A nice couple of weekends! The day after seeing Barbiere at the Met, it was Easter Sunday. I don't celebrate Easter myself, and it took me a while to realize that other people do (adults, I mean) and take it quite seriously. Like, Charles would give me an Easter card each year. I was delighted, …
Figaro at the Seville Zoo
A week of comic opera, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Quick background for those who don't know: Beaumarchais was a French playwright in the 18th century who wrote a trilogy of plays about wily barber and manservant Figaro. Mozart turned the second of these, The Marriage of Figaro, into a masterpiece of an opera. …
Dichotomy
One of the big lessons I learned from the thing, picked up from grief counseling, is that it's OK to feel more than one emotion at the same time. Grief itself is a snarled ball of sadness, rage, relief, frustration, etc. and that's OK. And I bring this up because 2025 so far has been …
Florida Keys, Day 6: Heading Home
Hookay, vacation almost over. My flight wasn't for a while, I had plenty of time - in fact, if I checked out at checkout time, I'd have more than enough time to tank up the car and get to the airport. I'd vaguely thought about getting up early enough to take a swim - although …
Florida Keys, Day 5: Key West
My full day in Key West was exhausting, dahlings (I did over 20,000 steps), but great fun. I got up, did the morning stuff, had breakfast, and headed out. I was in fact slathered in sunscreen, and wished I'd had a real wide-brimmed sunhat rather than just a baseball cap - it was very bright …
Florida Keys, Day 4: Marathon to Key West
My second half of the Keys was maybe a bit less successful than the previous day, but as I have to tell myself sometimes, no one's grading me. The problems, which were not major ones, were that it was very bright and hot and sunny, and also, although I thought I'd checked, a lot of …
Florida Keys, Day 3: Key Largo to Marathon
Finally, a chance to use my carefully-curated map and list of stops in order! (No, I didn't go to that stop out in the water, sillies. That's the "Christ of the Deep", part of the Pennekamp park, which I would have seen if my glass-bottom boat tour hadn't been cancelled.) Got up, cleaned up, breakfast, …
Florida Keys, Day 2
This was my full day in Key Largo, and I'd planned to spend most of it at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Judging from the website, it had all sorts of stuff to do. I'd decided to start the day with a glass-bottom boat tour, which I'd already booked, but I'd gotten an email …
Florida Keys, Day 1
I had, of course, gotten back from a big trip at the end of last year, but I'd known I'd want to get away mid-spring and once my schedule was set, I saw a window between the run of Jesus Christ Superstar and the start of orchestral rehearsals and the two concerts we're doing at …
So it’s spring
This will be quick and scattershot, as I'm leaving for the airport in a half hour or so. I'm squeezing in a little vacation between orchestra rehearsals, checking off a bucket list item and driving the Florida Keys. I'll do a blow-by-blow here, although, like the West Coast trip, it might be after the fact. …
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