Seven Quick Takes Vol. 36

I.

I am a Hothian

I have not, yet, slept inside a Tauntan.

II.

It’s actually not cold right now. I mean, “cold” as we’ve experienced it this winter. It’s about 35 degrees out right now, so I’ll take that.  Go warmth! 🙂

III.

I had an audition for The Miracle Worker yesterday. I’ve loved this play since I first read it in junior high, and getting a part is high on my theater bucket list. I read two scenes as Kate (Helen’s mom) and should hear sometime this week. I would love to do this show, so…fingers crossed!

IV.

CCD funny from today:

Me: Saints weren’t always saints. We’ve had saints who were alcoholics.

Girl in back: puts her hands over her mouth and gasps loudly.

I had to stop myself from laughing. It was great.

V.

After a brief downward trend, my PFTs (pulmonary function) has bounced back about 50 again so that makes me very, very happy. When I get blow 50 I get cranky. About 50, and we’re pretty good. I’m still on antibiotics that my ENT prescribed…not really sure if they’re doing anything, but whatever, right? I see him again on Valentine’s Day to see if I will need sinus surgery this year.

VI.

Reading: Just finished a great new novel, Under the Wide and Starry Sky, about Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny. A very good read. I’m also reading Provence 1970, Pickwick Papers, Drums of Autumn (re-reading the Outlander series), Forth and Abroad, and I won a copy of A Star for Mrs. Blake, which should be arriving this week. I love Goodreads giveaways, people. I’ll have a review for Mrs. Blake up here once I’ve read it. The point of giveaways is to get good press for the book, so I’ll write a review (and hope it’s a good one.)

VII.

In the Oscar sweeps: I’ve seen Frozen, Despicable Me 2, and Captain Phillips. I really hope that the actor from Captain Phillips wins Best Supporting Actor, because he’s great. The movie itself was very suspenseful and well-acted (especially the last scene).

Catholic Women’s Almanac No. 46

Outside my window::

It’s sort of snowing. What I mean by that is the snow is being uncommital in its desire to come down. It’s sort of just floating along.

Wearing::

Jeans, black flats, a v-neck cornflower blue long sleeved tee from Eddie Bauer. It’s a house day. 🙂

Reading::

A Dance With Dragons; two Christmas books, Mythology and Charles Dickens (a biography by Claire Tomalin), and trying to finish a book on Italy’s history. And re-reading The Book Thief. 

Creative::

That last Christmas scarf? Yeah. It didn’t get done in time. So I’m working on that. Also one of my goals for the year is to write every day in some form, so this counts as that, but also keeping my journal up to date. I’ve been really slackerly there lately.

In the CD player::

Loreena McKennit A Midwinter Night’s Dream.

From the kitchen::

Dinner party tonight. Menu is Tuscan pasta (the pasta is cooked in a bottle of Chianti), a salad, and the ever-famous Guinness Cake, which is currently under the cake dome. I frost that at party time so the frosting doesn’t dry out and get unattractive. The wonderful thing about this cake is it is so MOIST that it does not dry out. You can eat this thing for a week, easy. It makes a divine breakfast. (Not that I know that by personal experience, or anything)

Around the house::

After much wrangling with it yesterday, the dishwasher is working again, Hallelujah! So I’ve done a round of dishes already this morning. I have to vacuum and dust a bit before the guests come over, and I have to change the sheets and linens in the master bath.

Plans for the week::

My parish offers Midnight Mass on New Year’s Eve, so I’ll be attending that. Back to work on the second!

Catholic Women’s Almanac No. 40

Outside my window: 

Clouds moving in. We’re supposed to get a cold front that’ll bring frost/freeze weather. Yeah Ohio in October. I mean I don’t like snow, but I don’t like the 80s in October, either. This is fine with me. 🙂

Reading::

Finished House Like a Lotus, so re-reading Mother Teresa and Me. Also trying to finish A Feast for Crows.

Wearing::

Nutmeg colored cashmere V-neck sweater and a rust/cream/brown skirt. I had on boots that matched the sweater earlier, but I’m home so they’re off. 🙂

Praying::

For pregnant friends

For Thomas Peters

for Elizabeth D., blog friend. 🙂

For friends who are sick/going through medical procedures.

Pondering::

Do we really think that eliminating suffering is what makes life worth living? Do people actually think it’s possible to eliminate it? Because it’s not…

From the kitchen::

Just sandwiches tonight. It’s the first week post-show, so I’m not up to much more than that.

In the CD player::

the Original Broadway Cast of Aida. But might change it to Loreena McKennit soon here.

Crafting::

Hoping to finish grandma’s Christmas scarf this week. Then on to a scarf for me. 🙂

Fitness: 

Back to the Pure Barre classes, since I missed them last week due to Tech Week insanity.

Plans for the week::

Workout tomorrow and W; clean up rehearsal tentatively scheduled for Thursday. Show Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and CCD on Sunday morning.

 

Captured::

 

Seven Quick Takes Friday Vol. 29

 

I.

So last night was Opening Night for “And Then There Were None.” Here are some pictures from Tech Week, with me and my lovely stage husband. We had a great crowd, including my parents, last night, and everyone did a wonderful job onstage. So I think we’re all quite pleased. Backstage we had a rousing discussion of literature (one of my favorite kinds of rousing discussions!) and travel. It was much fun. I get some reading in while the others are finishing Act I, because no one else disappears until the end of the act.

The show has five more performances–two this weekend and three next weekend–so if you’re local, come on out!

II.

Books: I’ve read Emily Freeman’s Million Little Ways, which I really liked, and now I’m into Madeline L’Engle’s “O’Keefe Family  trilogy”, which deals with Calvin and Meg from the Wrinkle Quintet and their kids, especially Poly (who’s name is really Polyhymnia–egads!). I finished The Arm of the Starfish and am about 1/2 through Dragons in the Waters. I’m also almost done with A Feast for Crows. One nice thing about dying early–reading time! 🙂

III.

The Christmas scarves near completion. I think that may be tomorrow’s project backstage–finishing the Christmas scarf. Then I want to start a sort of scarf/wrap for me, because it’s definitely getting colder here. I think it’ll be like 45 today and it’s raining. Not that I mind–that’s great stay in weather, and my fireplace is going, and I have coffee–but it does mean scarf for Emily time. I’ve got some lovely Quince and Co. yarn that I can’t wait to knit up for me.

IV.

I missed my pure barre classes this week because of tech week, but I’m back at it on Monday. I’ve actually missed going to class. This is weird. Fortunately I’ve gone to enough classes now that I have an idea of things I can do at home, so I don’t want to be totally lost when I’m back on Monday.

V.

In CCD this week, we’re talking about Adam and Eve. This is actually week one of two weeks on Adam and Eve. I guess we want to make sure the kids really get the story. The Fall is next week, so this week is about how great Eden was, and what God gave Adam and Eve to do, and so forth. Have I mentioned I love my class? Because I do. They are a bunch of great kids.

VI.

One of the “hot spots” (as the FlyLady says) in my house is my kitchen table. It tends to just be a mess. So this week I decided that maybe if I have flowers there, it will look better? As in, I can keep the table clear? So far it’s working. I’ve got golden chrysanthemums, some snap dragons, tiger lilies, and two roses in a green mason jar for a vase.

VII.

A huge pet peeve of mine is stores other than grocery stores that are open on Thanksgiving. Really, guys?

I live in a section off a street that has a Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. on it. And every Thanksgiving I see people skipping time with their families to buy cheap video games and washers and dryers and TV sets. This really gets my goat.

These stores should not be open. The employees are going to have to get up at the crack of dawn anyway for Black Friday. They should have a day–a few hours–with their families before the commercial madness.

And the consumers in line? SHAME ON YOU. Really. You “need” an item so badly that you’re going to wait in (what is usually) crappy Ohio weather for it? ARE YOU INSANE?

Yes. The answer is yes. And every year, I hate this.

Today I read an article that said JCPenney is opening at 8 PM on Thanksgiving. This is wrong. So, so wrong.

People: please. Don’t shop on Thanksgiving, unless it’s to buy a new turkey to replace the one you ruined. Please.

Catholic Women’s Almanac No. 39

Thanking God For::

*Beautiful autumn days

*scones

*Coffee

*Sunshine

*Sleeping in (yes, I had today off…Columbus Day for the win, people)

*His Word

 

Outside my window::
Well it’s not my window, it’s the coffeeshop’s window. That being said: I’m in Bexley, my old college stomping grounds, so I’m seeing the library and the trees along Main Street turning colors. It’s a glorious autumn day, about 75 degrees or so. I’ve got hot coffee and a chocolate chip scone in front of me. Life is good.

Praying::

*Friends who are pregnant

*Thomas Peters

*an Internet friend who is going through her umpteenth round of chemo

 

Pondering::

My NaNoWriMo novel for this year. I’m planning to do it again; I’m all signed up and ready to go. October is the “planning month”. I have a sort of plot, but I’m not sure where the plot will ultimately end up, so I do need to work on that.

 

Reading::
Proverbs is the lectio book of the Bible du jour; Game of Thrones: A Feast for Crows (book 4 in the series). Also re-reading the Wrinkle In Time series–I’m on A Wind  In The Door.

 

Creating::

Zee Christmas Scarves. Yes. I think I’m on the last one, but one can never be sure.

 

In the kitchen::

It’s Tech Week for And Then There Were None. So it’s catch as catch can. I’m thinking carbonara tonight, though. Because I love carbonara, it’s quick to make, and carbs are good for stage energy. 🙂

 

Around the house::

Today I have cleaned the bathroom (tub, toilet, mirrors); swept the kitchen floor; dusted; vacuumed, and cleared off piles of stuff from the Kitchen Table. I have also worked on the constant weeding out of the library. I am pleased. When I get home from my coffee klatch I’m planning on mopping the Kitchen floor and spending some time in the library and my bedroom.

 

Wearing::

Jeans, a mulberry colored sweater with a pink camisole under it and a grey/white/khaki infinity scarf, and pink flats.

Looking forward to:

Tech Week. I mean it’s a lot of work but it’s also fun to see the whole show come together. We open on Friday!

The week ahead::

Um, tech week. 🙂 The show opens on Friday. We have shows Friday and Saturday Evening and then a Sunday matinee. We do it again next weekend.

My sister’s birthday is on Thursday

 

Catholic Women’s Almanac No. 38

(Prompts Elizabeth style, today) 

 

Noticing God’s glory::

Autumn in Central Ohio is usually beautiful, but even moreso when we have so much great leaf color. It makes it a bit easier to commute against the color show.

 

In the CD player::

Still the Joyce CD. I’m all about it, as my brother would say.

 

Clothing myself in::

Nutmeg boots; a asymmetrical hemmed skirt in oatmeal; a blue v-neck top, and a cream scarf (linen, not knitted. I still need to knit a blue scarf for me!). Oh, and smartwool socks, which I looooove.

 

thinking and thinking::

About how to get everything into my days; I have been working on that, and I’ve been getting up earlier. I’ve added a workout to my almost daily schedule. But then with the workout comes two hours home at night in which to do everything–write, take care of the house, knit, etc. Eventually my goal is to be awake at 6:30, but right now we’re about 40 minutes short of that. Maybe “falling back” will help?

 

pondering prayerfully::

the idea of vocation, and what it means when what you thought your vocation was isn’t what you thought it was–or, God has a different idea of how to use your skills, talents, and desires. What is the best use of these?

 

cultivating rhythm::

Well I sort of touched on this, above. But there’s some things that have to be done in a rhythmic way–the mornings, especially, and the preparation for the next day in the evenings.  Also, being sure I use the pockets of free time I have well, on the things that need done.  (Does this make sense?)

 

Creating by hand::

My grandma’s Christmas scarf is on my knitting needles now. Hopefully during Tech Week I can get a lot of this done. 🙂

 

Learning lessons in::

Balance. Always, always balance. How to get everything in, in a way that isn’t a rushed thing, but a way that allows everything to work the way it should.

 

Prayers for::

My friends with health problems

My pregnant friends

My World Vision child, Mery, who turned 13 today!

Thomas Peters

 

Keeping house::

Cleaning the kitchen. I’ve been cleaning out the cabinets and the fridge over the last few weekends and stocking up on some fall essentials. So I have to sweep and mop the floor and deep clear the stove burners.

 

Reading::

Just finished The House of Hades, the latest Rick Riordan book. I’m not as pleased with it as I was with others that he’s written. There’s some unnecessary “contemporary” problems in there and it’s sort of meandering. (I’m being vague in case anyone reading this is a Percy fan. 🙂 )

 

Planning for the week ahead:

Tonight: workout at Pure Barre, and port access. Whee!

Wednesday: Eye doctor appointment; Pirates game. They better win.

Thursday: Another PB class

Friday-Sunday: Rehearsals for the show and Tech Week starts! We open next Friday.

Sunday: Possible Lay Dominicans meeting if I don’t have rehearsal on Sunday, but I”m fairly sure I will. Teaching CCD in the morning.

Catholic Women’s Almanac No. 37

A midweek edition.

Wearing::

Blue top, blue patterned skirt, blue shoes…a theme? 🙂 Shirt and skirt from Talbot’s. I love their full skirts and try to get a new one every fall so I have lots of them to wear. They’re sort of my uniform.

In the CD player::

Renee Fleming, Guilty Pleasures (her new album)

Reading::

Just finished Having a Mary Heart In A Martha World. Some good insights here and things I know I need to work on. Also re-reading The Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson, because, really, there isn’t a bad time to do those things. Also reading Back to Virtue by Peter kreeft.

In the kitchen::

Tonight is a spring pasta, although it’s, you know, Fall. It’s pasta with asparagus and peas.  Here are two things I made last weekend that I loved:

Panko crusted salmon

Summer vegetable stew

I tried eggplant parm on Monday. Yeah, I just don’t like eggplant. It’s official.

Around the house::

Vacuuming, dusting the first floor and the vents in the master bath. Oh joy!

Praying::

Thomas Peters

Pregnant friends

Syria

Creating::

Christmas scarf No.4, which is almost done!

Plans for the week::

Dinner w/ Tiffany tomorrow; rehearsal Fri, Sat.., Sunday; teaching my CCD class on Sunday. We’re talking about Heaven. 🙂

Seven Quick Takes Friday Vol. 21

I.

(And, again, I’m writing most of this on Saturday. So that’s the “today” :))

So doing Les Miz has been sort of Adventures in Costuming. I’ve bought bloomers, a corset, lace fingerless gloves, and now, the piece de resistance, a hat. Not just any hat. A Jane Austen hat.  There is also a lovely trimming set that I ordered with ribbon, flowers, and feathers in colors to match my corset. I’m going to be an awesome lovely lady, I’m just telling you that right now.

II.

For the factory sequence I don’t get to wear a lot of fun stuff, except my Williamsburg mob cap! I love this thing. I think I look cute in it. We’re totally friends. That is also being worn in Look Down, too, I think. I could be wrong. Need to find out. The corset and Jane hat, sadly, are Lovely Ladies only wear.

III.

Today we actually ran Act I of the show off -book and onstage. It went amazingly well, given that there’s so many of us and it’s the first time everyone was off-book, and we were moving set pieces in and out. The first act is definitely the more complicated act so it was good to see this initial test work so well. Of course there are still things that need cleaned up, refined, and generally improved upon, but it was a good day’s work.

IV.

This story makes no sense to me: Raise tuition so you can increase financial aid? What? Kent State, this is sort of mad.

V.

Books I read this week: iWoz, Operation Instructions, finished Doctors of the Church, and re-read the Cecile and Marie-Grace American Girl books. Yes, I re-read them. Don’t judge me.

VI.

Tonight I plan on watching the film version of Possession, a great book I read when I was in Florida. If you haven’t read the book, please do so! The movie has Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhard, Jeremy Notham and Jennifer Ehle, so that cast makes me happy without even seeing the film. 

VII.

I had a column up at Suscipio yesterday! I’ll have a separate link about it in a minute, but you can jump ahead and read it here.

Catholic Women’s Almanac No. 29

Grateful::

• air conditioning
• the pool that is only a few steps from my house
• my WDW hoodie for after swim. I always get chilly when I come in the house after a swim session. And come on, it’s got Sorcerer Mickey on it!
• a ginger ale scented candle on my counter
• the friends I’ve made in the Les Miz cast
• getting to teach CCD in the fall. So excited about this.

What I’m wearing::

A Talbot’s blue paisley print full skirt; a blue t-shirt, black flats, and a jade bead necklace.

Reading::

B XVI’s Doctors of the Church (I’ll probably finish this today); Love Walked In; Anne Lamott’s Some Assembly Required (Normally I wouldn’t be reading her books, since I am conservative and she is so not, and lets you know it in her writing, but it was a Duck’s Cottage book club selection–I’m in their mail order book club–so I’m reading it. When she’s not freaking out about conservatives I do like her writing and she’s pretty funny.) Also re-reading Pride and Prejudice.

In the CD player::

It was Josh Groban’s newest CD this morning, but that’ll change later today. 🙂 In the house it’s the Benedictines of Mary’s Angels and Saints. 

Praying::

For my friends’ houses to sell

Health and fitness::

Let me tell you, blocking rehearsals in a hot theater burn calories. 🙂 So I have one of those tomorrow, and then we start running the acts straight through on Saturday. Planning on going for a swim tonight since it’s 90 degrees here…yikes.

Linkage::

Oh, UK, please do this!

Around the house::

Dusting the living room, vacuuming, and sorting through the items that are stored in my end tables (They’re mission style, so they have a sort of open area under the table top where I store things) and deciding what I really need to keep in there.

Plans for the week::

Tonight: Port access and dinner w/ my mom.

Wednesday: blocking rehearsal and music rehearsal. Full slate.

Saturday: We’re running Act I of Les Miz, AKA, the only act I’m really in 🙂 (I’m in the epilogue–aka, the finale–of the show. But nothing else in Act II)

Sunday: Act II of Les Miz. (AKA, I get to sit in the audience, watch, and read. 😀 ) Also my parents’ wedding anniversary and my grandma’s birthday!

Seven Quick Takes Friday Vol. 20

I.

Welcome summer. Officially. 🙂 It’s 88 degrees here (well, it will be.It’s not, currently) and will be about 90 all weekend so Emily has plans for A/C, shorts and swimming. What about you? Also, it’s June and we’re almost done with June, so I need to read Mrs. Dalloway this weekend: “Life, London, this moment of June…” Mm. Good stuff.

II.

Both my parents had birthday this week–they were born three days apart, same year, same city. I think that’s awesome. Dad’s was on the 19th and Mom’s is tomorrow. Their wedding anniversary is next week, on the same day at my grandma’s (mom’s mom’s) birthday. It’s a busy time for birthdays around here, I’ll tell ya. But then we’re done until my brother’s in September.

III.

I was talking to a former colleague of mine whose wife is pregnant with their first child. We were talking about the baby’s gender; did they want to know, did they know and they just weren’t telling, etc. I find this sort of fascinating. I don’t think I’d want to know; I’d want like that one massive surprise in the delivery room. But I wouldn’t be all annoyed if I found out beforehand (I’m pretty good at reading ultrasounds at this point in my life. Well, OK, not baby ultrasounds, but abdominal ultrasounds. Same diff, right? Humor me.). So, Colleague seemed pretty sure they were having a boy. So me: “Do you know you’re having a boy, or are you doing an Emily’s dad from 1981 where he bought the child a male teddy bear and was sort of disappointed when his firstborn was, indeed, a girl?” Him: Oh, we know.

Back in 1981, ultrasounds were not that super duper. I don’t think my parents wanted to know, anyway. But yes, there was a teddy bear named Coach, who had a t-shirt that said COACH (hence the highly original name) and a whistle around his neck. I think my dad wanted me to be a boy. But Coach lives on, to this day, with me. Sans t-shirt and whistle. I don’t think the whistle even made it out of my infancy…

Oh, what technology has wrought. (Although, I know, the ultrasounds can be wrong…)

addendum: Dad read this and said he never wanted me to be a boy. Just clearing up the record. 🙂 

IV.

It must be funny anecdote day over here on da blog. So here’s a bit of a conversation I had  with a Francophile friend yesterday:

Me: My high school teacher described Robespierre as “someone you wouldn’t want to take to prom.”

Mary: But he could recite poetry in Latin!

Me: I don’t think that helps.

Mary: It does!

Me: Um….no.

Mary: Whatever….not that I would ever date Robespierre.

These are the kind of conversations I have with my friends.  Although I am sure that almost twenty years later, the fact that I remember this bit from Mr. Liptrap’s College Prep World Studies Class should be a credit to him.

V.

Rehearsal over the weekend is actually fairly light, at least tomorrow. We’re blocking parts of Act II, and I’m only in one part of Act II, so I can get there early with my Tim Horton’s iced cappuccino and read some Jane on my iPad mini while people die gloriously onstage. Sounds like fun to me, anyway. Oh, and I get to try on a corset! “I’ll make it fit!” I’ve never actually worn a corset, but I have no doubt that I will not have Scarlett O’Hara’s “18 1/2 inches” of a waist. Ohhhh, no.

Sunday we have a music rehearsal–most of Act I–and then I’m celebrating my parents’ birthdays with them at some sort of dinner post-rehearsal.

VI.

Tomorrow night the “over 21” members of the Les Miz cast are going out for dinner and karaoke. I’m hoping they have the Carpenters or Simon and Garfunkel on the karaoke list. I love to sing “Rainy Days and Mondays” at karaoke.

VII.

And to round this out: books I read this week: Strange Gods, The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Catechism, The Art Forger. Also made progress on B XVI’s Doctors of the Church  and St. Catherine of Siena’s Dialogues.