The gym and other stuff.

Today I had a personal training. The weeks when I have a personal training, I feel that I have to go the the gym and work out more. So, I went to the gym on Tuesday, Thursday and today. I am not supposed to do a heavy workout the day before a training, so yesterday, I did cardio and some light free weights and core work. I am a bit sore today, as I was very serious about the core work. I can find a million reasons not to go to the gym, but when I do go, I feel so good. I quit Weight Watchers--it wasn't working any more for me. I do plan to rejoin, and start all over again in the near future.
I am still agonizing over color choices for my kitchen repainting. I have several colors painted on the wall and ceiling. I realized that I hated the first bunch (what was I thinking?), and decided to go lighter and more neutral. I have a box of small samples of paint--probably about 15 so far. I've spent about $50 on paint samples, but that's a lot less that buying paint and having to repaint because you hate the color.

Orchids!

The Botanic Garden has an Orchid show this weekend, and I had to go and see what they had. It was spectacular. There was also a sale and now there are 3 new orchids in my house.

Cello World

At the gym today, I got reacquainted with an old friend. Her daughter and my son studied cello with the same teacher for a few years. We were parent observers at several Suzuki Institutes. Now my son is grown up and her children are college students. It was nice to see her again and catch up with old times. Once a member of cello world, and I was just a peripheral member, always a member.

Back at the Botanic

Today was my first day of volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden for the year. I worked with a group of delightful 2nd graders from Humboldt Park in Chicago. We studied plant parts. They loved working with the equipment--two way viewers, magiscopes--a simple microscope and magnifying glasses. Then we went for a walk through the garden to the greenhouses. A good time was had by all.

It's spring break--but is it spring?

Today was my last class for over a week. Now I'm on spring break. Interesting that I had to wear my winter coat, a scarf and woolen slacks. It was cold this morning, sunny, but cold--like in the 20's.
Now for the more interesting stuff. Last Saturday I saw Madame Butterfly for the second time this season. This time it was in a movie theater, and the Met was putting it on. I enjoyed the Lyric Opera performance, which was live, but this one, live and in HD had a lot going for it. First of all, the big screen. Normally in an opera house, the stage is about the size of a paperback book, depending on how expensive your seats are. You have to use binoculars to see anything reasonably like a face.
We sat in the last row in the movie theater, and the view was spectacular. Every expression, every movement was out there. You could even see the expressions on the faces of the people who manipulated the puppets on stage--and they were wearing black veils.
The Met uses better translations for their subtitles, which are more natural and not stilted like the subtitles I have seen in Chicago. Accounting for the Italian-English cognates, the opera was easy to follow.
The stage set was bare minimum. A few chairs, some paper screens and a lot of bright light was it. It worked very well.
Butterfly was played by Patricia Racette, who also starred at the Lyric. Wonderful singing was heard form all the principal characters.
The Met is putting on two more operas this season--La Sononambula and La Cenorentola. Go to see one. You won't be sorry. Just make sure that you buy your tickets in advance--the operas usually sell out.

World Premiere! Two of Them.

Last night I heard the world premiere of two pieces of music. We attended a concert of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra at Mandel Hall, University of Chicago. On the program was an assortment of modern and classic numbers which included the premiere of Rauch by Jake Bancks and Celestial Dance by Alex Berezowsky. Both composers are doctoral students at the University of Chicago. I found the Berezowsky piece interesting, but I loved the work by Bancks. Rauch is Hebrew for wind, and the piece gave me the impression of various "styles" of wind. It was sort of a tone poem, a little like Grand Canyon Suite by Grofe, which was popular when I was growing up in the 50's.
Jake Bancks is a friend of my son's from the Eastman School of Music. He is also writing a new piece which was commissioned by the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music and will be premiered at Tanglewood on August 10 of this year. I was very honored to be at the premiere of two pieces of contemporary music--especially since they were played by a well known and well respected orchestra.

Square Root Day

Today is a square root day, one of the few in the century. Before today, I was totally unaware of square root days, but I am quickly becoming fascinated with them. March 3, 2009, written out is 3/3/09. Three times three or 3 squared is nine. Thus a square root day. The next one is 4/4/16, and after that, 5/5/25, and 6/6/36. Have a great square root day.