Closing Out the Year

2022 is on the books and it was a good December.  It's time for a long-winded life update.  

Theater dominated the month of December as it did in November.  I spent much of November preparing for performance.  December was all about performing.  She Loves Me went through three more weekends of performances. 

(My biggest moment on stage.  I loved this dress until I saw this photo and saw it added twenty pounds on me.)

It was an exhausting month, but in the end it was worth it.  My goal was to break into a new group and work with a new director.  I reached that goal.  

I know in my last post I expressed some conflicted feelings about doing this play.  My feelings remained someone conflicted.  I devoted a large amount of time to this show for a minimum amount of time on stage and not as much cast and crew camaraderie as I have had in other shows.  After a few performances, I began to make peace with that.  Many of my fellow ensemble members also felt a bit disgruntled with lack of stage time.  I also made more peace with feeling like an outsider.  I was older than all the women in the cast.  I was a stranger to all of the cast and crew with one exception. It wasn't easy to find common ground.  One day during a grumble session among the women in the dressing room, I made the comment, "I'm here because I wanted to break into a new theater group.  I accomplished my goal."  The response of one of the other women was, "We're glad you're here."  Maybe I took a lack of connection a bit too personally.  

I collected all kinds of tokens from the cast and crew, (including the bracelet from the director and the choreographer).  It was a thoughtful cast.

After set strike we said our goodbyes and just like that it was all over.  It’s hard to believe these people I was seeing night after night are now gone from my life.  It requires an adjustment period to realize  I had nowhere to go in the evenings anymore. 

As I said, I will audition for Curtain Call again if the right play comes up.  At the moment, there is nothing else in this season I am suited for that would fit in my schedule, but there is always next season.

Performing doesn't always mean plays.  One event I look forward to every year is the holiday party at the Doyle Senior Center in New Rochelle.  My dance studio always provides a performance.  As I don't do the spring recitals anymore, this is my once dance performance that I do each year.

It was my idea to do George Winston's version of The Holly and the Ivy for our music.  It was a tricky piece to do because of the 3/4 time and the speed, but I think we worked it out well with only a handful of instances of glitches, brain farts, dropping a bit behind the beat, or falling out of synch with each other.

My final theater weekend ended on a high note with much feasting.  I spent the post-performance Sunday day striking the She Loves Me set.  In the evening Kevin and I were off to Anthony’s and Bill's holiday party.  My Curtain Call friends may be a new part of my theater family now, but my Westchester-based theater family have been a part of my life the longest.  Holiday parties with them is something I look forward to every December.

Once theater time was over, I realized it was Hanukkah.  I was back in the kitchen again (a place I spent far too little time in the past two months). That meant it was time to make my gentile latkes.  Rather than serve these with applesauce, I made chicken cooked in cider and caramelized onions.  (I know it’s a terrible photo. This isn’t my food blog, so give me a break.). My latke game improves every year.  I think these were the best ones yet.

I had some schmaltz left over from my last bout of stock making, so I turned it into matzah ball soup. I know it was the wrong Jewish holiday (I suppose I should have made doughnuts) but it’s always a hit in this house. 

Most of my family was traveling elsewhere for Christmas.  The only people left in town were Kevin and Mom.  I didn't want to do nothing for the day, so I made a Christmas brunch for the three of us (see food blog if you haven’t already).  

Santa Kevin was good to me and got me theater tickets as a Christmas gift.  This will be an excellent way to spice up the long cold nights of winter.

I gave him a new barn jacket to keep him warm on long cold days at the barn.

Speaking of the barn, I had the week between Christmas and New Year's Day off.  I wanted to make up for lost time with the horses as much as possible.  The day after Christmas Kevin and I headed to the Alpine Haus Bed & Breakfast, which is a mile down the road from the barn.  This way we could ride every day without clocking 150 miles on the car each visit.  We gave ourselves a quiet country holiday with lots of horse time.  

We usually book the main house, but we splurged on an upgrade to a carriage house suite and had a room with a fireplace and a jacuzzi.

The room provided wine glasses and a corkscrew, so I uncorked some local wine and I had an afternoon in the jacuzzi.

Finally we closed out the year with our family  My brother hosted a New Year's Eve party at his house.  All the family had returned from their respective vacations and able to be together one last night of the year. 

Erik and Janeth put out a tasty meal and we ended the year with good food, good company, and plenty of wine.  I’m not ashamed to say we went home before midnight and went to bed. 2023 would be there when we woke up.

Happy New Year to all!