The month of laze

I am sitting this very moment at my desk, watching the snow fall in my back yard. It is slow, calming, and peaceful.

 

This past November and December left me feeling tired and thinned.  Instead of sprinting into January with a head and heart filled with goals and ambitions, I sort of fumbled into it head over heels, worn out and with a heart filled with lead and a head filled with mush.  I needed to rest. I needed to not be busy with a schedule jammed packed with things to do.  I needed to be lazy.

And so I have. 

I spent January mooning over Spike and laughing at his antics (Buffy watching).  I spent January making new friends whose schools and town halls I can vandalize (Simpson’s Tapped Out). I snuggled up on the sofa at night with my love and debated over who had the worst wardrobe, Wesley Crusher or Jake Sisko (Star Trek DS9 watching). I cheered when Sherlock put on his cap. I read a book where I traveled with a dwarf (Watersmeet), perused through my Johnny’s seed catalog, and fangirled on Pinterest.  I went less places and I ignored the small nagging voice that asked,

“Shouldn’t you be sending out your picture book manuscript to publishers? Shouldn’t you be editing your novel? Shouldn’t you be going to that meeting or volunteering for that thing?”

“No,” I answered. “No I should not. I need time to recharge my batteries, to rest, it will all be there waiting for me the next day, the next week, the next month.” 

I have greatly enjoyed having a lazy January. I have enjoyed it so much that I think I will slowly ease my way into February and see how it goes. I will remind myself more that I don’t have to do everything all at once and that a firm no is better than a half-hearted yes and thanks to Krista M.  I think I too will aspire this year to try to do less and take care of and be kind to myself more.

Once again we mark my birthday...with cheese

I am not sure why, but I haven’t been all that into the whole birthday thing this year.  I think it may just be that the holidays were super busy and I am just starting to wind down and I did not want to heap busy on top of busy. Still, it seemed like I should do something to mark the occasion, so this past Sunday, we celebrated the end of my 35dom with brunch.

Who doesn’t love brunch? (I am sure that there is at least one person reading this who is thinking, “Me, I’m that person. I hate brunch.)  You get maximum variety.  You can have something sweet or something salty or maybe a little bit of both.  There are lots of places in Philly to have brunch; we decided to brunch at Sabrina’s Café.

 

There are three Sabrina’s locations in Philadelphia.  We chose the location in the Italian Market.  They don’t take reservations, but you can call ahead, so we were smart and did that.  When you first arrive there is a separate from the restaurant pretty cool waiting area, or holding pen, whichever you prefer.  It had great atmosphere and you got to sit on refurbished church pews.

 After a pleasant wait in the waiting lounge, our name was called, and we were told to go next door to the café.  Sabrina’s was adorable.  There were vintage tiles on the walls, beautiful crown molding around the ceiling, and fun chalkboard art on the walls.

There was a wide variety of things to choose from on the menu, but being more of a savory than sweet person I went with the Mexi Special. 

To be honest I could not completely identify everything that was inside but I at least know it had scrambled eggs, peppers, onions and cheese wrapped in a corn pancakes of sorts and topped with black beans and line sour cream.  It was yummy, and quite filling. I had to take half of it home.

My husband went with the sweet option and had the Nutella stuffed French toast.

 

I think the only down side to the café is that it is very small and there aren’t a lot of tables, so you don’t feel like you can linger and chat over coffee because there are people waiting for tables who can look at you through the window like Tiny Tim staring at the prize winning turkey in the butcher shop window. 

 Because we didn’t have enough food, we decided to take a stroll around The Italian Market.

Of course it wouldn't be a birthday adventure without the purchase of cheese.

 

We then made our way to IKEA to walk around and to pick up Norden.

 

This is Norden (he's a table).  Norden is helping this year's war on the lack of storage in our home, but that is for different blog post. 

 I also love this Cheese

 

Favortie Reads of 2013

The best books I read in 2013 in no particular order...

-Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets - By Evan Roskos

-Unwind-by Neal Shusterman

- Nerd Camp-by Elissa Brent  Weissman

-Fur Face- by Jon Gibbs

-Dweeb-  by Aaron Starmer

-Stargirl- by Jerry Spinelli

-The Hero of Ages- (last book in the Mistborn trilogy) by Brandon Sanderson

 

 

-The Maze Runner- by James Dashner

I Burst with Pure Joy- Part 2

Since the show was at 3pm, we decided to have brunch before the show so that we could hop on the train and make our way back as soon as the show was over.  We chose Ca Va, a French restaurant, because it was near the theatre and because Waiting for Godot first premiered in 1953 in Paris, so it tied the meal and show together nicely.

 

The atmosphere at Ca Va could be described as classy cozy.  It was warm, casual, comfortable, and the food was yummy. 

 

Since it was our big meal for the day, we went with the special prix-fixe menu that came with an appetizer, entrée and dessert for $30.00 per person.

For my appetizer, I chose the chicken meatballs.

They were cooked in a sauce of truffled honey and preserved lemons, and were served in a mason jar, so for me it was already a winner. The meatballs and sauce were absolutely delicious.  The savory meatballs mixed with the citrus, and the sweetness of the honey was heavenly.

 

For my meal, I ordered the honey roasted chicken with a bacon-Brussels sprout hash.  I happen to love Brussels sprouts, so I was extra excited about the hash.  My chicken and the hash were very tasty. 

 

My husband got the seared scallops with sweet and sour eggplant.  He let me have a bite of the eggplant and it had a unique flavor that was quite wonderful.  I think I could have eaten an entire bowl of the eggplant. 

  For dessert we both chose the pear and fig tart with vanilla gelato.  It was not that it was not good, but I would have preferred more pear and less figs.  It was super figgy. 

  I should also mention that the coffee was excellent, though I would not have expected less from a French restaurant.

 

After our brunch, we made our way to the Cort Theatre to see the play. 

 

When we purchased our tickets a few weeks prior, there were not many available seats left.  There were two seats available in the second row and they were the same price as the seats in the first balcony.  We thought this was a bit suspicious and googled whatever we could find about the layout of the theatre to see if there was something like an obstructed view, but everything seemed fine so we purchased the seats.  When we sat down I could not believe how close we were to the stage. 

  I could have reached out and touched Sir Patrick Stewart and/or Sir Ian McKellen several times. They were right in front of us, together, alive, breathing, talking and dancing!!!  I think they may have even looked at me once or twice, which lead to a whimsical fantasy where backstage they said,

IM: Did you see that lovely red headed girl with the glasses in the second row?

PS: Yes I did.  She seemed to be enjoying the play immensely.

IM: I quite agree. Perhaps we should invite her backstage so she can discuss it with us?

PS: Splendid idea!

(Note: I promise that I am in no way a crazy stalker. It’s just fun to have dreams)

 

Just a quick synopsis of the play- Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, is about two men who have been great friends for at least 50 years.  They meet together at a specific place (everyday? It seems like there may be some sort of infinite time loop going on but that is just my guess) to wait for Godot so that Godot can tell them what life is all about. There is no information about who Godot actually is, the characters themselves aren’t even sure.  The play is pretty much about what the two old gentlemen do to pass the time while waiting. The action and dialogue shift from being slapstick comedic, to wittily hilarious, to deep and contemplative, to downright dark and depressing.  In the end the play is up to your own interpretation as far as what it all means. 

The play by itself is fantastic, and when you add four great actors and it is absolutely amazing!  I can only describe the experience of seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen live right in front of me acting together as transcendent.  The play is almost three hours long, but I could have spent eight hours or more watching those two on stage. I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it again.  At one point in the play Patrick Stewart sings and does a little dance and they both do a little soft shoeing a few times during the play (though it is a straight play and not at all a musical). 

I also have to give credit to the other two cast members, Billy Crudup (yes Dr. Manhattan), and Shuler Hensley who also gave wonderful performances.  Out of the entire cast, I think Billy Crudup had the most challenging role to play as Lucky.  The role was quite physically demanding and I spent a good amount of time watching him intently. He never broke character once.  His character is mostly non-verbal, but at one point he launches into an insane mind boggling monologue. I’d like to get my hands on a copy of the play because I would love to see exactly how that monologue is written.

I enjoyed every nanosecond of the play, I was bursting with pure joy the entire time, and it will rank as one of the best experiences I have had ever! 

When we walked out of the theatre, it had just started snowing. Walking back to the train through Times Square in the gently falling snow seemed to be the perfect ending to an incredible day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Burst with Pure Joy - New York City part 1

It started with an invitation to a holiday party, my husband’s office holiday party to be exact.  It was going to be at the Hyatt in Morristown New Jersey, which is a bit of a drive from where we live.  The prospect of having to drive for several hours, attend the party, and then spend several hours driving back home did not excite us.

-But what if we stayed overnight? 

-Yes that could be fun, and if we were going to be so close to New York City, why not spend some time in the city the next day?  Then an image popped into my head.  It was the image of Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen crouched in front of a large pile of garbage, pointing and smiling. 

-Wait, weren’t they currently performing in a play, together, on Broadway?  And so was the beginning of one of my most awesome experiences of all time.

We left before noon on Saturday to give ourselves plenty of time.  We took a brief detour to hit the Crate and Barrel outlet in Cranbury NJ.  We love Crate and Barrel stuff, especially when it is on sale and discounted. 

 

After picking up a couple of small things, we got back on the road again. We arrived at our hotel, The Hamilton Park Wyndham, around 4:30pm.

This is the 3^rd or 4^th time we have used Priceline to book a hotel room and so far we have never been disappointed. 

 The hotel and room were both very nice and it was only a 5-10 minute drive from our hotel to the Hyatt where the party was taking place. After checking into our room

 

we changed into our swimsuits and spent 45 minutes soaking in the hotel’s hot tub. We were slightly late for the party, but the relaxing time was worth it.

 

The Hyatt was festive and the party was swanky and fun.

There were casino tables where you could earn chips to cash in for raffle tickets for a drawing for restaurant gift cards with limo service.  We did not win any of the gift cards (I found out later that my winning mojo was currently invested in winning a book that I had entered to win) but my husband had a good time playing roulette, and it was nice because you weren’t actually spending any real money.  The party also had the reappearance of one of my new favorite event buffet items…a mashed potato bar.  There was a live band with a rocking saxophone player and plenty of dancing.  

After the party we went back to the hotel and went straight to bed because we needed to be up bright and early.

We got to Convent station by 9am.  Due to work on the tracks, the trains were running a bit behind, which was not great because it was down right chilly and the inside of the station is closed on Sundays. 

 

I was excited when I saw that we would be riding on a double decker train.  The double decker trains are nicer, roomier and just more fun.

 

The train ride from Convent Station to Penn Station lasted an hour and then we took the subway to Times Square. Once in Times Square we still had some extra time to kill before our brunch reservation.  Since it was cold, we decided to kill time by wandering around in some of the nice warm stores in Times Square.

 

There were crowds, but it wasn't nearly as insane as the one year when we went to New York City at Christmas time.  It may have been less chaotic because of the snow that was coming, but we were pretty oblivious to all that. Once our clock struck 12pm, we were off to brunch.

Note: People dressed in mascot type costumes rank just below clowns and ventriloquist puppets in things that I am afraid of.  There are a lot of mascot type people wandering around in Times Square.  I told my husband that I would be fine as long as none of them touched me, which was right about the time when one of the Elmos decided to put his hand on my shoulder.  It is probably for the best that I have never been trained in the ninja arts, because I probably would have laid Elmo out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Day of The Doctor

So today was the big day.  It was the day of the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who.  For those of us who are fans of The Doctor, it has been a day of much anticipation.  As soon as I found out that a movie theater near where I live would be showing the 50th Anniversary episode on the big screen in 3D, I was practically knocking down the theater door to secure my tickets.

The episode was AMAZING and I am so excited to see where the show will be going as it has now added a brand new, very interesting plot.  I won't go into a review of the entire episode.  I'll leave that to my friend Glenn Walker over at Biff Bam Pop.  He wrote an excellent review.

For those that did not get to see it in the theater there were a few little extras for us theater goers.  Before the episode, Strax appears and warns us about all of the unpleasant things that will happen to us if we use our cell phones, try to record the episode illegally, or talk and annoy those around us.  He also gave me a brand new view of popcorn.  Apparently popcorn can feel pain.

After Strax, the 11th Doctor appears to tell us that it is time to put on our 3D glasses, for a moment he transforms into the 10th Doctor who warns us that we must not be alarmed when the 11th Doctor's gigantic chin comes flying at us during the 3D effects. 

After the ending credits there was also a special making of the 50th anniversary episode feature that was narrated by Colin Baker.

It was a lot of fun seeing the episode with a large audience.  Because everyone was uber excited, no one was chatty, or rowdy, and it's awesome to hear everyone laugh together at all of the various Who related jokes and clap and cheer at all of the cheer worthy moments.  I was actually surprised by how loud the crowd cheered when Peter Capaldi made an appearance.  It was nice to see him already so lovingly accepted.

I made my own movie snack bags to share with my friends.  Jelly Babies are extremely yummy.

I met up with my fellow Oodles of Noodles team members (or should we call ourselves Cup-O-Soup) so we could watch the episode together.

When we first arrived there was quite a line, filled with people dressed up.  It absolutely befuddled people who were coming to the theater to see other movies.

The theater split the Who goers into 3 different theaters.  We were in 13.

The Fourth Doctor received a lot of Whovian love.

I am pretty sure that fez sales sky rocketed in anticipation of the 50th anniversary episode.

I was impressed with this girl's TARDIS dress complete with light up hat,

and while in the bathroom I ran into a fellow dalek hat wearer.

After leaving the theater, I zipped over to the British Chip Shop so that I could end the day with a TARDIS cookie.

It was so much fun.  I am a little sad that it is actually over now, but I am looking forward to hopefully finding Gallifrey.