1. In my retirement, I'd say, off the top of my head, that I miss two things the most.
I miss yakkin' with my fellow instructors -- I miss hallway and office conversations, coffee meetings, meals together, photo outings with Russell, theater projects with Judy, and more.
I also miss all that I used to learn from my students and from actors I got to play with in the theater.
Students and fellow theater-ites expanded me immeasurably, especially in the worlds of music and movies.
Today, out of the blue, a student who was in, I think, two classes I taught at the University of Oregon about forty years ago popped into my mind.
Her name is Tina.
Tina once handed me a cassette tape of This is the Sea, an album recorded by a U.K. group, The Waterboys.
I loved that album.
I played one song, "The Whole of the Moon", from that tape repeatedly, in large part because, in my mind, it described what I thought and how I felt about a woman I loved at that time.
With this vivid flashback of becoming friends with Tina and with that song occupying my mind all of a sudden, I wondered what kind of playlist Spotify would offer, so I did a search for Waterboys Radio.
I played Waterboys Radio as I fell asleep and in my half sleeping half awake state heard a variety of artists: Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison, Nick Lowe, R.E.M., Supertramp, The Cure, and others. Finally, though, after an hour or two, I turned off the radio and slept the rest of the night without Neil Young, Crowded House, Robbie Robertson, 10cc, Roxy Music, and other bands lulling me to sleep only to jolt me awake again.
2. Carol assigned Debbie and me to bring a loaf of crusty bread and a green salad to Family Dinner tonight.
I eat salads frequently, so I had a lot of salad making ingredients on hand and decided to make an "everything but the kitchen sink" salad.
I probably won't remember everything I put in the bowl, but among the ingredients were Romaine lettuce, baby spinach leaves, cabbage. red pepper, cosmic crisp apple pieces, blueberries, fresh basil, cilantro, celery, zucchini, grape tomatoes, and maybe more. I made a walnut oil, lemon juice, garlic, and balsamic vinegar dressing for the salad and topped it with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
I had fun making it and family members told me it worked.
3. We enjoyed a simple Spanish-themed dinner in celebration of Paul's 65th birthday. Molly made a superb Spanish white bean dip to go with tortilla chips to start. In honor of Paul's love of Amaretto, tonight's cocktail was an Amaretto Sour. Carol prepared a delicious, and wouldn't you know it!, comforting paelle for our main dish, complimented with the salad I made and the bread I brought.
After enjoying our meal, we retired to the living room. Christy baked a perfectly moist and flavorful Spanish almond cake and Paul opened his gifts.
I left dinner tonight asking myself if I'm overly sensitive about matters (in my view) of confidentiality and privacy.
Maybe it would be good if I loosened up about such things.
I'd say more, but what I'm referring to feels confidential to me! 🤣🤣🤣
No comments:
Post a Comment