Spring Awakening

I went down to Bloomington last night to see Spring Awakening, which won the Tony for best musical in 2007.  I always watch the Tony awards show, so I remember seeing the performance for that, but I have to admit it came back onto my radar because two of the actors on Glee were in the original Broadway production.  The music was all written by Duncan Sheik, whose songs I liked back in the day.  And after happening across the soundtrack at the library one day, I fell in love with some of the songs.  Interestingly, the show did not come to Indianapolis during its tour, but it was down in Bloomington at the IU Auditorium for several nights.  I managed to shift my day off this week, so it worked out to go down and spend the night afterward.

The show is interesting, because it really contains almost every taboo topic you could think of, all wrapped up into one show.  This is the short blurb from Wikipedia...

Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1891 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of sexuality. The original play was banned in Germany for a while due to its portrayal of abortion, homosexuality, rape, child abuse and suicide. In the musical, alternative rock is employed as part of the folk-infused rock score. Spring Awakening received eleven 2007 Tony Award nominations, winning eight, including Tonys for best musical, direction, book, score and featured actor. The show also won four Drama Desk Awards, while its London production won four Olivier Awards.

There was also masturbation and sex, including some partial nudity.  Being on a college campus, there were a lot of students there.  (One girl in the row in front of me was texting throughout the entire show, which annoyed me greatly and served to remind me that I am now old enough that this person truly was from another generation.  Personally, I think that generation should still be able to figure out how to sit through a performance without using their cell phone, but that's just me.)  It also bothered me that there seemed to be a lot of inappropriate laughter during the show.  I admit that there were a lot of exaggerated scenes that were meant to be comedic, but they often fell during scenes dealing with very serious topics, so I didn't feel they were necessarily meant to be funny.  Rather, they were meant to balance the scene and keep it from being so dark.

Overall, I'd say it's not my favorite show, but it was good, and I do like a lot of the music.  And this was the first of my new shows (#95)!

On a lighter note, it's been a week since I last logged on to Facebook (with the exception of the two e-mail messages I received/sent) (#13).  I feel like I'm over the stage where I was feeling like I'd lost some sort of lifeline and was craving it.  Now I can see a little more objectively how much it is a habit to log-in.  A couple of times I accidentally clicked on the link to open it and had to close out before the window opened.  And last night while I was in my motel room in Bloomington, I had to consciously remind myself not to log-in from my phone when there wasn't anything to watch on TV.  I still find myself thinking of things I would post, but where last week I would be frustrated with not being able to post, now I just let it go.  I kind of wonder what I've missed... what's going on with the people I usually pay attention to on there, but I'm not dying to find out.  Of course, now I'm on the downside, and I know I'll be back on it next week!

Oh, and I spent an hour this afternoon working on a new PSAP chapter (#68).  The topic is heart failure, which I'm much more familiar with than the other topics I've worked on recently, so it's going much faster and easier.  I am debating over whether to skip the chapters on pediatrics, since that's a population that I never deal with.  Somthing to think about.  I wrote a letter to my grandparents this week (#43).  I have gotten so out of the habit of letter writing, that I forgot how much I enjoy it.  It really forces you to slow down and really think about what you want to say.  I've also been in much more regular contact with my father (#61) via both e-mails and phone calls.  Much more, even than the two weeks that I specified.  Like I mentioned before, it's not that I don't like talking to him... it's just that it's so easy for too much time to go by between talks.  And he will let quite a bit of time go by sometimes before contacting me if I haven't called or written him.  I think it probably bothers him that I seem so much closer to my mom than to him, but it has to be said that it's partially due to the fact that my mom calls if she hasn't heard from me in more than about three days.  So I think it is fair to say, that some of the blame for our distance lands squarely on his shoulders.

Little Steps

I don't think I ever mentioned the outcome on my shelves that were all lopsided...  I ended up calling customer service at The Container Store and after a much shorter conversation than I expected, the rep agreed to have them send me two replacement bracket pieces.  My hope was that a new pair would match one of the two sets that I already had, and thank heavens they did!  I really don't know what I would have done if they hadn't.  Pitch the whole thing in the trash would have been right up there on the list.  At any rate, I finally replaced the wrong-sized brackets tonight (took nearly as long as putting both sets of shelves together did, and with nearly as many expletives), which then inspired me to unpack four whole boxes from the apartment #80).  They were mostly knick-knacks and pictures, so now I will have something besides books to put on the shelves from Hades.

I also rearranged the kitchen counters again today.  It was out of necessity for workflow, and it feels much better now.  I'm happy with my kitchen... it makes me smile!

I finished another little section in my PSAP chapters (#68).  It's just a drop in the bucket, really.  I need to get a move on with those.  I stayed off of Facebook today (#13).  And with getting the shelves up, I was able to move some of the books off the dining room table.  My goal is to get at least a small space cleared off so I can finally start eating there sometime sooner rather than later (#15).  I'm actually really tired of eating all my meals on the sofa at the coffee table.  Oh!  My passport arrived today (#12)!  I am highly impressed, as it has only been three weeks since I mailed it off.  Now my friend and I have one less excuse for not getting our trip to Italy planned for next year!  (Under the Tuscan Sun is on the TV right now, so I'm ready to start practicing my Italian and hop on the next plane!) 

Yes, it's another post about Facebook...

Ugh.  Who knew that staying off Facebook would be so difficult?!?  I had to log back on today to get the reply to the message I sent the other day, and it has been so hard not to look at any other parts of Facebook.  It has really made me realize how much of a habit it has become.  This is even harder than taking my daily vitamin!  (And, hey!  While we're on that topic, it's been a whole month now!  I'm at the halfway point!  Yea me!!)  I have a Favorites quick link to Facebook at the top of my internet page, and for the past three days it has been sitting there mocking me, so I just deleted it.  Hopefully that will help some.  Out of sight, out of mind.  For now, I am going to read a magazine...

Facebook revisited

After much careful consideration, tonight I clicked the little button at the top of my computer screen that whisks me quickly and effortlessly to my Facebook homepage.  I tried hard to avoid reading the goings on of my friends (managed to only read one!  blame Andy and his pictures of Florida) while I found the icon to take me to my messages.  I decided that it wasn't fair to my friend who sent me a message, since she had no way of knowing what I had randomly decided to do at 3:30 one morning.  And I had an obligation to the student review site to respond promptly to their inquiries.  I would have felt better if I could make it the whole two weeks without logging in at all, but using it strictly for one-on-one communications will have to suffice.  Outside of these couple of messages, I'm going to go ahead and stay off for the two weeks.  I'm sure that over the next thirty-two months, another time will come when I get too attached to Facebook and then maybe I can try this again. 

Facebook

So I woke up at 3:30 this morning wide awake and couldn't get back to sleep.  I didn't go to bed particularly early last night, although I did get my first issue of the Oprah magazine which I recently resubscribed to and had spent a very relaxing thirty minutes or so reading before I went to bed.  For some reason when I do very relaxing things (particularly meditation) before bed, I often seem to sleep poorly or wake up at odd times.  At any rate, I decided to get up and watch a little TV then read before going back to sleep.  Somewhere in there I got thinking about how much time I have wasted on the computer lately, mostly piddling around on Facebook and playing a lot of very mindless games.  I'm talking many, many, many hours over the last week or so.  I decided that this would be my first day of my two weeks not to log-in to Facebook (#13)!  I needed something to break the habit, and I just knew that I would be happier if I wasn't spending so much time on the computer.

Then I got an e-mail notification today that a friend had sent me a message through Facebook that I really need to respond to due to its time-sensitive nature.  And then I got another e-mail through this site that I participate in which allows students to e-mail with questions about pharmacy.  This particular student is interested in research and industry, two areas that I know very little about, and the one person I know that would be well qualified to answer his questions is someone that I can only contact through Facebook!  So now I don't know what to do.  Less than six hours into my decision to start working toward this goal, and the universe was already conspiring against me!  I figure that I can put this off until tomorrow, but I will have to make a decision.  In the meantime, I am staying away from Facebook for today.

Slow

I realize that I haven't posted lately, but it's really because there hasn't been much of anything to post.  I'm still reading Empire Falls (#66)... I am enjoying it, but the overall story is a little slow and I have found myself distracted by another book as well as getting caught up with my magazines.  I am still taking a multivitamin every day (#82) with the exception of the day that I fell asleep on the sofa at 4:30 and then crawled upstairs to bed at 7:00... I am forgiving myself that day.  I did buy tickets to see Spring Awakenings later this month (#95), and I am definitely looking forward to that.  I originally heard about it because two of the the actors from Glee were in it on Broadway, then I happened across the soundtrack at the library.  It's an interesting story line, and there are some songs that I really like so now I can't wait to see it live.

I did cook a new recipe tonight (#73)!  I had some pork chops that I needed to either cook or freeze, but I try to avoid freezing meat, because I have tendency not to use it.  At any rate, I loosely followed the recipe for sauteed pork chops out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I didn't quite have the exact ingredients, but it worked out okay since I had a new Rosemary Ginger rub that I wanted to try as well as some rosemary infused olive oil that I hadn't tried yet.  At any rate, I rubbed the pork chops with the new rub and browned them in the olive oil.  Added in white wine and cooked until it evaporated, then chicken stock and simmered for 10 minutes.  The pork chops came out, the liquid was reduced, and some garlic & herb butter added in to make a nice sauce.  I may have overcooked them only just a tiny bit (which he cautions about in the book), but they were still tender and had a lovely flavor.  I had them with some steamed mixed vegetables (frozen, Green Giant) and a glass of wine, and it made a very nice meal.  The only thing I lacked was a piece of good french bread to sop up the last of the juices!  Plus now I have three left over pork chops to eat over the next couple of days.  I'm thinking mashed potatoes would be another really good side for these. 

Other than that, there hasn't been too much going on.  The big ice storm put a crimp in my free time, as I have been scraping layers of ice and slush off my driveway for over a week now.  And then I worked last weekend, and this weekend I have had very little motivation to do much of anything other than a few odds and ends around the house.  I did look up places to donate blood (#1), so I expect to start that sometime fairly soon.  For now I think I'll enjoy the rest of my wine and some quality time with my DVR.