Day 03 – Your parents, in great detail

Ah.  This one is much easier.  This should have come first.

My parents are way cool.  I live with them right now, so it is a good thing that I think they are cool.  Actually, it is still pretty hard, but as a grown person who is living with their parents for a short time, it is a very interesting exercise to see them from an adult perspective.

My parents have been married for over 35 years.  That is significantly longer than I have been alive, and longer than the marriages of most people I know.  It is like a crazy long time to be married to someone.  They live a very simple lifestyle, they go to church, burn a wood stove, only eat out once a week, and spend a lot of time attending dog shows and caring for their champion English Mastiff.  They don’t keep a wide social circle.  They are quiet people.

My parents are, without question, the most selfless and generous people I have ever known.  There is not one thing I have ever wanted that they haven’t helped me to get- from My Little Ponies to a Masters Degree, they have scrimped and sacrificed and forgone their own comforts so that I could have something that I wanted.  I am so incredibly lucky that they are my parents.

My Mom is the more quiet of the two.  Reaching a towering 4 foot 9, she compensates for her tiny stature with a very loud voice.  She is a full time caregiver for my two great aunts, ages 94 and 96.  Her days are spent making bland meals, changing adult diapers and basically entertaining two very persnickety old ladies.  She does this without a lot of aid from anyone else in the extended family.  I don’t know anyone who is more patient.  After doing all that work, she’s just as likely to spend her small salary on something for me, or something for a family she heard about in church than to spend it on herself. I inherited my mother’s patience and bad drawing skills.

My Dad is a former lead singer and guitarist in a fairly successful cover band.  He is much more outgoing, a notorious gossip, and a very hard worker.  True to his conservative values, he works hard, pays with cash, builds things himself, and values his right to bare arms and other freedoms.  He’s a brilliant man who worked as a chemist for many years before retiring to a simpler job.  He always buys things made in the USA, prefers to eat food that is covered in tomato sauce, and knows exactly how to push your buttons, which he likes to do to excess.  He values a good education, and good oral hygiene. I inherited my father’s coloring, vocal performance aptitude, and love of gossip.

 

No photos of my parents exist without a Mastiff in them.

Pirate Mom with Goldie and Cole. Ahoy!

Dad and Cole  at a dog show.

Shabu, Shabu…na na na na na na na na na

So you’d have to be living under a rock to not know how obsessed I am with Shabu Shabu style cooking.  I think about it, dream about its deliciousness, bring lots of friends and loved ones to my favorite restaurant, Kaze, to experience the wonder that is Japanese Hot Pot.  Unfortunately, it isn’t the most affordable place to dine.  I decided to try to cut costs and try to recreate the hot pot experience in my own home.  With the help of my Mom, I located an individual burner, and with the help of C Mart Supermarket in China Town I found most of all the delicious ingredients that I needed-  There are tons of options for shabu shabu, I could not have gotten all of the wide array of choices so I picked a few favorites: baby spinach, cilantro, napa cabbage, shitake mushrooms, beech mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, thinly sliced beef and chicken and wood ear dumplings.  I couldn’t find a dykon radish and the tarro roots were enormous, and I also skipped the tomato because they had none.  I bought a huge tub of delicious miso paste and a few of my favorite Asian honey and lemon drinks to go with the meal.  The most difficult part was trying to figure out how to make the delicious sauce that is crucial for dipping the veggies in.  I assembled the ingredients- fresh garlic, scallions, red chili sauce and satay sauce- but I couldn’t get it to taste quite right.  I’d say I’d rate my version a 4/10.  Got to try some other satay sauces.  Kaze makes their own satay sauce so it will be impossible to recreate it exactly, but I am going to try.  Here is a picture montage of my first try!

Pre-meal

closeup of the veggie plate (way too much for one person!)

shitakes cooking in broth

beef goes into the pot (it was a little fatty, I’ll pick a better cut next time)

Yum. Glistening cooked mushroom ready for sauce.

A nice, messy table is the mark of a good meal.

Overall I did a fairly good job.  I look forward to trying again with some new sauce options and new veggie choices.  I will keep you updated on my quest to recreate perfection at home.

Lux Et Spes

Wow. I cannot believe it has been five years since Stonehill graduation. I just got home from an evening spent with friends walking around campus, seeing what has changed and what has not. I’ve created a little picture montage of our afternoon and evening for your enjoyment:

Jenna, Aaron and I sneak into the dark room! This was taken in the pitch blackness!

Jenna and I in the dark room! Blurry because its so dark in there!

I got an A in photo class because I was so good at setting the timer I am pointing to here.

So, then we snuck over to the piano lab. Here is a picture of me on the very piano I sat at in class. This is the face I used to make.

Here is my C+ piano! Poor thing, it deserved better than me.

We met up with John and a very pregnant Erin!

and Meg and a very pregnant Gretchen!

We enjoyed a yummy buffet of cake and bread and steak tips.

After dinner we decided to take a walk and found a trailer park in the parking lot behind O’Hara hall.

I visited my old freshman year dorm room!

John, Erin, Jenna and Aaron demonstrate that their is no longer a road in front of O’Hara. Behind them is the amazing new science building.

We visit the Grotto.

Meanwhile, back at the mixer, the love of my life arrives (he biked all the way from Stoughton!)

We were very happy to be reunited.

All in all I had a wonderful time and wish I could have stayed so much longer! I love Stonehill so much and I will never forget all the amazing people that I met there. I am so lucky!

Ever Virgin.

A long journey home, or a road wide and narrow? I know my way, but I can hardly find it.~Shannon Rosa, The Year of the Serpent

I have so much to say about the Opera, but words fail me.  How does one accurately portray the feeling of pride, the overwhelming satisfaction of justified ownership, and the absolute child-like delight of seeing a creation of your wildest imagination manifest itself in a true, real, and very grown-up way. I don’t know if I can find the words.

It seems like I’ve been talking about this Opera forever.  From the moments of conception where Erin, Jacob, and I pushed salads, and then Thai food, and then pizza, around our plates as we fed our more deeply rooted hunger for creativity- to the hours I spent caressing and modifying every turn of phrase, lovingly adorning my characters with their sense of self, imbuing them with history, and comedy, and richness- to the publicity deluge, including the photo shoots, press releases, endless interviews and synopsis.  So many words, and yet, in the end, I haven’t found what I want to say.

Yes, of course, there is Thank You.  Thank you to my amazing cast, who breathed their own life into my words, to the crackerjack crew, especially Paul and Jim who helped me to make it through the parts that were a particular challenge, to the glorious, uncompensated musicians for loving music more than money, to Amy for her wonderful attitude and infinite patience as she guided our puppet dog through nightly abuse, to Everett for giving us his generosity over and over and providing costumes I could never have imagined.  He saw my girls in a way I could not, and then showed me all I had been missing.  To Scott for finding our musician’s voices, cultivating them with love and care, and always trying to give what he could, and most importantly to Erin and to Jacob.  Erin who is the heart of my words, the music of my mind- she took my very soul and set it to music, it is a gift I never imagined I could ever find.  And to Jacob.  Jacob who in a very short span on time has given to me a little family when I am away from my own.  His part in my life extends so far beyond the direction of the staging of this show that it must be stated that there would be no Serpent without him.  Hours and hours and hours together doing everything that no one else thought to do or cared to do.  Never once a harsh word.  My teammate, my best friend. He could see it all, everything that I wished for, and he made it come true.  His beautiful set.  His lyrical staging.  All of it with a humility and modesty that he saved especially for me in our slow rides home after everyone else was long parted.  The thanks could go on and on, each wave of gratitude more earnest than the next.

My heart is also so grateful for every one of my friends who came to see the show.  I know I am involved in a lot of shows, and seeing them isn’t always easy, but this is, I believe, one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me, and to know so many people loved and cared about me, it makes it even more miraculous.  Thank you Leslie, Jeremy, Kyle, Joanna, Rachel, Robyn, Steve, Joe, Christa, Steven, Robyn, Mark,  Jen, Kathryn, Annie, Jason, Sharlene, Dan, Jo, Kacee, KMac, Tom, Jordan, Roger, Leif (!), Jason and Dad for all of your journeys to pilgrimage love for me.  I hardly feel I am worth it, and love you all the more for it.

I want to be a writer with all of my heart and soul.  I want people to know that living inside me is a world of beauty that could never hope to reflect itself in what they could see from the outside.  For the first time in my life, when I saw them up there, singing my words, I felt beautiful.  More beautiful than cosmetics, or clothes, or diets could ever make me.  I felt like the biggest part of me, the part of me that I love the most, was there for all to see, finally.  I’ve never felt so real.  I cannot say it better or with more finesse.  I suppose that when it comes to me, I am still just that much more a fool whose words don’t fit together.

I’m so exhausted, deeply to my bones I am aching with the fatigue that comes when you know a show is at its end.  Tomorrow we travel down to Providence to meet with some men who run a production company who specializes in Kung Fu movies.  They might be interested in making a film out of our humble piece.  If that were to happen, I don’t know what I would do with myself.  It’s more than I ever dared to hope for and am completely unprepared.   This could be it.  Our chance.

Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  From the bottom of my heart. You’ve helped me to fulfill my dream.  I am so grateful.

Ever Virgin.