Today I felt a stirring of unintentional joy as I walked into the office. I arrived before sunrise, wearing a jacket instead of winter coat, and the birds were singing up a storm, despite the pending early-spring storm. I felt my mouth form into a half-smile that Thicht Nhat Hanh has been teaching me to will at the onset of good and bad experiences, although this one came on its own.
I took this as a sign that, if I allow or will it, things are going to look up for me. Thus I decided to write on this impulsive half-smile day as, I admit, there have been few these past five months.
Hearing birds sing always cheers me up. I think it takes me back to the sound stage of my childhood, rural, wooded Michigan:
Wrens, blue jays, cardinals, Bob Whites, swallows, robins, and my favorite, the red-winged blackbird provided a concert every morning. If I hadn't lived in an old farm house, then I would have never known the delight of this symphony, because it would have been drowned out behind closed windows and the hum of an air conditioner. Along with that sweltering heat and dripping sweat came the sweetest sounds my life has known.
First off, spring is nearly here. Here in central Indiana, we didn't get a nasty winter--just a long one. I think I shoveled my driveway three or four times total. I love the beauty of Winter (as I've said far too many times), but I'm never sorry to see her go the way I am when Summer goes.
I got a temporary roommate last month named Shannon. He's here every Mon-Thur night and goes back to Louisville on weekends. He's a good roommate. He's married, professional, and studies meditation and Tai-Chi. I've had to grow accustomed to sharing my living space, but I think it's been good for me.
The truth is, I love living alone, and I think I've always been a loner, preferring the company of myself or a single mate. I get used to doing what I want when I want. I love that, but I also need to stay flexible, and this helps me. The rent money is also paying my mortgage for about half the year, and that is money I'll need to install new windows and make some other updates in the house. I know that sounds boring, but I'm committed to blooming where I am and making my current house my dream house.
Life chugs along. I don't spend enough time noticing the small stuff, which is why I started this blog in the first place.
Work has once again been staking its claim on my nights and weekends, and it got a bit overwhelming, but I think things will calm down a while.
We saw another great play at the IRT--The Giver, originally a children's book but the themes are so compelling that it's drifted across the YA line. The theater was packed and once again, we were blown over by the talent on the stage, especially by that of the principal child actors.
I never read the book, but the play was arresting and in its own way, beautiful. It was one of those plays that stay with you long after the curtain drops. They cast The Giver with David Anderson, a local professional African American actor--probably my favorite. I really liked this choice, a departure from the book and screen version.
David Anderson, IRT
I finally managed to reciprocate an invite to Ralf & Jim for dinner after they had us over numerous times over the past several months, and it went smashingly well! I tried all new recipes, trying to keep up with my 100 new recipe goal. (I'm way behind.)
I tried new recipes and made up some of my own, and I am so happy to say that dinner was a success. They raved about it, which is no easy feat as they are gourmet chefs in their own right. It was good for me to put myself out there and try all new things. I just love creating menus and cooking for friends! I need to get back to this act of giving back!
Menu:
- Fire Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Bisque with Smoked Gouda
- Carpese salad with buffalo mozzarella and arugula and honey-balsamic vinegar reduction
- Rosemary focaccia bread
- Spinach and sausage lasagna
- Cherry tart with lattice crust (okay, pie--I couldn't make tarts because I don't have something called ramekins, which are little individual custard cups or something.)
- Wine: Carmenere (which I didn't drink)
I should have taken pictures, but I get so busy and focused ,and then there's always my mandatory breakdown--"I can't do this! Nothing is turning out! They will never want to come again!" My goal is to make that my last self-defeating breakdown. It's just not how I want to be. I want to say this: "If it doesn't turn out, we will have a good laugh and order Chinese."
3/31/2015
March might be my least favorite month. It's ugly and cold and seems to last forever, the 31 days and all. The snow has melted and the trees are bare, and all you see everywhere is trash because people in this city are PIGS.
New goal: remember that it's the month before my favorite month, and to find something good about it. I will have to think on that. Maybe I will make it "Create something special indoors" month.
I had a great time in the kitchen this month. I added to my list a pub menu, brunch items, desserts, and dinners.
One Friday I was craving pub food but didn't feel like going out in the cold nasty weather to wait for a table at a crowded noisy restaurant. Hence, I introduced Pub Night, featuring Hot Honey Wings and Big Ol Nachos. What a huge hit!
For brunch I created bird's nest eggs (a "muffin" of hashbrowns with an egg cooked on top) and a fabulous french toast bake.
Dinner items included Honey Lime Braised salmon, beef and bean burritos with pico de gallo, and chicken fettuccine Alfredo.
Desert included a delicious chocolate cherry cake.
I have pictures of some of this stuff.
So for March, I count something like thirteen new dishes. Still a bit behind, but onward!
I had a few more guests in my artist's hostel in addition to Shannon.
Lachezar from Bulgaria by way of San Antonio, a cellist who was in the running for the principal chair at Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, stayed a few nights this month. What a treat to have live cello music in my home!
We took in another fantastic play at IRT--What I Learned in Paris by Pearl Cleage. Once again IRT killed it by picking a fabulous script, which initially seemed like it would be a serious drama about civil rights but turned out to be a hilarious and touching comedy romance. Once again, the cast absolutely nails it with perfect performances. Once again, the stage work, lighting, and sound hit a home run. Between scenes, the audience was humming along to the Zeitgeist of 70s soul--Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye. I like to call this era of music Lunchbox Motown--all these classic hits, like the birds outside my bedroom window, who created the soundtrack of my childhood.
****My childhood sounded like Deep Woods Motown.*****
Speaking of the audience, the truth is I've never seen a live theater performance of an all-black cast and a mostly-black audience. I got to hear one of my favorite sayings of all time about 100 times throughout the performance "mmm-hmmm...." Lots of people dressed in full 70s regalia pantsuits and all, making it one of the best nights of theater we've ever had.
Afterwards, there was a VIP party for opening night in the cabaret bar--a band, dancing, champagne, appetizers, and miniature cakes. After while the cast came out and danced with the revelers. They also let us tour the set and back stage, which was really fun.
The next week we hit up the next installment of Dance Kaleidoscope: Ray & Ella, featuring the music of Ray Charles and Ella Fitgerald. You know all that stuff I said about the IRT killing it. Same thing for DK and David Hochoy! Man we had a blast, and yes, we were again treated to champagne afterwards.
I'm still not drinking by the way. I did have champagne as a wonderful treat, but I've yet to pour myself a glass of anything since December.
Earl and family came through last Sunday on their way to Mammoth Cave. Not that my approval means zip, but I will say "I approve" of how they are bringing up their kids. They're kind, engaged, intelligent, polite, friendly, and fun. I attribute this to hard work on Earl and Lori's part. They don't give in to the many demands that so many kids place on their parents, namely the demand for all manner of phones and hand held electronic devices and the demand to go to Disney world and on cruises. Instead they suggest they read books, play games, go sledding and biking. They take them skiing and snowmobiling and canoeing and camping. For spring break they took them to a national park. Even Larry mentioned that he wished his grand kids were brought up so well and with such manners.
They could only stay a couple of hours, so we took them Holliday Park. We played tag on the huge and complex miniature city of a jungle gym where I realized that despite training every day, I am NOT in good shape! Afterwards we hit the trails, playing hide and seek and various forest games. I thought it would be fun to go under the aqueduct, forgetting until we arrived that it was covered in graffiti.
New rant: graffiti vandals. They used to use their own language to destroy public property. Now these fools are so lazy that they are using English, and spelling everything wrong, except for "F*ck." There were several depictions of that word, so to distract the kids, I initiated some games to distract them from the unimaginative vulgar scrawling. We did the "sideways crab" crab race and later "the tunnel walk" where you had to create tunnels around your eyes so your peripheral vision would not be engaged--because diagonal alpha rays were bouncing off the arch and could render us blind to all the good things in life.
Note to self---invent these glasses!
Tomorrow starts my favorite month of the year.
Another Rant:
This week the stupid Governor of Indiana elected by stupid religious republicans put Indiana back about sixty years by signing a law that would effectively allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT persons. Before he signed this bill, he received pleas from various large employers, former mayors, and conferences not to pass this bill as it would mean the companies and conferences would have to find another place to do business--a place where it's not lawful to discriminate based on religion and bigotry.
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