The Joy

Have you ever commented that something is a lot of work and someone quipped “Everything worth doing is.” And you had admit, “True.”

Thus the grand mantra of parenting… and I’ve only just begun.

Just when I was finishing my 8th feeding of the day and cleaning bottles for the 9th, there was a little moment that stopped me cold, “So THAT’S what they’re talking about!”

I stood in the kitchen holding Victoria with my left arm, taking a few pics of her peaceful face with my right, when I caught a truly priceless moment of being a mom:

A Little Venting

Wow… where does the time go? Somewhere between Christmas, a new baby, visiting in-laws, and working off this baby weight, I have no time to write.

I miss it.

Of course, just as I sat down and logged on someone realized she was wet and decided she was hungry. So here I sit: pathetically poured into a pair of pre-prego jeans (I can’t bear to wear maternity stuff anymore) eating a Zone bar (no time for anything else), left arm wrapped around Victoria, right arm pointing, clicking and typing. I seem to always be doing two things at once but never get anything done. Sound familiar?

Moving on…

I wasn’t very Christmas-y this year – strange to me that it’s already come and gone. I’m in a funk and I’m sure how to snap out of it. May I vent?

I’m bitter. I’m bitter over what happened to me with the awful radio station that shall not be named. It dawned on me while I roamed the mall last week - I’m still bitter. I had this great job that I loved and I made pretty good money. Plus I had the pleasure of sharing my beloved showtunes every week. Then a new boss rolls into town and without knowing anything about me or even giving me half a chance, he cans me. The old “new direction,” “starting fresh” line. Ever been “new directioned?” Not fun. He didn’t even thank me for my hard work, he didn’t say he was sorry, nor did he even act remorseful. The whole stupid firing was a whopping 9 seconds long.

All of that aside, I’m really in a bind now. Do you think when bosses fire people they ever give thought to what this truly does to a person? I’m sure some do – they’re still human, right? My job was going to be perfect for having a new baby as the hours would have allowed me to be home at 11 or so - long before Mark leaves for work. But now I have this beautiful baby girl and I do not want to put her in daycare. What do I do? I’m really limited now. I either have to find a job with super-early hours, one where I can work from home or a part-time job somewhere. I sit and feed my bright-eyed baby and worry about my future employment… just not sure what’s out there.

I’m also bitter because I feel like they ruined what should have been a really fun time in my life. How often is someone 7 months pregnant? Not very. My last few months of pregnancy were stressful and taxing. I was also looking forward to sharing the pregnancy and birth with listeners. I’d gotten so many e-mails and well-wishes from so many listeners/friends and then nothing. I was just sort of cut-off while the new pregnant host gets my listener support and full paid maternity leave. Life, as they say, is not fair.

Whew!

That feels better, thank you. I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m trying to be positive and I’m trying to remember that I have so many reasons to be thankful. My loved ones are well, I have a warm roof over my head and I’ve been blessed with a gorgeous and healthy baby girl who smiles more and more everyday. But I can’t but think it would all be a lot more enjoyable had I been able to share it, wasn’t involved in a job hunt and didn’t have to worry about how I was going to keep diapers on her cute, little bum.

A Very Broadway Christmas!

So, Showtune fans, we’re getting very close to Christmas now. What have you gotten for the Showtune fan on your list? I’m sure over the years you’ve beefed up their CD collection, gotten the requisite Phantom of the Opera beach towel and perhaps tickets to a touring show were thrown in there too.

Now what?

Well, I have the answers for you. Make sure you check out the Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids website: http://www.broadwaycares.org
They have MANY Broadway related items from which to choose – they even have greeting cards designed by Sutton Foster!

How can you go wrong with a Broadway snow globe? That’s one of my favorites! The only problem is you’ll start feeling a need to get the latest one every year. That can get a tad pricey, not to mention where on earth would you store 25 snow globes that are mostly the same?

I like to check their website for myself from time to time. I bought a fabulous Broadway bracelet that has logos from all the current Broadway shows, most of which I’ve been lucky enough to see. But even you haven’t seen any of the musicals, you still have the CD, know the music and it’s a great conversation-starter!

If you remember last year – while Showtune Saturday Night was still mine – I played some Christmas songs as done by Broadway casts. It was great fun and I had a wonderful response to the songs. The Broadway Cares website is where you can get your hands on all of those fun recordings. And remember, a portion of everything purchased at the website goes to AIDS research.

So hurry! You may still have time to peruse the site, get something for that fan in your life and maybe throw a little Christmas cheer your way too!

Merry Christmas!

There's No Wrong Way

I always wait about 30 minutes too long. I’ll be visiting my folks and suddenly hear the preliminary squawk of a baby getting ready to eat her 1,000th meal of the day. I frantically glance at the clock and realize it’s past time and my choices are to a) Hang out for another 45 minutes – therefore putting me home too late for Ginger’s bladder or b) Fly out the house RIGHT NOW to begin the 10 minute drive home while the meltdown begins.

This past time I opted for the latter. My mom helped me gather the baby detritus lying about the kitchen while I tossed everything chaotically into the diaper bag (I’ll organize it later!) and grabbed a handful of Hershey’s Kisses. Mom lovingly swung the car seat back and forth trying to calm Victoria who apparently has never eaten before in her life and the injustice of it all results of wails of furor and pain.

Off we go. Victoria, her powerful lungs and me.

When my attempts to calm her en-route fail, I become absorbed in my Kisses. I steer with the outside of my palm while prying the foil away from the chocolate nugget. The only difficulty is not being able to see the miniscule chocolate specs that inevitably fall from a freshly opened Kiss. You Kiss eaters know what I’m talking about. At any rate, I realize at this point, I’ve created the perfect method for eating the all-American chocolate. You open the foil, stick your tongue out and tip your head back therefore all specs will either stick to your tongue or fall in your mouth. Then I like to take the point of the Kiss and feel it in between my two front teeth. But you may have your own method.

Against a backdrop of caterwaulering from the backseat, I had the thought that we all probably have our methods for eating just about any food. How do we compare?

Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups: I peel back the brown wax paper, eat around the pointy edges until I have an island of peanut butter sitting atop my thumb, then I begin biting. Usually three bites worth.

Hostess Cupcakes: I dump the package upside down and let my cupcake sit on its lovely frosted top. I pluck the cake off the bottom and eat that. Then I pick up the glorious top piece and slowly eat that. Best piece for last you see!

Banana Bread: After lightly buttering a fat piece of B-bread, I eat the side edges and then the bottom edge saving the middle and super-moist top edge for the last bites since they are, of course, the best. (Mark toasts his banana bread. I believe the toasted flavor gets in the way of the banana flavor).

Cake: I tip the piece over on its side so I can easier access the cake portion, therefore saving the frosted top for last. Are you sensing a system yet?

French Fries: Fry Sauce – always. If none is available, I’ll eat the Fries plain. Everything else desecrates the purity of the fried potato.
Twix: A steady, even, straight-forward biting while holding the opposite end carefully ensconced in the wrapper so as not to soil my fingers.

Hmm…. Thus far, I sound slightly like I might have a sweet tooth… Or perhaps sweet foods are more fun to use creative eating methods?...

At any rate, once at home, my Kiss foils are crumpled into tiny balls resting in the bottom of my pocket and I’m continually amazed that the quiet-inducing power of a bottle!

New Discoveries

My sis came to town this week. I told her not to come down anymore. Every time Jamie shows up, my regular life stops. I quit cooking for Mark, I didn’t do any laundry, I barely even got my precious TV shows watched. Keep in mind, she stays with my mom. So it’s not like she’s crashing at my place keeping me from my other tasks. You might be asking what is it that I do when Jamie is here… good question. We mostly sit around and talk. Really. That’s pretty much it and that’s just the way we like it. We hash out everything, several times over, and then we get together the next day and do it again. We sprinkle in a few baked goods for nostalgia sake (and because we’re dough-eaters) and we talk and I love it. Luckily, Jamie lives fairly close and we get to see her regularly. She leaves Monday and I’m already looking forward to Christmas!

Will you take that as any type of justification for not blogging all week? I don’t even know if I buy it, but it’s all that I’ve got.

My question for you:
When is that last time you listened to music? I mean really listened, while not doing anything else. I’d imagine we have it on all the time, but we’re always multi-tasking; getting ready for work, driving around town, cleaning the house.

Earlier this week I was doing Victoria’s brunch feeding, 9ish or so, and we sat here at the table by my ipod all plugged into its speaker. I sat here with my beautiful daughter (still sounds weird to say that) and we thumbed through my ipod and its offerings. Carefully balancing her bottle against my chin, I moved my thumb around the dial. Aren’t ipods great, by the way? Amazing to sit here with my entire CD collection in this little device. But I digress…

I thumbed past my recording of 1940s Radio Hour (a fabulous musical I was in), 70s disco, Back in Black (AC/DC… only for working out), Dirty Dancing, Garth Brooks, Les Miserables, My Best Friends Wedding soundtrack, Patsy Cline anthology, The Sound of Music etc. Victoria and I sat here enjoying her brunch and music. She loved it and so did I, though she’s a much slower eater to some tunes!

I sat here by the fire, looking out at the snowy blanket lying over the empty bird feeder and I rediscovered many fabulous songs and found a lot of new ones too!

If you’re interested in adding a few new tunes to your ipod, I thought I’d share a few little-known gems that really put a smile on my face (and none of them are showtunes. I’d hate for you to think I was totally one-track minded… let me know anytime you want to talk showtunes!)

In the Jazz realm:
Robin McKelle – A fabulously throaty voice and marvelous big-band arrangement of the Great American songbook. Would kill to sound like that!

Stacey Kent – A tiny, pixie of a woman, with a soft, delicate touch on the same songbook. She sings with a tiny ensemble with her cute hub on saxophone. By the way, she comes to SLC fairly regularly!

Justin Hayford – He’s a cabaret singer from Chicago who loves to find long lost songs from our Great American Songbook. It’s wonderful! I love hearing some old Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, and Comden & Green that I’ve never heard before. Worth checking out.

Country:
Cornell Hurd: I LOVE this band. I went to Austin, TX a few years back with a girlfriend. We went to some honky-tonks at night to do a little Texas two-steppin’ and we were lucky enough to catch the Cornell Hurd band. They’re the perfect example of two-step tunes which always cheer me up.

Okay, okay… for your showtune folks:
Anthony Warlow: He’s an Australian fellow who, for some reason, doesn’t want to perform anywhere else. He did Jekyll & Hyde which I think is the best recording. He’s absolutely phenomenal and he also does some jazz standards as well. It takes a little searching but he’s well worth it.

Well, my new daily ritual seems to be over for now. Mark is awake, Victoria needs a little more food, Ginger needs to go outside, the TV just got turned up… the daily grind has begun. But, I look forward to tomorrow morning when I can get lost for a minute or two in my ipod and a few more discoveries.

1 Month Update

Thank you to those of you who asked about Victoria and wanted an update.

As you know, we had her over a month ago now… can you believe that?! She’s a month and 4 days old!

At her 3 week check-up, she was already tipping the scales at 8+ pounds which seemed to surprise her doc. That’s a pretty hefty gain for a little lady.

The best part is, this past week we got up to 5 ½ - 6 hours of sleep at night! We’re feeling like a million bucks. Other than the fact that the same night Victoria went 6 hours, Ginger got some sort of stomach thing and needed to go outside every hour to take care of her business. So we’re trying to get everyone on the same page.

I know that every single mom you talk to will tell you the same thing, but gosh, Victoria sure is pretty. She really is such a beautiful baby. Perhaps it’s a survival thing for them? The cuter they are, the less likely you are to have your own melt-down while they’re having theirs? Either way, I could stare are her for hours.

The strike is over!! The strike is over!!

I've been utterly heartsick about all the folks who finally made their big trip to the Big Apple only to find a mostly-dark Broadway. Can you imagine? New York City is an expensive venture and it's not something most of us can turn around and repeat. So, you've saved, you've anticipated you're finally there and then a strike?!?!?! Awful. I'd be in tears.

Plus I was also sad for Broadway. Lots of people who aren't normally theatre-goers see their first play in NYC. Many of them probably go home and realize theatre is a wonderful way to spend the evening and continue to support the art form. How many folks were gypped that moment? So BRAVO to anyone involved in ending the strike. Bravo!!

In other Broadway news...

Last week I talked about the Broadway stars who are in current TV shows and it brought me to Ugly Betty.

Did you see the episode where Betty and some others went to Wicked? If you didn't, pay attention because it'll be on again.

When Mark and I were dating, I wanted him to see the movie that brought us together: “Up Close and Personal.” I was a Marketing student ready to graduate, not liking the job descriptions for which I was interviewing and I saw Up Close and Personal. It's a romantic comedy with an up-and-coming TV reporter Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford, the News Director who discovers her.

I realized I'd always wanted to go into Broadcasting and so I stayed in school another year. Long story short... that movie is the reason Mark and I met at Channel 4 oh-so-many years ago.

Well Mark, an award-winning news photographer hated the movie. He just couldn't get past all the errors. “THAT would never happen!” “I'd love to be able to do a live shot without any cables!” “Where's their batteries?” “We don't hold the cameras that way.” etc. etc. I didn't understand why he just couldn't look past that and enjoy the movie. Now I understand.

Fast forward 10 years...

Ugly Betty goes to Wicked. I was initially SO excited about the episode. I'd seen the commercials, I love Wicked and I settled in for what was going to be a great show.

I'm first highly annoyed that Betty and her friend text messaged each other throughout the show. Keep in mind, the actual musical is on stage, they're singing “Popular,” but Betty and her friend and busy texting “When you hear soemone cough it's me saying hello.”

EXCUSE ME?! Text messaging during a play? Absolutely NOT. I've scolded people for that very thing. It's distracting, it's rude and it shouldn't be allowed. Period. They go through a long series of this... not to mention the whispering and arguing back and forth.

The other bothersome thing is everyone in the audience is smiling as though they're completely unaware that someone is rudely talking through a Broadway musical for which they've paid $100+. Clearly they weren't sitting by me!

Here's the real rub though... Betty and her boyfriend go for a walk – in the MIDDLE OF THE SHOW!!! (Again, why pay 100+ for a show if you're going to talk about your relationship out in the lobby?) Anyway, while they're roaming about they suddenly find themselves backstage.

I shout out “That would NEVER happen! There is NO WAY they'd let two random people wander into the backstage area!” Mark just smirked. Then they just happen to climb inside Glinda's bubble. Again, “That would NEVER happen!! What is this?!?!”

Come on, show tune folks... let's be honest... Broadway houses, Union shops no less, do NOT let anyone - even cast members - climb around set pieces when it's not the proper time. Period.

Here's the worst part though... Elphaba and Glinda are singing “For Good” - such a glorious moment in the show. Then Glinda's bubble randomly comes floating out onstage with Betty and her boyfriend standing inside. “That would NEVER happen!! COME ON!!! There's NO WAY a professional stage manager is going to call the bubble cue this late in the show. There is NO WAY that would EVER happen. Period!! This is stupid. This is totally stupid!!!”

Mark smirked and said “NOW you know why I hated Up Close and Personal.”

Point well made. Point well made.

Did you see the show? What did you think of it?

Send your thoughts to: Showtune.erica@hotmail.com