Summer Encampment

Our children had the opportunity to participate in the Noorda Theatre Summer Camp again this year.  Gillian was able to do a child's version of Midsummer Night's Dream and since I wasn't here I had to take it from Steve that it was really and truly a delightful final performance.  Our daughter tapped into her creativity and danced like a fairy.

My eldest two, however, of ALL the choices, decided to pick the following:

EnACTing History - World War II
Students will enhance their acting skills, speaking abilities, and historical understanding as they enact dramatic moments that led the American people in and out of war. The course will include training in improvisational acting, persuasive speech, and historical research as students experience great events first hand in their roles as historical characters. Each week will culminate with a one-hour improvisational performance for family in friends in which a courageous group of citizens must make momentous decisions. Depending on students' persuasive abilities, the course of history may be altered! Special funding from the College of Humanities and Social Science make it possible for us to offer this course for only $75 a week.


I encouraged them to take something more like Stage Combat or Storytelling but they insisted they were interested in learning history.  Obviously they get that from their papa.

But the class instructor pulled a bait and switch and instead of doing WWII, they decided the topic would be...

The Holocaust.

They had to pick between the following roles:

• Nazi doctor
• Camp guard
• Resistance fighter
• Allied Soldier
• Jew
• Nazi Civilian

When our son came home he said "All we do is kill people."  He was pretty upset about it so *Steve's sister talked to the kids, reread the description and decided that maybe they were going to rewrite history so Steve left them in for the week, especially when it seemed like the activities they were doing in camp each day were more light-hearted.  The kids seemed to like it better after day 1.

Cut to Friday:

Note: Actors are children ages 10-14

Scene #1  

Camp Director:  Jews to the showers!!

Camp Guard (played by my son):  They don't look that dirty to me, they don't need to take a shower

Nazi doctor:  Pull the lever!!!

Camp Guard:  {lets them free}

Nazi doctor:  So you didn't pull the lever?  [chops off Camp Guard's fingers]

Scene #2

Nazi Camp Director:  I am not guilty for what I have done because the Jews are all spit.

Scene #3

Allied Soldiers:  Hi Jews, we are here to rescue you!

Jews:  Do you have any food for us, please?

Allied Soldiers:  Yes

Jews:  [Die on stage]

Isn't summer camp fun?

*For Steve's rendition see The Juvenile Instructor

Ode to the Paterfamilias.

As I will be leaving on Sunday for the first of two big conferences and tomorrow Steve is going to give a paper at a conference that I will attend for a few moments to hear him deliver.  We are both hoping that after hearing his paper I will say "Oh! Interesting!" rather than "What?"

Due to the busy schedule of the blessed Father's Day weekend, we decided to serve up some food this eve and celebrate tonight.  More on that in a minute.

When I was at the grocery store, I asked the girls "What kind of ice cream does daddy like?" and we stood there stumped.  Next we were in the chips aisle and we asked ourselves "What kind of chips dos daddy like?" And then I started to cry because I realized that after nearly 13 years of marriage, my husband knows every detail about me.  He knows that my favorite ice cream is something with lots of chocolate.  He knows that my favorite chips contain a hint of lime.  He probably even knows that 10/10 is it a green salsa over a red.

But him?  The only thing I know about his taste is that he likes everything we like.  He loves to make us happy.  And when he is thinking about what kind of ice cream he wants, he defaults to what will bring me the most joy: chocolate bits of something yummy.

Steve has been focused on my happiness since the day we met and he doesn't waiver, ever.  I had an opportunity to go to Spain to do some training in August (another post later) and rather than say "dude, you travel ALL the freaking time and you are gone for like two weeks already in August." He looked me in the eye and said "honey, I totally support you going to Spain, that is wonderful."

Most of all, I appreciate how much he loves the children he made me have.  I don't regret a single one and I appreciate that he takes care of them all the time so I don't remember why I didn't want to have them before they were born.


For these and a million other reasons, I am happily married to the most selfless and least materialistic person on the planet.

So since he is so easy to please, I made him what I have been wanting for dinner lately:

Aged Irish White Cheddar Cheese melted on Rosemary Olive Oil Bread. 

With some steak for good measure.

I didn't include a picture due to its grotesque nature, but I did throw in a little treat that was Steve-specific:  sauteed mushrooms. 


For dessert I stole a recipe from Paula Deen and made a summer fruit tart:

The fruit tart recipe was amazing, but I didn't have the glaze ingredients on hand, so I used instead a glaze that I modified from this site.  If you like fruit, cream cheese, and whipping cream, you would have been ecstatic to join our desserting crew tonight.


Finally, for a gift we decided to splurge and bought him a nice sports coat.  When he saw it he asked if we had taken his suit to the dry cleaners for a gift. 

So easy to please, this one.

Eye of the Storm

Last Wednesday as I was coming into Albany we flew through this:

Light flashed in the sky and then the plane took a dip to the side, sending the passengers into a frenzy as drinks flew, ice fell, electronic gadgets dropped, and sleeping folks woke up. An older French woman behind me started chanting 'Ay Jesus!' (or the French equivalent) over and over while making the sign of the cross.  It was the worst turbulence I have ever experienced and I was genuinely scared and began to panic myself.

However, I was fortunate enough to be seated next to a 12-year old girl who looked up at me with tears in her eyes and asked "Are we going to crash??"

Then my logical teacher brain kicked in and I said "Of course not, what would we crash into up in the air?"  I calmly wiped her spilled ice into the cup as the plane was shaking and told her that almost all crashes happen during take off or landing when we are close to the ground.  I am not sure if that is actually true, but I heard that once and it seemed like something good to stay when the plane was dancing in the clouds.  What amazed me most is that I became extremely calm and I couldn't focus on my own panicky heartbeat.

I thought to myself I hope the guy sitting in the exit aisle can stay calm if we crash.


I once read a very sad article about 9/11 and how so many people could have exited the building if they would have understood the danger they were in--and that people who did realize what was happening went into a sort of decision paralysis.  The point of the article was that the people who did get out, and got out quickly, were people who knew the layout of the building very well.  Their brains were not paralyzed because they had practiced leaving the building in emergency situations.

As a former teacher I have experienced the following emergencies:

--Lost teenager in Europe
--Passed out teenager in the streets of Spain
--4 intoxicated, vomiting teenagers on a bus and in an airport
--Driving on twisty streets down an Italian canyon under construction during a thunderstorm to reach teenagers from whom I had become separated
--Lost teenagers in downtown Los Angeles during a conference
--A tweener running in the classroom and beating another student's head against a desk
--Searching teenagers for drugs during a dance to find the source of the pharmaceuticals
--Countless "teenage emergencies" from relationship drama to lost money/ipods

I decided that the presence of a 12-year old on that airplane is what pulled the familiar from my own brain and got me into my zone.  I hope that if I am ever in any real emergency that there is a teenager in the room (that I am not related to, si claro!) to save my life.

A Real Vacation

My Miraculous Weight Loss Journey

Okay friends, it has been a long 5 month journey of changing my lifestyle and I wanted to record the heartwarming results of my hard work.

Feb:  I decide I need to lose weight.  Join weight watchers online

March: I successfully complete 5 weeks of weight watchers without going over points a single week. 

March:  Weight loss after 5 weeks: 0

April:  Have completely changed my eating habits and try to have predominately vegetables and fruit as my main courses, but relax on the points tracking.

April:  I start attending zumba classes 4-5 times a week in addition to doing strength training twice weekly.  When traveling, exercise in my hotel room daily.

April:  Weight loss after 9 weeks: 0

May:   Step up exercise to daily strength training and zumba classes at least once a day plus zumba routine at home.  When traveling try to walk average of 5 miles a day (easy in NYC) and exercise in hotel room.

May:  Weight loss after 14 weeks: 0
Other measures:

• Inches off waist: 0
• Inches off bust: -2 (figures)
• Inches off hips:  0
• Inches off legs: +4 inches.  That means I added 4 inches.
• Dress size:  Down 2 but I think that is because I haven't shopped for a long time and I think the sizes are getting bigger--today's 8 is yesterday's 10.

So.. does this make sense to anyone?  I go from an almost completely sedentary lifestyle where I am not watching what I eat to a fairly low calorie diet (at least compared to what it was) and then add 90 minutes of exercise (or more) most days and I haven't seen real results.  I am not trying to lose a bunch of weight, just a mere 5 pounds would be nice (that would put me in a healthy zone instead of overweight).

I have a before and after picture--same clothes.  There isn't a staggering difference between a year ago and now:

But here is the miracle--in spite of not having lost a drop, I feel so good about my exercise and eating.  I still could stand to cut back on a few things here and there (and when I travel I need to be better about portions) but I love the way I feel when I get done with my exercise classes and in spite of having an exorbitant amount of travel lately, I hardly feel the transitions that used to be very difficult for me.  I am actually feeling like I made a lifestyle change as opposed to being ON a diet. 

BUT I am going to try to go back to WW again and be religious about it for the next 8 weeks and see if I can put a dent in the scale.  Wish me luck, low-cal recipes and/or ideas on other techniques welcome.  Nothing that involves the word treatment please.