Goal #26

Goal #26: work my butt off.

I had a bit of a light month this month at work, and I have a few travel plans coming up.  I need to get some serious work done at the office.  Fun?  No.  Necessary?  Unfortunately.

Recap of goal #25: I tried to go take my test, I really did!  And I would have passed with flying colors, except that I didn't get to show my stuff!  The testing center closed early on the particular day I chose to go, and I chose that particular day because it was the only day last week that I was free.  So...another day, I guess.  Hopefully this coming week.

Quote of the Day

"Live through this and you won't look back."
  -- Stars, Your Ex-Lover is Dead

The Kiss

I saw my final opera of the year, The Kiss, on Wednesday.  It was probably my least favorite of the year, which is not to say I didn't enjoy it.

It had particularly jolly music, and I especially appreciated the arrangement of the choral music. There was a lot of rounding, which is a fabulous musical technique, and often when it's used, it's not done well.  This was done well.  Different voice parts were singing varied but complementary lyrics, and it was simply lovely.

Unfortunately, the libretto left a little something to be desired -- like, for example, a plot.  I could've slept through half the show and not missed a bit of the story.  It goes like this: couple meets, boy wants girl to kiss him, girl won't kiss him until they're married, and then she caves and kisses him anyway.  Two and a half hours later.

As I said, the music was great, but it maybe should've been a one-act show.

Il Tabarro and Pagliacci

On to the third opera of the week!  Well, technically they were the third and fourth operas of the week, but since they were performed in one evening, I'll leave them stuck together.

On Sunday night, in the midst of a huge and sudden summer storm, I went with E and her friend L to see Il Tabarro and Pagliacci.  We began the evening with lovely meals provided by OTSL - I had the veggie tart with potatoes, asparagus, pasta salad provided by L, a delicious chocolate mint truffle, watermelon, prosecco and Perrier to drink, and some of E's blood orange sorbet at intermission. All simply delightful!

Il Tabarro was performed first, and - man! - was it dark!  The plot is simple; there are very few characters.  The main players are Michele, a ship owner, Michele's wife Giorgetta, and Luigi, one of Michele's employees.  It turns out that Giorgetta has a thing for Luigi, and Michele doesn't take that news very well.  It's short, it's dark, it's super intense.  And there's a man with a cape.

Pagliacci is nominally less depressing, and I'm sure it scandalized a number of the more reserved theater-goers.  That Nedda (wonderfully and expressively portrayed in this version) is pretty saucy!  She's the wife of Canio, but she's in love with Silvio.  And in the opera, those characters put on a play for the townspeople in which they tell the story of a woman in love with a man other than her husband.  Nedda thinks it's just a performance, and doesn't realize that Canio knows the truth about her and Silvio.  As with Il Tabarro, things don't end will for the fickle woman and her lover.

Of the two, I think I preferred Il Tabarro, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure half the theater needed a drink or an antidepressant (or both) when it was over.  They were both thoroughly enjoyable, but I like ships, so it automatically got bonus points, and I generally prefer the direct over the roundabout and poetic.  More bonus points.  Both of them totally worth the late night though!

Pirates of Penzance

My second opera of the year was a Saturday matinee this past weekend.  I saw The Pirates of Penzance with my cousin A.  Grandpa ended up with three sets of tickets to Pirates, and decided that, while the show is entertaining, twice is quite enough, thank you very much.

And entertaining it is.  It's the story, in case you don't know, of a boy named Frederic just completing his accidental apprenticeship to the pirates.  He gives up the pirate life - which was never for him anyway - and heads for dry land, where he meets the lovely Mabel.  Turns out that, by cruel twist of fate, his apprenticeship isn't actually over, and Frederic must make some tough choices.

This is a Gilbert and Sullivan classic, and the genius is really there.  The music is upbeat, the libretto sharp.  The show as a whole is fun, sort of the operatic equivalent of Hello, Dolly!  But as usual, OTSL did a great job with the staging.  I am forever impressed by how well they make things work on their little stage!

Quote of the Day

"When you stop doing things for fun, you might as well be dead."
  -- Ernest Hemingway, True at First Light

Insurgent -- Take 2

After a huge break about halfway through the book, I finally got back to Insurgent and finished it up last week.  It's the continuation of Divergent, and picks up the first one leaves off.

We left Tris as she struggled to prove herself in her new faction, Dauntless.  In Insurgent, the political structures of the country are in shambles (you'll have to read Divergent to find out why), and our heroine Tris discovers that there's a bit of secret information that's remained concealed.  Most of the book is her trying to discover where and what that information is.

I got through this with no problem, but I think I liked Divergent better.  I'm not sure when the third one is due out, but hopefully it'll get back on its game -- as it was with The Hunger Games: I loved first, was a bit bored with the second, and couldn't wait for the third.

Goal #25

Goal #25: pass my test.

What kind of test,  you might ask?  I can't tell you.  Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.  So you might want to think again about asking.

Recap of goal #24: okay, let's see how I did:

- Get case for new phone (which I finally got!) - yes!
- Set up lunch with N and J, G&G - yes, and actually had the lunch (really breakfast)!
- Work on car situation - kinda
- Schedule doctor's appointment - yes, and went!
- Make ice cream - no
- Make lemon curd - yes!
- Ride bike - yes!
- Climb - yes!
- Row - no
- Read magazines - I'm getting behind and they're piling up! - no

So...6.5 out of 10.  In school that would be failing, but in Major League Baseball, I'd be a Hall of Famer.  I'll go with the MLB on this one.

Twelfth Night

Last week, on possibly the most perfect night of the year, T and I went with G&G to see Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park.  (Full text of the play is available here.)

We arrived early enough to eat lots of delicious snacks.  Some we brought: cheese, crackers, dried fruit, wine.  Some we bought: nachos, funnel cake, rum sno-cones.  Actually, we missed the first couple of minutes of the show because we were waiting in line for the funnel cake - or was it because after too many run sno-cones I forgot how to get to my seat?  I can't remember.

Regardless, the Shakespeare Festival has been putting on great shows the last few years, and this year's performance did not disappoint.  It was smart and funny and totally enjoyable.  And a little crooked!

Champion

On Wednesday night, I went to see the first of what will soon be four operas in a week.  Somehow my schedule just worked out that way this year!

The first show was Champion, and it was fantastic.  It's a world premiere performance at Opera Theater St. Louis, and E actually got to see the opening show when she was in town last Saturday evening.  It's the true story of Emile Griffith, who became world welterweight champion in a title bout that cost his opponent, Benny "The Kid" Paret, his life.

The show was masterfully written, with old Emile, crippled by brain damage, reflecting on the poor choices his younger, uneducated self made during his glory days.

The opera is so complex, covering issues of regret, personal development, forgiveness, homosexuality and homophobia, aging, and the often unpredictable price we pay for our actions.  But as both a true and a fairly contemporary story, it brings a certain gravity that I think is lost in some of the more classic operas, just because they seem a little bit unreal.

I've seen some great operas, but the only one that's ever moved me to tears was Madame Butterfly, which I saw at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.  At least that was true until this past Wednesday.

A Weekend of Food

E was in town this past weekend, and it was quite a weekend of food!  She arrived very late on Friday night (technically actually Saturday morning), so dinner Friday was out.  But we wasted no time on Saturday and got right to the North City Farmers' Market (which I wrote about here).

Saturday night, E was off to the opera with Grandpa (the actual reason for her visit), Grandma and I went to dinner at Flaco's Cocina.  Flaco's is a delightful little Caribbean joint not far from one of my old apartments.  It's all bright paint and fluorescent lights, and looks very much like a bar from the outside, so I think it often gets overlooked by people on the hunt for good food.  And, while I'm sure they go through their fair share of tequila in that place, they actually turn out some rather delicious plates.  I've been a frequent consumer of the roasted veggie burrito; their nachos are delicious (and impressive in quantity); T is a big fan of the taco sampler; and of course you have to get the bottomless chips and salsa.  Since they look like a bar, and I'm not one to turn down a good drink, I should also point out that they make delicious berry mojitos, and a killer Dark and Stormy.

Grandma was a little skeptical of the atmosphere when we arrived, but was quite pleased with her generous pour of sauvignon blanc, and seemed to enjoy her chicken taco (no sauce, please).  She cleaned her plate!  And just in the nick of time, too, because we were eating outside on the patio - which is covered, thank goodness - and a huge storm rolled in!  Good times - it was quite a light show!

Sunday was Father's Day, so E and I went to brunch with G&G, and also with J&T who were in from Chicago for the weekend as well.  We went back to Oceano, where I was not too long ago with a group of friends.  I couldn't resist the coffee with RumChata (again!), but to eat this time I had the crab cake and arugula eggs Benedict.  Delicious as I hoped, and it was a treat to see J&T!

Last but certainly not least, E and I met N&J for dinner on Sunday evening at Mango, a Peruvian restaurant that I have been meaning to try forever.  I had to try the aji de gallina because I had read about it a bunch of places, and it was awfully good.  I think the award probably went to J's dinner though, which was - brace yourselves for what I'm about to say - saltado de champignones (basically sauteed mushrooms with rice).  It was so rich and tasty!  J deserved it though, because she is pregnant to the point of popping, but came out to eat with us anyway, and we heard nary a complaint.

All in all, it was a delightful weekend - and now I definitely need to do some hard core cardio and stop eating so much ice cream.

Random Links

St. Louis is a sinful place.

A masterful bit of editing.

A History of Everything, Including You (skip to 3:05 for an enjoyable survey of a short story).

Princes and paupers are we all.

Pumpcast news.

Gender differences.

Are Women Finished With Men?

A recent study of blacks in America turned up some interesting results.  According to an NPR story, only a third of single black Americans aged 18-49 were looking for a long-term relationship, which seems low to me.  But more surprisingly, almost twice as many men said they were looking for long-term relationships than women.

It's been known for some time that, in part due to the parental preference for boys which puts young women in high demand, that Asian women are marrying less often, and when they do marry they do so later in life than their parents did.  This is true for Asians both in Asia and in the U.S.

There are conflicting stories about whether educated black women are more or less likely to marry than their less-educated counterparts, but it seems that the only group of women who is consistently reported as marrying well and often is educated white women.

Are women finished with men?  Or maybe just with marriage?

Let's take a quick minute to look at the traditional reasons a woman needed these things, and whether the three-way link between the desire, the man, and the marriage still exists:

1. Kids - nope

From my own legal experience, I can say that paternity suits are on the rise in the court system.  More and more women are having kids outside of marriage.  Most paternity suits involve a real live person who was there at the vital moment, but my bioethics class in law school was chock full of cases dealing with sperm donors, egg donors, surrogate parents acting as incubators, etc.  It's a brave new childbearing world, and pretty much every traditional stricture is gone for us gals.

2. Sex - nope

Unless we're all immaculately conceiving, it's pretty clear we don't need marriage in order to have sex anymore.  And if you're Charlotte, you don't even need a man.

3. Steady paycheck - nope

With the recent 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's signing of the Equal Pay Act, there is some consternation about the fact that, in every age group except recent college graduates (aka "too young for kids"), we still earn less than men for the same work.  There is also the common counterargument that women earn less than men later in their careers because they've taken time off for the kids and family, and thus are less dedicated and/or have less experience than their male counterparts.  Who's right?  Who knows.  I'm not going to rehash the entire debate here, but only will say this: regardless of the fact that women make less than men - for whatever reason - we can still make enough to support our wonderful selves!  So there.

4. Nice place to live - nope

One of the perks of a decent and steady paycheck: we can afford our own great places to live! No more living with the parents until marriage, then moving in with your husband.  We can move out, live on our own, pay our own bills, and generally take care of business without a second paycheck.

Which brings me back to my original question: where does this leave women in relation to men? Marriage?  What gives?

Goal #24

Goal #24: sometimes life happens.

I feel like I haven't gotten a lot done lately.  I've just been busy with work and travel and visitors and all sorts of things.  There is much I need to accomplish, but none of it seems to be happening.  So I will publish at least a portion of my to-do list, and we'll check back in at the end of the week:

- Get case for new phone (which I finally got!)
- Set up lunch with N and J, G&G
- Work on car situation
- Schedule doctor's appointment
- Make ice cream
- Make lemon curd
- Ride bike
- Climb
- Row
- Read magazines - I'm getting behind and they're piling up!

Let's be honest: I'm not going to accomplish all of these things.  But they - or things like them - are constants on my list, and I need some help getting them done!

Recap of goal #23: I didn't do a great job until E got here, but we had a great time at the farmers market on Saturday!  We went to the North City Farmers Market, which was a major success!

The market is small, but we scored a head of lettuce, arugula, mixed greens, sugar snap peas, barbecue sauce (aptly labeled "Ghetto Sauce" - that is not a joke), basil, a cucumber, garlic skate, a tomato, a pear, four little fruit empanadas (lemon, raspberry, apricot, and vanilla - okay, not all fruit), and probably some other things I'm forgetting.  And it was a bargain!  They have tables where you can sit and enjoy, music, and it's right across from Crown Candy Kitchen if you're in the mood for some ice cream!

I also ate some delicious (and hopefully not terribly unhealthy) food at Mango, Oceano, and Flaco's Cocina this weekend!  More on some of that later.

Quote of the Day

There was an article in a recent New York Magazine about childhood in the city in earlier eras.  The article was an interesting read as a retrospective, but otherwise not particularly notable - until the last two paragraphs, applicable in any city, which I adored for their total honesty.

"And who really knows, ultimately, if it's even healthy for the city's children to lead such sheltered lives?  Certainly, the bubble they inhabit has its educational and economic advantages, training and priming them for the information economy that awaits.  But all the insulation in the world can't protect New York children from life's most difficult realities -- failure, rejection, illness.  This city no longer tests children as it once did, and it demands far less resilience. 'First, ideally, we are made to feel special,' writes the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips in his most recent book, Missing Out.  'Then we are expected to enjoy a world in which we are not.'

"The New York of old may have been harsh in many ways.  But it probably prepared children far better for the world's ultimate indifference."

What I Watched -- Breaking Dawn, Part II

This might be the worst movie ever made.  I can't say that it is the worst movie ever made, because I haven't seen all the movies.  But it's possible that it is.  Even worse than the last one.

It's the fifth in the mopey, sad-eyed Kristen Stewart tetrology - which really doesn't make sense at all, except that apparently they were having so much fun watching Kristen and Rob be all depressed that they just needed a fifth movie.

Bottom line: it sucks.  And -- MAJOR SPOILER ALERT -- most of it is both imaginary and imagined.  So.  Yeah.

Circus Flora

In the grand tradition of summer activities (2012, 2011, 2010), my cousin A and I went to see Circus Flora, St. Louis's own local show, earlier this week.  It came at the end of a long, hectic week, so unfortunately I didn't have the enjoyment of looking forward to it like I usually do.  But as soon as I got there, it was a blast!

This year's theme was "To the Moon," based on the 1902 Georges Melies short film Le Voyage dans la Lune (which also had a fairly central role in Brian Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret and the resulting film adaptation Hugo).

We were entertained by dogs, a horse and a miniature horse, goats, clowns, a rooster, a donkey, and all sorts of other fun.  Of course it wouldn't be a Circus Flora without the Flying Wallendas on the high wire and the Flying Pages on trapeze!  And - man! - you should've heard the women in the audience swoon when Andrew Adams of the Duo Ardeo shed his wizard's robe for his aerial routine.  It was quite a moment!

All in all, A and I had a great time, and everybody should go see the show before it's gone!

Happy Birthday, K!

Random Links

Heights of fancy.

Say hello to your microbiome.

Another shout-out for the Lou.

Public spaces.

Hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs.  No wonder no one likes them.

You say crayfish, I say crawdad.

Goal #23

Goal #23: cook (or at least eat) good food.

I've been on a bit of a junk food kick lately.  It happens periodically, and it was not aided by the fact that I made three delicious ice creams with the ice cream maker I got from E for my birthday a few years ago.  Over Memorial Day weekend, I made strawberry ice cream, lemon basil sorbet, and cheesecake ice cream with strawberry sauce.

I did share these delights, but even keeping half or a third of each batch for myself still made for a lot of sugary goodness.  Then there are the loads of baked (or fried) treats that have shown up in our office kitchen lately - and about three in the afternoon I have no willpower.

But I will try to be better!  (Although I do still have some frozen blackberries that will one day become ice cream as well....)

Recap of goal #22: my goal to get the cedar chest to T's house was revamped a bit.  T is on a roll with some of his own projects, and he needed the space, and - given that it's his house and all - my project will wait.

P's Little Slice of Paradise

Here it is!  Isn't it perfect?

Brunch at Oceano

I met a group of girlfriends for brunch at Oceano this past weekend.  I had heard good things about their brunch, so I needed to try it!

Unfortunately, we planned brunch for the weekend of Taste of Clayton, which both made parking difficult and meant that I missed Taste!

But once I was through that maze, it was great!  First things first: I was thrilled to see coffee with Rumchata on their menu in addition to a few of the classic breakfast cocktails.  When it came time for food, I had the garden omelet, and it was pleasantly stuffed full of veggies.  (I had just finished a 50-mile bike ride, so I could have used an additional egg in the omelet, but c'est la vie.)  The omelet came with absolutely delicious and slightly spicy breakfast potatoes - everyone loved them!

There were eight in our party, and once we ordered, the food came fairly quickly and was well-presented to everyone within just a few seconds.  I think they had four people delivering plates.  It was simple but well done, and I hope to go back.

Happy Birthday, Radar!

My little man turns 14 today!

Surrounded by his favorite toys.  Apparently he doesn't believe in "too much of a good thing."

(Sorry for the weird coloring - my phone is the worst.)

Doing his thing in his younger days.

What I Watched -- American Psycho

I watched American Psycho by accident.  I was over at a friend's house having a few beers, we flipped on the TV, and there it was, right at the very beginning.  I didn't really know what I was getting into, but it had Christian Bale in it - even a creepy version of him - so I was down.

Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a slick-suited Wall Streeter who doesn't actually appear to work for a living.  Instead, he just expresses his masculine insecurities in juvenile pissing contests with his similarly pin-striped colleagues, comparing business cards while all sporting their matching, gelled-back hairstyles.

By night, Patrick Bateman becomes a menacing, chainsaw-wielding killer, in a disturbingly and darkly comic way.  It's not funny in the strictest sense, but it's not a horror movie either.  It's stuck somewhere in between, the same way Patrick is stuck between his many personalities.

Bottom line: mostly just weird.

Goal #22

Goal #22: cedar chest, step #1.

This is not a particularly big step, but it's the first step in a long process.  I need to get my cedar chest from storage to T's house to start refinishing it.

Recap of goal #21: I can't say that my freezer is empty, but I took inventory of everything in it this week.  I threw out some old stuff, ate some not-old stuff, and added new stuff (ice cream fresh from my own ice cream maker!)