Vacation Top 5

Last week was spent with my in-laws at the beach. I grew up on one coast and lived for a very short time on the other, so the beach is not something which easily impresses me. In fact, thanks to genetics, I have my mother’s very pale skin and light eyes, so that a day at the beach means either a can of 50 SPF sunblock or the ridiculous pain of a sunburn. And I hate putting sunblock on my face…it feels so very greasy.

But since my MIL really wanted to have all of her grandchildren under one roof for the week and the trip would only cost the price of gas and one meal for the family, the trip was basically free. How in the world could I deny my son his first trip to the beach, even if I wasn’t thrilled about getting sand in everything and sweating under the South Carolina heat?

The trip definitely had its ups and downs. There were some parts that were fantastic, and some that, well, brought me to the verge of throwing a tantrum myself. So, here is my tribute to vacation, the top 5 highlights (in no actual order):

RAVES

1) My husband’s homemade frozen custard

My husband doesn’t do much in the way of cooking, but one thing he does amazingly well, is make frozen custard. A few years ago his folks gave him an ice cream churn that had belonged to his grandparents. It has a wooden tub and a metal dasher that everyone vies for in order to lick it when things are mixed and done. His mother insisted he bring it along with us to the beach, and somehow we managed to find just enough room for it (and it wasn’t easy, there was not an inch of space left in that trunk).

Like I said before, my husband doesn’t experiment with much in the way of the kitchen, but he does go a little wild with the custard. I think the first batch he made was strawberry and it was good. Then he wanted to try blueberry, peach and rum raisin. The rum raisin was so powerful that it nearly knocked me out. Not something I’d want to serve to children, but all our friends wanted seconds.

When his mom first mentioned the churn, I offered up some of these great flavors. What’s better in summertime than fresh fruit ice cream? However, in an attempt to make everyone happy, my MIL insisted on plain old vanilla. I was particularly disappointed since South Carolina is known for its peaches and we had a ton of fresh ones sitting right on the counter. But, there is no reasoning with her sometimes, so vanilla it was. I did get to add some hot fudge to it and that was great. But even without it, the custard was superb.

And, a few nights later, we got our way and I started chopping peaches. I make a mean peach syrup to mix in with the custard and with some diced peaches to boot, it was the best possible treat. Everyone in the family raved about it.

2) Playing in the pool with my son. Another thing my MIL insisted upon was my son wearing the floaty bathing suit she bought him. It was pretty cute since it matched the one she bought one of his cousins. He didn’t actually need one since we had a floaty vest for him already, but she wanted to see him in it, so we agreed. I was actually upstairs with the baby when he first got in the pool but when I went down a few minutes later, my SIL was thrilled to take the little nipper and let me jump in.

My son was so adorable! He not only had the floaty bathing suit on, but he also was in a floaty ring with a snorkel in his mouth and goggles on his head (not his eyes). He refused to talk except through the snorkel, which while hard to understand, was really, really funny! I’ve never gotten to play in the pool with him before. Usually my husband takes him in, but this time, we were both in and splashing around with him. He pushed off us, “swam” to the toys we threw for him and just generally had a ball laughing and playing with us. I’m not sure we’ve ever had more fun together.

3) RB’s restaurant. The only goal my husband had for the trip was to get some good seafood. He grew up in North Carolina and fell in love with what he calls the “fish camps,” which are fairly cheap fried seafood places. The plates come piled high with shrimp, oysters, clams, fries and hushpuppies. I don’t think his BIL quite understood what he meant when he said “fish camp,” since it definitely wasn’t a cheap place to eat, but despite that, the food was stellar. My husband stuck to fried shrimp and I had a mix of shrimp and oysters.

Before we even left for the place, he told me he wanted shark for dinner. I knew there wasn’t going to be shark on the kid’s menu, but we ordered it while pointing to fried fish on the menu. The trick worked, because as soon as we got back to the beach house, all he could talk about was the yummy shark he had for dinner. We quietly told everyone the real story, which got laughs from all.

The food was quite tasty. My favorite part was definitely the hush puppies. I’d had them plenty of times in my childhood, but growing up in the Midwest, my only exposure was Long John Silvers. It wasn’t until I went to one of these “fish camps” with my husband that I found out the true joy of sweet Southern hush puppies. It’s a good thing they only brought us one basket full, because my son claimed he didn’t like them and I might have eaten my body weight in them if given the chance!

4) Watching my son play with his cousins. While I was not always enamored with the noise created by seven kids under the age of 10, especially the noise made before 7 am each morning that woke us up, my son really bonded with his cousins. Well, at least one of them. He is smack dab in the middle of my family’s group of cousins. There are three older and three younger. Even though he was nice to his younger cousins, he quite obviously thought they were babies and while he wanted to play with their toys, he wasn’t as interested in playing with the actual kids.

I think he did sort of fall in love with his only female cousin, who is 2 1/2 years older than he is. They were thick as thieves. Every game they played together. Every time one went in the pool, the other had to go in too. There were constant calls to either myself or my SIL for one to do something with the other. And, it seems to be a cry that has carried over into our non-vacation lives. Since they only live about 15 minutes from us, my son and my niece are constantly asking to play with each other. It’s really pretty cute.

5) And last, but not least: game night. I have great memories from my childhood of staying up late playing games with my folks and my grandparents. Every time we went to visit my grandparents, we ended up playing Pictionary or Chinese Checkers or some kind of card game. Many of the greatest moments from my childhood happened around my grandparents’ dining room table.

At the beach, my SIL brought a copy of Scrabble. I hadn’t played in years, but got in on the first game. That night we started the frenzy. Since there were so many of us, we had to play in teams. I partnered up with my husband and the second night we kicked some major booty. The next night I played by myself and also took home the gold. The last night we played didn’t go quite as well. I joined the game already in progress (I was putting my son to bed). My husband had played a few rounds without me and he is just not quite the strategic player I am. He’s more about the words than the score. Once I got into the grove though, I pulled us up from last place. It was neck and neck. We ended up coming in second, losing by 3 points. It was a bit disappointing, but at least we gave it our all.

Plus, I finally got them to stop consulting the dictionary before they laid their words down. Of course, I did almost have a throw down with my BIL when I mentioned to him (and his teammate my MIL) that they couldn’t use contractions or slang. He got quite annoyed with me, but luckily I had the support of all the other players, so that helped. I didn’t want to harp on the rules, but there are some basic ones that just have to be followed. And, since he is usually the rules police, I kind of liked setting him straight this time.

All in all, it was an interesting trip. As a kid we never really went on vacations with my aunts and uncles, so it was a new experience for me. I won’t say I wasn’t thrilled to be home, because to go with my top 5 list, I could probably make a top 10 annoying things about vacation list (and may still). There is, after all, no place like home.

Chocolate Monday: Ghyslain at the Sanctuary

No, I haven’t made chocolate my religion yet, although that’s probably coming before too long. The Sanctuary is actually the name of an old church turned art gallery which happens to house the cafe where Ghyslain Maurais sell his chocolates and pastries. Of course, I didn’t know any of this when I first heard of Ghyslain.

A friend of mine does some freelance work for a magazine. As some sort of corporate gift, his boss got a box of Ghyslain chocolates. Knowing of my love for all things cocoa, he asked if I’d ever heard of them. When I expressed my ignorance of a chocolatier practically in my backyard, he told me to check them out online, which I did.

From the moment I clicked on the chocolate link, I was intrigued. The candies themselves are beautiful. Unlike most of the art which hangs in the Sanctuary, these little bundles of sugar are works of art. Just going in to the gallery, I was mesmerized. I was so excited about the individual chocolates that I almost forgot the true purpose of our visit: the pastries!

My BFF and I have birthdays about a week apart. So every year, as part of our celebration, we have at least one big day out. This year I was not only celebrating my birthday, but also my first real girls’ day out since my daughter was born. Well, not just my first girls’ day out, really it was my first time out without a child in nearly two months. I definitely needed some adult time.

We started off with brunch at a fancy cafe we both just discovered and love. Next, we got manicures and pedicures. Since we had some time to kill, we headed over to the mall to pamper ourselves with some treats from the Body Shop. Then, to round off our day, we made our way to the Sanctuary for dessert.

After purusing the menu, I was a bit sad we hadn’t chosen to make the cafe our lunch spot. The sounded wonderful and the plates I saw on neighboring tables looked tasty. We vowed to come back again to try out the real food, but we knew never took our eyes off the prize: dessert.

We had a rather late reservation, so the dessert case, which usually stocks about three dozen different pastries, was fairly empty. Still, it wasn’t easy to decide. I had it narrowed to two: Sacher, which is “a decadent combination of fresh raspberry puree and dark chocolate mousse layered on raspberry infused chocolate genoise” and one that had a slightly mythological sounding name I can’t quite remember which was a sweet, buttery tart shell filled with key lime custard and topped with a berry mousse dome, centered with an almondy coulis. Glazed with a berry mirror. Finished with dark chocolate decorations.* I hemmed and hawed about it, but finally gave in and went for the one with the glazed berry mirror:

Now, I realize the actual dessert had very little chocolate in it, but it was so pretty to look at, and the berries were calling me. The little “disk and straw” on top of the dessert are made entirely from white chocolate, which just amazes me. The dessert is a work of art, right down to the decorations on top of it. And, the disk and straw were rich and creamy, just like good white chocolate should be.

As for the actual dessert, I can say without a doubt, it is one of the top 5 desserts I’ve ever eaten. Every bite was a little bit of heaven! The key lime custard was light and perfectly tart. It reminded me a bit of the center of the Godiva key lime truffles, but it was even lighter and airier. The berry mousse in the middle was sweet, but not overly so. It reminded me of fluff. It was whipped perfectly and practically melted on my tongue. The almondy center was not very noticeable and only added a slight crunch, which despite what it may seem at first, was not an odd texture at all. It blended. The top glaze didn’t actually have much of a flavor, but it looked so pretty I could hardly fault it. Each bite was so good that for once, I actually managed to finish a “meal” after my BFF, who generally takes bird sized bites, which make me feel like a pig.

Now, since this is a chocolate blog, I should mention that I did try one of the chocolate desserts as well. My BFF got the Sicilian, which was loaded with chocolatey goodness. This is a bit of a role reversal for us. While she does like chocolate, she’s usually far more likely to grab something fruity while I devour the cocoa goodies, especially when there is dark chocolate involved. Hers was, “moist chocolate moelleux cake topped with hazelnut custard, praline hazelnut, orange marmalade, pistachio mousse, and covered with dark chocolate ganache. Decorated on the sides with hand painted chocolate squares and finished with chocolate decorations and gold flakes.” I only had one taste of it, but the dark chocolate ganache was rich. It reminded me a bit of brownie batter, which was a real plus since dark chocolate is notorious for being bitter and ganache can often be too thick for my taste. The pistachio mousse was the real star here. Just like it’s berry counterpart, it was light, airy and creamy. I didn’t really taste the orange marmalade or hazelnut, which is for the best since I’m not a huge fan of either. My guess is that the pistachio and ganache just overpowered those flavors in my small bite. Just like my piece though, it was a work of art. The squares on the side of the dessert are hand painted chocolate, which is both tasty and gorgeous!

Before we even left the cafe, we’d decided we had to come back. Next time we plan to be there earlier so we have more pastries to choose from. In the week since we went, I’ve already told half a dozen people about the cafe and urged them to go. I know I don’t want to wait much longer before my next visit. We did get some chocolates on our way out, but that review will have to wait for another post.

Overall:

Taste: 10/10

Appearance: 10/10

Price: 9/10 (each one was $7, which is a bit pricey, but considering the taste, worth every penny. And they are big enough they could be shared…if you are willing to part with the amazingness. I say get your own!)

*not in quotes, b/c I couldn’t find the actual description online

**We did go back and have lunch today. It was GREAT! I had the chicken salad, which was really tasty, as well as a side of southwest sweet potato salad. I also went ahead and got the Sacher, which was amazing. The chocolate was very rich and blended perfectly with the slightly tart raspberry. The raspberry wasn’t overly tart like I usually like, but the chocolate mousse also wasn’t dark, so it blended perfectly. If I hadn’t been so full I could burst, I would have eaten two!

This one is the Carribean, which one of my friends tried. It had the lightest, fluffiest custard filling I’ve ever tasted!

Breastfeeding, take 2

Breastfeeding has not come easy to me. Anyone who has followed this blog has read about my struggles and frustrations. With my son, I spent so much time obsessing over my milk production and my son’s health, that I missed enjoying the first few months of his life.

I don’t want to rehash it all since I have several posts on the subject, but I was surprised that in everything I read ahead of time and in the classes I took before I had my son, that no one bothered to mention that not everyone can breastfeed. Heck, everyone and everything made it look so easy. No one even bothered to mention to me that it might be anything but a piece of cake.

This time I was prepared. No one was going to make me feel bad or try to push me toward something I wasn’t able to do. From the moment my daughter was born, I started explaining my situation to every nurse, doctor and lactation consultant who entered my room. When I went in to the situation, not only expecting to need a bottle supplement, but fully prepared to walk out of the hospital with nothing but the bottle, the whole experience was different.

From the moment they heard of my struggles, everyone at the hospital was supportive. They were impressed with how much I’d thought about my decision and respectful of it. I told them up front that I wanted to try to breastfeed, but would reach for the bottle if it didn’t seem to be working. Without question, the nurse brought in Enfamil in case I needed it.

For the first day, I didn’t think I’d need it, but it was in the back of my mind. Things seemed to be going better. My daughter took to nursing pretty well. Unlike my son, she dropped off after 10 or 15 minutes, then slept soundly. I started to get my hopes up just a bit. My husband got excited.

My nurse, Laura, wasn’t quite as encouraged. She noticed my daughter hadn’t had a dirty diaper yet. She’d had a few wet ones, but it had been over 24 hours and no meconium. Laura told the pediatrician before I even got a chance to, because she was concerned. She agreed with the doc 100%: if my daughter didn’t have a dirty diaper by 6pm, we were adding formula to the mix.

A few hours later, I realized that not only had she not had a dirty diaper, but it had been hours since her last wet one. Before I could even suggest it, Laura told me to get the formula out. She wanted some results before the docs went home for the day. So, I breastfed and then broke out the bottle. My daughter took it. Less than an hour later, we had both a wet and dirty diaper. I realized that even though everything looked like it was going right, obviously it wasn’t.

I found myself reflecting on my son’s birth. Everything seemed to be going right that time too. Everyone seemed convinced he was taking to the breast, only to find out that he went home a full pound lighter (and it took him three weeks to get back to his birth weight) and dangerously close to dehydration. I remembered being stressed out before we even brought him home because he wasn’t sleeping well and wanted to feed every two hours or so, despite all the books telling me that he should have spent most of the first few days sleeping.

This time though, I avoided that. I had a little girl who was feeding every three or four hours. I was getting sleep, she was getting sleep, it was awesome! Unlike the first time around, I sent her to the nursery every night so that we both could sleep better. This was another mistake I made my first time around, I had my son stay in the room with me for all but the last night. Even though he did sleep, he made so many noises, I hardly slept. When my baby girl went to the nursery, she slept and so did I.

When we left the hospital, she was only 8 ounces down. She did lose one more between the hospital and seeing the doc today, so we do have to go back on Friday, but I feel so much better about everything. Last night she only woke up twice, at 2:15 and 6:30. She is napping/sleeping about 18 hours a day. She rarely cries, unless she’s hungry and is just as snuggly as can be.

I even think I’m making more milk this time around. I know it’s still not enough because she does take the bottle after each breastfeeding, but only about an ounce. I think the fact that I’m not stressed out and feeding for an hour, then being off for an hour, then feeding again for an hour, has helped me. The fact that I knew how hard it was going to be, almost made it easier for me. I’m not at all stressed because I know that if she stops taking my breast or if she needs more formula, I’m ok with it. My son, who had a lot of bottles, is healthy and thriving, so I know if it happens again, she’ll be fine too.

I know it’s because I went through such a nightmare the first time and because I’ve learned so much since, but this time I’m actually enjoying the bit of breastfeeding I’m doing. I plan to keep it up for as long as I can. Last time I made it 8 weeks. If I make it longer this time, great. If not, it was good while it lasted, and that’s ok too.

In the end, all that matters is that my little girl is healthy and happy, and that I am too.

Yeah, I’m a mom…still

Yesterday my little girl was born. Even though I’ve done this whole birthin’ thing before, I guess I was more nervous than I realized. Tuesday night I couldn’t sleep.  tried to, I really did. I went to bed about 10:30, but around 11 I realized sleep wasn’t coming, so I got something to read, hoping the sandman would visit me in the middle of a paragraph as he so often does. No dice. I mean, sure, I put the magazine down, turned off the lights and closed my eyes, but I still tossed and turned until about 1 when my husband came o bed.

At that point,I think I actually got some sleep. Well, until my son woke up crying around 2:40. Normally I let him settle himself, but as soon as I heard him, I was up. I checked on him and he was fine. I however, was  wide awake. I tried to lay down and sleep, but wen I looked over and the clock said 3:15, I gave up and went out to the computer for awhile. I kept everything dark and just tried to send a few emails. At 3:40 I once again headed for my bed, hoping against hope to get that last, precious hour or so of sleep, but it did not come. Instead, I found myself watching American Idol (don’t judge man, I was tired) at 4 am.

When 5 am hit, I was excited to give up the charade, climb in the shower and get ready to go to the hospital.

My c-section was scheduled for 8, but we had to be there by 6. We made it exactly on time and were ushered right in to our “holding room.” Unlike my first time around, things went really quickly. Although I was parched from not being able to eat or drink after midnight (I actually stopped at 10:30), it wasn’t half as bad as when I had my son. I met everyone who’d be working on me immediately, my labs came back super quickly and my doctor even asked if I cared if we started early. Heck no! I was on board, let’s get her out.

The spinal block took longer to put in than the last time. The last time they got it on the first try, no problem. It was quick, although not painless. This time, it took several minutes (and stabs) and hurt like the dickens! I shed more than a few tears over that blasted needle and it’s cruel point. But finally my legs were numb and I was ready for the actual birthin’. The whole process only took about 30 minutes, of which, only about four were unpleasant. I guess her shoulders were a bit bigger than expected and they really had to pull to get her out.

I was a bit anxious at this point to find out if she was, in fact, a girl. I know it was what the ultra sound tech told me 18 or so weeks ago, but all during this pregnancy, I kept having a strange feeling she was wrong and the baby was going to be a boy. I have no idea why, other than the fact that I really wanted a little girl. I just kept having images of all the adorable pink, purple, yellow, red and orange clothes people had given me going to waste and me getting home exhausted and having to dig out all my son’s old baby clothes.

But, minutes later, I heard a loud wail and saw them rushing my daughter over to the infant area. It was pretty darn cool! Even though I’d done this once before, tears rolled down my eyes.

Since she was a c-section, my husband got to hold her first, which I still feel is totally unfair since it was my bladder she’d been doing the macarena on for 9 months, but at least she was close to me and I got to touch her little head. It helped that after I was sewn up and being wheeled to recovery, he had to hand her over so I could snuggle her.

She’s spent most of the last 32 hours sleeping, which I won’t complain at all about. I know we have a lot of sleepless nights to come, so I’m taking ay sleepy time as good time. Although by the time I really got to “sleep” last night, it was nearly 11 and was pretty incomprehensible. I did get to catnap for two to three hours at a time, which was really nice.

It’s funny, the first time I became a new mom, I couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital. I wanted to do everything quickly so I could get home. This time, I’m milking every second I get in this hospital room. My husband was hinting that since I’m doing so well we might get to go home early and I told him no way. If “check out” time is 3 on Saturday, I’ll be walking out the door at 3. I’m going to let anyone and everyone who wants to give me an extra hand, bring me food in bed and take my daughter to the nursery so I can sleep do so. I remember what it was like when we went home and although I do want to take her home and dress her in cute little outfits, I also want time to adjust to having a new little one.

It really does help that my son is staying with my parents for a week or so. That way we’ll have a little time to actually get used to feedings every three or four hours again. Plus, we’ll have a bit of rest before we have to figue out how to get a toddler and a newborn ready to face the world each morning.

I just hope my son doesn’t want to send her back!

The Canadian Stage

On Friday I pointed my car north and started driving. It’s not quite as aimless as that. I knew where I wanted my car to go: Stratford, Ontario. My bff was kind enough to join me for my latest Shakespearean endeavor, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Now, for a festival named after the bard, I kind of hoped for more of his actual plays. Of the 14 plays running from April thru November, only 3 are actually Shakespeare’s plays. Now, they are also running West Side Story, which is loosely based on Romeo and Juliet (very loosely). Plus they have Bartholomew Fair by Ben Johnson which does closely examine the London that Johnson and Shakespeare lived in.

Stratford itself is an amazingly charming town. There are lots of little shops with one of a kind items. In the last two days I’ve tried on trendy clothes, eaten at an organic restaurant (which uses locally grown products), visited two chocolate shops and bought a fuzzy microbe for my hubby. I also met and was waited on by several actual store owners whose inventories feature jewelry, clothes, and artwork from local artists.

As for the actual plays, my first one was Macbeth. I’d never seen Macbeth performed before, so I was really excited. The owner at the Rabbit Hole* told us that there had been mixed reviews. As soon as I picked up the program, I realized why, the play was set in a modern day fictional African country. Now, I am not a purist. I don’t demand my Shakespeare be set in the 1500′s. From the wispers before the show, I got the distinct impression many people were not at all happy that it was modernized.

The set was great. Not too ostentatious, but it still had great ambiance. Personally, I think that modern day Africa is a good setting for a play about a war torn country where members of the army are plotting the death of the ruler. Considering the strife in modern day Africa, it’s a great setting. Plus, the play started with flash pot explosions. Also really cool. The staging was also well done. Banquo’s haunting of MacBeth was powerful. Somehow they managed to distract me so well with all the action that I didn’t even notice Banquo join the feast. I also didn’t notice him leave. The second time around I paid a bit more attention. This time I saw him come up from the trap door, but I really had to focus because a servant obstructed the view.

Banquo’s death scene was also great. He gets murdered, then all goes dark. More gunshots are heard and seconds later, the lights are back up and there is a dinning room with most of the cast on stage waiting. There was no trace of the former death scene.

Aside from some great set pieces and staging, I was not a fan of the actual play. Granted, I was pretty tired after a 7 hour car ride and a two hour walk around town, but I just thought the show lacked passion. Colm Feore just didn’t move me as Macbeth. Neither did Yanna McIntosh as Lady Macbeth. In fact, the only characters I found powerful were Banquo, Macduff, Lady Macduff and their son. Everyone else was fine, just nothing exciting. I found myself waiting for the show to be over, and I was relieved when it was.

I was also more than a little nervous because Colm Feore was also playing Cyranno in our next pay. I prayed he would make a better lover than a fighter. Turns out he did.

Cyranno was really well done. It was funny, it was a little bawdy and at the same time tragic. Colm Feore was meant to play a character with a sense or humor. Aside from still using a lot of French (which I don’t speak at all), I really enjoyed the play. The costumes were lovely. The setting was simple, but elegant. I particularly loved the scene where Cyranno thinks he’s going to confess his love to Roxane in the bakery. The cast brought out lots of amazing looking treats and really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I was a little worried about Christian’s performance. It started a little rocky, but his comedic timing picked up and really made the show.

Julius Caesar was pretty good. I thought it got off to a slightly slow start. The beginning was very uproarious. It was a festival setting and everyone was reveling and having fun. The program had me a little worried. Once again I saw what looked like futuristic costuming. I was a bit relieved when most of them showed up in fairly formal (if not period) pieces. Some of the costuming was a little odd. While it was definitely timeless, it was an awkward mix of formal and very casual. Still, it wasn’t too distracting.

The first act was a bit slow, but when Ceasar and Calphurnia discuss him not going to the capitol for fear of her bad dreams, I thought it really picked up. Ceasar’s death was great, exactly as I’d imagined it all those years teaching the play. Antony’s “Friends, Romans and countrymen” speech was also captivating. The staging of it was really well done. Antony was alone on stage speaking from a platform, but the townspeople were spread throughout the audience, including two who happened to be standing up in the balcony right next to us (one on the railing). They commented and reacted to Antony’s (and Brutus’) speech. They let out passionate yells and exclamations. In short, they added life to the show. The murder of Cinna the poet in the next scene was also great. He wandered in the semi-dark as townspeople crept in from behind walls and pillars, surprising him and eventually mobing him. Eerie and effective.

Aside from the costumes, my only real complaint was that it seemed a little silly for them to be fighting (and dying) using “swords” when what the actors actually had were small daggers. I get it in Ceasar’s death scene. They needed to be small and concealed. But when Brutus runs on his own “sword” and it’s a tiny dagger, it does make it a bit laughable.

Overall, I thought the shows were entertaining. It made me a little sad that my favorite show was not one of the bard’s, but it was a great experience. I could definitely see myself returning to Stratfod in years to come.

*The Rabbit Hole is a funky artsy store where Eee got the cutest panda hoody. I got an adorable hand painted wooden necklace. The store is new and if you have time, check it out online. The owner is sweet!

Wicked Lucky, redeux

Today was a girls’ day out. After a weekend with my family (whom I adore, but stress me out and keep me constantly busy), it was nice to have some me time.

Months ago we bought tickets to see Wicked. Even though I’d just seen it on Thursday with my bff, I loved it so much, I couldn’t wait to see it again. This is not a new phenomenom with me. I once loved a university performance of Romeo and Juliet so much that I went to see it two nights in a row. I won’t lie, it helped that Romeo was drop dead gorgeous, but mostly, I loved the concept for the show and how well it was acted (it was set in 1970′s Ireland with the conflict being between the Protestants and the Catholics–the street fight opened with a bomb going off on stage).

Everything about Wicked was so amazing that I was thrilled to see it again, but especially thrilled to share it with two of my friends who have also been involed in musical theater. One of my friends saw the show a few years ago in Chicago and really liked it. She also happens to be the one with the musical theater degree. So even though I was blown away by the vocals in the show (and while I may not have enough talent to sing for a living, I have enough to recognize really amazing singing when I hear it), I was worried she might be a little more nonplussed. I felt I might have built it up or that with her extensive theater knowledge she might have felt let down.

I didn’t say much about the show, only that I thought both leads were fantastic (with an extra nod to Elphaba), I thought they’d love the staging and that Fiyero was hot. I think I may have stressed this a wee bit.

Luckily, we were all impressed by it. We get glancing at each other with huge smiles. At intermission, one of my friends pointed out the goose bumps “Defying Gravity” had given her. I was happy because I had matching ones.

I was, however, surprised that at the break they were not as impressed with Fiyero. They all agreed he had a good voice, but thought he was just ok looking. I was appalled! Granted, the skin tight khaki pants in “Dancing Through Life” aren’t super flattering, but as I’ve said in earlier posts, they remind me of Mal from Firefly, so I was ok with them. I shook my head, thinking them crazy, and got back in my seat (we were in two different rows).

After the show we decided to grab a bite to eat downtown. We saw a Scottish place up ahead and decided on it. When we got closer though, it appeared to be closed. We stood across the street trying to decide what to do. One of them suggested a pizza place directly behind us. I glanced over and sitting in the patio section were Fiyero and the Wizard. I casually turned to them, and told them if they wanted a closer look at the cast, to turn around. They tried to get me to ask for his autograph. I wanted to, I really did, but I was far too shy to go ask him.

Now, for anyone who knows me, this last statement sounds ridiculous. I am usually courageous. I don’t generally care what others think of me and making a fool of myself isn’t something that keeps me up at night. In high school, whenver someone new came to school, I tromped right up, stuck out my hand and asked who the heck they were. Today though, all my usual bravado was gone. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I find him really, really cute, and I tend to lose my nerve around cute boys.

Luckily one of my friends is far braver. She grabbed a program and walked over. She got both of their autographs and I got the courage to follow her. She told them I wanted a picture with them (and I did) and sure enough, they put their arms around me and we posed. It was awesome!

They were polite and didn’t seem bothered by us at all. The fact that one of them had a sharpee on him and they were sitting outside on a very busy street kind of made me think they might have wanted to be recognized, at least a little. Still, it made my day. And when we finally got to the place we ate at, they all agreed that up close he is quite attractive–in the balcony it’s hard to make out facial features.

Although I love my husband dearly, I have to admit I have a little theatrical crush. These are harmless, of course, as even if I did manage to cross his path and he somehow declared his love for me on the spot, I’d probably be too tongue tied to move with 10 feet of him.

However, I do have to say that Colin Donell, is officially in my top 5. I may even get my list laminated!

Notes from Across the Pond, II

In my last post, I started the chronical of my trip to London last week. I left off before one of the biggest events of my trip: researching at the Globe archives.

That’s right, on Wednesday, my husband and I parted ways for the morning. He headed off to the Natural History Museum. I jumped on the tube and headed back to the Globe, once again walking down the water front. Since I was in London as part of a fellowship to study Shakespeare, one of my main goals was to go through some of the Globe’s archives. I’d already been on the tour and seen the displays a few years ago when I visited with students, but I’d never been behind the scenes to study. I was supposed to meet my husband back at our hotel at 1:30 so we could have lunch, but I was so caught up in my research that I didn’t make it there until almost an hour later. Oops! He called the Globe looking for me and they were very apologetic, blaming themselves for offering me more and more goodies to comb over.

Later that night we decided to walk through Soho. During lunch one day, we’d struck up a conversation with a fellow American. What started as a simple comment about the weather turned in to an hour long conversation about some of his favorite areas of the city as well as a not so brief history of his life (he was Jewish, originally from New York and one half of the small number of gay couples actually legally married in California). He was a riot and based on his suggestion, my husband really wanted to see Soho. I’d seen it before, so it wasn’t too new for me. We did see some licensed sex shops, lots of gay clubs, several arcades, a few clandestine casinos, more trash than usual and possibly the biggest high heeled shoe in the world. It was part of the display for Priscilla Queen of the Desert, at one of the local theatres. 

Since our evening was wide open, we once again decided to look for a cinema. This time I was smart and skipped the concierge. Instead I found a newspaper, looked up the movie and found a place fairly close to a tube stop. We headed out and saw Terminator Salvation. I knew going in it wouldn’t be a great movie, but it had Christian Bale in it, so I was game. The plot may have had some holes and some of the dialogue may have been over the top, but even a post apocolyptic Bale is HOT!

Thursday was another day at the Globe. We decided to take our time and do a longer walk, getting off at Westminster. This time we saw Big Ben, Parliment and the London Eye on our way to the Globe. We also saw several interesting street performers, including a guy with his face painted like a dalmation and his head inside a pet carrier and this guy who also had a tiny lizard baby dressed identically to him. They were connected by some wires and when he hit a button, the baby lizard started peddling in tandem. This time we caught a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Globe.

After the show we were invited to a posh hotel not to far from our own by a friend of my mother-in-law’s (she manages the place). She wanted us to come have a free bottle of champagne in their gardens. Since we couldn’t turn down free booze, we went and spent a few hours there!

Our last real day in the city was Friday. In the morning we headed over to the Tower of London. Ever since I first saw The Tudors on my free preview weekend of Showtime, I’ve revived my interest in Henry VIII. Since he was Elizabeth’s dad and she was one of Shakespeare’s monarchs, I thought it would be cool to go see the royal armory, which is currently featuring several of his suits of armor. When we got there, the lines were huge and it was 17 pounds each to get in. Since we’d both seen it before (including two of Henry’s suits–one before and one after he became so rotund), we decided to skip the actual tower and head to the gift shop instead.

My husband was obsessed with a building our Jewish friend had told us about. I don’t recall the name of it, but it’s kind of shaped like a giant egg. I’d seen it on previous trips, but didn’t know it was considered the most energy efficient building in the country (it may even be in the world). Apparently it’s won all sorts of awards or something. Once I pointed it out to my husband from across the water, he wanted to find it and possibly go up in it. So, after we didn’t go to the tower, we went searching for it. It didn’t take too long before we’d found it. Unfortunately, all of our walking was for naught…it’s not open to the public.

After that we headed to the National Portrait Gallery. We spent an hour or so wandering through the ages, looking at works by some of my favorite painters like Monet, Degas and Seurat. Next, we went back to the National History Museum. We hadn’t really gotten my son anything in the way of a present yet, and my husband remembered all the dinosaur items there. We went only with the intention of getting him a roaring dinosaur head on a stick, but my husband was so excited about all the great things he’d seen there that I had him show me some of the highlights, including the really cool gem room where I saw these cool opals and a really neat collection of over 250 diamonds in every range of color that turned even more colors when exposed to black lights.

As if all this wasn’t enough for one day, we headed back over to Covent Garden for some last minute shopping and hanging out in order to avoid rush hour on the tube. While there we found a neat little church I’d never been in before. I’m not sure why I was so surprised to find it. One side of the church does look out into the big market place in Covent Garden. I guess it’s because there is so much else to look at there, that we’d overlooked it. We found a small alley leading in. The actual church itself was pretty. What I noticed right off though, were the markers of famous people who’d been buried there. The names included Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward and Vivien Leigh. Pretty cool. The garden outside was also lovely. I sat on a memorial bench with a placard that read “There sleeps Titania,” which considering my reason for being in London was pretty cool. I also got to see these pretty flowers. Which was quite nice.

Well, once again I find myself over 1100 words and not quite done, so I guess that means yet another blog to my story…tomorrow that is.

Notes from Across the Pond

I’ve been incommunicado to most of the world for the last week or so. As part of a fellowship, I got to spend the last week in London, exploring the city and most importantly, taking in the theatre.

This was not my first trip to the city. As a teacher I’ve had the opportunity to go two other times (both for free) through tour companies. Of course, those times I had  groups of 14-18 year olds and just about every minute of my day planned for me (including meals), so this was a very different experience. I didn’t have to do a frantic head count every time I got on the tube. There was no listening to whining about how much we’d walked and how tired anyone was. I didn’t have to collect and carry anyone else’s passport to keep them from dropping them in O’Hare*. And most importantly, no discussions about why it’s not a good idea to invite people you’ve just met who have knives to group dinners.

It was pretty relaxing with just my husband and me. It was also a bit odd. We had so much time on our hands, that I wasn’t always quite sure what to do. The last three times I’ve been overseas, I’ve had so much of my time scheduled, that it never really occurred to me to think about what I wanted to do. This trip, we only had two activities planned: two shows at the Globe,w hich only took up about 6 hours of the 169 we had there.

We filled a lot of our free time just walking around. Each day we decided what area of the city we wanted to see, jumped on the tube to get to the fringe of that area, and started walking.

Saturday we were pretty tired as we’d been up for close to 24 hours, but our hotel room wasn’t ready for several hours, so we hit my favorite shopping spot, Covent Garden. I bought a bag of treacle toffee and a few little trinkets for friends. We listened to some street musicians, watched several people painted in silver doing some sort of mime show (much to the crowd’s delight) and found some grub. We didn’t do much aside from walk around. I was lucky I could buy our tube tickets. My brain was so hazy and my tongue so tied, I couldn’t form the words for what I wanted to buy!

Sunday we hit Oxford Road, probably the most famous shopping area in the city. There are blocks and blocks of stores. Huge department stores like Selfridges, Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and House of Fraser. Every store had huge display windows with tempting wares. The only problem was that at 9 am, none of the stores were open. The earliest any of them opened their doors was 11:30, and that was for a preview, the tills didn’t open until noon. After walking from one end of the district to the other, it was barely 10 and the only place to while away the time was Starbucks. Now, I’m pretty anti-Starbucks, so we headed back to our room.

We did make it back to look in some of the stores. Selfridges is one of those huge stores that actually has lots of smaller stores in it. Lots of upscale retailers like Tiffany & Co, Louis Vutton and Godiva have small areas in the store set up to hawk their wares. We were drawn to one called Vom Fass. I was drawn in by all the cool looking bottles full of liquid. I think my husband might have been more drawn to the pyramid of whiskey casks against the wall. Vom Fass specializes in speciality liquors, vinegars and oils. The cool thing about them is that they let you sample anything you want. I tried some tasty things, like blood orange vodka and mango lime vodka. My husband tasted some tequila and some whiskey. I also have a real weakness for balsamic vinegar, so I had to try their pomegranite version. It was GREAT! Since I liked it so much, the sales associate mixed me up an even better treat, the vinegar mixed with their pistachio oil. FANTASTIC! Before we knew it, we had to have some.

Monday we found the National Science Museum. Now, I’m not usually a big science person, but my husband has a degree in biology, so it was something I knew he’d like. To avoid the crowd, we headed to the top of the museum and decided to work our way down. The first thing we found were “space shuttles” promising virtual reality rides. Since the museum was free, we popped in the two pounds and got on a space roller coaster. Although it could have been really cheesy, it was great fun! We spent the rest of the afternoon reading about early medical practices, looking at a cross section of an airplane and playing in the hands on science areas. Each floor had large sections of science discovery. I felt like a little kid again making sound waves vibrate water, building a bridge (which did, as it claimed and held me up) and creating a light video by bending rainbows. Sure, I had to wait sort of patiently while the actual kids ran between the activities, but it was worth it.

That night we also got tickets to see The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare.**

Tuesday found us at the theater again, after a long walk down the Thames from Embankment to just short of Mansion House, at the Globe. On our way we saw a really cool skate park. At first my husband was amazed that the cops hadn’t done anything about it. But considering London is the most closely watched city, with CCTV cameras everywhere (including the skate park), he realized this was done for artistic reasons. And it was pretty cool to look at. Tuesday night was also the first night we went looking for a movie theater. Unfortunately, the concierge completely mislead us (yes, we were listening and following his map, but there was no theater). We did find a nice bar during happy hour though, so we settled for people watching and polishing off a few drinks. I had a pear belini. Yum!

I know I still have a few days to cover, but this is already over 1100 words and I’m getting sleepy. Not quite jet lagged, but not back on real time yet either. Tune in tomorrow for more of my trip across the pond.

*Yes, one of my girls dropped hers after security. She had no idea she’d done it. Luckily I looked back to see what was keeping her (she was late for everything on the trip) and saw her drop it. I grabbed it up and kept it until we hit customs to come home.

**I’ll write about the plays themselves in another post.

London calling

So I’ve been cleared for take-off. I mean that in a very literal sense as my husband and I set off for London on Friday, and at my post op appointment this week, the doc said I was good to go.

Well, those might not have been his exact words, but I do know he did not mention my recovery (it’ll be two weeks tomorrow) as “freakish,”* but rather, excellent. He was very happy with the progress I’ve made. I gave up pain killers after a week, have been up and walking (although slowly at first) and have had little pain from the surgery and so far none of my pre-surgery gallbladder issues.

It’s been nice not waking up nauseated or getting sudden, inexplicable stomach cramps and having to rush for the bathroom. I could get used to this.

Although, I’ll admit I was a bit worried the surgery might be useless. My doc reminded me that my symptoms weren’t classic gallbladder and while it was low functioning, it was kind of on the bubble. He thought the surgery would probably fix things, but I could tell he wasn’t completely convinced. I guess the pathology report backed everything up. My gallbladder was chronically inflamed, so getting it out was good and probably will solve things. The fact that I didn’t let it go too long is probably why I didn’t have as many symptoms (or as horribly bad) as my bff. Thankfully all her pain made me look into mine sooner.

I was also a tad bit worried about the possibility of blood clots, since the flight to London is 8 hours or so, but he told me not to worry. I’ve been doing so well that as long as I get up and move every now and again, I’ll be fine. He’s not at all concerned with clots.

This makes me happy, as I’ve got 8 days in London, including two shows at the Globe planned (As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet). The London junket is actually part of a fellowship to study Shakespeare, which I’m pretty darn excited about. It’s the fourth grant I’ve written and recieved in the last year and by far the most exciting (others were for technology and books). My mother-in-law helped set up the trip and in addition to our shows we are staying in a 4 star hotel (for amazingly little) and having a complimentary bottle of champagne in the gardens of a really ritzy hotel. Other than that, I’m going to just take it at a leisurely pace.

I do get to explore the Globe archives and that is very exciting to me. They have every production ever done at the theater on DVD, so I can watch anything I want. Kind of cool, huh?

My only real concern is that we’ll be away from our son for 8 days. That’s going to be tough. He’ll be staying with my folks and while they adore him, it’s been a long time since they’ve had such a little guy around. I’ll be calling every day (although not for long at 99 cents a minute). I know they’ll do everything they can for him, but I worry he won’t be on his regular schedule, or in his own bed. I know he’ll miss us.

Last year when we went away for four days, the day we got in he just about climbed out of my aunt’s lap and launched himself at us upon our return. He would not stop clinging to me, even to give my husband a kiss.

I’ll be odd not to read him stories, or sing him songs or kiss him before he goes to bed. I think it will be good for my husband and I to have some grown up time alone, but I’ve just gotten so used to being a mom.

*My bff, who had the same surgery, is still having issues after six months. When she complained to her doctor and mentioned my seemingly smooth recovery, she claims her doc said my recovery was freakish. Although she admitted that may have been a kindness to make hers seem a little less, well, freakish. I blame her inferior red-headed genes.

Wicked Lucky

Today on a lark my bff and I went downtown to try for cheap Wicked tickets. For every show, there are a few tickets held back. The day of the show, they release the extra tickets in the form of a lottery. It’s pretty simple, but it requires a big time commitment. You have to show up 2 1/2 hours before the show, put your name in and wait 30 minutes for the drawing. Then, if your name is called, you can get up to 2 tickets for the performance.

So we went downtown. We figured our odds were good since the show was a 2pm matinee. If we didn’t get drawn, we’d at least have a nice lunch downtown and do a little shopping. We were the first people in line for the lottery. We waited. And during our waiting, we got pulled in to conversations with several single people also hoping to get drawn. One woman drove 2 hours after reading about the drawing online. She said she was off work and had nothing else to do. Another gentleman had been there the night before for the drawing, where he did not get picked.

At one minute to noon, we gathered around the little cage holding our names. The announcer went through his little ritual, including making all of us give three cheers of “there’s no place like home.” Which we all did, getting louder each time. The first name drawn belonged to a little boy who couldn’t be older than 6. He was really excited, but I could tell his folks were nervous–they had five people and only two tickets. My hopes dropped a little. But, he reached in, grabbed the next slip of paper and called my name. My bff started clapping and let out a very audible “yes!”

I went up to claim my buttons–the key to claiming my tickets. I also had to yell “Sweet Oz” which I did enthusiastically. We got our tickets and headed out for that lunch. We found a trendy cafe and it was tasty. They not only had four different kinds of chicken salad to pick from (I decided on fruited)*, but a SUPER  creamy spinach bacon soup**, and these amazingly moist cookies held together by a tasty creamy frosting.

After lunch we did a little shopping to kill the time. As we were walking back to the car to feed the meter, a small bundle of money blew right toward me. I caught it without really having to bend down. I looked around and there was only one family around. I did the right thing. I asked, but they hadn’t lost any cash, so I got to keep it. It was only $15, but it was $15 more than I had earlier that day.

As for the show itself, it was pretty darn spectacular. Our seats were stage right, second row. There was a slight blockage, but we were close enough to see many of the male actors (including Elphaba’s father) spit as they talked/sang. It was a little gross, but we got some great facial expressions. Plus, we got to see Fiyero, who was really cute, and reminded me of Mal from Firefly (dark hair, rakish good looks, tight pants, sleeves rolled up, extolling a carefree chaotic neutral  outside, but secretely harboring a fairly chaotic good, morally upstanding inside) very up close.

Aside from the hottie on the stage, the performance itself was great. Elphaba, played by Marcie Dodd has an AMAZING voice. It not only gave me chills at several moments, but it is one of those voices that reminds me my voice is just good enough to sing my kid lullabies, but falls so very short of genius that it slightly breaks my heart. The power of her peformance was inspiring and alleviated any worries I had about paying to see the show twice (I bought VERY pricey tickets about three months ago–way up in the balcony).

“For Good” has been going through my head ever since I left the theater, even when we got back to the car and found that despite being parked at the meter for over 3 hours (and those meters only allow up to 2 hours), we had no ticket. It was a GREAT day!

One little thing did disturb me though. As I was looking through the program, I noticed that Chistery, the head flying monkey who does a little flying and has one line, has two understudies. Now, I realize actors in a national touring company like this need understudies. Illnesses and fatigue get the best of even the greatest performers, but two understudies for the flying monkey? Really? Elphaba, one of the two leads (and by far the better), has one. How does she get one? If her understudy is out too, the show literally can’t go on, and yet a flying monkey who prances around in three scenes and has one line, has two people just waiting in the wings to take his place if he trips or gets a sore throat. Something seems a little odd there. Especially since you can’t even see the monkey’s face.

Although I love monkeys, I never realized how important they really are.

*I measure all new cafes by the quality of their chicken salad. While this was not the best in the city–Cafe Patachu–it was pretty good. Maybe a little too much fruit. I was hoping for some grapes, but those might have been they only fruit that wasn’t in the salad.

**I’m a sucker for anything with spinach. I just LOVE it.