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What a fantastic week! And by fantastic I mean slightly insane. How insane you ask? Well, let’s just set the bar at noticing my son walking funny as we approached WalMart this morning and realizing I had put his shoes on the wrong feet…
Last night my dear friend invited me to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to see Lulu. OMG. I have never seen a longer – or more powerful – opera in my life. It was SO GOOD. And also very random. Written by Alban Berg and sort of a work-in-progress for about 50 years, it embraces the best and worst characteristics of the life of the elite and art-loving world in 1920’s Austria.
Lulu‘s beautifully intricate musicality seemed dwarfed by the magnificence of the multimedia masterpiece. Not only does this opera include choreography, poetry and orchestral pieces, but Berg also writes a score to accompany a movie that is shown in Act II. It was incredible! The film, which it seems, should be produced by the performing cast – because it was last night – is made like an early 1900’s silent film illustrating some of the details that occur between scenes.
One of my favorite random sections of the piece is at the end – when the Countess who has fallen madly in love with Lulu, now a prostitute, gives up on Lulu’s new reckless and destructive life and within two minutes of worshipping her, rebukes her then declares, “I know! I’m going to enroll in the university and become an advocate for women’s rights by studying law.” (Wha??) Immediately after her revelation, she hears Lulu’s screams, sees her stumbling to her death by stabbing and is also murdered by Lulu’s last customer, a psychotic knife-wielding, dark-coated man… ((Wha??)) I guess Berg didn’t really know how to end this one. Whatever. It was a fantastic performance and opera. Just wonderful.
I think I loved it so much because I love everything art nouveau and I imagine I would have really loved to see the movement and all that went with it in Paris and Vienna in the 20’s
OK, so that was Tuesday.
Tonight, I’ll head over to the shelter and help serve and celebrate Thanksgiving with hundreds of homeless men, women and children. Should be a great time.
Tomorrow, I’m hosting my family’s Thanksgiving! It grew from three of us to about eight… what did I get myself into? I’m still really excited. I love entertaining! Of course I have to admit I’m cheating. My mother is coming in town and she loves to cook – I think she misses having family to cook for – so she’s doing all the cooking, and I’m just making sure the house is clean, the table is set (and the socks match and the shoes are on the right feet). Now to Michael’s for my centerpiece.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
-O
Deep down inside I really want to be one of those health-nut-types. The ones who effortlessly eat, drink and buy organic, have their own gardens to provide fresh-from-the-earth foods for every meal, use honey instead of sugar, a piece of fruit is dessert; they even have home-spun organic clothes. And they are simply and automatically healthy – great heart, great cholesterol levels, great eyes, ears, and skin? How do they do it?
Ok, it’s true. I wish I were Amish.
Ok, it’s true. I’m lying.
…About the Amish part anyway…Amish or not, I’ve always wanted to be super healthy and raise my children to think and do these things automatically. It would be a HUGE switch for me because I LOVE greasy foods. I mean really. Love Church’s Ochra. OMG. delish. But deep down, yes, I want that little house on the prairie mother-nature kitchen.
Since I’ll probably never naturally come to that transformation or even if I do come to that way of cuisine life, it will be a long and difficult road to pry me away from fast food. Still, I will try to make the transition. And I want to try so my babies will be naturally healthy.
You can imagine how excited I was to find this article on FitSugar.com listing seven – count’em SEVEN – natural and healthy foods that are high in antioxidants to help keep you going at 100% this winter.
Those lucky sevens are:
- Artichoke Hearts! – they’re named for the heart, but they’re good for the liver. Believe it or not, little baby o’ mine likes spinach and artichoke!
- BEANS! – ME LOVES BEANS – I just made Chili, too! I shouldn’t feel guilty about that anymore, wow -I’m on my way to being Little Miss Organic Mommy of the Year
- Cranberries – YUMMY! My traditional cranberry intake is a bottle of juice ( normally only 3% real juice) and cans of jellied cranberry-tasting gelatin that I throw down like a starved horse every year at Thanksgiving. Maybe I should try to eat the natural ones this year…ok, who am I kidding. Maybe after Thanksgiving. I love that canned stuff. wow. can’t. wait.
- Pecans! – in a word, ICK, but only because I’m allergic to Tree Nuts. I used to like them as a kid. These are high in protein too and mixed with dried cranberries this could be a really healthy wintry trail mix – if you’re not allergic, that is.
- PRUNES! GROSS. hate prunes. always have.
- GRANNY SMITH APPLES!! – yaay! I love apples and these are my favorite kinds – they’re perfect breakfast on the trains and perfect afternoon snacks. They’re also fantastic in my favorite Martha Stewart recipe – Tart-Apple Bistro Salad with fresh greens like Frisee and Romaine, chunks of Granny Smiths, and drizzled with the best vinaigrette ever – campaign vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard and honey. crack some fresh pepper and sea salt on top – I like to throw some dill and parsley on my salads. LOVE those Grannies
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- CLOVES!!! – OMG CLOVES!! I love these things. My favorite “school project that you make as a gift for your mom but is really something silly that’s just to keep you busy and quiet for the rest of the day before vacation” was a bag of spices -including cloves- wrapped in cheese cloth and tied with a ribbon. Then you boil the bag in a pot of water and the whole house smells like HOLIDAY LOVE. Seriously it was great. I can’t remember what other spices were in there… maybe cinnamon… some other stuff. Smelled great.
Ok, so I’ll be following these tips – except for 4 (allergic) and 5 (Ick. Nasty.) – and hopefully have some stories of healthy, happy and natural wintertime!
-O
Today was Crafturday at my house – I blogged about it on my Art blog here>
Check it out:
Projet No. 1: Wreaths for Wreal!!
Projet No. 2: MagNEATOs!!
OK, its official. I live on a movie set. Where else would I be the Dad? Yes, that’s right, my son calls my husband either by his first name or Mommy. When I walk into a room DADDEEE! It’s cool. At least he knows we have different names. It really is the best when I call my husband, “Hey Joe?” and soon too follow is the sweetest little voice “JOE!” When we practice with pictures, he gets it right. But in person, I’m the poppa.
My son’s first word was “bath.” It actually came out more like bapfhtsh but I knew what he meant. He then added dack-eeee! (doggie) and woo-woof (woof woof – he loves Pete the dog). He’s got the dog right and can call him by name now Petey! so we’ll just work on Mommy and Daddy … or vice versa… for a while. Darling child.
Find your Happy.
I recently found my Happy. Things have been moving faster than the speed of light in my life for a few years and I just got lossed. I mean, I was OK – I was good. I laughed and I had fun, but I felt like things were missing and I was wasting my life. Yes, life. Not just wasting time, but wasting LIFE. I was terrified of becoming another auto-pilot middle American family, and looking back on my life on my 60th birthday seeing that I didn’t do anything particularly special or enjoyable. I desperately bounced from plan to plan to plan in a panicked search for happiness.
I could easily identify some of the detours I took from the life I thought I was going to have, but I didn’t know how to transition from what I thought would be to what currently is. I didn’t know who I had become or how to enjoy where I was in life.
Finally, probably due in part to blogging and being able to laugh at myself a lot more, I’m happy! Not just happy, but happy AND balanced!
I’ve learned to slow down, love where I am, realize life isn’t a race and if it were, I’m not behind in my game. I adore my family and enjoy my job; I’m balanced spiritually through leading youth group, and creatively with my orchestra and home projects (which I blog about here).
Until I found my “happy place,” I was so frantically searching for it because I’ve seen too many women who are pretending and have been pretending for years. I mean they really pretend. They’ve ignored their passions -assuming they already identified them – and plunge headfirst into a monotonous repetitious sink hole (of course, the plunge is more understandable if the woman never found her passions and is just looking for something to fill her life).
I’m talking about automatic parenting- where moms aren’t happy with themselves but just suck it up and deal, hoping things will just be alright for their children.
I’m talking about daily grind jobs – women who have nothing better to do than find a job and life becomes work; work becomes life and there’s nothing outside of the cubicle.
These situations are sad to me. Depressing.
It’s so unfortunate in my mind that some people cannot really find fun and rewarding ways to sit back and say, AH, THIS IS THE LIFE. So many moms get it – I admire those women who can merge their passions, families and careers into one big balanced and happy dream life – but so many moms don’t.
For me, I knew my children’s happiness and attitudes would be a reflection of how much optimism and happiness I invest into them. I’m not saying a happy mom will never have upset or sad children. As mother of the year Michelle Obama once said, “I’m only as good as my most sad child.”
I’m saying, while taking the normal ups and downs of life into full consideration, women and especially mothers, will be more nurturing and better equipped to cope and guide their families if she is grounded in avenues that stimulate her talents and passions.
It’s very difficult to do this if you are not happy yourself. Think of it this way – how can you teach French if you can’t speak it yourself? It just doesn’t work. How can I nurture happy balanced children if I’m not happy and balanced myself?
Finally, I’m fluent in Happy and conversational in Balance and it’s a relief. Being unhappy is DRAINING; it’s so much easier to find your Happy.
I saw this article on Yahoo by Gretchen Rubin, where I realized – again – that I’m not alone in this quest for happiness and fear of wasting life. The Real Simple writer gives a list of ten ways to find your Happy. She begins:
A few years ago, on a morning like any other, I had a sudden realization: I was in danger of wasting my life. As I stared out the rain-spattered window of a New York City bus, I saw that the years were slipping by.
“What do I want from life?” I asked myself. “Well…I want to be happy.” I had many reasons to be happy: My husband was the tall, dark, handsome love of my life; we had two delightful girls, ages 1 and 7; I was a writer, living in my favorite city. I had friends; I had my health; I didn’t have to color my hair. But too often I sniped at my husband or the drugstore clerk. I felt dejected after even a minor professional setback. I lost my temper easily. Is that how a happy person would act?
I decided on the spot to begin a systematic study of happiness…
How many of us out there have lost our tempers, been on-edge, nagged and picked at trivial things, then felt embarrassed that you let yourself react and behave in such ways… I know that was me too. If that’s you, I sincerely encourage you to ditch the bitch and find some happiness and balance in your lives – your families and coworkers will flourish from your new vibes.
– O
I’m having a disastrously only-in-the-movies kind of day, which is very laughable … now. It all started on Monday…
The Bulls game was on cable. We don’t have cable. FIL (father-in-law) invites us (Joe) over to indulge in sports entertainment.
Joe and baby head over, I take the train back to my car, get my car then drive over.
Baby and I spend some quality time together which includes dumping my purse on the floor. Whee!
There were a few hours of chatting, snacking, and playing until it was time to clean up and head out. Fil brings in Sam, a mutt with a temper not unlike Cujo, for the night and shuts him in the garage. We say goodbyes.
Out we go.
Door. Click. Darkness. Fil goes back down to watch more sports. Mil goes up to bed. Joe takes baby in his car and heads home, I get my purse and hop in my car to follow… wait, where are my keys?
My house keys were casualties of Dump the Purse time and probably hidden under the couch.
I try the knob. It’s locked.
I knock. No answer.
I call home phone. No answer.
I call cell phone. No answer.
I walk around to the front. Ring the bell fifty times. No answer.
I know the garage code, but one beep and I’m dog meat. That’s right Sam’s in there.
Fifteen minutes of calling, knocking, beating, ding-donging and Cujo barking like an idiot – still no answer. I say, whatever. I’ve got my car keys, I’ll just go home…
Last night was the benefit Joe has spent the past few months organizing and where I had the pleasure of providing cello entertainment. Baby got to spend a night at Fil and Mil’s.
We got home late, unloaded and went straight to bed. In the morning, I was crazed, sleep-deprived and my body was growling at me for still waking up at seven. Although I missed him, I was glad to not have to get baby ready this morning since my body was in its state of awake-shock. I was also glad to be driving into work today – I have orchestra rehearsal tonight for Sunday’s concert – because it’s too inconvenient to try and make it to rehearsal from work and to home from rehearsal on mass transit.
Joe left.
I packed my things for today’s adventures. I had forgotten to charge my phone last night so I plugged it in for a quick power zap.
I grabbed an apple, some ice water, locked the door and head out.
I’m driving, driving, getting gas, driving…what a beautiful November day, I thought. Rehearsal will be fun today too…did I forget something?
My cello.
YOU SILLY GIRL, I chuckled to myself. I’ll just turn back around and go insi—
My keys are in Fil and Mil’s basement.
That’s ok, I’ll just call J—
My phone is still in the kitchen.
No keys. No phone. No cello.
No funny.
Thankfully, my selfless loving husband drove into the city to bring me my cello so I won’t have to WAH-SOO through Friday rush hour traffic, only to drive back into the city for rehearsal, after deliberately driving instead of commuting by train to SAVE my sanity and pay $25 for city parking all for nothing.
Thanks Joe.
But seriously… is this normal or am I the star of my own Truman Show for the amusement of the whole world?
Only in the movies. Just an average day in the life of the twenty something mom.
-O
This is for young moms, old moms, new moms…old moms, hip moms, old …AND DULL… moms who want their babies to have a better sense of cool than they do – and ALL MOMS! And Dadios too, I suppose.
As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I’m A HUGE advocate for music exposure for infants and babies. It is key for development, but as parents we must be careful to expose our innocent and pure little humans to positive music. Creations that evoke calming and soothing tones and promote positive gentle behaviors.
Wow, that sounded way more floaty and free spirity than I expected.
Anyway, the best union of mainstream and baby music I have EVER seen is by Rockabye Baby! Their music transforms rock, metal and pop music of our generation into cutesy but altogether beautiful and intriguing instrumental music delicacies.
Some of my faves: U2, Metallica, Greenday and Radiohead
Not only is the music FANTASTISCHE, but the album art on each CD hysterically cartoon-teddy-bear-i-fies memorable cover art from one of the featured band’s albums. These little rockin’ teddies are so adorable.
Each album is about $17 – a great investment for the reward of garnering a cross-cultural music appreciation in your children!
Has anyone else noticed the relief and joy darting from person to person like little bolts of lightning? If I offend anyone with what I’m about to say, please forgive me, but this is incredible – in the same way that as a nation we grieved with the devastation of 9-11 and a cloud of gloom and fear and sadness sat on everyone, it honestly feels like that cloud has finally lifted after seven years. SEVEN YEARS!
Everyone today in downtown Chicago is buzzing, smiling, laughing, celebratory, as if we all have the same birthday. It really is like we are reborn and can look forward to the next day – or year – or eight years. This is going to be a great eight years.
My Metra train this morning was humming with excited voices – people congratulating each other, as if we all just won a jackpot. In essence, we did. It’s not because I’m black – ok, its not ONLY because I’m black, but also because a weight – a weight of bitterness, depression, chagrin – has been lifted! It’s amazing what hope can do. Can we declare the national holiday Obama Day now?? They already did in Kenya!
KOGELO, Kenya—Barack Obama’s Kenyan relatives and Africans across the continent sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in U.S. flags Wednesday to cheer for America’s first black president. Kenya will party for two days, after the president declared a national holiday.
It’s going to be so hard to concentrate with so much… joy. I’m not used to seeing so many people HAPPY! This is the dawn of a new day and new country in which I’m proud to raise my family!! WOOOOOOOT!!!!!!
I’m so so so proud to be in Chicago and to be an American right now. This is such a blessing. This is reality. One day we’ll look back and say, “Remember when Barack became President? Yes, Lawd, that was sum day. SUM day.”
– O
My sister was listening to NPR and heard the story of a girl offering free cello lessons and art – or cookies or something – on Craigslist for tickets to the Obama celebration at Grant Park. So, to my friends who know I might do something like this, this time, sadly, it wasn’t me! But amen to cellists for Obama!
– O
…that I’m praying for a politician to win. I don’t normally pray for things like that. Politics is the last thing we should ask God to choose a side for – but how can I resist? I’m a republican. A moderate republican. A republican for Obama. I honestly feel if Barack Obama is not elected President today, the world will be worse off than it is now. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think McCain and Palin will ruin the world. I just don’t believe they can or will repair any of the damage that has accrued over the years. I firmly believe the only person to bandage and heal our missteps is Obama. He is the better man for such a unique and specific calling.
This election isn’t just about republicans and democrats. This is about pride of the present and hope for the future (I stole this phrase from a pageant I did in college, but hey, it’s very fitting here): Obama is the face of the next generation of Americans; the image of humility and honesty and strength that our children need to see. Yes, he’s just a man, but on his shoulders is the example of a new – darest I say it – breed of young people to come out of our neighborhoods; education, family values, pride of your heritage, self-respect, discipline, faith… it’s just the right image for right now. For republicans, for young people, old people, black, white. It’s time.
It’s about ameliorating our international image; has the WHOLE WORLD ever rooted for one person before? I mean, you’d think he were running for President of Earth, not just the US. There are images of his support posters in Hong Kong, throngs of supporters across Europe and remember the crowd that gathered in Kenya?
I’m excited to be able to be a proud American again – to NOT be on the defensive for my nation and heritage when I travel abroad; to NOT have to hesitate to disclose my American nationality for fear of being hazed and barraged with questions, comments and concerns about our international image and a war on terror.
Michelle, I think we all knew what you meant when you said it. Now, I’m REALLY proud to be an American.
God bless the Obamas tonight. Here’s to the best outcome possible…President Barack Obama
-O
The Twenty Something Mom 
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