Let’s see, where was I?
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas Prep
- Mikado audition
- Yucky thumb
and now also
- Holiday Party
- LOONY concert
- Various Christmas movies
and I doubt if I’ll get all this caught up in this post.
So… Thanksgiving. Our tradition for many years had been to go visit my parents and Charles would cook Thanksgiving dinner for all of us. He’d managed to pull this off even two years ago when he was in a wheelchair half the time. But now with both Mom and Charles gone, and Dad, Sam and I being disinclined to cook, last year I resumed my bachelor tradition of visiting my dear friends Susanna and Patrick in Rochester.
This year was mostly the same, except I’d left travel plans late because of the Heartquake – wasn’t sure I could commit to the trip. But I’ve been feeling fine and ended up booking a (way too expensive, because I’d left it late) flight in on Wednesday and out on Sunday. Amusingly enough, although the news stations were warning about the airports being a nightmare, when I got to LaGuardia, there was almost no line at the Delta counter. They do the stupid thing now of having you print and apply your own baggage tags, but a friendly Delta agent stepped in and insisted on helping me with that – and then I got up to the counter right away to drop it off. “I thought there’d be a huge line!” I said to the agent, and she wheeled on me and did the finger-to-the-lips shushing thing, like ‘don’t jinx it!’. She said the big crowd had actually been the day before – good to know. (But I need to remember that actually the train is a good option, and quite cheaper, and I didn’t go that way just because the trains at the good times were sold out.)
Susanna picked me up late afternoon at the other end and the three of us had a lovely dinner at home. They love cooking and love company and their kitchen is beautifully set up for multiple cooks to work at the same time – although my best way of helping is to stay out of the way. The food prep had mostly happened by the time I showed up.
Thanksgiving itself was awesome – their two adult sons, plus their best friends and their daughter and dogs. Everyone very comfortable with each other, helping out as needed. The meal was traditional, and excellent. After the meal and conversation, the friends left, but the sons stayed, and we played some sort of board game that was kind of like trivial pursuit and kind of like charades or password, but a ton of fun. (Reminder: set up a game night or two.)
And the rest of the weekend was very casual. Some nice long walks – and Rochester is a beautiful place to spend Thanksgiving – it has an Americana vibe that you want to immerse yourself in for that holiday. Great meals and casual conversation, some British Baking Show and maybe a movie or two, and plenty of time for me to work on my own projects. I got some knitting done, working on my own Christmas prep list, and of course just got out of the way and read. I took them out to dinner on Saturday night to thank them, and that was a really great meal. And back home with no drama on Sunday.
I am blessed to have such friends in my life – a realization that I keep having, over and over again, because my friends keep proving it to me.
Since then, it’s been about at least thinking about what I need to do for Christmas. My dad will be up for a week, and we’ll be hosting Christmas dinner, with the help of Susan, Renee and Tessa – I managed to pull it off last year with great anxiety and tension, but I think this year will be more chill. I do need to decorate and stuff – and part of that is reassembling the china closet, which I’ll start on today. The apartment below me has been in renovation all through the fall – including major destruction on the wall right below my dining room – so I’d emptied the china closet and moved it out from the wall. I managed to scootch the china closet back, but now need to set up the shelves again, wash the china and figurines and put it all back – as well as wash the chandelier, something I’ve never done before. But I did laundry yesterday, so can spend the bulk of the weekend working on that. (oh, also, I’m out of the ‘don’t lift heavy things’ part of the heart surgery recovery, so I can, theoretically, lift heavy things, which will be helpful.)
Last weekend I joined Susan, Renee and friends for the annual Craft Fair at St. John the Divine – an annual event that Susan puts together that also involves a Hungarian pastry shop and an old school Italian restaurant. It was a lot of fun, but I’ve now been to that craft fair enough times that I realize there’s not a lot there for me. There was one stall that had these beautiful scenes carved into a curved porcelain screen in front of a light – so they glowed. Little nature scenes, or Santa Claus, or such. I totally would have bought some, but you need to plug the light in, and that meant you needed to have a place in your house with, like, mid-wall-level plugs. The only rooms in my apartment like that are the kitchen and the bathrooms, so I let them go.
I also got quizzed a lot on my thumb – I was wearing a big-ass thumb protector. I told the crowd that I’d refrain from the story until we weren’t eating, because it was gross. Basically, when one becomes old and crusted, and the weather starts getting cold and dry, you can develop cracked fingertips along the side of the nail. Usually it’s painful for a day, but you put something on it and it heals and it’s good. But my thumb decided to go in the ‘get worse’ direction, and got infected and puffy and disgusting. So last Friday I went to urgent care and they lanced it, and then gave me antibiotic pills and creams and bandages, but it was bloody and horrific. So bandages, and then the thumb protector on top. (A week later, the thumb still looks pretty yucky, but it’s much better than it was and is mostly healed. Just a bandaid now, when I go out in public, to avoid grossing people out.)
The thumb protector is also featured (unfortunately) on camera in the Mikado audition I taped the next day with my buddies Marisa and Lauren. The taping was fun and went well – this is for next summer’s Savoynet show at the festival, which I will do chorus for even if I don’t get one of the roles – but even though I think I captured about as good an audition I’m capable of, I wasn’t pleased with it. Ah well, not my call to make, and you never know who else is auditioning or what the directors are going to think. Anyway, it’s done and in.
I have friends who are not only still putting their auditions together (they’re due on Monday), but are also auditioning for Blue Hill Troupe’s 100th-anniversary production of HMS Pinafore. I’ve been coaching friends for both auditions, and will be happy to put both the Mikado and Pinafore scores away after this weekend.
What else? I had a fun Wednesday. My office had the holiday party and was using the occasion to show everyone the just-renovated space on the third floor – made for social gatherings, little brainstorming sessions, and hoteling and co-working. The day itself was fun because almost everyone came in – we mostly work from home, and even days when you go into the office, it doesn’t mean anyone else came in – so there were a lot of gatherings around cubicles and fun discussions and water-cooler talk that we mostly don’t get to do any more.
Then at 4:45, we gathered for a big company picture in the new space, and then were let loose on the bar and the passed whore-derves and buffet dinner (nice – filet mignon was part of it). Lot of fun conversations. I’ve been there over 3 years now and it was nice how many co-workers initiated hugs. It’s a great place to work, and I love my team.
I took off before dessert, unfortunately, because my buddies at LOONY (Light Opera of New York) were doing a concert. I knew the entire company, and 75% of the audience. There was the lightest bit of structure around the evening, but it was just great solos and duets, ranging from Vilja and the Czardas to “I Hate Men” and “Losing My Mind”. It was all beautifully performed, but I think my favorite numbers were the Fledermaus Czardas (the supertalented Alexis Cregger, who I’d just seen as Josephine a couple of weeks earlier) and “All the Things You Are” sung by Alexis and David Macaluso.
I’ve also been watching Christmas movies. See my Facebook wall for mini-reviews. God bless 2022 me, who finally got frustrated with not being able to remember a Christmas movie by its title, because they all sound the same, and made a spreadsheet. So I have a whole list of recommendations and whether I’ve watched them already, and whether they are free or not. Last night, I watched “A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong”, which is predictably hilarious.
OK, I guess that’s enough for now. I’m going to the cemetery this morning, and then to Home Depot to pick up a new faucet, and then start on this china closet stuff. Band concert tonight, that’ll be fun!
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