musing from and about my life

The family did a wonderful thing for our Mother, for the first time in 17 years all of us got together to share a meal together for Mother's Day.  I need to focus on this fact that we did a wonderful thing.  I say that because if I don't keep that focus, I will undo years of therapy.

A little background, my mother hasn't been in the best of health, and for the first quarter of the year she was hospitalized, and yes we got the call that she wasn't expected to make it.  Well she is just too mean to die, I've told her so many times.  After her recovery, she spent some time in a Nursing Home, and recently returned to her home.

My sister, in a weak moment told her that she had to get better because she was going to visit her for mother's day.  Voila, a reason to live.  I of course said why would you promise such a thing.  Mother lives in St. Joseph, Missouri (misery) a modest town in the middle of the country.  Transportation to and from is limited, but my sister and I located flights, and agreed to a weekend visit.  We both realized this might visit will be better than going for a funeral visit.

We met my sister T at the airport, and proceeded to go north to St. Joe.  Once we checked into our hotel, my other sister called to pick up my sister T, they were going to stay together.  I'm glad that we chose to stay in the hotel, we were able to rest even though it was a stressful weekend.  From talking with my sister T she didn't get much sleep.

On saturday, I bit the bullet and went into the lions den for a face to face visit with my mother, delivered her mothers day gift.  My sister knew that I would be a bit frazzled so she bought a blouse for me to give to mother.  My mother loved it and wore it to dinner on Sunday.  The funny part is my sister gave her a gift, and she wasn't nearly as pleased, but this is the sort of toxicity that we grew up in. 

I've been doing some geneology research, and this visit was valuable, my mother gave me some date, familiy information, and a scrapbook of photos to include.  I've been in the process of scanning them into my computer to upload some information to Ancestry.com, but that is another post.

After our visit with mom, D and I drove around the city,  I located the home or now the vacant lot that we lived on, and the elementry, and middle school that I attended.  I was amazed that neither building had changed much in all the years.  We continued to drive around and just look at landmarks and were amazed that how quiet the town was, and how much property was available for sale. 

Sunday it was time to gather for lunch, I had made a 1 pm reservation, so after our newpaper time we needed to get moving.  We arrived at the restraunt with mother, 5 siblings, 1 grand daughter, 1 great grand daughter, 2 spouses, and 3 guests.  Our meal was a simple fare, we didn't expect much.  Conversation was kept light, and nobody was killed or maimed.  It was a good meal.

I took a few photos for mom, and as I took her back to her car, she was quite happy that she was able to see all her children together before she died. (her words).

Well, its time for us to return to our weekend paradise.  The chance of freezing is past us now, the time to be carefree is here.  That means we are opening our house for the summer season.  The next 30 weeks, we will get up in the morning on Saturday and head out about 50 miles on Long Island to our summer home.

We now get to worry about train times, ferry shedules, and invited guest.  Get your request in early.

This year for trouble, we couldn't seem to get the water on.  The handyman that does it for us in advance seems to be AWOL, so we called the local plumber.  We were doing things correctly, but we missed opening one valve.

He got the water flowing and we were happy, unfortunately, when the hot water arrived it blew the knob off in the shower and it was like the dutch boy in the dyke story.  Ahhh plumbing issues that haven't been used in a few months you can expect some trouble.

Good news was this year no leaking pipes.  We unpacked and started to air out the house from the winter.  I'm looking forward to another great summer season.

I've been pretty quiet lately, I've been working on getting life back to the pace that I enjoy.  Unfortunately, sometimes other factors seem to step in and upset the flow.  This year when we opened the house for the summer, I developed some tightness in my chest.  I really didn't think much of it.  I told D it just felt like I was having trouble swallowing, I just put it out of my mind, but when I woke up the next morning I was still having the same pain and was clammy.  D went right into nursing mode - he located asprin, (all we had was the alka seltzer and asprin combination).  Contacted 911 and then started to call jobs and all to alert his people and mine that I was having a health issue and was going to be in the emergency room.

Now let me tell ya something, do not get sick, ill, or have a medical emergency on FIRE ISLAND.  I was placed on a boat, to meet the ambulance, and it wasn't fast.  As we look back on it, thankfully it wasn't a heart attack, because if it was, I probably would be in bad shape.

Well I was transported to the local ER reviewed symptoms, wired up, oxygenated, poked, prodded, pricked.  I eventually had a Cardiatic Catheterization.  The outcome is no it wasn't a heat attack, not sure what it was, possiblity is my sleep apnea is creating an issue but not sure.  This is a good thing.

However, because this was the weekend we opened the house, we left the pets on fire island, while I was taken away.  The hospital didn't discharge me until after we could have caught the last boat.  So we made some frantic calls to a friend on the island to please go and feed the pets.  Called on another friend, because we were stranded and need a place to stay.  She, put us up for the night.

If you've never had a cardiac cath - THEY HURT - and to top it off, your not allowed to drive for 2 days.  So we couldn't get back to the city until Thursday.  I had rented a car to take supplies to open the house.

So for house opening weekend - I can't wait to add up the bills. 

Anyway, I got a clean bill of health.

Recently for D's birthday - I secured us tickets to the WW I dramatic play WARHORSE.  Yes this is the play that won 5 tony's last year and because of the well deserved accolades tickets have been extremely dificult to obtain.  I bit the bullet and paid full price, afterall it was a special occassion.

I cannot say enought great things about this show.  It has a cast of thousands from reading the program.  D commented that the program was like a Cecil B DeMille production.  This show is currently playing at the Lincoln Center Theater, and this would be our first visit to this house.  It is a smaller venue.  The perfomance was not a sell out so if your looking for a show to see to get seats at try to see this one.

The basic story is a boy and his horse.  The horse come into the boy's life when his father makes a drunken bid against his uncle for a horse that cost more than it's worth.  The boy trains the horse, and discovers it's potential.  Unfortunately WWI breaks out and The father sells the horse to the army for a massive profit to pay the mortgage on the farm.

The show is presented with minimal set, mostly the set is made up of props the actors use.  This is a fine way to tell the story,   They use a small screen to project images and such that enhance the experience.

The star of the show is the horses, they are for lack of a better word PUPPETS but in all my years I've never experience such grand artistry and illusion on a stage.  After you are invested in the relationship with the Boy and His Horse you totally forget that this is a puppet and feel that it is actually a horse and not a puppet controlled by 3 actors.

The boy and others ride the horse, the horse runs in the fields, and the horse goes into battle in europe.  When a horse collapses and dies on the stage you feel as if you have witnessed the end of a magnificent animal. 

This is a WWI story and you are transported from the Irish countryside to battle fields of France over a period of 3 hours.  You will be transported from the hard scrap life of the boy that finds imense joy in his horse, to the battlefields of France.  The show depicts the ravages of war with such stunning staging that you will be breathless.

As the show reaches it climax the boy who is now a man is reunited with his horse in a hospital, and when they are together there isn't a dry eye in house.  We both were breathless from the show, and rode the wave emotions that the actors gave to us.

This show is amazing.

Part of my desire is to start posting a bit more in LJ.  I know it cross references to FB I've set that up.  LJ allows for more thought in posting for me.  This weekend was a busy weekend.  As all know its currently Passover, and being in a Jewish Household, following tradition we were going to do a SEDER on Friday Night.

D was off so he had the day to prepare, he was planning to make Matzo Ball Soup, Potato Kugle, and Roast Beef and vegetables.  We had invited some friends to join us.  I was looking forward to the evening.

I got home, and much to my surprise, found that no meal had been started, in fact D was in such a state, that after I calmed him down to determine what was the matter.  The apartment was in a shambles, and the pets were huddled in the corner.

It seem that as we all have them the perfect storm occured on friday at our house - D could not find his Seder Plate, and had emptied each of the closets looking for them, Then he was looking for his recipe for Kuglle (a family treasure) could not find that.  Decided to clean, and could not find the broom, so was sweeping using the dust pan brush.

I arrived home to a WIDE EYED MAD MAN, I got him calm, he told be tearfully how his day was just in the toilet.  Told him it happens, he goes but we have guests.  I said I will call them to reschedule, we proceeded to get the house in order and planned to have our SEDER on Saturday.  Our Seder went wonderful, because of issues with Friday, we just kept it simple and with the two of us.

I did a bit of work on the computer that I've been putting off, and was glad to put a dent it in it.  I'm currently working on moving my photos to disc.  I only want to keep the best shots from the year on my hard drive.  I am planning to teach myself photoshop and want to enhance and manipulate the photos.  I hope to update my photo web site soon.  I'll keep you posted.

I got back to digging around on Ancestry.com tracing my family line.  This is really and interesting project and most addictive.  What I thought would be just a couple of hours time turned into an afternoon.  The good part is I now have information at least 3 generations on my fathers side, and 2 on my mothers side.  It you haven't discovered this great show on NBC I suggest it.  Who Do You Think You Are.  It's inspiring, and shows you sometimes how easy it can be.

I've written before about stuggles with my weight, and what an incredible amount of energy it takes to keep it under control and to maintain it. So this post is probably ranting and reflection.  Hopefully when it get to the end I'll fee better about just getting things off my chest.

I have a weight problem.  This is not a big secret, most people can see it.  I have struggled with it the majority of my adult life and sometimes I get sick of it and just ignore it.  Not always a good thing, but you get frustrated that your body doesn't handle food the same way as other people.

I've been on this current path since Jan 2010, over that time I've lost and gained the same amount of pounds that I've gotten discouraged so many times that I feel that I won't be able to get to the goal weight.  Now before, anyone goes, well you have to work the program.  I currently am 11 pounds heavier than when I started.

I've always been able to be successful with WW the most weight that I've lost was 60 pounds many years ago.  Of course at that time I was dancing competively, and teaching many times a week and that was 15 years ago.  So you can say that intelectually I know what to do, just need to convince my body to accept it.

This is not a human frailty, or a lack of desire.  I have decided that I need to do this in order to be healthy and live a long and happy life.  At this point, I deal with high blood pressure, high cholesteral, and osteoarthritis.  Each one is family history and age related.  As my doctor likes to say, Well you are of a certain age.  I really hate that phrase, if you honestly ask me.

I've reached a point in my research to have actually attended an orientation for NYORC - which is  the NY Obesity Reseach Center, to enroll in their program.  Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately I was told that I was not a good candidate for the program.  I am to much an independent person to recieve benefit from their group support module?? This was per the program director.  Needless to say this truely upset me.  The reason that I looked into this program, was that they have a documented success rate with the average loss of about 80 pounds.  This is approximately how much I feel would be good.  This is based upon charts for height weight and size.

Yes I have thought about the lap band surgery, but haven't reached the point to get a consultation for the proceedure. 

When we were planning our wedding last summer, everyone wanted to know what we would be doing for our honeymoon.  We had already planned a cruise, so together we decided to just use our planned cruise as our honeymoon instead of trying to do the cruise and an additonal trip.  It worked out very well.  We didn't need to arrange extra time from work and all that.  The cruise was a group trip that we have participated with before.  We had a good time so we signed up for another trip with them.

This year we cruised on Royal Carribean Cruiseline, aboard the Voyager of the Sea.  7 days of pure relaxaion, and just each other. Our cruise Itinerary was simple, Leaving from New Orlean, Cancun, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  We planned to have one shore excursion to the Dunn River Falls, and our own side trip to The Queen Elizabeth Botanical Garden in Grand Cayman.

First of all let me state that WE LOVE CRUISING  it's a great vacation value and would recommend it to anyone that wants to give it a go.  Different cruiselines handle things differently.  Let me share that from our experience on RCL with the level of customer service we will be looking forward to our next RCL cruise.

The weather was amazing, the ship was beautiful, the food amazing.  We topped the week off with an overnight stay in New Orleans, since our cruise was 7 days, Leaving on a Saturday, and returning on a Saturday.  I've posted a few pictures just to peak your curiosity.

This week I had an interesting online chat with my sister in California over facebook.  Her first statement was aren't you on facebook anymore.  I don't see you and miss your post.  I told her that she would need to log in as my facebook is open all time, since I have it on my Iphone.  She stated that wasn't the issue, I had gotten into the habit of greeting each day on facebook sort of a first think in the morning - "Hey World I'm Here" moment. 

I hadn't been doing that, and she was worried.  I basically told her that my mind has been occupied with other things.  Work, family, life, and so on.  This got me to thinking, that one of the reasons I started my journal is to share thoughs, and adventures, and trials of my life.  I haven't been doing that lately.  Since the start of the year I've shared a total of 4 posts.

I share on facebook, more likely to put in my two cents worth, but thats been about it.  So where has my mind been that I haven't taken the time to share.  I mean this year, I've been to theater twice, returned from our honeymoon cruise, working on buisiness proposal, family drama, and some personal issues.

So I think its time for me to come clean on a few of those items.  So forgive me if I put up a few posts for you to read, enjoy, ponder or just go damy queen let it go.

The other night we had the wonderful, but sad time that we were seing out last show in our run of tickets.  Time to buy more.  We could not have planned this better.  We had just returned home from our cruise and had seats for Anything Goes.  This is as great show, yes its oldfashioned, its classic, its vintage.  I cannnot say enough good things about this production.  The cast was amazing, the set while it was simple was astounding for another reason I'll mention later, and can you ever go wrong with a cole porter score?

The recently renamed Stephen Sonheim Theater was where we disembarked for a fun night of Classic Broadway, a great score, the talented cast of Sutton Foster and Joel Grey were excellent.  I have seen Ms Foster previously in The Drowsey Chaperone, and this was a similar part in feel.  I have a wish that she do something a bit more contemperary, but also feel don't fix what ain't broken.   Joel Grey, was amazing, this was my first time time to see him in a preformance and as a performer is amazing.  Standout supporting cast Collin Donnell and Jessica Stone, in the characters Billy and Erma.

The set design was just a simple ocean liner, when the curtain opened up I had a drastic flash from the past.  There was a MCA show produced at the Alley Theater in Houston that had almost the excact same design.  The costuming was perfect for the era and this show.  I cannot say enough.

You can say its a great show when the closing of the 1st Act was the big tap number, and like true showbiz its started small, and just kept building until it had the full cast, tapping, singing and enjoying the moment.  When a show closed like that and causes me to have a case of happy feet, you know it's a good number.

This show held up its energy from start to finish, and we were sad to say that our evening came to an end far to soon.   We both decided that this is a show to recommend to out of town guest.  So if it comes your way - Go and see it.

Last night D and I had tickets to probably the most reviled show currently playing on broadway.  Anyone that follows broadway I sure read the Sondheim statements about this show.  This show wasn't really on our list of wants to see, but sometimes you get things that just work out.  The tickets for this performance happened that way.

Currently playing that the Richard Rodgers Theater, a great old house.  I was excited because this would be the first show that I had seen at this house.  I love old theaters that still have charm - I'll post some picture on my facebook.

About the show - I really don't have a benchmark for this show, other than its been awhile since it was performed with a broadway cast.  Usually its done by opera companies.  I can remember HGO working it into its performance rotation.  D and were talking and since neither of us had seen the show performed live we both stated that it must have been a PBS production that we had seen.  In the country PBS is sometimes as close as you can get to theater.

The crowd outside waiting to get it was excited, there were ticket holders and a crowd as big as that just waiting to purchase tickets to see the perfomance.  Last night show starred the magnificent Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, and David Alan Greir.  Each performer brought a magnificence to their role.  Vocally, this is the first time that we had actually heard any of the actors sing.  You can't go wrong with this score, musically Gershwin is astounding.

The talents inhabited their characters wonderfully - Audra as Bess - played as a torchered soul, that knows that there is something better, want to turn her life around and for a brief moment it does, but fears that she has lost it.  Returns to the protection that she knows, and that protects her from feeling.

Norm as Porgy - an amazing rich voice.  Portrays Porgy as a deformed man that has to accept what life gives him.  Not that he can change his lot in life.  His love for Bess, just explodes, and he relishes in the glow.  He will do anything to keep that feeling, and in the end goes off in seach to find his love.

David as Sporting LIfe - AMAZING, I hadn't seen him in a serious role.  My experience is form "In Living Color" and other comedic roles.  Seeing him as a low down no good cad.  Only out for himself, this was an amazing portrayal.

The supporting cast was equalling wonderful, the simple set design of Catfish Row with the characters adding props made this performance strictly about the actors and the music.  The only negative that I have to say is that everyone know what a great selection of american music this is, if your playing on broadway your good.  I myself would like to has seen some of the women take their soprano out of the rafters and play it down for some of us.

That said is my only issue with an amazing night of theater from the music, the performers, and the production.