S’Wonderful Part deux

S'Wonderful

I grew up watching musicals. 

I have probably seen every Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie at least 10 times, probably more. The King and I, South Pacific, On The Town, Singing In the Rain, Can Can, The Music Man, The Sound of Music...I could go on and on and on. Coming home from school my first thought was what was playing on the 4 o'clock movie, hoping for a musical. During the Summer when there was no school, my friend Maria and I would stay up until all kinds of hours watching the late night movie on PBS, which a lot of times turned out to be a musical. I never ever tire of them. Nothing could transport you for a couple of hours to a magical place where people just broke into song and dance on a whim and there was always a happy ending. 

For some strange reason I always resisted "An American in Paris". I think I thought it was some dreary movie about some guy trying to speak French and it was in black and white and it had something to do with war. Then one day there it was on PBS in the late Saturday night movie and my lonely little night owl 10 year old self was wide awake and bored and so I watched...and fell in love. It is perfect. The music, the setting, the cinematography, the costumes, the singing, the dancing, the dancing, the dancing. It is magic.

So imagine my pure delight when poring over my Sunday New York Times a few months ago I read that "An American in Paris" was being mounted into a Broadway musical! I immediately signed up for ticket alerts and once they came bought two for a preview performance which was this past Friday. All day long I fidgeted, couldn't wait to get going, then once in the theater I couldn't believe how perfect our seats were and I was nervous. What if it wasn't any good, what if they couldn't sing (the principals are ballet dancers), what if they couldn't act, what if my perfect fantasy would be deflated forever? And then it started.

Immediately my face broke into a smile, which stayed there during the entire show and I was 10 years old again watching it for the very first time and being transported to another place...

 

...just where I want to be.

It's Spring!

It's snowing-----again. Spring tonight at 6:45 PM. I will fake it!

Happy Vernal Equinox!

In a blaze of glory

Winter's last hurrah is here, the biggest storm of the season. Weirdly and wildly predicted by all those meteorologists who seem to have nothing to do but be wrong most of the time. First it was 2 to 3 inches, then 3 to 6, starting last night around 7 pm, over by noon----blah blah blah. It rained all day and night yesterday because the temperatures were a bit high, close to 40, then this morning it turned to snow, a steady beautiful snowfall that just takes your breath away. 
Max and I took our walk somewhere around 6 am and all I could think was, "If this were the first snowfall we would all be awestruck by the sheer beauty of it", but it isn't; it is one, two three, four too many and we're tired. At 2:30 PM I thought we were done, went out shoveled and cleared the car only to see it start up again, 6 inches and then some, who knows. Now I look out the window and see cotton candy on my lilac bush when all I crave is lilacs. 

Soon. 

I admire your resilience and wish I look this beautiful on my last hurrah, but...you really need to go.

(I realize that my friends in New England are saying "what a wimp!" :))

Cabin Fever

Winter doesn't want to leave. I'm sick of being in the house. And I'm not the only one.

Lying around gets a little dull so he tries other positions,

other corners,

it's still boring. March roared in yesterday with another dump of fresh snowfall on top of the two feet of ice which makes it hard to walk around, sometimes it's solid, sometimes you go right through,

so it's best to stay inside and not deal with it. Luckily I love to cook so I can spend most of the day on one dish and enjoy it, like my favorite chicken pot pie,

or this incredible pasta Genovese in the New York Times Magazine,

except we served it with polenta.

I've started to experiment with smoothies which is a good thing since I'm a terrible fruit eater and this is one way of getting them,

the one on the right has yogurt, blueberries, pineapple, almond butter and kale. The one on the left I invented, it has chocolate almond milk, raspberries, yogurt and kale. I put the kale in because I think kale and or spinach are a smoothie staple, I guess it's to get people to eat their greens. I don't have a problem there as I am a big greens fan but I like that I'm getting my fruits. I may experiment some more, bananas or something, we'll see.

I have a pile of books I'm trying to get through.

I've, or should I say we've, become addicted to binge TV watching. Have gone through one season of Lillyhammer, one season of The Blacklist, 2 seasons of House of Cards and are now racing through Breaking Bad. We are almost at the end of season 2 and need to step it up to complete then entire 5 seasons because House of Cards season 3 is ready to be streamed!

I'm reminded of a very sad song by Phil Collins, "The Roof is Leaking"

"Spring will soon be here, I hope we can wait"

I think I need an intervention.