Saturday Fun

My mother wanted to go shopping yesterday in a nearby town that houses an outlet mall. This is a big deal, you see, 'cause we don't have nothing like that near our hick little ole town. The extra special draw that gets people to go 45 miles to shop is the Coach outlet store.


If you love purses - and I KNOW you do - this is the place for you. I was there about a month ago and bought myself two new purses. I'm not embarrassed to say that I spent about $200.00 on them...but they retailed for about $600.00. (Income tax money, don't you know, and I deserved them for last year. Yeah, I'm still using that excuse and plan to use it all through 2009, so stay tuned.)

Anywho, Mom saw said purses and wanted one for herself. Her condition - any purse she would buy had to have a shoulder strap. I don't do the shoulder strap - I usually wear a small backpack for trips (this is the last one I bought):


...but it really isn't a good size to hold my Kindle, so I bought two tote-type bags although they are "tote" in style only. Not huge, just big enough to hold the Kindle and wallet without feeling stuffed. Here's an example (I couldn't find my exact purse but this is the same size/style):


So the hunt for a suitable bag that had a shoulder strap was on. We had all the sales associates helping and eventually we settled on one that looks like this (couldn't find a pic of the exact one she bought, but this is close):


Just imagine a shoulder strap instead of the smaller strap. She ended up being extremely happy with her purchase, and I was glad to take her there...she bought me a Coach umbrella as a thank you. Wasn't that nice?


I plan to NOT turn it inside out like I did the previous cheapo umbrella...I HOPE. This one is a bit too expensive to replace, so I'm gonna have to be extra careful.

Then we hit the Carter's kids clothing store.



After perusing the racks, we ended up buying waaaay too much for the granddaughter/great-granddaughter. Here's an example of one of the outfits we bought:


Again, it's not exactly the right shirt, but it's really hard to show you the right one since it seems that outlet outfits just aren't photographed and posted on the web anywhere for me to steal and post here. ;p

After spending too much, we headed up to Champaign to shop at Birkenstock Concepts. Mom wanted to see new styles. We both are Birkie people due to feet problems. I mostly wear Birkenstock Footprints and she is straight Birks. We saw a few new interesting styles, but nothing that made us go wow...until we looked at their Finn Comfort shoes. They are built the same as Birkenstocks as far as the cork footbed and the fact that the footbed can be replaced. She loved them and bought this pair in two colors:



After spending more money there, Mom and I headed over to pick up the grandkiddies from their father. He lives/works in Champaign, so it worked out for me to pick them up this weekend since I'd planned to be there anyway. Once we had them in the car, we decided to go eat. First choice was the Original Pancake House on Springfield Ave. I let Mom and kids out so I could park since it had started to rain and Mom is not really a great walker anymore. I get inside to join them only to find out they have a 45 minute wait. What? On a Saturday at 1:00 p.m.? Sheesh - a popular place, I guess.

I would have waited any other time, but a 3 and 6 year old are NOT great waiters. I knew they'd already be tired and cranky from being at their Dad's house - he lets them stay up late and so forth, so I wasn't going to risk that kind of wait.

Instead we went down the street to Famous Dave's Barbeque. We actually had an enjoyable time. The kids were really well-behaved (not that they aren't normally, but we have had tantrums and other issues in the past) and the food was great.

After eating we headed back home to Decatur and I let the kids watch Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures in the DVD player - they love that show and were good as gold all the way home. That is definitely noteworthy. No fights, no arguments between them - I was definitely happy with how the day went.

I'm spending more time with my mother than I ever have, for good or ill. The reason is mostly that her health is deteriorating. It's a slow progression but it's age, her weight and other issues. So of course I'm worried about her, but I also want to spend time with her while I can. I don't think I did that as well as I could have with my father (he died in 1980) and I have always regretted that.

Anyway, another weekend down. Next weekend it's Quacker Duck breakfast at the Children's Museum, then the Vet Med Open House at the University of Illinois for the kids. I can't wait to go in the school again as my son's class picture will be up on the corridor wall. I haven't seen it yet - they don't put it up till after the class leaves, and the last time I was there I forgot to look for it! I'll take a picture of the picture and post it once I have it.

Week after next I have a business trip and I am really looking forward to it. Lots of "me" time with other adults, drinking, gambling boat visit, should be fun.

Let the good times roll.

Catching Up

Been busy for a week or so with work (all last week was horrific for a variety of reasons) and life, so haven't posted much if at all. Here's the scoop...

Accompanied the grandson/granddaughter to the grandson's baseball clinic last Sunday at the DISC (Decatur Indoor Sports Center). He did really well...threw hard, paid attention - made me proud. I know I'm prejudiced, but I think he's pretty good.





After the clinic, we hit the park for some duck feeding:




...and some playground fun:



It was a very nice day all in all.

Later in the week, the granddaughter forced her uncles to play house and fed them a lovely dinner:


Nothing like vegetables and toast. Very healthly.

Live from the Met in HD - La Sonnambula

Pre-show Image of Natalie Dessay

Producer Mary Zimmerman

More Pre-show Natalie Dessay

What to say about this production...hmm. To say it was a disappointment would be wrong. The singing was excellent, especially Juan Diego Florez. The staging, however, was abysmal.

The smartest thing done yesterday, however, was not to chance Mary Zimmerman taking a bow. I understand from other opera sites that she was roundly boo-ed (is that even a word?) on opening night and I'm thinking that they didn't want to take a chance of that happening here - there are encores to show yet and it would sort of make it difficult to see the producer/director getting booed. But she deserved it.

I have never seen a more incomprehensible version of a story. It wanted to be a play within a play, but if you did not know the story going in (Swiss village, sleepwalker ending up in the wrong bed), you would have never understood what was going on.

That said, the singing was wonderful. JDF was his usual excellent, Natalie Dessay was good if not superlative. One gripe about JDF - he jerks me from the story every single time he does his singing shrug, reaching for the notes. Can't stand that and now I'm poised, waiting for it to happen. Very annoying. I should have counted how many times he did that in the performance just to see if he can break a record or something. Next time - it's good to have a goal.

Fun moments - Jennifer Black as the suffering Lisa...she was a delight. Her acting was superb, her singing excellent. Her moment at the chaotic end of the first act was sublime - I laughed out loud at her antics.

JDF and Natalie Dessay singing on the spinning bed while standing - JDF caught himself as he began to topple over.

Michele Pertusi as the Count - excellent voice and acting. I could have been seduced by him myself.

I had an enjoyable time overall - the music was good and I can forgive the staging for that alone. Would I buy it if that particular performance was released on DVD? No.

The Cast Takes a Bow

Michele Pertusi curtain call

Juan Diego Florez curtain call

Natalie Dessay curtain call

Friday Eye Candy

Just for all you out there that need a little more reason to celebrate Friday!

Illini in the First (and Last) Round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

That's the photo my vet son took before the game started...unfortunately the Illini lost. But at least my son got to be there to "cheer them on".

Natasha Richardson - What a Shame

I didn't know Natasha Richardson, nevertheless I feel incredible sadness over her death. That something so inconsequential as a fall can do such serious damage is hard to grasp. I myself have fallen and hit my head a number of times - and recently - with no lasting ill effects.

When I was a child, a neighbor boy fell off his bike and hit his head on the curb of the street. He was fine, we (and he) thought. He went home later in the day, complaining of a headache but had no other symptoms, so no one was overly concerned. Next morning he was found dead in his bed. It sounds like this is the same cause of death as for Richardson - the "talk and die" syndrome.

I think about her young sons and her husband and hope that they will get through this devastating time okay. Although is anyone ever really okay when a close relative dies? I still remember my father's death with sadness and I was a grown woman when that occurred.

Here's hoping that the people and the press give them all the time they need to come to terms with their loss.

Illini in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

The first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament starts on Thursday for the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois. The game will be played in Portland.

Well, guess who's going, bitches? My son, the vet, who lives just outside Portland. He called last night to say he got the golden tickets - golden because the event is SOLD OUT.

Here's the proof:


I'm so excited for him! Here's hoping they play well.

Cancer Yoga Study Part 2

Okay, well, I met with the person in charge of this study yesterday. She couldn't meet me off-site, so I went in for my quarterly bloodwork and met with her at the same time. I just hate that place, as I've mentioned before. Anyway, she was very nice, explained the study thoroughly. I went ahead and signed up due to her winning sales pitch...and when I got home I realized that I forgot the most important question of all - where is this going to take place?

If it ends up that it is going to be done in that building...well, I just don't know.

She is supposed to call at the end of the week to give the actual dates it will start, so hopefully I will remember that question. We'll see.

Cancer Yoga Study

Today is like a catch up day, I guess. I've already posted all the Nathan Gunn news that is fit to print, as they say, so I'll talk about me.

I got a call a few weeks ago from the Cancer Care Specialists wanting me to participate in yet another study. They are attempting to prove/disprove the theory that Hantha Yoga aids in helping post cancer patients sleep. I will admit to sleep problems, mainly waking up on an average of six times a night. I don't know if it is anxiety or what, but it has been happening since cancer became a part of my life.

The study requires that you wear a bracelet that tracks something for a week. Then one group will take four weeks of yoga, two times a week. The other group will do nothing for the same time period. At the end, they will measure something (I'm not clear on the details yet) that will prove/disprove their theory. The participants that did not get to do the yoga will then be offered the same class for four weeks. So either way you get four weeks of yoga. Not a bad deal as it's free.

Initially I said I would be interested. They had an evening meeting for all interested parties last week and I got ready, went out the door, drove to the center...and could not make myself go in.

I actually became ill at just the thought of going into the building. Yes, I know this is all mental. But that building is where they hurt me. Where they blithely administered chemotherapy and devastated my body/health. Where they told me, don't worry, your hair will grow back...everyone goes through this...platitude after platitude.

I don't consider myself weak. In fact, I know that I'm not. But this building and all it portrays took me under in that moment.

I went back home and resigned myself to not participating. On Friday, though, the woman in charge of the study called me and we are meeting in her office, off the Cancer Campus, on Monday morning. So I might be in the study or I might not. I think a lot is going to depend on where it is held.

I'll keep you posted.

Chicago Opera Theater Fundraiser

A week ago Saturday, the Chicago Opera Theater held a fundraiser at the Spertus Theater. They also commemorated the 10 year reign of Brian Dickie as General Director.

What you might not have known is that Nathan and Julie Gunn attended and even drew out winners for the raffle. Here's the picture that Brian Dickie posted on his own "award winning" blog COT Brian Dickie:

Nathan and Julie Gunn Draw Raffle Tickets

As Mr. Dickie says on his blog, it's a shame that Nathan has never sung for them, but it's definitely cool that Julie will be working with some of their artists.

They both look great in this picture. I hope they had a good time.

Il Barbiere Di Siviglia - Nathan Gunn Style

I missed my opportunity to see M. Gunn perform the role of Figaro in this production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago last year. However, I have been lucky enough to find the 2005 recording of the opera at a site in the UK. Yippee! In 10-16 days I'll have it here in my hot little hands, God willing and the postal service doesn't screw it up.

I'm really excited to hear it - it was nominated for a Grammy so I know it must be really good. I'll post more after I get a chance to listen.

Nathan Gunn and The Firebrand of Florence

Oh, how I wish I could have been there to see this! Susan from I'd Rather Be Sleeping... went and said it was wonderful.

Yesterday a number of reviews and stories were published in various outlets/sites that included photos. Here are a few of them:

Nathan Gunn Singing His Wittle Heart Out

A Close-up of our Hero

At the After Party with the rest of the Cast/Company

Our Hero Looking Cute

The coolest part of the last couple of pictures is that Nathan was wearing those clothes when Susan had her picture taken with him backstage - check that out on her blog that I referenced above. Lucky Susan. Sigh.

I was disappointed to learn that the event was not recorded and that the conductor or director indicated that it was because a recording already existed. Yeah, from the 1945 production! I'm not buying that, sorry. You have a large number of artists, probably all with different representation for a one night only event...I'm guessing no one could come to terms financially more than that it was already recorded.

It's truly a shame, though. I don't know this music at all and the chance that I will ever hear it is even more remote than ever. Too bad.

More Granddaughter Witticisms

The other night as we were eating our fried chicken dinner, I observed my three year old granddaughter spear a piece of chicken with her fork (has to be de-boned for her) then run it through her mashed potatoes. The combination then went into her mouth.

I was taken aback - she is very picky about food touching each other and normally would have freaked out if I had tried to tempt her with food in that way.

I said to her, "Wow, you are getting to be almost a human being!" and she quickly shot back, "Is he a human being?" pointing over to her six year old brother. (Anything he can do she can do better is her new mantra.)

I replied, "Not quite yet, but he's getting there." She seemed content at that response.

Sibling rivalry over becoming human beings. You've got to love it.

Some Early Easter Humor

A friend of mine posted this elsewhere. I couldn't resist stealing it and posting it here.

Whistle While You Work...Not Hardly

I got to work this morning and opened my office door about a nanosecond before my boss came in. Over the weekend some of the senior members of our communications division did a horrible job taking and dispatching a call. I mean horrible. For some reason one of them took a call about a serious car accident, entered the call with the personnel as "on scene" and it went without rescue personnel actually being sent.

The problem with this, aside from the poor injured woman waiting 10 minutes until rescue personnel arrived, is that the people involved have been working here for over 15 years. This is not some new person who doesn't know the rules or how to do the job.

My job in this event, of course, is forensic. I am to recreate the situation that occurred in the computer from the call take to the actual dispatch. It's not a big thing, but it is time consuming. The person involved made it a bit more interesting by blaming the computer for part of the problem. Um, sorry, but that's not possible.

Computers do fail, programs do have glitches. But not the dispatch program and not only on one computer. If someone at another workstation in the center had reported computer problems that excuse would have flown better. But no one else had problems and I personally had checked out the server early Saturday morning in anticipation of the time change on Sunday. So I know the server was working properly and with no desperate phone calls to my home or cell to tell me that they had problems, everything had to have been working properly.

Like I said, it's not a big deal to do this work, but it is annoying in a day when I had already planned to work on some more complicated issues.

Ah well - mistakes. They are more or less job security.

Live from the Met in HD - Madama Butterfly

Yesterday I took my mother to see the Anthony Minghella production of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) from the Met (Metropolitan Opera). If you're not familiar with the Met in HD program, they broadcast an actual live performance from the Met that is received in like 1700 theaters across the world. It's great for someone like me that wants to see a Met production but lives too far away to even hope to go.

Here's an image from inside the theater before the production started:

It's a bit fuzzy - it was a camera in my phone, after all, but this image was on the screen for a time before the event.

At five minutes to go, these type of images were broadcast every minute:

You definitely get a sense of the colorfulness of the costuming from that image.

And once the five minutes were up, you were in the Met. Here are the images:



And then the magic began. Along with the actual production, Renee Fleming interviewed the cast between acts and gave teasers of upcoming productions.

I was mesmerized. As I watched the story unfold I was thankful for the English supertitles in one respect (at least I knew what was being sung) and disappointed in another (who knew the words to the most famous aria from this opera were really mundane and not spectacular or important?).

I had come into this event with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. The original lead, Cristina Gallardo-Domas, was someone I was looking forward to hearing. Last week, however, she dropped out of the production and Patricia Racette took over. Now I don't know Ms. Racette, but I have heard about 20 snippets of singing from An American Tragedy where she starred with Susan Graham and my one true love Nathan Gunn and I couldn't understand most of what she was singing. So I was like, great. I won't enjoy this at all if I can't understand her. Guess what? I was incredibly wrong.

I don't know how she did it, but I believed in her - I believed in her being 15 years old, I believed in her teenage girl games with her with new husband, I believed in her love for her child. She was AWESOME. I had done her a grave disservice thinking that she might not be excellent. She was more than excellent, she was transcendent.

Marcello Giordani, who played Lt. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, sang very well and was good in his part. Knowing what kind of dick-head Pinkerton is, I was already predisposed to not like him, but Giordani played him well enough that I didn't hate him but just considered him as the dog (man) he was. In that time period, in that world, he was able to get his cake and eat it too - to his own shame at the end. Not that I'm gloating about that but BOOYAH, Pinkerton - you SUCK.

The lone baritone in the company was Dwyane Croft, who played the American Consul Sharpless. He was excellent. Of course I envisioned my honey Nathan Gunn in that role, but I honestly think he would have overwhelmed the audience with his presence and Butterfly would not have had as much of an impact. I could be prejudiced, but that is my opinion. Sharpless is important, but not as important as Butterfly.

Maria Zifchak played Suzuki, Butterfly's maid. She was great. Her expressions, her voice - she really sold that role and I never for a moment thought of her as anything else than Suzuki. When Renee Fleming interviewed her before the 2nd part of the Second Act, it was weird. She was very normal and interesting and I'd thought of her as a servant, so to hear how educated and well spoken she was just convinced me even more of her natural acting ability.

The stage was very sparse. A raised hill type affair just about 8 feet into the stage, it was almost a character. From the front, it looked slick, but it could not have been since many characters came from behind the "hill" and walked over to come down on the stage proper. Here's an image I found of the stage:

See what I mean?

Butterfly's house was just a series of plain Japanese panels that moved back and forth and became doors, walls, etc. at the touch of one of the supernumeraries who walked the stage freely in all black, with black veils over their faces. Here's an image I found on the web:


The most interesting, surprising and most human character of all was Sorrow, Butterfly's child. He was portrayed by a puppet and the three men manipulating him were unbelieveable - you thought the child was real. Here's a web photo:


It was just unreal how life-like they made him.

In the end, of course, Butterfly commits suicide and Pinkerton realizes what a dick he is after it's too late. Not that he probably would have changed anything if he had - he wanted some teenage tail and he got it, all at her expense. Men.

Here are the images I took at the end:

The people at the Met rose to their feet to applaud and so did we.

Patricia Racette and Sorrow the puppet

Sorrow

At the end I was overwhelmed. It was so good, so emotional that there were no words. We left for home and really didn't speak for about 15 minutes. Then when we did, it was to just relive those amazing moments and discuss the wonderful music.

A great time and I would definitely recommend this opera production and the fantastic Ms. Racette to anyone.

Hairstyle Followup

All last week I must have had like 10 people tell me that they loved my new hairstyle/haircut. I tried not to snarl. I know it's a compliment and they have no idea that my current hair makes me crazy. Here's a self-pic taken in the office:
I don't think my face is truly this "round", but when you're taking your own pic with a phone you're kind of angling up from the chin level. In any case, this is the current style. I don't see the Jamie Lee thing unless it's the color.

I've thought a lot about what I want to do and I really think I'm going back to highlighting it. I just don't like that the majority of my hair from about an inch behind the forehead is brown/gray. If it were gray/brown I could take it better, I think.

Anyway, that's todays hair news.