Finally at Home

Here we are, on Christmas Eve, just me and the cat. Because...that's how we roll. Finally...FINALLY...at home. It was only an 8 month delay after all, but at the end of November I finally got the keys to the new place. I started moving in smaller items, slowly but surely, as December got underway. And about two weeks ago the rest of my stuff got moved in on one brisk Saturday morning. So now, two weeks later, and a lot of unpacking and settling is done...but still a bit more to go. It's a process. But it's nice to finally be somewhere that feels like home. And just in time for Christmas! 

Connor spent Christmas Eve day here, and the rest of the family came over. Cookies were made, pizza was eaten, mimosas and wine were drunk - and Connor even got to open some presents. It was a nice day all around.

And later, after the family had left and the child was nestled all snug in his bed - well he was gone and back with his mom anyway - I went for a walk down to Rockmont Circle. The Fab 40's of Natomas. This was actually my third trip there this year. As I said in a prior year, it's actually better than the Fab 40's, in my opinion. No one selling popcorn or hot cocoa or anything this year, but the displays of lights were still top notch. And even better for me: now I live less than a half mile away. So, why not go back for more holiday cheer? And it's a nice walk, anyway.

And now it's just shy of two hours before Christmas morning. There's always so much buildup to the season and then before you know it, the day is here and then in a flash it will be gone again. And then all the lights and tinsel will come down, the decorations will be put away for another year, and life will go on once more. And hey, in another week we'll be closing out the year and looking forward to 2022. 

And in the meantime, I'll continue settling into my new home and new life here. Finally. 

Thursday Love

So it's Thursday evening and...you know what? Let's give Thursday some love. It's kind of the ugly duckling of the weekdays. The outcast, if you will. Monday is always dreaded as the start of the drudgery of another work week. But at least it gets attention. It gets noticed. Tuesday belongs to tacos, of course. Thank goodness for alliteration. Wednesday is the proverbial hump day, the day of the camel. Friday is the gateway to the weekend. TGIF! Thank goodness it's Friday! Is. What I'll be saying tomorrow. 

But Thursday. It's just kind of...there. What is so special about it? Nothing. Well, I'm enjoying the evening anyway, laying out on the couch and typing away as the TV drones on, playing Law & Order SVU in the background. A simple quiet evening at home. I can't really think of anything, though, that makes Thursdays stand out. Well, this picture was taken last Thursday, and it certainly stands out. But that's all arbitrary.

Maybe we need to come up with something for Thursday to be. Something to make it stand out. So it can finally take its place of honor among the rest of the weekdays. Something to give it a chance to be...special. 

Isn't that all anyone wants anyway? To be special, in a world crammed full of ordinary individuals who don't really stand out from one another. Not really. Not in anyway that matters, anyway, in the grand scheme of things. We're all just Thursdays. Isn't that weird? Everyone want to be a Tuesday or a Friday. Even a Monday would be something. But no, no. It's Thursday for all of us. We're just minnows in a sea of fish, as it were.

Thursday Thursday Thursday. I don't know. I'll think of something. The answer is out there, or else trapped here deep in the recesses of my mind somewhere. Thursday will have its day! Well. I mean. It IS a day. But it will find its place to shine, as hopefully we all will.

Dear Glenn Disney

So today I went and saw the movie version of the hit musical Dear Evan Hansen. It was probably folly to do something so emotionally charged on a day already tainted by the emotion of having to release Connor to his mother for the week. But it is what it is.

The movie has been taking all sorts of hits by critics, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Bottom line: it was pretty amazing.

The movie offers, by the nature of cinematography, an opportunity to develop characters as well as present locations and scenery to enhance to story experience. And, really, I think it delivered. The music from the original musical was presented in a clever way through moving scenes of high school life and flashbacks to character's pasts, all things the musical simply cannot effectively do on stage. The vocal performances of the actors were just as stellar as in the musical.

And yeah, Ben Platt is a 27 year old playing a high school senior. One of the big criticisms of the movie. But Platt still has a boyish charm about him which at least makes it within the outskirts of plausibility. Certainly we've been treated to far worse examples on television of people in their later years playing teenagers on screen. 

The movie gives us two brand new songs as well. Which - frankly - weren't particularly necessary. I suppose they exist to further the development of characters which otherwise have little stage/screen time in comparison to the stars of the show. The song performed by Connor, presented as a video file found from someone who had been in rehab with him, at least provides some redemption of the character, who is otherwise presented as someone completely estranged from his family and devoid of all sense of emotional responsibility to his family.

The other song, performed by the girl who is president of the senior class and helps start and run the Connor Project movement after being inspired by Hansen, does give her some vulnerability and commonality with Hansen, as they both apparently suffer from depression and share a moment of spiritual bonding. But, really, it wasn't particularly necessary for development and progress of the story. 

The emotion was definitely there - even, I daresay, more so than in the musical. And that, I think, is the backbone of the musical that fueled its amazing reception on the stage. It's certainly what fueled the experience for me, when I saw it live in San Francisco at the end of 2018. Granted, I was in an emotional place back then and ripe for harvesting in that regard. So, yes, it made me cry then. It did so today too. The biggest song for me was and is So Big/So Small. It's very relatable for me. Granted, in a reversed role. I think I've mentioned before on this blog that I've tended to be the wife/mother figure in previous relationships. But anyways. Moving on.

The end of the movie - which in the musical version is quite short by musical finale standards - feels even more truncated than the stage version. The musical uses a reprise of For Forever. The movie uses a reprise of one of the newly composed songs. Honestly...I didn't care for it that much. Too short and not as meaningful, in my opinion. But to each his own. I maybe I just missed this from my one viewing of the musical, but it seems like more time was supposed to have passed before the final scene. In the movie, it's just the end of summer following high school graduation. But maybe I misread that in 2018. Guess I'll have to go see the musical again.

So again, the movie is great, in my opinion. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. And this post ended up being more of a review than I had originally intended. But I don't feel the need to write Dear Glenn Disney letters to myself, as Evan a did as an assignment from his therapist (that set up the whole plot of the show). I mean sure, I've felt alone, and depressed, and so on. Who hasn't at one time or another? But I've never been in need of being found as much as Evan Hansen was. He even admits that he didn't fall from the tree (causing his signature broken arm), but rather he "let go". Was that in the musical? I might have missed that part too...

So. Anyways. Go see the movie.

Fall! Fall?

So, it's officially Fall now, with the first day of the autumnal equinox being, well, yesterday. Not that you'd know it. Because here in Sacramento, it's hot. Like, 98 degrees. And no, that's not a 1990's-era boy band reference.

So instead of sweltering away in the the valley dust bowl, I went last Friday afternoon to (where else) San Francisco. What a change! As it always is. It was cool. No, cold. I actually put on pants at one point. Um...in place of shorts. I swear I wasn't wandering around in my underwear. Not that that would seem much out of place there. It shouldn't be out of place here, it's so hot. 

But as usual, it was a lovely day by the bay enjoying the fresh coastal air. I hit Ghirardelli Square for my usual Nob Hill Chill, hit the Sports Bar on Columbus Avenue for a $4 happy-hour beer, and generally just tottered around the city trying not to look like a tourist. I shouldn't be, after all the time I've spent there. I'm practically a local. In my mind anyway. I could get used to that weather, anyway.

It was even so cold that on the way back towards my car, after dinner at a sit down pizzeria, I stopped and got a hot chocolate at Starbucks. A large hot chocolate. Quite a step up from my normal medium-sized order. Starbucks, incidentally, has moved into one of the little container shops that have been erected a little ways down from Pier 39. I'm not sure if anyone is aware of it, as there was no one in the store but me.

Unfortunately just a little while later, I spilled almost the entire hot chocolate while trying to get a nice photograph of the antique fishing boats. There's a small window at dusk where the light just pops on your photos, turning things otherwise commonplace in something almost ethereal. And you just have to stop what you're doing and take advantage of it. Even if at great expense. But I blame the wind for my mishap, in all honesty. 

So, the hot chocolate was a loss. I drank maybe a quarter of it before The Accident. A seagull made off with the lid. I have no idea what he intended to do with it. One man's trash is another bird's treasure, apparently. The cup, I salvaged for the nearest trash can.

And the walk of shame back to my car was otherwise uneventful. Actually, I don't think anyone actually saw me spill it. Except for a homeless man camped out on the boardwalk. He muttered something incomprehensible to me. I didn't stop to try and interpret. 

It was dark by the time I started for home - the downside of the fall season is its increasingly shortening days. It's now dark when I get up at 6pm, and dark long before Connor's bedtime at 8:30pm. And hot in-between. But we did get some rain at the beginning of last week. Yes! Actual moisture from the sky! It does in fact exist, and has not fallen into the realm of legend. At least that is a sign, of sorts, that the Fall is nigh. Hopefully, just around the corner. 

If nothing else, I'm so ready for the daytime temperatures to drop below 90. Where are you Fall!

Decompression

Here's a picture of a silhouette of trees. Because, why not? Honestly, I wasn't even going to post a picture on this one. Nothing I've seen lately has seemed worthy of a photograph. No moment worthy of being frozen in time, immortalized in digital format. Everything has been kind of...blah.

Thank goodness iPhones have such poor color matching; the dull blue and faint haze of smoke in the distance turned into a really orange to lavender transition here. So it goes.

Anyways, I went for a walk, as I so often do, mostly to decompress tonight after two full days of school back in session. Not that it was that trying, really, but it's certainly a change from the past year and a half. And it was a nice cool evening, the first in a long time where temperatures dipped below 80 at sunset. Thank goodness again. 

It hasn't been difficult to tell that the world is not quite back to normal. An don't because everyone everywhere on campus is wearing masks, and everywhere you turn there's another hand sanitizer dispenser staring you down. The traffic has been noticeable lighter than it was. Before Covid. Parking has been much easier on campus than it was. Before Covid. Less eateries are open on campus than there were. Before Covid.  Seems like a pattern, doesn't it? This marker will be a benchmark for the state of society for awhile. 

So, yeah, the first two days of school were mild by comparison to what I've been accustomed to as being "the norm" in previous years. We're there, onsite, as we have been for years. But it's not quite the same. And maybe it's just me, but the students seem to have gotten even younger. Or else I'm just getting older. Surely that's the real cause, but I prefer to waver in my sensibilities and cling to a smidge of denial.

The mind is younger than the body.

But just three more days before the first week will be in the books. And three more weeks till the start of fall. And maybe in three months there construction will conclude on my new townhome, and I can be moved in before the holiday season begins. Maybe maybe maybe.

For now, I'm relaxed, at home, in bed, and about to call it a night. And day three will greet us soon enough. 

So It Begins

Well, here we are at a juncture in time that we knew would come. That we knew must come. Sometime. Eventually. We've been waiting for this for over 15 months. It's the eve of the start of the fall semester, and we are finally returning to something resembling normal. Well, more or less.

Tomorrow students will flock to campus to begin their baccalaureate adventures at Sac State. It won't be quite like it was before, as there's still a smattering of classes being held online. And students and staff and faculty will be required to wear masks indoors. And who knows if all the campus features will be open and available. Yet.

Last week was a dry run for us, more or less, as marching band camp returned for the first time since 2019. Students returned! Dozens of people graced my office in search of lockers and keys and so on. Round Table and Jamba Juice and Starbucks were open in the Student Union. Students began moving back into the dorms. Progress!

We'll see how long things last. The world still isn't quite right, and people still spook easily at the slightest hint of a cough. A lot of people think it will shut down again, as soon as people start contracting Covid again. And they probably will, just like they contract the flu and the common cold and on and on. Every year. That's our normal.

But for now, some amount of positivity permeates the clouds of doubt (though those could be clouds of smoke from the fires in the Sierra). We're planning on offering live concerts with live audiences this fall, and tickets have gone on sale. Ensembles will be rehearsing with a more or less normal in-house capacity. And I have returned to full time onsite, for two weeks now already. Boy, is it tough getting back to normal! We all got soft this past year with reduced workloads and working from home. 

But come tomorrow morning, we'll see if things looks and feel like normal. I've been watching a slow but steady stream of emails arrive at my inbox all weekend, students needing lockers and keys and volunteer paperwork and parking permits and on and on. So I expect it will be a busy day tomorrow...just like the start of a semester used to be. Before Covid.

Here goes year 23!