same time. They help me think about what it means to be a good human – both in terms of who I want them to be and who I want to be for them. They have such capacities for joy and thoughtfulness. I know it’s a cliche, but seeing the world through them has made me a better person.

Well that’s the end of NaBloPoMo 2024- I didn’t get to all the posts that I had planned to write; I also wrote a couple posts I hadn’t planned on writing. I didn’t get around to answering the Ask Me Anything questions this month, but I still plan to do that in December for sure. If anyone still wants to submit Ask Me Anything questions via this link, I’m happy to answer them!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and here is wishing everyone a joyful December.

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Thanksgiving meal prep and Thankful for…- NaBloPoMo #19

I thought I’d keep Thanksgiving dinner simple this year since it’s just us, but even still there are several dishes with multiple steps and degrees of prep so it still feels like a project meal. Last night I made the pie filling for the pecan pie, made the pie dough, turned the turkey in the brine, roasted the turkey bones for gravy, and made the cranberry sauce.

Today I had to go to rehearsal from 10am – 2pm. Right now I’m triaging the rainbow Jell-O situation, I shaped the rolls and they are doing a slow rise in the fridge, and I’m making turkey stock (step two in gravy). We’re going to go see Wicked this evening, and hopefully I’ll make the two pies tonight. It seems like a lot when I write it out, but I like project recipes that I can break down into steps where I do one step every so often – it makes thing seem more doable.

Because it’s Thanksgiving week, I thought I’d give a big shout out to one of the biggest things I’m grateful for – the Husband.

Reasons that I’m thankful for the Husband:

  • He’s always thinking of how to make things better.
  • He always finds time to cuddle with the kids and listen to them when they are sad.
  • He buys me wasabi peas and dill pickle chips.
  • He is really nice to my parents, even when they make life complicated.
  • He talks to contractors.
  • He handles buying the technology items for the family.
  • He grows beautiful plants in our garden.
  • He returns my library books for me.
  • He puts up with my crazy opera/work schedule.
  • He is the lead parent when I’m on that crazy opera/work schedule.
  • He takes time off work to take care of things when I can’t.
  • He does the laundry 97% of the time.
  • He thinks about logistics and the reality of a situation when I am being impractical.
  • He is not squeamish about buying period products.
  • He is a great father and goes to all the parent teacher conferences that he can.
  • He tucks the covers back around me when he gets up in the morning before me.

There’s lists and lists more that I could say on the topic, of course, but that’s a start.

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends. Even if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, here’s wishing you many things to be thankful for.

Who are you grateful for?

I’m writing this post as part of NaBloPoMo – click on the icon below to see who else if participating. You can also leave me questions for an upcoming “Ask me Anything” post via this link. Happy reading and writing everyone!

Weekly recap and other gratitudes- NaBloPoMo #18

It’s been a wild weekend in my opera world. I’m still processing, so perhaps I’ll give the run down next week. I’ve fallen off the NaBloPoMo routine this weekend because it’s been busy, so here’s kind of a catch all post. I haven’t had a proper weekly recap post in a while, so I thought I’d write some of the random things that have gone on this week:

– I did the supertitles for a voice recital last week. It was a really fun program, though the second song set was not performed in the order I was given, so that caused a bit of panic, but I was able to catch up and get the right translation slides in place. Also – fun story – the artists added a song the day before the recital and the pianist sent me the music and text so I could make slides.
“Sure, no problem. I’ll do it tonight.” I wrote in response.
“Thank you!” he replied. “Do you drink wine? :)”
“I don’t actually,” I wrote, “But I do eat chocolate.” Which, normally, I don’t make gratuitous grabs for chocolate, but I figured, why not?
Well the pianist brought me three bags of those Lindt chocolate balls. I thought that was super kind.
The coda to that story. A few days later, I noticed the five year old had chocolate peppermint breath. I didn’t think anything about it until I saw an empty bag of Lindt peppermint truffles on the kitchen floor. The sneaky kid had eaten an entire bag by herself. There were tears and sad faces. I can’t tell if I was more upset that she snuck chocolate, or that I didn’t get to eat my peppermint chocolates.
Oh, also during the recital, the singer sang a John Denver song, Perhaps Love, which was a little unusual, but this line made my heart contract every time he got to it:

-Friday I had the day off, and it coincided with the Thankgiving party at the 7 year old’s class. I was on the fence about going – there seems to be many demands on a parent’s time from the school, and it was my one day off. I will admit I am not the most involved parent – I don’t PTA, I don’t Room Parent, I didn’t make it to Parent-Teacher conferences this fall. But I figured it makes the 7 year old happy when I show up, so I can do it a couple times a year. I signed up to bring an activity. After some late night googling, I decided to bring in decorative gourd bowling. I bought several decorative gourds and 12 bottles of water. I put food colouring in the water bottles – red, orange, and yellow, for some fall flavor. And that was it. I think the whole thing cost $15. At the school, I set up the water bottle like bowling pins and let the kids bowl with the decorative gourds. It was surprisingly popular for the amount of effort I put into it. Maybe not so surprising, though. I mean what kid wouldn’t want to throw produce at things? The fun thing, then, was when the bowling started getting a little out of hand, I took the 7 year old and sprung him out of school early and we went home. It just feels fun to be able to leave school early on a Friday afternoon.

=And then that night we went to a middle school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was a lot of fun. The weekend before we had gone to see A Year with Frog and Toad at the high school. Between those two productions, I’m realizing what an awesome thing school drama productions are. First of all, it’s a low key way to take my own kids to the theatre and that form of story-telling. And also, I love the sense of community- we had friends who were involved in both productions and it’s great to be able to support them.

-I haven’t written a dinner post lately, and that’s because I haven’t been home for dinner very much these past few weeks. One morning, I was packing all the snacks and food for everyone for the day and I think I packed more food to be eaten on the go than at home. I packed:

  • Three lunches (me, the seven year old, the four year old)
  • Two dinners (me and the seven year old since we both ahd a show that night)
  • Four snacks – two for the seven year old (one for school and one for the evening at the theatre), one for me, one for the 12 year old who had rehearsal that evening.

It seemed like a lot of portable food to pack for one day. Anyhow, the Husband has been making the majority of dinners this month. A few good dinners that I made, which I want to remember for the future:

  • Cornmeal waffles from the King Arthur Baking cookbook. These were savory and slightly spicy. The recipe suggested we top it with queso, which I might try next time. I actually mixed the dry ingredients ahead of time and the Husband did the rest when he got home.
  • Instant pot shrimp biryani from NYTimes Cooking. This was a pantry meal that I managed to make in thirty minutes one day when I had no plans for dinner.
  • Honey glazed mushrooms and udon noodles also from NYTimes Cooking – I had a head of cabbage to use up.
  • Happy hour dinner- crackers and charcuterie and I made a batch of Brazilian cheesy bread. Cut up veggies and fruit as well. The kids really love this kind of meal.
  • Not dinner, but my go-to lunch has been massaged kale salad. I prepped and washed a large container of kale ahead of time, and then in the morning, I massage a few handfuls with olive oil, sesame oil, and salt. Then I throw together with whatever I have on hand – roasted sweet potato, walnuts, daikon radish, avocado, apples… It’s sturdy so will keep in my lunchbox all day, and packed with vegetables so that it feels energizing to eat during long days at the theatre.

-I’ve been thinking lately about being nice. We have feedback sessions at the end of the each show with the stage management team. There was a comment at one point about someone not being very nice, having a very direct edge to their tone when they spoke to other people. I struggle with whether or not to pass this feedback along to that person. On the one hand, not someone being nice can have an effect on morale if you aren’t used to working with them. At the same time, I don’t believe that we all need to homogenous in our way of speaking or acting, and I do think we all need to learn to interact with people who have different styles of communication. And maybe it’s because I’ve worked with this person for many many years, that I have blinders as to whether the reports about them not being “nice” is a problem. Because they are one of the kindest people that I know. And to me, being kind is much more important than being nice. So I’ve been turning these ideas over in my head – about what place does personality have in work place culture and how to value different personalities as part of the whole package that someone is.

Things I’m grateful for this week: We’re going into Thanksgiving week – there are so many things to be grateful for and I was going to write a whole week of gratitude posts. Here are some small ones to start off:

Handles – this feels kind of silly, but my laptop sleeve has a handle and it makes it super easy to carry when I also have four other bags to bring to work. Every time I pick up the laptop, I think, “Boy am I glad there’s a handle!” I mean think about all the handles in your life! Doors, boxes, coffee cups… Handles make life better.

My apple box, and the prop guy who gets it for me – The stage management console at the theatre was clearly designed for someone taller than me. When I stand at it, my score is chest height, which makes it uncomfortable to turn pages and turn my cue lights on and off. (The cue lights are the colored lights that I use to tell the crew when to execute a cue. They are at the back of my console.) So I stand on an apple box. It’s not literally an apple box – it’s a wooden box about the size of an apple crate, which is why it’s called an apple box. Every time I call in this theatre, I ask the prop head for my apple box and he finds it, only giving me a little bit of grief for being short.

The seven year old and me backstage – he’s standing on my apple box.

Rock Creek Parkway – This is the road I take to the theatre. The thing is, though, the traffic goes into the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening. I, however, go into the city in the evening, so I can’t use it. So I end up having to drive through D.C. during rush hour to get to an evening performance call. Driving through the city is tedious in normal times; during rush hours it is soul sucking. I’m grateful for whenever I can take the parkway and not have to drive through Dupont Circle.

Ten extra minutes in the morning – Because of the late nights, I’ve been sleeping in a little later than normal and the mornings have seemed a little more breathless than usual. One day we left the house a few minutes late and I realized that we were going to miss the bus, so I drove the kids straight to school, parking on the trail and walking up to the school. Turns out, if we choose to drive them walk to school, I can leave a little later, buying me an extra ten minutes in the morning and I also get a little walk in up to the school and back to the parking lot on the trail. Those ten extra minutes give me the space to breathe and think through everything that I need for the day.

How was your weekend? Who is the kindest person you know? What quotidian thing are you grateful for this week?

I’m writing this post as part of NaBloPoMo – click on the icon below to see who else if participating. You can also leave me questions for an upcoming “Ask me Anything” post via this link. Happy reading and writing everyone!

Tales from backstage – bloody bloody show. NaBloPoMo 2024 #16

There is blood in my show. Fake blood. There is blood painted on costumes and blood on people’s hands and blood on props. Blood always causes lots of consternation when you try to put it in a show. It’s super messy, to start – to really look good onstage it has to be quite thick and sticky. Also stage blood gets on everything. Which is usually the point – it’s supposed to have a big visual impact. But it gets on the costumes, it gets all over the set, it drip drip drips onto the floor. And then you have to clean it up. From the stage, from the props, and from the costumes. For our show we use special stage blood that is supposed to wash out of costumes – it has soap as one of the ingredients. But the costume department always does a test first. Just because something says it will wash out, doesn’t always means it will wash out of all fabrics.

Also the other tricky thing about blood – which department deals with it? Sometimes it’s the make-up department. Sometimes it’s the prop department. Let’s be honest, no one wants to be responsible for it, but also no one wants other departments to be responsible for getting their things bloody.

And then, what is the best way to get blood on a person? The super simple way is to paint it on a costume, and have a rip away patch that is surreptitiously removed at the right moment. Sometimes we hide a bloody sponge on the stage somewhere so that the performer can swipe the sponge and then swipe the blood on themselves. Another method we make small blood pouches out of Ziploc bags and the performer carries it hidden on their persons and then pops the bag at the right moment.

For my current show, the blood is actually applied offstage and they performers come back onstage with blood dripping from their hands. The director did indeed want the hands dripping with blood. But we didn’t want to much blood that it would drip all over the floor for people to walk in and track all over. We needed predictable bloodiness. So at one point we were trying to figure out how to get the singers’ hands sufficiently bloody in the thirty seconds that they are offstage.

“Let’s do a blood test,” I suggested to the prop coordinator.

“Sure,” she said. “The tricky thing is figuring out where we can do it.”

Turns out that if we do it backstage, we have to have the prop department involved and they were about to go on dinner break. If we do it down in the dressing rooms, we have to have a wardrobe person involved and they weren’t on the call that day.

“Let’s just do it in the parking garage,” I said in half-joking exasperation.

“Actually….” she said.

Which is how I ended up kneeling on an old sheet in the bottom level of the parking garage at work with my hands in a basin of blood.

It was messy and sticky. But it did wash off rather well.

Sometimes I love how ridiculous my job is.

I mean not suspicious at all to be found in a parking garage with blood dripping form my hands…

I’m writing this post as part of NaBloPoMo – click on the icon below to see who else if participating. You can also leave me questions for an upcoming “Ask me Anything” post via this link. Happy reading and writing everyone!

Books Read, October 2024 – NaBloPoMo #15

It’s Elementary by Elise Bryant – Mystery novel about a single mom who is guilted into heading the PTA’s diversity committee at her 7 year old’s elementary school. And then the principal goes missing. It’s light and frothy and some of it made me laugh out loud. BUT the main character starts a relationship with the school counselor and I kept thinking how wildly inappropriate that was and by the end of the book, it kind of made it hard to enjoy the book. Even still, this line, where the main character bristles at the idea of being a Young mom, made me snort with laughter:

“I’m grown, just like you! I use Sensodyne, and I have enough white hairs that I can’t keep casually plucking them without looking like a “before” in one of those women’s hair loss Instagram ads I keep getting, and I’m pretty sure my back hurts more than it doesn’t hurt now, and I’m wearing Old Navy Pixie pants. There is nothing more grown than Old Navy Pixie pants!”

― Elise Bryant, It’s Elementary, p. 30

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune – sequel to The House on the Cerulean Sea. I LOVED The House on the Cerulean Sea, a book about a government worker who is tasked with investigating a school for magical children. This sequel is… fine. It was nice to re-visit the characters, but this book lacked the urgency and plot drive of the first book. There was no tension in this book – it was pretty much magical kids and those who love them vs. big bad government, and some of the book felt very preachy.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams – A whimsical romance featuring a florist who leaves her wealthy upbringing in Atlanta to open up a flower shop in Brooklyn where meets a mysterious stranger. In a parallel plot, the book follows Ezra, a jazz pianist whose star is rising during the Harlem Renaissance. The book involves some time travel, which isn’t usually my thing, but I really liked the mix of historical and contemporary settings here. The plot kept me turning the pages, though I thought the resolution of the various elements fell a little predictable and rushed.

There were some really thoughtful contemplations about modernity. In a way it reminded me of Ministry of Time and some of the ideas in that book. For example:

“I like vinyl, so I didn’t evolve past record players. Not a fan of Google. If I had my druthers, I’d only research in libraries. But I do enjoy Alexa telling me the weather every morning. Washing machines, AC, photocopiers, and LASIK surgery? A-plus inventions. Tinder, automatic transmission, Roombas, CGI? Dumb.” He shrugged. *I’m not that impressed by freezers. They made milkmen obsolete. I miss hearing them deliver those glass bottles at the crack of dawn; it signals a new day has started!” he exclaimed. “Social media? None of my business. Websites frustrate me, mostly. What are these cookies I’m always being asked to accept? TV’s probably my favorite twentieth-century development. I always have the newest model, and these days, it’s all so good: prestige, reality, sitcoms, cartoons. I mean, have you seen Succession? P-Valley? And, obviously, I keep up with music. All kinds. Good music’s good music; genre’s just the bag you carry it in.””

― Tia Williams, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, p. 243

No Two Persons by Erica Baumeister, read by Cassandra Campbell, Stephen Graybill, Carol Jacobanis, Rachel L. Jacobs, Barrie Kreinik, Max Meyers, George Newbern, Jesse Vilinsky, Braden Wright, Gabra Zackman – This book tells the story of a novel and how it comes into the lives of nine different people. The first chapter tells the story of how the novel Theo comes to be written and then each chapter focusses on on person whose life is impacted by the novel. Even though the stories are slightly interconnected, each chapter is more like a self contained short story. This book really believes in the mythology of how powerful books can be. I don’t think I bought into the idea as much as the author did, but I did find each story absorbing.

On my proverbial Nightstand: I’m not finding a lot of time to read these days, but I do have a few things with bookmarks in them. Interestingly theses are all hard copy of books. I’ve been finding that I’m more able to focus these days on hard copy books so I haven’t been reading on my phone these days.

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker – Adventures on the Appalacian Trail.

The Impossible Us – It’s been a page-turner. In the alternate universe Trump does not become president. I don’t know if the author realizes how much that tiny plot detail reverberates right now.

This is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained – Insightful.

What I wore, Tech week – NaBloPoMo #14

I thought I’d continue my posts on what I wore, since it’s fun to see how that changes depending on what I’m doing. Also – I thought it might be interesting to walk through how tech week unfolds for me. In addition to rehearsals in the evening (or with Piano Tech Day, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening) tech week usually involves spending the morning cleaning up the messy notations in my book from the night before, then the afternoon is spent in the theatre at the tech table setting light cues and placements with the director and designers. Throughout it all, I’ll be double checking schedules for the next day, and following up on any other notes that have come up. Because I have to drop the kids at the bus, I rarely get to the theatre before 10:15am, but from then, it’s non-stop til midnight. I usually plan out all my outfits for tech week so that I don’t have to think about it in the morning – also I only have five pairs of pants so I pretty much wear the same-ish outfit rotation during tech.

Anyhow, on to the sartorial….

Sunday – Sitzprobe day. Sitzprobe, for folks who don’t know, is the first rehearsal where the singers get to sing with the orchestra. (German for sit + rehearsal because we don’t do any staging. We actually usually wandelprobe – which means we are onstage and the singers can wander – wandel – as they sing, but we don’t move scenery or have costumes or lights or anything.) Traditionally singers will dress more nicely for Sitzprobe since it’s the first time meeting the orchestra. This outfit passes for dressing nicely in my world. I wore: my linen shirt dress (Uniqlo – which you can see in my summer post – I bought this when pregnant with the second? third? not sure. It is nice and loose), black leggings (from Jockey – I know it’s not fashionable to wear leggings and dresses, but I can’t stand wearing tights.), sweater (from a nursing line called Teat and Cosset, which I believe is no longer in business. It’s a nursing sweater, with buttons on the side. I love this sweater because it is so light and slouchy since it was made to transition from maternity to nursing, yet it also has balloon sleeves, which make a nice detail. It’s also cotton wool blend, so holds up well without being too hot.), ubiquitous puffer vest (Uniqlo), and blue boots from Reiker. I bought those boots last year as a possibility for travelling, but they aren’t all that practical for travelling because they are not waterproof. But I love the way they look, so I kept them anyway.

Monday – Final Room Run Day. The Room Run is the last rehearsal in the rehearsal room before we move onstage. It’s where we go through the whole show one last time in the rehearsal room. I try to dress a little more nicely for Final Room Run because there are a lot of guests in rehearsal that day. Blue dress (Wool& workhorse dress that I wear at least twice a week), Black leggings (Again the Jockey leggings. I think I have four pairs of them – I like that they are cotton/spandex and have the tech pocket for my phone), butterfly sweater (I LOVE this sweater. I got it at Nordstrom Rack, I think. I’m always scared to wear it because it is cream colour and I don’t want to get it dirty, but it makes me so happy when I do wear it. Another cotton/wool blend.), boots from Sorel (these are the boots I ended up ordering and wearing when we travelled last year. I love them. They are waterproof and easy to put on and I’ve walked five miles in them and my feel didn’t hurt.) Hat from my sister in law.

Tuesday: Set Looks. Set Looks is when, after the set is loaded into the theatre and assembled, the crew puts each different scenic look onstage so the director and designers can see and adjust and tweak. It’s also the chance for stage management to get a sense of what the pathways are like backstage. It’s a very exciting day. There are 11 different scenic looks in the show I’m currently working on, so set looks took two hours.
My friend calls this look my “Hallmark movie apple picking look.” Pants are Duluth Trading Company’s Cotton Noga Pants. They are super stretchy and comfy and in the dark could pass for khaki pants. The pants don’t have belt loops which makes them not quite perfect for backstage, but I’m wearing a scarf for a belt so I can have my flashlight on me. Black t-shirt, I think is from JP Penny. Plaid shirt is also from Duluth. And Allbirds on my feet.

Wednesday – Piano Tech Rehearsals, two in one day. This is the first rehearsal onstage with performers – we have sets and lighting, but no costumes or orchestra. It’s a long long long day. This is my tech outfit – I wear this for every piano tech because I like to wear a colourful top that will stand out so people can find me onstage and backstage easily if they need to, and also so if I have to go out onstage, it’s obvious that it’s me and not a performer being somewhere they shouldn’t be. Floral print t-shirt (Uniqlo), pants are the same Noga Pants from Duluth that I wore yesterday, but in a different colour, and on my feet my Altra running shoes.

Thursday: Piano Dress Rehearsal- our first rehearsal in full costume, wigs, and make-up. This show has a lot of costume changes, some of them only a minute long. The first rehearsal in costume, we very rarely make all the costume changes on time so it kind of feels like jumping on a runaway train that periodically stops so you can put your pants on. And also the train looks completely different than the train from the night before because someone painted it a different colour. I didn’t get a picture of myself in this outfit. The shirt is the same Uniqlo shirt as Wednesday, just in a different colour. Linen pants, also from Uniqlo.

Friday: Orchestra Tech Rehearsal. We now add orchestra. This rehearsal is pretty much the conductor’s rehearsal- we work at their pace, so they will stop and give notes and fix musical issues if needed. Hopefully the conductor constantly moves the rehearsal forward. Usually we give a conductor a list of places that it would be helpful if he didn’t stop because we have a costume change or a scene shift that we have to do in real time. I wore the wide leg linen pants I got this summer from Old Navy and a blue striped top.
I’ve had this top for over twenty years. I hadn’t thought about it being that old, but I was looking through some college pictures lately and there it was. I think I bought it at a thrift store one summer during college. I find myself reaching for this when I need something that’s one step above a t-shirt. It’s probably the thing that’s been in my closet the longest. Well, I do have a night shirt from high school. I also have a pair of boots that are probably just as old, but I don’t wear those as much because my feet have gone up a size since college. I should just get rid of those, but they were the first pair of real boots that I ever bought- or rather my mom bought them for me as a present. This t-shirt was out of my rotation for a little while when I was in my mid-low rise pants phase since it is a little on the shorter side for a shirt on me. But now that I’m back into high rise pants this shirt has fit right back into my wardrobe.

Saturday: Orchestra Tech #2. Same kind of rehearsal as the night before. I’m wearing a top from Uniqlo, Duluth Trading plaid shirt, and linen joggers from Gap. You can’t really see it in this picture, but I’ve had to patch those pants because they were getting holes. I work in the dark, so I figured it’s okay to wear patched clothes to work. I don’t often wear these pants for tech because there aren’t belt loops and if I’m the Assistant Stage Manager on a show, I need to wear a belt or sash for my headset and belt pack and flashlight. But as the calling stage manager, like I was for this show, I don’t have a wireless headset; I’m tethered to my console so I don’t need to clip anything to my waist. Also that concludes my work appropriate pants. After this night I start repeating pants or just wear black pants.

And back to Sunday, which was a day off. Yay! In the spirit of keeping it real, here is what I wore on Sunday for running the kids to skating lessons and an afternoon nap and a late afternoon walk. Sweatpants- they’re light blue tie dye, inspired by a pair of cloud joggers that I saw a character wear on Ted Lasso. (I think I found these ones on Backcountry.com and they were definitely more expensive that I would pay for a pair of sweat pants, but they are really thick and comfy and 100% cotton and I wear them almost every day off during the winter.). Tunic length hoodie. I’m sure I’m also wearing a shirt there too, just can’t remember what.

Welp that was my sartorial tech week life.

What item in your closet have you had the longest?

I’m writing this post as part of NaBloPoMo – click on the icon below to see who else if participating. You can also leave me questions for an upcoming “Ask me Anything” post via this link. Happy reading and writing everyone!

Looking forward to this week – NaBloPoMo 2024 #13

Another voice recital that I’m doing the supertitles for. This recital features a young singer I’ve worked with before and the program sounds really cool – some opera arias, some songs by John Ireland (British art songs are so my jam), and even John Denver’s Perhaps Love. Also this beautiful song, Homeward Bound, that’s been stuck in my head ever since I heard it. There are a couple pieces in Xhosa – which is a South African language I had to google. As nerve wracking as it is to cue titles for a language that I have zero familiarity with, it’s also pretty cool to learn about a different language.

Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving has snuck up on me and I had done zero thinking about it. It will just be a quiet family affair as I have to work on Wednesday and Friday. The 7 year old made the menu: turkey, rainbow jello, steamed broccoli. The 12 year old wants cranberry sauce as well. And there will be pie. Of course. I’ll probably just do a turkey breast since it’s just the five of us.

Wicked the Movie – is coming! The 12 year old and I have a mommy daughter date to go see it. Not sure when, but it’s happening.

Starting rehearsals for a new show – Didn’t I just open one show? Yes. The opera season this fall is PACKED. I’ll close my current show on Saturday and Sunday we start rehearsals for the next show. I’m excited because the 12 year old is in the children’s chorus for this next show. It’ll be fun to work with her. I hope.

Two evenings at home this week. WOW! Think of all the laundry I’ll be able to fold. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

Started this book. The male protagonist is kind of a jerk so far, but the premise is really interesting to me.

What are you looking forward to this week?

I’m writing this post as part of NaBloPoMo – thirty blog posts in thirty days- click on the icon below to see who else if participating. You can also leave me questions for an upcoming “Ask me Anything” post via this link. Happy reading and writing, everyone!