5 posts tagged “rain”

I finally threw out the flowers I bought for the Significant Other's visit (he left almost a week ago now--sniff).  A couple of them were getting decidedly nasty, but the bouquet held up surprisingly well.  I must get some more.  I have a coupon for a free set of (five) tulips from the upscale supermarket, but I don't have anything I wish to buy there at the moment and feel cheesy about stopping by just to claim the free flowers.

Yesterday the sun was out and it really felt like spring.  Cherry trees in full bloom. The ballet was on.  Today it's back to the cold and damp (though I think I see the sun lurking somewhere).

Tomorrow morning the cable company is supposed to come over, so I finally should have decent television reception and more reliable access to the internets (also enabling me occasionally to work from home--yay??).  To celebrate, I plan on going out more in the evenings than I have been doing.

I haven't been to a movie in ages, the last time being in New York (and that wasn't even a new film).

I booked a long weekend in New York using my award travel and some chicanery to not have to use the vacation days which I am not yet entitled to take technically.  That little act improved my mood dramatically.

Well today's weather is no better, and, in many ways worse.  Much warmer, but raining heavily on and off (mostly on).  The unsatisfying snow is already washed away in most places.  It makes doing some practical things (picking up moving boxes, going to the laundromat) a dicey matter.

Still, I feel a bit better, finally having made arrangements to have my shipment picked up (the same day I leave, as it happens, but it won't be ready any sooner).  The people at the shipping company here are just the best.  They make it all *seem* so simple and straightforward.  I also went ahead and set up the electricity account with a representative who had that laid back Other Coast demeanor that immediately put me in a better mood. It helps make it all feel a little more like an adventure than an ordeal.

Hopefully the rain will let up.

Either way, I will go out for some air later this afternoon.

Went to bed early last night.  Slept soundly until around 2:00 in the morning, then kept waking up periodically because of unmemorable, but bad dreams.  Net effect, I probably got as much sleep as I ordinarily do.  Still, I feel a bit better today.  My nose hasn't been running nearly as much.

Which is a good thing.  For tonight I have to go out.  The first of my extra "ABT spite" NYCB performances.  This evening is a good, but long all-Balanchine program, Serenade, Bugaku, and Union Jack, lamely called "International Balanchine" by the marketing department.  OK, is Serenade, Russian or American?  Honestly, they could have called it anything, "Balanchine by the Decades" or "Commissioned by Kirstein"  and it would have made as much sense.  I haven't seen Bugaku in a while (and never without Jock Soto, I think, except maybe at Dance Theatre of Harlem, but I might just be imagining I saw them do it live.  Probably just a video), so it should be interesting.

Hope I don't get caught in any downpours.

A weekend that seemed to be spent mostly in suspended animation.  I've been battling this cold which emerged Thursday night/Friday morning. First it was a sore throat.  Now it is a runny nose.  I think it is getting better, but it is more of a drag to have a cold in the spring/summer than in winter.  I really do believe that trip to Brooklyn did me in.  Should have gotten my shots first, as more than one person reminded me.

High point of the weekend was undoubtedly the School of American Ballet Workshop performance.  First third was less interesting.  Twinkliana gave the tween set a chance to shine.  Les Gentilhommes as dull and crappy as I remember.  Balcony pas de deux from Romeo + Juliet gave us a chance to see Callie Bachman in the role created on her.  She was splendid, but minus the scenery and context, the choreography seemed even more incompetent and uninspired.  Both Bachman and her younger brother Austin (who was featured in Twinkliana and has been seen in the Nutcracker) prove that good things still occasionally can come out of the Midwest.

After the intermission, we got Suki Schorer's staging of The Four Temperaments.  Very impressive all around.  Much more full of life than what you see over at the State Theater.  I particularly enjoyed Samuel Greenberg's Phlegmatic, but everyone was good.  Another intermission was followed by a rare performance of Balanchine's Gounod Symphony, a "lost" ballet, restaged (with some new choreography) by Martins during the mid-1980s.  One can see why the work has disappeared from the repertory.  Music does not develop much character.  Reminiscent of other pieces (e.g. Bizet's Symphony in C) in places.  The third movement was clearly the most exciting.

I went to the afternoon program and was surprised to see so many empty seats.  The Juilliard Theater is indeed a lovely place to watch dance.

Spent most of this morning blowing my nose and wondering if I should just go back home and get some rest.  But, having gotten here already, the prospect of going out again in the now-heavy rain, as well as some other complications, deterred me from acting on that impulse.  I'd almost forgotten what steady rain looks like; it seemed so alien.  Now it looks as if the rain has let up a bit, but only a few more hours of work to  go.  Try to soldier on.