kcobweb

Our opera rehearsals are go late into the evenings - and they seriously mess with the EB's sleeping schedule. (Fortunately, it's not every single night.) The past few times she has slept in my mother's lap from about 7:30 till just after 10, when we take her home, and then is up and wired for at least an hour before we can get her to fall back asleep. This after we've been on our feet at a long rehearsal.... Last night she did NOT want to fall asleep, and got progressively fussier until she was full-blown screaming, and nothing could console her. I finally decided she was having some teething pain, and gave her some Tylenol, and she zonked out at midnight. The good news is, she zonks for a solid 8 hours (for one stretch of the night), so she slept straight through till 8 this morning. Tonight she got to bed much earlier ('cause, well, we're home and not out gallivanting) - I predict a wake-up call at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. We'll see.

She was also rather fussy all day today, which is unlike her. I keep checking for visible signs of teeth (has one popped through in the last hour??), but so far no dice (or, well, teeth).

Our guest conductor for the opera has arrived in town. He introduced himself the other night and then said "I tend to take a pre-war view of Traviata." *pause* "Which means my tempos are a little faster than what you usually hear." Our rehearsal pianist (who is amazing) was moaning and groaning; the chorus was just ded from lack of breathing. Geez Louise. Never mind spitting out all that Italian - my priority is oxygen.

I have finished frogging the sweater I bought at Goodwill, and I've started crocheting the yarn into .... the inevitable, a blanket. I'm working it as one big ol' granny square, because I wanted something that was worked in rounds, since it's sort of an unknown quantity of yarn. (I'm too lazy to do real skeins - I just rolled it into balls.) Very pleasing.

I also worked tonight on putting some quilting onto the first fullsize quilt I ever did - I made this when I was sanj's roommate in Boston 10 years ago. (sanj, there are some fabric contributions you gave me in there!) As my first quilt, it wasn't very well done, and after 10 years of use on our bed, it's getting raggedy. I thought some additional quilting would reinforce it so it doesn't fall to pieces.

rivka recently posted about baby brain (or mommy brain, if you prefer to call it that). I'm definitely suffering from that. I have lots of ideas of things I want to say here, and then I open up the little window for posting an entry and my mind goes blank. I'll think of all kinds of funny, interesting, and exciting things about an hour after this is posted. Yup.

It's been a good weekend. Friday night, galagan had to be at the theater (working backstage at the opera), so I curled up with the EB, some cookie dough, and a videotape of La Boheme which my dad lent me. It was the Australian Opera production from a few years ago, and was really fun - great staging technically, terrific use of color (in the costumes and whatnot), etc. I enjoyed the music too - Puccini has a great way of intertwining vocal lines which you don't hear much in opera (in my experience, most operas let each character be a diva and always sing solo - so hearing the voices working together is a special treat). And Rodolfo has some great parts - but then I've always been a sucker for a good tenor. :) But the story is stoopid stoopid stoopid. Why is it that most of the canonically great operas have such moronic plotlines? Can't a person write great music for a decent story? Sheesh. Also interesting about this to me is that I think Rent is better (or at least, I like it better) - IMO, usually the derivative work loses something in the "translation" process and is secondary to the original, but in this case, I'll take Rent over Boheme any day. The characters are better developed and more three-dimensional, and the plot is more realistic and therefore it all hangs together better.

Anyway - probably none of you care much about opera.

Yesterday was galagan's birthday, so I baked him a cake. In the afternoon we went out to one of the city's natural parks, down along the river. It was a gorgeous day, there were kayakers out on the river, and tons of people walking their dogs and feeding the ducks and all those kinds of things. The EB mostly slept in her carrier - but it was great for us to get out. Last night, my mom babysat and we went to a very nice restaurant for a lovely dinner. I had a glass of wine - it had been so long! I'm not much of a drinker at the best of times, but not having any alcohol for nearly a year means that I really appreciated that glass last night! We had very yummy dinner (tuna for him, beef for me, mmmmm), and then went back to Mom's to watch the last of the second NCAA game. (Poor Michigan!)

Today galagan goes back to the theater shortly, and my mom is coming over and we will take the EB for a walk - it's supposed to hit near 70 degrees today! Woohoo!!

I have been goofing off a lot for the past few days, so I'm being busily productive tonight. Doing lots of financial gunk - setting up online access to one company, transferring a few things, shooting off emails to someone asking for advice. I'm also going to clean up some things on this computer.

It's hot, but almost pleasantly so. I'm wearing a tank top, so I can see a temporary tattoo on my shoulder out of the corner of my eye regularly - when you're not used to having colors right on your skin where you can see them, it's rather startling, each and every time. The tattoo says "Nosferatu", and is advertising the world premiere of the opera that will be in Billings in October. Woowoo. I know all you musical fans out there won't want to miss this, and are scanning the Internet at this moment for your plane tickets here for this exciting event.

Aren't you?

I read a good book. Mister Posterior and the Genius Child, by Emily Jenkins. Told largely from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl, in Cambridge (MA) in 1970. There are a few moments of intrusion by the adult flashback narrator, but overall I think it's a lovely wonderful narrative voice that really captures what it's like to be *eight*. It's also damn funny. If I remembered the 70s, I'd probably have to say something about how it evokes the era so perfectly (that's what all the back cover blurbs say, anyway) - but I was in my own childhood bubble of a world during the latter 70s (which is the only part I'd really remember, I suppose) - so I can't comment on that. Anyway. Read it. Really.

It was an opera weekend for me. Saturday I went to rehearsal and watched the run-through. Sunday I helped move the sets into the theater - okay, mostly I stood around and watched, because I'm not exactly known for my brawn or for being especially adept with tools. (It's a cool set, especially the witch's candy cottage.) From Wednesday on, it will be all opera all the time (at least, whenever I'm not at work), through the weekend. I'm soooo glad I'm not in this show, and only working backstage. #1, Hansel and Gretel is a really cheesy kiddie show - as my father would say, we're at risk here for diabetic shock! (Insulin shock? Whatever.) #2, too many politics.... This is a tiny wee opera company that is completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, so of course, matters get very heated - I'm always reminded of the Henry Kissinger quote: "University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small." Yup - totally applies here.

In fact, I need to call my father and find out what he knows on the latest political/opera mess.....

As if the opera weren't enough, we have relatives coming to see it - so we get the relatives-in-town chaos. My grandmother will be here, plus an aunt and uncle (perhaps my favorite aunt and uncle really, so that's cool). So they will need/desire entertaining during their stay.... Thankfully, no one is staying with us (we have nowhere to put them anyway) - so my house remains a parent-free (and relative-free) zone. This is very key.