Good Theater is Good Even When You're Tired

We saw "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" at San Jose Rep tonight.  The audience was only half full, and I was very tired from a long week.  I would have been tempted to put off the tickets, except my next few weeks of work will be even busier than this one has been.

I'm glad we didn't wait.  It was an awesome show!

The story is old: <spoiler alert> boy meets devil, bargains away soul, regrets it in the end.  Even though I haven't seen this play before, I was already a little bored.

But everything else about it was very new and interesting!  The costumes were great--and historic, which I appreciated.  Beautiful to look at, and lots of changes of costume for the many character parts that each of the 4 actors played.

Did I say actors?  I should have said actor and 3 actresses!  The mostly male characters were mostly cast with females, which added an interesting dimension to the interactions between the characters, especially Faustus and Mephistopheles.

Mark Anderson Phillips was superb as the alternatingly gloating and repentent Dr. Faustus.  His performance was reminiscent of his split personality portrayal of the older brother in Long Day's Journey into Night.

Lindsy Kail as Mephistopheles was show-stealing!  She was bewitching, and very creative in her portrayal of the 7 deadly sins--so fun to watch!

Rachel Harker as Lucifer was entertaining, and the voice effects enhanced the spine chilling effect.

Halsey Varady (who could impersonate Kirsten Dunst easily) was fun to watch in all her many roles--she was funny and energetic on stage.

As usual, the staging was very interesting.  SJ Rep has used screens to good effect before, and tonight they did so again.  The screens enhanced the background, allowed aerial views, and made furniture and stage curtains for entrances and exits.

Do get tickets soon--because if all the hard work put into this show doesn't get its due audience, that would be a tragical history indeed.  They deserve a much more eloquent review than I am capable of tonight after a long week, so don't hold that against them.

You're Missing All the Crabs!

The boys and I were invited to join some friends at Point Lobos this weekend.  We had hoped for whale watching, but with no whales in sight, the kids settled for spotting seals, starfish, cormorants, and seagulls instead.

The rocks were dramatic!  There were so many different types in one place--some of which was hard to believe was naturally made.  My junior high Earth Science teacher would have been very disappointed in how few I could name.  I remember "gneiss", but that is about it!

The kids all climbed big rocks and little ones, and spied on crabs scuttling around in the cracks.  I was not as fascinated by these as the kids were, but hey, everyone was enjoying the sunny day out by the water.

At one point, Barley and I ended up waaay on the other side of the beach from everyone else, so we headed over there to catch up with the rest.  It was a long path, crossing both wet and dry tidepool areas.  Barley scolded me about my pace, "Mom!  You're going so fast you're missing ALL the crabs!  Look at all these cracks for them to hide in, and you're not even looking!"

Well, I did remember to take some pictures, and while Barley sought out more scuttling critters, I smiled at this very boy's perspective on the old "smell the roses" admonition.

As you go through your week, remember to take time to hunt for crabs in your life!

(If I get ambitious, I may come back and load pictures of the rock formations).

4 Trees Later

I've been thinking about this blog, really I have.  Even though you can't tell since I haven't had time to sit and write anything lately.  I actually have a couple of good posts I'd like to write...if I can still remember them when I finally get time (maybe in June?).

As usual, I blame work for my lack of writing.

Well, blame is too strong a word.  Work is the reason, but I am glad to have work, glad to be challenged and fully engaged, and appreciated.  Especially when I hear about 3 friends being laid off their jobs since January, and this when the recession is supposed to be getting better.

Meantime, one of the laid off friends is close enough to retirement that selling her house and moving to a cheaper area, instead of working and paying taxes here, is a reasonable option.  I enviously wish her luck.

Since that's not in the cards for me for quite some time, the good news is I have a major new project keeping me *very* busy at work.  So busy that I've already had one out-of-town business trip, several workshops, a big conference, another out-of-town trip coming, and plenty to keep me occupied the rest of the year.  Never mind the work that was already on my desk before this project hit. Again, GRATEFUL to be working at a job I don't hate.  And while the requests to hop on a plane to go to Manila, Uruguay, and Sri Lanka were....um...entertaining, I was quite relieved to be able to postpone, re-assign, or cancel them in the end.  Phew!

On the home front, in anticipation of free time for homesteading someday, I've been digging and planting.  It started with a random knock on the door.  Tree-trimmers were in the neighborhood, rustling up more work.  We had them trim 4 trees down to stumps, and then grind the stumps out!  Two of them were magnolias planted in the front by the previous owners.  Everyone exclaims how they love Magnolias.  I don't get that.  The flowers were up top, where we couldn't see them anyway.  The trees were 2 stories tall, and drop Jursassic style leaves all dang year long!  Raking leaves in summer stinks!  We also took down 2 ash trees in the back--they drop pellets in the fall, also annoying.

In their place, we planted apple, plum, persimmon, and a lemon tree!  I have fantasies of fruitful bounty next year, spring, summer and fall!  We will see if I do better with these trees than the blueberries and strawberries from years pasts.  Wish us luck.

Weight?  DH is down 40 pounds, and I am down about 8.  I am still wearing my Jawbone, and it helps remind me to keep active.  I've stopped tracking food, but the few weeks I was doing that has helped me reset my perception of reasonable portion sizes.  Will try to keep those habits in place.