What a Fortnight!

Sis had the flu and now she has pneumonia.  It's been a rough two weeks for her and, while she is on oral meds at home, she is still coughing and exhausted.  We have reassurances from school that she'll catch up--they'll adjust her assignments and excuse the absences with a doctor's note.  Right now, she's too tired even to contemplate work.  She's not even going to see her horse often, so you know she doesn't feel well.

And right in the middle of that, Bud started throwing up and missed a few days of school himself.  We thought he might be getting the flu, too, but we were all tested and are negative.  It just must have been some virus that thankfully we didn't all catch.  Now he's just jealous that his sister doesn't have to go to school, even if she's sick.

What else?  I think I have a whole list of things to mention (pardon the repeat from my email in some bullet points, Lambeth!)

• Did I ever even talk about Halloween?  Sis was Dean, from the tv show "Supernatural," one of the demon-and-monster fighting brothers in a show that crosses "X-Files" and "Buffy."  Bud was Dipper, from the animated show "Gravity Falls;" he's a code-breaking sleuth.  We went to the office Halloween party and then, night of, they had friends over for pizza and trick or treating and a huge candy swap at the end.  I love that they still want to trick or treat as teenagers AND that are neighbors don't seem to care about their age.
• About the same time, I had my own party:  a hygge party, based on the Scandinavian idea of coziness.  I had a few close friends over for a casual night of comfy clothes, Frito chili pie, hot buttered rum, almond cake, candles, fairy lights, and conversation.  And we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  I didn't rush around preparing, nor did my friends expect any sophisticated entertaining--we actually curled up on the couches under various afghans! I even gave them all fluffy socks and little candles.  Delightful!
• Our cat Hermione has developed arthritis.  She moves awkwardly and slowly, preferring little cat stairs to get on the bed or couch.  And she is always looking for warmth and so sleeps behind my knees in the bend in my legs, sits next to anyone on the couch, follows the sun patches around the house through the day, or curls up in her special heat-generating "poofs" (which have a layer of that silver-ish, heat-reflecting material they give to marathoners and people in crisis.)  Though, she can still "high tail" it for food or to chase the other female cat, Eris. To help Hermione out a bit, we're now giving her CBD oil, the non-hallucinogenic substance in marijuana (as opposed to TCH.)  They say it has a physical effect sort of like a warm bath; she does seem a bit more physically relaxed.  She has definitely relaxed a bit about Eris, so that Eris can now sleep on the big master bed during the day and was even curled up not too far from Hermione the other day (though definitely not touching.)  And our new Romeo is settling in, spending his days with Sis, who curls up in a big, soft, pink, fluffy blanket.  He even sleeps with her (which is good because Hermione won't let him on the bed in our room.)  he'll miss her when she's well, though at least he will have the blanket.
• We have a new street!  After a few years of widening pot holes and deteriorating asphalt, the street has been re-paved.  It's lovely, though we still don't have curbs.  I've got my fingers crossed for curbs so that the water doesn't erode my yard where it meets the road as it has for a few years now, creating a wider and deeper ditch that I have to specially mark so people don't trip (especially on Halloween!)  Good thing people don't walk around much, I suppose.  Because we won't ever get sidewalks!
• I am taking two classes at seminary (though, online) come springtime as I begin work on my MA of Religious Studies in order to become a board-certified chaplain.  One class is the history of Christianity, which will look at the different iterations (Ethiopian cave churches, Roman catacombs, evangelical tent revivals) from the early church to present.  I think it will have a lot of archaeology, which I especially like.  Second is "There's Something about Mary," which examines the different Marys of the Bible in a socio-historical and also (oh, the lingo) a "womanist biblical hermeneutics"!!!!!  The final project is to examine a contemporary representation of a Mary--I'm thinking Andrew Lloyd Webber's hippy Magdalene or the almost-Booker prize winner Colm Toibin's Testament of Mary, which depicts the Virgin as a depressed, isolated, and bitter older woman resenting her son's disciples.   I love school.  And I'm really excited to become a "real" chaplain.  Somebody needs to be there at hospice for people who aren't mainstream Christians (the Catholics have hospice covered!)--who are members of other religions, no religions, a mixture, unchurched, spiritual but not religious, atheists.  And I think I'm that somebody to offer solace and comfort (but not answers.)
• In preparation for our Thailand trip, I'm reading a book on the Buddha which answers a question I've often wondered:  why is there no single Buddhists sacred text the way there is the Bible or Koran?  Apparently, stories of Buddha were preserved orally and only written down later (hundreds of years later), but by competing sects who slightly altered the narrative, so that they don't really agree on a particular canon.  Add to that, even those manuscripts don't survive well--I think I read that the oldest extant Pali canon manuscript is only a few hundred years old.  Nothing like Dead Sea Scrolls.  And Buddhists don't quite see the texts as "in the beginning was the Word;" textual exegesis just isn't as central to the religion.  
• I watched the funeral of Bush 41 yesterday.  Solemn rituals and big, dramatic occasions always get to me, even if I wasn't quite mourning the late president.  The eulogies were informative--and entertaining in the way they lectured  #45 on character and charity and bi-partisanship.  I slightly remember Bush 41--I paid much less attention to politics then, but it was also less emotional, polarized, us vs them, angry.  I remember first getting riled about politics when Republicans kept trashing and attacking the Clintons, though if I think hard on it, I remember people not liking Reagan (though, much of that grew up afterwards.)  It's been downhill, civility-wise, since then.  Though I think it has also gotten dirtier--just look at Wisconsin GOP stripping the governor's office of power now that a Dem has defeated Republican governor Scott Walker--they didn't feel like he needed his power stripped when he was in office!  It's just ugly and there are few political remedies.  

• 

  Tulip stitch

  Even in the midst of all that, I have had time for my favorite hobbies.  I've crocheted blankets for a friend and a local fun-run raffle, even learning a new stitch, the tulip stitch.  I've been tangling as part of several online challenges, including Gratitangles 2018 and now 12 Days of Zentangle.  I love my meditative drawing practice.  I've also been reading more and have a book for downstairs, a book for upstairs before bed, and a book for the bathtub.  I've recently read a mystery featuring Fidelma, Irish nun-detective in 7th-century Ireland; the fifth and sixth Outlander books; a page or two of The Case for God, which is slow reading; the Buddha biography by the same author; and others I can't quite recall.  
• We've also been watching a lot of tv, with two sick kids.  They are working their way through a dozen or more seasons of Supernatural.  We enjoyed British comedian Sue Perkins's exploration of the Mekong River and especially love her on the Great British Bake Off (I think we are currently watching the newly-released season 3.)  Sis has started Outlander, though without the abusive sex parts.  Bud has a few animated series he's following, including Hilda-something.  I caught up with Grantchester, the Arrow, and can't wait to watch the second season of Mrs. Maisel.  We only have one tv plugged in right now and also use it for video games--they are all playing the new Pokemon game.
• I will delve into this at a later time:  I found proof that my ancestors on two branches of my family tree owned slaves. I have two partial names and the reference to four others. I always suspected as much, with many family members serving in the Confederacy and relatives having been in the south a century or more before the war, but learning it for fact has me overwhelmed and sad. I'm not quite sure what to do with this knowledge now....but I will do something. And acknowledging it has to be the first step.  I've joined a FB group, Coming to the Table, which connects descendants of both slave owners and enslaved peoples.  It's been informative, especially the resources page about reparations, financial and otherwise.  
• Sadness:  on our drive to the doctor's office on Tuesday, I hit an owl which flew up in front of my car. I never saw it coming, though I was going the speed limit; we just felt the thump and then I saw the round-faced, speckle-winged bird above my left headlight, flapping backwards. We pulled over but couldn't find it.  So it didn't die right there but somehow managed to leave.  My friends think this is a good sign; I'm a bit more pessimistic.  What chance does a bird, even a big one, have against a car?  Why did it have to be a beautiful bird of prey? I'm so sad.  (And no, I'm not ready to debate why it's sadder that something I like and is beautiful died vs. something ugly or not liked, like a snake. I know it's subjective and hypocritical.)
• Illusionists:  On Saturday, leaving Sis at home with what we then thought was the flu, we went to see a magic show on Broadway for Bud's Christmas present.  What a great show!  We especially liked the card tricks of Shin Lim, the mind-reading of Colin Cloud, and the sleight-of-hand of Darcy Oake.  In fact, Bud and I were both picked for separate tricks.  Colin Cloud read my mind!  He had me flip through a book and choose the top word on the left-hand page and remember it; he asked the same of two other audience members.  And then he "read" the word from my mind, "professional."  It really was astounding; and while I know there's a trick, I don't know what it is.  During his turn (we were seated very close to the stage in the second row), Bud was given an empty bottle in a box-inside-a-box to hold and then he chose a card out of a deck; later, of course, the card was in a corked glass bottle in the box-inside-a-box!  Now, the main "tell" that this was sleight of hand is that Oake did the same trick on Penn and Teller using the SAME CARD (5 of hearts) that Bud "chose."  I'm guessing it's a force of some kind but honestly neither Bud nor I saw it.  After the show and lunch at a nearby ramen place (Zen Ramen, not Sapporo because that dear old place has closed, forced out by raised rents), we went to Tannen's, the premiere NYC magic shop down by Macy's.  Bud had a great time conversing with the different magicians and seeing some of their tricks.  He bought a trick, a book, a beautiful Momento Mori deck, and a special card trick mat.  
• Thanksgiving:  did I mention Thanksgiving at all? We watched the parade in our jammies that morning, particularly liking that there were two female hosts (bye, Matt Lauer!!!)  And we liked the performance by the Prom cast, complete with kissing lesbian leads (it's about a girl who can't take her girlfriend to the prom so she enlists help!)  We bought tickets on the spot, to support the show and NBC for fairing the no-doubt controversial scene.  In the afternoon, we had Mama Teacher and her son over for muffalettas, snacks, conversation, and video games, since they were celebrating on a different day, just like we were. We all played MarioKart--and had a great time.  (Sis actually came down with a fever on that Thursday night but the clinic said on Friday that it was NOT the flu.  Harrumphf.)  We went to Goo's on Saturday, because he had been working at the hospital the other days.  I made Chex mix, the sweet potatoes, the green bean casserole, the cranberry-horseradish relish, and a lemon pie.  Goo did everything else, including a lovely charcuterie.  And Mama and her parents spent the day arranging and rearranging post-its in order to organize our trip.  In the evening after dinner, the kids and Goo played video games, including this fast one where you drum to the rhythm prescribed by the game, while making little characters dance to the music.  Very Japanese.
• BTS--Bud and I are still very much enamored of Kpop band BTS.  He practices their dance moves and I enjoy listening to the music in the car.  And we watch videos together sometimes.  When we were in NYC, for the magic show, we even went to the Line store, which sells BT21, a line of animated characters drawn by the members of BTS.  Bud got a few items, like J-Hope's horse character pillow and a key chain, and I even got a Koya (Koala, by RM) headband.  Yes, it's a cult.
• Reiki--and no, I didn't think of Reiki next because it is a cult (ahem)--I had my second Reiki  on Sunday, with the same teacher and students as last time.  This section added some words and hand signs, which really did make it seem more like an occult thing than the hands-on meditation did.  But there was also more references to Buddhism--"the light in me sees the light in you," connecting to your higher Self or buddhahood, and forget what else.  The next session has crystals and angels, but I think I'll stop here; crystals and angels and the Reiki grid which can create continuous Reiki without your participation just takes it all a few steps too far for me.  Hands on meditation that contributes to relaxation and peace, I can handle (though, true practitioners would see it more as aligning the chakra energy wheels than simple meditation.)  And I'm looking forward to using it with hospice patients, as just another modality for care and comfort.  I did try it on the kids when they were sick (mainly because they didn't want me to tell my teacher that they had said no!) and both were relaxed afterwards, as you would be lying still with your mom's hand on your head or shoulders or chest.  I did it on myself a few days later, when my neck was stiff from too much driving, and it did release the tension, just like mindfulness meditation releases tension in my mind.  It's all from the same place, I think.  
• In fact, I'll be going back to my PT soon to have her use her own therapy techniques (a unique combo of Western medicine and less scientific treatments) on the almost softball-sized scar tissue that has grown up in my lower abdomen and pelvic region from all the scars.  After consulting both my GI doctor and GYN and going through their tests, as well as talking at length with my caring and supportive GP, I decided that surgery isn't the answer for scar tissue which is pulling and pushing and causing regular discomfort; it'll just make more scar tissue.  I'm trying PT to try to break down some of the adhesions and meditation (particularly self-compassion from Kristin Neff) to assist my anxiety about the discomfort when it arises.  I hope it helps.

Whew, I think that's it for now.  I've blown through 30% of my laptop battery and a full hour of quiet between Mama's departure for work, Bud's departure for school, and now Sis's late arising.  Time to get up and get to the rest of my list . . . . 

Kidbits and Updates

Each is not a whole post, but together it's a lot of catching up:

• Last week, Sis and I went to a compass class with some of our GS friends.  And it was taught by a friend we had made at Hog Island last year!  So great to see her again.  I learned so much. I did not know how to read a compass.  Hold the compass flat in your hand, with the curved part at your wrist and the printed red "travel arrow" pointing out from your palm.  "Turn on the compass"--I know, it's not electronic--means to put the "red in the shed," i.e. move the "compass housing" so that the red part of the needle that always faces magnetic north moves into the outlined arrow or orienting lines/arrow.  Now you can tell what direction you are pointing by whatever direction and degree lines up with the travel arrow.  You reverse it to go in a particular direction.  Want to go Northwest?  Move the compass housing to put NW at the end of the travel arrow, move yourself to put the "red in the shed", and walk in the direction of the arrow.  At least I think that's right.  Sis was much better than I was.  I know there is so much more to orienteering but it was a great start.  I'll practice at Hog Island again this summer.
• We went to three orchestra concerts last week, one for our school and two where the kids from our orchestra were invited to play at other concerts to help round out the sound.  They played "Vida La Viva," a bit from "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," "Shadows," and . . . something else.  I love hearing my kids play . . . and it was even bittersweet to hear the little ones play "Hot Cross Buns."  Sis and Bud have come a long way.  And they'll both be playing in the orchestra again next year.
• Piano duet.  Yep, Bud and I are finally playing a piano duet.  I had stopped taking piano during CPE but am starting up again for the summer.  And so we actually did some planning during Monday's lesson.  I'm dusting off "Finlandia" and "The Entertainer" (both easy piano) and then learning my part of "Vida La Viva."  Yes, the Coldplay song.  Just like Bud played in orchestra.  I know it.  He likes it.  And one of the parts is just my speed.  Only challenge is that I don't really count when I play, just play by ear to the tune I know, which makes it almost impossible to play in the right spot with a duet partner so I'm practicing counting.  Whew.  But the playing has rejuvenated Bud, who spent last night playing "Phantom of the Opera," "Prince Sidon," and other songs.  One of my favorite sounds in the world.
• Bud has had a few kung fu performance in the last few weeks, which is not our usual performance time (May and October are the big competition times; January/February are the big Lunar New Year performance times.)  He performed at Quassy Amusement Park, a small, old local park with rides and games next to a lake.  The performance went well, but the team had even more fun wandering around together and going on all the rides--swings, tilt-a-whirl, this big boat that swings like a pendulum, tea cups, another ride that flips and holds you upside down.  I enjoyed the lovely weather and riding the carousel.  Oh how I love a carousel!  Bud even rode with me towards the end of the day. 
• And he earned his Black Belt right before we left for Italy.  The school hadn't been doing belts for the team (it's more of a karate thing than a kung fu thing anyway) and so their Master gave the team the chance to earn their belts.  Bud practiced for weeks, on top of his years of kung fu, and he earned the black belt, embroidered with his school, and a beautiful plaque to go with it.  We're so proud of him!
• INDIGO GIRLS!  Last week, we all went to hear the Girls in concert in New London.  We arrived early enough for dinner (mac and cheese pizza, chix and broccoli and bacon pizza, pasta pomodoro, great salad and yummy cakes) at this great local pizza place, Two Wives--and the only men in the building were Bud and those on the staff!  Everyone was there for the concert, which always draws about 95% women.  Most of them were our age or older--and not even all of them were dykes!  Of the five others I knew there that night, only 2 were lesbians.  But they were moms of twins, just like us.  Gotta introduce the kiddos to the culture, you know?  It was great--they played most of our favorites.  We got home really late, but we didn't care.  Besides, it was Mother's Day weekend and there's not much these two moms like more than a Girls concert.
  
• Mama and I gave ourselves our big Mother's Day present:  we went to the Met museum all by ourselves, leaving the kids at home on Saturday.  I had wanted to see the Thomas Cole exhibition and it was closing on Sunday, but the kids didn't want to go.  And after three orchestra concerts, the Indigo Girls, the compass class, and a kung fu show, we decided they would probably enjoy a day at home much more . . . and we might enjoy the moms' night out all by ourselves.  And we did!  There was some traffic heading into the city on Saturday afternoon, but we talked all the way there.  The Cole show had some great pieces--Course of Empire, Oxbow River, a little trompe l'oeil with an oil sketch of a landscape, a view of Florence in front of which I no longer needed to say "I'd love to take you to Italy!"  There were also paintings by Claude Lorraine, de Loutherbourg, Turner, Constable, including cloud studies and Hadleigh Castle.  The concept of the show--Cole was influenced by European art and travels--was nothing new, but it was pretty.  We also liked the parallel show about Americans in Italy--with sketches and drawings and watercolors by Sargent, Elihu Vedder, and Maurice Prendergast.  We especially liked the Venetian views.  We enjoyed a ham sandwich on a baguette, rich chocolate cupcake, and a cup of coffee in the American courtyard, treating this trip into the city like we did Italy by taking it easy and enjoying ourselves, slowly.  The last show on our list was the French gardens show, tracing the rise of public gardens and private gardening as a hobby after the Revolution and through the 19th century.  There were still lifes by Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, Mary Cassatt--I loved her lilacs--and Caillebotte's chrysanthemums.  There were also many women-in-the-garden scenes by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cassatt, and Morisot, though little discussion of the trope.  There were watering cans, hand rakes and trowels, and maps of gardens, including a great panorama postcard of the Tuileries with all these wonderful snippets of people.  It was a lovely show.  I think I might be getting excited about going back to Paris someday, with the kids, once they've had more French.  As we perused the shop--I got the gardens catalogue but not the Cole (I have the one from the very-similar Wadsworth show I saw when I came back to NYC in fall 1994 to see Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard--when I stayed with Mama in her dorm, actually.  Full circle.)--I saw mention of a Visitors to Versailles show and so Mama and I trekked up to it.  Great 18th-century court costumes, dec arts, and even a room devoted to an early 18th-century visit by Siamese ambassadors from the court of Ayyuthaya who brought gifts and wore special hats. Yep, Thailand.  Circle again.  We absolutely skipped the Heavenly Creatures and the Catholic Imagination show; well, sort of.  It was spread out through the Medieval court on the first floor so we passed by the overdone fashions and big crowds on our way to other exhibitions.  It was a dramatic place to stage the show, with all the Catholic art of the Middle Ages, but I am completely uninterested in modern fashion. Give me those 18th-century court gowns any day.
• We saw Avengers: Infinity War.  Loved it.  It's past the point where I worry about spoilers; by now the details are well known.  Of course, it's the deaths that got everyone.  And we all seem to have the idea that most won't stick.  But I'm guessing they'll surprise us--it's too easy if Scarlet Witch somehow breaks the Soul Stone from the inside or Cap sacrifices himself for Bucky (and them all) and switches places with everyone in the Soul Stone.  I don't think he'll survive the next one, Cap.  And I think Black Panther, sweet Spidey, and all of those who disintegrated will be back. Doctor Strange knows exactly how it will all pan out.  No resurrection for mischievous Loki, though.  He was one of my favorites.  And I think Gamorrah will get, who I think entered the Stone as Thanos's sacrifice, will get out, too.  And all of that in time for the new Guardians, Spiderman, and Black Panther movies!
• Sis got her braces off!  She was so excited that she took a bag of popcorn with her to the appointment and had been planning her candy consumption for months.  Mama brought her a bag of jelly beans, gummy bears, Star Bursts, Carmellos, jar of caramel sauce, two bags of popcorn from Trader Joe's, and I don't know what else.  She now has a clear retainer.  And says her mouth is "soft!"  Bud will get his braces in a month (he lost his lost baby teeth later than she did)--I teased the orthodontist that he could just recycle the brackets and give us a discount. 
• CPE is wrapping up.  I have 62 hours left, a final evaluation paper (already at 10 pages), and three more essays.  Whew.  I witnessed a funny moment last week.  The priest startled a sleeping patient who then tried to get out of bed.  I fetched a nurse.  The patient kept saying, "I need to get to my business." (You could tell he meant work.)  The nurse said, "You can do your business here in bed."  "It isn't funny business!" he replied.  We all started to giggle.  The nurse said, "I can't believe you said that in front of the priest!"  The priest was laughing harder than all of us.  More on CPE later.  It's my day off!  Which means some Zentangle, crocheting, blogging, and watching reruns of "Arrow."

Suggestions

We were in NYC this weekend and I have a few new suggestions for you if you go:

1.  Go see Come From Away:  The musical about the "plane people" grounded in Gander, Newfoundland when the US closed its airspace on September 11 is AMAZING!  Touching, tender yet powerful, funny, energetic.  We loved it.  It plays without intermission so the emotion of the show is not interrupted.  And there are a lot of those!  Grief, frustration, sadness, confusion, love, peace, hope.   (I left with the belief that we should just let Canada be the leaders of the world.)  The show follows about a dozen different characters, with more making cameos, all played by the core cast.  And they do a remarkable job at distinguishing the different personas through accent, gestures, and costume changes.  We had been enjoying the soundtrack, but the show was just so much better.  We laughed, we cried.  It was better than Cats.  And afterwards, we stage-doored.  The kids got autographs from every main member and at least one musician.  Sis told the actress who played the animal-lover that she was her favorite.  Mama told the actress playing the firefighter's mom that she brought her for tears.  And we all gushed about Jenn Colella, who played one of the pilots, Capt Beverly Bass, actually the first female captain of a major airline.  Colella was wearing a love trumps hate shirt and was really engaging.  And after signing everyone's program, she just rode off into traffic on her push scooter!  If you get a chance to see the show, definitely go.

2.  Eat at BXL:  Mama found this Belgian restaurant on 43rd and the menu sounded great.  It was even better than that!  First, it doesn't look like a touristy Time Square trap; it felt like a small English pub, with distressed wood and lots of soccer.  But despite having a prominent bar, it is family-friendly (the owner and friends spoke French the whole time, so if they were cursing the game, we didn't know.) And the food was extraordinary:  truffle croquettes, goat cheese with honey on toast, delicious dressing on fresh insalata, steak frites with this amazing pepper dressing, croque madame, all kinds of mussels, a really good spaghetti bolognese, and delicious tarte tatin and pot du chocolat.  Oh, so good.  And there were so many things we didn't get to try.  Definitely a do-again.

3.  Explore Gulliver's Gate:  On Saturday morning, we were some of the first at Gulliver's Gate, an astonishing miniature exhibition near the Mariott Marquis in what was the Discovery Museum.  I'd been hearing good things for awhile and would second all those and more.  What a wonderful place!  It's to scale but not exactly geographically correct, but the models and figures and all the details evoke places all over the world, with the first whole room dedicated to NYC.  There are also big displays of England, Russia, and Israel.  There's even a working Panama Canal with locks and REAL water!  There are also lots of famous figures and icons hidden--Yoda, the Obamas, the new 13th Doctor, Wonder Woman, Spider Man, Batman, and so many we didn't see, like the Fiddler on the Roof (there's not exactly a list; ask the staff.)  There are also spaces dedicated to the art of model making, and on our day it was staffed.  The artist talked about making grass with a hair dryer/flashlight-like aparatus which ionized this green material and made it stand on end before it hardened in the glue.  He also showed us a bamboo forest complete with pandas that will be added to China--it even has two figures in the treetops, straight out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (and he was very impressed we knew that.)  AND we had our photos taken in a special pod with 200+cameras that will then digitally convert us into teensy 3D models with a digital printer.  Mama and I stood together and elected to be placed in Grand Central.  Sis wants to be in Stonehenge.  And Bud opted for the Brooklyn Bridge.  Can't wait to see the photo of us in situ.  You should go look for us.  I know we'll be going again.

Lastly, I should add that we stayed at a hotel which used to be my old dorm building when I was in graduate school!  I knew it had been converted into a hotel--Gommie has even stayed there--and I'd been in the lobby, but this was our first night to sleep there.  No, not in my old room--804, which just has one double bed apparently--but in the penthouse with views north and south! (We got an upgrade for some reason--and it was bigger than our own first floor, with two full bathrooms!)   The southern view was just like my old one albeit a few stories up.  You can see the Woodstock (where the crane from the Conde Nast tower fell and killed a woman in her apartment on the top floor during construction), but many of the buildings out the window were new.  It really was rather surreal.  I could also see the air shaft which was the view of a few of my friends.  The elevators are exactly the same--very slow and small.  It was quite a treat.  And I was just thrilled to be back "home."  Mercy, I loved living in NYC, right there in Times Square.  A lot of my old neighborhood has changed, but I always love going back.

My NYC Field Trip

Yesterday, I took my own field trip into NYC yesterday for a conference on palliative care and the arts at Fordham University.  I hadn't been into NYC by myself in years; it's been more than twelve since I commuted regularly.  Because of my sensitive back and anxious tummy, I was nervous about going in for the day, but I also really wanted to go not only for the conference but to prove I could do it.  And it all came back to me.

I was on a pretty early train, earlier than I ever left when I worked in the city, and I fell asleep in my favorite window seat almost immediately and woke up at 125th Street.  Getting from GCT to Times Square on the shuttle and then to 59th on the 1 train (I want to say 1/9, but there isn't a 9 train there anymore.)  I could almost do it with my eyes closed.  Because it isn't hot yet, it thankfully didn't have that subway smell; nor did I see any rats on the track!  Otherwise, it felt like going home.

The conference itself was okay.  I loved the topic of "palliative arts" but they could have done so much more with it.  The conference was mostly for people in the field--social workers, palliative and hospice specialists, chaplains, and volunteers like me--but the talks were just incredibly introductory, as if for the general public.  Like "poetry is good for sick people" or "movement is good for sick people" with a lot of "I did this and it was wonderfully effective" or "I wrote this article to prove how effective my specialty is."  The music therapist really underlined this--she repeatedly contrasted music (like "the music your grandmother likes") with music therapy ("I match specific rhythms to physical or emotional aspects of the client"), emphasizing that only music therapists could do this.  So why tell us?  None of us were music therapists.  And I'd expand on that by saying that patients are much more likely to come across social workers, chaplains, and volunteers than the rare music therapist, so why not give us some tools that we CAN use?  Give us a music activity or a writing activity.  I'm happy with learning about and celebrating their successes, but I also wanted to know how to adapt their best practices to my work.  And in that respect, I was disappointed.

Still, I did glean a few things (just not as much as I wanted):

• One of the keynote speakers was very influenced by Buddhism philosophy, specifically the Japanese therapist Itami's Meaningful Life Therapy (see local Todo Institute), plus Morita (which I don't quite have a handle on) and also Naikan, which delves into gratitude.  She repeatedly used words like constructive or creative living, meaningful living, and the like.  She believed that palliative care should be introduced within the first day or two of diagnosis.  I can see where that would be really helpful.  Just like starting hospice earlier than the last few weeks is really helpful.  It allows patients to utilize resources, consider their own needs, and implement some new habits or practices--like Morita and Naikan--to help get them through.  
• Music therapy--"it doesn't always have to be harps."  She's had success with drums for a woman from the Virgin Islands too.  But don't try this, YOU are not a music therapist (yes, I was a bit annoyed.)
• Dance or movement therapy--she had us do a breath meditation (with a bit of a body scan) and then mirror, or more specifically, respond to the movements of our partner by watching them for awhile and then joining in.  The pause is very important; it's about respect and letting go of control.  I liked that movement therapy is non-judgemental and focuses on what the body can still do.
• I really liked the woman who talked about comic books and palliative care, or "graphic medicine."  There is apparently a whole genre of graphic novels dealing with medical issues--books by the patients themselves, not the practioners.  She noted that comics could touch deep emotions and clarify feelings about difficult topics.  I just don't know if I've had hospice patients with the fine motor skills to do any drawing; I tried Zentangle once and the patient couldn't really hold a crayon.
• The poet shared many of the poems written by his patients.  Of course, poetry, like graphic novels, clarifies feelings and brings on self-awareness and transformation.  Both reading and writing poetry can be valuable.
• Lastly, a filmmaker introduced a new documentary on dying in America, entitled Defining Hope.  I like the bits we saw and welcome the chance to see the whole thing--it's screening on Nov. 1, in Palliative Care and Hospice month, on the Day of the Dead/All Souls Day!

I loved being in the city.  Mercy, I walked more in a day than I ever do here at home.  And it's much more interesting walking, not just looking at yards and houses.  I grabbed a snack at Hale and Hearty soup, one of my old favorites--a tasty pennette vodka soup, plus a chocolate croissant.  No Junior's there anymore though.  But I did enjoy perusing the newsstand.  I miss it all.  But I also realized that now I can take the kids in on my own this summer.  They're independent and I am capable.  Let's see when we go and what we do.

Our Fifth Honeymoon

It was our fifth annual "nano-honeymoon," our nickname for our getaway weekend without the kids, since we never had an official honeymoon (though, you could say our first 8 years--without kids--were one, I suppose.)  We've been to the same hotel near Union Square four times and then Block Island once.  We love the alone time, the break in routine, the relaxation and restoration, exploring both the familiar and the new.

The kids spent the very rainy weekend with their NYC grandparents, devouring a ton of Chinese food (both in restaurants and at home), visiting the beach when they could, and going to the movies.  They also spent some time playing computer games with their uncle, Goo, introducing him to Dragonvale.  They had a great time and were sad when we showed up.

We were a little sad to show up, too!  Re-entry into the world of chores, work, bills, and discipline can be rather harsh, but at least there were no hairballs all around the house when we got home.  We have a wonderful cat sitter who takes good care of the cats and house when we're gone.  She even made friends with our new cat, Eris.  And the tree work we had done came out just fine (our tree guy could only squeeze us in this weekend and we weren't changing our reservations.)  See, the electric company is brazenly cutting down many of the town's lovely huge trees because they are caught in the wires.  It's awful (the whole state has been razing trees along highways and state routes--it looks like another storm hit.)  And so, with hopes of saving the giant maple on the side of the house, which is officially a town tree, being on the other side of the sidewalk, we surreptitiously paid to have the tree trimmed and entwined or dead branches removed.  I hope it helps.  The tree looks shorn, but perhaps it won't be cut down, if the electric company ever gets to the secondary roads.

Okay, back to the fun part.

It was, as I mentioned, a wet, humid, hot weekend, which isn't our favorite, but we didn't have any firm plans and we could change activities as needed.  A combination of restaurants, walking, browsing, books, Harry Potter, doodles and Zentangle, flowers, and rainbows--just lovely!

Friday

Our first stop was Craftbar, one of Chef Tom Colicchio's restaurants, where we had reservations for a late lunch as part of NYC Restaurant Week.  Oh, it was so good--celery shrub tonic; my first of many mint ginger lemonades; cold sunchoke soup with a black garlic reduction; a delicious pecorino fonduta with honey, pine nuts, and crostini; a table salad; a perfectly seasoned and roasted Amish chicken breast with kale, fava beans, and pickled eggs; duck hearts with dumplings which Mama liked; a light and creamy vanilla parfait; and a divine chocolate peanut butter tart with peanut brittle and peanut ice cream.  Oh, and cappuccino!  Mmmmmmm!


We walked off the meal at the art supply store, Dick Blick, where I picked up more pens and canvases for Zentangle and Art Rocks; we also got two little books--642 Things to Draw and 642 Things to Write About--which we filled out off and on and a coloring book of Delft tiles which we used a set of blue colored pencils on.  We also made our first meander around the Greenmarket in Union Square.  At the heat of the day, we took a break in our room, a lovely back room in the Inn at Irving Place, in a  jewel-like 19th-century brownstone (a friend, seeing photos of the lobby, asked if we were staying in Downton Abbey!)  I loved the large mirror, grated fireplace and mantle, tall windows, fluffy duvet on the bed, high timbered ceiling, moldings, and wooden floors.  It's like being back in time.  But with air-conditioning, hot running water, electric lamps, wifi, and flush toilets.  (I'd never really make it in the past.)


At dusk, we walked the Highline, which I had never walked before.  It's a perfectly New York kind of garden, on the abandoned elevated rail lines.  I loved the dense plantings of the informal garden--black-eyed susans, the purple spiked gayfeather, and the lovely purple coneflowers--plus the water features (I waded one foot in!), the public art, the exposed rails, and the views of the city and river.  We got some refreshing treats from the People's Pops, blueberry with jasmine and grape with coconut cream.  The most unexpected part of the Highline were the three topless women walking around with a topless little girl and a topless man; and he was photographing the whole thing, particularly people's reactions.  Two of the women--women of color--seemed to relish the nude exotic stereotype of the female "other" by artists like Gauguin--with elaborate necklaces and translucent wraps (and she didn't have on anything underneath); they posed but didn't seem to undermine the historical paradigm at all. The Caucasian woman was voluptuous, the nice way to say overweight--with large sagging breasts that clearly breast fed and a stomach that's held at least one child--but she was subverting the Rubenesque stereotypes of languid, sexed big white women.  Plus she was cursing up a blue streak.  It was all very odd.  Especially because it doesn't seem to be illegal for women to be topless (cops came and went, actually throwing two skateboarders off the Highline.)  All of which is good, i.e. the right to be topless, but honestly I'm not quite sure I understood the point.  It wasn't particularly political or even performative art; if anything, it seemed like exhibitionism intended to shock.  And good ol' NYC barely batted an eyelid.  Everyone noticed but no one seemed particularly shocked or bothered.  I was intrigued but also a little . . . bored by it.


We went to nearby Chelsea Market afterwards, wandering the shops of arts and crafts (including cream-coloredlace in hoops, which I'm inspired to make, with a small crochet hook, a little like my mandalas), books, and food items.  We ate some delicious crepes--a lemon sugar one and a truffled mozzarella one--and some currywurst, plus some Fat Witch brownies and some chocolate orange peel from Li-Lac, which is a shop we had visited in the Village on one of our first city walks together back in 1994.  I liked the architecture--despite reminders of its role as abbatoir--and how it has been converted into a modern-day market.  And there were twinkle lights!  Also, lots of rainbows around town . . . .

We took a cab back to Union Square, grabbed some falafel with fixings (chickpeas, cabbage, beets, carrots, and garlic sauce) and another mint lemonade from Maoz, and headed back to our room for the night.  I just love walking through NYC.  I miss it.  But I know it isn't always easy to live there--so many people, traffic, expense, dirt--which is why we still visit.

Saturday
We slept in, til almost 10, and wandered over to brunch at Friend of a Farmer--toasted quick breads (lemon, banana chocolate chip, cornbread, zucchini bread) with apple butter; pumpkin walnut pancakes; chicken salad; and iced coffee.  Very tasty.  And I love the incongruity of the homey farmhouse decor--even pig and chicken plates! plus ingredients in jars, baskets, etc (looks like some of the cross-stitch patterns I have)--in downtown NYC.  But sitting chair to chair squeezed in together, you never really forget where you are.

After brunch, though not hungry, we wandered Bedford Cheese Market next door, picking up interesting things--buttermilk chocolate bar, orange blossom water candy, little pepperoncini sticks, chewy Haribo candies for Bud.  Our local grocery stores just carry the usual things, for the most part; if we want unusual international or epicurean food, we pretty much have Whole Foods.  I like the little markets of NYC.

Then we went to Forbidden Planet, which looks more and more like Hot Topics every year, with more toys of popular culture staples (Doctor Who, Marvel superheroes, Star Wars) than comic books and alternative culture artifacts than there used to be--but the air conditioning is better!  Strand Books was very crowded, typical Saturday afternoon, I imagine.  We browsed the art books and I picked up a Zentangle title which, according to Amazon, hasn't even been released here yet.  We also got a book about NY architecture.  The shop was clearly getting ready for the Harry Potter launch that night, with HP books and such around, including a "Hermione 2016" t-shirt.  We hadn't chosen where we were spending HP night.

We wandered our little neighborhood--the house where Washington Irving lived, the tavern "O'Henry made famous," and Gramercy Park, the last enclosed private garden in NYC.  I left a tangled Art Rock at the gate (I'd left another in the planter right outside our inn), after gazing at the formal garden inside.  Then we had a delightful walk through the Greenmarket; it was more packed with booths and customers than the evening before.  My favorite maple lemon mint tea, handspun and dyed yarns (picked up two skeins of cream to make some embroidery hoop hangings a la Chelsea market), artisanal garlic, and these gorgeous English garden roses with a dense sphere of petals, a light scent and delicate pink color.  I carried them around the rest of the day, as my own poesy, sniffing them as we went.  We stopped at Gothic Revival Grace Church, with its stained glass windows, faux stone plaster tracery, and a memorial to a parishioner who gave up her seat on a Titanic lifeboat for a woman with children at home.    We sat in Washington Square, looking at the surrounding buildings, the people, and the gathering clouds; Mama always remembers childhood summers there while Ma finished her PhD at NYU.


Next, lunch at Mario Batali's Otto, one of our favorites--outstanding spinach salad with ricotta salata and honey truffle dressing; roasted beets; crusty bread and thin breadsticks; delicious fusilli with sweet Italian sausage and escarole; pasta putanesca; and amazing desserts--a butterscotch pudding with coffee bourbon glaze and rosemary biscotti and a sweet corn gelato with polenta cake and corn crema.  Mmmmmm.  Mmmmmm.  And iced cappuccino.  We watched it rain outside while we debated our choices for the rest of the day.  We opted for some down time in the room doodling and resting, then another evening out, despite the rain.

I had fun with two new Zentangle books, including The Great Zentangle Book (which, according to Amazon, isn't out yet!) and Zendoodle, which together introduced me to Rubenesque and Geo-flower.  Love these new tangles!

After dark, we headed to Barnes and Noble for the launch party of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, billed as the eighth HP story (though it's a script to a West End play, not a novel, and was only written in partnership with Rowling, not her own original story.  Some fans don't count it as canon, we read in the paper at breakfast--along with reviews of the new Sharknado and the drop in ticket prices for Hamilton--but I'm not that picky, perhaps because it wasn't my childhood obsession (now, I'm much more adamant about who shot first in Star Wars); I look forward to a new installment, with her blessing.  There were a few different groups at the store--kids who are probably just now reading the novels; mid 20s who grew up with HP; and older fans like us.  There were also costumed characters (Snape, Trelawney, Hagrid, Dumbledore) and lots of store staff. We didn't need the wand making or face painting or photo ops--even Sis and Bud would have felt a little old for that.  But we did enjoy the owl show, with a live Ural Owl.  I hadn't seen one before.  We didn't need a copy of the book--ours came via Kindle at midnight, with hardback delivered Monday--but I bought a little snowy owl to carry around by way of a costume.  We popped over to the Book of Wonders party, totally prepared to buy a book for entrance, but it was so packed that we left.  It was too bad the kids couldn't be there, but they had chosen to go to their grandparents instead.  And we still all managed to have the book read in less than 24 hours!  More on that later.

In the driving rain, we stopped to pick up some Belgian food--sausage and stoemp (mashed potatoes and, in this case, carrots) plus mac and cheese, and a sugar waffle--which we ate in our room while we waited for midnight and the release of HP.  We both did some more drawing and some Dragonvale.  I'm on level 20 now.  Not bad for about a week of play.


Sunday
We finished reading HP on Sunday morning, a real page turner.  Nice to be back in that world and to see HP as a father.

We breakfasted downstairs surrounded by the lush decor of the tea room, with gorgeous pink roses leftover from a baby shower the day before.  Almond and chocolate croissants, Earl Grey tea, and the New York Times, with some drizzle outside.  An ideal city Sunday morning.  We popped back to the Bedford Cheese Market to grab sandwiches to go--a baguette with Chandoka Cheddar and Parma Cotta for me, tuna with gruyeter and pickled onions and eggs for Mama--which we snacked on in the car parked next to Gramercy Park.  We could admire the trees and surrounding buildings through our windows and sun roof.

And that was it.  We went to fetch the kiddos, stayed for awhile talking to everyone, and made it home with time for dinner and some down time before bed.  The cats were glad to see us and, though we loved our vacation, it was good to be home.

HAMILTON!!!!

It's no secret that I have wanted to go see the hot Broadway ticket, Hamilton, along with half of the nation, I imagine.  But the tickets have been prohibitively expensive.   I just can't pay $600+ each for the pleasure . . . so we listen to the soundtrack and read articles about the show in the paper instead.

Until Wednesday.  Mama has a friend at the office who realized early on that Hamilton was impressive and important and so he bought sets of tickets to sell for a profit.  And on Wednesday he told Mama that he'd noticed that the prices were the lowest they'd been in awhile, maybe the lull between spring break and summer tourists.  We'd stopped looking.  But Mama called me midday and said there were four tickets on Stub Hub inside the range we were willing to pay.  For that night.

And so she bought them.  We were a bit worried that they might be counterfeit, some of the resale tickets are, since there's such profit to be made.  But we were going to take the chance (Stub Hub reimburses your loss, if so.)  We picked up the kids after play practice at school and headed down . . . .

Right into the worst traffic we've ever seen heading into the city on a weekday.  More than two hours instead of closer to half that.  Ugh.  We tried not to stress.  But our Waze GPS said we wouldn't get to midtown until 7:20, with showtime at 8--and we still had to park and then pick up the tickets at another location.  And we hadn't eaten!  We had thought to stop on the way down, but the traffic took all of our time.

We got to the parking garage at 7:23 and the race began.  Mama ran to get the tickets and the kids and I headed to the theater, picking up chips and cookies at a nearby deli.  But we did all meet at the theater by 7:40.  Now just to see if the tickets were real.  We got up to the door--and the first three tickets scanned easily, but the usher got stuck on the last one; I think he scanned it 6 times before it went through.  Whew.  They were real tickets!  Mama said that when the ticket wasn't scanning all she could think of was how she wasn't going to get to see the show!

But all was well--actor/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda was even scheduled to perform (we had wondered if the tix were cheaper because he was out of town)--and we headed to our seats--but someone was in them!!! Oh, ugh, were they really good counterfeits???  No, the people were in the wrong seats.  I tell you, I sat down and didn't want to get up again.  These were our seats for Hamilton!  And really good, all things considered.  Fourth row front mezzanine, with an aisle!!!  We had a great view.

And the show was amazing!!!  I'm not even sure I can put it into words.  So, the things that stand out:

• the bare bones wooden-framed but adaptable set with the two levels was well-utilized;
• the lighting, especially in the George III parts, accentuated the drama and mood;
• oh, the actors and dancers!  Lin-Manuel Miranda has amazing presence despite being diminutive and not a strong Broadway-belting singer (he can rap, though! And move.)  All the main characters were powerful, one just as good as the next with no weak ones.  I think applause stopped the show after every solo.  I liked Phillippa Soo as Eliza, especially.  And the chorus/dancers were extremely talented.
• costumes--I loved, loved, loved the costumes, especially the women's.  And it made my little historian self so happy when they switched from early to late 18th-century gowns--from wide panniers to empire waists.  The white corsets and vests on the male and female dancers, both with thick tights, were versatile--becoming Redcoats, citizens, bartender, ballgowns, whatever was needed.  Also, it allowed us to see just how amazing muscular those dancers were (and were probably easier to dance in.)  And all the white then guaranteed that the main characters wearing colors were easier to follow.  Did I saw that I loved the Schuyler sisters' gowns?!
• the staging of the numbers was effective and inventive--the way they "rewound" time during the wedding toast, how they slowed down a bullet during the dual, how the wood became a podium or a ship's plank or the windows of an NYC house . . . .
• the music!!  I'm neither knowledgeable or really a fan of hip hop or rap, but the score captured the energy of what must have been a chaotic time.  There were also quiet songs too, which created a beautiful rhythm with the more energetic songs.  And the lyrics!  So clever--Hamilton was "the ten dollar Founding Father without a father" and such.  Plus references to other musicals--1776, South Pacific, Pirates of Penzance.  
• the non-traditional casting--a Latino Hamilton, African-American Washington and Jefferson, a Chinese-American Eliza?  Loved it.  Added the dimension of the powerless "Young, Scrappy, and Hungry" vs the powerful, which reflects current political issues of social justice, African Americans and the police, Mexican immigrants, etc.  
• indeed, the whole story, about the one Founding Father whom we don't often discuss, was enlightening.  It's been a long time since I've reflected on the early days of the nation--and I'm not sure I ever studied the Federalist Papers or could confidently discuss the different factions of the early days.  But the show didn't make it too dense.  I'd say it was the best way to re-examine the period (barring in mind that this was theater first and some differ with the heroic depiction of Hamilton.)

We LOVED it!  We laughed and cheered and clapped and cried (oh, I had to hold back sobs when Hamilton's son is injured in a duel and his parents are by his side as he dies and as they continue to mourning, living through the unimaginable, as the line goes.)

We all stood clapping before the lights even dimmed and rose again.  And then, Miranda spoke--it's Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS week when casts gather money for organizations (I've seen, if I recall correctly, Rent cast members and Glenn Close make appeals.)  And so Miranda did (while acknowledging how much we'd already spent on tickets!) and then someone else mentioned his Pulitzer this week and we all cheered some more.  LOVED it!

We didn't bother stage-dooring.  I can only guess at the crowds.  So we grabbed some Junior's take out for dinner on the late, long ride home.  And we listened to the soundtrack all the way . . . and haven't stopped since.

I even offered to rap some of it at my historic house tour (my own Hamilton-era performance) yesterday!

Speechless

Downtown

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go downtown
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares

So go downtown
Things will be great when you're downtown
No finer place for sure, downtown
Everything's waiting for you

-=-=-=-=-=-

Yep, we went downtown yesterday.  Well, really Midtown, but you get the idea.  Yes, NYC was our special outing--to the Discovery Center in Times Square to see not only the Star Wars costume exhibition but also the Vikings exhibition.  And we had a great time!

First, it's always great to be back in my old neighborhood, though it's changed so much.  Still, I feel 25 again and filled with the positive memories of my time in the city.  It's like going home.

The SW show was good, too.  I've seen other SW shows, namely "The Magic of Myth" in both Milwaukee (on my own) and Brooklyn (with Mama in 2002); it had costumes plus models, props, and blueprints.  This show was all costumes (plus a few blasters and lightsabers.) We got to see all the standards, from both trilogies.  I especially liked seeing Princess Leia's white dress from New Hope.  I wish they'd had the Hoth, Cloud City, or Endor clothes, or even especially the Force Awakens outfits.  Still.  There were all the various Jedis, Han Solo, Chewie, C-3PO, R2-D2, BB8, lots of stormtroopers, various Senate officials, Yoda, and Darth Vader.  There were more elaborate gowns for Amidala than you could shake a coathanger at, but they were lush and complex, even if I don't like the movies.  I was amazed at how small the infamous metal bikini is; no wonder they had trouble keeping it on her--there isn't anything to it!  Bud said that costume always makes him feel uncomfortable.  Me, too, and I think that was the point.  We liked seeing Rey, Finn, and Poe at the end, their clothes continuing many of the trends started in the first three films.  

We had lunch just a few buildings down from my old home, at the barbecue joint Virgil's.  Quick, reliable, tasty.  And NYers just don't eat at 11:30 so we got a table easily.

Then we went back for the Vikings exhibition.  I've also seen a few major Viking exhibitions--at the American Museum of Natural History and at the British Museum--and this one actually compared, though it was smaller.  It had some great artifacts--brooches, swords, amulets, needles, axes, even dried bread--plus a few stele (though I think they were all reproductions.)  And of course the "ghost ship," which is suggested by rivets hanging on strings, since the wood was all lost over time.  There were several interactive kiosks and some lovely photos of reenactors and museums in modern-day Sweden.  Plus, there were even some Nordic dogs, in town for the Westminster Dog Show, that were like the dogs the Vikings would have had.  Sis and Bud enjoyed seeing them.  The exhibition was all about the daily life of Vikings--which never included horned helmets!--and so went out of its way to separate them from the marauding Beserkers who attacked Lindisfarne, etc.  This shift in the scholarship has been a long time in the making, but I didn't realize until now that "viking" is actual used to reference the activity of going on an expedition "to go Viking" or to "be on a Viking."  It's NOT the name of a group of people, like we use Swedish or Icelandic or Norwegian.  It was an activity.  Still, in a few ways, the exhibition did too much to erase the more violent aspects--the reason there are graves everywhere and lots of trade is because of their offensive maneuvers and plunder.  But, it was probably not much like the tv show, "Vikings" (which I like anyway.)

We picked up some cupcakes from the Discovery Center cafe and headed home through Friday afternoon traffic.  All things considered, it was a great day, and, even more, a good distraction from our sadness.

Indigo Children

Thursday night was a momentous occasion for us:  we took the kids to their first major concert.  Even better, it was the Indigo Girls!!!

Mama and I have seen the Girls in concert 6 or so times together:

• Suffragette Sessions (but so few IG songs), Aug. 1998
• Chicago Theater, Dec. 1999
• Ravinia, June 2000
• Honor the Earth concert, Oct. 2000
• Radio City (this date, perhaps), June 2002
• Ridgefield (link to set list here), July 2008
• plus Mama saw them at Earth Jam and Radio City Music Hall (April and June 1994)

The Indigo Girls provide the soundtrack of our romance, from early mix tapes with "Love Will Come to You" and those first concerts, always the songs on the tape player then CD player then MP3 player now Sonos wifi.  We've been listening for roughly twenty years (Mama more, me a bit less.)  Mama knows the lyrics; I don't as much, but I will make them up, and I can never name a song until its chorus.  There are lines in several of their songs that always make us stop and look at each other in that special way, hold hands, kiss, chuckle--"beautiful women walk on by; you know I never know what to say" from "Shame on You," "I took you for better and took you for worse; don't you ever forget it" from "Power of Two," and "Every lesson learned a line on your beautiful face" from "Get Out the Map," to name a few (I bet I didn't get all of those lyrics correct, either.)  So many memories wrapped up in their music.  And we have just begun sharing the songs with the kiddos.

We would have laughed had you told us back at one of those early concerts that we'd be taking our own kids to an IG show.  In fact, we tried to do it about a year and a half ago, only to realize we were going to be in England!  So when tickets came available for this show, we got four.  And we started to play the music everyday to familiarize them with more of the IG repertoire.  Sis liked "Galileo" and Bud liked "Get out the Map."

With the show starting at 8 and the Girls not going on until 9, we waited til after rush hour to head to the city, listening to the music all the way.  The kids are more used to Broadway and so couldn't understand why we arrived late (really, on time) and skipped the opening band.  We had told them they could sing, dance, even talk, that people would drink and move about, nothing like Broadway.

Then there they were, Amy on our left and Emily on our right, playing our favorite "Get Out the Map."  What a fantastic show it was!  So many of our favorites-- (I'll drop the quotes for simplicity) Get Out the Map, Power of Two, Shame on You, Go, Love Will Come to You, Galileo, Oziline, and of course Closer to Fine, plus Mama loves Land of Canaan--and several of the new songs.  The kids clapped and sang along and swayed to the music, but also closed their eyes "just to rest" part way through during some of the slow songs.  Mama and I gave that look and, several times, I got all teary. I felt so young again, but also in a time warp with two ten-year-old kids with us.

It was fun to explain aspects of their concerts to the kids--how they always stand on the same side of the stage, how they switched guitars every song, how Sully was the one who had been tuning their guitars for decades, how they always encouraged new or young talent and frequently brought them and other friends on stage for a song (often "Closer to Fine"), how they often had the audience sing parts of their songs, how we think they never sing out the "F" word in "Shame on You," how Amy doesn't usually sing the line about "it's only life after all," even how my friend Miss M once sat with them on the curb after a concert at our university some 25+ years ago.  And now, in the age of FB, how they put their set lists on line:

The concert ended with the usual encore of "Closer to Fine" and we were all up out of our seats singing, the kids getting their second wind.  We left the theater singing and sang halfway home, until they fell asleep in the back.    Mama and I shared all sorts of old memories--of concerts, of lyrics, of times we listened to their music (on any car trip in the late 1990s, especially from Chicago to NYC in 2001.) We hummed their songs all weekend in Block Island. If they didn't have uniforms, we would've gotten the kids concert t-shirts to wear just like we would have as teens on the day after.  It's a sure beginning to their own great memories of the Indigo Girls, second-generation fans who are starting their own personal soundtracks.