{Bottoms up!}
Immediately after work on Friday I took myself for 3.2 mile run along the canal. It helps when the weather is the essence of perfection and the views are easy on the eyes. Not bad at all.
Then I made delicious homemade baked jalapeno poppers. And boy did I need both the run and the poppers to finally end a week like last week. Amen!
Last night a friend and I walked the Best Busker Contest in downtown Rochester amid the gorgeous spring weather, listening to fabulous street musicians and sharing some good eats….a pretty wonderful combination, indeed!
We dined on tasty mac n’ cheese cups, freshly baked snickerdoodle and chocolate chip cookies, food truck pulled pork and slaw tacos, and s’mores on a stick, but we sadly had to skip out on the blue velvet cake push pops, spring rolls, and the risotto balls we were looking forward to also indulging in because they were served at food places that wanted you to dine inside of their restaurant to partake in their deals – which just wasn’t going to happen when there were so many great musicians to hear and fantastic early evening weather to enjoy outside! I hope next year all the restaurants that offer special Busker Contest deals will consider having their special deal food options as “to go” instead of “dine in only” so people can actually enjoy the street music and delicious food too.
We heard fiddles, banjos, harmonicas, singers, accordions, trombones, guitars, maracas, tambourines, mini organs and more – and many of the musicians sang and played, sometimes multiple instruments too, one-man-band style. One of the performers was a songmaker – if you shouted out a topic, he improvised a song about it – music on the guitar and lyrics – right on the spot for you. He was great! They posted a list of the topics people had requested on the sidewalk, and that was pretty amusing as well – one was “I’m two days overdue, make this kid come out!” and a little boy suggested “fear of learning to ride my bicycle” while an older lady encouraged “losing my glasses all the time!” I think he could have been a cool addition to an amazing, memorable surprise marriage proposal.
All the musicians were wonderful though and it was so relaxing and joyful to hear so much great music and see such strong talent in our city. At the check in tent, we received five guitar picks, so we could place one pick in each of our top five favorite busker’s buckets to vote for them. Unfortunately, voting ended at 8 p.m. and we didn’t realize it until about 8:02 p.m., so we ran like fools through the crowds to try to get picks into the buckets of our top picks, but we were only successful with two of them. At least we have some sweet souvenir picks and know better for next year. Also, in addition to the fabulous, perfect spring weather, there was a really nice cross-section of people milling about – bearded hipster twenty-somethings with their grandmothers, moms with babies, dads with kids on their shoulders, couples, and friends of all ages and backgrounds – just enjoying Rochester together.
Totally gorgeous night! What a way to spend a Thursday! :)
On our lunch break we went for a walk in the beautiful gardens of a church downtown adjacent to the theatre…
The trees are blooming and beautiful, but they kind of smell like salmon…
Lunch hour with friends just got way more pleasant. Now we can eat lunch, play Taboo, and go for a walk among the flowers before retreating back into the recesses of our chilly yet wonderful theatre for the remainder of the day…
Yesssss.
And then I went for a run after work. It was glorious and I felt much better about my plans to meet Shawnda, Meg, and Becca at Chocolate & Vines…for dinner. Not dessert. Dinner. What you see below was my dinner. And it was perfect.
I had a flute of sparkling moscato….
We shared this magnificent cheese platter of crustinis, dried cranberries and apricots, salted nuts, gurkens, manchego, gjetost, gouda, ‘across the pond,’ and the best whole grain mustard, honey, and duck pate I’ve ever had…
And then we moved on to a dessert and a piece of chocolate for each of us, which we passed around the table so we could all taste everything, like all smart foodies do.
I had tiramisu and a piece of passion panna cotta white chocolate (to.die.for.)…
Meg had the chocolate truffle mousse and a piece of blackberry jam with crystallized ginger dark chocolate….
Becca had the cranberry saligari and a piece of coconut curry chocolate…
And Shawnda had the amaretto mascarpone and a piece of coconut dark chocolate…
If manners, reputation, and friendship were not at stake, I would have licked everyone’s plate or bowl clean…civility be damned. But I also kind of think nobody would have cared because we all pretty much had the same idea.
It was all heavenly, but my favorites were the insanely tasty gjetost cheese (a goat whey and cow’s cream cheese from Norway with “a rich caramel fudge texture”), the delicious duck liver pate (with roasted red bell peppers and port wine) that none of us could get enough of, the out-of-this-world whole grain mustard (which was crazy flavorful but not spicy), Becca’s dessert which tasted exactly like Christmas, my sinfully rich yet light tiramisu, and my truffle that was filled with soft creamy white chocolate and a sweet yet tangy orange passion panna cotta syrup that was mind-blowing.
Girls night, indeed!
Get thee to this place immediately.
Flowers at lunch, running on a spring afternoon, girlfriends, and epic nosh? I could get used to this.
So, right now there’s not a ton going on for me to report, but in the coming weeks there will be all kinds of goodness on the blog…stay tuned!
In the meantime…
– The Amazing Spiderman 2 movie starts filming in Rochester today through May 9. The NYPD prop police cruisers arrived in Rochester late last week. They’ll have parts of downtown closed daily while they film the car chase scenes and, of course, will be using many Rochestarians as extras in the flick. And this city is pretty jazzed about it too! Read all about it here. It’ll be nice to see familiar streets on the big screen when this film is released.
– Geva’s own Geva Comedy Improv actors provided the official video definition for the term “catwalk” for Theatre Dictionary. It’s hilarious. Check it out here! Go GCI! And check out the Theatre Dictionary here.
– Tom Hanks and his daughter mocking Toddlers & Tiaras. Awesome. Check it out here.
– This family is amazing! Every single day dad (and sometimes mom and siblings) dress up in costume to wave goodbye to their eighteen year old son when the school bus comes to pick him up in the morning. Seriously, the best!!! Check it out here. Love this family!
Happy Tuesday!
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Well, it looks like it is finally spring in the Roc City!
I say finally because it actually snowed two weekends ago and this is, without a doubt, the longest winter I’ve endured thus far: Texas spring started in early March. Michigan spring hit in early April, and Ohio spring in late March. So, late April is really pushing the envelope for me.
But this weekend we enjoyed two glorious sunny, cloudless, soft green grass, light breeze days of temperatures hovering right around 65 degrees. Absolute perfection. Plus all the trees are blooming with white, purple, pale pink, and bright yellow buds. The pretty purple lilacs are popping up just in time for the lilac festival too. Seriously gorgeous. They don’t call it the flower city for nothing.
For a weekend recap, our Stage Door Design students presented their final costume, lighting, sound, and scenic designs for The 39 Steps Friday afternoon followed by a pizza party in which I consumed waaay too many slices of meat lovers pizza. The students did excellent work! It was great fun to watch them develop as designers throughout this process. Friday night my roommate and her husband joined me at the theatre for a Geva Comedy Improv performance with a theme of TV pilot episodes. It was funny and relaxing, as usual. Just exactly what a Friday night calls for after a crazy week.
Saturday morning my roommate and I hit up the outdoor public market for some fresh produce. I scored a cantaloupe, a basket of fresh plump jalapenos we have every intention of turning into poppers, huge crowns of broccoli, and red, yellow, and orange bell peppers (all for only $5!), which have already been put to excellent use in fajitas! We also made sure to stop at Martha Jane’s Bakery for a freshly baked lemon lavender sweet roll and a delicious flaky spinach feta pastry pocket. After the market I took advantage of the amazing weather and went for a 3 mile run around the reservoir, ran some errands hoping to scoop up some deals on a few things we need for the townhouse (with no such luck unfortunately. I know I’m cheap, but when did shower curtain liners get to be $6? I thought they were like $0.74. They’re not.), and then went and laid out on a blanket in the park for 30 minutes because it was simply so beautiful that I could hardly stand it. After six months of winter, I certainly wasn’t the lone park dweller (although this picture says I am, I assure you I was not). I’m thankful all this rain has given us amazing plush green grass for sporting and snoozing and generally enjoying.
When I finally left the park just before sunset, I cooked up a batch of chicken fajitas with fresh bell peppers, onions, and homemade guacamole, which totally hit the spot. It’s not spring until you’ve had your first fajitas of the year! I finished up the night with a glass of finger lakes wine and reading a few chapters of The Great Gatsby for YP book club in two weeks. Amazing day! The only two things that could have possibly made it better would have been Ted’s company and a bubble bath. Two weeks…til husband and bath-worthy bathtub!
Sunday was more of the same – church, a short 1.65 mile run through Mt. Hope Cemetery, laundry, packing away all the winter clothes (yesss), facilitating a post-show talkback at the theatre, leftover fajitas, and more lovely weather. When did weekends get so short!?
What were you up to this weekend?
You know, sometimes after an excessively long and busy (yet wonderful) week at the theatre full of taking The Whipping Man workshops to multiple area schools three times a day for three days straight as an artist-educator, riveting student matinee performances and post-show talkbacks, and writing an epic discovery guide for A Midsummer Night’s Dream…you just need to not go running because it’s cold and rainy out, and instead pick up a bottle of wine, and plop yourself on the couch in front of Wife Swap with said wine, a bowl of beef with broccoli, and an entire angel food cake with a jar of Trader Joe’s lemon curd imported from England. And then when you’ve sufficiently slothed, you curl up in bed and read “The Great Gatsby” before falling asleep at 10 p.m. when that second glass of wine really hits you. You just gotta, sometimes. You know?
In other news, I now give you a few lovely things I would like for our new town home, if money were no object. So, in other words, a dream list, yes?:
{This handmade tree bark throw quilt for the footer of our bed. Make the quilt grey, carve in our initials, change the pink to green, double the size, and you’ve got a winner!}
{I truly believe this is the most beautiful bed frame I have ever laid eyes on.}
{We’ve been ogling these table lamps and matching floor lamp for well over a year now. Two table, one floor please!}
{This mirror. Awesome.}
Clearly, we’re into the woodsy look.
There’s more. Much more. Wanna see? Check it out on my Pinterest page here.
Happy Friday!
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Four of my friends and I signed up for a LivingSocial deal for a 1.5 hr aerial arts workshop. We’ll be hitting the ribbons on a Saturday morning in mid-May. Hopefully followed by a shared bottle of wine after stretching ourselves to oblivion. Because, you know, after one class I’m sure we’ll look just as amazing as the fine folks pictured above. I can’t wait. This adventure screams of amazing hilarious fun.
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Ted and I will be going in with a friend of ours to split a share of the harvest at Peacework Organic Farm through a local CSA (community supported agriculture) group. Basically, from May-November we’ll stop by the Abundance Co-Op. every Thursday evening to pick up a box of produce fresh from the farm. We don’t know what will be in the box each week – just whatever is in season in upstate NY at that time and whatever was harvested at the farm that week. In exchange, we pay a small amount of money on a monthly basis and agree to two acts of service – 1) to go out to the farm to help pick the crops or weed the gardens or whatever they need help with for four hours at least once during that six month period, and 2) to sign up for one shift at the distribution site divvying up the produce from the farm and readying all the boxed shares for other members to pick up. It helps keep a local farm family in business throughout the season, we get fresh organic seasonal spring, summer, and fall produce delivered to us every week (I love the surprise factor of never knowing what will be in the box until we pick it up!), and we get to go farming too! Win-win.
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Ted’s moving on up! He’ll arrive with the first round just before mid-May and by early June we’ll be totally moved in to our new place together in Rochester!
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My parents will be coming up to Rochester over Memorial Day weekend to visit! Perhaps we’ll tour the Finger Lakes, visit some wineries, hit up Niagara Falls, hang at the beach, stroll the parks, enjoy a festival or two, see a flick at the drive-in, show off the public market, and share some delicious eats. I can’t wait!
Indeed, I am so looking forward to May!
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You the man!
In honor of the Bard’s 449th birthday, I give you…
17 Shakespearean Insults to Unleash in Everyday Life
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Today, I’d rather be here, at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage & Gardens in Stratford.
Here’s a shot I took of it back in July 2007 when I spent the summer before my senior year studying Shakespeare abroad in Stratford with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Birthplace Trust, Shakespeare Institute, and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. It was the most amazing and life-altering experience of my life! Set my whole future in motion – nothing compares. I can’t wait to get back there again for a visit one day.
And performing in the Rose Theatre, an Elizabethan styled replica theatre, at Blue Lake last summer – a Globe all our own!
And this month (including today), in a perfect coincidence, I spend my days at work at the theatre writing our Discovery Guide for our upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I am so blessed to do this for a living…a true dream come true!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAKESPEARE!
