Nail time

Dawning of a Decade

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

...and Dad, and Ben, and Dave, and Adam, and Vanna White, and John Travolta, and even Yoko Ono.  What a day!

The 14th

This day is dumb.
I liked it when I was a kid and Dad brought home chocolates in a heart shaped box for his GIRLS!  Where's Dad?

Frisson

Shivers!

Whoa Nelly, it got cold!  I don't know what happened because the last few days have been in the upper 30's, which felt like it was in the 60s after our previous cold spell.  Even this morning it was 39 degrees, but something happened while I was at work and it is COLD again - 19 degrees to be exact.  There is a far cry between 39 and 19.  Sitting in my room and listening to the wind howl down the street doesn't help things either.  When it even sounds cold...it's cold.

On a warmer note, I am playing with the New Amsterdam Symphony in concert this Friday!  We are playing the Brahms Requiem, which is a piece I have loved for years.  It is one of those that I got a hold of in undergrad and wore it out for a while. Nerdy factoid: Brahms' Requiem was first presented to the world on February 18 - my birthday!  A few years before I was born (112), but still...
What I love about this piece is the gorgeous choral writing and harmonies.  The clarinet part itself is kind of boring and exhausting to play (a lot of LONG notes a.k.a. good exercise), but I just play along and listen to all the beautiful sounds that surround me.  I've always loved Brahms...

Title-less Blog Post about Music and Opera

I am having a very 'musical' weekend.  I love when I get to have these, because in general I spend too much time at a desk and not enough time being musical.  Yesterday was a very nice day.   I did some teaching, followed up by a yummy vegetarian lunch, then did some roaming around in The Strand bookstore, some coffee, and lots of practicing.  That's a pretty nice way to spend a day...in my opinion.

This morning I got the day rolling with a book and a cup of coffee.  On the dock for today is an audition this afternoon and tonight I am going to see an opera at the Met!  I am meeting friends to see Nixon in China.  I'm very excited to see this opera because I love the music of John Adams and he will be conducting the original Peter Sellers production.  I went to a panel discussion earlier this week that included Mr. Adams and Sellers, among others from the cast and creative team, and learned  a lot about the creation and development of the opera.  I think the more you know about a work of art, the more you enjoy seeing it.  I also think there is a certain energy and excitement that comes with 'new' music where the people who actually came up with all the ideas are right there creating it again in front of my eyes.  Good stuff!

Wintry Weather

Yesterday, going to work in the morning looked like this:

 

Today (with a 2-hour delay because of suspended train service) it looked like this:

We've had our share of snow this year.  I think it's been the most snow in a winter since I've been here in New York, which is almost three years.  I don't remember getting a significant amount of snow the past couple of years.  We would get a little bit, but maybe only once a season. I believe this is the third snow storm we have had... and January isn't over yet!

Thank God for tall rubber boots.

Weather, weather, what are you doing?  Snow, sleet, ice, freezing rain, regular rain, topped off with a gust of wind.  What more could we wish for?

SPRING!

Slow cooked goodness

I am loving my crock-pot.  I've had it just over a year and let me tell you - that thing is amazing!  I love that I can throw a bunch of stuff into it in the morning, then go out, run around town, come home and have a delicious hot meal ready for me!  That's true love. 

This weekend, thanks to an email from my friend Betty Crocker (I wonder if she is related to the Crock-Pot), I made a chicken and gnocchi soup that was fabulous!  It kind of reminded me of a creamy chicken pot pie, without the top.  A nice country home cooked meal for a cold weekend night.  Served with fresh sour dough bread from the farmer's market... Perfection!  I want to say this is my favorite thing from the crock-pot, but I say that pretty much every time I make anything in there, so I guess it wouldn't really count.  But it is in the top 5 and will definitely be made again.

I think next weekend will be a perfect time to try my Wheat Montana Chili Mix that was given to me for Christmas from my Montana family.  After that, who knows.  Suggestions welcome!  YUMMY!

Snowy Scenes

Over Christmas break I ended up spending three days more than planned in West Virginia.  I was supposed to leave on Monday morning, but was not able to get out until Thursday because of the snow...and I was lucky to get back when I did!  New York really got smashed with a mess of a storm.

Although it wasn't planned and I was forced to do laundry, it was nice to spend a little bit more time with family in WV.  It seems like I don't get to come in for more than a few days at a time now that I work a full-time job.  It's much harder to get time off and take vacation days when I have responsibilities at the office.  Since I take care of payroll for my department...it's pretty important for me to be there.  :)
One way I spent my extra time in WV was going up to visit Mama and seeing the sights along the way.  My short weekends in St. Albans don't really leave time for getting out of town too, so it was great to be able to spend the day driving up the mountain.  The curvy roads make me car sick as a kid, but I enjoy the scenery now.

One stop along the way was  Hawks Nest State Park.  The snowy views were spectacular and Dad had interesting stories to narrate.  I love to stop and take pictures there and think about when Mom and Dad had their summer wedding there!  Of course I wasn't a thought in their minds at the time, but it's fun to imagine.  The mountains were really pretty covered in snow.  Once my toes were froze we moved on went to visit Mama in Lookout.  We talked about the old general store and looked at old pictures while warming up with a bowl of her delicious potato soup.  It was great to spend time with her, but we had to leave before it started getting dark because we wanted to stop and look at the New River Gorge Bridge.  It was so pretty, but some of the overlooks were closed because of the weather.  The small windy road under the bridge was technically open, but not a snow plow had even looked at it, so we decided not to chance getting stuck in a snowdrift somewhere. 

Eventually I made it back to the city, but it was nice to relax and enjoy the quiet, simpler ways of the mountains.

200!

PAR-TAY!! My blog is celebrating a milestone with this post.  This is the 200th post of it's life!  Yippee!!!  I've been in and out and up and down with the consistency of the blog, but I have now given people 200 opportunities to hear me ramble about something.  Isn't that terrific?  So if you find yourself complaining that I haven't posted often enough, go back and explore the past...surely you have forgotten something over the years.  Like when dad was in a hole and then they tore up the sidewalk, or how about the time I was waiting for the train, or that one time I had coffee,  and that other time I had coffee, or the time we REALLY had coffee.  And don't even get me started on the men... See?  A lot has gone on in my life over the past few years.  And plenty of coffee has been consumed in the meantime.  So sit back, enjoy, and here's to the next 200 cups.

Cheers!!!

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