June got off to a great start. The first day of June was a free day, and I spent the day being productive and social. The day started with the usual morning lead up to the school bus. Then I went to meet a contractor at my parents’ rental house. The issue was resolved quickly so I went home and ran a bunch of internet errands – scheduling appointments, doing some research for things, etc. At 1pm, my friend picked me up and we went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 – we split a large pop corn, got cold bubbly sodas and settled in for an afternoon movie. Going to a weekday matinee seems so indulgent!
The movie was fun – probably not as strong as the first movie – the plot is a little predictable while also leaving large gaps; the love interest is a little weak, and also why does Andy even need a boyfriend? – but clearly this new effort is meant to be a nostalgia trip and I was nostalgic and very entertained. There was a lot I liked about the movie – The clothes! The spot the celebrity game! Kenneth Branagh playing a supportive Husband – who plays the violin! Anne Hathaway’s doe eyes, big smile, and “every girl” appeal! Stanley Tucci gliding through the movie with deft ease! Meryl Streep, acting up a storm and having the ability to pierce you to your core without even looking up. I don’t go to see movies in the theatre very often, maybe twice a year – but when I do, I think an empty theatre and a big bag of popcorn on a weekday afternoon is my preferred way to do it.
After the movie, I came home, made dinner then took the kids to the pool for swim team practice. The 6 year old really wanted to go into the pool, so I had to go in as well since she’s not old enough or a strong enough swimmer to be in the pool by herself. The pool was very cold, but I got used to it and had a good time. Then after the younger kids went home, I stayed on to wait for the 14 year old who swims in the later practice, and I swam some laps while I waited, my first lap swim of the summer. It was really tough going, and I felt really out of shape, but it felt good to move through the water.
So all in all, a very nice free day, and a great way to start the new month. You know how they say, “Start as you mean to carry on. – well I hope the day of errands, exercising, friend time, family time, and entertainment will prove to be the framework for the month and not just a one time thing.
Looking back on May …
May Highlights:
-Taking the show we were working on to Baltimore and being away from home for three nights. Getting to explore a new city – farmer’s markets, restaurants, bakeries – stay in a quirky hotel – flamingos EVERYWHERE! – and work in a new to me theatre with familiar to me crew.
-The 14 year old’s Confirmation. It’s been a lot of classes and extra work, but she did it. Grateful for our neighbor who was her sponsor and who was so supportive and helpful.
-A Gala concert at work. This one night only concert was wild and definitely out of my comfort zone, but it happened and I learned a lot about how events are planned and executed. And I got to meet the man who wrote Wicked and Pippin and Rags, an underappreciated musical with a great score.
-The 14 year old starring in her middle school musical. I was so happy to see her up on stage doing her thing, a thing that had nothing to do with me.
Side sentimental note: I’m having more and more moments when I see my oldest and I’m realizing what an amazing fully formed human being she is becoming. She starts high school in the fall and I’m ready/ not ready for the next four years to fly by. It’s kind of a weird temporal time for me to be in where one child’s time with us feels so brief and short while the little kids feel as if they will never grow up – it’s as if they are progressing on different timelines simultaneously. I don’t think I’m explaining it very well; I know that they’re all on their own journey; it just feels that the two little kids are moving through molasses and the older kid is on a zipline, all at the same time.
-Two voice recitals that I did doing supertitles for. One of them was the retirement recital of a singer that I first met when he sang Stravinsky with my college choir. It was really great to get to work on his recital, such a familiar colleague. On the other end of the spectrum, was a singer whom I met a few years ago when he was just out of Julliard and it’s been so lovely to see how he’s grown each time we worked together. I really love how in my job I don’t have to work with the same people all the time, but they come in and out of my life, so there are constantly happy reunions.
-Third grade recorder concert, the highlight of which was their rendition of Eye of the Tiger. God Bless elementary school music teachers.
-Finished hiring stage management staff for next season at work.
-My parents here for a visit and to see the 14 year old’s show.
-Happy Hour with my Bus Stop Mom friends where we stumbled into Trivia Night. Our team name was Bus Stop Divas. We didn’t come in last. We came in second last. But at least now I know what an obelus is and where Cesar Salad was invented.
-The Husband – wisely – going against my wishes and signing us up for Netflix. Watching Derry Girls with him and laughing so hard together.
-Memorial Day camping in the drizzle with good friends and sleeping in a hammock.
-Lunch with a friend I met at the 6 year old’s mom group. She lives near my summer gig so it’s nice to catch up when I’m there.
-Seeing the 20 minute opera festival at work. It was amazing how the rehearsal room was transformed into a performance space. Getting to eat the leftover McDonald props afterwards.
-Starting my summer gig. Working with many familiar faces and some great new colleagues. I haven’t worked with the director in maybe 15 years, and it was such a pleasant surprise to see him again. The pizza welcome lunch the company hosted. Working with young singers who are so enthusiastic and eager to do well.
-Trying something new for how I prep my scores for a show. for this show, I’m using an electronic score. Rather than having a paper score, I downloaded the app Newzik, which lets me upload scores and mark them up. It’s been really fun to play with how to mark up my score with all the different features and colours that Newzik has. Also it’s so much easier than carrying a 400 page score around with me when I’m running a show. And I don’t have to worry about 3M discontinuing my favorite colour of Post-Its. I’m kind of loving it.
-Evenings at home. My summer job doesn’t rehearse at night so I’ve been home by 7:30 or 8:00pm every night. Not early enough to go to the pool with the family, but early enough to help put the younger kids to bed and them catch up with the 14 year old and Husband.
May Lowlights
-Being so very busy. I’m happy for the work, but all through May, I felt like all I did was go to work then come home and sleep, get up, get the kids to the bus, then back to work. I think I had one day off the whole month.
-The commute to my summer job is Soul Sucking. Without traffic it takes twenty minutes to get to/from work. With traffic it can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. It is so exhausting to sit in a hot car in bumper to bumper traffic.
-Some issues at the rental properties – not bloggable and thankfully all surmountable, but takes extra time and effort to handle – especially on the Husband’s part.
Quote(s) of the Month:
“Booked and blessed.”
If I had a chapter title for May, this would be it. I had an actor say this too me when he asked if I would with with their show until closing and I said I was leaving the show early because I had another gig. Which is when he said, “Booked and blessed!” I think it’s a common saying in the industry; I like that it reminds me to be grateful for every opportunity that comes my way because freelancing is a tough life.
“Sounds like you don’t have enough surmountable problems.”
from August in the Forest by Ben Shattuck.
This quote is from a short story I read last month, said by one character to her ex-boyfriend who is floundering a little to find his way in life. I really like the reminder that most problems in life are indeed surmountable, and that having surmountable problems is actually a good place to be in life as opposed to having insurmountable ones.
How I did on my various goals… hmmmm not good. Both didn’t spend time on a lot of these goals, but also, I didn’t write any of it down in my journal.
Creativity:
-Painted no pictures. (8/26 pictures for the year, still)
-wrote 2 haikus (15/52 haiku for the year… need to do some catching up on this.)
-0 hikes. (1/12 so far this year – not doing so well on this goal)
Consumption:
– 3 live performances – I saw West Side Story and our twenty minute opera festival at work – as an audience member, not as a person working on the show. And then we say the middle school musical. (I’m not counting the 3rd grad recorder concert here – that seems like not really the spirit of this category.)
-0 Museums. (3/12 for the year so far. Though we got free passes for the Phillips collection at a community event, so maybe that will happen in June.)
Health – okay this wasn’t a great month for tracking my health aspirations…
-? sessions of strength training. (Goal was 8/ month, but I did poorly at tracking things in May.)
-Daily yoga – 21/31 days tracked. This number might actually be higher – see above about not tracking things.
-0? vegan dinners. We ate a lot of chicken in May. I didn’t even track most dinners.
-0 run. (Exercise was not a strong suit of mine in May.)
Looking Forward to in June:
-Tech/Opening/Closing of my current show. Tech starts this week!
-Piano and voice recitals for the kids (This already happened – bravo tutti!)
-Getting my hair cut – I last got it cut when we were in Taiwan, so it’s been long overdue.
-Dentist appointments for the kids. Also long overdue.
-Going to Baltimore and seeing the Tall Ships. To celebrate America’s 250th, a bunch of countries are sending tall ships to join the American fleet that usually makes the rounds this time of year. They are stopping in various cities, with Baltimore being one of theme.
-Visit from my mother, my brother, and my neice.
-Last day of school.
-Time at the pool. Swim meets start up next week.
-Meeting up with some friends from college. The last time we got together it was February 2020. We joked that I never went to college reunions and they said, “Well this is the year that you’re going!” And then COVID. I don’t know why it’s taken six years for us to get together again….
-8th Grade Promotion ceremony for the 14 year old. (I’m missing half a tech rehearsal so attend this. There was a time when it was unthinkable for me to miss a tech rehearsal, but now – perhaps it’s my age or the post-COVID age that we are in – I’m finding that it’s okay to make the ask to miss rehearsals to attend these important things. I don’t want to miss these things if I don’t have to.)
Grateful For Lately:
-Produce box from our friend who was out of town. He gave us his CSA share and we’ve eaten almost all of it except for the kohlrabi and the beets. I was planning on trying my hand at pickled beets. If anyone has any ideas for kohlrabi, I’d love to hear!
-GPS for helping me avoid the worst of the traffic.
-A few mornings where we didn’t start rehearsal until after noon – it’s nice to have the morning off to putter and take care of some life things.
-Our contractor who can fix all sorts of problems in the most straight forward way.
-Chairs. So the journal app on my phone sends me prompts every day and one day, the prompt was “What are you grateful for in this moment.” I had just had a long day at work and rehearsal was over and I was finally able to sit down, and the first thing that popped into my head was – Chairs. I’m so grateful to have a chair to sit in at the end of a long day. What a great invention chairs are.
What We Ate – we’re eating a lot of dinners at the pool because of swim practice these next few weeks, which means meals that I can put together in the mornings that will travel well and that we can eat poolside, so not too messy.
Monday: Teriyaki Tofu and Broccoli from America’s Test Kitchen’s Vegan for everyone. Vegan. I doubled the Teriyaki recipe and also made some teriyaki chicken for later in the week.
Tuesday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches, smoothies, and cut up apples. Eaten at the pool. I made lunch boxes for everyone in advance.
Wednesday: Roasted Salmon and Potatoes and green beans. I prepped this before I went to work and the 14 year old cooked the salmon and potatoes and steamed the green beans when she got home. I used the teriyaki sauce from Monday on the Salmon and it was tasty.
Thursday: Sesame noodles w/ the teriyaki chicken from Monday night. Watermelon. Dinner at the pool, I prepped this in advance.
Friday: Pizza and K-Pop Demon Hunters
Saturday: I think the family had pizza and played Dungeons and Dragons at a friends house. I worked late and then ate out of the fridge when I got home.
Sunday: Sticky Rice Cakes with Sausage and Greens from NY Times Cooking. We cooked this to use up the tatsoi and bok choi and onions from my friend’s CSA box as well as some sausage we had leftover. It was a big hit with the family. The sauce is literally a cup of ketchup + miso + sesame oil. The adults added chili crisp to their servings. Very tasty.
Anyhow, that’s the news from here. It feels like we’re fully into summer now! Just a few more days left of school. Our summer is currently a little unplanned, so I need to put some thought into it. I was originally going to have the summer off, but I was offered a last minute job so I’m not going to be home with the kids as much as I had originally planned. Booked and Blessed, I guess, but I’m mourning my original summer vision of lazy days at the pool. We’ll see what happens.
Hope June has been off to a sunny start for you.