At a Loss for Words

As hard as it may be to believe it, I'm kind of at a loss for words today. 

I'm sitting here at home with all of the currently-normal things going on: It's cold and grey out; I found out that I didn't get another job; and I have a list of errands to run (mostly the ones I didn't do yesterday). But the day itself is different from most.

A great friend of my parents--and of our whole family--passed away last weekend after fighting a long and drawn-out battle with cancer. In fact, with the help of modern medicine and old-fashioned hard work and prayer, she had been beating it for a while. But then the side effects of the chemotherapy started to take their toll and finally tipped the battle. 

MaryAnn was an amazing woman. She and her husband lived on a farm in rural South Dakota, raising 5 incredible kids along with the livestock, crops and chickens. When we would visit them back when I was a kid, I remember being thrilled because we'd get to hang out in the basement, or go swing on a rope in the hayloft (just don't tell our parents!), or even go out to pick eggs from under the chickens. 

It's strange. I don't so much know anything about her, but I know what being near her was like. She gave hugs, but it was the look in her eye that let you know life was okay. She cooked incredible barbecued pork. She was kind and gracious, but also a mom with rules. And even up until a few months ago, she and her husband Gerald have been globetrotting around to see their kids and grandkids. 

So today I sit at home, hoping that the weather was good in South Dakota for the funeral. Hoping that their family is doing okay. Hoping that... well... I guess just...

 

Hoping... 

Travel Tuesday... or not...

I'm sitting at home this evening on the couch, typing away on my laptop. (Please don't tell my Physical Therapist that I'm doing this--she'd really prefer that I sit at a desk with good posture.)

I had every intention of going out today to run some errands. I have some close-by errands to run and some on-the-other-side-of-town errands to run. But each time I looked outside I noticed that it was grey and, in turns, drizzly, rainy, snowy and sleety. Not the names of 4 dwarfs I want to meet on any given day.

So I thought about my errands... The one that was farthest away was for something that I hadn't ever heard back on, so it may or not have been ready. The one that was an evening event was supposed to be kind of long and I didn't want to deal with glazed-over roads. And the errand with the stack of stuff involved was supposed to be a trip to the Post Office which, just before I left home, I realized was closed today for Veteran's Day.

And, yes, you know where this is going. Aside from crossing the world online, I haven't gone farther from the couch than out to pull the empty trash bin back inside. 

I plan to tell anyone who asks that it was a good day of research. Yeah... Ummm... Research. 

And if anyone asks what kind of research, I'll make that up, too.

Movie Monday

What with the election and all, I've missed the chance to write about a few movies that I've seen in the past couple of weeks. But there are some really great movies in the mix, so I want to be sure to mention them. So here they are, in the order in which I think of them:

1) Rachel Getting Married. I loved this movie. It's an "uncomfortable" movie, with Anne Hathaway (from "Princess Diaries" and "Get Smart") playing Kim, the heading-home-from-rehab sister of the eponymous Rachel. The discomfort of the movie comes from the fact that we--the audience--know just a little more about the family than most of the wedding's other guests do. So while they're all partying with the Brazilian samba dancers, or eating amazing food, or cheering during the dishwasher-loading race, we're sitting on the sidelines, keeping one hand on the fire extinguisher in case something explodes. 

2) Donnie Darko. Wow. Talk about uncomfortable. This one was from Netflix. It stars Jake Gyllenhall (in 2001--years before "Brokeback Mountain") as a troubled teenager who has nightmares and hears voices. Add in a book about the philosophy of time travel, an unidentifiable plane engine which falls from the sky into the house, and a six-foot-tall demonic rabbit named Frank, and you've got the feel of the movie. It's weird. Really good, but weird.

3) Goodbye Mr. Cool. This one is from Hong Kong, and also from 2001. It's an odd movie, about a guy who used to be a major gang leader, who has served time in prison and is now trying to start a new life--complete with a son he didn't know he had. Here's the thing--it's mainly set in a Cafe, and the food looks great. Okay, that's not the main thing. Even with the language barriers and the requisite martial arts action, it was still a movie I'd recommend. Just know that, when you get to the end of the disk you need to flip it over (and don't forget to re-set the Captions when you do that).

4) August Rush. I'm sure you saw the ads for this last year. It's got Keri Russell (TV's Felicity) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (you'll know him when you see him) as the musically-inclined parents of a young prodigy (played by Freddie Highmore--you'll recognize him as Charlie from the Tim Burton "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). The problem with all of the musical folks? The parents only spent one night together and--due to some plot twists--neither one knows they have a son living in an orphanage. The music (yes, there's a lot of music in the movie) ranges from Irish Pub Rock to classical cello to solo guitar, and by the time you're coming to the end you can't help but hope it all turns out for everyone. 

Speaking of turning out alright for everyone... I also admit that last week I spent the money to go see...

5) High School Musical 3 - Senior Year. You've probably figured out by now that I'm a sucker for an old-fashioned musical. And if you've seen any of this franchise, you know that's exactly what you get. Lots of singing, lots of dancing, great clothes and sets, even a little plot. Since this is the first outing in theaters for the HSM crowd, everything was a little bigger, glitzier and more teen-angst ridden. We see the kids we've come to know work their way through their senior year--blending "real life" with life on-stage, using production numbers and songs to move the story along. Honestly, it's really cool--way cooler than high school--even without all of the smoking, drinking and sex of "Grease."

** sidenote ** One of my favorite things about the High School Musical franchise is how they allowed the characters to blend. In #1, the story focused on breaking your own preconceived boundaries and going out on your own limbs. My favorite--and apparently a big fan favorite, considering she goes from bit part in #1 to part of the primary cast in #3--is a big (ie, not stick thin) girl named Martha, played by KayCee Stroh, who is a brain who likes to dance hip hop. Although she didn't even have a memorable name in #1, she practically bookends #3, having now become a cheerleader. She's still bigger than most of the girls in the cast. She's still got big curly hair. And she's great. I love that. ** end sidenote **

Trying to wrap up all five movies in one thought seemed like it would be impossible when I started writing this, but I realized that they all have one thing in common: trying to belong. August Rush is trying to find the music his parents left him. We all want to be a part of the celebration while Rachel gets married. Mr. Cool wants to start a new life with his son. And everyone--including Donnie Darko--wants to fit in in High School. 

Sunday Chores

My favorite thing about Sundays is that they are about as close as you can get to Comfort Food. They're not always easy, they're not always pretty, but a well-spent Sunday will leave you warm and happy in the end. Unfortunately, as much as I love quiet and relaxing Sundays, sometimes we all have to bite the bullet and take care of tasks along the way.

So this morning Christopher and I spent a little time simply enjoying the morning, and then after a surprise pancake breakfast from Christopher (I thought he was cleaning in the kitchen, and then he showed up with pancakes!), I took the bull by the horns and headed for the yard. (Leaving Christopher to tackle the inside chores.)

We've been putting off raking for a while. You see, we really don't have many trees on our property, and the ones we do have didn't decide to lose their leaves until just this past week. In fact, the major leaf-dropper we had to wait for is a huge maple in our neighbor's backyard, which was an almost electric yellow until about 4 days ago. And, really, why rake anything until that one was done? But regardless of how late our trees are, the city of Minneapolis has a time limit on "yard waste," and our final chance to send off big black bags of leaves comes up this Tuesday morning. Procrastination was no longer an option.

When I headed outside it was grey and pretty chilly, but as I warmed up, so did the air. In fact, the more green that showed through in the yard, the more the sun came through the clouds. By the time I was finishing up my fifth bag of leaves, the day had turned out to be pretty nice. Now I'm not going to say that it was a "glorious fall day"--it was a little too chilly out for that, considering we barely made it to 30 degrees--but once the light flurries stopped it certainly turned into a nice crisp day. 

** sidenote ** While I was finishing up bag number 5 in our yard, I heard the huge- yellow-maple-owning neighbor comment that he was on bag 11, and expected to fill 10 more. As much as I would love the summer shade they get, I'm really glad I only had to fill a quarter of the bags. ** end sidenote **

By the time I was back inside, Christopher had pretty much tackled the entire interior of the house, and we were able to focus on the finer points of our Sunday afternoon. Some laundry... some errands... some ironing (that'd be Christopher, not me)... some cooking... 

It may not have been a perfect day, but comfort food isn't perfect... it's just comfortable. 

A "Wicked"-ly Good Day

Christopher and I had the pleasure of getting to see the touring company of "Wicked" this afternoon at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. (Sorry... It's pretty much sold out for the entire run. If you want to go you'll need to either try the ticket lottery, or try contacting one of the so-called "Resellers.")

I was lucky enough to see it on Broadway a few years ago, but Christopher was completely new to it. He hadn't heard more than a song or two, and he hadn't even read the book. (He's much more of a reader than a musical-goer.) Of course, as with most adaptations, this is a show where reading the book is more of a detriment than a plus, so that was probably a good thing. We had great seats on the center aisle toward the front, and it was a fairly overpowering show. 

The three main characters--Elphaba, the green witch; Glinda, the witch who travels via bubble; and Fiyero, the leading man (who were played by Donna Vivino, Melissa Bohon and Cliffton Hall, respectively)--really held the show together. Vivino was undoubtedly the strongest all-around player, covering all of the nuances of the "wicked" witch's character, while also belting out some amazing songs. Cliffton Hall, playing the "brainless" love interest of both witches, was appropriately pretty for the role, while dancing up a storm and somehow also pulling off Fiyero's few more complex levels. Our Glinda was one of the understudies, and was the one person whom Christopher and I debated--I found Melissa Bohon's ability to play the humor in the role made up for a few missteps in her singing, but Christopher wasn't quite so sure--either way, without the notice in the program I never would have guessed that it wasn't "her" role.

** sidenote ** Neither Cliffton Hall nor Melissa Bohon seem to have their own websites, which is why there are no links in the above paragraph for them. But if you want to see how pretty Fiyero is, Google him... ** end sidenote **

The set was only mildly scaled down from what I remember of the Broadway set (one of the hazards of having to be able to pack it up and move it every few performances), but the show itself didn't lose anything in transit. In fact, this was the first Saturday matinee performance I have been to in a while where there was an almost immediate standing ovation as the curtain call started. 

After the standing ovation, we made our way out into the street and into just-barely-flurrying snow. We walked around downtown Minneapolis to do a little shopping, then went to see this year's Christmas display in the 8th Floor Auditorium at Dayton's... err... Marshall Field's... I mean... Macy's. I have to admit that I'm usually someone who doesn't like dealing with Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but there was something about having just left the show and walking through the chilly streets that made it all seem right. 

That probably ought to be the end of this post, but just before I started writing I came across the movie "What's Up Doc?" on TV. 

** sidenote ** If you haven't seen "What's Up Doc?" well, I may not be able to be friends with you any more--or at least we may have to scale back a little until you've had a chance to catch it on Netflix. ** end sidenote **

So I'm sitting here writing while watching this amazing slapstick-y movie starring Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand, with a brand new (in 1972) starlet named Madeline Kahn. By the time the movie is done running its course, it will once again involve musical rocks, 4 matching suitcases, a San Francisco car chase and--my favorite--a Chinese dragon float and a delivery bicycle cart. All wrapped up with O'Neal, Streisand and Kahn at their somehow-understated comic best. 

"Wicked" was amazing. 

Downtown Minneapolis was almost magical. 

"What's Up Doc?" is wonderful. And, yes, just a little bit wicked. 

Sounds like a perfect way to wrap up the day. 

We Knew It Was Coming...

...but after the 70-degree days at the beginning of the week (remember how glorious it was on Election Day?), waking up this morning to snow was a bit of a jolt.

Oh, I know what you're all saying: "It's November and you live in Minnesota, what do you expect?" and "Robert, we know you spend hours each week watching the Weather Channel, you must have seen it coming?" and even "Dude, the states immediately to your west had blizzards, yesterday, where did you think it was going next?" 

My answers: Yes, I know. Yes, I know. Really, I know. 

And I'm not saying that I wanted it to stay in the 70s until next spring or anything. But one of my favorite things about fall is the middle temperatures. The cool crisp days when it's in the 50s. The hinting days with temperatures in the 40s. The mornings with frost on the ground where everything kind of glistens when the sun comes up. And we're really ready for those glistening mornings--we spent a couple of hours last Sunday washing windows for the best views.

But, instead, here I am looking out our crystal clear (with no streaks we've found so far!) windows and watching everything get covered with the first wet sticky snow of the season. I'm sure this will melt away on the next sunny day--we're only expecting an inch or two, and it probably won't even stick on the pavement. Even so, I fear this means that we're going to be skipping the middle temperature days and heading straight for winter. 

Maybe it's time to start planning a January getaway to somewhere warm. Of course, in January, "somewhere warm" will be anywhere with temperatures above freezing. sigh

Trying to Standardize the Blog

I've been contemplating this for a while: the idea of having a semi-specific and relatively-focused topic for my blog. If you've checked out any of the blogs I have listed in the lefthand column, you'll see that they all very nicely focus on one thing. And aside from focusing on my life, mine really doesn't have a focus. 

Now there really isn't anything I can think of which I want to write about every single day. Although I like to cook and bake, I don't do it on a daily basis in such a manner that I could write a unique post each time. While I enjoy the Arts, I don't have the money to attend enough events to review something each day. And I'm way too much of a Gemini to be able to stay focused on any one thing for far too--Whoa. Wait. What's that shiny thing over there? What was I saying? Oh, yeah. All of which are reasons why I named this blog what I did when I started. 

But I've kind of come up with an idea: Breaking my posts out by day, writing on focused topics depending on the day of the week. This is in the speculative phase right now, but I'm considering the following topics:

Food (ie Cooking and Baking)

The Lively Arts (ie Art-related events for which I need to leave the house)

Restaurants

Travel (local or long distance--from a trip to Montreal to a trip to the grocery store)

Television

Potpourri (ie whatever comes to mind. I don't plan to write regular posts on the smelly stuff people put around their homes in open bowls. Well... Unless it needs to be written about.)

I figure I'll assign one topic to each day, and then write (at least obliquely) on that topic once each week. Yes. I know that there are only 6 topics listed, and there are 7 days in a week, but I figure this will give me one day to either relax or simply write... well... the kind of stuff I've been writing so far. 

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? I'll try to roll this out in the next few days, but I'd love your input in the meantime (and as we go along, of course).