Spooky Friday!

It's Friday, it's Friday!

Cat-in-a-hat-o-lantern 2013

When I was a kid, the weekend was the Holy Grail, what we endured a whole week of school to get to (although I secretly enjoyed the lessons, if not the social dynamics, of school). As a young adult just starting out in my career, it was a chance to cut loose and relax - no shoes, no alarm clock, no responsibilities other than to clean my house.

Now, however, my weekends look very much like my week days. That is to say, chaotic! Because of early rehearsals and church services (at which I have to sing), there have to be shoes and alarm clocks and responsibilities. There are schedules to follow, work to be done, and bills to pay.

Being grown up isn't all it's cracked up to be!

For the third year in a row, I won't be passing out Halloween candy in my neighborhood. Now, before you break out the egg cartons, let me explain. For the last 2 years, I've had tech week during everyone's favorite spook fest. For those of you new to theater speak, this is also known as "Hell Week." It's a week of dress rehearsals that includes a lot of starting and stopping thanks to the addition of the "tech" - lights, sound, sets, props, orchestra, etc. But we're still in costume - that counts, right?

Darn skippy, it does.

This year, I'm blissfully free from Tech for another 5 weeks, but am going to see friends performing in The Rocky Horror Show. Quite appropriate, n'est pas? And this is not one of those movie screenings where people dress up and get super inappropriate. My college had a few of those, until they got so obscene that the administration had to ban it. No, this is the stage show, where ACTORS dress up and get super inappropriate. Totally different!

Side note - a few years ago, I auditioned for a production of Rocky Horror and was called back (i.e. shortlisted) for the role of Janet. I didn't get the part, and ended up not doing the show. This ended up being a blessing in disguise, since the guy they cast as Brad was one of my former students from my year of teaching. Talk about narrow misses of awkward situations!

So, to the 300+ kids who come through my neighborhood each year, my light will be off, there will be no candy, and stay the hell out of my flower beds! That goes double for you parents who cut through yards because you're too lazy to walk down to the sidewalk!

As I prepare for a weekend of costume parties, rehearsals and voice lessons, I'll leave you with sage words that my aunt shares with me as often as she can: Have fun, be safe, and don't pee on the slide (or on the sidewalk).

From l-r: Wicked Witch, Carmen Sandiego (not a German
Olympian, as one co-worker guessed!), Disco Bling King,
Orioles center fielder Adam Jones, Peacock

 All content and images are ©The Casual Diva, except where otherwise noted. Content may not be republished without prior consent of the author.

Five Things I Love About Birthday Week

So, I had a birthday this week.

No matter how old (or rather, closer to middle-aged) I get, I still look forward to my birthday every year. In so many ways, I've been the serious, responsible girl since I was a young girl. But when it comes to my birthday, I'm downright giddy and as excited as a little kid!

It doesn't hurt that since I was six years old, we've kind of treated birthdays as a multi-day or week-long event. With my brother's birthday landing the day before my own, it would have made sense for my parents to combine the celebration into a single party, but they never wanted us to feel shortchanged. So instead of a joint party, we'd have massive sleepover parties that lasted for an entire weekend and were packed with outings, games, entirely too much sugary food, and lots of friends. Mom ate it up - she loved having a houseful of kids running around having fun. I'm pretty sure Dad hid outside and did yard work to escape most of the chaos!

Now that we're older and busier, birthdays have extended to full weeks (mostly due to scheduling demands). For the last two years, I've even had show rehearsals on my birthday. This year, it was a choir rehearsal. So the fun gets strung out in drips and drabs, but that just makes the celebration last!

Here are my favorite things about Birthday Week:

1. The baked goods. In case you haven't figured it out from previous posts, I love baked goods. Pretty much all baked goods work for me, although I'm rather partial to pie. This year, one of my young castmates baked me cookies, my co-worker Stacy made Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars for the office, and Mom is providing a pie for our birthday dinner tomorrow. And undoubtedly, Mari, who is an expert baker, will come up with some amazing surprise when I celebrate with her and Dave next week. Not to mention the fact that years ago, I traded in birthday cake for something much more delicious and season-appropriate -  Apple Dumplings. I have a feeling I'm going to be treating myself sometime very soon!


2. The greetings. I've never been a big one for greeting cards for any occasion - I think it's an unnecessary gimmick that we're now guilted into spending money on. But every year, I love hearing from people on my birthday. Say what you will about Facebook, but the flood of posts and private messages on my birthday (and in the new version of Facebook, there is fireworks animation!) always gives me a warm buzz. (And I can always count on the immensely talented and truly delightful Anna Campbell to be the first "Happy Birthday" I get, since Australia is well ahead of us in time zones!) Add to that the texts, phone calls, in-person well wishes, emails, and endless renditions of "Happy Birthday", and I am well-reminded that I am loved by a group of truly wonderful individuals!



The disturbing picture that my Aunt created and posted on Facebook.
She's a little bit warped, but I adore her anyway.



3. My brother. What? Yes, I mean it. My brother and I have pretty much always been close, and I think part of that stems from the fact that we very nearly share a birthday. I actually have a very clear recollection of the first time I ever laid eyes on my kid brother - after dropping the neighborhood kids off following my McDonalds birthday party (remember when that was a thing?), my dad and grandparents drove me to the hospital to see my mom. Dad pointed through the window into the nursery and said, "That's your brother." At just over 24 hours old, he wasn't that impressive to look at, at least, not to a six year old. But since then, I've definitely come to realize he was the best birthday present I ever got.


4. The season. Really, October is a grand time to have a birthday. Sure, it's not pool party weather, but I've never had a pool, and I don't like to be hot. There's just this incredible crispness to the air that screams fall. The leaves are changing colors. Apples and pumpkins are in season. Christmas is still far enough away that it hasn't stolen the show yet. It's really the best month there is.


5. The food freebies. I am officially signed up for so many birthday freebies that my inbox is flooded every October. From free burgers at Red Robin to free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery, it's definitely a glut-fest. Every year, I get more coupons than I can possibly use in the 2-4 weeks that they're valid, and not end up looking like Jabba the Hutt. Thank goodness my free pastry at Panera Bread is available until December...

What are your favorite birthday traditions?

All content and images are ©The Casual Diva, except where otherwise noted. Content may not be republished without prior consent of the author.

It's All About the Little Things

I've been struggling for a few days, trying to decide what to write about for this week's blog. It's not that I haven't been busy, or that I've put my projects and pursuit of fabulousness on the back burner - that's not it at all! In fact, I've rarely been busier! I think it's that I have so many things going on, a lot of which require a great deal of energy, that I am having difficulty putting it all into words.

And then there are some things that I'm still struggling to define my feelings about.

So in the meantime, I'm going to leave you with a funny anecdote from Labor Day weekend.

Several weeks ago, I decided that I was going to start my holiday weekend a little early, and drive out on Friday to visit my parents, who live a little over an hour away. I knew that Mom would be at work for part of the time, but Dad is retired, and this girl never passes up a chance to hang out with her Daddy! I had some vaguely nebulous ideas about what we'd do, centering around creating furniture for Georgia (so that she'd stop climbing my armchairs), but mostly was just looking for an excuse to spend time with the ones I love.

Sometime after lunch and a jaunt in Dad's garden to pick tomatoes and "albino" cucumbers, we settled onto the porch swing that has hung on the deck since I was a teenager. Surrounded by sunshine, blooming flowers in every color, and sleeping cats, it seemed like a little slice of heaven as we rocked and chatted.

Pearl cucumbers from Dad's garden. They kind of looked
like giant weevils, but were actually quite delicious!

Then there was a creak. And then a groan. And then we were tipped backward to face the sky.

Then the back of the porch swing gave way, and I saw my dad's legs fly up over his head!

I thought I was hanging on, but once Dad's counterweight was gone, the swing decided to spit me out as well. I somehow flipped so that my head was under the swing and my feet were on the deck railing.

Once we could both catch our breath and determined that there were no major injuries that required First Aid or a doctor, we started laughing and couldn't stop. Through gasps of merriment, I kept insisting that it wasn't funny, but Dad was adamant that it was as he shook with laughter. Even recounting it to Mom hours later, we couldn't control ourselves and had tears streaming down our faces in the retelling.

I'm pretty sure she thought we'd knocked a few screws loose.

All content and images are ©The Casual Diva, except where otherwise noted. Content may not be republished without prior consent of the author.