Your dear friend Jonathan
Invites you on a backstage tour of the Met Opera
And there is a couple from London
And a lady from San Francisco
And together you explore the bowels and backstage
Of one of the most iconic operas in the world
It is thrilling and beautiful
And smells like paint and dust
And even though you’ve been in theatre your whole life
The grandness of it
The scale of it
Takes your breath away
The hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of workers scurrying around   
The costumers
The wig makers
The carpenters
The metal-smiths
The stage hands
The education officers
Not to mention the singers and dancers and chorus members and children
And you get a tiny glimpse of the costumes up close
And the sumptuousness of the fabrics
The detail of the stitches
The way costumes are re-made and refashioned and refitted
The way the set pieces are rolled in and out
And stored in the air
And the history of it all
Tracing back hundreds of years to opera houses in Europe
Even the very walls in the house can trace their origins back to a single grand tree from a forest in London
The history of art and music and
Story telling and luxury

Dear Me
You’re singing in a chorus
With Kelli O’Hara
And Jason Robert Brown is playing the piano
And in you’re in a beautiful room of a historic NYC building
And it’s not a dream
But a dream come true
And it’s overwhelming and wonderful and exiting and exhausting and thrilling all at once

After a difficult few days
Apartment hunting (again)
And feeling like NYC is harsh and hard and
Sometimes downright impossible
A work friend gave a group of us a free pass to the top of the
Empire State Building
And it was sunset
And even though it was overcast
There was a pink and orange glow to the west
And the bird’s eye view
Of this gorgeous glorious difficult beautiful city
Made my heart swell
And when we came downstairs
I could hear piano music
And we made our way around the lobby
And there tucked away in the corner
Was a pianist
Playing Christmas carols and jazz standards on a baby grand
And it all felt possible

I know I say it almost every Monday night
But happiness truly is
Singing in the choir
The joy of harmonizing
The joy of vocalizing together
The joy of discovering the music and
Figuring out how we can make it
Sing

More hot chocolate
Sugar and fat to mend a broken heart
Watching Spirited
Singing and dancing and comedy
To soothe a troubled soul

Hot chocolate and writing
And a surprise chocolate croissant, gratis

A lovely early morning stroll

A walk through downtown Manhattan with Al
And a chocolate orange will cure what ails you
As will Chinese food
And watching Hook for the first time in years

The relief of excellent customer service
The loveliness of catching up with an old friend
The delight of Paul Gordon’s music

Today was a heartbreaking day
My former love and puppy driving across the country
To a whole new life
Without me
I couldn’t look at my screen
Or concentrate on work
So I pulled an Abuela and I retreated to the kitchen to make
A batch of lentejas
A big bowl of hummus
And a carrot/beet slaw
I shared the lentejas with a friend who got covid
And on the way home from work
Hanna and I braved the cold and got Hungry Jack’s
And the greasy burger and fatty fries and soft serve with chocolate fudge
Were the balm my soul needed