Tag: monthly recap

Weekly Recap + what we ate: Hello November, Good-bye October

It was a gorgeous fall weekend here. The skies blue and bright, the trees decked out in their best autumn colours. Unfortunately I spent most of the weekend indoors working. I had surtitles to prep for an upcoming recital and then we had opening night. And then I spent all of Sunday prepping more titles, and a good chunk of Monday too.

As opening nights go, it was a wowzer doozy of an opening night. I can’t share any of the details because what made it so memorable were some personal stories of those around me. Rest assured, all is well, everyone is healthy, the show went smoothly (except for an incident where two singers couldn’t agree on what to use for the fake whiskey onstage… Yes, these are the things I have to navigate – do you want iced tea? apple juice? coloured water? And EVERYONE HAS TO AGREE because you all have to drink it onstage. They couldn’t agree). Suffice to say, the season opening of our 2026-2027 opera season will go down in memory, but not for what happened onstage.

Afterwards there was a reception with speeches and drinks. I chatted with some folks then decided to go back to the office and do some work. There were artist meals left out for those of us who were performing or working the show, which was nice because I was HUNGRY by the end of the night.

I didn’t get home until after 1am and then slept til 10am Sunday morning. Which is unheard of. I’ve never slept that late before. The house was quiet when I got up, the Husband having taken the 7 year old to Faith Formation. My cousin and her boyfriend were visiting for an overnight. When they got up, we chatted for a little bit then it was off to the usual weekend barrage of lessons an birthday parties.

We are almost halfway through November, but I wanted to write my October recap so here were go….

October Highlights:
-Rehearsing/ tech-ing a new show in a new venue with an old friend. The director of this opera is someone I’ve known for over twenty years. We first worked together in San Diego when I was a baby Assistant Stage Manager and she was a baby Assistant Director. And now she is the Artistic Director of her own opera company and I’m the head of the stage management department of my home opera company. I knew from the first time I worked with her that she was going to do amazing things – she is just such a talented director, but also very practical and hard working. I work in an industry where the attrition rate is pretty high, so I really treasure when I am reunited with colleagues from my early opera years.

-Seeing Come From Away with the Husband.

-Contra dancing with the family.

-Hallowe’en and making the kids’ costumes. I’m really proud of how the costumes turned out.

-bike rides to school with the kids.

-Cool Blogger’s Walking Club (Thanks, Elisabeth for hosting! I still have one recap to do…) and Cool Blogger’s Book Club (Thanks, Engie for hosting! What a quirky book Convenience Store Woman was.)

-Beautiful autumn skies and sruprisingly warm weather.

-Not having to take the kids to piano lessons in the morning during tech week.

-Voting early.

-My cousin J came to visit.

-Did titles for a lovely recital which was a mix of popular songs and American art songs. This singer is singing with us next spring and I’m looking forward to working with him – he just seemed so down to earth and creative.

-checking my annual exam off my to do list.

-A bowl of Mushroom soup from the Thai place when I was feeling a little run down at work.

-A kid who I met when he and the 7 year old were in mommy-baby group together was cast in my show and it was so fun to see his mom/my friend and share a little of what I do with her.

-Soup Party at work. I was reading something today in my latest non-fiction read about how teams benefit from time together that is empty and not task-oriented. I thought the soup party was a great opportunity for that.

-Going to the local indoor pool with friends on a rainy Sunday afternoon. What a lovely gem. They need more family restrooms, though.

-Favorite Dinner Cooked: The Marry Me Chickpea Gnocchi Soup for the Work Soup Party. October was honestly a lot of dinners pulled from the freezer out of our asses.

-Favorite thing watched: Bridgerton Season 4. I didn’t love Season One, so I was on the fence about continuing, but An Offer from a Gentleman (the book season 4 is based on) is my second favorite book of the series (When He was Wicked is my favorite. Honestly, aside from those two books, I find the whole book series kind of meh – entertaining, but not particularly memorable.) I loved Season 4 – I thought Sophie and Benedict were so well cast and the romantic tension between the two of them was pitch perfect.

Goals and Habits:
-Painting: 0. I spent all my creative energy in October sewing Hallowe’en costumes.
-Crossword puzzle completed: 0
-Live Performances: 1 – Come From Away. There was also live music at the contra-dance. Does that count?
-Museums: 1. Ford’s Theatre, where Come From Away was playing is the theatre where Lincoln was shot, so the lower level is a museum all about Lincoln.
-Hike: 0. I’m doing terribly on hiking this year.
-Yoga: 26/31. Saturdays seem to be the hardest days for me to fit in a yoga routine. I think it’s because we have a family meeting at 7:45am, and I like to sleep in a little on Saturdays. I need to make a point to do an evening winddown on Saturday.
-Run: 4x (+4 bike rides )
-Strength: Hah! apparently 0 (My goal is 8x a month, but I’m finding it really hard to motivate myself for this one…i just need to find a consistent way to work it in)
-Vegan Dinners:4 (Goal is 4x a month, so yay!)

Quote of the Month:
“Gravity works 100% of the time.” – David Younts Train Engineer in the book Gig, on having to be careful and think ahead when guiding a train over mountainous terrain.

“Safe. Functional. Complete. Detailed.”
– I’m not sure who said this originally, but on of my Assistants said this as the stages of creating theatre; I think we were specifically taking about props. What they are saying is that, for example, you can’t obsess about the decorations on a prop knife if it is still too sharp for the singer to safely use in rehearsal. Or, a scenic unit needs to be secure and people need to be able to walk on it before you start giving notes about the facing needing to be attached, and even further down the line is the paint treatment. Hopefully by the time we move into the theatre things are at the complete stage, ready for the detailed stage.

October Lowlights:
-working a lot of evenings and not seeing the family much. I rarely saw the 14 year old – she leaves for the bus at 6:35am and is in bed by the time I got home. She’s also in a phase where her favorite place is her bed with her screen, so even when I am home I don’t see her too much out in the wild.

-The 14 year old not getting a part in the Children’s Chorus of the holiday opera I’m working on. She’s been in the children’s chorus two years in a row so she’s really disappointed that she didn’t get cast this year. I think it’s hard because she’s a good kid who does everything right – she goes to school, is generally kind and positive, she goes to her piano and voice lessons, she’s engaging onstage, and directors always have good things to say about her…. it’s hard when you do all the right things but you’re still not chosen. And you see other kids who were, honestly, kind of a pain in the ass to work with on past shows get a part. She is a soprano and I’m sure there were lots of sopranos who auditioned so it was going to be more competitive for her voice type. But still, it’s kind of a bummer.

-My mom crush bus driver got put on a different route. I’m going to miss his sweet smile every morning. (The new driver is very nice an friendly, but he’s just not the same. Also the new guy does not pull three point turns with the bus like the first driver does.)

-I had a lot of anxiety about the show and the new venue all through rehearsal process. Now that I’m on the other side of it, I see that the whole things came together beautifully, but the lead up, the unknown factors of being in a new venue – I spent three weeks doubting myself and that was pretty stressful.

Looking forward to in November:

-Doing titles for a recital (this happened last night and it was … well was memorable – more next week)

-Opening my show (this happened – see above).

-Sleep. I am so mentally and physically exhausted right now.

-reading books – I haven’t had a lot of time to read books yet this month, so want to make time to read more.

-the challenge of National Blog Posting Month. Thanks, San! I missed November 1st, but I’ve been doing okay for the first week. It’s been fun having new visitors here and also exploring new to me blogs to read.

-Running in crisp sunny fall weather. I don’t really like running, but fall is my favorite time to run if I have to run.

-Thanksgiving. Need to figure out where to find a duck and then how to roast it.

-Starting rehearsals for the Holiday opera at work.

-Happy Hour with my bus stop mom friends.

-It’s Hallmark Holiday movie season! There was one just released, part of their Holiday Touchdown series, that is set in Chicago and features the Bears. Think I can make my Bears-loving Husband watch it?

Greateful For – the Tech Week Edition:

-Snacks. The snack situation was intense this tech week. Usually people will bring some candy or chips or something to share during tech week.

And this was towards the end when the snack supply was depleted.

-Rides home at night (I think I mentioned this last week, but it’s still true)

-Lumch boxes so I can pack food to eat while at work.

-The travel cutlery set that I got this summer from my summer gig. It lives in my lunch box and I always have cutlery when I need it. No more hunting for a fork. No more disposable silverware. It is really satisfying to just pull out my own set of cutlery during my meal breaks.

-Chai – the perfect pick me up between the metro and work.

-The Husband, who drove kids around, cooked dinner, put the kids to bed, handled tantrums and logistics while I was working 12 hour days.

-My stage management team. We have a rotating staff of stage managers, and since I do the bulk of the staffing, I generally only hire people I want to work with. Even still, I loved the team I had for this show – everyone was super supportive of each other, we solved problems together, everyone stayed positive and didn’t let their stress influence their work or those around them, and everyone was rock solid and reliable. It’s great having a team that you know has your back. So much of the success of a show from the stage management stand point is having a team that gels. I’m so grateful that we did.

-The Technical director and the Lighting Supervisor and the stage crew for transforming the venue into an opera stage. They worked miracles. Very expensive miracles, but miracles nonetheless.

-Getting to work with a legendary lighting designer. When I was growing up, Chicago Lyric Opera would broadcast their opera on the radio. At the end when they read the credits, the same man would always be named as the lighting designer. I grew up with this guy’s name in my head. I had always thought that he was a wise avuncular man. Welp, thirty years later, I am now working with this lighting designer, and he is indeed a wise avuncular man. Was he a wise, avuncular man thirty years ago? Probably. I don’t know if he’s just ageless or what. I feel so lucky to have gotten to work with him. This is the show where I realized that when a show is called well, it is as much because the show is well designed and well lit, as it is because of my skills as a calling stage manager. You can call poorly lit shows well, but then you have to work a lot harder.

-That the 14 year old is able to navigate public transportation by herself. A couple times recently she took the metro somewhere with a friend. I was a little nervous about letting her do it by herself, especially since her friends aren’t frequent Metro riders. But the 14 year old did great and got everyone where they needed to be. I guess I don’t know why she seems too young to be riding public transportation by herself – in DC all kids middle school and up get free metro cards because that is how they get to school; there are no buses to take them. Often on the Metro you’ll see groups of kids going to and from school. I think riding public transportation is a really good life skill to have.

What We Ate: I’m going to be real honest it was a veritable hodge podge of dinners. For every comment I get that says, “You dinners always sound so good!” there are weeks like this where despite having meal plan we all end up eating whatever we can shove into our mouths. This is what we eat when we are in the thick of evening work and activities. Keeping it real here.

Monday: I think there was some kind of stir fry at home. At work, I missed dinner because someone on my team was out sick and I had to create the evening’s rehearsal running order (known as the trian schedule) on my dinner break -something that is usually done by this other person. I don’t mind doing it – it’s actually fun for me to to think through the evening and how long each section of rehearsal will take. But still – it does take a bit of time. I probably had a handful of kit kats and a mandarin orange for dinner.

Tuesday: I think they had leftover back beans on tortilla chips. I missed dinner because, again, someone on my team was out sick and I spent dinner making the train schedule.

Wednesday: Box dinner for the two younger kids because they had activities- sandwiches, apple slices and peppers. This is actually exactly what I pack them for school lunch. I was at work for a little bit in the evening so I ate food when I got home. Can’t remember what it was. Probably something eaten cold out of the fridge. Did the 14 year old eat? If she did it was probably ramen.

Thursday: The Husband made a curry gravy – I think it’s called pub curry gravy, which he and the two younger kids ate with chicken and broccoli. I was at work and ate a tuna onigiri that I had packed. The 14 year old came to see my dress rehearsal and grabbed McDonald’s on the way to the theatre.

Friday: Pizza and movie night. It was my turn to pick the movie and I chose His Girl Friday because I wanted a classic movie to watch and I love Cary Grant. This was a BIG FAIL with 2 out of 3 kids. One kid fell asleep and one kid started crying about half way through the movie because they thought the movie was so boring and wanted to watch something else. “They talk too fast and don’t move around enough!!!!!” the child bawled. Oooookay. I thought the fast talking was what made the movie fun.

Saturday: Opening night! I was too nervous/ busy to eat dinner, so I didn’t eat dinner. Thankfully the opera provided artist meals for post show. The 14 year old was babysitting – I hope she ate before going over. Not sure what the rest of the family ate. Maybe leftovers? I had a meltdown that morning about how no one eats leftovers yet at the same time people complain that the fridge and freezer are too full. I might have gone a little ballistic.

Sunday: The Husband had bought me injera on Friday when he went to pick up pizza, so I snacked on injera all night. I also reheated the curry gravy from the other night and ate that with potatoes and broccoli. I think the family, in a good faith effort, ate more leftovers.

As you can see, the dinner situation is a little dire right now. BUT…people aren’t going hungry, and everyone is figuring things out. I guess there will be plenty of opportunities to eat vegetables in their lives.

Welp that’s the news from here. It’s ticked past midnight so you’re technically going to get two posts today for NaBloPoMo.

Any other life skills I should make sure to teach my kids? What are your favorite snacks when you’re facing crunch time? What is your feeling on leftovers? What classic film should I torture my kids with next?

Weekly recap + what we ate: January recap!

Hello, February!

January felt a very much like I was existing in a liminal space. There was upheaval at work. There was re-entry from our trip to Taiwan. There was snow and snow days and being inside, waiting for things to clear. It felt like a slow start to the new year. Wait, not slow… how about gentle? A bit of way finding, a bit of tweaking routines.

Even though we didn’t have any more snow after Monday, the world was super icy and buried quite deep. On top of the snow was a two inch thick frozen layer and everyone walked two inches taller this week as you could walk on top of that frozen layer. It was a bit like Russian roulette, being able to walk on top of the snow, but every so often hitting a week spot and plunging shin deep into powder. Even after our street was ploughed, there was still limited parking as the snow piles were feet from the curb. On Thursday night, two friends and I went out for a previously scheduled Happy Hour and parking was quite challenging to find. Once we finally got in the pub, it was a 30 minute wait for a table. It seemed everyone was eager to emerge for a warm room and beer and pizza. I don’t blame them. We stayed til almost 10pm and it was so nice to catch up and socialize and not have to wrangle our children.

The schools ended up being closed all week. A couple times, the 6 and 9 year old called their friends around the corner and set up play dates. It’s kind of fun to see them use the landline to arrange their own lives. One day our kids went over, one afternoon their kids came over to our house. One day we divided the kids up – two at one house and two at the other. Thursday I invited them over for a movie night. We watched Shaolin Soccer and ate popcorn. Have you seen Shaolin Soccer? It’s a fantastic movie, about kung fu warriors who start a soccer team. I could only find it in Cantonese/Mandarin, so I relied on the older kids to read the subtitiles aloud to the kindergarteners. Which they did for the first half. But then they lost steam, and you know what? it turned out it didn’t matter. I love that the older kids can watch movies in a foreign language and I love that the movie tells such a good story that the younger kids didn’t need to understand everything that was being spoken.

We ended up going sledding three times. The first time we walked to the nearby park that had some small slopes. The next day, I drove the 6 and 9 year old to the elementary school that was next to a big hill. The hill was quite icy and there had been a bump built into the snow so that if you hit it at the right angle, you would go sailing through the air. The kids sledded for about an hour and had so much fun that we went back yesterday as well. This time the Husband came. He originally said he was going to just drop us, but he ended up staying and went down the hill a couple of times. And so did I. Speeding down the hill, getting launched in the air and then over turning into the snow – it was winter fun all bottled up. We all had so much fun – I can’t remember laughing so much in a long long time.

There will likely be a two hour delay on Monday.

(breaking news: School has been cancelled on Monday because many roads are deemed unsafe still. So not a snow day, but a hazardous to walk to school day, I guess. It isn’t so much the snow, but the ice and the fact that a lot of streets/ sidewalks still haven’t been cleared. It reminds me of a section I read in the book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, about how there was a city in Sweden where they prioritized clearing side streets and sidewalks first then clearing the major roads, and they found that it hugely decreased injures and accidents. But of course clearing the sidewalks and side streets first wasn’t the default because those were pathways primarily used by women, while it was men who used the major roads. I’m thinking about this a lot this week as I walked in the street to and from the Metro, or the park with my kids, or to the grocery store, walking in the street because the sidewalks aren’t cleared yet. )

I have to say, coming out on this end, I didn’t mind the snow days. I can see how snow days can really derail life for people who have to show up for their jobs. Luckily I didn’t have to be in the office and worked from home in spare pockets of time when the kids were occupied and not fighting or eating.
The snow day good:
-Slower mornings, no rushing.
-Snow adventures. Sledding. Snow forts. Shovelling – tedious, but good work out.
-Being able to savor being inside and cozy.
-having time together as a family without having to worry about carpools or activities
-having time for playdates. I think with school the kids don’t get enough time to play with their friends on a day to day basis. I think they need time to learn how to be kind humans out in the wild.

The Snow day challenges:
-bored kids who nag at me.
-bored kids who push each other’s buttons.
-bone chilling cold and having to wear many many layers outside.
-not knowing when it will end.
-“Didn’t I just feed you?”
-the mess of everyone being home all. the. time. I don’t think our house was meant to be occupied 24/7. There were constantly dishes in the sink, the kitchen to be cleaned, pick up pick up pick up. It’s hard to be motivated to keep things tidy, to find a resting neat condition for the house when I know that with all of us constantly in the house, there is no “resting condition” – just constant movement and needs and wants and impulses. I think I need to think a little bit about what the “resting condition” of the house is like when we live in it every single moment of every single day.

January 2026 Recap – on to a big picture look at the month that was:

Highlights:
– The rest of our trip to Taiwan. Two nights at the hots springs in Beitou. Family. A long yet uneventful flight home.
-Birthdays for the two older kids.
– Two freelance jobs – one a title job of Brahms Choral Music, which I love. Another a stage management gig as support for a play based on interviews conducted with Israelis about October 7th 2023; regardless of your politics, it was a pretty powerful piece.
-The 14 year old getting the lead in the middle school musical.
– Visiting the National Museum of Women in the Arts
-Visiting the State Fair exhibit at the Renwick Gallery, then going to our favorite cheap Chinese restaurant and browsing the nearby bookstore.
– Visiting/ Hanging/ connecting with friends – Advent book group, Happy Hour, Lunch with mom friend, Having friends over for dinner, going over to their house for dinner.
-Watching the 14 year old play rec basketball
-Discovering a new Taiwanese cafe nearby. The boba was very good and they had the red bean smoothie that the Husband loves.
-getting in the habit of reading every morning.
-Writing down some gentle aspirations for 2026, and being mindful about carrying through with them.
-New bedroom furniture for the 8th grader. We bought this last fall, but it finally arrived this month.
-Snow. Going sledding with the kids. The Husband joining us sledding.
-Five Star new to us recipes: M&M cookies, Leek and Potato Focaccia, Masala Chickpeas with Tofu and Blistered Tomatoes.
-Favorite meal cooked: Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce w/ pasta and Turkey Meatballs. Eaten with Leek and Potato Focaccia and salad (from a bag)

Lowlights:
-The state of the world. The state of the United States.
-Big changes at work. It will all lead to good things, but it’s been a rough transition.
-having to say good-bye to so many people at work because of the transitions.
– Not getting my life together enough to plan birthday parties for the two older kids. wump wump. This happens every year, and I need to figure out how to combat this one.
-The heat going out at my parents’ rental the first day of the big snow storm.
-My sleep hygiene has been terrible. At first it was jet lag, but then I think it was revenge bedtime procrastination. I went to bed well well well past midnight most nights, then would take a three hour nap in the afternoon. I got a little bit better at this by the end of the month.
-Too much scrolling.

Quote of the Month: “Failure is Data.” I wish I knew where I first heard this phrase.

Looking Forward to in February:
-Going to New York with the 14 year old to see Two Strangers Carry a Cake through New York. I’m really glad I booked the tickets for the first week of February and not the last week of January.

-Superbowl Sunday. Which coincides with the Husband’s birthday. Unfortunately he is not getting the present of the Chicago Bears going to the Super Bowl, but we will celebrate with cake at half time all the same.

-The Olympics. I’m excited for this. I just learned about, Ski Mountaineering where the skiers hike up a mountain then ski down. I really want to catch that, it sound intense. I mean it’s all intense. Also looking forward to figure skating, hockey, and the Zen of curling.

-Lunar New Year. It’s the Year of the Horse, my birth year. I expect there will be dumplings, noodles, and red envelopes.

-A couple of get togethers already planned – lunch with friends, family hang outs with other families.

-the 14 year old’s Middle School basketball games. I think I can make one or two.

-Starting rehearsal for a new show. I’m actually a little nervous about this – it’s the company’s first show since our big shake-up, and the show is a new production, so I think the rehearsal process will be intense. It’s also going to be a lot of evenings. So I guess I’m more “girding my loins” than “eagerly anticipating” this one.

Grateful For This Week:
-Aquaphor, for protecting my lips and my skin from the bitter cold elements.

-The stage crew at work.

-Hoopla. There have been a couple times when I’ve wanted to watch a movie, but then it’s only available on Netflix, which we don’t have, or I would have to rent the movie from Amazon. But then I search in Hoopla and there it is! Hoopla also has the ability to check out a Hallmark bingepass, so I can watch ALL the Hallmark movies that I want in a one week period.

-Our stove top griddle that has enough space for me to make eight pancakes at a time.

-Hills on which to go sledding.

-Our freezer full of food.

-The “send later” function in iMessage. I often have a thought I want to share with someone, and this thought often strikes me at midnight or later. Well, if they have an iPhone, like I do, I can write a text and set it to send later. Then the thought is not taking up space in my brain anymore. I love anything that allows me to open some space in my brain.

-Hand Me Downs. As we frolicked in the snow last week, I realized that almost every piece of outerwear and winter gear the 9 year old and the 6 year old were wearing was a hand me down, either from their older sister or from a friend. It felt really good not to have to spend money on cold weather layers for the kids.

-That our school district is having snow days rather than remote/online learning days. Online learning just didn’t work for our family during COVID. There are a couple schools in our area that had remote/online learning days last week. I don’t know how I would have managed three kids with online learning. I don’t think I even have that many devices for them to use. I’m so glad we haven’t gone (back) there.

What We Ate:

Monday: mac and cheese from a box. This was the day we were at my parents’ rental all evening dealing with the lack of heat. The 14 year old was supposed to make them dinner, but halfway though making dinner, she said she felt faint, so she turned off the stove and went to bed. The Husband and I came home, finished up dinner, and served it with some cut up cucumbers and apples.

Taco Tuesday: Re-fried Bean tacos. I was originally going to make black beans for this pantry meal, but then I realized we were out of black beans. So I made refried beans instead, only I had just one can of pinto beans. So I threw in a can of cannellini beans and added some frozen corn, and voila! Dinner from pantry ingredients. This was tasty. I also made a pico de gallo from some sad leftover tomatoes and tossed some coleslaw cabbage in a bowl and called it done.

Wednesday: I had to work this evening and I brought leftovers. The Husband defrosted soup and made BLTs. Bacon is so tasty.

Thursday: Tofu Stir fy with Udon Noodles. The Husband cooked. This is the night I went out for Happy Hour. I had a half club sandwich and half Greek salad and an order of fries.

Friday: Pizza and Tangled. It was the 6 year old’s turn to choose the movie. Can we just say what a perfect romantic movie Tangled is? The songs are top notch, the action moves along with humour and heart, but at the same time the movie takes time to linger on emotional moments that need a bit of space. The slow unfurling of Rapunzel and Flynn’s relationship is wonderful to watch, and even better, both Flynn and Rapunzel have a character arc with true growth. Sigh and swoon.

Saturday: We were originally going to order out, but then ran out of steam and couldn’t agree on something everyone wanted, so I just raided the freezer and we had dumplings, bao, endamame, and steamed green beans. The Husband made milk shakes.

Sunday: tortellini and steamed green beans. Keeping it simple on Sundays.

Welp that’s what the world is like over here. Hopefully the kids will go back to school soon and we can carry on with business as usual…

What are you looking forward to in February? What’s your favorite/ least favorite part of a snow day – either a self imposed snow day or one imposed by outside forces?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Good-bye, March and opera season resolutions

There goes March. It certainly went out like a lamb with a wonderful 70 degree weekend.

The highlight of my last week of March was going down to see the cherry blossoms. I went on a Thursday morning since I didn’t have to be at work. It was still two days shy of peak bloom, but the trees were still beautiful. Things I want to remember:
-an artist with an easel set up, painting. It made me long to get my paints out as well.
-a couple posing for pictures – her in a pretty pink dress, him in a matching jacket. As I walked past them, I heard the person behind me mutter, “I bet she bought that jacket for him and made him wear it.”
-The Japanese tourist with the most elegant pink felt cloche with lace flowers on it, a long pink sweater coat, and delicately pleated pink pants.
-The free music on the Tidal Basin stage – A couple of singers from The South East Asian Performing Arts Network who sang songs in both Bengali and English – a really fun mash up. And their voices were amazing.
-The dad trying to take a picture of his two little girls, maybe 5 and 8 years old. The little girls had cherry blossom head bands on and the youngest one clearly wasn’t having it as the dad posed them and tried to get them to smile. Then the older child pulls her little sister into a hug and says, “If you smile, dad will buy us ice cream.”

I wandered along the Tidal Basin and then found a bench and sat and read my book and ate my trail mix for a little bit while watching the people walk by. One of the things I love about people watching during cherry blossom season is seeing the wonder and joy of people who are seeing the blossoms for the first time. And many for the only time. Going to see the cherry blossoms always makes me think of my grandmother because she had always wanted to come to DC during cherry blossom season and never got to.

March Lowlights:

Well… there’s the continued state of the dismantling of America. So many people I know have gone from living in uncertainty and anxiety about whether or not they will still have their jobs, to flat out losing those jobs. There’s the erasure of underrepresented people. There’s the bully tactics. There’s the folks that fundamentally don’t understand why we make art. Or how about fundamentally don’t seem to understand why the government provides services and how they support us becoming a thriving nation.

I guess in light of that, all my other March lowlights are just… the regular pebble in shoe type of irksome things. Tweens, house messes, too much laundry, feeling overwhelmed by my to do list but also fighting procrastination inertia.

March Highlights:
So the Cherry Blossoms were definitely a March highlight. Here are some more…

-Going to see a play with my oldest child.

-Seeing a friend and re-visiting the Duck Decoy Museum with her.

-Pottery painting date with my friend K.

-Lenten Women’s group. We’ve been having some really great conversations while reading Walter Brueggermann’s A Way other than our Own. The readings and meditations feel very apt for our times, with his contemplations on what it means not to let anxiety force you to live a life you do not want to lead.

-Starting back up with running after not running all winter. (Though I found it hard to find time this week with being back at work full time.)

-Started going to the exercise room at the rec center while the youngest goes swimming.

-Calling my friend who lives in Oman. It was so amazing to hear her voice and catch up.

On the work front:
-Last super title job of the season. A challenging and rewarding recital program that featured several new to me languages.

-Minor triumph at work: So when I first started at this company as the intern, I remember complaining to my boss about how the lines on the chorus log sheet were too close together and I didn’t like having to write so small.
“Make a new one, then,” she said to me.
Well, twenty years later, I finally made a new log sheet, one with more space between the lines. I don’t know why it’s taken me twenty years. Change is hard for me. But I guess being the head of the department is as good a time as any to fix this one thing that’s been irking me for twenty years.

-Seeing our chorus again for rehearsals. I adore our chorus and it makes me happy every time I get to work with them.

On the “check things off my list” front:
-Registered the 5 year old for kindergarten. My baby! She is so ready to go and I am so ready to stop paying childcare tuition.
-Finally ordered window treatments for our living room! They will be here in 4-6 weeks, depending. Interesting story – the owner of the company goes to every house call himself – his store also sells other household goods – kitchen gadgets, towels, rugs, what not. He said that they were buying up inventory now, before the tariffs really hit. Now is definitely the time to buy things, he says, before the tariff costs get passed on to the customer. (Well, given this week’s news perhaps yesterday was the time to buy…)
-Submitted our tax documents to our tax person. These should be done within the week.
-Got new glasses.

Resolutions for Rehearsal Season to Keep me feeling human and healthy:
I start rehearsals next week for a new show and I feel a little out of practice since I haven’t worked on a show since January. Some guidelines for this month:
-Plan healthy meals and snacks
-Pre-plan what I’m going to wear every day so I don’t have to think about it in the morning.
-Keep up with my life admin goals – assign myself times to do the things, make the phone calls, pay the bills.
-Read fun books.
-Do my crossword puzzle
-Hug the children.
-Go on walks. (Or runs, or if I put air in my bike tires, bike rides)
-Continue daily yoga and journaling.
-Answer phone calls and texts from family.
-Hug my family in the morning and at night.
-Be decisive.
-Be kind.

I get a lot of anxiety when I’m about to start rehearsals. It’s a combination of lack of self confidence and fear of the unknown. But once I start, the day to day becomes clearer and it all works out and I really enjoy what I do. It’s this week before rehearsal that I don’t enjoy.

Grateful For:
-Beautiful sunny, seventy degree weather.

-The spilled jar of garam masala. This is a silly one. A few weeks ago, someone knocked a whole jar of garam masala over in our pantry. And now the pantry smells all warm and spicy. Now, every time I open the pantry door, I find myself pausing to take a moment to inhale and savor the lovely smell.

-Libraries.

-That we can eat a variety of foods. One day at dinner we had salmon wrapped in nori, and it was so delicious and I just felt so grateful that we have such a wide variety of foods available in our grocery stores and a wide variety of grocery stores, and that I can cook a panoply of cuisines for dinner.

-The lady at one of my gigs who sent me a copy of my 1099 after I had misplaced the original.

-Flowers and blossoms and all the beautiful colourful signs of spring.

-Reading while the kids cleaned the kitchen. The Husband was away for two nights last week, so it was just me and the kids. On the second night, the kids cleaned the kitchen after dinner while I sat on the couch and read my book. It was wonderful. When I was a teenager, my parents would go for a walk after dinner every day, leaving my brother and I at home to clean up the kitchen. My brother and I had this division of labor where one person did the dishes and the other person did everything else. When I think back on that time, I now realize how brilliant my parents were.

Looking Forward To:
– I have to admit, April is looking like kind of a slog because of starting rehearsals for a new show. There will be a lot of evening rehearsals, and we just have one day off a week. So I’m trying to remember to look forward to the little things. Like my tea in the morning. The satisfaction of making my bed. Kissing soft sleepy cheeks at night when I come home and everyone’s asleep. My morning yoga practice. Cadbury mini eggs. (I refrained from getting the huge bag at Costco last week and I now think that was a mistake.)

Some other things on my anticipation list:

-My mother is coming to visit for the kids’ Spring Break. (Although this means I’ll have to clean out the toy/guest room which is currently a mess)

-Starting rehearsals. Or more specifically starting rehearsals with a conductor. This show I’m working on is a contemporary opera and the music is probably one of the hardest scores I’ve had to follow. It is very repetitive and the time signatures change constantly so I have to count like crazy. I was listening to a recording to mark the timings in my score and I kept having to go back to the beginning and start again because I would just get lost. I am very much hoping the music will be easier to follow when there is a conductor to watch so I know where the downbeats are.

-Just started this audiobook, a death doula’s memoir:

What We Ate:
Monday: Vegetable Tortilla Soup from New York Times Cooking. I made this because I had sweet potato to use up. This was more like chili than soup. Definitely better the next day. Vegan.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday! Carnitas made in the InstantPot.

Wednesday: Roasted Salmon in Miso Rice from New York Times Cooking. I brought out the nori and we ate this as handrolls.

Thursday: Easy coq au vin in the InstantPot. At the 8 year old’s request.

Friday: pizza and … I’m not sure what they watched. I think maybe basketball. I worked this evening.

Saturday: Spicy Korean Bowl – the family went out to eat and brought this home for me.

Sunday: Joy’s Creamy Green Pasta from Meera Sodha. A repeat of a meal we had two weeks ago because this sauce is just SO delicious and I had a bag of spinach to use up and I had to work in the afternoon and this meal comes together in less than 30 minutes. Vegan.

I’m posting this later than usual, so I hope you have a lovely weekend!
What are you most looking forward to in April, big or small? Have you ever changed something after living with it for way too long?

31 days of July

When I look at my time tracking journal, sometimes I feel like life is an unending slog of pick up/ drop off/ what am I going to make for dinner. But even though there are certain things in life that are “wash, rinse, repeat” every day is different and contains its own joys, no? At any rate, having missed doing weekly recaps for pretty much a month, I thought I’d recap the joys I found in July – one for each day. So here they are:

7.1 – Prepping from home. Love having the flexibility to do this.

7.2 – Got to visit with a good friend after camp drop off. Just a couple hours sitting and chatting while the 4 year old played quietly by himself and the baby napped.

7.3 – Met up with college friends for an afternoon walk around a near by quaint small historic town.

7.4 – Fourth of July! Chores: sorting baby clothes, making me feel nostalgic. Such itty bitty clothes.

7.5 – First day of rehearsals!

7.6 – A tam tam showed up in rehearsal. I find it delightful.

7.7 – After the baby fell out of bed again, I asked on the local listserv if anyone had a bedrail they were looking to unload and I was offered several. Gave me the warm fuzzies.

7.8 – Forgot my phone at home today, and while I was initially worried that I would miss something, by the end of the day, I came to appreciate being more intentional in my availability. What I did miss: being able to read a book on the Libby app, Google Maps.

7.9 – First time dining inside since March. I was invited to dinner to help celebrate a colleague’s birthday. A lovely evening of comradery and theatre stories.

7.10 – Final Room Run! It’s been a fast yet gentle process.

7.11 – Date night with The Husband. My parents watched the kids and we went out for ceviche. First time in… actually probably since the baby was born.

7.12 – Walked the nine year old to camp. Which was probably a mistake as it felt like it was 80 degrees by 8:45am. Also foolishly thought the baby could make the walk – it’s less than a mile and she has been known to walk 2 miles. Hah. Had to carry her back home. Uphill. Grateful that the four year old walks with little complaints, though.

7.13 – I found some castanets for our show at a music shop near our house. Castanets are very fun. Our one and only tech rehearsal in the evening.

7.14 – Final Dress!

7.15 – Day off. Visited the zoo with my parents and the two little kids. Saw lions and tigers.

7.16 – Opening/ Closing performance and party afterwards where I got to catch up with some friends who had come to see the show.

7.17 – Cover Run and final clean up. My parent’s last night in town. Sad to see them go, but so grateful that they were here.

7.18 – Friends came over for dinner, along with their three kids. Nice to be hanging out again.

7.19 – Dressed the baby in this pink flowery dress that had been the nine year old’s at that age. It was one of our favorite things to put her in, and I had forgotten about it until this week. Good thing too, because it is almost too small. The baby is so much bigger than her older sister was that this age.

7.20 – Exit interview at work. (Though I don’t much care for the term “exit interview” seems so final….) Even though it gave us a lot to think about in terms of organizational structure and objectives and how to serve them, I am so excited and happy that I got to be part of this company this summer.

7.21 – Took the kids for gelato in the afternoon. I’m on a quest this summer to consume as wide a variety of frozen treats as I can. I had the honey-fig-mascarpone gelato and it was very good.

7.22 – A friend of the Husband’s was in town so we all had lunch together. I know this is a luxury for the gainfully unemployed, but I love lunch dates with the husband.

7.23 – The County Parks Department had an event where arborists “taught” kids how to climb trees. They hooked them up in harnesses and hoisted them to the leafy treetops. I think I was even more excited about it than the four year old. The baby declined to try, even though the arborists were certainly game to put her in a harness and send her up there.

7.24 – Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. I love watching the Olympics. For all the criticism that the Olympics gets about being overblown and terrible for a city’s economy, I think there is something so inspiring about each individual athlete.

7.25 – 8 am swim meet. Last one of the season. Swim team is certainly very time consuming, but I’ve loved seeing how much it’s inspired the nine year old to push herself.

7.26 – Am trying out a new mask pattern. I know that cloth masks are not as effective as N95 masks, but I like how when I make one, I can make sure that it fits tightly and comfortably for the kids.

7.27 – Took the two littles to story time and a park afterwards. I love that the libraries are doing outdoor story time.

7.28 – While visiting the library today, saw that the rec center (which is located in the same building) has toddler play times three times a week. And it’s free! I signed the kids up for rec center passes on the spot. The center also have pool tables and ping pong tables and open gym for basketball – all things I think the nine year old will like.

7.29 – My friend Kristen met us at the pool for pizza and pool time, but then it started to rain really hard, so we abandoned the pool and went home to have pizza and Olympics time.

7.30 – Took the kids on a hike up near Harper’s Ferry. I kind of didn’t follow the trails correctly so we never made it to the stream, but it was a lovely shaded wood walk with lots of butterflies. Good to get our July hike in!

7.31 – Our friends dropped their dog off for a week. He is small and cuddly and adorable and while I don’t want a dog for myself, I think dog sitting for a week is a great way to scratch that “I want something small and cute” itch.

We are almost half way through August now. Back in June, the summer seemed endless, but now we are in the last month of it and there seems to not be enough time to do everything I want… including doing nothing.