What can I say, I absolutely love Chinese take out food.
I love the faded out pictures of the super quick food.
I love how there is also no true acknowledgement of other customers in the restaurant. A quick look up at you and then right back down to your phone.
I love the super ornate faux marble counters and large mirror. The door is usually propped open so you can hear the shoppers pounding the pavement of the strip mall and the cars humming by.
Some days, it’s exactly what the soul needs. It doesn’t even bother you that an hour after eating your favorite item from the menu, you are hungry again.
The production was quite an undertaking and aside from the fact that I was totally exhausted from a day of working on my feet; I fell in love with the venue.
I had never heard of the Rialto Theatre, and now I don’t know how I lived without that knowledge. I loved the simplicity with a touch of the ornate in areas. Instantly, I wanted to come up with an event so that I could use it as a venue.
There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing a production that has a good friend in it. Unfortunately, Much Ado was only on Friday and Saturday.
This weekend, TRT2‘s production of Bethany closed. It was my first production since the One Acts in early July of last year. I was thrilled to work with some of the areas finest actors and I absolutley loved the performance space, a small blackbox kind of theatre.
The run was only three weeks , Friday – Sunday, not the typical Thursday – Sunday I have done in the past. The rehearsal period was short but very focused. I knew what was wanted and expected and went to work instantly on fleshing out my character.
My favorite part of the process is meeting everyone and working as a cohesive group to tell the story. As a Stay at Home Mome (SAHM), interaction is limited so I take it and roll with it. Watching other actors and the process they go through is fascinating and also helpful as an actor. Friendships are always the icing on the cake and make going to the theatre fun as you see friendly faces onstage.
I said goodbye to Toni, the Social Worker that wants to do the right thing; even while she is overworked and always praying that someone is not harmed on her watch or by the choices she makes. There is always that moment of wishing for more opportunities to play but also the contentment of knowing that you have worked and the time has come to move on.
Into the tool box she goes, and out and about I go for the opportunity to work as an actor again.
One of the reasons I have gone incognito for the last couple of months is I had an ovarian cyst rupture and was completed incapacitated for four very long days.
Technically, ovarian cysts are fluid filled sacs within or on the surface of the ovary. On occasion, one of these lovely sacs may rupture and the act of rupturing can cause some serious symptoms.
It’s funny, depending on who you talk to; the symptoms can be slightly bothersome or extreme pain. Unfortunately, mine was the latter. I was picking up a box and all of a sudden I was hovered over in pain. By the time I got home, there was no getting comfortable and if I moved too much I felt like someone was trying to slice me through my midsection.
That weekend, I literally laid around; my husband was Mr. Mom taking care of all the household chores and planning a mini-birthday party for my daughter. At one moment, I was sitting in our recliner looking out the window, I noticed the beautiful oak trees and how the sunlight shone so beautifully through the branches. I had such a longing to get up and get out and was completed humbled by the pain.
Needless to say, I have recovered; it doesn’t happen overnight and actually there is some tenderness for a couple of weeks. Because of the 4 days of recuperation, I am officially a week behind in chores and activities. As I go about my day I will sometimes cause the discomfort and am reminded of those four days, I take a breath and remember how much I longed to go outside and am grateful to be able to do so.
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I have found another electronic item that I truly can’t live without. When it comes to gadgets these days, some our more work than they are convenient. This one totally makes my life easier as a semi-workout junkie.
I love to vary my exercise routines and one of my favorite things to do is walk/run (notice how I made walking the priority). With my arm band snuggling my iPhone, I am constantly fighting with the headphone cords that I either leave swinging from the armband or tuck under one of the straps of my sports bra. Either way, it always ends the same, tangling cords or ear buds falling from my ears, UGH!
I recently came into some Livingsocial Deal Buck’s and saw they had a Bluetooth sport headset for a wonderfully reasonable price of, drum roll please. . . . $12!
Unfortunately, this item is no longer available, but I found one that resembles it on Amazon. The best thing about it? It cost even less than the one I bought, $9! Click on the image below to get more information.
The style of the headset is wonderful. I can still control what songs I want to hear with the backward and forward buttons and, of course, I have the play/pause option as well. Now walking/running is so much easier. My only con is that the charging cord doesn’t fit the other charging cords I have, so I have to use another charging plug, which is not included.
As I am slowly floating down the lazy river at the water park, the children are at sight-distance from me. Sight distance means that if they can’t see me, they are in big trouble. At 8 and 10 years old, they love to test the boundaries of independence.
Another Mom is basking in the sun and laying in a very relaxed manner on the inner tube. I envy the peace, and she sees me vigilantly looking ahead at my children.
After a small exchange of pleasant conversation, I notice the kids have started to test me and pick up my pace. The Mom looks at me and seems nostalgic.
I tell her to enjoy her day and she tells me that she misses the moments I am having right now. Her children are in middle and high school so they go off on their own and she relaxes in solitude.
As I catch up to my two, they are disappointed and a little thrilled by my chase. I take a deep breath and make it a point to enjoy this moment with them. All too soon, they will do all of it on their own.
As I step into the family room of my childhood, I would return to when I was 17 years old and my Father was home for the longest he had ever been home with us. Unfortunately, the reason for his long stay was because he was diagnosed with brain cancer and had, had surgery. He was given a time frame to live and it wasn’t years, but barely a month or so.
You might be wondering why I would return to that time? You see, my father was a Doctor and as a Doctor; he never truly belonged to us. My father would arrive home late evening and be off before my sister and I were out of bed for school. Summer vacations were rarely taken together as Dad had to work and if he joined us, it would be for two weeks. Those two weeks would be spent not just with us but visiting all his family that lived in the Dominican Republic.
I remember the family room, it still looks about the same. The wood paneling with the dark, dark shag carpet. The furniture was also wood back then, and the sofa cushions looked like they were crocheted with the same dark tones found in the paneling. The sofa is gone, but the matching rocking chair is still there. The rocking chair that Dad used to sit in and watch baseball, which didn’t happen very often.
My last memory of him in the rocking chair was when I was cutting his fingernails, he lost some of his vision with the removal of most of the tumor; so I would take care of that for him. He would be so angry about having to have someone else do for him, he was a man use to his independence. It broke his heart that his own daughter had to take care of those little things we take for granted everyday.
As I cut his fingernails or read to him from his books, it was the first time I had felt like he didn’t see a curly haired little girl that he had nothing in common with but rather someone he could talk to about life and about what he liked. I knew baseball was important to him. I knew he had his own spiritual beliefs and that although he loved medicine; he felt that it owned him and his time and he didn’t want that for us.
My father and I were both the introverts in the family so a lot was not spoken between us, but understood. We would watch TV together and not talk about anything, just be. After the show was over, we would share our thoughts and continue with our day.
I would love to go back to that family room as the 40 year old Mom of two and show him pictures of his grandchildren. To let him know that I listened to him when he said find your calling and follow it as long as it makes you happy. Tell the ones you love, you love them. He had so much to think about at that time, and the 17 year old in front of him had no idea.
The family room defines that relationship to me, one that was cut short but made a lasting impression.
It’s Monday, we all know what Mondays means to us. For me, it means I wake up at 6 AM, pop out of bed, brush my teeth and get down to making lunches for my two children. Mondays are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with portable yogurt, juice box, granola and some lightly salted crackers. As I prepare the lunch I mumble under my breath, how I wish that they would enjoy fresh cut fruit and veggies instead of lightly salted crackers. I remind myself to make more of an effort to change their eating habits this summer by having fruits and veggies readily available to them and laying off of the salty and sugary snacks that are easy to pack but not the best, health wise.
I watch the kiddies get on the bus and feel a little excited, knowing that this is the last week of school and how I remember loving the last week of school at their age. I whisk away to have a little breakfast and prepare myself for grocery shopping. I usually stop at three different stores to get everything I need and recently we had a big box store open less than two miles from my house, so I am done with all of it in less than an hour. Do I like all the new traffic? No; but the optimist in me is quite happy that it has cut my shopping time in half.
As I walk into the stores, I smile at everyone I see and I say, “Good morning.” The introvert in me is trying to break out of my shell and now I find it interesting to see what kind of response I get from a smile radiating from a disheveled Mom of two with a loose bun of black curls. I chat up the cashiers and wish everyone a good day as I leave.
I sit back in my car and check my phone before starting up the engine. I can’t wait to rush home and start my blogging challenge. The day has started off quite well, I continue to smile as I put everything away and make sure to print out some uplifting posts for my dream board.
Yep, smiling is always a great way to start your day.
Isabel Natera 