Weekly recap + what we ate: A Week in the Life edition- prep week

Kwanzan blossoms!

Last week was positively summer, with weather hitting 80 degrees. We’ve come home from spring break to the find the Yoshino cherry blossoms gone and replaced by branches of green, but the area has been replaced by Kwanzan cherry blossoms, apple blossoms, and redbuds. And the azaleas. Pink and purple and white bushes everywhere. Oh and the lilacs – the heavenly floral scent of lilacs!

Such a lovely scent in our backyard!

The “emergency car chocolate” I keep in my car for… well, emergencies and late night commutes home has melted and I need to replace it with another car snack that can withstand the extreme heat.

I always enjoy reading “Week in the Life” posts, so I thought I’d capture a week in my life. I find that I have a lot of different versions of a “typical” week – there’s working and not working. But also within working, there’s prep week, rehearsal week, tech week, and performance week. So this is prep week, the week we have before rehearsal starts to get everything ready. It is supposed to be a pretty easy 40 hour week, but I’m prepping a pretty big show, so I ended up working more like 45 hours this week. Also, I don’t usually do the afternoon pick up when I’m working, but since prep week is a little more flexible, I like to do it when I can to give the Husband a break.

Monday: We just got back from Amsterdam the day before. Kids are off school, and the Husband has taken the day off to be with them since I have to work. If one of us can’t be home with the kids, we put the two older kids in the After care program at school.
5:00am – I never get up this early, but I’m a little jet lagged, so I’m awake. I get up, putter, try to put some stuff away. Make breakfast. Meal plan for the week and make a shopping list for the Husband who will do a grocery shop and Costco run.
10:15am – I leave for work
10:45am – 6:30pm – Work. It’s the first day of a prep week for a new show, so it’s a lot of onboarding of new people, showing people around, meetings. I do take a 30 minute walk at lunch time and talk to my sister in law on the phone. Our union mandates meal breaks have to be at least 1 hour long, but I don’t need the whole time to eat, so I always try to take a walk during lunch.
6:30-7:00p – Leave work. Pick up 11 year old from basketball. Drop her at home and then go get gas. (Often if I can’t be home for dinner, I’ll pick up the 11 year old from basketball so the Husband only has to schlep the other two kids along just once.)
7:00p – 8:00p – When I get home, the kids and the Husband are watching Golden Girls. I eat Dinner. The Husband had bought Bahn mi sandwiches for dinner since we didn’t really have any food at home post trip. I eat whatever is leftover.
8:00p – I help put the kids into bed. I fall asleep in the 3 year old’s bed while cuddling.

Tuesday:
5:00am – awake again, much earlier than normal. Putter, continue to try to put things away from our vacation. I have to pull some sheet music from online for my supertitle gig – I’m working a recital the following week. Usually the pianist will send me the music, but this pianist is on vacation, so I have to find the music myself. Not a big deal since it’s all in the public domain and therefore easy to track down online for free. There’s one set of songs that I couldn’t find, so I ask the pianist to scan it to me when he gets a chance.
6:45am – Husband leaves for work, so I get started with breakfast, and packing lunches for the kids and myself. At 8:10am, we do a kid exchange with the neighbors – we have kids the same ages and at the same schools, so they take the three year old to school and I take their 6 year old to the school bus with us. While the 11 year old take the 3.5 year old to the neighbors for kid exchange, I squeeze in 10 minutes of yoga. Then I get dressed for the day.
9:00am – Take the kids to the school bus, then drive to work.
9:45am – 3:45p – Work. I spend much of the day pulling paperwork from the last time we did this show.
3:45p – I pick up 6 year old and neighbors’ kid from school bus and take them home. While home I get the kids a snack then I putter and scroll until the Husband gets home with the 11 year old. She has math tutoring at school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
5:45p – Head back to work to cover an evening music rehearsal.
6:00pm – 10:30pm – Work. Covering a music rehearsal with the chorus. Basically these are the rehearsals where the chorus learns their music. It’s pretty low key and I continue to read and review the paperwork for the show and get myself organized.
10:30p – Back home.
12:00 midnight – ish? Go to bed I’m a little unclear. I think I worked on titles and scrolled a little bit before going to bed. This was not a good weak for mindful sleep habits.

Wednesday:
6:00am – wake up. The 3.5 year old is in our bed somehow.
6:45am – wake up the other kids.
7:10am – Take 11 year old to piano lessons. Then take the other two kids to pick up breakfast sandwiches, as is our Wednesday morning routine. Usually I also get gas but I had filled up on Monday because my gas light had come on. The place we go to get sandwiches from is run by the super nice Korean man who always gives us free chips.
8:00am – home from piano lessons. Quickly pack lunch and eat breakfast sandwiches before the kid exchange happens. 10 minutes exercise video while kid exchange happens.
9:00am – Take kids to school bus then head to work.
9:30am – 10:15am – Run. I haven’t run in over a week because of being on vacation, so I do just 1.5 miles and also have a nice walk. I often run at work because it’s some of my only child free time and we don’t usually start work before 10am, so I can get a run in.
10:15am – 3:45pm – Work. I spend the day measuring the groundplans for the set so we can mark it out with tape in the rehearsal room the next day.
3:45pm – leave work to pick up kids from bus. Take kids home. Feed them a snack and make dinner (Chinese Corn and Egg Drop Soup – this was a huge hit, I’ll have to make it again).
6:00p – When the Husband comes home with the 11 year old, I head back to work to finish up some stuff – there’s another chorus music rehearsal, which I’m not covering, but my colleague who is covering it is doing it for the first time, so I want to be around just in case. I also spend some time chatting to my work BFF.
9:30pm – wrap up at work and head home. I work on some titles til pretty late at night. Liberally sprinkled with bouts of random internet blackholes.
1:30am – brain is fried, go to bed.

Thursday:
6:30am – wake to a 3.5 year old in my bed again. Go back to sleep, tired from being up late the night before.
7:15am – out of bed. I think the 11 year old got the little kids breakfast, so I just have to pack the lunches. 8:10am – kid exchange and I get in my 10 minutes of yoga.
9:00am – school bus run then to work.
9:45am – 6:30pm – Work. Today we tape the rehearsal room – laying down the tape outline of the set so the singers get a sense of where things are (hopefully. I mean some people don’t quite understand that a tape line is a wall and will keep walking through it, but I always figure they’re not going to walk through it when we get onstage and the wall is real.) Taping takes all day, but I do squeeze in a 15 minute walk at lunch time.
6:30pm- Home, I eat dinner – the Husband made something that involved chicken and broccoli and yummy siracha honey sauce. I wanted to be home before 6:45pm so that the Husband could take the 11 year old to basketball without having to schlep the younger kids. Then because the weather is so nice and it feels like summer, I take the two younger kids to play in the backyard for a little bit.
8:00pm – Come back inside and prep for bed. The Husband goes to pick up the 11 year old from basketball and then he and I quickly sign off on our taxes – we owe money this year, mostly because I took several 1099 gigs in 2022, more than I have in a long long time. A little bit of sticker shock on that one, especially on the heels of our Spring Break Trip, we feel a little like we’re hemorrhaging money.
9:00pm – Kids to bed (finally!), and once again, I fall asleep in bed with the 3.5 year old.

Friday:
4:00am – The 6 year old climbs into bed with the 3.5 year old and me. Then tells me to stop breathing on him. I take this as a sign and get up and work on titles for the next two hours.
6:00am – The 3.5 year old is up so I start the morning routine. (Is it really a routine? It doesn’t feel calming as a routine should. I guess maybe the morning tasks/chores?) Pack kids’ lunch (x3), and my lunch, get kids breakfast. I make potato leek soup (vegan) in the Instant Pot, so that there is something ready for dinner tonight since there is a basketball game in the evening.
8:10am – kid exchange. 10 minutes yoga. Then get dressed.
9:00am – bus drop off, chat with a friend at bus stop, then go to work.
9:45am – 6:00pm – Work. Today I work on helping the Prop Coordinator unpack all the props in the show. There are a lot of props; the prop list is 8 pages long. Four pages of those are for Act 2, which, while only 20 minutes long, features so. many. props. and. people. I take a 30 minute walk at lunch.
6:00pm – leave work and drive to 11 year old’s basketball game.
7:15pm – 8:15pm – basketball game. When I arrive the score is 22-1. The 11 year old scored that 1 point on a free throw. So yay? They did not make a spectacular comeback or anything, but they played hard. I think the final score was 35-7. They had won almost all their games in the winter league, so I think it’s hard for them to play against teams that are more polished and competitive then them. I mean there were players making legit 3 pointers on the other team. But she still loves to play, so I think that’s what’s important.
8:30pm – arrive home, put kids to bed. I do some titles work.
not quite sure – I didn’t log when I actually went to bed this night.

Saturday:
6:30am – awake. putter. journal, read, write.
7:00am – Make waffles for breakfast. Then clean up and putter.
10:00am – Go for another short run, then shower.
11:00am – outside in the backyard with the 3.5 year old while the Husband takes the 6 year old and 11 year old to a family dance class. One of the local theatres has a dance class for grown ups and kids, and I thought it would be a fun activity for the Husband and kids to do together. I would have enrolled the 3.5 year old, but she is too little. I work on titles out on the back patio while the 3.5 year old plays. Every so often I take a break to kick a ball with her. Around noon we go back inside and have dinner.
1:00pm – I head to work.
1:30pm – 6:30pm – Work. I spend the day organizing the props and then setting up the rooms for rehearsal next week.
6:30p – head home. The family is having pizza and movie night. They are watching Pirates of the Caribbean, which is such a fun movie. I arrive half way through and after the movie ends, I make the family start again at the beginning so I can watch the first twenty minutes or so because I always like seeing how things begin.
9:00pm – Kids to bed. Once again, I fall asleep in the 3.5 year old’s bed. Around midnight I wake up and move to my own bed.

Sunday:
7:30am – Awake. We spend the morning cleaning (we have cleaners coming the next day – yes, we clean for the cleaners…), putting away the things from our vacation (it never ends, it seems…), and working on some titles. I’m sure there was some reading and internet scrolling in there as well.
10:30am – The 6 year old and the 3.5 year old have skating lessons. Let me tell you, going to a nice cool ice rink when it is 80 degrees outside feels heavenly! It’s the last lesson of the session – the 3.5 year old gets to move up to the next level, but the 6 year old has to repeat his level. After lessons, we stay for free skate. I register the kids for the next session before we leave.
1:00pm – Take the kids to HMart for a weekly grocery shop. I don’t usually do the weekly shop at HMart, but it is close to the rink, and I needed mostly produce and fruit, so HMart made sense. Also fun – there was a person in the Hmart parking lot selling fresh coconut – the kind where he cuts the top off for you and drains it into a container and cuts out the flesh. I bought us one to share and it was so tasty!


    2:30p – Home. We’re having friends over to grill for dinner, so I prep veggies and chicken for the grill and put away the groceries. I bought a lot of veggies so that I could grill up extra for the week ahead.
    4:30p – take a nap, I’m exhausted.
    5:00p – start the grill. Friends come over. We have kielbasa, hotdogs, chicken and grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini, peppers). Also two different kinds of bagged salad. Super simple.
    8:00pm – Friends head home and our kids get ready for bed. They’re in bed by 9:15pm – I told them I couldn’t stay and cuddle tonight because I had to get my titles done for the concert the next day. I finish formatting the text of the titles (in word, which is exported to Excel) and the Husband does some database magic and imports the titles directly from the Excel into the Powerpoint. I stay up to finish adjusting the titles and marking title placement in my music.
    1:00am – brain is fried. Fall asleep on the couch, with the 3.5 year old who woke up at midnight and came to find me.

    And that’s seven days in my life! It felt very work heavy because I had to work on the titles gig also. I can often tell how busy a week was when there are not a lot of pictures in my phone roll, and this week’s photos seemed to be mainly (unflattering) pictures the kids took of me while I was puttering around the house or working at the computer. Typically, I also might have spent more time doing cleaning/laundry/household chores, but let’s be honest, the Husband does most of the cleaning and laundry. I might have folded one basket of laundry all week. I’m really grateful for him.

    Weekly recap + what we ate: pre-trip version

    We are home from our spring break trip! Where we went:

    Recaps to come. I hope. I still think I want to write recaps from our Montreal Trip too, so clearly I am behind.

    But a quick rundown of the week before, since I selfishly like having these accounting of my days…

    It was a week off of work, which was great because I could get some last minute errands and pre-trip things done.

    some Highlights:
    – Going for a cherry blossom run. I had always heard that the Kenwood neighborhood also has beautiful cherry blossoms, and it was less crowded than going to the Tidal Basin, so I thought I’d check it out. When I looked it up, I saw that there is a trail next to it, so I decided to combine my run with a cherry blossom wander. I parked at one of the lots off the trail that lead to the Kenwood neighborhood and had a little run then spent the rest of the morning wandering the streets. It was not as crowded as the Tidal Basin, so I felt like I was able to amble and savor at my own pace, though the blossoms in Kenwood are not the panoply of colors one sees downtown. It’s so interesting that this little neighborhood becomes such a cherry blossom hot spot. It was at the tail end of cherry blossom peak bloom and there was a light breeze, which sent cherry blossom petals drifting through the air and scattered on the roads.

    cherry blossom arch!
    Cherry blossom carpet.

    -The six year old had a concert. The French Immersion students put on a concert every year, though apparently it hasn’t happened in a while because of the pandemic. Each class presents some kind of musical performance in French. The kindergartener show involved singing and dancing to a song about chocolate. I know I put on shows for a living, but I am seriously impressed by the coordination that it takes to organize 200+ kids to sing and dance in French. It’s always funny for me to go see school shows because there is a certain level of chaos that I would never see at my work, and yet… things always work out and people get onstage and offstage. I mean I just have to stage manage, but the teachers have to direct, choreograph, child wrangle, cajole, cheerlead… what full jobs they have… on top of the every day teaching.

    The black light and fluorescent vests made me laugh.

    – I got a discount on a book! I went to Barnes and Nobles to pick up a book for my flight. I usually like to read a book by someone from the country that I was visiting, so this is the one I chose:

    Anyhow, as I was leafing through it, I noticed that the inside blurb page was upside down – you can see in the picture how the strip of the stepback is white and it should be red. I would have bought the book anyway because I wanted to read it and this gaffe wouldn’t have affected reading the book. But I took it to the front desk, pointed out the flaw, and they gave me 20% discount!

    Giggle of the week –
    This sign, seen in the neighborhood, which abounds with Little Free Libraries:

    I feel like the six year old would take advantage of that too.

    Grateful For:
    – Public Transportation – I had lunch with a friend one day and I could take the metro there. It was just as fast as driving, but much more relaxing, and I could read my book a little.
    – A friend for lending me a suitcase. I was going to buy a new suitcase since the wheels of my carry on rolling suitcase have come apart. I’ve had that suitcase for almost twenty years, so I guess it was about time to replace it. But when we went to look at suitcases, I was so overwhelmed by the options and couldn’t pick one. Relating my suitcase woes to my friend, she said, “I have one that you can borrow!” So I did. It saved me money and it saved me the mental energy of having to choose a suitcase. Sometimes having something just given to me is even more perfect than having to choose it myself.

    Ready to go!

    -Time. Last week, I had more money than time, what with being unemployed and all. I think about this a lot. Sometimes when I’m unemployed I find my spending goes out of control because I finally have the time to browse/choose/buy those new shoes to replace the ones with holes that I have been making do with, or catch up on house projects, or refresh the kids’ wardrobes. I find when I’m thick in work, I don’t tend to throw money at things, rather I just decide to hobble through and replace things when I have time to think about it. But of course it means that I tend to have the time to spend money when I’m not making any money – which doesn’t even out as much as I would like. I suppose the answer, somewhat, is to increase my income. But also I think I should lean into thinking about how to spend time not money when I’m unemployed. Some things do need to be replaced, but maybe some things can be repaired? I sewed up a hole in a sweater that I wanted to take for vacation rather than buying a new one. And also – I went on the abovementioned run to see the cherry blossoms in Kenwood. It’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t have had time to do while working, but when I don’t have to be in at work, I can do these things. I can use time to buy moments of beauty. I can use time to buy moments of connection, like when I have lunch with friends. (Okay, also it took money to pay for lunch, but we could have just as easily gone for a walk and visit, or she could have come over for tea… the food wasn’t the important part.) Anyhow… when I’m feeling money poor and time rich, maybe I need to think about the things that time can buy me. On that note, I realize how lucky I am that I do have time – there are many people who have neither time nor money and that must be so stressful and hard.

    What We Ate:

    Monday: Chickpea noodle soup from Vegan for Everyone by America’s Test Kitchen. The six year old wanted veggie soup and I had celery to use up- I feel like I make this a lot when those two boxes need to be checked. Vegan.

    Tuesday: Waffles. Quick dinner before the six year old’s school concert. I had heard a hack earlier this year of measuring two batches of dry ingredients when you make/bake something so that you just have to add the wet ingredients later on for a second batch. I thought this brilliant so last time I made waffles, I measured a second portion of the dry ingredients into a container and put it in the pantry. When I needed a quick dinner this night, I just tossed in the wet ingredients and everything was came together super quickly. I know measuring the dry ingredients doesn’t take that much time, but when you factor in finding things, hauling it out, measuring, and then putting it back away… to be able to just dump it in a bowl… pre-making the dry ingredients has the ease as if we were making our favorite waffle recipe from a box mix.

    Wednesday: Dinner out with friends from out of town. I had pasta with mushrooms. There was parker house rolls with bacon jam involved.

    Thursday: Off in an airplane!


    Cute kid saying + some haikus

    A couple of weeks ago, the kids had a half day of school. I was supposed to pick them up at the bus stop, but did the math wrong in my head and as I pulled into the bus stop, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach to see no other parents around. I called the school on the off chance that the bus hadn’t left yet- the bus is a little inconsistent- but was told that the bus had left on time. And my kid and his friend were sitting in the school office; when kids don’t get picked up at the bus stop, they are returned to the school. This was all horrifying and embarrassing for me.

    Anyhow, I went to school and got the kids, feeling not so great about myself. I had one job and I messed it up.

    I asked the six year old if he had been worried, and he said, “No. I just thought nice things. Like flowers, and cake and my family… things that make me happy.”

    What wisdom there is in that… I suppose he knew that there wasn’t a lot he could do, so he decided to spend his time thinking about happy things.

    There is something sweet and poetic about his happy things: flowers, cake, and family.

    Speaking of which- some haikus from life lately:

    Fingers in the pie
    Imprints of her impatience
    Craters from waiters.

    Purple petals poke
    Through the warm earth, early
    Unexpected blooms

    In his plush red vest
    Hopping robin on my lawn.
    A sentry for spring.

    Petals drift like snow-
    Fluffy flakes, not biting hail-
    All the snow we’ll get.

    Weekly recap + What We Ate: Peak Bloom!!!! and Lists for Travel

    First of all… mystery solved! I found the waffle batter! We have some shelves next to the fridge in the basement, and I was looking for something this past week on the shelves. I moved a bag of flour, and waaaaaay at the back…. was the container of waffle batter, a good two weeks after it had gone missing.

    Truth to tell, it wasn’t as disgusting as I thought it would be; when we opened it up, it wasn’t moldy or anything. I half jokingly said that it looked fine and we should try to make some waffles from it. The Husband vehemently disagreed. Food waste bothers me, but I begrudgingly agreed.

    We’ve hit peak bloom here in DC! Yay! There was one day last week, when I was at work for a morning meeting and decided to run down to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. It was actually a few days before peak bloom, so the trees weren’t quite iconically fluffy, but they were still very pretty. I will say, running around the Tidal Basin during peak bloom is … not ideal. There are so many people there, and you never know when someone is going to stop and take pictures. Plus there is no railing on the Tidal Basin side of the path, and I was concerned that I was going to fall into the water at a couple points because the walkways were so crowded. I actually ended up mostly running on the grass, which were riddled with tree roots from the cherry trees. So running amidst the cherry blossoms during peak bloom = do not recommend, unless you do it at 7am or something.

    Despite that annoyance, there is something really energizing about being at the Tidal Basin during peak bloom – all the crowds and crowds of people who come out to see them seem so happy to be here, soaking up the wonder and beauty of it all. For years I avoided peak bloom, having thought that I’d seen it once and didn’t need to see it again. Yet when I’m there among the blossoms, I realize that for a lot of people this is a bucket list trip – my grandmother, always wanted to come see the cherry blossoms and I’m actually really sad she never did. Whenever I see the Asian grandmothers wandering the blossoms with their faces lifted to the pink light, I think of my grandmother and am always a little sad that she never made it out. Seeing the joy that cherry blossom season brings makes me feel so grateful that for me, this isn’t a bucket list thing, but a yearly event to savor.

    Of course the Tidal Basin is the most famous area for cherry blossom meandering, but the whole region explodes with blossoms, really. On the actual day of peak bloom, I was supposed to go down with my friend, but she got sick and it was rainy, so I went to the botanical garden 15 minutes from me. They don’t have the explosion of trees that you find down at the Tidal Basin, but they do have a Japanese pavilion and some nice trees were blooming there too.

    Work wise, last week I closed one show on Saturday and then had a supertitle gig on Sunday. I feel like every time I get through a show without a performer getting COVID, and the show having to re-shuffle, it feels like such an accomplishment – like I can finally let out this breath that I’ve been holding.

    Side note – there is a notice posted in the theatre, dated March 6th, 2020 that talks about how the company is monitoring the developments of COVID 19 and how there are so far only 3 cases in the DC area and we are still going to continue with all scheduled performances. Then it gives some guidelines for good preventative measures, including cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces. The whole memo really just took me back to that time of uncertainty of March 2020. It’s kind of surreal to read the memo, and even more surreal that someone has left it up on the callboard for over three years, as if it’s some kind of time capsule or memorium.

    Here’s something fun, the cast of the show is obsessed with jigsaw puzzles. One of my co-workers had brought them in for our office and when we were done, we put the puzzle out in the dressing room hallway for the singers. They did about one puzzle per show. I joked at one point that I could make intermission 50 minutes long so they could work on the puzzle – but they didn’t need the help. It was jaw dropping to me. There was one puzzle that stumped us until we realized the puzzle was missing a piece – so we gave it to the singers without telling them the trick. We made them a fake piece out of a Post It to fit in the empty slot, though:

    The day after the show closed, I had a supertitle job. It was a lovely concert program – music by Black composers setting poems by Black poets. There was one song/poem I liked in particular – a poem by Claude McKay titled “I Know My Soul”:

    I plucked my soul out of its secret place,
    And held it to the mirror of my eye,
    To see it like a star against the sky,
    A twitching body quivering in space,
    A spark of passion shining on my face.
    And I explored it to determine why
    This awful key to my infinity
    Conspires to rob me of sweet joy and grace.
    And if the sign may not be fully read,
    If I can comprehend but not control,
    I need not gloom my days with futile dread,
    Because I see a part and not the whole.
    Contemplating the strange, I’m comforted
    By this narcotic thought: I know my soul.

    I love how this poem is brimming with self confidence even as we live in a world of questions and things that we can’t control.

    After the concert, I wandered around the theatre a little bit since the concert had been short and I had some time. I often just go from the parking garage to backstage, and don’t have to go through the lobby at work. Well I’m glad I took time to wander the lobby. The Center is doing a huge festival about rivers and waterways and they have some really cool large scale installation art in the lobby. I actually remember when there was an all staff email asking for blue button down shirts for this art installment – it was kind of amazing to see the end result:

    Annoying lowlights this week:
    – I got a parking ticket. Monday the baby was no longer sick, but since she had been out of school for three days, she wasn’t allowed back to school until she had a doctor’s note. I could only get an appointment for 2:30pm, so I took her into the office with me and she hung out and played with office supplies while I worked. But then I was running late to her doctor’s appointment and instead of parking on the street like I usually do, I parked in the metered lot which was closer. And then the appointment ran long and I got a ticket. So annoying – I was mad at myself because I should have just parked in the street and been three minutes late to the appointment.
    – One day the six year old’s bus was over and hour late in the afternoon. I had left work early to pick him up and the whole time, I thought, “I could have done one more hour of work!!!” I’m not at all sure what happened – the school doesn’t really communicate about that kind of stuff really well. Oh well, at least the weather was nice and I got some reading done.
    – Still dragging from the time change. The kids are usually up by 6am and now I have to drag them (and myself) out of bed at 7am. I’m wondering if we’re just not adjusting well, or if it’s something deeper than that. I’ve also been really bad at going to bed before 1am lately. So that could definitely be a factor.

    Other highlights this week:

    -March Madness continued. I ordered us Sweet Sixteen shirts, and we wore them. It was a little sad that my alma mater lost, but things were kind of a long shot anyway.

    I’ve been in full trip planning mode. My latest preoccupation is what food and snacks to bring on the airplane. Snacks are a very important component to happy children. Also, I imagine there is a meal on board, though I’m not sure. Some ideas:
    – sandwiches. I’m tempted to order Bahn Mi sandwiches to bring. They are sturdy, and if we have the pickled veggies on the side, they won’t get soggy. But will they be messy to eat on the plane? Otherwise, some variation of baguette/ciabatta + meat + cheese + spread (maybe blueberry jam?)
    – fruit – cut up apple slices, grapes, clementines, mango
    – cookies. I’m planning on making a batch of trail mix cookies from the Rise and Run cookbook
    – chocolate
    – granola bars
    – string cheese
    – fruit snacks or my favorite gummy candy from HMart

    Another fun list – we’re going to be visiting family abroad, and I wanted to bring them some classic American treats. So far we have:
    – Pop Tarts
    – Cereal – maybe the individual packs of sugary stuff?
    – a bottle of Ranch dressing.
    – homemade chocolate chip cookies – I hear that the chocolate where they are is too high quality and melts too quickly, thus making it not great for chocolate chip cookies.
    – if I had thought ahead, I would have ordered them some Girl Scout cookies… next time… There is only so much sugar that I can bring these kids without getting side-eye from a parent.
    – Robitussin – I hear it’s very hard to find where we are going.

    Not so fun list of to dos:
    – make sure bills are paid
    – pause subscriptions and produce box
    – grocery shop for above mentioned snacks and gifts
    – pay that annoying parking ticket.
    – make sure to upload all tickets to museums and what not.
    – So many other things….

    Part of my Trip Prep has been trying to find a pair of shoes to wear – I ordered a bunch of waterproof half boots/ booties/ Chelsea boots off Zappos and a few slip on shoes. I settled on a pair of Sorel Hi-Line Chelsea boots. I also really liked the Sam Edelman Laguna’s but on me they weren’t ankle boots, more like shin boots – maybe my legs are too short. And I also liked the Blundstones, but they didn’t have them in my size and I liked the Blondos, but they were a touch too big and also veered into shin boot territory.

    The pair I went with. I might regret not getting a black pair, but I wear a lot of black for work, so I like to get other colours for non-work.

    And… on a whim, I ordered a pair of Rieker boots because my current pair of Rieker boots are starting to wear thin and I’ve already had them re-soled. And even though these boots aren’t waterproof and they have a fuzzy lining, so they aren’t really all season boots, they are a fabulous colour, so I decided to keep them and they make me really happy.

    Podcast Listen of the Week: This episode of the Ten Percent Happier podcast, an interview with Scott Galloway, a professor of Marketing at NYU, and whom the notes describe as a “serial entrepreneur.” I feel like a lot of the podcasts I listen to talk about finding fulfillment and satisfaction in work, but Galloway stresses the importance of being financially stable and just working really hard while in your twenties. Probably not unrelated, but a lot of the work podcasts I listen to feature women guests. It seems to me that women and men are sold very different narratives about their value in the world, and men are taught, more so than women, that their value is in earning money and being ambitious. Galloway makes a point that work has a huge impact on one’s mental health because if one is going to be successful one will be spending the majority of one’s waking hours at work. Listening to the interview really made me think about this difference, because I feel like women seek work/life balance (whatever that means), but it’s not such a priority for men, particularly men in their twenties. Of course for men, there is no time constraint on having a family via birth and pregnancy, as there is for most women.

    Another point that he makes is that work, structured work, is really important for young men, whose brains are still developing – it gives them a place of structure and a formal environment to learn to be a functioning member of the human race. I had never thought of this before, but for all that we glorify mavericks and out of the box thinking, especially in today’s world of gig work and telework and work from home, there is something that really is important about learning to operate in a community – and I think women internalize this more than men do.

    And even as Galloway talks about the importance of work, he also talks about importance of living in the moment, and this quote struck me:

    “As humans we’re drawn towards scarcity – sugar, salt, fat – we couldn’t find these things and so so we’re wildly drawn to sweets and meat and fat because our instincts haven’t caught up to institutional production. We aspire to have a Birkin bag or a Ferrari because there is only a certain number of those. The ultimate scarcity is kids… My twelve year old trying to do a handstand when we’re on vacation together – I’m like “He’s gone, never going to have that kid again.”

    The ultimate scarcity is kids. – I need to remember that when it feels like things are hard with parenting.

    Grateful For This Week:
    – One of my coworkers had his last show last week. I’m really sad to see him go; we had both started at the company around the same time, and I’m so grateful for his presence these past fifteen years. Seeing him clear off his desk hit me harder than I thought it would.
    – Spring! It’s officially Spring, which means sunlight and sunshine and flowers blooming. I know that in many ways Spring starting on March 20 is somewhat arbitrary – I mean I get the science of it, but the weather doesn’t always align with the science – but being able to officially say “It’s Spring!” feels really nice. We had our first after school playground stop of the season and I was reminded how this is always one of my favorite parts of warmer weather – hanging out at the playground after school and randomly running into friends.
    – An uneventful closing night performance and a really great run of performances. Some shows feel really special and this was one of them. I felt so lucky to have been able to work on it.
    -Impromptu play dates for the kids. One of our neighbors took the eleven year old to the local high school production of Chicago. It was so nice of them to think of her. And that same night, I got a text from the mom of one of the six year old’s friends asking if he wanted to come over to play. So for a few hours we had just one kid at home in the evenings – I’d forgotten how much less chaos there is when it’s just one kid at home.

    Looking Forward To:
    -The six year olds’ kindergarten performance.
    – Spring Break Trip – I’ve been listening to podcasts that feature our destination and loaded a bunch of books set in that country on my Libby, and that’s starting to get me excited for going.
    – Starting a new show – reuniting with old colleagues and meeting new ones. The first day of a new show is always a little like the first day of school – excitement and nervousness and lots of possibilities.

    What We Ate: The meal planning train continues to stall in the station, so we’ve had a few cobbled together meals this week:

    Monday: Sushi take out. I was meant to meet the Husband for Lunch, but plans changed, so we decided to have sushi for dinner instead.

    Tuesday: Bahn Mi Salad from To Asia With Love by Hetty McKinnon. This was really tasty – basically you make a big batch of Bahn Mi pickled veggies, and eat that with fried tofu, croutons, and siracha mayo sauce. Vegan, except our vegan mayo was not good so we used regular mayo.

    Wednesday: I worked and had late lunch/dinner at this restaurant, which is also very well known for it’s Tater Tots. There were a lot of Tater Tots eaten. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Husband made taco cups for the kids – Flour tortillas folded into muffin tins to make cups, and then filled with cheese and salsa and beans and chicken and baked. It’s a really big hit and luckily there were leftovers for me to eat when I got home from work. I’ve come to the realization that the kids are more excited for the Husband’s cooking that they are for mine because he makes things like Taco Cups.

    Thursday: I have no idea … for some reason I haven’t been keeping up with my journals this week.

    Friday: Mac n Cheese with sweet potato from Family by Hetty McKinnon. Mac n cheese never seems like a main meal to me, but this recipe looked easy – all make in one pot – and I had some sweet potato to use up. It was definitely on the rich side.

    Saturday: I worked and brought leftover lentils from last week. The Husband made pizza. I think they also watched a Star Wars movie? Or maybe a Marvel movie? Not sure.

    Sunday: Grilled Tofu and Sausages with a cucumber salad. We also make this really yummy green sauce to eat with it.

    That’s been the week here – how’s life in your corner?

    Books Read – February 2023

    Random book habit though this month: After I finish a book, I will go back and re-read the first two or three chapters again. I find by the time I get to the end of a book, I often don’t remember the first few chapters, and I like to remind myself how the story starts; there are often details that pop out at me that I hadn’t noticed before, but which feel richer having read the whole book. Often the characters have changed or grown, so it’s fun to see what they were like at the beginning. I very rarely re-read entire books, though. What about you?

    Would Like To Meet by Rachel Winters– This was a cute but ridiculous romance-ish novel that the I picked up because the 11 year old found it at the Little Free Library at the pool, and I jokingly said, “We should have a book club!” So she read it and then handed it to me. The premise: Evie works as an assistant to an agent whose major (only) client is an Oscar winning screenwriter who is behind on delivering a script for a rom com. The screenwriter has writer’s block because he thinks romantic comedies are unbelievable, so Evie decides to show him that the “meet cute” really does exist by attempting to have a “meet cute.” Hijinks ensue. This is a decidedly mediocre yet amusing romance novel. Evie is a bit too much of a door mat for my liking, but her friends are fun and the meet cutes that she engineers have their own charm.

    Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, read by Lin Manuel Miranda – Truth, I chose this audio book because it was narrated by Lin Manuel Miranda. This YA novel tells the story about Ari, who can’t swim, and Dante whom he meets at a pool, and who offers to teach him. Over the course of a summer and the following school years, the two Mexican-American teenagers develop a deep friendship that grows into more. It’s the kind of book that meanders along, much like life, until something really dramatic happens, then people pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward. I thought it really captured the inertia of the teen years – the way that things often seem like they won’t ever change then life turns a corner and suddenly things will never be the same. There were some pacing issues with the book, but I did love all the characters, especially Dante who was kind of quirky and unselfconsciously so.

    I’m only Wicked with You by Julie Ann Long – I really enjoyed Long’s Pennyroyal Green series. This is the latest in her Palace of Rogues series. I thought the ending had everything I love in a romance novel ending, but the rest of the book took a looooong time to get there. Forced marriage isn’t my favorite romance novel trope and when two characters spend too much time not liking each other, I get impatient. I mean I like witty banter as much as the next person, but a lot of the banter in the first part of the book was just caustic and mean. Once the two main characters started getting along and liking each other, I really started to enjoy this book.

    My Plain Jane By Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, and Cynthia Hand– I picked this up because I found the first book of this series, My Lady Jane, really charming and was eager for more of the same. Like My Lady Jane, My Plain Jane is a retelling of a known story (Jane Eyre) with some twists, turns, and magical elements. This novel features Charlotte Bronte and her good friend Jane Eyre as ghost hunters, and the plot revolves around the secret society they come to work for. I thought the book was really clever; the authors did not shy away from the problematic issues of the original source material; explaining the whole “How does the 19 year old fall in love with a manipulative man twice her age, and who is that in the attic?” is actually the backbone of the story. Even still, this book was very chaotic with huge plot holes and coincidences galore that I just found ridiculous after a while. Reading this book made me realize that one thing I loved about My Lady Jane was the audio book narrator – I just didn’t have the right dry witty tone in my head when I read My Plain Jane to myself.

    Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh – Surprisingly funny book about lives that intersect, either directly or indirectly, around a Boston abortion clinic. I thought the character portraits of people on both side of the abortion debate were really shrewdly drawn, and I was really sucked into the lives of these character who all were just trying to do the right thing. The anti-abortion protesters seemed like caricatures in their dogmatic beliefs, almost to the point where I felt like that portrait was perhaps a little unfair. The book is not an unbiased view, of course. The main character, Claudia, has worked in the abortion clinic for years and even as she is worn down by the job, she still does it because she believes it’s essential work in a world that is stacked against women. At one point, one character says, that he has no problem with abortion, “as long as there’s a good reason.” And Claudia replies, “There’s always a good reason.”

    I have two little things that bothered me about the book – one is that the book felt like a very white telling of the abortion debate – totally understandable because Haigh is a white author, so I don’t know that I should have expected otherwise. I just felt like there was a whole side and demographic missing from how abortion services are vital in this country. The other tick was a stylistic quirk where characters often loose track of time and it would repeatedly be, “months or days”, “after an hour or a month…” etc. Those are the only two I highlighted, but it recurred many times to the point of irking me.

    Anyhow, some other passages of note:

    “Bring in your pelvis for its twelve-month check up. Failure to perform scheduled maintenance may void warranty.” – made me laugh out loud. Yeah, I feel like that some days. Like the body is a machine and I’m not following the manual correctly.

    “Baby Doe had been a person, a little girl who felt love ad joy, who delighted in her pink leggings and giggled when her toenails were painted and who, in the end, felt shock and fear and betrayal and pain. As a fetus she’d been protected by Massachusetts law, the twenty-four week cutoff. As a person she was utterly dependent on a woman who couldn’t raise her and didn’t want to. Once she became and actual person, by Doe was on her own.” I think this is one of the things that frustrates me so much about the abortion debate- people need to be cared for throughout life, yet the resources just aren’t there.

    “Deb raised other people’s kids because it was one of only a few things she could earn money doing. The world was full of discarded people, sickly old ones and damaged young ones, and she was a paid caretaker. It said something about the world that this was the worst-paying job around.” – yeah this goes hand in hand with the quote above.

    “Married life was like walking around in shoes that almost fit. She wore them every day for two years, and still they gave her blisters. Like most shoes designed for women, they were not foot-shaped.” So when married life gives you blisters – do you get new shoes or just put on some moleskin?

    Some picture books that we enjoyed this month (inspired by how Lisa always includes picture books in her reading recaps!) :

    Off Limits by Helen Yoon – this was a re-read about working from home. It’s cute and a lot of fun and the kids (and I) totally relate to it, particularly the scene where the child strews Post-It notes alllllll over the room.

    The Barnabus Project by the Fan Brothers – This book is about a bunch of misfit toys that escape their confines. It’s a gripping adventure story, and I wish I could find more picture books that had this kind of large scale adventure element to them.

    Otis and the Scarecrow by Loren Long – We are new to the Otis the Tractor series – where have we been this whole time? This book had a charming relaxed feel, and I really liked the message about accepting people in all their moods.

    Over and Under the Canyon by Kate Messner, art by Christopher Silas Neal – We love this whole series of books – each book takes a deep look at one habitat in nature. The prose is calm and soothing, just like a nature ramble should be. The first one was Up in the Garden, Down the the Dirt, is still probably our favorite.

    On my (Proverbial) Night Stand – for some reason I have a lot of books in progress right now, though three of those are ongoing reading projects.

    The Brontes – Still plugging away. The drama and understatement of village life is riveting.

    Braiding Sweetgrass – The next chapter is quite long so I’m saving it for when I can sit and read it in one go.

    Interior Chinatown by Charles Wu – novel set in Hollywood about a struggling Taiwanese actor. It feels especially relevant when Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the Oscars.

    Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jabar – Amani, a divorced poet, accompanies her father to his homeland of Jordan. So far it’s family secrets and some beautifully descriptive writing about life in Jordan.

    What the Fresh Hell Is This by Heather Corinna – still working my way through this book on perimenopause too.

    Stay True by Hua Hsu – Memoir about growing up as Asian Americans in America. My father recommended this book to me, and then I heard Hsu give an interview on Fresh Air and thought he said some very thoughtful things.

    Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine – the next “book club” book with the 11 year old.

    Weekly recap + what we ate: Another Sick Week

    It’s the end of March and we are a little college basketball obsessed in our house right now. I usually like watching basketball with the family, but don’t really have druthers on who wins. Well, this year, my alma mater is a major underdog and had made the Sweet 16 in the Men’s Tournament so, yeah, I’m feeling a little invested, though I know that the odds are not in their favor and likely this week’s game will be their last. It’s been so nail biting and exciting to watch them play. I’m not an basketball expert, and perhaps very biased, but I think they play with a lot of heart and grit and smarts. Sadly, the Husband’s alma mater did not make it to the Sweet 16, so he’s a little disappointed. He had said that if his school made it to the Sweet 16 we were going to get t-shirts. Well I ordered Sweet 16 t-shirts, but they have my school on them, not his. Ha ha.

    Also – I will say, I think it’s awesome that the Husband puts on the women’s games as well. I like that the 11 year old gets to see women play and knows that it’s a women’s sport too. Speaking of which, I was listening to this episode of 99% Invisible the other day, about 6 on 6 Women’s basketball, and it was a fascinating. 6 on 6 basketball was primarily a women’s sport and this episode looks at issues of feminism and equity through the lens of this women only sport that is not really played these days.

    Last week felt like a lot of lost time. On Monday, I sat down to work on the slides for my next supertitle gig, only to find….

    cue: sounds of despair and frustration.

    Someone had ripped the power button off my pencil. I’m pretty sure the someone was a child. I was soooo angry. I keep all my scores for the titles gigs electronically, and the pencil was the easiest way to mark slide placements. I finally found the focus to sit down and spend a morning on this project and… foiled! AAARRRRRGGHGHGH! Anyhow, I took myself to Best Buy to get another tablet pencil, and I almost rage-bought the very expensive Apple version. But I refrained and bought the more economical, yet highly rated by Wire-cutter version by Zagg.

    On Tuesday, I had to pick up the baby early from daycare for an appointment, only to find that the school had called to tell me to come get her since she had thrown up at snack time. I took her to her appointment (every so often I sign her up to participate in studies at the University’s Language Learning Center – it’s kind of granular and fascinating the work they do, all about when children learn to distinguish certain parts of speech.) She was fine the rest of the day and up to her usual hijinx, so I sent her to school the next morning, having neglected to read and/or retain the school’s policy that a child is not allowed back at school until at least 24 hours after no symptoms. So I soon got a call to come pick her up because she was not allowed back at school until 3pm that day. Wump wump. After I did the school bus run, I went and picked her up, feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing. There were tears when I arrived to take her home. For someone who every morning complains about having to go to school, she was pretty distraught at having to leave. I had been planning on going into the office, and instead had to take my meetings from home with a child in my lap…

    Meetings are boring.

    Well, she also threw up the next day, so another at home day. But not literally an at home day. She was clearly unable to go to school, but not sick enough to stay in bed. So we had lunch with the Husband, ran errands (emissions test done! Target run!) and went to a park. And then on Friday, the 6 year old threw up in the morning and then the baby threw up on her way to school, so they both stayed home. Any plans I had to do some deep work were scuttled and instead I did some house chores since that was doable with two kids hanging out. I turned over the kids’ clothes and tried not to get too weepily sentimental about packing away the 3T clothes for the last time. The kids, mean while, lazed around together:

    Sick day.

    Mystery of the Week: Where are all the size 6 clothes? I’m pretty sure that the now eleven year old wore clothes when she was six years old, but I have no idea where those clothes are. Granted, there were probably very few gender neutral / boy leaning clothes in there, but I’m sure there was one or two things that I could pull for the six year old to wear this summer. I feel like I spend so much time organizing and packing the clothes for future use, yet when it comes to actually finding them and putting them into rotation, I can’t find anything. I clearly need a better system.

    Other Fun thing this week:

    The 11 year old’s class had their egg drop project this week. Parents were invited to watch, so I headed over. I didn’t have a lot to do with her egg drop project though I did suggest that she use marshmallows instead of cotton balls to cushion the fall. I was actually really impressed by the final product – she had rigged a parachute out of a garbage bag, with straws taped together to form a frame. It occurred to me that this was the kind of project that one could easily google a solution to, but perhaps the 11 year old doesn’t quite realize the power of google yet. Which is absolutely an okay thing.

    It survived!!!!

    I had a meet up with some moms from my mom’s group. It’s always nice to get together. We went to a brewery, but it turns out it was trivia night and it was super crowded and getting food proved difficult, so we ended up going to the restaurant next door. We had some tasty food, lots of good conversation and we talked until we were the last ones at the restaurant. It was pretty clearly past closing time and I kept expecting someone to ask us to leave, but they let us stay til we were done. It was great to have a night out.

    Watching: This past weekend we introduced the kids to The Simpsons. When I was growing up, the Simpsons went from being this part of the Tracy Ullman show to having it’s own full half hour tv slot and I remember what a big deal it was. It has held up pretty well, even after 30+ years. Anyhow, the 11 year old thinks it’s hilarious, so I think we may be watching more. Perhaps the Simpsons will unseat Golden Girls as our evening episode of tv?

    This thing that the Husband found on the side of the road and brought home. it seems like a fun toy…

    The baby discovering that the sequins on her hoodie reflect light. “I can make sparkles!” she exclaimed with delight.

    Grateful For:
    – The 11 year old. Friday night I had a show, so I was gone. This of course was the day that the Husband started feeling ill, so he took to bed. The 11 year old made her younger siblings tortellini and red sauce for dinner and then put them to bed. I’m so grateful that she stepped up even as I feel guilty for putting such a burden on her. Speaking of which- this bit of humor, “Co-Parenting with Your Parent: A Guide for Older Siblings” hit a little too close to home.
    – Having a well stocked pantry so that even those weeks when I don’t meal plan, I can throw together some pretty tasty meals.
    – The Husband getting up at 5am to deal with the vomiting child.

    Looking forward to:
    – Another super title gig. This one is a vocal recital of songs all by Black composers with poetry by Black poets.
    – More evenings at home. I’ve been working a lot of nights these past few weeks and as much as the hours between school pick up and lights out are kind of a time of chaos, I’d like to be here for it.
    – Cherry blossoms! We are on the brink of peak bloom!!

    What We Ate:

    Monday: Black Bean Soup in Instant Pot – made before I wen to work. This seems to be one of my go-to “Make dinner in the morning” meals where I always have the ingredients in the pantry.

    Tuesday: Red Lentils (from The Weekday Vegetarians), and Aloo Gobi from Indian-ish by Priya Krishna. Eaten with raita and store bought naan. I had cauliflower and potatoes to use up. I haven’t cooked a lot from this cookbook yet, but it looks fantastic. There is one section that has a chart breaking down on how to make “Indian-ish” food with what you have on hand. Everything in this cookbook seems pretty doable. Vegan. Though we did have apple pie for dessert in honor of “Pi Day”, March 14th.

    Wednesday: I had mussels and fried Brussel sprouts while out with some moms from my mom’s group. The Husband made egg sandwiches for everyone else back home.

    Thursday: Roast Salmon and sauteed garlic green beans. This meal felt like quite an achievement because I had forgotten to pull out the salmon the night before, so it was still mostly frozen at 5pm. I discovered, though, that salmon actually roasts pretty well from frozen and I had dinner on the table in less than 45 minutes.

    Friday: The 11 year old made the little kids tortellini and red sauce. I brought leftover soup and lentils for lunch.

    Saturday: Pizza and movie night. We watched the 1997 version of Cinderella with Brandy and Whitney Houston. I had never seen it before, though I certainly remember when it came out and how groundbreaking it was with it’s diverse casting. It was cute and charming.

    Sunday: Leftover pizza for the Husband and kids while I worked. When I came home, I made some quick kimchi and egg fried rice for myself.

    Weekly recap + What We ate: Learning to find the moments even in tech

    The view from my console.

    Well, that last weekend was a very full weekend! And it was followed by a very full week, so I’m posting about a week behind. There has been the time suck of ill children this week, and this post has been sitting languishing in my drafts folders for many many days. But for those of your following along, here’s the run down of life lately….

    First off, we hosted the 11 year old’s basketball team for a sleepover. They came over Friday night, we had a build your own pizza station, and they made a huge Thank You Poster for their coach. I think six girls stayed the night. There wasn’t a lot of sleeping. Which I expected. What I didn’t expect (and maybe I should have?) was that most of the girls brought some kind of screen, either a phone or a tablet. So even though I told them to turn their lights out at 11pm and took away the tv remote, they were still up on their devices. I’m torn as to whether or not I should have collected their devices at Lights Out. On the one hand, sleepovers are kind of supposed to be a free for all, but on the other hand, the 11 year old commented to me afterwards how people didn’t really interact as much as she wanted – no one would play Uno with her, for example – because they were all on their screens on looking on to someone else’s screen. I don’t know if next time, I should tell the parents to leave their kids’ screens at home, or to just be stricter about collecting them, or have more organized activities?

    After the last kid was picked up, I decided that I needed to get out of the house so we went to a nearby trail for a little walk. It’s not the most picturesque trail, but it was nice to see some signs of spring and the kids liked climbing the rocky outcrop they found.

    Then off to work and opening night, which went smoothly. I fee like there was a somewhat collective sigh of relief that we got this show to opening, since last time we did this show, there was a global pandemic and we had to stop before the first onstage orchestra rehearsal. Funny story, there is a sign on a bulletin board in the theatre dated, March 3th, 2020 that encourages mask using. I’m not sure if the memo is left up out of neglect or some odd sense of memorium.

    Then daylights savings the next day, which I had completely forgotten about, but somehow the Husband managed to get the two little kids up and to 8:30am mass on time. Daylights savings after a late night is always tough. I was so disoriented when I woke up to a quiet house and a watch that say 8:45am, and a clock that said 9:45am.

    The Husband brought the kids home in time for me to bundle them back up and go to skating lessons. After skating lessons, there was a park, then home for lunch. Then we had a family adventure to the outlets to try to find some luggage. We wanted to get the 11 year old her own rolling suitcase for our Spring Break Trip, and we found something for her at the Samsonite store. Of course the two little kids also decided they wanted luggage, but let’s be real, I don’t know that the three year old is going to pull her own rolling suitcase through an airport. So we stopped by Target and got them (relatively) inexpensive rolling suitcases – cheerful luggage that will hopefully last three or four years. I still need to replace my rolling suitcase – it’s well over 20 years old, the wheels have disintegrated and it’s actually probably a little too long to fit in the overhead these days. A project for the weeks to come, I think.

    On the way home, the Husband called an audible for dinner and we ended up at Dog Fish Head brewery for dinner, which was a tasty way to finish off the weekend, and a much needed bit of de-stressing since I think we were all cranky and overwhelmed by the shopping. There are just so. many. options. in the world. Then we went home and watched the Oscars.

    Anyhow, the week before that very busy weekend was the rest of tech week, which went pretty smoothly. The schedule eased up quite a bit once we started rehearsing with orchestra, and we even had a few days without rehearsal. I know I say this all the time, but I still feel like I’m not great at switching between working 12 hours a day and 2 hours a day. I find I tend to be a slug on lighter work days and then life tasks don’t get done – so trying to find ways to balance the need to slug and the need to get through the list of things that had been put off during tech.

    The three year old continued her contributions to science by participating in the trail for the Pfizer booster. It had occurred to me last month that she was eligible for the booster, and when I asked the group that administers the trial if I could go ahead and get her booster, they said I could but then she would have to withdraw from the trial. So… figuring that things were pretty low risk right now, and that the $150 might be nice for her college fund, we decided to wait until the booster trial opened up. That turned out to be a three hour appointment. But she got a cute teddy bear out of it!

    Some random thoughts on the Oscars: I didn’t get to watch all of it because bedtime fell right in the middle of everything, but what I did see checked a lot of boxes for glamour, pretty people, and touching thank you speeches that reminded me how powerful public gratitude can be. Some thoughts:
    -The clothes! Let’s be real, this is why I watch – I think I’ve seen exactly one of the movies that were nominated. (Tar, for the record) My favorite gown was Cara Delevingne’s huge red dress. I thought it was classic Hollywood glamour on a large scale. And also the Rock in the blush pink satin tuxedo. That made me smile.

    And it even has pockets!
    It’s a little shiny, but I love the pop of colour in a sea of black.

    – The folks who won for Best Live Short, singing happy birthday to one of their stars, James Martin. I mean how awesome is that? You have a global platform and only 45 seconds, and you use it to give your star the gift of two thousand people singing happy birthday?

    – A moment that really connected for me was when Ernestine Hipper, who won for Production Design said, “When I started this, I was told – don’t ever forget, you are only as good as your team… ” And it made me think of my awesome colleagues and how I had just had a hard tech week and thank goodness I have a rock solid beyond competent team of stage managers to work with me because they make me look good, and it would have definitely been harder without them.

    – Everything, Everywhere, All at Once sweeping the awards. I have yet to see this movie, but I very much want to. I mean how many times will I get to see a movie where the main character wears a print blouse and a puffer vest, just like my grandmother did? So that was lovely, and all the speeches thanking immigrant parents really hit close to home. The Asians who thanked their parents for letting them do what they wanted…

    Grateful For:
    – A very smooth opening night and the privilege to work on this show.
    – Smiling Mind meditations. I’m (still) trying to wean the three year old at night. I’m feeling slightly ridiculous about this, but sometimes it’s the only pathway to sleep. Lately I’ve been able to get her to sleep before she demand “Milk!!!!” by playing a bedtime meditation for her and the six year old after we read books. I’ve been using the app Smiling Mind, an app based out of Australia. I picked it mostly because it is free, but the cute Australia accent is nice to listen to as well. There aren’t a whole lot of options for meditations, but my kids are creatures of habit and listen to the same one over and over again.
    – Small moments to savor this week – the little bits of things that let me pause and enjoy being, like…
    Golden sunsets on my dinner time run:

    Steaming cups of chai. I’ve been making my own chai concentrate at home and enjoying a cup of chai in the afternoons, wrapping my cold hands around the fragrant warmth of the cup of milky brown tea. I find the pre-made chai too sweet for my taste so I started experimenting with making my own. I’m still working out the perfect recipe; I can’t seem to get my chai spicy enough. Currently I’m using cardomon pods, star anise, cinnamon stick, black peppercorn, ginger and tumeric. Maybe more ginger? Maybe grate the ginger?

    Packing lunches for the kids. It seems silly to be grateful for such a tedious chore, but after working so many evenings and being gone for bedtime, I felt grateful that I could do this one thing for my kids every day. (Well, not every day. About half the time the 11 year old packs her own lunch.)

    lunch x3!

    For the kids being adorable and cute and at that age when they get a lot of joy out of dressing alike. I had picked up this blue eagle shirt for the six year old a couple of years ago and he looooooves wearing his shirt. “My Robot Eagle Shirt”, he calls it. And he always wears it with red bottoms. I was worried what would happen when he outgrew the shirt, but then I was able to find the shirt one size bigger on Poshmark. Anyhow, now the original shirt has been passed on, and the kids do cute things like this:

    Twinsing!

    This jigsaw puzzle – a soothing opportunity to shift my brain during rehearsal breaks. One of my co-workers brought in this charming puzzle made by Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – the pieces are made of wood and feel so satisfying to click into place, and some of the pieces are shaped like objects. I thought this clipboard was very appropriate for our Stage Management Office.

    I’m a beginner puzzler, but I thought this puzzle fantastic!

    The clean living room. One day, the 11 year old declined to go out running errands with us, saying that she would stay home and tidy. I was skeptical. But we got home and lo and behold:

    Spring. I took a few hours to wander at the botanical gardens one day, to pause and breathe and enjoy the colours of spring.

    Looking Forward To:
    – Weekday lunch with the Husband. Like a date, almost.
    – Time to breathe and work on all the things that get put off during tech.
    – My brother and his family are coming to visit this summer! It’s a couple months away, but we haven’t seen them in a while, so I’m excited to see them.

    What We Ate:

    Saturday: I brought at hummus and cucumer sandwich to work. The Husband made pizza for movie night. I think they watched The Good Dinosaur.

    Sunday: The Husband and kids had dumplings. I had Green Room chicken – as in there was a catered event at the theatre next door, which my friend was working. There was too much food leftover, so my friend brought it over and I had chicken and rice and salad for dinner.

    Monday: The Husband made waffles with sauteed mushrooms for the kids. I packed ramen to eat at work.

    Tuesday: Roasted Garlic Potato Soup from Family by Hetty McKinnon. Made before I went to work and was able to take myself a thermos full. The kids said this was bland, but the Husband and I thought it was tasty. Actually the best part was the salty paprika garlic almonds that the recipe calls for as a garnish. Vegan.

    Wednesday: Vegetarian Jap chae. A kitchen sink, clean out the fridge meal. Vegan.

    Thursday: Veggie quiche, made before I went to work. Another attempt to use up veggies in the fridge.

    Friday: Pizza/ basketball team sleepover.

    Saturday: Leftovers for me. The Husband and kids had pizza (homemade, I think?) and watched Frozen.

    Sunday: Dog Fish Head Brewery. I had nachos and the ahi tuna sandwich. It all felt very indulgent.

    Weekly recap + what we ate: tech week snacks and a new month

    I’m half way through tech week – it’s the light at the end of the tunnel part of getting a show onstage. It’s been rough, sometimes frustratingly and despairingly so, and I’ve really questioned my ability to do my job. But things always magically happen- well, not magically, actually, It takes a lot of wonderfully talented and thoughtful people. So we are getting there, I’m learning a lot about how to stand up for what I think is needed. I’m really looking forward to going to sleep before midnight again.

    It’s a new month and I took a moment to write a few February highlights and and lowlights and some plans and aspirations for the next 31 days. A lot of these things have been pushed off til the next few weeks when my schedule is lighter and I’m not at the theatre for 12 hours a day.

    February Lowlights:
    Work drama and stresses
    Colleagues moving on to other jobs. I mean I’m happy for them, but I will miss their presence and wisdom.
    Repairs at one of the rental properties we manage. Nothing we can’t handle, but irksome to have to deal with it.

    February Highlights:
    The 6 year old’s Chuck E. Cheese party.
    Having friends over for the Superbowl.
    Booking some work for the summer.
    Going to see Into The Woods.
    The lovely and charming vocal recital that I ran the titles for.

    March Aspirations:
    For Me:
    – Learn 12 new Chinese characters. I’ve been slowly trying to learn to read in Chinese. I don’t know how practical this is because I feel like written Mandarin is very different from spoken Mandarin. But I’m trying to learn 100 characters by the end of the year. Which, I know, is not a huge amount, but baby steps.
    -Continue to find time to write here on this blog.
    – Run 3x a week, and incorporate 10 minutes of yoga or strength work a day.
    – Happy Hour with my Moms’ Group. This is scheduled. Yay.
    – Find a pair of casual shoes for our Spring Break Trip. I have new running shoes so I now wear my old trail runners as my every day shoe (which also helps me get a run in at work because I can still run in them so if I don’t remember my running shoes it’s not a big deal). But I would like a pair of casual yet cut shoes for city walking. I had a pair of Olukai slip on shoes, but they have a hole in them now, and I don’t like the current colour selection. Suggestions welcome for colourful, comfortable and durable shoes!
    -Reach out to friends for some lunch dates once my show is open.

    House/Organizational:
    – TAXES. This is the big one. Maybe I should just make it the one thing on my list…
    – Clean out the guest room that has become baby clothes storage.
    – Order more shade samples for the living room.
    – Turn over the kids clothes for Spring. There is a big consignment sale at a local preschool so before I check that out, I want to go through the kids clothes so I know what I need to buy for the kids to get them through the summer.
    – Help with Laundry more.

    Family
    – Sleepover for the 11 year old’s basketball team. 11 girls. pizza, movie, soda, cookies, waffles, tater tots. I think only half are sleeping over, though.
    – Plan Spring Break. It’s coming up soon!
    – Date night or Date Lunch with Husband.
    – Figure out summer childcare/camps. Late to the game, I know, but I just recently booked summer work. I hadn’t been planning on needing any summer child care, then boom. This is one of the fall outs of my colleagues leaving the business – people were suddenly looking for stage managers.
    -Work on family routines for cleaning and organizing that the kids will buy into. Or maybe the solution is constant nagging for the next 18 years?

    Work
    -Survive tech.
    -then clean out my inbox and do my IT training.

    Fun
    – Hike the Billy Goat Trail. I hiked it last fall and I’d love to do it again in the Spring.
    – Cherry Blossoms. I just read that peak bloom has been moved up to March 18th, which seems ridiculously early. But this coincides with a lighter time at work, so I’ll make plans to go down during the week when it’s not so crowded.
    – Family adventure. Not sure what this would be. Maybe another hike. Maybe a little half day trip? I’ll have to ponder. It’s tricky because weekends are often booked with my work or skating lessons for the kids, so our adventure would have to be pretty local.

    Some Fun Things This Week:
    – I went to Costco! Twice, actually. One time for regular family restocking, and then the day we moved into the theatre, I stopped on the way to work to pick up some fun snacks for the office. Through my colleague, I have discovered Whisps! They are baked cheese crackers. Like you know when you make a grilled cheese sandwich and some of the cheese leaks out onto the griddle and gets all bubbly and toasty and crunchy? Whisps is like a whole bag of those. They are delicious. But also, sometimes they taste like the way string cheese smells when you find it hardened under the car seat. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s your thing, but I certainly could eat a bag by myself.

    Also tried these bubble tea mochis. I like them, but probably not enough to buy them again. I’d rather just have bubble tea.

    And and and… my a Costco discovery in the freezer section that made me super excited:

    So when I was growing up my grandmother would visit from Taiwan and bring me White Rabbit Candy. It’s kind of a taffy like vanilla candy wrapped in edible rice paper. Seeing a popsicle version – at Costco of all places – brought back so many memories that I just had to try them. They taste just like the candy, expect maybe a little creamier and they don’t get stuck in your teeth the same way. I find it interesting the random Asian treats that I find at our Costco.

    – I had a long walk and lunch with my friend. We walked to the cafe and had brunch – I had quiche. And she had a latte and I had a ginger turmeric chai, we both had pastries. Mine was a blueberry rhubarb Amann and it was delicious. And we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and brisk, but not too brisk, weather.

    – Clementines. I love clementine season. The little oranges are the perfectly portable sweet snack. I also love that the kids can peel them by themselves. We go through a bag in two days so we buy a lot when they are in season. (When they are not in season, I find them very uninspiring.) One of my favorite things to do with them is to peel them and then leave them out so that the membranes get a little dry and crispy. When you bit into the slices you get a delicate crunch of dried shell, then the burst of sweet juicy fruit. It’s a small pleasure, probably made more so by having peeled them and then having to wait for the outsides to dry.

    peeled and waiting for the membranes to dry. It’s actually tricky to get to the right degree to dry membrane because someone inevitably comes by and eats them…

    -Signs of Spring. Seems too soon, but things are blooming and I’m enjoying the new bits of colour in the landscape.

      – Not fun, per se, but watching the 11 year old’s basketball game. They played a team of 6th graders and lost by one point. Losing on free throws is always hard and made me a little angry. But … I’ve been really enjoying being able to go to her games and cheer her on. I never thought I’d be a good sports parent – cheering and clapping always makes me feel self conscious, but these basketball games really brought out the cheerleading parent in me, I guess. There is something really fun about sitting in the stands with other parents and watching a nailbiter of a game.

      Mystery of the week: Where did the waffle batter go? The Husband made a double batch of waffle batter one night for dinner, and saved half of it to make for dinner this past week. Well, we can’t find it. It’s not in either of our fridges. It’s not in the pantry. It’s not in any of the cupboards. I am kind of dreading the day when we find a six month old container of waffle batter in an utterly random corner of the house.

      Grateful for this week:
      – As with every tech week – first prize gold star goes to the Husband for holding down the fort every evening. He makes dinner, he scrapes the ice off my car in the morning, he cleans the kitchen at night. He goes to pick up the kids when they have an accident at school. He’s been awesome.
      – My favorite pencils – Pentel Twist-erase mechanical pencils. The best features: a) 0.9 lead, nice and thick and won’t break when I’m writing quickly, and b) the barrel is red so I don’t lose them, c) the eraser which is thick enough so that it doesn’t shred the page when I rub too hard. I bought these pencils in a 12 pack last year because I didn’t ever want to be without.
      – 2020 me for keeping such a neat prompt book. I literally took my score from this show in 2020 and copied all the tech cues into my 2023 score. There were still a lot of things that we discovered when we got onstage because… well we only had two tech rehearsals in 2020 before we were all sent home. So certain cues we never even had to a chance to realize that we would need them. But even so, it’s been great to be able to have all the cues in my book before we started onstage so I’m not putting in additional hours writing them in when I’m already at the theatre till 11pm at night.

      Looking forward to:
      – Opening night. This is the show I was working on when the pandemic shut everything down. It’s been a little surreal to be working on it again.
      – Pizza party/movie night/sleepover for the 11 year old’s basketball team. (Apparently according to my niece this is actually a slumber party, not a sleepover…) We’re going to have the players make their own pizza and then the Husband says he’s just going to throw them in the basement and hand over the remote. I think about 11 preteens will be descending on us, though only half are actually staying the night. Waffles in the morning.
      – working on my taxes. This is not a “looking forward to” because I find doing my taxes fun, but rather “looking forward to” in that I need to get it off my plate and I know I’m going to feel a lot better when it’s done. We actually have a person do our taxes, so I just need to find the information for our spreadsheet of deductible expenses and gather the tax documents.

      What We Ate: another week of barely planned dinners:

      Saturday: pizza (take out) and Good Night, Oppy. Such a good movie! This is a documentary about the Mars rovers Perseverance and Opportunity. They were originally anticipated to last 90 days on Mars, but Opportunity lasted fifteen years. There was something really human about this little rover wandering the planet, capturing pictures, and the scientists and engineers behind it.

      Sunday: Dinner at our friend’s house before the Husband and the 11 year old went to the theatre with them. Our friends make ribs and hot dogs and salad and curly fries.

      Monday: Defrosted some carrot parsnip soup – the husband fed the kids that with leftover pizza from the weekend. I was working, so I’m sure I packed something out of the fridge.

      Tuesday: Perch and bagged salad. I was a Costco and it being Lent and we want to eat more fish, I bought a giant package of Perch.

      Wednesday: eggs, fruit, cut up veggies. This was the night of the waffle batter mystery.

      Thursday: Coconut Soup from Family by Hetty McKinnon.

      Friday: I was working through most of my dinner break, and managed only to shove half a sandwich and a soy egg in my mouth before rehearsal. I’m not sure what the rest of the family had for dinner. I think they had take-out sushi.

      Weekly recap + what we ate: Attention

      A night at the theatre!

      I had to work both Saturday and Sunday last week, but Sunday was the supertitle gig, so it did actually feel like a break from my opera job. And running titles is fun because I get to enjoy the music and run the titles projections and I don’t have to talk to anyone. When I’m stage managing sometimes it feels like there is someone constantly talking to me. One fun thing that I did Sunday morning before going to work was take the eleven year old on a run. She usually has a swim clinic on Sundays, but lately has been reluctant to go, so I offered that we could go for a run instead. (I was partially inspired by Coco for this idea; I always love reading about how she runs with her children.) We went to the track at the middle school and ran laps and then did a few passes up and down the stairs while listening to Against the Odds. We didn’t go very far or very fast, but at least we kept moving.

      Monday was President’s Day, and the kids were off school. I was working, so the Husband took the kids down to the Mall to visit the Natural History Museum. This seems to be the Husband’s routine on no school days with the kids – he takes the on the Metro downtown to see a museum. I have to say I’m quite jealous because I have yet to go to any museums this year and I told myself I would make a point to visit the more frequently. It just seems like all the free museums are a perk of living in the DC area and I don’t take advantage of it enough.

      The highlight of the week was definitely going to the theatre to see Into the Woods. The day was unseasonable warm – almost 80 degrees and sunny. I attempted to go on a run during my lunch break, but I was not dressed for such weather – I made it about ten minutes then got really hot, and went back to the office. I did go for a walk earlier that day, so the weather was enjoyed and savored. After work, my friend picked me up and we headed down to the theatre, stopping to pick up food on the way from Flower Child, a new to me restaurant chain that is purports to be healthy. I had a tofu plate with curry cauliflower and yuzu brussel sprouts and it was pretty tasty. The weather was so warm that we could sit on the back terrace of the theatre to eat.

      The show itself was wonderful. I laughed so hard throughout and then I almost cried at the end. I first heard Into the Woods in high school – I think I saw the telecast of the original Broadway cast on PBS or we rented the video or something. The orchestra was onstage in this version, and it made me really appreciate the music a lot more – especially the strings and the very busy percussionist who did a lot of the sound effects. I sort of regret not bringing my 11 year old, but she went to see it later on with the Husband, so I think it’s okay. Some more of my favorite moments:
      – Cole Thompson as Jack singing “Giants in the Sky”. It’s my favorite song in the whole show.
      – The amazing puppet work and the very hilariously meta way that Kennedy Kenagawa the puppeteer/actor that played Milky White the cow was integrated into the action. There was no pretending that we couldn’t see the man behind the curtain.
      -The scene change when everyone goes into the woods and birch trees come floating down from above. I know the mechanics about how things fly in – often I’m watching it from the side of the stage, making sure no one is standing in the way of things flying in. To see it happen from the audience point of view- I am reminded how magical these simple theatre maneuvers are. How, with a bit of man power and proper riggings, something very simple – attaching scenic elements to a pipe and slowly lowering them to the ground along with a change in lighting- can bring about stunning transformations.
      -At the end of intermission, a voice announced that for the remainder of the show, the role of the Baker would be played by his understudy. Said understudy was playing Rapunzel’s Prince, and so the role of Rapunzel’s Prince would be played by his understudy. (I had seen the Baker limping at the end of the first act, but I thought he was acting. I guess not?) What excitement and frenetic arrangements must have been taking place backstage while I was enjoying some fresh air at intermission! Okay, the best part was when it came time for the scene in Act Two where Rapunzel’s Prince and Cinderella’s Prince enter for their second duet – the two men entered, greeted each other, as in the script, then Cinderella’s Prince says totally deadpan, “Brother, you look different.” Brought. Down. The. House. I laughed so hard. I love it when actors can riff with ease like that.
      – One thing that I really appreciated about the show was that it wasn’t too loud. I often find that when I go see musicals, everything is so loud that it is distracting. I don’t know if it was because the orchestra was onstage, but I found that the levels for the performers was perfect – I could hear them and they didn’t seem overamplified.

      Bad Moment/Good Moments: Getting the kids to clean up after dinner (or really clean up in general) is still proving to be a struggle. There was definitely some yelling this week. There was one day when dinner was super loose because the Husband was trying to make it to Ash Wednesday service, so he ate first, but then when he left for church all the kids left the table and disappeared. It made me so angry to have no one answer when I called them back to the table, and then to have to clean the kitchen by myself. I just want my kids to be helpful! I yelled and then went outside and stood in the driveway in the cold air for a while. What awful roommates they are.

      But then there are days when they just dance by themselves in the kitchen, and it just makes me smile to see them bopping away on their own:

      dance party

      Podcast listen of the week: This episode about how to manage your attentions span from The Art of Manliness (I find the title “The Art of Manliness” really cringe-y, but they do cover a wide array of fascinating things.) The guest on the program, Dr. Gloria Mark is a professor who studies attention span, and actually wrote a book called Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity. Ironically, it took me over a week to get through this podcast as I kept getting distracted. The discussion (which there is a transcript at the link) discussed how attention span seems to be shrinking, whether or not technology and media has contributed to this shrinking attention span or is merely a reflection of it, how your personality type reflects your attention span, and why multi-tasking makes us inefficient. As someone who often finds it hard to sit and focus for long periods of time, I really connected with a couple of points:
      – Dr. Mark talks about how task switching really can torpedo attention span and points out how even when one is concentrating on doing one thing, there is a significant amount of task switching within that thing. They use the example of planning a trip – even when doing that one thing, it’s comprised on many small tasks – checking tickets, switching over to checking calendars, the logging into your bank account, etc. So there is a huge potential to get distracted and fatigued from task switching. I think this is why consciously breaking down large projects into smaller portions is a good tactic.
      -I had mentioned in a previous post about the morningness-eveningness quiz which helps determine an ideal bedtime and you”morningness/eveningness” type. I had first heard about the quiz from The Art of Manliness site before the podcast was released and it was interesting to hear them talk about how to use the quiz results in context of attention span. One of Dr. Mark’s main ideas is that we can get a handle on our attention span by acting with more agency and deliberately planning our day to when we are the most alert – not groundbreaking advice by any means, but I had never thought to really try to find out when my most alert times of day were. I realized that I haven’t been maximizing my morning-evening type lately, and as a result I’ve had some pretty inefficient days at work. I’ve had a few days with a very light rehearsal schedule, and I usually run in the mornings because the trail is near the bus stop so it makes sense to do the school bus run then hit the trail. But then I don’t get to work until noon or 1pm and then I find it hard to concentrate. Given that the quiz seems to indicate that I’m an intermediate/morning type, I think it might make more sense to go to work after the school bus drop off and then have my run later in the afternoon when I find myself getting more distracted. I’m going to try to implement that whenever possible and see if I find it easier to focus and plough through stuff by getting to work earlier.
      -My favorite point – They talk about how distraction is not necessarily a bad thing because studies have shown that giving yourself positive brain breaks actually can replenish your cognitive resources. This got me thinking of positive brain breaks I can take. And some of the things I came up with:
      > doing a downward dog and some light stretching
      > reading the list I keep of funny things my kids say/ looking at cute kid pictures
      >have a chat about non-work things with my colleagues. No complaining allowed.
      > go for a walk outside and savor nature.
      > do some leisure reading
      > have a tasty snack or some water
      > do something creative like doodle a random art prompt, or write a haiku
      > Say thank you or compliment someone.
      > Do a puzzle or a brain game.
      What I want to avoid, when I need a positive brain break is scrolling on my phone or taking on a lot of negative energy or emotion from someone else. I’m not on social media because I found it mentally and emotionally draining, but there are still lots of other websites and forums which I don’t feel recharged after visiting. So I like the idea of having alternatives to my phone when I find myself unable to focus. This actually ties to something I did last month. I created a screen on my phone of “positive activities.” I had heard the idea on a podcast of creating a folder on your phone for social media alternatives so that when you feel the urge to aimlessly scroll, you can go to that folder instead. I did a variation on this, and put certain apps that I feel positive about on one screen, so when I idly pick up my screen for a little break, I tell myself to check out those activities first. It doesn’t work all the time, but many times, it does keep me from internet rabbit holes.

      Home Screen

      My positive apps: photos; weather; Smiling Mind (meditation, mostly I use for the kids); Libby and Hoopla for library books; Duolingo to practice my Mandarin; Runkeeper; Podcasts; Notes for random thoughts and haikus; Wordle – did you know you can set any website to be an icon “app”? I think this is genius because now I can go directly to Wordle rather than getting distracted by other sites when I open my browser. I’m contemplating adding Spotify or a music app or Audible to my “positive break” page. But then I would cover up the Husband’s face even more and we can’t have that.

      Grateful For:
      – Windows in the rehearsal hall. I’ve worked in many a company where we rehearse in a windowless bunker – cafeterias, basements, church auditoriums… You go in in the morning and emerge blinking into the light at midday and then back in after lunch then at the end of the day come out to the dark of night; it is always a little disorienting. The rehearsal room I’m working in now has huge floor to ceiling windows . I love how the windows let in the sunlight and I can see the progress of the day outside. Our windows face west, and some days I can watch the sun set and see the pink and orange skies – it is a lovely positive brain break during long rehearsal days.
      – That I sometimes get staff discounts for performance tickets. It’s a definitely perk of where I work. I will be the first to admit that going to a live performance is expensive; I am so grateful for people who come to see shows and help pay my salary. At the same time, I know I would very rarely prioritize paying full price for a live performance unless it were something very special. So having access to a discounted ticket here and there from work makes me feel so lucky.
      – Drop off birthday parties and the parents who throw them. The six year old is at an age now where he is invited to drop off parties. I don’t mind terribly having to make awkward small talk with other parents, but when I’m working and there is only one parent at home and three children to watch, being able to drop a child off at a party is a gift. I picked the six year old up from a party and I literally said to the birthday child’s parent, “Thank you for having a drop off party!”

      Looking forward To:
      – A morning walking date with my work bestie on our day off on Thursday. I see her almost every day at work, but it’ll be nice to have some time to talk about non-work stuff.
      – Cooking from Cookbooks. I put a bunch of cookbooks on hold at the library recently and they all came in at the same time. In retrospect, the week I start rehearsal is hardly an ideal time to dive into new recipes. I’ve leafed through them for some of the simpler ideas to use these next few weeks, and I’m planning on cooking from one of them on my day off – probably a soup so I’ll have easy leftovers. I’m really looking forward to cooking from them once the show opens. I love reading cookbooks, and one of them is part memoir, part cookbook which I’ve been reading during breakfast and it’s been lovely.
      -Tech week! Coming up. I’m excited to get this show to Opening Night. I’ve started stocking up on all my favorite snacks.

      What We Ate:

      Saturday: Pizza (Husband made) and Star Wars. I have to admit that I fell asleep during this movie. I had had a couple late nights and Star Wars is a great movie, but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open.

      Sunday: Chipotle. The 11 year old’s choice to celebrate an improved report card.

      Monday: Stir Fried Garlic Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes and Mac n Cheese. The Husband cooked – it was a bit of a fridge clean out kind of smorgasbord.

      Tuesday: Black Bean Soup from Hetty McKinnon’s Family: New Vegetable Classics to Comfort and Nourish. Since I was making this in the morning so the family could eat it that evening, I adapted her recipe for the Instant Pot, using dried beans instead of canned. Vegan.

      Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner – waffles and eggs and breakfast tacos. This was one of those days which we didn’t meal plan something and then the afternoon got busy and at 4:30pm, the Husband asked, “What should I make for dinner?” I initially suggested pancake because we had some Kodiak pancake mix, and when I got home he had the waffle maker out.

      Thursday: Butter Chicken and rice, using the leftover butter chicken sauce from last week.

      Friday: Tortellini with red sauce. Our usual Friday night quick dinner before the 11 year old’s basketball.

      Weekly Recap + what we ate: mind wandering and meanderings

      Sunday morning at the ice rink.

      This week felt really routine. Morning – breakfast/pack lunches/school bus run. Then Work. Then home to eat dinner (never made it home in time to make dinner). Then kids to bed and collapse in exhaustion. I had a couple late nights when I stayed up late to work on the slides for a supertitle gig. That probably explains the few nights that I collapsed in exhaustion. Sometimes I think wistfully on “college me” who could pull four or five all nighters in a row. I can’t do that anymore. I mean I like sleep, but also.. it sometimes feels like a waste of time.

      The week started off with Superbowl Sunday. We had friends over and lots of food. The kids ran around with minimal interest in the game, only coming down to eat periodically. I didn’t have druthers who won – I usually like just rooting for whomever is running with the ball. There’s something about a person running really fast while being chased that makes me want them to come out on top. It was a lovely social way to start the week.

      Mind wanders and life meanders from the week:

      It’s been taking a lot of mental energy to get through the decisions that have been thrown my way at work this week. Fine, we’ll get through. One of the Assistant Stage Managers on the show has brought in a jigsaw puzzle for the communal table in our office and we’ve been slowly working our way through. Or actually, not too slowly because it seemed like every time I came in in the morning, a new swath of puzzle was complete. Anyhow, a couple days ago, I came in to this:

      My co-workers had left the last piece for me to do. Isn’t that awesome? I left it undone, saying I wanted to save it for a really bad day so that I’d have something that could go right when I needed it.

      Haircut – I think I last got my haircut last year around this time. My modus operadi is to grow out my hair until it’s time to start a new gig, then to get it cut super short. I really should get my hair cut more, but I have to admit that my stylist is very expensive and it feels like his rates go up every time I get my haircut. Which, I guess if it’s only once a year, is understandable. Anyhow, my favorite part of getting my haircut super short- it now takes about five minutes to shower. Yay. When my hair gets long I sometimes am very reluctant to shower because it takes so long to wash my hair and then it takes a long time to dry. Oh – another perk, is I think the short hair hides the grey more. Or maybe not. I might just be kidding myself on that one.

      Masking – I ordered another batch of masks for the kids this week, which led me to contemplate the current state of masking where I am. I would say that I am seeing fewer and fewer masks, but I do see them continue to be worn when I am out and about- mostly older people and people with children and service providers. Currently only the two little kids still wear masks to school. Except for a few weeks ago when there were 3 COVID cases in the 6 year old’s classroom and everyone was asked to mask for 10 days, masks are not mandatory. I think it’s interesting that the two little kids still ask for their masks as they head out the door for school while the 11 year old no longer wears one unless we ask her to, for example if we go to the theatre or something. Masking at work is encouraged but not enforced for me, in addition my company still does mandatory twice a week COVID testing. I do think that is on the more cautious end of the spectrum. I still mostly mask at the grocery store, though I don’t worry if I forget. I think right now, I’ve resigned myself to the idea that we’ll just continue masking for a while, but not to be too strict about it. I also realize that my approach to masking is probably not entirely rational and likely just habit right now; COVID levels are really low where I am. Also – I feel like there is so much other stuff goin on out there right now… if it’s not COVID, the kids are going to be sick from something else.

      Petty annoyance of the week – Last week, spring swim lesson sign ups opened on Monday morning for our county swim program, and by the time I logged in at noon, all the slots for the beginner classes were taken, except for maybe 6:30pm on a Tuesday night, which is a little on the late side for us. I kind of knew the slots were going to fill fast and it still annoyed me mightily to have missed out. When the oldest was little, I would set my alarm for 6am on registration day to snag a swim lesson slot. I don’t know why I lost the will to do that these past few years. Second/third kid syndrome, maybe? I know if I were serious about getting the littles into swim lessons I would just sign them up for lessons with one of the private swim schools here. But they are so much more expensive. Anyhow, I think I will just try to take the kids to the pool more often during free swim time and then come summer sign them up for private lessons at our summer swim club. Sidenote story: A few months ago, I went to our local swim store to buy the eleven year old a new swimsuit and impulsively threw in a couple kickboards for the two little kids. Now the baby wanders around with her kick board asking, “When are we going to the pool?” She even has slept with it on occasion. So yeah, I think getting to the pool at least once this winter is on the to do list.

      Another petty annoyance of the week: The weather was beautiful all week and I wanted to bike to work, but after I got all my gear on and unearthed the bike from the shed, I went to put air in the tires and the valve to the tire was broken. AAAARGGH!!! I need to streamline the process for biking to work so that when it doesn’t work out I’m not so devastated to have lost thirty minutes of anticipation and preparation time. Anyhow, I’m sure it’s an easy fast fix, but I haven’t had time to do it yet… and I’m feeling very annoyed that beautiful weather is passing by while the bike sits unused. I guess it was a week for foiled plans – I also spent an entire morning putting up a baby gate for my parent’s tenants because the door to their basement broke, and basement stairs+ babies = bad combination. The baby gate absolutely needed to be done, and I was happy to do it, but having my morning routine thrown off track was annoying. Oh well… expect the unexpected.

      Proud Parent moment of the week: Last week was Valentine’s Day – a day that I usually mark with last minute trips to Target to survey the bottom barrel dregs of Valentine’s day cards available, or which I try to solve with Amazon next day shopping. I think my happiest moment last month was when the baby’s child care center emailed all the parents to notify us that the center does not celebrate Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s cards would not be necessary. Hallelujah!

      But that still left the two kids in elementary school with Valentines to procure. I tasked the Husband to work with the 11 year old for hers – she just wanted to give out candy. I took on the six year old. He wanted to hand out stickers. The Sunday before Valentine’s Day we went to Michael’s, and to my dismay, the Valentine’s Day items were already relegated to a tiny shelf, to make way, of course, or Easter and St. Patrick’s Day. There were no Valentine’s Day Stickers. No heart stickers. Nothing. But…. luckily, we found some French stickers – perfect because the six year old is in French immersion school. So I grabbed those and called it done. I took them home and had him write his name on the back of the right number of sticker sheets. The next night, I offered to write his classmate’s names for him. He said, “I want to write Ada because it is short. The other names are too long.”

      Okay, I figured that he could write Ada’s sticker sheet and I would write the rest of them. But… once he finished Ada, he looked at the rest of the names on his list and said, “I would like to try the other names.” And he did it! He wrote all twenty-four names of his classmates on the sticker sheets. I was just so proud of him for deciding that it was worth trying to do and doing it.

      Also – check out his new favorite accessory. Cracks me up.

      He’s overseeing the new construction of the Death Star, while writing Valentine’s Day Cards.

      Grateful For This Week:
      -The ridiculously mild weather. It was in the 50s and 60s all week. A couple days of rain, but other than that such nice weather. The crocuses are blooming which fill me with both joy and trepidation.

      It’s a February Spring.

      -The friend from my mom’s group who lent me the baby gate for my parent’s tenants. So glad I have a group of people I can just text for random asks like this.
      – The ice arena nearby where the six year old has been taking skating lessons on Sunday mornings. I’ve really been enjoying our Sunday morning routine these past few weeks. The price of skating lessons also includes a punch card for the skater to come to free skate to practice. So on Sundays, I’ve been taking the three year old and the six year old to the 11am free skate, and then the three year old and I will continue to skate while the six year old has lessons from 12:15 to 12:45pm. Then we have a snack and go to the park, and get home around 2:00pm for a late lunch. It’s been a nice way to spend a Sunday morning, and I get to go skating too, which is always fun. I love seeing how even in these six weeks, both kids have gotten so much better on skates. I can skate for a quarter lap of the rink without anyone clinging on to me! And I initially thought that they would get discouraged by falling, but they haven’t; they just get right back up and continue skating. I’ve already signed up both kids for the next session and I’m looking forward to it!
      – A friend and colleague whom I could just text with questions about my supertitle gig. (And this is where I get into the weeds of what I do…) Most of the translated titles that I format for these song recitals are for songs based on poetry. When formatting the projected titles, I’m always torn between maintaining the line of the original poem versus matching the line of the music. For example this poem by Edith Sitwell, set to music by William Walton:
      Through gilded trellises
      Of the heat, spangles
      Pelt down through the tangles
      Of bell flowers. Each dangles
      Her castanets, shutters
      Fall while the heat mutters.
      (You can hear the full song here if you choose – it’s a charming song.)

      Clearly the rhyming scheme doesn’t follow the line of the sentence. But the composer has set the musical phrases to follow the sentences, not the lines of poetry. At the same time, there is something so wonderful about the way the rhymes work. So the question is… is there an obligation, when writing the translation slides, to preserve the original line and rhyme scheme of the poetry?
      Anyhow, I texted my friend for her opinion and she reminded me: “When the translation title fights the musical line, it can be distracting.” Which is a good reminder that my job is really to help the audience understand the music, not admire the poetry.
      Also this question always good to ask: “Will the poet be at the recital?” My friend should really write a book on the art of writing supertitles.

      Looking Forward To:
      – Going to the theatre this week! I have tickets to see Into the Woods. At first I was going to go with the Husband and the 11 year old, but then the logistics of finding a sitter of the other two kids kind of overwhelmed me. (I know… we should be using a sitter more.) So the Husband and the 11 year old are going to go one night and I’m going with my friend/college roommate a different night. I’m so excited! My friend loves Into The Woods, and it’s her birthday week, so it feels celebratory. When we were in college we went to see a concert version that reunited the original cast for the 10th year anniversary of the original Broadway production, so this will be a nice throwback.
      – Planning our Spring Break Trip. I know it’s a while away, but I just had a bunch of travel books come off my holds list for our destination, so I’m starting to get excited about what we might do there.
      – Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. So I had been watching This Is Us while cleaning the kitchen. But it’s the last season and I’m not ready to be done that. (Okay, last year was the last season, but I seem to watch everything at least one year late.) So I’ve switched to watching old episodes of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. I loved this show growing up, and would watch it every week – well until my parents got rid of tv, but that’s another story. I’m realizing, though, that I only started watching it halfway through Season Two, so I’ve started watching it from the beginning. Is it sentimental and unabashedly wholesome, with life lessons every week and lives frequently in peril. Without a doubt this is not the kind of edgy, ironic, brutal television that gets made these days. People might roll their eyes at this kind of family friendly fare, but I do wish that there were more shows like this to watch as a family these days.
      -Lent. I’m not Catholic, but the Husband is and I look forward to Lent every year because then we get to eat more fish. I mean we could eat more fish any old time of the year, but we actually make an effort during Lent.

      What We Ate: I didn’t meal plan at all this week – it was a combination of the Husband cooking and us throwing dinner together from fridge and pantry. Worked out fine, but man… I find the day stressful when I don’t have a plan for dinner. Food takes up too much real eastate in my brain.

      Saturday: Pizza (the Husband made) and Newsies. It was my turn to pick the movie for Family movie night and I wanted to watch a musical. I had forgotten how good Newsies is. I love this movie so much! The music, the dancing newsboys. Square jawed Bill Pullman. Christian Bale. Christian Bale singing. (“Santa Feeeeeee! Are you there? Can you swear you won’t forget meeeee!”) My only quibble is the serious lack of female characters. I understand they tried to fix that with the musical theatre version they made. There is a caputre of the Broadway version available on Disney+ and I haven’t watched it yet because I’m torn between being really curious about it and thinking that the movie is perfect and not wanting another version.

      Sunday: Super Bowl Sunday – I made Cheesesteaks, and our friends brought ribs (though I made the BBQ sauce), and baked beans, and coleslaw. I also put out cut up veggies and we had an assortment of TastyKakes.

      Monday: Leftovers from Super Bowl Sunday plus some random things that we found in the fridge. Mixing the creamy pepper past with baked beans was a surprising hit with the kids.

      Tuesday: Grilled Tofu with tomatoes from the Green Barbeque book. The husband made dinner. (vegan, except then we supplemented with some leftover ribs. We’re learning that the Green Barbeque book recipe’s need to be doubled in order to feel our whole family…)

      Wednesday: The Pasta e Fagioli soup from last week. I had frozen the leftovers, and the Husband heated that up for the kids to eat for dinner. I should probably do freeze meals for future dinners more than I do right now. It’s such an easy dinner option. (vegan)

      Thursday: Roasted Cauliflower Coconut Curry Soup. I was inspired by this recipe from the New York Times this week and had a head of cauliflower to use up. The recipe was for a squash soup, but it featured the brilliant idea of roasting the squash directly in the dutch oven. So I chopped up a head of cauliflower, two apples, four cloves of garlic, two ribs of celery, and an onion – tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper in the Dutch Oven, then roasted them on 400 for about an hour. Everything got nice and caramelly. Then I put it on the stove top, dumped in 4 cups vegetable broth, a can of coconut milk and a tablespoon of curry powder and a teaspoon of tumeric. and brought it all to a boil and simmered for 15 minutes. At this point, I left it and told the Husband to puree it when he got home and serve it with bread. It was really tasty. Vegan.

      Friday: Tortellini and red sauce. I think this is becoming our go-to meal for Friday Nights since we need something quick before basketball practice.
      Anyone else have go to fast dinners for when there is just no time?