Sister Act

I went to the theater last night to see "Sister Act."  Dinner and a show is always nice in Chanhassen but lordy, Chanhassen is a long way away.  Like Cinderella I got home just before midnight. I could have used toothpicks to keep my eyes open today because I got 3 hours less sleep than I am accustomed to but it was worth it. I can sleep when I am dead. I was a little worried about going.  Sometimes I revert to a self-conscious eight year old shy girl when I see a nun in full habit.  In this show the nuns were not intimidating.  The nuns were marvelous.  The star who played Deloris was very talented.  Of course she wasn't a nun, she was a talented singer in a night club. Besides a good singing voice and a great ability to dance, I was impressed by the expressive way she moved her beautifully toned arms.  From the way she moved I would guess she has some anxiety issues because she wasn't still even when she was standing still.  All the nuns were great.  What intimidated me (and others) was Clarence.  Clarence is the reason Deloris has to go into hiding at the convent.  So we know that he is a dangerous fellow.  As I watched Clarence sing the song, "When I Find My Baby," I felt very intimidated. He came across as dangerous.  He so convincingly combined his feelings of lust and murder in this song that he had "Domestic Abuser" written all over him.  Three songs come after his solo and before the intermission but my feelings of fear and disgust hung with me.  I swear, if he walked up to my booth during the intermission I might have screamed.  I know it's a show and I normally don't feel this strongly at shows but Clarence really got to me.  We don't see much of Clarence again until the final scene and that was fine by me.  When the nuns band around Delores and kick the bully Clarence to the curb at the end of the show everybody in the theater clapped heartily.  Delores learns she doesn't need fox fur and glitter to be a star.  Her talent is evident no matter what she wears.  Sister Act was a great show and I was lucky to be invited.

This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage

As part of my Ann Patchett obsession lately, I also read This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage by guess who?  Ann Patchett. This is more of a collection of essays, articles and one speech than a novel.  After reading this collection I am more in love with the author than before.  Her writing is spare.  Every word is necessary.  She works hard at being an author.  One essay is on how to write. Practice, she says, practice writing two hours a day.  Practice sitting at a desk with your writing tools and even if you don't write, sit there for two hours daily and eventually the writing will come.  She writes about relationships and she doesn't pretend to be better at it than others.  I really enjoyed her speech to a college writing class.  The speech was about censorship and prior to giving the speech some influential people wanted her banned from the campus because of a novel she wrote about her friendship with another woman entitled Truth and Beauty.  Now I want to read Truth and Beauty.  What does it say about me than I am drawn to read books that other people want banned?  I guess I have a defiant streak.  Sounds funny to think of reading a book as being defiant.  Other people march in the streets or break laws. Whereas I'm so bada$$ I'll go the library and read a book!  Take That!

What's In Your Back Seat?

I'm not sure why but one of my coworkers has decided it is time I started dating again.  She's after me to get on it.  She herself has paid for a year of match.com and is now a member of plentyoffish.  "Have you signed up yet?" she'll ask with a smile.  I tell her no and she gives me a five minute speech on why I should.  I thank her for her interest and acknowledge she is challenging me and she goes away happy.  She cracks me up.  She sometimes doesn't even know when she is funny.  Take this recent example:  "You'll know when they want to stay over," she tells me because she knows I haven't dated since the 1970's, "You'll see his CPAP machine in the back seat."  She means well but she's not very convincing.

Tumbling

I got what I wanted for Christmas this year.  I got a rock tumbling kit.  (If you keep an Amazon wish list updated you just might get what you want).  When I was a child my neighbor tumbled rocks.  I was a bit afraid of the man but I did admire his shiny rocks.  I've been tumbling rocks for a month now in my lower level.  I set the tumbler in an area as far away from my bedroom as physically possible while still being warm.  In summer I can tumble rocks in the garage but not in the winter because I'm afraid the water in the tumbler would freeze solid.  I put the tumbler in a cardboard box and covered it with a chair and a heavy quilt to muffle the sound.  With the tumbler came a supply of rocks. As you can see in my picture some were clear, some white, a couple purple ones, and a couple granite rocks.  The center blue/gray rock was from my own yard.  In December I mistook it for a blue potato so I decided to polish it up.  Wow, the rocks in my yard must be softer than the others because this rock lost at least half of it's volume.  Loosing 30% of volume is typical when a rock gets tumbled.  I had a little trouble with my tumbling.  The first cycle with the coarsest grit went fine.  The second cycle was troubling.  I wasn't careful enough to make a good seal with vegetable oil.  Water leaked from the tumbler.  The grit got into the lid and turned into cement.  I cemented the lid of my tumbler on tight.  There was no budging it.  So I soaked the tumbler in water for 5 days.  I have to be really careful not to get this grit into my sink because it will cement the pipes shut. Every day I would try to open the tumbler without luck.  I would dig a little bit of grit out of the lid at a time.  One the fifth day I finally got it open again. Now I know. Carefully apply fresh oil to the lid before tumbling. Best way to learn a lesson is the hard way.  My rock tumbler came with some jewelry clasps for key chains and "one size fits all" rings.  I really don't know what I am going to do with all these polished rocks.  I'd like to start a collection of Saint Cloud granite and Lake Superior granite polished rocks.  I'll think of something to do with them, right?

Gravitational Waves Made Me Do It

In science news today we learn that gravitational waves, predicted by Albert Einstein a long time ago, are real.  The waves are hard to detect but are real.  This explains so much for me personally and from today forward will be my excuse for a lot of things.  This morning, for example, at 6 o'clock, the gravity was extra strong because I had to exert all my will to rise out of my warm, soft bed.  Six o'clock on a Saturday morning in May when the warblers are migrating is different.  Then the gravity is light and I practically float out of bed.  So don't blame me for not wanting to get out of bed on a cold, dark winter morning. Blame gravitational waves.

The Actual Cakes

Appreciation

Today at work we had a potluck appreciation lunch for our custodian, K.  K is awesome.  He is helpful and creative and cheerful and sincere and interesting and he gets things done.  We ask him to do something and he smiles and says okay and he gets it done.  Extraordinary!  He goes out of his way to help us out.  He is very unlike all previous custodians.  He even made me a steel plate to put under my kickstand which helps me and also prevents holes being punched into the asphalt parking lot.  An appreciation potluck was a great idea.  People made posters for him and he loved it.  One of the people I work with is married to a woman who took classes on baking cakes.  She's good at making cakes and he must be good at asking her to make cakes.  For K's potluck appreciation lunch she made two cakes.  One was a dome shaped pinkish brown  cake with a wooden dowel in the middle.  The other cake was also round but white with fondant that came in layers.  Yes, that is right, she made a plunger cake and a roll of toilet paper cake.  Quite often we ask K to help us out with a plunger. She didn't use that nasty fondant you buy off the shelf that tastes terrible.  She made her own fondant out of marshmallow and powdered sugar.  The cakes were awesome.  Awesome in appearance but not popular to eat.  The dowel was removed out of the plunger cake and once slice was taken out in order to get people started on eating it. K ate that piece.  Good old K.  What a man.  No one else ate plunger cake.  Was it the color of the frosting?  Was it the shape of such an important and functional tool that turned people off?  Are all my coworkers suddenly concerned about carbs?  No, it wasn't about the carbs.  I'm pretty sure it was the shape.  What is used to clear clogged pipes can not be easily passed over the lips.  They ate the roll of toilet paper cake though.  Best cake and worst cake together on the same table.  The important thing is K appreciated the gesture and got the message that we appreciate him.